Enlightenment, Barbs and Shards
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 9:19 PM The past 24 hours of my life have been spent in intense intellectual pursuits; contemplating, in part, life itself.
Insofar as meaning and success are subjective and personal — I cannot claim over them holistic masterful understanding. However, people share innate, intrinsic values and desires. These elements bind us all.
As certain scientific advancements seek to further our knowledge of the known universe, each new discovery propels some minds into new, increasingly more difficult equations and sophisticated mysteries. The more we know, the more we realize what we cannot know.
Meanwhile, many people are struggling to piece together, amidst chaos and entropy, some semblance of a happy existence. Regardless of our unique beliefs, the human condition is one of faith and exploration. As limits are tested and prior boundaries are obliterated, I find myself looking inward — at seemingly more significant unknowables.
In this effort, I find comfort knowing that I'm not alone — even though I often choose, and prefer, forms of isolation. I enjoy my space; often I don't like the company of others, but I'm aware that through human interaction and friendship, part of my meandering can become a journey with a theoretical destination.
The destination is unreachable and there is no endpoint.
The human lifespan is infinitesimally insignificant when viewed alongside that of our known universe. I know that I try to understand myself beyond time as surely as I know that I cannot. Contextually, this feels and seems naive... (we have no reference points beyond our physical dimensions) but I posit that there's more to consciousness. I've felt things, seen things... and I believe.
I've made several small breakthroughs, and intend to continue to share my understanding with whomever is willing to invest in the journey. I'm also looking to include others during my process of creating a larger community.
Presently, this group is small; I don't intend for it to become mainstream either, as the complex nature of the exchange requires intellect and reasoning far beyond that of the norm.
This isn't just another, mere philosophical discussion — this is fun. Others either understand that, or they don't. If you think you're special enough and capable enough, first ask yourself:
Are you looking for answers, or for new, more difficult questions — can you find fulfillment by simply achieving a greater awareness of what you don't know?
Reader Comments (8)
I appreciated our conversation last night through this morning-- I was left with many fascinating things to consider throughout the day.
As always your writing is engaging and interesting (I'm looking forwards to reading the final draft!), and the idea of a community for intellectual discussion and discovery sounds very cool-- I'm sure it will be enjoyable and enlightening.
-Daniel
steameffort@gmail.com
Nice Brad. Thanks for sharing this. I find my fulfillment in the search and anticipation. One destination is the starting point of the next, and it's the leap that inspires me to pursue.
Even what I thought was knowledge sometimes becomes unknowledge.
Static "information" is an illusory figment of our imagination, conjured by those seeking predictability; so well crafted architectural "mind" engineers, selling their show on what comes next and occasionally adding a side benefit of "why" and "what you need to do to get there".
Sorry for them as their craftiness becomes obsolete, and replaced with currency. Now all it takes to buy the reality of your choices is money.
(My Next Pending Blog Topic BTW)
-Chris
I avoid thinking about this particular topic as thinking too hard about it tends to depress me. I've always held that there is nothing for an individual consciousness beyond the life of that consciousness. We get these few years, or at least seemingly short because of our ability to conceive of stars and galaxies and planets forming over long periods of time. We try to expand our minds to that time scale, maybe in an attempt to hold onto it, as if our ability to conceive it gives us some part of it, but truly all we have is the sensory information we receive, our chemicals, memories, and maintained consciousness. Once it extinguishes, that's it - gone. We perceive others being gone, and the past and the future, and think about forever but once it is we who are gone, that's it. We cannot participate in forever consciously since we are finite. It's tragic, it's the nature of our world, it's the one thing that doesn't have a happy ending and that we cannot change. I think surrounding ourselves with technology and environments entirely within our control has made us lose touch with the natural cycles of life and death and the chaos of the universe. Not that it's the only factor, but certainly one of the factors.
We also seem to perceive of time and the universe almost as omnipotent beings (not quite in the religious sense), we extend our awareness onto "the universe" and it seems like it too is aware - and we see it as something that has remained largely unchanged for trillions of years and will "outlive" us - but really, besides self-aware extraterrestrials whose lifespans we can only imagine, we are what should be envied. We put ourselves at the top of life, then we gradually downgrade things - like trees live a long time but few envy trees. Rocks "exist" a long time, but few envy rocks. But the universe, because the idea encompasses everything it seems like something more than us as far as quality, and enviable, but it is no more enviable than the rocks. Something about human psyche creates a hierarchy of "important" intangible things along with their time scales, with things like the sun, the earth, or the universe at the top, and we envy them as if they were gods when they are not aware, conscious, or in control of anything - they are more basic, and even more at the whim of the laws of physics than we are because there is so little to them (eg. matter can be considered insignificant in the universe, plants/animals/water on the earth can be considered insignificant relative to the rock mass, etc.). Maybe a bit too metaphysical, but it's also very concrete and simple, from my perspective anyway.
As far as thinking about existentialism, religion makes things worse - it helps people cope in the meantime, but for those of us who feel like we "know" the nature of life and that the end is definitively the end, we're brought up thinking "if we work hard, things will turn out for the best," "trust in your friends and you'll get through," "there's always a light at the end of the tunnel or a silver lining" and those things I still believe are true, for the most part. As for the final end, it's not a happy ending, and pretending that everything in the world including that has a potential happy ending makes it difficult to accept the realities of the world because it doesn't fit into our world view of "things turn out okay". It's the same thing with religious people who cannot conceive of a world without "universal justice", where criminals can go without punishment til the day they die, that even then there MUST be justice!
Anyway, this turned into an essay. We are restrained by our social development and world view as a society and species, and our limited vantage point - if there were some place from which we could look down at the universe, we would probably conceive of it and our place in it differently. All we can really do is try to maximize how long we live, enjoy every moment, get the most out of life (whatever our personal goals/aspirations are), make our own purpose should we need one, appreciate that as far as life on this planet has ever been concerned we are the organism with the highest intelligence and lifespan combination, and that we're lucky to have been able to participate consciously in the infinite ebb and flow of the universe - that we are the gods, not the sun or planets or even the universe.
*Disclaimer - just a perspective, not trying to argue with anyone, this stuff has been on my mind a lot lately. Parts may seem egotistical, but honestly, matter becoming self-aware in an unaware universe is pretty damn remarkable if you look at it that way*
I wonder though, what is really lost in a belief that there's something more beyond all of this. Would the world be better off (or would human life still exist) without religions (collectively) maintaining a firm backbone for the human condition?
I feel that true darkness and malice hasn't been seen. Of the greatest of human tragedy and loss, the majority of the world has held onto the belief that somewhere, sometime, things get better. Throw that out for the common man, what could stop anarchy and holocaust? Bigger tanks and more nukes?
That aside... again, it was never my intent (nor will it be the intent of the group the way I see it) to find an answer. My hope is to find more questions... better questions.
In that pursuit, I thank you all for your opinions, research, evidence and support. I hope that more, reasonable and logical people can set aside hostile emotions to help expand our understanding of human capacity and reason.
Yet another thought-provoking entry. You never fail to amaze me with your writing.
I often find myself struggling to grasp some of the concepts you blog about. Makes me wonder what would happen if I managed to get a glimpse at the rest of the stuff floating in your head.
My brain would probably explode. I look forward to that.
-ND
ND:
Sometimes I have trouble articulating the "stuff floating in (my) head."
Insofar as my ideas can be verbalized — many thoughts are images or sounds — the process of conveying to any reasonable extent my often lurid ideas is frequently arduous. I often wish that I could simply upload my mind's images as FMV.
In many ways, I consider this blog my harbinger. It is an attempt to share the most inessential, excessive, most maudlin aspects of my life while simultaneously — often capriciously — exhibiting my kitschy iPhone art... concomitant with my desire to refashion the world, its people, and those people's morals and ethics.
I suppose that it wouldn't be unreasonable for the masses and the common man to be dismissive; my baroque nature and lifestyle, coupled with my eccentricities, requires an educated, refined and tolerant audience.
Machiavellian me...
It seems unreasonable to me that society would label me "precocious" and "prodigal" throughout my childhood and expect negligible repercussions. Arrogance is a realistic bi-product, a natural corollary.
I suppose I look at my experience pedagogically. Perhaps the ramifications of my hedonism and narcissism can be mitigated by genuine contributions to friends and family.
As for everyone else — I haven't decided yet whether society deserves my wrath or my grace.
I smiled right after I read this. I can wait for the final draft! I'm eager to find my answers to my questions or another question that I am eager to figure out. Sometimes it is difficult to grasp the concept but I guess that is a reality check that I need to mature more.
Perhaps what I like about this post so much is that it explores the question of existence and its unknowns without the frustration or hopelessness that so often accompanies these discussions. I myself can be guilty of falling into that trap, but it only impedes the search and the seeker. Your intelligent expression of a clear way to look at these questions, unimpeded by cynicism, should be enough to make anyone feel honored to join you on your journey.
As I mentioned when we talked a bit ago, the part I find most interesting is the section about intrinsic value. I won't repeat myself here talking about the line between cultural and intrinsic value (something you seem to have much clearer thoughts on than I have), but this is something I often think about when meeting people. I do find that some of the most interesting people I've met are those who deviate in their values and morals much more than expected. I also have to remind myself that while I value the people in my life who ask these questions and want to explore them, the majority of people I have met don't spend much time thinking about them.