On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 5:23 AM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > On 09-Sep-11 5:22 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > >> http://cheeni.posterous.com/whats-the-role-of-consumerism-in-the-modern-w >> >> No doubt your eagle eyes will find any logical flaws, but also ask me >> a bunch of questions, and tell me where I'm wrong. > > I, too, have a bunch of mostly uncoooked thoughts on this topic (fuel > for the next time we meet up) but I'll just toss one of them out to see > your response: > > The "one" in the phrase "tribe of one" is a matter of context (and, > therefore, so is "tribe"). E.g, a "tribe" can be thought of as a unit in > some contexts, like in your example of ant colonies [1]. > > Similarly, an individual human being [2] can be thought of as a > plurality or a colony consciousness [3] depending on the semantic > perspective.
None of this really matters. It's turtles all the way down, or rather up in this case. Individuals / one / tribe i.e. $unit is always part of a system. $system is part of a larger system. Ant -> Ant Colony -> Forest -> Mountain -> Land Mass -> Earth -> Solar System -> Galaxy -> Collection of Galaxies ... What's important to ask is what does all of this consciousness achieve? One can debate about free will - it's existence or lack of etc. but eventually systems exist. Escape from the systems is possible by realization. Realization != understanding. Cheeni
