Unmaking Sense

Episode 12.61: Learning continuously with AI: an illustrative foray into Chinese history.

The opium wars; the last emperor; the Sino-Japanese wars; Manchuria; and more recent events in Chinese history.

Episode 12.60: An eventful few days.

The UK General Election; more football; some tennis.

Episode 12.59: Why do we care about national teams?

Our propensity to be more interested in the fortunes of our compatriots, even naturalised compatriots, demands an explanation. Is it merely primal tribalism or is there more to it?

Episode 12.58: Why are originals more valuable than forgeries?

We consider why a an absolutely perfect copy of a painting down to the atoms of paint and canvas is worth less in both aesthetic and financial terms than the original. What does this tell us about creativity? Or information?

Episode 12.57: What are the sources of what writers write?

Where do the ideas we write down, speak about, paint, sculpt and compose come from? Not where we usually think.

Episode 12.56: A few comments on the UK general election

Some random thoughts on politics and society in the light of ontological inversion.

Episode 12.55: Endless Questions and Temporary Answers

Why? Endless chains of questions without final answers. Russian dolls and leaves on trees. True happiness as other-centred. General Elections and tides in the electorate’s minds. Happy Independence Day!

Episode 12.54: The England Euro24 Performance and Ontological Inversion

In an unlikely departure as it might seem from our usual philosophical discussions, we turn to the performance of the England Men’s football team in Euro 24 as an example of “inside first outside second”.
We use this desultory performance as an example in other words of putting the individual first and the team second. One could scarcely have a more graphic example. It’s an illustration of the debilitating effects of forgetting the Alf Ramsay principle of “running off the hall”; of making chains of great passes possible by working hard.
The problem in essence is that they think that the person holding the ball is the one who makes the play when it is in fact the team as a whole that has to position itself in such a way as to optimise that player’s opportunities to make the most of the ball that he has at the time. In a nutshell they need to transfer their thinking from “inside first” - individual first - “outside second” - team 2nd - to “outside first” - team first - “inside second” - individual second. Then they might get somewhere; otherwise they won’t. 

Episode 12.53: The Holographic Principle in Language

We consider ways in which the holographic principle from physics that we talked about quite a lot in series 11 can illuminate the way in which we use and abuse language. In particular, we consider the relationship between the society that is the source of our language and the consciousness that knows itself through language. This affords another example of the ontological inversion we have been talking about in terms of inside second outside first. 

Episode 12.52: If I am who we are, how do I become someone else?

The controlling influences of social, religious and political practices potentially  enslave us to the things they teach as fact. If they also try to dissuade us from thinking, we are doubly disadvantaged. So if society makes us who we are, how do we change? If we abandon our society, do we lose ourselves? Pivotal moments, points and reconsiderations as keys to changes of mind.