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Have just discovered the philosopher Boethius.
Spending the night reading about him with many insights and revelations there. 🎓
Had never realized this until thinking it through now, but the beautiful yield and inverted yield curve in finance that we all know and love can be considered the same as the forward contracts concept of contango and backwardation. A yield curve that is inverted is identical to an asset in backwardation – we just call them by different names.
Just a brainstorm. If the power is provided from above the center of gravity, then it will be easier to land. Sent to @ElonMusk through twitter. : )
Alwin’s design proposal for a smoother vertical rocket landing.
I’m amazed at how humans know when something is heartfelt/emotional and how others remarkably respond to it. When a person speaks sincerely, through whatever mechanism, we tend to understand that person all the more through an emotional lens versus, just an intellectual one. I suspect part of the reason it is so fun to watch kids interact is because of the unfiltered emotional responses.
Often a compelling picture, word, piece of music has this unfiltered aspect, it radiates emotional energy which draws upon a built up well of emotion (and desire) from the communicator themselves. The act of releasing this energy/tension is given the name Catharsis (of course!) through the Greeks, or possibly earlier.
What is similar to watch is, to see a build of energy, whether electrical, heat, or otherwise.
When something becomes saturated with energy versus it’s environment, past a certain boiling point it can’t hold any longer and releases it. Thinking now through the analogy of a energy dissipation also applies to the emotional realm. Thinking about the conservation of matter/energy. The release of energy into the environment, from a radiating point is quite the same for both these forms of energy as it is for emotional ones. The art ‘function’ if you will passes that built-up energy to the surrounding environment.
Just a thought
Linking Crosswords and Poetry:
Read a poem in the subway the other day. It was a poem put there by the MTA.
As well as rhythm, and the ‘sound in the mouth’ kinesthetic sense of what it was to say them, this poem depended on rich associations of a some key words and symbols.
To map it, it is interesting to think of the effect of those words and branching to possible related. The opposite is true of a common crosswords technique, which uses this EXACT (not just close) same association technique but in reverse order. Giving the branches and allowing you to find the connecting root. It was cool to connect these two processes together as being the same.
Babies and de facto, no-design Design
Another type of mechanic/function is the evolutionary ‘does the job, doesn’t matter how’ one… Noticing that in other places. It doesn’t matter it doesn’t care. Why a baby decides it wants to speak or walk and is suddenly compelled to do it at a certain age, universally across most of our species. That it is driven by genetics and not just nurture seems to be obvious (Chomsky solved for the speech one, but am not sure who has done work on the others). What is interesting seems to be the fact that while the process and reason why a baby decides to playtalk is absolutely complex and is not understood, what are the triggers etc. The mechanism works reliably, just as all other other systems of our biology, for the most part.
Random experimentation with no design and only ‘pass’ conditions, creates interesting input output machines such as babies learning to speak, economic models where no one really understands the complexity but it crunches out, and many other processes. The complexity is enormous, but it runs somehow and reliably. Absolutely complex things can be bound in those ‘boxes’, for which we only need to consider the simplicity of the result, input/output/external conditions. It is an interesting way to design certain things. allowing for the process to figure itself out and only to count the result.
This is an extremely ‘meta’ post about life and happiness. But with that said, perhaps a hard won truth.
Without being too ‘abstract’ about it: Above the basics needed, the expression of courage is what brings happiness to life. It is why having kids, or giving to charity, climbing everest or making something beautiful is a worthwhile endeavor.
Without any positive engagement (and by engagement I mean Willful Acts times Risk – ie. the expression of courage in some way shape or form) these things are meaningless. I had said it earlier – resistance is what gives all meaning to life, and believe it (metaphysically-speaking) to be a related concept.
Perhaps an analogy is as simple as mass applied to vector. In this case resistance is applied to (directional) will. The interaction of the two brings the world closer to the way you wish it to be.
Certainly not there yet, but it perhaps a personal breakthrough. Trying to understand all this.
Either way, I feel now that the expression of courage in some way shape or form is the most meaningful thing that you can do to find contentment within yourself.
My answers are usually quite – shall we say realistic – when people ask me what it is like to live in NY. It’s tough here, but the quality which I realize and now appreciate more. True of all big cities and all wide open places, is the ability to create your own reality and try to convert it into the reality of the world. Perhaps not your desired apartment or having to share a cafe table with 3 people – but inbetween that, you can start ‘swimming’ towards whatever vision you wish. Many times, people put themselves at the center of their chosen dream, they start building something where they are at its center on a pedestal, but not always. People who work for UN for eg (the truer spirits of that institution) come to form a community, same with people who may be on the gender spectrum outside of the norm, or ideologues in almost any pursuit. People will move to the suburbs or to Vegas to build a certain ‘reality’ too. Perhaps more so.
This constant transformation is something I really do like about living in gotham city.
Isn’t it strange that we need to consume life in order to live…. Even the strictest vegans will need to eat things once alive to gain their energy. The simplest grains, beans and vegatables were all once alive. You can survive only for so long with eating rocks, mineral salts and solar power (like trees do).
I feel like this is more a hallmark of evolution than it is a scientific requirement. We could probably just synthesize/convert energy (think heat or motion, in the form of the sun / those volcanoes. waves) and survive. heck plants are masters at it.
I guess that is how we were built. We need to eat life in either higher forms or lower forms (but some form) to stay alive. You could say – we need to eat DNA.
For Tomorrow’s – Infinity
For Today’s – A Dollar
For Yesterday’s – Nothing