I know I am a living system because I am an organized living thing that depends on my environment. I am dependent on information, energy, and matter given to me by nature, my surroundings, my environment. I like the article we read in class, "Autopoietic Organization"--the comment of how when we speak of living things, we "presuppose something in common between them; otherwise we wouldn't put them in the same class we designate with the name living.". I know I am a living system by my interactions and confirmation with other and similar living beings. By western definition and a biological definition, I am living because I am composed by a network of cells and molecular life, and I have a heartbeat.
Biophysics and eastern medicine are related. Biophysics is composed of different fields of biology, physics, physiology, computer science; each academic institution makes its own rules and may place emphasis on a particular field. This is similar to Eastern medicine. Like biophysics, different acupuncture schools may place emphasis on certain historians or philosophers. Some people think Chinese herbs are more important than acupuncture. Some practitioners may emphasize bodywork instead of diet. There are so many doctrines which are based on yin and yang concepts, just like the way biophysics is based on biology and physics. This shows that Western concepts are not as easily defined as we like to generalize.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Week 9--Synthesis
My E Prime Day
Looking back on the series of events that occurred today, I think I remember my dog appearing happy that I was awake and that we could go on a run. If I'm remembering this correctly, I ate breakfast and I graded my college students quiz from last week. I think I was pleased that they seemed to understand my lectures from this semester. I practiced orchestra music to prepare for rehearsals this coming week. I have played Dvorak's New World Symphony before, and I think I recall playing this with my old roommate. In memory, I also recall certain passages that represent different scenes, birds, the rising sun. After I practiced today, I think I remember eating lunch with my sister and her husband. I think we went to Apple Hill and bought a box of Pink Lady apples and ate apple doughnuts. My sister seemed to really like some apple wine since she bought some for her friends. In memory, it was a nice Sunday, Pacific Standard Time, USA.
The Eastern ideas and Western ideas can be synthesized. Looking at the way I was raised is an example of how two cultures can combine. My mother is from Korea, and my father is American-Chinese. I don't know if I can say that any culture is completely independent or separate since we need to communicate. The idea that many if us were raised in a more western culture and studying acupuncture is another example of synthesis. Again, I don't think that western and eastern medicine is completely independent--I believe that Eastern beliefs and developments can marry and support Western ideas and scientific discoveries and visa versa.
Looking back on the series of events that occurred today, I think I remember my dog appearing happy that I was awake and that we could go on a run. If I'm remembering this correctly, I ate breakfast and I graded my college students quiz from last week. I think I was pleased that they seemed to understand my lectures from this semester. I practiced orchestra music to prepare for rehearsals this coming week. I have played Dvorak's New World Symphony before, and I think I recall playing this with my old roommate. In memory, I also recall certain passages that represent different scenes, birds, the rising sun. After I practiced today, I think I remember eating lunch with my sister and her husband. I think we went to Apple Hill and bought a box of Pink Lady apples and ate apple doughnuts. My sister seemed to really like some apple wine since she bought some for her friends. In memory, it was a nice Sunday, Pacific Standard Time, USA.
The Eastern ideas and Western ideas can be synthesized. Looking at the way I was raised is an example of how two cultures can combine. My mother is from Korea, and my father is American-Chinese. I don't know if I can say that any culture is completely independent or separate since we need to communicate. The idea that many if us were raised in a more western culture and studying acupuncture is another example of synthesis. Again, I don't think that western and eastern medicine is completely independent--I believe that Eastern beliefs and developments can marry and support Western ideas and scientific discoveries and visa versa.
Week 8--Classical Physics
Newtons 3 Laws and Me
1. Law of Inertia--I (the external force) pushed my friend's baby stroller (the object in the same state of motion) down th street.
2. A force causes only a change in velocity or acceleration--the greater the mass, the greater amount of force is needed. This can be applied to moving. I couldn't pick up certain boxes because they were so heavy, but my cousin had no problem with them since he is so much bigger than I.
3. For every action there is an equal reaction. My example with moving again; I was pushing a bookshelf into a corner of 2 walls. My cousin told me that I would knock the walls down if I pushed any harder. So in a sense, the wall was "pushing" back.
Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. I suppose that's how we can recycle energy. Since our body temperature gives off the same amount of heat as a lightbulb, perhaps we can someday manage to light our lightbulbs with the amount of heat we give off. We are coming up with ways to recycle, so we are being more sensitive to being more energy efficient. Entropy increases like the way heat is transferred. The third law explains how things really aren't perfect because absolute zero is impossible to reach.
Descartes used to think that thoughts and memories are not part of the "real world". But thoughts are just electrical impulses traveling across neural networks delivering information. The Cartesian way of thinking, that we are separate from nature, is not as accepted in society right now. This is probably a good thing since we will never be completely independent from natural wonders, such as how we react to the sun and food, or from each other.
1. Law of Inertia--I (the external force) pushed my friend's baby stroller (the object in the same state of motion) down th street.
2. A force causes only a change in velocity or acceleration--the greater the mass, the greater amount of force is needed. This can be applied to moving. I couldn't pick up certain boxes because they were so heavy, but my cousin had no problem with them since he is so much bigger than I.
3. For every action there is an equal reaction. My example with moving again; I was pushing a bookshelf into a corner of 2 walls. My cousin told me that I would knock the walls down if I pushed any harder. So in a sense, the wall was "pushing" back.
Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. I suppose that's how we can recycle energy. Since our body temperature gives off the same amount of heat as a lightbulb, perhaps we can someday manage to light our lightbulbs with the amount of heat we give off. We are coming up with ways to recycle, so we are being more sensitive to being more energy efficient. Entropy increases like the way heat is transferred. The third law explains how things really aren't perfect because absolute zero is impossible to reach.
Descartes used to think that thoughts and memories are not part of the "real world". But thoughts are just electrical impulses traveling across neural networks delivering information. The Cartesian way of thinking, that we are separate from nature, is not as accepted in society right now. This is probably a good thing since we will never be completely independent from natural wonders, such as how we react to the sun and food, or from each other.
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