Philosophy Wire: Deep learning… Water… Alone in the desert…

Using the South American continent as an example, Earth system modellers have developed a new Deep-Learning-Method, which quantifies small as well as large-scale changes to the water storage with the help of satellite data. [1] Watch that river flow. Quantify it. Do you really care? Does it matter how much water there is around if you are not thirsty? Does it matter is everything is dry if you are full? Knowledge is superficial. You will get it. At the moment you try to go to that river. And realize that the water can never exist. Without knowing that you will put your hand in it…

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Philosophy Wire: Brain. Monitoring. Forgetting.

In a study of epilepsy patients, researchers monitored the electrical activity of thousands of individual brain cells, called neurons, as patients took memory tests. They found that the firing patterns of the cells that occurred when patients learned a word pair were replayed fractions of a second before they successfully remembered the pair. [1] Monitoring how memory works. But why care what happens when we remember? Life is about forgetting. Monitoring what brain does. But why care for what the brain does? We are defined by the moments when our brain stands still. Look at a brain doing nothing. Can you feel all memories flowing? Look at the lake being calm. Can you sense the storm coming?

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Philosophy Wire: All the same! Everything different.

'You all look alike to me' is hard-wired in us when we see people from other races, research finds. We are hard-wired to process - or not process - facial differences based on race. And that process occurs in the earliest stages of our thought process, according to newly published research. [1] Our mind is programmed to see similarities. We are destined to see patterns. Categorizing everything into entities that exist only in our mind. Poor man. How many similarities do you need to discover? Before you understand that everything is unique? How many differences must you witness? Before you realize that everything is the same?

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Philosophy Wire: Fossil record. Universal patterns.

Instead of the typical bell-shaped curve, the fossil record shows a fat-tailed distribution, with extreme, outlier, events occurring with higher-than-expected probability. Using the same mathematical tools that describe stock market crashes, scientists explain the evolutionary dynamics that give rise to universal patterns in the fossil record. [1] Patterns. Made out of extreme exceptions. Old dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Dying. Humans conquering. Sun burning. Galaxies dissolving Humans dying. We think there are extreme events. But life itself is an extreme event. Look at your models again. No! There are no outliers in your model. Except the model itself…

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Philosophy Wire: Discovering the mechanism of conversation. Listening to the silence of the cosmos…

By studying the songs of mice from the cloud forests of Costa Rica, researchers have discovered a brain circuit that may enable the high-speed back and forth of conversation. [1] Analyzing the mechanics of regulating talking during conversation. But the essence of conversation is not related to talking. But to staying silent. Because the true conversation happens not with others but inside yourself. Listen to your friend talking. Can he ever say anything you have not already heard? Ask your friend taking. Does he say anything you have not already said? The cosmos started with silence. And within silence, Logos. Irrational noise conveying no message at all except the absence of any message. Listen to everything the cosmos had to say. And in the midst of silence, you will see the fog in the forest dissolving…

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Philosophy Wire: Looking deeper. Seeing nothing…

A team of scientists has visualized meteorite components at resolution powers much higher than ever before. Their efforts resulted in a much better look at - and enhanced understanding of - substances inside carbonaceous chondrites, the organic-containing meteorites that land on Earth. These substances include hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and water, all of which are needed for life. [1] We tend to see deeper to understand better. We want to analyze to know something. But what is there that you cannot see at first glance? Look around you. You know nothing about the cosmos. How can you dig into something which is not there? Examine yourself. Thinking based on arbitrary axioms. But how can you dig without a shovel? Look on the surface and you will discover all you need to know. See the world upside down. And you will see that the surface is not the surface. But the bottom of all things, which you can only reach after you have analyzed everything…

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Philosophy Wire: Smarter. Neuron connections. Seek less to get more…

The more intelligent a person, the fewer connections there are between the neurons in his cerebral cortex. This is the result of a study conducted by neuroscientists; the study was performed using a specific neuroimaging technique that provides insights into the wiring of the brain on a microstructural level. [1] Seek less to get more. Less communication, more intimacy. Less understanding, greater wisdom. Less thinking, less illusions. Less senses, fewer distractions. In the beginning there was one particle. Full. Complete. Wise. Perfectly reflected into our souls. Then we got brains. And broke the mirror into a thousand pieces…

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Philosophy Wire: Water on the Moon. Vases. Finding the “obvious”.

A new analysis of data from two lunar missions finds evidence that the Moon's water is widely distributed across the surface and is not confined to a particular region or type of terrain. [1] We keep on missing the obvious. We thought life is scarce in the universe. Now we know it is something common. We thought water is scarce. Now we know it is something common. The only common thing about uncommon things is that they are… common after all. Nothing is uncommon. Except what is uncommon. At the end we will see all the pieces of the cosmos. Together. Broken and yet complete. Look at that vase. There is not just one vase. There are vases everywhere…

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Philosophy Wire: Being abstract. Planning for the future. Being god. Buying tomatoes!

A recent research showed that robots can learn abstract representations of the world that are useful in planning for multi-step tasks, something that's monumentally difficult for robots to do.

Planning is a monumentally difficult thing for robots, largely because a robot's perception of the world consists of nothing more than the vast array of pixels collected by its cameras; it lacks an innate understanding of how those pixels relate to what we might consider meaningful concepts in the world.

"Imagine how hard it would be to plan something as simple as a trip to the grocery store if you had to think about each and every muscle you'd flex to get there, and imagine in advance and in detail the terabytes of visual data that would pass through your retinas along the way. You'd immediately get bogged down in the detail. People, of course, don't plan that way. We're able to introduce abstract concepts that throw away that huge mass of irrelevant detail and focus only on what is important”, said George Konidaris, the lead author of the study. [1]

Fully planning for the future makes you unable to plan.
Thinking too much, makes you unable to think.
Trying too much to live your life, makes you have no life.

Living is only possible by being “stupid” in a way; not by analyzing everything and not by knowing everything, but by simply having an abstract perception of what is around us. Existence’s nature is raw and theological, not computational.

Stop analyzing everything. At the end, you will become motionless; the only way to make even a single step is to simply be irrational and… take the step. Modern science (analysis of everything until we reach a ‘safe’ conclusion based on ‘all’ the relative data) is in essence more and more irrelevant to the way we live. Logic cannot even support a simple walk to the grocery store.

Look at the stars and imagine your place in the cosmos.
Yes, you are important. You are a luminous being!
You can go and buy tomatoes! Come on!

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Philosophy Wire: Searching for the major. Missing the minor…

Scientists have laid out a comprehensive theory for how our solar system could have formed in the wind-blown bubbles around a giant, long-dead star. The study addresses a nagging cosmic mystery about the abundance of two elements in our solar system compared to the rest of the galaxy. [1] We always analyze systems, galaxies, the universe. We always seek the greater. And yet, the secret lies in the lesser… Giant stars… Galaxies… Multi-universes… And still, everything was created inside a small cell… The greatest stars shine only because you see them… Seek more in less. Seek greatness in the unimportant… Open your eyes. But don’t look up…

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Philosophy Wire: Fragments of memory…

A study has identified a neural mechanism in humans that allows us to segment our experience in discrete memory units. According to the research, the brain identifies context changes as 'frontiers' in the flow of our experience and uses them to fragment the course of events into small units of memory that can be stored long-term. [1] The only way to understand the cosmos in our finite brain is by slicing it down into pieces. Because the infinite cannot fit in the finite. If we were to understand the cosmos as a whole, we would need to discard the one thing we appreciate the most: our brain. Everything cannot fit into something. It needs nothing to accept everything… Only zero can fit infinite… Only by forgetting everything can we remember anything… Keep slicing the pie into thinner pieces. Until you reach to the whole pie again…

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Philosophy Wire: From the DNA to epigenome. Analysis and further analysis: The (useless) history of modern science.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-08-16]: Scientists have established comprehensive maps of the human epigenome. [1] So? After that it is certain that we will discover something else which also affects humans. And after that something else. And something else after that too. Like atoms the analysis of which never ends (every year we discover a new particle), the analysis of the factors affecting humans will never end. No matter how hard we dig, we will always discover new things. The only way to get out of this hole we have dug is to go back to the Beginning. Put the dirt back. Take a breath. Wonder: Why are you digging?

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Philosophy Wire: Brain. Signals. Essence?

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-02-15]: A new drug boosts the brain's signal transmission speed 1,000 times. [1] But is this what we need? Is this what we lack? Analyze the world and you will lose it's essence. Increase thought and you will lose the insight given it's lack. Increase the effort and you will no longer be able to accept the cosmos as it is. Keep on thinking. And you will stop living...

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Philosophy Wire: Crocodiles. Stupid scientists.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2015-01-20]: The genome of crocodiles has meed mapped. [1] Nice. Another brick on the wall. Like a child, we stuck them all together. But we do not know what we will do with them. Over-analysis is cool because it is easy. But it leads to dead ends. When we stop documenting. When we stop analyzing. When we start thinking. Will we be scientists again...

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Philosophy Wire: Supercomputer. Analysis. Nothing.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-12-31]: A supercomputer solves the genetic mystery of the origins of a boy who died 24,000 years ago. [1] The day we will stop analyzing what happened. The day we will stop looking. Then we will be one with the things we seek. Then, we will know them already...

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Philosophy Wire: Faster processing. Data. Void.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-11-03]: Faster, smaller, greener computers, capable of processing information up to 1,000 times faster than currently available models, could be made possible by replacing silicon with new materials that can switch back and forth between different electrical states. [1] But analyzing data faster is not what makes us better than a rock. (the electrons of which move like the electrons in our brain anyway) The fact that we can stop processing information, that we can stand still and turn off our brain while our consciousness connects with the cosmos [let the cosmos fill in our mind], this is what makes us special. And yes, a computer which constantly "processes information" will never get that.

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Philosophy Wire: Sea. Waves. Over-thinking.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-10-02]: A microbiologist trying to analyze why the sea smells like… sea. [1] The analysis of things destroys their essence. Sit on the beach. Enjoy the waves. Stop thinking.

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Philosophy Wire: Seeing wide, seeing narrow...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-09-27]: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), the top-priority ground-based instrument for U.S. astronomers, has gotten the green light to go ahead with construction, with a view to seeing its first light in 2019. LSST has a highly unusual design, with a very wide field of view so it can scan the entire sky every few nights. [1]

Should we have narrow sight? Should we have broad sight?

You can analyze things to whatever extent you wish. But you can only go "back" up to a certain point to a gain a broader view. While there is no limit to how much you can analyze something, One seems to be a limit to the unity of the cosmos.  Are there infinite parts? Or just one? Choose wisely. Choose the only path that does lead somewhere...

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Philosophy Wire: Biology, common people, scientists...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-09-25]: 'Most of the songbirds that migrate between North America and the tropics do it to escape harsh northern winters. That squares with the folk belief that "birds fly south for the winter", but is the exact opposite of what biologists thought – that tropical birds ventured north to escape overcrowding. [1] Over-analysis does not usually help. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth. Listen to the non-experts. They usually know more than you think...

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Philosophy Wire: Gravity waves, analysis, breaking down...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-04-28]: The first direct evidence of cosmic inflation — a period of rapid expansion that occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang — also supports the idea that our universe is just one of many out there, some researchers say. [1] After we have reached a limit in breaking down matter into smaller and smaller particles, we are now breaking down the comsos itself. But One is Many. Many is One. No matter how one sees it, we live in ONE cosmos. No matter in how many parts you break it, its essence cannot be broken. Let us stop breaking down everything. Let us just admire them as they are. Whole.

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