Contents
If you skipped the preface, go back. All of this is meaningless without having read that. Although that is really the only linear or ordinal aspect of this work. From here on out, the off-beat essays, poems, aphorisms, questions, meditations, explorations, and what if?/hypotheticals included herein can be approached according to the reader’s whim in any order that seems to make sense, if it makes any sense at all. Some ideas may seem intuitively clear with no need for further exploration. Others may not. Some may be interesting, some not. Some may feel redundant or mundane. I am not in a position to decide those things.
Also, despite the name, this is not a table of contents. That is a linear concept that often implies progression and prerequisites. This may be more circular. A table of contents can be a skeleton of an argument. Is this an argument? I’m not sure. It may seem so to some readers. But the similarity to a table of contents is that by looking here, you might begin to get a sense of what this is about.
Is it a unified field theory? No, that is too much to expect of one person, or even all of humanity collectively. There are unknowables, we think.
Enough about what it is not. What is it that you have stumbled upon here?
Maybe this is an exploration of topics that seem to matter or not. That is all a matter of perspective. Maybe it is an undulating meander through a landscape of ideas that span east and west, ancient and modern, indigenous knowledge, and contemporary science. Maybe it is An Odyssey of Letters.
Maybe this is an articulation of a perspective comprised of ideas collected over decades, pieces of which you may agree with or not; pieces of which may resonate with you or not; pieces of which may be incomplete or poorly thought through.
Maybe this is an exploration of what it means to be a self. Maybe that is a relational idea. Or, maybe it is a digital update of an epic poem where YOU are the Hero. I mean, who wouldn’t like to be the hero of an epic poem? And you have choices here. Lots of them. Aren’t we all the hero of the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we tell about ourselves?
Maybe this is a reconsideration of all we think we know about learning, education, and intelligence, and how curiosity plays a role all of those things.
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Maybe this is a rumination on the pervasive complexity and interdependence in the universe. Processes, systems, interactions, ideas are all interconnected and interdependent in terms of the physical, biological, and social realms. Are we only beginning to understand this now? Or have our forebears developed some kind of ancient wisdom that understood this, but it was later lost to the ages?
Maybe this is an inquiry into what causes us to have bouts of feeling disconnected: from one another, from nature, from our selves even.
Maybe this is an investigation of what makes people tick, with all their seeming contradictions and paradoxes. Can we ever understand each other or our selves? That might depend on what we mean by “self.”
Perhaps this is an attempt to understand why we arrive at certain beliefs over others, how we choose what to believe, or why we hold on to some beliefs more ferociously than others. Or, to understand how we decide who to believe.
Perhaps this is a an attempt to understand the limits of our own understanding. Or, an exploration of certainty. Or, uncertainty? What reality is?
Maybe this is an inquiry into why things are the way things are? Who has power? Who has wealth? Why are wealth and power distributed the way they are?
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Maybe this is a an effort to figure out how to live a good life, about what happiness is, or what makes a meaningful life. We live in an age mediated by technology? Is it making us happier, helping us live a better or more meaningful life? What do we have to compare this life with? Do clicks make us happier? Do likes make us happier? We seem to be after both of them a lot these days.
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Maybe this is all a social experiment? Do we want to be experimented upon? Even if it is consensual? Do we even know when we are being experimented upon? What would consent mean in that context?​
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Maybe it is a rethinking of old ideas. ​​That could never get anyone in trouble, could it?
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Maybe, like the song says, “It's a little bit of everything.” Or maybe this is nothing at all and you should just find something else to do. Unless you are really curious.
Maybe this is what it is. To you, to me, to whoever reads it. We all have our own sets of experiences, our own metaphors, our preferred ways of understanding. Maybe this resonates with your ways. Maybe not. Maybe it is nothing but a bunch of letters.