the borders of I

We could understand the human mind as a processor of information and the human body as a processor of energy. Of course are both parts intertwined and connected and much more complicated than we need for the reasoning here. The important thing is that the mind works with information and the body with energy. External information and external energy.

Both things are not part of any given person. The connection to the world beyond our skin is obvious: we eat, drink, breath, bleed, touch … we listen, watch, smell, feel… over a certain time all these sensations sum up to form a personality that is valid at a given time and within a given context. This restriction of validity is because all the sensations were made in a certain context and are therefore bound to this context. A change of the context might add new signals and alternate the personality.

Nobody can be completely disonnected from a context. Even in an empty room we have the room around us and the feeling in us. To derive somebody of his complete sensual sensations would have a severe impact on his state of health.

Everybody acts within a given framwork of relations and personality is often affiliated with the mind. So we might take the mind in closer consideration.

To approach the topic from a different angle: What makes a personality? We might say: The parents, the education, the culture, the food, the environment… and some more. The parents deliver a certain genepool but also education and training and socialization. Somehow the same but on a different level does the enviroment and the culture. Our behavior is defined by many constraints we have no influence on.

Still… there is a mind behind the skull. This mind processes information and evaluates situations and comes up with decisions. But all this is based on external input. This input might happen just on time, for example during a dialogue, or long-term via education or experience. And some thing do not even need to be learned as they are already part of the basic pattern of behaviour defined by the genes.

So… there is no such thing a individuality or individual responsibility. It is more a vast network of brains and knowledge transferred via the means of communication and evaluation. Objects communicate as soon as a person evaluates a given scenario based on previous experience. This experience again did not grow in the brain but was gained through behaviour within a given context.

The solace of all this is, that we can’t get lost without leaving traces. Our mind is part of a bigger context and while some ideas a preserved via the mind, the idea might preserve some traces of a single persons mind.

Posted in observations generally, PhD | Leave a comment

In Egypt no news…

but that today is going to be as violent as the previous days, maybe more. Nevertheless there are still the bright sides as well, a clash of realties no drug might be able to evoke the strange delusion…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Emotions and power

The 30th of June was the turning point. Now the brothers are the hunted. And they are hunted with fierce and thoughtless anger. The brothers nevertheless shoot back and are trying to mobilize their people.

Tension rises and emotions grow. The thing which declines rapidly is the will or the ability to think. Every tiny piece of opinion is taken as pure infomation. Logic does not play any role any more. The masses are tumbling and no reason might be able to stop it. Only a few voices try to mediate between the different fractions, only a few people raise their voice to ask questions.

In times of threat, sorrow and anger it appears that there is only black or white, but no grey any more. This effect is well known and books are written about it. But still it is able to enfold its devastating force.

Posted in Diary, observations generally, on the road...cairo | Leave a comment

good night

Oh dude… no vision, no mission…(at least nothing you would tell us…) but something like legitimacy achieved through a tiny majority in a vote against SHAFIK… are you serious?

Dr. El Baradei… it is kind of known that communication is an important tool to solve problems.

Man!

Posted in Diary | Leave a comment

bread and culture

Nowadays it is often said that it is much more important to provide food than to provide culture. On the first glance this claim sounds quite obvious. But only on the first glance.

The core of each human identity is the brain. The brain needs energy to work, most often provided by food. Food is the tool to keep the brain running. At the same time this brain is the tool to plan how to get food. And to get food is only one task in the overall task schedule, mainly focused on the pure principle of survival. Survival is a very individual task, without any rules of how to achieve this.

This is the moment culture becomes important. Culture regulates and supports the human interaction and defines the context the individual is acting in. Bread keeps the individual running, culture keeps the system running. Without culture the system will collapse and most of the individuals might struggle to find bread.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

men and monster…

The social environment defines strongly how people act and interact. Also individuals which were known as someone change their behavior according to the social context. Everyone wants to be respected and to be liked and it needs a defined behavior within a defined social context to achieve this.

The death of a system is the organization of power in a pyramidal structure and the error-intolerance. The top of the pyramid does not make mistakes by any chance. Making mistakes is reserved for the people below the top. These people below the top are eager to contribute the errors which happen automatically once people act downwards the pyramid. The alternative is to stop acting.

The top of the pyramid defines a certain climate of possible success. The unwritten rules describe what people have to do to be successful within the system. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy – people invent behavior according to these unwritten rules and try to move forward according to these rules.

There is no such thing called personality. Everything happens within a social context. The difference between men and monster is a broad but invisible border.

Posted in Diary, observations generally | Leave a comment

the self-assigned borders of thinking

Design is a creative business. And as a creative business it demands open thinking in different directions. This is already quite difficult for people without any obvious inner regualtion and rule catalogue. But it becomes even more complicated, if people stick to a certain way of thinking with embedded do’s and do not’s.

As for the fact that his way of thinking was taught to children since the very beginning, it is not possible for the upgrown child, to think outside of these borders. The regulations fulfill themselves only by preventing the thinker to think about them. They are just given and used intuitvely.

An open mind needs the possibility to move everythere and and to connect to everything. This is the idea of creativity and this process normally generates the best outcome. If the thinker has some forbidden areas in the mind, the process turns out to become less intuiutive and more complicated.

Humans are not free. The only thing that gives them a certain freedom is the content of the brain and the ways, how this content is used. The mind content does not grow in the brain but the mind has the ability to connect content.The Freedom human can achieve needs content. This Freedom needs knowledge.

On the other hand each thought is already defined by language and brain structure. Humans can never think out of this structure. This is one of the necessary restrictions of thinking. Without any restrictions it is random thought which will lead to nothing but confusion. Lucky are the ones who are able to change the starting ramp of their thoughts and to adjust the perspective.

Posted in Diary, PhD | Leave a comment

Temporarily out of order…

and structure and common sense and some other things a proper working society would need. Egypt does not make the best impression these days. Police on strike, riots everythere in the country, lack of basic goods, government without direction and opinion and so on. Nevertheless, most of the people I meet and see are not affected by all this at all. As I read on Twitter: They could not care less! Egypt is on the edge and nobody really wonders. This creates as situation there it could be possible that someone with a strong arm just takes over. The situation could not be better and  some people are already calling for this strong arm. If the strong arm would be able to repair the situation is the other question. But it seems to be a quick solution. And this kind of solution has always been very tempting for mankind. Everything seems to be possible at the moment and it will go in some direction anyway. Surely this direction won’t be pointed out by the will of the majority of people but by other players.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This and that…

First new years victims... Coffee art Office ...state of the art Coffee art View onto the rooftops of Garden City View onto the rooftops of Garden City View onto the rooftops of Garden City Escalator engine... Escalator engine... Escalator engine... Escalator engine... View onto the rooftops of Garden City View onto the rooftops of Garden City

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The end of times

These days I often think about the reasons, why sometimes ideas seem to be a reason for violence, no matter which idea it is.

Thoughts that come to my mind elaborating this question are often related to compensation of a lack of something. The history is full of examples of people who were aware that they lack something and tried to compensate this with the exaggeration of the state they would be in, if they would not lack something.

Now mankind lives in a time which provides a lot of knowledge from a scientific point of view. This knowledge might collide with some ideas certain beliefs provide. Even people who are not able to read and who have no direct access to this knowledge, might feel that there is a nameless threat to their perceived reality. As people are normally afraid of changes in their environment they try to protect it.

So it comes, that the subconscious or even conscious experience that things are changing and that some aspects of the scientific reality as well as the lived reality are about to invade a long fostered image of a particular belief.

At all times it was a normal human reaction to defend oneself with violence. And as the defended thing it now the possible core of a reality of a particular person or groups of persons, the defense is fierce and emotional. This defense is necessary, to show to oneself and to the others, that the own reality is still valid and exists, against all threats. The stronger the sign, the stronger is the support for this particular reality. So one can see burning objects and can see burning persons. An idea is protected with the destruction of important real things because it is this destruction, which transfers the idealistic weight of the destroyed objects to the idea.

A law of nature is that no transformation can be done without a loss of substance. To deny an already perceived new reality is always weaker than the positive support of a new idea. Nevertheless the fight of the desperate ones is the fiercest and most determined possible.

Posted in Diary, PhD | Leave a comment