Interesting Thought #4: Is the Future and Past – Just an illusion?

Okay – so I’ve been thinking. A lot 🙂 My life, your life and the existence of EVERYTHING!

A lot of people feel they have a choice in life. They sit there most of their time thought – regretting the bad choices they made and spending months in some cases, trying to place the blame to shed their guilt – or even just a couple of hours trying to understand a recent event and how they could have done things differently.

Why? Is it one of the problems with consciousness and higher thought? I think its actually just a matter of perception. We are always in a state of trying to think a head – out think ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’. We constantly analyse the past looking to find every error we made so we don’t make the same one again. In reality though – we are back logged. We make so many mistakes so frequently that we don’t have enough time to reconsider them. Plus we go through so many different scenarios in our mind of how the one event could have played out.

If we could see the future though, a definite future, would we be any happier? The temptation to look is too strong – since we all want that bit of control over our lives so saying ”I’ll only look when I need to look but that’s bullshit.

I know if I could see my definite future – I’d be looking to it as much as I look at the past. I spend hours of my day – at least half of my waking hours are spent thinking of everything that comes to mind that is half interesting.

Things I Think About

• The location and composure of the human mind.
• The size of the universe and what possible other life forms could exist besides carbon-based (every life form of earth is carbon based)
• How humans could evolve and how they could have evolved differently
• Alternate ways society could develop
• Z-Day (Zombie Apocolypse)
• When I cross the road I like to imagine I have telekinesis or mind control in case a driver might hit me – not a delusional thing just day dreaming
• Martial Arts and the physics behind it – nerve strikes and grappling etc.
• Past Relationships
• Future Relationships
• Who my possible wife might be and what she is currently doing and where she is in the world
• Batman
• Personal Life Events in the past
• Friendships and Relationships and how things are going and possibly play out in current events
• The Future – Technology, Society, Religion and Evolution
• Alien Life
• Existence and God
• Batman

So as you can see my head – like most peoples – is running through thousands of thoughts per hour concocting various simulated scenarios and thinking of endless possibilities.

So the past is pretty obvious – as far as we know we can verify it has happened – that is – outside the belief of solipsism – and the future seems to be pretty much set in stone.

Humans can perceive 3½ dimensions. Length, Height and Width.

This is a graphic example of the four spatial dimensions

Now if we consider what a dimension is and what the fourth dimension represents – we can say that a dimension is a physical location on a single plane in space-time. How is time a dimension like length or height or width? Simple really.

Well Maybe 🙂

Each lower dimension will make up the dimension previous to it. As you can see two objects in the ‘0’ dimension in the above diagram join together to create a first dimension object – a line.  Join two lines at both ends and you create a flat (2d) square. Join two squares and tada – you have a cube (3d).  What about the 4th dimension? Well if you think of the characteristics inherent in every object you have length, width, height and change. As you sit infront of the computer – the state of the atoms in the world around you – are constantly changing – moving, vibrating or radiating at different rates. Time is the measurement of change in a given object or system. If you could percieve the full perspective of the fourth dimension – you could see every point that an object has existed and changed from its first planck second to its ultimate planck second of ceasing to exist – that is – when the matter has decompressed into energy and been completely destroyed – not just changed states.

Take into account here that matter – the hard stuff that you, me and everyone and everything is made from – is just densely compressed energy…and so in perceiving the full fourth dimension – you would see that the entire universe is created from basically you would be consiously aware of every atom you can see – its current measurements in height, length, width and change.

So looking at a collegue I can see every state he has ever been and will become right until the end of the universe – until our 11 total dimensions collapse in on themselves and the universe ‘bursts’ or ‘collapses’.

This says to me – that the entire future of the universe and its entire contents are completely predictable and inherently predetermined.

You might be thinking – ”A here, fuck off would  ye? I make my own decisions” well not really- You don’t at all. Its all just a big chain of dominos.

Example:

You wake up this morning. You have three choices – look at the clock – lie there a little longer – get up straight away. Now every one of those choices and any other you can think of – is purely a reaction. You might look at the clock to make sure you don’t miss work, school, college etc you might already know you don’t have any morning appointments so you might lie there a little longer, you may not feel well or that you have slept enough either – or you may feel you’ve reseted enough and your hungry, or you need the toilet – either way – its all decided already.

Because of past events the future is just a change of state based on the reaction of the last event and everything in your life will always happen because of a past event – everything is a reaction to a cause which in itself is a reaction to a previous cause.

It all started with A, A begot B and B begot C etc and eventually that single event begot the entire rest of the universe.

So if our brains could perceive the fourth dimension we technically could read minds, understand the universe on a greater scale as well as understand our purpose in the universe.

What I want though is – to be able to step outside reality – into my own pocket reality – where time runs at a relative rate of 1 second in this reality to 1 year in my private one. This would give me all the time I need to understand everything I want to know.

Imagine – just with a thought – you could pause reality and step into your parallel reality where time runs at a sloth’s pace – run to the library in Trinity College and read up on everything you need to satisfy your current curiousity – or during work – pop into my reality for a nap and sleep for a few hours(my time) and be back before people even notice I’ve gone.

In the mean time – until we understand how to create traverse-able worm holes into our own pocket universes with time dilation – sit tight and enjoy the moment!

Just a thought 🙂

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 🙂

A retraction of subtext…

In one of my earlier posts I spoke and ranted about the bother with falling in love. Well after some time pondering about that article and the thoughts and mental excusions it took me on, I’ve decided to clarify – that the subtext of that wasn’t love is bad, not real or has a hidden agenda…but it was ‘Im still hurt’. It may be obvious that I wrote it out of lost love – yes. But not so obvious that I wasn’t the victim as-such.

I was the fool to leave her. I am the ‘criminal’ in this scenario. I stole her heart and broke it.
In retrospect – I was quite selfish in that relationship. Not on purpose – I rarely am selfish on purpose. I have quite a – how would you say – self serving nature. While I try to do things for others and be as grateful and generous as I can – I’ve always – well nearly always – been able to round my motive down to self gratification on some level. That being said – a lot of it is nearly subconsious.

I have sabotaged a lot of my own relationships in the past – always the same story. I meet a girl, we fall for eachother (call it puppy love if you will), we get involved together – and when things get too deep – I bail…not out of fear of commitment – nothing I love more than knowing there is someone I can be with and rely on to be there for and with me. But what I reason – is because I figure I don’t deserve this person. That there is someone out there who can love them more than I do – and they deserve to find that person. But thats bull shit too. I mean the part about self sacrifice. The real reason – is I don’t believe I deserve them. period.

Me as a person – I am many things. I am clinicly classified as a Genius…I was given a second chance at life through adoption…I live with a family who has high moral values and leanient but decent dicipline and who love eachother. I have all the resources I need – to get anywhere I want in life. I’m aware of that. I have friends – while few – are some of the best guys you could ask for. I have hundreds of ‘aquintances’, my name is well known in the local area – I am still meeting people at parties and social functions who know me by name, full name, and I’ve not only never seen them before – I havn’t heard their name either…I have such a unique story behind me in the last 20 years – if you were to hear my life story to date – you would think its a fiction novel…If I were to put a percentage of how much my closest friends know about my life – I’d easily say 40%…my family, 60%. People seem to think I can’t keep a secret – but the oldest trick in the book – give them nothing – and they’ll look for something…give them a little – and they’ll look for nothing…

Anyways – back on track…all that is relevant in saying – while I have the brains and resources, social and personal – to get where I want in life – I can’t work a relationship. Out of one simple emotion – governs the rest of my life from there on out…fear….

I’ve known for years that I fear a lot of things. Not ghosts or murderers, spiders or ghouls…I fear change and loss. I know everyone fears loss, I know everyone dislikes change…but I loathe both of them…they go hand in hand…and where one is – the other isn’t far behind….

Loss brings change…and change brings loss… its circular – infinite…

I screwed up my last relationship – because of so much change…I feared loosing the one I loved – and out of that came my irrational decision.

In the last year and a half – I have experienced change on such a large scale – in every aspect of my life – there was huge change. I lost friends, contact with family, communication with the outside world became a burden…I was so wound up in the bondage of change, that I cut myself off emotionally from a lot of things. I spent time worrying and working on holding onto what I still had – while it slipped through my fingers like sand…and my relationship – was more like a wet clod of sand…in the beginning it held out against everything…but as time passed – it dried out and slowly eroded away and like everything else – slipped away…

So – my recent article about the pointlessness of relationships…was written with the feelings of anger, regret and self pitty…when it should have been written with self realization, external perspective, introsepction and understanding…

So if you bothered to read this far, here is the treat of this article…

Like life, love is to be experienced, not planned for or expected.

Thats just a quote that grew from a small piece of personal philosphy I carry in my mental journal. The original piece went as:

The present is what we do when we experience the future, the past is what we do when we look at our present. Life is to be lived, not prepared and expected…

Just a thought….