Thursday, January 12, 2012

ok here's another god definition.

Babies are said to be self aware when they distinguish between things they can manipulate and things they can't. For example movements in a mirror. They care because some actions have potential and some don't, and by extension, abstractions where some scenarios have more potential than others. A rat in a tank of water with no way out will drown long before it's muscles expire, it gives up because it sees no potential. Distinguishing potential is the basis for scientific procedure because true things tend to have more potential and the scientific procedure is codification of that discovery process.

I guess the reason for this bog & why I care about the God problem is that 30 years ago I heard a voice tell me that something I needed was in a place I'd never been and didn't believe, but I looked out of curiosity and it was true. I didn't and still don't think it was any deity, and anyone who says otherwise couldn't possibly know because their evidence and definition are both at least second hand. The authority to advise on those things would have to be someone like Pat Robertson, who's completely full of shit, IMHO.

My brother has become interested in the way brains work because his daughter is autistic. He subtly suggests that I'm kidding myself without admitting it (self delusion), like "sometimes we make up stories to explain things we do in such a way that our actions appear to be more socially acceptable, and we won't have to think of ourselves as a bad guy". I'm sure, (Like maybe that time I won the lottery for saving a busload of teenage cheerleader nuns with puppies. So whoever did the Brinks job, machine gunning everyone in sight was just coincidental news). I seriously doubt that because I fully admit taking the tools. So I'm not whitewashing theft, but the circumstances that put me there made think it was something that was "supposed to happen". (still, it only happened because I did it)

Now maybe I subconsciously set that up so that it only appeared to ME to be a "gift" (using a totally outlandish scenario involving disembodied voices and precognition instead of one where somebody just gave me the tools when they recognized my plight. Sure, that's it! They stopped & asked, it seems plausible ... Except they didn't). Actually it makes me wonder what my brother did so that he's familiar with the possibility of self delusion. Troll
I'm sort of relieved that he lives across the ocean (I think) & I seriously doubt that he'd smuggle nukes or anything (... heh). OK, my serotonin levels are back up again. So to continue ...

One of the explanations I've devised goes sort of like this:
Conscious creatures have a field of awareness that surrounds them & usually only extends out as far as one can reach because that's as far as one can verify effect. Samurais believed it goes as far as their weapons reach. Shamans say it goes as far as you can dream. A meditator, like a baby, is first aware of their body and intentionally ignores "distractions" as unreal because those divert awareness. Focused awareness is like a narrow beam spotlight, or a nonverbal non-philosophical hypothesis looking for verification.

According to this link below, I could have learned about the tools from information relayed to me from my future self, who was aware that I needed it, sort of like whats-his-name (Ford Prefect?) in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. because for my future self, the past is a record and he's just remembering his previous need. This would also explain the presence of a voice in my head admonishing me to remember the sequence. When I asked for his identity, he laughed and variously said he was god, the devil, and me. That actually does sound like something I would say, but so far I don't remember giving that advice to myself or anyone.

Here's a couple of links I find interesting: Inner speech speaks volumes about the brain, also quantum mechanics explanation (Part 1), (Part 2) that seems to fit. The author is derided in the comments, but that's usually what happens anyway.

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