If, like many of us
You get what you want
And you’re still dissatisfied.
Did you really get what you want?
Hell,
Did you even know what you wanted in the first place?
Do you really know what you want at all?
Photo by Skitterphoto (Pixabay)
#ThoughtExperiment – Mistaking ‘gratification’ for ‘fulfilment’ / 04.04.19
#ThoughtExperiment – Every Creative Feat Is an Act of Imitation / 02.03.19
If there is a God
And we take the theological premise
That this God created everything
Then
Perhaps every creative act we undertake
Honours this God.
As someone once said:
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
Photo by MichaelGaida (Pixabay)
#ThoughtExperiment – Millions of Friends That Die Before You Discover Them / 12.01.19
Assuming that you’re a ‘normal’, ‘sociable’ person:
You have a group of people you’re close to.
You have love and compassion for them,
And if you were to lose any of these people, you’d mourn them.
And yet
There are countless people out there that,
If you got to know about them
You’d be sad to lose.
(Perhaps not all people,
Perhaps there are some people
That you’d never get along with, or care for
…Perhaps)
And yet
Why must you wait until you know someone
To feel compassion for them?
Dunbar’s Number?
Enlightened self-interest?
Something else?
The Buddhists (bless them) tell us to expand our compassion to encompass all beings
Very noble, yes.
But is it really doable?
It sounds exhausting,
Spiritually taxing.
If 151,600 people pass away each day
(…as the internet has just told me)
How many of them could have been your friend?
Given the chance?
It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Photo by eschipul
#ThoughtExperiment – The Victorian Working Class Fucking For The Sake Of Their Future Descendants / 18.08.18
This is about hope.
Do you think that our ancestors,
During the grimmest times in history
Ever considered that they just had to survive
And fuck?
So that one day
Their distant descendants could enjoy living in a world of opportunity,
Free from all the drudgery and misery that typified their daily lives?
Many parents tend to think about building a better world for their children.
Maybe this, in a roundabout, drawn-out way,
Is how we got from living in caves
To having more than enough.
Photo by All made of
#ThoughtExperiment – Thinking / 04.04.18
When you think about something in any great detail you are basically running a simulation in your head.
Ergo,
Could we infer that our thoughts are simulations?
Or, conversely,
That computer simulations are the (…planned and directed) thoughts of the CPU?
And what of those who think that this universe is a simulation?
Photo by KNLphotos2010
#ThoughtExperiment – Psychosclerosis / 05.02.18
In contemplating the future
My partner raised the question;
What if there’s a point in your life
Where you become too old to face your demons?
So,
If you didn’t make the effort to change
When you were younger
You never will.
Did this cautionary tale ever happen to someone who is old?
Or will it happen one day to someone who is now young?
Photo by StockSnap (Pixabay)
#ThoughtExperiment – The Reverse Pascal’s Wager / 20.01.18
The idea of Pascal’s Wager is that you can live a godless life and then convert to religion right before you die, just in case you were going to go to hell for your godless ways.
Nobody seems to think about the ‘Reverse Pascal’s Wager‘, the very real idea that you could be wasting your life living as a religious person, preparing for an afterlife that may not exist.
The caveat here, of course, is how we define ‘religious’ behaviour – which, like human behaviour, can encompass both the best and the worst of what humanity has to offer.
The Reverse Pascal’s wager may not apply to the guy who volunteers at his Church every weekend to feed and clothe the homeless. It may, however, apply to the guy who devotes significant time and energy to trying to spiritually blackmail the non-believers surrounding him.
Then again, a Hedonist might tell you that, if a man abuses others in the name of his God and enjoys his life – that was a life well lived.
Like most things, we should probably err on the side of not being a twat.
As usual, there is no certainty and no answers… only questions.
#ThoughtExperiment – Time / 18.12.17
As, on one level, time is an entirely subjective thing, could you live longer (…in a psychological sense) if you slowed your perception of time? And thus make life seem longer?
If so, can we train ourselves to do this?
If so, how?
More boring experiences? The practice of daily mindfulness? Something else?
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler
Photo by Free-Photos (Pixabay)
#ThoughtExperiment – 08.12.17
When the last human is gone, who will be left to regret it?
Photo by Mr B’s Photography
