D's existential blog

(evolution) chance seems to be a significant factor

2009-10-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Richard Dawkins: Every organism that lives is the "elite of the elite of the elite" (end of 2nd paragraph under "Take a giraffe" chapter)--> seems to ignore the fact that people would not be around if they wouldn't have gotten lucky at some critical points (@ the population bottlenecks)

there may be something BIG to lose

2009-09-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

by trying cryo preservation or similar -- if there IS something beyond this existence, something better then this you wouldn't want to be stuck to a body indefinitely, but we just don't know...

should we just count our blessings?

2009-08-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

there is no real guarantee that our life would be anywhere this good a some significant time into the future; you'd *hope* things would just get better but how realistic is that? we may have gotten to live (naturally, without the life extension) during the best of times; is there a point where life is just not worth is anymore? does every individual have a 'suicide point' --> a point where death is truly a better alternative d.

getting back to science...

2008-11-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

STILL MORE: favorite quote from this book it's actually a re quote of Oscar Wild: "we are all in the gutter, but some of us are gazing at the stars..." D.

EVEN MORE:

some things I always had a problem with:

the analogy used to explain basic relativity: is the train moving or is the platform moving? what a silly question... you must burn energy to have that behemoth of a train move! there is no energy spent for just... standing on the platform... (if you have any doubt as to what is ultimately moving in that situation, just have somebody in the train pull the emergency break...or better still, have the train run out of fuel)

quantum mechanics: the idea that you have a measuring instrument interacting with what it's supposed to measure and thus the measurement turns-out wrong and that's a problem we just have to live with... you should be able to at least estimate the error, take it into account and move on... it's an *error of the measuring process* -- has nothing to do with the underlying reality...

a lot of things that are currently main stream appear beyond ridiculous and I think Einstein was correct (although deemed wrong according to current ideas) to question the foundation of quantum mechanics.... D.

MORE: well... I just have to give up on trying to get G. to read it (he's read a couple of paragraphs I pointed-out and said "cool!" -- not exactly the heated discussion I was hoping for... D.
...
Einstein's mistakes

Delia

P.S. science and the like may not be a perfect way to figure out what's going on but it seems to be the best we've got... D.

I took a look at fractals, a way back...

2008-09-08T10:34:00.001-07:00

... doesn't seem to be very promising, although I wonder if we "see" fractal-like images before falling asleep and somehow end-up hallucinating as a result; I seem to be able to lucidly dream to some extent (are some people lucid all the way through? seems hard to tell -- how do you know you are not dreaming that you are lucidly dreaming?)

Delia

P.S. this Claude guy was a trip... (did confirm some thing I noticed and seems odd to me: having a dream that uses information from a prior dream, sometimes a very old dream)

P.P.S. I also read a bit about hallucinations in schizophrenia (interesting that one school of thought holds that there is nothing "wrong" with these people... in a medical sense... (just a different kind of "normal") D.

I need to get out of the funk with this...

2008-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

... but I just don't know which way to go; G.'s been asking me to "dump Archy McNally" (and his ilk) and read some Dostoevsky instead (I didn't quite like his writing in the past, seemed like a boring guy that rambled on and on... and never quite got to the point, I just I never really stuck around for the ending...)

Delia

P.S. So I guess I'm going to give the guy chance , G. says it all comes together at the end -- we'll see... D.

are we in a self created bubble?

2008-08-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

do we have any idea of what's really going on?

Delia

P.S. are things like truth and reality -- human concepts -- really "real"?

the great puzzle or the great absurd?

2008-08-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I often get the impression that it's really a game... a puzzle of some sort that we all get a chance to figure out -- that the pieces are all there, we just need to figure out how to make them work...

we have decent control over a lot of things in our environment... so is it just a matter of time and persistence? Is one of us or more likely humankind collectively going to solve it in the end? or are we going to run out of time? is there a clock ticking away? and what does it all matter? so what if we figure it out? so what if we live forever? ultimately... it all seems absurd anyways...

is it all just a bizarre dream?

Delia

fast forwarding

2008-08-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

it's hard not to think that if we could fast forward long enough nothing would really matter... (no matter what you do, you'd still be dead in the long run...and not just you, everything gets erased and becomes irrelevant)

Delia

P.S. unless we (humans) pull something extremely unusual...

Unitarian church (gave it a try...)

2008-05-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

I really didn't feel like going but G.'s been after me to give it a try (he's got this idea that because they use symbols from different religions they must be an open minded bunch -- the kind of non-dogmatic people that can have real conversations on religion and the like).

Delia

P.S. it was mostly boring although I had to excuse myself at one point and rushed out of the room so I would not have to explode in laughter right in the middle of the "fellowship" (they were singing Kumbaya and praying for the gas prices to come down...) D.

sustainable hedonism

2008-04-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

this is what people appear to seek in this life (or any other future life); it's just that they have or believe to have different pleasures (e.g. a religious person derives or believes the religious path will bring her/him most pleasure in the long run) D.

William Barrett: Irrational Man

2008-04-07T22:19:00.000-07:00

not a bad book but it could have been much better if he would have separated searching for the truth (rationalism, in his book) from searching for a way to deal with life (religion, in his book) D.

(more on) Terrence McKeena (and Mark Pesce)

2008-03-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

here

digging into G.'s stash of books...

2008-02-08T22:34:00.001-08:00

William's Barrett: Irrational Man (A study of Existential Philosophy)

we had an hour wait to get into the restaurant for dinner so we ended-up back in the car, reclined the seats, got comfortable and I started reading out loud... (G.'s read this book a number of times -- his copy is quite worn -- but not recently, so we are going over it together).

Delia

P.S. had to ignore some startled looks... some passers by must have thought we were on a pretty odd date... (my bare feet were resting against the windshield -- I can't get really comfortable in a car without doing that...) D.

looking into "secular meditation" (just reading for now)

2008-01-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

MORE: done with Herbet Benson's "The Relaxation Technique"; used Transcendental Meditation for his research... I see that as a weakness (not exactly secular), he claims you'd get the same response if you did it from a secular stand point... maybe, maybe not...I give him credit for mentioning possible side effects (such as hallucinations for those who meditate for hours for a period of weeks --> seems to be consistant with this TM horror story) D.

I think there may be something to it... (although the idea of repeating things over and over seems unhealthy to me even when outside of a religious context) D.

would physical immortality be desirable?

2007-11-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

it seems to depend a lot on what a particular individual thinks of life and of death: what they *are*...

those who believe they would go on anyways, may actually regard the attempt to prelong life as a bad idea...

those who believe this is it and when you die it's all gone, are likely to try to at least extend their physical life (unless they are unhappy with it in some way or they don't see the point of living very long even in excelent condition -- some people appear to think it would be boring... --> compared to what? it seems to beat being dead if death means nothingness for the individual)

Delia

key question: the possibility of immortality

2007-11-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

in the sens of figuring out how to make yourself go on, potentially forever... (in an earthly -- not necessarily this earth -- , non-religious way) D.

unless you could somehow prepare yourself for what was to come...

2007-11-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

... but how could you possibly know ahead of time? yeah, there are plenty of people who would shamelessly (or delusionally) tell you they KNOW -- they just KNOW... (Run....) D.

it seems to make a lot more sense to stay with this world...

2007-11-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

(stay with the "calm waters of the mind")

... for the duration that you will be alive and if there IS something that transcends, there should be plenty of time for that later on... D.

he just seems a bit out there for me...

2007-11-12T16:35:00.000-08:00

EVEN MORE: if I can find the time, I'll do a "Terrance McKeena blog" (this entry is just my quick assessment of his ideas on controversial drugs) and really look at the details of what he is saying... D.

MORE: no, the fact that most people use "psychedelics" for trivial purposes does NOT mean they cannot be used for the higher purposes he suggests... it's just that aside from possibly some interesting music and things of that nature there seems to be no evidence that taking the risks and going into "the dark waters of the mind" is any more conducive to coming up with useful ideas beneficial to this world than... taking a nap, skipping all those dangers and coming up with useful ideas while fully lucid...

certainly interesting and entertaining but there appears to be no real foundation to what he is saying... *who* has gone "in the dark waters of the mind" and brought back something very useful in the grand scheme of things? most people seem to use such things for "recreational purposes" or just to make themselves more sociable -- I need no such aid in either of those circumstances... D.

a means of getting new ideas?

2007-11-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

1:26 D.

Terrence McKeena: "it's really yourself that is the final arbiter"

2007-11-10T19:54:00.000-08:00

right again! (1.22-1.27) D.

is there some sort of God?

2007-11-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

MORE: yes, I know Terrence McKeena has passed away... (I still think he deserves to be thanked) D.
...
maybe... it's just that... "[people were] not put on this planet to toil in the mud, or the god who put us here to toil in the mud is no god I want to have any part of, it's some kind of gnostic demon, some sort of canibalistic demiurge that should be thoroughly denounced and rejected" --> (2:34 - 2:57) -- thanks to Terrance McKeena! (I arrived to this on my own but it was nice to see that someone's already put it together in such a great way...)

Delia

P.S. I wouldn't know if he's right about the use of hallucinogenics and such (I just never tried!) but he's right on above! D.

but is it...

2007-10-26T20:18:00.001-07:00

... absolutely unavoidable? and is that what really happens? D.

so what's gonna happen?

2007-10-23T18:30:00.001-07:00

MORE: and most people did (voluntarily) "participate" (for the vast majority of people the option of suicide or effecting the end of one's life by other means was there fairly early on and, no, I do not think you would have had to be crazy or at least depressed to do that: it's a very basic choice... and there are rational reasons that cut both ways...) D.

probably nothing... "thanks for your participation!" and ... lights out! (although it looks like we might get a bit of a celebration at the end: things like a flash review of one's life and some sensory stimulation probably due to the brain getting less and less oxygen after vital functions have ceased and cells are still alive for a while...)

Delia

P.S. if this is what's going on and is inevitable, it makes no sense to be depressed about it! -- you still got to live and (hopefully) it was fun while it lasted... D.

thinking about death

2007-10-21T16:49:00.001-07:00

... the idea that if you are thinking about death, you must be depressed is beyond bizarre --If you've never thought about death, I'd be worried... (I guess, the good news is that... you are not depressed! and the bad one? you are probably brain dead...) D.

what's this all about?

2007-10-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

self-explanatory, I hope... D.