h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

By my own standards I'm not a perfectly "good" person. Better than many I believe but, really, its almost impossible to be that good.

But it is your own standards that count. I'm sure that nobody's convinced that they're the ultimate perfect good, but if you're a clear conscienced nonguilty independant person, there's no reason why you shouldn't be pretty damned good in accordance to your standards. I'm an evil b*stard, sayeth other people, but hey, they're wrong .

Unfortunately some people either have a extremely cruel and low standard of what "good" is, or don't care if they're good or not, or either us or them can't see the whole picture. Really someone who believed that they were the perfect good would be... hated... or just considered a braggart. "I've never told a lie in my life" bs, therefore you can conclude "My childhood consisted of nothing and I still don't have a life"

Isn't it awfully unjust that brilliant people like Alan Watts and Douglas Adams and many other leave this world so early?

As for the standards that count, it is right that own standards are that count but only in a laboratory world.
Or if one is free enough to be totally unlinked/unbonded to the rest of mankind.
Is this the ultimate bless? Hmmm, I have some doubts but it is again a problem of reality interpretation.

hi milkchocolate,

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Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by that.

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I wonder if it is possible to ever be totally unlinked to the rest of mankind. And why would we want to be?

There are many examples of people who were putting so much into the world and then died early.

A few years ago I went to see an art exhibit of the late Keith Haring. Which included a video of him making one of his enormous paintings. The exhibit also included his diary in which he said that he believed he was going to die young. Which he did.

So okay, I am watching this video of KH making a painting. For those of you who don't know Keith Haring, his stuff was often very geometrical graffit art stuff. So okay, I am watching him on video making this enormous painting on the floor with a very wide paint brush. And you know - he never paused and he never made a wrong move and the end result was incredible. I said to the friend I was with that it seemed like he did know he had little time to get things done (hence the speed in the making of his paintings) and also that his hand seemed to be guided by - what? How could someone just paint so freely and wildly and yet end up with such a very perfect end product? Watching him work on this video totally blew me away.

Was it the hand of god guiding him? Well, using the word god quite loosely. Not in a religious sense, but rather the sense in that we are all god if we ever get to feel that connected enough to sense it properly.

My take was that Keith Haring painted as if he were his own god. He was in touch with something perhaps bigger than himself, that ended up being the same as himself, which made it possible to do almost the impossible.

Bit of a ramble there. But I think Douglas Adams was also such a person. I'm not so familiar with Alan Watts' work to make a comment on him.

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To die young? Again, I'm not sure what you mean by that.

I'd like to think that very dynamic people who make a huge difference in the world just by being themselves and being creative and challenging people don't necessarily have to die young.

az

Alan Watts was a famous philosopher, esp. Taoist philosophy.
I see what you mean ith the laboratory world comment, milkchocolate, but I am afraid I disagree. We are, after all, living in a laboratory world. You may think that other people are the ones judging you, but really the only judge is yourself. It is like the idea that a cheerleader with a tank can't kill someone if they tried, but a serial murderer with nothing could easily, that ability is a frame of mind and not linked to physical factors.
Az
I once saw a documentary about a particular kind of autism. They flew a boy over London in a helicopter for three minutes, and then they settled on the ground and he was told to draw London; he drew a perfect map that corresponded to satellite photos in a few seconds. I believe he acted as you described. I feel that God ain't guiding him so much as he has unlocked certain potentials in his mind.

There was a set of twins I read about once with astounding mathematical capabilities. They couldn't do basic arithmetic... that seems common... but the guy who was interviewing them dropped a container of something and the yboth shouted out "111" instantly... that's how many objects it was. They said it was because 37*3=111 and 37 is prime!

But though you judge yourself, other people *do* judge you still. It's only natural and impossible to help.

>>Isn't it awfully unjust that brilliant people like Alan Watts and Douglas Adams and many other leave this world so early?<<

Isn't it awfully unjust that so many *non*brilliant people knows leave this world so ealry, and hardly anyone knows or cares???

Very much so.

How did DNA die?

Heart attack I believe .

I am currently reading The Salmon - not yet finished. They did not explain how and I did not hear about it when it happened.

The Salmon is good. I liek the bit about DNA's atheism speech.

I agree with and admire his whole view on life.

I like the way he described himself as a radical atheist.

kharen,

Douglas Adams died of a sudden heart attack at age 49. Far too young.

I found this site thanks to reading the Salmon of Doubt last spring.

He was an amazing person and still lives within all of us who remember him.

az

I found this site by reading the Salmon of Doubt last summer...hmm...

The meaning of life is to procreate.
Descartes overlooked this, I believe.

Prove it.

prove otherwise.

Prove that Descartes overlooked it or that the meaning of life is to procreate?

The meaning of life one.

Well I dispute that life has a meaning. Besides if you're going to change the burden of proof like that why don't you go talk to the fairies that disappear every time you try to look at them?