Eating people is wrong

IN this book, Emma fielding realises that everyone must take up some space in the world, so some harm is inevitable. i.e. there is a cost of living.

The people bearing the brunt of this are at the edges of society, and it is at the edges where our true nature is revealed. In the animal kingdom, the runts take the brunt, and since we are also animals why not apply the term to humans?

A runt is someone whom the tribe/society has "decided" takes up too much space (too much meaning they are a threat to the survival of the tribe/society). Relinquishing this space then becomes a matter of life or death (in the wild, an abandoned runt will die). The solution for the runt is either to accept this smaller space and adapt within it (the source of all innovation) or to flee to a place that has more space (fighting is assumed not an option since by definition the runt would lose). Human runts are those who have fled from their 'hometown' to seek better prospects.

How does this bear out to statistics? What are the statistics of depression and divorce in the western world amongst people of native parents vs mixed parents or displaced people?

A few random questions...

General:

Can the ego be measured in terms of entropy? If so, how?

Using birth and death as a baseline of zero, can we plot the trajectory of the ego over a lifetime of a person/ group/ any 'life' entity? 

What is/are the force(s) driving the trajectory of the ego, just as gravity is the force driving the trajectory of an object thrown into the air.

Can we consciously alter the trajectory? Or is this situation simply another manifestation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and therefore the 'answer' is simply faith (love).

Personal:

If i get a life, will this exploration become a dusty piece of cyber-junk, or could this exploration become a healthy part of my life?

If i can plot my ego trajectory to the 'present time', can i predict my course in the future? If so is it rising or falling? Does engaging in this study necessarily drive it up?

Edge of chaos

I was recently intrigued by a book called Deep Simplicity by John Gribbon. The essense of the book is that, whilst on the surface there is limitless complexity and diversity, underlying this there are repeating patterns of immense simplicity, at all levels from galactic to human or smaller. Chaos theory shows this - and there are many simple experiments that can be done that are based on very simple rules, but which generate limitless complexity. Example, the sandpile model - when sand is dropped onto a table slowly, the table will slowly cover with sand, this bit is not very interesting, but then once the table can take no more sand, it starts to fall off the edges. From then, as sand continues to fill the table, and sand continues to fall off the edges, the system remains in a state of constant instability. What happens to individual grains of sand - whether, when, or where they move within the pile or off the pile - remains totally unpredictable. This is as true in our 'reality' as it is in computerised models of such a system. That is the nature of chaos theory.

How does this relate to this blog? Well, life is essentially a system in this chaotic state, and consciousness is the amount of tension in an energy-buffering system such as the sandpile. ..

Dualities

I'm interested in dualities, damn that ego. On the inside is me, and on the outside is the rest of the world, allegedly. From this viewpoint everything seems to drop cleanly into two columns, with life being a magic blend of the two:

Love Fear

Feel Think

Heart Mind

Present Future

Be Know

Art Science

Unity Separation

One None

Light Dark

------------

Female Male

Yin Yang

Left Right (political)

Holy Spirit The Father

Some reading material...

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/consciousness/entropy.asp

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/evolution/evolution/the-millenium.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads

http://www.entropy.in/

http://www.puramaryam.de/createtao.html

life systems

http://cogprints.org/6320/

A simple energy transaction

thoughts on flow/fear/love

flow is a state where we discharge stimulus at the same rate at which we receive it. In a stable environment we naturally settle to this state over time. This is the essense of enjoyment. However in a rapidly changing environment we are more likely to persist in one of the following states...

fear is a state where we discharge stimulus at a lower rate than which we receive it. The mind is 'holding on' in order to process the information and discharge a response at a later time.

love is a state where we discharge stimilus at a faster rate than which we receive it. The mind is 'letting go'. This is the state which we naturally aim for, but cannot achieve continuously in life. Examples of this include prayer, meditation, falling in love, orgasm.

Our sense of time corresponds to the above states of experience. In flow we are entirely in the moment, there is no sense of passing time. In fear we experience the passing of time. In love, perhaps we experience a reversal.

Likewise, our level of entropy corresponds to these states. In flow there is no change. In fear, we reduce our entropy. In love, we increase it.

Similarly for energy the direction is reversed. In fear, energy is absorbed. In love, it is given.

etc.

Personal note - why this blog?

Often in my life i have felt pain inside me, a persistent numbing pain in my heart. It usually manifests as depression or social anxiety. Many people experience similar pain, manifesting in many different ways.

This blog is simply a way for me of making sense of this, and of sharing any ideas that arise. It will start out somewhat scientific, but acknowledging that this is only a part of what is.

Why "Entropy and Love"? For my sins, one of my distractions is to ponder and read about the multitude of dualities which we experience, right/wrong light/dark art/science heart/mind etc and how these manifest. The title is aimed at being suggestive of both sides of such a duality.

I welcome any comments, and thankyou for reading :-)