Tangled mongrel membranes of long-prior evolution
Smothering in their heaviest, fatalistic lies; intercalated, their interposition leaves flintier scars
A false Sufism is where we prevaricators lean, stalking saviors we can’t see
This level plane hunts our golden angoran goats, our impalas of ideas, to completion
Any real reaction is a fucking fluke
When we walk out into the savannah’s strange attractor to let our bones bleach in the sun
I wrote this a little while ago.
My worldview is in a state of flux. In order to get a better (or worse) grip on it, I thought I’d post some random thoughts about existence on nilscript.
Let’s name and define the three commonly discussed types of existence: abstract, physical, and mental.
Abstract – a thing WITHOUT spacial/temporal coordinates.
Physical – a thing WITH spacial/temporal coordinates.
Mental – Wait a second.
After writing down mutually exclusive definitions for abstract and physical existence I’m not sure how, or if, I can define mental existence. I mean, I already have one issue with mental existence and that is that I’m not a dualist, I’m a physicalist. Well, at least I was until I started thinking about the possibility that everything is emergent from abstract existence. So, for the moment I’m going to forgo a definition for mental existence beyond: a thought in ones mind, which (at the moment) I accept as a physical process.
So, here’s an interesting situation. Suppose we’re physical beings. How can we become aware of abstract objects? It seems there’d have to be some sort of interaction between the physical objects and the abstract objects. Right? Maybe there’s truly no distinction between physical and abstract. But, let’s suppose there is a distinction. Then, how do we become aware of objects in the abstract realm? I feel tempted to say that being aware of them means that we have been affected by them. But then I’m not sure how to resolve the idea that objects that don’t exist within space and time are able to affect objects that do. So, maybe it goes the other way around. I mean, maybe the physical objects (us) discover the abstract objects via mathematics and similar pursuits. I’m not sure what the means yet either. So, let’s try this: maybe we’re not physical beings. Maybe we’re just abstract objects that don’t know any better than to refer to our existence as physical and somehow separate from abstract existence.
I’ll write more on this when I have something useful to say.
#
A couple asides:
Oh, btw, I realize I haven’t defined space or time and this fact just caused me a bit of unease. And, then when I spent of few moments trying to define them, something troubling happened. I suggested to my self that 3-dimensional space is an abstraction used to specify the location of physical objects. Boy Howdy.
You know how sometimes people say that the nature of the universe (or existence) is beyond our limited human comprehensive capabilities? I think this is what they mean. None-the-less, I’d like to think that we can figure out something meaningful about existence, if not the nature of the universe.
I wonder if any light could be shed on the subject by looking at the similarities and differences between the physical and the abstract. I mean, it seems interesting to note that cause and effect seems to be at work in both the physical and abstract realms of existence.
You wake up to your alarm clock screaming at you and think to yourself, “why are you yelling? I haven’t even hit you yet.” You roll over, hit your alarm clock, then apologize and go back to sleep.
A phrase keeps running through my mind and I don’t know where it came from.
“More like an echo than a man.”
I don’t know what I deserve.
I’ve got to be the echo or be the man. Whatever I am. I have to keep striving to just be.
This is just a rough draft and maybe it will only ever be a rough draft but I wanted to get some of these thoughts out.
Here’s a first pass on existence.
My primary interest here is to develop an understanding about what it means to exist, whether or not there truly are different types of existence, and to see if anything can be learned by thinking about these topics.
Let’s start with a few definitions.
Space is that within which things exist in relation to one another. Each thing can be described in relation to a separate thing by using numbers to describe the separateness of objects. Objects are said to exist in three-dimensional space and so have three “spacial” qualities (width, depth, and height) that have numbers associated with them.
Time is that within which things exist in relation to themselves. Objects are said to exist in one-dimensional time and so have one “temporal” quality (duration) associated with them.
But what does it mean to exist? What about: an object can be said to exist if it has spacial and temporal qualities?
Well, let the problems begin. How’s that again?
1) Space/time is that within which things exist.
Sounds a little bootstrapy to me.
“Have you seen the proof yet?” John, almost leaping out of his chair, says to Carl.
Carl responds, “What proof?”
Eyes wider, voice a bit higher, John replies, “Whaddaya mean, what proof?!? The VM proof. The proof that we’re living inside a computer! It’s all over the news! EVERYONE’S talking about it.”
“Oh. That.” Carl says flatly. “You don’t believe that nonsense,” he paused and offered a closer look at John, “do you?
“Ya I do! It’s crazy, I know! But it makes complete sense. Haven’t you been following this?”, John pauses. “I can’t believe you’re not following this….the proof is so simple… he laid it out perfectly.”
“First, the Taoists knew it, that reality was not what it seemed, that there was something outside of us, bigger than us. Next, the Greeks realized that there’s another type of existence, the Platonic realm. They also started toying around with motion and the associated paradoxes. They were right, in certain respects. Nothing moves.” John, realizing he is talking too fast, slows down and takes a breath.
Carl takes advantage of the momentary silence, “Ahhhh. Come on. I can’t believe you believe this.”
“Oh, I believe it! You wanna know what’s next? The LHC. You know what that is?…” John waits, sincerely hoping for a response. “They’re trying to hack their way out of the universe. Some scientists think they can leave! That’s nuts, but I – ”
Carl interrupts. “Ya, I heard about them. You know what else I heard, that if they’re right and if they keep trying, that some people think the universe will implode to protect itself.”
“Hahhahaa… that’s funny. You mean, they think it’d reboot?” John laughs, then suddenly gets quiet. “Wait, that’s kind of a good point. I mean, wait. Wait. Wait! They shouldn’t do that. They’ve gotta stop!”
“Hey, you seem concerned. You really believe this, don’t you.”
“Ya. And they’ve gotta stop.” John is no longer amused.
“Oh. Well, they’re planning the first full powered collisions today.” Carl says, a little paler in the face.
rm universe:23489072349087034556565 mk universe:23489072349087034556566
:: command failed. permission denied. anomaly detected.
Fffsssssssssssssst.
“Shit. You’re right. Damn it. Hey, what’s that so–”
“I didn’t hear anything. What are you talking about?”
rm universe:23489072349087034556565 -f mk universe:23489072349087034556566 -f
:: command failed. permission denied. anomaly detected.
Fffsssssssssssssssssssst.
“There! There is again! What is that so–”
su god
rm universe -r mk universe:23489072349087034556566
:: universe 23489072349087034556567 created.
There is a thin line below you. It stretches over a gray ocean filled with fear.
You don’t know how you started. You can’t remember your name. But, there you are… walking along that tight line, trying not to stare at the waves.
You don’t want to go forward. There’s nothing there. You don’t want to retreat. That must be where you came from. There are no options. You end up frozen, suspended in an iceberg of your own inaction.
That’s when the sharks come. Their teeth are made of terrible metaphors. Their eyes are glazed with the cynicism of a thousand misremembered memories. You won’t have time for the ocean to shrivel your skin with remorse or regret, now. The sharks will eat your blood and leave your bones to wash up on the rocky shores of resentment, for the gulls to pick at.
That’s why you have to look up, and take one step. One. The ocean is still always there. There is no end in sight. The sky is the same color as the waves from end to end. There is only the place where the tightrope meets the horizon, fuzzy and far and unknowable.
You have to take that one step.
I found this on the following website. I thought it was funny.
http://ravingatheist.com/2005/11/if-you-were-god/#comments
god
no plan
no rules
do nothing
go nowhere
being perfect
never got laid
knowing everything
same shit every day
no need to eat or sleep
knowing how it will come out
no point in planning anything
haunted by my past incompetence
like that fucked up solar system
where my idiot son got himself killed
sometimes I wish I could kill myself
it’s hard to know I will fail again
but I will fail again and again
being god should be more fun
knowing everything sucks
being perfect sucks
never get laid
go nowhere
do nothing
no rules
no plan
god
nil script 