Posts by kochiekoch

Quote from Pacatus

With that said, I find the order here interesting: one might normally think that “for life itself”, being the most basic, would be the first one to consider in an ascending order (viz. Don ‘s reference in his notes to Maslow’s hierarchy). But the first one brought to mind by Epicurus is eudaimonia; then a body free from disturbance; and only then “life itself.”

I suspect this is not accidental, Epicurus being a careful writer. Thoughts?

Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?

Menoikeis is INVERTING Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs. Rather than saying that the physiological needs are first, Menoikeis is saying that wisdom, confidence and friends are the most important. Safety and the basic physiological needs will follow as they are easy to obtain in Epicurean thinking once a degree of wisdom is achieved.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs2 - Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia

Quote from Pacatus

“And of the natural ones [i.e., desires], on the one hand, are the necessary ones; on the other, the ones which are only natural; then, of the necessary ones: on the one hand, those necessary for eudaimonia; then, those necessary for the freedom from disturbance for the body; then those necessary for life itself.” Letter to Menoikeus, 127; Don Boozer translation. [http://www.epicureanfriends.com/wcf/filebase/download/97/]

Hi all!

Something interesting I stumbled acrossed researching breathing techniques for stress reduction, focus and relaxation.

Years ago, I became aware of a method called 'square breathing', but it is also known as 'box breathing', and I decided to look into it.

One of the things that makes this method effective is its use of the brains 'pattern recognition' abilities, what we have been calling 'prolepsis' here.

From the article:

>>Often called “square breathing” or “tactical breathing,” box breathing anchors your mind to your breath as a form of intentional cadence breathing. Each side of the “box” represents one motion — inhale, hold, exhale, hold — and each lasts for four seconds. According to Bob Soulliere, an L2 Wim Hoff Method Instructor, the secret to box breathing, and any other kind of cadence breathing, is its repetitive nature.

“Because the brain is a pattern-recognition machine, when you give it a pattern, it pays attention. It says, ‘I’m taking control.’ This immediately calms the central nervous system,” Soulliere says.<<

Enjoy!

Box Breathing: Techniques, Exercises & GIFs | Sleep.com

Quote from Root304

Was totally onboard with this until that last 30 seconds are so... That is one dread that I still have to shake myself of.

Don't blame you!

An interesting take on the human soul from a physicist:

Do humans have souls? | Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder

Something you don't think of. There were people that got out of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The abundance of corpses gives you the impression that everybody was killed, but there is evidence that many, if not most got out fast when the eruption started.

Enjoy!

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Hi there!

A Butlerian Jihad would be pretty violent and involved. It would depend on what kind of menace the thinking machines presented. If it was the case that they would destroy the human race, the future Epicureans included naturally, I see them joining the fight. It's impossible to guess, though, what future people will do. (Just look at recent polling). It would all be in their laps, and how they see their own pleasure-pain calculus.

Quote from Root304

I have adapted well to some text based A.I. tools but using it for images, audio and video, and most robotic applications is still deeply disturbing to me.

You'd be surprised how fast AI grows on you. Chat people on the forum here will vouch that I am a dedicated user of Alexa! Heck, I just used her services to spell "calculus" correctly!

The future has arrived! 🤖 (And departed).

Radio Station's Attempt to Replace Hosts With AI Ends in Absolute Disaster

Quote from Kalosyni

"Nothing comes from nothing" = there are causes for what exists and there are conditions (natural laws) that everything is conditioned and governed by...cows don't pop out of thin air, because they depend on causes and conditions of the material world of matter.

They'd have to be quantum cows to do that! Good point!

Quote from Cassius

I would push back against the idea of "popping in and out of existence"..... Changing from one *form* to another however is certainly plausible, like ice to water. But the word *existence* is probably exactly what "cannot" happen.

LOL!!! Popping in and out of existence is a figure of speech I've read in regard to this phenomenon. You have a point. They borrow the energy of the quantum vacuum and then return it. So, popping in and out of existence isn't exactly true.

Quote from Cassius

How tightly is "Nothing comes from Nothing" tied to "Atomism?"

"Atomism" seems to postulate that the way the universe works with regularity is that there are eternal irreducible particles which when moving through empty space come together to form bodies, and that this process explains and underlies the regularity of all that we see.

Would a "plenum" (no empty space anywhere) work just as well?

If not, why not?

Nope, the plenum would be a black hole. Infinite density and energy. You can't make much out of that.

The atoms, produced out of the energy of the Big Bang, would never be "nothing" as nothing doesn't seem to exist. There is the vacuum of space-time which gives the atoms freedom to move and produce all the swell effects we see.

Quote from Cassius

And in my view we have painful proof of why it's important to take a position

You're preaching to the choir. I think you need science backing up your philosophical positions.

Quote from Cassius

So what position are you guys taking as to whether "empty space" exists?

It's there, it's just filled with virtual particles that pop in and out of existence, borrowing the energy of that empty space. All this in addition to the atoms that fly though them.

What is Quantum Fluctuation?|| scienceshorts||

So even a vacuum isn't exactly nothing.

Ancient drinking water sources left much to be desired. 😝 Not only the sanitation problem, which the alcohol in the wine would address, but the taste problem.

Adding wine to the water would make drinking water more palatable and drinkable.

Why did the ancient Greeks and Romans drink their wine mixed with water?

Quote from Cassius

Does the article state that quantum foam really doesn't have any existence?

Not at all. It's stating that there is actual experimental evidence, the Casimir effect that demonstrates it does.

...But It's Free! 😀

Here's a take on tonight's first Monday theme of "Nothing Can Be Created From Nothing".

Nothing doesn't exist!

"Nothing" doesn't exist. Instead, there's "quantum foam" - Big Think

An updated version of Epicurus' idea of an infinite universe filled with infinite particles undergoing the swerve. All courtesy of quantum physics.

Enjoy! 😀

Quote from Cassius

The question is: To what extent does hearing someone say that they are "feeling no pain" automatically invoke an association that what they mean is that they are "stoned?"

To me, it would be a great extent considering the times I lived in as a young man when I would hear the phrase now and again.

While I'm largely clueless about its connotations today among post baby boomers, a quick AI search tells me it's gained a wider scope. More escape from stresses in general rather than being "stoned". It's a reason that Stoicism has gained such wide interest among the post boomers.

Although stoned works! 🥴

Happy Birthday Kalosyni and Joshua! 🎂🎂

The video mentions that the Vesuvius area was a famous resort area for the Roman elite.

Some time ago, I read an article that, on the NORTH side of Vesuvius, opposite Pompeii and Herculaneum, a villa was found where the Emperor Augustus died in 14 CE. Decades before the eruption that buried Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Enjoy!

Villa Belonging To Emperor Augustus Finally Unearthed Near Pompeii

Great video Joshua!

You know, what always impressed me about the preserved organic stuff in Herculaneum and Pompeii was the sectioned loaves of bread. They almost look like you can lay down a few coins and get your birthday cake shaped section of bread and continue down the street.

Unfortunately, they're all really stale.

Herculaneum loaf - Wikipedia

The form and recipe still exists. Here is a yummy reconstruction:

Happy 20th. See you next time!

Recently, on my UTube feed I got a video on ancient Rome and religion. The gist of which was that religion was inseparatable from the state and society. For example, the treasury in ancient Rome was also the Temple of Saturn. Atheism was almost unthinkable when society and religion were so tightly intertwined.

Of course, ancient Rome isn't ancient Greece, but I thought they might be similar and sure enough they were. Ancient Greek religion was deeply intertwined with Greek society in a similar way as in ancient Rome. It was the glue that held separate city states together with a common Greek identity. As this video shows:

TLG 6K #1

Epicurus was and has widely been criticized for atheism, but he very likely was a theist with a different and realistic as opposed to idealistic view of the gods than was common. He even says so:

Menoeceus 123-124 - Epicurus Wiki