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

My dear friend J made an excellent point which in turn made me think (quiet in the back!):
Does anybody else actually feel like what they actually are at any given time?
Like ever?

Or do we all content ourselves with more or less successfully deluding our surroundings and ourselves into believing that we are in fact grownups, parents, middle managers, bosses or - well, you name it?

I always felt like I was play acting somehow.

These days I still can't believe I'm an old age pensioner.
And I have already been one for three years now >:o

Its all a play, and we're all actors, creating ourselves as we best can I struggle with reality a lot; mainly as I'm still fairly convinced that I'm still in the coma I went into, in 1994.... never found any evidence to contradict this idea, that I'm still in a coma... hmm... I guess thats one reason I find everything in life so utterly sureal

I know exactly what you mean Pierce. Sometimes it's nice to come here and moan about things you can't possibly mention in RL. But, out here in the real world, I've forgotten what I am really like. If I ever knew.

A simple example: when you've been a Mum for 15 years or so, and it's your birthday, and you say to yourself "I'm going to cook a meal that's exactly what *I* would like to eat today" - you suddenly realise you have no idea what you like any more!

The rather scary thing here is that if 2Legs is still in a coma, we're all in it with him!

In the film Blade Runner, proving whether you, or someone else, is real or not is shown as being surprisingly difficult.

Are you suggesting I am a figment of 2legs' illusion

While he is in a coma

Hmmm, sounds both scary and inviting

Traveller in Time recovering from a depression
"Thee is a natural tendency to keep a self image higher then what you really are (something I failed recent years). This to have the courage to try and manage anything.

The philosophical part would be viewing the Total Perspective Vortex; I am insignificant, just a spec of dust in the grand scheme of reality.

Guess a healthy perspective should be somewhere in between.

We can always assume we are just a figment of 2legs imagination, do not think that would give a functional society anyway. "

"The rather scary thing here is that if 2Legs is still in a coma, we're all in it with him! In the film Blade Runner, proving whether you, or someone else, is real or not is shown as being surprisingly difficult. [Coelacanth]

Are we discussing phenomenology? There are no guide entries on the topic, so I will have to go with this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy)

I not infrequently get the feeling that I'm in Alice's dream, and that any minute now I will encounter the Queen of hearts, the Jabberwock, or some very silly hares and hatters at a tea party where a dormouse is sleeping in the teapot. The last would not be the worst of all possible worlds. The worst would be drinking tea without realizing the dormouse has been in the pot . I think the Queen of Hwearts was my first grade teacher .

I think I have somewhat come to terms with reality: I do not meddle in her affairs and she does not meddle in mine

Interesting question.

I do remember one day in 1999 waking up in my uni room and suddenly realising "I am me!" - it was a bizarre sensation, that I wondered if I hadn't been me, or hadn't been aware of being me up to that point, but it didn't change anything after that other than carrying on and knowing I was in the right place at the right time.

I wasn't very good at looking after myself on my own at uni, so in 2011 I started getting more of an understanding of how my mind and body worked together (and my partner was a psychology graduate so had a lot to contribute to contemplations of that) but these days I try not to overthink in general otherwise I might end up staring into an abyss, so I aim to focus on thinking about specific topics instead.

You speak of the abyss as though it was a bad thing.

Being stuck in 2leg's coma would explain so much.

I used to get attacks of introspection when it seemed that all my friends were partnered off, having kids and mortgages and becoming settled, while I... wasn't. Sometimes I felt like a tourist in my own life. In retrospect, I think I've been peculiarly blessed (no religious connotation intended) to have travelled so much and to have had the "impermanence" life.

If, in living, you're always aspiring to become something better, then you're probably doing something right. If you know what I mean.

I think that finally I have the ULTIMATE answer to existence.

The universe is far too weird to be real, hence we are all a part of a 2legs coma delusion. I can live with that, it makes a lot more sense than the last 56 years have ...

But then - - -

Does that make 2legs akin to "His Great Bob'ness" ?

That is a little frightening ...

A little bit frightening, yeah. But on the other hand you have survived 56 years of it already and why should that change?

Like I said: I have come to terms with this existence/fate/whatever we for lack of a better word call reality.

Call it armed neutrality if you like. You know: Trust in God - but keep your powder dry.

I'm reading Neil Gaiman's "Sandman: Overture." The main character is Dream, a.k.a. Morpheus.\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_(Vertigo)

A movie version of "Sandman," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was said to be in development, but when I checked Gordon-Levitt's page at imdb.com, I saw no such project listed.

I don't get into "deep" reading - I am now enjoying Stephen King's later book of short stories.

There was a thread not many months ago, where a lovely Yorkshire lady who lives in Germany was so very upset about "The Time Traveller's Wife" ... The lead character was so callous and cruel as to impregnate his wife, knowing he couldn't be around.

That was on our telly again yesterday, and the other side of the coin naturally came to mind. Knowing the story and life she had, why did the wife allow things to happen? It may only take one to flit through time, but it still takes two to make a child.

The child turned out to be a survivor. it's hard to imagine the father *not* knowing how accomplished she would turn out to be. Perhaps he told his wife, and she found his argument persuasive. How many couples have struggled with differing perspectives like this? Is there a single right or wrong answer?