Dialogue as Self-definition

I have long held that self is emergent and that dialogue is self-defining.

We can think about things for which we have words because they allow us to talk / communicate about them. Symbolic systems are very useful.

We are not born liking and disliking things; we learn to do so.

Maturity

Human maturity is an interesting concept albeit misleading. The belief that there is some endpoint to development is encouraging – there is a goal to reach. The truth is that no such endpoint exists. Maturity is essentially about appropriateness, about “fit” and that is contextual.

Maturity is about managing our self-perceived inadequacies in the face of our roles and responsibilities. Just as there is no courage in the absence of fear, so there is no need for maturity in the absence of tensions due to expectations.

Maturity is essentially an evaluation of human ecology. We forget that we judge others more harshly than ourselves.

Trust

I had a look at the Foreword to “Big Book” put out by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939: very intriguing. It addresses governance and credibility succinctly. The world has changed considerably since then, but human problems have not.

Trust is the basis of all commerce, all intercourse. In unstructured situations amongst strangers there is almost always little or no trust. This is our challenge for the future: the creation and maintenance of trust across lines of similarity.

Trust is not an issue limited to Palestinian-Israeli relations or the war in Iraq or the interactions of multinationals in developing countries. Intent lies at the heart of trust. And because we cannot know others and are disproportionately averse to loss or pain of any sort we find it very difficult to trust. Relationship requires time and familiarity.

A prayer: Open my heart, Lord, that I may accept….

What to do with a googol?

I have asked myself this question several times and it is essentially this: if there were no resource constraints, what would I do with my life?

I do not yet have an answer.

What would you do?

World peace is not dependent on resource constraints but on people and their incompatible desires. World poverty is a consequence of allocation decisions not resource constraints: friction and entropy can be minimised....

I have learnt that solutions cannot be imposed and brute force produces ephemeral results.

Journal of Mundane Behaviour

There is a Journal of Mundane Behaviour. The ordinary celebrated. The ordinary examined.

“Every pleasure or pain has a sort of rivet with which it fastens the soul to the body and pins it down and makes it corporeal, accepting as true whatever the body certifies.” Socrates

Free association; tangents; community. Have we met and touched?

GENEERING

Geneering makes possible the use of humans as bio-factories for hormones, blood products including immunoglobulins, seminal cells and milk. The possibilities are mind-boggling!

This is also what makes them terrifying.

We already live in a world without control and Pandora’s box is infamous. Look on the bright side: you live in interesting times….

Welcome to the Future of Medicine.