Friday, April 30, 2021

African grass owl: Harvard Philosophy 55th Annual Whitehead Lectures: Amie L. Thomasson (Dartmouth College) * * * Am glad and surprised that the head of MIT Libraries' Chris Bourg (he or she????) - https://twitter.com/mchris4duke - retweeted my MIT OpenMic Tweet regarding the 3 poems I read yesterday evening from some of 5 of the recent books that the Academic Press at WUaS has published since 2016 * * "EdX-WUaS Impasse?" * * Thoughts about connecting further with edX CEO Anant, MIT President Rafael (Reif), MIT VP of Open Learning, Sanjay Sarma and former Stanford President for 16 years' and Alphabet Chairman John Hennessey? I think it would be great if we could explore somehow turning the 'ship' of edX in a California and World Univ & Sch 'big ship' heading.


Prof. Amie L. Thomasson (Dartmouth college) ... 

Whitehead Lectures: Amie L. Thomasson (Dartmouth College)

Date: 

Thursday, April 29, 2021, 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Zoom Webinar

Webinar banner

 

55th Annual Whitehead Lectures: Amie L. Thomasson (Dartmouth College)

April 29th & 30th, 3pm - 5pm EDT

Please join the Harvard University Department of Philosophy as we present the 55th Annual Whitehead Lectures. Our guest lecturer this year is Prof. Amie L. Thomasson (Dartmouth College).

Both lectures are from 3pm - 5pm EDT.

April 29th:
Lecture 1: "Misdirections in Metaphysics"

April 30th:
Lecture 2: "Redirecting Metaphysics"


https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/event/whitehead-lectures-amie-thomasson-dartmouth-tba-0

https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/calendar/upcoming/department-events/whitehead-lectures


*

I asked the last questions in the Q&A on Friday, April 30, 2021 - to Amie Thomasson:


Here are my questions, which I’ll ask in voice, if there’s time, and for preliminary reflections: 


Thanks so much for your excellent Harvard philosophy talks, Amie! You've mentioned the terms 'world,' and 'language' and 'conceptual engineering' a number of times, regarding redirecting metaphysics. In an out of the box way, - and in seeking to examine multi-functional language - if we were to operationalize or engineer your talk in a single realistic virtual earth for everything (think Google Street View with time slider, Maps, Earth, TensorFlow AI, Translate - with Text-in-the-Sidebar, and at the cellular and atomic levels, and conversational artificial humans aka Samsung Neons), and even with a #film-to-3D App, which could be used to bring philosophers talks into 3D for subsequent conversational interactivity with the said philosopher in avatar bot form, how would modals, for example, work? In what ways could we far-preachingly explore "Redirecting Metaphysics" in the ways you argue? In what ways could the new connections or links between the text in the sidebar and the world serve to help further create a single realistic virtual earth for philosophy and metaphysics (epistemology and ethics too)? This would potentially engage the ideational, interpersonal, and textual approaches you heralded as well. 


I'm not a professional philosopher and you may not be familiar with these potential virtual world digital directions for philosophy, so I hope this will be an open-ended freeing question you freely 'riff' with. Thank you.


Thank you so much. All the best, 


Scott MacLeod (sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org)



* * * 

Dear Larry, Ed, Jim, David Ross, Walter, Donn, All,


Am glad and surprised that the head of MIT Libraries' Chris Bourg (he or she????) - https://twitter.com/mchris4duke - retweeted my MIT OpenMic Tweet regarding the 3 poems I read yesterday evening from some of 5 of the recent books that the Academic Press at WUaS has published since 2016. This could also bode very well for the WUaS planning major online universities' libraries for 7,139 known living languages - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Library_Resources re Languages - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Languages - AND in a #RealisticVirtualEarthForLibraries - https://twitter.com/hashtag/RealisticVirtualEarthForLibraries?src=hashtag_click (where one could scroll back to the Library of Congress building in a single realistic virtual earth, to 1810, for example, and pick a copy of the Declaration of Independence off of its historic virtual shelf, and read it there in PDF form:) ... 

Here's the Tweet the MIT Libraries' head retweeted (or perhaps it was the MIT Libraries' convener, Steph Kohler) - 

'Thanks to @mitlibraries for this #MITOpenMic: Glad to have just read a few poems from 5 books, in a new poetry press @WUaSPress @WorldUnivAndSch.
'Scott MacLeod, MIT Open Mic poems, Th., April 29, 2021' https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/pagosa-hot-springs-southern-colorado.html ~ http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.htm ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~'



https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/1387924667751567364?s=20
https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod/status/1387925070442500100?s=20

Am currently seeking to add pictures of the covers of all 5 books to this blog entry too - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/pagosa-hot-springs-southern-colorado.html - which also has the poems I read / planned to read (including one about consciousness, philosophically - with a Harvard Medical School / MIT Professor Genetics' George Church in it).

Thoughts about connecting further with edX CEO Anant, MIT President Rafael (Reif), MIT VP of Open Learning, Sanjay Sarma and former Stanford President for 16 years' and Alphabet Chairman John Hennessey? I think it would be great if we could explore somehow turning the 'ship' of edX in a California and World Univ & Sch 'big ship' heading. What do you think? 


Sincerely, 
Scott





On Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 4:35 AM Scott MacLeod <sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org> wrote:
Dear Larry, Ed, Jim, David Ross, Walter, Donn, All,

No further word back yet regarding my "EdX-WUaS Impasse?" Email - from Anant Agarwal, or WUaS's edX representative Matthew, regarding his writing that edX is standing by, after reaching out to edX CEO Anant, MIT President Rafael (Reif), MIT VP of Open Learning, Sanjay Sarma and former Stanford President for 16 years' and Alphabet Chairman John Hennessey. 

Following up with EdX before 5/10/21, and also, brainstorming-wise, exploring WUaS engaging graduate students in Quaker circles, for ex., to teach to CC-4 MIT OpenCourseWare such as newly Cara Curtis (a Haverford and Harvard Alumna), studying for her PhD at Emory Univ, who's enjoying teaching, and perhaps her spouse too, (an Anthropology PhD student), beginning 9/1/21 (albeit not STEM subjects for our 4 current prospective PhD students) ... And re Stanford EPIC CONFERENCE on 5/22 ... seem to have potential.

David Ross, as a Bryn Mawr College Research Professor Emeritus, Donn Weinholtz, Walter Sullivan, can you see ways to engage the Friends Association for Higher Education (FAHE)? Would there be a way to find now graduate students of Quaker faculty who could teach ONLINE to MIT OCW Cognitive Science (for Prasanth in India), Electrical Engineering (Chinmay in India), Statistics (Aviv in Indonesia) and Computer Science (for Imad in Morocco)?

Scott 



* * *


MacLeod cover for "Winding Road Rainbow: Harbin, Wandering & the Poetry of Loving Bliss" (2018)
In the poetry and academic press at @WorldUnivAndSch ~ @WUaSPress ~
http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~ @HarbinBook~ #RealisticVirtualHarbin ~ 


Circling around to - 

Pagosa hot springs (southern Colorado): Scott MacLeod, MIT Open Mic poems, Th., April 29, 2021 * Thanks to MIT Libraries, MIT Open Mic, MIT Reads, and to ... MIT Reads celebrates National Poetry Month | MIT Libraries * * Many of my poems have an Actual–Virtual Harbin Hot Springs’ focus. Harbin is a hot springs’ retreat center in northern California, and my actual-virtual ethnographic field site for a long term unfolding ethnographic project

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/pagosa-hot-springs-southern-colorado.html - with these photos - 


names of book covers for all 5 of my books: 


MacLeod Light Float Sit Watsu Virtually book cover Photo Front Jan 2021

MacLeod To the Dance or the Pools Virtually book cover Front 2019

MacLeod Winding Road Rainbow book cover Front 2018

MacLeod Haikuish Other Loving Hippy Harbin poetry book cover Front 1st ed 2017

MacLeod Naked Harbin Ethnography book cover Front 2016


see: https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/pagosa-hot-springs-southern-colorado.html ~  


 









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_grass_owl

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tyto_capensis

...


 

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Pagosa hot springs (southern Colorado): Scott MacLeod, MIT Open Mic poems, Th., April 29, 2021 * Thanks to MIT Libraries, MIT Open Mic, MIT Reads, and to ... MIT Reads celebrates National Poetry Month | MIT Libraries * * Many of my poems have an Actual–Virtual Harbin Hot Springs’ focus. Harbin is a hot springs’ retreat center in northern California, and my actual-virtual ethnographic field site for a long term unfolding ethnographic project


Scott MacLeod, 

MIT Open Mic poems, 

Th., April 29, 2021 


Thanks to @mitlibraries for this #MITOpenMic: Glad to have just read a few poems from 5 books, in a new poetry press @WUaSPress @WorldUnivAndSch.

'Scott MacLeod, MIT Open Mic poems, Th., April 29, 2021' https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/pagosa-hot-springs-southern-colorado.html ~ http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.htm ~ http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~

https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/1387924667751567364?s=20

https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod/status/1387925070442500100?s=20



*

Thanks to MIT Libraries, MIT Open Mic, MIT Reads, and to ...

MIT Reads celebrates National Poetry Month | MIT Libraries

https://libraries.mit.edu/news/reads-celebrates/31990/


*

Celebrate #NationalPoetryMonth with us on April 29 by joining us at our second annual open mic!

MIT Reads welcomes you to share original or favorite poetry, spoken word, or short prose pieces.

All are welcome. http://ow.ly/ePdu50Epsg4 #MITReads

https://twitter.com/mitlibraries/status/1385324409804623872?s=20



* *  

Many of my poems have an Actual–Virtual Harbin Hot Springs’ focus. Harbin is a hot springs’ retreat center in northern California (beginning in its current form around 1972), and is my actual-virtual ethnographic field site for a long term unfolding ethnographic project which I’m developing. Many of my poems were written at or on the road to Harbin, and some of my poems also focus on traveling as well as the Rainbow Gathering itself, (a hippy gathering, which began in 1973 in Boulder Colorado, and is still happening). A kind of hippy voice comes out in my poetry – and hence my tie dye coronavirus mask. Some poems touch on an exploration of consciousness, and even ways in which we might visit and realize Harbin virtually – in a realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs, and from our home bath tubs too, for a meditative aspect paralleling soaking in the Harbin warm pool. My poetry also explores eliciting the neurophysiology of loving bliss.


I'm going to read a few poems from my 5 books in a new poetry and academic press at World Univ & Sch.


http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

http://amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity ~



*

I read the first 3 poems here, in the 5 minutes we had, having prepared about 8 of them ... 


* * 

book ~ 


Light, Float, Sit, Watsu ~ Virtually?: 

Bodymind Electricity Sings to Me at Harbin Hot Springs & Other Traveling Poems 

(2021)






(Watsu is water shiatsu, a form of therapeutic healing dance, originating in the Harbin warm pool; d’eau is French for water).



*

poem ~ 


Light, Float, Sit


Light

lights

Harbin

harmony 

in one, waters warm, 

immense, immersion, milieu d’eau.



Float

flies 

in warm

watery 

ease-me-in present, 

a gift of flight in fluid d’eau, 

where freedom finds releasing in among hug nude friends. 



Sit,  

roots

around,

touch all cells, 

water pool food

intimate naked yes exchange, 

of mind body suit seamlessly freeing we who connect under stars, skies, Harbin-wise. 



Swimming iguana: Light, Float, Sit

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/09/swimming-iguana-email-to-cynefin-and.html




* * 

book ~ 


To the Dance or the Pools? ~ Virtually! How different it is to soak at Harbin Hot Springs, than to realize it in virtual Reality 

(2019) 


MacLeod To the Dance or the Pools Virtually book cover Front 2019




*

poem ~ 


Under Stars


Under splendid stars,

the smells of oaks

and northern

California tilth,

coming over

the hill from

Napa Valley

to Middletown,

suffuse all air with

earthy fragrance,

welcoming me

back to Harbin land, ~

into the waters soon.



Under Stars

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/01/under-stars.html 



*

poem ~


Firefly: I came upon a feast of lights spread speckle 'cross hill and vale / 78


I came upon a feast of lights

spread speckle 'cross hill and vale,

and reveled

in their evening softnesses.

And from Harbin's redwood,

sleeping deck, below,

I saw Gazebo's

octagonal lights,

on Mainside, -

a tasty, illuminated pie, -

ready to spin-off

in a wee-wee :)

psychedelic-whirligig,

through starry cosmos,

but, instead,

centers this

Harbin-light,

beauty gaze,

in winter,

at night,

from here.


I walked in on that dark,

empty, village path, at night.

No one was around ...

It would have been easy

to stumble upon

some jutting rock,

but I didn't,

and so came to this

way-place

of glimmering,

night-light beauty, -

this redwood deck,

which, so full in the day

with resting,

naked bodyminds,

in solace-ease

from stresses of modernities,

gives forth these

welcoming visions

of la lumière.


Heading now

into the pool area,

I bring this light

show with, and in,

my bodymind,

to venture deeper

into mysteries

of aliveness, -

naked, warm and free -

in Harbin's watery warmth.


Where are you now,

my love,

with whom this all to share,

and rock out in with,

all together?


And, oh, what beautiful orchards

of ripe, fruit, human living! ...


Pools now,

in warm-oneness-ease ...


Heading on in now ....


What delight this night,

in this very warm pool!

Why this particular,

bodymind joy,

this eve?

Nothing special ... don't know ...

Was it because I talked,

and connected,

with a smart, receptive friend,

in words, about loving bliss,

on the phone coming up?

We thought out loud about

this bliss-love:

Ecstasy is MDMA,

methylene di oxy meth amphetamine, -

theoretically,

a love-everything-in-the-world-intensely,

for 5-8 hours,

biochemical, bodymind,

reference experience

for 75% of we ingesters, -

for affective euphoria, -

and one,

of so, so many,

replicable qualities of bliss,

for we who are biological beings, -

symbolizing, human primates,

shaped by evolution

by natural selection.


And we talked further about

Scottish Country Dancing,

which we've done together,

quite long ago,

with bliss,

via its ebullient

series of tones,

its music, movement,

and sociable interactiveness.

It's a related, also replicable -

like technology, - example.


Was it, too, the Ginseng tea,

earlier today, of which

I hadn't drunk in a while?


Still, the weather of my bodymind

hasn't yet found its

cello bow strokes

of loving bliss agency,

of this music-making,

here and now,

when desired.


And as I write,

and while in concert hall,

of this Harbin warm pool, -

my bodymind, yes,

is conducive to such bliss,

yet, I haven't caused

these joys.


What can cause bodymind,

loving bliss, whenever, but,

especially, here now?


I do, though,

like this weather,

here tonight,

in winter,

at Harbin.




Firefly: I came upon a feast of lights spread speckle 'cross hill and vale

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/03/firefly-i-came-upon-feast-of-lights.html



* * * 

Poems I had gathered together for this, but didn't read 


poem ~

Amboseli: How different it is to soak at Harbin, than to realize it virtually


How different it is


to soak at Harbin,


than to realize it


virtually,


or in bodymind,


by reading,


thinking,


or viewing


multimedia,


interactively.




Writing in Maine,


over a Christmas visit, -



with long walks on beaches,


and family friends,


and red brick Portland,


and the Wadsworth-Longfellow house,


which invited me


in,


to Longfellow's poetry,


'Often I think of the beautiful town


That is seated by the sea ... '


virtually, -



I hearken


to Harbin's waters,


and warmth,


and wholeness


of being there,


from afar, ...



but, while traveling,


I'm not present,


in that place,


in those


warm


waters,


in that milieu.



As I return


west coast-wise,


I draw closer,


but Harbin's


presence,


and oneness,


are in that


fluid,


geothermal


emergence


from the earth,


in that valley,


remote from the metropole, ~


and yet still far.



A virtual Harbin


is emerging, -


like Harbin's waters, -


to generate warmth,


in multimedia,


from your bathtub,


from home,


developing with the internet, ...


but emerging organically,


as process,


in writing an


actual / virtual Harbin ethnography.



Waters of wholeness, ...


an inner immersion,


in bodymind fluids,


with relaxation response, -


and at times deeply -


is happening, all the time,


yet unparalleled,


and still awaiting,


the concert


of the Harbin pool.



Amboseli: How different it is to soak at Harbin, than to realize it virtually

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/12/amboseli-how-different-it-is-to-soak-at.html?m=0

Saturday, December 31, 2011



*  

poem (and book, so this is the title poem of book) ~

To the Dance or the Pools? ~ Virtually! How different it is to soak at Harbin Hot Springs, than to realize it in virtual reality 


Drive them back to the wine-dark taste of home,

The smell of damsons simmering in a pot,

Jam ladled thick and steaming down the sunlight. 

- Seamus Heaney



To the dance, then the pools,

first at actual Harbin, over years,

dancing free, dancing be,

dancing bee, buzzing, its own honey ~

this movement-freedom grows

with warmth and energy 

in concert with the music.


Connecting with dancing begins,

connecting with dancing beings,

singing inside with freedom in rhythm,

I delight in this liberation, ~

but depends on the music too ~ 

Blues, Grateful Dead, jamming, Rock &amp; Roll, 

make it happen for me, actually.


Heat comes, the music closes at evening's end, 

and people head to the pools,

to cool down, 

to complement the body-movement jam,

with serene soaking under starlight

- and the warm waters - ease.

These Harbin warm pool waters,

this elixir of encompassing body suits ~

one's whole being received by

this geo-thermally warmed liquid, ~

we like.



Virtually?


Dancing at home - wearing the Glasses -

I'm there, and so are you,

in the Harbin Conference Center, 

and people be jamming,

this be-music is hop-happening,

virtually. 


I start to move here at home,

Glasses revealing new openings

through which to glide,

and around my body goes,

dancing at home, dancing my home.


How Different it is to dance at home in virtual Harbin, ~

and cool - a realization.



... "Question:

whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 

And by opposing end them?"

(https://poets.org/poem/hamlet-act-iii-scene-i-be-or-not-be)



Or, to head to Harbin actually or virtually, 

different it is,

to seek and find freedom,

by traveling from the SF bay,

the way, the Napa Valley 

wine way to Harbin,

or to find one's way 

there, Virtually there, 

'as if' and by multimedia,

with gorgeous visuals 

on a screen, currently

what a scream!



Yet beyond this traveling difference -

a big difference - this venturing out

in bodymind, locomotively, to move through, 

to see, to interact with, the world,


The Soaking in warm pool 

actually, in waters there,

while being in Harbin all around,

communicating silently, communing that is,  

with fellow naked soakers, is wondrous.


The Soaking in one's bathtub,

virtually, from home, Glasses on, 

digital screens behind the glass, 

newfangled things,

while surround-seeing in Harbin ~

Brainwave headset too to come

for communication, 

Tan Le's* or

Brainfingers* (only works when able to relax) or

EEG* brainwave 'dreadlocks' ~

still wondrous

yet you don't hang out actually ~

by mingling silently in warm pool ~

or visiting quietly naked 



Sunning on the Sun Deck.

Immersive both, in different ways, 

the warm waters help

meditation deepen ~

release inwardly deeply ~

a relaxation response in both,

and all is one in the here and now,

consciousness changes.


Yet there's more space too 

in the actual Harbin's warm pool 

than in this bathtub.



How best to understand consciousness, 

and this consciousness,

this Harbin consciousness,

this Harbin Heart Consciousness

of HCC - Heart Consciousness Church?


Subjective-Objective accounts,

1st person-3rd person scientific narratives ~

in the warm waters, with the Glasses,

re visually observing,

and beginning to examine neural processing ~ 

as sentience, 

awareness, 

perception and 

feeling 

in the brain the mind, the BodyMind?



So is this, the Body-Mind problem,

moot in the warm pool,

and consciousness all one?

Yet, poetry-wise, we be studying

how brains give rise to mind,

re neural processing,

with brainwave headsets ~

thinking about it.

So then, can minds be bodies, and

is sentience brain-meat or bodyminds?

Virtually!


And how is bodymind

consciousness - importantly - virtual,

or in what ways can we make this more so - to learn?


Further, are these neurophysiological e-states

in these hypothetical virtual brains,

conscious - digitally?



And how far does sentience extend 

down the phylogenetic tree?

Won't study this here now at Harbin, 

yet Tononi's integrated information theory - IIT - holds promise 

- 'that consciousness is identical to a certain kind of information' - 

and measurable as Phi, the symbol for integrated information.

How could we code this in virtual brains,

yours and mine,

film-to-3D app at the street level, cell and atomic levels,

where the 'digital' corresponds 1-1

to the brain cells and neurons and processing,

and the 'virtual' - as if with multimedia,

to the mind, - somehow conscious.

Thus we might distinguish between the

Actual-Virtual, and the Physical-Digital. 

And how could brainwave headset devices best turn their 

information gathering inwardly 

in these regards - and from the Harbin warm pool?



Phi! ~ actual, physical, that is ~

how can we simulate this? 

To virtual Phi? 

And further to digital Phi?



Qualia, infinite qualities, 

('the internal and subjective component of sense perceptions, 

arising from stimulation of the senses by phenomena' too),

perceived by many, 

in myriad ways, in many bodyminds? 

At actual Harbin in the warm pool, 

with brain wave headsets monitoring the brain, 

might one be able to study these anew?


At home with Glasses,

and brainwave headsets,

people could talk more readily, 

adding a language element 

to the 'subjective,' 

their 1st person accounts, - and 

in studying the brain technologically, 

actually-virtually &amp; physically-digitally, 

where the 'as-if' virtual experience 

created by multimedia and 

perceived in the brain could be 

digitally developed 

in virtual brains ~ 

in a realistic virtual earth for STEM

and brain science, 

and of species, and individuals,

like you and me, 

soaking, soaking, soaking 

in the warm pool at Harbin, 

in the bath tub at home

in real virtual Harbin,  

... and yet conscious:

"To the Dance or the Pools? ~ Virtually!

How different it is to soak at Harbin Hot Springs,

than to realize it in virtual reality"!



And loving bliss neurophysiology,

uniquely Harbin warm pool generated

as it bubbles up, While soaking, 

how to model thee ~

and to learn from, like a musical score?


So how to measure this with headsets,

distinguishing even between,

objectively, 

the relaxation response,

the relaxation response 

in the Harbin warm pool,

and brain chemistry 

of neural cascades of pleasure,


and then also, Subjectively, I say,

in words?



And with machine learning, further,

on the objective, 3rd person 

scientific accounts' side,

could we add cameras to cells, 

wee antennae, or cameras, to atoms, 

articulate DNA with awareness,

(and have George Church,* Ed Boyden* and

Karl Deisseroth* already done this?),

as well as send opto-genetic signals 

in from the headsets, 

by further examining consciousness, 

via the virtual and the real thinking, 

thanks to David Chalmers* 

while

in the warm pool,

or In the bath tub ~

at Harbin soaking?


And subjectively, when we're blissing,

after releasing into meditation, 

after eliciting the relaxation response ~ 

self reported, ~

use language to talk about this?

I know it consciously when I'm blissing

in the Harbin warm pool, 

when bliss is simply bubbling up.

So can we measure such,

like your conscious bliss for sure, 

and bring this together with what we say about this ~

with our awareness, consciousness that is, 

in an account of infinite qualities, as information?


Long way to go to measure

integrated information Phi in the brain,

to code it in virtual brains,

to hypothesize this further,

and then objectively and 3rd person-wise 

observe this scientifically (&amp; consciously) 

in the brain,

but maybe nakedness, 

Actually, and

Virtually,

and examining desire,

further, too, will open ways ...


So first the dance, then the pools

this time, and,

How Different it is to Soak at Harbin, than to Realize it in Virtual Reality.



Understanding consciousness

and realizing bliss further,

connectedness, 

in complement with scientific sentience,

thanks to Harbin. 


To the Dance or the Pools? ~

Virtually!

How different it is to soak at

Harbin Hot Springs,

than to realize it in virtual reality.





Chameleon vision: Poem ~ "To the Dance or the Pools? ~ Virtually! How different it is to soak at Harbin Hot Springs, than to realize it in virtual reality"

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/11/chameleon-vision-poem-to-dance-or-pools.html



* *  

book ~


Winding Road Rainbow: Harbin, Wandering & the Poetry of Loving Bliss 

(2018)


MacLeod Winding Road Rainbow book cover Front 2018




(where Rainbow here refers much to the Rainbow Gathering, that hippy gathering which began in 1973 in Boulder Colorado)



*

poem ~



In The Night I Traveled North To Harbin 


In the night,

I traveled north

to Harbin,

to Harbin.


Crescent moon,

starry night,

I traveled along

a new way,

from Canyon,

to Harbin.


Redwood tunnels,

now misty night,

the road opens,

from Canyon,

to Harbin.


Come now,

in-world,

and explore

the place

which is Harbin,

oh, Harbin.


It's freeing here ~

such beauty, too ~

in the waters,

at Harbin,

oh, Harbin.


Take off your clothes,

and enter the water

in the warm pool, ~

feel the warmth

in the heart pool,

at Harbin,

oh, Harbin.


Be with these folks ~

these hippies,

these brothers

and sisters,

these children

of hippies,

these flower~loving beings ~

who cuddle,

naked,

and snuggle,

in the water,

at Harbin, ~

be, at Harbin.


Into the hot pool,

now slow,

so slow ~

for, from

the whale's mouth

flow waters hot

at Harbin,

from Harbin.


The woman's bust,

that sculpture

above the whale's

water spout,

sprouting forth

beautiful,

fresh flowers

from her head,

inspires, ~

earth's fires,

~ the water

is hot!


Too hot, too hot, ~

to the cold pool,

to plunge,

amidst forest

and flowers

all around,

in the water, ~

to tingle,

oh, mingle.


MMmmm ...


Now back to

the warm pool,

to your love,

to cuddle,

with your love,

and snuggle,

at Harbin,

yes, Harbin.


What emerges

from our

bodyminds

is bliss ~

oh, bliss ~

bringing us

close, together,

oh, gather

together.


Welcome, bliss,

as you come,

when you come, ~

that neurophysiology ~

this lovely

neurophysiology,

in our bodies,

oh, our bodies.


To the tent now,

to our tent,

to live love,

to touch ease, ~

to make love,

together, ~

to our tent, now,

at Harbin,

be, at Harbin.


To our tent, love, ~

To love ...




In The Night I Traveled North To Harbin

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2008/12/in-night-i-drove-north-to-harbin.html




* * 

book ~


Haiku~ish: And Other, Loving, Hippy, Harbin Poetry 

(2017)


MacLeod Haikuish Other Loving Hippy Harbin poetry book cover Front 1st ed 2017




*

poem ~ 

Whale: Harbin Poem Haiku-ish


A Harbin poem


Light in the whale room

Hot water! – cool – go deep inside

Up to the cold pool.



Whale: Harbin Poem Haiku-ish

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2008/08/whale-harbin-poem-haiku-ish.html




* * 

book ~


Naked Harbin Ethnography:

Hippies, Warm Pools, Counterculture, Clothing-Optionality and Virtual Harbin

(2016)


MacLeod Naked Harbin Ethnography book cover Front 2016

  



*

poem (and the beginning of chapter 9, too) ~ 

(from the poem "Bodymind electricity sings to me, o thee, who are pair)


Chapter 9 

HARBIN AS A VIRTUAL, ACTUAL WORLD

 

Harbin virtuality in the pools and the erotic - This Harbin, alternative culture in virtual Harbin – Simulation – Fiction and design – Many Harbin residents in-world – Toward an anthropology of actual and virtual Harbin in the Information Age.

 

 

In the warm pool,

 

This vision vessel,

 

Nudity frees,

 

And they cuddle~puddle,

 

Dance Watsu Contact Improv,

 

Breasts, bottoms,

 

Bodymind shapes,

 

Skin and curves,

 

Beautiful people,

 

One man and three women

 

With nice bosoms,

 

Happy, naturally, nature-ally,

 

Erotically, and serene,

 

Otter-like, -

 

Haven't seen this in a while, -

 

Play,

 

And I sit,

 

Relaxation-'sponse-wise, ~

 

And, aware, find a kind of

 

Unfolding freeing oneness.

 

O, warm waters,

 

And beauties of Harbin.

 

 

 

The mind, the bodymind, as 3-D

 

Holographic, imaging machine, ...

 

How to turn it on, welcome it, electricity-alive,

 

With a cello bow stroke,

 

With loving bliss,

 

In all these myriad qualities? …

 



Bodymind electricity sings to me, o thee, who are pair

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2012/04/bodymind-electricity-sings-to-me-o-thee.html

 




-- 

- Scott GK MacLeod  

Founder, President, CEO & Professor

World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516 

1) non-profit World University and School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org  

2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html


(o) 415 480 4577 - sgkmacleod@worlduniversiryandschool.org 

(m) 412 478 0116 - sgkmacleod@gmail.com 


World Univ & Sch Innovation Research -  scottmacleod.com 




*


World Univ and Sch Twitter - http://twitter.com/WorldUnivandSch

WUaS Press - https://twitter.com/WUaSPress


Scott MacLeod - https://twitter.com/scottmacleod

Languages - World Univ - http://twitter.com/sgkmacleod



“Naked Harbin Ethnography” book (in Academic Press at WUaS) - http://twitter.com/HarbinBook

OpenBand (Berkeley) - https://twitter.com/TheOpenBand




*










https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagosa_hot_springs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagosa_Springs,_Colorado


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hot_springs_of_Colorado


...



Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Ķemeri National Park (Latvia): Stanford talk - Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš of the Republic of Latvia * What role could furthering a single worldwide cryptocurrency (in most of ~200 countries: think the Euro in 19 out of 28 EU countries) - and think ‘Stanford Mine Pi Coin’ with BLOCKCHAIN ledger - play in giving Latvia a new leadership role in the EU? * "Ram cichlid: Electric church music ... Blockchain ledger and one specific book title "Naked Harbin Ethnography" . . . " * * * 'Quaker Academics: Walking in the Light on Campus and Beyond' - https://quakerfahe.com/2021/04/02/qlhe-quaker-academics/ - Question for Cara Curtis from your FAHE Quaker Academics' presentation * FAHE Quaker Academics' talk about flourishing, motherhood, Quaker social ethics, and ethnographic approaches makes me wonder whether one could use photos as evidence or textual resources for identifying flourishing. :)


Stanford talk - Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš of the Republic of Latvia


Dear Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, (Ambassador McFaul, Sonia Lee), 


Greetings, and thank you for your fascinating webinar just now - https://library.stanford.edu/events/prime-minister-krisjanis-karins-republic-latvia (and 

Here are the questions I asked in your Latvia-Stanford video conference: 

Thank you for your excellent talk, Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš. What role could furthering a single worldwide cryptocurrency (in most of  ~200 countries: think the Euro in 19 out of 28 EU countries) - and think ‘Stanford Mine Pi Coin’ with BLOCKCHAIN ledger - play in giving Latvia a new leadership role in the EU, & with regards especially to Russia and China, and further for new approaches to 1 climate change 2 technological development and regulation 3 rules based international trade (but also in many ways regarding 4 international security 5 values)? 

All the best, Scott MacLeod 
(sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org - am developing CC-4 MIT OCW-centric wiki World Univ & Sch seeks to facilitate a single cryptocurrency for all 7.8 billion people combined with free wiki universal education - https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2021/04/41721-minutes-for-wuas-open-monthly.html (see the UBI - Universal Basic Income - label here too as a way to distribute a single cryptocurrency to many of all 7.8 billion people on planet, brainstorming-wise) - which Latvia & the EU could benefit from in multiple ways). Thank you.

Science in Latvia? What role might STEM education play in energy independence in Latvia? 

Latvia World University and School will emerge from here - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Nation_States - in the Latvian language, and as a major online CC-4 MIT OCW-centric online university offering free-to-students' MIT OCW-centric Bachelor, PhD, Law, MD and IB high school (or sim) degrees, and newly as WUaS partners with edX (founded by MIT and Harvard). And if you know anyone in the wider Latvian community, who speaks English, and is interested in an online free PhD or 4-year Bachelor degree beginning 9/1/21 at MIT OCW-centric World University and School, please let me know. 

Thank you, 
Scott
PS
If you might be interested, please see the 'Bay Area Stammtisch" Google Meet link here for this Saturday, May 1, 2020 at 10:30 am Pacific Time, in German and English - 


- Scott GK MacLeod - Founder, President, CEO & Professor

- World University and School

- 415 480 4577



World Univ and Sch Twitter - http://twitter.com/WorldUnivandSch
WUaS Press - https://twitter.com/WUaSPress

Scott MacLeod - https://twitter.com/scottmacleod
Languages - World Univ - http://twitter.com/sgkmacleod

“Naked Harbin Ethnography” book (in Academic Press at WUaS) - http://twitter.com/HarbinBook
OpenBand (Berkeley) - https://twitter.com/TheOpenBand).



Notes

values - 

freedom, democracy and the rule of law

5 'values' 

1 climate change 
2 technological development and regulation 
3 rules based international trade 
(4 international security,  
5 values)


energy independence



-- 
- Scott GK MacLeod  
Founder, President, CEO & Professor
World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516 
1) non-profit World University and School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org  
2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

(m) 412 478 0116 - sgkmacleod@gmail.com 

World Univ & Sch Innovation Research -  scottmacleod.com 

- CC World University and School - like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization. 



* * 

What is blockchain ledger? I like this Vermont house sale ex: https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/957308334154985472 where the ledger itself could be sold to museums or insurance cos. See too https://twitter.com/valaafshar/status/967559165555167234?lang=en & https://twitter.com/valaafshar/status/920468448446173184 ~

#BlockchainForArt #WUaSBlockchainForArt > https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Banking_and_Money ~

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1046479576069681152?s=20


What is blockchain?

https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/957308334154985472


*

#Blockchain is changing the way we do business

https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/920468448446173184?s=20


*

Blockchain explained

https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/967559165555167234?s=20


* * 

See, too:

Ram cichlid: Electric church music ... Blockchain ledger and one specific book title "Naked Harbin Ethnography" - explored further, How blockchain ledger works, A) Vermont house ex. video, B) 1,2,3 things blockchain ledger does, C) When block chains start to work for a particular automobile's resales, and then with replacement parts inside over time, it begins to get complex, D) Blockchain with robotics' systems ex. video re MIT conference, E) And I'd bet that TRUST through coding can be maintained even with - "MIT Technology Review - Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked" - Thinking through both blockchain, as well as some implications for the WUaS bookstore and WUaS hospitals * * * Also re a realistic virtual earth and WUaS online hospitals, to digitize both of Stanford's hospitals, some of Kaiser's Hospitals, Brown University's Butler psychiatric hospital, - for Electronic Health Records with real time video into the future for tele-robotic brain surgery at the atomic level before and after, with a single cryptocurrency in all ~200 countries' with blockchain ledger for hospital technologies, Medical School's publications etc. * * * Blockchain ledger is potentially revolutionary (and possibly as revolutionary as the Internet itself I've heard) * * * Thanks, Peter Norvig for getting back to me ... Have you ever visited Harbin Hot Springs ~ http://tinyurl.com/p62rpcg ~ https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ~ http://bit.ly/HarbinBook ~ ?

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2019/03/ram-cichlid-electric-church-music.html



* * *  

'Quaker Academics: Walking in the Light on Campus and Beyond' - 

Question for Cara from your Friends' Association for Higher Education (FAHE) Quaker Academics' presentation



Dear Cara, (and David),

Greetings from the SF Bay Area, and thank you. (Do you happen to know perhaps Caleb Alexander MD in Baltimore Yearly Meeting? - Our families met for a Xmas meal over about 2+ decades in Pittsburgh, PA,  and it's through the Alexanders partly that I became involved with Quakers). Thanks, David, also for moderating this timely and topical Friendly FAHE Quaker Academics' conversation. 

And do you happen to know, too, MIT Professor of Anthropology, Heather Paxson, who is a Friend, I think, and a Haverford alumna too?


From the text chat: 

Thanks for your wonderful Light-filled Friendly thinking, Cara (and thanks too Sa'ed).

Cara, am curious how or if - in your ethnographic research methodologies regarding flourishing motherhood in the Emory, GA, prison or affluent church, for your PhD - the questions you're asking are developing online or digitally in new ways? What kinds of new opportunities for Quaker scholarship, if any, have online ethnographic research modalities made possible for you? And how are you also exploring 'walking in the Light' in emerging ONLINE campuses (if such opportunities have emerged over the past coronavirus pandemic year) and even regarding if online virtual places are emerging in your studies? What is authentic online flourishing motherhood in your research or thinking?



Friendly regards, Scott 


PS
World Univ & Sch's Monthly Business Meeting (MBM) is conducted loosely in the manner of Quakers, and here are the 4/17/21 WUaS MBM Minutes just completed today - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/hyacinth-macaw.html

PPS

My Actual-Virtual Harbin Hot Springs' ethnography also had a slight Friends' Quaker focus, since I identified as a Friendly ethnographer in part, while doing field work, for example, and kept in communication, and connected with Quakers in Lake County (one of whom had been participating for many years in the oldest group at Harbin - an AA group), northern California, too, while 'in the field.;


Thank you, Cara, and David!



--


-- 
- Scott GK MacLeod  
Founder, President, CEO & Professor
World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516 
1) non-profit World University and School - http://worlduniversityandschool.org  
2) for profit general stock company WUaS Corporation in CA - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

(m) 412 478 0116 - sgkmacleod@gmail.com 

World Univ & Sch Innovation Research -  scottmacleod.com 

- CC World University and School - like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization. 



*

Hi Scott,

Thanks so much for coming last night, and for your question. In terms of the people you mentioned: I don't think I know the Alexanders, at least not by name...always possible I would recognize a face. :) And I don't know Heather Paxson personally, but my spouse, who is an anthropology PhD student, knows her--she works on topics similar to him, and they have connected through that. Various small worlds interconnecting!

In terms of your question about how things have pivoted online: it's a very good one, and I'm afraid I don't have the best answers! As far as my research goes, I was fortunate to have finished most of my research in-person before the pandemic started (though some on the non-prison side did get cut off--I didn't feel it made sense to keep connecting with new folks online at the start of the pandemic as everything was in chaos...though I did do a couple of follow-up interviews over Zoom). And as for the prison, they have virtually no internet access at all, so we have been largely cut off from them, which has been hard. I also work for the theological studies program in a teaching/directing capacity, and we have been able to send in photocopied packets of readings/letters, but that's about it. In a year when many of us relied heavily on online formats for connection, incarcerated folks (at least in states like Georgia) have been largely left behind. In addition to their dramatically increased risk for the virus--it's very frustrating.

But thinking about your question more broadly, I think I see lots of places where online worlds are helping us live better lives right now--if not quite "flourish," perhaps. I know online mothers groups have been extremely important for many folks. And while I was an online teaching skeptic before the pandemic, I will say that I have come to see how it can work well at least in some instances for building community. I'm teaching right now in Candler's Doctor of Ministry program, which is always online, as folks are working pastors and chaplains located in churches/communities throughout the US. The online format allows them to come together and build community, as well as stay rooted in their own context.

Anyway,  I hope this is helpful food for thought, at least! Thanks again for your question and engagement last night. I hope your work is going as well as possible in our continuing strange times!

All best,

Cara



*

Hi Cara, (David, Research Professor at Bryn Mawr! - I've been thinking you are an Emeritus Professor, but didn't realize you are still active!),

Thanks so much for your prompt email reply, Cara. My Actual-Virtual Harbin Ethnographic book comes into conversation with 'Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human' (Princeton UP 2008) by Tom Boellstorff, also with Stanford PhD like Heather Paxson. Has your spouse engaged these resources or a digital focus anthropologically or in his PhD studies? (I don't have a spouse yet:). While my Actual-Virtual Harbin Ethnographic book is bit out of the box, since it seeks to actually create a realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs for comparative ethnographic study ... http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html - and here's a beginning in the Harbin Hot Springs' Gate in Google Street View with time slider, where you can walk down the road a spell toward Middletown CA, as a possible emerging ethnographic and STEM field site and classrooms too, or campus even ~ http://tinyurl.com/p62rpcg (~ https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ~ http://bit.ly/HarbinBook ~) - it also engages fully the anthropological academic literature regarding emerging virtual worlds. You and your spouse might find interesting this emerging possible research group - http://www.scottmacleod.com/research-group.html - in a related vein. (Harbin is also a church - Heart Consciousness Church, since 1975 - albeit unaffiliated with other churches, and whatever church means). 

Online over the past year seems like it could be taken as an opening to study the Web ethnographically perchance flourishing in new ways, - in Friendly flourishing too. I also have a specific #ActualVirtual comparative focus - https://twitter.com/hashtag/ActualVirtual?src=hashtag_click. I've also given some thought to the idea of flourishing here in the flourishing label - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/flourishing?m=0 - and here in my 'eudaimonia' web page -

(Regarding eudaimonia, as flourishing, see - 

Eudaimonia (personal flourishing)
is 'Flow' and Bliss


Dear Friends,

While bliss may be experienced by evoking or exploring good spiritedness, I'm curious about the following.

 

How to experience eudaimonia, flow, and bliss naturally?

FLOW

What is 'flow' ~ the psychology of optimal experience?



http://scottmacleod.com/EudaimoniaFlow.htm - with an explicit focus on Friends esp.). 

and here again too, in this blog label - 
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/crested-partridge.html?m=0 - (and Friends-wise further, here, too, esp. - http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm - which I began writing - might need editing:) - in Scotland around 2003:).

It seems like the ongoing creation of a myriad virtual worlds is a remarkable aspect of a kind of flourishing, I'm thinking and writing about.


(The image on your Twitter feed is a bit macabre - 

Qu'est-ce c'est?)

But your FAHE Quaker Academics' talk about flourishing, motherhood, Quaker social ethics, and ethnographic approaches makes me wonder whether one could use photos as evidence or textual resources for identifying flourishing. :) How do you examine academically the idea of flourishing, Cara? For example, the picture in your Twitter profile I could read ethnographically as exhibiting flourishing. What do you think? Helpful 'evidence' - another approach to reading 'flourishing' even, and ethnographically, if you chose to interpret photos with similar flourishing as such, and contextualize this perhaps in terms of what gave rise to such flourishing? I'd be interested in learning further your thoughts to many of these questions. 

Did you happen to study 'social ethics' or similar at the Harvard Divinity School with any of these philosophers - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/crested-partridge.html (where you'll also find some of my non-theistic Friendly thinking, and in a related blog label).

You both have what could be quite Scottish last names re it can be a small world indeed regarding connectedness and identity (I became a member of the RSOF in Edinburgh, Scotland, Quaker Meeting:).

Friendly regards, 
Scott


PS 
Caleb Alexander's father, George L Alexander MD, may have had some Scots' background as well - and was also a brilliant Yale & McGill trained Lacanian psychoanalytic psychiatrist, and a bit of a philosopher & linguist too. (I mention him in my blog, since I learned much from his thinking, as family friend - in the Jacques Lacan MD label, for one). Not a Friend, I think he may have met his wife who lives at Kendall Crosslands in Quaker circles in Cambridge or New Haven, for example. David, do you know any of the Alexanders, by any chance? :)

PPS 
And you'll see I mention Heather Paxson's work on open source publishing at the bottom of the 4/17/21 WUaS Monthly Business Meeting Minutes from yesterday: 
https://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2021/04/41721-minutes-for-wuas-open-monthly.html

https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2021/04/hyacinth-macaw.html

 


World Univ and Sch Twitter - http://twitter.com/WorldUnivandSch
WUaS Press - https://twitter.com/WUaSPress

Scott MacLeod - https://twitter.com/scottmacleod
Languages - World Univ - http://twitter.com/sgkmacleod


“Naked Harbin Ethnography” book (in Academic Press at WUaS) - http://twitter.com/HarbinBook
OpenBand (Berkeley) - https://twitter.com/TheOpenBand).




*

















https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ķemeri_National_Park

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ķemeri_National_Park

https://www.tripadvisor.co.za/Attraction_Review-g274964-d1638101-Reviews-Kemeri_National_Park-Jurmala_Riga_Region.html

...