Aldous Huxley's Young Archimedes

[cousinbasil]

jupiviv: However, there is only one logical answer for a single point of view even in the empirical world, as in your calculus problem.

cousinbasil: What if there is a best answer instead of a right one?

jupiviv: I don't think that is possible.

I am not exactly sure why you are insisting on this point, but since you are, I am suspicious of it. You are saying there is one right answer to any problem, and that is the same as saying there is one logical answer to any problem, which is the same as saying there is one best answer to any problem. You are this given a single point of view.

But I don't think this is always true. If you have a referee before a football game, one problem he has is to decide which team kicks off first to start the game. I have just stated a problem and given a single point of view. This problem is not "solved" until he flips a coin. That is, there is no solution prior to the coin toss. After he flips, there is a solution. But either one is a complete and legitimate solution. Therefore, this problem has more than one solution. They are not the same, and there is no right or best answer from at least one possible point of view, and yet the problem has been solved. From the point of view of the losing team, the teaqm captain agrees that this is the right answer since he has agreed with the protocol beforehand, yet he does not think it is the best answer; from all three points of view, however, the problem has been solved completely. Doesn't this simple example contradict your assertion?

[Diebert van Rhijn]

I found this little snippet from Douglas Adams, perhaps his wisest output ever

Thanks Kelly, always an amusing read, good old Mr Adams. The whole speech can be read here

For clarity, here is the lead-in to the tautology remark:

• A guy said to me, 'yes, but the whole theory of evolution is based on a tautology: that which survives, survives'. This is tautological, therefore it doesn't mean anything. I thought about that for a while and it finally occurred to me that a tautology is something that if it means nothing, not only that no information has gone into it but that no consequence has come out of it.

Many would fail to grasp the idea here: especially "intelligent design" folks. The ones surviving will always wonder why they survived. By definition so there's no evidence, no logical consequence or cause needed.

Adams was always full of interesting ideas although he rarely works them out unless it's in sci-fi-com or supernatural detective stories. Perhaps it's the only way a larger audience can be impressed with larger thoughts these days? Anyway, here's the conclusion of his speech:

• So, my argument is that as we become more and more scientifically literate, it's worth remembering that the fictions with which we previously populated our world may have some function that it's worth trying to understand and preserve the essential components of, rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water; because even though we may not accept the reasons given for them being here in the first place, it may well be that there are good practical reasons for them, or something like them, to be there. I suspect that as we move further and further into the field of digital or artificial life we will find more and more unexpected properties begin to emerge out of what we see happening and that this is a precise parallel to the entities we create around ourselves to inform and shape our lives and enable us to work and live together. Therefore, I would argue that though there isn't an actual god there is an artificial god and we should probably bear that in mind. That is my debating point and you are now free to start hurling the chairs around!

The chair which needs to be thrown is: what's the difference then between an 'actual' and an 'artificial' god ("entities we create around ourselves")? In both cases there exists something and many perspectives on it will keep arising. It all leads to the conclusion the universe, all of existence is stunning, all-compassing and immensely rich and surprising. As nothing can compare, hence: "God" and therefore: "I am".

[Robert]

I'd definitely pay for a print copy of Wisdom of the Infinite and Poison for the Heart. I prefer the print copies over ebooks for portability, but otherwise I prefer ebooks.

For anyone interested, here's a link to download a PDF version of Poison for the Heart.

[Talking Ass]

I'm glad this topic has come up again. Merci bien Robert. I received my copy of GK Chesterton's essays 'The Common Man' and read 'The End of the Moderns' which had a number of interesting points. In no sense does he appear as ideologically driven as Francis Schaeffer, though toward the end of his life (from the Wiki page) he did settle down into a Catholic practice. Although I agree that DH Lawrence seemed to be quite captured by his phallocentrism and placed in sexual expression a wee bit too much idealism, becoming vainly mythologized in the process, I don't think that the whole impetous to recover the body, so to speak, from sexual repression and to redirect the body's and the psyche's energies in a 'wholesome' manner, is an empty or worthless project. It is the fate of man right now that every single control shall be lifted off of sexual expression and, it seems, people will have to go to the very ends of what that means before they know what to do with that 'energy', how to handle it. OTOH maybe it is 'destiny' that Earth turn into a sort of PornPlanet and sexuality subsume everything?

I also think Chesterton's assessment and understanding of Huxley, and his place within modernity, is somewhat inaccurate. Chesterton doesn't seem to grasp the implications of the severing of the mind's processes from a holistic and mystical relationship to the All offered by a previous religious paradigm now on its way out. I didn't get the impression he understood the inevitability and 'necessity' of that, as a process. Chesterton wants to bat him around a little but never really delivers a decisive punch. Schaeffer, though also mistaken about Huxley, really did land a few more punches.

I am not sure whether first I will explain the Hebrew God, or write a little more about the post-modern problem, and GFs firm placement in it, using Chesterton as a reference point. Decisions, decisions.

[Animus]

Hey, here is an "Incomplete Guide to Print On Demand Publishers" it might be a starting point for alternative publishing methods.

http://booksandtales.com/pod/index.php

[Kelly Jones]

Robert, the font is attractive, and generally the formatting is fine. But headings are often at the bottom of a page.


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[Robert]

Robert, the font is attractive, and generally the formatting is fine. But headings are often at the bottom of a page.

Modified version, headings and font problem corrected (irregular clipping of italics). Poison for the Heart, by Kevin Solway

[jupiviv]

Reading Poison for the heart was one of the most joyful moments of my life - I felt like all the things I had thought all my life, but which I could never be certain of or tell anybody, were being reflected back to me in a clearer, more elaborate way. I had the same feeling while reading Sex and character.

[Talking Ass]

Kelly, Robert. You are forgetting something something très important:

The formula for the transferance of the Sacred Poison for the Heart Texts!

Holder: I come before thee, unnamed seeker of the Wisdom of the Hidden Void! I hold the manifested Text and Deadly Poison that kills the Feminine Nature and Delusion! I call out, seeking Resonance!

Seeker: I hear thee! I respond to thee, Holder! I see thee and yet I know too thou dost not exist! and that I do not exist! Existingless, formelss, uncontained, never-born, I behold you in the eye of He Who Sees Not!

Holder: So be it!

Seeker: Be it so!

Holder: I bequeath unto thee the condensed poisonous word-forumlas that arose with the unrising tide of non-beingness. May you inbibe the meaning contained herein and may you die to delusion, Seeker! Let the venom of truth kill the illusions thou hast wrapped around thy non-existing ever blissful non-self!

[Seeker beings strange monotonous chant not unlike the moans of caterwauling tom-cats]

Holder: May the files download into the eager cup of nothingness and fill your non-existence with Venemous Writhing!

[Seeker begins a sort of sputtering that soon becomes a high-pitched whooping].

Together: Deathful chalice of hearty poison, annihilate my ego's homespun helmsman!

[Kelly Jones]

Robert, the font is attractive, and generally the formatting is fine. But headings are often at the bottom of a page.

Modified version, headings and font problem corrected (irregular clipping of italics). Poison for the Heart, by Kevin Solway

Looks good. Search function works.

Thanks.


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[Robert]

Thought I may as well make a PDF version of The Wisdom of the Infinite, by David Quinn, which may be helpful for some who prefer this popular ebook format.

[Tomas]

Thought I may as well make a PDF version of The Wisdom of the Infinite, by David Quinn, which may be helpful for some who prefer this popular ebook format.

Many thanks, Robert.

I've been Remote Viewing David Quinn's activities of late.

From on high the mountain top, he sends his blessings upon your latest endeavor.

May 70 fat Buddhas be sent to greet you at Heaven's Entrance.

[Kelly Jones]

Can you make the contents hyperlinked, as you did with Poison for the Heart?

Otherwise good. PDF can be downloaded to any operating system, whereas the downloadable CHM file already on David's website (a Windows Help file) cannot.

On that note, David ought to put your next improved PDF on his site, in my opinion.

What software do you use to make these PDFs?

[edit: I noticed a typo on page 37:

One constantly hears from religious and spiritual people that we should be non-judgmental, particularly towards other people. However, this is very naďve and foolish. Not only is it impossible for us to refrain from making judgments while remaining conscious, but the very attempt to be non-judgmental constitutes an act of violence towards one’s own mind. It is an attempt to circumvent the mind’s natural inclination for making assessments, which is a form of madness.

You might want to check conversion of other umlauts, accents, and other uncommon characters.]


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[Robert]

Modified/corrected version, The Wisdom of the Infinite, by David Quinn

Kelly, apart from the error you highlighted (spelling of "naïve"), I didn't find any other accent or character problems. If you find any in this version, let me know.

I did notice one (fairly major) error that I left unchanged - on the front contents page, the chapter titled "Making Judgments and Abandoning Life" is titled differently on page 36 "Being Judgmental and Abandoning Life". It's up to David if he wants to change/correct this.

I used MS Word to compile the text (Open Office had problems with rendering the font correctly), then saved as a PDF. From there, Acrobat 9 Pro to create the links (and also the bookmarks which normally aren't visible by default).

[Kelly Jones]

I just discovered Openoffice Writer makes PDFs, with hyperlinks, searchable text, and one can select the text and copy it to the clipboard. So, any other mistakes I can fix. Thanks, Robert.


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