fractalnavel

i'll never get out of here !

caught the following reference on the warrierz mailing list (which has seen a lot of traffic recently; i haven't caught up at all):

Klaatu Barada Nikto wrote on 8/04/2004, 22:06:

 Here's my new addition to the "must read" book stack.
Sounds like something Chris would blog about...

Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World by Robert
Anton Wilson
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1561840718/

Book Description
Throughout human history, thoughts, values and behaviors have been colored
by language and the prevailing view of the universe. With the advent of
Quantum Mechanics, relativity, non-Euclidean geometries, non-Aristotelian
logic and General Semantics, the scientific view of the world has changed
dramatically from just a few decades ago. Nonetheless, human thinking is
still deeply rooted in the cosmology of the middle ages. Quantum Psychology
is the book to change your way of perceiving yourself--and the universe--for
the 21st Century. Some say its materialistic, others call it scientific and
still others insist its mystical. It is all of these--and none.

How's this for a blurb:

I have learned more from Bob than from any other source.
He continues to produce intelligent, cranky, inspired thought.
                                    -- George Carlin

causality is so much fun, n'est-ce pas ? ;-)  just what i was thinking as i was working through “dancing wu li masters”.  so, well, i added it to my wishlist.  but i think the following review is worth noting:

Passive voice for the passive mind, December 30, 2003

Reviewer:   Mike (CA) - See all my reviews

As a professional physicist I found RAW's exposition comical, he proudly states that he has never studied Physics, which "is" painfully obvious to someone who has. This of course made me extremely wary of anything else he wrote as I am not able to judge the material in the same manner, but his grasp appears similarly weak and superficial. He has clearly skimmed a lot of books which may make him seem erudite to the uninformed. In fact this book is so awful I am not sure if it is meant to be a parody.

I am open minded, but not so much so that my brain has fallen out. Buy Jim Baggots, "The Meaning of Quantum Theory", Feynman's "QED", Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene", Carl Jung's "Man and His Symbols" or Ludwig Wittgenstien's "Philosophical Investigatations", if you want a really mind expanding read. In fact read nearly anything else.

kinda what i would suspect.  yet perhaps still worth reading, as long as one is aware of the shortcomings.  but that's the just the point - most readers haven't a clue.  but i did want to note that list of books in the review - now those are must reads ! 

not the gambling type, the little paperback type.

my sister wants to know:

wondering how many of your blog readers have read "Zen and the Art...[of motorcycle maintenance]" and whether we should recommend it to you, or hide it from you.....

:-*

interesting question.  that assumes there is such a thing as “your blog readers”.  she seems pretty impressed by the book, or at least enjoying talking about it.  never had a chance to read it myself.  i bought it once, was supposed to have been read by the last girlfriend and then returned to me, but it got blackholed.  i don't suppose an equivalent combination would be “the tao of pooh” and sun tzu's “art of war”, read while listening to arlo guthrie's “pickle song” (...”i don't want a pickle, i just want to ride my motorcyyyyy--- cle”).  ah well, some day...

just finished “dancing wu li masters” [no, i'm not putting in links to all these books, dang bandwidth is slow, remember ? gotta love cincy bell and its dirty lines].  i'd have to recommend it, even if i found the touches of mysticism a bit annoying at first.  but they turned out to be rather innocuous after all.  even though written in the late 70's it is still a good run through of modern physics concepts - quantum, relativity, particle.  since it predates modern string theory and the last twenty years of  cosmology (and much of current particle theory as well), it can maintain a focus on its chosen subjects.  these things tend to get lost in today's popularized volumes that try to cover too much in limited space.

although itself a popular physics book and math free, it was surprisingly scholarly in some senses.  by comparison with more recent stuff, i guess.  it presents a pretty full spectrum of perspectives which have otherwise been buried in much of mainstream physics. 

i got the book intending to do a slow read, and the thought provocation was not disappointing.  i'm sure various specifics will pop up here and there in future postings.  good mental exercise, a fun trip.

..oblique song reference, there.  my effing dial-up connection is so effing dirty all it can manage is low baud.  painful lemme tell ya, when all you wanna do (is have some fun) is get going.

yet here i am, delaying my departure to inform people of my wheerabouts.  if they bother to look, that is.

last week's trip up to irons was great, saw the maryland folks, and my uncle and his lady friend at her place up there.  that's a nice part of the state to bang around, even if we only had a few days.  got some snorkeling done in two separate bodies of water - lake michigan, and the pond behind the house (fed by the little manistee river).  always pretty, lotsa fish, and cold - feels so good on hot sunny days.  lake michigan's clarity is impressive, reminded me of the carribean.  and surprise - a huge school of fish (don't know what kind), being eaten at its edges by a few huge fast shadowy silver things.  would have been nice to scuba, but as it was at the orchard state park beach, i can't really imagine hauling a hundred fifty pounds of gear up and down those stairs - it's a 150 foot or so stair climb down to - and up from - the beach. 

did some bike riding with the guys (my nephew and his dad), including a morning jaunt to dublin to get some of the general store's own jerky.  the hellfire wasn't quite as painful as last year however.  bummer.

other than that we did some car trips to various places (saw a house made of bottles in kaleva), picked wild blueberries (and made two pies, two batches of muffins, pancakes, and still had lots left over) and ate and ate and ate... what wonderful hosts.  helped rig a redgreen dock for my uncle.  and had company for all the drives in the jeep, stripped down and windblown and loving it, even in a brief downpour, for which a niece bravely joined me.  it's like i told her: a little hypothermia never killed anyone - but a lot has ;-) 

just journaling for my own memory's sake there, i guess.  no one caught any fish.  odd.

as for what's coming up, heading up to sterling state park to (hopefully) find a camping spot.  this late start may cause a problem, but maybe yesterday's rain cleared out a few people.  then meeting my brother at his in-law's block party.  he also signed me up for a “jeep 101” thing wiht him and his wife, which will be amusing.

meanwhile, my other brother is supposedly buying a new boat.  might get a chance to see that - and pick up my ol' cheapy camera as well.  it survived a couple trips ago when i left it one of his coolers (the outer pocket, silly).  so far this experience is telling me that i shouldn't pop for a more expensive one until i can (literally) get a handle on this one.  but on the “bright” side, this means that pics may again be appearing here.  maybe that's not such good news ;-)

so, argh, gonna get to the beach late today !  and still one more post to do...