Our Daily Qualia

Feb 072013
 

neurons

We would not be able to sense the outer landscape if we didn’t have the inner pathways of neurons. The inner landscape of neurons mirrors the outer landscape of objects, of trees, people, buildings, landmarks, pathways and the like. If we stray down an odd street, or into the company of different people, our neurons sketch out the notable qualia quite practicably. But we still miss details and we ignore all sorts of excess information; in other words, the improvised neuronal landscape is succinct, not thorough.

Neurons adapt, as all life adapts, in order to be fit — and the fittest should not, by any means, be mistaken for the best.

Our Daily Qualia

Dec 092012
 

Science is a form of knowing as well as doing; it is a ritual which changes our perception of the world. The scientist herself is a shaman, a healer who journeys in a state of ecstasy to other worlds; the magical realism of our ancestors is no mere primitive naivete. Any scientist worth his salt would acknowledge that it is the journey, not the destination, which is the real reward — as soon as the proof is finished the mathematical wizard is off on another quest.

Our Daily Qualia

Dec 042012
 

There is a reason why crisis is good. Crisis keeps the body moving, continually adapting in order to manifest new qualia for survival.

Our Daily Qualia

Dec 022012
 

All matter moves toward qualia, but the qualia isn’t manifested until the matter moves within its form. The hexagon doesn’t exist until the rain freezes into the snowflake. For us humans, all manifestations of qualia begin with the body. Until we move toward ideas, and begin ritualing with them, they don’t exist in the world.

Our Daily Qualia

Oct 282012
 

With nano technology putting robots into our bloodstream, and machines giving us our life, how are we to face the future? How are we to view the penumbra of technological innovation without fear?

We are moving into the machine as surely as one-celled animals moved into the globs and blobs of amoebic protoplasm long, long ago, near the beginning of life on Earth. The one-celled creatures were far smarter than these larger, formless life-forms. The one-celled, barbarian beasts were street wise to survival, and merely exploiting the multicellular, protoplasmic, urban complexes sprouting around them in the primordial soup.

It turned out to be a successful move, like the mitochondria into our own cells, or the bacteria into our own stomachs. Different living creatures, working together, specializing in their tasks, made the whole greater than its parts. The new organisms, a combination of one-celled and multi-celled, were bigger, smarter, stronger — bionic!

Moving into the machine might not be a catastrophy; nor might it destroy our human essence. Just as mitochondria metabolize our air and food, so we metabolize qualia. We manufacture it; we create it. That, truly, is what is best about us — we are homo qualians — no matter where we do our ritualing.

Our Daily Qualia

Oct 272012
 

It is a fine thing to contemplate the beauty of the landscape. All landscapes, from mountains to symphonies to human bodies, are profound. Indeed, an aesthetic sense is essential to life. If we don’t notice, how are we to survive?

We have to move toward the deeper qualia which is inherent in everything. As any musician or artist knows — as any successful ritualer knows — talent alone only takes us so far; practice takes us closer to the goal. If the mountain doesn’t come to Mohammed, he has to go the mountain.

Like the prophet, we each have to create our own path as we go.

Our Daily Qualia

Oct 262012
 

The screeches of a woodpecker sound like nothing so much as the poxed skin of the trees upon which they search for their food. Each shrill intonation sounds like the peeled carcass of a dead log or the gnarled bark of a giant fir to me.

The trills of little birds on the ground resemble an oscilloscope-like pine tree pattern. Their buzzes and tweets reflect, not the whole tree, but only a few feet up – the landscape in which they live, of course. Are they trying to mimic the tree? Do other animals and birds hear their songs as shapes?

If animals mirror their environment in their expression, in their ritual, are they shaping it? Is this the environment they sense or the environment they would prefer to sense? In expressing their ideal imaginings, are they creating qualiascapes?

Our Daily Qualia

Oct 252012
 

We are only isolated from others, truly, by who they are. Daring to get to know somebody else’s qualia will change our own qualiascape.

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