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mikebart101
Bromden
Registered: 08/01/06
Posts: 619
Loc: New England
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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The Human Element
#7691476 - 11/28/07 05:02 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Life is always trying to survive. Its a disease, a bacteria, a fungus of unimaginable proportions. Everywhere its straining, stretching, killing, and overshadowing. From a tree branch, to fanned coral, a mold spore, to a jungle vine, it is always attempting to survive and spread outwards. It is always trying to grow; a lightning bolt of self-interest. Very strange indeed. Twisting upwards out of the soil or the decaying carcass of another life-form, it always appears the same; veiny if you will; pulsing and pushing outwards, upwards, under-wards, everywhere. There is no escape. There is no stopping it. And thus arises the Human Element.
How do we fit into this equation? We are alienated in our own world. We willingly destroy life; poison the seas, cloud the air, slaughter the forests, rape the land. Where are our characteristics of life? Why the blood-lust?
And yet we have the power of consciousness. We can shut it off; our instincts. We can starve ourselves of food, take our own life willingly and snuff ourselves out of existence. Why is this? We can destroy ourselves, not by killing others, but by self-sacrifice. Is this our flaw? Are we some escaped science experiment. A cure to life? A vaccine gone wild? We don't fit. Tremendous power. We can destroy everything willingly including us.
-------------------- So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
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NiamhNyx
I'm NOT a 'he'
Registered: 09/01/02
Posts: 3,198
Last seen: 14 years, 10 months
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Quote:
Life is always trying to survive. Its a disease, a bacteria, a fungus of unimaginable proportions.
Bacteria, and fungi are particular types of life-forms. It isn't an apt metaphor for all of life.
We can kill everything off because we are alientated from the world, the process is removed from individuals, so we can each feel like we're 'good people' while continuing to perpetuate a way of life that is destructive. There is no conspiracy, this system has it's own momentum that we unconsciously contribute to. Shifting the trajectory of our society is no simple task. It is also important to note that this is entirely cultural, it isn't 'human nature' to destroy the world around us.
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mikebart101
Bromden
Registered: 08/01/06
Posts: 619
Loc: New England
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Re: The Human Element [Re: NiamhNyx]
#7691699 - 11/28/07 05:40 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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I am not concentrating on the now are we but rather on the ability to do such. What other life-forms can consciously choose between life and death; to create or destroy? I am just saying we don't fit in.
And the fungi metaphor was just a visual description. How all life resembles, veins, tree-branches, lightning bolts, etc. That in some form or another, it resembles itself; always reaching.
Edited by mikebart101 (11/28/07 05:43 PM)
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs
Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 3 years, 24 days
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Where do we not fit in? And how can you tell that we are the only ones to have the ability to create or destroy? Other animals can do that too.
Quote:
What other life-forms can consciously choose between life and death;
Er... the rest of the animals that possess consciousness?
-------------------- All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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mikebart101
Bromden
Registered: 08/01/06
Posts: 619
Loc: New England
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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They can destroy or create, but they do so to survive. Its intstinctful. We, on the other hand, can willingly choose; perform both for no reason.
-------------------- So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs
Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 3 years, 24 days
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No. There are other animals which also choose for pleasure. Like us. No reason doesn't exist.
-------------------- All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery
Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Any point to this rant?
There is no escape. There is no stopping it.
pure speculation on your part. Evidence points to a time prior to life and there is no reason to assume it cannot have an end.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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demiu5
humans, lol
Registered: 08/18/05
Posts: 43,948
Loc: the popcorn stadium
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Quote:
mikebart101 said: They can destroy or create, but they do so to survive. Its intstinctful. We, on the other hand, can willingly choose; perform both for no reason.
Quote:
a chimp group in gombe spent 4 years attacking a smaller group, exterminated all of them, and then took over their territory in addition to their original home range.
the group of chimps that did this could easily have lived on/in the territory they already held. In some cases, the dominate chimp group 'violently' murdered both young and old chimps of the now dead tribe. They deliberately killed every infant/child so the group could not reproduce and then took their territory.
i'd say their actions were chosen and willingly carried out
-------------------- channel your inner Larry David
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Rahz
Alive Again
Registered: 11/10/05
Posts: 9,300
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What's unique about humans, is that we are so successful. I don't really think there's anything unnatural about it, though it is newish. Perhaps any animal that evolves into self-consciousness would experience similar problems? What is interesting is our awareness of future possibility, and the desire not to devour, even if it is in our own best interest.
Unlike other animals, we go through personal, cultural, and social evolutions. Ego got us this far, hopefully, moving away from the ego will take us further. There does seem to be movement.
-------------------- rahz comfort pleasure power love truth awareness peace "The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." - Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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psyka
Praetorian
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 1,652
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We are the Universe, calculating itself.
From a wheel, to killing tools, to gardening tools, to simple machines, to chemistry tools, to atomic collision tools. We think we are in control. We think we're the ones steering the wheel. You're just in the passengers seat, enjoy the ride.
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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igwna
The Cap'n
Registered: 06/19/07
Posts: 8,016
Loc: New England, USA
Last seen: 9 years, 7 months
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Re: The Human Element [Re: psyka]
#7693526 - 11/29/07 01:57 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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perhaps we are so alien because this isn't our true place of origin
-------------------- I don't believe in cops, bosses, or politicians. Some call that anarchism. I call it having a fucking heart that beats.
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mikebart101
Bromden
Registered: 08/01/06
Posts: 619
Loc: New England
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Re: The Human Element [Re: igwna]
#7693576 - 11/29/07 02:41 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thats exactly the visual depiction of life I was talking about psyka. Thanks for looking that up.
I do feel that we think we are in control until it is too late. I feel the next evolution of life will be artificial, by our making. Yes I'm referring to robots, but not in the terminator sense. We ourselves will create a better life-form to replace us. But don't worry, our stage in the evolutionary process will show in our work.
-------------------- So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
Edited by mikebart101 (11/29/07 02:59 AM)
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Boundless
Stranger
Registered: 01/04/06
Posts: 38
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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If we focused more on creation rather then destruction, we would put our energy into something useful happy and beneficial for all humankind.
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Boots
Disenchanted
Registered: 07/25/07
Posts: 1,137
Loc: Northwood, Ohio, U.S.A.
Last seen: 15 years, 4 months
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Re: The Human Element [Re: Boundless]
#7693778 - 11/29/07 06:44 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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What I think is interesting is, that in the game of life, organisms continually evolved (whatever your religion, there is pretty solid evidence that organisms do evolve and have been doing so for millions of years) and eventually, one species of organism evolved so far ahead of the rest that it began to trace, calculate and study the biology of all the other organisms. Not only that, but the humans then became the end-all, be-all and proclaimed this life and that death, or this animate and that inanimate. Cocky motherfuckers.
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shakercee
Atheistic Mystic
Registered: 04/08/07
Posts: 606
Loc: Here and there
Last seen: 11 years, 1 month
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Re: The Human Element [Re: psyka]
#7694240 - 11/29/07 10:04 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Amazing visuals...Fractal theory at work
-------------------- Pray, v.: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy - Ambrose Bierce Medical science has confirmed what the male world has known intuitively for millenia: that scratching your ass is a great aid to complex thinking. Its God's responsibility to forgive the terrorist organizations such as Jaish, Lashkar etc. Its our responsibility to arrange the meeting between them and god." - Indian Armed Forces "Hey Monkey!! Get Funky" - Tarzan and Jane
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leery11
I Tell You What!
Registered: 06/24/05
Posts: 5,998
Last seen: 8 years, 11 months
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Re: The Human Element [Re: shakercee]
#7695956 - 11/29/07 05:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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knowledge is for cutting
this wasn't even relevant until we started making tools.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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