At TED, Susan Blackmore talks about memes and temes: how our brains are formed by technological memes that she calls “temes”. Susan Blackmore is known for her controversial “Dying Brain” theory. In Dying to Live, she explores Near Death Experiences, which are often cited as “proof” that that the “afterlife” exists. Her theory is that these experiences, that seem to be universal and are reported across cultures and time, are the result of the brain dying. From a buddhist point of view her book is interesting, because her “prototheory”, leads to the interesting thought (from a western point of view) that there may not be such a thing as a “solid”, delineated self. To her mind, the self is a mental construct, and not something that is located, somewhere, in the brain. In this TED talk, I like how she calls language a “parasite we have adapted to”. This too is significant from a buddhist perspective, as everything in buddhist meditational practice is about getting rid of this parasite.
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beautiful post. hang in there brother myman. nogo ADAM I prosume?
I would say (Adeo, are you listening?) that this is what liveonline is about. Exactly this.
Nope, football barbecue to look forward to [grin]
Its being noted. I will say hello to jarko. I will mail you the pager
I saw the video on friday. Have you started folding your toilet paper?
Oh, the bit with the laughter and the “I guess they do it to show that someone has cleaned up”? Erm, no. Another meme is that cleaners will put back things a little out of place, to show it has been picked up and put back. This I know very well. Other than that, I think she’s right, but of course criticism leveled against her is that her “science” isn’t rigorous enough.
Need your opinion BRO. Tomorrow I am meeting Evert Hoogendoorn from the HKU. 7 students are going to graduate on the project liveonline. They need a conceptual framwork with enough freedom for them to express themselves as artists aswell. Do you think your post her is a good grid fro them to move arround in. What are your thoughts on this matter.
It’s where they folded the end of the roll of toilet paper in something that looked like the bottom of a tie…
yes yes, the way they do in hotels.
@minne: this is a conceptual framework that is as good as any. I also want to point you guys to this.
Had a good session with Evert from the HKU. He will drop me a mail with the assignment for the 7 students working on 1ive0n1ine from sept till december. I will keep you and aatski posted for a review and approval on that mail.
keep it simple, don’t try to give it too much meaning: the basic idea is a very simple one, yet it is profound….hah!