The double look on complex dimension
The perception of the occult? In the Middle Ages, this faculty made its bearer suspect of witchcraft. It is not so widespread. Alive during youth it is often lost in adults. Because it would be too rarely used? Doubtful. It does not involve reflection. The clues propose themselves to our consciousness. They come from the … Read more
Good interview with Dan Sperber in Philomag Synthesis of the ideas of this little-known author: 1) The opposition between nature and culture of Lévi-Strauss is to be qualified. The mind is not a blank page on which cultural knowledge would be inscribed. It is structured in a complex way from birth. 2) The epidemiology of … Read more
Klan of Crude Cry vs the Brotherhood of Refined Prose Two schools, which I like to call: the Klan of Crude Cry and the Brotherhood of Refined Prose. The Klan venerates Dostoevsky and Henri Miller, who praises “the tacit pact with myself not to change a line of what I write. I’m not interested in … Read more
Through the ‘Microreflections’ Alexandre Lacroix’s excellent ‘Microreflections’ conceals a particular nugget: ‘To put an end to the original sin of philosophy’. Alexandre presents ideals as the deities of an inaccessible world tyrannizing thought. The mind would only use a degraded version of it, and whoever observes this mind would only see the even more degraded … Read more
Some neologisms I call Diversium reality as a self-organized structure (self-organization diversifies reality as its complexity increases). We know several sections with this complex dimension. From the elementary to the sophisticated, I call them: Quantum (quantum vacuum > subatomic particles), Matterium (atoms > neurons), Stratium (synchronous neural group > self-awareness), Societarium (consciousness of others > … Read more
Helgoland, Carlo Rovelli’s excellent book already mentioned here, deserves a second article. He makes a concise and masterful assessment of interpretations of quantum mechanics, returning back to back those who vainly try to reconcile with classical mechanics and explaining why, in his opinion, conciliation is not necessary. Let’s quickly summarize the assessment: Everett’s multiple universes … Read more
How to start from self-referential notions? In this article I try to coordinate the following notions: individuation, information, communication, arrow of time, cause. Each of these notions is self-referential; impossible to define it in absolute terms; I am obliged to appeal to the concept itself. This shows that they are not ontological but properties of … Read more
Quantum theory is disturbing Helgoland’ is an excellent popular work by Carlo Rovelli. Tied with Étienne Klein, Carlo is the best at enlightening amateurs. More salient incursions into the philosophical field for Étienne, while Carlo does the same at the forefront of fundamental physics. Author of one of the most prominent theories of quantum gravity. … Read more
Oracle crashed 2022: The honest prophet finally admits illusory his belief that the world is predictable. The illusion is reinforced in periods of relative calm, by detecting in the past everything that makes the world today. Brutally the illusion explodes on an unexpected turn. The foot slipped on a virus. The mind goes off the … Read more
The retreat of the unknown What can make one aware of one’s ignorance? The unknown. The unknown draws a boundary to our individual knowledge. What if the unknown disappears? We are no longer faced with our ignorance. In our own eyes we become omniscient. Yet the unknown recedes and disappears from everyday life. The media … Read more