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The Library
Beethoven's Anvil: Music in Mind and Culture
by William Benzon
Description
Why does the brain create music? In this text, cognitive scientist and jazz musician William Benzon finds the key to music's function in the very complexity of musical experience. Music demands that our symbol-processing capacities, motor skills, emotional and communicative skills all work in close co-ordination - not only within our own heads but with the heads (and bodies) of others. Music is at once deeply personal and highly social, highly disciplined and open to emotional nuance and interpretation. It's precisely this co-ordination of different mental functions, Benzon argues, that underlies our deep need to create and participate in music. Music synchronizes the brain and has had a profound, and little-appreciated, influence on the shape of the mind and human cultures
Art and Fear
by David Bayles, Ted Orland
About the Author
Both authors are teachers and working artists. Ted Orland's previous books include Scenes of Wonder & Curiosity and Man & Yosemite.
Book Description
An artist's survival guide, written by and for working artists. The authors explore the way art gets made, the reasons it doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way.
Le Ton beau de Marot
Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language (ISBN 0465086454), published by Basic Books in 1997, is a book by Douglas Hofstadter in which he explores the meaning, strengths, failings, and beauty of translation.The title itself is a pun: "le ton beau" means "the beautiful tone" or "the sweet tone". But the word order is unusual for French; it would be more common to write "le beau ton". A French speaker hearing the title spoken would be more likely to interpret it as "le tombeau de Marot"; where "tombeau" may mean "tomb" (as per the cover picture), but also "a work of art (literature or music) done in memory and homage to a deceased person".
At the surface level, it treats with the difficulties and rewards of translating works (particularly poetry) from one human language to another. At points throughout the book are interspersed diverse translations to English of a short poem in Renaissance French, Clément Marot's "A une Damoyselle malade", which serve as reference points for Hofstadter's ideas on the subject.
However, Hofstadter's reading of the idea of "translation" goes deeper than simply that of translating between languages. Translation between frames of reference -- languages, cultures, modes of expression, or indeed between one person's thoughts and another -- becomes an element in many of the same concepts Hofstadter has addressed in prior works: reference and self-reference, structure and function, artificial intelligence, etc.
A particularly strong theme of this book, which is not present in Hofstadter's earlier works is the loss of his wife Carol (who died in Italy from a brain tumor) and who has also created one of the numerous translations of Marot's poem presented in the book. In this context, the poem dedicated to "a sick lady" gets yet another deeply tragic and personal meaning, even though the translations were started long before her illness was even known.
Metamagical Themas
Metamagical Themas is an eclectic collection of articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books.The subject matter of the articles is loosely woven about themes in philosophy, artificial intelligence and important social issues. This volume is substantial in size and contains extensive notes concerning responses to the articles and other information relevant to their content.
Major themes include self-referentialism in language, art and logic; discussions of philosophical issues important in cognitive science/AI and lengthy discussions of the work of Robert Axelrod on the prisoner's dilemma and the idea of superrationality.
The concept of superrationality and its relevance to the Cold War, environmental issues and such is accompanied by some amusing and rather stimulating notes on experiments conducted by the author at the time.
Many other topics are also mentioned, all in Hofstadter's usual easy, approachable style. Another feature is the inclusion of two dialogues in the style of those appearing in Gödel, Escher, Bach.
Metamagical Themas was also published in French, under the title Ma Themagie (InterEditions, 1988), the translators being Jean-Baptiste Berthelin, Jean-Luc Bonnetain, and Lise Rosenbaum.
The title is an example of wordplay: it is an anagram of Mathematical Games, the title of Martin Gardner's column that Hofstadter's column succeeded in Scientific American.
Unfortunately, the wordplay was lost in the French title, and replaced with a much weaker one, about Math and Magic. The translators had contemplated Le matin des metamagiciens, which would have been a play on Jeux malins des mathematiciens (respectively, The Dawn of Metamagicians, and Clever Tricks of Mathematicians). However, the publisher found it too elaborated, so we are left with the simpler one.
The Emperor's New Mind
The Emperor's New Mind : Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics by RogerPenrose
Flow Experience
Excerpts and info from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"We have all experienced times when, instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces, we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate. On the rare occasions that it happens, we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment that is long cherished and that becomes a landmark in memory for what life should be like. This is what we mean by optimal experience."
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow is an optimal experience characterized by:
- a sense of playfulness
- a feeling of being in control
- concentration and highly focused attention
- mental enjoyment of the activity for its own sake
- a distorted sense of time
- a match between the challenge at hand and one's skills
Info and Quotes from book:
"Contrary to expectation, "flow" usually happens not during relaxing moments of leisure and entertainment, but rather when we are actively involved in a difficult enterprise, in a task that stretches our mental and physical abilities." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"People seem to get more flow from what they do on their jobs than from leisure activities in free time." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
It turns out that watching TV is not at all a flowful activity. People generally report higher levels of stress, depression, and tension after watching TV. It seems that TV's main virtue is that it occupies the mind undemandingly. Flow is hard to achieve without effort. Flow is not "wasting time".
"It is by being fully involved with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Getting control of life is never easy, and sometimes it can be definitely painful." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"Since what we experience is reality, as far as we are concerned, we can transform reality to the extent that we influence what happens in consciousness and thus free ourselves from the threats and blandishments of the outside world." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The Path to Flow
1. Make it a game Look at your task as a game. Establish rules, objectives, challenges to be overcome, and rewards. |
2. Powerful Goal As you play the game, remind yourself frequently of the overriding spiritual, social, or intellectual purpose that drive your efforts. |
3. Focus Release your mind from all distractions, from within or without. Focus your entire attention on the game. |
4. Surrender to the Process Let go. Don't strive or strain to achieve your objective. Just enjoy the process of work. |
5. Ecstasy This is the natural result of the preceding four steps. It will hit you suddenly, by surprise. But there will be no mistaking it. |
6. Peak Productivity Your ecstatic state opens vast reservoirs of resourcefulness, creativity, and energy. Your productivity and quality of work shoot through the roof. |
Introduction to flow from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:
"Twenty-five years before I began to write these lines, I made a discovery that took all the intervening time for me to realize I had made. To call it a "discovery" is perhaps misleading, for people have been aware of it since the dawn of time. Yet the word is appropriate, because even though my finding itself was well known, it had not been described or theoretically explained by the relevant branch of scholarship, which in this case happens to be psychology. So I spent the next quarter-century investigating this elusive phenomenon.
What I "discovered" was that happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy.
Yet we cannot reach happiness by consciously searching for it. "Ask youself whether you are happy," said J. S. Mill, "and you cease to be so." It is by being fully invovled with every detail of our lives, whether good or bad, that we find happiness, not by trying to look for it directly. Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist, summarized it beautifully in the preface to his book Man's Search for Meaning: "Don't aim at success - the more you ai at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue . . . as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself."
So how can we reach this elusive goal that cannot be attained by a direct route? My studies of the past quarter-century have convinced me that there is a way. It is a circuitous path that begins with achieving control over the contents of our consciousness."
Elements that make experiences Enjoyable
1.A challenge requiring skills
2.A chance of completion
3.The opportunity to concentrate, merging action and awareness
4.Clear goals
5.Immediate feedback
6.Deep involvement transcending distractions and the awareness of time
7.A sense of control over actions
8.Absorption of self
9.Expansion of self through experience
Other pages on Flow:
Flow: What's worth living for? - Great URL!
FlowNet - The ultimate flow site
Flow Forum - The best forum on flow on the web
Schizophrenic helped by 'flow' happiness theory
"Thoughts About Education" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Great essay on education and flow
Internet users go with the 'flow' - Interesting article on how flow affects web surfingThe Day the Universe Changed : How Galileo's Telescope Changed The Truth and Other Events in History That Dramatically Altered Our Understanding of the World
by James BurkeThe Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe
by John D. Barrow (Paperback)The Elegant Universe
Brian Greene
Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory A new edition of the New York Times bestseller—now a three-part Nova special: a fascinating and thought-provoking journey through the mysteries of space, time, and matter.
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter Michael Moschen Great Performances "In Motion With Michael Moschen"
The following is the contents of the "Great Performances: In Motion with Michael Moschen" video. I have listed the routines he performs and start and stop times on the tape (minute:second).
Note: If you are interested in getting a copy of this you can purchase it from Dube Juggling. Take a look in their video section.
00:00 - 02:20 | Introduction |
02:20 - 05:20 | 3 ball walk around town |
05:20 - 06:40 | With Isabella, golfing |
06:40 - 09:20 | 3 ball routine outside of museum, then walking into museum |
09:20 - 16:30 | Triangle |
16:30 - 18:10 | Bounce juggling |
5 ball lift bounce up to ledge | |
5 ball force bounce off of ledge | |
4 ball boomerang bounce onto horizontal metal plate | |
18:10 - 21:40 | Talking about research, ring and long rod parctice |
21:40 - 28:00 | Ring and long rod routine |
28:00 - 32:50 | Shapes in the sand |
32:50 - 36:50 | Single ring |
36:50 - 38:35 | Double rings |
38:35 - 42:10 | S hooks |
42:10 - 44:05 | Torch swinging |
44:05 - 50:20 | Crystal balls |
50:20 - 50:45 | More interview |
50:45 - 54:50 | Single crystal ball |
54:50 - 57:40 | End Credits |
Effortless Mastery
"Kenny Werner is an accomplished pianist who began performing at age 4 and, by age 11, had appeared on television.
While at the Manhattan School of Music he became restless with his musical direction and began to explore Jazz as a new means of creativity and expression.
Along his journey, he was inspired by masters of the craft to rethink not only the technical aspects of creativity, but also the spiritual aspects.
Effortless Mastery, is not only an account of that journey, but also an insightful guide for all those wishing to remove their own barriers to creativity in life and the arts."
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist E. O. Wilson. In this slight book, Wilson proposes a method to unite the hard sciences with the humanities, a synthesis he refers to as consilience. ISBN 0679450777 |
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From the Book Jacket:
From Brian Greene, one of the world's leading physicists, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past?
Greene uses these questions to guide us toward modern science's new and deeper understanding of the universe. From Newton's unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein's fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics' entangled arena where vastly distant objects can bridge their spatial separation to instantaneously coordinate their behavior or even undergo teleportation, Greene reveals our world to be very different from what common experience leads us to believe. Focusing on the enigma of time, Greene establishes that nothing in the laws of physics insists that it run in any particular direction and that "time's arrow" is a relic of the universe's condition at the moment of the big bang. And in explaining the big bang itself, Greene shows how recent cutting-edge developments in superstring and M-theory may reconcile the behavior of everything from the smallest particle to the largest black hole. This startling vision culminates in a vibrant eleven-dimensional "multiverse," pulsating with ever-changing textures, where space and time themselves may dissolve into subtler, more fundamental entities.
Sparked by the trademark wit, humor, and brilliant use of analogy that have made The Elegant Universe a modern classic, Brian Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.
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View list of All Products | ||
| Astonish Yourself! 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life. There are so many mundane little details in our daily lives, this book teaches us to look at them in a whole new way. Don't ignore them, don't take them for granted, and don't let them annoy you. Try some of these exercises and gain a whole different perspective. This book will shake up preconceived notions you may have about many things. Playful and profound, entertaining and startling, irreverent and wise, these "experiments" aim to provoke tiny moments of awareness. Here are a few sample exercises to try-- Take the subway without trying to get anywhere. Enter the space of your favorite painting. Follow the movement of ants. Each brief exercise comes with a concise explanation, time limit, instructions and a goal. The author, Roger-Pol Droit, was born in Paris and is a philosopher, a researcher at the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique, and a columnist for the French daily Le Monde. Give some of these ideas a try, you may astonish yourself with the results. Penguin Books/paperback |
A Sideways Look At Time- Griffiths, Jay | ||
Jay Griffiths takes readers on an extraordinary tour of time a we have never seen it before. With this dazzling and defiant work, Griffiths introduces us to dimensions of time that are largely forgotten in our modern lives. She presents an infectious argument for other, more extraordinary times, the diverse cycles of nature, of folktale or carnival, when time is unlimited and on our side. Brilliantly erudite and poetic, A Sideways Look at Time could change the way we view time - forever. | ||
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