The whistleblowers are civil servants,  like antibodies fighting the cancer in our political system.  (Reblog from Jilldennison quoting Thomas Friedman in the NY Times.)

For more, visit Filosofa’s Word

KILL IT!  (Heading taken from Sheldon Kopp’s  If You See Buddha on the Road, Kill Him,)

I went to bed last night slightly depressed after reading much in Daniel Dennett’s book From Bacteria to Bach and Back–The Evolution of Minds.   

Last night I dreamed I had gotten a ride with two other women, and we spent the night in a hotel.  I was in a room by myself and they shared a room down the hall. The next day I had a lot of stuff to repack and fit into their vehicle.  The owner of the vehicle was driving and I feared she was going the wrong way. The landscape was unfamiliar and I learned she had not been following a map.  I wasn’t sure even what state we were in. I looked at the sun which was several degrees to the right  overhead, and was unsure myself if we were going in the right direction. There was a tie-in toward the end of the dream with a regular meeting at my house every Wednesday. I didn’t send out a notice about it, but motivated people showed up. I am unsure of the status of that arrangement  at the end. School was out and people were leaving for home. I didn’t know if anyone would come at all.  Perhaps a few came before I got home and settled themselves in.  I had not prepared wine or food for them, however.

Themes: Group communication    (recuring)

Lacking vittels (little to offer others)   (recuring)

Not in control of my destination.

Lost.

Before retiring last night I had been bothered by Dennett quoting

“Comprehension is so  passe, so vieux jeux, so old-fashioned!  Who needs understanding when we can all be the beneficiaries of artifacts that save us the ardurous effort?” (Feynman ?) …Dennett observes, however, that the supply of high tech repair persons  is dwindling or non-existent (p 407)

Dennett quotes Chomsky, “we accept the best  explanation science can give us…It doesn’t matter what we can conceive any more. We’ve given up on that.” (Dennett, 374).

How can we willingly turn over our reason to robots? Perhaps emergence has led us so, but as E.O. Wilson and even Dennett has observed, current humans are becoming more capable of impacting our evolution. It could be in a benevolent way, but is surrendering our comprehension benevolent?  Perhaps only if one wants to change the meaning of human.

___

I’ve recently realized how much of a 2-way street the connection between the  Conscious and Unconscious is.  I was about to write a treatise on how to connect with the Unconscious, when I realized the many ways the Unconscious tries to get in touch with us. Is that anthropormophizing?  They’re both human, not animals.  If not human, then what?

Freud spoke of dreams as the royal road to the unconscious.  Is it perhaps the other way round?

I’d better go find something to eat. Why have I recently turned vegetarian?

 I’m sorry, okay?

My footprints are bigger than yours.

I don’t ration trips to the stores.

I don’t know my neighbors and

they don’t know me. But

Hey, I’m shy, that’s why.

I’ve unanswered letters galore–

don’t dish up food for the poor.

I fail to keep promises

and tend to run late

In my heart I know that

I am a cheapskate.

My dark side holds sway

Even during the day–

A non-vegetarian

Unitarian, a retired lady

Of leisure but hey,

I’m sorry. Okay?

nm 2011

I’m trying to purchase a book online and it’s difficult and they make you pay for the phone call for help. Are they trying to separate the wealthy wheat from the poor chaff?  I go surfing for the book instead.

She lies upon clean cotton sheets, a cocoon

curled into itself inside this benevolent

holding cell, mesmerized by the soft

click clicking of the overhead fan

whispering  that she is still alive. During the

split second as she is siphoned away with

no warning,  will she realize why the sound has stopped?

nm circa 2014

I’ve changed my mind (and not for the first time). I’ve decided not to get completely organized by the time of my surgery in February, but to work on it for 15 minutes a day and the rest of the day continue finishing my new (just started) book.   Earlier I had sworn never to write another non-fiction book, and I changed my mind about that, too.  I wonder if changing one’s mind is a sign of old age or renewal or no sign at all?

I decided this last night and decided to follow my advice in Stepping Stones to the Depths, which I am just beginning and whose contents I can’t publish if I or my literary executor try to get it published–following my own advice as I go.  This journey of my experience in writing the book will appear on my page on Dreams on this blog. I still haven’t gotten clear about entering on pages and/or blog proper, but I’m sure I’ll be finding out soon.

Anyway, for two days now I’ve been a vegetarian, and last night’s long dream brought me several new/old ideas about my topic (different ways to visit the unconscious).