On Being Certain

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Found this Salon article by Robert Burton---a modern dude, not the 
Anatomy of Melancholy guy---the author of "On Being Certain: 
Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not ": 

http://www.amazon.com/Being-Certain-Believing-Right-Youre/dp/0312359209

. . . . concerning the sensation of being certain, of "knowing". I was 
looking up conceptual connections at the root of Buddhism 
when I stumbled into this article. Robert Burton's thoughts 
lead to concepts out of Pynchon:

These sentences, this collection of poetically rambling and 
seemingly unrelated impressions, has all lines singling up into place 
after the inclusion of the "secret', unspoken word. Very Pynchonian:

               To understand what I mean about the feeling of 
               knowing, read the following paragraph at normal 
               speed. Don't skim, give up halfway through or skip 
               to the explanation. Because this experience can't 
               be duplicated once you know the explanation, 
               take a moment to ask yourself how you feel about 
               the paragraph. After reading the clarifying word, 
               reread the paragraph. As you do, pay close attention 
               to the shifts in your mental state and your feeling 
               about the paragraph:

               A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is 
               a better place than the street. At first it is better to run 
               than to walk. You may have to try several times. It 
               takes some skill but it is easy to learn. Even young 
               children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications 
               are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, 
               soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same 
               thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of 
               room. If there are no complications it can be very 
               peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break 
               loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

               Is this paragraph comprehensible or meaningless? Feel 
               your mind sort through potential explanations. Now watch 
               what happens with the presentation of a single word: kite

Tonight, onstage, for one night only---High Magic & Low Puns!

               F. Scott Fitzgerald described an easy-to-accept but 
               difficult-to-accomplish solution: "The test of a first 
               rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed 
               ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain 
               the ability to function."

"Everything Connects":

               By mimicking the way the brain processes information, 
               A.I. scientists have been able to build artificial neural 
               networks (ANNs) that can play chess and poker, read 
               faces, recognize speech and recommend books at 
               Amazon.com. While standard computer programs work 
               line by line, yes or no, all eventualities programmed in 
               advance, the ANN takes an entirely different approach. 
               The ANN is based upon mathematical programs that 
               are initially devoid of any specific values. The program-
               mers only provide the equations; incoming information 
               determines how connections are formed and how strong 
               each connection will be in relationship to all other con-
               nections. There is no predictable solution to a problem
                -- rather, as one connection changes, so do all the 
               others. These shifting interrelationships are the basis 
               for "learning."

               With an ANN, the hidden layer is conceptually located 
               within the interrelationships between all the incoming 
               information and the mathematical code used to process 
               it. In the human brain, the hidden layer doesn't exist as 
               a discrete interface or specific anatomic structure; rather, 
               it resides within the connections between all neurons 
               involved in any neural network. A network can be 
               relatively localized or widely distributed throughout the 
               brain. Proust's taste of a madeleine triggered a memory 
               that involved visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory 
               cortices -- the multisensory cortical representations of a 
               complex memory. With a sufficiently sensitive fMRI scan,
                we would see all these areas lighting up when Proust 
               contemplated the madeleine.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/mind_reader/2008/02/29/certainty/index.html

I have a notion, which is mine [sounds of altogether too much throat 
clearing, much squirming in the seat, about three or four false 
starts. . . .] I have the notion of Metagnosis. Gnosis is seeing/knowing the 
true light of G-D, to be wrapped up in mystical unity and timelessless, if 
only for the usual paradoxical moment. Metagnosis is knowing what 
chemical and neural interactions created that moment. The Technologies 
of the Sacred---meditation, shamanism, ceremonial magic---work towards
that light, that sensation of knowing, those paradoxical moments of 
illumination. Metagnosis is having the phone number of "that man behind 
the curtain" in your rolodex.