Thursday 17 December 2015

An Atomized, Cerebral Existence

In Trevelyan Micah's time, the thirty second century according to the Chronology of the Psychotechnic Series, life on Earth is atomized and cerebral. On an interstellar journey:

"Trevelyan had been meditating upon his philosophy." (Starship, pp. 223-224)

So let's hear some thirty second century philosophy. To paraphrase Braganza Diane (The Peregrine, p. 26):

communication is conveyance of information;
information is a spatio-temporal pattern distinguished by rules of selection, therefore capable of being assigned a meaning;
meaning is the induced state of the percipient;
art is primarily emotional communication.

Comment: I suggest that meaning is not a state internal to individuals but essentially shared and interactive.

Trevelyan (The Peregrine, p. 47):

culture is a process;
civilization is not material technology but a thought-process and an understanding.

Comments:

first proposition OK;
civilization is cities dependent on agricultural technology;
civilized thought and understanding depend on technology.

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