Philosophy of Imagination*Forty

I'm forty now and I've never felt so young. It's like a drug, that I've waited for on-line, for twenty years. Worth the wait, bet your ass. I didn't know so many neurons could fire so much goodness at once. Imagination is my drug, my juice, my love--trumped only by my wife and family and dogs. Imagination has given me everything and I can't wait to keep feeding it daily.

I read a recent article about 'Simulation Theory'. It's basically the plot of THE MATRIX, minus the evil human battery overtones. The theory posits that our whole Universe and existence is a computer simulation, a real life Sims. It's interesting to think about. After writing all the code, doing all the math, tinkering with algorithms, did they push the button (The Big Bang) and let us go? Are they constantly manipulating things? Who is it?

I find the theory interesting and fascinating to think about, as do most. The Matrix blew almost all minds and it's remained popular, because WOW! What the fuck? That could be true? Are we in a simulation? Well done Wachowskis! Nailed the jump, didn't stick the landing and I think for good reason. Because when they tried to explain the start and continued existence of us and our Universe, the theory gets too confusing and stupid. I believe mostly, because it's a fun theory, but untrue.

Computers want perfection. Without it, they don't work very well. Ever get a virus on your computer or run outta memory? Shit starts to go bad quick and fast. You're computer becomes a miracle to a pile of junk in no time. Complicated systems have lots of complicated problems and our Universe is most certainly complicated and the most complicated thing in this complex Universe is our complicated brains. 

If we lived in a computer simulation, things would be breaking down all the time. We would see behind the curtain, the wires, the smoke and mirrors of our creation. We would see the fuck ups. They'd be all over, all the time. But not one person has witnessed one or has any proof it. Kinda like God. God as computer programmer--I think not.

Our Universe is imperfection. That's what makes it beautiful. Computers work on perfection and perfection is dull and boring. We aren't a computer simulation. We are a fucked up, disorganized, cluttered mess of beautiful being.

Philosophy of Imagination*Thirty Nine

Did you know that the odds of being part of the matter/particles that make a conscious human being are 1 in 400 trillion. 1 in 400 trillion. 1 in 400 fucking trillion! Imagine that for a moment. Imagine how big the Universe is and how much matter it holds and you are here on Earth as a living, sentient being. 1 in 400 trillion. Holy shit! We are lucky fucking miracles. 

It's hard to Imagine numbers that big, no matter how magnificent your Imagination is getting. There's another great Buddhist metaphor about it that makes it easier to visualize and digest. Pretend that you have a round ring life preserver. The hole in the middle is about three feet wide. You have this one life preserver and you have to place it in one spot in the oceans, any spot in all the oceans on Earth. In all those oceans, pretend that their is only one sea turtle and you have no idea where in the oceans that turtle is. So, you place your life preserver somewhere in Earth's oceans and that turtle has to surface, on the first try, inside the ring of your life preserver. Same odds as being a sentient human on Earth. 1 in 400 trillion!

We aren't just miracles, we're lucky miracles. You have to be a miracle and then be lucky on top of that to be a human. Let that settle in for a while. Let it nestle down into your Imagination. What are you going to do with your lucky miracle? Who are you going to be? Where are you going to go?

Congratulations! You're human! Go live! Make the most out of your Lucky Miracle!

Philosophy of Imagination*Six

I am not a scientist, obviously, so if I get facts wrong or whatever, I apologize. I am a curious person and writing about things I don't quite understand (which is Philosophy) so I can study and learn and eventually know the subject better. I don't want to go too deep into evolution, it's dense and I only know the basics. We'll use basics. Evolution is survival of the fittest. The animal, human, insect and plant (and their offspring) will live on if they have the characteristics that make their survival more certain in the ecosystem in which they live. A stronger, longer tail will make a monkey better at holding on and they're less apt to fall out of the tree and die. But if a monkey lived where there were no trees, the monkey with the strongest and fastest legs would survive and the monkeys with the long tails will get eaten, because it's easier for a tiger to munch down on that long tail. So the monkeys who live in trees will get stronger and longer tails as millions of years go by and the plains monkeys will get faster legs and shorter tails as millions of years go by. 

But cyanobacteria is only one cell. It doesn't have differing traits from the rest of the cyanobacteria. How did one unicellular life turn into multicellular? Scientists still don't know for sure, but their thought was some kind of mutation? An abnormality that made that cell better than the rest. More Imagination in that cell? Perhaps. Maybe they were mutating all the time and it took a long time before one of them stumbled on to the right mutation? The other theory is that cells began working in groups, helping each other to achieve something greater than the self. That's awesome! Even on the cellular level, we need others and cells are willing to help out, even if they get nothing in return. The cyanobacteria, the first life, showed up 3.5 billion years ago. More complex multicellular organisms didn't appear until 600 million years ago. That's like 3 billion years the cyanobacteria was all alone, pumping out oxygen, creating our atmosphere, trying to Imagine how to be better, how to make the World around them great. 3 billion years! That is a patient motherfucker. Motivated. No giveup. 

The cyanobacteria mutated and branched off in millions of ways. It is the father of bacteria and viruses and all other unicellular organism in the World, but once it became multicellular, it never regressed back to unicellular. That's fascinating, because once it made some progress after 3 billion years, it didn't kick its feet up too long. It Imagined being three cells, then four, then five, always optimistic that a better future lie ahead. A future that would eventually allow the offspring of the cyanobacteria to understand and enjoy the Universe in which it lived. If that ain't Imagination, I don't know what is.

There is no laziness in nature. It is always trying to grow and procreate and climb upward.

Time and Space

Imagination

Transcends

Time

and

Space