On Being Certain

[Michael Bailey]

is this in context of trying to figure out what happened to Hassan?

Is there a missing piece (like "kite") that will clarify what is going on?




On 3/11/08, robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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.
>