On the plane again. Now I travel so much it seems a good way to gain solitude.
Printed one of Mike's earlier e-mails to read, the one about his discussion with Josh and his thoughts on artificial intelligence and how human brain works. Then suddenly a light was turned on inside my head!
Where do all my insights come from? Who sends them to me? How do I encounter them? I find myself more and more thinking about things metaphysically or mythically. I no longer try to find absolute answers in science. Is this just a phase? Or an actual change, a linear displacement of my comprehension or mentality?
What I thought (or realized, or gained insights to--insight is an interesting word, IN-SIGHT) is such, Mike is right, Josh is right, I am right, in all our approaches to solve problems and to understand the world. Here I would not say that we each has our own preference that kind of crap. I think we are on different point of the big cycle of human understanding.
Each point informs each other! Mike's mechanical universe tells how we think, Josh's virtual universe tells what reality means, and I try to summarize, but my world view is also only a starting point for exploration. Only when one is enlightened and one with all, can one transcends everything and no on a point. (What do the Mikes think of enlightenment?)
On important point is: every point on the cycle is equivalent. Every point in the universe is equivalent, even two completely different "concepts" that aren't in the same category, for example, "red" and "eigenvalue". Somehow, in the big universe, each is just a point, and through each point, the whole can be gazed, learned, interpreted, and marveled. But it cannot be solved. There isn't a linear path to the Ultimate. Any path is only a point, and is equivalent to any other point, and thus no better and no worse.
The Whole, the Ultimate, the Singularity, God, Enlightenment, etc., is only granted as a vision suddenly, without any reason, without any means of preparation. It is a gift. It is a blessing. Poetry can induce a touch with the Divine just as much as meditation or scientific inquiry (or even eating a burger, but probably unlikely since I would imagine that the brain needs to be active during the process, or the state of the being needs to be higher, closer to Truth).
OK, I know I am finding a contradictory myself just now. Higher is a linear term. In my view of the cosmos, there isn't such a thing as linearity. All is circular. In fact, all adjectives should be banned! Any adjective would indicate a linear comparison--high vs. low, close vs. far, red vs. green, good vs. bad, etc., and a scale can be made whenever we have an adjective. Hmmm--I must recognize the nature of adjectives. Do not dwell on them. Use them, play with them, but know that they are only what they are; they are only tools what we human beings use to perceive the world.
Talking about the wave nature of the world, and also its cyclic nature, these two theories can be nicely combined. In a wave, all individual particles go into a circular motion while the energy/wave front is propagated in a linear direction. I must try to learn more about the physics of waves. I want to gain some more insights.
But where do all these insights lead me to? Am I still trying to build my own branch of metaphysics? But I know the nature of my arguments--no better and no worse than any others. No way to build an all-conclusive religion or philosophy. Then what?
Only thing is to reduce to reality, and enjoy these moments of delightful insights.
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Landing. Suddenly thought about Yin/Yang principle. This principle probably is "bigger" than my "wave" or "cycle" theories. I think about the yin/yang diagram and its ultimate elegance, and how
two seemingly opposite "ideas" go about each other, equal in capacity, without a polarity or linearity. So, this will solve the problem for adjectives. For example, when we say in or out, there is no value judgment here, but merely a description of position in a yin/yang relation. Without "in" there isn't "out". Without good there isn't bad/evil. This subject seems to have been discussed countless times by all thinkers before me....
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At a restaurant in Santa Cruz. I don't know where I am going with this. I am a little lost now. Maybe more later.
