The future generations
A thought occurred to me as I was watching another documentary.
In the last few years I have gathered and filtered through enormous amounts of information. As we (humans) grow in numbers all the information available grows as well. Alot of the information probably is redundant, but still, lot's of it out there.
We as human species have already moved into a stage where evolution of the mind is at work, not everything is passed on using genes. Books, films, music, et cetera are also adding to our differences in being.
So if we think about future generations, in the past we were thinking mostly about providing a good and healthy environment. Most of it aimed at physical and civil goals. In these times it seems more appropriate to point more towards information.
Let's say that I as a human being experience life and gather knowledge. Then, using these two things I compile my view on life. The gathering of knowledge (information that I can comprehend) should in my opinion be a bit easier and more clear.
But we have schools right? This is where we get the basic understanding of the world and (social) environment we live in. While this is true, school happens to you at an age where you are still very much being lived by life. In my experience the information that is taught at schools does not have (for the students) the significance we (the older) people see in it.
There will come a time (for many of us) where we get interested in our existence. At this time it would be nice to have some sort of guide into the information we have available. The thought thus is to create some sort of something that will provide guidance in the big overwhelming pile of stuff we have laying around.
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The tougher stuff in life
Sometimes I find life a bit more tough. At those times I have emotions that naturally feel on the uncomfortable side. It seems to me that these emotions are coming from not knowing what to do with my life.
I live in the west and have everything I want in the sense of material needs. This gives me the space to stand still and choose. And choices are endless in that position. On the grand scale of things I realise I am just a tiny being having a human experience. At the same time I am as special as the rest of you. When you have the choice and ability to do whatever you want within the boundaries of what is possible today, what will you do?
I often think about what I can add to help another being with the human experience. And usually I change this question into the following: What would I teach my kid if I had one? With this comes the feeling that I am pretending to be more than I actually am, but at the same time, I remember people that have added something to the understanding of humans today.
To come back to the original uncomfortable feeling I have at the moment. I know that whatever feeling comes, I can choose how to interpret it. Yet sometimes I have the wish to just pick something that would give me a feeling that is automatically interpreted by my brain as pleasant.
Life at times is a bit overwhelming and in a strange sense it gives me a feeling that I can best describe as being melancholous. This feeling gives me great conflict as I love the feeling, but at the same time it makes me sad. Besides that, it grips me, paralyzes me.
At times like this I don't know what to do with myself. I could cry, smile, dance and crawl up in a corner. I could give you all kinds of explainations of where this feeling comes from and why it is inevitable that I feel it. Yet that would not add anything to the story.
As you can see I am spinning round and round without going anywhere. It reminds me of a poem I once wrote:
"A little boy, insecure in that enormous world. He doesn't have a clue how he got there. All kinds of people that talk and do. The boy stands there in the crowd, he looks down, sad... It is so busy, where did the quietness go? It probable was not always like this. From all sides thoughts and impressions come in. What does he have to rely on, it's so much, it clouds. He wants to say something, but it's taking directly with the big stream, it's gone. A tear comes, over his cheek, feelings of lonelyness, lostness and insecurity. The tear rolls down his chin and falls down. Falls down. The tear reaches the ground, it's quiet, completely quiet... Surprised the boy looks up, a hand, with above it a face, a friendly smile. The boy reaches for the hand, a lovely piecefull and comforting feeling flows through him."
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Explanations beyond the rational ones
I am watching the 'The Atheism Tapes' which I find a great source of interesting conversations. During one of the last conversations in the additional tapes I had a few interesting idea's.
I was asking myself: 'What does it add to bring in explanations that do not do anything'. An example to explain it better: We could say that we are actually some sort of beings in a dimension other than this playing a game called life. There is no way to prove it as the rules of life dictate that you can not know you are actually playing a game: this would ruin the experience. On the other hand, it also can not be disproven. In other words, we can not say anything about it.
Alot of people have similar thoughts about it (religion and that kind of thing) and hold on to those thoughts with great emotion.
It came to me that these types of idea's, adding something to the picture that is not needed to explain anything, do infact have some value. They give meaning. I must say this is a different type of meaning than the meaning of my own life. They give meaning or purpose to that which exist. In my personal case, not believing in this kind of thing gave me (in a sense) more meaning or purpose in my daily live. I might confuse this however with an urge to do something as time runs out.
Anyway, to get back to the point, this idea about things that do not add anything really necessary to the picture. Consider the following string of thoughts. We (as human beings) are so focussed on the past. Let's look at the Atheists view on God, the question that pops up almost instantly is this one: "But then who created God?". This question then can be iterated into infinity, not solving everything. Instead of looking back, let us look forward. We as humans are a race that is changing (or evolving), technology brings us further and further. It is not hard to image that at some point in the future we can create intelligence. Let us say that we could make (I am keeping it simple) a computer program in which real intelligence is allowed to evolve. That intelligence as it matures will at some point be in the stage we are in now. What will we do?
One of my guesses is that we still have not found an answer to one of the fundamental questions: Is our universe created or is it just here? Would we then keep that computer program running to see if they would find a way to find they creator (us)? If they eventually did find us, we would have a way to check if we have a creator. On the other hand, the barier between them (within the computer program) and us, might (or maybe is) unbreachable. Would we then go on and tell them, or would we wait and see to what point they evolve? Would we tell them how it works when they reach a point where they are developing their own computer program?
Anyway, for me personal, this insight gave me an easier way to handle these types of questions. It is easier to understand human beings then some sort of imaginary being that can be my creator.
Damn, life is so freaking fascinating!
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Technocalyps
I just watched the 3 part documentary called Technocalyps. This documentary is about technology, it's progress, it's implications and also about it's effect on human evolution.
The documentary had great impact on me as it touches some fundamental human topics and discussions. The part I want to write about now is the one concerning my conciousness and it's transfer to another type of body.
Scientists succesfully transfered the brain of one monkey to the body of another, the monkey lived 7 days before the body rejected the brain. Other scientists have the means to mimic certain brain processes.
So let's asume my brain contains all that makes me me. Then I would be able to, right before I die, transfer my conscious being into another system. In the case that I was transfered into another human like body (maybe cloned) there would no imediate problem. But what if they transfered me into a virtual world? This virtual world was designed to exactly mimic life as I know it. Maybe a few years in the future (as I might have been unconscious), because that would explain why I did not recognise any of the other inhabitants (easier for the programmers of the software).
The question that arises here is the same that came from the movie The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor and Existenz: How would I know that I was living in a virtual world?
As for now I do not know if there is an answer to that question as the same question applies to life as we know it. How do we know this is real? As for the life I accept as real, the thing we call reality, the solution lies in the answer to the following question: How real does it seem?
Both in real life as in the virtual mimic the answer would be the same: Real enough.
That answer gives us another question: Does it really matter?
And this, I find, is a tough one. My rational answer to that question would be: no, it doesn't. If it is mimiced perfectly there would be no difference. My gut feeling however is shouting: Offcourse it matters, it's virtual and thus not real!
I guess I will have to ponder about the first question a bit more as it might provide me with some insights into human life. I would recommend you to watch the documentaries as they provide some interesting thoughts, problems and discussions.
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Got to start some day
Every once in a while I get the urge to write stuff down. The exact reasons for this might be explained later, who knows.
I have no special intentions writing this down.
My name is Erik and I am from Holland, which might explain my strange English accent.
So, what's on my mind today? Not too much actually. It's just the urge to do something with my life. My current quest is to learn as much about life as I can and sometimes, when I hang in front of my TV watching a series of some sort, I feel the urge to do something more usefull. After checking my RSS reader and email in search for something usefull, I remembered I created this place some time ago.
Life is quite a special thing to experience and I am constantly amazed by it. We are alive and experiencing a thing we call reality. In these times we have computer games that get more and more advanced, will we end up with a game that is just as amazing as life itself?
For me, for a long time one of life's big questions has haunted me: Is there life after death? I became quite obsessed with it and read (now in my favorites collection) books from R. Monroe and B. Moen. These two authors had me convinced of a life after death and I recommend anyone with an interest in the subject to read them. Even if it's bullshit they give you a very nice and detailed alternative explaination.
Quite some time ago I found a religion called 'Church of Reality', they have a forum where alot of interesting topics are discussed. One of these topics was (offcourse) one about the aforementioned question. You must know that the forum has some well spoken scientific minded critics. They made me realize that, allthough I did not know at the time, I was not quite sure about my choice. To explain a bit better: as far as I can tell there is no solid proof for or against a life after death, so whatever you believe is what you want to believe. At that point in time I choose to believe in favor of the life after death.
Now, some months later my opinion has changed. After a lot of internal resistance I now think it's more likely there is no life after death. I am still very much open to the idea however.
The biggest problem that came with this shift was the meaning of life. I was always quite layed back thinking: "When I die I will understand it all". The fact that I might not be around after I die poses a problem to this layed back attitude. When I die, I might not be around anymore and all the knowledge I gathered about the human experience will be gone.
That sense of waste I think has led me to slowly poor out words onto this canvas.
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