Friday, May 31, 2013

Knowledge is Infinite: The Good and The Bad

In earlier times, the knowledge that a society possessed was trapped in a small geographical space - a country, town, community, kingdom, etc. Then, the Industrial Revolution put more information into the hands of more people with the invention of the Gutenburg printing press, which made books and the like affordable for all. Now, we are experiencing another revolution, The Digital Revolution, and the information available at our hands 24/7 is increasing exponentially.

Over the last decade the Internet has opened up our ability to research anything under the sun. The internet doubles every 5 years - that is new bloggers with new things to say (like me!), new scientists with new findings to report, new writers with new stories to tell. Because the information already available to us is so incalculably vast, and the information that has yet to be discovered, invented, etc is scarce to be imagined, I conclude that KNOWLEDGE IS INFINITE. How exciting!! The more we learn, the more we realize the truth of Socrates's old adage: "I know that I know nothing". Learning the truth goes hand-in-hand with realizing how ignorant we really are.

The quest for knowledge is therefore literally never ending. But it is far from a perfect delight. As with anything there are pros and cons. Whereas in the past because information was so hard to come by the biggest threat to freedom was censorship, now in the 21st century the biggest threat to freedom is TOO MUCH INFORMATION. After all, who needs to ban a book if nobody will read it when they are distracted by twitter, facebook, gossip, useless news, and trivialities?



"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" - T.S. Eliot, The Rock

Sorry if I insulted your respected and hard-earned Masters Degree in Memeology. We must separate the wheat from the chaff if we want to grow, make new discoveries and connections, perceive new patterns, etc. 


So with all of the above kept in mind, a big problem that I can foresee developing in today's world is learning to differentiate between DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, and WISDOM.

DATA = Collections of facts.

INFORMATION = Data that has been processed into systems that make it easy to understand.

KNOWLEDGE = Information that has been comprehended through study, analyzing, memorization, concentration, etc.

WISDOM = Knowledge that has been applied very often and deeply understood.

This is, I think, easy to understand.


There is a clear progression:
INFORMATION + COMPREHENSION = KNOWLEDGE, KNOWLEDGE + APPLICATION = WISDOM. You can also see a big leap from Knowledge to Wisdom: while Knowledge is the ability to have confidence on a given subject and is gained from book-smarts, Wisdom is an ability to make correct judgement-calls and is gained from personal experience.

Think of it this way: A man is given a note to copy down in class about the brain, and then has to use it to answer a question-sheet based on that note. He possess INFORMATION about the brain. The man studies, and perhaps even appreciates, the topic very deeply and aces his exam about the brain. He KNOWS what he is talking about. Then, he becomes a respected Neurosurgeon. Now he is truly WISE about his topic. He could probably teach it to others by passing down what he understands so they could go through the whole process like he just did.

This is also a clear way of distinguishing a bookworm from a sage. The bookworm could tell you about his topic, but a sage will simply live it. A sage's life is a testament to his wisdom - he does not need PHD's, doctorates, published books, etc.

So while the modern world offers us an unprecedented amount of information in just about any and every medium imaginable, as individuals and as a society we have yet to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. After all, in the end, we don't want information or data - we want WISDOM. 

Because knowledge is infinite, it is far better to have a deep understanding of a few topics than to have a superficial understanding of just about everything. In the past, it was possible for someone to know and apply every topic under the sun because the knowledge available was small. But not anymore. Quality is better than quantity when it comes to information.

The internet has the power to make self-education the best kind of education, a prospect that has never existed before in the whole history of mankind.

"I don't let my schooling interfere with my education" - Mark Twain

I know this from personal experience, because a lot of the things that I am the most interested in are taught on the internet - not school. So if you want to become knowledgeable in a world where it was never easier, you need to develop concentration. Concentration is critical to learning and retaining new things. If you are reading about the GREATEST IDEA EVER, something that will change your life radically if you apply it, but get distracted by your Ipod, Email, television, etc, then whatever you may have been learning about the greatest idea ever has been replaced by this new, superficial information. 

If you are always surrounded by technology, then you are living in an almost constant state of distraction. It is like living with mist obscuring your vision 24/7: you can see, but not clearly enough. The calmer, more contemplative modes of thinking are what really allow for Wisdom to sink in and for Inspiration to dawn on us. 

The only way to make the kind of transformative connections between what you read on the 'net and your actions is through this quieter, contemplative mode of thinking. This is why I think Meditation and Mindfulness are quickly becoming more popular. It is as if they are the only way to survive in the Digital Age, remain sane, and take advantage of the new mental landscapes. There are a wealth of resources on the internet that can help you learn Meditation and Mindfulness, which will help you differentiate information from wisdom, and become truly Wise.

So? What are you waiting for? All the wisdom you could ever have is available to you, waiting to be understood, to be refreshed, to have new connections made to it, and then finally, for you yourself to consider yourself a proud contributor to Humanity's never ending library. All you need is a little concentration and a little motivation. 

Awesome.

Awesome sites to help you learn: 
1. Ted Talks 
2. Epipheo
3. Mindfulness 

Friday, May 17, 2013

Doing Nothing (poem)



No matter what, I'm always doing something. 
Can't sit still, because of this incessant feeling,
This feeling that pushes me to seek activity,
stimulation, motion, and ultimately, captivity,
to being a participant in this worldly rat race.
But no more: Today I will confront it face-to-face.
Today I will do the impossible. 
Today I am going to do Nothing. 

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Reconciliation of Apollo & Dionysus

Nietzsche talks about the dichotomy of the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Apollo is the self-controlled solar deity, a god of reason and culture. Dionysus is the passionate chthonic god of intoxication and the wild things.

I believe that these archetypes exist within all of us, to greater and lesser degrees. If not, they certainly do in myself.


The Dionysian Man's goal is pleasure.  We can never satisfy our desire for pleasure: More pleasure leads to less pleasure because every time we reach a higher octave of pleasure we may never reach it again, making every bit of pleasure lesser than that seem pointless. Our response to pleasure becomes numbed, so we need more and more of it, like any drug addict knows. This is called desensitization. Also, our memory of the pleasure sticks out in our mind very powerfully, making us feel more motivated to pursue that than other things, and our willpower erodes as we are unable to deny ourselves and do not expel nearly as much energy doing other things.

So self-denial leads to more pleasure in the end, weirdly. If we control pleasure we are not controlled by it, and instead of roiling in the grosser aspects of life we can learn to appreciate the inner, subtler pleasures. The suppression of the flesh is the empowerment of the spirit!

"Ever fed, never satisfied. Never fed, ever satisfied" 
- Paramahansa Yogananda 


The Apollonian Man's life is goal-oriented. The dark side of this is that it feeds our insecurities and we must all live up to non-existent ideals. Our inner critic tells us that what we do is not good enough. But it never is. We get too wrapped up in ourselves and can never satisfy our own or society's ideal of perfection that we are all trying to reach. You end up feeling envious of others and worthless even if you are something of a prodigy, because there is always a "bigger fish", and you can't be great at what you are great at all the time.

I am not saying you shouldn't strive for betterment, but it can sometimes be like a dog chasing his own tail. Are you always looking for something new to be better at, or the newest self-improvement, self-help strategy? Do you always want to be the perfect you? If so, you are chasing after a goal that will never exist.

Self-acceptance is the cure for this and leads to more self-betterment in the end, since it is better for us and we can make improvements in the areas of life that are more really important.

"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete" - Jack Kornfield. 

Because these two different deities represent two of what may be our greatest drives, we want to experience them both. We like to think that these two people in ourselves can be balanced. but unfortunately by thinking that we receive only the worst of both and the best of neither: we get the erosion of willpower that comes with being chaotic but without the full explosive pleasure of hedonism, and we get the pressure that comes with being orderly but without that heartening "pat yourself on the back" feeling. So I don't think many people can live without having one archetype dominate over the other.

After all, in a sense they are almost mutually exclusive: In order to put in the effort that Apollo demands of us we must deny ourselves and concentrate. But if we want what Dionysus wants then you must let go of those Apollonian inhibitions.

In light of that opinion in the paragraphs above, though, I think that in the end the best of both comes out when they are reconciled as opposed to balanced.  I mentioned how Dionysus and his pursuit of pleasure is self-destructive, and corrected with self-denial, which is of course an Apollonian trait. Then, Apollo and his desire to be the biggest and the best is cured with self-acceptance, which is an emotional trait of the playful Dionysus.

So, in light of all this information, which archetype think dominates in yourself? Having experienced the extremes of both in my life I think my personality has settled on the Apollonian. But I'd love to hear from people who comment what they think of both the dichotomy and which archetype is stronger/better.