Reverse Engineer Life Vision

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From "endpoint", processing "backwards"

“I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.”

— Franz Kafka, Letter to Max Brod

From Franz Kafka: Letters to Friends, Family, & Editors. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Schocken Books, 1977. 509 pp.

Şaman, Ламан, Yaroslav Gerzhedovich

Working in total darkness has its benefits. Only in the pitch black can resting neurons be isolated from the eye’s retina and stimulated with their natural input—light—to get them to fire electrical signals. Such signals not only provide a readout of the intrinsic properties of each neuron but information that enables the vision researcher to deduce how it functions and forges connections with other neurons.

The retina is the light-sensitive neural tissue that lines the back of the eye. Although only about the size of a postage stamp, each of our retinas contains an estimated 130 million cells and more than 100 distinct cell types. These cells are organized into multiple information-processing layers that work together to absorb light and translate it into electrical signals that stream via the optic nerve to the appropriate visual centre in the brain.

道德經第七十三章

勇於敢則殺，勇於不敢則活。

此兩者，或利或害。

天之所惡，孰知其故？是以聖人猶難之。

天之道，不爭而善勝，不言而善應，不召而自來，繟然而善謀。

天網恢恢，踈而不失。

上天是有所好惡的。

人的行為，有的會得到上天的保佑，有的會受到上天的懲罰。

這兩種不同的結果，前者為善果，後者為惡果。

而這兩種行為，也按其結果被區分為善行與惡行。

這兩種行為所遵循的規則，為善道與惡道。

至於上天為何要懲罰一種行為而獎賞另一種行為，道德經給出的答案是：不知道。

不念舊惡

5.23 子曰：「伯夷、叔齊不念舊惡，怨是用希。」

"Yaldabaoth" from the Aramaic yaldā bahuth, ילדאבהות, meaning "Son of Chaos"

Dao De Jing Chapter 73 — A. Charles Muller

73. If you are courageous in daring you will die...

If you are courageous in daring you will die.

If you are courageous in not daring you will live.

Among these two, one is beneficial and the other is harmful.

Who understands the reason why Heaven dislikes what it dislikes?

Even the sage has difficulty in knowing this.

The Way of Heaven is to win easily without struggle.

To respond well without words,

To naturally come without special invitation,

To plan well without anxiety.

Heaven's net is vast.

It is loose.

Yet nothing slips through.

Dao De Jing Chapter 73 — Arthur Waley

He whose braveness lies in daring — slays.

He whose braveness lies in not daring — gives life.

Of these two, either may be profitable or unprofitable.

But “Heaven hates what it hates;

None can know the reason why”.

Wherefore the Sage, too, disallows it.

For it is the way of Heaven not to strive but nonetheless to conquer,

Not to speak, but none the less to get an answer,

Not to beckon, yet things come to it of themselves.

Heaven is like one who says little, yet nonetheless has laid his plans.

Heaven's net is wide;

Coarse are the meshes, yet nothing slips through.

Dao De Jing Chapter 73 — James Legge

(Allowing men to take their course)

He whose boldness appears in his daring (to do wrong, in defiance of the laws) is put to death; he whose boldness appears in his not daring (to do so) lives on. Of these two cases, the one appears to be advantageous, and the other to be injurious. But

When Heaven's anger smites a man,

Who the cause shall truly scan?

On this account, the sage feels a difficulty (as to what to do in the former case).

It is the way of Heaven not to strive, and yet it skilfully overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is skilful in (obtaining a reply); does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves. Its demonstrations are quiet, and yet its plans are skilful and effective. The meshes of the net of Heaven are large; far apart, but letting nothing escape.