Even when wandering around in noisy civilization, the universe is making music for you that is very likely more moving and important

I agree.

Oh, and then there’s this machine that can even mediate your immediate surroundings into a beat:

Interesting. I imagine this is one of many small steps towards a totally immersive augmented reality experience. Imagine this same thing happening with all of your senses but rendered by an AI so as to still be somewhat intelligible and to not get you hit by passing cars…

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/12...man-that-makes-music-from-sounds.html

The other night gave me an answer: an mp3 player gives me reliable and consistent access to user-selected emotional states (ie, “songs” or “music”). Whereas a cell phone gives you much more “jumpy” or “chaotic” streams of emotional information which also requires a much greater energy outlay to keep track of and respond to.

While not advocating, necessarily, the destruction of your ipod, one should be judicious in one’s drowning out of the music of one’s surroundings. “Reliable and consistent access” is programmed access. Even when wandering around in noisy civilization, the universe is making music for you that is very likely more moving and important (if not always soothing and beautiful) than that Ween mp3 downloaded last night and recorded 15 years ago.

If you can’t hear it, John Cage can help you out. I dream of being in the audience at that first performance of 4′33″. The crowd becoming outraged at the silence, coming to a near riot and making the piece something akin to Expressway to Yr Skull. Of course you probably couldn’t even get that reaction anymore. Just some coughing, sighing and people politely walking out. Still, that has a hell of a beat, too.

Oh, and then there’s this machine that can even mediate your immediate surroundings into a beat:
I totally want one! I am definitely a programmed access junkie. Wanna borrow some of my John Cage cd’s?

Where exactly did I say that I am anti-progress?

You didn’t; I was talking about the general vibe of your blog. However, a vibe is a subjective impression on my part and not something you, Tim, can “espouse”, as I incorrectly suggested. Forgive me for the false implication. My impression stands, though. Sometimes I feel like mr. Boucher has been replaced by a grumpy old man (tongue-in-cheek).

plays with the bigness of his littleness
—electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange; lenses extend
unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born—pity poor flesh”

hmmm sounds like secondspacetube to me
go e.e.

This whole anti-progress vibe Tim espouses seems like it could be an outgrowth of his Gnostic roots.

What the? Where exactly did I say that I am anti-progress? This is news to me. I do however feel that “progress for the sake of progress” is not progress at all.

I don’t consider myself enlightened,

Good. Me either.

Oh, and sorry for being annoying.

You’re not being annoying.

Nonetheless, I think its worth noting the chief avatar of the campaign is a female named LOKI…

I don’t know - they probably just picked an “interesting-sounding name” out of a hat and there you have it. I doubt there’s much more to it than that.

I agree. There’s a heck of a lot of charlatans out there.

> … total simulation of reality through technology, perhaps this is the final logical extention of any ideas of management and control.

This reminds me of McGregor’s ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’, in which he makes a good argument why management by direction and control will always eventually fail.

I find it very interesting that this is about the third blog I’ve read this week mentioning the whole “Science” vs. “Religion” aspect only to realize they’re really not so polarized.

Hear, hear, DarkWood! I’ll have to check out your post on the matter.

I don’t believe in the hive mind. It has nasty connotations which I don’t think are kosher.

I’m so relieved you said this, Tim, because I agree with that. Oh, and sorry for being annoying.

All the other stuff you’ve posted here about ID and fundamentalism is a perversion, and gives us real scientists a bad name. A scientist only becomes a scientist when he or she finally realises that you can’t use scientific method to prove the validity of scientific method - to do so, you’d have to assume the validity of scientific method, which would be self defeating. No, you need a higher metaphysics.

I agree that bad science give real scientists and science a bad name, speedbird. Also, your second point intrigued me — I’d never though that you couldn’t use the scientific method as proof for the scientific method. I believe in the validity of the results obtained by the scientific method — in fact, I’d say those results are the only ones we can say constitute shared truth, as opposed to what’s just “true for me”, etc. However, I do not believe any method can give us total perfect insight into real truth, and that the scientific method cannot prove anything of a spiritual or metaphysical nature — or of an ethical nature. You’ve given me a lot to think about, speedbird.

I guess you are enlightened now Tim. Now I know someone who is. It was cool to watch. I guess you are unreachable.

I feel like I can see it happening with me but I kind of hold back. I don’t consider myself enlightened, but I seem to think differently than most people, I see manipulation going on all the time. I see peoples reality being controlled.

The only opinion most people have on any given thing is the one that has been given them. I think even primitivists are part of an illuminati plan.

Ted Turner made Daniel Quinn. So now these memes are circling around according to plan. I see reality as a series of concentric circles. People see the cicles inside theirs but not the ones outside.

I’m more inclined to think that the “point” of the mystery schools was to help you practice death while you’re still alive so you don’t get trapped in the dream world when you die.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by dream world? I understand and agree with the point on mystery schools, but I’m sort of stumped on what you might mean by being stuck in a dream world. Do you mean like Hindu reincarnation into samsara, failing to “escape,” full throttle into the Whateveritisthatiseverything (and whatever that means)? It’s okay if you’re not sure how to word it (”reincarnation” doesn’t really do a good job trying to get down what I mean). I’m just wondering what your track is before I go off running down a million of mine. But it’s not really a hugely important question. I just wondered, when I read the phrase in the post.

And actually, thinking about it now, I’m remembering a ton of similar examples in different cultures/traditions…

Is the era of the individual over, the image of the narcissist dead, and the hive mind rising and shaking like dust our illusion(?) of seperateness off of it’s mighty back?

Because I don’t think its finished, I still have questions and change still terrifies me even though I demand it’s appearence.

I dunno. I see stuff like this as intensifying the individual, instead of breaking it down. I’ve been thinking about individuality a lot lately, and while personality/ego/whatever you want to call it seems like a sheet blowing in the wind, I don’t think the idea of the individual and the idea that All-Is-One are necessarily contradictory. You have many organs that serve many purposes, for example, and they’re all still “you.” Destroying individuality in a hive mindish way would be like having a body with thousands of spleens, but no brain, no heart, no lungs. Which is a good recipe for one sick little spleenmonster.

Not what you meant at all, I know. I just have to throw that out somewhere until I can word it better…

By the way, Tim, I’m really liking the new writing style. I think it “works” better for getting ideas like this across.

Fundamentalist Christianity is a fraud foisted by science to bring science and religion back together within the public mind. So is the psychedelic movement…

I agree, and I was raised a Fundamentalist. You can’t convince them though. I didn’t know anybody else had noticed this about the psychedelic movement.

when what they are actually after is direct apperception of Truth

IMHO both movements were sincere in their desire for direct contact w/God until coopted by the PTB.

Thanks for the links, Speedbird. It makes an afternoon spent cooking fun.

I’m more inclined to think that the “point” of the mystery schools was to help you practice death while you’re still alive so you don’t get trapped in the dream world when you die.

Excellent point. I am inclined to agree.

I heard about that Microsoft campaign. I loathe helping perpetuate that viral marketing bullshit by commenting on it, ’cause that only does what they want, which is to ’spread’ the virus…

Nonetheless, I think its worth noting the chief avatar of the campaign is a female named LOKI…

Ya know, the Norse Trickser god…

Not sure the significance, but it is food for thought (at least for me)…

Out.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6150036.html

“Vanishing Point is an online puzzle challenge game with clues and hints embedded in the real world,” Lee said. “It’s this massive puzzle game, but you have to scour your real life looking for spectacular events that we publicize in order to solve the puzzles online.”

The first event, the Vegas fountain production, will be followed up in other cities this month. Lee said the game’s creators decided to pursue a design scale unlike anything that has been tried before.

“This is a puzzle challenge embedded in the planet,” Lee said. “There are clues written in water, and clues etched in the skies above cities. To me a very exciting part of this is that this is the first game ever to use the actual Earth as a resource for delivering content.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercury...rnia/northern_california/16454484.htm

I don’t know what a resurrection body is. A substantial online presence? A personality that can be expressed in digital form?

Uh, no. That’s not remotely what I’m talking about. If anything it has more to do with the opposite. Check out a book by Marie Louise Von Franz: “On Dreams And Death”

And I think you underestimate how coherent your stream of consciousness is. Or maybe the process itself has been making it more so?

I wasn’t trying quite so hard to be difficult this time!

the hive mind rising and shaking like dust our illusion(?) of seperateness

I don’t believe in the hive mind. It has nasty connotations which I don’t think are kosher.

A scientist only becomes a scientist when he or she finally realises that you can’t use scientific method to prove the validity of scientific method

Then I would say that most scientists never become scientists. I am more of a scientist than they…

I suspect this was the very point of the ancient mystery schools.

I’m more inclined to think that the “point” of the mystery schools was to help you practice death while you’re still alive so you don’t get trapped in the dream world when you die. But that other stuff is maybe more of a byproduct? Don’t know…

I dont know how to describe it any other way than I already have. I dont think it can be reduced to the questions you asked me.

… reminds me of something Eric Davis said awhile back…

…the occult is peculiar in that it is almost designed to elicit creative over-interpretation—it encourages the reader to start connecting x & y, planets & roses, & drawing links between different texts until an immense quasi-conspiracy of signification arises. This process, once unleashed, takes on a life of its own, & takes one on a journey from which you never altogether return.

I suspect this was the very point of the ancient mystery schools.

It may be what folks mean when they speak of an alchemical reaction: some things simply cannot be conveyed in words, but must be internalized & experienced for the individual to hope to, in Castanedaian terms see, that is, understand…

As always, thanks for sharing.

Sounds about right. All the other stuff you’ve posted here about ID and fundamentalism is a perversion, and gives us real scientists a bad name. A scientist only becomes a scientist when he or she finally realises that you can’t use scientific method to prove the validity of scientific method - to do so, you’d have to assume the validity of scientific method, which would be self defeating. No, you need a higher metaphysics. I explained this to an English student friend of mine at Uni, and the change that came over him was sudden and startling: science suddenly made sense - that was how he’d always seen it, but never how it had been taught to him. All along actually he’d seen the truth of the matter. Artists are like that, I guess.

I think this is the most confusing thing I have ever read (here at least). I don’t know what a resurrection body is. A substantial online presence? A personality that can be expressed in digital form? Are those of us who primarily consume and rarely produce to be lain waste in this technotopia, like images on old tv’s that have only weak signals and no audience…

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by (insert your login details and password here)?

Is the era of the individual over, the image of the narcissist dead, and the hive mind rising and shaking like dust our illusion(?) of seperateness off of it’s mighty back?

Because I don’t think its finished, I still have questions and change still terrifies me even though I demand it’s appearence.

But maybe this is how we find out how everything comes from nothing…

Very interesting stream, though, Tim. You have a really neat insight that oftentimes helps me to see some of this stuff from a previously unnoticed angle. Good job!

Figure it out for yourself goddammit! Do not rely on me for anything. The work must be done yourself. I would rather you hate me and disagree with everything that I say than look to me for guidance.

So.. should I hate you and disagree with you then?!?……. kidding.

I was mistaken to be intimidated away from these stream-of-consciousness posts. And I think you underestimate how coherent your stream of consciousness is. Or maybe the process itself has been making it more so? This is the only one I’ve fully read so far. Anyway I’m still processing it. I think I need to go write till I can’t any longer, right now. Otherwise I suspect my mind will keep me up half the night.

it`s happened before……….

the next step is for everyone and everything to be linked together in a submolecular network communicating instantly with eachother (again.) and then the whole thing will start again.

yeah this is what i was getting at in the last post with the ancient indian creation myths of previous worlds

the next step is for everyone and everything to be linked together in a submolecular network communicating instantly with eachother (again.) and then the whole thing will start again. some bright few will discover how to expand the consciousness out into the next level of energy state and manifest it`s self into “material” state once again.

it reminds me of the books written about two dimentsional beings. flatland was what it was called. how could anyone concieve of an existance one dimension higher? or lower?

So should we avoid having much to do with science? Should we take down our MySpace pages?

Figure it out for yourself goddammit! Do not rely on me for anything. The work must be done yourself. I would rather you hate me and disagree with everything that I say than look to me for guidance.

http://www.mcstories.com

Not work safe.