20120309 (J, ON)
Journal: March 9, 2012
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(ON)            How did it all begin? This idea of God

(J)                Morality                      Senses                      Epistemology

Sex: Besides selfishness, another sure fire winner for moral power brokers is sex, lust, sexual thoughts of anyone other than a married (or otherwise) partner. Cast them all as sin and all are sinners in need of absolution.

Friction, Asymptotes, and David Hume: What is this thing called “friction”, this unapologetic usurper of mathematical perfection? This sullier of God’s face? Or is that just the stubble of his beard? What happens at the electron level turning mechanics into heat. Infrared photons emitted as electrons jump down energy discrete scales (levels) (or up the entropy scale). Is it mechanical compression that “ups” the electrons (providing energy, electron eV’s) to jump to higher orbits? Or perhaps “diffusion” as billiard balls momentum transfer? Or all of the above? That is answerable ISTMRN, and probably has been answered in some detail beyond the sketches here.

Functions ever chase asymptotes through all their twists and turns into the deepest, darkest, timeless corners of the universe; never catching their prey or meeting their maker, always pursuing, never reaching. That must be a frustrating existence out there at the ends of the axes, if you will allow an “idea” to be a distinct part of life, not to “anthropomorphize” but to “eroticize” for Eros was (is) the spirit of life. Hmmm ........ the idea of an idea as living, feeling, thinking! Hogwash! (probably)

Bob Nunamaker said at MCC and I think I agree right now, sort of, because I think like David Hume, that all knowledge comes from sensation. I would only add “and genes”. But sensation includes patterns of light, sound, etc. to which we assign agreed upon symbols. Do we sense “patterns”? Anyway, our “senses” now give us access to another person’s thoughts and feelings through such symbols as words, spoken and written, gestures, postures, odors both affected and natural and tastes, etc. Visual symbols seem to merit most interest, perhaps as symbols of oral words never spoken. We can store visual symbol (as well as aural).


With my “senses”, in this case sight, I have access to ideas or others recorded long ago or just seconds ago. So what am I “sensing”? An “idea” does not impinge my senses as a photon, sound wave, or odor does; nothing from “out there”. So how can I “know” an “idea” if all knowledge is based on the senses. OK, I am limited to the actual series of symbols I sense. But how do I move from the sight of a heart shape to a feeling of love and warmth? Convention, I guess. But from any symbol to any idea or feeling? Magic, I guess.