Since around 1983 in my early teens, after I first learned of Prolog programming, and then in 1987 of Object-oriented programming, I have been working on shaping a philosophic direction and theory - strengthening it so that it is very capable akin to a "theory of everything". The purpose of this has been furthering progress and understanding of basic nature, primarily for myself. Why? Well, it helps in areas like computer science where more effective models which are apt to any condition and input give a distinct advantage. Also, for being able to represent something like "knowledge" you really have to get down to something extremely flexible and good at adaptation. It is pretty useful to write down some ideas, even here, maybe especially because there is little negative feedback, while constantly new input to consider... Consider the difficulties in expressing any real knowledge using a language. Sometimes we humans are just at a loss for words when it comes to expressing something, explaining it to others and communicating. English is the world's most expressive language, but even then e.g Inuit language have more than twenty different and distinct words for "snow". You also have to bear in mind everything that we don't yet know but might be wanting to communicate some day - stuff for which there are no words to represent it yet. Also, a system or entity that we know today, might be obsolete in the near future or even augmented. Understanding "knowledge" encompasses just about anything for us - also financial markets and market conditions. It is "explosive" in size and reach, but rather it is "generative" and "auto-catalytic" - like chaos theory and recursive nature. An effective model for the underlying rapidly changing reality is important for any decision ranging from financial strategy to social interaction and conflict/diplomacy/security/politics/information. It is also a nature of how every programmer have the notion of "my pet language", containing all the "good ideas" popping up... The last 11 years I have been discussing more and more on philosophical debating forums, but philosophy really adapts to any aspect. At least I can say that it's worth the effort, both in business and personal terms. More people should take an interest into "opening their minds" instead of closing themselves off. Most systems are designed to be "limiting", while few have intrinsic expansion, adaptation and self-modification in mind. There is certainly an emergence of increasingly more adaptive systems, while they are not all-encompassing. Religion is probably one of the stronger barriers to consider when wanting to adopt such philosophy, because religion simply strays from reason with faith. As long as it is personal religion that is not to worry about, but the authoritarian religions requiring obedience are the ones that are resisting new thinking from emerging. Luckily, a characteristic of all human evolution is to break free from old limitations... and I'm not talking patricide here.
"Religion strays from reason with faith". A good philosophical argument consists of good assumptions and good logic. I find that if I read my Bible then my assumptions are very good indeed, after that everything falls in place. I also find that I have applied Occam's razor to nearly everything and I have a lot less to think about.
Fractals, you are a lucky person to have progressively less to think about, closing off your sphere of interaction and thought. I on the other hand, find that there is an explosion of knowledge when I dig into it and ever a thirst for more... A fundamental philosophical difference between us, I guess.
it's not whether God exists or not, but that he is so cheap and pathetic that it's better he does not exist, with his despicable existence comes the existence of this ugly universe and even sickening beings like humans
Well, Fractals does despite his user name apply reductionist principles, shutting out other ideas and setting everything into stone... But, thesharpone... humans are not disgusting, and creationism is something they invented 2000 years ago... A first hearing that "thirst for knowledge" usually leads to psychosis. You must had a tough upbringing, then... Disciplined maybe, but still tough. Surely, you will be working miracles for your kids too.
why do you care to defend humans so much you're funny, but just like overeating has it's own symptoms, stuffing too much information into the brain can cause confusion, delusional thinking and/or have other outcomes
has it ever hit you that the vast amount of information available through the internet mostly has an effect opposite of what you assume it to have, as I had stated earlier humans are rather weak and stupid entities, their capacity to analyze information is not as much as you suppose it to be, giving them too much shit to think about will eventually lead them to ignore all of it and push their mind to clog all incoming data
thesharpone, you were the first one to start making fun... stating that a thirst for knowledge usually leads to psychosis. I do agree that the "information overload" that you are alluding to is overwhelming and some people choose to exclude themselves. John McCain does not use the Internet, employ advanced digital communications services or think it necessary to his professional work. He obviously works on another planet or in a bubble where he does not need to expand his knowledge or quickly access amounts of information to take a decision. Probably he follows "some inner voice, intuition or similar". Maybe he talks to some religious deity and asks for guidance in his choices? Did you know that the brain stops growing because of space limitation inside the skull? Also - did you know that there are several different components to intelligence - fluid and crystalline - both being tested in IQ tests, and that the fluid type can be trained and improved? Well, my point is further that - yes, there is a lot of information, and what do you think "happens to the information" that pass through your mind on a given day? Do you know how the grey matter in the brain works, how neurons connect and learn? Well, during your deep sleep at nights, the short term memory plays through the information you processed during the day and "relocates it" - i.e trains the longer term memory. That means that you are not always able to recall details about something you experienced but that you will be "learning patterns" of knowledge. This is similar to "muscle memory" and similar "unconscious processes" in your body. I do have a thirst for knowledge, and especially I am professionally and personally interested in the specifics about knowledge itself. Therefore I study and try to understand as much as I can about the philosophical aspects through epistemology, and the cognitive processes through phenomenology. I also try to employ techniques and models that are common in artificial intelligence theories, because the processing of knowledge itself requires knowledge to be structured in a useful and efficient digital manner if it is to be stored and processed/retrieved by machines - my area of interest. I do not have problems dealing with huge amounts of information, because I have tools to help me sift through and process what is valuable to me. I worked professionally using many years of timeseries data to train artificial neural networks for forecasting model purposes. I do not digest every bit of information personally available to me, but I do reflect on the aggregate or accumulated effect of all the information I come across. It takes it's time sometimes, but professionally and personally I think it's worth it for me - interested in these scientific areas of information and knowledge processing. So, I agree that humans themselves are limited - as I said the brain itself has a physical limitation; but we have technology that helps us structure and access knowledge, as well as retrieve more information. That is a rather important difference I would like to point out... My interests lie in this wielding and structuring the "extra knowledge" and how it can be useful for us humans. Especially important are the processes where we access information, deliberate and take decisions - as they are central to our trust and participation of a democracy. As you are probably aware, there is a trend in society where some people are being "left behind" in their capability to deal with the increased amounts of information. Many choose to isolate themselves and ignore the information, while others apply the new tools at their disposal to effectively interact with the new and modern society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_overload Do you see now?
Could it be the classic case of some highly intelligent people who specialise in one field so that they know a huge amount about a very small field. Einstein deduced a lot about space, time etc. but would probably have a lot of trouble cooking an omelette. Or the case of knowing more and more about less and less until they know just about everything about next to nothing. lol I would suggest it's a trade off. Learned professors get there by hard work and amazingly some children start with one prodigious talent but are deficient in most other areas.