General Information

1. Your Name: Seyoon Rhee
2. Your Username: MadJam
3. Website Address: http://serheephilfinal.blogspot.com/
4. What did you get on your midterm? C- (did not know there were revisions)
5. Please list all of the postings that you have done for this term (posted by weeks as individual posts)

What was the most unusual thing you learned this term?

14. What was the most unusual thing you learned this term?


The most unusual thing I’ve learned in this term would have to be “The Myth of Eternal Recurrence.” I was just amazed and shocked at the very idea that life is recurring over and over again without any changes in it. The very fact that I would be living the same life exactly the way it was, all the pain, all the joy, I mean exactly the very same challenged me to think about how I lived my life so far. Some questions popped into my head, “Would I live my life a little differently if I knew? Would there be any differences in how I did things?” I continued to challenge myself with this abstract concept of life reoccurring over and over again. It was just so unusual because the world mostly believes in just one life, where there may be an afterlife beyond our death, etc. I just loved thinking about this and it was a very interesting and unusual concept for someone that never thought about life this way.

What was the most interesting reading for you this term?

13. What was the most interesting reading for you this term?


The most interesting reading from this term would have to be “Littlewood’s Law of Miracles.” It was just so interesting to read the fact that someone came up with a way to define and calculate how many times we encounter miracles. According to his theory, we would encounter, on average, one miracle per month from various calculations done. Just the very fact that Littlewood thought of this idea was incredible. I didn’t really care about his autobiography towards the end of the section, but the explanation of the law was very interesting and soaked my mind with various thoughts.

What was the most interesting film you watched this term?

12. What was the most interesting film you watched this term?

The most interesting film that I’ve watched during this term would definitely be “The Time Machine.” It portrayed the idea of a time machine actually becoming a reality, which I never thought would even be possible. The very thought that we will be able to communicate with the future through short brief messages was just outrageous and incredible. Interestingly, the time machine that was theorized in the film cannot allow anyone to travel through time, or even talk to anyone in the past, but only with the future. The theory was that we would only be able to communicate with however long the machine was turned on. So if the time machine was turned on today, then we would only be able to receive messages from the future. This film overall gave me the chills just thinking about communicating with our future selves and being able to actually “time travel.”

Science & Philosophy

11. Why is science so important when doing philosophy?

Many believe that science and philosophy do not correlate. It is quite easy to be tricked by the way they portray themselves throughout history and the arguments that these two concepts had against each other. Although it is seemingly impossible for these two to be related, there are actually many contributions and reasons to why science is important to philosophy.

                One would have to be that by knowing how our brain functions, we will get a step closer to how our consciousness works. This idea of researching the brain for knowledge of the consciousness comes from neurophilosophy, mainly contributed by Patricia Churchland. This form of philosophy incorporates both science and philosophy to work together to come up with even greater theologies and ideas. As we study and dive deeper into how our brain functions and works, it’ll be easier to have a peak at the understanding of consciousness and what influences our thinking. Study of psychology also will help us determine the main factors of influence on our behavior as well as our philosophy. Because science strengthens our understanding of the mind, it is most definite that science is extremely important to philosophy.

                Another reason would have to be the fact that philosophy relies on science for approval.  Philosophers often tend to ask questions that are very scientific and logical. For example, when a phenomena such as what happened in the film “Voodoo Voodoo” where miracles happen after a chant, they would rely on scientific ways of thinking to figure out how and why this phenomena happened. Philosophers would not say just say, “It happened, so it happened. I completely believe it without any further explanation or proof.” They would instead try to find ways to disprove or prove it SCIENTIFICALLY. Another example would have to be when someone claims to have seen the future. One would not just believe that person and become a worshipper, but start to question how and be a little more skeptic about such things. These questions would most likely be science related questions such as “How is that even possible? Is there any evidence that this would happen?” Accordingly, Philosophy tends to rely on scientific proof for answers and their ideals seem to reflect upon it.

                It is not only philosophy that requires science, but science also most definitely needs philosophy. Science tends to turn to philosophical ideas when it comes to phenomena that cannot be explained through scientific research. These phenomena tend to be very religious or philosophical which grabs the attention of the people who have a more scientific viewpoint. When a person cannot fully comprehend an event or miracle that occurred through science, it is most likely that that person will turn to philosophy for answers and ideas.

                This relationship that science and philosophy have on one another is very true in many cases. The very fact that we tend to seek one or the other show how much dependency they have on each other, and we tend not to recognize that. People generally believe they are opposites, and have absolutely no relationship, but that is the very reason why they have such a strong bond, being opposites. Without science, there won’t be philosophy, and vice versa.

Himalayan connection

10. How does the Himalayan connection explain UFOs? How does such a theoretic model also help explain religious visions?

In the text “The Himalayan Connection,” Prof. Lane writes the U.F.O experience he witnessed in Delhi in July of 1978. It was not until he met a man by the name of Faqir Chand that he was able to fully understand why he experienced such a radical event. Chand clearly explained to him the philosophy of people like layman and gurus experiencing the supernatural. According to Chand, miracles and other forms of phenomena are basically nothing more than deviances away from our conscious state of reality. This is known as the Chandian Effect, the certainty that we feel in our waking state creates the reality in which we consciously live in. (The Himalayan Connection) When our mind enters dream mode during our sleeping hours, around the time REM step (Rapid Eye Movement) kicks in, our reality becomes the things that we dream. To relate the Chandian Effect to U.F.O experiences, Prof. Lane later on in the text also introduces these three terms: Translation, Transformation, and Transfusion.

A toast with the face of Jesus
People may believe this is true

The translation of the U.F.O. experience to the reality of our consciousness requires scientific evidence and proof to explain these supernatural events. U.F.O. researchers have yet to completely accomplish this feature. The transformation of the U.F.O. experience connects this sight to the reality of the person witnessing or experiencing it. Although the experience may simply be a deception one’s consciousness, for that person, sighting is very real. Lastly, transfusion is a method of mixing both translation and transformation. Although we may not be able to correctly explain these kinds of phenomena and may ignore it, the person who experienced it will argue otherwise. The experience of the person, while not plausible and believable to regular minds, can be explained as a hallucination of his or her mind. 

This leads us to other phenomena such as religious visions and miracles. People may have visions that they perceive as real, but have no scientific proof to back their claims. This leads to arguments and discussions regarding the matter of whether they are true or not, or even how crazy a person is. People may clearly be influenced by outside influences such as psychoactive drugs that force them to have unimaginable visions or experiences. This also relates to people having visions while dreaming, where the dreams contain some type of prophecies or information for the future and become a reality to them because of the very fact that it is a dream.

Although I do not think Prof. Lane’s explanation to U.F.O experiences is completely false, it is still extremely difficult for me fully believe that it actually happened. Nevertheless, Lane’s translation, transformation, and transfusion design does offer a legitimate bridge to relate those types of ambiguous encounters with our conscious reality. 

Apophenia

9. What is apophenia? Give 3 examples of it.

A clear-cut definition of Apophenia is very simple. “Apophenia is the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The term was coined by K. Conrad in 1958 (Brugger).”(skepdic.com) It is a simple, yet complex concept that really makes individuals think about the things that they see. People may often times recognize some bizarre and random idea as concrete and relatable. Our humanly nature forces us to see things as uniform and meaningful when they actually are not. The reason for apophenia may be explained through this reasoning:

“Humans are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals. We look for and find patterns in our world and in our lives, then weave narratives around those patterns to bring them to life and give them meaning. Such is the stuff of which myth, religion, history, and science are made. Sometimes the patterns we find represent reality — DNA as the basis of heredity or the fossil record as the history of life. But sometimes the patters are imposed by our minds rather than discovered by them — the face on Mars (actually an eroded mountain) or the Virgin Mary's image on the side of a glass building in Clearwater, Florida (really an oil stain from a palm tree, since removed to enable the faithful to better view their icon). The rub lies in distinguishing which patterns are true and which are false, and the essential tension (as Thomas Kuhn called it) pits skepticism against credulity as we try to decide which patterns should be rejected and which should be embraced.” (Michael Shermer)

There can be many examples of apophenia. One very real example would be this:

“Soon after his son committed suicide, Episcopalian Bishop James A. Pike (1913-1969) began seeing meaningful messages in such things as a stopped clock, the angle of an open safety pin, and the angle formed by two postcards lying on the floor. He thought they were conveying the time his son had shot himself (Christopher 1975: 139).” (skepdic.com)

Another example would be this:

“There on the ground I found two dry twigs, broken off by the wind. They were shaped like the Greek letter for “P” and “y”… [I]t struck me that [they] must be an abbreviation of the name Popoffsky. Now I was sure it was he who was persecuting me, and that the Powers wanted to open my eyes to my danger.” (dbskeptic.com)

The last example would be this:

“A few days ago, while I was agonizing over having recently lost one of my mental health jobs, I found myself driving behind a license plate that said ACT. For me this was an immediate recognition of the meaningful workshop I had done a few years ago in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Strousahl, & Wilson, 2004), which is abbreviated as ACT. In ACT you are taught to accept your disappointments and difficulties in life in a mindful way, and then make a commitment to actualizing your deepest values in life in spite of these disappointments and difficulties (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2004). Seeing the ACT license plate was a meaningful reinforcement for me that I needed to accept the loss of my mental health job gracefully, and was connected to my deepest intention of offering my services to continue to work with mental health clients, independently and without expecting to earn any real money from doing so.” (integralworld.net)

The crazy thing about apophenia is that it completely blocks out logical thinking while it is in effect. Because most of the times, it is when someone is in great pain or despair, their minds are not psychologically sane, forcing them to perceive anything to be real. The effects of apophenia can be helpful in most cases, but we have to realize some dangers that lie ahead when seeing these abnormal phenomena.

The Codex Funeral

8. Why does your professor argue in THE CODEX FUNERAL that books are dead? Do you agree or disagree with his argument as presented in the pdf file?

In the short text, “The Codex Funeral: Why Books are Dead, How iPad killed them,” the professor makes some incredibly shocking arguments. He states that hardback cover paper books are dead because of the introduction of the iPad on Janurary 27, 2010. The reasoning behind this was not because it was far superior to other e-books that were out at that time, but because of the millions of books and information he could access at any given moment. The fact that he was able to get whatever book he wanted to read anywhere and anytime granted him great freedom from carrying around paperweights all over the place. Rather than carrying his 10,000 book collection around, it was easier to just have one tablet in hand to read.

Ever since the rise of the internet, the value of hardcopy books has decreased to the general population. Surfing the web allows users to freely search for whatever information he or she wishes to find, whether it is magazine articles, biographies, or the dictionary, it was at hand whenever he or she needed it. Instead of buying a hardcopy to keep and paying a few dollars for subscription, it was much easier for someone to go online and read up an article of a magazine. There are millions of information readily available in an instant, which does not cost a dime to look up. When hardcopy books uselessly take up space depending on how many books a person has.

I most definitely agree with the professor’s argument that hardcopy books are dead.  With the rise the iPad, the Kindle, and other e-book devices, it would be hard for us to go back to our old ways of physically searching for the books that we want to read. Because they are ready with a few touches on the screen, it would force us to throw away our desires of driving down to the local library to search for the book we want to keep. This very reason causes the decline in demand of physical form of books, which actually saves more money, time, and space. Not only is it convenient, where a book is just a few touches away, but its much cheaper and saves time to use an e-book. Some of the bookstore near my neighborhood has closed ever since these devices took over the book market.

Although there may be some people left in the general population that still prefers hardback copies of books rather than carrying around an electronic, it is most clear that our society wants to change the way we read. It won’t be long until hardcopies of books will become souvenirs and antics to collectors as e-books take over the market. My only wish is that this drastic change will not result in something too big for us to handle.  

Is Consciousness physical?

7. Is Consciousness physical? Explain how neurology can help us better understand why consciousness may have arisen as an evolutionary adaptation.

In my personal opinion, I believe consciousness is not physical. It is discussed throughout the course that somehow our mind is related to our physical brain. Everything we sense and feel, whether it is physical or emotional, all connect to our brain and somehow to our sensory organs. This nature of our body being connected with our thoughts and the very fact that our brain allows us to think and be aware of our surroundings prove the how physical our consciousness is. “Why is it that when someone clubs you in the head with a bat, your awareness (consciousness) seizes?” (A Glorious Piece of Meat)

But how is it that our consciousness is actually NOT physical? Although I just wrote a whole paragraph devoted to proving how physical awareness is, there are other beliefs that have convinced me to think consciousness nothing close to being physical. One great example would be how non-physical experiences, such as visions and illusions lead us into thinking and analyzing. How is it that without having any physical interactions we are able to see and sense extraordinary visions within our minds? A question popped into my head while reading an article written by Professor Lane called “Is Consciousness Physical?” The article states this very interesting fact: “Even the most profound spiritual experiences may themselves be the result of brain processes of which we remain unaware.” How is it that we are able to have such experiences that cannot be physically proven through science? Only time will tell.

            Another reasoning used to argue why consciousness is not physical is the Knowledge argument. It was formulated by Thomas Nagel, Frank Jackson, and Saul Kripke and goes like this:

“A standard presentation of the thought experiment is this: Mary, a brilliant scientist blind from birth, knows all the physical facts relevant to acts of perception. When she suddenly gains the ability to see, she gains knowledge of new facts. Since she knew all the physical facts before gaining sight, and since she now gains knowledge of new facts, these facts must not be physical facts and, moreover, given Mary’s situation, they must be mental facts.”

            The last reasoning I would like to use to prove my point is that consciousness has intentionality. What I mean by intentionality is consciousness is always intentional while physicality is not. Here are some of the things you may take into consideration regarding intentionality. (reasons.org)

1.      When one represents a mental act to oneself, there are no sense-data associated with it; this is not so with physical states and their relations.

2.      Intentionality is completely unrestricted with regard to the kind of object it can hold as a term—anything whatsoever can have a mental act directed upon it, but physical relations only obtain for a narrow range of objects (e.g., magnetic fields only attract certain things).

3.      To grasp a mental act one must engage in a reflexive act of self-awareness, but no such reflexivity is required to grasp a physical relation.

4.      For ordinary physical relations (e.g., x is to the left of y), x and y are identifiable objects irrespective of whether they have entered into that relation (ordinary physical relations are external). This is not so for intentional contents (e.g., one and the same belief cannot be about a frog and later about a house—the belief is what it is, at least partly, in virtue of what the belief is of).

5.      For ordinary relations, each of the relata must exist in order for the relation to obtain (x and y must exist before one can be on top of the other), but intentionality can be of nonexistent things (e.g., one can think of Zeus).

6.      Intentional states are intentional (having to do with attributes), but physical states are extensional (having to do with class members).

In the end, the question that we have to ask ourselves is not whether consciousness is physical or not. The real question that we need to focus on is, “Who is in control of our consciousness?” Is it our ego? Is it ourselves? Is it our brain? “I know that my consciousness is more than the sum of my neurons firing; or, at least I think so while my neurons are firing.” (A Glorious Piece of Meat)

Patricia Churchland & Neurophilosophy

6. Why does Patricia Churchland champion neurophilosophy? Be sure to substantiate your answer.

Patricia Churchland is a Canadian-American philosopher noted for her contributions to neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind. (Wikipedia) The most common theme that is portrayed through her works is her belief that if we can understand the brain, then at some point we can understand the state of consciousness. This belief of “first understand the brain, then understand the mind” type of philosophy lead her to neurophilosophy.

Neurophilosophy can be defined in this clear definition as follows: Neurophilosophy or philosophy of neuroscience is the interdisciplinary study of neuroscience and philosophy. Work in this field is often separated into two distinct areas of interest. Neurophilosophy attempts to use empirical information from the neurosciences to address broader philosophical issues, including questions traditionally categorized under the philosophy of mind. The philosophy of neuroscience attempts to clarify neuroscientific methods and results using the conceptual rigor and methods of philosophy of science. Neurophilosophy explores the relevance of neuroscientific studies to arguments in philosophy of mind. Theories in neurophilosophy tend to stand in opposition to those of idealism, dualism, and functionalism, which seek to explain the mental with reference to minds and ideas, rather than the structure and function of the brain. (Wikipedia)

Simply put, it is using science and study of the brain, the structure and its functions, in order to fully understand our minds and consciousness. If we can understand all the molecules in the brain and its functions, then we can truly understand our consciousness.

While the issue of brain-mind is still open for debate without a clear-cut answer, from the perspective of neurophilosophy, an understanding of the philosophical applications of neuroscience discoveries is nevertheless relevant. Even if neuroscience will eventually discover that there no causal relationship between the brain and the mind, the mind would still remain to be correlated to the brain, and as such, neuroscience would still be relevant for the neurophilosophy. On the other hand, if neuroscience will eventually demonstrate a perfect overlap between brain and mind phenomena, neurophilosophy would become great new way of thinking for the study of the mind. Regardless of the how the connection between the brain and the mind turns out to be, it is important to note that neurophilosophy will definitely stay within the range of debate and discussion.

“It isn’t just one specific neuron that helps us feel pain, or love, or happiness, but a whole set of neurons interacting with each other creating the feelings and emotions inside the human mind.” (Patricia Churchland Interview) The real reason why she “champions” neurophilosophy is the very fact that she thinks outside the box and takes different approaches with normal philosophical ideas. One would never think to combine the study of the brain with consciousness, but because she is such a creative thinker, it is possible for her to come up with the idea of neurophilosophy. Because her different ways of thinking, she comes up with different ideas and uses a more scientific approach to philosophy, rather than asking the same questions as other philosophers do. 

Alan Turing

5. Who was Alan Turing and how did he contribute to our potential understanding of artificial intelligence?

Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician, logician, cryptographer, and computer scientist. His works have influenced the development of computer science, as well as played a significant role in building our modern computers that we use today. Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science and artificial intelligence.

As a student, he seemed to have excelled in mathematics as well as physics. When he was 16, he was able to fully understand the works of Albert Einstein. Not only did he understand them, he even expanded upon Newton’s Law of motion.

During the Second World War, Turing was a main participant in the efforts at Bletchley Park to break German ciphers. Amongst the numerous scientists there, he maintained high reputation by deciphering the German code within the first few weeks after arriving. He contributed several insights into breaking both the Enigma machine and the Lorenz SZ 40/42, and was the head of Hut 8, the section responsible for reading German naval signals.

His initial contributions to artificial intelligence start in 1935. Turing first described an abstract machine having a limitless memory and a scanner that moves back and forth using that memory, reading each symbol and writing its own response to those symbols. The actions of the scanner would be controlled by a list of instructions that would be stored within the memory itself in a form of symbols. This is Turing’s initial idea of programs which he later further claimed that it would be possible for the machine itself to modify and improve its own programs. This abstract concept would later become known as the Turing machine. The modern computers that we have today derived from these initial thoughts.

Later on, Turing gave a public lecture to talk about computer intelligence in London on 1947, saying, “What we want is a machine that can learn from experience,” and that the “possibility of letting the machine alter its own instructions provides the mechanism for this.” He soon started brainstorming ideas and the central concepts of Artificial intelligence, and wrote the report “Intelligent Machinery” which he did not publish. The ideas on this report soon influenced others to reinvents some of the ideas.

In 1950 Turing went off track with the traditional definition of intelligence, by introducing a practical test for artificial intelligence known as the Turing test. “The Turing test involves three participants: a computer, a human interrogator, and a human foil. The interrogator attempts to determine, by asking questions of the other two participants, which is the computer. All communication is via keyboard and display screen. The interrogator may ask questions as penetrating and wide-ranging as he or she likes, and the computer is permitted to do everything possible to force a wrong identification. The foil must help the interrogator to make a correct identification. A number of different people play the roles of interrogator and foil, and, if a sufficient proportion of the interrogators are unable to distinguish the computer from the human being, then (according to proponents of Turing’s test) the computer is considered an intelligent, thinking entity.” (Britannica.com)

Towards to end of his life, Turing's homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones as an alternative to prison. He died in 1954, just over two weeks before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined it was suicide; his mother and some others believed his death was accidental.

Alan Turing made great contributions to what we have today, computer technology. Without his genius works and ideas, many of the technology that we have today may not have existed. Through his works, which we still use today, we can clearly say how much he has done for the development of computer science, as well as the initial beginning to the thought of machine consciousness, or artificial intelligence.

Celluar Automata

4. What is celluar automata and why does Stephen Wolfram think that it represents a “new kind of science”? Be sure to detail your answer.

Cellular Automata, also called "cellular spaces", "tessellation automata", "homogeneous structures", "cellular structures", "tessellation structures", and "iterative arrays," is a rule which is applied for physics, engineering, mathematics, and science. Here is a general outline of what this complicated concept is:

A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, physics, complexity science, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states, such as "On" and "Off" (in contrast to a coupled map lattice). The grid can be in any finite number of dimensions. For each cell, a set of cells called its neighborhood (usually including the cell itself) is defined relative to the specified cell. For example, the neighborhood of a cell might be defined as the set of cells a distance of 2 or less from the cell. An initial state (time t=0) is selected by assigning a state for each cell. A new generation is created (advancing t by 1), according to some fixed rule (generally, a mathematical function) that determines the new state of each cell in terms of the current state of the cell and the states of the cells in its neighborhood. For example, the rule might be that the cell is "On" in the next generation if exactly two of the cells in the neighborhood are "On" in the current generation; otherwise, the cell is "Off" in the next generation. Typically, the rule for updating the state of cells is the same for each cell and does not change over time, and is applied to the whole grid simultaneously, though exceptions are known.

Various rules used for Cellular Automata

Basically, it is a code for computer cells which “side step” by time. There is a pattern to the cells movement. Wolfram has figured out how to anticipate the cells movement to further mathematics and engineering. Often times, he uses a snowflake as an example. A snowflake’s pattern is extremely complicated, just like computer cells.

            The reason why Wolfram believes that this is a new kind of science is because he figured out how to make this concept easier and actually able to use this program with engineering and science. By fully understanding and knowing how these cells work, it will be easier to read the patterns at work. He believes that with the use of these cells, we may be able to figure out how the complex patterns of natural selection, as well as genetics function. He specifically created a set of rules and laws for each and every aspect of the cellular automata so that if one rule does not apply, then another rule will override.

            Because of this very reason that there can be research done to provide new ways, and to find answers, he proceeds to call this a new kind of science. The very fact that he is able to use this new idea to perform various tasks and help him do unimaginable feats backs up his point. I personally believe that his idea on this new kind of science is very plausible and foundational. He may seem to be a bit arrogant in what he did; it shows how genius he is. There are some ideas that he proposed that will be a phenomenon in this world and I can surely say he is right in his claims. 

The Mummy and The Wolfman

3. What does the Mummy and the Wolfman archetypes represent in terms of Eastern and Western religions? Explain it via Eros and Thanatos. For instance, how does Buddhism view death differently than Christianity?

The Mummy represents Eastern religious beliefs of being reincarnated. A reincarnation is when the body dies but the soul lives on through other living bodies that does not discriminate human or animal. Eastern religions try to preserve the body, or use the term “capsule of the soul”. We see that humanity through the past have become determined to preserve the bought for immortality as was seen in the idea of the mummy. Egyptians believed that by preserving the body, immortality could be obtained. The physical bodies were preserved so that it would stay intact when it moved unto the afterlife. However, we see that the Egyptians’ attempt of achieving immortality was never achieved. This continued to grow and evolve and did not stop our drive to defeat death and obtain immortality. We see in Western societies the desire to prolong one’s life through scientific and medical advances. This can all relate to a concept called Eros. Eros, which is the Greek god of love but also in a philosophical sense the love of wisdom, can be shortly defined as a desire for eternal life. This belief is related to the Egyptians belief of preserving life, instead of fully accepting and believing the death of a person and continuing on.

Rather than the belief of reincarnation, or eternal life, Western religions believe in something rather on different path. They have a belief that death is not the end, yet an extension into another life. This belief continues unto Thanatos, which is, in short, the idea that “death is the goal of life.” Western society tends not to believe in reincarnation but that the body and the soul die together and move on to the afterlife, Heaven or Hell. Instead of being re-born into another body like what the eastern religions believe in, the soul only goes around once; which means that any wrong doing is taken more seriously considering there is only one chance and one life to do things right. Just like how the Western religion is the opposite of Eastern beliefs, Thanatos may be referred to as the direct opposite of Eros. The very fact that Thanatos is the drive to die shows how incredibly different the cultures are in their beliefs. Where the Wolfman comes into play in the Western religion is this. Instead of trying to prolong life, Wolfman desire to actually die and go unto the afterlife. Rather than continue on with his immortality, he wishes to die, which correlates with Thanatos.

One example of different views between the eastern and western religion is the view of death between Buddhism and Christianity. As stated earlier, Buddhism, being an eastern religion, believes in being reincarnated into a new body after death, which continues on and portrays eternal life. On the other hand, Christianity views death as a gateway to heaven or hell, which is the afterlife. Whatever a person does on earth will lead them to an eternal life after death.

The two main ideas that these two concepts are trying to portray is the idea of life and death. As complete opposites, the wolfman wants death, while the mummy wants eternal life. What we need to truly learn and understand is that we can neither inhabit internal, eternal life like the mummy nor experience death like the wolfman. Instead we are caught in this middle ground, because the thought of an internal death is nonexistent. “To experience absolute death is entirely impossible, because experience belongs to the category of consciousness and existence.” (The Mummy vs. the Wolfman) We cannot experience death and see what it feels like consciously so it is impossible to know the verdict to the afterlife and what brings death.

Littlewood’s Law of Miracles

2. Explain Littlewood’s Law of miracles and how it can explain extraordinary phenomena. Be sure to give two examples of it.

Littlewood’s law of miracles is a calculated theory that describes how many times we will be able to encounter a miracle in a given period of time. The short version of this theory may be found on Wikipedia which is nicely written as follows: “Littlewood defines a miracle as an exceptional event of special significance occurring at a frequency of one in a million. He assumes that during the hours in which a human is awake and alert, a human will experience one event per second, which may be either exceptional or unexceptional (for instance, seeing the computer screen, the keyboard, the mouse, this article, etc.). Additionally, Littlewood supposes that a human is alert for about eight hours per day.

As a result a human will in 35 days have experienced under these suppositions about one million events. Accepting this definition of a miracle, one can be expected to observe one miraculous occurrence within the passing of every 35 consecutive days – and therefore, according to this reasoning, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace.” With Littlewood’s reasoning, we can conclude that on average, we will experience one miracle per month.  

One interesting example is the one portray in the short video, “Voodoo Voodoo.” The story is that Prof. Lane and his family was on a much needed vacation. The oceans were flat, very nice scenery with great company as described in the video. Prof. Lane and his son decided to go surfing, but were disappointed to see that the ocean was calm, not showing any sign of great waves. Recalling his childhood, Prof. Lane decides to teach his son about a chant that he performed with his childhood friends which every time they chanted, would grant them with enormous ocean waves. After they chanted, they were able to experience an incredible wave that astonished them both. Believing that this voodoo trick is true, his son asked for one more chant. Being skeptical, Prof. Lane followed along and chanted with his son once again. Who could have thought, another enormous wave came right after the chant was over! What are the odds of getting two ginormous waves in a flat ocean? I would say slim to none. The very fact that they were able to experience these “miracles” is an example of the Law of miracles.

Another interesting personal example is when I was the bowling alley. As a junior high student and without any experience of bowling, I went along with my fellow childhood friends to go bowling for the first time. Without any expectation, I crossed my fingers on my first try. Who could have thought, I bowled a perfect strike! It was as if I won the lottery, full of excitement and joy. The next two times that I bowled, I crossed my fingers and once again, I was able to strike three times in a row. With amazement I was able to experience three miracles in a row.

 Having called for enormous waves, or being able to strike so many times may be more than one miracle, at the same time and to the same exact person. This may also be just a random occurrence of sequential events. Maybe those waves were also called for while they were chanting out loud. Perhaps I had hidden talents that I never knew. We never know how miracles will actually happen.

The interesting thing about miracles is that we tend to only remember the “hits” rather than all of the other “misses.” By “hits” I am trying to say when miracles actually do happen. For instance, people at casinos tend to rely on luck for their “hits” in winning money at slot machines. Because they only remember the times that they have won, they are forced to forget about all those times that they did not win; only looking forward to the eventual “hit” they are going to experience. It is quite interesting to see that because of the fact that we can only see the good things happening, we will forget about the bad things, in this case losing money, and pursue after the miracles. I believe that this type of mindset will lead people into dependence on miracles, which will help them continue in their journey of life.

Gumby Land Thinking

1. What is Gumby Land thinking? Give three illustrative examples of it.

Gumby Land thinking is simply the idea when a person creates a belief and many others believe in the same belief. This term comes from the popular animation made from clay, called Claymation "Gumby" which was a television show based on a little Claymation character named Gumby. The creator of Gumby, Art Clokey, apparently went to India for a short vacation while going through a difficult time period in his life, and brought along Gumby with him on his journey. He claimed that there was a change in his life after meeting a famous guru named Sathya Sai Baba. The guru sprinkled holy ashes on Gumby, and claimed that Gumby was an incarnation of spiritual love. The little character essentially had become a spiritual icon. Clockey then claimed that things started workout out for him after the encounter with the guru. Gumby became famous and popular once again, even helping Clockey sign an eight million dollar contract for the show. Back in India, where his experience first happened, a small shrine was put in place to the little character Gumby to worship it.

Here are some illustrations for Gumby Land thinking. When someone, without any clear evidence or basis, claims to have revived from the dead and people worshipped that person would be one form of Gumby Land thinking. Another would be when a house dog is somehow worshipped as the leader of this world because of this one claim from an unknown “prophet” that told everyone that dog will soon take over the world. Lastly, if a teacher were to say that the world is going to end in 10 days without any calculations or a foundational basis for that claim, and somehow many people believed it to be true. These are some examples of Gumby Land thinking.

We now realize that Gumby land thinking is meant to show how some people will believe anything. Personally for me, I thought that the very fact a shrine was put up for a little clay character that was human made was outrageous and insane. Some may argue that we cannot prove that Gumby is not the incarnation of spiritual love because it is not a scientifically testable concept. It was hard to think that some people actually believed what one person had said were the truth. This is where Gumby Land thinking’s idea shines. The concept that a person or group of people can just randomly bring up an idea and others will actually believe it because it sounds “good”, without being logical and giving any thought to the why and the origin of that idea, nor having any scientific proof to back up the idea. Gumby Land thinking sheds its lights in other religions as well. Because of the very reason that some idea cannot be proven, in this case that Gumby is an incarnation of spiritual love, scientists feel that then it doesn't exist. Because a person can come up with all sorts of outrageous ideas without a scientific foundation for its beliefs, it most definitely cannot be taken seriously.

Although I say when something cannot be scientifically proven, it is not true; we cannot generalize all religious beliefs as the same. There are clear differences between religion and Gumby Land thinking. Most definitely there are many religious ideas out there that can be clearly defined as made up and unreliable. However some religions and their ideas have much historical basis and unexplainable phenomena that even science cannot prove. The one main difference between religion and Gumby Land thinking is that religion has many phenomena and history that back up their beliefs, while Gumby Land thinking certainly do not have anything to “prove” its existence through anything. If a certain experience occurs that cannot be scientifically explained, it would not be right for scientists to say that it never happened because it cannot be proven or even tested. There are many phenomena and ideas out in the world that science certainly cannot explain… yet.  Because of our understanding right now of the world, we may say that many things have become thousand times easier to explain and actually relate. We cannot simply categorize some idea into “Gumby Land thinking” and say it is false just because it is just comical and outrageous, but consider it and actually take time to research and try to somehow prove its validity.

Week Eight: Mystical Philosophy

Film: Gumby Land

                It was incredible to see how people can believe such outrageous things. The fact that people believed “Gumby” was actually some kind of spiritual symbol was just… indescribably shocking and insane. I guess because I am not a believer of their religion, it may seem that I am being very bias in my thinking, but logically thinking, it just seems purely outrageous.

                I believe people need to research a little bit more before believing “nonsense” claims. They also call these claims “Gumby Land thinking” because of the relation it has to what happened with Gumby Land. All this nonsense that was not even researched or scientifically tested and the fact that people actually believed it, was incredibly shocking. People need to be a little more skeptic about certain things, such as these kinds of matters.

Film: Voodoo Voodoo

                The story on the chant was very miraculous. The fact that it actually happened and chance happened to be on your side when you chanted, was very interesting. If I were in the same situation, I would be shocked and in awe of this miraculous sight. Although I wouldn’t believe it completely, I would definitely be tempted to believe in this type of voodoo.

                Intended wishes really came into thought when watching this video. It is so true that we tend to remember only the times that our “voodoos” work, but not the countless misses that we encounter. Our minds force us to believe that these chants and rituals actually work by eliminating all of the misses from our memories, but letting only the times when these events actually happen stay. It was overall a very interesting and remindful video.

Film: The Mummy vs. The Wolfman

                Wow this video had so many abstract ideas. They were abstract but at the same time, very clear in what it was trying to say. For example, nonexistence is impossible because for us to be nonexistent, it would mean that we need to experience absolute death, which lead to consciousness because experience relies on awareness.

                All the concepts in the video truly influenced my thinking on life and death. It influenced me in a sense that complete and absolute death, as monks think is nonexistent, and that it is impossible to preserve life forever, in a physical sense. In order to be “immortal,” one has to be physically immune to death, which would be impossible because of the future circumstances that is about to come in a billion years. This was very interesting and thoughtful, making my brain constantly work as I was watching this video.

Film: The Zahir

               As the narrator said in the video, money is nothing more than just the future. A possible opportunity to play games, watch a movie, drink a cup of coffee, etc. Money, other than being physical, is more philosophical and abstract. It contains so many possibilities that cannot even be accounted for. This was the initial thought I received from the beginning of the video.

                Other than that, I did not know what the video was trying to portray, because it wasn’t very clear in its meanings. I tried very hard to think about the meanings each part of the video showed, but I could not think of anything special that really clicked in me. Other than the fact that Zahir are things that are left in the mind, haunting you for the rest of your life, I really didn’t know what the video was trying to tell me. It was too complicated for me to fully understand the true meaning behind the abstractness.

Film: Flame On

                “We simply don’t know what is our best or worst quality.” I thought this statement was very true, because the things that we believe is true at times may be viewed differently in another time. The example that the video used was great, of how a scientific breakthrough in astronomy was view as a criminal act, is now something of a past time. This shows how philosophy and our thoughts are continually growing and evolving.

                As for homosexuality, I am definitely against it, although my generation may evolve and change their thoughts on this concept.  The very fact that our bodies were made purely for a man and a woman’s sexual relations prove that fact that homosexuality is wrong. Even though many may argue against me with new ideas regarding this matter, I can clearly and most definitely state my opinion of homosexuality being wrong.

Film: Believer vs. Skeptic, Crop Circles

                This video showed me that no matter what kind of argument one makes, once someone makes up one’s mind, it is nearly impossible to change that person’s viewpoint on certain subjects. I believe in psychological terms, it is called confirmation bias, where even if there are definite evidence that something is not true or not right, that person who made an initial hypothesis will continue to pursue its theory.

                The argument the people had in this video was very pointless because they did not give up on their viewpoints. Neither one of them were trying to listen to each other, but just argue away into trying to prove their points, which was very pointless because there wasn’t any good communication and information getting through each other’s heads. I’ve learned that once a skeptic or a believer, it is nearly impossible to convince one to change ones mindset. 

Week Seven: Digital Philosophy

Text: On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem, Computing Intelligence and Machinery

                Wow… it was amazing to skim through just the complexity and the craziness of computing. The weird symbols and numbers it contained made my mind go blurry and nuts. Without a doubt, computing is not something that can be easily learned or mastered, but takes many hours of studying and performing to actually be able to even comprehend a part of it.

                The reasoning that Alan Turing had for computing was amazing. It just showed me how much of a genius he was, because I personally thought I would never be able to think in the ways he did. It was pretty much a genius at work, very incomprehensible to normal human eyes and brain capacity. Just the complexity of the text and how everything is shaped made me nearly dizzy.

Film: Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil, as a futurist, inventor, and author, he expects the technology that we have, more specifically, information technology, to exponentially grow in about 20 years. This exponent may be a billion times more than the technology that we have now, as he has experienced in the past. This may bring positive influence, but as well as negative influence into our human lives.

                First these technological advances will help our daily human activities and chores, as well as tasks that we need to perform. The new advances will bring ease to what we cannot do by ourselves. On the other hand, these inventions may lead to some negative influences. For example, the very machines that were created to cure biological disease may be used by terrorists to create new incurable diseases, according to the video. Though seemingly harmless due to the current response system that we have right now, it may indeed become a great danger in the future. Although I am optimistic about the new advances and our future, it will not hurt to care about some dangers and prepare for them, for our own future sake.

               

Film: The Time Machine

                The contents of this video on building an actual time machine almost seemed outrageous. I always believed it would be impossible to achieve this goal of time travel, but according to the video, I am guessing it is actually possible. I still am questioning if it would actually function and be able to send messages to the future or the past, or even receiving messages from the future.

                One thing that really struck me was the fact that since we did not have any time machines activated in the past, we would not be able to actually go or send anything to the past. With the theory that is currently used, it is impossible to communicate with the past since the machine never even existed. I always believed a time machine would allow complete control of time and spaces, letting the user go to any time period, but it is seemingly impossible.

Film: Alan Turing Lecture

                I had no idea how much Alan Turing contributed to our modern technology. The fact that he continued to challenge his own theories won my respect towards him. His challenges that he created really showed how great his ideas were and the passion he had to create a term called “Artificial Intelligence” or in short terms A.I. Often quoted by Alan Turing as “Machine Intelligence.”

His contributions are still used today in our modern society. Some of his inventions, for example, the Bombe Machine, decoded German codes that were secretly developed and extremely hard to crack. Taking only a few weeks to develop something to crack the code, Alan Turing was truly a man of science and mathematics. His works still challenge many of our modern scientists and ideas that we have, which shows how great his thinking was. I took this challenge to continually be a influence to others through some type of greatness.

Response: “Assignment #5: Ray Kurzweil”

                This is a direct response to Kendle Markham’s response to the video, “Ray Kurzweil.” I really loved your elaboration on the video, which was very similar to my reaction.  The fact that you incorporated your own thoughts and took every little detail of the video into account showed how much you loved and studied the video.

                Although not long, your reaction to the quote “the speed of exponential growth is itself speeding up.” Was something I could really relate to, as I was thinking the exact same thing when doing my own reaction. It is very wondrous how much technology and knowledge is growing, exponentially. The speed is too much for some to handle, including myself. Thank you for your contribution Kendle!

Response: “Week 7 – The Time Machine #3”

                This is a direct response to Anastasia Oliferovskiy’s response to the video, “The Time Machine.” Your reaction to the video was not what I have thought when watching it. Instead being grossed out, I was actually very interested in the idea of time travel. Although impossible to travel to the past, I thought it would be great to be able to see the future and what lies ahead in my life.

                Your elaboration of the video was great. I loved your reaction in the beginning, as well as the explanation of the black hole, the machine, etc. The fact that you wrote so much shows how much time you’ve spent on this homework assignment. I can truly see the devotion you have for this class.  I can honestly agree with everything that you’ve wrote, especially the part where you wrote “science has no limits.” Thanks for your contribution Anastasia!