|
CALCULATING OUR WAY OUT OF METAPHYSICS
There IS a way escaping our early ontological imprintation
which compels us to think theologically,
i. e., to view the world metaphysically -
that some form of disembodiement exists in
parallel or without the physical inhibitions
of the body, contemporaeneously alongside
humans and all other material objects. Typical
examples include action, change, movement,
time, mind, consciousness, love, together
with thousands of others spirits and occult
manifestations.
The way out is to apply a correct ontological
analysis of an adding-machine, for by understanding the way a calculator exists helps us to understand how
everything else in the universe exists.
What a calculating human DOES is to change
the modality [the existential state] of the
way ia calculator exists from one moment
to the next - changing its manner of being as a entity between the event of one causal
human finger pressure on the key-pad to the
next pressurisation event.
What a calculating human DOES
is to change the modality [the existential
state] of the way ia calculator
exists from one moment to the next - changing
its manner of being as a entity between the event of one
causal human finger pressure on the key-pad
to the next pressurisation event.
Our perception of these different existential
modalities of the adding machine together
with our a priori understanding of the nature
of the human programming that took place
in the factory when the object was manufactured
make it possible for us to accept the read-out
on the tiny screen as a useful mathematical
fiction
 |
"Dancing" doesn"t really exist
- only the
moving
dancers (who exist differently
from moment
to moment) actually exist |
The notion of "addition" - the
"abstraction" [and like all abstractions
"addition" doesn"t exist]
of addition is something which the human
designer and manufacturer has imprinted on
the tiny circuit-board. The calculator exists
in the way that it exists. That is why people
are willing to pay good money to buy adding-machines
that do not add - but simply lie there and
change the way that they exist in response
to that which actually initiates the changes
- the guy who punches the keys.
The calculator just lies there on the table
or in the palm of the hand changing the way
it is the entity it is from one moment to
the next. First it exists in mode [a] with
the symbols 2 X 2 showing in its window,
and then exists in mode [b] when the "X"
button is depressed - and then in mode [c]
when the = button is pressed and the symbol
4 replaces the symbols 2 X 2 in the window.
It doesn"t "think" - it just
changes its modality.
It is we humans that attribute a "real"
situation of inter-entiative action and re-action
as the clicking of the keys and the appearance
of different numbers pass before our eyes
and affect the way WE exist. We call the
operation or modalic changes of the metal
and plastic object "a calculation,"
and derive an anthropocentric satisfaction
and benefit from the way the device exists
and impinges upon our own neurophysical network
patterning.
In other words, whilst the machine has been
changing its existential modes, similar existential
modifications have been taking place within
our own neuronal reticulation of interconnected,
intersecting systems of specialised cellular
components. Our neurological networks have
been changing their existential configurations
accordingly.
Now I maintain that in the same way [or in
a similar manner] to the way that the calculator
just lies there on the table in the condition
in which it exists, changing from moment
to moment - the human operator also just
stands there [or sits there] in the way that
he/she exists changing the condition in which
he/she exists from moment to moment as the
neurons and synapses in the brain becomes
arranged in new ways in order to associate
the symbols displayed by the computer with
a set of contextually related internalised
abstractions- and that"s all there is
to it.
In other words the human brain doesn"t
really "think" in the sense that
"thinking" is an abstraction that
exists on another "transcendental plane
or dimension," or in another mentalistic
domain which is somehow separate from the
holistic thinking body - it is simply a way
in which our neuronally equipped bodybrain
exists at that moment - the way our bodybrains
exist - during those repeatable and self-referential
recognisable modalities we call "thinking."
In fact "thinking" is simply the
way that we exist at a certain moment that
is different from another moment when we
are not thinking or thinking of something
else - and the progression of these thinking
events - these "thinking-event interstices"
we call "TIME".
Bottom line? It is sometimes possible to
avoid thinking metaphysically - but it is
not possible to avoid thinking in abstractions.
At first this seems to be a contradiction,
for surely abstractions are "above the
physical" or "extra-physical,"
and therefore must be metaphysical? The answer
is that it is perfectly permissible to employ
the convenience that abstractions provide
for us, [as cognitive tools] as a "surface
level instrument" for communicative
purposes, as long as we are aware at a deeper
level of cognition THAT THEY ARE NOT REAL
- AND DO NOT REALLY EXIST, and that they
do not actually EVEN exist as ideas, [for
ideas are abstractions which don"t exist
too] but that it is WE OURSELVES that exist
and are existing in a modality of thinking
abstractly or belching realistically - in
a like manner to the adding machine, which
exists changing its existential presence
in modalities which we attribute to it as
"calculation."
The "calculation" doesn"t
exist "in" the adding-machine,
and the "thinking" doesn"t
exist in the human. It is the calculating
adding-machine that exists and the thinking
human.
Difficult to grasp? Then think about this.
No "action" whatsoever exists in
the whole of the cosmos - only acting entities
exist Your moving arm exists - but the "movement"
of the moving arm does not. The "flashing"
or "twinkling" lights of the Christmas
tree do not exist - only the coloured bulbs
and the mechanism which randomly switches
them on and off exists.
What exists is the human and the adding-machine
and your arm existing in certain ever-changing
existential modalities. So "number"
[math] being a human idea doesn"t exist
either, (it is the ideating human that exists)
and is no more than an amplification of the
concept of things like "straightness,"
which allow us not only to consider the shortest
distance between two points, but to calculate
the curvilinear aspects and triangulate features
of the world which surrounds us, and to count
the number of entities with which we come
into contact in a bus queue - but in the
last analysis it is not the abstractions:
straight, number, math, calculation, shortest,
idea, curvilinear, triangulate, aspects,
points, which exist - it is the thinking human
brain which exists as part of the holistic
bodybrain and the other entities in the cosmos
that we humans strive to understand by employing
the abstractional [non-existent] tools that
have developed in humankind over the millennia.
|
