The Need for more Forms
10/29/2022 3:32 AM MST
philosophy
What makes life interesting apart from the typical animal pleasures and the more serious realms of business and politics? One could say hobbies or art appreciation can fill the gap. And if one is lucky, personal relationships can help. However, if one is still left wanting, perhaps philosophically, then it makes sense to start with forms as they are an important aspect of conscious thought and perception.
And forms naturally form hierarchies too, so if we seek to create new forms, we will likely also be creating new hierarchies of them as well. If you read my article on building a two way language to communicate with technology, then you are familiar with what I mean when I say how a concept can be used, when combined, to create a new form. Chairs for example could be combined with the concept of sour candy to create sour candy chairs.
Also, drawing from the previously mentioned article, forms can have stances and qualities. Imagining forms in unusual stances can provide some amusement or creative interest. Likewise, adding new qualities or changing the expression of them can essentially create new forms entirely if one is racist. When I say racist, I don’t necessarily mean human racism, but tree racism, whereby some variation on a quality causes the mind to view it as a separate form entirely, for some reason.
Although one has to wonder why we’re in a race against one another towards the top. To become the abstract human, I suppose, is the ultimate goal. Without a physical body but somehow paradoxically still dependent on it. I jest, but perhaps that truly is a goal to seek. The degree of body having is a quality superficially, but a concept if one takes into account that limbs can be lost and replaced, and organs can be removed, etc.
Viewing the emotions as concepts as well can lend itself to creating interesting new forms. For example happy pine cones or sad ornaments instantly conjures up new instances of these things in the mind if given enough time. I do believe distinction to be one of the most important aspects of cognition and philosophy. If nothing else, to distinguish whose philosophy you’re discussing, and if it’s even useful in the first place!
Conformism though obviously has its merits, particularly in farming where consistency of the products is highly valued. However, humans aren’t squash and thus we shouldn’t be setting ceilings on our expectations of one another. Nor should we be tossing out those who are malnourished viewing it as a waste of time to help them. Usually the proper education and world view shift can change someone’s path significantly.
I, as a computer scientist, tend to view humanity as a large distributed computer. People are simply individual computers moving about and interacting with one another. However, as a human cog in the machine I hate this standpoint since it reduces my significance to what seems like an insignificant contribution. However I retain a spiritualistic outlook, and logically I argue that any significant computation has to originate from somewhere. Remaining hopeful is key here, as otherwise one loses morale and fails to do the things necessary to succeed.
Reigning this in, and to elucidate the reason for talking about this theory here: I argue that if one wishes to contribute significantly to the “human computer” so to speak, or more plainly to simply be successful then one has to differentiate oneself from others. Otherwise one is easily replaceable to the psyche of others. Sadly conformism is taking over much of the world…
