- Yun-Men’s Dried Shitstick
December 21, 2008, 16:41Yun-Men's Dried Shitstick and the humor of teenaged boys both involve irreverence for convention, and both offer an opportunity to examine our unconsidered beli…
- Meditation, Smiling, Mood Control, and Relationships
October 26, 2008, 13:13Meditation enhances mood monitoring, and smiling is a mood-altering tool; very conducive to happy relationships, as well as general enjoyment of life.
- Lucid Dreaming, Videogames, Books, Movies, Everyday Life—The Reality of Reality
October 12, 2008, 14:58Lucid Dreaming, Videogames, Books, Movies, Everyday Life--The Reality of Reality is that it is all virtual, created by the brain based on evolution and our hist…
- War, Financial Crisis, “Religulous,” Buddhism, Kipling, Naturalism, and Identity---Fantasy Versus Reality
October 6, 2008, 15:12Science, technology, education, and communication--more of these could diminish the fictions, fantasies, and wishful thinking that lead to wars and financial cr…
- Eve Ensler, Sex, Compulsion, and Freedom
September 19, 2008, 16:24Eve Ensler on misguided quests for security and their effects on attitudes, including those of us-vs-them. Illuminating examples from the vagina warriors effort…
- As Good As It Gets
September 15, 2008, 18:03The longer we live, the more abilities we lose; get used to it. 3 weeks after an accident, I still have pain, but I'm cheerful, and expect to be no matter what.
- Is Your Self a Thing or a Process?
September 13, 2008, 19:37The Greeks mired Western thought in essentialism for centuries. Science finally taught us that everything is in flux. The Buddha got it 2500 years ago.
- Tom Clark’s “Living in Light of Naturalism”
September 10, 2008, 21:13How do we free ourselves from conventional, erroneous, views of who we are as human beings, and develop an identity based on the realities of science?
- Love and the World Wide Web
August 28, 2008, 12:58I have written about love here, and talked about it in Bare Brains, as a perhaps necessary inducement to human reproduction, created by evolution, of course.
- “Credit” and “Dignity” in Marvin Minsky's, "The Emotion Machine"
August 19, 2008, 13:20The Emotion Machine, by Marvin Minsky, throws new and profound light on the working of the brain, but use of the terms "credit," and "dignity," needs refinement…
- Who is Laughing at Whom?
August 15, 2008, 12:11Minsky's concept of subpersonality in "The Emotion Machine," makes sense of getting angry at ourselves, laughing at ourselves, and other schizophrenic-like beha…
- The Guessing Game: Our Unavoidable Ignorance
August 7, 2008, 12:13I would like to remember that I’m floating along in a sea of neural processes that are beyond my comprehension, just guessing at where I am and how I got here…
- In Kyoto I Long for Kyoto
August 3, 2008, 13:41This morning I found myself thinking how great a second cup of coffee would be, even though I hadn’t finished the first: In Kyoto I Long for Kyoto.
- Emotional Vulnerability: Its Causes and Cure
July 31, 2008, 14:20I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my wife’s traveling with another guy, and the reaction of a conventional friend who asked, “Are you OK with that?” At …
- How I Got Here
July 29, 2008, 21:07Tom Clark of naturalism.org asked if I would give my version of how I came to have a naturalistic world view: initial impact, unfolding, consequences, etc. That…
- Meaning: Abstract and De Facto
July 27, 2008, 12:40To quote from my last post: “Wade Davis, an anthropologist... said that the 6,000 languages spoken on the planet... offer 6,000 answers to the question, ‘Wh…
- Love, Romance, and Meaning
July 17, 2008, 13:23Love, romance, and meaning are ideas made possible by language, but language can describe things that don't exist, and ask questions that don't have answers.
- Normal?
July 16, 2008, 13:54In her column that I wrote about the other day, Gail Collins said, “Jessica Valenti... worries that in the real world, young men are spending so much time wat…
- Who’s Cuing You?
July 13, 2008, 12:56The understanding of the origin of cues for our behavior becomes a part of what we are, and helps to determine what we will become. Understanding begets change.
- Love, Vampires, and Pornography
July 12, 2008, 12:54There is a tendency to think that our problems, opinions, etc. are uniquely ours, but we are all just human beings, acting as anyone else would, given the same…
- “Heart” versus “Mind”?
July 2, 2008, 15:26The comparison of heart to mind in the NYT Science section betrays a lamentable lack of scientific understanding of the brain. Marvin Minsky could help them out…
- Sins of the Fathers; Our Evolutionary Heritage
June 28, 2008, 13:15It is unfortunate that, given the right circumstances, we can take great pleasure in hurting each other in every way, from the unkind word to torture and killin…
- The Incomprehensible
June 15, 2008, 17:31We have everyday definitions of our selves and the world that work well enough, but in the gaps between our concepts lies the incomprehensible: non-conceptual r…
- Offend Me... Please!
June 12, 2008, 12:24 I recently had the unfortunate experience of saying something to a friend that she found inappropriate. Hopefully that lapse of sensitivity will make me more …
- I Pledge Allegiance...
June 4, 2008, 20:41 I’ve been a fan of Susan Blackmore since I read her book, The Meme Machine, several years ago. She recently gave a TED talk called “Memes and ‘temes.’…
- Our Human Condition
May 28, 2008, 10:35Human beings inevitably develop unrealistic expectations based on their own desires. They want the world to be as they imagine it can be, and condemn themselves…
- Disentangled
May 27, 2008, 13:24 There have been some interesting convergences lately. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, who I wrote about a couple of months ago, is back on the New York Times “Most e…
- They Are Us; We Are Them
May 25, 2008, 12:12 The June, 2008 issue of Discover magazine has a great cover article about humanoid robots. One of the author’s major points is that the more they are like u…
- Identity
May 23, 2008, 11:35 I was reading “Sy Safransky’s Notebook” in the April, 2008 issue of The Sun magazine (ad-free) this morning, and in the second paragraph he mentioned th…
- Healthful Ejaculation
May 20, 2008, 12:37
It was hot in Oakland last week, at least hot for Oakland--in Phoenix it would have been considered a cold snap. A temperature of 99 degrees broke an old re…
- Hostility, Violence, and Personal Identity
May 15, 2008, 11:41People identify themselves by their family, ethnic group, race, country; as preferring certain sports teams, etc.; creating us-them groups that often lead to ho…
- Mystical or Mysterious?
May 14, 2008, 12:10 David Brooks had a great column in the New York Times yesterday, called The Neural Buddhists. I wrote him a long email about it, which he will probably never …
- Mom’s and Ex-Wife’s Day: More Cultural Conflict
May 10, 2008, 20:51Life has wrought some radical changes in me, making it hard for people from the past--mother, friends, ex-wives--to comprehend the person I have become.
- Alternatives
May 8, 2008, 12:07 A friend emailed that he was “plexing” about not being able to find work, and maybe because I knew him in Oregon, it brought to mind an outing I had in Eu…
- Complexity to the Nth Degree
May 4, 2008, 12:38Even a fraction of what goes on in a human cell is overwhelming. Multiply that by the number of cells in the body to appreciate the limits of conscious thought.
- Feeling Guilty?
April 30, 2008, 12:38 I read an article in the Spring 2008 Inquiring Mind about a guy who was experiencing a great deal of anguish, supposedly over some bad things he’d done as a…
- Those Pesky Expectations
April 28, 2008, 21:07 I e-mailed a friend the other day to encourage him in some recent good behavior, and told him he should look in the mirror and smile at himself--a reference…
- I Know Who
April 20, 2008, 21:12 Yesterday’s post may have been a little too short and cryptic. I may have assumed more familiarity with all the other things I’ve written than was warra…
- Who Said That?
April 19, 2008, 21:32 Today I did my upper body workout at the gym and as usual, afterwords I ran a few errands in the neighborhood: stopped by the ATM; picked up a few items a…
- Think/Don’t Think
April 17, 2008, 13:51 Day before yesterday I went to the gym and did a leg workout. My workouts have evolved a lot over the years, and currently my routine is this: on the first se…
- Well, How Did I Get Here?
April 9, 2008, 10:23 (Title courtesy of the Talking Heads.) I’ve had a couple of probes lately which led me to a consideration of how I got to be so emotionally self-sufficie…
- The Meaning of Life; Current Version
April 6, 2008, 16:16 I read a couple of articles this morning that led me toward a short re-consideration of this question, which will necessarily involve some gross generalizatio…
- The Illusion of Determination
March 27, 2008, 15:57Even though it feels like I want, and I am determined, it’s just the brain’s machinery grinding away; following programs built up over millions of years.
- Why Is This Man Smiling?
March 25, 2008, 10:57 I seem to have acquired a beneficial habit. I think it began one day when I happened to notice that my face in the mirror had a very grumpy expression. Th…
- Sexual Awareness Unfolds
March 20, 2008, 15:19 I’ve been like a kid in a candy store the last few days, watching Ted Talks. Every one I’ve watched has been amazingly good, but the one I listened to thi…
- Reality All Over Again
March 17, 2008, 20:02 I’ve finished Dr. Taylor’s book, A Stroke of Insight, that I mentioned in my last post. I’ve also discovered the TED.com’s forums in which people disc…
- Mind Blower
March 13, 2008, 13:59 I just had my mind blown by a woman who had hers blown literally: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, had a stroke that was made to order--for my purpose…
- Is Love Personal?
March 12, 2008, 14:38Our identity grows out of our interaction with other people, and with the physical world, based on feedback from both. We don't create ourselves; we're not resp…
- What Feels Pain?
March 9, 2008, 22:15 My brain is producing the experience of pain, and it is also producing some thoughts about that experience that it thinks are interesting enough to share:…
- Running in Circles
March 8, 2008, 11:22 I had a conversation the other day with a friend who found herself trapped in a loop she couldn’t get out of. She had developed an ongoing relationship with…
- A New Sense of Reality
March 7, 2008, 11:10There was an article in today's Wired News that had a link to an earlier article by Quinn Norton called, "A Sixth Sense for a Wired World." Both articles are …
- Welcome to the New Location
March 6, 2008, 22:05tumblr.com has been very, very good to me, but there came a time when I wanted more options, so here we are in WordPress. I've been so busy with the migration t…
- Just Do It
March 5, 2008, 21:24Originally posted on 09-07-07: It would take a very long time to unravel the entire sequence of my thoughts this morning, and perhaps not particularly rewardin…
- Resting in the Peace of Immortality
March 5, 2008, 21:20Originally posted on 08-30-07: The title above is a quote from the Buddha, and I read it this morning in Marvin Minsky's latest book, The Emotion Machine. If…
- Who is the Magician? Tricks of the Brain
March 5, 2008, 21:12The take-away line for me was, “With a grab bag of devices accumulated over the eons, the brain pulls off the ultimate conjuring act: the subjective sense of …
- The Mystery of Being Human
March 5, 2008, 21:03Originally posted on 08-15-07: I mentioned Point of Inquiry in my last post, and I'm reading a book, "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me); Why We Justify Fool…
- The Price of Ignorance
March 5, 2008, 20:56Originally posted on 08-09-07: An acquaintance or relative, I forget which, gave their old car to a teenaged daughter, who drove it till the engine blew a few …
- Who's in Charge, Redux
March 5, 2008, 20:26the impression that we are in conscious control of our behavior, our thoughts, our lives, is an illusion; a result of the brain's inability to access its own p…
- Science, Anger, and Forgiveness
March 5, 2008, 20:16Originally posted on 07-19-07: About 6 years into my AA experience, I got very angry at my parents. I had read a couple of books by John Bradshaw, popular in…
- Starting Over
March 5, 2008, 19:58Originally posted on 07-10-07: I've been busy--doing what is a long story--and the reason I haven't been posting is that, once again, it had become a process…
- What Level is This?
March 5, 2008, 19:31Originally posted on 06-10-07: Your car stopped running so you have it towed in. The garage calls you back in a few days and says it's ready, and when you go t…
- Mistakes
March 5, 2008, 19:23Originally posted on 06-09-07: There is a saying in AA: "There are no accidents," which sounds like magical thinking, or belief in some kind of Divine Plan in …
- Time and Time Again
March 5, 2008, 19:17Originally posted on 06-08-07: So yesterday I was standing in front of my bedroom window, savoring time and the visual world like a warm bath, and later that s…
- Timeless
March 5, 2008, 19:12Originally posted on 06-07-07: After I got dressed this morning, which comes after peeing, washing face, stretching, and Tai Chi, I put on my glasses and stood…
- Separation
March 5, 2008, 19:01Originally posted on 06-03-07: I was at the farmer's market with my backpack yesterday, stocking up for the week, when I had an interesting conversation with t…
- Culture Crossings: Death, Funerals, and Family Relations
March 5, 2008, 18:50The events prior to my father's death changed my view of my family and the culture they live in--our relationships, death, funerals--and led to my severing ties…
- Pride Goeth
March 5, 2008, 18:41Originally posted on 06-01-07: I got involved in the electric bicycle project yesterday, and forgot all about the morning post. I wrote a couple of paragraphs …
- Hatcherized
March 5, 2008, 17:16Originally posted on 05 30-07: My dad's middle name was Hatcher, and that's what everyone called him; sometimes "Hatch." He only had a 3rd grade education, but…
- The Final Chapter?
March 5, 2008, 17:00Originally posted on 05-29-07: I finally finished nibbling away at Po Bronson's book,"What Should I Do With My Life?" and I think this post may finish my comm…
- Still More Po
March 5, 2008, 16:45Originally posted on 05-28-07: I didn't post yesterday, and it's all Po Bronson's, fault. Somewhere early on in his book "What Should I Do With My Life?", I c…
- More Fallout from Po
March 5, 2008, 16:41Originally posted on 05-26-07: Last night I read the story of Chi Tschang in Po Bronson's, book, "What Should I Do With My Life?" and a realization Chi came t…
- Certainty and Uncertainty
March 5, 2008, 16:33Originally posted on 05-25-07: My first-thing-in-the-morning inspiration these days comes from re-reading Robert Anton Wilson's, "Quantum Psychology: How Brai…
- Communication Gaps
March 5, 2008, 16:26Originally posted on 05-24-07: Yesterday afternoon, Eve and I were talking about Po Bronson's, book, "What Should I Do With My Life?" (Which I had written abo…
- Drugs and Me and Po
March 5, 2008, 16:21Originally posted on 05-23-07: Yes, I am a former drug abuser. I first smoked pot in 1972, when I was 29 years old, and by the time I stopped 12 years later, I…
- Who Are You?
March 5, 2008, 16:14
Originally posted on 05-22-07:
I wrote yesterday about all the chatter that goes on in our heads, and how meditation can give us, not only a respite from t…
- Further Explorations
March 4, 2008, 21:49Originally posted on 05-21-07: Yesterday I talked about one of the ways that meditation can improve understanding of our brains--by giving us another perspecti…
- Changing Perspective
March 4, 2008, 21:45Originally posted on 05-20-07: Each of these visual illusions, which I mentioned yesterday, besides being entertaining, includes a little lesson on perceptio…
- But What Is Real?
March 4, 2008, 21:38Originally posted on 05-19-07: I ended yesterday's post mentioning the importance of distinguishing fantasy from reality, which brings up a really big question…
- Let's Get Real
March 4, 2008, 21:00Everything is ultimately impermanent—the sun will someday go supernova—but on the human scale, things have relative duration: rocks last longer than oranges…
- The Same but Different: Continuity and Change
March 4, 2008, 20:53Originally posted on 05-17-07:
Yesterday I briefly mentioned the importance of daily routines, and here it is another day. When I woke up this morning, I fou…
- Love, Love, Love
March 4, 2008, 20:47The evolutionary value of the experience of love is as social cement: it binds parents to children and vice versa, spouses to each other, and members to groups.…
- Who's in charge?
March 4, 2008, 20:38We are powerless in the sense that we are not self-determining. We are determined by the interplay of all the forces in the universe as they converge in our bra…
- Living Longer Without Fearing Death
March 4, 2008, 20:21Caloric restriction and exercise both have benefits, which can be decreased by emphasizing one more than the other. Balance can increase healthy longevity.
- What Knows? The Brain and the Self
March 4, 2008, 20:10 An interesting thing about that is that the brain doesn't know how it makes decisions, any more than it knows how it sees.
- The Beauty of Things as They Are
March 4, 2008, 19:58Because we can imagine a perfect world, we are dissatisfied with the defects of the world as it is. The problem is not the world, the problem is our imagination…
- What's the Point?
March 4, 2008, 19:50When your brain realizes that much of the silent verbalizing it does is pointless, it may consider trying to reduce mental chatter and find other amusements.
- The Complexity of the Present Moment
March 4, 2008, 19:43When people say, \"Be here now,\" they don\'t specify what part of \"now\" we should be in. There\'s more in the five senses than anyone can be conscious of at …
- And So It Began
March 4, 2008, 14:58When the Buddha told us to work hard, he didn\'t presume that we could freely will ourselves to follow his advice; he was knowingly becoming a link in a causal…
