I mentioned, in a recent blog, the need to formulate the dimensions of our existence.  I want to pursue this mystery about 'being human' now.

The existence of two realities is weighing on me every day in every way.  Do you remember C.P. Snow's famous Two Cultures lecture (and later book)?  That Science v Humanities debate came and went because it was targeted at UK society of 1959: over half a century ago.  In any case, the sciences are now doing fine, in the UK and everywhere.  The PR machine has been cranked up and is doing a fantastic job. 

However, there is now a conflict as to which reality is to be scientifically investigated.  It's fundamental to understanding being human, and it is emerging as a battle for pre-eminence.  I call the two realities: Psychosocial Reality and Empirical Reality. The one you bring into being by your choices, and you have the power to alter.  The other exists independently of your choices and you only have More...

Most of my life I've been trying to create a better world.  Ever since I was a deluded young idealist.

All my friends grew up into intelligent successful adults.  But somewhere along the road my brain missed the turn-off to maturity.  So I'm sort of stuck.  Still trying to make the world better.  I should have joined Idealists Anonymous long ago.

To my credit, I do believe I've helped a few people along the way.  And I do know that More...

Long, long ago in a universe far, far away, I was inserting electrodes into the brains of live cats to look at single neurons in the thalamus responding to visual stimuli.  I wondered about 'seeing' in the way this cat was doing, and 'seeing' in the sense of appreciating a situation or issue.  The cat was anesthetized and paralyzed, so not doing too much of the latter.

Fast forward decades and this difference, so typical of being human, was eventually published on the website as the two realities we live in: psychosocial reality and empirical reality.  One is about the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, and has nothing to do with what we want or choose.  And then there is another «Reality» which is constructed out of our choices. 

How exactly do these utterly different human realities More...