Journal Entries
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Critics, Skeptics, Cynics and Apathetes
Posted Nov 26, 2000
I wish people would CARE more. I write a lot - many, many words, and many things I repeat over and over and over ... but that is because I care. I care about the truth, about information, knowledge and understanding. I wish people would use words back at me, state their own cases in detail and at length, teach me a great quantity of new things. Communication, with words, is extremely important - and I only wish that people would see it as the important thing that it is and devote lots of time and energy to it. And words make up a big part of our understanding of the world. So in my eternal struggle to understand things I have to grapple with words - many, many, many words - and also I'll need to have my ideas interact with those of other people. The more intricate that interaction, the better. That is what I'm trying to do here. But I think in the future I'm going to include more pictures also. Because I've been told I talk too much, and people criticise the things I say, but so far nobody has told me I draw too much or disagreed with my pictures.
Maybe I should write fiction from the outset, then I can get my ideas across without opposition. But anyways I am driven, I want to help change the world and society and make the wrong things right and I'm not going to let a bit of friction stop me... But I am also going to need people's help. Mutually we have to try and match our ideas, our purposes and goals. I am willing to change in order to bring that about, but not to change from a good position to one that is bad. But I know that there are many, many very wise and caring people around, and I've met a few of them here - but surely there are more? Anybody out there who wants to help?
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Nov 26, 2000
Books that I read
Posted Nov 20, 2000
I start this entry as a journal where I will list and discuss all the books that I read from now on. This is
essentially for my own personal purposes - as a record, and as an exercise in organisation, integration and
co-ordination of information and ideas. I have so many thoughts, and I need to keep them in order. But I will try
to present
it all in a clear and interesting way that anybody can understand. So if you want to read this, and if you want to
comment on it, go right ahead. I would really like it if I can succeed in encouraging other people to read,
think, learn, understand and imagine more.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Nov 20, 2000
Merging Mind with Matter
Posted Oct 28, 2000
This is not a piece of objective science. These are my subjective, personal ideas. So you can take them, or leave them. This is the crux: there is not really a rigid division between external reality and the human mind, or the subjective, inner world of every person. In a way, the inner world might be even more "real" than the outer one. I think that external reality is only a manifestation of a thought-like substrate that underlies all of time and space, matter and energy. And I believe that the human consciousness rises directly out of this substrate, and interacts with it all the time. So, human (or any other kind of) consciousness and the material world are two manifestations of the same, mind-like thing. Modern people in general have been indoctrinated with a materialist dogma, which denies the mind-like aspects of reality. This has been a very grave mistake.
You all are familiar with the movie "The Matrix". This movie is merely a recent example of the speculations that have gone on for ages about whether the "real world" really exists "out there", or only in our own minds. For instance, when we dream, our dreamworlds seem real to us. This alone is enough to show that we can experience things as being "real" even though they are not real in the sense that the external world is. In fact, almost any world that we can imagine can be given "reality" by the mind.
Maybe it is the mind that makes the external world SEEM real, too. Phyisicists have always been able to extract mathematical equations to describe reality, but they have never been able to say what "breathes fire" into them - why is there a reality, which behaves according to those equations, and seems real? I mean, an equation by itself does nothing. Maybe it is consciousness that "breathes fire" into the equations. The world is real because we experience it as being real. And we can also experience other worlds, imaginary ones, as being real.
So why do we call those other worlds imaginary then? And where do the equations of the real world come from in the first place? And where do WE come from?
I won't go into the deepest speculations right now. But I hope this discussion so far has demonstrated to you that there is a very intimate interaction between the human consciousness, whatever that is, and external reality, whatever that is, going on all of the time. In fact, all of external reality, as we know it, is experienced by ourselves, INTERNALLY. So what is REALLY "out there"? We can never know! The only "external" reality we can ever know is the inner one! Unlike Neo, we cannot wake up into the "real" world and perceive that we have been living in an illusion. Because we cannot know that any "real" world into which we believe we have woken up is not also an illusion! We can only be aware of what is in our conscious minds; everyting else we are oblivious of.
So the difference between the external and the internal world turns out to be irrelevant. What we consider to be the "real world" is only the vast amount of internal data that we share with other people, that makes sense and that is consistent. Wait a minute - but if this is true, then those "other people" also have to be part of our internal world!
Yep.
It's OK if you want to go ga-ga now.
But this argument is by no means rock solid. Fact is, everything is much more complicated than this. Basically, there are dualisms. There are lots of people who are not you; there are things that are outside of your conscious awareness. There is a difference between mind and matter. But these differences are not themselves absolute. There is a level where they cease to matter. It's the same principle as the wave/particle in quantum mechanics. But if you get the "feel" for the deep issues underlying the problem of virtual reality, you can begin to understand that the mind's perception of things plays a big role, if not in the external universe itself, then at least in any kind of idea that we can ever have any chance of having about it.
Next time I want to talk a bit about supernatural/paranormal phenomena as it relates to the human mind, and also I want to mention some new scientific work (even if it may be a bit controversial) about the human mind and consciousness.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Oct 28, 2000
Solving the AIDS crisis in Africa
Posted Oct 11, 2000
There are a number of obstacles we need to overcome to do something positive about the rampant spread of AIDS in Africa.
The first problem is education. Millions of Africans know very little about the HIV virus and how it is spread. Even in South Africa there is currently a controversy. Some people say that HIV does not cause AIDS, but poverty and miserable living conditions do. While it is true that these factors contribute to the spread of AIDS and to AIDS deaths, this theory detracts from people's awareness that AIDS is transferred from person to person by unprotected sexual intercourse. If the people living in poverty and squalor were told how AIDS is spread, and if they took protective measures, they would still be poor, but at least they won't die of AIDS. If they survive we can at least then try to do something about their poverty; if they die, we cannot.
So people must be taught about safe sex and other protective measures, they must be taught about the HIV virus and the way it is transmitted from person to person. There is an incredible amount of ignorance about that over here. The more people KNOW about AIDS, the safer they will be. They must know that the virus lives in the blood and body fluids, they must know that they can get it from unprotected sex with people infected with it, they must know that they can also get it from blood transfusions and dirty syringes (although these two cause only a small percentage of deaths). They must also know that a person can be HIV positive without showing any symptoms. Many people still believe that if their partner looks clean and healthy, he/she does not carry the HIV virus. Or they believe that only really promiscuous people have it, and that their partner is not a slut/sex maniac and therefore don't carry the virus. They must know that clean, healthy-looking, not particularly promiscuous people can nevertheless be HIV positive.
Of course in other countries there might be an idea that only gays can carry AIDS, which is quite untrue. Down here it is an almost totally heterosexual disease, and it is quite possible that in Europe and America its relative incidence among heterosexuals will increase, perhaps as a direct result of people's ignorance. So whether you're gay or straight, always take care.
People must also know that AIDS cannot be cured. Down here there are incredible superstitions about AIDS cures. One such superstition is that an AIDS sufferer can be cured by having sex with a virgin. Not only is it not a cure, it leads to a possible spread of the virus to someone who was free from it before. A less harmful belief is that AIDS can be cured by traditional healers. Not to be prejudiced here, I give credit to the skill and knowledge of traditional healers, but I don't think they can. AIDS at the present time is incurable, people must be aware of that or they will not take proper safety measures. Of course, after getting it you ought to try every possible remedy, but if you are still HIV negative don't be careless because you imagined that you might easily be cured of AIDS if you caught it.
So we must educate, and fast. Everybody can help. This piece I write now is a way to communicate, to educate. It will not reach many Africans, but it will increase awareness in other countries. Africa is very dependent on other countries right now, because we don't have the means to do very much on our own. We will do as much as we can, but all help would be extremely welcome.
Second problem: condoms. Where do you suddenly get thousands of millions of condoms, and even if you can get them, how can you distribute them to the people of Africa? Are there cheaper, more effective ways of preventing the disease? Well, there's celibacy and fidelity; the biggest problem is MULTIPLE sex partners. The more people you have intercourse with, the more likely it is that one of them will be HIV positive. So there are campaigns to urge people to stay faithful to one partner, or to abstain. But simultaneously there are campaigns to encourage people to have more sex and to be more promiscuous - hollywood movies and TV series. And the people of Africa are influenced by that. How many times do you see in a movie that people put on condoms before having sex, or refrain from intercourse if they don't have protection?
Third problem: medication. There are medications that act against the spread of AIDS, there are medications that can perhaps give people immunity against AIDS, there are medications to combat the symptoms of the disease, but, again, where do you suddenly find the amounts needed over here, and how do you get them to the people? This is where help from other countries is most sorely needed. If only we can get some aid in the form of cheaper medicines, it will really help save many lives. And I want to point out that many of the people who die from AIDS do not die because of sexual irresponsibility on their side. There are babies who get it from their mothers. There are women and children who have been raped. There are wives who get it from their secretly unfaithful husbands. And many more. So don't come with a high and mighty morality saying people die because they're careless and it's their responsibility, not yours. Please, try to make a difference to this epidemic, in any way possible!
Discuss this Journal entry [15]
Latest reply: Oct 11, 2000
My Guide Entries
Posted Oct 7, 2000
Please look at my entries, and tell me what you think! I have one that I submitted to the Peer Review Page - the one about giraffes. But look at my giraffe pictures, too, and look at the two trees, and read my piece on the big mammals of the past and the present, please! Also I'd like it if you read my prose-ode to the virtue and value of trees, set out at length and in detail below.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Oct 7, 2000
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