January 2012
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Transitional objects: baby blankets, computers and...
via Edge: Sherry Turkle
Winnicott called transitional the objects of childhood—the stuffed animals, the bits of silk from a baby blanket, the favorite pillows—that the child experiences as both part of the self and of external reality. Winnicott writes that such objects mediate between the child’s sense of connection to the body of the mother and a growing recognition that he or she is...
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December 2011
3 posts
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November 2011
9 posts
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Human Language - Human Consciousness
When apes experience human-rearing and are exposed to a human language they begin to display the human patterns of self-awareness and self-reflection by 6 months of age. An obvious index of self-awareness is the use of a mirror to view the self as the self is being intentionally altered (or immediately after it has been altered). Many apes explore their image by seeking out a mirror to look...
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listening to "Allen Toussaint : Dear Old... →
♫ Allen Toussaint - Dear Old Southland.
from the album The Bright Mississippi (2009).
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‘Dreams are but lies’ says an old maxim; but when our last hour is at hand , and but a few brief minutes are left to what was ‘I’, pale lights before the eyes are fast growing dim, who can tell by what mark to distinguish you, O memories of the actual life, from you, O mirages of the dream-life?
- Paul Bourget (1852-1935)
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October 2011
4 posts
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“ “The result of the struggle between the thought and the ability to express it,...”
– M. C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints (1898-1972), On Being a Graphic Artis (via amiquote)
August 2011
5 posts
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listening to →
♫ Charles Mingus – Myself When I’m Real.
from Mingus Plays Piano : Spontaneous Compositions and Improvisations.
July 2011
1 post
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June 2011
5 posts
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listening to "Duke Pearson - The Phantom" →
r/b thanks @redoctopus ~ ♫ Duke Pearson (feat. Bobby Hutcherson on vibes) – The Phantom (1968) #jazz #grooves ~
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The limits of knowledge: Things we'll never...
You might not expect the UK’s Astronomer Royal to make too many pronouncements about what chimpanzees think, but that is one of Martin Rees’s favourite topics. He reckons we can learn a lesson from what they understand about the world - or, rather, what they don’t. “A chimpanzee can’t understand quantum mechanics,” Rees points out.
That might sound like...
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May 2011
2 posts
listening to "Gil Scott-Heron - Peace Go With You... →
♫ Gil Scott-Heron (1949 - 2011) – Peace Go With You Brother
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April 2011
6 posts
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Gestures, Words and Thoughts.
When Warner Brothers released the seven-minute cartoon Canary Row in 1950, it’s a good bet no one realized they’d created an important tool in the study of human communication and cognition.
Since about 1980, Canary Row has taken on a second life in David McNeill’s University of Chicago psycholinguistics laboratory. McNeill and a succession...
March 2011
14 posts
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listening to "John Surman, Dave Holland, Anouar... →
♫ John Surman, Dave Holland & Anouar Brahem – Kashf
from the album Thimar (1998)
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We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things - of diverse tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, sprightly and solemn: the musician who should only effect some of these, what would he be able to do? he must know how to make use of them all, and to mix them; and so we should mingle the goods and evils which are...
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listening to "jean-luc ponty - computer... →
♫ Jean-Luc Ponty - Computer Incantations for World Peace (1983)
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Tichborne's Elegy.
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain.
The day is gone and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung,
The fruit is dead, and yet the leaves are green,
My youth is gone, and yet I am...
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Is consciousness a product of the brain? The only certainty here is that anyone who thinks they can answer this question with certainty has to be wrong. We have only our conceptions of consciousness and of the brain to go on; and the one thing we do know for certain is that everything we know of the brain is a product of consciousness. That is, scientifically speaking, far more certain than that...
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