All of human thought, our understanding, scientific belief, ideology has an architecture. A multi-dimensional structure from which we hang all our experience and from which we draw further understanding of our experiences. There’s also some kind of structure / architecture out there, that we both inhabit and are part of, seamlessly connected to the matrix. Our brains are programmed to be pattern recognizers and pattern seekers. So we seek to create patterns in our understanding of life, of our experiences, in order to make sense of them. Sometimes there are patterns there. Sometimes not.
Science is a technique of figuring out if there are actual patterns there and what they are. Technology is using those patterns for some sort of practical purpose. Magic and religion is the unsubstantiated belief that there are patterns where there probably are none, or at least not arranged in the way that believers think they are.
Somewhere in the middle exists a space occupied by intuition, by pure energy. An idea that is gaining ground, but no one can really properly explain.
At the moment I’m consumed with thoughts about patterns, about structure, architecture of thought, of the universe, of the human psyche. Science, economics, criminal profiles, technology, detection, simulation. Somehow, some way, they are all connected.
Somewhere inside me is also this feel for / resonance / I-don’t-know-what – for trends / collective action / tipping points – because we are all part of this matrix. But what do I do about it all? I was once an academic, I’m now a film-maker, a creative of sorts. Someone who thinks about things and turns that into tv programmes. Inside I guess I’m a philosopher, who really just wants to understand the way of things. But who also wants to work it out and present the world with some new theory, some new way of looking at things.
Though I’m sure someone else has had these feelings and thoughts, has actually been trained to articulate them and has. I’d like to find those thoughts. So this is the start.
You say “somewhere in the middle is a space occupied by intuition”. There’s a lot of evidence that we are programmed to hold superstitious beleifs (e.g. religious), so one has to consider that this ‘middle’ space might simply be occupied by imagination. I guess you’ve read the god delusion and the end of faith, but if not they’re great reads (the latter especially).
Comment by Cereal — February 17, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
I’m sure imagination is in there – but that’s not really what I’m talking about. Our brains are programmed to seek out patterns and when I talk about intuition, I don’t mean new-agey-mumbo-jumbo, I mean the stuff our brains see and put together subconsciously. Like, you’re grappling with a problem and sleep on it and in the morning, you can work it out. Some people can think in a certain way and put together things that others can’t. There are lots of stories in the history of science about people struggling with a problem then dreaming the solution. Certain problems have needed a particular kind of brain, with particular experiences, in order to be solved. Cellular memory. That kind of thing.
Comment by raz0rshell — February 17, 2009 @ 10:24 pm