Clipmarks | Human nature Clips

The Science of Mysticism

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:07:57 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Well worth reading the article. Another example of how the popularised emphasis on 'intelligence' and AI is well off the mark when it comes to assessing the biological nature of the human organism: feelings (cortical representations and re-representations) are the basis of human experience including reason and language. The hundred years of suggestion in this area from James onwards are now being supplemented by modern neurobiological research. Such a key word as representation offers a potentially rich bridge between neuroscience and philosophy, linguistics and the humanities.

Clip Source: www.science-spirit.org

A stunning new description of how the human body and brain communicate to produce emotional states -- including our feelings, cravings, and moods -- has all the elements needed to explain how the human brain might give rise to spiritual experiences, without the necessary involvement of a supernatural presence, according to Dr. Martin Paulus, a psychiatrist at the University of California in San Diego who is also a Zen practitioner.

Called interoception, it offers a radically new view of human anatomy and physiology based on how information from the body reaches the brain and how that information is processed uniquely in humans.

In this view, spirituality -- an emotional feeling from the body, a sense of timelessness, a suspension of self and dissolution of personal boundaries -- can be explained in terms of brain physiology, which means, of course, that it is subject to experimentation and manipulation.

Tags: neuroscience

People misunderstand what paganism is about

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:35:58 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.canada.com

It takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to human nature, but last night I met a woman in her 60s at a coffee shop who warned the people at our table about a 'devil' that was going to be at Departure Bay today.

At first I thought she was joking but she said no, she was serious there was going to be a group of devil worshippers gathering there today. She said groups from all the churches were gathering to protest. I asked her if it was the Pagan Pride festival and when she said yes' I said, 'well, my daughter is Wicca and I'm proud of her."

She had nothing to say to that. I really thought that self-righteous people like her had disappeared in the era when witches were being burned.

It's religious fanatics like her who cause destruction in this world because of the fervour of the their beliefs.

I had one daughter become a Catholic and one daughter become Wicca and I'm proud of both of them for making choices that were right for them (I'm Anglican).

Tags: pagan, witch, witchcraft, church, wicca, religion, belief

Ten Futures

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:55:00 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: interesting reading

Clip Source: static-p3.fotolia.com

Clip Source: www.we-magazine.net

This is a bit linear, but has the virtue of identifying future trends, not things that are around today.

1. The Pragmatic Web

is all about context. Your tools know who you are, what you’re doing, who you’ve been talking to, what you know, where you want to go, where you are now, and what the weather is like outside.

2. Global Intelligence

The global mind is the sort of thing that raises questions about the meaning of live, the value of ethics, and the nature of knowledge.

3. Extended Reality

The physical world and the virtual world will act as one

4. Mobility

moving in tribes and herds through society, grazing on energy and information inputs as they become available.

5. The Human Grid

6. Smart Objects

7. Holoselves

No person can be in two places at once, of course, but one’s avatar can travel one place while you travel to another

8. Living Ar

we will create complex multi-faced forms of expression

9. Global (Non-)Government

10. Cyborgs

Jacques Vallee: "Aliens" is Supernatural Matrix

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:21:03 GMT

clipped by: ozzybinoswald
clipper's remarks: Dimensions, Jacques Vallee, 1989, p.243

Clip Source: www.redmoonrising.com

I propose that there is a spiritual control system for human consciousness and that paranormal phenomena like UFOs are one of its manifestations. I cannot tell whether this control is natural and spontaneous; whether it is explainable in terms of genetics, of social psychology, or of ordinary phenomena—or if it is artificial in nature, under the power of some superhuman will. It may be entirely determined by laws that we have not yet discovered. [20]

Tags: jacques vallee, demons, ufo, aliens, spiritual, control, deception, matrix

Pelosi, Catholic light.

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:02:35 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: Further, it cites Vatican instruction: “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

What Makes a Speaker Catholic?

His comments — part of his homily during the Mass — came hours after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, describing herself as an “ardent practicing Catholic,” announced that when life begins “shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to choose.” She explained that “over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy.” Ignoring both embryology and the Vatican, she insisted on giving the impression that abortion is somehow an open, undecided question in the Roman Catholic Church.

“Abortion always, deliberately kills an innocent unborn child. Nobody can honestly claim to be a faithful Catholic and then support a false ‘right’ to abortion; it’s just an elegant way of evading the brutality of what abortion actually does.” He explained, “Abortion is never morally justified.”

On Law and Neuroscience

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:06:32 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: An interesting read describing the influence of evolution theory and neuroscience on basic legal and moral concepts such as responsibility and free will.

Clip Source: darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com

Farahany is a law professor at Vanderbilt University who brings together law, philosophy, and biology in studying the fundamental assumptions about human nature in criminal law.

paper on "Law and Behavioral Morality

In this paper, she considers how research in evolutionary science and neuroscience might influence our view of criminal responsibility and culpability.

She claims that as evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience provide biological explanations of human morality, this will strengthen the power of "behavioral morality--the idea that any behavior with a physical cause is either not blameworthy, or is less so.

She seems to assume that "blameworthiness" presupposes "free will" understood as an uncaused cause.

I disagree with her. As I have said in some previous posts, I see no reason to believe that legal responsibility and culpability must rest on the idea of "free will" understood as uncaused cause.

Tags: law, morality, neuroscience

Winning Poker Strategy

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:17:58 GMT

clipped by: ashu1243
clipper's remarks: Play winning poker. Find the best poker rooms, choose the best games, and take advantage of winning poker strategies.

Clip Source: www.winningpokerstrategy.com

Poker is a complicated game demanding lifelong learning. Poker is a variable game, changing its nature from time to time in accordance with the opponents. Poker is a mathematical game requiring disciplined playing strategy according to the pot odds. And above all, differing from most other games, poker includes also a psychological aspect, including an exciting dimension of life experience and judgment of human nature.

As a profession, "poker is a hard way to make an easy living". As a hobby, it is an easy way to lose capital earned by hard work. Still, poker fascinates millions of people around the world. Where is the secret?

Tags: winning poker strategy, winning poker strategies

Magpies, humans share a recognizable trait

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:23:49 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "Study uses mirrors to show the birds join humans, chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants on a short list of beings that can identify themselves."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Recognizing ourselves in a mirror is one of the traits that make humans, well, human.

Now it appears that self-recognition also makes magpies magpies. Best known for stealing shiny objects, the black-and-white magpie is the first bird to join a short list of mammals shown to share this trait: humans, chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants.

Researchers marked the throats of five magpies -- where they couldn't see -- with either brightly colored or black adhesive dots.

Harvey and Lilly ignored the mirrors; like some of us, they apparently didn't care how they looked.

But Gerti, Goldie and Schatzi, when confronted by their refections, attempted to peck and scratch at their brightly colored dots.

The birds largely ignored the black dot, which blended into their black feathers, showing that they weren't merely responding to how the dots felt or smelled.

Prior said he would not be surprised if other members of that avian family could also pass the mark test.

Tags: nature

How do you look? well it depends...

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:52:04 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: Interesting study into how perception is influenced and shaped. What seems so natural and true, is relative and biased.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Face Recognition: Nurture Not Nature

Fixation biases for Western Caucasian (WC - red) and East Asian (EA - blue) observers are highlighted by subtracting WC and the EA Z-scored fixation distribution maps during WC and EA face learning, recognition and categorization by race. (Credit: Caroline Blais et al, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003022.g002)

researchers at the University of Glasgow have discovered that cultural differences cause us to look at faces differently.

We found that Westerners tend to look at specific features on an individual's face such as the eyes and mouth whereas East Asian observers tend to focus on the nose or the centre of the face which allows a more general view of all the features.

Western societies are generally more individualistic, whereas East Asian societies are collectivistic

Westerners appear to think and perceive focally and Easterners globally.

external environment, including the society in which we develop, is very influential in basic human mechanisms

Tags: neuroscience, culture

Transformers - The Nature of Alien Life

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:52:47 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The driving factor is a pragmatic desire to improve mental capacity. Alien beings may have already reached a point in their evolution where, having exhausted the potential of their biological brains, they have taken the next logical step and opted for robotic brains equipped with artificial intelligence. This brain swap may not be as far off for humans as one might think. In only a few decades, the computer revolution here on Earth has produced supercomputers capable of performing more than a quadrillion calculations per second.

According to research by Hans Moravec, an artificial-intelligence expert at Carnegie Mellon University, that rate trumps the human brain’s estimated top speed of 100 trillion calculations per second. Some scientists speculate that in a few decades, an event called the technological singularity will occur, and machines armed with computer brains will become sentient and surpass human intelligence. Civilizations equipped with technology light-years ahead

Clip Source: kemo-d7.livejournal.com

The existence of a race of sentient alien robots might be
not just possible, but inevitable.

Daniel C. Dennett points out that we do not consider chemicals to be alive. Even self-replicating crystals and clever nanobots are not "living"; we consider them to be completely mechanical. Yet we are made of these non-living, "mechanical" chemicals. Not only are we made of robots, and we still consider ourselves to be valid conscious life, but the evolution of all life is from such mindless robots.

As life is based in biology, and biology in biochemistry, chemistry is based on the cold, non-living laws of physics.

Given the current pace of development, it is easy to imagine artificial life venturing out into the universe and leaving us fragile humans behind.

In fact, we might be living in a "post-biological universe" right now, in which intelligent extraterrestrials somewhere have exchanged organic brains for artificial ones.

Tags: ai, science fiction, alien life

Film Reveals CIA's 'Most Secret Place on Earth'

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:42:36 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: This film's analysis sets it apart from other books and documentaries on the subject, most of which justify the conflict, lauding the CIA operatives and their Air America pilots as heroes.

The reality, as Alfred McCoy says towards the end of the film, was very different. "We destroyed a whole civilisation, we wiped it off the map. We incinerated, atomised human remains in this air war and what happened in the end? We lost."

The covert nature of the conflict meant that U.S. forces were able to ignore virtually all the rules of engagement operating in Vietnam. Every building was a potential target and the civilian toll was huge.

The situation grew worse in 1970 when U.S. President Nixon authorised massive B-52 bombing strikes on Laos, which remained classified information until many years later.

American planes dropped an average of one planeload of bombs on targets in Laos every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years, making it the most heavily bombed country on earth

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

A view of Long Chen. The most secret location in 'the secret war' against Laos was the former CIA air base of Long Chen, a place that remain off limits even today.

PHNOM PENH - It was known as the ‘secret war', a covert operation waged by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout the sixties and early seventies against communist guerrillas in Laos.

A new film, ‘The Most Secret Place on Earth', to be released in cinemas across Europe later this year, explores this little known conflict.

"I first got the idea to do the film when I visited the Plain of Jars in Laos in 2002," recalled Marc Eberle,36, the German director in an interview with IPS.

Little is known about the Lao conflict despite the fact that it remains the largest and most expensive paramilitary operation ever run by the U.S.

"Laos was the progenitor of the way America fights wars in the 21st century," he says.

'Social shift . . '

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:38:08 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly
clipper's remarks: http://www.realitysandwich.com/recent_shifts_social_change_ions_shift_report

Clip Source: www.realitysandwich.com

Recent Shifts in Social Change: From the IONS Shift Report

Transformation is rapidly seeping into the global psyche in quantifiable ways. In the face of impending world-wide catastrophe, our ability as humans to work and think collectively is more important than ever. The Shift Reports published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, look at the nature of transformation on both a personal and global level, looking at the roots of our current plight and investigating the ways that we can play a part in our own evolution. Running counter to the selfish view of humanity purveyed by Neo-Darwinists, the IONS Shift Reports offer a more encouraging view, maintaining that intention, choice and will can catalyze change. From the blending of Western and Eastern medicine to ideas about human evolution and social change, the Reports point to a strong paradigm shift that is taking place all over the world at this very moment. If they’re right, this could be an age of Re-Enlightenment.

Unchain your dogs

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:38:23 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Lots of information at the source. Photos that will break your heart.

Unchain your dog, please.

Clip Source: www.unchainyourdog.org

What is meant by "chaining" or "tethering" dogs?

These terms refer to the practice of fastening a dog to a stationary object or stake, usually in the owner's backyard, as a means of keeping the animal under control. These terms do not refer to the periods when an animal is walked on a leash.

Why is tethering dogs inhumane?

Dogs are naturally social beings who thrive on interaction with human beings and other animals. In the wild, dogs and wolves live, eat, sleep, and hunt with a family of other canines. Dogs are genetically determined to live in a group.

A chained animal is caught in a vicious cycle; frustrated by long periods of boredom and social isolation, he becomes a neurotic shell of his former self—further deterring human interaction and kindness. In the end, the helpless dog can only suffer the frustration of watching the world go by in isolation—a cruel fate for what is by nature a highly social animal.

Tags: animals need love and protection

Neo-Coms are the threat

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:32:28 GMT

clipped by: jatfla
clipper's remarks: This article makes so much sense!!

Clip Source: www.jpost.com

Neo-coms are the threat

After the Berlin Wall fell, many Western analysts thought the successor to the Soviet Union would willingly give up its satellite states and move inexorably toward democracy.

Then-president George H.W. Bush, who had been head of the CIA and ambassador to China, felt we were moving to "a new world order."

Many in the State Department, especially secretary of state James Baker, felt that the "end of the Cold War" meant an end to the special status of Israel in Middle Eastern affairs, not dreaming that the rise of radical versions of Shi'ite and Sunni Islam exported by Iran and the Saudis might make the country more valuable than ever.

But history does not move in straight lines or dialectical patterns to suit liberal social scientists or Marxist social theorists. Rather, it repeats itself or moves in cycles, based not only on economic factors but those of custom, culture, religion and human nature.

Moving away from the limitation of natural selection

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:51:13 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: This is one of the most fascinating things about the human, wishes to break free from the borders of the "natural".
i find it much more natural

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Engineers Build Mini Drug-producing Biofactories In Yeast

genetically modified common baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) so that it contained the genes for several plant enzymes.

The enzymes allow the yeast to produce a chemical called reticuline, which is a precursor for many different classes of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIA) molecules.

The BIA molecules are a large group of chemically intricate compounds, such as morphine, nicotine, and codeine, which are naturally produced by plants.

the natural plant sources of BIAs accumulate only a small number of the molecules, usually "end products" like morphine and codeine that, while valuable, can't be turned into other compounds, thus limiting the availability of useful new products.

To their reticuline-producing yeast, Smolke and Hawkins added the genes for other enzymes, from both plants and humans

not be limited by the activities that have been selected for in nature

Tags: biology, genes