As I was driving back to my apartment from my parents' house after New Year's, I was listening to biology lectures from the Teaching Company. The man on the tape was talking about the idea of emergence.
Emergence is the idea that something can be greater then the sum of its parts. For example, a neuron by itself, or even a bunch of cultured neurons is not a brain. By studying the neuron alone, one can never fully understand the brain. This is true to some degree for every level of complexity, from atoms to molecules to polymers to cells to organs to the organism, but the organism is not the highest level of complexity. We all live in our immediate environment which is part of a planet, a solar system, a galaxy, a universe.
This morning, I went to yin yoga and we picked cards from the Goddess Oracle, and used them as part of our meditation. On the way back, I was thinking about oracles in general, and emergence. The idea of all divination tools, especially cards and runes, is that the universe has a pattern, and when a random element is introduced, it will naturally follow that universal pattern.
We use these oracles to attempt to understand the pattern of the universe as it applies to us: our future or our relationship to the forces we perceive as gods. So, the question is "What does a neuron know of the thoughts of the brain? What can it know?"
Emergence is the idea that something can be greater then the sum of its parts. For example, a neuron by itself, or even a bunch of cultured neurons is not a brain. By studying the neuron alone, one can never fully understand the brain. This is true to some degree for every level of complexity, from atoms to molecules to polymers to cells to organs to the organism, but the organism is not the highest level of complexity. We all live in our immediate environment which is part of a planet, a solar system, a galaxy, a universe.
This morning, I went to yin yoga and we picked cards from the Goddess Oracle, and used them as part of our meditation. On the way back, I was thinking about oracles in general, and emergence. The idea of all divination tools, especially cards and runes, is that the universe has a pattern, and when a random element is introduced, it will naturally follow that universal pattern.
We use these oracles to attempt to understand the pattern of the universe as it applies to us: our future or our relationship to the forces we perceive as gods. So, the question is "What does a neuron know of the thoughts of the brain? What can it know?"
No comments:
Post a Comment