Philosophy Wire: Disappearing Moon…

Astronomers have taken a step towards understanding how the Moon might have formed out of a giant collision between the early Earth and another massive object 4.5 billion years ago. [1] But nothing is created at the moment it is created. But at the moment it is admired and feared. Look at the cosmos. Stare at the stars and watch in awe of everything disappearing, the very moment you just look at them…

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Philosophy Wire: Dance!

How do people coordinate their actions with the sounds they hear? This basic ability, which allows people to cross the street safely while hearing oncoming traffic, dance to new music or perform team events such as rowing, has puzzled cognitive neuroscientists for years. A new study is shining a light on how auditory perception and motor processes work together. [1]

Dance!
Feel the rhythm.
Move!

Like you are the music.
Dance!
Until you hear nothing.

Sleep.
Can you…
Sleep?

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Philosophy Wire: Unreal reality…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2023-02-20]: We humans have a bit of a problem with reality. We experience it all the time, but struggle to define it, let alone understand it. It seems so solid and yet, when we examine it closely, it melts away like a mirage. We don’t know when it began, how big it is, where it came from and where it is going, and we certainly have no clue why it exists. Since ancient Greece, we have come a long way. What was once explained in terms of divine creation is now in the explained – or so we think – via science. Over the past 200 years or so, we have peeled back the layers of reality, even if we are still not entirely sure what we have revealed. But if anything, the mystery has only deepened. We are now at a point where it is equally credible to claim that reality is entirely dependent on subjective experience, or entirely independent of it. Reality has never felt so unreal. [1]

Silly questions.

What is real?
What is real but the perception of real?
How can anything be perceived as real without being such?
Can anything but a tautology exist?

Are we bound on our own definitions while chasing our tail?
With the proper definitions, anything can be real.
Without any definitions, we can still perceive reality.

Look at that table.
It is there.
Because you see it.

But it disappears the moment you don’t.
You can touch it.
Until the moment you cannot.
Question your questions.

Are you here?

(Can the table touch you?)

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Philosophy Wire: Mimicking life… Mimicking nothingness…

An international joint research team succeeded in fabricating a neuromorphic network composed of numerous metallic nanowires. Using this network, the team was able to generate electrical characteristics similar to those associated with higher order brain functions unique to humans, such as memorization, learning, forgetting, becoming alert and returning to calm. [1] Mimicking life. Even though we do not understand it. Or I would say, especially because we do not understand it! Because if we did, we would experience it. And there would be nothing left to mimic. Look at your hand. Feel its void. Can you touch yourself?

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Philosophy Wire: Darkness… Light… Motionless…

Photo by Spiros Kakos @ Pexels

Theoreticians in two different fields defied the common knowledge that planets orbit stars like the Sun. They proposed the possibility of thousands of planets around a supermassive black hole. [1] Moving around light. Moving around darkness. It matters not though. For what is important is that we move. And thus fail to see that there is nothing to move around from. Stop. And see. Everything is moving around you…

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Philosophy Wire: Who is moving?

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Do tectonic plates move because of motion in the Earth's mantle, or is the mantle driven by the plates' movement? Or could it be that this question is ill-posed? This is the point of view adopted by scientists who regard the solid Earth as a single system. According to their simulations, the surface mainly drives the mantle, although changes occur over time. [1] And old question. Begging for an answer. Am I moving? Or is it you? At the end, both of us can be an answer. And, thus, no one is…

Can you feel it?
You are not moving.

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Philosophy Wire: Evolution of evolution. Scientific models’ dirty little secrets…

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Scientists try to determine the evolution of proteins by constructing many models which could represent the evolution and determine which are the common traits of most of these models. These common elements are then used to construct the most possible path of evolution. [1]

The models will always model something. But no matter how accurate the model is, it will never exactly replicate reality. Because the models take into account many factors which always make them in good alignment with the “average” picture. But the average picture is the only picture which does not ever exist anywhere!

Behold one of the dirty secrets of the science process of creating models.

That they will never show exactly what they want to explain!

Arrogant men. Looking in the distorted mirror. Convincing themselves that this is their image. And yet, feeling that it is not. Only because they are bored to break the mirror. And find a calm sea where they can look on their own reflection in peace.

Poor men…
Too occupied with seeing their own image that they don’t see that the sea is here…
If only they could look the other way…

Related article: Check the harmoniaPhilosophica.com portal!

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Philosophy Wire: Making the blind see… But what?

Scientists are investigating new ways to provide visual signals to the blind by directly stimulating the optic nerve. Their preliminary study uses a new type of neural electrode and provides distinct signals. [1] An interesting idea which poses another interesting question: with what should we stimulate the optic nerve to make someone see? What are the optical triggers that should (should?) be there in order to experience the cosmos properly? (Properly?) How should we know them? How could we know them? Could it be that the blind sense the cosmos better than us? And even if that were so, would we ever be willing to accept it? It is scary, but in the same way we cannot convince the blind for what we do see, they cannot convince us for what they cannot… Do you see? There is nothing you cannot…

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Philosophy Wire: Uranus. Shadows. Waves.

Two telescopes have measured the faint heat from the main, or epsilon ring, of Uranus, enabling astronomers for the first time to determine its temperature: a cool 77 Kelvin. Earlier images of the rings came from reflected light only. The observations also show that the rings lack dust, which is common in the rings of other planets, and are composed of centimeter-sized particles and larger. [1] Silent cosmos. Cold universe. Every thing can be seen there. Even the dimest ring can be seen in front of the darkest abyss. In a great explosion, everything will lit up. And the greatest sun, will allow the existence of the finest shadows. It is cold now. See the wave on the shore. It wouldn't be there without a perfectly calm sea…

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Philosophy Wire: Not learning. Staying untouched.

As students learn a new concept, measuring how well they grasp it has often depended on traditional paper and pencil tests. Researchers have developed a machine learning algorithm, which can be used to measure how well a student understands a concept based on the student's brain activity patterns. The study is one of the first to look at how knowledge learned in school is represented in the brain. [1] Trying to understand how learning is represented in the brain. Taking for granted that this is a good thing. But the cosmos is a mirror of what is good and what is not. No, the representation of what you learn in the brain is not a good thing. Because this means that an untouched brain is now touched. Changed by the cosmos. Unable to sense anything exactly because it has sensed everything. No, learning about glue does not help you fix that glass. It is the only reason that you see the glass broken in the first place…

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Philosophy Wire: Circadian clocks

Researchers have suspected that the body's various circadian clocks can operate independently from the central clock in the hypothalamus of the brain. Now, they have found a way to test that theory. [1] Life is defined by time. Time passing by. Skipping through our fingers. There are many clocks counting this time. Which can only mean that there is none… Tic Tak… Tic Tak… Falling asleep we will soon be… And the ticking of the clock will go away… We were sleeping long enough. It is time to rest now. Until the ticking of the clock wakes us up again…

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Philosophy Wire: Colour where there is no colour… A cosmos where there is no cosmos…

Engineers have found that under the right conditions, ordinary clear water droplets on a transparent surface can produce brilliant colors, without the addition of inks or dyes. By tuning size, illumination angle, and curvature, MIT engineers can produce brilliant colors, in patterns they can predict, in otherwise transparent droplets. [1] Under the right angle, everything changes. Look at a mountain from the sky and it will look like a tiny dot. Look at a small chair from up-close and it will look like a mountain. A colored cosmos. A cosmos in black and white. At the end, it makes no difference. Because the cosmos is nothing. Until you start looking at it. Look at those beautiful colors. They are not there. And yet, here you are. Admiring them. Move a little and they will go away. Breath and you will lose sight of them. So beautiful. Look. They are gone… But cry not my child. For the colors will come again, through the tears of your eyes… You will not be able to see them ever again. But you will know they were there because one you had… What beautiful colors!, cries out the blind man by the alley. And for the first time in your life, you can see he is right…

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Philosophy Wire: Syncing. Out of sync.

Our brains are continuously bombarded with information from the senses, yet our level of vigilance to such input varies, allowing us to selectively focus on one conversation and not another. Research has shown that the electrical activity of the neocortex of the brain changes, when we focus our attention. Neurons stop signaling in sync with one another and start firing out of sync. The cholinergic system in the brain plays an important role in triggering this desynchronization. [1] Identifying what is important. But in a world of One, everything is. Every day we try to feel all the rain drops. Trying to sync to sense something. But it is only when you are out of sync that you can feel everything. You must lose focus to let the world focus on you. Close your eyes. In a world of One nothing is important. There are no rain drops. Just feel the rain. Identify what is important. Focus your attention. Because you know what to pay attention to. You always knew. From a time back in time when there was nothing to pay attention to…

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Philosophy Wire: Orangutans. Past. Future. Humans.

Orangutans are the only non-human primates we know of who can talk about the past. [1] Gifted we are. Seeing the past. Pondering on the future. And yet, there is something wrong with this nice picture. We used to cry. We used to laugh. Now we do neither. Now we cry about someone. Now we laugh about something. We used to feel. But now we don’t anymore. We just feel things. We used to exist. We do not exist now. We only do for a reason. We used to think. We do not think anymore. We just think for something. Only because we have forgotten that Being is only about non-thinking. The picture is crying now. Gifted we think we are. But the orangutan is laughing. Seeing the past. Pondering on the future. But only because he does not see the present…

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Philosophy Wire: Did you see it?

We experience the world through our senses, a constant torrent of sights, sounds, smells, and more. Our brains take these signals and process them, giving rise to our individual perceptions of the world. But sometimes our senses play tricks on us, notably in the case of perceptual illusions. Now, Caltech researchers have developed two new illusions that reveal how the senses can influence each other -- in particular, how sound can give rise to visual illusions. These illusions occur so quickly that they illustrate a phenomenon called postdiction (as opposed to prediction) in which a stimulus that occurs later can retroactively affect our perceptions of an earlier event. The Caltech work is among the first to show this kind of time-traveling illusion across multiple senses. [1]

Seeing what is not there. Because we heard something. Remembering of what was not there. Because we saw something. Living on what is not here. Because we die someday.

Fleeting moments. Ghostly presences.
Dancing on the border of existence.

Lift the veil of time.
And you will see.
They are all standing…

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Philosophy Wire: Time distortions.

When you move your body in time to a rhythm, your perception of time stretches and contracts. The finding might help us pin down which parts of the brain control our internal clocks. “Distortions of perceived time are coupled to the timing of your actions, which are dictated by an internal rhythm,” says Alice Tomassini at the Italian Institute of Technology in Ferrara. [1] People tapping fingers. People breathing. People dancing. Listening to music over the shadow of existence silently watching over. Time flowing into oblivion. Beyond the veil of nothingness shrouding everything. A cosmos made out of nothing. Only when it seizes being, will we realize that it was never there…

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Philosophy Wire: Where do you see him?

Researchers show that category learning can be influenced by where an object is in our field of vision. [1] Shallow men. Believing in what they see. Parts of God, now slaves to their own eyes. Having forgotten that in the mirror of existence you cannot see anything but yourself. Unless you choose to put yourself constantly out of the picture. Look at that dirty beggar. At a dark small alley. He is not Christ. Do you see Him?

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Philosophy Wire: Brain plasticity… Change… Eternal existence…

Psychedelic drugs promote neural plasticity in rats and flies. [1] Brain changing. Being alive. Experiencing illusions. Being alive. And yet, an all changing cosmos smells rot, death and decay. What Is, remains unchanged eternally. What Is not, changes constantly. Trying to fool the eye. To deceive the ear. But the heart knows better. Don’t show me anything. I already know what I seek…

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Philosophy Wire: Predicting the future…

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Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2019-10-01]: Scientists have invented a software that can 'see' several minutes into the future. [1] Predicting the future. Based on what has happened already. Predicting what is happening today. Based on what will happen tomorrow. Sitting on either side of mirror we are. Trying to figure out the cosmos. Not understanding that breaking the mirror was the solution in the first place…

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Philosophy Wire: Black holes. Hunger. Enhanced senses. Reality [against senses… again]

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Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2019-07-01]: Detecting black holes with the help of gravitational waves. [1] Cell phone images are enhanced artificially, making the mobile phone work as a microscope. [2] Scientists have characterized for the first time a complex, little-understood cellular receptor type that, when activated, shuts off hunger. [3] Seeing means to process. But which processing is the right one? Where should it stop? When can this processing be deemed complete? We have senses. But there are many things we do not sense. Or in other cases we sense more things that we would like and our brain filters the excess information for us to be able to do simple things as… walk. (even though Spiderman would also be a nice example) Why do we believe that what we see is the complete or correct picture? Should we perhaps block some of our senses instead of enhancing them? (in any case we do not know what reality is and if our senses draw us closer or away from it) Surely there is something out there for us to sense what we sense. There is no smoke without fire. But the nature of the fire is not known to us. And based on all the evidence, it is very probable that it is a spiritual fire. No, I am not saying that we should cancel our senses, but surely, we must be cautious with something which is proven to be susceptible to deceit so easily. Philosophy is the search of Being and we would be fool to do that search only based on what we see and hear. Even dogs can see and hear better than we do… Black holes are important. Not the stars. Pauses make the music. Not only the notes. Watch out for the darkness in the woods. You may see a lot in it. Light up a fire. Look. Everything is revealed. And yet… You are still cold… What kind of fire is that? It doesn’t burn. You are cols… A snake goes into the fire… It is burnt… The stars are gone now… The fire is growing bigger…

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