Comment Steps to success (Score 1) 1140
Phase 1: Reduce vertical screen resolution.
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
But the rest of us, stuck with all of our fully-functional brains, are forced to sometimes contemplate serious matters that aren't so happy. Sure, we sometimes get depressed. But humanity probably wouldn't make much scientific, intellectual, or cultural progress if everyone was walking around every day drugged-up and lobotomized, with stupid goddamn grins on their faces.
The thing that makes us "human" is simply the symbols that our neurological processes use to represent our 5 senses and our memories of them. Without our ego, we are no different from a tree. Spirituality for me is simply the sense of letting go of my ego to the best of my ability, to become more like a tree. I'm not interested in becoming an inanimate object but by exercising existence with less ego I find that my sense of oneness with the universe is more tangible... in fact, it would be more accurate to say that WE (or IT) find(s) that OUR (IT's) sense of oneness is more tangible.
The subjective symbols that my brain use to represent the universe are irrelevant to the rest of the universe. They were taught to me by my society or otherwise inherited by the physiological process of growth and instinct. What is it that makes me different from my rollie chair and keyboard? Why do I have this overwhelming sense of individuality from everything around me? How come my cellphone and I aren't one in the same thing? Well, it depends on your perspective... If you are the ultimate objective observer (say the infinite universe and all of it's dimensions of time and space [arguably god]) then we are indistinguishable from our rollie chair, keyboard and cellphone. To the ultimate objective observer who has no symbols attached to anything, there is no such thing as a "hand" or a "foot" or a "body," everything can be considered as being part of something else or can be considered by itself if need be (Of course no consideration would be needed)
Humans are animals, and like any good animal, we must interact with our environment such that we may survive and fulfill other functions like reproduction. In order to achieve this, evolution has caused animals to have neurological traits that help them function as an individual while they go about their day to day business of existing. These traits involve things like our 5 senses, a "sense" of individuality, memory, an ability to extrapolate concepts into the future... So when we ask the question "why do I have this sense of individuality?" or "how come I have this attachment to this hand, these feet, etc. The answer is simply because it helps us survive... By having a tangible sense of self with a self-serving ego, we fulfill our animal nature, no matter how complex or separate from the rest of the animal kingdom we may seem.
Now a tree has no ego. It has no sense of time. arguably, it has no qualia: color, smell, tactile senses, etc. It exists as the rest of the universe does: Timeless and infinite. Ultimate spiritual transcendence for me involves coming to as complete of an understanding as possible that we are all part of the same thing. That the only thing separating us is the symbols that we have been taught by our parents, teachers, books and televisions. Society acts to bring us together as people and allows us to function in large groups without excessive chaos. But it also acts to draw us apart from each other spiritually by reinforcing the symbols our brains use to define sense of self.
So elrous0, here we are... Stuck with all of our fully-functional brains, contemplating serious matters. But I'm happy. I do sometimes get depressed, but we as humanity can make as much scientific, intellectual, and cultural progress as we want. The limits of how far we can take this species is determined only by how many faces we can get those stupid goddamn grins onto
Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your shoes. -- Mickey Mouse
