Philosophy Wire: DNA computers.

Researchers at Caltech have developed an artificial neural network made out of DNA that can solve a classic machine learning problem: correctly identifying handwritten numbers. The work is a significant step in demonstrating the capacity to program artificial intelligence into synthetic biomolecular circuits. [1] Solving problems with DNA. But we were created based on DNA. And now we command it. For solving problems. Problems meaning nothing to DNA per se. Problems which should also mean nothing to us either. No, there is no other problem. But the problem of why we need to answer any problem at all... There is no mystery under the Moon… Until the Sun comes up…

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Philosophy Wire: Phantom planets… Phantom lives…

Collective gravity (bumper car-like interactions at the edges of our solar system) - and not a mysterious ninth planet - may explain the dynamics of strange bodies called 'detached objects,' according to a new study. [1] One planet. Many planets. No planet. All the same. One parallel. Infinite parallels. No parallels. All the same. Awake. Sleeping. Dead. Alive… Wandering in the vast cold space… Near the rings of Saturn… Eating his kids… Making the cosmos come alive from within death…

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Philosophy Wire: Spanning networks. Trees. Branches. Self-repetition.

Networks are often described as trees with spanning branches. How the tree branches out depends on the logic behind the network's expansion, such as random expansion. However, some aspects of such randomly expanding networks are invariant; regardless of the network's scale. As a result, the entire network has the same shape as one or more of its parts. [1] Big is small. Small is big. Repeating patterns in a universe full of antinomies., Existence ruled by One, in a cosmos full of opposites. Look at the forest. And behind every tree you may see. That every seed is the same. Dead. Inside the living Earth. Waiting to spring into existence. And engulf everything in a blaze of death…

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Philosophy Wire: Weird shapes. Everywhere. Child gods.

Researchers at The Ohio State University and their colleagues are using a supercomputer to simulate what happens when two exotic superfluids mix. The simulations have produced some unusual shapes, including 'mushrooms' and this frog-like shape. [1] Seeing weird shapes everywhere. But there are no weird shapes. Seeing exceptions everywhere. But there are no exceptions. Weird fluids mixing in usual ways. Unusual fluids producing usual shapes. A cosmos full of everything. In a cosmos full of children, there are no surprises. The child god is not dead. It follows us every moment. Sitting on a dolphin, riding the waves of the rough sea… “Don’t look at me in awe”, it says smiling. “You could always ride the waves”…

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Philosophy Wire: Rhinos! Sorry, I meant Unicorns! They were real! No really. Really!

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-08-06]: New research suggests that a species of unicorn-like horned rhinos went extinct much later than previously thought – up until 29,000 ago – and they existed along with humans. [1] We did not believe the myths. We did not believe our eyes. (rhinos have one horn you know) So we needed a research. And… WOW! We validated that (slightly different) rhinos existed! Science: The art of validating the obvious. As Wittgenstein said… “Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again”. Look at the unicorns in front of you. They are real. And you do not need “proof” to believe it.

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Philosophy Wire: Oedipus and the curse of knowledge.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2016-06-27]: Prometheus (Hesiod). Oedipus, the man who defeated the Sphinx with his knowledge. Midas and Silenus. Adam and Eve. They all had something in common: They longed for or possessed knowledge. And knowledge destroyed them. Our myths warn us persistently. And we choose to ignore them. We want to "learn". Stop thinking. Learn to simply accept the cosmos. Stop analyzing. Just be… Only in the darkness do we see dreams even though they scare us in the beginning.

[Read “Non-thinking” articles @ Harmonia Philosophica]

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Philosophy Wire: Women. Men. Atheists. Religiousness...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-09-23]: Women are more religious than men. [1] Men oppress women. Atheists oppress religious people.  Cronus eats his children. Gaia cries...

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Philosophy Wire: Consciousness, hair power, Samson, myths...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-05-13]:

Unseen power stemming from… hair! [1, 2]
An old tale had told us so. (Samson)
We are now laughing at it. [3]
But something deeper lies beneath the surface... [4, 5, 6]
Our current "knowledge" does not let us see beyond our own nose.
Old knowledge, long gone, haunts our shallow existence.
Let's try to forget in order to remember...

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Philosophy Wire: Eureka! Intelligence. Discoveries.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2014-05-05]: Eureka! Like Archimedes in his bath, crows know how to displace water so as to solve problems, showing that Aesop's fable The Crow and the Pitcher isn't purely fictional. [1] What separates us from crows is not the fact that we are intelligent or we make discoveries. But the fact that even without any of them, we already know everything...

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Philosophy Wire: Lernaean Hydra, sharks and the (real) strength of Myths...

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-03-26]:

Scientists have confirmed the discovery of the first-ever, two-headed bull shark. The study, led by Michigan State University and appearing in the Journal of Fish Biology, confirmed the specimen, found in the Gulf of Mexico April 7, 2011, was a single shark with two heads, rather than conjoined twins. There have been other species of sharks, such as blue sharks and tope sharks, born with two heads. This is the first record of dicephalia (Gr. δικεφαλία) in a bull shark, said Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, who confirmed the discovery with colleagues at the Florida Keys Community College. [source: web news]

This reminds me of the Lernaean Hydra (Ancient Greek: Λερναία Ὕδρα). Once we thought it was just a crazy myth. Now we are seeing it manifesting itself in front of our very eyes with flesh and bones. Once again, we are reminded of the obvious: Myths are truths disguised under the cloack of story-telling. Do not underestimate their power of bringing light to our dark age...

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Philosophy Wire: Meteorite, myths, history…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2013-02-17]: Russians failed to recover any remnants of the meteorite that stroke on 15/2/2013 the Urals. [source: web news] So no “hard” evidence there. Just a bunch of witnesses, some videos, some marks on the ground and some injured. The same things we have for theasis of UFO incidents. What does make one event more plausible than the other then? And if this event is recorded in history, how will the future historians see it in 3,000 years from now? Would it be possible that they see it as a fantasy, in the same way we see numerous weird references in ancient myths as such?

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Philosophy Wire: The mystery of the dead herrings

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2012-01-03]: Thousands of dead herring wash ashore on Norwegian beach [source: Washington Post]. Before the citizens of the nearby town started to find ways of removing the 20 tons of fish from the shore, the fish mysteriously disappeared! Some say they were again washed away into the sea. A nice opportunity for the skeptics to show off their hypothesis-creativity skills. For others, a nice story for future myths… Maybe some things are not meant to be explained. Maybe some things just exist for us to discuss about them over beer with friends…

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Philosophy Wire: Whale, Jonas, YouTube…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-11-05]: A woman surfer was almost swallowed by a whale, who was forcing her way up to the surface with her gigantic mouth open [source: web news]. Myths of all cultures are always depictions of some truths. It is just too bad we need a YouTube “proof” to understand that…

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Philosophy Wire: Robocop statue, myths and the reality of our era

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2011-02-24]: Detroit will finally have a Robocop statue, after a citizens’ movement which started as a joke managed to raise more than $50,000 for that cause. [Source: web news] What will the historian of the future guess about our era, when they come face to face with statues of Rocky (in Philadelphia) or of Robocop? Are we witnesses to the birth of myths or to human stupidity? We tend to believe that myths of the old days represented reality as our ancestors understood it. What kind of “reality” do the statues of Rocky and Robocop represent?

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