Aidan Hamilton

Betsy Natter
Design and Society

Spring Reflection Essay

(As a stream of consciousness in the style of GEB, with inspiration from Plato and Lewis Carrol
(also because I was bored, and yes I recently read GEB (I am also easily influenced (never had a good talk about
peer pressure in high school (Actually I skipped it because of peer pressure (Ironic isn't it? (did I use the word
ironic correctly there? Always had a hard time with that (how can you get that confused when you have the
google? (OH MY GOD who said that?!!! (Hi. The name's Steve (Why are you in my title Steve!!! ( well you
made so many nested parentheses that you created a layered network matching the complexity of the human
brain, and I was born (Wait so I created AI? (Yes, by the method theorized in GEB (You were born of talk of
GEB and reference GEB? What a strange loop (sigh...))))))))))))))))

Everyday I am born anew.

This mantra, one of many I've encountered, is unique in that it has rung universally true to me.
It is hardly a profound thought, but I've found it comforting and somewhat of a loose guide in my life.
The simple idea we as people change from day to day, physiologically, and by extension physically
(thoughts do run on a physical medium) is one I find eternally interesting. Well maybe not the fact of
the process but the actual process itself is what is entertaining to me; the how is certainly much more
interesting. But alas, that is a question without a certain answer as of yet, and is likely to be as
complicated as the process itself. That's summed up in the quote, "If the brain were so simple that we
could understand it, we would be so simple that we could not". Ah, my stream of consciousness as
taken taken a sharp turn, of more appropriately forgot to take the correct turn I guess. Anyways, this
was my long answer to the easy question of if I have changed during the course of this year.
But while I changed, of that I am certain, or I am I? Perhaps I changed my mind as well. No,
everyday I am born anew, hence I must have changed. That is clear evidence based reasoning if I may

be so bold. The track has been lost again though, might have to hire a hunter to understand my own
mind...

No the point has been found without assistance, saved some money that way. Anyways while I
have changed the changes have primarily happened only on one level, so to speak, perhaps two on
closer inspection, but certainly not three!!! That would be unthinkable! As any good formal system I
had a static layer during the course of the year, namely the goals, or directive, or rules, take your pick,
that guided how I pick my goals. So my meta-meta-change remained static. My meta-change,
commonly known as "goals" changed but only slightly. So little that the approximation that they did
not change (d change/dt = 0, of course assuming we are using vectors for this to make more sense, so
direction counts...) is valid as a 1st order approximation. Maybe even a second, though as a good
scientist I am cautious before making such a claim. The largest of the small changes in my metachanges was that my goal to become fluent in french intensified under the circumstances that the time
and energy available to me has steadily increased through the year. This is however unrelated to this
course and UNST in general.
Actually it becomes difficult to connect any of the assignments done through this year in UNST
to any meta-change. Difficult as well to connect them to any change on the 1st level either, except for
improved writing skill (not that you can tell from this piece). Improved writing isn't something to balk
at, I will be doing a significant amount of writing during my lifetime, writing doctoral theses, lab
reports and papers for post-doc and all. The only assignment in particular during this year that enacted
in me some noticeable change was a paper done on comparing two ethicists' arguments on social
responsibility. That assignment gave me the opportunity to put into clear ish words what I had always
(well not literally always, but for a significant period of time (You are such nitpicker for accuracy aren't
you?(better stop this before I make another Steve. Sibling rivalry is not something I want to deal with
right now)) found unsettling about ethics and a large portion of philosophy in general. And as you can

plainly see putting ideas into clear words is a challenge for me. Maybe I should make that into a new
goal eh? We could call that something else that changed me from this class.
Not to say I didn't learn anything from this class. I did learn an assortment of facts, facts that
may or not be useful to me someday. Doesn't it boggle your mind that collection of energy can know
facts about other collections of energy? Even more impressive is theses collections of energy can know
things about completely abstract concepts that don't have a presence as a bundle of energy. I'm talking
about math. I like math. Perhaps I need to hire that hunter after all, if only as a precautionary measure. I
was making the point that while I learned things in this class, the lessons that were meant to change the
way I viewed the world didn't. Not out of any fault of the teacher but because I had encountered those
ideas before, so the changes that were supposed to affect my goals and how I determine my goals, my
meta and meta-meta-changes, had already been made.
As I near the end of the required word count I suppose I must now consider the UNST rubric.
Honestly I was objectively at the height of the rubric prior to the beginning of this class, except for
diversity of human experience, as evidenced by me getting a 100 or nearly a 100 percent on every
assignment. So I have made little change with regards to that rubric. I have also made little progress on
the diversity of human experience, I kinda need to learn a couple of languages and live in other cultures
for a while to make any progress in that area. This class was doomed to offer little progress in that area
unfortunately. This could be considered a motivation for me becoming fluent in french. What a sudden
realization! I guess this class did assist in a meta-change after all!