Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Be Abstract
Context: p>Begin, ephebe, by perceiving the idea
Of this invention, this invented world,
The inconceivable idea of the sun.You must become an ignorant man again
And see the sun again with an ignorant eye
And see it clearly in the idea of it.Never suppose an inventing mind as source
Of this idea nor for that mind compose
A voluminous master folded in his fire.</p
“The world, as we perceive it, is our own invention.”
Heinz von Foerster (1988) The Invented Reality p.45–46
1980s
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Heinz von Foerster 11
Austrian American scientist and cybernetician 1911–2002Related quotes
“We have woven a web, you and I, attached to this world but a separate world of our own invention.”
“In the light, we read the inventions of others; in the darkness we invent our own stories.”
Source: The Library at Night
Chap. 8 : Change Your Circumstances by Changing Your Attitude
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)
"Understanding and Imagination in the Light of Nature"
Variant: The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world...
Context: Because the fact is, what blinds us to the presence of alien intelligence is linguistic and cultural bias operating on ourselves. The world which we perceive is a tiny fraction of the world which we can perceive, which is a tiny fraction of the perceivable world, you see. We operate on a very narrow slice based on cultural conventions. So the important thing, if synergizing progress is the notion to be maximized (and I think it's the notion to be maximized), is to try and locate the blind spot in the culture — the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not — because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve, you see. For Western Civilization that place is the psychedelic experience as it emerges out of nature.
“The Power of the Word,” p. 54.
Language is Sermonic (1970)