Actually these elements that negotiate your behaviours are encoded
neuroelectrical and neurochemical subroutines, not with volitional
consciousness to decide or not decide- so 'belief' is perhaps not the
most accurate word for Ms Stem's motivation. If she had to think and
decide,she'd be too slow to save the rider. Needs to be a deeper level
trigger.
Tory
On Sep 24, 2012, at 8:51 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Dean,
Yes, …. Agreed. However, on my understanding of the term faith
(i.e., = belief), Ms Stem has beliefs … DOES beliefs, if you will …
about the world. It believes, for instance, that nothing can be
moved unless something else is fixed.
Smart, your lady stem. But faithful, all the same.
Nick
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com]
On Behalf Of Dean Gerber
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 6:22 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] faith
We are all fortunate indeed that we have this very primitive stem
brain that is extremely perceptive of and extremely knowledgeable of
the mostly predictable physical world. It is not distracted by all
those "higher" issues, faith, belief, Yahweh, etc., we all
endlessly try to wrestle to ground. It simply does its job, which
is to protest us from the consequence of our of our own actions with
that physical world; and to quickly intervene when we are not paying
attention and are soon to either die or be seriously harmed.
I allow my razor sharp chef's knife to fall over the edge of my
counter-top toward my bare feet directly below the plunging knife.
Ms. Stem jerks the proper foot, the one that would have been
pierced, out of the way, using the other foot, the one that would
not have been pierced, to create a stable structure against which
the perfect jerk can operate. All this happens before I am even
aware the knife has fallen. Ms. Stem employs some might poweful
computations to figure all his out, and this case can take immediate
action, the proper reflex (the leg jerk) whether I liked it or not.
I think in your case, Ms. Stem had it all figured out well before
things turned critical, but she does not know how to steer your
motorcycle. When she evolved to her current talent, there were no
motorcycles, but there were plunging objects, and yes cliffs. Along
the way, fortunately for us, and by "us" I mean our Cerebellae, she
can send us messages, like "move left" (you idiot, you are about to
go over a cliff). To your credit, your particular Cerebellum got the
message an took appropriate actions. That goodness for that. And a
special note of appreciation to Ms. Stem. Nothing for God, Yaweh,
premonition, ESP, Guardian Angel or other figments of our Cerebellae.
--Dean Gerber
From: Douglas Roberts <d...@parrot-farm.net>
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com
>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] faith
I'm not prone to experiencing "premonitions". Additional factoid: I
ride paranoid because they *are* out to get me.
Yet, the day before yesterday as I was heading south down to Santa
Fe on the GSA1200, my premonition organ wiggled, and a voice inside
my head said, "I sense danger." Like somebody who rides paranoid
needs to hear that, right?
So I went from DEFCON 2 to DEFCON 4. Twenty seconds later at the
very next traffic light in Pojoaque a northbound duelly pickup truck
turned suddenly, unexpectedly left into the intersection across my
path, smack ass dab right in front of me. Had the little voice in
my head not spoken, I would have been grill hamburger. As it was, I
had engaged that extra little bit of defense which gave the margin I
needed to miss him.
We won't even go into the bit about the fat guy on the Harley who
was going to follow the truck through the intersection, and who
nearly fell off his bike in the process of aborting.
Apropo of nothing, of course, except that I retain my faith that
they are out to get me when I'm on the motorcycle.
--Doug
On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 2:01 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote:
Dave -
Not true - because I have a countervailing belief - I am smarter and
more aware than they and can thwart their evil intentions.
Inarguable reasoning Dave... I commend you. Unfortunately I slipped
behind the curve on my self-image regarding smart+aware a while
back. It may be early onset wisdom or late-stage cynicism...
It *was* my youthful idealism that had me quite willing to hurtle
down the highways with nothing between me and the road except a few
feet (or inches) of air and maybe a 1/8 or less of leather. I was
supremely confident in my own smartness and awareness as the perfect
antidote to all challengers.
<Anecdote> For example, one evening just after dusk 30+ years ago, I
was hurtling down Interstate 17 in the right lane (like a good
doobie since I was roughly traveling at the speed limit and was not
passing anyone) when something made me think I needed to get into
the left lane... I checked mirrors, hit my turns, looked over my
shoulder, and drifted left only to realize that the right lane was
no longer there (well, most of it anyway). I stopped quickly and
backtracked to find that in fact over half of the right lane had
sloughed off into the canyon in a mudslide. I went back "upstream"
a hundred yards facing traffic with headlight and flashers in the
right lane and pulled over the first two cars who I left to pass the
word along and went on my way (I still had 7 hours riding ahead of
me that night).
Those with "Faith" might say that "God spoke to me". I simply
believe that my cultivated awareness hinted to me that something was
amiss up ahead (missing guardrail in my headlights? Dark abyss
below my threshold of consciousness? Had I heard or felt something
over engine/road vibrations?)... Today I'm pretty sure I would just
hurtle off the end of the pavement with a goofy puzzled expression
of WTF?
</Anecdote>
And if the world is not interested in harming me, why did it give me
a death sentence?
I'm pretty sure that despite the world's total disinterest in me
(and by extension you), that death sentence is a blessing compared
to some of the alternatives (read your Utopian/Dystopian literature
for references). Of course, I just might be spending too much time
juggling failing parents up and down the halls of nursing homes.
- Steve
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
--
Doug Roberts
drobe...@rti.org
d...@parrot-farm.net
http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
