Posts tagged “philosophy”
We searched the cosmos for aliens who looked like us, asked why they hadn't visited, and missed the obvious answer. When we finally unified physics and perceived twelve-dimensional space, we found immortality, each other, and infinite alien intelligences. The universe was crowded all along. We just couldn't see it.
Taste in art isn't about refinement or pretension. It's evolutionary signaling: we're attracted to skill and novelty because talented people make good mates. So stop being proud or embarrassed about your cultural preferences. You're just a monkey reading other monkeys' signals.
I've been reading about genetics and now I'm questioning free will, consciousness, and whether our lives are just emergent behavior from genes meeting environment. Are we like water droplets on a windshield: unpredictable paths, inevitable outcomes?
Today my brain wouldn't stop firing. A single Economist article on evolution sparked ideas about the Garden of Eden, Neanderthals undone by stupid-but-vicious Homo Sapiens, optimal village sizes as a social network concept, anti-aging diets as lifestyle choice, and whether cultural complexity has already exceeded our cognitive limits.
On a rainy British afternoon, it hits me: we're just interesting foam on a wet rock, hurtling through space around a giant furnace. Earth's liquid-covered existence is a cosmic fluke, and all life a thin, unlikely residue of it. We should probably remember this more often.
Scientology isn't uniquely corrupt. Christianity, Islam, and Scientology are the same animal at different life stages. Religion is a strong, viral, self-defending idea, but strong doesn't mean good. I'm done apologizing for rationalism. I think religion is actively harmful, personally and socially, even if I won't hassle you about it.
Impromptu barbecues that spiral from Big Brother gossip into hours of evolutionary theory, Geldof, and poverty debate are exactly what I need. More of this, please.
Life is full of joy and suffering simultaneously. Don't feel guilty for laughing when others are hurting. If you can help, help. If you can't, live fully anyway. Laugh for those who can't. Savor what you have. Live harder in memory of those you've lost.
I'm pulling the best comments from this censorship debate onto the main page where Google can find them. We're getting 1000 hits a day from people searching for "Carlton Cole rumours," and the conversation about freedom of information, slippery slopes, and gossip-as-virus is too good to hide.
World peace is impossible. We're genetically hardwired to fight over ideology, and total peace would mean evolutionary stagnation anyway. The best we can hope for is conflict limitation, which ultimately requires faster-than-light travel and infinite universal expansion. Cheery stuff, but at least it's something to aim for.
Both science and religion claim to explain the universe but will never agree because they operate in different frameworks. Religion demands perpetual faith; science asks for temporary faith while seeking real answers. That's why I back science with my time and money, and actively discourage religion.
A frustrated challenge to those who understand science yet still cling to religious belief. How can you know the chemistry of life, the neuroscience of thought, the physics of the universe, and still need God to explain the stars?
Happiness boils down to fulfilling your wants, not some arbitrary set of "needs" defined by society. Ignorance is bliss, but infinite knowledge might be too. There's a miserable middle ground most of us occupy. More thinking required.
Found a great Kuro5hin piece linking the nature of reality to corporate vs. individual conflicts, exploring how organizations do things none of their members actually want, a theme Steinbeck touched on in The Grapes of Wrath.
