What scary stories mean

Man is still evolving. He [everyone] has an awareness of this, but cannot directly face this open  edge, so to speak, because it is logically contradictory to his assumptions about his own competence and importance. Perhaps this is related to the desire he feels for scary stories. It is like he can look at his own unknowable future in a mirror. But why should that future edge be frightening. The scary part relates to his reliance on the presumption his binary rational mind is the best tool to deal with the world. Why after all should the unknown in itself be scary.  Only it seems to me because this prospect directly challenges the presumptions underlying his perception of his own self-worth.

That creaky board in the attic means your assumptions don't really weigh what you think they do.

Heraclitus and Parmenides Walk Into a Bar

Heraclitus and Parmenides Walk Into a Bar.
They look at each other as they raise their steins.
"To solid gold" says Heraclitus.
Parmenides says, "To constant turbulent effervescence."

From the corner of the bar Schrodinger's cat narrows his eyes.

this slogan or that slogan

Not the best example I have noticed today,(October 9, 2016) perhaps, but this headline from the Nautilus newsletter, seeks to interest readers in an article with this headline:
We like to think modern man is inherently different, better somehow, than our ancient forebears. But is that just wishful thinking? 

Newsroom wise that headline must be pretty good--- it got my attention. Even so, just a little thought reveals these sentences to be total gibberish.

Yes, we like to think modern man is inherently different;
yes that is is just wishful thinking.

But man IS different, and alike both, both now, and then.

We inherit the realm of wishful thinking every morning, at least til we have coffee. And then we wishfully think, along with many other thoughts. and we still arrive at work, and valid conclusions, regardless of the hue of our thinking.

My point is these thoughts AND their opposites are equally appropriate.

To pick one, ANY ONE, of these options, yes or no, is to lose a reality which might be glimpsed.

What I am pointing to is the plausibility of that headline. It sounds learned and intriguing; who notices it is ridiculous? That is, if one can stand apart from the ordinary thinking process.

A Myth of Myths

Interesting article in Scientific American about myths. I am not sure how long that link will work, but I found it originally in the Three Quarks Daily newsletter. Here is the gist:

Folklorists, anthropologists, ethnologists and linguists have long puzzled over why complex mythical stories that surface in cultures widely separated in space and time are strikingly similar. In recent years a promising scientific approach to comparative mythology has emerged in which researchers apply conceptual tools that biologists use to decipher the evolution of living species. In the hands of those who analyze myths, the method, known as phylogenetic analysis, consists of connecting successive versions of a mythical story and constructing a family tree that traces the evolution of the myth over time.

My point is not the use of the word "scientific" above, although it sounds like window-dressing. It is rather that a simpler explanation never occurs to people: these parallel developments may indicate that humanity itself is one organism. Such would offer another possibility to explore by way of understanding "the striking similarity" of cultural ideas "widely separated in space and time." This perspective would suggest that the myth people cling to is of an individuality and separation, which may not be based on much evidence.

Minding the man

An article about research on animal minds, such as the intelligence of gorillas.

What they fail to account for is the question, what is the human mind?  Without a stable answer to that question, the researchers can only flail about discussing the cunning of beasts. What exactly can "anthropomorphic" mean, in no one can identify what distinguishes man?

Isaac Asimov when you need him

And to  open our celebration of Nobel Prize announcement week, we quote a quote we just found this morning--

There is a quote attributed to the scientist and author Isaac Asimov

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny...’

That edge of dawning mystery--- that is what Jan Cox pointed to. His goal was finding this point, and (contra modern science) staying there as long as possible.

Out of the mouths of BBC commentators

NPR just mentioned this:

the Kurds have a phrase, no friends but the mountains.

This is wonderful on many levels.

No
friends
but the
mountains.