Hi All, On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 7:27 AM, X Acto <[email protected]> wrote: "The alpha and the omega,,..etc...blah blah"
Mark (for what it's worth): Ron's little spat (above) enticed me to discuss the Omega Point as originally presented by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In his informative essay Quality and Inspirationality (Part 2) http://robertpirsig.org/McConnell%20Part%202.htm, John McConnell brings the thesis of this Jesuit priest into the fold of MOQ. Instead of the "ultimate attractor", I would like to relate what this concept means in terms of the Intellectual Level. In my readings of "The Future of Man", I was struck by the similarity between the authors paradigm for his Law of Complexity and Consciousness, and the systems approach which is used for the levels in MOQ. It can be proposed that each level is marked by a level of consciousness. This awareness is non-overlapping and exclusionary between levels. By way of example, our human intellectual consciousness is something that cannot be fathomed by the nerve cells that make it up. In the same way, the consciousness of the nerve cell is distinct from that of the inorganic level. The intellectual level can be seen as a conscious being which is made up by individual intellects, but cannot be fathomned by these individuals (just like cells being unable to comprehend the consciousness of the entire body). This intellectual level is in concordance with Teilhard de Chardin's concept of levels of complexity. The tangled human mind (web) brought forth by every increasing communication would form the noosphere as proposed by Vladimir Vernadsky. This "web" provided by complexity of communication can be said to have a consciousness of its own. As humans we can use our imagination to extrapolate and analogize. Through understanding of the relationship of our individual cells to our whole body, we can imagine the relationship between our minds and the intellectual level. While we have no true sense of the intellectual level, we can speculate that such a thing exists as a continuum of the inorganic / biological / social / levels. Even the social level is outside of our true understanding, but "moves" on its own accord; we being the cells that make it up. Just as our body/brain forms a purpose to the cells which make it up, the intellectual level provides a purpose to our intellectual trends. A wholistic approach to understanding this purpose could be obtained by taking the sum total of intellectual "evolution" and observing "movement" therein. It would appear like some unknown beast. To bring us back to the writings of Tielhard de Chardin, John McConnell touches on the "radial energy", which is that which draws towards ever increasing complexity. The levels proposed by Pirsig can suggest that "energy" to be dynamic quality. This presents the arrow of betterness, and the Omega Point is that encompassing presence of Quality, rather than some attractor. The Omega point is not a teleology any more than any intellectual construct, and I beg to differ from Pirsig here (See comments by P. Turner at the end of the essay by J. McConnell). I am in agreement with P. Turner's recognition of the works of Tielhard de Chardin, and find other parallels between his work and MOQ. The mind constructs that from which it is made. We intuit atoms and stars for that is the make up of the human body. We project outward that which we have inward. With this in mind, it is not surprising that many metaphysical formats repeat each other. The only difference is in the words used. What I present above in terms of the Omega Point is much more clearly presented in a book by Allan Coombs and Mark Holland entitled "Synchronicity", in chapter 2. There is no doubt in my mind that Synchronicity is fully in line with the teachings of MOQ. That, however, is a discussion for another day. However, for those interested, the book: The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and Self, by Jean Shinoda Bolen is a good place to start, as it discusses Carl Jung's ideas. The relationship that Pirsig draws between the Tao and Quality extends to Synchronicity. Cheers, Mark > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
