Remusings

Until very recently, the term 'consciousness' was exclusively reserved to describe only the human experience of cognition and thinking. This was, of course, a result of the hegemonic scientific dialectic in our society. By its monopoly over definitions, science was determined to keep the animal kingdom away from being conscious at all. Until apparently sometime in 2012 this happened . However, the curious thing about it was that this admittance of animal 'consciousness', occurred much more like a UN resolution, than as a scientific breakthrough. Instead of the time tested age old scientific methodologies of "truth-finding", the definitional laxity occurred in the form of the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which was signed into existence by a group of prominent international scientists. While the comedy of the situation was ticklish to me on its own, it also drove home a very obvious point as well - that essentially, science has very little to say...

In Berlin, you can actually feel the air fossilized in its history. While one can argue about the phenomenological contradictions inherent in that, the sensation of it is undeniable. The city has seen itself as the focal point of geopolitical watersheds that have shook the foundations of human civilization in the last few centuries - blinding flashes of human achievement, alongside some of the darkest moments of human history. Keeping aside the subjective judgments on these historically gargantuan episodes, Berlin has been "the time" and "the place" of immense significance, many times over. I had heard that the Germans loved their beer. But their newfound pride in their wine was news to me. Therefore, although I found it strange to be having the grape brew one evening in Berlin, Professor I. F. was a man of very specific tastes - namely vino rojo. Sitting on the window ledge of a spacious apartment in Wedding, we had been mumbling through the didactics and reveri...

F: I could accuse you of the same fault Terence, of sweeping generalizations and knee jerk aversions. T: As is your prerogative of course. But do tell more. F: Your constant tirade against modern science and rationalism , bears within it many contradictions you know. It seems like your demonization of science is solely calling for the glorification of the irrational. How can that not be anything but simply reactionary? T: Granted. I do have a particular bent for the irrational and absurd . And I do seek out and revel in finding the edges of the impossible , the improbable , the unexplainable , and to some the indigestible . But, the way I see it, I am simply tooting for the underdog here. Don't you think the irrational deserves a mascot too, like science is for the rational? F: But don't you find that to be quite myopic, un-ruminated? T: Rationally, yes. Irrationally, well.... F: Now that is just aversion! T: Okay. You got me there friend. But my reverence for ...

It was one of those conversations had in tipsy stupors, when the topic of religion materialized in our midst. The thread that led to this theme included multiple steps - beginning with the sorry state of our world today, quickly transforming into global geopolitical dynamics, to the polarities of East vs. West. Hanging out with social scientists can lead one into such snaking trialogues, which more often than not were cyclical. And too often they ended with somebody raising their arms in despair and yelling "Fuck it! It's all going to hell!" "Western religions are not worth busting your heads over!" said my friend, almost on the edge of one of those cries of despair. Terence and I were being thoroughly entertained by (and partaking in) Baba's periodic outbursts for a couple of hours now. "These religions are suffering from such a crisis of spirit. There is nothing left in them. Christians are no longer christians -their new religion is money!" ...

The Soul of Time by Trumbull Stickney THE SOUL OF TIME  T IME'S a circumference  Whereof the segment of our station seems  A long straight line from nothing into naught.  Therefore we say " progress, " " infinity " —  Dull words whose object  Hangs in the air of error and delights  Our boyish minds ahunt for butterflies.  For aspiration studies not the sky  But looks for stars; the victories of faith  Are soldiered none the less with certainties,  And all the multitudinous armies decked  With banners blown ahead and flute before  March not to the desert or th' Elysian fields,  But in the track of some discovery,  The grip and cognizance of something true,  Which won resolves a better distribution  Between the dreaming mind and real truth.  I cannot understand you.  'T is because  You lean over my meaning's edge and feel  A dizziness of the things I have not said. ...

boundary ˈbaʊnd(ə)ri/: a limit of something abstract, especially a subject or sphere of activity. "a community without class or political boundaries" The human story on this planet can be viewed essentially as a progressive creation of boundaries, with the intended consequences of facilitating interpretation and bringing meaning to the cosmic data. In that sense, history then is not simply a "trendless fluctuation" or "random walk" of events, but more like a sprint in a specific direction - resulting in the creation of progressively more complicated boundaries. At an individual level, the first imposition of a boundary in our being, is in the very act of being born. By which, each and every one of us, without intention or consent, are destined to begin our journey by setting the most ephemeral (yet the very real) of all boundaries - between life and death. It is a preconditioned boundary, necessary for the possibility of the phenomenon of li...

The human facility for language is arguably the most bewildering behavior possessed by any species in the known history of the planet. It is the ability to cognize a thought, by generating small mouth noises that travel through the air as acoustical reverbations. Following which (in a dance of mirrored reflection) the same reverbations fall upon the eardrums of a receiver, mapping sound waves into perceivable thought. The singular requirement for the completion of the loop, is that there must be a mutually agreed upon dictionary as reference between the cognizer and a perceiver. Even by the most flattened definition of the much debated phenomenon of telepathy.... Telepathy tɪˈlɛpəθi/ noun:  the supposed communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses. synonyms: mind reading, thought transference ....the phenomenon of human language is clinically the same enterprise - transference of thought from your mind to mine. There is also our miraculous a...