Rethinking Type of Knowledge

Revisiting a previous post on the types of knowledge: Perhaps the trajectory is not types of knowledge, but something perhaps a bit more fundamental in the nature and direction of this existence.

Types of Knowledge

Saw the movie Lucy and it generated the notion that there are two types of knowledge:

• Manifested knowledge - examples of this are how cells work. The way cells process dna, rna, make proteins, allows certain particles in through the cell membrane, keep others out, ....
• Conceptual knowledge - our disciplines of study like physics, biology, chemistry, ... are models of how we think things work. We can use these models more or less effectively.

This thought stream then led to the notion that it is really a spectrum and the key element is time - manifested knowledge seems to have no knowledge of future - just has built in certain patterns and processes. Conceptual knowledge at the other end of the sprectrum has a notion of how things work, how they could work, and how they will work.

Possible Trajectories of Existence

Projections of the future:

•  in cosmology there are many possible scenarios
• used to be between two possiblities: gravitational collapse back to another big bang or a heat death of the universe as all the star burn out and entropy conquers all.
• Currently the view of the accelerating and expanding universe seems to be a combination of heat death and loneliness of galaxies as all spread out further and further from each other.
• in religion:
• Final judgment and heaven and hell
• Endless cycling / Lila, play of the gods

 I would suggest another possible trajectory by looking at what is right under our noses, literally, the breath of life. There is also an increasing pattern of complexification going on, to wit, life. This increasing pattern will, like a bacterial colony that expands, take over the entire universe. The substance of the universe, space, time, energy, becomes the substrate on which greater and greater levels of complexity (and consciousness) arise. Until the entire substrate is consumed ias the substrate of a vast consciousness of this bubble universe. Then this bubble becomes aware of other bubbles, and the process continues ad infinitum.

Examples of Primate Psychology in the Common Place

This posting started out as an attempt to articulate primate behaviour from a non-primate perspective. In the process a realization occurred that this was an example of primate behaviour to mimic / mirror primate behaviour:

Values, Behavior, and Precedence

There is an interesting Moral Foundation Theory  proposed by Jonathon Haidt that that we have (at least) 6 different innate moral foundations upon which various moralities are developed. These innate types can be likened to Jung's archetypes ala the Meyers-Briggs typology. We have these types at a level below conscious choice - built in types (so to speak). The six foundations are Care/harm, Fairness/cheating, Liberty/oppression, Loyalty/betrayal, Sanctity/degradation, Authority/subversion. The order we apply these foundations to a given situation can be different for different people. And that can result in vary different understanding / evaluation / answers to the same situation

On The Nature of Existence

An attempt to construct a rational argument on the nature of existence while keeping Occam's Razor in mind and trying to make as few assumptions as possible.

Thoughts on Democracy

In many ways democracy has become a new religion. People say the word (like God) and ascribe all sorts of attributes to it and don't look behind the word/veil to see what that really means. Often the word is used as an anti-thesis to some other disliked idea / philosophy. The antitheses to democracy are communism, fascism, monarch, empire, tyranny, etc.