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What Phil was telling me: (because I said I would share, and it might help to write things down so I remember them)
1. Complexity. Reality operates as a network of images, ideas, particles. They are all related in ways that are not easily evident or observable to the naked eye. The butterfly whose flapping wings over Iowa cause a typhoon over the Phillippines.
2. Intelligence. From far enough back in space and time, to a larger observer, this complexity would become self-evident as a form of intelligence. Causes and effects stack up. The Gaia Hypothesis - the planet is a single living being - and the Superswarm Theory - small minds (like ants, or bees, or mole rats) when organized into a single entity (the hive or colony) can make one big mind - the superswarm. This is why it's so hard to get rid of hornet infestations, why houses have to be tented for termites (the insect-scale equivalent of nuclear war). The colony is smarter than the insect. Boston could be a supergenius, if all the people were properly organized.
3. Language. I don't entirely understand this part. I got distracted because I noticed one of the guys was holding xeroxed pages from the book right then. I didn't say anything, because it took me a while to figure it out, but I threw out a xeroxed copy of the book. Threw it out, gone.
Maybe they've got a copy of it at the university, or maybe I gave them to Phil with the woodcut copy, but I don't remember that.
4. History. There have been instances of people "keying-into" the superswarm model throughout history. Some shamans, hermits, wise men, who came up with techniques to organize their brains or their organizations into superswarm configurations. The early Christian church came close, but failed when Christ was crucified before the pattern was fulfilled (this is all Phil's theory, by the way, or at least stuff he's been reading. I'm not sure I agree with everything.) Some writings, like the book I found, chart out techniques for organizing in "super-logical" ways. They're disguised as religions or witchcraft, because until Freud came along, there was no other way to deal with your thought patterns.
5. The woodcuts in my book are symbolic diagrams, showing ways to meditate your way into complexity. That's what Phil says.
I suppose the question is, is he totally out of his mind? He does some strange things, but talking to him, I've never heard anyone who sounds so *sane*, so *put together*.
It's a lot to take in, and I'm out of the habit of thinking so much, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy listening to Phil. I miss school, I guess.
Well, this weekend, I'm taking some time off to just think about this stuff. I need to read some Steven Hawkings and those Chaos theory books (so 90s!) to see if it all holds up.
-------
In mundane news, I ran into the landlord in the hall, and complained about the bugs again. Well, mentioned them. The landlord just said the exterminator came last friday, then left. The landlord left, that is. So did I. Late for work.
The old man is absent, still, which is odd - no note or final instructions. Maybe he went to his vacation home or something.
1. Complexity. Reality operates as a network of images, ideas, particles. They are all related in ways that are not easily evident or observable to the naked eye. The butterfly whose flapping wings over Iowa cause a typhoon over the Phillippines.
2. Intelligence. From far enough back in space and time, to a larger observer, this complexity would become self-evident as a form of intelligence. Causes and effects stack up. The Gaia Hypothesis - the planet is a single living being - and the Superswarm Theory - small minds (like ants, or bees, or mole rats) when organized into a single entity (the hive or colony) can make one big mind - the superswarm. This is why it's so hard to get rid of hornet infestations, why houses have to be tented for termites (the insect-scale equivalent of nuclear war). The colony is smarter than the insect. Boston could be a supergenius, if all the people were properly organized.
3. Language. I don't entirely understand this part. I got distracted because I noticed one of the guys was holding xeroxed pages from the book right then. I didn't say anything, because it took me a while to figure it out, but I threw out a xeroxed copy of the book. Threw it out, gone.
Maybe they've got a copy of it at the university, or maybe I gave them to Phil with the woodcut copy, but I don't remember that.
4. History. There have been instances of people "keying-into" the superswarm model throughout history. Some shamans, hermits, wise men, who came up with techniques to organize their brains or their organizations into superswarm configurations. The early Christian church came close, but failed when Christ was crucified before the pattern was fulfilled (this is all Phil's theory, by the way, or at least stuff he's been reading. I'm not sure I agree with everything.) Some writings, like the book I found, chart out techniques for organizing in "super-logical" ways. They're disguised as religions or witchcraft, because until Freud came along, there was no other way to deal with your thought patterns.
5. The woodcuts in my book are symbolic diagrams, showing ways to meditate your way into complexity. That's what Phil says.
I suppose the question is, is he totally out of his mind? He does some strange things, but talking to him, I've never heard anyone who sounds so *sane*, so *put together*.
It's a lot to take in, and I'm out of the habit of thinking so much, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy listening to Phil. I miss school, I guess.
Well, this weekend, I'm taking some time off to just think about this stuff. I need to read some Steven Hawkings and those Chaos theory books (so 90s!) to see if it all holds up.
-------
In mundane news, I ran into the landlord in the hall, and complained about the bugs again. Well, mentioned them. The landlord just said the exterminator came last friday, then left. The landlord left, that is. So did I. Late for work.
The old man is absent, still, which is odd - no note or final instructions. Maybe he went to his vacation home or something.