reading – Harmonia Philosophica

Reading. Breathing.

Reading is something very complex. Moving from what letters look like to what they sound like is a complex multi-sensory task that requires cooperation among brain areas specialized for visual and auditory processing.

Researchers call this collection of specialized brain regions that map letters to sounds (or phonemes) the reading network. The extent to which these sensory-specific parts of the brain are able to connect as a network, not necessarily anatomically, but functionally, during a child’s development predicts their reading proficiency, according to a new neuroimaging study from the University at Buffalo.

This developmental shift integrates previously segregated parts of the brain, suggesting that changes in reading skill are associated with the nature and degree of these changes to the neural pathways within the reading network. Essentially “[…] the brain rewires itself so that it goes from having one area working on visual matters and another working on auditory matters to the two areas working together as a cohesive unit,” says Chris McNorgan, an assistant professor of psychology at UB and co-author of the research published in a special edition of Frontiers in Psychology focusing on audio-visual processing in reading. (1)

In the beginning there was One.

And there was no need to talk.

No need to read or understand.

Because we just experienced it.

Being part of it. Knowing it.

Then we broke the mirror in a thousand pieces.

And we now need to put them back together.

But we don’t understand is that the tool we are using to do that is the same tool which created the pieces in the first place. Stop trying to make things right we must. Stop thinking. Stop trying to understand. And just let things be. It sounds so easy an option. So seemingly self-satisfying. And yet we are afraid of it. Because we see our own self in those pieces. And we know that once we put them all together we will be gone.

People won’t read about us in books.

No one will speak about us anymore.

But we will be in the heart of the cosmos.

Spreading in the morning wind.

Through the songs of the mocking birds…

Building memories…

You are more likely to remember something if you read it out loud, a study from the University of Waterloo has found.

A recent Waterloo study found that speaking text aloud helps to get words into long-term memory. Dubbed the “production effect,” the study determined that it is the dual action of speaking and hearing oneself that has the most beneficial impact on memory.

“This study confirms that learning and memory benefit from active involvement,” said Colin M. MacLeod, a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo, who co-authored the study with the lead author, post-doctoral fellow Noah Forrin. “When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable”. (1)

But it’s not because you are more involved that you remember something better.

It is that you actually make it more real by getting more involved.

There is nothing to remember.

You shape reality every time you think about it.

But the memory stays inherently the same.

Changing costumes, putting on makeup, but…

It is still the same…

A dark face looking back…

Begging for attention since the day you were born…

Try to visualize yourself when you remember nothing.

It is only then that this person is you…

Read books. Drop iPhones…

Book.

One of the most advanced inventions known to man.

It bends and yet it returns to it’s original form.

It can be used without battery!

It can be processed and store information directly into the mind!

It can be used with no hands!

One can take notes on passages he finds interesting! (with another modern invention called “The pencil”)

One can note the place he left it the night before and continue reading from where he left it!

One can see the contents of the book in the… “Contents” section and then, by using the great new invention of “page numbers”, go directly to where he wishes!

Is the world ready for such a technology?

Reading books. Making things. Darwin right. Darwin wrong…

In the small town of Fayetteville in northern New York, you’ll find the local library in an old furniture factory dating from the turn of the 20th century. The refurbished building retains hints of its industrial past: wooden floors, exposed beams, walls lined with carefully labelled tools.

But instead of quietly perusing stacks of books, many of the patrons are crowded around a suite of 3D printers. One machine is midway through a pink mobile phone case; another is finishing up a toy sword.

This is Fayetteville’s maker lab – and it may very well be the future of libraries.

In 2011, Fayetteville became the first public library in the US to set up a maker lab. Besides 3D printers, the space features a laser cutter, electronics kits, workshop tools, Raspberry Pi computers and an array of sewing machines. It functions somewhere between a classroom and a start-up incubator – a place where people from all over the region can get involved with state-of-the-art technology. (1)

Soon enough we will stop reading.
Soon enough we will just be mimicking others.
Soon enough we will just build based on what we have learnt.
Soon enough we will just be just a species of apes.
Soon enough Darwin will be right…

9 steps to choose a good philosophy book

1. Do not look where your eyes fall at first glance. Books at the level of your gaze are the easy-sold “best seller” books. Nothing good can come out of those.

2. Look at places where it is difficult to reach for a book (usually corners or shelves which are too low or too high). Good quality books are usually misunderstood by the sales people of philosophy books who – usually – know nothing of philosophy. But even if the sales people know their job, Murphy’s Law works in this direction also, thus making the books which interest you difficult to find.

3. Select the smallest book you find there. Big books are usually by stupid authors who cannot express what they want to say eloquently or by stupid authors who – because they have nothing of value to say – delve into too many sectors without being equiped to do so. (great philosophers are of course the exception to this rule)

4. Take the book.

5. Go to the counter.

6. Pay.

7. Get receipt.

8. Go out of the bookstore.

9. READ the book in a NON-serial manner. Good philosophy books can and must be read in such a way. Do not start from the “beginning”. Do not stop at the “end”. Go through it as you would go through a morning breeze.