Retrospective 2020-35

This is a summary of my reading and painting last week (Aug 24–30, 2020).

Painting

I painted this which is from a photo by Skye Hirst.

Reading

Books

I am currently reading A Process Model by Eugene Gendlin. As I mentioned last week, it’s interesting to see how Gendlin works with all the logical force words are capable of in this book.

Articles

I am also reading Life as Fundamental, Life is Field Being by Norm Hirst. A recurring theme in Norm Hirst’s writings is that we need a new logic in order to understand life. Traditional logics require consistency and truth-preservation. Logic for Life-itself, on the other hand, must be able to move beyond current truth, and be able grow and evolve. Thus traditional logics cannot handle the requirements of life.

Christopher Painter (@meme_machines) sent me this article on A Theory of Natural Universal Computation Through RNA where Hessameddin Akhlaghpour bridges combinatory logic and RNA molecular biology. Interestingly, Norm Hirst suggests that combinatory logic might provide a primitive frame that can be used to meet the requirements for Life-itself.