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Home > Archive > Psychology > May 2005 > Introspection and self-absorption
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Introspection and self-absorption
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| ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
| |
| gravity 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
|
<ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
>
i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
m.
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| David 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| On Mon, 9 May 2005 ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com wrote:
> Subject: Introspection and self-absorption
>
> How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
What you do is the latter, wankboy.
D.
--
"Old whores don't giggle much."
....................................................................
(C) 2005 TheDavid^TM | David, P.O. Box 21403, Louisville, KY 40221
| |
| GlennT 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| gravity wrote:
> <ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
>
> m.
>
>
You can't leave footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting
on your butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?
Anonymous
| |
| Demo Hassan 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| GlennT wrote:
>
> You can't leave footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting
> on your butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?
> Anonymous
Carmen Miranda: http://tinyurl.com/7uonk
Photosynthesis Technologies:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...G=Google+Search
http://www.kurzweilai.net/
Augmenting the Animal Kingdom
By Lakshmi Sandhana
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,...tw=wn_tophead_1
Natural evolution has produced the eye, butterfly wings and other
wonders that would put any inventor to shame. But who's to say
evolution couldn't be improved with the help of a
little technology?
So argues James Auger in his controversial and sometimes
unsettling book, Augmented Animals. A designer and former
research associate with MIT Media Lab Europe, Auger envisions
animals, birds, reptiles and even fish becoming appreciative
techno-geeks, using specially engineered gadgets to help them
overcome their evolutionary shortcomings, promote their
chances of survival or just simply lead easier and more
comfortable lives.
On tap for the future: Rodents zooming around with night-vision
survival goggles, squirrels hoarding nuts using GPS locators
and fish armed with metal detectors to avoid the angler's hook.
Auger's current ambitions are relatively modest. He's developing
a LED light that aims to translate tail wagging into plain
English. The device fits on a dog's tail, and flashes text
messages when the tail waves through the air. He plans to have
a working product on display at Harrods in London by September.
"I'm serious about the ideas behind the products," says Auger.
"I think that the fact that some of them could be realized means
that as concepts they tread the scary line between fact and
fiction and therefore are taken a little more seriously.
If one person in a hundred is inspired to think about the
philosophical issues behind the ideas and the other 99 read
it like Calvin and Hobbs, I'd consider that a success."
Auger admits that his ideas are mostly conceptual in regard
to animals living in the wild. But for tame and domesticated
companions, some may not be so far-fetched. For example, a
bird cage could be built using existing aerodynamic testing
technology that might give captive birds the illusion of
long-distance flight. And odor respirators could filter out
undesirable smells for dogs and other animals with highly
developed olfactory senses.
Technology augmentations have already been tried in
agribusiness, where an animal's happiness can lead
directly to bigger profits.
A few years ago, farm researchers tried fitting hens
with red plastic contact lenses to reduce aggression
caused by tight caging and overcrowding. The idea was
quickly dropped when it was found to cause more
problems than it solved.
Future technologies, though, could yield fruit.
For example, some theorists have floated a Matrix-like
scenario that would use direct stimulation of the brain
to fool livestock about the reality of their
living conditions.
"To offset the cruelty of factory-farming, routine implants
of smart microchips in the pleasure centers may be feasible,"
says David Pearce, associate editor of the Journal of
Evolution and Technology. "Since there is no physiological
tolerance to pure pleasure, factory-farmed animals could
lead a lifetime of pure bliss instead of misery. Unnatural?
Yes, but so is factory farming. Immoral? No, certainly not
compared to the terrible suffering we inflict on
factory-farmed animals today."
Not everyone agrees that fitting animals with invasive
and experimental gadgetry is desirable, or even ethical.
Jeffrey R. Harrow, author of the The Harrow Technology
Report doesn't think the idea of augmenting animals is
a good one.
"Any time we mess with nature's evolutionary process we
run the very real risk of changing things for the worse
since we have very limited scope in determining the longer
term results," Harrow says. "With the possible exception
of endangered species and probably not even those because
our modifications would by definition change the species,
we must be exceedingly careful or we might change our
biosphere in ways later generations might abhor."
If the debate over animal augmentation is still in its
infancy, it will likely only grow along with advances
in technology. Ultimately, some theorists argue, humans
may have to decide whether they have a moral duty to
help animals cross the divide that separates the species
by giving them the ability to acquire higher mental
functions -- a theme explored in apocalyptic films such
as Planet of the Apes and The Day of the Dolphin.
"With children, the insane and the demented we are obliged,
when we can, to help these 'disabled citizens' to achieve
or regain their full self-determination," says Dr. James J. Hughes,
executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging
Technologies and author of Citizen Cyborg. "We have the same
responsibility to enhance the intelligence and communication
abilities of great apes, and possibly also of dolphins and elephants,
when we have the means to do so. Once they are sufficiently enhanced,
they can make decisions for themselves, including removing
their augmentation."
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,...tw=wn_tophead_1
http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/fram....html?id%3D4482
| |
| David 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| On Mon, 9 May 2005, gravity wrote:
> i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
But you're both idiots.
D.
--
"Old whores don't giggle much."
....................................................................
(C) 2005 TheDavid^TM | David, P.O. Box 21403, Louisville, KY 40221
| |
| catbrier04@yahoo.com 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| In one of my favorite old movies, Doctor Zhivago, the narrators says of
the young doctor that he considered being a "poet" no more and
occupation than breathing - and "what he needed was a job."
Life affords us time for private reflection and for public service
through employment and, as in all things, balance is everything. I must
be occasionally forcibly jolted from some morbid pre-occupation.
Cat
| |
| Pete Turk 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
| In article <1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com writes
>How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
>
You don't, Ilya, because when the subject's oneself,
you can't. And when the subject's someone else, then
historians down the ages will veer back and forth among
themselves. Read the varying verdicts on, say, Sartre,
Derrida, Wittgenstein ...
'Self-absorption' is normally used as a negative, often
plain pejorative term to describe people who _appear_ to
do more thinking than speaking.
Another reason is when you have a VERY non-trivial problem
of which you need to tease-out a solution -- but (for some
reason) is taken to be mere idleness. Someone in my office
was employed as a statistician, and he was often at his
desk, not moving but thinking, hour after hour. At the same
time, I'd be pen-pushing, coding, on the phone etc., but
we'd _both_ be working -- and he, arguably, would have been
working harder.
The best will quietly ignore taunts of self-absorption,
Ilya -- Proust did, and the world's happier for the result,
-- his 'Searching for _lost_ (! Time'.
'Only the shallow know themselves.'
-- Oscar Wilde 'Phrases & Philosophies for
the Use of the Young'
Pete Turk <Pete@ragtag.demon.co.uk> ICQ# 11981084
RFA President and Moonshadow
--
May your doorstep ever be dirty.
-- Romany blessing
| |
| relayer211@hotmail.com 2005-05-18, 11:42 am |
|
gravity wrote:
> <ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
>
> m.
Who was it that said the unlived life is not worth examining? I
know I read it somewhere...
-"Alvintchase"
| |
| Marginal Product 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com wrote:
> How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
>
Do you really need to? There is no line between interest and fascination
,or dislike and hate, or rude and crude, or large and giant. There is
even no line between Ilya Shambat and poetry although this one requires
a bit of blind faith.
| |
| Suckpoppet 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| Introspection is "Maybe I suck"; Self -Absorption is "I suck myself and
I like it". And then there are:
Self-Awareness - "There is a sucker here."
Self-Examination - 'Why do I suck?'
Self-Control - "I suck but will not to suck"
Self-Knowledge - "I suck therefore I am."
Self-Denial "I could never suck."
Self-Consciousness - "I suck" (with a blush).
Self-Confidence - "You all suck."
Self-Help - "Here's why you suck, and how not to feel so bad about it."
Self-Promotion - "I suck: Fifty Bucks."
I'm sure there are more, but I'm jet lagged a bit.
Lisbeth
'Amsterdam did not suck.'
| |
| David 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| On Mon, 9 May 2005, gravity wrote:
> i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
But you're both idiots.
D.
--
"Old whores don't giggle much."
....................................................................
(C) 2005 TheDavid^TM | David, P.O. Box 21403, Louisville, KY 40221
| |
| ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
|
Suckpoppet wrote:
> Introspection is "Maybe I suck"; Self -Absorption is "I suck myself
and
> I like it". And then there are:
>
> Self-Awareness - "There is a sucker here."
> Self-Examination - 'Why do I suck?'
> Self-Control - "I suck but will not to suck"
> Self-Knowledge - "I suck therefore I am."
> Self-Denial "I could never suck."
> Self-Consciousness - "I suck" (with a blush).
> Self-Confidence - "You all suck."
> Self-Help - "Here's why you suck, and how not to feel so bad about
it."
> Self-Promotion - "I suck: Fifty Bucks."
>
> I'm sure there are more, but I'm jet lagged a bit.
>
> Lisbeth
> 'Amsterdam did not suck.'
That's smart. Expect nothing less from you.
What was Amsterdam like, and is it worth visiting?
| |
| catbrier04@yahoo.com 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| In one of my favorite old movies, Doctor Zhivago, the narrators says of
the young doctor that he considered being a "poet" no more and
occupation than breathing - and "what he needed was a job."
Life affords us time for private reflection and for public service
through employment and, as in all things, balance is everything. I must
be occasionally forcibly jolted from some morbid pre-occupation.
Cat
| |
| Pete Turk 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| In article <1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com writes
>How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
>
You don't, Ilya, because when the subject's oneself,
you can't. And when the subject's someone else, then
historians down the ages will veer back and forth among
themselves. Read the varying verdicts on, say, Sartre,
Derrida, Wittgenstein ...
'Self-absorption' is normally used as a negative, often
plain pejorative term to describe people who _appear_ to
do more thinking than speaking.
Another reason is when you have a VERY non-trivial problem
of which you need to tease-out a solution -- but (for some
reason) is taken to be mere idleness. Someone in my office
was employed as a statistician, and he was often at his
desk, not moving but thinking, hour after hour. At the same
time, I'd be pen-pushing, coding, on the phone etc., but
we'd _both_ be working -- and he, arguably, would have been
working harder.
The best will quietly ignore taunts of self-absorption,
Ilya -- Proust did, and the world's happier for the result,
-- his 'Searching for _lost_ (! Time'.
'Only the shallow know themselves.'
-- Oscar Wilde 'Phrases & Philosophies for
the Use of the Young'
Pete Turk <Pete@ragtag.demon.co.uk> ICQ# 11981084
RFA President and Moonshadow
--
May your doorstep ever be dirty.
-- Romany blessing
| |
| relayer211@hotmail.com 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
|
gravity wrote:
> <ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1115684858.554712.292890@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> i believe Socrates said the unexamined life was not worth living.
>
> m.
Who was it that said the unlived life is not worth examining? I
know I read it somewhere...
-"Alvintchase"
| |
| Joseph 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| Interesting, if slightly OT, Demo. BTW, there is an implant for depression
that interferes with the cg25 region of the brain (the overactive center in
chronically depressed minds), and it seems to work. Unfortunately, standard
medical treatments are, according to my psychiatrist, about 20 years behind
the times. So I guess, in 20 years, severe depression will be treated with
a mechanical implant. Oh to be a cyborg! I wonder if we will ever have the
balls to create a real happiness generator, available to all; or if we as a
species are too enamoured with our miserable condition to ever contemplate a
technological solution to the pain of normality. If we are willing to make
cows blissed-out with an implant, why not ourselves?
joseph.
"Demo Hassan" <demohassan@yahoo.com.mx> wrote in message
news:1115705433.739282.145000@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Augmenting the Animal Kingdom
> By Lakshmi Sandhana
>
<snipped but read>
> http://wired.com/news/technology/0,...tw=wn_tophead_1
>
> http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/fram....html?id%3D4482
>
| |
| Marginal Product 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| ilya_shambat2004@yahoo.com wrote:
> How does one draw the distinction between one and the other?
>
Do you really need to? There is no line between interest and fascination
,or dislike and hate, or rude and crude, or large and giant. There is
even no line between Ilya Shambat and poetry although this one requires
a bit of blind faith.
| |
| Joseph 2005-05-18, 11:43 am |
| Interesting, if slightly OT, Demo. BTW, there is an implant for depression
that interferes with the cg25 region of the brain (the overactive center in
chronically depressed minds), and it seems to work. Unfortunately, standard
medical treatments are, according to my psychiatrist, about 20 years behind
the times. So I guess, in 20 years, severe depression will be treated with
a mechanical implant. Oh to be a cyborg! I wonder if we will ever have the
balls to create a real happiness generator, available to all; or if we as a
species are too enamoured with our miserable condition to ever contemplate a
technological solution to the pain of normality. If we are willing to make
cows blissed-out with an implant, why not ourselves?
joseph.
"Demo Hassan" <demohassan@yahoo.com.mx> wrote in message
news:1115705433.739282.145000@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Augmenting the Animal Kingdom
> By Lakshmi Sandhana
>
<snipped but read>
> http://wired.com/news/technology/0,...tw=wn_tophead_1
>
> http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/fram....html?id%3D4482
>
|
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