Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.


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For more information on technical terms, go to the indicated links, both internal and external

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Secular Humanism :
Secular humanism is a worldview that embraces human reason, ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
1. In order to make a functional religion for the 21st century, Enformationism proposes to combine the scientifically respectable god-model of PanEnDeism with the pragmatic life-style of Humanism to form a Religious Humanism called Neo-Deism. This ecumenical mashup will attempt to explain both how the world works and why.

Self/Soul :
The brain can create the image of a fictional person (the Self) to represent its own perspective in dealings with other things and persons.
1. This imaginary Me is a low-resolution construct abstracted from the complex web of inter-relationships that actually form the human body, brain, mind, DNA, and social networks in the context of a vast universe.
2. In the Enformationism worldview, only G*D could know yourself objectively in complete detail as the mathematical definition of You. That formula is equivalent to your Self/Soul.
3. Because of the fanciful & magical connotations of the traditional definition for "Soul" (e.g. ghosts), Enformationism prefers the more practical term "Self". [
see Living Selves note >; see Blog Post 21 & Post 35 ]

Singularity :
A singularity is literally something unique or unusual. As a mathematical concept it is an object that is undefined due to its proximity to infinity. For Systems Theory a Singularity is a tipping point where a small change can cause a large effect. In physical Cosmology, it is the hypothetical mathematical point of infinite density before quantum fluctuations caused the Big Bang that created the Universe.
1. In Enformationism theory, the initial singularity was a mathematical formula or equation encoded with information & instructions for creating the physical universe from meta-physical Potential, equivalent to Platonic Forms. Metaphorically, it was the idea of a world in the mind of G*D, that was actualized in the Big Bang.

Spiritualism :
A primitive theory of Cause & Effect, ignorant of physical energies & forces. Enformationism is an update based on generic Information as the “substance” of both Energy & Matter. To Enform is to cause an effect. To be“spiritual” is to discern true causes. Animal Intuition is sufficient to grasp that this reliably follows that. But ancient humans tended to reason beyond the obvious to imagine hidden causes for natural events, such as weather. Invisible spirits & gods were held responsible for both productive rain and destructive storms. But modern reasoning has found mundane causes for those natural phenomena. The chain of causation leads all the way back to the beginning with no miraculous gaps between causes & effect. And each causal event is basically an exchange of energy/information.

Systems Theory :
A system can be more than the sum of its parts if it expresses synergy or emergent behavior. Changing one part of the system usually affects other parts and the whole system, with predictable patterns of behavior. More parts, means more interrelationships, and more complex properties & activities, including mental functions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory                              [ see Holism ]

GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY

Living Selves :
Philosopher Terrence Deacon makes a distinction between inanimate objects and living Selves : “selves try, non-selves don’t”. By “try”, I assume he’s referring to Willpower, which works against degeneration & destruction (“anti-entropy”), as in “death prevention”, “self-regeneration”, “reproduction”, and “self-restraint”.
   Life is one effect of Enformy. It is self-organizing – what Deacon calls “Autogen”, and others call “autopoiesis”. Life converts random possibilities into constrained channels, optional into functional. Living selves have an evolutionary purpose : to stay alive long enough to reproduce.
   Moreover, self-conscious Selves can “try” to deliberately change the course of evolution to be more suitable to personal needs & purposes. We call that collective exercise of will-power : Culture.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LW5JAS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/deacon/

System :
A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole. An organism or body considered as a whole, especially with regard to its vital processes or functions.

Non-Self :
   The Buddha taught that the Self or Soul was an imaginary or false belief — an illusion. Like many Buddhist sayings that notion was intentionally paradoxical. It was intended to allow his navel-gazing meditators to dissociate from their personal possessive point of view, in order to attain an impersonal objective perspective on their “own” inner thoughts and feelings. This was an early form of Psychological science.
   It’s also true that the Soul doesn’t exist as a separate entity from the body or brain. The Self/Soul is itself an idea; and it’s not a real thing or ghost, but a flowing process. You might say, it’s a video of your life as seen from the inside.
   Some people have reported an Oceanic  feeling of “Non-duality” or “Dissociation”, or “Oneness with the cosmos”, when the brain “module” that distinguishes Self from Non-self is affected by drugs, stress, or deep meditation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_religion
   According to Robert Wright, your “true self” is the only thing you can control directly with your mind power, while all else is “non-self”, which is almost everything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Buddhism_Is_True