Journey Down Blog Lane

As such the super organism we are. The evolution of this course is entirely singular. The fluidity that blogging makes available-everyone having experiences from the foundation of thought Tony has bestowed to the classroom and beyond. From that each has breathed into it more and more. Different parts of the whole. As it should be, allowed to fly on in self induced direction. The progression starting with the photo of morel, on to images of The Ticket That Exploded. Then the Other of Radical Alterity. And so forth, our thoughts evolving. Branching towards new personal growth, which is parallel with super organism expansion. Blogs catered to these thoughts and emotions-not manifested or refined in class. The evolving context of material and discussions were tools to process the bigger fish just beneath the surface. What is knowing, the idea of living, evolution of technology, linear time. All of there are valid and intricate points strung together in an oriphidnet of our own. All are forms to introspect the Other we have created.

The topic of knowing had its meanderings in both William’s and my blog postings. The curiosity was able to be undertaken with thought and writing. The blogs were out personal paths woven with class topics. This is where the most diversity of the class was found. Borges’ claws still deep in my abdomen, the first topic to undertake on will be essences and ability to “know”. William contributes:

“What is knowing something? Can we ever know something in its entirety? I figure it's maybe something like this: you can know a person, or to be more precise, select aspects of a person, not the entire person; I seriously wonder if you can even know everything about yourself, but I digress. You can also know facts such as what chemicals a desk is made up of, under the same category, you can also know something’s status, such as where someone is. You can know how to do something from experience although this is somewhat questionable since no two situations will be exactly alike, I still feel that there is something to be said about memory, but I guess it's really more of a system of estimating probabilities than actually knowing something, again, since no two situations will be alike.”

William is in question and setting guidelines to help define answers. This taxonomy necessitates a thinker to be impeccable with his or her words. It is amazing how much more conviction words carry when they are defined from the inside out. Through processes just like this-thought meanderings bring a context of association that avoids confusion within the self and communication. My digestion of this topic of knowing has been molded by different knowledge, both valid, neither incorrect.

“Where do today's words come from? What power do you and I put into words. A dictionary holds supreme power-but do many people speak in vernacular oxford English? Our journey of language is experience and interactions. But in today's world, the power of the word is gained from you, I, and so many other not so constant forms all in different contexts and unrelated sensuous surroundings. Building into the internal paradox of communication, "the more we communicate, the more we destroy communication; or, the less we exchange, the more we have to communicate." Baudrillard, Jean (45)
Capturing essences is beyond the codes capabilities-only manipulation is possible.

Our super organism is growing. Such vastly different approaches to an open ended issue. William begins with knowing traits of a person-not essences. I speak of words and the complexity of communication and its internal paradox of verbal or written exchange. Neither of our ideas have essences as conclusive. William speaks of tangible knowledge such as chemical contents of a table. He speaks of the singularity of situations-never repeating alike. I speak of knowing words, which are already a representation of something outside the Other. Both thoughts maturing from an innate intelligence of our own manifestations.

Compare and contrast two people for example-traits can be known and defined, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A paradox of evaluation. This course of Nanotexts is radically different in all of our minds and hearts. Using sci-fi of the near future to build opinions and essentially draw lines in a forth coming context. What is being alive? Downloaded into a computer-transmitting that incalculable essence-27 grams of the soul. Let us now jump down the path of Morel in this yellow wood. I see no other dimension for Morel after his meticulous recording-he dies at the end of the week. I agree with William completely when he speaks of the impossibility of free will in Morels device.

“Leaving out something’s identity in physical space we have senses, what can be perceived, and, though this is somewhat of an assumption, we have the interactions between these beings. Personally I think that there's more to being alive, especially to being human than that, but even if there's not, its all just a damn recording. Even if these recordings can think and feel, they are only acting on the world they were recorded in, they have no means to interact with anything new. then again maybe that's what life is if you don't believe that free will exists. maybe this idea of "new" is just an illusion.”

This necessity for free will to be living is fantastic food for thought. Freedom is an illusion and the reason why we fight. When William talks of interacting with anything new, that caught me a bit off guard. I believe that all is a circle, passing and returning- but how free is the return then? Is it fresh in some new way, or is the ignorance of a new situation that allows a “free mind” to live and think, feel, regurgitate? I am alive, as is William- I have no reason to doubt that-but free will-there is reason to doubt. Will, free or subjected, has nothing to do with living. People going about their lives unconsciously, victims of a world they created-living, breathing- yes, but are they truly alive to the potential of creation?

Fueled by class discussions, we branched into the idea of "free will" simply being a buffer to extremes-both, judged as good and bad. Intriguing because the action of dulling the sensuous world has an enlivening on the opposite end. Connected at the hip. Hao Huynh spoke of understanding the extremes of life as being intrinsically connected- to know happiness, one must know sadness. The spectrum of feeling increases with all interaction weather it be leaving one utterly fragmented, or wholly inspired. Now to circumvent the issue of living, the virtual world. Our senses are dulling to regard virtual activities as normal. Where does this virtual world we are creating leave us on this spectrum? Safe. All the interactions are found there, love life, multiple parapersonas, even life and death. What does this have to do with living? Nothing, the pixels will never be able to capture essences. "Reality has fallen prey to Virtual Reality, the final consequence of the process begun with the abstraction of objective reality - a process that ends in Integral Reality." Jean Baudrillard. Our actions on reality and living are viral. Our virus will go on procreating-but living is what we don't know about life. Waking up morning after morning ready to take it all on with a smile and grow.