If anybody is interested, Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out called 'What the Dog Saw'. I think it's basically a collection of his best works from the New Yorker.
Yeah, I got the book last week -- it's great. I wasn't wild about the first chapter about Ron Popeil and Ronco, but the chapters about Late Bloomers was great.
Another similar book is "Influence" by Robert Cialdini. Similar to Gladwell in that he digs to find out why things happen, he talks about these pyschological influence principles. Sort of a companion to the phenomenon Gladwell discusses.
Well... once you go back enough and zoom in close enough you'll have no reason to blame anyone for anything. What do you think about the concept of 'free will'? Are you a believer?
I'm glad you asked. More increasingly, I think that even the things we're inclined to think and choose, from moment to moment, are the product of the psychological conditioning that our circumstances compel us toward, until they are sated and resolved.
...If we truly have any "free will", it only exists around those options that circumstance conditions us to feel we have and need.
That's what I think, at this point in place and time.
What I think is that there is no way a piece of meat can have any more free will than... a piece of meat. The brain may be an interesting piece of meat, but a piece of meat nevertheless.
What reason did we really have to assume there is a free will in the first place? The default assumption should be that humans don't have a free will, just like we assume rocks and water and viruses etc. don't have a free will.
I don't see the need for making an exception just because it feels like WE choose.
Here's what I'd like to ask of you, then. If you would pick up a copy of the book "On Intelligence" and give it a read, and then come back and give me your opinion on the book. Because there are ideas in there that completely blew my mind on just what intelligence really is, assuming it really exists at all.
Alright, I'll check it out, seems interesting. Does it somehow indicate that there is some kind of a free will though? Why exactly did you bring it up now?
Well, what the writer, Jeff Hawkins, does is to explicitly uncover and characterize what intelligence actually is. After reading it, you can decide for yourself if it represents "free will".
Hahahahahahahaha... If you ever want to do something to prove to yourself you're retarded, write: Hahahahahahahaha - and then listen to it on the audio preview. i just did. Also, i'm not posting intelectual comments. Although, i now am using the Hahahahahaha audio preview and pretending i'm telling Stephen Hawking jokes which he finds very funny.
Extremely interesting. definitely gonna get that book. i was wondering if you could mabe comment on "synchronicity" ive been noticing that i have been having extreme synchronicity lately and its increasing. ive been doing alittle research about it but would love your take on it. it seems like the syncronisity effect has alot to do with Malcom Gladwells Book. 2 Books im defiantly gettin for Christmas.... yours and his. btw is your book published also as an audio book?
Well, I'm not sure about synchronicity as any kind of magical force, but there is said to be something to the idea that two particles, once synchronized to each other through a common origin, remain linked to each other when they are separated later on, even across impossible distances, such that faster-than-light signaling between them allows one to be instantaneously affected by the change of state in the other.
*shrugs*
Also, no, the book isn't on audio. I was just getting started.
That's an interesting theory. Has anyone commented on the practical applications of this possibility? Well, not applications so much as how we would see this affecting things?
If that's what you mean, yes, it's constantly being tried for applications, particularly in telecommunications, where there are people chomping at the bit to possess such a technology, to be sure.
The entire synchronicity thing. Something like that could possibly explain cases of seemingly telepathic knowledge of a loved one, for example. Applications to communication are almost scary.
Then it sounds like you might find a book on quantum physics interesting, because synchronicity (also called "action at a distance") is a part of all that.
What's interesting is that, if it's actually true, the communication between the two would have to be happening at speeds greater than that at light, which Einstein had said was impossible.
Any suggestions on a good one? Definitely interested, but would not know where to start. Any field that the experts claim is confusing to them has to be worth a look.
If anybody is interested, Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out called 'What the Dog Saw'. I think it's basically a collection of his best works from the New Yorker.
Obzcuraa 2 years ago
Yeah, I got the book last week -- it's great. I wasn't wild about the first chapter about Ron Popeil and Ronco, but the chapters about Late Bloomers was great.
TheLogicJunkie 2 years ago
Gladwell is excellent, havent read Outliers.
Another similar book is "Influence" by Robert Cialdini. Similar to Gladwell in that he digs to find out why things happen, he talks about these pyschological influence principles. Sort of a companion to the phenomenon Gladwell discusses.
jb2134 2 years ago
I haven't heard of Cialdini before... I'll have to add that to my reading queue.
TheLogicJunkie 2 years ago
Well... once you go back enough and zoom in close enough you'll have no reason to blame anyone for anything. What do you think about the concept of 'free will'? Are you a believer?
sadunkal 3 years ago
I'm glad you asked. More increasingly, I think that even the things we're inclined to think and choose, from moment to moment, are the product of the psychological conditioning that our circumstances compel us toward, until they are sated and resolved.
...If we truly have any "free will", it only exists around those options that circumstance conditions us to feel we have and need.
That's what I think, at this point in place and time.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
What I think is that there is no way a piece of meat can have any more free will than... a piece of meat. The brain may be an interesting piece of meat, but a piece of meat nevertheless.
What reason did we really have to assume there is a free will in the first place? The default assumption should be that humans don't have a free will, just like we assume rocks and water and viruses etc. don't have a free will.
I don't see the need for making an exception just because it feels like WE choose.
sadunkal 3 years ago
Okay... good, good...
Here's what I'd like to ask of you, then. If you would pick up a copy of the book "On Intelligence" and give it a read, and then come back and give me your opinion on the book. Because there are ideas in there that completely blew my mind on just what intelligence really is, assuming it really exists at all.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
Alright, I'll check it out, seems interesting. Does it somehow indicate that there is some kind of a free will though? Why exactly did you bring it up now?
sadunkal 3 years ago
Well, what the writer, Jeff Hawkins, does is to explicitly uncover and characterize what intelligence actually is. After reading it, you can decide for yourself if it represents "free will".
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
Is synchronicity your computer dying while talking about bill gates, or is that some kind of predestined irony?
urthem2 3 years ago
Hahahahahahaha...
Many miles away, there's a shadow on the door, of a cottage on the shore, of a dark Scottish lake!
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
That's my soul up there
urthem2 3 years ago
Hahahahahah
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
you did get the police reference right?
urthem2 3 years ago
Of course. And you got mine, right?
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
Hahahahahahahaha... If you ever want to do something to prove to yourself you're retarded, write: Hahahahahahahaha - and then listen to it on the audio preview. i just did. Also, i'm not posting intelectual comments. Although, i now am using the Hahahahahaha audio preview and pretending i'm telling Stephen Hawking jokes which he finds very funny.
urthem2 3 years ago
Now I have something to do today: I have dirty jokes and their punch lines to type and hear spoken by Stephen Hawking.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
nature comes first... but nurture will get us the farthest.
tis true tis true
kokoberrie 3 years ago
Wow... Nice way of putting it.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
Very cool! Reminds me a bit of the TV series Connections by James Burke.
montaramike 3 years ago
I've read Blink a long time ago - it's an awesome book.
27Morpheus 3 years ago
Extremely interesting. definitely gonna get that book. i was wondering if you could mabe comment on "synchronicity" ive been noticing that i have been having extreme synchronicity lately and its increasing. ive been doing alittle research about it but would love your take on it. it seems like the syncronisity effect has alot to do with Malcom Gladwells Book. 2 Books im defiantly gettin for Christmas.... yours and his. btw is your book published also as an audio book?
djdevil0000 3 years ago
Well, I'm not sure about synchronicity as any kind of magical force, but there is said to be something to the idea that two particles, once synchronized to each other through a common origin, remain linked to each other when they are separated later on, even across impossible distances, such that faster-than-light signaling between them allows one to be instantaneously affected by the change of state in the other.
*shrugs*
Also, no, the book isn't on audio. I was just getting started.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
That's an interesting theory. Has anyone commented on the practical applications of this possibility? Well, not applications so much as how we would see this affecting things?
LadyGreenEyes964 3 years ago
What possibility? The faster-than-light thing?
If that's what you mean, yes, it's constantly being tried for applications, particularly in telecommunications, where there are people chomping at the bit to possess such a technology, to be sure.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
The entire synchronicity thing. Something like that could possibly explain cases of seemingly telepathic knowledge of a loved one, for example. Applications to communication are almost scary.
LadyGreenEyes964 3 years ago
Then it sounds like you might find a book on quantum physics interesting, because synchronicity (also called "action at a distance") is a part of all that.
What's interesting is that, if it's actually true, the communication between the two would have to be happening at speeds greater than that at light, which Einstein had said was impossible.
TheLogicJunkie 3 years ago
Any suggestions on a good one? Definitely interested, but would not know where to start. Any field that the experts claim is confusing to them has to be worth a look.
LadyGreenEyes964 3 years ago
Interesting ideas. I still need to check out Tipping Point, peoplpe keep recommending it to me.
ozjthomas 3 years ago