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Truth (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): Apr 21, 8:08am 3 reviews philosophy, religion, reality, worldviews
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/; Truth via the NYT / Stanley Fish, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Michael Glanzberg
Truth is one of the central subjects in philosophy. It is also one of the largest. Truth has been a topic of discussion in its own right for thousands of years. Moreover, a huge variety of issues in philosophy relate to truth, either by relying on theses about truth, or implying theses about truth. It would be impossible to survey all there is to say about truth in any coherent way. Instead, this essay will concentrate on the main themes in the study of truth in the contemporary philosophical literature. It will attempt to survey the key problems and theories of current interest, and show how they relate to one-another. A number of other entries investigate many of these topics in greater depth. Generally, discussion of the principal arguments is left to them. The goal of this essay is only to provide an overview of the current theories. Truth French Theory in America Many theories about what truth is all about. But all those theories only present hypotheses about what it is and those hypotheses leave us as hungry as ever before for its true meaning. We are able to say the truth about facts happening within our close environment but when we speak about "the truth" in its philosophical sense it relates to something a lot vaster that our environment. Truth relates to our understanding of the global reality in which we are such tiny particles. But we don't understand what is this "whole". We could even add that there is a structural impossibility for a particle to reason its way through the whole and even if such a feat was feasible it would still be a "view" from within or better a "view" seen through the lense of an inside observer. The "truth" about reality, or to say this otherwise, about the "whole in which we are such tiny particles" is conceivable only from the viewpoint of an outside observer one who could relate this "whole in which we are such tiny particles" to its own environment. In other words if we could per any chance induce or deduce that this "whole in which we are such tiny particles" were a pink elephant how would we ever be able to know something about the family of this pink elephant? What I mean to say is that there is a systemic impossibility for us particles to ever reach the truth about this "whole in which we are such tiny particles". What we can reach is an understanding of how we particles relate to the environment within the realm of what is observable to us (in our Island-Universe as per Villenkin). This kind of understanding has a functional value for us but it does in no way qualify as truth about reality. We intuitively understand that our "functional understanding" does not account for the impact on our Island-Universe of all that lays outside of it. But we most often brush away that thought, for, life continues and we know no better. In conclusion our grasp of reality is physically flawed by our impossibility to see further than the boundary of our Island-Universe and it is furthermore systemically flawed by our insider observation. What is presented as truth, by philosophers, logicians, religious thinkers and others, is thus no more than a viewpoint about something that is unattainable. When the men of knowledge of the day share such a viewpoint among themselves it will then be shared further down in a simplified form with all the citizens in their societies. That's when the viewpoint becomes a worldview. The history of man witnessed 3 classes of worldviews: the animist, the religious and the modern. From all possible accounts we are presently witnessing the slowl transitioning from late modernity into early post-modernity. That means that the men of knowledge of our days are debating the contours of a new viewpoint. Once this debate settles a new worldview will eventually be shared globally by all. But patience this takes time...

Reality Sandwich | Could Science and Art Become One and the Same?: Apr 15, 6:05pm 2 reviews science, art, reality, worldviews
http://www.realitysandwich.com/could_science_art_become_one_same; Could Science and Art Become One and the Same? in Reality Sandwich by Greg Wendt
Reality encompasses that which is beyond science as we know it, or at least beyond that which the current scientific mindset can explain. Is it possible that art can be used in a scientific way to create a more accurate expression of reality and a greater understanding of human experience? Capra points out that Da Vinci's genius came from his ability to use art as a way to be scientific, hence throwing the whole distinction between science and art into question. Could Science and Art Become One and the Same? To answer our most fundamental questions, science needs to find a place for the arts. by Jonah Lehrer in Seed The Science of Leonardo new book of by Fritjof Capra Artsense by myself Acrylic n#39 of my "artsense collection". In summary Jonah Lehrer posits that "If we want to get an answer to our deepest questions - the questions of who we are and what everything is - we will need to draw from both science and art, so that each completes the other". Unfortunately this is a position that is founded on a confused understanding of what is knowledge and what is art. 1. Knowledge: Humans, since times immemorial, tried to understand reality in the sense of "the whole in which we are such tiny particles". We distinguish 3 ages in the history of human understanding of reality or of human knowledge and those 3 ages are driven by the sharing of a common "worldview" that is a vulgarization of the understanding attained by the men of knowledge of the day: - the animist age: all parcels of the whole are inter-related: the shaman is the man of knowledge. - the religious or philosophic age: god or wisdom: the priest or the wise man are the men of knowledge. - the modern age: the logic of capital and its ideology of rationality: the capital holder and the scientist are the men of knowledge. 2. Art: Since time immemorial visual arts served at giving visual signs of the understanding of reality by the men of knowledge of the day. This societal functionality of art was lost upon all sometime around 1900 when thinker-artists experimented in devising something else than the first degree image that projects on the retina. But those experimentations concluded in the absurd when everything the artist was positing as being art was deemed to be art. The societal functionality of art was lost because rationality and science don't offer a global model of understanding of reality. Rationality and science are following a path of questioning that pushes till later the discovery of the answer. This model does not supply the artist with a knowledge of everything to illustrate and the artist is most often in no position to devise his own knowledge base, for, he never was given the tools for such an exercise. I agree with Jonah Lehrer that science left on its own will never come to the end of its mission to understand reality. But I disagree that art has to produce knowledge. This should be left to the philosophers and researchers of humanity's early cultures and most importantly animism. As Fritjof Capra mentioned in his "The tao of physics" the most advanced physics, chemistry, and other sciences often rediscover the fundamental truths expressed in animism and the later philosophies built over it. My take is that a new worldview for artists to illustrate will emerge out of the contact between science and animism.

If Martians curated an exhibition, what would it contain? Adrian Searle finds ou…: Mar 6, 8:30am 1 review arts, art, reality
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2262458,00.html?gusrc=rss&f...; If Martians put together an exhibition of Earth art, what would it contain? in The Guardian by Adrian Searle
... the Martian view of things is curiously narrow. Perhaps it is the humans doing their bidding who are having the problem. Many people, including critics and curators, have as much problem with art as your average alien. I, for one, am happy to admit that I do not know exactly what art is: I know what is called art, but that's not the same thing. Talking about what's good and bad art gets us into even more trouble. Art performs different functions, and not only at different times and in different places. We squabble and quibble and fight over it, beat each other over the head with it, and shove it in places it was never meant to go. Art appears to be central to our various human cultures, but to frequently masquerade as marginal, uncategorisable, and even useless. If Martians put together an exhibition of Earth art, what would it contain? The curse of the blockbuster Meteorite Lands on Buckingham Palace, 1998, by Cornelia Parker. 54 x 69 cm. Maple boxed frame map of London revealing burn mark left by a meteorite Photograph: British Council I don't believe one instant that aliens reaching earth could be so dumb as humans not to know the function that art exercises in societies. At least Adrian Searle is honest to recognize that ".... I do not know exactly what art is: I know what is called art, but that's not the same thing." But an alien specie that reaches earth could not be so ignorant, for, without art it could not have survived the negative consequences of the rational and mechanistic thought otherwise necessary to devise the tools and machinery to reach earth. If humanity is to survive the totalitarian destructiveness of modernity I believe that this can only occur by solving the question "what is art". This question reflects on who we are and how we are interrelated with all life and everything under the whole in which we are such tiny particles... If interested to read more about my take on "what is art" click here: Artsense

http://www.avantgame.com/McGonigal_WhyILoveBees_Feb2007.pdf: Feb 12, 11:21am 1 review reality, postmodernity, modernity, worldviews
http://www.avantgame.com/McGonigal_WhyILoveBees_Feb2007.pdf; Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming via Metafilter / Kattullus; in avantgame.com by Jane McGonigal, PhD game designer, a games researcher, and a future forecaster.
Jane McGonigal, one of the lead designers of I Love Bees writes about collective intelligence, the phenomenon of massive groups of people gathering online to solve problems, as it played out in I Love Bees. Can a computer game teach collective intelligence? The term "collective intelligence", or CI for short, was originally coined by French philosopher Pierre Levy in 1994 to describe the impact of Internet technologies on the cultural production and consumption of knowledge. Levy argued that because the Internet facilitates a rapid, open and global exchange of data and ideas, over time the network should "mobilize and coordinate the intelligence, experience, skills, wisdom, and imagination of humanity" in new and unexpected ways. As part of his utopian vision for a more collaborative knowledge culture, he predicted: "We are passing from the Cartesian cogito" - I think, therefore I am - "to cogitamus" - we think, therefore we are. The result of this new "we", Levy argued, would be a more complex, flexible and dynamic knowledge base. Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming Alternate Reality Gaming The polarities ( ) of humanity are: - the individual ( + ) - the societal ( - ) The polarities of any unity are permanently striving to attain harmony. Little moves from one of the polarities destabilize the harmony within the unity and provoke a chain of interactions that will reset harmony at a new level. Along the history of humanity we observe successive stages that are characterized by given forms of harmonization between societal and individual: 1. animism: individuals belong to the group. They are glued in the understanding of reality transmitted to them by their man of knowledge. The shaman is a free man! 2. religious and/or philosophic: individuals are coerced into submission to the king or emperor. They are glued in the understanding of reality transmitted to them by the priest or wiseman. The priest and the wiseman are at the service of the king or the emperor. 3. modern and rational: shared collective belief systems are eroding and individuals are free to believe whatever they want. In this context of societal atomization the reason of capital imposes its logic upon all. 4. postmodern: In late modernity we are witnessing a string of parameters that are emerging simultaneously and interacting upon one another: SIDE-EFFECTS OF MODERNITY: Environmental Chaos: Climate Change, loss of bio-diversity, poisoning of land, water and air, Resource Collapse: Oil. Water. Topsoil. Fisheries. Seeds. Arable land. Minerals. Copper. Food. Societal Atomization + ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION: Financialization, Outsourcing, Institutional lag, ). Those interactions most probably are shaping the contours of a new paradigm of reality out of which will emerge a new form of integration of the individual within the societal. Jane McGonigal's thesis is that the internet will "mobilize and coordinate the intelligence, experience, skills, wisdom, and imagination of humanity" from where will emerge a "Collective Intelligence". Another vision is that of a collapse of modernity.

Home -: Feb 1, 4:10pm 2 reviews science, video, reality, worldviews, animism
http://www.livingthefield.com/; Lynn McTaggart via BurkinaLoveFaso , on an interview of Lynn McTaggart on Google Video
Video interview with journalist and author Lynn McTaggart. She and her publisher/husband Bryan Hubbard are directors of a public company called What Doctors Don't Tell You Ltd, which publishes newsletters which scientifically critique mainstream medicine. As well as continuing to write about alternative medicine and editing the What Doctors Don't Tell You publications, McTaggart has also developed a program called Living The Field, based on an understanding of the zero point field that is not accepted by the scientific community. She is heading The Intention Experiment, a large scale web-based investigation to discover if intentions can affect the physical world. Living The Field the scientific exploration of spirituality, offering a bridge between science and spirit. The Intention experiment http://www.wddty.com/ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4498209488786757374&hl=en an interview of Lynn McTaggart on Google Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dUsRWs-pZY Lynne McTaggart, author of the Field, talks about her vocation, the basis of happiness and the power of intention. Specialization leads to separation, dependency and sickness. Freedom and health come with autonomy. What we know for a fact: 1. We are particles of the whole we live in (humans, all other animals and all matter). 2. All particles are interconnected within the whole. 3. Healthy particles are open to the others and also to the resonance of our global interconnectedness. Willpower separates us. Willpower results out of greed, the search for prestige and more generally the effects of individualism that tend to collapse the societal polarity of humanity. Holistic health systems are thus concentrating on relaxation, meditation and "letting go" as techniques to "stop the mind" in order to allow the self to open to the other particles. Two schools of thoughts are thinking along the lines of what I describe here above. - the top to bottom school of specialists who try to impose their truths on the individuals. Lynn McTaggart falls in this category and makes a living from her status of specialist. - the bottom to top school that rejects the truths of any top to bottom specialist. Buddha, Lao Tze and others fall in this category. This was also the case of the "men of knowledge" or shaman under animism.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8961434816683857494: Jan 28, 1:00pm 5 reviews art, reality, worldviews
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8961434816683857494; Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within via my friend BurkinaFasoLove. 1 hr 9 min 54 sec video on YouTube
The film examines the re-emergence of archaic techniques of ecstacy in the modern world by weaving a synthesis of ecological and ... all \u00bb evolutionary awareness,electronic dance culture, and the current pharmacological re-evaluation of entheogenic compounds. Within a narrative framework that imagines consciousness itself to be evolving, Entheogen documents the emergence of techno-shamanism in the post-modern world that frames the following questions: How can a renewal of ancient initiatory rites of passage alleviate our ecological crisis? What do trance dancing and festivals celebrating unbridled artistic expression speak to in our collective psyche? How do we re-invent ourselves in a disenchanted world from which God has long ago withdrawn? Entheogen invites the viewer to consider that the answers to these questions lie within the consciousness of each and every human being, and are accessible if only we give ourselves permission to awaken to the divine within. automatic video embedding with GreaseMonkey's "video embed" script http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8961434816683857494 Excellent video about the emergence of a new "global worldview". It is as if the present cycle of societal evolution that is closing with late modernity were mutating into a revisiting of animism. Watch it.

Reality Sandwich | The Current Global Crisis and the Future of Humanity: Dec 17, 2007 5:50pm 1 review reality, change, worldviews
http://www.realitysandwich.com/current_global_crisis_and_future_humanity; The Current Global Crisis and the Future of Humanity via Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing / Bruce Eisner, in Reality Sandwich by Stanislav Grof
Humanity as a whole possesses enormous resources in the form of financial means, technological know-how, manpower, and womanpower. Modern science has developed effective means that could solve most of the urgent problems in today's world u2013 combat the majority of diseases, eliminate hunger and poverty, reduce the amount of industrial waste, and replace destructive fossil fuels by renewable sources of clean energy. The problems that stand in the way are not of an economical or technological nature; their deepest sources lie inside the human personality. The Current Global Crisis and the Future of Humanity Stanislav Grof says that "In the last analysis, the current global crisis is basically a psychospiritual crisis. And he adds that a "radical psychospiritual transformation of humanity is not only possible, but is already underway." I fully subscribe to Grof's conclusion. The worldview of modernity is indeed crumbling under its devastating side-effects that are visible to all and a new paradigm about reality is indeed in the shaping that is integrating spirituality with science. The central thesis in my book Artsense goes along those same lines. But my personal analysis of modernity (Western technological civilization) goes deeper in history than "the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm and monistic materialism". Those are indeed nothing more than the ideological form taken by something deeper that had already been at work along the 4-5 centuries preceding Newton and Descartes. I mean the logic of capital was indeed at work controlling human actions totally out of human knowing. Grof's approach then says that "spiritual hunger and needs are important and powerful forces inherent in human nature, more powerful than sex". I again totally subscribe with this hypothesis but in Grof's presentation this hypothesis is no more than an assertion and as such it is not convincing. This epistemological weakness is then artificially overcome by Grof saying "I have seen over the years profound emotional and psychosomatic healing, as well as radical personality transformation, in many people who were involved in serious and systematic experiential self-exploration and inner quest." There is no doubt that "systematic experiential self-exploration and inner quest" changes those who practice it. But inferring from that fact that it is the solution to the present crisis is like confusing a plow for a horse. This is a real pity, for otherwise, Grof's argument is right on the mark... "A New Vision of Reality and a New Myth to Live By" are indeed starting to emerge but this new worldview shall not be shared by all on earth through the magic of "systematic experiential self-exploration and inner quest". In other words all the citizens of the earth don't have to transform into shaman for a "post-modern" worldview to be shared by all.

USGS Astrogeology: Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets: Oct 25, 2007 9:17am 1 review astronomy, science, visualization, reality
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/PlanetaryMapping/DIGGEOL/index.html; Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets via info aesthetics, in astrogeology.usgs.gov
a collection of visually stunning maps of the geological composition of the lunar surface, based on data from lunar missions in the 1960's and 1970's. the contrasting colors & seemingly random shapes of the clusters of craters transform normally boring looking informational maps in objects of visual art. Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets Visualization, visualization! - The more complex the knowledge, about anything, the more we seem to transform it in visual terms in order to get a more instantaneous grasp of its usability. - This process of late-modern visualization is similar to the visualization offered by the visual arts in earlier periods (animism, religion, modernity). In other words the men of knowledge in each historical epoch produce knowledge about phenomena that are not directly accessible to the human retina. All knowledge that is not directly accessible to the retina is converted into visualizations. Such visualizations are transmitted by the retina to the brain for integration in the representation of reality operating in the brain of the observer. But one clear difference distinguishes late modern visualizations from its earlier artistic forms. In earlier epochs artistic visualizations were meant to unify the worldview of all citizens within any given society. Late modern visualizations are not concerned with this kind of societal unification they appear as mere tools for letting late modern men of knowledge gaining a more instantaneous grasp of the implications of the sum of knowings he has accumulated. This distinction between the societal functionality of artistic visualizations in earlier epochs from the late modern individual, or sectoral, functionality begs us to differentiate the nature of the knowledge in earlier epochs from its late modern version. In earlier periods knowledge had the societal function of unifying the individuals behind a common worldview. This kind of knowledge was holistic. It gave an interpretation of reality for all to share. The resulting sharing of a common worldview by the citizens of any society before high modernity assured the reproduction of those societies. Societal change was thus naturally slow as it privileged conservation of the societal order over the innovation spurred by individuals. In late modernity visualizations are meant to help those who research a particular segment or aspect of reality to make more instantaneous sense of the profusion of data their research returns. Such profusion of data should not be confused with knowledge (understanding of the whole of reality). It merely corresponds to an accumulation of knowings (one data added to another at the level of a particular segment of reality). This distinction between: - knowledge as an understanding of the whole of reality - and knowings as an accumulation of data at the level of a particular segment of reality is shaping the nature of the difference between: - art (as visual representation of the whole of reality) - and scientific visualization (as the visualization of an accumulation of data gained through the observation of a tiny segment of the whole). Art served societal reproduction but what do late modern scientific visualizations serve? Not the reproduction of societies for sure but what else could it be?

http://infosthetics.com/: Oct 24, 2007 10:22am 57 reviews visualization, reality
http://infosthetics.com/; Last weeks best on information aesthetics last visualization findings in information aesthetics by Andrew Vande Moere
inspired by Manovich's definition of information aesthetics, this weblog explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization, in an emergent multidisciplinary field what could be coined as 'creative information visualization'. information aesthetics comparing census data by zip
hand-drawing concept of time
memory landscape drawings A great blog that I don't miss to visit daily. Here are the best findings of the last 2 weeks. It's all about visualizing contemporary trends and concepts. The findings of Andrew Vande Moere often touch on my approach about art.

APOD: 2007 September 24 - A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared: Sep 24, 2007 7:03am 1 review astronomy, visualization, reality
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070924.html; A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared in Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day
Credit: S. Carey (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA Explanation: How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep image in infrared light of an active part of our Milky Way Galaxy where star formation is rampant. In IRDC G11.11-0.11, thick clouds of dust and gas are congealing into stars that are so dark that humans living there would see an empty night sky. The image, though, taken last year by the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, shows vast glowing fields of gas and dust, indicating that much of this dust is heated by forming stars. The centers of some clouds, such as the snake-like structure on the upper left, are so thick and cold that they are dark even in infrared light. Many of the red dots are glowing dust shrouds centered on very young newly formed stars. The unusual red sphere below the snake is actually a supernova remnant, the glowing shell of a young star so massive it evolved rapidly and exploded. The region spans about 150 light years and lies about 10,000 light years away toward the constellation of Sagittarius. A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared Another great realist visualization... Visual realism means illustrating reality. There is no reason to limit our vision of reality to what our eyes give us to see. Reality is vaster than our personal environment. The image given by our eyes is the first degree image of reality. It is the level at which individuals strive to reproduce their existence. But this first degree reality has since long been thwarted by new dimensions opened to us by culture, economics, science and so on. Reality has thus developed in our consciousness as our being a tiny particle into an infinite whole. Finite or infinite fact is that the whole is simply unattainable to us particles. Within the confines of this understanding of our limitations realism takes indeed another form