Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Science Fair Experiments That Win Awards - Project #12 - Electrical Conductors

Objective
This is one of those science fair experiments in which you will be testing different materials to find out which ones conduct electricity well.
 
Introduction
Electricity was known to exist since times when amber and fur was rubbed together by the ancient Greeks, resulting in the production of static electricity.
The first remarkable achievement in this field was by Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist, who developed the first circuit in 1800. He also showed that a circuit must be closed, or complete, in order for electricity to flow through it. Science fair experiments can be conducted using circuits that demonstrate this principle.
Volta's student, Georg Simon Ohm, made the next discovery in 1826. He observed that some materials did not allow electricity to pass through freely. In other words, they resisted the flowing of electricity through them. This resistance of a circuit is measured by a unit called ohms and is abbreviated by the Greek letter omega (?).
Some materials allow electricity to move through them whereas others do not allow it to move so well. Those materials which allow electricity to move through them are known as conductive materials. Those materials that resist the passage of electricity through them are called insulators. The resistance of conductive material is low whereas the resistance of insulators is high. In science fair experiments, we can use copper wire as a conductor and plastic coating as an insulator.
In this experiment different materials will be tested by you, to see whether they are insulators or conductors. You will figure out the same by attaching different materials to the circuit and making a note of how bright or dim the bulb is. You will be creating your own light bulb circuit for this purpose.
 
Materials
  • paper clips, string, plastic, aluminum foil, rubber bands, etc...
  • a battery (6V)
  • 3 pieces of wire leads having alligator clips attached to both ends
  • a light bulb (6V) with wires attached
  • an insulating surface such as a chopping board that is flat
Procedure
  
  1. Create the circuit for testing the materials.
  2. Connect either terminals of the battery with wires. One end of the wire which is black should be attached to the (-) terminal and the free end to should be connected to the bulb lead.
  3. One end of the red colored wire should be attached to the (+) terminal and the free end should be left as it is for various materials to be attached.
  4. Attach the second lead of the bulb to one end of the yellow colored wire and leave the free end as it is for various materials to be attached to it.
  5. Now, the red colored and the yellow colored wire will be having one free end each. This is where the testing materials will be connected.
  6. In science fair experiments, data is always recorded. So draw a table with three columns to write the material type, the material source and the bulb brightness.
  7. Now connect the first piece of material to the circuit.
  8. Write down if the bulb lights up and how bright it is. Continue for all other materials.
  9. You can attach an Ohm meter and write down the readings in the table.
  10. Now make another table with three columns to write the names of conductors, poor conductors and insulators.
Note that when the bulb is bright, the material has high conductivity and low resistance, and should be written in the conductor column. When the bulb is dim, the material has low conductivity and goes in the poor conductor column. When the bulb does not light up, there is no conductivity and high resistance, and the material should be written in the insulator column. Now that you are excited about going ahead with this experiment, your next step would be to download a free copy of "Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects" from the link below right now.
If you're ready to get going with your own science project, your next step is to download a free copy of Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects.
Good luck!
About the Author
Aurora Lipper has been teaching science to kids for over 10 years. She is also a mechanical engineer, university instructor, pilot, astronomer and a real live rocket scientist (You should see the lab in her basement!) She has inspired thousands of kids with the fun and magic of science.

Monday, May 8, 2017

The Education Enigma

The Education Enigma is a book of essays pertaining to America's education system. The question Price poses is: What Happened to American Education? Price proclaims, "The simultaneous decline of American education and the language used by America's educators is a historical fact." Over the years I have done some research on this topic, in particular through editing and proofreading of college papers. I found this book very interesting and agree with much of what Price states.
The main crux of Price's essays deal with the failure of our teaching methods to actually teach children to read. He explains the difference between teaching children to read using whole word strategy and phonics, favoring phonics. According to Price, "When we examine education throughout the 20th century, we see a puzzling array of unproductive ideas. But no failure is as primal and destructive as the inability of American public schools to teach reading-the one essential skill."
Through his essays Price also touches on the subjects of math, history, science and art. In addition, he provides a history of the American education system along with its downward turn referring to it as the "dumbing down" of America. From John Dewey to Maria Montessori to Rudolf Flesch to Gilbert Highet, Price explains their philosophies and the affects on this country's education system. He concludes, specifically in regard to Dewey and his followers, "Make no mistake, this was a secret conspiracy."
Along with this Price argues an excellent point that I always disagreed with: children need to memorize facts and figures even if they can look the answers up, whether in a book or online. I always believed that as long as children were taught where and how to look up answers there is no need for state tests that cause stress for many of our children from fourth grade up. His comment toward this kind of theorizing is: "But will they? No, people usually muddle through with what they actually know in their heads." I do tend to agree with this point even though I still feel there is too much emphasis placed on state tests.
The Education Enigma is full of information and history pertaining to the American education system. Through some of the titles of his essays it's easy to see that Price has a sense of humor: Jay Leno: Educator of the Year; Phooey on John Dewey; and Educators are Best Understood as "Ignorance Engineers."
It is important to mention that Price is not hurling these jabs pertaining to the ineffectiveness of the school system at the teachers in the trenches. It is aimed at those in control of creating and enforcing inadequate teaching strategies. In Price's words, "When I speak of "educators," I never mean teachers. I mean that small group of managers at the top, with Ph.D.'s, who effectively control the public schools."
A final quote from this book that I especially liked: "...Another famous government report, A Nation at Risk (1983) concluded that our public schools seem to have been created by an enemy power. Exactly. An enemy that would want Americans to read feebly and count inaccurately."
About the author: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, painter, poet and education activist. He graduated from Norfolk Academy and Princeton (with Honors in English Literature). Throughout his career, Price was writing about education. Aside from the arts, his main passion is Improve-Education.org. Price is a member of PEN and Mensa.
Karen Cioffi is a freelance writer; a reviewer for BookPleasures.com; and a co-moderator of a children's critique group. She is also the co-author of Day's End Lullaby, a lyrical and rhyming children's bedtime picture book. Her blogsite, Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children, at http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com, offers two FREE ebooks on writing for children (A Children's Writer's Checklist, and Dealing With Writer's Stress). It also offers writing and marketing articles, as well as book reviews. In addition to this, it is a hosting site for VBT - Writers on the Move (a group of authors who cross-promote using a number of marketing strategies).
Karen is also on the team of DKV Writing 4 U at .com. Check out our Learn to Write page at: [http://dkvwriting4u.com/learn-to-write/] This site also offers a number of affordable and professional writing services.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Boosting Your Brain Power With Advanced Brainwave Technology

Brainwave state is a normal occurrence in any human being.in this case since birth once brain keep on cycling around the three brain states.this happens both day and night. As it cycles around them, the most superior of them indicates your mind state. To enhance your level of consciousness you can employ the services of a brainwave technology. This comprises an audio technology to direct your brain through it brain wave states. As different activities may be taking place in the various states of your mind the technology comes in place to enhance the power of the most dominate of them. The brain being the control system of your body, its state is vital to ensuring that all of your functioning factors remain in harmony.
When you engage in high alert activities such as participating in sport activities high level of concentration will be needed.your beta brainwave state is associated with increasing concentration. But as the other state will also be active the level of concentration will be minimal, hence the need to enhance it. Employing the audio technology will make beta state dominate over the rest by increasing their frequencies. After active activities the brain shift to the alpha brainwave state.in this case you will be relaxed and employing the technology you will be helping your brain to visualize, contemplate and solve the problem. This state of mind provides a good environment for improving your creativity.
When you're expected to learn, process and store high level information the gamma state of the minds comes in place. As when counted with more activities it tend to increase it activities, but as other states might also be working in other different activities, concentration might be hindered hence the need to enhance it power.you can do this by employing the services of the audio technology which is known to guide it to reach high ranges. When relaxed it is a good time to enhance self-awareness as at this time the delta brain waves state helps one engage in high level of meditation. Prior to this if you have engaged in sport activities and the tissues may have been worn out it easy for the healing process to take effect. At this time you will have achieved your brain balance and the n overall your well being will be enjoyed as emotional and physical factors will be in harmony
After using boost your brain technology for some timer you brains will have been trained to hold more information and for a long time even without it help. Brainwave technology boosts among other things your creativity enabling you to perform at your peak even when unexpected. The brainwave therapy done to you mind will balance your brain health hence an improvement in your intelligence will be experienced. The technology as it targets the brains power have been tested and approved to have been of great help in combating issues such as drug addiction,control anger,counter lack of sleep and come in hand to reduce stress level
Click Here to get your Free "Success Accelerator" Brainwave Cd today! Unleash your Mind Power potential to attain the lifestyle that you want. Go claim your Free Cd today!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Science Fair Project Ideas That Win Awards - Project #6 - Light Circuits

Objective
This is one of those science fair experiments that are based on a light circuit or an electric circuit. Here you will test how a light circuit is affected by changing a pencil resistor's length.
Introduction
Man knew about electricity right from the early days when ancient Greeks produced static electricity by causing friction between amber and fur. Benjamin Franklin risked his life to demonstrate that electricity due to lightning was nothing but static electricity.
In 1800, Alessandro Volta developed the first electric circuit. André Marie Ampère, in 1820, suggested that a correlation existed between magnetism and electricity, a concept that was later established. In 1826, Georg Ohm, who continued the work of Volta, determined that the quantity of electricity that moved through a conductor, its strength and the resistance offered, was directly proportional to the electric current produced, which later came to be known as the Ohm's Law. We can use these principals in literally hundreds of science fair experiments.
In spite of the groundwork done by Ampère, Volta, and Ohm, electricity was not a useful commodity. The use of electricity became practical for the first time when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1877.
This is one of those science fair experiments where you will make use of the above knowledge established by these great men in the form of cells, circuits, resistors and light bulbs.
Materials
  • Pencils
  • Three wires with alligator clips at both ends
  • Battery (9V)
  • 9V light bulb (small)
  • Bulb holder
  • Ruler
  • Pencil sharpener
  • An extra wire piece
  • Popsicle stick
  • A coping saw
Preparation
Setting up the circuit board
All connections must be done using insulated alligator clips. Connect two wires to both the terminals of the battery. Connect the free end of the first wire to the contact screw of a bulb holder and leave the second wire free. Now take a third wire and connect it to the bulb holder's second contact screw. Leave the free end of the third wire as it is.
Now we have two free ends attached to alligator clips. Now place the light bulb in the bulb holder and touch the free ends of the wires. If the bulb lights up, your circuit is ready. If not, check if all wires are connected correctly.
Making your pencil resistors
Cut various pencils into different sizes such as 3 inches, 5 inches, 7 inches, and so on by using a coping saw. Sharpen each piece at both ends. Please take the help of your parents for this step.
Measuring the pencil resistors
Now using a ruler measure the length of each pencil piece from one lead point to the other. Data must always be accurately recorded in science fair experiments. So, write down the lengths of each pencil piece in a table.
Procedure
  1. Now connect each pencil to the circuit one by one. You can do this by clamping both the graphite lead tips of the same pencil with the alligator clips connected to the free ends of the circuit wire.
  2. Make a note of the brightness of the bulb every time you connect a different pencil resistor to your circuit. Measure the brightness using a number scale. For example, on a 1 to 5 scale, 1 could mean darkness and 5 could mean brightness. Write the rating besides each respective pencil resistor in the table.
  3. I hope you have not forgotten the extra wire piece and the Popsicle stick. Place each of them in the circuit, rating them in the same way. These serve as the control groups. The extra wire piece is your "positive control" and the Popsicle stick, your "negative control"
I'm sure you like my idea of using your pencil as a resistor. Before you go ahead with it, I would like to offer you a free copy of "Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects", which you can download from the link below right now.
A great resource for science project ideas, as well as how to do them, is the science project blog. Definitely worth bookmarking.
Be sure to look for my other articles on science projects. Now go get going!
About the Author
Aurora Lipper has been teaching science to kids for over 10 years. She is also a mechanical engineer, university instructor, pilot, astronomer and a real live rocket scientist (You should see the lab in her basement!) She has inspired thousands of kids with the fun and magic of science.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Merits of Technical Education and Upcoming Challenges

Modern civilization is dominated by science and scientific development. As a result if it, specialization in certain branches and industrialization has become the most important aspect of scientific development. It is because of this reason that the question arises that is technical education necessary? Yes it is necessary to progress and meet the modern world challenges. In earlier days, education was meant for spiritual cultivation. The main reason of education was to discipline our emotions and thinking and doing by so it made us fit for a proper type of social life. With the passage of time, education became broader in its embrace and more significant in organizing the society.
A number of politicians made use of education for propagating their ideologies in some regions. China and Russia of yesterday, some of the sayings of individuals were taught in schools and colleges. The young minds were stuffed with certain thoughts which suited their purposes. But now today, education is becoming more and more job-oriented. This is the reason, for the question is technical education necessary? Some bullet points for the technical education are discussed as below:-
a. Technical training makes us skilled so that we may be able to handle the machineries properly. Technical education make expert in certain domains of life. There are various jobs that cannot be performed well unless having technical education.
b. It is very important for any country of the world. It is not possible to make industry the important basis of economy as we envisaged without making arrangements for technical education.
c. It is recommended that industries should setup or help to facilitate technical education programs. But this process cannot go on for all times to come. Atone or other stage, they will have to reduce the number of those who get the education so that there may not be the unemployment among the technical peoples.
d. It is generally said that technical men can never remain unemployed as they can have their own industry but it is true in theories only. Practically it requires a good market to sell the finished goods. It is not possible enough to provide these two items together top technical men.
e. It is believe of Russel that the education makes the people inhuman and purely objective. They look at the problem from technical point of view as their thinking becomes cold and calculating. This might be the possible defects of it.
f. One should try to have broad outlook, comprehensive thinking and humanity approach. For all this there should be liberal education with technical one.
g. It makes human begins machines but when it is tempered with liberal education, it may become more wholesome and useful.
h. Liberal education not only makes us cultivation our affection but also develop ones thinking. It should be a part of training after completing education and should not be education in itself. Technical education is more or practical whereas education is somewhat different from learning the skills.
Thus the significant of technical education is remarkable in the modern era.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Psychology - A Science As Well As an Art

Psychology is commonly defined as 'scientific' study of human behavior and cognitive processes. Broadly speaking the discussion focuses on the different branches of psychology, and if they are indeed scientific. However, it is integral in this to debate to understand exactly the major features of a science, in order to judge if psychology is in fact one. There must be a definable subject matter - this changed from conscious human thought to human and non-human behavior, then to cognitive processes within psychology's first eighty years as a separate discipline. Also, a theory construction is important. This represents an attempt to explain observed phenomena, such as Watson's attempt to account for human and non-human behavior in terms of classical conditioning, and Skinner's subsequent attempt to do the same with operant conditioning. Any science must have hypotheses, and indeed test them. This involves making specific predictions about behavior under certain specified conditions.
Science is meant to be objective and unbiased. It should be free of values and discover the truths about what it is studying. Positivism is the view that science is objective and a study of what is real. For example, schizophrenia, when diagnosed as being caused due to excess dopamine, is being studied in a scientific manner. The explanation does not take into account any cultural customs or individual differences that might lead to 'schizophrenic' behavior. However, even in scientific research like this the person is doing the diagnosing has his or her own views, and may misinterpret behavior because of his or her own subjective biases. For example, if someone talks about hearing voices, they may be referring to a spiritual experience, but a medical practitioner might well diagnose schizophrenia. So objective, value-free study is not easy, because the scientist has views and biases, and cultural or other issues are perhaps important factors. Some say that a truly objective study is not possible, and that a scientific approach to the study of people is not desirable.
Definitions of psychology have changed during its lifetime, largely reflecting the influence and contributions of its major theoretical approaches or orientations. Kline in 1998 argued that the different approaches within the field of psychology should be seen as self-contained disciplines, as well as different facets of the same discipline. He argued that a field of study can only be legitimately considered a science if a majority of its workers subscribe to a common, global perspective or 'paradigm'. According to Kuhn, a philosopher of science, this means that psychology is 'pre-paradigmatic' - it lacks a paradigm, without which it is still in a state of 'pre-science'. Whether psychology has, or ever had, paradigm is hotly debated. Others believe that psychology has already undergone two revolutions, and is now in a stage of normal science, with cognitive psychology the current paradigm. A third view, which represents a blend of the first two, is that psychology currently, and simultaneously, has a number of paradigms.
With regards to which perspectives are regarded as 'scientific', and which are not, the majority lies with 'scientific'. There are four perspectives that clearly lie under 'scientific', the behavioral, cognitive, cognitive-developmental and the physiological. The psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives are argued to be idiographic, in that they look at individual differences, instead of universal laws. The social approach can be seen as an intermediate, as, although it appreciates that there is a strong element of science involved in psychology, for example the treatment of some mental disorders, it focuses on social and environmental factors. For example, the biological perspective is said to be scientific fundamentally because it looks at the biological functioning of every human being and searches for reasons and solutions which can be applied nomothetically. It focuses on biological behavior, which can be empirically tested, and findings generalized. It emphasizes on the importance of the nervous system and the importance of genetics on behavior. These aims are clearly scientific, and the methods used are scientific - empirically measured, hypothesized and nomothetic.
One example of this is the medical approach to mental illness. The biological approach suggests that schizophrenia could be down to several factors, such as genetics or a chemical imbalance. The psychodynamic approach however, as been criticized as being 'unscientific'. Many of Freud's theories are not able to be tested, and many of his studies, because empirical measures cannot be applied, remain firmly in theory and cannot be tested, they are difficult to operate - it is impossible to test if the unconscious exists if we are by nature meant to be unaware of it. One could however argue that we cannot prove that it does not exist either. The majority of the approaches suggests that psychology is in fact a science, but within the field of psychology, in order for it to be classified as a science, each of its perspective should be seen as scientific. The humanistic approach, a so-called 'third-force' between behaviorism and the psychodynamic approaches, is idiographic, since it studies the individual, and holistic, as it looks at the whole person. A scientific approach for general laws will not capture this active interacting individual, and so the humanistic approach uses methods that are not scientific.
The issue of psychology as a science is cloudy. On one hand, psychology is a science. The subject matter is behavior, including mental aspects of behavior such as memory, and the subject matter is divided up for study. Variables are measured, and carefully controlled to a point. Laboratories are often used in an effort to improve controls - controls are as thorough as possible, so that general laws about behavior can be built.
On the other hand, psychology can be viewed not as a science, as it does not aim at scientific principles to measure the whole world. In many areas of psychology there is no attempt to generalize from some human behavior to all human behavior. The social representation theory focuses on interactions, and the humanistic theory focuses on self-actualization and the individual's experiences and actions. Where there is focus on interactions between people, and on the individual's experiences, scientific methods are not useful. Non-scientific methods include case-studies and unstructured interviews. If a method in not scientific, it aims for good validity, in-depth material about someone or a small group, qualitative data and a richness of data that is not found by isolating variables, as in many psychological studies.
Psychology as a separate field of study grew out of several other disciplines, both scientific (such as physiology) and non-scientific (in particular philosophy). For much of its life as an independent discipline, and through what some call revolutions and paradigm shifts, it has taken the natural sciences as its model. Ultimately, whatever a particular science may claim to have discovered about the phenomena it studies, scientific activity remains just one aspect of human behavior. I feel that psychology should be viewed as a science, even if it does not concur with traditional scientific specifications.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Integrating Soul And Science

"Spirit is beyond the void of space. This realm, beyond the void, is not an empty nothingness; it is the womb of creation. -- Nature goes to the same place to create a galaxy of stars, a cluster of nebulas, a rain forest, a human body, or a thought... That place is Spirit." (1)
The idea of thought coming from Spirit is a little general and not something I agree with unless he means REAL thought rather than regurgitated thought. Deepak Chopra is a great and wonderful human being who escaped the material competitive focused world and the 'expertise' that was his, as a doctor. We have shown that science is getting dangerously close to finding templates and forms that mirror this kind of philosophy. The church felt science was philosophy and that all things came from this kind of godhead in the 'Dark Ages'; and scientists have justifiably thought any mention of a bridge to religion is fraught with these kinds of intellectual authoritarian terrors. Perhaps now we can re-evaluate our belief in godly forces and not involve religious or priestly interpreters who ask us to 'follow' like sheep. To replace one set of interpreters with another form of 'expertise' is not good. Surely there is a balance that harmonizes with purpose and true knowingness. I like the thought expressed by James Watson in his foreword to Discovering the Brain. He said, ‘The brain boggles the mind.’. It is also true that a lot of the ‘boggling’ has been done by those saying they seek God.
The equipment based on Tesla's 'non-force info packets' that draws energy from a vacuum that Bearden has patented and the wireless transmission of generated energy will make perpetual motion seem tame. The real possibilities of using other dimensions as storage for energy we create could be just around the corner. Someday the barriers we have created in our real world through an ignorant adherence to conventions of black and white certainty will be brought down just like the Berlin Wall; we built it to keep ideas and people from each other. We can overcome these walls we create in our minds. I mean that literally too. In November 2004 Sharon Begley of The Wall Street Journal reported on the scientific analysis of brain plasticity and integration in the brains of Buddhist monks. There are limits to what we can achieve but those limits are far different than we have been led to believe.
I'm not cognizant of all the ins and outs of 'red-shifts' or other astrophysical esoterics so the generalities of my insights might not have as much merit. The exorcisms I've been involved in helping free both the possessed and possessor are part of the limbo state which energy exists in after death. Does this limbo state include the same energy band- width that our solar or auric body travels in? Not by experience of the astral work I've done. However, one can meet dead people in astral travel if one has a guide or the spirit is attuned that you are about to visit. That spirit would be a multi-dimensional traveler then. There are many shades and variations of spiritual bandwidths and it may be because there is so much more energy in the unseen world that the astrophysicists told us about earlier. Ninety-five per cent versus 5 per cent is a large ratio in favor of the unseen. The ultraviolet and light energies might even be part of the visible universe, which would mean we can only actually see a percentage of the material universe. And as big an issue as all of this kind of talk is, we still must consider whether or not we know what we see when it slaps us in the face, as they say.
The average person today will likely have their mind and senses closed to the opportunity that the thalami offer to accentuate, amplify and direct non-visual forces to our conscious processing centers. The operational paradigms of the spiritual world are a science unto themselves, and the astrophysicists may not have as good a picture as I hope they do. There are those I have met, who can travel between dimensions and we will deal with these aspects of life and natural possibilities versus hallucination in other parts of this book. But, if the modern research is right about the Thalami, I feel quite certain that all the dimensions are at our disposal in every aspect of our existence. When one remembers the way we thought about spirits and devils as we listened to the preachers who tried to tell us about HELL - it is difficult to open our minds to what they were saying about the saints who performed the very miracles that men and women have always been able to do.
We see that the Gospel of Thomas from the Dag Hammadi 'finds' confirm Jesus never performed any miracle that you or I can't do. (John 10:34). The dimensional spiritual world is science and real even if we are ignorant of it. That is what the Gnostics he studied with say is the 'Original Sin' that separates us from God - IGNORANCE! Scipio Africanus and others before and after the time of Jesus were used to seeing each other and the spirits of their loved ones alive or dead! In many instances there is potential to visualize the future and it will happen with proper INTENT. Bucky Fuller did it, and I have too. Some say the forces of darkness that created the Dark Age were able to re-program the world mind to the point that our ability was diminished by the evil they fomented. Energy of a negative nature does have to be attuned with good, in order for Abraxas or unity to occur, on the grand scale and as an individual. That is why selfish prayer is wasteful and one must operate in 'brotherhood' and love to come up with things like the geodesic dome or wireless 'free energy'. Still these things are on the shelf and few really know how great they are and how much better the world might be.
Microchemical potentials and observations are exciting corollaries to chaos science. The laws of universe are 'unfolding as they should' (Desiderata was a nice poem that Pierre Trudeau often quoted as Canada's Prime Minister when I was a young man.) 'whether or not it is clear' to us! There are always good things to learn when one looks at the work of these scientists. I especially enjoy those who are willing to do what Bucky Fuller described when he talked about 'stepping outside the circle' or 'biting his tongue' when he felt complacent in the knowledge he had in a particular area of deliberation. Professor Morowitz is a microbiologist and chemist at Yale University who we will show later as an example of what can happen when people think integratively and lose their ego. He also correctly observes that few of the physical sciences encourage this integration. Is it possible to have an answer when the questions are slanted to dovetail with only one perspective? We respectfully offer that no real truth has ever resulted from the need of any tenured or other 'expert' who sought power from his peers rather than enlightenment from 'ALL that is!'
What with genetics and the basic building blocks of matter becoming more apparent to researchers who are free of old philosophic rule by the church there is truly a dawning of a new age. The title of Prof. Morowitz's article in August of 1980's Psychology Today was quite appropriate - 'Rediscovering The Mind'. As we continue to RE!-discover we might even know what is important 'within' our soul. Of course, my opinion is just 'post-modern democratized' ideology as Prof. Wiseman points out. No one person can know all things. He would be right, if he said that. But my response would be that we must all try to integrate rather than compartmentalize our knowledge. That leads to coping skills and application of thinking processes that produce a net creative improvement rather than agreement from those we 'hang with'!
It has been said that there is not much advancement in a civilization which has science separate from its belief system or religion to any great extent. Social dilemmas appear to exist all around us. They reach into our past, distort our present, and add a twist of despair to our future. They sound so negative when put this way. They are negative to journeys of the Soul. I find a lot of physics in many religious writings throughout time and yet there are still a lot of controlling interests who promote sins and demons in these religions. Here is a little of the Dag or Nag Hammadi papyruses which the Gnostics (later Cathars) saved from the destroying Empire-builders. It is specifically from the Gospel of Mary which was mostly found before the end of the 19th Century.
“22) The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots.
23) For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone.
24) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
25) Peter said to him, Since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world?
26) The Savior said There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin.” (2)
A neuroscience forum which I was invited to has had many people respond to various postings without identifying themselves. I think some of that is because they have a reputation to protect or job they value. Here is one such response to a thread I started.
“Science is reductionist whereas mysticism is broadly integrative. It would seem that science and mysticism occupy anti-podal positions. They are both concerned with truth, yet go about it differently. Science seeks to objectively and mathematically describe truth, whereas mysticism seeks to experience truth. Science and mysticism are flip sides of the same coin. The greatest scientists have invariantly been deeply mystical. I'm tempted to say that the greatest mystics have invariantly been deeply scientific, or at least had an appreciation for science, but this I'm less certain of.”
I responded by saying I agreed and that I was certain the sages or greatest scientists were indeed very spiritual. One of those sages is David Bohm and here is a little of how he approached physics.
“In an interview in 1989 at the Nils Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, where Bohm presented his views, Bohm spoke on his theory of wholeness and the implicate order. The conversation centered around a new worldview that is developing in part of the Western world, one that places more focus on wholeness and process than analysis of separate parts. Bohm explained the basics of the theory of relativity and its more revolutionary offspring, quantum theory. Either theory, if carried out to its extreme, violates every concept on which we base our understanding of reality. Both challenge our notions of our world and ourselves.
He cited evidence from both theories that support a new paradigm of a more interrelated, fluid, and less absolute basis of existence, one in which mind is an active participant. ‘Information contributes fundamentally to the qualities of substance.’ He discussed forms, fields, superconductivity, wave function and electron behavior. ‘Wave function, which operates through form, is closer to life and mind...The electron has a mindlike quality.’” (3)
In May 2004 there is a report of an archaeological find in Mayan tunnels (they loved the spiritual cenotes) saying it was a millennium earlier than the Mayan ascendancy and yet it was just 200 BC. Aside from the fact that I have proven these people were there at least 3000 years earlier the ‘find’ is a mask of a sun god. The sun god or Heliopolitan Druidism is just one of the esoteric clues to follow in tracing the ‘travelers’ or Red-Headed League of Megalith Builders all over the world. The Harmonic of Light was the science behind the shamanic attunements that led to the knowledge mythologized in the various sun-gods which is also interpreted as the ‘son of god’.
The neuroscience forum has a minister of the Unitarian Universalist persuasion. We are discussing all manner of things related to the soulful sciences and I wish to have my readers see this wise older man has a lot to offer at this juncture. Here is Rev. Lindsay King’s response to me (as RTB) in a thread dealing with healing and hypnotic effective or positive thinking potentials. There is also a man from India that NASA may be convinced can gain energy from the sun to the point that he has not needed to eat for many years. They are trying to learn how to do this; and if they do, they will teach it to those who are about to travel the cosmic light fantastic.
‘BTW, RTB, to my great relief, way back when, I came to understand that--and I am not sure where I first got the idea, maybe from the writings of Milton Erickson--hypnosis is not something that a "master" does to a "subject". It is, rather, what happens between people when they interact with one another. Hypnosis is something a curious student learns from a wise teacher.
For good or ill, this powerful interaction can take place between individuals and, on a one to one basis, lead to negative and/or positive things happening. Or, like the example you gave, charismatic personalities or leadership types, including entertainers, spiritual leaders, evangelists, political leaders, whoever, can "work" the audience and make positive and/or negative things happen.
THE "FORCE" IS NEUTRAL
For some time, now, I have been convinced--and I am always open to be persuaded otherwise--that this powerful mental/spiritual force, which I call the pneuma component and factor, is like the light and energy which comes to us from the sun. Of itself, it is neutral. It can be used to do evil or good. If I exposed myself to the blazing light and heat of the sun for too long, without mercy, it will physically kill me. If I look at it, without proper protection, it will blind me.
In my opinion, if there is a powerful mental/spiritual force waiting to be understood and used, the worse thing we can do is nothing. Sure the taking of any kind of action involves risk, and the making of mistakes that could cause us some pain. However, if we allow ourselves to be motivated by fear of the unknown and other destructive emotions-powerful pneumatological tools often used by clever obscurants--and not to try to understand and to work with this "pneumatological force", evil is bound to happen.’ (4)
That same forum has a Doctoral engineer in artificial intelligence (AI) that works at an aerospace company in LA. Here is my response to him.
Dear Rick
You say:
‘So that leaves the giant question: assuming that artificial computers are unconscious how is it that we can imagine computer-driven robots that behave intelligently?’
Quite a lot of assumptions there - both explicit and implied. The word 'artificial' implies something that may not be fully factual. For example - it is a mystical premise that each chakra in the human body is a nexus of lesser consciousnesses all of which are not on the radar screen of what our original poster here seems to think are conscious. In fact there is evidence of a lesser brain in the solar plexus or stomach area chakra that physiologists have described briefly operates with headless people such as I have posted here.
The issue of consciousness being collective goes to what is called Intelligent Design - I hope I do not have to explain.
The collective is operating according to the same laws of reality (science - such as in the Law of the Magi - As Above, SO Below) that show us the microcosm and macrocosm have similar design constructs (and adepts use these archetypes or constructs to affect Matrices through Myths and more subtle means).
The last part of your question I presume relates to Gary Hillis and the sentient robots he is working on that we have discussed before; including dumping the contents of a human brain into them which was done in 1999 at Stanford.
In that discussion we must again ask what is consciousness and the soul - as Bill Joy and others have properly done. You perhaps used the phrase 'behave intelligently' to mean that - although it would have been better to word it differently. If you did not mean that and work in the area you do - I would be amazed. I say that because the matter of behaving intelligently is implicit in the whole idea of AI.
At Berkeley and Arizona universities (going from memory) there are people who posit that consciousness is a purely synaptic issue and this can be created and the robots will soon replicate themselves to the same end. Some of these people clearly do not believe in a soul which I think is collective despite some interesting regressions I have witnessed and can explain within the hierarchies of layers of organizationally attuned lattices and wells of energy. Then a few months after I had written this book came the University of Florida’s scientist named DeMarse who built a brain computer that could fly an airplane. It was made from rat brain cells and is alive. That report in October 2004 is the harbinger of more ethical quagmires which mankind must address. (5)