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From: glg@sfsup.UUCP (G.Gleason)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: The nature of reality.
Message-ID: <2960@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: 26 Mar 88 20:54:28 GMT
References: <343@thirdi.UUCP> <732@actnyc.UUCP> <356@thirdi.UUCP> <27440@linus.UUCP> <363@thirdi.UUCP> <746@actnyc.UUCP> <371@thirdi.UUCP>
Reply-To: glg@/guest4/glgUUCP (xt1112-G.Gleason)
Organization: AT&T Information Systems
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In article <371@thirdi.UUCP> sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode) writes:
>In article <746@actnyc.UUCP> jsb@actnyc.UUCP (The Invisible Man) writes:

>>[T]he map is only real as 'map territory', mapable as meta-map.  Will some
>>Zen master please hit Sarge with a stick?

Is this possible over the net?

>Please don't!  I hate violence, even from a Zen master.  Besides, I *agree* that
>the map is only real as map territory.  I can't conceive its being real as
>anything else.  So you don't have to hit me.  Pleeeze!

Yes, but perhaps the reward is enlightenment, would that make it worth-
while?

Try not to turn everything into concepts, it makes it difficult to taste
and feel the world.

>>New territory cannot really be *inferred* from a map any more than the
>>existence of New Jersey is implicit in the existence of Staten Island.

>I don't really understand this point.  We make models of the universe all the
>time and predict hitherto unobserved phenomena from them by extrapolation.
>That is a principal means of discovery.

I would spend some more time looking at what he said, and why your
posting prompted him to say it.

Sure, we try to predict what will happen, or what we will discover
sometimes, but are rarely very successful.  The more succussful way of
being-in-the-world is not predicting, but spontaneous.  With a clear
mind we confront new situations ready to flow with events.  Learning
shows up in our ability to interpret events, and synthesize actions
in respnse.  When learning is complete, action is spontaneous, and
we are not even conscious of what is happening.  No contemplation,
no prediction, just action.

Gerry Gleason