Tuesday, May 05, 2009

425. On Life and Death: Proximate and Ultimate Cycles of the Phoenix (Based on Blog #424)



On Life and Death: Proximate and Ultimate Cycles of the Phoenix (Based on Blog #424). Phenomena of Individual and Collective Action. Cycles of Origins and Endings, births, shifts, and deaths, constructions and catastrophs, are ultimately similar themes of all the sciences and serves as a universal narrative theme of science when we ask "Who are we? And what is our place in the universe?" One of my advisors asked me whether these were even the "right questions" after all? Are origins and endings and singularities over multiple sources simply desirable human constructs that we use to create scientific stories that ultimately carve "reality"? Well?! I can walk away from the Origins Symposium at Arizona State University (April 2009) feeling like I've learned something. The overarching universe that science has carved through the accumulation of miniscule replicate experiments... ultimately is a singularity... a single narrative with no replicates. No multiverses. No replicate planet Earths... for now.... To a scientist, that philosophically SUCKS. I would be the one to know!

Are these phenomena really happening in the environment or are they merely constructs in our minds?

CAPTION:
Cartoon Slideshow. On Life and Death: Cycles of the Phoenix. Phenomena of Individual and Collective Action. Universal Narrative Theme of Science (and Society).

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