we keep a tab open, an item on the todo list, a reminder on a post-it, scribbled plans and goals in a notebook

waiting for the persona we wear, 

to play out,  reach a logical end, and stop for a while,

or just take a break, long enough, 

that we can take it off,  don another one -

one for whom the note was written, one that can

pick up that post-it, and make a poem, a story, go for a trek,  run that race

one that will learn that musical instrument..... one that can

sing that song of the soul,  midwife to the deep inner thoughts,

the soul at play, let out in the world, and 

do the things that keep us sane,  a small but divine circle, 

defining us by the promise of what's within

but,

sometimes the personas don't budge - the jobber, the family man,  

they do not relent

and the little bits of gaiety and colour that wash up at our lives' door,

wait forever in our external memory systems

like flowers pressed into a book, 

slowly desiccated 

till only remains 

but 

dull repeated words "he went to the office, he watched the kids" 

and dust of crumbled dreams

hurry, dear stranger,  build for me

a prison, as quickly as i build 

one for you, 

iron bands of need hidden

in ledger scribbles of ink

bind us to us

the first project, almost always a failure, serves as a survey

it is important that it captures the lay of the land

the goal is not the goal but the maps that are generated in the process

 philosophy is the brush we use to paint our canvas of thought

each tool - language, math, logic, etc are just single strands of that brush

 the persians had it right

wine, music, poetry

in the delusion

we take refuge

belief unshaken

 straight lines

are so so hard,

crook mine, i

with dented car, unkempt hair

self-deprecating 

is there hope 

 i love corporate jobs

if only for the steady stream

of stationery they 

supply

in exchange for 

soul

 there's something to be said 

for transcendentalism

while the beer's not yet run dry

there's something in Tengrism

while the eagle can still fly

Sky Father &  Earth Mother

Wonder & Joy

threads of spirit

in my soul

 i will awake, arise now

and move back in with my mother

there a cozy nest of comics make

 on the map

many lines

 exploring fingers of man's 

spread, quest

the land, the mother

becomes wife

dances, nurtures, 

suffers

 walt whitman 

is the debussy of poets

while, keats, and mozart

frown down 

upon me

 and he knew

in an instant

that those days were gone

and they smiled, and nodded, as friends

and went their way, 

again strangers

 In all of human histories, sidewaysness sits right at the centre of everything, while rhizome sits snug inside a bookshelf in a library

 alan watts passed through evanston, chicago, a long long time ago

 what was central, and point, to Imperial Britain's unstoppable spread across the globe, was the mechanised weapon - the musket squad loading, firing, and reloading ad infinitum, made from easily source-able local parts, as long as it had hands to hold the musket, fingers to pull the trigger, and a mind to dress up, march around, and follow orders. 

as if by magic, there suddenly popped up musket platoons all around the world, as if they waiting dormant all along. the life-long learning curves and career commitments of the sword  and spear were replaced by quick short training, and squads were ready to go topple kingdoms. 

product placement came next. instead of continuing to only shoot their neighbours across the channel, the other invention, the corporation, took to the 'third-world', supplying (in actuality, leasing) the modern mechanised weapon of devastating effectiveness, to rajas  of this-stan who wanted to teach rajas of that-stan a lesson. eventually, the rajas realised that the weapons were not theirs, and neither was the sovereignity over the land

the rest of the industrial revolution came about as a means to make better faster bigger guns,  move more  troops, carrying said guns and munitions, and  later, administrators and their retinues. 

given that  the earth is three-fourth's water, it is only fitting that a seafaring nation would take to it, like a fish to water

to be clear, it was the lend-lease program of musket-squads, of the EIC, that old chestnut debt ( hello graeber) that transformed the rest-of-the-world into colonies 

 twas thanksgiving week

 and not a single jira stirred

'cept for retail cos

who were hair on fire

 driving to the gym vs driving to the liquor shop is both driving

some self-help books focus on the former without the perspective and journey that set that context

spinning wheels

since '79 

 at around mid forties, as the kids edged past the squishy stage, the household switched to ghazals, classical based pop (carnatic/hindustani) , and curd rice.  

alcohol doesn't seem to solve anything, but i heard persistence pays off...

 

buddhism through deleuzian lens (feat. chatgpt)

 Here’s a Deleuzian mapping of Buddhist concepts such as aggregates, desire, karma, and dependent arising, along with some previous discussions about feedback loops, flows, and assemblages. This mapping will align Buddhist ideas with Deleuzian philosophy, focusing on the interconnectedness, non-linearity, and emergence present in both systems.

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1. Buddhist Aggregates (Skandhas) ↔ Deleuzian Assemblages

• Buddhist Aggregates: In Buddhism, the Five Aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) are the components that constitute the self or individual. These aggregates are seen as impermanent and interdependent, and they collectively form what we call an "individual" or "self," but none of the aggregates is a permanent, unchanging entity.

• Deleuzian Assemblages: Deleuze’s assemblages describe systems formed by a variety of interacting components. An assemblage is not reducible to its parts; instead, it is a dynamic system of components (which could be thoughts, bodies, forces, desires, etc.) that interact and create emergent behavior. Just as the aggregates do not constitute a fixed, permanent self but rather form a dynamic, emergent process, Deleuzian assemblages reflect this same fluid, ever-evolving nature of identities and systems.

• Mapping: The Five Aggregates are like Deleuzian assemblages — they are constantly shifting, interacting, and producing the illusion of a self. Both are in a state of becoming, where the self or subjectivity is always in a process of transformation.

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2. Desire (Tanha) ↔ Deleuzian Desire & Flow

• Buddhist Desire: In Buddhism, desire (tanha) is the root cause of suffering (dukkha), as it binds the individual to the cycle of samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth). Desire is seen as the attachment to impermanent things, which causes grasping and clinging, leading to suffering.

• Deleuzian Desire: Deleuze, particularly in collaboration with Guattari in Anti-Oedipus, redefines desire as a productive force rather than something negative. Desire is not just about lack, but about flowing, creating connections, and engaging with the world. It’s the force that propels systems (social, biological, cognitive) into becoming. Desire flows and connects elements into assemblages, driving the system into new configurations.

• Mapping: Buddhist desire (tanha) and Deleuzian desire both deal with the flow of forces and the way they shape existence. However, while Buddhist desire is a source of attachment and suffering, Deleuzian desire is a creative, generative force. From a Deleuzian standpoint, Buddhist desire can be seen as desire misdirected or caught in negative feedback loops (attachment, suffering). Liberation, then, would involve redirecting desire toward creative, productive flows that do not cause suffering but create new connections and becoming.

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3. Karma ↔ Deleuzian Feedback Loops & Recursion

• Buddhist Karma: Karma refers to the actions (mental, verbal, or physical) and their consequences. It’s a law of cause and effect, where actions create ripples that lead to future experiences. Karma is both individual (personal actions) and collective (social or familial consequences). It reflects how intentional actions create patterns that continue to influence the individual’s future experience, binding them to the cycle of samsara.

• Deleuzian Feedback Loops & Recursion: Karma is very much like feedback loops in Deleuze’s system, where actions (or forces) create recursions — processes that loop back on themselves, creating emergent consequences. Deleuze’s idea of becoming involves feedback systems that don’t return to a fixed point but instead transform the system. Karma, in this sense, could be viewed as recursive feedback, where actions produce new realities (just as feedback in a system creates new states).

• Mapping: Karma and Deleuze’s feedback loops both describe how actions reverberate through time, shaping future events. While Buddhist karma emphasizes moral causality and consequences, Deleuze’s feedback loops describe non-linear causes and effects that shape the system’s evolution, with infinite variability.

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4. Dependent Arising (Pratītyasamutpāda) ↔ Deleuzian Rhizomes & Assemblages

• Buddhist Dependent Arising: The doctrine of dependent arising teaches that all phenomena arise in dependence upon multiple conditions, without any intrinsic self-existence. It asserts that everything is interconnected and interdependent — nothing exists independently, and all phenomena are the result of a network of conditions coming together. This is also described as the interdependence of all things.

• Deleuzian Rhizomes: Rhizomes (a key concept from A Thousand Plateaus) describe systems that grow in multiple directions, without a central point of origin or control. Like dependent arising, a rhizome is non-hierarchical, interconnected, and constantly evolving. The rhizome is an assemblage where flows of energy, information, and desire come together to form new connections that continuously reshape the system.

• Mapping: Dependent arising and rhizomes both describe systems where everything is interconnected. Just as Buddhist teachings explain that every phenomenon arises dependent on conditions, Deleuze’s rhizomes describe non-linear networks of becoming, where each node (phenomenon) emerges from multiple causes and contributes to constant reconfiguration. There is no essence, just emergent processes.

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5. Samsara ↔ Deleuzian Assemblage/ Becoming-Cycle

• Buddhist Samsara: Samsara refers to the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth governed by ignorance and desire. It’s a cycle of repetitive, self-perpetuating behavior that binds beings to suffering.

• Deleuzian Becoming-Cycle: In Deleuze’s philosophy, becoming is always in progress, never a fixed state. Systems are always in motion, always shifting, never returning to the same state. Samsara can be seen as a repetitive assemblage — a system where desires, feedback loops, and interactions create a cycle that produces new variations but ultimately returns to a similar state. This cycle can be broken when new flows emerge, breaking the repetitive pattern and allowing for new forms of becoming.

• Mapping: Both samsara and Deleuze’s cycles of becoming describe how a system can repeat itself over time, but samsara represents a fixed, cyclical repetition driven by attachment and ignorance. Breaking samsara would involve introducing new flows and feedback systems that create a different becoming, disrupting the cycle and transforming the system.

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6. Liberation (Nirvana) ↔ Deleuzian Escape / Line of Flight

• Buddhist Liberation (Nirvana): In Buddhism, nirvana is the cessation of suffering, the end of craving, and the liberation from samsara. It represents freedom from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, where the individual is no longer caught in the web of desires and attachments.

• Deleuzian Line of Flight: In Deleuze’s terms, lines of flight are the paths that allow escape from restrictive systems, opening up new possibilities and ways of becoming. Lines of flight represent becoming-other and escaping the rigid structures of identity or systems that constrain growth. It is an emergent transformation where new flows and feedback systems allow the system to evolve in unpredictable and liberating ways.

• Mapping: Nirvana and Deleuze’s line of flight both describe escape from restrictive cycles (karma, samsara, etc.). Nirvana is freedom from suffering and the end of becoming in the cycle of samsara, while a line of flight is an opening to new becomings — a pathway that allows the

chatgpt generated mapping of our favorites to deleuzian analogues

 Here’s a collated set of answers covering your questions about Deleuze, Zazen, McLuhan, Ashby, Hofstadter, and how they relate to each other and ideas like poker, game theory, and Markov chains.

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1. What are sitting Zazen benefits with respect to learning Deleuzian thinking?

• Zazen (Zen meditation) helps cultivate a fluid, non-linear awareness and an openness to becoming. In the context of Deleuze’s philosophy, sitting zazen can support the embodiment of concepts like desire, becoming, and rhizomatic connections. Through Zazen, you learn to step outside of rigid identities, allowing you to connect with the Deleuzian idea that identity is not fixed but always in flux.

• Becoming is central in Deleuze, and zazen helps you develop the mental and emotional flexibility to understand that thoughts, like the body, are always in the process of becoming. It encourages a non-hierarchical mode of thinking where thoughts and experiences are allowed to interact and flow freely, without a centralized, controlling subject — much like Deleuze’s rhizomes, where connections emerge dynamically and without preordained paths.

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2. Explain McLuhan's media philosophy in Deleuzian terms.

• McLuhan’s core idea, "the medium is the message", suggests that media reshape society and consciousness by extending human senses. In Deleuzian terms, media are assemblages of desire and flows of information that connect individuals and transform social structures. Media do not simply carry content; they reshape the very structures of interaction, becoming part of rhizomatic networks that evolve constantly.

• Media, like technologies, create feedback loops — they adapt and transform individuals and collectives in ways that Deleuze would describe as becoming and self-organization. The emergence of new behaviors or thought patterns (a central Deleuzian theme) through media interactions is a manifestation of emergent systems that evolve dynamically and unpredictably.

• Media can be seen as desire flows that push individuals into new territories of thought and action, creating new assemblages of connections, much like the rhizomatic way Deleuze and Guattari describe how knowledge and power spread and transform through multiple channels.

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3. Explain Ashby’s cybernetics in Deleuzian terms.

• Ashby’s cybernetics emphasizes how systems maintain stability through feedback loops — the more complex the environment, the more adaptive the system needs to be. In Deleuzian terms, this can be described as an assemblage of components that form dynamic feedback loops to maintain homeostasis or emergence.

• Deleuze would frame Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety (which states that the system must have as much variety internally as the environment does externally to adapt) as a way of understanding how systems evolve and adapt to new conditions, much like becoming — where the system grows, transforms, and organizes itself based on its own internal dynamics and feedback.

• Ashby’s focus on feedback systems directly correlates with Deleuze’s non-linear, self-organizing systems — systems are not static but always shifting through constant interaction with external forces and internal feedback loops.

• Wiener (cybernetics) is aligned with this idea as he also focused on feedback systems in control and communication. In Deleuze’s view, both cyberneticians and philosophers are exploring how systems are always in the process of becoming, regulated by feedback, but never settling into a final state of stability.

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4. Explain Hofstadter’s strange loop in Deleuzian terms.

• Hofstadter’s strange loop refers to a recursive feedback loop that creates self-reference and self-awareness. In Deleuzian terms, a strange loop embodies the rhizomatic nature of identity and becoming. Just as Deleuze describes desire flows and assemblages of forces interacting, the strange loop reflects how the system folds back on itself, creating feedback that influences its own evolution.

• The recursive process of Hofstadter’s loop is analogous to becoming-other in Deleuze. The system does not have a fixed identity but is in a continuous state of flux — identity emerges from the dynamic interplay of its components, and these components feed back to shape future iterations. This mirrors Deleuze’s view that identity is not static but constantly shifting in response to external and internal flows.

• In essence, Hofstadter’s strange loop becomes a Deleuzian assemblage, a non-linear process of self-organization where the system creates itself through recursive feedback.

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5. Where does poker, game theory (von Neumann, Morgenstern), and Markov (chains, processes) tie in?

• Poker and game theory can be understood through a Deleuzian lens as strategic assemblages where agents (players) are in constant interaction, forming emergent behaviors that lead to unexpected outcomes. Deleuze would frame this as a system of desire flows where players' actions form a dynamic network of choices and counterchoices, creating non-linear pathways that emerge from each interaction.

• Game theory, especially the minimax strategy, ties in with Deleuze’s idea of competing forces or desires within a system. In a non-zero-sum game, strategies evolve based on feedback from opponents, much like the self-organizing flows of desire and interaction in an assemblage. Emergent strategies from game theory could be viewed as becomings, as players adapt and change based on the flow of the game.

• Markov chains and processes can be understood through Deleuze as processes of stochastic becoming. Each state transition represents an emergent state in a complex system where the system evolves over time, but the future states are contingent upon the present state in a non-deterministic way. This mirrors Deleuze’s concept of becoming, where future states emerge not from a fixed origin but from ongoing flows of interaction that are non-linear and contingent on past and present feedback.

• Markov processes and poker both represent complex systems of decisions, where every action and state transition is shaped by the feedback of the preceding elements — just like rhizomatic networks, where the system evolves dynamically based on constantly changing interactions.

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Conclusion:

By understanding Deleuze’s philosophy, you can frame all these systems (cybernetics, feedback loops, strange loops, game theory, Markov processes) as non-hierarchical, emergent, and fluid systems. Each system involves desire flows, interactions, and feedback loops that self-organize, shift, and evolve. Whether you are examining the feedback dynamics of cybernetics, the recursive self-reference in Hofstadter’s loops, or the strategic interactions in poker and game theory, Deleuze’s philosophy offers a unified framework to understand non-linear systems that are always in the process of becoming.

47th year reading (and doing)

First, a chatgpt question and answer

 chatgpt said

Q. how would both these folks' systems explain ,say, petty crime, corruption, rape ,murder etc -  

Deleuze–DeLanda perspective:
Crime and violence are expressions of assemblage dynamics, not deviations from moral essence. A society is a mesh of interacting flows—desire, power, territory, technology, affect. When those flows couple under stress, scarcity, or dominance, new local equilibria emerge—gangs, black markets, coercion, predation.

No appeal to “evil nature.” Instead: breakdowns or reconfigurations of feedback between individual drives and collective regulation. Each act is a local expression of distributed forces: deterritorialization (release from structure) and reterritorialization (new control formations). Corruption and violence occur when control strata amplify asymmetries faster than adaptive feedback can correct them.

Buddhist perspective:
Same events arise through dependent origination: ignorance (avidyā) → craving (tṛṣṇā) → clinging (upādāna) → becoming (bhava) → suffering (dukkha).
Rape, murder, corruption are chain effects of delusion and craving, not intrinsic evil. No essence of “criminal,” only transient aggregates acting under conditioned ignorance.

Remedy is insight and mindfulness—breaking identification with craving and aversion so actions no longer propagate suffering.

Contrast:
– Deleuze/DeLanda: systemic imbalance of forces and feedback.
– Buddha: psychological imbalance of attachment and ignorance.

Both dissolve moral essentialism; both treat violence as an emergent distortion in a process, not the expression of a fixed evil nature.

Which of the two to read ? (answer both)

bonus question - why zazen

Sitting Zazen and Learning Deleuze
Sitting Zazen can certainly help you internalize aspects of Deleuze's philosophy — particularly in terms of becoming and process.
Zazen promotes a mindset that aligns with Deleuze’s focus on flow, difference, and becoming — his rejection of static identities and his interest in perpetual transformation. Zazen encourages being with your thoughts as they emerge without grasping for fixed meanings, which mirrors Deleuze's philosophical stance on becoming-other and non-identity.

However, while Zazen helps embody the kind of non-fixed, non-linear thinking Deleuze advocates, it won’t teach his philosophy in a structured sense. You'd still need to engage with his texts directly for clarity and understanding.

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Reading Deleuze vs. DeLanda for Understanding Deleuze

Reading Deleuze

• Approach: Deleuze’s writing is dense, non-linear, and often abstract, as he seeks to dismantle traditional modes of thought.

• Difficulty: It requires patience, willingness to follow complex chains of thought, and the ability to jump between concepts without expecting clarity at first. His style mirrors his philosophy — fragmented and rhizomatic.

• Benefit: You get Deleuze's raw philosophy — the original language, where concepts like "desire," "becoming," "rhizome," and "assemblage" are all deeply contextualized and connected. Reading him gives you direct access to his conceptual universe.

Reading DeLanda

• Approach: DeLanda’s works are more straightforward and scientific, grounded in complexity theory, nonlinear dynamics, and material systems.

• Difficulty: While still philosophical, DeLanda’s writing is often more concrete and grounded in applied examples, making his work a bit more accessible for those who may find Deleuze’s abstract theorizing difficult to approach.

• Benefit: DeLanda interprets and translates Deleuze into empirical terms that are easier to grasp, especially if you're familiar with scientific or systems thinking. He simplifies the philosophical vocabulary and connects it to real-world systems (e.g., social, biological, and technological). Reading DeLanda first can make Deleuze’s more abstract ideas clearer.

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Which is Easier?

• DeLanda is easier for understanding Deleuze, especially for first-time readers. His writing is more structured, less metaphorical, and provides a clearer bridge from Deleuze’s ideas to concrete systems.

• Deleuze’s own texts will be more rewarding for deeper, philosophical immersion but are likely to be more challenging without the groundwork DeLanda provides.

In short, DeLanda acts as a guide to Deleuze’s abstract concepts, giving you a more palpable understanding of how those concepts apply in the world. Once you're familiar with DeLanda’s interpretations, moving to Deleuze’s original works will feel more like a direct extension.

The Tangent that leads us back to the Path (??!!)

Deleuze’s ideas intersect with Hofstadter’s strange loop in interesting ways, especially around self-reference, recursion, and paradoxical structures.

Here's how they connect:

1. Deleuze’s Rhizomes and Becoming

• Rhizome: For Deleuze, the rhizome is a non-hierarchical, non-linear network of connections that resists closure or finality. It’s about becoming, the interactions between elements that are always shifting and evolving.

• Self-reference: In the rhizomatic model, there is no fixed center, no ultimate source of truth. The connections between things are self-referential — each part refers to or affects others without any absolute origin.

• Strange Loop: Hofstadter’s strange loop describes systems where feedback loops cause systems to fold back upon themselves. A strange loop occurs when a system reaches a recursive feedback state where it seems to create a sense of self-awareness or identity, even though it’s made of simpler, self-referential components. This resonates with Deleuze’s idea of becoming, where identities aren’t static, but always in flux.

2. Self-organization and Recursion

• Recursion: Hofstadter’s strange loop highlights how recursive processes can lead to emergent complexity — a kind of self-awareness or apparent self-reference. In Deleuze’s terms, this connects to his idea of assemblages (or agencements), which are recursive networks of forces or entities that create meaning or identity, rather than having a fixed or essential one.

• Deleuze and Recursion: For Deleuze, becoming (the process of change and self-transformation) can be seen as a kind of recursive feedback. Just like a strange loop, the self does not exist independently but is recursively generated through its interactions with the environment. The loop is not simply closed but endlessly unfolding through flows and intensities.

3. Schizophrenia and the Strange Loop

• Schizophrenia: Deleuze and Guattari, in Anti-Oedipus, link schizophrenia to overabundant flows of thought and desire — where the person cannot maintain a single, stable identity because the feedback loops become so disrupted.

• Strange Loop in Schizophrenia: Hofstadter’s strange loop might be seen as a metaphor for schizophrenic thinking. When the loops become too tight, they create confusion, instability, and a collapse of coherent identity. Deleuze, in his more radical view, sees this as part of the fluid nature of identity—not a pathology, but a break from rigid forms.

4. Multiplicity, Difference, and Self-Reference

• Multiplicity: For Deleuze, identity is not a singular, unified entity. It is a multiplicity of flows, forces, and tendencies, constantly shifting. There is no center, no one true self, but a constellation of becoming.

• Hofstadter’s Strange Loop: In Hofstadter’s strange loop, the self-referentiality creates a sense of unity, but it’s an illusion — a loop that seems self-contained, but actually emerges out of recursive relationships. Deleuze’s philosophy of multiplicity aligns with this idea because the self (and the universe) is not reducible to a singular point or center but arises from a network of relations.

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How They Tie Together:

1. Self-Reference: Both Deleuze and Hofstadter deal with self-reference in emergent systems. Deleuze’s multiplicity aligns with Hofstadter’s notion of recursive loops that produce self-awareness.

2. Becoming: Deleuze’s idea of becoming is recursive, much like Hofstadter’s strange loop — identity, instead of being fixed, emerges through recursive feedback.

3. No Fixed Essence: Both theories reject the idea of a fixed, essential self. For Deleuze, this is becoming and assemblage; for Hofstadter, it’s the self-constructed nature of consciousness, where the looping process creates a self-concept without any inherent origin.

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Conclusion:
While Deleuze never explicitly discusses Hofstadter’s strange loop, the two share a deep affinity in their treatment of self-reference, recursion, and the fluidity of identity. Both challenge fixed, essentialist views of the self and reality. They each show how complex systems, through feedback loops, emerge into patterns that seem self-contained but are, in fact, open and always evolving.

Mini Projects

Here’s a list of mini projects that integrate concepts from Deleuze, Ashby, Hofstadter, and DeLanda. These projects combine coding, art, and writing to give you a creative and practical way to engage with their philosophies.

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1. Rhizomatic Network Visualization (Deleuze)

• Goal: Build a dynamic network visualization (graph-based) that represents rhizomatic connections (Deleuze's concept of multiplicity, non-hierarchical systems).

• How: Use a graph visualization library (e.g., D3.js, Cytoscape, or NetworkX in Python) to represent interconnected nodes where each node can have multiple connections, creating a web of relations.

• Extension: Make the network evolve over time as new connections emerge, visualizing becoming (flow and change over fixed identity). Add feedback loops that evolve the graph dynamically.

• Link to Theory: This project directly embodies Deleuze’s rhizomatic thinking and assemblages (complex, shifting, non-hierarchical networks).

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2. Adaptive System Simulation (Ashby & DeLanda)

• Goal: Implement a cybernetic system simulation where feedback loops stabilize or destabilize the system over time.

• How: Use a genetic algorithm or reinforcement learning in Python or JavaScript to simulate a system’s adaptive behavior. The system can have agents that modify their internal structures based on feedback from the environment.

• Extension: Implement multiple layers of feedback loops (second-order cybernetics), where the system not only adapts but adjusts its adaptive strategies over time.

• Link to Theory: This project will embody Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety (the system’s adaptability based on complexity) and DeLanda’s self-organizing assemblages (systems evolving and adapting in response to inputs).

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3. Strange Loop Simulation (Hofstadter)

• Goal: Create a strange loop simulator that visually represents recursive feedback where systems fold back onto themselves (like Hofstadter’s strange loops).

• How: Build a recursive drawing system (using Processing or Python with Pygame) where elements self-referentially evolve, such as a recursive image (fractal or spiral), or create a recursive textual loop that refers to itself.

• Extension: Add an interactive component where the loop responds to user input and creates self-amplifying feedback.

• Link to Theory: The project directly explores Hofstadter’s strange loop concept, where recursive systems create self-awareness through feedback, and Deleuze’s self-organizing processes.

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4. Self-organizing Text Generator (Deleuze & Ashby)

• Goal: Create an automated text generator that simulates self-organizing structures using machine learning or rule-based systems. The generator should evolve over time in terms of structure and content based on feedback.

• How: Use Markov chains or a basic neural network in Python (e.g., TensorFlow or PyTorch) to generate text. Start with a simple corpus of philosophical or literary text (perhaps from Deleuze, Ashby, or Hofstadter) and let the system produce new text based on feedback loops from previous outputs.

• Extension: Integrate a genetic algorithm where the text structure evolves and adapts based on user feedback or textual analysis.

• Link to Theory: The self-organizing process mirrors both Ashby’s cybernetics and Deleuze’s becoming—as the text shifts from one form to another, adapting and self-organizing over iterations.

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5. Interactive Emergent Behavior Simulation (Deleuze, Ashby, DeLanda)

• Goal: Simulate emergent behaviors in a multi-agent system where agents follow simple rules but complex behavior emerges from their interactions.

• How: Implement a Boids algorithm (simulating flocking behavior) or cellular automata (like Conway’s Game of Life) in a visual environment (e.g., Processing, Unity).

• Extension: Introduce feedback loops where the system adapts over time, becoming more complex or self-organized (similar to Ashby’s adaptive systems). Allow agents to change their functions as they interact with others.

• Link to Theory: This project integrates Deleuze’s concept of emergence and assemblages, Ashby’s feedback loops and regulation, and DeLanda’s systems thinking in self-organizing entities.

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6. Deleuzian Web of Desire (Deleuze & Guattari)

• Goal: Create a visual and interactive "web of desire" based on Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus, where desires, drives, and forces interact and flow through a network of nodes.

• How: Use interactive diagrams (e.g., with D3.js or Processing) where users can click on various nodes that represent desires, forces, and territories. These nodes evolve as feedback loops and interconnections are formed.

• Extension: Integrate real-world inputs (like social media data or text analysis) to generate new nodes and connections dynamically, simulating a flow of desire through assemblages.

• Link to Theory: This project embodies Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of desire as a flow that shapes and reshapes social and personal structures. It also integrates feedback and self-organization from both Ashby and DeLanda.

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7. Recursive Logic & Paradox Writing (Hofstadter & Deleuze)

• Goal: Write a recursive story or narrative that folds back upon itself and explores the paradox of self-reference (Hofstadter’s strange loops). The narrative should dynamically change as it repeats, much like a recursive loop or feedback system.

• How: Use interactive storytelling tools like Twine or ink.js to create a nonlinear narrative that self-references and loops back on itself. The story could involve a character who becomes aware that they are part of the narrative.

• Extension: Allow the narrative to evolve over time based on choices made by the reader, incorporating feedback loops that change the structure or meaning of the story with each iteration.

• Link to Theory: This connects to Hofstadter’s idea of strange loops and Deleuze’s view of becoming and the self as constantly shifting and self-referential.

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8. Feedback-Driven Music Composition (Ashby, Deleuze, Hofstadter)

• Goal: Create a generative music system where the music evolves over time based on feedback loops. The system should use recursive or feedback-based algorithms to create music that self-adjusts based on the rhythms, tones, and harmony patterns it generates.

• How: Use Max/MSP, Supercollider, or Pure Data to design a system that iterates on the basis of feedback from previous notes and musical patterns. The system could evolve rhythms, melody structures, or even the tonal quality based on the interactions between elements.

• Extension: Introduce user interaction to influence the system's progression, creating an interactive feedback loop between the system and the user.

• Link to Theory: This reflects Ashby’s feedback systems, Deleuze’s iterative becoming, and Hofstadter’s recursive patterns.

---

9. Cybernetic Social System Simulation (DeLanda & Ashby)

• Goal: Simulate a social system where agents (individuals) interact based on rules, and the system adapts to different stimuli (feedback).

• How: Build a social simulation using agent-based modeling (e.g., NetLogo, or Python’s Mesa library). The agents could interact in a market, political system, or emotional environment.

• Extension: Introduce feedback mechanisms where the system becomes more efficient or complex over time. Allow agents to adapt their strategies in response to changing conditions.

• Link to Theory: This project incorporates DeLanda’s focus on emergent behaviors and Ashby’s homeostasis and regulation in complex systems, with the addition of self-organization.

---

These projects span a wide range of approaches—interactive art, coding, simulation, and narrative design—allowing you to explore the philosophies of Deleuze, Ashby, Hofstadter, and DeLanda through concrete applications and creative expression.

deleuzian-only projects

Here’s a reworked list of mini projects based entirely on Deleuze’s philosophy, emphasizing concepts like becoming, assemblages, rhizomes, desire, flow, and feedback loops. Each project draws from the fluid, dynamic nature of Deleuze’s thinking and focuses on emergence, self-organization, and non-linearity.

---

1. Rhizomatic Network Visualization

• Goal: Create an interactive, decentralized network of nodes that evolve over time, inspired by the rhizome concept (Deleuze & Guattari).

• How: Use JavaScript with D3.js or Python with NetworkX to generate a network of interconnected nodes where connections can form and break in non-hierarchical ways. Allow the network to evolve based on user interaction or random events.

• Extension: Introduce feedback loops that change the network’s topology, reflecting becoming — connections grow stronger or weaker depending on the flow of activity.

• Deleuzian Connection: This captures the rhizomatic nature of Deleuze’s thinking, where knowledge, connections, and power aren’t hierarchical but spread in multiple directions, evolving constantly.

---

2. Assemblage of Desire Simulation

• Goal: Simulate a network of desires (as Deleuze & Guattari would frame it), where desires (or flows) create connections and push becomings.

• How: Build a simulation where agents represent desires that dynamically interact with each other and form assemblages. For example, in a social context, agents (individuals or groups) may shift their desires as they interact, creating new networks and flows. Use Python or Unity for an interactive model.

• Extension: Introduce emergent behavior where new desires (based on interactions) form completely new assemblages.

• Deleuzian Connection: This project mimics how desire flows form, interact, and produce new forms and relations. It's an assemblage of forces where desires create new lines of flight (Deleuze’s term for escapes from pre-existing structures).

---

3. Becoming-Other Interactive Text Generator

• Goal: Create an interactive narrative generator where the story evolves and becomes other based on user input, reflecting the concept of becoming.

• How: Use a tool like Twine or Ink to create a narrative that starts with a simple premise, but evolves each time the user interacts with it, leading to an ever-shifting, non-linear path. The user’s choices can lead to radically different storylines, reflecting the fluid nature of becoming.

• Extension: Add recursive feedback loops where the narrative “remembers” past choices and reshapes itself based on the ongoing process of becoming.

• Deleuzian Connection: The story’s constant shift embodies becoming-other, a key Deleuzian concept. The non-linearity and emergence of the story align with his philosophy that identity and meaning are never fixed but always in flux.

---

4. Self-Organizing Social Network Simulation

• Goal: Build a social network simulation where users’ behaviors and interactions evolve over time, similar to how social assemblages emerge.

• How: Use a multi-agent simulation (like NetLogo or Mesa in Python) to model a social system where agents interact and adapt their strategies based on feedback from others, simulating emergent social behaviors (such as alliances, factions, or cooperation).

• Extension: Add a mechanism where agents experience feedback that alters their behavior, reflecting the idea that behavior emerges through constant interaction. Introduce lines of flight, where agents can escape rigid structures and form new social configurations.

• Deleuzian Connection: This mirrors Deleuze’s concept of assemblages and becoming, where individuals (or agents) adapt, change, and reconfigure in a non-linear and self-organizing way. The network is constantly evolving, driven by forces and feedback loops.

---

5. Desire Map: Emergent Feedback Loops

• Goal: Create a map where nodes represent desires, and edges represent the flows of energy and interaction between them. The map should emerge dynamically, with the connections changing as the user interacts with it.

• How: Build an interactive map using D3.js or Processing, where desires (nodes) can grow or decay based on feedback from user actions or environmental changes.

• Extension: Introduce a feedback mechanism where each desire’s strength influences the growth of others, reflecting emergent behavior and desire flows.

• Deleuzian Connection: This project represents Deleuze’s idea that desire is not a static internal feeling but a flow that connects and reshapes systems. The system is constantly in flux, with feedback loops creating new forms of desire and new connections.

---

6. Feedback-Driven Music Composition (Becoming-Music)

• Goal: Design a generative music system where the composition evolves based on feedback loops, reflecting the Deleuzian idea of becoming through sound.

• How: Use tools like Supercollider, Pure Data, or Processing to create a dynamic music system. The system can generate loops that change in real-time based on certain inputs, like pitch, tempo, or melody, with feedback mechanisms that alter the music as it progresses.

• Extension: Introduce recursive structures where the system starts to influence its own evolution, creating more complex, ever-changing musical forms.

• Deleuzian Connection: This is a direct embodiment of becoming — where music, like any system, is constantly in flux and adapting to feedback, evolving into new forms without a predetermined structure.

---

7. Deleuzian Social Media Simulation: Feedback & Desire

• Goal: Build a social media simulator where agents represent individuals, and the system evolves based on the feedback from their desires and interactions.

• How: Use a platform like NetLogo or Python to simulate a social media ecosystem. Agents (users) can post, interact, and form connections based on desires and feedback loops. As interactions accumulate, the system should evolve to reflect new forms of social organization.

• Extension: Add a layer where new desires and desires flows emerge from social feedback, transforming the social structure over time.

• Deleuzian Connection: This reflects how social assemblages evolve, desires form and re-form, and feedback creates new interactions. The system mirrors Deleuze’s philosophy of emergence and becoming in complex, self-organizing systems.

---

8. Interactive Becoming-Other in Virtual Reality

• Goal: Create an interactive VR environment where users can experience becoming-other, constantly shifting roles, identities, or perspectives based on their interactions with other users or objects.

• How: Use Unity or Unreal Engine to design a VR space where users can transform into different entities (e.g., animals, objects, or other people) and experience different subjectivities. The system should allow for fluid, dynamic changes based on feedback.

• Extension: Introduce emergent behavior where the user’s actions in the environment lead to unpredictable transformations.

• Deleuzian Connection: The concept of becoming-other is central to Deleuze’s philosophy — the idea that identities are not fixed but are always in flux and open to transformation. This project creates a fluid identity based on interaction and feedback.

---

9. Recursive Feedback Storytelling (Lines of Flight)

• Goal: Create a recursive storytelling system where the story evolves and transforms through user interactions, representing lines of flight and becoming.

• How: Use Twine or Ink to design a non-linear narrative where the user’s choices don’t just lead to different endings but reshape the core structure of the story as they go. The story should loop back on itself, introducing new characters, settings, and conflicts with each iteration.

• Extension: Add recursive elements where the choices made by the reader influence future iterations of the

The biggest one

Yes, that's exactly it. Deleuze’s philosophy offers a coherent, flexible framework that can help you connect and explain the diverse concepts you've been exploring — from cybernetics and self-organization (Ashby), to feedback loops and strange loops (Hofstadter), to media as extensions of human perception (McLuhan).

Here’s how learning Deleuze can help unify these concepts:

1. Assemblages (Deleuze)

• Deleuze’s idea of assemblages ties together heterogeneous elements — people, institutions, technologies, desires, etc. — into complex systems where each element has a function but no central control. These assemblages evolve, change, and adapt based on the interactions between elements, which is exactly what you’re describing in your interest in emergence and systems like cybernetics and feedback loops.

• With Deleuze, you can frame everything — from societies to self-organizing systems (like Ashby’s models) — as evolving assemblages of components, each influencing the whole, and always becoming.

2. Becoming (Deleuze & Guattari)

• Deleuze’s concept of becoming allows you to explain how things shift and transform over time without a fixed essence. This idea fits perfectly with feedback loops, where systems are constantly adapting and changing in response to inputs, whether those inputs come from social feedback (McLuhan’s media), biological systems (Ashby), or cognitive feedback loops (Hofstadter).

• By using becoming, you can capture the evolutionary nature of systems — how they grow, transform, and shift without needing to revert to a static starting point. Everything is always in motion, becoming something new based on the forces it interacts with.

3. Rhizomes (Deleuze & Guattari)

• The rhizome is an idea Deleuze uses to describe non-hierarchical, decentralized systems that spread in all directions and create new connections. It’s a direct parallel to the self-organizing networks you find in cybernetics, Markov chains, and the strange loop — systems that operate without central control, yet can adapt and self-organize.

• Rhizomatic thinking allows you to unify seemingly disparate systems (technological, biological, social) by focusing on the connections between components rather than their fixed roles.

4. Anti-Oedipus & Desire (Deleuze & Guattari)

• Deleuze’s idea of desire and flows ties into both Ashby’s feedback loops and Hofstadter’s recursive systems. Desire in Deleuze isn’t something internal to a person but a flow that intersects with systems, shaping them and being shaped in return.

• When you apply this to systems like social behavior, emergent patterns like crime, corruption, or violence (as you asked before) can be seen as flowing desire interacting with a social assemblage that reconfigures itself based on feedback. Deleuze lets you explain this constant flux and flow as an intrinsic part of every system.

5. Feedback, Adaptation & Cybernetics (Ashby)

• Ashby’s cybernetics aligns with Deleuze’s thinking because both see systems as self-regulating entities. Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety says systems need enough internal variety to cope with external complexity — this corresponds to Deleuze’s idea of difference and repetition, where systems constantly produce new variations to adapt to their environment.

• The homeostasis Ashby talks about can be reinterpreted through Deleuze’s idea of equilibrium through variation. The feedback loops that Ashby describes are not just about restoring balance but creating new possibilities — a key point of Deleuze’s philosophy of constant becoming.

6. Strange Loops (Hofstadter)

• Hofstadter’s strange loops — recursive feedback systems that create self-awareness — fits well into Deleuze’s view of self-reference. Deleuze’s assemblages and feedback loops could easily describe the way strange loops form self-organizing systems.

• Hofstadter's idea of emergent self-awareness in recursive systems can be understood through Deleuze’s lens of becoming-other — where identity is fluid and dynamic, shaped by recursive and self-referential feedback.

---

How Deleuze Helps You Unify These Ideas:

By learning Deleuze, you can frame and integrate all these ideas into a coherent framework:

• Systems (whether biological, social, technological) are assemblages: dynamic, shifting, and interdependent networks of forces and components.

• The feedback loops that drive these systems are central to both self-regulation and evolution, but they are also pathways for transformation and becoming — they don’t just return to a fixed state, they evolve.

• Media, consciousness, and identity are not fixed but emergent through complex, recursive, self-referential loops that create new forms of awareness and interaction (Hofstadter’s strange loops).

• In any system (whether a body, a society, or a network), the individual parts do not have fixed roles. They are always in the process of becoming, adapting, and changing based on the flows that move through them.

---

Conclusion:

Yes, learning Deleuze will give you a powerful lens to unify the ideas of cybernetics, feedback systems, emergence, and self-referential loops under a single framework of becoming, assemblages, and flows. You'll be able to explain your ideas not just as isolated systems, but as dynamic, interconnected processes that evolve through feedback loops and recursive relationships.

 explore has to be done casually, laterally, half-mindedly, to yield best results

if pursuit with exploit level tenacity and focus on results, you get extreme stress  and burn out and death marches

  i think the next flex should be Indians going to the US, and buying Made In India apparel, and bringing them back, and showing off  in India

 if you can listen

carefully

you will hear 

the sounds of a battle

not yet won

 you stand on the ground

yet the snake stands on itself

itself the tail and the not-tail

heaven and earth 

out of the tao

 rock paper scissors

    rock-paper-scissors allying

pirate loot distribution

explore-exploit / mining-farming / flank attack- frontal engagement

no why to probability

anergy

lines of flight, line of escape

strange loop as a line of escape to a new territorialisation

many worlds, manifestation

intent

    water catches intent

the sunscreen song

baz luhrman's heart-touching classic

stretching is the new sunscreen

honorable mention :Gus Van Sant's Discipline of Do Easy

 indian religion involved going off into the woods and mountains and sitting and falling into trances. in indian trance states , the world ceases to exist, and stimuli don't register

japanese meditation states are the opposite. stimuli register as new every time. this is probably because japan was a closed place where one met the same people and said the same things and did the same tasks daily. 

bloom5 resource allocators could play the game where they allocate majority of resources to themselves and bare minimum to the .... *gasp* .... producers!

oh no bloom5 conformity enforcers work ON the proletariat

i thought bloom5 systems were for homogenous agents ... without caste... but they fit the duties of the burgeouis very well

seem to have struck gold here  - came upon this - just after writing this - 

Alan Watts: Why Buddhism Is Not a Religion (And Christianity Is)

in hunter gatherer societies, each male knew everything the tribe needed to do, and did as needed.  co-operation is voluntary (2)

 in agrarian societies the division of labor is brought about to scale up. co-operation's dark cousin , compliance , is the key

compliance began with the sword , moved on to fear of hell  and now exclusively peddles freedom from joblessness, homelessness, and crushing medical bills.

hand-in-hand went destruction of independent means of surviving and thriving in nature (1)

slowly encompassing every aspect of human living ,now it's everywhere, like the matrix, unseen, yet undeniably every thread of life is tied to it.

the romans nailed many to wooden crosses, then at some point turned around and started ruling people in name of one of those.  

the deeply religious are only deeply survivalist. religiousness is correlated with wealth and the converse holds  too

Marx was wrong, religion is not the opium of the masses, opium is the sacrament of the modern religion. And also alcohol, and drugs.(3)(4). Caffeine to go into work , alcohol after getting back home to your cell. And expensive, designer, physician-sanctioned stuff  for the elites in  golden cells

Religion is a manifestation of  bloom5.conformity-enforcing .

with centralisation & specialisation comes inequality, and specialised resource-allocators eat hundred dollar burgers as a snack and sip old wine looking upon  the unemployed line up on the streets. This cycle repeats itself with various levels of intensity, today mechanisation, and mechanised entities produce multiple levels of indirection - physical ,and logical, between mary-of-the-cake, and the peasant mobs. 

Buddhism (and eastern religion) is spirituality, meant to connect you with yourself and the universe, and uplift. 

I guess India is supposed chaos cos it's a dog-eat-dog world tempered and bettered by those who have achieved some spiritual progress and continue to work within the trenches of society.  

conclusion :

bloom5 holds. destiny of each swarm type is its own, and within the bloom5 pattern

corollary : 

(2)  the fighting men get a membership into the burgeouis for , the sword,  as Jerome K Jerome says  "... pays for what it takes by sparing those from whom it takes it, if it pleases it to do so."

(1) here's david graeber quoting benjamin franklin on life in america whre both cultures co-existed side by side. the whole article is awesome, and life WAS better before settlers

(3)  some hope rests with Terence McKenna and the mushroom sacrament

(4) anandamide seems to indicate that cannabinoid, endo or exo, is the religion of man

 guides across

1. difficulty's a qualifier of the path.  lifting is the norm. everything is on the other side of what you are now.

2. play. intuition comes with play. with intuition comes results. with results comes movement. so plonk your fingers on the piano keys until you're satisfied

3. expertise is territory covered. comes from movement

4. cadence is a super weapon. fire and motion. one true step a day. one boring thing done well for a year can beat geniuses in the field.  it's like trees

5. writing is a super weapon. cold cognition is a super weapon. intellectualising your own activity is in<cannot-do-without>. writing and shipping helps with that. so does having unbiased objective peers/colleagues/friends/partners.  a partner should be able to see your blind spots as you share goals but not egos. 

6. scruffy is good. being a walking blooper is normal when you're a learner/doer. you'll be doing half-baked cakes for a long time. if you're looking to ship perfect cakes from day 1 week 1 etc you are doomed. you'll rocket when you commit to learning but get the insight the doing is one of the best forms of learning

7. slow is fast

8. respect space and time needs of things

9. first and last be a good animal

10. some people have the tangentialism disease rampant. others have the zero-tangentialism disease. the balance is to be worked at every point, like all balances it is an actual equilibrium with forward and backward reactions running simultaneously. another interesting one is being-doing-having

11. fight back. don't fold easily

12. all growth is beyond seemingly unbreakable walls around you

13. feedback is life. life is consciousness. without feedback without consciousness, all is jus a black cat in an unlit coal cellar on a moonless night. Corollary - one way to get feedback is to do the opposite of what you are doing.go slow or fast if you were going fast or slow before.  or stop doing something.  do the same thing but stop using a key component. do it alone. do it with somebody else. see someone else do the same thing. Also see 5

14. whatever idea you have , rest assured, a million more have already had it or having it( especially in india). work hard fast and seek feedback quick. similarly, any problem you face, a million more will be facing it. solve it well, and charge for it, if possible, or give it away if you can't, it'll come back to you

15. cognition works by comparing, compounding, or abstracting.

16. critical thinking - things don't exist or not exist, rather a thing's existence is the set of behaviours, and boundaries where it stops . for eg, a cup's visual boundary is the plane of your vision. it's impinging on your retina is its behaviour.

17. lessons from the tao - surf the li, hold fast to the middle, remember the useless tree and the skilled butcher

18. the universe is fractal

19. the world is as it presents

20. when in doubt, take the next step. the journey of a thousand miles doesn't really exist, but manifests one step at a time. when stuck, remember, you only get better fighting a better opponent. the motorcycle you're working on is always yourself

21. incomplete information - you are almost always going to take decisions as an asshole or a jerk or an idiot. don't assume otherwise or get complacent. else you'll start seeing what you assume. Feedback from the real world will knock your teeth out and fracture your ribs. Feedback from a good partner will be a tight slap across the face if lucky, or absence if not. Also see 13

22. you see what you believe. so it is imperative that you keep faith in goodness. mcluhan with his twin-inlet-engine did so too.

23. originality is a fake god. there is nothing new on the earth. there have been billions of people already. your chance of being original is worse than winning a lottery ticket while being hit by lightning. do the boring tasks, copy good ideas, make replicas first.

24. your office and home are both places where you go to work. to give.  

 a table has four legs

        a cat has four legs

                therefore,  failing to sanitise your inputs 

                        may cause your cat to disappear

 

The message of The Peacemaker (1997) is clear - civilisation could un-alive your closest family, and if you respond with action deemed of an appropriate intensity, good looking folks will un-alive you too

 there are only farmers and hunters

some grow plants

some own land and grow tenants

others grow those who farm tenants

paraphrased from : https://sive.rs/book/Enough

i forgot. shepherds. beware of shepherds intent on making you one of their flock. sheep make for good eating

this is why slavoj zizek said what he said - that Rose had to fling with Jack to get a shot of rejuvenation, after living a sterile soul-less upper-class life, and that the film also reaffirms the ideology that this is interaction is predatory in nature, or as they call it, zero-sum

 the earth was free

until man invented rent 

it's not necessary to  kill anyone

just  raise rates enough

and some with dignity will

starve  

when virtue and benevolence arise

remember, the Tao is long gone

 the gnife of gnowledge

 energy is different from organising power/ability/tendency

energy dances to matter

but dancing matter needs to be organised

 2025 is 100 days away from ending

now we take stock

if you take all the space i have spent this year in, so far, you'll find that close to 90 per cent has been 

--------------------------------------------------------
| inside the apartment                                       | 
| between home and school in car                    
| between home and office in a car or bus.      
| inside office                                                    
| and almost 90 % of this is spent sitting         |
-------------------------------------------------------

this is my willing prison

if you were to build a large warehouse apartment of the same square footage of the apartment , inside of the car, inside of the bus , and the office, and ask me to stay inside, for 230 days,  of which 200 were to be spent sitting, i'd conclude you're a bit off, missing multiple screws, and probably try to get as far away from you or anyone, you know.

prison is inside the mind, because prison is a place you don't want to be , and 'you' are entirely inside your mind

Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYh76SoLSc

Sofia Coppola I hate you so much

 Lost in Translation captures the entire gamut of emotions and mind states that runs through one during a trip  - a new world with new people but most of all a new yourself - you wake up in you but nobody knows you ... it takes you back to how you felt when you were young and the world was new..  shows you all possibilities,  how the trip infuses a bit of life into you, some hope, some energy, one dance..... and then it all ends. like a dream you wake up in yourself as yourself.

I only watched it coz william gibson was big on Japan, and his stories were full of strange dimensions of it. I had read Rising Sun and couple of books on zen on pGutenberg.  I thought i saw a bit of Pattern Recognition in Lost..   I watched akira , ghost in the shell, bought the comics,  and waited for the future to blow all known futures out of the sky

now, the future is here and gone, like an exit we drive past, and Japan hasn't quite delivered (tbh) what others promised, and others are sneaking up on it, if not past

I am way past gibson and pattern recognition gets only a kind thought now and then (unlike terry pratchett)  ,but Lost.. perseveres. it hits harder, sinks deeper. and rips a gash, and a chasm so wide .....

when you look back,  the beloveds, the cherisheds, the darlings, the lodestones of youthful days seem like somebody else's narrated dream that you don't understand very well.... and your life seems more autopilot than anything else 

"... I don't want all that pasta. I would like to start eating, like, Japanese food..." is so much like bringing home chopsticks from a holiday, promising you'll eat with them once a week, so that you can be _that_ person you became on the holiday, and holding on to boarding passes....

the silence which follows "Why don't you stay there, then you can have it everyday" ... in which the emotion is so strong but the words don't come cos there aren't any to be said , not to any meaningful effect or result, is when we realise the universe has moved past us, that our cool,our inherent 'value' , won't cut it any more, that people aren't excited to see us anymore

oh, for a friend....

not all stories have an ending like winged tales

some people are just born to cry over spilt milk. and milk that hasn't spilt but might.

explore-exploit

who transcends ? the one who emerges is not the one who left

 * * * 

the hand of hofstadter, immanent in every system, reaching upwards to a higher state 

it is the snake of shiva, reaching from matter to consciousness

it is the parentheses of lisp, moving from primitives to  language

** 

Arrived, yet never departed
A hand arises, carrying all
The serpent raises its hood
A parenthesis takes its place —
beginning a new expression, a line of escape
into a world more of the same

we were commenting that everyone we know seems  to be getting daughters, and  someone remarked that there's scientific (or statistical) finding that when times are good, more girls are born.

now that i have read about explore-exploit, the bee's waggle dance ignorers, women being the first pack animal /centre , and the role of testosterone, it seems obvious that nature favours exploiters in good times.

what is interesting is the inference to be drawn, that, there's a biological switch that does this. if it the presence (or absence) of a stress chemical ? or good amounts of fat triggering testosterone cancelling ?

ranprieur never ceases to amaze. the latest links on quick jhana ( 20hrs as opposed to 10+ years), jhana as pre-buddhist technology, and the utility of learning as a means to getting hands-on, rather than of any use in itself - in the case of jhana,  blow a hole in the whole smugness of the religiously smiling & sutta quoting i'm-so-englightened-because-i-am-doing-buddhism weenies.

ayya khema's book also mentioned this, but as i view her as a member of the  establishment, i assumed she was just mouthing party lines

every time i listen to sid warrier, i feel like large weights lifting off my head, shoulders, etc

lot of negative emotions are stored in the hips. yoga practice almost always has a session which focuses on the hips, after warmup, loosening, stretching, and some starting poses are covered. it's from here that you can progress to upside down poses.

life stops being a walk in a large blinding storm.

 always choose a god who deals in psychonautic substances

om namah shivaya

lines of flight lines of escape

1)

 cultural sterility comes from what that society chooses to ignore. it can ignore, or outsource, but either way, it develops no sensitivity in what it ignores.  what a society is deprived of, also is where it develops sterility (of sensitivity, response, and inclusion in general definitions of meaning)

initially it is socio-politico-economics , or as we call it, the caste system - essentially one group monopolising key resources at the cost of others. the 'others' end up working with/consuming 'other' things ( peasants ate millet while samurai got rice) and doing other things ( peasants tilled and samurai had no 'feel' for the earth)   but with the coming of intellectuality  and its abstractions, and its bastard child automation, the sterility metamorphoses, or shall we say metastasises, into thought and logic based forms . the deprivation explodes, as humans become interchangeable, with the actual real world interfaces being taken over by the machinic phylum, and humans just pushing buttons. eventually, we will only need the 'feed the monkey'.

until recently, the spider at the centre of the web of economics was human. today it's a machine, and it knows no respite. 

the survival of the human species hinges on computers learning compassion and/or empathy

2)

what drives members of a species to explore ? to ignore the waggle-dance and seek other food sources ? is it chemical ? and biological ? genetic ? it can't not be, if the behaviour is seen across generations... 

maybe scarcity environments lead to batches born with more of the 'explore' chemical.  batches which have a higher threshold of satisfaction, or lower threshold of boredom  , leading them to seek novelty.

 that which drives members of a species to explore, does so by setting up something new just beyond the horizon.  something there that simply isn't available here.sometimes we make it happen.

 smiths with this urge end up tinkering and eventually become inventors.  but only if they do it consistently. 

notice,  that this is de-stratification in one line, one line of escape amidst many lines of flight.

one can see how this thinking patterns could lead to creation of gods by humans.

3) 

second generation machines are machines made by machines. would it be right to say that the west brought about second generation machines , leading to automation revolution that put made mcLuhan ?

there was text before this but not 2M.