The TED talks are an outstanding resource, two of which have been linked to and discussed (memes, and morality) in my Blog.
The excellent Elizabeth Gilbert “Genius” talk you linked to may open us over-rational and “scientific” modern humans up to something like spiritual belief.
Yes, I know everything you and I think up, including our most creative ideas, are the result of an electro-chemical machine -our brain- working alone. No disembodied “genius fairies” flit around and deposit those good ideas (or the bad ones either).
Much as I try, I cannot get myself to believe in any kind of “God” separate from the Universe. But, I do believe in the “General Organizing Device – GOD”, which is the evolutionary process whereby genes and memes reproduce, evolve, compete, cooperate, and survive or are cast off to oblivion. I carry an assortment of genes from my parents and an overload of memes from my family, teachers, friends, associates, my personal experiences, and everything I have read in books or the internet and heard and seen on radio and TV.
GOD (the evolutionary process) has given me the machine -my brain created from inherited genes- and the material -my inherited memes- and that is the “genius” that flits around my creations. No wonder I often look at what I have thought up or written and am amazed. “Where did that come from?” – “From GOD!”
avi// Feb 15, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I guess the thing I’d point out is that her talk is mainly about people who are overwhelmed by the acclaim they receive for creating great works of art. It may be better for their mental health to ascribe these gifts to an outside, even supernatural, entity.
I’m not sure she covered the opposite case, where someone toils creatively without recognition, but uniquely believes their contribution to be divine.
The TED talks are an outstanding resource, two of which have been linked to and discussed (memes, and morality) in my Blog.
The excellent Elizabeth Gilbert “Genius” talk you linked to may open us over-rational and “scientific” modern humans up to something like spiritual belief.
Yes, I know everything you and I think up, including our most creative ideas, are the result of an electro-chemical machine -our brain- working alone. No disembodied “genius fairies” flit around and deposit those good ideas (or the bad ones either).
Much as I try, I cannot get myself to believe in any kind of “God” separate from the Universe. But, I do believe in the “General Organizing Device – GOD”, which is the evolutionary process whereby genes and memes reproduce, evolve, compete, cooperate, and survive or are cast off to oblivion. I carry an assortment of genes from my parents and an overload of memes from my family, teachers, friends, associates, my personal experiences, and everything I have read in books or the internet and heard and seen on radio and TV.
GOD (the evolutionary process) has given me the machine -my brain created from inherited genes- and the material -my inherited memes- and that is the “genius” that flits around my creations. No wonder I often look at what I have thought up or written and am amazed. “Where did that come from?” – “From GOD!”
I guess the thing I’d point out is that her talk is mainly about people who are overwhelmed by the acclaim they receive for creating great works of art. It may be better for their mental health to ascribe these gifts to an outside, even supernatural, entity.
I’m not sure she covered the opposite case, where someone toils creatively without recognition, but uniquely believes their contribution to be divine.