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Author: ErrolErrol Date: Aug 26, 2008 02:09
I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
of the tower.
Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter
simply allowing consciousness to develop, universe versus multiverse,
quantum computing or not, holographic universe projected onto our
consciousness from higher dimensions, or plain vanilla universe with
no extra dimensions, the enigma of AI (could it ever really reach the
same level of consciousness as mankind?)
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Author: Don StockbauerDon Stockbauer Date: Aug 26, 2008 04:49
Errol wrote:
> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
> of the tower.
>
> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
> probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter
> simply allowing consciousness to develop, universe versus multiverse,
> quantum computing or not, holographic universe projected onto our
> consciousness from higher dimensions, or plain vanilla universe with
> no extra dimensions, the enigma of AI (could it ever really reach the ...
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Author: toolytooly Date: Aug 26, 2008 05:03
> I
> I suppose it all depends on the individual?s interpretation and degree
> of materialism.
>>Usenet is the Tower of Babel instantiated here on Earth in our modern
>>times.
I think the internet being a modern Tower of Babel is a very good metaphor.
The essential persona of the summation of the chaos we find here adds up to
a primal face that appears devoided of all virtue. It allows a forum for
the very worst of what we are. If there is any truth shown here, it is in
the primal human face we paint at this stage of it's development...which is
apparently still very rough, crude, and primitive.
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Author: Don StockbauerDon Stockbauer Date: Aug 26, 2008 05:19
On Aug 26, 7:03Â am, "tooly" bellsouth.net> wrote:>> I
> "Don Stockbauer" hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:72d3aa7d-bff8-49ea-8ffd-4e26f68e767c@v16g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
>
> Errol wrote:>> I suppose it all depends on the individual?s interpretation and degree
>> of materialism.
>>>Usenet is the Tower of Babel instantiated here on Earth in our modern
>>>times.
>
> I think the internet being a modern Tower of Babel is a very good metaphor.
> The essential persona of the summation of the chaos we find here adds up to
> a primal face that appears devoided of all virtue. Â It allows a forum for
> the very worst of what we are. Â If there is any truth shown here, it is in
> the primal human face we paint at this stage of it's development...which is
> apparently...
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Author: ErrolErrol Date: Aug 26, 2008 07:40
On Aug 26, 2:03Â pm, "tooly" bellsouth.net> wrote:>> I
> "Don Stockbauer" hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:72d3aa7d-bff8-49ea-8ffd-4e26f68e767c@v16g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
>
> Errol wrote:>> I suppose it all depends on the individual?s interpretation and degree
>> of materialism.
>>>Usenet is the Tower of Babel instantiated here on Earth in our modern
>>>times.
>
> I think the internet being a modern Tower of Babel is a very good metaphor.
> The essential persona of the summation of the chaos we find here adds up to
> a primal face that appears devoided of all virtue. Â It allows a forum for
> the very worst of what we are. Â If there is any truth shown here, it is in
> the primal human face we paint at this stage of it's development...which is
> apparently...
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Author: Don StockbauerDon Stockbauer Date: Aug 26, 2008 10:22
On Aug 26, 9:40Â am, Errol gmail.com> wrote:> On Aug 26, 2:03Â pm, "tooly" bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>
>>>> I
>> "Don Stockbauer" hotmail.com> wrote in message>
>
>> Errol wrote:
>>> I suppose it all depends on the individual?s interpretation and degree
>>> of materialism.
>>>>Usenet is the Tower of Babel instantiated here on Earth in our modern
>>>>times.
>
>> I think the internet being a modern Tower of Babel is a very good metaphor.
>> The essential persona of the summation of the chaos we find here adds up to
>> a primal face that appears devoided of all virtue. Â It allows a forum for
>> the very worst of what we are. Â If there is any truth shown here, it is in ...
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Author: Jerry KrausJerry Kraus Date: Aug 26, 2008 11:15
On Aug 26, 6:49Â am, Don Stockbauer hotmail.com> wrote:> Errol wrote:
>> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
>> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
>> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
>> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
>> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
>> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
>> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
>> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
>> of the tower.
>
>> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
>> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
>> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
>> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
>> probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter
>> simply allowing consciousness to develop, universe versus multiverse,
>> quantum computing or not, holographic universe projected onto our
>> consciousness from higher dimensions, or plain vanilla universe with ...
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Author: Don StockbauerDon Stockbauer Date: Aug 26, 2008 14:18
On Aug 26, 1:15Â pm, Jerry Kraus yahoo.com> wrote:> On Aug 26, 6:49Â am, Don Stockbauer hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>> Errol wrote:
>>> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
>>> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
>>> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
>>> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
>>> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
>>> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
>>> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
>>> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
>>> of the tower.
>
>>> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
>>> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
>>> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
>>> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the ...
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Author: ImmortalistImmortalist Date: Aug 26, 2008 18:14
On Aug 26, 2:09 am, Errol gmail.com> wrote:> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
> of the tower.
>
> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
> probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter
> simply allowing consciousness to develop, universe versus multiverse,
> quantum computing or not, holographic universe projected onto our
> consciousness from higher dimensions, or plain vanilla universe with
> no extra dimensions, the enigma of AI (could it ever really reach the ...
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Author: Don StockbauerDon Stockbauer Date: Aug 26, 2008 20:14
On Aug 26, 8:14Â pm, Immortalist yahoo.com> wrote:> On Aug 26, 2:09 am, Errol gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>> I read an interesting short story about the tower of Babylon by writer
>> Ted Chiang, in which humanity tries to break through the vault
>> separating earth from heaven. They build a tower miles high. After
>> they break through several hundred feet of stone, one of the
>> protagonists manages to scuttle upwards through the collapsing
>> tunnels, avoid the water pouring downward and crawls up to heaven.
>> After recuperating from his injuries, our hero discovers he is back on
>> earth and has simply crawled out of a hole in the ground near the base
>> of the tower.
>
>> Is this not a metaphor for the scientific effort of today where almost
>> every aspect of the universe and consciousness seems to have a
>> dualistic aspect, whereby everything seems to have either a
>> commonplace or a mystical interpretation? Consciousness collapsing the
>> probability wave and allowing matter to manifest itself or matter ...
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