Reading Club: First Reading

" ... Schrodinger's Cat ... In this famous thought experiment, you imagine poisoning a cat and putting it in a box. You don't know if it has died yet because you can't see it, so in that moment the cat is simultaneously both alive and dead. The act of observing the cat breathing would make it alive, and the act of seeing its sightless eyes frozen in a death mask of agony and panic would make it dead. Jesus.

From an Aboriginal cosmological point of view, the uncertainty principle is resolved when you admit you are part of the field and accept your subjectivity. If you want to know what's in the box so bad, drink the poison yourself and climb in ... I begin to see the uncertainty principle not as a law but as an expression of frustration about the impossibility of achieving godlike scientific objectivity."

Tyson Yunkaporta - Sand Talk

fwiw this is a very common misreading of the "Schrodinger's Cat" thought experiment ... https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/10/how-most-people-got-schrodingers-cat-thought-experiment-wrong/

we could talk about this ... if we had a reading club ;)

""It is difficult to relinquish the illusions of power and delusions of exceptionalism that come with privilege. But it is strangely liberating to realise your true status as a single node in a cooperative network .... You won't be swallowed up by a hive mind or lose your individuality - you will retain your autonomy while simultaneously being profoundly interdependent and connected."

Tyson Yunkaporta - Sand Talk

"Sustainability agents have a few simple operating guidelines, or network protocols, or rules if you like - connect, diversify, interact, adapt.

Diversity is not about tolerating differences or treating others equally and without prejudice. The diversification principle compels you to maintain your individual difference, particularly from other agents who are similar to you. This prevents you from clustering into narcissistic flash mobs. You must also seek out and interact with a wide variety of agents who are completely dissimilar to you. Finally, you must interact with other systems beyond your own, keeping your system open and therefore sustainable.

Connectedness balances the excesses of individualism in the diversity principle. The first step in connectedness is forming pairs like kinship pairs) with multiple other agents who also pair with others. The next step is creating and expanding networks of these connections. The final step is making sure these networks are interacting with the networks of other agents, both within your systems and in others.

Interaction is the principle that provides the energy and spirit of communication to power the system. This principle facilitates the flow of living knowledge ... transferring knowledge (and energy and resources) ... with as many other agents as possible ...

Adaptation is the most important protocol of an agent in a sustainable system. You must allow yourself to be transformed through your interactions with other agents and the knowledge that passes through you from them. This knowledge and energy will flow through the entire system in feedback loops and you must be prepared to change so that those feedback loops are not blocked ...

... In Aboriginal languages there are many more [pronouns], including pronouns that are translate as: I, I-myself, we two, we but not others, we altogether. Repeating the plural ones twice can mean "It's up to us", but repeating "I" twice can mean "I go my own way!" There is a balance between self-definition and group identity. These two are not contradictory but entwined, and there are names for all of the roles you occupy as an agent of complexity in Aboriginal society. You perform these roles alone, in pairs in exclusive groups and in networked groups ...

In Aboriginal English there is a very useful term to help us draw lines in the sand between these roles, asserting both boundaries and connections. The word is "lookout" ... which is not a warning but refers to a person's appropriate sphere of influence and accountability. If a person is being push and expecting you to get involved with their frantic business in an effort to control you, you might say, "That's not my lookout" ....

You have to keep moving ... if you are following the four protocols ... little systems of vibrant complexity will spring up around you ... These will attract other agents, but they will also attract narcissists in droves. You need to insulate yourself against these entropic elements, but also have a responsibility to help them."

Tyson Yunkaporta - Sand Talk