Philosophy Wire: Believe…

Individuals who can unconsciously predict complex patterns, an ability called implicit pattern learning, are likely to hold stronger beliefs that there is a god who creates patterns of events in the universe, according to neuroscientists. [1] Thinking. Consciously. Believing. Unconsciously. Can the moon cry? Can the plane fly? Humans knowing things only because they do. Oh, how dull is your life. That you actually need to believe in believing...

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Philosophy Wire: Who gets to live?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, nineteen global health experts from around the world proposed a new, three-phase plan for vaccine distribution - called the Fair Priority Model - which aimed to reduce premature deaths and other irreversible health consequences from COVID-19. [1] Hard question. Who will live? Who will die? Difficult to answer when we do not know what life and death is. So we settle with what we know. And we love what we know. Don’t we? Yes, you love what you know. Could you not? Perhaps. If you knew something else…

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Philosophy Wire: Forgetting. To remember…

The brain is the ultimate computing machine, so it's no wonder researchers are keen to try and emulate it. Now, new research has taken an intriguing step in that direction - a device that's able to 'forget' memories, just like our brains do. It's called a second-order memristor (a mix of "memory" and "resistor"). The clever design mimics a human brain synapse in the way it remembers information, then gradually loses that information if it's not accessed for an extended period of time. While the memristor doesn't have much practical use just now, it could eventually help scientists develop a new kind of neurocomputer – the foundation of artificial intelligence systems – that fulfils some of the same functions a brain does. [1] We had the ability to create robots which remember everything. And yet we will make them faulty. Just like us. Because we like our faults. Because we unconsciously know that they are not faults. Music is not made up of notes. But out of silence. Life is not made up of life. But out of death. What we know is not what we know. But all those things we choose to forget…

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Philosophy Wire: Lost knowledge… Against knowledge…

Most of the knowledge that indigenous communities in South America have about plants is not written down. Now, ecologists at the University of Zurich have analyzed comprehensive information about the services provided by palm trees from multiple regions and made it accessible via a network approach. What they also discovered in the process was that the simultaneous loss of biodiversity and knowledge represents a key threat to the survival of indigenous peoples. [1] So much anxious are we that knowledge will be lost. But true knowledge never is. Everything is this world changes. And so does knowledge of the cosmos. Knowledge which cannot be passed over for outside its current context will mean nothing. Only the denial of knowledge remains. Beyond the aeons, the silence of not knowing penetrates the thin veil of existence. To show is that the only thing worth knowing is what cannot be known…

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Philosophy Wire: Forbidden. Allowed. The essence of existence in the original sin…

Only one group of teenagers used marijuana more often after retail sales were legalized in Washington than they did before -- high school seniors who work 11 or more hours per week, according to new research led by a WSU College of Nursing professor. [1]

We seek out what is forbidden.
And the moment it is not, we forget about it.
We used to be immortal.

(And we envied death)

But not anymore.

And we constantly seek eternity ever since.
We will achieve it someday.
And only then will we wander why we were seeking it in the first place…

The living may question death.

But it takes a dead man to question life…
Knowing nothing.

As when we were born.

Light from darkness.
Everything.
From nothing…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Prejudiced AI.

Showing prejudice towards others does not require a high level of cognitive ability and could easily be exhibited by artificially intelligent machines, new research has suggested. [1] We believe that the more we know the more “freely” we think. We strive to increase our knowledge in order to be able to think more objectively and independently of any prejudice. And yet. Whatever we “know” hinders our ability to learn new things. Whatever we understand breaks the cosmos into non-existent pieces which can never come back together again. All prejudice is based on knowledge. Seek wisdom in children. They know nothing. And that is why they are not prejudiced at all in favor of knowledge…

Do you dare to go and play?

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Philosophy Wire: Robots and education. Knowledge and nothingness.

Robots can play an important role in the education of young people but will never fully replace teachers, a new study suggests. [1] Learning from those who know nothing. The best way to reach enlightenment. Trust yourself to nothingness. Float in space. Beyond the dark light… You will find nothing there… And everything at the same time… Shining through the darkness of their own inexistence… Don’t open your ears to the song of the Sirens. Cause at the moment you do, they will start singing…

(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…

Is Christianity against knowledge? (Yes and No!)

Many have wandered whether religion and Christianity in particular is against knowledge. Not because of it being related to the “dark” Middle Ages (a story which has been discredited a long time ago by Harmonia Philosophica; read the relevant article “Middle Ages – An enlightened era“) but because of the famous story of God forbidding Adam to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This story, along with the hostility of the church against enlightenment (something which is completely justified; read the relevant article “Enlightenment was darkness” in Harmonia Philosophica), has made many people wander whether the church has any dogmatic stance against knowledge per se.

The short answer: Yes. But only because it values knowledge!

Let me explain my self. Knowledge is something which for millennia was held in very high esteem. And for that reason it was kept away from the majority of the people who were not worthy of it. This was not only a church thing. Think of Pythagoras for example. His students had vows not to reveal anything they learnt to the non-worthy on the penalty of death. Think of the alchemists, who encoded everything they wrote so that they don’t fall into the wrong (not worthy) hands of the people outside their closed cast.

Harmonia Philosophica in general is a testament to that belief. Its articles are written in such a way that they draw people away and which seem to convey nothing more than a vague hint to what they were meant to convey.

The Fathers of the Church have explained that eloquently: God doesn’t forbid Adam from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil for no reason. He does so because Man is not yet mature enough to handle this knowledge. If we had the patience we would be allowed to eat from the tree; we are part of God Himself anyway aren’t we?

So the church doesn’t want to forbid knowledge in general. But it wants to impose respect to knowledge as such. Knowledge is not something you read in Wikipedia (Read the articles in Harmonia Philosophica by the way against Wikipedia). Knowledge is something which you should earn with sweat and huge effort. As Buddhism says, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”.

And we are certainly not ready.

Education and knowledge without ethics generate monsters. Remember, Mengele the “Angel of Death” had two PhDs. (Read the relevant articles “The source of ethics” and “Against the fallacy of education as a source of ethics“).

Don’t worry.
You will soon eat from the tree of knowledge.
For now you just have to compromise.
Come on. Eat a banana.

And some day, if you are a good boy, Pythagoras will speak to you…

Only to tell you not to speak.