Freud 2.0

Copernican Revolution- The First Revolution

Fascination discussion here on what Luciano Floridi calls the “fourth revolution”. After the Copernican, Darwinian and Freudian revolutions reduced humanities unique standing in the world (Gould’s phrase “pedestal smashing”) Floridi believes that the current digital revolution is not solely a revolution of technology but also of pedestal smashing. He says this as the use of Avatars and the myriad “personalities” that we exhibit on a daily basis online, cause fundamental questions to what it is to be human.

I am unsure about this however: it seems that we might simply be seeing the logical progression of Freud’s revolution of the mind. Freud removed rationality from being the defining human trait and showed how we are slaves to our unconscious, A thorough reading of the psychological literature since Freud, shows that Freud was correct to smash the pedestal of our rationality, but incorrect about the ways our mind work. The digital revolution allows us to explore those aspects of our humanness that we have protected ourselves from for so long, and so rather then the 4th revolution, it appears to more be Freud 2.0.

After Circles Trailer

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Sorry No Posts!

My Theatre Company, Miscellany Theatre Productions have had its first London preview of our Edinburgh Fringe show, “After Circles” by Henry Martin.

After Circles by Henry Martin

So I am pretty busy at the moment; this weekend I will be responding to some critiques of feminism, offer perspective on the Daily Dish’s discussion on deception in dating and maybe even post a bit about G. E. Moore.

Stability and Failure

I spotted this interactive graph at ForeignPolicy.com, on the stability of countries worldwide. There are some interesting findings and I am quite surprised to see Ireland so highly ranked. Fifth “most stable” country in the world, moreso then the Benelux countries, Canada and Japan. It seems quite strange to me, though the 12 factors they examine are fascinating. (Screenshot below)

Synesthesia & Autism

Synesthesia has completely fascinated me since I first came across it in a psych book. I don’t believe I have any synesthetic symptoms except a slight ability to “feel” numbers, but this whole field is something that qualia-lovers have been looking into and I want to get more familiar with the current research from a philosophical perspective. Now there seems to be some research that synesthesia is caused by genes that have previously been implicated in autism. Note:

That doesn’t mean synesthetes are autistic (or vice versa). But it may explain synesthesia like symptoms reported in some forms of autism. Follow-up studies are under way to see if synesthesia is more common in those with autism and to explore other genetic coincidences, including possible connections among synesthesia, dyslexia and perfect recall (extraordinary memory ability).

There is a cracking video by Terry Timely showing synesthesia in action here. (H/T, The Daily Dish)

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An era of peace

Peace

Stephen Pinker has written an article on something I have felt is true quite a while. Despite our media telling us of war after war, killing after killing and our ears being filled with tales of violence daily, taking the world as a whole, we are actually living in the safest, most peaceful era of humanity. Key quote:

Far from causing us to become more violent, something in modernity and its cultural institutions has made us nobler. In fact, our ancestors were far more violent than we are today. Indeed, violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species’ time on earth.

We need to work harder at resolving the terrible conflicts that do occur, but lets not buy into media BS fully either. Its better to be knowledgeable and resolute then afraid and reactionary.