Intractable Problems

January 9 at 9:54am · Like · 1 · Remove Preview

Gregory Prinsze Whether or not it's necessary or helpful depends on a number of variables... including the field, the level you're at within that field, and the work environment including coworkers. 

There are some situations were it would be detrimental... For example, if most of the other people a psychopath is working with are normal and recognize him as a psychopath... or at least recognize some of the signs... that would probably hamper the psychopath.

Unfortunately, I think most people (including citizens acting in their capacity as voters) are not very good at recognizing psychopathy. This enables psychopaths to get away with much more than they would otherwise.

Moreover, the higher you go in the power structure, the greater the incidence of psychopathy. At the highest levels, it's the norm. The psychopath at the highest levels of business and politics is far less likely to stand out, to be discovered, and to be ostracized... simply because most of the other people he's working with are also psychopaths. At that level it's not only an advantage, it's probably a necessity.

I think as social structures have become ever more hierarchical since the dawn of agriculture, with ever more positions of power, psychopaths being naturally drawn to and attaining those positions has been an ever worsening problem. It's a huge problem today... the world is literally run by psychopaths, not only in business but also in politics.

January 10 at 5:27am · Like · 2

Barry Kort If a psychopath dwells too long in the top spot of the hierarchy, it's a good bet they'll have a comeuppance.

This was such a commonplace and predictable phenomenon that the biblical prophet Isaiah wrote about it in a memorably lucid metaphor.

In Isaiah 14:12, we find the prescient passage, "Oh how you have fallen from the heaven, oh shining light! How you are laid low, having weakened the nation."

"Shining light" is a reference to an otherwise unidentified luminary (we still call them "stars" to this day) who stumbles and falls, having let his nation of followers down. In the Greek, "Shining light" is rendered as "Lucifer" which then becomes an enduring reference to a "fallen angel" in some of the more fanciful exegetical interpretations.

Most recently, Bill Cosby was nominated to play the role of fallen "shining light" of his "nation" of followers. It's a fairly commonplace drama.

The same meme is echoed in the New Testament (Luke 10:18), where Jesus says, "I beheld the Adversary falling from heaven like lightning."

January 11 at 1:32am · Like · 1

Gregory Prinsze The biblical quotes are interesting... somewhat unexpected from a scientist! Even if you regard the conflation of shining light, Lucifer, and fallen angel as being a fanciful interpretation, I'd say it's a very widely held interpretation, including among clergy and biblical scholars.

Personally I do tend to conflate them... I interpret the "shining light" in the Isaiah passage as "Lucifer" and I also interpret "the Adversary" in the verse from Luke as being Lucifer. For those of us who subscribe to that interpretation, the question then becomes: Who, or what, is Lucifer?

I don't take any religious text literally, but I do believe that good and evil exist. I interpret Lucifer not so much as a personified being, but more as a concept representing evil. It could possibly be some sort of entity, almost like a virus, or perhaps like the Muslim concept of the jinn... though I have no way of knowing this, it's pure speculation.

At the same time, evil seems quite real enough to satisfy me of its existence, even if its exact nature is a mystery. But one thing in the real world which is verifiable and scientifically measurable to some extent is psychopathy. I'm inclined draw strong positive correlations between biblical symbols such as the fallen angel, Lucifer, the Adversary, the "entity" of evil, and... psychopathy.

Unfortunately I don't see the biggest psychopaths at the top of our existing hierarchies or power structures routinely getting their comeuppance. The opposite is true... the most powerful (not politicians, but rather financial uber elites) tend to stay in power for most of their lives. The only comeuppance is old age and death, whereupon the most psychopathic of their offspring take over.

So I interpret the Isaiah quote thus: The "shining light" is "Lucifer" who has "fallen from heaven"... but the reference to "How you are laid low, having weakened the nation" means that although Lucifer has fallen from heaven, he has risen to the highest level on earth. This is a reference to the extremely morally compromised, those who have become "infected" by whatever "Lucifer" is, and who have reached high levels of power as the psychopaths who are so clearly visible today... and presumably would have been in biblical times as well. 

Seen in this way, Lucifer the fallen angel is a sort of family of psychopaths in positions of power on earth. Falling from heaven does not mean they have received their comeuppance on earth... just the opposite, they have attained the highest positions of power. I interpret the quote from Luke in basically the same way.

Because positions of power have been attained by the wicked, they have weakened "the nation"... which could be interpreted as the nation of Israel, the Church, the polity of any nation, all of humanity on earth as a whole, or all of the above.

So I see these particular biblical references, and many others, as being allegories about evil within our midst... especially evil which reaches positions of great earthly power – typically psychopaths – and the need to recognize that evil. 

Once recognized, the goal is not only to avoid being "infected" by the "virus" as individuals, but also for humanity to collectively find ways of removing "the fallen angel" – psychopaths – from positions of power. Or at the very least, to greatly reduce the power of the positions they hold. We're not doing very well in this respect, which is a big part of the problems we're facing in my opinion.

January 11 at 4:21am · Edited · Like · 1

Barry Kort Evil can also be characterized as the Dark Triad (a blend of Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Narcissism).

In other words, Darth Cheney.

January 11 at 7:46pm · Like

Gregory Prinsze Dikkk Cheney is just one of many evil puppets... truly repugnant to be sure, but actually quite common in Washington, including both parties, and other capitals was well. It's epidemic at the higher levels of the power structure, and politicians merely serve as cover for the even bigger psychopaths behind the scenes.

January 11 at 7:51pm · Like

Barry Kort Oddly enough there is a remarkably deep (if sometimes obscure) connection between ideas in biblical texts and modern scientific ideas. 

It's often hard to recognize them because old fashioned metaphors are often interpreted literally, rather than as metaphors for abstract ideas.

The Hebrew word, Torah, literally means Science, Theory, or Customary System of Guidance. Compare 'Torah' to the Greek 'Theoria' which means "I behold." 

Ideas or theories were something awesome to behold.

January 12 at 10:35pm · Edited · Like · 1

Gregory Prinsze Interesting... I wasn't aware of the bible and science connection. What are some specific examples? Another interesting connection is that it often seems that various ruling elites are attempting to manifest biblical prophecy in the real world... as if they believe in the validity of the prophecy, and that it's their right or responsibility to help make it happen.

January 12 at 10:13pm · Like

Barry Kort I'll give you two significant (and related) examples, in three consecutive comments here.

Let's start with this one...

The oldest story in the Old Testament is the famous one about Adam and Eve, the Serpent, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In that story, the Divine Mentor advises Adam and Eve not to partake of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because doing so will lead to early and unnatural death.

Now that's a pretty clear prediction, although the story lacks an explanation as to why reckoning Good and Evil is such a perilous idea.

The reason it's perilous is because most humans will not reckon Good and Evil as a continuous axis -- as a spectrum -- but as two binary categories (a dichotomy). And then they will build upon that dichotomy a set of hard and fast rules, using the most powerful language of the era -- the Anankastic Imperative.

And so humans ignored the advice of the Divine Mentor and invented the Rule of Law -- a set of Anankastic Imperatives expressed as grammatical disjunctions of the form, "IF ... THEN ... OR ELSE ..."

It was the "OR ELSE" clauses that would bring early and unnatural death. Take a look at the Code of Hammurabi of Mesopotamia. The penalty for most transgressions was the death penalty.

St. Augustine analyzed this socio-cultural disaster and labeled it "Original Sin." I call it "Humankinds Original Logic Error" because (by modern standards) it's actually an idiotic blunder in mathematical reasoning. 

See "The HOLE Story" for more exegesis.

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/search?q=HOLE+Story

January 13 at 1:02pm · Edited · Like · 1 · Remove Preview

Barry Kort The reason the antagonist in that story is a serpent is because the solution to the conundrum is to replace the step function (depicted above) with a graceful (serpentine) curve, known to mathematicians as the Error Function.

If I were writing that Genesis story today, I would have Adam ask the Divine Mentor to explain what the problem is with reckoning Good and Evil. The Divine Mentor would then recruit the serpent to model the two functions -- the one with the 90° corners vs the graceful one.

It's obvious the serpent could not model the step function without breaking its spine.

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/.../disjunction...

January 12 at 10:52pm · Like · 1 · Remove Preview

Barry Kort The second example is connected to the Leviathan, which appears in the Old Testament as a Chaos Monster of the Sea.

The name, 'Leviathan' is not translated into English, but it translates as Legacy of the Levites.

The Levites were the second tier of the priesthood, the clerical bureaucrats. They took the esoteric Divine Guidance (mathematically akin to what we today would call Rocket Science) and reduced it to a list of Anankastic Imperatives (hard and fast rules).

In doing so, they discard the idea of Graceful System Regulation and regress to those damnable rules.

It was only during the 20th Century that mathematicians finally discovered and rigorously proved what the esoteric theologians had intuited all along: Rule-governed systems are mathematically chaotic.

In other words, "Law and Order" is a myth and a (mathematically demonstrated) misconception.

That's also why Thomas Hobbes entitled his philosophical analysis and critique of the Rule of Law, "Leviathan."

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/search?q=Chaos+Theory

January 12 at 11:00pm · Like · 1 · Remove Preview

Gregory Prinsze In the first two comments, you refer to "the Divine Mentor"... does that mean you believe in an entity such as God? If so, what about Moses and the Ten Commandments? Those are "Anankastic Imperatives"... or hard and fast rules... right? If so, and if we accept your thesis that such rules are human logic errors, they must not have originated from the Divine Mentor... they must be just another of mankind's interpretive errors. Or perhaps an intentional deception on the part of an impostor "God"... correct? 

Also, you seem to be describing the serpent not in the usual sense as a messenger of Lucifer, but rather as messenger from God who was misinterpreted... if only Adam had sufficient intelligence to ask for clarification, then perhaps the serpent could have delivered a more nuanced message from God, along the lines of the more graceful function you describe, and which the serpent's physiology symbolizes, as opposed to the more crude step function.

But the Bible clearly portrays the serpent as a messenger from Lucifer, tempting man to partake in the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge... this is man falling from grace, just as Lucifer himself fell from Heaven. Is that another human interpretive error? You're describing the serpent as a messenger from God who was misunderstood, or who man was incapable of understanding at that time. Does this mean that you believe Lucifer is the true God? 

If so, then is it the mission of man to evolve to the point where he sees and embraces the true light of Lucifer? Is this consistent with your notion of doing away with hard and fast rules or Anankastic Imperatives and replacing them with more "elegant"functions? If so, is this the equivalent of moral relativism? Is there really such a thing as evil?

Your interpretation of the Leviathan is very interesting... another parable for logic errors on the part of ancient man, but fortunately Thomas Hobbes was able to see through it. But the Bible, the Madras, and the Talmud all portray the Leviathan as a monster (presumably representing the Devil) who will ultimately be destroyed by God. So are all these texts just more examples of human error?

I'd love to hear your answers to these questions, but in any event we're back to something we discussed many months ago... namely that the misguided attempt to bring about "law and order" from rule-based systems is the core problem, and that the problem can be solved with a more elegant mathematics. But you never did describe the transition from math to real world social and political systems, nor did you answer the question of who would design the new system.

I remain skeptical on those last questions, in part because you didn't answer them before. But since you've introduced the fascinating new angle of biblical interpretations into essentially the same discussion we were having all those months ago, I'm very curious to know if you believe in moral relativism, the actual existence of evil, and the notion of Lucifer as the true Light, the true God. Is the "God" of the Bible really just an impostor after all? I'd love to hear your response.

January 13 at 1:22am · Like

Barry Kort Divinity is an abstraction. Like all abstractions, it's difficult to communicate without resorting to allegorical stories populated by storybook characters. 

Notice that the Ten Commandments omit the "OR ELSE" clause. People think of them as the Laws of Moses, but they are unlike secular laws in that they are really objectives. If violations of the Ten Commandments were expressly punished by a judicial process, there wouldn't be any Jews left to subscribe to the faith.

That's not to say there are not consequences. But the consequences are natural, not synthetic ones made up by some Inquisition Panel.

That's where Christianity really went of the rails. 

I've taught science and math for half a century. There are plenty of people who, for whatever reason, simply cannot or will not learn the elements of the STEM disciplines. But as an educator, I don't punish them. I simply don't recommend them for roles or careers where scientific or mathematical reasoning is an essential requirement. 

Torah is about Ethics. You can teach Ethics to a willing student, but not everyone will care to learn the subject. Most people simply cannot work out Ethical Best Practices for whatever situation presents itself. I reckon fewer than 1% of the population are competent to engage in Ethical Reasoning.

We don't know who crafted the allegories in the early chapters of Genesis. They are remarkably prescient, given the epoch in which they were written. But many of the metaphors are unfamiliar to us today, and most people take them literally, which is downright silly.

C. S. Lewis completely rewrote the New Testament in the Chronicles of Narnia, with Aslan playing the role of the Christ figure. I reckon a lot more children were able to decode C. S. Lewis, compared to decoding the New Testament.

The serpent is portrayed as misguided because it could not model what it was selling (or more precisely, what Adam and Eve were purchasing). It was no secret that the Rule of Law was an abusive system. After all, the Code of Hammurabi had been around for some 500 years by the time Genesis was written. 

For some as yet unexplained reason, our species isn't very good at continuous-valued logic (what used to be called Fuzzy Logic). It's still a fairly arcane subject. One tends to learn it in conjunction with Information Theory (which very few people ever get around to studying).

Last Sunday, I was listening (as usual) to WBUR, which is Boston's NPR affiliate that is connected to Boston University. The station broadcasts the Sunday worship service from Marsh Chapel. The sermons are quite erudite, as one might expect from Boston University's School of Divinity.

The sermon went back to the opening passage of Genesis and observed that the classical English translation does not quite capture the proper meaning. The Divine Process creates Order out of Chaos. 

In modern terminology, we consult Information Theory to apprehend the process of creating order out of chaos. And we consult mathematics for the methods that achieve that most efficiently.

The first thing to keep in mind, if one is intentionally creating order out of chaos, is to make sure the functional processes one is planning to employ are mathematically capable of doing the job. 

That's why I deprecate rule-driven systems. Today, thanks to Poincare, Lorenz, Mandelbrot, and a handful of other mathematical pioneers, we have a much better understanding of why rule-driven systems are mathematically chaotic (and a recurring source of political drama).

There were always a handful of theologians or philosophers or seers who apprehended this intuitively (and wrote about it allegorically). Today we can point to rigorous mathematical theory (as if anybody would actually sit still long enough to absorb and digest it).

So writers like C.S. Lewis, Daniel Quinn, Lewis Carroll, et al, continue to write their allegorical novels, because that's the only practical way to reach a mass audience.

There is no way to force members of our species to learn mathematics or information theory or systems theory or cybernetics. We just have to continue to search for ways to translate arcane theory into narrative stories and gradually educate the public, even as the public is already rebelling against the increasingly outrageous abuses of the Rule of Law and the Police State.

January 13 at 8:54am · Edited · Like · 2

Molly Counts wow... a whole dissertation on my timeline... too tired to read tonight l

January 13 at 2:48am · Unlike · 2

Barry Kort As a scientist, researcher, educator, and sentient being, I am fascinated by the following processes, which I seek to understand and participate in:

1. The Process of Creation in the Cosmos

2. The Process of Evolution in the Biosphere

3. The Process of Enlightenment in the Noösphere

4. The Discovery Learning Process in the Brain and Mind

5. The Creative Process in the Arts

6. The Problem-Solving Process in Engineering

7. The Peace Process in Human Culture

8. The Nurturing Process in Relationships.

9. The Healing Process in the Human Spirit

10. The Process of Falling in Love with Life and People

Discovering, experiencing, understanding, and participating in these (and similar) processes not only makes me feel alive and engaged with life, it makes me feel connected to God, Orenda, or whatever you like to call your Higher Spirit. 

Suppose one were looking for an English word that would capture, in one fell swoop, all ten of the above processes.

In my English lexicon, the word that comes closest to embracing those ten divine processes is "The Process of Becoming" (or just "Becoming" for short).

Now here is an exercise for you, Gregory Prinsze.

In the Old Testament there is an allegory in Exodus 3:13-14, where Moses learns the name of his deity. What is the divine Name of the deity of Moses? And how does one translate that divine Name into modern English?

Hint: יהוה is short for אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה

January 13 at 9:02am · Edited · Like · 1

Gregory Prinsze Barry, thanks for your comments. I think we agree that an ever-worsening problem is the outrageous abuse of power on the part of the Police State... and I would argue that the Police State is just one of many important elements of the Ruling Elite Power Structure. 

But I still think you're a little too hard on rule-based systems... or perhaps mistakenly identifying rule-based systems as the problem which is in most immediate need of a solution. The computers we're using to communicate right now wouldn't exist without rule-based systems. The software we're using is not only a rule-based system, it's actually a collection of several independent rule-based systems working together... and it works quite well.

I'm not saying that rule-based systems don't have limitations or inherent problems, especially when they're extended into the social and political realms, and of course I acknowledge the possibility of building better systems. But since we know that rule-based systems can function reasonably well (computers, modern communications, commercial aviation, the space program, mass transit, medicine, and food production are just a few of many hundreds of examples) I would still say that psychopaths in positions of power is a MUCH bigger and more proximate factor in the problems facing humanity, and this has been the case for thousands of years.

Also, you still haven't explained how the more elegant mathematics will translate into social and political systems. Exactly how will they supplant old fashioned rule-based systems and the rule of law in the real world? How will the transition be achieved politically? Who designs the new systems? How do we ensure that the new systems are not designed by psychopaths and their well-paid technocrats to further enhance their own power and control? I asked these questions months ago and you never answered.

Does the transition depend on continued use of allegorical narratives to gradually educate the public? My contention is we don't have time for that, especially if the allegories are focused on the wrong problems, or less urgent problems. After all, that's what we've been doing for 2000 plus years, and look where we are now. The sheer power of the ruling elite psychopaths (in terms of technological muscle, global reach, and economic, legal, and opinion-shaping control) is now so great that we don't have another 2000 years. We don't even have another 200 years... not even close.

There will either be an accelerated awakening to the problem of psychopaths in positions of power and a corresponding unity of purpose in removing them, or it will soon become too late to do anything about it. Right now the signs are that such an awakening is taking place, but the psychopaths in power are certainly aware of this, and it appears that they are prepared to instigate whatever is necessary in the way of new wars, destruction, chaos, and economic privation in order to prevent the general public from effectively organizing against them.

This is a FAR more immediate problem than the limitations of rule-based systems, and if much larger numbers of people don't become aware of it very soon, then global tyranny is very unlikely to be avoided. In any case, the wars, destruction, chaos, and economic privation might already be unavoidable at this point... the question is what will emerge in the aftermath. If the core problem of psychopaths in power is more widely recognized, and a unity of purpose to remove them develops across multiple nations, socio-economic classes, ethnicities, and religions, then the problems of humanity can be solved. If not, we're screwed... and this is true with or without rule-based systems.

January 13 at 7:29pm · Like

Gregory Prinsze As for the riddle you pose, I've heard various stories that the proper name for God is Yahweh, Elohim, I Am, Lord... what difference does it make? Why is this important? 

On the subject of abstractions being communicated via allegorical stories, I think the one which is most important is this: Satan or Lucifer is symbolic of evil. The strongest manifestation of evil is extreme psychopaths in positions of ever-increasing power. The portions of the Bible which can be interpreted as ethical teachings are exhortations to avoid evil... e.g. follow the Ten Commandments (or some similar ethical guidelines) and practice the Golden Rule. The fall from grace is symbolic of man's failure to do this, and Satan is representative of the "infection" of evil, not only on the individual level, but also on the macro level... the more extreme and virulent cases of psychopaths in positions of power.

What I like about this interpretation is that it makes sense, and it works whether "Satan" is a real entity or not... whether we take the Bible literally or only as allegory. It works just as well if "Satan" is nothing more than extreme psychopathy as expressed in a certain percentage of the human population. Moreover, psychopaths becoming ever more powerful (which we ARE observing as history unfolds) is the real world manifestation of biblical prophecy... whether the prophecy is literally true or just an allegory designed to communicate the abstraction.

In order to achieve understanding and participation in the ten processes you list above, I would argue that humanity must learn to recognize evil and to avoid evil on a personal level. Ethical lessons in the Bible and biblical exhortations to follow a righteous path are symbolic guides for this process. The ultimate challenge for humanity is to not only to do this on a personal level, but also to come together in recognition of organized evil (e.g. "Satan" or psychopaths in positions of power) and figure out how to solve that problem. 

What is unfolding in the world right now, including wider recognition of psychopathy (or evil, or "Satan") on the part of the general public, increasing insanity, greed, and megalomania on the part of the psychopaths, and the very real possibility of an apocalyptic World War III, together comprise an astonishingly accurate parallel to biblical prophecy. The believer interprets that as an example of "the word of God" being true and infallible. I interpret it as an example of remarkable wisdom and prescience on the part of at least some of the people who wrote the Bible. Either way, I'd say it's very important to pay attention to it.

January 13 at 7:29pm · Like

Barry Kort In TCP/IP, the 'P' stands for Protocol. Protocols are actually functions. For example, one of the most crucial functions in TCP/IP is the intentional randomizing of the waiting times for resending an unacknowledged packet. The waiting times obey a function that increases the delay between successive attempts, and also adds a random perturbation to the delay function. The parameters of these functions within the Internet Protocols are carefully tuned to achieve optimal performance. 

If the designers of these protocols had been obliged to use nothing more sophisticated than a finite collection of "IF ... THEN ... OR ELSE ..." statements, they would not have been able to craft a high-functioning system like the Internet. It simply would not have worked.

Reliable self-regulation requires that functions in the feedback loop that closely approximate the function-inverse of the applicable system model.

Rule-based systems are too weak to support system models and their function inverses. This is why Cybernetics works while rule-based systems typically go haywire.

January 16 at 8:53am · Edited · Like

Barry Kort If you review the Kohlberg Ladder, you will see that rule-based systems are about half-way up the ladder, roughly midway between pediatric models and high-functioning ethical models.

Advancing from binary rules to the Social Contract Model has proven to be too intellectually challenging for the vast majority of our species.

In other words, computers are demonstrably more intelligent than our species in that regard.

https://barrykort.wordpress.com/.../foundations-of.../

January 13 at 7:47pm · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort Since theory is too abstract, and narrative stories too slow, what's a third alternative?

Jane McGonigal and others think we can teach the fundamentals by means of games.

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/.../how-to-game-real...

January 13 at 7:50pm · Like · Remove Preview

Gregory Prinsze But what about operating systems? They are more "if... then, or... else" based than TCP/IP, right? And they work pretty well, don't they? Anyway, though very interesting, this doesn't really address the questions posed. How do you manage the real world political transition from rule-based systems to high-functioning ethical models? Who designs the new systems? How do you minimize the input of powerful and self-interested psychopaths? And the most immediate question is: What do you do about the adverse manifestiations of their ever-increasing power in the meantime? Thus far you have not answered any of these questions.

January 13 at 7:53pm · Like

Barry Kort To get rid of the corrupt Machiavellian psychopaths in high office, we simply have to discontinue the lamentable practice of voting for them.

If we, as a species, are too dumb to install ethical systems thinkers into the higher echelons of government, then I reckon the dire prediction in Genesis 2:17 will come true not just for a fractional percentage of the population (currently about 1.6 million deaths a year), but for our species as a whole.

January 13 at 7:55pm · Like · 1

Barry Kort Getting the names of things right is important. The first translator of the Torah, William Tyndale, botched the translation of a lot of the passages. He especially botched Exodus 3:13-14. But I notice that the newest translation, by the Jehovah's Witnesses, finally got it pretty close to the correct English translation.

If you get the translation right, it's not difficult at all to believe in the abstract idea encoded in the Name of the God of Moses.

http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/exodus/3/

Two of the more interesting passages regarding 'Satan' are attributed to Isaiah in the Old Testament and echoed (almost verbatim) by Jesus in the New Testament.

If a psychopath dwells too long in the top spot of the corporate or political hierarchy, it's a good bet they'll have a comeuppance.

In Greek Theater, this character flaw (the Hubris of Narcissism, Psychopathy, and/or Machiavellianism) was called "Hamartia" and established the basis for the classical Greek Tragedy in which the would-be Hero stumbles and falls, and becomes the Goat (whereupon he sings the Dithyramb or Goat-Song, lamenting his downfall). The word 'Tragedy' comes from 'Tragoidia' which means 'Goat Song'.

In the comic strip, Peanuts, Charlie Brown is the would-be hero who invariably fumbles and becomes the goat. (In some of the made-for TV versions, he later redeems and vindictes himself and becomes the happy-ending hero, after all.)

This classical dramatic arc was such a commonplace and predictable phenomenon that the biblical prophet Isaiah wrote about it in a memorably lucid metaphor.

In Isaiah 14:12, we find the prescient passage, "Oh how you have fallen from the heaven, oh shining light! How you are laid low, having weakened the nation."

"Shining light" is a reference to an otherwise unidentified luminary (we still call them "stars" to this day) who stumbles and falls, having let his nation of followers down. In the Greek, "Shining light" is rendered as "Lucifer" which then becomes an enduring reference to a "fallen angel" in some of the more fanciful exegetical interpretations.

Most recently, Bill Cosby was nominated to play the role of fallen "shining light" of his "nation" of followers. It's a fairly commonplace (dare I say 'banal') drama.

The same meme is echoed in the New Testament (Luke 10:18), where Jesus says, "I beheld the Adversary falling from heaven like lightning."

January 14 at 6:05am · Edited · Like · Remove Preview

Gregory Prinsze Sounds great... the question is how long that process will take, and whether it can be achieved before the psychos can bring about a permanent tyranny... which clearly seems to be their intention.

January 13 at 9:57pm · Like

Eliana Mariela Villodas Mayta Barry and Gregory I stayed fascinated with your dissertation, thanks for sharing your deep knowledge

January 13 at 10:57pm · Unlike · 1

Barry Kort Many years ago, when I first read about Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, it occurred to me that Pattern Recognition Intelligence was missing from the list. Pattern Thinking also involves Pattern Discovery, which is very important in scientific theory construction. Our species is quite poor at Pattern Thinking, which is one reason scientific discoveries take so bloody long. We need decades (if not centuries) of data before we'll accept the reality of a recurring pattern that characterizes some phenomenon.

There are two flavors of Pattern Recognition (or Pattern Detection). The most obvious example is finding a recurring theme or pattern that was there all along but which had gone unnoticed. 

Another flavor of Pattern Thinking is noticing that a theoretically expected pattern is woefully absent. In a healthy society, there are some practices of good health and well-being that one would expect to find. Here is where we find a pathology of a missing pattern in our culture. 

One of the things I like about Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences is that it gives us a check list of which faculties of intelligence we are conscientiously teaching and developing, and which ones we are neglecting to teach, promote, or develop.

Gardner's list included Emotional Intelligence (as two separate varieties -- Intrapersonal Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Emotional Intelligence).

These are manifestly learnable, but they have long been omitted from the public school curriculum.

At one time, Interpersonal Emotional Intelligence was taught in public schools under the rubric of Moral Education. But because of evolving concepts of the Separation of Church and State, the responsibility for Moral Education was gradually shifted from the public schools to families and to Sunday Schools.

Unfortunately, secular Emotional Intelligence fell into the cracks, since it was typically not part of Sunday School catechism.

One of the important features of Multiple Intelligences is that this catalog reminds us what we need include in a well-rounded education.

Secular Emotional Intelligence includes Ethics and Self-Knowledge, both of which are essential to a healthy sense of well-being and belonging.

The absence of these subjects has become a crisis, such that the MIT Media Lab has introduced a crash course in Emotional Well-Being.

http://wellbeing.media.mit.edu

• • Tools for Well-Being | MIT Media Lab

  • This course will advance the creation of tools and technologies that support physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing. A first goal of the course is to survey the best scientific understanding addressing topics such as, “What is the latest best advice on what to eat?” “How important is a reg…

  • EXCEDRIN.MEDIA.MIT.EDU

January 14 at 5:22am · Edited · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort Here is some background on Pattern Thinking...

https://sites.google.com/.../pattern-recognition...

January 14 at 5:23am · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort Emotional Intelligence is a huge subject that includes both Social Education (e.g. how to get along with others) and (psychological) Self-Knowledge.

My own research, for the past thirty years, has centered primarily on one aspect of Emotional Intelligence -- the role of emotions in learning.

For the intrepid reader who finds this subject of interest, here is a summary page of our ideas on the interplay of emotions and learning:

"Cognition, Affect, and Learning"

https://sites.google.com/.../cognition-affect-and-learning

January 14 at 5:30am · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort Were we to reform our educational systems to properly teach social and emotional education as a proper secular subject in the public school curriculum, it would take a generation or two for the results to begin to bring about what theologians once conceived of as a "Messianic Era" of socio-cultural well-being.

Given the choice of conscientiously bringing about such a fabled "Messianic Era" as a successor to the present day "Messy Antic Era" it's pretty clear that a sane society would prefer the former option.

So it boils down to whether human society seeks to become a sane society, rather than one riddled with conflict, violence, oppression, injustice, corruption, poverty, ignorance, alienation, abuse, despair, suffering, and terrorism.

https://barrykort.wordpress.com/.../solving-systemic.../

January 14 at 5:39am · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort By the way, these ideas are hardly novel. Gregory Bateson, a pioneer of Systems Thinking, diagnosed the same pathology in our culture, and proposed a similar solution over a generation ago.

Gregory Bateson, Pioneer of Systems Thinking

Nora Bateson has uploaded an authorized version of her lovingly crafted homage to her father, Gregory Bateson, at Vimeo. This 60-minute documentary is entitled, "An Ecology Of Mind - A Daughter's portrait of Gregory Bateson" and is directed by Nora.

Note that this is not a free video on Vimeo. To view it, you must log into Vimeo (registration is free) and select one of two viewing options: 24-hr rental or purchase, at $5 and $10, respectively. For my money, it's the best $10 investment you'll ever make.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bateson/116614772

January 14 at 5:46am · Like · Remove Preview

Barry Kort There is also a Facebook page for this video.

https://www.facebook.com/AnEcologyOfMind

• January 14 at 5:46am · Like 

Jeffery Mercer Gregory Prinsze, you say above there is no evidence of heaven or hell. What evidence do you look for? The content of this conversation thread is interesting...the conclusions drawn are more interesting. BTW, I'm not asking from a point if interest in religions. Barry, today is another scheduled out day but I'd like to add this conversation to our short list. Best to you both.

23 hrs · Like

Barry Kort Heaven and Hell are metaphors. In the Old Testament, Hell is called Sheol, which literally means "The Pits." Heaven is just the opposite, an utterly delightful state of affairs.

In mathematics (and especially in computer science) "Hell" corresponds to an untamed recursion -- a processing goes around in circles without getting anywhere (in other words, an unproductive labor that generates more heat than light).

21 hrs · Like

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