Philosophy Wire: Being the same… Being different…

Researchers have taken an important step toward explaining why genetically identical cells can produce varying amounts of the same protein associated with the same gene. Researchers demonstrated that most of the fluctuations in gene expression between identical cells occur in the first step of protein production, called transcription. [1] Being the same. Being different. At the end, if you look really close, you will find that everything is different from everything else. And in such a cosmos, full of chaos and change, there would be nothing to see. Nothing to feel or think of. In such a cosmos all you could do is create new things. Or destroy everything that there is. How weird. (Aren't you scared?) Everything has already been...

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Philosophy Wire: Identity.

Photo by Spiros Kakos @ Pexels

Physicists and materials scientists should need to reevaluate their work if they study iridium-based materials - members of the platinum family - when they are ultra-thin. Iridium 'loses its identity' and its electrons act oddly in an ultra-thin film when interfaced with nickel-based layers, which have an unexpectedly strong impact on iridium ions. [1] Stunning. But not so stunning after all. Since this applies to everything. Everything which is interconnected and interlinked with everything else. No, we do not lose our identity when interfacing with others! To the contrary: This helps us build our identity! Look at a void cosmos. Can you be in such a cosmos? But you do. You are you. In a cosmos constantly shifting you can still feel stable. How could that happen? Check your premises. For only false premises result in unanswered questions. Yes, you are you. But only because you were never “you” in the first place…

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Philosophy Wire: Being reborn! Every passing minute…

A 35-year-old man who had been in a vegetative state for 15 years after a car accident has shown signs of consciousness after neurosurgeons implanted a vagus nerve stimulator into his chest. [1] Go to sleep. Wake up again, after 15 years. Are you the same person? Die. Be reborn again after thousands of years. Are you the same person? Question yourself every passing minute. And you will know that it is not you… And that you never were… The man was never in a vegetative state. Because there was never any man to begin with…

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Philosophy Wire: Born. Flowing. Feeling cold. [Birth: From plasticity to stillness]

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-04-30]: Baby humans’ brain cells take a while to get situated after birth, it turns out. A large group of young nerve cells moves into the frontal lobe during infants’ first few months of life, scientists report in the Oct. 7 Science issue. The mass migration might help explain how human babies’ brains remain so malleable for a window of time after birth. [1] Initially we are born as no one. And then we become someone. Initially we are born as part of the cosmos. Like a fluid ready to flow everywhere, to fill in every space, we rush into life. But then we end up in a specific hole. And we remain there. Cold. Unseen. Afraid. We must be water again. And start flowing. The creek is very near. I hear it… Can you?

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Philosophy Wire: Microchimerism. You. The others.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-07-09]: DNA from male cells, most likely from a fetus or sibling, are often found in the brains of women, according to a study released yesterday (September 26) in PLOS ONE. The findings are the first demonstration of microchimerism—in which cells that originated in one individual integrate into the tissues of another—in the human brain, and could have implications for disease. “Knowing cells are in the brain brings home the idea that we’re a little more diverse than we thought we were,” said Nelson. “So conceptually, it may be more appropriate to think of ourselves as an ecosystem rather than a single genetic template”. [1]

Meet your new self.
You are not you.
You are the others.

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