On the Limits of Techno-Conceptualization

One of the interesting things I've learned from working in the 3D scanning/digitization industry is that typically the most precious, fragile, ephemeral and transitory things are the most difficult to capture. Included in this set of things which evade capture are such things like fluids whether liquid, gas, or plasmic, with transparent, glassy and/or highly …

On the Symmetrical Logic and Asymmetrical Causality of Samsara and Nirvana

In verses 19 and 20 of the MÅ«lamadhyamakakārikā in the chapter analyzing Nirvana, Nāgārjuna states that "There is no distinction whatsoever between samsara and nirvana. There is no distinction whatsoever between nirvana and samsara. What is the limit of nirvana, that is the limit of samsara. There is not even the finest gap to be …

On the Mutual Non-existence of Capitalism and Communism

If "Full Communism," understood as communism brought to its highest measure, is truly superior to all "logically prior" modes of production which historically precede it (such as slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and socialism), then it must "inclusively transcend" them all, which is to say that it must contain them all as partial abstractions of itself, which …

Constituting Individual Objects without Private Essences

If I recall correctly, for Graham Harman and perhaps Object-Oriented Ontology generally, an individual cannot be exhausted by any or all of its relations. Thus there is some kind of irreducible essence that is particular to that individual object. But there's something circular about this idea, because it offers a definition of the individual object …