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Sina Habibian
@sinahab
I watched the Ethereum documentary last night. One of the themes that stood out to me was the resonance between nature and the internet worlds we’re creating. The trees in Marin. The infinite garden with its branches and evolution. Vitalik’s description of blockchains as digital life - once they’re seeded, they begin to grow without anyone being able to really control or stop them. Danny’s “I would either be working on this or I would be living in the woods”. It’s operating at multiple levels - there’s a way in which human beings end up reenacting nature, and there’s also something in the human psyche that resonates with this external form. Anyway, enough with the armchair philosophy... I loved the documentary and would recommend watching if you haven’t.
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tldr (tim reilly)
@tldr
Also a key theme for me. I've been reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb for first time as part of @phil's SV Canon Book Club, and there is more than once that discoveries in quantum physics were preceded by a walk under the stars, a cold plunge, or a vast desert. A sense I have is that human minds evolved to thrive in a very specific environment which we call "nature" and I think being receptive to its harmonies allows us to think in an exceptionally clear way about first principles. (Also - I think music, with it's small integer ratios of physical sound, has a very similar power to what nature does visually.)
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Sina Habibian
@sinahab
agreed! And +1 on this also being the case with music, there's something similar about the resonance we feel there. What is the book club? I think I remember seeing @phil's books at Farcon, that was a great selection.
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Nounish Prof ⌐◧-◧🎩
@nounishprof
If I'm blocked or agitated, a trip to the beach can change everything. Sound of the waves often is the unblock.
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Lata
@lata
+1 on this! my partner is a mathematician and whenever he is co-authoring a paper they all meet in these cabins in the german black forest to brainstorm ideas- apparently “exhilarating”
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kbc
@kbc
I'm wondering if it's the lack of entertainment in form of sounds or images in nature compared to a walk in the city that helped the discoveries. You can't read a poster or listen to people walk by or people-watch. It's you and whatever else is around you.
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