Are humans meant to wander aimless, simply survive without ever wondering? It's a legitimate question. I've spent my whole life under the assumption that there's something larger beyond. At first it was God as described by the penguins smacking my knuckles at school and later replacement of Him with the theories of Newton and Hertz and Maxwell. That decision did indeed reward me with a comfortable life, pragmatically speaking. However, as now my work is no longer in pursuit of surviving per se (being on cruise control in retirement) and I may dedicate my energy leisurely I wonder more whether the whole world is in fact simulation run as entertainment to an unseen power (maybe just other humans who screwed up and lost control, Matrix style). I would simply rack everything up to we are smart but too smart. Unlike perhaps dolphins or elephants who realize the folly of knowledge and choose just to be happy. But the lingering doubt is that maybe we can peel back layers to expose truths and that pursuit is what is supposed to drive us forward.
It was, ironically, Catholic schools and monasteries that led me to abandon the Zeus-like concept of God in favor of Universe itself being a living, growing entity of which we are all discrete packets of information--cells if you will. Our sole function is to create more information so that the Universe can continue to grow and thrive.
I do not think humans can ever fully understand Universe, any more than a cell can conceive of the totality of the organism of which it is a part. There is something comforting about the idea of Universe as a matryoshka doll. We can see the layers smaller than us, but the larger ones will forever be a mystery.
I do think we would have all been happier roaming the savannahs. As a species, we seem obsessed with creating complexity, and then wondering why everything is so complex.
12,000 years ago, some folks scoffed at the usefulness of domestication a bird so stupid it drowned in rainstorms and had to have humans build houses for it. Technology is what you make of it in the end. My concern is that a mythology has built up around quantum computing that gives the evil bastids more power than they actually have, and that's bad.
I totally agree with your concern, Mr Farside, but as you know I'm a big fan of the 4th turning, end of the saeculum idea, and thus suspect all of that will no longer be in play in just a few more years. Meanwhile, I'll continue practicing self sufficiency, and ignore all that worldly stuff as much as possible. As long as the good lord permits.
By the end of the year, I will be ensconced up at the mountain house. Gotta wait for my visa renewal or go through a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense to change my residence. Besides, I'm happy no one knows where my hide-away is. My one sticking point is I have to keep up with the technology to make a living (or two). Almost my entire life is online now, since the Black Death stole 2-1/2 perfectly good years from me. I am a hermit at heart, but an extrovert by profession. Time to get out of the rat race and into the rat chase.
Electricity itself is manipulating subatomic particles, so it's not that far fetched. The problem is quantum theory is ultimately a dead end related to Einsteinian physics, which are wrong. Like current concept of fusion, it will ultimately prove elusive and a waste of money and resources.
I agree that the common conception of atoms and how they function is completely wrong. The problem is I don't have any clear replacement. Atoms are real and there are photomicrographs of them, but their structure defies the Einsteinian/quantum model. Something about them creates electro-magnetism, and EM runs the Universe. We need a whole new physics to understand the way things work.
The essential problem is that humans don't understand the quantum world, nor do we understand fusion. In effect, they are related fields and doomed to failure until we excise Einstein from our physics.
Will any of this keep the damn chicken snakes out of the chicken coup???
Are humans meant to wander aimless, simply survive without ever wondering? It's a legitimate question. I've spent my whole life under the assumption that there's something larger beyond. At first it was God as described by the penguins smacking my knuckles at school and later replacement of Him with the theories of Newton and Hertz and Maxwell. That decision did indeed reward me with a comfortable life, pragmatically speaking. However, as now my work is no longer in pursuit of surviving per se (being on cruise control in retirement) and I may dedicate my energy leisurely I wonder more whether the whole world is in fact simulation run as entertainment to an unseen power (maybe just other humans who screwed up and lost control, Matrix style). I would simply rack everything up to we are smart but too smart. Unlike perhaps dolphins or elephants who realize the folly of knowledge and choose just to be happy. But the lingering doubt is that maybe we can peel back layers to expose truths and that pursuit is what is supposed to drive us forward.
It was, ironically, Catholic schools and monasteries that led me to abandon the Zeus-like concept of God in favor of Universe itself being a living, growing entity of which we are all discrete packets of information--cells if you will. Our sole function is to create more information so that the Universe can continue to grow and thrive.
I do not think humans can ever fully understand Universe, any more than a cell can conceive of the totality of the organism of which it is a part. There is something comforting about the idea of Universe as a matryoshka doll. We can see the layers smaller than us, but the larger ones will forever be a mystery.
I do think we would have all been happier roaming the savannahs. As a species, we seem obsessed with creating complexity, and then wondering why everything is so complex.
12,000 years ago, some folks scoffed at the usefulness of domestication a bird so stupid it drowned in rainstorms and had to have humans build houses for it. Technology is what you make of it in the end. My concern is that a mythology has built up around quantum computing that gives the evil bastids more power than they actually have, and that's bad.
I totally agree with your concern, Mr Farside, but as you know I'm a big fan of the 4th turning, end of the saeculum idea, and thus suspect all of that will no longer be in play in just a few more years. Meanwhile, I'll continue practicing self sufficiency, and ignore all that worldly stuff as much as possible. As long as the good lord permits.
By the end of the year, I will be ensconced up at the mountain house. Gotta wait for my visa renewal or go through a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense to change my residence. Besides, I'm happy no one knows where my hide-away is. My one sticking point is I have to keep up with the technology to make a living (or two). Almost my entire life is online now, since the Black Death stole 2-1/2 perfectly good years from me. I am a hermit at heart, but an extrovert by profession. Time to get out of the rat race and into the rat chase.
Atoms? Photons? Particles? Quantum? Really? Sigh.
Electricity itself is manipulating subatomic particles, so it's not that far fetched. The problem is quantum theory is ultimately a dead end related to Einsteinian physics, which are wrong. Like current concept of fusion, it will ultimately prove elusive and a waste of money and resources.
Thanks and I buy the narrative inserted about particles at all - atomic or sub atomic. All BS.
I agree that the common conception of atoms and how they function is completely wrong. The problem is I don't have any clear replacement. Atoms are real and there are photomicrographs of them, but their structure defies the Einsteinian/quantum model. Something about them creates electro-magnetism, and EM runs the Universe. We need a whole new physics to understand the way things work.
Meant - I DON'T buy.
Seems like quantum computing is following a path similar to fusion energy. Always soooo close, but not.
The essential problem is that humans don't understand the quantum world, nor do we understand fusion. In effect, they are related fields and doomed to failure until we excise Einstein from our physics.