Psyberspace

http://home.netvigator.com/~kwongkf/4070pg01.htm

For some reason this is the only way this url will go into blogger? What’s going on here? See the earlier post about this essay.

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“Let us first make an announcement to the gods, saying that we are not going to investigate about them, for we do not claim to be able to do that.” [Socrates, 469-399 BC. Plato, Cratylus

A lot more good quotes to humble an aspiring psychological writer on the same page. Looks like a good site.

Black Rose Books

MCS: Marshall McLuhan Articles.
McLuhan Reconsidered — Jim Andrews
Marshall McLuhan Meets William Gibson in “Cyberspace”
Paul Grosswiler Links to his artiles, including MM and dialectics.

Link

Ta’wil: In the same way as the term mutashabih was understood in contrast with the term muhkam, ta’wil is also to be understood in contrast with tafsir. The simplest meaning of tafsir is that it is a science of understanding the Qur’an or explaining the meanings of God’s words in the Qur’an within the limits of human capacity. [7] The word ta’wil derives from awl in the sense of returning and reverting to something. [8] Both tafsir and ta’wil have been used in the Qur’an in the sense of exposition and explanation (Furqan, 32). Muhammad Hadi Ma’rifat is of the opinion that the word ta’wil occurs seventeen times in the Holy Qur’an;

1. five times in the sense of the ultimate outcome (ma’al; 4:59; 17:35; 7:35 twice; 10:39);
2. eight times in the sense of interpretation of dreams (12:6,21,36,37,44,45, 100, 101), and
3. four times in the sense of interpreting the mutashabih (3:7, twice; 18:78,82).

Some scholars consider ta’wil to mean foregoing the literal meaning of a text for its metaphorical sense without violating the norms of Arabic language for metaphorical usage, and in consonance with metaphorical relations, such as referring to a thing by the name of something similar to it or by its cause or that of something which is closely associated with it. [9] Some have held ta’wil to mean interpretation of mutashlibihat and the finding of a second meaning for the text which is called its inward or esoteric sense (batn) as opposed to its apparent and literal meaning (zahr).

I am following up here to a reference made in an earlier post, where Hillman relates Ta’wil to epistrophe.

Vernor Vinge on the Singularity

Exploit the worldwide Internet as a combination human/machine tool. Of all the items on the list, progress in this is proceeding the fastest and may run us into the Singularity before anything else. The power and influence of even the present-day Internet is vastly underestimated. For instance, I think our contemporary computer systems would break under the weight of their own complexity if it weren’t for the edge that the USENET “group mind” gives the system administration and support people! The very anarchy of the worldwide net development is evidence of its potential. As connectivity and bandwidth and archive size and computer speed all increase, we are seeing something like Lynn Margulis’ [15] vision of the biosphere as data processor recapitulated, but at a million times greater speed and with millions of humanly intelligent agents (ourselves).

I have linked to this item before However I am following up on the biosphere notion — see also the post re Chardin a day or so ago.

[15] Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan, _Microcosmos, Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors_, Summit Books, 1986. amazon

I could not resist adding this review from amazon, all new to me, I hope the reviewer (unknown from Texas 1998) is is ok with me quoting this:

This is an outstanding and very readable book on the world of microbes. Beautifully written and filled with insights, it should be required reading for biology students. I couldn’t put it down and I hated biology in high school! I takes you from the beginnings of our planet to the present time, showing the reader the crucial role of microbes in the creation and maintenance of all life. This book will also be of interest to any serious student of the Gaia hypothesis. Read it and you will never think of cells, bacteria and viruses the same way again. You will come away with a humbling and enlightened view on man’s place in a world created, dominated, and maintained by microbes.

For those of you who don’t know, Lyn Margulis is the ex wife of the late Carl Sagan (prior to Ayn Druian) and Ms. Margulis is Dorian Sagan’s mother.Together, they make an excellent writing team.

Something, which I have never grasped before, explained here, beautifully: 0(zero)format. Emailed a copy to myself incase I need it and it goes.

Thanks for the link Josh.

On this website are MP3 recordings of presentations. The topic for these presentations is political events/issues from a Socialist perspective.The source for the presentations is Marxism, an annual event in London, organised by the Socialist Workers Party. I am hoping to include other sources.
They average at about 5MB for 40 minutes of audio (download time approx 20 minutes @ 56k). To minimise download time they have been edited down to the main presentation (contributions from the floor and summing up cut).