van HellSing on 7/9/2008 at 15:17

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Just the thought gives me a big... hadron...

Starrfall on 7/9/2008 at 15:42

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Just try not to collide it with anything, sounds painful.

demagogue on 7/9/2008 at 21:06

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Since I studied cognitive science I sometimes have these kinds of thoughts.

I think the most complex piece of technology is the human brain, and what's so incredible is that it's been in service as same, unchanged model for at least a 1/2 million years (to say nothing of predecessor models and current animal models). The point being that the way some emotional event struck somebody 100 years ago, or 1000, 10K, 100K, ~1M years ago, the way their limbic system creates a "world", it's still inside of us now just as it was then. Culture changes, but the architecture of happiness and sadness and thought and being "in a world" doesn't. And I tend to think that language and culture are thin veils to cover such emotions doing the real work anyway.

If there's anything that makes us special, it's how transparent this has all become now.
The veil has been lifted and you see a great continuity linking the whole history that we can tap into now (that's always been there but unseen).

As for applying that realization: those people wanting to debunk religion or politics or freedom or morality when they laugh at and dismiss historical ideas about theology or the nation or the self or altruism ... on a deeper level they often miss that, if you follow the arguments, they'll dismiss the same limbic system/ phenomenology that's laying the foundation for their criticism. It's self-destructive. (It doesn't have to happen, but it's likely if they aren't paying attention to it.) Forget the words for a second; look at what they mean behind the words. Don't get distracted. It's the same experience we have now, have always had, and will always have (until the up-grade model comes into service).

A person ignores the structure of that experience to their peril, cf any utopian movement trying to blindly re-wire human nature by fiat. History and literature can be read like a user's manual for human experience, if you read behind the words (& it helps to have some economics, cog-sci, phenmlogy, evolutionary psych, etc, as a guide). Anyway, that's my take on what Kolya's realization is pointing towards. That's how I feel when I'm reading works from all walks of life at all periods in history back to back.

The_Raven on 9/9/2008 at 19:48

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I finally got around to watching that the other day, it's awesome. :thumb:

heretic on 9/9/2008 at 22:06

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Ha-

Great find, that's priceless.