How do you cope with stress and pressure? (and remain productive)

Like many others I returned to work early in January after a break over Christmas and the new year.  It was great to get back into the swing of things.  I love what I do, and I like being engaged in multiple tasks; I even enjoy working with a bit of pressure!

However, 2010 is a massive year for me!  First, we have a large stadium prayer gathering in Cape Town (in the new Cape Town stadium on the 22nd of March 2010 - see http://www.gdop-sa.com for more details).

Next, we have an international conference for the Global Day of Prayer from the 17th - 23rd of May at the Cape Town international Convention Centre.  I am responsible for handling the programme at this conference, but I also play a central role in most of the other committees for the events.  You can see more about this conference at http://www.gdop2010.com - it is actually two events, a conference from the 18th to the 20th and then a stadium event at the Newlands Rugby stadium with a global television broadcast on the 23rd of May).  There is more work to be done for this conference than I have hours in my day!

Next, there is the Lausanne Congress on World evangelization which is taking place here in Cape Town in October this year.  I am a member of the arrangements team, as well as serving on the Theological working group, heading up the social media strategy, and I am also one of the officially invited delegates to participate in the congress (there are 50 persons from South Africa who were invited to participate in the congress, so it is a great honour to be among that number.  I am fairly certain that I must be among the most junior of the group, and that my practical involvement in the congress is what got me the spot!  There are certainly far more gifted theologians and leaders in our context!  However, I shall do my best). You can read more about the Lausanne Congress at http://www.capetown2010.com and follow Lausanne on Facebook and on Twitter.

Together with these big responsibilities I also have two new books coming out in 2010.  I had a very tight deadline to write a book on workplace spirituality and faith at work for Struik publishers (this book will be launched at our Global Day of Prayer conference in May - so, the content must be finished in the next week in order for it to be edited, proofed and sent to India or China for printing (I'm not sure where it is printed, but it is in the East, and then it is shipped back to South African in bulk).  Please do pray for me!  I have been waking VERY early and going to bed VERY late to try and finish the 12 chapters for the book!  I need both strength and inspiration to meet the deadline (I have done 7 chapters and have 5 more to go).

The other book that I am working on is a reworking of my doctoral research which Cambridge Scholars Press is publishing entitled 'Why you may not be who you think you are! Adventures in neuroscience, artificial intelligence and theology'.  I'm afraid that is on the back, back burner for a little while (until May at least).

Apart from these big projects I have my regular work to contend with.  I am a chaplain in a company that has 2000 employees, I am a chaplain to the Global Day of Prayer, serving on the regular working team of various ministries and boards, and then also still doing a bit of teaching and some post-graduate supervision at the University of Pretoria and the University of Stellenbosch where I hold academic posts.

Most importantly I have to take time for my family and my faith, and of course there is my health....

When I consider all of this I do get a little stressed at times!!!

SO, here's the question... What do you do to remain productive and cope with stress?  Please not that emphasis on remaining productive while coping with stress.  I love my work, and I like to be busy, but I want to find some tools to keep a 'handle' on it.

Here's a little video that explains what I am currently doing.

However, I'd love to hear your wisdom please!

It is HOT in Cape Town!! 42 degrees C! Yikes!

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Here's what I've been reading (and writing)...

In 2009 I read a few interesting (and some not so interesting books...  I enjoy reading - sometimes it is because the book is worth reading, at other times I simply enjoy reading a particular book to understand what makes the author 'tick', or to better understand the perspective of the person who has recommended it to me).

So, here are a few of the books that I read in 2009.

Fun

These are the books I read when I want to 'get my mind off work' - you can see that there are quite a lot of them!  For years, when I was busy with my doctoral research, I was forced to read with a narrow field (neuroscience, consciousness studies and theology).  Now that I no longer have to read to complete a research project, I turn to whatever takes my fancy.  Most of these books are read while I'm traveling, or when I can't sleep.

• 'Ringworld' by Larry Niven - this is a classic sci-fi book.  I enjoyed it a great deal.  It is getting a little dated, but it was wonderfully entertaining and a great distraction from some of the other serious books I was reading.
• 'Made in America: An informal history of the English language in the United States' by Bill Bryson.  I love Bryson's books!  He writes with intelligence and humour, and this book was no exception.  It was filled with incredible facts and gave me a real insight into the formation of American English (yes, by this I mean the dialect of English that is spoken by North Americans).  But it also offered some wonderful insight into the history and cultural development of the most powerful nation on earth (with all of the quirks, struggles, and abuses that come from holding that responsibility on the globe).  I would highly recommend this book.
• 'The lost symbol' by Dan Brown.  I love reading Dan Brown's books.  I like the pace with which he writes, and his style appeals to the conspiracy theorist inside of me!  Some folks didn't enjoy this book.  I thought it was great.
• 'Confessions of an economic hitman' by John Perkins.  This was another interesting book.  I'm not sure how true it is.  It was interesting, and I can certainly see how greed would drive persons (and nations) to enslave others for their own interests.  I have certainly seen how African nations have been enslaved by foreign debt and how much of our natural and human resources get channeled out of Africa to repay foreign nations for so called 'development'.
• 'The year of living biblically' by AJ Jacobs.  This was one of the funniest and most entertaining books I read last year!  It was wonderful to see how a secular person (who does not have an anti-theist agenda) views the faith!  AJ Jacobs was so sincere in his desire to try and live by the 'rules' of the Bible, and the consequences were hilarious.  This is a must read!  It deepened my faith and helped me to reflect a great deal on my own religious convictions and spirituality.
• 'London:  The biography, street life and the people' by Peter Ackroyd.  This was another very interesting historical book!  I so enjoyed learning about London.  It is one of my favourite cities, it is so cosmopolitan and has such a rich history!  I would encourage any person who is heading to London to read this book before leaving.
• 'Outliers'  by Malcolm Gladwell - this must be one of the best books I've ever read!  I love Gladwell's style and his approach!  This book is filled with obscure facts and interesting data.  I found his conclusions somewhat selective and at times quite speculative.  However, they were always entertaining.  I bought all of Gladwell's books (except Tipping Point which is not available in Africa!)
• 'What the dog saw'  by Malcolm Gladwell.  This was the least interesting of his books so far.  It seems to be a collection of essays from his Newspaper column.  I am enjoying it (I have not yet finished reading it), but less than the other Gladwell books.
• 'Blunder'  by Zachary Shore.  This books was interesting, although it lacked the pace and finesse of Gladwell's books (it is in the same genre, although from the perspective of a military historian).  It traces how and why smart people make bad decisions. 
• 'Blink'  by Malcolm Gladwell.  I enjoyed this book a lot as well.  Again, it has lots of interesting data and obscure facts about how persons make decisions (both good and bad decisions).
• 'Story  by Robert McKee.  This is a classic text for any person who writes, does public speaking, or has to share information in a manner that will both entertain and inform an audience.  It was filled with practical examples from the world of script writing.  I would recommend this work for preachers - it could just help us all to deliver better sermons!

Inspiration and faith

These books are the ones that I read because I feel I need them - they help me to grow spiritually and intellectually. Some of them were read a review books for journals (I am a reviewer for the Church History society's journal Studia historiae ecclesiasticae.  I enjoy these reviews since I get a copy of each book that I review to keep.  Moreover, I am forced to read wider than my personal interests (which stretches me and creates new interests).  Lastly, having reviews published in successive journals is a good way to remain up to date in the academy (and one gets research points for such publications, very few, but still there is some recognition).  You'll notice that many of the books are books written by friends (like Wessel and John).  Some of the books are not in keeping with my own theological perspective... These are normally books that I am asked to read and review for someone else, or to give an opinion or insight on.

• '28 days of prayer during financial crisis' by Wessel Bentley.  My friend Wessel wrote this sterling set of reflections - how I wish he had the 'might' of a large publishing house behind this project!  It deserves to be read, distributed, and made available across South Africa and the world.  It is well written, it is free from trite advice and bad theology.  I loved it!  I am glad for the support that Africa Upper Room has given him with this project, but as I say, I would love the book to get introduced to a wider audience.  Please visit http://www.wesselsplace.blogspot.com to read about Wessel and get a copy of this book.
• 'The notion of mission in Karl Barth's ecclesiology' by Wessel Bentley (pre publication).  I had the joy of reading a pre-publication electronic copy of this book (which was Wessel's PhD, picked up by Cambridge scholars press).  As you can expect, it is a superb theological text - it challenged me to think deeply about my own perspectives on mission and ministry.  This is a must read for any missiologist or Barthian scholar.
• 'SHE book reviews (Biko, development, Cornels books)
• 'You were made for this' by Bruce Wilkinson.  I try to read all of Bruce's books as they come out.  He is a good writer and his books sell well (which means that many of the people I minister to will buy copies and read them.  Best I am prepared before they are!).  I enjoyed this book, and in fact it has impacted by approach to ministering to others.  There are some areas in which I did not agree entirely with the theology of inspiration and the theology of wealth and money.  However, it is worth reading and it inspired me to be much more generous and flexible in my giving.
• 'Not by might, nor by Power'  by Graham Power with Diane Vermooten.  This is the story of the Global Day of Prayer - I am constantly amazed when I read about these events all over the world.  This  is one of the most inspiring and encouraging South African Christian books I've ever read.  I first read it in pre publication, and then had to re-read it several times as it went through the editorial process.  Most of my family and colleagues have copies of this book since I give it as a gift frequently.  It is worth reading!  You can get copies from http://www.globaldayofprayer.com
• 'The legacy of Stephen Biko:  Theological challenges'  by Cornel du Toit (ed).  This book was an inspiring reminder of how far South Africa has come since the dark years of Apartheid.  As with all of Cornel's books, this one had some very deep and challenging theological reflection.  The chapters for the book came from conference papers - some were more scholarly than others, all were worth reading.
• 'Imitating Jesus: An inclusive approach to New Testament Ethics' by Richard Burridge.  This was an exceptional book!  Perhaps one of the best books on ethics in general, and New Testament ethics in particular, that I have ever read!  I loved the approach and particularly appreciated Burridge's thorough analysis of New Testament ethics in the South African context.
• 'Seasons in theology:  Inroads of postmodernism, reference and representation' by Cornel du Toit.  This was a very dense and complex book.  It was a reworked compendium of numerous of Cornel's best academic papers.  For the serious theologian this is a must!  However, for anyone else it may be heavy going!  It is technical, crosses disciplines (particularly, theology, science, and philosophy) and the subject matter is challenging to say the least.  It assumes a great deal of theological and philosophical education.  It would make a good reader for pre-doctoral research students who want a good overview of varying approaches to theology through the ages.
• 'Viewed from the shoulders of God:  Themes in science and theology' by Cornel du Toit.  This is a must have book for any theologian who is interested in natural science.  Cornel is arguably one of the most astute and thorough theologians in this area.  This book is another compilation of various scholarly articles (among them are some that have won awards for research).  This is a good reference work that also has enough depth to keep the advanced researcher interested.
• 'A twenty yard stroll' by John Baillie.  This was a  good read.  I have enjoyed John's books.  This one was no exception.
• 'What is a good life? An introduction to Christian ethics in 21st century Africa'  edited by Wessel Bentley, Andre van Niekerk and Liouse Kretzschmar.  This is an absolute MUST have book for ministers and theologians!  It covers the basics of ethics, from methodology to specific ethical issues.  Among the authors are numerous top notch scholars, and some younger 'emerging' scholars (such as myself).  Please see http://www.wesselsplace.blogspot.com to get a copy of this book.  If you're an ethics student at UNISA it is the current prescribed text-book.
• Lastly, I supervised one Masters student (homeopathy and theology), and examined two Masters students and three PhD's in 2009.  Only one of them had to resubmit some revisions.  I currently have three PhD's to examine and on Masters student - once again, this is great work since it forces me to read outside of my regular area, plus the research is often quite fresh and novel!

On my 'to read' list

• Badass, The happiness project, tipping point...

I own copies of these books and am busy reading them at the moment. 

My reading has been curtailed a little in the last while since I am under a heavy deadline for a book that I am writing that will be launched in May 2010 by Struik Publishers!  This is my first 'popular' book with a big name publisher!  So, please do keep an eye on this space!

What I've been writing

I have been keeping my pen on paper this year as well.

• I have two journal articles awaiting publication (one in HTS and another in the UK journal 'Theology').  These are currently under review so I will share details as soon as I'm able to.
• I wrote three chapters on HIV/AIDS (one for a Methodist book by Epworth press in the UK, another for a book on mission and social justice in the USA, and a third one for a book by my friend Joerg Rieger in the USA).  These will all be published in 2010.
• I did three magazine articles (two for 'Today' magazine, and one for 'Joy!'), as well as a few Newspaper inserts for 'New Hart'.
• I wrote the chapter on the Bible and same sex relationships for the ethics text-book 'What is a good life' (see above).
• I delivered two papers (one on the emerging Church conversation at the Hugh Price Hughes lectures in England in March), and another paper on the environment and African theology at the Theological Society meetings in Stellenbosch in June.
• I leave for Beirut in Lebanon (!) in a few weeks time to attend the Lausanne Theological Working Group meetings where I shall deliver a paper on HIV AIDS, suffering, justice and poverty (that paper has already been written and sent).

Let's hope that 2010 is as productive as 2009!  I often get asked how I manage to write and read so much... The answer is quite simple, I sleep less than most people!  I have a 'day job' that keeps me very busy, plus I am deeply committed to my family, I enjoy cycling, and I belong to my local Church (with a forum group).  All of these things bring balance and help me to keep my theology and thoughts grounded.

More than just a bag of neurons, or, are we more than our brains?

My friend Phil Collier is posting some wonderful content on his Brain Science blog brain sparks. 

He posted an interesting question about whether we are merely the 'stuff of our brains' (i.e., if our neurons determine who we are, or if our identity and consciousness is more complex than that). 

Here's my response to Phil (please see his post here): 

Hi Phil, 

As I mentioned in our conversation this morning, I tend towards an inclusive approach that suggests that we are the stuff of our minds (of course 'the brain' extends into the body through the nervous system, and regulates and is informed through the endocrinatic system). As such we would have to say that in part we are our bodies (not just the cells of our brains, although those are important!) 

However, I have found Ken Wilber's all quadrant, all level (AQAL) approach to consciousness quite helpful in breaking down the false dualism between consciousness and matter. 

Thus, on an individual exterior level (my biology) the individual's brain has a great deal to do with their identity and consciousness. However on a collective exterior level (the human or mammalian brain) there is also an element of additional identity forming activity going on. Then of course you have the individual interior (what I think and believe about myself that forms me) and the collective interior (what 'our' culture, religion, socialization, has contributed towards my understand of myself in relation to others). 

You can read more about my understanding of Wilber here, and a few other Wilber posts here. 

Then, with regards to the idea of an objective mapping of the functions of the brain (i.e., how the electrical and chemical components function to create outputs of action or thought), you may be interested to read some of Ray Kurzweil's thoughts. 

He has done a great deal in trying to map and emulate brain function (his speciality has been speech synthesis and speech recognition), but more recently he has become knowing for his mathematical predictions of the exponential increase in computational capacity in machines. 

I discussed this at length (and also discussed Wilber and consciousness at length) in my doctoral thesis. See the following post for links and information about Kurzweil (discussed in chapter 2) and you can read about Wilber in chapter 4. 

I am currently under contract with Cambridge scholars press who will be publishing my Ph.D in a more 'popular' form as book in 2010 (the working title is 'Why you may not be who you think you are - adventures in neuroscience, strong artificial intelligence and philosophy'). So keep an eye on this space! I'll post updates on the progress as they come.

The original interview with Ray Kurzweil in h+ can be found here.

Blessings, 

Dion

An interview with Ray Kurzweil - Spiritual machines, artificial intelligence, and some interesting banter!

I was first introduced to the work of the theorist, Ray Kurzweil, some years ago when my initial interests in strong Artificial Intelligence emerged (probably in 2001 or thereabout).  I have since read just about everything that he has published (mostly as part of my doctoral research).  You can find a number of posts I've made about Ray Kurzweil on this blog here.


If you're interested in reading some of my thoughts on Kurzweil you can download a copy of my Doctoral Thesis here (please see chapter 2). Some other books that are worth reading to understand Kurzweil's relationship between computers, the human mind, and the future of technology are:

The age of spiritual machines, and Are we spiritual machines. By Kurzweil.
Wiredlife - who are we in the digital age? By Jonscher.

What I found most interesting was Kurzweil's 'Law of accelerating returns' (again, see chapter 2 of my thesis above).  It is an amendment of Moore's Law - simply stated Kurzweil shows by mathematical proof that if the exponential development of compunational power continues to surpass Moore's law we should soon have sentient machines (his prediction was that this would happen by 2029).  At first glance this may seem quite unbelievable, yet consider that we already rely on machines for so many 'higher' functions in our lives.  A simple example is memory - I don't know my mother's telephone number!  It is saved as a contact on my cellphone.  I were to loose my phone I would not be able to phone her.  Then there are other examples such as the reliance on machines to complete complex tasks, such as landing in bad weather or poor visibility. In my research I name other examples of our relationship to machines at subtler levels (such as developing attachments to certain technologies such as emotional attachments to 'virtual pets' - like the Farmville craze).  There are many examples of how we relate to current relatively 'dumb' and limited technologies in complex and subtle ways.


Can you imagine how much more reliant we shall be on these technologies when they can perform ALL tasks more accurately and with greater speed and ease than humans can?


The one philosophical possibility that exists with Kurzweil is the fact that just because something doesn't currently exist, does not mean that it does not have the potential to exist at some point in the future.  So, in my thesis I deal with the counterarguments to strong Artificial Intelligence (i.e., those who say that it is not possible). Have a look at those arguments and counterarguments and let me know what you think!


Kurzweil not only writes about technology and the future, he has also made some significant technological and theoretical contributions towards our understanding of brain modeling (particularly as it relates to consciousness and the move from information to knowledge).


So, if you're still reading after all of the above, you may be interested to follow the links below to an interview with Ray Kurzweil.

Inventor Ray Kurzweil is interviewed by h+ magazine about consciousness, brain modeling, global warming, and the Singularity.

SO: James Lovelock, the ecologist behind the Gaia hypothesis, came out a couple of years ago with a prediction that more than 6 billion people are going to perish by the end of this century, mostly because of climate change. Do you see the GNR technologies coming on line to mitigate that kind of a catastrophe?

RK: Absolutely. Those projections are based on linear thinking, as if nothing's going to happen over the next 50 or 100 years. It's ridiculous. For example, we're applying nanotechnology to solar panels. The cost per watt of solar energy is coming down dramatically. As a result, the amount of solar energy is growing exponentially. It‘s doubling every two years, reliably, for the last 20 years. People ask, "Is there really enough solar energy to meet all of our energy needs?" It's actually 10,000 times more than we need. And yes you lose some with cloud cover and so forth, but we only have to capture one part in 10,000. If you put efficient solar collection panels on a small percentage of the deserts in the world, you would meet 100% of our energy needs. And there‘s also the same kind of progress being made on energy storage to deal with the intermittency of solar. There are only eight doublings to go before solar meets 100% of our energy needs. We're awash in sunlight and these new technologies will enable us to capture that in a clean and renewable fashion. And then, geothermal -- you have the potential for incredible amounts of energy.

Ray Kurzweil: The h+ Interview

This portion of the post is originally linked from BoingBoing.net.

The belief of science and the science of belief

This morning as I was sweating my way on a mountainbike ride through Lourensrod I had a very interesting and thought provoking conversation.  On today's ride we had a doctor, a theoretical mathematician, an engineer and myself.  I know that at least two of us (myself and the doctor) are people of faith - I am not sure about the other two guys.

As we commonly do on such rides we discussed a variety of topics (from the correct rebound on a full suspension bike, to the best cadence for slippery climbs, and of course the more serious stuff like the cricket test!)  Among the topics discussed this morning was the relationship between faith and science.  One of the guys was talking about a particular granite rock formation that seemed out of place in the middle of a whole host of 'Table Mountain limestone' (most of the mountains in our area are limestone).  This huge granite rock outcrop is quite out of place!  It is a single massive rock formation with no other evidence of granite in the surrounding area.

As we discussed the various theories of how the rock formation came to be I jokingly said 'I think the farmer had it delivered overnight by helicopter'.  There was a bit of laughter, and then one of the guys said something along the lines of 'stranger things have happened! But how would we know if it is true?'

This was where we entered into a long conversation on the nature of belief, and the difference between science as a supposedly epistemological discipline and faith as a phenomenological discipline.  I could see that the engineer and mathematician had never considered that science is as dependent on faith as religion is.

Science is based upon assumptions which one then attempts to prove by repeatedly testing the assumptions with which one began.  For example, when we say that something weights 1 kilogram the only way that we can prove it is to verify our claim or assumption by repeated proof.  So for example you may cut a piece of cheese that you believe weighs 1kg, and then cut a piece that is twice the size, then cut the 2kg piece into two piece and see whether the first piece, and the two new pieces all have the same mass (even if their dimensions differ).

If enough people agree with your verified findings your assumption becomes the accepted starting point for future experiments (at least until someone finds fault with your theory, or improves upon it).

Another example is the measurement of time (as discussed in the previous post on this blog).  Time is not an a-priori reality that is part of the ontological fabric of reality.  Rather, our measurement of the space between a sequence of events is our conscious attempt to link elements in a manner that is both sensible and measurable.  Thus, when enough people agree on the measurement of a particular space of time (i.e., 1 minute = 60 seconds) it is the common agreement that gives the measurement worth.  The measurement has no value outside of the agreement (thus the value of the agreement is held by those who 'believe' it to be true or correct).

That kind of sounds like faith to me!  Truth is not always true.  Scientists (and religious persons) have frequently had to adapt their fundamental theories in the light of scientific, historical, or philosophical discoveries.

So, as we struggled our way up another hill (in absolutely perfect riding weather!) we all agreed that science has an element of belief or faith attached to it.  We also agreed that there are certain instances under which the collective belief of a group of persons (based on their repeatable experience) could be grounds for science (as is frequently the case in unexplained physical cures as a result of prayer).

I'd love to hear your thoughts!  You don't even have to follow me up the mountain to share them - just type a comment below, or drop me an email.

A new neuroscience blog, and the concept of time (does time exist?)

A friend of mine, Philip Collier, has just launched a new neuroscience website at http://www.brainsparks.co.za

Phil and I are cycling buddies, but we also share an interest in the brain - Phil graduated with a Masters in research psychology at the University of Port Elizabeth.  He and I often spend our rides up the Helderberg mountain talking about how the mind functions!

Please do check out his new website - it looks set for great things!

I read one of his first posts with great interest.  I would encourage you to have a look at the post here - where are you now.  What struck me as I read it was the question about the nature of time (and how a poor understanding of the nature of time can hamper a person from truly living in the present moment).  I once read a wonderful quote that said, 'we crucify ourselves between two thieves, the regret of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow'.  I'm not sure who said it, so help me with a reference if you know!  However, what I can say is that I have a much more positive view of the concept of the present - 'the now'.  I believe that there is great spiritual value in learning to live in the present moment.

Once you've read Phil's post you may like to consider my response to him (I have copied it below).  This gives some insight into how I view the concept of time.

All that being said, happy new year!  May the next decade be truly blessed for you!

Hi Philip,

Congratulations on the launch of your new site! It looks fantastic.  I look forward to great content and many wonderful interactions in the years to come.

The notion of time has been one that has occupied my mind as well - I have read Tolle's 'The Power of Now' (in fact it is one of the books we use in our conscious leadership programme with the senior management of our company).  I found it a most stimulating and helpful book.  I do think that his intention is much more focussed upon awareness of the moment than on the actual concept of time.

However, your question raises some very interesting thoughts indeed!  The ancient Greek philosophers spoke of two kinds of time, chronos (from which we get our English word 'Chronology' - this is a linear, historical, concept of time).  Then they spoke of kairos, this is the kind of time that has to do with moments of rightness, instead of marking sequential events.  It has often been described as 'pregnant' time: when a child is to be born and gestation is complete, or there is some form of trauma, then kairos comes to the fore, it is the 'right' time, or the 'selected' moment.

The sages of many of the world's mystical religious and spiritual traditions (Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Jewish mystics to name but a few) have long emphasized the incredible value of being 'present to the moment'.

Some years ago when I was doing some research on 'the new science' (particularly the work of David Bohm the quantum physicist) I came to realise just how 'the lived moment' is hardwired into all of the cosmos.  The constant implication and explication of matter in and out of the source of reality (what Bohm called 'active mind') is only perceivable in the moment of realisation.  Of course this concept was discovered much earlier by Einstein, Rosen and Podoslky (also called the EPR or tunneling effect).  You can read about it in one of my books (download a PDF copy here).  See pages 38 forward, but particularly from page 40.

One final note about the philosophy of time, as I have come to understand it, is that time is a construct (like mass or speed).  Time is not an aspect of the ontological nature of reality - rather, it is something that we have created in order to make sense of the sequence of experience and events that we process in our conscious minds.

Consciousness, however, is an ontological necessity!  Becoming conscious of the present moment, and the power of the present moment, is the key to finding blessing and peace in life.  However, history is equally important (since our consciousness of our past and the past of others gives us a sense of perspective on the present, and hopefully it makes us wise enough to act with intention and courage).  Moreover, a conscious aspiration is also a helpful thing (however, not to the extent that it draws us out of the present moment so that we miss the joy and opportunity of 'the now').

Well, those are a few of my thoughts.

Regards,

Dion

Almost at the top of the Helderberg! The view is the reward for a serious climb!

This is one of my favorite places - I love getting to this point in the ride (normally at around 12km of solid climbing). The view is spectacular. I often ride with friends on a Tuesday and Thursday morning at 5am (before work). When we get to this point we say a brief prayer over our city, for our families and for one another.

It is a blessing and a joy to have good friends, good views, and good health!

Smoke from Thesen Island, fire at Knysna Lagoon / Brenton (I think)!

A Christmas reflection - God chooses unlikely persons and unexpected places...

That God should choose to live among humans is a remarkable thing!  However, that God should choose to come into the world through a young, unmarried, pregnant girl, and to be announced to poor shepherds in a minor town in Judea is a reminder that God wants to do remarkable things in ordinary persons, and in unexpected places!  


If you're interested in a longer Audio reflection of the ideas in this video you can listen to the following recording of my next Radio Pulpit broadcast (download the 6MB MP3 file here).  If you enjoy the program please do visit the Radio Pulpit website and vote for the show.  I'd appreciate it!


The original posting from which this comes is here:

Our God is intentional - there is not a single detail in all of creation that is not filled with purpose, meaning, and God's loving intention.

I must admit that I have become so accustomed to the Christmas story, and to the characters of this narrative, that I no longer notice the subtler details. When I think of the characters of Christmas I often tend to wander towards what they have become, rather than the truth of who they were. What they have become for me are those cute kids who play Mary, Joseph, the Angels, the Shepherds, the wise men, and of course the 'Baby born' doll (or light bulb) that plays Baby Jesus in the school nativity play!

Yet, I think that sometimes we forget that the very reason why there is a record of the lives of particular people is because God desires to communicate something particular and important to us. God encounters people with a purpose. These characters are no different. Today we shall encounter some very interesting characters - the shepherds that we read about Luke 2:8-20, and we shall see what lessons we can learn about them, about ourselves, and about the God who deliberately wishes to encounter us this Christmas.

I want to encourage you to put the 'school play nativity' scenes out of your mind for the next few minutes. I want to encourage you to ask God to speak to you about the REAL shepherds that were encountered in that field outside of Bethlehem that night. Ask God to speak to you about your REAL life as God speaks to you about their real lives!

I am weary of all the cliched messages in Advent that try to get people to stop shopping and get them out of the malls and into Church... I have wasted many hours preaching sermons like those... We cannot stop people from doing these things with a 30 minute sermon on a Sunday. Rather, we should be encouraging people to find Christ, and the miracle of the Christ of Christmas, in their everyday lives. The Lord has really been telling me that we need something more substantial than the conflict between the economy of Christmas and the Gospel. Thankfully this week's scripture reading has a wealth of meaty stuff to consider!

This message will look at the principles of God's Kingdom that come to the fore in the encounter with the shepherds at Bethlehem. Some social history of the time tells us that these shepherds would have been poor, possibly among the poorest in their community. They were certainly unskilled, and were often people who had a criminal record or were outcasts in society (hence the choice to work at night). Bethlehem, as we know, was not the centre of the Universe! In fact it was a bit like the 'Piet Retief' of it's day... far from everywhere, no great political, economic and social prestige.... Yet, the Christ goes there to be born, and God sends angels to a field outside of this little town to announce the miracle of his birth! So this encounter is about people who don't really matter, from a place that doesn't truly count. Yet somehow they make it into the most popular book in history, and they get a focus one Sunday a year for the past thousand and some years! There must be something significant here.

In this message we shall see what lessons we can learn from these people and their role in the Christmas narrative.

Then for those who would like a text version of the thoughts please download this MS Word file (prepared in 2007)


May you and yours be blessed this Christmas by God unexpected, and inexplicable, presence!  Dion, Megan, Courtney and Liam

The absurdity of hypothetical geometry and Alice in Wonderland

Some of the most creative works of fiction come from some of the most analytical minds!  I guess that in some sense we all need something that is the antithesis of our regular lives to help us find some measure of balance (or equilibrium at least).  See 'Flatland - a romance of many dimensions' by Edwin Abbott Abbott as one of the most engrossing and creative examples of the translation of an epistemic discipline to a phenomenological one.

Another classic example is 'Alice in wonderland' (originally titled 'Alice's adventures in wonderland' by Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carol).  It is a fascinating tale of the multiverse, calling into question the laws of physics and the principles of metaphysics.  Of course the Matrix trilogy of films were strongly influenced by Dodgson's masterful tale of wonder!

I suppose the Hegelian synthesis is one of the best explanations for this kind of dynamic tension - we all have a thesis, we reach for an antithesis and find harmony in a synthesis of the two.  Dodgson was a mathematician in his 'ordinary' life, and then in his other life (as Lewis Carol) he told fairytales!  Alice in wonderland is a synthesis of these two interests.

I came across the following very interesting insight into 'Alice in wonderland' on boing boing.  I was not aware that some of the best known characters in the story were added in later redactions.  It is quite fascinating!

What is your antithesis?  What is there that you do in order to bring balance (or equilibrium) to your life?  I find the balance between science and theology to be quite a healthy one in my life!

The original story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is missing what have become some of the book's most iconic characters and scenes: the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter's tea party, the Knave of Hearts' trial, and several other great moments. Why did Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) add them later? According to Alice scholar Melanie Bayley, Dodgson, a mathematician by day, created the scenes to make fun of edgy math ideas floating around at the time. From New Scientist:

Outgunned in the specialist press, Dodgson took his mathematics to his fiction. Using a technique familiar from Euclid's proofs, reductio ad absurdum, he picked apart the "semi-logic" of the new abstract mathematics, mocking its weakness by taking these premises to their logical conclusions, with mad results. The outcome is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Take the chapter "Advice from a caterpillar", for example. By this point, Alice has fallen down a rabbit hole and eaten a cake that has shrunk her to a height of just 3 inches. Enter the Caterpillar, smoking a hookah pipe, who shows Alice a mushroom that can restore her to her proper size. The snag, of course, is that one side of the mushroom stretches her neck, while another shrinks her torso. She must eat exactly the right balance to regain her proper size and proportions.

While some have argued that this scene, with its hookah and "magic mushroom", is about drugs, I believe it's actually about what Dodgson saw as the absurdity of symbolic algebra, which severed the link between algebra, arithmetic and his beloved geometry...

The madness of Wonderland, I believe, reflects Dodgson's views on the dangers of this new symbolic algebra. Alice has moved from a rational world to a land where even numbers behave erratically.

"Alice's adventures in algebra: Wonderland solved" 

MIT to revisit Artificial Intelligence research

This story from boingboing.

MIT has launched a new $5 million, 5-year project to build intelligent machines. To do it, the scientists are revisiting the fifty year history of the Artificial Intelligence field, including the shortfalls that led to the stigmas surrounding it, to find the threads that are still worth exploring. The star-studded roster of researchers includes AI pioneer Marvin Minsky, synthetic neurobiologist Ed Boyden, Neil "Things That Think" Gershenfeld, and David Dalrymple, who started grad school at MIT when he was just 14-years-old. Minsky is even proposing a new Turing test for machine intelligence: can the computer read, understand, and explain a children's book.


Fore more details please follow this link. And, for some posts that I've written about Artificial Intelligence, neuroscience, and consciousness please follow the links listed on the next page.