| Vitruvian Mind |
| Life as it should be |
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Posted on September 6th, 2008 by Phil.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Travel & Leisure, Philosophy & Spirituality, History & Politics, Philanthropy & Environment, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature, Humor & Pop Culture.
We’re finally home, unpacked, and settled back in after this year’s Burning Man. This was hands down my favorote year yet, and I think I speak for all of our crew when I say an amazing time was had by all.
Our friend Tomas was out there completing a five year retrospective art piece on photos of Burning Man from 2004-2008. He is still working on it, but the current gallery is already available at www.burningmanpix.info.
I encourage you to check it out, as the images are absoluely incredible.
Posted on August 22nd, 2008 by Phil.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Travel & Leisure, Philosophy & Spirituality, Philanthropy & Environment, Arts & Literature, Humor & Pop Culture, Coming Events.
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Time to gather the goggles and glitter. Time to clean out the Camel Back and collect the costumes. Time to prepare ourselves for another week or survival camping on the playa. You guessed it - Burning Man.
At this very moment I am in Reno, NV, fresh from visits to Costco, Wal Mart, and Home Depot. About to grab my boxes and bike from the UPS Depot. Tomorrow the RV, final errands, and then its a half-day eastward journey into the middle of nowhere. Take a left turn after cell phone reception drops out, keep going for another couple hours, and then you’re getting close…
There have been myriad posts on this blog about Burning Man, so I’ll save further explanations here, save one - how to find us if you’re going to be out there. We are heading up the Villains & Virgins crew, which is part of Spanky’s Wine Bar, located at 5:00 and Esplanade. Once you get there, ask for the Pink Panther. If that makes any sense to you, then I’ll see you at the Bordello 
-PP
Posted on August 1st, 2008 by Bijan.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Philosophy & Spirituality, History & Politics, Arts & Literature.
What is with the world these days? It is no question that death and violence will always sell like sex. We have an masochistic craving for morbidity and, whether we pretend to ignore it or not, we always take a peek. But what is most shocking, perhaps, is that we are constantly fed such slop not so much from entertainment media, but our own news outlets. Instead of really focusing on the issues that are affecting the state of our nation and world as a whole, we are continuously driving ourselves into a world of depression.
I like The Christian Science Monitor because it displays extremely relevant news. Don’t be frightened by its name - the website strictly states that it is not religious. From their website:
Everything in the Monitor is international and US news and features, except for one religious article that has appeared each day in The Home Forum section since 1908, at the request of the paper’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
It is important that we all keep a positive outlook on ourselves and our lives at all times. There are so many scenarios in which the famous FDR “only thing to fear is fear itself” quote is relevant. We will not be able to find our way out of a war, economic crisis and environmental disaster if we simply keep thinking about how sad we are and what a ‘terrible’ world we live in. Failures must be educational and successes must be celebrated.
Posted on June 7th, 2008 by Phil.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Travel & Leisure, Philosophy & Spirituality, Philanthropy & Environment, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature, Sports & Health, Humor & Pop Culture, Coming Events, Storytelling.
On August 25th, 2008, Burning Man will open its gates. The week that follows will mark the peak of the year for many people, as Black Rock City one again rises like a phoenix from the ashes. For the week that it exists, the Black Rock City (the remote city that is Burning Man) is Nevada’s fourth largest city. Nearly 50,000 inhabitants gather in the middle of a dry lakebed to create something truly unique - a shining jewel on America’s tarnished soul. Once the event is over, the entire city vanishes without a trace, leaving only the memories, friendships, and the promise of things to come.
To some of you reading this, just the mention of the words “Burning Man” is enough to send a happy and mischievous tingle down your spine. To others, he subject is not too clear. If you asked 100 people what they thought Burning Man was all about, I’m sure you’d get a 101 different answers. Some would speak of freedom, personal expression, and universal acceptance. Others would rave about the art, music, and amazing characters they encountered. Many would tell stories of friends made, relationships formed or strengthened, and personal breakthroughs achieved. These are all threads of the same fabric, one that envelopes everyone who sets foot on the playa.
The intention of Burning Man is to generate a society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society. BM is radically inclusive, so its meaning is accessible to anyone willing to make the journey. The touchstone of value in its culture will always be immediacy: experience before theory, moral relationships before politics, survival before services, roles before jobs, embodied ritual before symbolism, work before vested interest, participant support before sponsorship.
One way to begin to understand Burning Man is to look at the website: burningman.com, another is to look at its guiding principles:
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
If that sounds like something that interests you, you should learn more - but the clock is ticking. Planning for Burning Man is a year round commitment for many, and jumping into the fray at the last minute is nearly impossible. More so, the preparation and anticipation is a huge part of the experience.
So give it some thought, and if you’re ready to get involved, meet me out in the desert this August, and see for yourself. Dive in, the water is warm and welcoming.
Posted on May 26th, 2008 by Bijan.
Categories: Philosophy & Spirituality, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature.
You don’t have to look hard to find people who will tell you that humans only use 10% of their brains. You also don’t have to look hard to find a physician or scientist who would laugh at such a claim. Yet even though this claim is far from factual, there is a hint of truth to its meaning. Savant syndrome, defined by savantism expert Darold A. Treffert, is “the presence of unusual intellectual and/or artistic abilities in otherwise impaired individuals.” Usually suffering from Autism, savants (previously known in the medical profession as “idiot savants”) have mildly to severely impaired social or behavioral traits. Despite their impairment, however, savants have abilities called “splinter skills” – incredible mental capabilities that are far beyond the capabilities of a normally functioning brain.
Take, for instance, George Widener. Born with a condition called Asperger’s Syndrome, George has perhaps one of the most powerful memories in the world. Not only able to recall almost any piece of information after processing it only once, George can tell you the day of the week on any date you can name, both in the past or thousands of years in the future. If you ask him to list numbers to the power of 2, he can go on and on – to numbers over 20 digits long.
Derek Paravicini was born 15 weeks premature. Because of the oxygen treatment he received after birth, he became blind and developed a learning disorder along with autism. Derek has a splinter skill called “absolute pitch.” Put quite simply, he can hear any piece of music and play it back exactly – having never even heard it before.
So why is it, then, that some people have such extraordinary abilities yet are impaired in some of the most basic areas of human functionality? And further, do these remarkable abilities that savants exhibit mean that all humans have such capacities? Allan W. Snyder, a PhD and scientist has, along with an interest in very funky hats, a theory: Our brain can be most generally divided into two hemispheres: the right and the left. The left hemisphere controls all of our daily functions such as reasoning, speech monitoring and logic, to name a few. The right side is the more creative, intuitive and imaginative side of the brain, used for artistic or musical expression. Developmental disorders such as autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or even brain damage at any point in one’s life, can interrupt pathways in the left side of the brain, inhibiting its normal function. Snyder’s theory is that the right side compensates for the interrupted pathways in the left side of the brain, causing a savant to pay much closer attention to the particular details of an object or situation, as opposed to translating the individual parts into a whole, cohesive perception.
Dr. Treffert made a reference to this theory in an interview:
“Some savants, because of prenatal, perinatal or postnatal central nervous system damage, from a variety of genetic, injury or disease processes have substituted right brain capacity in a compensatory manner for left brain dysfunction and limitation. Simultaneously, because of those same injurious factors, these savants have come to rely on more primitive cortico-striatal (procedural or habit) memory rather than higher level cortico-limbic (semantic or declarative) memory. This combination of right brain skills coupled with procedural memory produces the constellation of abilities and traits that is savant syndrome.”
So now its clear: maybe we don’t use 100% of our brains. Maybe there is the potential in all of us to have the gift of conditions like hyperlexia without the burden of a mental impairment. Dr. Snyder wants to know for sure.
In an ongoing study of brain usage activity, Snyder uses a process called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to temporarily inhibit the small electric charges released within the synapses of a person’s brain during the firing of axons. His theory, quite simply, is that the right hemisphere of the brain will compensate for the temporary disablement of the left. And his results? Amazing. Forty percent of all of Snyder’s test subjects have exhibited newfound talents or skills after only 10 minutes of TMS. “You could call this a creativity-amplifying machine,” says Snyder. “It’s a way of altering our states of mind without taking drugs like mescaline. You can make people see the raw data of the world as it is. As it is actually represented in the unconscious mind of all of us.” In particular, subjects have seen tremendous increases in drawing and artistic ability. One subject, a New York Times writer, found that his graphical depiction of a cat went from a stick figure to a cat so detailed it had facial expressions. The article describes his whole experience.
And now we arrive at the whole reason for this post: There is clearly a wealth of compelling evidence that there are certain dimensions to the human brain that not every person can experience or explore. In all of us, there lies a hidden arsenal of extraordinary capabilities that we simply can’t access. Our brain, in an effort to synthesize and categorize every bit of sensory input that we absorb, in essence, dumbs us down. We lose sight of the simplest, most finite details, to the point where a cat becomes just a stick figure. And if these talents exist in all of us, who’s to say that there aren’t more? Just where exactly does the true capability of the human brain end?
I’ll leave you with an interesting observation by Dr. Treffert:
We know from centuries of medical history, including the emergence of various medical oddities over the years, that certain components in every brain are equipped with incredible technical capabilities — capabilities normally suppressed by other components so that the brain can do its main job, which is to balance out function and help a person lead a normal life. For example, in my book The Forgetting, I discuss the famous Russian patient “S” who literally remembered every detail he came across in his entire life. He could recite verbatim conversations or random number lists decades after the fact. Sounds cool, but this was actually a huge liability — remembering every detail makes it impossible to form intelligent summaries of details, which is the basis of all intelligent thought and communication. The ability to forget — get rid of sensory detail — turns out to be just as important in the brain as the ability to form new memories.
So maybe we need to limit ourselves in some ways just to function in others. Maybe ridding our memories of mundane sensory details to view the larger picture is actually more efficient. But maybe, just maybe, we have a whole different set of incredible skills that we don’t even know about, and those that we do know about only use…say…10% of our brains.
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by Myk.
Categories: Philosophy & Spirituality, Business & Finance, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature.
In the 1960s, a sociologist named Robert K. Merton wrote an essay on scientific discovery, where he wrote that ”a scientific genius is not a person who does what no one else can do; he or she is someone who does what it takes many others to do. The genius is not a unique source of insight; he is merely an efficient source of insight.” Malcom Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, references this in his recent New Yorker article on innovation titled In the Air. First off, it’s a very nice read, as generally are all articles in the NYorker. In addition, it’s just a fascinating topic.
There are a number of fun parts of the article and I’d like to comment on a couple. In 1999, one of Microsofts giants, a dude named Myhrvold, launched a firm called Intellectual Ventures. He raised 100s of millions of dollars and hired brilliant people to work there. What’s really interesting is that IV is not a venture capital firm. “Venture capitalists fund insights—that is, they let the magical process that generates new ideas take its course, and then they jump in. Myhrvold wanted to make insights—to come up with ideas, patent them, and then license them to interested companies.” Thus, IV’s job was ideation–which is really the coolest thing I can think of. By bringing together a team of brains, he hoped to pave the way for creativity and therefore discovery.
From the article:
The original expectation was that I.V. would file a hundred patents a year. Currently, it’s filing five hundred a year. It has a backlog of three thousand ideas. Wood said that he once attended a two-day invention session presided over by Jung, and after the first day the group went out to dinner. [T]he next day the attorney comes up with eight single-spaced pages flagging thirty-six different inventions from dinner. Dinner.”
Gladwell writes about the value created when bringing really smart people together to facilitate scientific discovery. There can be remarkable insights created even over chit-chat at dinner. The traditional theory of scientific genius as a solitary experience is challenged, with Gladwell offering examples that indicate discoveries are often made by multiple people nearly simultaneously–what science historians call “multiples.”
In 1922, William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas, found a hundred and forty-eight major scientific discoveries that fit the multiple pattern. Newton and Leibniz both discovered calculus. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both discovered evolution. Three mathematicians “invented” decimal fractions. Oxygen was discovered by Joseph Priestley, in Wiltshire, in 1774, and by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, a year earlier. Color photography was invented at the same time by Charles Cros and by Louis Ducos du Hauron, in France. Logarithms were invented by John Napier and Henry Briggs in Britain, and by Joost Bürgi in Switzerland. Four independent discoveries of sunspots by Galileo in Italy, Scheiner in Germany, Fabricius in Holland and Harriott in England occured in 1611.
The law of the conservation of energy, so significant in science and philosophy, was formulated four times independently in 1847, by Joule, Thomson, Colding and Helmholz. They had been anticipated by Robert Mayer in 1842. There seem to have been at least six different inventors of the thermometer and no less than nine claimants of the invention of the telescope. Typewriting machines were invented simultaneously in England and in America by several individuals in these countries. The steamboat is claimed as the “exclusive” discovery of Fulton, Jouffroy, Rumsey, Stevens and Symmington.
Compelling data right? Scientific discoveries appear to be in many cases inevitable. If not one person, then another…or another. So, what happens when a company like IV brings together intellectual heroes (over dinners at conference tables) that might otherwise be laboring seperately? As IV’s patents have been proving, a lot. Maybe these thinkers would have breakthrough ideas by themselves…but it looks like thinking together accelerates the process. There are efficencies in scientific cooperation that ought to speed scientific progress.
Maybe this appears obvious and in some ways counter-intuitive to how things practically work. Groups of people generally involve politics and egos and other impediments that hamper productivity. But if a team can get away around those obstacles (and from the article one gets the impression that IV’s participants love knowledge more than egos–c’mon they’re GEEKS), shared creativity results in productivity.
But not in all cases. A fun thought provoking note is that the same cooperation between artistic geniuses does not make for better art. Producers of science and art are different beasts. Hmmm….
A work of artistic genius is singular, and all the arguments over calculus, the accusations back and forth between the Bell and the Gray camps, and our persistent inability to come to terms with the existence of multiples are the result of our misplaced desire to impose the paradigm of artistic invention on a world where it doesn’t belong. Shakespeare owned Hamlet because he created him, as none other before or since could. Alexander Graham Bell owned the telephone only because his patent application landed on the examiner’s desk a few hours before Gray’s.
Sort of like 1000 monkeys couldn’t write Hamlet–it takes a very special SINGULAR monkey to do that. this note is just my reflection on the story. Read it and lemme know your thoughts. It’s inspiring stuff to know though, huh?
Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by Phil.
Categories: Media & Entertainment, Philosophy & Spirituality, Philanthropy & Environment, Business & Finance, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature.
My friend Joanna recently turned me on to a great online resource - TED. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. The TED Talks website is a treasure trove of video snippets covering a host of fascinating topics. From Brian Greene on String Theory to Al Gore on new events in the climate crisis to They Might be Giants playing a live jam session.
The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives - in 18 minutes. More than 200 talks from the TED archives are online, with more added each week. Even better, the videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.
TED’s mission is rooted in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world. Hence their interest in connecting thoughts from the world’s most inspired thinkers with a community of curious souls. The TED Conference is held annually in Long Beach. Over four days,50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, with a host of other shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy filtering in. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience, soup to nuts. Cool stuff.
http://www.ted.com/
Posted on April 28th, 2008 by Myk.
Categories: Philosophy & Spirituality, Food & Wine, Arts & Literature, Humor & Pop Culture, Storytelling.
“Being on the dinner party circuit requires a skill set that I lack. I know how to nod, but only for limited periods of time.” (allow myself to quote myself). Being a thrower-of-dinner parties as well as a goer, I can say navigating the dinner party is an art. While we are aware that there are many faux-pas, there are also certain techniques to make yourself indispensible to a great evening. Here are a few tips for emerging unscathed from your next social gathering…using 10 quotes from famous and not-so-famous persons:
Posted on April 25th, 2008 by Myk.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Philosophy & Spirituality, Philanthropy & Environment, Science & Technology, Arts & Literature, Sports & Health, Storytelling.
A friend of ours Brian Johnson, the person who started the conscious social network Zaadz and subsequently sold it to Gaiam, has launched a really amazing new project called Philosopher’s Notes. In the time I’ve been acquainted with Brian (5 years ), he’s been questing for knowledge under every rock. He compiled a seriously intense list of quotations that I used to peruse when I had time for hobbies, and his book recommendations have always been just about 100% on.
Well, that’s what Philosopher’s Notes are about. Brian takes books on all aspects of self-development (self-realization really), distills them to their essence with their Big Ideas, and provides the result in both PDF and MP3 formats. The titles range in topics (spirituality, health, nutrition, productivity, environment) but they all have serious wisdom that we can apply to our lives. They are penned by contemporary spiritual leaders such as Deepak Chopra to classic American thinkers like Emerson to ancient philsophers like Rumi.
What’s really important here is that most of you and certainly Phil and I just don’t have the time to research what books to read. We rely on our trusted friends to recommend a book and so we discover knowledge that is both interesting and useful. Brian’s JOB is to uncover this wisdom making him a trusted source of information. Not only that, he’s paring it down for our busy lives. Even if you’ve read most of the books he highlights, it’s STILL useful as a memory aid on the main topics.
This latest project by Brian is completely Vitruvian in nature and I highly recommend that you check the site out because it has the potential to facilitate your personal development. Here is an example note of Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention (here). Very cool stuff.
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by Mayur.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Consumer Products, Arts & Literature.
Ever had restless nights wondering what the next fashion and luxury trends are? You can now leave those worries behind by simply attending the best runway shows, parties and sample sales listed below.
These events have been posted on Vitruvian World.
April 22, 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
A Cointreauversial Affair cocktail party, Angel Orensanz Foundation, 172 Norfolk St., NYC. Featuring the American debut of Dita von Teese’s new burlesque performance and unveiling of her signature cocktail, the Cointreau Teese
April, 28th - May, 2nd
Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer Collections (Sydney)
April 30, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Vogue Celebration of “Photobook” by Michael Roberts for Carlos Miele, 408 W. 14th St., NYC
May, 2nd - May, 4th
Dolce & Gabbana and D&G Resort and S/S 08 Sample Sale, D&G Showroom, 85 Spring St., NYC
July 18-22
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami Swim, Miami
August 7-12
Copenhagen Fashion Week, Copenhagen
August 13-19
Stockholm Fashion Week, Stockholm
August, 27th - August, 31th
MasterCard Luxury Week, Hong Kong
September, 5th - September, 12th
Benz Fashion Week New York, NYC
September 13-21
London Fashion Week, London
September, 22th - September, 29th
Moda Donna (Milan Fashion Week), Milan
September, 30th - October, 8th
Paris Fashion Week, Paris
October, 24th - October, 30th
Moscow Fashion Week presented by VISA, Moscow
