• Manuel
    4.1k


    :up:

    Yeah, his CTMU is a word salad. And him saying the Universe is a language is not even wrong. If by language one has in mind the stuff people do.

    He has impressive IQ scores, but he cannot explain his ideas in a simple manner, no matter how hard he tries.
  • Saphsin
    383
    Intellectual work has a fundamental cooperative element to it, where you’re constantly challenged by other people. My guess is his social isolation from intellectual circles combined with a self-perception of brain superiority made it easy to spiral off into spouting nonsense.
  • AgentTangarine
    166


    That's Kaku's mind resonating. :smile:
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    I tend to perceive the universe as being musical. Which is an expression of both mathematics and language.Bret Bernhoft

    :up: Sound has music, light has...art? That doesn't sound right, does it? What's the visual counterpart to music?
  • Bret Bernhoft
    222


    That's a good question. I would think some sort of play or dancing? Music and dancing are (essentially) the same thing.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    That's a good question. I would think some sort of play or dancing? Music and dancing are (essentially) the same thing.Bret Bernhoft

    Dancing does have visual elements (shape/geometry of the body - poses/moves/facial expressions), but what's the luminal counterpart to notes?
  • Bret Bernhoft
    222


    Hmm. I don't know to be honest. That is a subject that deserves it's own contemplation; what are the luminal counterparts to notes? You worded that nicely.

    I wonder if anyone well-studied in metaphysics and/or esotericism can answer your question?
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    What's a language?

    A mode of communication/of thought.

    Is the universe a language?

    The universe looks more and more like a great thought rather than a great machine. — Sir James Jeans

    The universe is information (knowledge) and a carrier of information (light/on/1 and dark/off/0). It is, in that sense, a language ready for use.
  • Gnomon
    3.8k
    I assume you replied to me? Yeah, poor Christopher. That Dawkins book is a laugh! He litterally claims he was enlightened by the truth that people and animals are slaves of genes and memes. Now what a meme!HKpinsky
    Although Dawkins is clearly opposed to formal religions, which he believes makes meme-slaves of believers, he retains a somewhat religious perspective, similar to that of Carl Sagan, in the form of humble awe at the magnificence of the real world. :smile:

    “After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked -- as I am surprisingly often -- why I bother to get up in the mornings. To put it the other way round, isn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?”
    ___Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow
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