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The Price of Ignorance

March 5, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 08-09-07: An acquaintance or relative, I forget which, gave their old car to a teenaged daughter, who drove it till the engine blew up a few weeks later. Somehow she had never encountered the fact that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2008 Tagged With: abstraction, education, enjoyment of life, ignorance, language, learning, poverty of existence

But What Is Real? The Limits of Perception/Conception

March 4, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 05-19-07: I ended yesterday's post mentioning the importance of distinguishing fantasy from reality, which brings up a really big question: What is reality? Which reminds me of the current installment … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2008 Tagged With: complexity, free will, humor, illusion, language, perception, reality, reality-tunnel, Robert Anton Wilson, sensory, suffering, Tricycle

What’s the Point? Language In Perspective

March 4, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 05-11-07: To continue with yesterday's topic. If all the people who are saying, "Stay in the moment," are really saying, "Don't verbalize," what's the point? Our use of language is a major part of being … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2008 Tagged With: brain function, causality, choice, conditioning, free will, identity, language

What This Site Is About

When I realized that the idea of god was a joke, I thought that was the end of the story. Later I found that Christianity had shaped my values, and while some were worth keeping, many had lost their foundation—the meaning of life, for example. Something similar happened when I realized that the idea of free will was a joke, and I’ve spent the decades since both those realizations discovering and editing what Julia Galef calls the “orphan beliefs” they left behind. It’s a tricky business, and this blog has been a chronicle of my efforts to puzzle it all out, including reviews of related books. I hope you find it helpful.

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