[WITI No. 77] Metaverse - Talking to Authors online - circular thinking - What people do for their furry family members
Hallo, Gruß Gott! to the lovely readers of the WITI (What is the Information?) newsletter. My weekly exercise where I share with you intelligent people, what’s I’m reading and thinking about. Thanks for reading!
I picked up the Kindle version of The Metaverse by Matthew Ball. I encountered Mr. Ball when I made my way through the Write of Passage CBC and @michaeldean_0 introduced me to his writing. We discussed all the ways Hollywood had portrayed the metaverse and came up with a pretty good list of movies which I am about to share with you now:
Existenz with Jude Law
Strange Days with Ralph Fiennes
Surrogates with Bruce Willis
Caprica series which is the pre-cursor to the Battlestar Galactica remake.
Black Mirror series which has some grim predictions about the future.
This is no way an exhaustive list but a list of some video with story lines that made it to the big screen that I enjoyed.
I found a couple typos in Ball’s book. Since he’s on Twitter, I took a couple screen shots and posted it. It felt a little strange after the 2nd one because I’m pointing out mistakes to this writer’s finished product. I wasn’t trying to be a “that” kind of guy - one who finds enjoyment from other mistakes. I started feeling funny about continuing to post them.
I had a short conversation with Matt. Kindle messed up his final draft and they told him they fixed the errors. I’m sure it was frustrating. It’s really cool to be able to chat with author who you find to be inspirational - though the conversation was about some B.S typos that shouldn’t have happened.
Then, into my timeline, this tweet appeared…
And suddenly, I reframed my thinking. I was doing Matt a favor! I don’t think I would report a typo to Amazon. I would feel horrible if a book that I was enjoying got pulled for typo-reporting.
It’s a whole new world out there, folks!
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Still Reading…
4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I’ve arrived at the section about Shingon Buddhism where an American has shown up at the monastery in Japan to study it. He undergoes some serious trials but the section caused me to refer to:
Wikipedia entry on the term.
Why Buddhism is Right by Robin Wright. Wright explains what he’s learned over years of meditating and studying Buddhism. .
The Lady and the Monk by Pico Iyer. Iyer shares his experience as a writer in Kyoto (home base for the Shingon school.)
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. One of Ozeki’s characters is a 104 year old female Buddhist monk who offers her granddaughter advice on how to deal with modern day struggles in Tokyo.
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. The narrator in Murakami’s story encounters the mysterious ringing of a bell underground. He enlists Menshiki to excavate the tomb where the bell is discovered - Buddhist masters would go weeks without food or water but would occasionally ring their bell to alert the townspeople that they were still in the hole meditating.
I feel like a snake consuming it’s tale making connections to previously consumed materials. The ourbouros is a symbol of life, death and rebirth. Perhaps that’s the path of my own knowledge and experience.
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Word of the Week: Supercilious
Find of the Week
You might not know we have a couple…er..four cats. This type of kindness for a furry friend is heartwarming. I have often been joined by cats when sitting on a mediation cushion or trying to do a couple push-ups. Once the immediate frustration fades, it’s sweet that your furry buddy bumps up against when you on floor near his domain.
Did I neglect to mention your favorite metaverse movie? Think I’m a nitpicker? Click below to let me know.
Is there such a thing as circular thinking? Can you connect this issue to previous WITI releases? You won’t know unless you are subscribed and if you want to share this info, smash that button!
That’s all I got this week! I hope you have a great one!
-George
I always have problems with American so-called Buddhists. Their version always seem like an instagram/MTV version of Buddhism. Not the real thing. But, I guess, if it works it works. They just seem like vegans, there is an instant air of superiority.