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The Neuroscience of Moral Decision Making

A few weeks ago a colleague gave me a copy of ‘Leading from the Emerging Future’ by Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer. Their work interests me because it is an attempt to find different solutions to global and in particular economic problems. Their approach is summed up in a quote from Albert Einstein who said, ‘We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used to create them.’ So they are trying to find ways that we can be with each other that removes ‘same thinking’ recognising that ‘same thinking’ will produce ‘same results.’ It seems to me to be a useful way of thinking about change from global to personal situations. They also suggest that it is how we are in relationships that can effect change both for ourselves and others. They offer a useful way of thinking about communication and in particular listening. In my profession a lot of emphasis is placed on helping people to communicate, to find their voice, to tell it like it is and it is my job to listen. Scharmer and Kaufer ...

Quantum theory is the most far-ranging and successful attempt to understand the physical world ever devised by human beings. By the late Twenties quantum theorists had solved in elaborate detail the most pressing physics problem of that era--how light interacts with atoms. But along with its astonishing power to predict the most subtle light-matter effects, this fledgling theory created a host of philosophical problems, not the least of which was the bizarre notion that the world is in some sense "not real" except during an act of measurement. Many physicists, including Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, and French scientist-aristocrat Prince Louis De Broglie, felt that giving up reality was too high a price to pay for a mere theory no matter how successful; these physicists hoped in their hearts that quantum theory's triumphant reign would be short-lived, that this preposterous reality-denying theory would fail when applied outside the atom-sized realm where it had ac...

Extract from Confucius’s ‘Great Learning’ essay quoted in Leading from Emerging Future, from ego system to eco system economies but Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer. I like the flow from state to person and back to state as a continual cycle that keeps mind and matter connected and refreshed. For me it has the image of an hour glass, state, to self to state, turn it over and start again continually refreshing self, other, self and other, self and earth. Scharmer and Kaufer refer to the need to move from ego centred to eco centred and perhaps it is an unending flow through. Anyway, here it is. ‘The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the world, first ordered well their own States. Wishing to order well their States, they first harmonized their families. Wishing to harmonise their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be...

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Measuring Quantum Cats and Their Smiles by SAND, August 13, 2014in Nature of Perception, Philosophy, Quantum Physics8 Comments creatticacatIt’s been a strange summer for quantum physics, but when it comes to this unusual branch of science, strange is actually a sign of progress. In a study published July 31 in Nature, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, carried out an experiment involving a quantum circuit. Using special techniques, they were able to monitor the shift of this system from a quantum to a classical state in order to determine the most likely path that it would follow. Quantum systems are those that exist in multiple states at one time—until the system is measured. This is based on Schrodinger’s cat, a thought experiment in which a cat inside a closed box with a vial of poison exists in two states at the same time—alive and dead—until the box is opened (aka measured). The researchers found that by gently monitoring a quantum system, without causing ...

dialogical practices: Psychotic

dialogical practices: Time has come in mental health services – humanist... : On 1 st of September I was invited to have a speech in a seminar in Helsinki. The subject was Mental health and Medicalization.  Out of ...

http://edge.org/conversation/duck-sex-aesthetic-evolution-and-the-origin-of-beauty

LATEST DIALOGUES Measuring Quantum Cats and Their Smiles. by SAND, August 13, 2014in Nature of Perception, Philosophy, Quantum Physics3 Comments creatticacatIt’s been a strange summer for quantum physics, but when it comes to this unusual branch of science, strange is actually a sign of progress. In a study published July 31 in Nature, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, carried out an experiment involving a quantum circuit. Using special techniques, they were able to monitor the shift of this system from a quantum to a classical state in order to determine the most likely path that it would follow. Quantum systems are those that exist in multiple states at one time—until the system is measured. This is based on Schrodinger’s cat, a thought experiment in which a cat inside a closed box with a vial of poison exists in two states at the same time—alive and dead—until the box is opened (aka measured). The researchers found that by gently monitoring a quantum sys...

Person-Centred Gathering Tobar Mhuire, Crossgar A theme of, 'Being' Saturday 12th April 2014 9.30am to 4.30pm Reflecting on his experiences in both large and small community groups Carl Rogers wrote:   "I realise that of all the ventures in which I have ever been involved,   this was the most thoroughly person-centred" Carl Rogers ‘On Personal Power’   The next Person-Centred Gathering will be held on 12th April, at Tobar Mhuire retreat, Crossgar. This will be our fourth person centred gathering and you are all welcome   The gathering is based on a tried and trusted model that occurs regularly in the Person-Centred community worldwide. It is an opportunity for personal and professional growth, self-awareness, and the understanding of others while meeting new people and having a good time. The focus is on Being,                     ...

I read this work for the first time this week and I was moved by it and in particular the paragraphs below. The whole work takes me into the guts of war, it's horror and the inhuman impact on humans. Our inhumanity to each other and we haven't learned much. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. 1929 ERICH MARIA REMARQUE (Im Westen nichts Nueus by Ullstein, Berlin 1929) P 38 For me, the front is as sinister as a whirlpool. Even when you are a long way away fro its centre, out in calm waters, you can still fee its suction pulling you towards it, slowly, inexorably, meeting little resistance. But the power to defend ourselves flows back into us out of the earth and out of the air-and most of all it flows out of the earth. The earth is more important to the soldier than to anybody else. When he presses himself to the earth, long and violently, when he urges himself deep into it with his face and with his limbs, under fire and with the fear of death upon him,...

Person-Centred Gathering Tobar Mhuire, Crossgar A theme of, 'Being' Saturday 12th April 2014 9.30am to 4.30pm Reflecting on his experiences in both large and small community groups Carl Rogers wrote:   "I realise that of all the ventures in which I have ever been involved,   this was the most thoroughly person-centred" Carl Rogers ‘On Personal Power’   The next Person-Centred Gathering will be held on 12th April, at Tobar Mhuire retreat, Crossgar. This will be our fourth person centred gathering and you are all welcome   The gathering is based on a tried and trusted model that occurs regularly in the Person-Centred community worldwide. It is an opportunity for personal and professional growth, self-awareness, and the understanding of others while meeting new people and having a good time. The focus is on Being,                     ...