HOMECOMING
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From: William D.
Date: Saturday, February 23, 2008, 8:52 PM
Subject: Homecoming
Reply to: 262391
ID: 259851

...I was just mentioning to Bruce that I can hardly believe it's been 14 years or so since BRIDGE-L was running white hot...

I suppose that was my role at the time - pushing the envelope on the next gen networking stuff - quite the early adopter I was. Not as much of a "Hard Edge" anymore - a little softened (kinda like my middle). I think I actually listen more now - not just to people - but for other, more subtle messages. Grand schemes have made way for delivering on my promises and keeping centered...

A person sees a lot in 14 years - love, joy, pain, dispair and brutality. I've seen some great ones pass on (lost my Pops last July) and have rubbed shoulders - real and virtual - with some amazing souls. I count Bruce as one of those souls...

With all the travel the family and I have shared, we've finally plunked some roots into a pleasant community in North Carolina. The kids are discovering the public elementary school system, the wife is teaching her craft (Chemistry) at NC State, and I'm privileged to be working full time creating medical devices that may actually save the life of someone I know...

Not sure how long it will last, but while we're here - we're going to milk it for what it is worth.

So Bruce tells me that quite a lot has happened to the Bridge Across Consciousness and the UCS since I last checked in. Trolling around the weblinks - I see he is not kidding...

Anyway - a hearty handshake to you all, thanks for having me back and hopefully I can add some additional value around here (or at least provide a few good pasta salad recipes). My work takes me on the road from time to time, so my participation may seem irregular at first - but with all the wireless in hotels these days, not much of an excuse for not checking in to see how the light is being woven.

"et facta est lux"

- B.

---- On Sat, Feb 23, 2008, Bruce Schuman wrote ---

Just a quick hello -- as something stirs down in the roots of the this project....

By way of brief introduction, this "Bridge Across Consciousness" network was originally developed in the early 1990's, beginning in 1993. We were operating then on "listserv" technology, run by the University of California at Santa Barbara, and "The Bridge" ("BRIDGE-L" as it was called) was actually in operation for six years -- sending more than 30,000 messages on various themes having to do with epistemology, cognitive science, and the question of whether or not "all religions are pointing towards a common reality".

As things continued to evolve, I got introduced to the web about 1994 or 1995, and in 1996, we created "United Communities of Spirit", which morphed into an online database project about 1997, and which has been online ever since.

It's interesting that Mr. Bill Daunch, a scientist and chemical engineer who got involved with BRIDGE-L in beginning, contacted me recently, and is currently on the mailing list for new project. I don't know if Bill will have time to be involved here -- but he is on the list. Bill was a vital part of our original network -- it was Bill who first introduced me to the web. I had never heard of the web -- and I remember well that I simply could not relate to these strange technical concepts -- "http://" -- what the heck is that....

It literally took me six months before I found the free cognitive space to even look at the web. I just could not assimilate the concept directly. But it soaked it -- and over time, we continued to build web projects, and now, the web is obviously essential to everything we are doing. so, I hope you will find some of this interesting, Bill -- and not too vapid or airheaded for your hard-edged technical vision.

Also, let me mention, that about a month or six weeks ago, a writer and grad student named James Corrigan joined UCS. James has recently published a book entitled "Introduction to Awareness", which I felt contains a perspective that could add a lot to a conversation like this. James is one of these special people who has an instinct to combine the technical and analytical with the deeply intuitive. James worked as a programmer and database developer for many years, and is currently in graduate school. James has contacted me by email, indicating his interest and willing to explore the Bridge project, so I am looking forward to seeing what we can uncover. What I am thinking is -- I will buy and read his book, and comment on it here -- and he will review some of the technical writing on "Synthetic Dimensionality" (the algebraic theory behind the Bridge idea).

I am also supposing that it would be interesting to build some special features on our new web domain, http://bridgeacrossconsciousness.net. I have placed the entire content of a general introduction to psychology on that site, that presents a graphical approach to something like 70 different schools of psychology -- an approach which I feel is very suggestive and illuminating as regards this issue of bridging the analytical with the intuitive.

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