Étienne Bonnot de Condillac [1714-1780] France Sensationism: “Sensations are modifications of our being. To understand them as images of something distinct from us is to treat them as “ideas” rather than simply as “sensations,” and that is an operation that is so far from being automatic that it exceeds the capacities of animals.” Although they lend themselves to being thought. Idea:...
Contents: A post-modern epiphany Reading Scaruffi: Gaining perspective on chapter 4 A Post-Modern Epiphany One thing I’d like to note, real quick, is the analogy of Alice in Wonderland. It is possible to realize that all the rules and cultural institutions (e.g. library, bank, supermarket, school, army) are as sensical and straight-forward as are the Queen of Hearts and the rabbit in a...
I’m noticing a pattern… some sort of correlation between a quantum unit of dates and the flow of time… but to what end? And how does a continuum translate into an array of discrete units? But more pressing and vexing: to what end? Tick tock, tick tock, tick… NEW DAY. Hmmm. Pressing forth into the fourth chapter of Scaruffi’s challenge Prequel; or, In last’s...
Contents: Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff Dear Diary and Focus of Journaling “What is this,” asked Mr. Self-Referential. Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff – Take 2 (In which I write a little bit about my previous [mis]understanding of Wolff, and lead into a discussion of his relationship with Leibniz) Yesterday I had initiated my intention. Today I hope to overcome these...
This is, QED.
Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff
And so I begin another entry in my potentially splendid (although insufficiently sordid) intended series that will be an edifying collection of summarised…
Michael Graziano attention schema theory (I read the article “How the light gets out” in Aeon Magazine, and positioned the details against the backdrop of theory I’ve learned from what I’ve read of Scaruffi on consciousness. I’ve stolen this single sentence biography from the same article: Michael Graziano is a neuroscientist, novelist and composer. He is a professor...
Contents: Dear Diary (#Life) We Interrupt (#McCarthyQuote) What’s New (#Scaruffi) Meta (aka “In yesterday’s iinstalmentof Shai’s rambling linguistics”): Yesterday I finished off writing a little bit (just a tad, really) about my ongoing note taking relating to Scaruffi’s book. I’d also written about one of (many) films I had watched yesterday, namely the...
Things I can write about include updates on my reading of Scaruffi’s, or my television watching, including the latest episode of The Walking Dead, or a couple of movies I’d overdosed myself. The list of movies included at least: In Time, I Am Gabriel, Grabbers, Good Deeds, Fire With Fire (maybe even more! but I think! that that is it!). I plan to just start randomly and without too...
Paul-Henri Thiry (Baron) d’Holbach Read the SEP entry on Holbach, per which I base the following: Biography: This Frenchman (1723-1789) has been categorized as a materialist and atheist, and was known in his time for his “parties” (for want of a word, although they are described in terms of their guests who were famous intellectuals of all sorts). Despite the revolutionary...
Readings in Scaruffi So I’ve been reading the third chapter of Scaruffi’s book on consciousness, concerning (quote-unquote) machine intelligence. More than the previous chapter, I feel like I’m being presented with a list of relevant facts upon which a narrative is being implied but not explicitly argued. Instead of re-stating a summary of the chapter, I’ll attempt a...
