[MD] Step One

[John Carl]

Mark I'm glad you brought up Shlain, he has come up before and I think
Marsha's reading him, got about halfway through that book probably (me
too!).

When I read it, I ended up having to put it down because I got so excited
about the congruence with MoQ insights into classical and romantic reasoning
with the Romantic being actually the higher - that the great intellectual
leaps of modernity were prefigured by artistic genius.

One big reason I argue for a more inclusive term than "intellectual".

That you actually got to meet the guy is very cool, in my book.  First
Borges, now Shlain.  You sure rub elbows with my kind of people, Mark!

 It can be speculated that the "I" resides
> mainly in the cortex, and complex thought more in the frontal cortex.  Of
> course this is a simplification since there are connecting pathways all
> over
> the place.


Did you know there is a brain in your feet?  I just found out about this.
 The neural pathways for balance don't all go to the brain, there's part of
our nervous system that "stands on it's own feet"...I'm pausing to let the
laugh track die down...


>
> So, what we hold in active thought is a refined portion of what is going
> on;
> and there is a lot else going on which affects the active thought, even
> when
> we are asleep.  I would say that most of our thinking is not at the
> conscious level but outside of it.  The intellect therefore is not that
> simple, and certainly not measurable at this time.  Most insights and
> revelations may occur outside of our active thinking.  This could be where
> the Eureka comes from.  There is lots and lots of ruminating going on
> behind
> the scenes.


See, this is that part of that song of Jess Hill's, that keeps going through
my head because she puts it so nicely - there comes a time when the voice of
the wind becomes a sign from above.  The Eureka moment, as you call it.
 Upon which hinges everything.


That part of the brain which is being used for active
> concentrated thought does so for the purposes of communication (in my
> opinion).  Thus we believe we think in words.  What is perhaps really going
> on is wordless until the final stage.  The "I" is formed as a mirror.
>
>
My stance is that the "I" is socially created.  It's nurtured, more than
natured.  Admittedly the nature is all there to support this social
patterning, but I don't see the social patterning as arising from the
biological.


And so we get to the classical and romantic as concepts.  Linear thinking
> and lateral thinking, or wordy thinking and symbolic thinking, whatever,
> RMP
> describes it well.  Many believe that the two hemispheres have different
> functions in this regard, and much has been written about this.  In terms
> of
> the final thought itself, they are not that different since it is refined
> for expression, but how that thought is formed may be very different.
>
>
It's very interesting to ponder the fact that humans have dichotomous
existence with left brain/right brain and male/female reality.  In this
reality, all males have the same brains and systems as the females, but
they're repressed with hormones and such that cause the brains to function
somewhat differently, with sex differences emphasizing left or right half.



> If intellectual thought is a conglomeration of the deeper regions, and
> modern art, and music, are too, then it stands to reason that they will
> appear similar as final human expressions.  Intellectual thought may
> require
> much more training in terms of the expressive aspect, and show historical
> progression.  Art thinking may be more direct in that it doesn't need to
> memorize rules.  Music, if you are in a punk rock band and know the power
> chords is pretty direct too.  Classical music of course would have a later
> expression in music history, and current computer techniques allow all
> sorts
> of sounds and intervals.  In fact the history of thought can be paralleled
> to innovations in technology   At a fundamental level all these expressions
> are similar product of our brains.
>

Or to put in another way, all products of our brains is a mixture of these
differences.  There are extremes, but for the most part expression is a
balancing act.

Hey, I like that.  Need to make it less wishy-washy and it'd be a swell
bumper sticker

"All expression is a balancing act."

John Carl with the funny shoes and the ball on his nose