[FRIAM] The Sign Game

2016-11-17 Thread Nick Thompson 
Dear Members of the Local Congregation, 

 

There will be a short quiz tomorrow. (};-)] Please see attached. 

 

Nick 



TheSignGame.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document

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Re: [FRIAM] Please I need help with a technical term

2016-11-17 Thread Vladimyr Burachynsky 
Nick,

 

I don’t usually ascribe madness to any  writer . There seems to be too much

of that sort of thing lately.

Never attribute to an action, malice, when stupidity serves as well. 

 

I started thinking about the evolutionary origins of Conflation.

And low and behold I wrote some code to experiment on myself.

I work with images mostly and how we infer meaning to what we see.

 

My brain at least will conflate at certain frame rates and not at other slower 
speeds.

Since the images are computer generated they have no intrinsic meaning, so why 
does speed

of presentation  impart some attitude from my brain is quite curious.

 

Then it occurred to me that eyes require a major contribution of neurons to 
make appropriate sense

out of visual chaos. Those neurons supply us automatically with an imperative 
when we see certain patterns.

Brains are not recognized as using extravagant techniques to supply us with 
meaning.

vib

 

How goes the battle, good luck.

 

 

From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Nick Thompson
Sent: November-17-16 1:09 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Please I need help with a technical term

 

Victor, 

 

Why would you ever expect Lacan to report accurately on his on mental state?   
Or even to know it?  What special privilege does Lacan have to know his own 
mental state?  

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

  
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Vladimyr Burachynsky
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 11:32 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Please I need help with a technical term

 

to Frank 

Curious, a trained psychoanalyst had difficulty determining Lacan’s mental 
state.

One only has to attempt reading his work.

vib

 

At least Zizek has some funny lines about bathroom seating and the focal 
centres, English, German ,and American .

I think he missed the Italian tiled pit and the Bavarian Watering Hole.

 

From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: November-16-16 8:00 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Please I need help with a technical term

 

Vladimyr,

Two of my closest friends in Pittsburgh were senior psychoanalysts.  One was a 
female and a child training analyst (the pinnacle of the profession).  The 
other was a male and was very involved with philosophers from the University of 
Pittsburgh (one of the best graduate programs in the US).  They were discussing 
Lacan and the female said, "He's crazy, isn't he?". The male said, "What 
difference does that make?"  Irrelevant to your points but an amusing memory.

Frank

Frank Wimberly
Phone (505) 670-9918

 

On Nov 16, 2016 6:44 PM, "Vladimyr Burachynsky"  wrote:

Nick,

 

Eco describes a situation where the object is its own sign and the confusion 
just keeps getting worse when

the Thing described as an object , turns out to be a counterfeit. If you wish 
to  elaborate on what is an object

you may have a problem since every possible object only exists as a symbol in a 
viewer’s mind and some minds are rather 

perverse in what they consider to be real in any sense.

Eco hinted at some 19th century erotic  literature having a more profound 
effect than the real.

E.O. Wilson described a species  of moth where the males attempted to gang rape 
Tinsel lures cast out into a field.

The object gets the distinction of that name only when perceived by a witness.  
If I recall correctly the males entirely ignored the females.

 

A self guided robotic vacuum cleaner never identifies the obstacle as a chair 
or sleeping dog, nor is it even a requirement.

 

I once tried to read Jacques Lacan  but never finished due to all his baffling 
jargon.  I thought him a charlatan.

Then I tried reading Claude-Levy Strauss , Savage Mind,  and started seeing the 
historical line of thinking.

 

Strauss tried to develop a formalism based on some weird type of graphical 
geometry and all his parameters were given metaphorical names but never any 
clarity.

You would be welcome to these if you lived closer. Slavoj  Zizek tried to 
modernize Hegel and Lacan and actually got some  real laughs. He is  very 
prolific and an easier read than Lacan.

 

Umberto Eco is much more methodical and Kant and the Platypus is still a 
difficult work to plough through.

Eco died last year but his body of work should help you and is well referenced.

 

The Lion is an object as well as a symbol. When the symbol of a lion is 
juxtaposed with a symbol of a royal family it becomes another level of 
symbology.

Place the Lion at the foot of a child and we have another composite symbol. 
When CS Lewis used

Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: TED talk

2016-11-17 Thread Marcus Daniels 
<>

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_good_trump_voter.html

https://twitter.com/hey__nikki/status/798904650384769024

Marcus


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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: TED talk

2016-11-17 Thread Owen Densmore 
WAT! No Nick? Here it is that I'm fascinated by a Social Psychologist and
his lovely set of concepts and solutions .. and No Nick?l  : )

I'm planning on getting one of his books and plow thru it. Any suggestions
on which on would be best? Probably "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People
Are Divided by Politics and Religion".

What grabbed me is his *immediate* dismissal of "reason", almost like it's
a dirty word in his field. Instead he's a bit Mike Agar'ish .. meet the
people and find out what their culture & daily life is like.

Boy did that succeed when he made it possible for Stephen (G) and I to do a
project with SFI .. reason was of no avail, so Mike goes in for a bit and
bingo, the doors are open and we're working closely with SFI's IT gang.

   -- Owen

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove