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

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?

hello willem,

cynics and sneerers ans scepticks are better than apathetes. There are lots of people who want to make a better world, there are so many examples of them tha you and i both know of.

your words are important, and don't be afriad to post them and take the criticisms that come with them. Somemight have a good point.

I think that pehaps your postings are a bit long, and your used of LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS COULD PUT PEOPLE OFF.

People like us have to be very careful to approach expressing our point of view in a freindly and simplistic manner. i hope that it will be enough to gentlty nudge along the mass change in collective consiousness that is all we need for utopia.

Thanks a lot for running around telling people about the utopia cafebar, and please continure posting and grabbing people. there are lots of utopianists / goodies / here on h2g2. Would you please get posting in the new environment and other threads on the new noticeboard page. I'm working on these pages a bit this weekend, so please pop along with your comments. its always good to hear from you, and please remember that lots of people do care.

DON'T PANIC

Calmly build solutions, take action, have fun.

PURPLEJENNY SEZ RAISE THE SMILE COUNT.

what was i saying about capitals and long postings? Oh dear, ohwell.

lottsa love

purplejenny

x

Thanks for actually responding! I wondered if anybody ever read these journal entries. You're right, cynicism and skepticism and criticism are still examples of caring, and therefore not so bad. I have nothing against people, I just have problems with some people's attitudes. And my own. But one thing I know for a fact - people often change, by deciding to change.

Well, I'm trying. I think what I'll do is to mix up long and short postings. My problem is, I mostly think not in words but in pictures - and every picture is worth a thousand words. So I am going to do what I resolved to do and put more pictures here.

It's a bit of a problem to write for a general audience. I think I should write a book, or a few. There's just so much stuff I need to tell people. So much to do, so little time! Erm, maybe not so little time - so far I've been keeping well.

I'll be working on that Utopia Wildlife Park. Its going to be a metaphor, but for those who don't look that deep it will be plain fun with lots of pictures of animals and plants and nice stuff. Futuristic, speculative as well. Vision-broadening, I hope. Let's see.

Been to your Purplejenny site: looks good, I hope your business fares well.

Incidentally I also believe that gardening is a good direct action to take. Grow wild plants, replant forests, put ordinary people back in touch with nature. My chief ambition is to one day have my own botanic garden/wildlife rehab/educational center. I'll show people Utopia, allright!!!

Anyways at least in my journal entries I can write as long as I want. But putting in a short one every now and then seems to pay off!

I must admit, I find short postings much easier to get through, and it probably is easier to get a short simple message across than a long complicated one.

But I think your page is awesome. It expresses some really important ideals which sometimes I niavely think that everyone has, and now and then am suddenly confronted with the knowledge that not everyone is like that. But I suspect that I will always view people with the rose coloured glasses I wear, and I'm not sorry to do so: I think that my own especial gift is being able to see that in others, and although I may not always be right, someone should be able to believe in others and show them the good in themselves. I'm not trying to boast, just share my own personal philosophy on the matter.

But anyway, after going off on that tangent, I just wanted to say that what you've said is important, and I applaud you for it.

, or

Hi! How did you find this place? I don't think we've met before!

It might be true that short, simple messages are easier to get across than long, complicated ones, but what does a person do when he has a long, complicated message he wants to get across?

The long, complicated messages I would really love to get across include these:

1) And explanation of modern physics.
2) A detailed account of thousands of different kinds of species of animals and plants, their evolutionary histories and their ecological relations
3) A discussion of the value and implementation of philosophy, including metaphysics and formal logic
4) Speculative ideas about human psychology
5) Many, many others

Why? Because a knowledge of these things will help mankind solve its problems. The more people that know these things, the better. I have this weird idea that the average person is capable of knowing more than he/she ever learns, and I want to push people to inform and educate themselves better. The knowledge that exists at the moment is incredible, but so far little is done to distribute this knowledge among members of the general public. I think the wisdom of humanity ought to belong to everybody, not a few specialists. People believe that it is necessary to specialize, but I believe general knowledge is just as important and furthermore I believe the drive to specialisation is based on a faulty understanding of the human mind. The mind's capacity for knowledge isn't limited - it is potentially just about infinite. It's not a question of a jack of all trades and a master of none. A person can be a master of many trades and possess detailed knowledge about a vast range of fields. And I believe that it is necessary that people again consider the concept of being Renaissance people, of having an extremely broad scope of interests, and of teaching themselves.

I'm going to see how close I can come to my goals of teaching people these complicated things here on h2g2. Im starting out with animals and plants. They are not so hard to understand. I will use lots of pictures. Like I said, with a picture a person can take in a very complicated message at a glance. I believe that with the judicious use of pictures you can actually make a long message easier to grasp than a short one.

We can solve our problems if we really want to, but it will take work. It seems to me people have this idea that brainwork is worse than anything - they will try all sorts of wild schemes and only sit down and concentrate and think as a last resort. How silly.

Pardon me for going on and on - trying to make a point. Thanks for visiting!

Well no, we haven't met before. Hi

I found your page when I saw your name on 'Who's online', and I'd got through replying to all the conversations that I'd already been involved in, and thought I'd wander over to see what kind of page someone with that really cool name had, and I was very impressed, so I stayed and dropped you a line.

As for the question of how to get across a long message, I guess by a bunch of easily-digested short messages. It's not so much that people can't take it all in, it's a matter of attention spans. And plus, the forum set-out make long messages look even longer (since there's not much width to put them in -- or at least, not on my screen). You will get your point across, I'm sure, to those who have the interest to read your points, but those who are just passing through perhaps, might be reached better by something shorter that makes them think. That's only my opinion though. I could very well be wrong.

However, having said that, I applaud your goal of teaching people. Knowledge is never wasted. And I am all for the accumulation of knowledge. I'm studying for my second bachelor's degree, and would like to take this current one at least as far as masters, but we'll see what life throws at me first.

, or

Hi Willem!

Talking about caring, maybe you would like to talk to this nice German guy? He seems nice, he's just joined. He has paranoid-schizophrenia too and talks about it on his page. It seems that he has had it for some time and has it very well controlled. Maybe you could offer support to each other or share information?

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know. I like your new Personal Space info by the way.

xx

Peta