Psyberspace

From Techne & Psyche – Dolores Brien – on 13 Dec 2002 – a review of David Lodge’s novel, Thinks. Here is a quote, hilighting the themes of consciousness, soul and self and the loss of soul:

To demonstrate her point, she gives a dazzling interpretation of some verses from Andrew Marvell’s poem “The Garden” which, to her, affirm the inseparability of consciousness with soul, that is, with the self, the center of personal identity. This self, unfortunately, is under attack today, not only by scientists, but by humanists. Helen is of course speaking for Lodge and the conclusions he has come to in his own research into the consciousness controversy. Better yet, Thinks. . . is in itself Lodge’s wonderfully successful “thought experiment.”

Also by David Lodge: Consciousness & the Novel: Connected Essays

Psychology can leads to a realisation where the psyche is not “inner” as we thought it was. As we shed that view of the soul as an inner thing at the same time we ensoul the world. Just as I was reflecting on this I came across this:

American Society for Cybernetics – Home Visual

This image of two beings, one biological, one mythical, is based on the notion of recursion, and like the mediaeval ourubori, it refers to two domains. However, this new double ouruborus does not place an underworld below an upper one, but rather puts the domain of the biological, the bodyhood of living, in a continuous mutually modulating recursion with the domain of cognition, the virtual world of human imagination. Or if one likes, it is the harmonious relationship between art and science. Or between a generative process and the arising phenomena.

Thomas Merton Internet Bibliography

Links to a huge range of his writing here. Inspired to search him out after listening to THOMAS MERTON: ACTIVISM OF THE SPIRIT with Jonathan Montaldo – which is program of the week right now on New Dimension. The image is from here.

otisfodder.com

Another take on a daily update. Interesting tracks and history.

Thomas Hudson Reeve

This photo is made from a pin-hole camera using the photo paper itself! I love it!

I am enjoying photographic minimalism, having my 2002 version of a box brownie on my tramping trip. Probably lighter than 26 sheets of 6×4 photo paper it would take to print the shots! My camp site is a sort of antithesis to the WTC.

Create

Some people may even create good things with this insidious technology. This is all too scary, they will swamp the Net with this ugly stuff. Start a Counternet? Or will we just rout around the pollution?

DRM, deceptive rip-off manipulation.

Story episode #001

“This is a moderated Choose-your-own-adventure type of story where you get to write the story. Follow the story as it grows and grows, taking up much needed hard drive space. You can even copy down the story location and come back to it at a later date, to see how it’s grown.”

Trivial fun.

link

This is an excellent report. If you are thinking about online therapy, have a read. I am a member of this organisation and I appreciate their work.

Washington Post