Pattern recognition

"Erfahrung ist eben zentral. Mit das Bedeutendste im Schach ist die Mustererkennung - die Fähigkeit, auf dem Brett typische Motive und Bilder zu erkennen, Stellungsmerkmale und ihre Konsequenzen."
(Der Spiegel, march 2010, interview with Magnus Carlsen, a 19 year old top chess player)

One could translate it for:
"Experience is essential. The most significant in chess is pattern recognition - the ability to recognize typical motifs and images on the chess board, position characteristics and their consequences."

I find this sentence remarkable, because it seemed to me that it contains a description of how our brain works, essentially. If we slightly change the phrase for "Experience is essential. The most significant in perception is pattern recognition, the ability to recognize typical motifs and shapes in the environment, their position and their significance"

This sentence, it seems to me, contains the basic mechanism of our brain, how it works and how it is conditioned, both part of this mechanism..........

Gas bottle

I was dealing with some paperwork in an office and I was kind of complaining about how complex society has become, how dehumanized and commercial the relationship between humans has become in this complex transactions.

And then, next day, I ordered a gas bottle. The truck came, delivered it, I paid for it. And then I realized how complex the structure has to be for me to be able to get that gas bottle. Somebody had found the gas deposits, other people extracted it, transported it, somebody welded the gas bottle, the paint was produced and transported and applied to it, there was the fuel to transport the gas and the bottle, the truck driver that brought here, somebody has made the money, etc, etc.......mind boggling......if society would not have become so complex, that bottle would not have arrived here....

Brugada Syndrome

The Brugada syndrome is a genetic disease that is characterised by abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) findings and an increased risk of sudden cardiac death or Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome, the most common cause of sudden death in young men without known underlying cardiac disease.
Although the ECG findings of Brugada syndrome were first reported among south east asian young people who had died suddenly, it is now recognized that it happens in all races.

This phenomenon is well known among the Hmong people of Laos, who ascribe these deaths to a malign spirit, dab tsuam, said to take the form of a jealous woman. Hmong men may even go to sleep dressed as women so as to avoid the attentions of this spirit.

In the Philippines this sudden death in young people is despicted as a mythological creature called batibat. This hag-like creature sits on the victim's face so as to immobilize and suffocate him.

While reading about Brugada's syndrome, I was thinking I might be one of these cases, why not?, and if diagnosed, I would go to bed and not know if I would wake up next morning. That there might not be a next morning.

What is our attitude to death?. Could we have this feeling present in our lives? would that be horrible or could it have some quality?

(In the picture above, column A represents normal ECG waves, and column B the different QRS waves of Brugada's syndrome ECG. Note the "hump" or the "saddle" morphology)

responsible for making changes

"Everyone knows what I've gone through. I'm human, I make mistakes, but I've come clean on them all. I don't deny them. I've taken the heat and felt highly embarrassed by a lot of them. I'm not proud of the things I've done and the incidents that have happened in my life, and I would never say I was. But I did something about it. I'm not above learning lessons.

'I'm not shirking blame for any of the things I did. I'm responsible for my actions. But I'm also responsible for making changes'

Naomi Campbell, on Mail on Sunday 22nd March 2010

contradictions

She was a young lady, in her thirties, and belonged to a generation theoretically interested in the environment......She was quite articulate and could speak very well about environmental problems, and its solutions.....If you wouldn't live with her, you would think she was quite concerned about the environment......but at home she would not switch a single light off........no matter how many times she was told......

Are contradictions a common phenomenon in us?, are they easy to spot on other people and very difficult to see on ourselves?
Can we see our contradictions?

Complaining about others

To a disciple who was forever complaining about others the Master said,
"If it is peace you want,
seek to change yourself, not other people.
It is easier to protect your feet with slippers
than to carpet the whole of the earth."

(Anthony de Mello)

Anthony de Mello (4 September 1931, Bombay, India 2 June 1987, New York) was a Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, public speaker and writer who wrote books on spirituality. He traveled to many countries to study and later to teach, most notably Spain and the United States. The Vatican condemned many of his writings and ideas in 1998.
See what you think here

Francis Bacon

"Reade not to Contradict, and Confute;Nor to Beleeve and Take for granted; Nor to Finde Talke and Disourse; But to weigh and Consider."
Francis Bacon “The Essays: Of Studies”

"A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion."
Francis Bacon “Essays: Of Atheism”

1 + 2 = mistery

Does everything have an influence on everything else, no matter how small influence it could be?......does that imply that all is inter-related?

+

"Emergence" is the way complex systems and patterns arise out (emerge) of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Nothing commands the system to form a pattern or even intends it.

=

.....and the mistery deepens......

Emergence

"Emergence" is the way complex systems and patterns arise out (emerge) of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.

Emergent structures are very common in Nature. They are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Nothing commands the system to form a pattern or even intends it. Instead, the interaction of several simple parts with each other and with its immediate surroundings causes a chain of processes leading to the emergence of a very complex structure.

Ripple patterns in the sand created by wind or water is an example of an emergent structure in nature. The interaction of very simple elements create a complex structure, without anyone of them intending it.

Water crystals forming on glass demonstrate an emergent natural process, where a high level of organizational structure is crafted directly by the random interaction of water molecules between themselves and particular surrounding conditions.

Is DNA, the central molecule in which life is based, an "emergent" structure?, created by the interaction of very simple molecules interacting between themselves and its environment? and these interactions just driven by simple affinities?, creating, without intending it, an incredible structure that is able to hold a memory and transmit it, unfolding what we call life?....
And now a logical question: is life an "emergent" structure, created by the interaction of many simple elements and their environment....without nothing intending it?

Can something which is not intended have a goal? in an unintended system could there be an intelligence?....

Listen to the music of an incredible group....called "Emergence", probably created by the unintended interaction of some people playing with sounds. By the way the singer is a good friend, Krishna (Duncan), and one of the people that demonstrated that friendship could be life long........by the way, is friendship an "emergent structure"?, coming out of the unintended interaction of many small factors, leading to a much more complex and amazing structure?

Listen to Emergence

interrelationship of influences

The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shifted Earth's axis. It is calculated that the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters). Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters.

This has shortened the length of each Earth day: Jet Propulsion Laboratory research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the quake. He and fellow scientists came up with a calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

By comparison, Gross said the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake that created the huge tsunami should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds.

To make a comparison about the mass that was shifted as a result of the earthquake, and how it affected the Earth, he compares it to the great Three-Gorge reservoir of China. If filled, the gorge would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion gallons) of water. That shift of mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch)

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car," one of Gross's colaborators said.

(Data from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

I look in the dictionary the word interrelationship:
"mutual or reciprocal relation or relatedness"

Does everything have an influence on everything else, no matter how small influence it could be?......does that imply that all is inter-related?......what is the relationship of interrelation with "oneness"?.....