Delano

Troy - I agree. It's a class war or a sexuality war. When I think about the media most stories are about dominance and/or submission.

You are right Cynique.

To the extent that knowledge elicits an emotional response, the response is a function of belief not intellect. Some knowledge or knowing...

Instinct as more physical, intuition is more emotional. It feels right.

Where would you place America? En vino Veritas. I don't think any race or region has a monopoly on virtue or vice.

I think the US is having it's swan song. I read that the US appears to be doing all it can destroy its and the world's economy. Printing money seems to support this belief.

I came across an interesting theory. The embodied mind theory. It states that numbers and hence mathematics is an invention of the human mind. High means that numbers/mathematics is a belief system. So this means that any science that uses mathematics is on shaky ground. People believe in science without understanding it. And will actually use science to further their argument. I am trying go do less of this myself. Although I try to be critical, although I find objectivity difficult with subjects I care about. Even scientific can be unscientific in their belief systems. You can know by the following: experience; being told or shown; thinking or intuition. I think experience is the least reliable, intuition probably the most. However this is my personal Einstein used to say about science, God doesn't play dice. There has to be order in the laws of science. Which may not be true from our limited perspective. Apparently you brain makes up what you see on a regular basis. Visually you have a blind spot in the center of your vision but your brain fills it in.

Money is way if saving time.

Troy - I believe most people are self delusional. Facing the truth about themselves is to difficult. So how can you expect people to be objective about a reality.

I would argue that until we can define consciousness or where the mind resides. Then none if this is real. So if we are just imagining this like The Matrix tangible is intangible. Deception seems like a malignant need or way off interacting. Yes I think if you have opposing views it can be that one lie is another's reality. However I feel Borg parties would have the truth, but it may not be valid universally.The nature of reality is an ongoing enigma, a subject that is frequently explored on this board. It's a concept that I never tire of contemplating. Is reality an illusion? Is illusion a reality because it can be mentally perceived? When it comes to reality, does it matter whether something is tangible or intangible? Is deception the same as an illusion, and is one person's reality another one's lie?

Me is a an abstraction unless me is just the body. How much can some one change and still be themselves. What do you mean by facades that are real. Your writing is inspired.

Cynique it may take me a while to digest and respond to your post. I may repeat or recover or contradict myself, but none of it will be wrong because it was true when I wrote it. Even if it is invalid. Which is for me the crux of most disagreements. True statements are mistaken for valid statements. I am using these terms as they would be used in mathematics. So you can have true statements in mathematics that don't translate well into the language of words. Words and numbers are magical elements, like the number 13, or the word disaster.

Cynique - what you have written is incredibly dense. Its amazing because it makes me think while I am writing. I am trying to be critical and objective. Which just writing that opens another tangent. If you had an infinite of tangent lines, and the sum of the tangency was 90 degrees you would have a circle. A circle is a square that you add an infinite number of lines. Square Pentagon...Octagon. Each addition line approaches a circle.

I ask myself this question in the form of Destiny and free will. I am currently working in a problem as to how your mind, feelings, thoughts and desires influence your world. I am pretty certain that reality is scripted by that the individual. So certain things that i want to happen happen. The problem this creates is massive. So I can see the attraction of linking to any of the following philosophies: religion; science; materialism; veganism; humanitarian; materialism; spiritualism; paganism on an on. I think it is easier to see the nature of reality if you choose none of these philosophies, or choose two that are somewhat antagonistic. Actually i am not certain if that is true. But it is what I have chosen to do probably since I was a preteen. The more I can see the fictions, the less helpful it becomes. I believe that if you were able to unravel or define reality. It would cease to make sense. The other problem is other people would perceive you as abnormal. And you would be but not in the negative. If you were to talk about what reality actually was or wasn't, you'd be run out of most communities. Since you would be undermining and destroying someones belief system. All wars,conflicts and disagreements re due to differing beliefs. Prices of real things are set or changed because of value, what you perceive it is worth to or for you. When i was in grade school a teacher said you can't live in society without trust. Trust and belief seem to be related.

An abstraction can be true, but not real. An abstraction can refer to something real. I don't think that makes it real, it just references the real. Which is the definition id an abstraction.

So was you bonus more than $1,000. Dollars. Also doesn't Google and Microsoft have profit sharing?

Some truly smart people choose other benefits from work: flexibility; fulfillment; ease; personal development and other things.

Didn't Goldman give end of the year bonuses. Most Wall Street firms did. Isn't that profit sharing.

Google and Microsoft.

When I was a kid I fell on some rise bushes. I had cuts on my arms. I had some cuts that didn't hurt until I saw them. Thw world I inhabit is less real than yours or I have less ambition than you do.

I'll give you an example. The industrialization of China. Too many cars in the city. The solution was to encourage bike riding. The affluent not keen in riding a bike. It reminds them of poverty or China before development. So they marketing high end expensive bicycles. No you happen to be more self motivated than others. However if you want to change behavior sometimes it helps to know what drives it. It perhaps not but it us the way I think.

Thank you, Cynique.

Cynique - I think the link is unconscious. It doesn't reside in space and us also outside of time. Luke the creator/creators. So underneath I believe we are linked with everything in this universe. The sum of which is the ultimate. Since this link is not physical yes we are dreaming. It could be that Geometry is a color equivalent. If they got here they would probably understand geometry. Numbers are considered a universal in a way language is not. Although I don't think this has to be true. It could just be another symbolic subset of our type of thinking. I am experimenting with my definition of reality. I am using a looser concept of the way the world works. It has changed my beliefs about the world is organized it dies feel more dream like. It id also very confronting. Since I can see my motivations very clearly.

Troy I would disagree. Profit sharing companies are very successful because the workers own the company.

Cynique - your post is tasty.