jorge.cortell.net

Wednesday May 2nd, I had the pleasure to meet Fernando Sabater at Instituto Cervantes, NY.

The conversation was lighthearted and included many anecdotes and trvia, but also a good dose of Philosophy and Psychology wisdom and aphorisms (like those by Andrés Newman). Here are some delicious quotes by him:

• Don’t attack, don’t comply
• Childhood is always bad: wether because it was bad and left you a trauma, or because it was good and it frustrates you to leave it behind
• Happyness is also hard to bear
• Skepticism grows, and that’s why when I am about to make a statement (particularly if it is a grand one) I end up laughing. That’s why although I was going to become a great philoshoper, I ended up a simple professor
• The difficulty of leaving the pack
• I don’t have arguments to support good things… just try them!
• One phylosophizes in order not to stop asking questions
• Do not be shy on contradictions

And others quoted by him:

We live dramatically in a non-dramatic world

Santayana

Tell me the lie you consider more worthy of being true

Mon Faust (Paul Valéry)

If the young knew and the old could!

Old French proverb

Patent portas

Wrongly attributed by him to Epictetus (it is actually by Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Things are changing so much, I don’t even know if I’m on our side anymore

Anonymous quote after the Spanish Civil War

The difference between a civilized and a barbaric man is that the civilized man is willing to die for that in which he does not completely believes in

Isaiah Berlin

I know Paris “with Poe, in a dream”

Lovecraft (… but Poe had never been to Paris either!)

I propose to add to the Fundamental Bill of Rights: a right to contradict oneself, and a right to leave

Baudelaire

So, at the end of his talk, and since he had translated some of E. M. Cioran’s work and knew him personally, I asked him one question about the Romanian philosopher that has haunted me for decades: given his line of thought, why didn’t Cioran kill himself?

Sabater explained to me that he himself tried to be more of a nihilist and negativist in his early twenties, but Cioran told him: you do not look like a nihilist, with that body. And answering my question, Sabater told me how Cioran knew he could always kill himself, so he always left it for another day.

First read this post.

Then watch this South Park episode.

Now, if you are not going to cook something, get out of the kitchen (and at least start selling )

After posting graphs and cold data (quite ilustrative, I believe), and the discussion it has generated (people, why don’t you use the “comment” instead all the other unstructured methods you are using?), please let me write a caveat about graphs and cold data.

In my high-tech gym, you have the option to have a lot of data collected, for your own, private and personal use. It seems like a great idea at first. For example, I can access via a secure web site real time stats of my workouts, such as the “fitness balance” (which shows my emphasis in weight lifting, and then swimming -some data greyed out for privacy purposes-):

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Not that fast.

The following graph (Workout Log) allows me to see how many times I have worked out. Since I tend to go to the gym everyday (but it is not always possible), an average of 4 times per week sounds reasonable, but what is that max. 8 times per week number? Why is there such a dip in mid February?

Data often needs to be contextualized, otherwise we might end up with the wrong conclussion (those 8 workouts per week happened to be visits to the gym to do a personal assesment and training routine design, added to my regular workouts; and the dip… just a long trip!).

But even worse things can happen:

In this case, an obviously strange abherration is showing in the graph. Somehting to be concerned about? Not at all: the scale of the axis make a slight variation (less than 1%, less than a pound) seem like a huge shift. And variables such as measurement thresholds, electronic glitches, etc must be taken into account when considering the validity and presentation of that data.

Let’s just keep in mind: however great quantification and visualization tools are (and I do like them a lot, and believe they can be very beneficial to the way we make decissions and understand the world and ourselves) they must be used with care. After all, this following map might show all the places I have traveled to… but it can not tell you about the experiences lived there…

Since I could not get a hold of tickts for New Museum’s Seven on Seven, I decided to make the most out of my day yesterday (defying my cold), so I even had time to visit the NYC anarchist book fair, at Judson Church (Washington Square).

I wish I had had more time to devote to exploring all the literature (great and aweful) on display. But at least I had time to notice:

• How little people attending knew about anarchy (imagine those outside)
• How deliciously ironic that it took place in what used to be a church
• How much anarchy is related to art (indeed, as a matter of fact, one of the books I purchased was NAASN‘s “Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies 2.2011″)

While I am preparing a loooooong post about technology and privacy (with a provocative twist, for a change ), I have decided to play with face.com‘s face recognition technology.

What do you think? On target (hint: no, not on target, I am not THAT old, and definitely I AM a male)? Scary (hint: only if we are unaware of these technologies and their uses)?…

While generalizations are usually absurd and damaging (asking “What is it like to be in a relationship with someone who has Asperger’s?” is almost as ridiculous a generalization as asking “What is it like to be in a relationship with a blonde?”) it is true that in general, working with an autistic person may be hard, living with one could be unbearable, and being one is…

Some, let’s seek relief and help in knowledge.

From the genetic research field come some exciting news:

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in language and social behavior. While the brains of people with autism appear broadly normal, previous brain-imaging studies have revealed unusual growth patterns in very young children with the disorder. “It’s clear that in the first two years of life, the brain grows too large, too fast”.

Scientists don’t yet understand the reason for the strange growth spurt–whether it’s caused by too many neurons in a particular part of the brain or a failure to prune extraneous neurons, a common occurrence in normal development. They hope that an unusual set of tools developed for the Allen Brain Atlas, a database of gene expression in the mouse brain, could finally yield clues.

The researchers will focus on the prefrontal cortex, an area in the frontal lobes involved in higher-order social and emotional communication, and one of the brain regions most affected by abnormal early overgrowth. The DNA probes will allow researchers to compare the location and organization of specific cell types, such as excitatory neurons that connect to brain areas outside of the cortex and inhibitory neurons that form local cortical circuits.

“It’s fundamentally important to identify the cause of that overgrowth”. “It may help us understand how best to tailor interventions for autism, not just behaviorally, but for medical and chemical interventions down the road.”

In related news:

A specific structural variation on chromosome 16 dramatically boosts the risk of autism, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The finding–one of the most significant to date–permits the development of new diagnostic tests to identify children at risk, and could ultimately point to specific biochemical pathways to target in drug development.

Great: potential findings in DNA research may lead to fast and inexpensive tests, and also to future medication. So what do we do in the meantime?

In yet another study:

By imaging the brains of adolescents with a high-functioning form of autism as they played a social-interaction game, scientists have identified a physiological deficit specific to the disorder. The researchers believe that the change is linked to a diminished sense of self. The findings, recently published in the journal Neuron, could help guide future research into the nature of autism and potentially lead to new ways to diagnose and treat the disorder.

If you have ever had the pleasure to interact with an autist in any deep and meaningful way, the diminished sense of self (“tell me, define me, show me, explain, demonstrate…”) is something quite obvious. But now there is a neuro-anatomical abnormality to account for that. Great.

In the meantime, experiments like this one may help those of us who seem to have our social compass somehow distorted.

On Saturday morning, as I was walking towards the gym on Park Avenue, I saw waves of young adults (although acting like teenagers or frat boys) wearing green (some just a t-shirt or sweater, some a full leprechaun costume) on a procession towards their favorite Irish watering hole to “celebrate” St. Patricks Day in the only way that they seem to believe to be appropriate, besides a 5th Ave. official parade: drink until you pass out.

This oversimplification is getting out of hand.

Simplistically but efficiently explained in Zeitgeist the movie (watch here), agricultural-astronomical events were usurped by religious (mostly Christian, as I will explain later why) holy-days, which in turn are being usurped by consumer days, and in order to do so, icons and symbols have been used.

Christmas is believed by many people to be a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. But Jesus (if at all) would have been born in spring, not winter. Christians decided to take a pagan agricultural celebration, and turn it into “their” celebration. Modern versions of this include such non-sense as the German Christmas tree tradition, Santa Claus, etc. All this symbolized by the colors green (the tree), red and mainly white (snow). The same can be explained for Valentine’s day (appropriating the color red and heart symbol thanks to the greeting card industry), the Astarte fertility celebration and Spring Equinox turned Easter (multicolored and chocolate coated by the food industry), or the harvest pagan festivity and All Saints turned into Halloween (a funky mix of orange, pumpkins and horror).

Why and how did that happen? As Kira explains:

When Christianity sought to stamp out Paganism because it threatened its sovereignty, they took on a lot of their customs in order to make Pagans feel more comfortable converting. The issue was never spirituality, it was power. They wanted as many converts as possible. Constantine saw the benefit of making Christianity the national religion because he saw how their numbers were ever increasing. He saw if he didn’t convert, and didn’t make Christianity acceptable to his people, there would be riots. Riots mean soldiers, and soldiers cost money. Not to mention the amount he would lose in the lives of his people, which meant decrease in tribute and taxes. 

Constantine followed the line many conquerors and kings have taken before him: the Greeks, Macedonians, etc. He saw the importance of holy days and festivals for Paganism, and knew that would lock in new believers to this new national religion. To this day Christians celebrate Pagan holidays, though they choose only to see their religious importance. These holidays have been around for so long, no one wants to change anything, and to do so would even be considered inappropriate, even though it would also be accurate.

But when we take that into the next level (consumerism), we end up with an absurd line of source-result, and even worst: oversimplification.

So, Spring Equinox becomes Astarte, which becomes Easter, which becomes colored chocolate eggs.

As at the end of the day I look at the young men and (mostly, due to their usually lower endurance of alcohol) women on the side walk, wasted, throwing up, or worse, in bed with a stranger, I wonder how easy it is to be manipulated by power and money (which usually go hand in hand) short-sighted interests, by the simple formula: natural significant event turned into religious holiday, turned into consumer holiday, turned into expected (even if irrationally damaging) grupal behavior.

I say:

embrace ancient wisdom if you wish, but fuck ignorant tradition.

When you go around jumping like you are on the moon, and then you trip and fall, you are going to smash your face against the floor with full Earth gravity.

Amalia Pica's Venn Diagrams, photo seen in capitalnewyork.com, by New Museum

One of the multiple interesting pieces currently being exhibited at the New Museum’s The Ungovernables is Amalia Pica’s Venn Diagrams. The text under this piece says:

During the period of dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s, gatherings of citizens were closely monitored as they were considered a threat to the government. At the same time group theory and venn diagrams were banned from primary school programs as they could provide a model for subversive thought.

Brutal and ignorant as any other dictatorship (or even more if you wish), I knew Argentinian Military Junta was capable of something as absurd as this and more (like banning Sigmund Freud’s doctrine and exterminating psychoanalysts… in Argentina of all places!), but since it seemed so shocking, I went on and researched a little.

Here is a detailed account of what happened: Who is afraid of a vector? By Mauricio Schoijet.

When discussing Art as Political Discussion (even more than when discussing Art), there is never enough context.

The net was all up in arms this week. After the marvelous uprising against SOPA and PIPA, the new battle ground was Twitter’s announcement of country specific censorship. Never mind that they are open about it (unlike Facebook), never mind that they are talking about their offices and employees in those countries where censorship is the law… if you hear “censorship” and “net” get up and scream! Wired has a nice piece about it.

This is what I call “automatic reaction”. Instead of learning the facts and engaging in a productive and constructive discussion, specific concepts (keywords, memes, hashtags, whatever) automatically invoke passionate reaction (for or against). Examples abound:

On a poster in the subway I read the following: “…T-Mobile and the magenta color are registered trademarks of T-Mobile USA…”. Automatic reaction invokes: “How can that be?!, How can they dare to say they can trademark a color?!!!” But fact-based reflexion would answer: a trademark consist of several elements (mark, logo, etc), including color. It only applies to specific products or industries, and only to the extent of not confusing the consumer. And while this has been used to censor free-speech before, it is unlikely T-Mobile people will start imposing color-restrictions any time soon (unless you are a telecoms company who wants to used magenta as your primary identification).

Or how about Google’s “goodtoknow” ad campaign (ad show here seen again in the subway, where most life seems to happen in NY, in the winter at least) to which Epic very adequately replies with “GoodToReallyKnow“?. Sure misleading advertising, and half-truths are a danger, but let’s start a conversation, not a flame war.

Campaigns, actions, and reactions, seem to foster polarity. Stop the cycle, avoid the trap. Get to the facts, learn, educate others, and engage in a conversation, or discussion (like Cory with the entertainment execs), not a battle or accusations cross-fire.