Its on the nerdy side, but I have been trying to explain this to my friends for years. I rarely get sick, and this guy pretty much explains why, and how others can do the same thing.
My Brain Hack for Never Getting Sick (by anthonynlee)
A great article (reviewing a book) talking about the biology of human ethics and why its so hard to talk to some one with different belief systems (and make them understand!). The middles section about Liberals vs Conservatives was less interesting to me, but the beginning and end were solid.
A really great essay which is focused on an autistic person’s experience with empathy, and questions our views of other peoples experience’s and interactions as right/wrong, good/bad, disabled/advanced.
Beyond that it really breaks down the different types of empathy in a way that I think is really important (I encourage you to read the article linked above to understand these quotes in full context):
Cognitive empathy
Cognitive empathy has to do with being able to visually and intuitively read subtle nonverbal signals in order to understand what is going on in the mind of another person. It includes being able to read facial expressions, body language, and the emotions communicated by the eyes……Emotional/affective empathy
Emotional/affective empathy has to do with the emotional response triggered in the face of the experience of another person……Expressed empathy
Expressed empathy has to do with responding to the feelings and thoughts of another person. Clearly, it’s not enough to feel empathy. It has to be expressed so that the other person knows that you understand and feel compassion…
Being able to understand the structures of “empathy” is an important step in being able to chose when or when not to interact with it. As the author calls them, both “emotional/affective” and “expressed” empathy can be overwhelming and even crippling both on an individual level, but also on a societal level. As expressed empathy gets disconnected from its emotional/affective roots, it turns into manners and etiquette, ultimately dulling communication and actually making it harder for us to understand one another. On top of that, emotional/affective empathy without clear communication ends up being just assumption (clear communication could include “cognitive” empathy). Those assumptions informed by experience might prove useful, but other times might lead to those overwhelming and crippling situations, or completely misguided decision making.
These are just some things I have been thinking about in my own relationship with empathy, and how I use it as a tool to interact with others and the world around me. Having empathy broken down in by the autism article is a very clear and helpful insight.
Collin Boyne
by Andrew James Cox and Brian Linek
It’s amazing how much one can read into something. I have been trying to dissect this short film, seemingly created spontaneously by two friends one afternoon, and articulate how it was so successful, and why it excited me. And it did excite me. I only write these posts when something overwhelming happens in my brain all at once, understandings that if left unarticulated dissipate slowly, breaking up into a million dust particles, settling back on the same neurons they were blown off of in the first place. Just now I am realizing this new desire to write about articles/images/films I come across actually stems from a long held desire to communicate my abstract thoughts, to translate these foreign tongued sparks into a language that my friends and family speak (or in this case, a few on the internet). While it’s not uncommon for the sparks to continue to fly as I translate my thoughts, in this case it happened to go way off on a tangent, a spark about sparks (how meta), before I could even start on the topic at hand (the film, Collin Boyne).
The absurdity of the film first grabs my attention as a humorous element, but uncannily, the absurdity is just a cloak over elements of reality that are all somehow closer than they seem. A paddle and a ball, attached with string, a staple to any good childhood. A metal detector, who hasn’t wanted one? The green grass of our back yards, the power-lines in the sky.
These are all tokens of a reality, but a reality that has been contrived to the point of flotation, without even mooring lines holding it to the ground. The paddle - a toy without even a simulation of purpose, except to entertain (to distract). The metal detector - culturally stigmatized in my mind as completely as it is portrayed, a goofy noise maker, used by weird hobbyists to find objects of further imagined value (a quarter). The spaces we inhabit, Houses and stairs, green mown grass, power wires creating lines and designs in the sky. Our reality is magic and completely made up. It is absurd. Our reality is only yet another cloak over absurdity. These moments in this film create some sort of absurdity loop, turning into a cyclone, spiraling into brief moments of consciousness on the way up and out.
Which reminds me of how the former tangent first started. All of this is overwhelming, especially coming from such a wonderfully nice little video, and gets me wondering if all of this nonsense was just me getting excited. Either way, hope you enjoy the video.
This youtube video About Being Considered “Retarded” penetrates and uncovers social and intellectual thoughts surrounding, not only what it means to be human, but of the idea of humanity itself. Through addressing concepts and perceptions of intelligence, an illustration of our collective human-centric perspective emerges. Humanity’s love for being unique within nature creates an artificial separation from all things. We have consciousness, we have abstract thought, we are different from Monkeys, from ducks, from elephants, from retards. There is plenty in here about consciousness and living in this culture of humanity where the value of experience is based on how different beings are able to interact with experience itself.
On a side note, the video is stunningly artful. Although extremely banal, every moment is extremely potent. Through Simple observation (with a few very pointed shots), accompanied by the dialogue, a very stark image is created.
A great video on the use of quantum mechanics found in nature.
An interesting article not just about happiness in our society, but also about many things. Definitely some interesting thoughts.
In the short term, not buying (boycotting) items with built in spyware built in, and being vocal about why you aren’t buying them, is an important step.
Christian de Duve Talks about how the traits that helped our ancestors flourish in the past are destroying us in the present.
An article describing new findings about how female hormones can sub-consciously affect actions in and out of relationships.
