I see things like this and inevitably wonder what patterns I'm participating in, and whether the difference between me and fundamental particles is only scale.
“I see things like this and inevitably wonder what patterns I'm participating in, and whether the difference between me and fundamental particles is only scale.”
Given that some of the forces governing particle interactions don’t “scale up” to human size, as it were, I’d guess the patterns are different. And fundamental particles don’t appear to have complex social obligations.
“And then I see something like that Pixar short, and such ponderous thoughts are immediately ejected from my mind.”
I think much the same thing applies to this site as a whole. Pondering epistemology or social construct theory is fine in moderate doses, but posting an occasional fart joke is quite important too.
Scale adds complexity, and the difference in patterns is a consequence of that. I suspect that as scale increases, minute irregularities also accumulate, materialistic/mechanistic explanations begin to fail, and humor squeezes through the gap. Insert fart joke.
That's lovely.
Posted by: Brian H | March 18, 2009 at 08:18
It reminds me of this.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6484138201640748049
Posted by: Brian H | March 18, 2009 at 08:28
Wonderful. I love the shuffling along as more birds arrive.
Posted by: Anna | March 18, 2009 at 09:18
I see things like this and inevitably wonder what patterns I'm participating in, and whether the difference between me and fundamental particles is only scale.
Posted by: clazy | March 19, 2009 at 15:08
And then I see something like that Pixar short, and such ponderous thoughts are immediately ejected from my mind.
Posted by: clazy | March 19, 2009 at 15:14
Clazy,
“I see things like this and inevitably wonder what patterns I'm participating in, and whether the difference between me and fundamental particles is only scale.”
Given that some of the forces governing particle interactions don’t “scale up” to human size, as it were, I’d guess the patterns are different. And fundamental particles don’t appear to have complex social obligations.
“And then I see something like that Pixar short, and such ponderous thoughts are immediately ejected from my mind.”
I think much the same thing applies to this site as a whole. Pondering epistemology or social construct theory is fine in moderate doses, but posting an occasional fart joke is quite important too.
Posted by: David | March 19, 2009 at 15:23
Scale adds complexity, and the difference in patterns is a consequence of that. I suspect that as scale increases, minute irregularities also accumulate, materialistic/mechanistic explanations begin to fail, and humor squeezes through the gap. Insert fart joke.
Posted by: clazy | March 20, 2009 at 13:57