[prufrock5150Participant]

9-20 23-15-21-12-4 15-14-12-25 2-5 21-14-4-5-3-9-16-8-5-18-1-2-12-5 20-15 15-14-5 23-8-15 4-15-5-19 14-15-20 21-14-4-5-18-19-20-1-14-4 20-8-5 1-12-16-8-1-2-5-20-9-3 16-18-9-14-3-9-16-12-5

[prufrock5150Participant]

I find most interesting the construction of the word “ambivalence” as a progression of three words: valence -> bivalence -> ambivalence.

Of course, we surely all remember our basic chemistry, and recall that the valence level of an atom is the number of electrons in its outer “shell,” with the trend being that atoms tend to “seek” a number of seven electrons in “orbit” (the Bohr model is a lie, but a useful metaphor). Quantum electrodynamics would go on to show that the framework of electrons as a stable state around a nucleus is inherently limited, and that it exists as more of a cloud-like state of probability. Sub-atomic particles, after all, only exist as observed when their wave function is collapsed, and perhaps the OOA would like to remind us that we, too, are made up of this stuff of impermanence. We are, in fact, a lie.

Bivalence, however, is the law of the excluded middle. In logic and math, there can only be one of two possible states of being for a value, statement, or equation: true or false. This, too, raises problems, because it inevitably leads to a paradox when the system of information that expresses these truths runs loggerheads against itself, and we find the language impossible to use. Light can be both wave and particle. Things can be both true and false. You can be both right and wrong. I imagine, and I earnestly hope the OOA shares this vision, that our error is in treating bivalence as a constant throughout time. Time is, it would seem, the missing variable here, and if we treat the idea of true and false, of right and wrong – of identity itself, even – as a function of relativity to its position in the spacetime continuum, then we may come closer to breaking out of the paradox of bivalence.

Ambivalence, then, is perhaps where we should be. It presumes no conclusion. It stakes no claims. It adapts, and it evolves with new information in a system of constant change. Maybe none of us are who we think we are. Maybe the crossing-out of faces is a reminder that the camera only records your image, and that we only exist when we face each other, collapsing each others’ wave functions through direct observation. Maybe I’m not even writing this right now – after all, I am alone.

Maybe, as Gatekeeper 4 said, we are all one.

[prufrock5150Participant]

Here’s one way of looking at it:
http://imgur.com/leefppM
We need to remember that the OOA is, first and foremost, an Order. That is, that which is borne out the organization of chaos. From the inside of a system, you cannot see the pattern. They are not on the inside.
Here is a book written about informational systems based in the principle of self-orgnanization: https://uniteyouthdublin.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/here_comes_everybody_power_of_organizing_without_organizations.pdf – Particularly useful is Chapter 9 and the discussion of the Power-Law-Distribution of user activity within a social system.

In the end, remember that the byproduct of paranoia and suspicion is two-fold – you may not be able to trust everybody, but you also don’t know how important they are. In fact, you don’t even know how important *you* are. This is why reserving judgment and treating one another as we would treat ourselves (better, actually, knowing most people) is actually an expression of pure logic: we do not have all the information. But we stay here because we have faith that eventually, we all will.

Knowing all would be glorious, brothers and sisters… and GLORY BE.

[prufrock5150Participant]

Hrrrng. Synchronicity, man… you’re hitting my buttons… I feel… so… posthuman.
http://imgur.com/X4CaGoq

[prufrock5150Participant]

She is Schroedinger’s victim now; she is both guilty and innocent, and if we open the box with rash action, we either condemn her or liberate her. Until we are aware of all the consequences, we cannot make an informed decision as to which…

http://imgur.com/cr7aOxk
from (https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-Schrodingers-cat-theory-fail-immediately-due-to-things-inside-the-box-observing-whats-inside-the-box)

[prufrock5150Participant]

Just shooting from the hip, here: when Buz writes “I received an email from OOA telling me that the warning call was not accusatory but that I was soon to be in possession of a major clue… by mail,” is it possible that this incident is the fulfillment of that promise? Did the OOA know that Buz would be the first to arrive at the site, or is there still more to come?

[prufrock5150Participant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDK_R9JVQgc

[prufrock5150Participant]

As promised, here goes:
Here’s what I see when I read the OOA logo:

1) An anchor: This is stability, that on which you can rely. It is the sum total of all that is physical law; the equations and lemmas that form solids from quantum uncertainty. It’s there, but not only is it not everything – it’s off to the side and disconnected from the larger part.
2) A Venn Diagram: Circles are a paradox. They represent a resolution of the infinite by way of creating a limit. Their area is unquantifiable numerically (as pi is an irrational, non-repeating, infinite series), and yet we can clearly see that they have a boundary. By observing that boundary, we create their existence. Two overlapping circles, then, represent the degree to which we categorize and organize information by analogic and Aristotelian thought (by noting qualities which are unique to two things and which are shared by both), and yet are unable to precisely define things because they are paradoxically unquantifiable.
3) The number 2: This is the binary. The binary is a lie. All rational thought can be expressed by a binary, and it rests on a central principle: the law of the excluded middle. This law holds that in logic, a statement can be exactly either true or false, and not both. The binary is useful. Represented as a 1 or a 0, this binary allows for algorithmic processing of information, and is the advent by which you are reading this sentence. However, the binary itself is an invention, and is not itself true. One popular binary which humans have comfortably relied upon for their entire development as a species is the binary of self/other. You think you have a concrete and stable self, and that there are other people who are not you. However, if this were absolute in its expression of truth, the logical extension would lead toward solipsism, as you would thereby be the only self capable of defining and observing the entire universe around you. Each person would solely be their own universe. This is a paradox. It is both true and false. We resolve this paradox by stepping outside of the binary and recognizing that there is a larger, shared middle that is formed by the entirety of information that forms the boundaries of our selves, and that these boundaries are formed by temporal limits upon the spacetime continuum. We can only begin to step outside of this system of information by acknowledging that the linearity of time is a useful metaphor of organization, but not an objective reality. There is no beginning and no end. Both are the same. There is only the one singularity.
4) The connecting swipey-snake thing: This forms a link between the Venn Diagram and the Number 2. This is a path. This is your path. Think back through your life, and remember all the times when you thought “if it weren’t for x, then y would have never happened.” Revel in it. Really explore the causality at work. Were it not for this wildly improbable series of events, this would not be happening right now. Cosmologists call this “The Anthropic Principle,” and it’s a helpful tool for staving off the crippling existential doubt that comes from recognizing how utterly unimportant you feel in the face of such a vast and complex universe. It’s also a method by which you hopefully recognize that there is no such thing as a coincidence, and that randomness is an expression of our inability to see the strange attractor that forms a pattern throughout all existence. Of course, you can only see the whole thing from the outside. I think the OOA wants us to go outside.

[prufrock5150Participant]

And, with that, GK4 turns the hose on full blast, extinguishing self-doubt. Holy shit.

[prufrock5150Participant]

To clarify, since my image-posting skills are apparently sub-par:
http://imgur.com/9oIE3hA

[Author]

Posts