Interesting Thought #3: To be or not to be? That is the question..

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, he writes a speech to be read out by the character of Hamlet.

It opens with: …To be or not to be…

This is supposedly about two following plot hooks, to be avenged and to be dead.
I’m going to take that phrase and apply it to the interpretation of ‘to be dead’.

Now what this brings to me is the thoughts of our own existence and what it really means ‘to be’.

When I think of existing, I think of being aware of myself, my thoughts and the passage of time, to be aware of the external world and that I and *it are operating within two different realities, that is to say I perceive my mind and my thoughts, that infinite space between my ears – that can contain universes of its own – is some metaphysical dimension. Science however reminds me that my mind is just a by product of numerous chemical reactions constantly acting and reacting forming brain function.

I know I can see because when I look at the table in front of me – I see a remote control, I perceive the patterns of buttons and can see the difference in height between the buttons and the plastic case of the remote…I can verify that what I’m seeing is there because I can reach out and touch it, feeling the gaps I see between the buttons, I can bang it off the table and feel the resistance it gives and hear the noise of the two objects colliding.

So all of this data I can perceive and this should be enough to verify its existence as an inanimate object.
But how do I know I’m not only feeling, seeing and hearing it because I expect to – or I am being tricked into perceiving it?
If we look at the oh-so-common brain in a vat scenario we can see that this idea of solipsism* is quite possible and it is impossible to verify.

Your brain receives all of its feedback about the world and the body through nerve cells. These are basically like domino sending messages to the brain via a chain-reaction/domino-effect to the brain. They can be simulated with electrical impulses and stimulation. So taking that you use your nervous system to perceive and feel anything and everything – you can see here how it can be tricked quite easily.

I take your brain from your body and I sever the spinal cord. I submerge it in brain-nutriants which feed it everything it needs to function energy/oxygen and waste removal etc.

Now I attach to each never ending in the spinal cord – a small electrode the size of a 100th of a hair’s width. Through these electrodes I can send and receive signals to the brain just as the body did.

I attach it to this giant super computer that is powerful enough to manage all the connections in infinite variations.

Now – I that brain can live a perfectly conscious life. The supercomputer only needs to compute and simulate what the brain would expect to perceive So right now the rest of the world, the shop around the corner, my friend, my mother up in bed and my own bed aren’t within the perception of any of my senses. I can’t see, hear, taste, feel or smell them. So this supercomputer wouldn’t need to use CPU power to simulate those objects or areas.

This means an easier job for the computer. It also means that you can never prove this theory purely because if you have discovered a flaw in the system – it can easily just erase your memory and experience of the flaw – and have a do-over…At any point it chooses.

For example you have no way of proving that you have been existing for as long as you think you have. I remember the last 20 years of my life – I remember what I did yesterday. I remember that guy on the bus who reads the paper too close to his face and that other guy who does sudoku everyday.

But what if none of that ever happened and this computer has just generated these false memories just a moment ago. How could I ever question my existence if I can’t step outside our reality to view it externally from a higher level or reality.

So this brings me to the point – does anything really exist?

How can you tell? How do YOU exist. Where is your mind? I mean that in the sense of its physical location – this infinite space that can hold infinite amounts of data.

I think the human mind is purely just a side effect of the chemical reactions. But if that’s true – why am I me? Why was I born and why not someone else – I find the idea of a spiritual self or a soul to be illogical and impractical. I don’t believe in it one bit.

The way I see it the entire universe is a logical system with rules and structure – and if things can’t be explained or defined in mathematical terms or demonstrated in a logical manner – then it can’t be real.

How can something be real if it doesn’t make logical sense. How are souls logical? God isn’t even a logical concept. If god were to exist – he would need to exist outside our reality – this means he is illogical. Because logic is a part of our reality – its an internal concept or mechanic to enable the universe to work according to the rules. But the universe must exist within something else – within a higher reality that must abide by different rules under a different system of logic.

This would say to me that whatever god is – whether its a sentient being or a self aware being, a type of energy or matter, or if he is just our minds way of tying the concept of existence and attaching a purpose to it.

But that being said – this god cannot be good or evil – there can’t be a heaven or hell and there can’t be half of the things he/she claims to be.

For one – emotion is a chemical reaction – we can observe it. Morals and emotions are closely tied. Our morals are our emotional reaction to a decision or event in our lives and govern how we handle abstract situations that are outside the realms of instinct or provide understanding of the implications of taking action based on our instinct.

That being said – it seems you require a physical body to feel emotion you also need to have neurons reacting in a neural network for emotions to exist in a chemical state and a state of consciousness to exist on a mental level.

Since this god would exist outside our universe he cannot possess the traits designed and based within a universe with separate rules and logic.

This indicates that heaven and hell cannot exist simply because they are based on moral decision which is a feature of emotion and since we have already agreed that god is not a creature of morals – he therefore doesn’t love you nor does he care to judge you any more than you would judge an ant.

This sets the idea of religion to be plainly obvious – a control for society – but we kinda figured it out already!

You can easily compare the life time of Humans as a race – to that of the stages of human development.

We started off with basic skills and ability and explorers the world around us – just as babies do. Then we started to learn to use tools and to create – just as toddlers do – we then became overly proud of our industrial achievements and our advancements with knowledge – just as a prepubescent does – then we move on to leaving traditional values and doing what the worlds leaders and organizations tell us, forming our own opinions of the world, gaining independence from our dependants, losing faith in religion and politics, just as teenagers we start to find an identity – or – our place in the world they move away from authority when it fails to explain their curiosities and expectations.

This leaves our next step to be into adulthood we’re we understand our responsibilities as an entity in the universe – only know starting to grasp the fine, complicated knowledge of the cosmos and we start to find out our role in this big giant chemical reaction that is our universe.

So what is our consciousness? What are we? In my opinion as you’ve just read – we are the flame that jumps to life when you strike the match…and just like the flame hops into existence, we do our dance and then fade away leaving only evidence of our short existence in the scorch mark-events of our lives.

Anyway – good night 🙂