This book is about the invention of radio, but it reads like a thriller, with one inventure piled upon another.
By cutting reason down to size and establishing its ÒproperÓ limits, Kant encouraged subsequent inventures, a never-ending quest to reach beyond the limits of rational thought.
By cutting reason down to size and establishing its ÒproperÓ limits, Kant encouraged subsequent inventures, a never-ending quest to reach beyond the limits of rational thought.
by Mikhail Epstein November 06, 2003
Get the inventure mug.humy n (abbreviated and affectionate name of a human being implying smallness) - a human being as a partner or a pet of creatures with artificial intelligence. The term also resonates with "humiliated," the role humans might assume in a technosociety dominated by the humanoid machines.
by Mikhail Epstein November 02, 2003
Get the humy mug.gnawledge n. (word-portmanteau: gnaw + suffix ledge; cf. knowledge) mechanical knowledge that is obtained by "gnawing" facts rather than conceptually interpreting them.
by Mikhail Epstein November 15, 2003
Get the gnawledge mug.syntellect n (Greek syn, with, together + intellect) Ð the unified mind of civilization that integrates all individual natural and artificial minds through the mediation and accumulative effects of informational networks.
Intellectual network--inteLnet--will connect all thinking beings into one communicational network that gradually will develop into a new form of consciousness--syntellect. The syntellect will absorb and condense the potentials of all thinking beings and will operate on both biological and quantum levels.
by Mikhail Epstein November 06, 2003
Get the syntellect mug.infinition (definition + infinitity) Ð an infinite process of defining something that cannot be fully or precisely defined; an endless list of possible definitions.
Certain fluid concepts in their emergent state are subject to in-finition--infinite dispersal of their meaning--rather than to definition. To infine is to suggest the infinity of possible definitions of a certain term or concept and therefore to problematize its meaning and the possibility or the benefit of defining it. If definition circumscribes a specific conceptual area, then infinition releases the concept from restricting demarcations and places it in an indeterminate zone. For example, Jacques Derrida never defines his method of deconstruction but only infines it in numerous passages. Infinition is for the humanities what for mathematics is a transcendental number with its "infinite decimal expansion" expressed by a non-periodic decimal fraction: an endless approximation to and escape from a discrete definition.
by Mikhail Epstein November 06, 2003
Get the infinition mug.happicle n (happy + diminutive suffix Ðicle, like in "particle," "icicle") Ð a particle of happiness, the smallest unit of happiness; a single happy occurrence or a momentary feeling of happiness.
There is no happiness in this world, but there are happicles. Sometimes we can catch them, fleeting and unpredictable as they are.
Like photons, happicles have zero mass at rest--the inertial mass that we identify with happiness. Happicles just flash and go out in passing. They may be as transitory as a fragrance in the air, or a yellow falling leaf, or a glance of a passerby on the street.
Happicles make life worth of living, even in the absence of stable happiness.
Like photons, happicles have zero mass at rest--the inertial mass that we identify with happiness. Happicles just flash and go out in passing. They may be as transitory as a fragrance in the air, or a yellow falling leaf, or a glance of a passerby on the street.
Happicles make life worth of living, even in the absence of stable happiness.
by Mikhail Epstein November 08, 2003
Get the happicle mug.oneirogenic adj (from Greek oneiros, "dream" + genic; cf. photogenic, telegenic) Ð having a propensity to appear in somebody's dreams.
Some people are photogenic while others are oneirogenic. These characteristics rarely coincide. A person who is plain and unnoticeable in real life may haunt our dreams and imagination.
Have you noticed that cats are more oneirogenic than dogs?
To surprise your friends at a party, ask them: "Do you find me "oneirogenic"? If the answer is "yesÓ, ask them to recall your adventures in their dreams.
Have you noticed that cats are more oneirogenic than dogs?
To surprise your friends at a party, ask them: "Do you find me "oneirogenic"? If the answer is "yesÓ, ask them to recall your adventures in their dreams.
by Mikhail Epstein November 02, 2003
Get the oneirogenic mug.