By Gary
T
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In the
cosmos, what is
more fundamental
than matter and
energy?
-
We argue that
information is
more
fundamental.
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Information is
language.
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Minus language,
life is
insentient
relegated to
instinct.
-
As it is,
language
dominates and we
are sentient
beings free to
discover.
-
Language is the
algorithm of
meaning, without
which matter and
energy would be
unknowable.
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There are
problems with
language we call
roadblocks to
meaning.
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These roadblocks
impede or
prevent
understanding
and meaning.
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They are bias,
prejudice,
stereotypes,
caricatures,
clichés and
idioms.
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These strong
feelings and
habits act as
filter, altering
perspective of
reality.
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The solution is
to overcome
these roadblocks
by defining
terms and
concepts in new
imaginative
ways, therefore
crashing through
old thinking to
meaning.
-
This amounts to
seeing the old
through new
lenses.
-
We are oriented
then to see
through the
visible to
underlying
invisible
structure of
meaning.
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Discovery occurs
through
childlike
attitude of
mystery, wonder
and awe of the
cosmos.
-
Rudy Rucker
professor of
mathematics
observed,
"Thoughts are as
real and
important as
objects."
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In our
consumerist
world, the
thought that
ideas are as
real as shopping
malls is
difficult to
fathom.
-
Our jobs - what
we do for a
living - though
necessary aren't
the apex of
meaning to life.
-
Realigning
perspective of
our career -
seeing our job
as part of the
whole gives
deeper
understanding of
how everything
fits into the
big-picture.
-
We are free then
to reprioritize
life through
mystery, wonder
and awe.
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How do we begin
the new journey
of discovery?
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Begin the
internal
conversation
process asking
consciously:
What does it
mean?
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Start with any
enjoyable
activity: e.g.
buy a telescope,
read a great
book, walk into
the wild, plant
a garden.
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Any activity you
love will begin
the journey when
you ask: how the
piece fits into
the big-picture?
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Observe!
Details are
important.
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Be relentless in
the journey;
don't let other
people talk you
out of the
discovery
process.
-
Learn how to
listen to other
people's ideas.
Make no judgment
until you hear
them out.
-
Begin to fit the
many jigsaw
pieces into the
one big-picture.
-
You will
experience a
richer more
fulfilled life
when you
discover
meaning.
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How long will it
take for
discovery?
Takes a
lifetime, but is
worth every
moment.
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Science is
important, but
it has lost the
childlike
approach.
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Like Aristotle's
blunder of
forgetting
experimentation,
modern science
too has its
fatal blunder.
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Science has
philosophically
painted itself
into a corner
called
methodological
naturalism -
duty bound not
to what is true,
but to
naturalistic
explanation.
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Science has part
of the answer.
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We have
potential for
discovering the
second part of
the answer.
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Human beings are
dichotomous:
empirical person
and spiritual
person.
-
Both neurons and
pneuma
interface as
human control
center.
-
The epigenetic
algorithm of
nature (genes)
and nurture
(environment)
shapes empirical
person.
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The faith
algorithm of
meaning shapes
spiritual
person.
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Tragedy often
brings us to the
point of the
question: what
does it mean?
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Don't wait for
the tragic
moment.
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Pursue order,
symmetry and
meaning in the
present.
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Language is the
algorithm of
meaning that
unlocks the
theory of
everything.
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We can respect
another belief
to the extent
the belief
corresponds to
reality; to the
extent belief is
a distortion we
must disagree.
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Do we hope to
overcome our
hubris?
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Do we seek
meaning?
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In all spheres
of life ask:
what does it
mean?
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Are we ready for
the answers that
will follow?
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Are we patient
for the answers?
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Are we prepared
for unexpected
answers that
come in
unexpected ways?
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Are we willing
to endure?
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Overcome the
roadblocks of
language.
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Learn to listen
without
criticizing too
early or
embracing too
soon.
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Ready ourselves
for mystery,
wonder and awe.
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Begin by
admitting
neither science
nor we possess
all the answers
- after all we
are finite not
gods.
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Believe there
are answers.
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Belief is not an
enemy when it
corresponds to
reality.
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We all remember
science's most
famous equation
E=mc2.
How beautiful
and simple
Einstein's
equation, and
how deep the
subterranean
knowledge that lies
beneath the
surface.
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Discovery will
start amazingly
simple, become
increasingly
complex until
the boggle
threshold is
reached, then
suddenly snap
back like a
stretched rubber
band let go to a
beautiful
simplicity of
order, symmetry
and meaning.