Davis 3 (Sam Lindsey)

Date:4/4/2018
Author: Sam Lindsey
Assignment: Post #4, Davis Chapter 3, "Geological timeline"

For this reading I was trying to be especially cognizant of what "things" or "events" caused shifts in thinking or new epochs. Most of the things I found were based around Gnosticism given that that was what the majority of the chapter was focused on, but there were other interesting facts that I found. I'll begin here by listing all of those things I found important and then order them from most to least influential (strongest to weakest layers) and then accompany that with a drawing that may help better illustrate my understanding. The ways in which we (our group) interpreted this chapter was most likely very different and so these were the things that stuck out to me personally as I read.

Things (Concepts, Ideas, Inventions) I found important:

1. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls
2. Gnosticism
     a. Platonic overtones
     b. The "Cosmic Trap"
     c. Genesis is not what we think it is
     d. A thirst for information
3. Atomic Bomb
4. The information age
5. Radar
6. Z3 - programmable digital computer
7. Secret codes (produced with these computers)
8. ENIAC
9. Vacuum tubes
10. Information (conceptually)
11. Information gathering
12. Information theory
13. The meaning of "meaning"
14. Information vs. Meaning
15. DNA -> the code of life
16. Cybernetics
17. Systems theory
18. Corpus Hermeticum
19. "Hymn of the Pearl"

This, for the most part, is the order in which these things appear in TechGnosis, but are not necessarily the way they influence and construct one another... I will try to make that more apparent in the ordering below. 1 being the oldest layer of rock and increasingly new concepts and ideas (or less concrete foundations as we progress).

1. Gnosticism
     a. Platonic overtones
     b. The "Cosmic Trap"
     c. Genesis is not what we think it is
     d. A thirst for information
     e. "Hymn of the Pearl"
2. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls
3. The Information Age
    a.  Information (conceptually)
    b.  Information gathering
    c.  Information theory
    d. The meaning of "meaning"
    e. Information vs. Meaning
4. A "new" age of science
   a. Atomic Bomb
   b. Radar
   c. Z3
       1. Coding messages
   d. ENIAC
   e. Vacuum Tubes
5. DNA
6. Cybernetics
   a. Systems theory
   b. Corpus Hermeticum

Illustration to come. Essentially I would start with Gnosticism as the ground work and then a-e would be rocks or minerals withing that layer and progressively work my way up the strata... Additionally, there will be wells/volcanoes that help connect and seep through all of the layers of the chapter.