Everyday online my learning expands. So much has been thrust my way, especially by humans such as Ron Silliman, Lanny Quarles, and Loren Webster, I am finding it difficult to keep up. Here are some places worth visiting: - Nick Bostrom's home page - on hyperbolic discounting - Victor Shklovsky's 1917 "Art as Technique" - "That's When I Reach for Robert Scholes" * Home Page of Robert Scholes - Steve Shaviro on SF novel Blindsight - M. K. Bergman's site for Web techies I use simpler methods. - Doug Powell interviewing David M. Bromige - Poetic Orientation - Ecologies - Teilhard de Chardin's Global Brain - --- See directory2007 in Catmap. Rho00018
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Online Self-Ed
Monday, August 20, 2007
Regarding Creativity
Heavy rain day, but it may be passing. = = = = = = = = ~ I am interested in knowing how: 1) one's intelligence(s) 2) one's body (physical manifestation) 3) one's personality (MBTI / MMPI) 4) one's spirituality (root tenets) 5) one's ongoing learning 6) one's ongoing health 7) one's ongoing character development 8) one's ongoing belief nuancings 9) one's interactions with one's self 10) one's interactions with other humans 11) one's interactions with other non-human animals 12) one's interactions with non-animal others 13) one's interactions with one's use of symbols 14) one's interactions with an other's use of symbols 15) one's present and/or past diseases 16) one's (if any) almost-died-from experiences 17) one's (if any) could-have-died-from experiences 18) one's physical dexterities 19) one's mental agilities 20) one's social proclivities 21) one's habits 22) one's "perceived" needs 23) one's "perceived" fears 24) one's sense of humor 25) one's Earth-alive being miracle 26) one's "right" choices 27) one's "wrong" choices 28) one's immediate environment 29) one's whatever else impacts/impact one's creativity; or, rather, one's ability to create and the attendant value(s) thereof; and why one creates, and how one creates, and what one creates, and for whom one creates. --- As to when and where: these, for me, usually are not determinable before the act. Of course, sometimes the why, how, what, and for whom are not either. --- See directory2007 in Catmap. --- Copyright © 2007 Brian Salchert Rho00017
Saturday, August 18, 2007
where i am
How markedly I've screwed up my life: I do not want to think about it; and you, I doubt, want to know. And yet those wonders which presently are filtering into my waning days/ might never have been had I not made the errors I've made. To demystify the mystery of being would require that knowledge which only an Alpha Omega Infinite possesses. So it is AM 11:51 this Saturday of 18 August, 2007; and I am here on my pillowed stool typing these symbols. At the same time, I am several elsewheres via my senses and the activities in my mind. Noon approaches. I am alone. Possibly not. Unexpectedly/ voices escape from my subconscious// speak to me: congenial voices. They are, however somewhat odd, and in that way like the sounds of machines and certain natural sounds. The story writers have/ a keener sense of such voicings. But I digress. Where I am, honestly, is to me a persistent unknown. Each current moment depends so heavily on each past (passed) moment; yet, is just that: a current: a moving/ Janus enigma; and while what happens at each new point appears to matter as regards each future moment, there are far too many variables for such an appearance to be ever reliable. So: sometimes yes; sometimes no. Uncertainty is my milieu/// I once wrote. Homo sapiens. Sure, sure. Constantly phasing into this or that while phasing out from this or that, my being is unfathomable to me, however fathomable my biological manifestation. And what are we headed toward? I have called it: Machina sapiens; another calls it: Cyber sapiens. Read Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.: his book The Phenomenon of Man especially. Also read this essay by Peter Weibel (all three parts). * See directory2007 in Catmap. ---------------- Rho00016
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
God's Evolution
It is a matter of Faith that a Supreme Being exists. It is a matter of simple observations/ Evolution is. There is no wall between belief in God & Evolution. The Supreme Being I believe in is a Triune Being. Three of this Being's attributes are: Love Creativity Enlightenment Love engenders Creativity; Creativity/ Enlightenment Love which creates, and then goes away, is not Love. The Supreme Being I believe in is constantly active. * This planet we humans inhabit/ is somewhat roundish. This planet we humans inhabit/ orbits a medium star. This planet we humans inhabit/ plans to redesign us. * When the Supreme Being's Second Person was among us, one of the parables shared/ was that of the talents. That parable enjoins each human to seek and to grow. That parable enjoins each human to love and to hope. Why? Because each human's a partner in the ongoing. The future is enfolding at us with increasing speed. Homo sapiens is but an infant, a dot of what's next. Those who do not participate in an equitable future? There is only so much each can do, but each must do. Because no one is perfect, all fail; some fail less. Each human was also enjoined to: "love your enemy" when the Supreme Being's Second Person was among us. Beware of religions and sciences that otherwise ply. Wholing and holying wonders are each day found. Ah! * * * Brian A. J. Salchert See directory2007 in Catmap. Entropy and Evolution Scroll to "Will Machines Become Conscious?" Choose Cyber Sapiens Rho00015
Monday, August 6, 2007
Homo sapiens Galaxy
Herein will be my further thinking apropos Kasey's "The Poem Is You" Lime Tree post from August 2007 At its center/ what K. Silem says is absolutely correct. It recognizes abundantly-provable variances which cannot safely/ be ignored. However, he realized/ and I/ and I am sure others, refinements would need to be internally constructed and then expressed. As has often been true about me, I am here/ doing both. There is a new post up at Lime Tree this morning: a post I see as the beginning of Kasey's "further thinking". Do read it. My "further thinking" begins at a far remove from his. Homo sapiens is like a galaxy. There are billions of us. Each human is like a star in this galaxy, classifiable but unique. This galaxy is in constant motion, and each star in it is in constant motion, even after its demise. Take me. The average male in the United States, so says a fairly current factoid, is 5'10" and weighs 170 pounds. --Major conjecture interlude: Though interconnected in ways not yet fully understood, each human is a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual DNA wholeness/holiness.-- I, due to what I inherited and to certain accidents since, am today somewhere between 4'11" and 5' and weigh +/- 100 pounds. Mentally, I am moderately intelligent. The best I ever scored on what might be considered an exam which acceptably measures brain functions/ was the 1370 on the June 9, 1984, GRE I took at the University of Florida when I was 43. Emotionally I am dark and deep with an echo of laughter and a sometimes feral temper. The MBTI and the like consistently tell me I am an INFP, a label which (according to the creator of one short test) means: "I Never Find Perfection". Spiritually, my roots are Roman Catholic, but I am this moment picturing myself as I was in my early youth: a light kid high in a soft maple shaking the limb he is on so no one else will come near. Why am I revealing these facts? It's the best and honestly only valid way for me to make the points I want to make. I'm a German-German/English-German ectomorph Caucasoid. I am, as each human is, a moving dot on a moving graph: the ongoing, natura naturans. Poetry. On the bed behind me and to my right/ a mystic book on library loan to me/ waits. It is The Complete Poetry a bilingual edition César Vallejo edited and translated by Clayton Eshleman © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California. I have been sporadically reading Vallejo's Trilce (1922). Thanks to Ron "Mr. Links" Silliman I'm able to share poetry wonders from Clayton Eshleman. Vallejo often writes as a shape-shifter might, a gift I must have recognized in the 1970's since I wrote a sonnet lauding him then. And that even without knowing Spanish. Poets are the conduits for the deep conversations seaming the histories of the universe. Poets are artifacteurs who use symbols. Poets mix and unmix; try this, try that; eat rubber cement. Well, maybe not the last; but, e.g., the word "spot": four symbols which can be interchanged into: "stop", "pots", "tops", and "opts" at least. The tallest I ever was/ was 5'6.5" and/ the most I ever weighed was a/round 135 pounds. So, my eyes under ground-level circumstances and focussed straight ahead/ saw only what it was possible to see in that horizontal plane. I leave it to you to apply this in the mental, emotional, and spiritual spheres. Unless there is an exact exact duplicate of me somewhere, there is no possibility of my being or doing as some other human is or does. Can I be and am I influenced by other humans? Of course. Will there be a point at which we will all come to know and believe the same things? I hope not. * See directory2007 in Catmap. Rho00014
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Cat Story
for Kasey (just in case he. . . .) Someone knocking on our mobile home's front door. I, being nearest, responded; Janice, soon, to my right, slightly behind. Two women--one we knew, each holding a kitten: a totally black male and a black-and-white female with unusual markings. We were asked if we'd be willing to adopt two kittens. Mainly because our financial situation at that time was tenuous, I told them no. Some days later Janice saw those kittens climbing a tree. I do not know if they were born outside, but they were allowed to be outside. We had had two cats separately. We didn't allow either to roam outside. Janice's parents would occasionally drive down from Wisconsin or Virginia to visit us in Gainesville, Florida. Either during or close upon those days, a visit from them was in progress. On the day before they would be leaving, Janice came upon the female kitten sitting alone in the driveway by the mobile home of the woman we knew. That woman, even though she really wasn't able to, tried to help any stray cat. Janice knew both that kitten and her brother were not in good health. It could be her brother had already died. Anyway, Janice picked up the female kitten and brought her home. I wasn't in favor of keeping her, but we did. Janice named her (???). We took her to a vet. She was given some shots, and we were given some medicine to give to her. Doing the latter was not easy, but we did get her back to reasonably good health. Our TV was near our mo-ho's front door, and one day (somewhile later) our bigger but still a kitten cat decided to leap from the top of the TV onto the top of the then open front door. So there she was, balancing and pacing, afraid to jump down. I had to get the step stool, snatch her from the door, and place her/ someplace safe. Over a period of months/ this became an annoying routine. Finally, after our home had been moved to a different park, Janice said she didn't want (???) getting up there anymore, but moving the TV was not an option. We kept the door closed. When Judge Wopner presided on The People's Court and cases came up involving cats, the litigants lost every time. In California cats were officially wild animals. The last cat we owned; or, rather, owned us, was definitely feral. And you can give a cat any name you want. It won't care. A cat does not (so far as I've seen) react to you when you use a name toward it. It might react though if you get too loud (as often happens in arguments). We had a washer and dryer in our home, and Janice and I were spattin' 'bout sumpin' and/ had I not looked down and quickly gotten Janice and myself to lower our voices, the cat would have attacked Janice and me also maybe. There was a day it did attack me--I am not sure why, and tore up my left calf. After that incident I carried my walking stick with me whenever I was moving around in our mo-ho. Months later, after Janice had had several strokes but refused to see a doctor and I was unable to get the only general practitioner in Gainesville she did like to accept her as a patient again because his patient load prevented it, and she had me going to McDonald's every day to buy her a cheeseburger, having supposedly come to disliking the way I was cooking things, she was sitting in her recliner and I was by the front door. We were conversing. As I was about to go out to do one thing, I pulled the door open. We continued conversing, and the one thing led to a possible two things. Meanwhile the cat, blocked from my view because the door was/ between me and it, quietly got on top of the TV. The possibility of doing two things caused me to change my mind about going out at that time. I shut the door and started walking towards my den, not knowing the cat had become enraged. That time she scratched up my right leg. I rushed to the restroom by the den and cleaned up, having told myself: That's it. This cat is history. It took a few days, but I had animal control come out and/ take her away. Janice, of course, was devastated, even though when the cat was a kitten it daily had scratched her arms, and even though we physically were no longer capable of properly/ maintaining a pet. She called me a sissy, or something similar. We got nasty with each other. I think I tried to explain and say I was sorry. She said: "No you're not. I said: "Okay, I'm not. I'm damn glad." She said: "I thought so." ========= [ About five weeks after 37 years of our marriage of companionship, Janice passed. That was in July of 2002. There is a somewhat tragic tale in all of this, but it is irrelevant to the memoir above. ] ========= Copyright © 2007 Brian A. J. Salchert See directory2007 in Catmap. Rho00013
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
my noumenon aesthetic
When a noumenon in a womb in my subconscious brain begins to become a noumenon of a different order as it passes into my conscious brain, I do not apply a pre- determined aesthetic to it unless there's a valid reason to; rather, I say to myself: let it come, and let me see. Many, if not most, such mental noumena are not amorphous. Aesthetic qualities abide in them. These qualities may not be familiar ones, but they are (through attentiveness and inspection) discoverable. Sometimes such noumena arrive fully formed, and can be (through the body of the receiver of them) immediately turned into phenomena. At other times, brief to lengthy periods of parenting are required. At yet other times they are shunted aside or eventually abandoned (for whatever reason or no reason). This eclectic trust I have, this openness to the universe does have its dangers, but it also allows the influx of life-enhancing noumena I would not otherwise be blessed by. Therefore, I see myself as being hard to categorize, especially as regards my poem-making. Still, I generally lean toward being conservative, a stance which--along with my solitary bent--I suspect relegates me (in this world as it is) to the status of one who is of little account. I realize my mentioning this highlights a fault in me, but I have written about this so often it hardly matters anymore. My life has taken many goodly and ungoodly turns. There were long periods when I distanced myself from poetry. This is not one of them. Honestly, I am desperately trying to catch up. Right now, though, I need a lunch break. I'm back, but without sufficient energy. Just before returning here, I did an "http" search and/ faster than bird shit/ got a response of nearly 2 billion sites. Ah cyberspace!: the perfect place/ for a flutterby face. --------- See directory2007 in Catmap. See at lime-tree.blogspot.com/2007/08/poem-is-you.html The Poem Is You ------------------------------------ Brian Salchert Thinking Lizard Rho00012
