Daily Thoughts 09/04/2012

Daily Thoughts 09/04/2012

This morning, I finished reading Evolutionaries by Carter Phipps. I enjoyed the philosophy and ideas in the book.  However, it failed for me in some ways.  There was very little about the science of evolution, history of science, or philosophy of science in the book.  It is hard for me to accept that a book which claims to combine a science, evolution, with philosophy and religion does not include enough material on science.  For example, there is one sentence mentioning Einstein's view of god.  It would have been interesting to have some material on physicists views on religion. 

There are also terms like cosmic which are used without any background in cosmology in the book.  The feeling is one of a kind of mystical foggy view of science.  I saw no references to more advanced topics in science like superdeterminism, information theory, quantum physics, or even evolutionary biology.

 There is also a tiny bit on Darwin.  I had hoped there would be more on Darwin's ethical views which are quite interesting.  Darwin was very much against slavery.

The reason to read Evolutionaries is to learn some very interesting views on philosophy and religion in relation to evolution as a concept.  I especially liked the section on transhumanism which is the closest idea to science in this book.

This morning, I checked the displays.  We have a lot of new books out in the new book display area.  More are coming in.  I also checked the gift books and updated the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the library.

I have a copy of Publishers Weekly and the September 2, 2012 issue of the New York Times Book Review to read.  Also, the graphic novel Days of Destruction Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco has come in for me to read.  It looks like a very polarized book.

Web Bits

Library as Platform
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/09/future-of-libraries/by-david-weinberger/

How Copyright Enforcement Robots Killed the Hugo Awards
http://io9.com/5940036/how-copyright-enforcement-robots-killed-the-hugo-awards

Daily Thoughts 09/03/2012

Bakery window page, A Little Book for A Little Cook, L.P. Hubbard, Pillsbury,1905

Daily Thoughts 09/03/2012

I have been reading more of Evolutionaries.  The author, Carter Phpps, is writing about Spiral Dynamics which is a very radical theory about the evolution of culture.  I found it to be very odd.  He writes about an even more radical philosophy in the next chapter, Integral Studies which is a philosophy focused on finding the common links between all the different fields of knowledge.  It is on the very edge of academia. This is a quote on Ken Wilber from the book.

For Wilber, every event in the manifest world can be viewed from any one of these four perspectives: individual interior (I), collective interior (we), individual exterior (it), and collective exterior (its).

This is a very radical notion.  The book right now is getting quite interesting, if a bit hard to follow.  Carter Phipps wrote for a magazine called Enlighten Next something which I have never read.  I looked at the site which Enlighten Next is from and it is basically a religious organization focused on something called "evolutionary  enlightenment."  It looks like a syncretic philosophy pulling together religion and science.  It is not something that I am part of.  Now, that I am looking at the site, the presentation is very toned down in the book.

As I read more of the book, I am coming across the same names in philosophy and religion repeatedly, Teilhard De Chardin and Sri Aurobindo who both had very radical notions of the place of man in the universe.  Other names which came up are R. Buckminster Fuller and Alfred North Whitehead.  The book is a very potent mix of ideas.  There are also a number of people who seem to have very different worldviews like Barbara Hubbard.

I also read some more of Margarita Madrigal's Magic Keys to Spanish. I am slowly getting a better grasp of Spanish.  I also have been doing the exercises in How to Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons.  

Today is Labor Day so the library is closed.  I plan on getting a copy of a Spanish dictionary when I get back to work.  I also plan on working on ordering and a few other things.

Daily Thoughts 09/01/2012

At the Tomb of Omar Khayyam, in From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam, pre-1911 image.

Daily Thoughts 09/01/2012

I have been reading more of Evolutionaries.  The author is writing about more modern philosophy, Hegel, Voltaire, and Integral philosophy.  This is new territory for me.  I have mostly read the classics and Greek and Roman philosophy. I read another chapter in Madrigal's Magic Keys to Spanish and How to Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons.

One of the keys to succeeding with task oriented books is to read a little bit every day and do some of the exercises every day.  It is the ideal of steady progress which succeeds in the end.

I have been on vacation, relaxing mostly.

We sometimes order inspirational or christian fiction because our patrons ask for it.  Amish fiction is quite popular so is historical fiction set in the holy land.  There is a separate award for Christian fiction called the Christys. http://www.christyawards.com/ca_new/  Beverly Lewis, Kendra Norma-Bellay, and Kimberla Lawson Roby are extremely popular.  There is also an imprint called Urban Christian http://www.urbanbooks.net/Urban-Christian/index.html focused on redemption which is a kind of counter to urban fiction.

Web Bits

The Woman Reader by Belinda Jack was listed on lisnews.com today.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300120451/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300120451&linkCode=as2&tag=xj9k72-20

Daily Thoughts 08/29/2012

Sidney Paget, Portrait of Sherlock Holmes, 1904

Daily Thoughts 08/29/2012

I have been reading more of Evolutionaries.  The author is writing about Ray Kurzweil who invented a variety of devices including a reading device for the blind.  Kurzweil is also famous for writing the nonfiction book, The Singularity is Near, which is about when artificial intelligence becomes smarter than humans.   Many people believe this may happen very soon with the increasing complexity of the internet and other computer networks. This ties in with the idea that one day humans may be able to transcend their bodies.  Cory Doctorow and Charles Strauss recently wrote a science fiction book called The Rapture of the Nerds which is at least partly about the singularity.

 I read a little bit more tonight.  There is a description of a possible relationship between Carl Jung's collective unconscious and Teilhard De Chardin's noosphere.  It has this wonderful speculative feeling to it.  It also has that feeling of not quite useful knowledge that one day may be used in a philosophical conversation at a book signing, library event, or conference somewhere.

I also read some more of How To Keep People from Pushing Your Buttons.  This book focuses on peoples internal dialogue helping them with "awfulizing, shoulding, and rationalizing" their actions.  It is an interesting book. 

I am on Chapter 10 of Margarita Madrigal's Magic Keys to Spanish.  I am enjoying it.  It is helping me remember the Spanish I took in high school but did not use much.

Web Bits

ABA to Replace Google With Kobo
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/53750-aba-to-replace-google-with-kobo.html

LG Bendable Ebook Display Ready for Mass Production
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/45098/bendable-ebook-display-mass-production

Daily Thoughts 08/26/2012

The shepherdess. Signed with monogram. Watercolour heightened with bodycolour. 15 x 22.5 cm, 1899

Daily Thoughts 08/26/20121

I am looking at Diamond Comics Top 100 Graphic Novels for July 2012.  Diamond Comics is the largest distributor of comics in the United States.  http://www.diamondcomics.com/Home/1/1/3/597?articleID=124297

I have been reading a little more of Evolutionaries.  I like the book because of the concepts.  Things like epochal time which is a way of seeing millions of years into the future and the past, the idea that the world is constantly evolving,  and that science is facing a shift in its approach with more integrative disciplines like systems theory and ecology.  I am not convinced by Carter's Phipps that the ideas that are being presented are a paradigm shift.

I have also been reading Margarita Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish.  She is showing lists of words that are similar in Spanish and english or lists of words where there are changes in the endings like president versus presidente or delicious versus delicioso.  It is a way to help build vocabulary.