[Xmca-l] Re: What is the word

[Huw Lloyd]

The imaginary soroban is different to the poker account (which was merely
compared with divination).  The imaginary soroban has obvious historical
manifestations of how it is learnt.  The divination was merely a comparison
-- I have nothing to add to it.

Best,
Huw

On 12 January 2016 at 06:25, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I didn't quite see your comparison of David Bowie's word cutouts with
> Daniel Tammet. I don't think Bowie himself thought of them as divinations,
> not literally anyway, but a means of creating songs. He was using a method
> shared with him by William Burroughs and Brion Gyson, as indicated here
> (read to the bottom):
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
>
> They do say they *seem* like divinations, but I didn't get the feeling
> they were doing them for the sake of divining.
>
> What you are talking about with Tammet and the Japanese soroban almost
> seems like I Ching to me, but neither do they seem to be divining, they are
> just exploring their abilities.
>
> I Ching however is practiced for divining, for the sake of it.
>
> In any case, the connection that I'd make about all this is that there is
> something tying everything together, which we cannot perceive, and since we
> can't perceive it, we also cannot measure it. And since we can't measure
> it, we usually will say it doesn't exist, tending toward scepticism.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Annalisa
>
> ________________________________________
> From:  behalf of Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 7:02 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: What is the word
>
> Keeping you waiting?  :)
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf3-el-dJAw
>
> Best,
> Huw
>
> On 12 January 2016 at 01:59, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
>
> > Was there a link coming forth?
> >
> >
> > From:  Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
> > Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 6:31 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: What is the word
> >
> > Apropos of Bowie's "western tarot" (or divination), this video is about a
> > savant, Daniel Tammet. The whole documentary is interesting.  However,
> > there is an interesting parallel between unconscious divination activity
> > and the kinds of experience Daniel describes during a poker experiment
> (see
> > the clip between 28:00 to 31:00).  "But something in my head was telling
> me
> > to do that anyway, because of the imagery I was experiencing".
> >
> > Also of immediate acitivity-historical interest in this footage are the
> > Japanese children's use of imaginary abaci (soroban).
> >
> > Best,
> > Huw
> >
> >
>