PJ @pj@qoto.org

Viktor Frankl on the Human Search for Meaning
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/03/26/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning/

Good thing #quantity does not always correlate with #quality.

#Identitypolitics does not promote #diversity.

"Táíwò’s project is reclamation. “It’s a starting point,” he said of the concept’s original use. “It’s compatible with working on common problems with people from other identity groups.”"

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/olufemi-taiwo-identity-politics-elite-capture.html

I've always considered #identity, much like #knowledge, an #individual's own, personal, tacit, unique attribute, evolved through a lifetime and representing the history of all social interactions they had with their environment.

I find the modern #identitytheory focus on the many #social "identities" (father, golfer, employee, etc ...) one has during the day, wrong.

In my view, these are just external #roles one assumes and plays in different #systems they are part of. They may define #what an individual is but not #who they are.

In fact, I believe that it is #who an individual is that affect #how they do #what they do in the role they are given.

I also consider the largely accepted academic #theory presented in the attached document as the direct cause of our present dysfunctional society marred by #identitypolitics.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314243231_The_Development_of_Identity_Theory

I vividly recall my first HP Pocket Calculator with Reverse Polish Notation I had during my undergraduate studies:

https://hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm

“#Freedom is normally seen as a privilege and not a reason to be afraid. But many people did fear freedom, Ms. Müller commented on the developments in Eastern Europe. The initial euphoria of finally being set free had soon worn off and evaporated, replaced in many places by fear. #Fear, she said, “is as complicated as freedom.” Adding momentum, organized fear is at the heart of all authoritarian regimes, which try to literally raise people to be afraid.”

https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en/news/how-authoritarian-regimes-create-climate-fear

I just hope that after a century people have smartened up and the instantaneous and global news cycle on social media can make a difference in how we react to the completely natural #fear of change:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/george-orwell-s-1940-review-of-mein-kampf

Terrific article about how the “Move fast and break things” philosophy inevitably leads to the rise of group #identity-based #totalitarian societies.
In fact, all #revolutions need a "cleanup" time to establish the "new order" and restore all the good things they have broken in the process.
https://www.noemamag.com/the-perils-of-smashing-the-past/

From "The Socratic Way Of Questioning":

"A #definition must be both #clear and #distinct. It must express “the perfect idea" of a thing, but if we cannot have perfect clarity, we should at least have "perfect distinctness.” so that it is not mistaken for some other thing".

In other words, if you are not able to properly describe what a thing IS, try to explain what the thing ISN'T.

Very glad I found this community. Please don't stop Question Others to Teach Ourselves😀

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59712099-the-socratic-way-of-questioning

Robert Rosen on #complexity and the emergence of a #hierarchy in #biology.

https://www.academia.edu/6576779/Rosen_and_Pattee_on_Theoretical_Biology?email_work_card=view-paper

Historical introduction to #LAWS, #LANGUAGE and #LIFE
#HH_Pattee's classic papers on the #physics of #symbols, #epistemology, #quantum_measurement, #complementarity, #hierarchy_theory, and #artificial_life, with contemporary commentaries by Howard Pattee and Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi.

https://www.academia.edu/2767702/Historical_introduction_to_LAWS_LANGUAGE_AND_LIFE

Heisenberg's Levels of #Reality:
1. Things objectified independently of the knowledge process (#laws of #physics);
2. Things inseparable from the knowledge process (#measurement, #control);
3. Things created in the knowledge process (#philosophy, art, politics, religion).

The #emergent properties of #complex adaptive #systems are the product of the "bottom-up" interaction of components that maintain the system's existence and #growth which are only constrained (#controlled) by the emergent internal (structural) #rules of the system as a whole, and the limitations of its #environment niche.
There is no such thing as "#downward_causation".

"Reality is not merely a social construction, the consensus of a collectivity, or some inter-subjective agreement. It also has a trans-subjective dimension: for example, experimental data can ruin the most beautiful scientific theory."
B_Nicolescu
Transdisciplinarity[ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269520771_Transdisciplinarity_the_hidden_third_between_the_subject_and_the_object]: the hidden third, between the subject and the object

"Because our brains are future-predicting machines, it’s natural to want to avoid ambiguity. “As human beings, we crave security, and that is why all of us are intolerant of uncertainty to some extent,” writes Fox.
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_get_comfortable_with_uncertainty_and_change

"For years, many linguists have believed that learning language is impossible without a built-in grammar template. The new AI models prove otherwise. They demonstrate that the ability to produce grammatical language can be learned from linguistic experience alone. Likewise, we suggest that children do not need an innate grammar to learn language."
https://theconversation.com/ai-is-changing-scientists-understanding-of-language-learning-and-raising-questions-about-an-innate-grammar-190594

The idea that we don't see the true reality, has to do with #epistemology (knowing), rather than #ontology (being). The fact that two people have different perceptions of their common reality does not refute that theirs *is* still one and the same reality.
https://spin.atomicobject.com/2020/05/02/ontological-humility-work/

Nature is awesome😍
https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/1586758944302764033

It would be interesting to see what happens when it hits a water pipe, gas line, or electrical cable:
https://twitter.com/specializetool/status/1586759321508978688