Flying/ Sublime Nights/ The Golden Rule/ Uploading Minds
Flying
Imagine how strange it would be if humanity had evolved wings, like birds. How strange the sky would look like, with people suspended in mid-air or clusters of winged people all heading in specific directions. you would have special migration routes for long distance flyers and special towers for them to land on. there would probably need to be a special type of food that you had to eat in order to sustain long journeys. there would be no transport. houses would be different, there wouldn't be doors on the ground floor. there would be openings in the roof, or they might just be like bird nests in trees or high up on mountains. office buildings would look like large beehives, with people hovering in front of their cubicles.
Sublime Nights
Its been many long years since I can genuinely say that I have experienced a "sublime" evening. Roughly speaking i mean an evening in which everything flows naturally and to your command, without negative influences. When I think of sublime I mean something that transforms like the physical transformation of ice to water or steam (sublimation). When the course of events seems lifted from the mundane to the spiritual. Those were the nights (few and far away, in my twenties) when you leave a pub or a café with a girl in your arms and the music still buzzing in your ears, or not even that. Just the feeling that you have had a great conversation with some stranger that you have made a table full of people laugh or you have broken a boundary of your own inhibitions. Those sublime nights were the zenith of my life. When I remember those nights I think of all the great painters like Bonnard and Van Gogh, who tried to capture these subjective states. When the alcohol or drugs in your system creates a distorted narrative of the conversations what's left the next day is blur - but a positive one. I think some of the best art and literature was written in these states. I think particularly about Joyce who wrote Finnegan's Wake about a dream sequence. He wrote the book over a period of 15years but it took place in one night. There is an anecdote that apparently his wife would hear him upstairs in his room laughing to himself, rocking back and forth on his chair, while drunk on whiskey, about the jokes and inventions in his book
The Golden Rule
The golden rule is a precept that is found in many religions and has existed for thousands of years. It is a tool for basing our behavior on, and reveals our innate ability to empathize with others. However, despite its intuitiveness, it is flawed in that it doesn't take into account differences in our personality or moral views. For example: I might not lie to someone on the grounds that I wouldn't want them to lie to me - but that person might not have a problem with being lied tom, or: I might have the general disposition to be kind to people because I want to be treated kindly too, but others might prefer being treated rudely and abrasively. so the rule at closer inspection is more limited as it first seems. to put yourself in someone's shoes is to imagine you are in their situation - but using yourself as a standard. it might be written as: 'treat others according to your standards given you are in their situation'. So, how do i know that my standard is right? Where do I set the boundaries so that they overlap with others? Is there a set of standards that are common to all humans?
"The noble type of person feels that he determines value, he does not need anyone’s approval, he judges that "what is harmful to me is harmful in itself," he knows that he is the one who gives honor to things in the first place, he creates values." (F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -153)
Uploading Minds
This has probably been discussed before but I will post it anyway...there is a philosophical problem raised by the possibility of uploading our brains, and that is connected to the ship of Theseus . The thought is: if an object has its parts replaced separately over time, will the completely replaced object be identical to its original? This can be applied to uploading brains: if we upload our brain neuron by neuron will the final uploaded brain be the same brain i.e.. will I be conscious at two places at the same time? Or will there be a physical point (during the uploading process) at which my consciousness will be split into two? Is uploading my consciousness really possible? Is it really possible to transfer my consciousness from one place to another? Do they somehow have to trap consciousness/electric signals/ghost/spirit/soul during the upload process? Or is it simply a matter of duplicating the hardware? Then if they recreate my brain onto another medium and switch on the copy, will that still be me? Will I be simultaneously conscious at two locations in space-? Will it be like looking out of two different sets of eyes? Will my uploaded consciousness stay alive even after I am switched off and on again?
Its been many long years since I can genuinely say that I have experienced a "sublime" evening. Roughly speaking i mean an evening in which everything flows naturally and to your command, without negative influences. When I think of sublime I mean something that transforms like the physical transformation of ice to water or steam (sublimation). When the course of events seems lifted from the mundane to the spiritual. Those were the nights (few and far away, in my twenties) when you leave a pub or a café with a girl in your arms and the music still buzzing in your ears, or not even that. Just the feeling that you have had a great conversation with some stranger that you have made a table full of people laugh or you have broken a boundary of your own inhibitions. Those sublime nights were the zenith of my life. When I remember those nights I think of all the great painters like Bonnard and Van Gogh, who tried to capture these subjective states. When the alcohol or drugs in your system creates a distorted narrative of the conversations what's left the next day is blur - but a positive one. I think some of the best art and literature was written in these states. I think particularly about Joyce who wrote Finnegan's Wake about a dream sequence. He wrote the book over a period of 15years but it took place in one night. There is an anecdote that apparently his wife would hear him upstairs in his room laughing to himself, rocking back and forth on his chair, while drunk on whiskey, about the jokes and inventions in his book
The Golden Rule
The golden rule is a precept that is found in many religions and has existed for thousands of years. It is a tool for basing our behavior on, and reveals our innate ability to empathize with others. However, despite its intuitiveness, it is flawed in that it doesn't take into account differences in our personality or moral views. For example: I might not lie to someone on the grounds that I wouldn't want them to lie to me - but that person might not have a problem with being lied tom, or: I might have the general disposition to be kind to people because I want to be treated kindly too, but others might prefer being treated rudely and abrasively. so the rule at closer inspection is more limited as it first seems. to put yourself in someone's shoes is to imagine you are in their situation - but using yourself as a standard. it might be written as: 'treat others according to your standards given you are in their situation'. So, how do i know that my standard is right? Where do I set the boundaries so that they overlap with others? Is there a set of standards that are common to all humans?
"The noble type of person feels that he determines value, he does not need anyone’s approval, he judges that "what is harmful to me is harmful in itself," he knows that he is the one who gives honor to things in the first place, he creates values." (F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil -153)
Uploading Minds
This has probably been discussed before but I will post it anyway...there is a philosophical problem raised by the possibility of uploading our brains, and that is connected to the ship of Theseus . The thought is: if an object has its parts replaced separately over time, will the completely replaced object be identical to its original? This can be applied to uploading brains: if we upload our brain neuron by neuron will the final uploaded brain be the same brain i.e.. will I be conscious at two places at the same time? Or will there be a physical point (during the uploading process) at which my consciousness will be split into two? Is uploading my consciousness really possible? Is it really possible to transfer my consciousness from one place to another? Do they somehow have to trap consciousness/electric signals/ghost/spirit/soul during the upload process? Or is it simply a matter of duplicating the hardware? Then if they recreate my brain onto another medium and switch on the copy, will that still be me? Will I be simultaneously conscious at two locations in space-? Will it be like looking out of two different sets of eyes? Will my uploaded consciousness stay alive even after I am switched off and on again?