James Lovelock is best known as the father of Gaia theory; the idea that all parts of our planet form a complex interacting system, like a single organism. H...
ng the resulting hypotheses. Habits of observation and experiment probably developed from magical and divinatory practices of early Taoism. The only Taoist word ever used for a temple means "watch-tower" - a platform from which to observe the natural world and launch naturalistic explanations of its phenomena.
Taoism has, in Confucian eyes, a reputation for magical mumbo-jumbo, but Taoists can transcend magic by means of their doctrine of NATURE - to the one who would control her - is like any other
beast to be tamed or foe to be dominated - she must be known first. Tao has a mystical image in the West, but is rooted in commonplace observations - water, for instance, reflects the world, permeates every substance, yields, embraces, changes shape at a touch, and yet erodes the hardest rock. Thus it becomes the symbol of an all-shaping , all-encompassing, all-pervading Tao. In the Taoist yin-yang image of a circle halved by a serpentine line, the cosmos is depicted as two waves mingling. Part of the result is that Taoism encourages the rudiments of scientific practice: observation, description, classification, and experiment. The k’ao-cheng tradition, the scientific imperative that arose from some fundamental ethical and religious assumptions, is implicit in some early Taoist writings. Grand theory is discouraged as an intrusion of reason into the workings of wisdom, which can be attained ONLY through the accumulation of knowledge. Chinese science has always been weak on theory, strong on technology. It is probably no coincidence that the modern tradition of experimental science in the West began in the 13th century at a time of greatly multiplied contacts across Eurasia, when numerous Chinese IDEAS and INVENTIONS were reaching Europe across the steppeland and silk routes, via the Muslim world.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
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As Catmull has confirmed, “You are not your idea, and if you identify too closely with your ideas, you will take offense when challenged.” This is also true in the writer’s room. The best joke should make the comedy and nothing else really matters.
The Brain Trust has grown a great deal over the years. It went from three people to nearly twenty people for the 2015 hit, Inside Out. The story was also more complicated, as the writers tried to characterize emotions in the mind.
In the debate at this table, director Pete Docter opened up the conversation and displayed a 10-minute preview to the group. Some members thought the scene about memories fading was too complicated for the movie. They wanted to keep it simpler. But, Brad Bird—director of The Incredibles and Warner Brother’s The Iron Giant, had a different idea.
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ts-and-bolts environmental or social activist will roll her eyes upon hearing phrases like “The planet is a living being.” From there it is a short step to sentiments like, “Love will heal the world,” “What we need most is a shift in consciousness,” and “Let’s get in touch with our indigenous soul.”
What’s wrong with such ideas? The skeptics make a potent argument. Not only are these ideas delusional, they say, but to voice them is a strategic error that opens environmentalism to accusations of flakiness. By invoking unscientific concepts, by prattling on about the ‘heart’ or spirit or the sacred, we will be dismissed as naive, fuzzy-headed, irrational, hysterical, over-emotional hippies. What we need, they say, is more data, more logic, more numbers, better arguments, and more practical solutions framed in language acceptable to policy-makers and the public.
I think that argument is mistaken. By shying away from the idea of a living planet, we rob environmentalism of its authentic motive force, engender paralysis rather than action, and implicitly endorse the worldview that enables our destruction of the planet.
Charles Eisenstein - Fear of a Living Planet
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Several activists of the Transition Network explain the Transition idea.
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