Metaphysics pub quiz
Nov. 17th, 2004 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusTry my metaphysics pub quiz. It consists of ten questions about your relationship with metaphysics. The respondent with the most anti-metaphysical set of answers wins a shinto phallus and a night with Devon Aoki (or partner of their choice, if not a lesbian). The respondent with the most metaphysical set of answers wins the Metaphysician's Magic Pointy Hat. (Whether it's a magic hat or a dunce's cap depends on the angle it's viewed from, and whether the winner inks out the D or not.)
Here are the questions, followed by my own personal answers:
1. Do you think that 'Reality is elsewhere'?
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
1. Do you think that 'Reality is elsewhere'? I think it's my natural tendency, because I'm a dreamy cerebrotonic ectomorph like the kind Swift describes in Gulliver's Travels inhabiting the flying island of Laputa: 'These dreamy philosophers were so absorbed in their speculations that they employed attendants called "flappers," to flap them on the mouth and ears with a blown bladder when their attention was to be called off from "high things" to vulgar mundane matters.' Nevertheless, the fact that I employ people to flap me out of my reverie shows that my heart is in the right place.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'? No. I like my life.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are? I do, yes. Although I mock Radiohead for that 'I don't belong here' sentiment they're always promoting, I share it a lot. But my ideal, the one I'm working towards, is belonging, and accepting.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world? My legs feel as if they're trying to decide whether to just walk off and leave me. 'He doesn't seem to need us any more, so what the fuck?'
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism? They're all there. I've rebelled against Christianity and Platonism, less so against Marxism. But whether I reject them or not, they've all left tire tracks through me.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come? The Golden Age and Utopia are both permanent courts of session.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'? I accept authorship for them, or know who authored them, and don't call them objective. I try to make them more like scaffolding than buildings -- quick to assemble and quick to take down.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things? No, although it might have slipped past the censors occasionally.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse? It would depend on the quality of the environment they were in. I think if that happened in a degraded environment, it would be a recipe for hell on earth. If it happened in one that people had cared for and nurtured, it could be paradise on earth.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I? That's a trick que-whooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
Here are the questions, followed by my own personal answers:
1. Do you think that 'Reality is elsewhere'?
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
1. Do you think that 'Reality is elsewhere'? I think it's my natural tendency, because I'm a dreamy cerebrotonic ectomorph like the kind Swift describes in Gulliver's Travels inhabiting the flying island of Laputa: 'These dreamy philosophers were so absorbed in their speculations that they employed attendants called "flappers," to flap them on the mouth and ears with a blown bladder when their attention was to be called off from "high things" to vulgar mundane matters.' Nevertheless, the fact that I employ people to flap me out of my reverie shows that my heart is in the right place.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'? No. I like my life.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are? I do, yes. Although I mock Radiohead for that 'I don't belong here' sentiment they're always promoting, I share it a lot. But my ideal, the one I'm working towards, is belonging, and accepting.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world? My legs feel as if they're trying to decide whether to just walk off and leave me. 'He doesn't seem to need us any more, so what the fuck?'
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism? They're all there. I've rebelled against Christianity and Platonism, less so against Marxism. But whether I reject them or not, they've all left tire tracks through me.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come? The Golden Age and Utopia are both permanent courts of session.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'? I accept authorship for them, or know who authored them, and don't call them objective. I try to make them more like scaffolding than buildings -- quick to assemble and quick to take down.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things? No, although it might have slipped past the censors occasionally.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse? It would depend on the quality of the environment they were in. I think if that happened in a degraded environment, it would be a recipe for hell on earth. If it happened in one that people had cared for and nurtured, it could be paradise on earth.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I? That's a trick que-whooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 02:16 pm (UTC)Maybe another reality is elsewhere, but there's one right here too.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
Assuming "top myself" means suicide, I don't know. I expect I'd rather try to eke out just a bit more. It might be easier than it is now, what with morality getting kicked right on its ass.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
I've never really been concerned. As long as I like my environment, I don't think too much about it.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
Yep.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
Some of 'em, sure.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
Gold is the reason for the wars we wage. Utopia is when we're down to a small enough group of people that they can all agree. I don't see that happening until it's just me.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
Ow, my brain hurts.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Actually, I do. I tend to favor things that aren't culturally dependant on achieving their quality.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
I thought that was our world.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
I dunno, I think I'll have the salmon.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 02:37 pm (UTC)Because I didn't know what it was!!
http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs.htm
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 03:09 pm (UTC)(NB "yay" also means "summer" in azeri)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 03:16 pm (UTC)Reality is everywhere is skirting tautology. I'm lead to believe that Unreal Tournament is available for twenty-some dollars at the local Best Buy, though.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
Even if I were completely miserable, discovering the kind of flexibility required to top oneself would be an interesting enough event to keep me going a few more years, at least.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
With only regular breaks for food and the potty, I've spent more than 24 hours in a stretch writing software.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
Not so much my body as my GPA. As it is, a fit body with an absentee landlord is hardly unheard of. Anything more than five minutes on the treadmill requires either the ability to fully evacuate one's mind or a good mix tape.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
Subscribe to Marxism? Lord no, I hate those lad mags.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
There's no one golden age that anyone shares. My golden age was the time before I started kindergarten: my parents were present but not overbearing and things were peaceful but not boring.
It won't necessarily be a Utopia, but it would be interesting to live in a world where it's become obvious that information (in the abstract sense of difference or quasi-randomness) and matter are as intimately linked as matter and energy.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
I'd love to, but the worlds I've authored aren't really much to speak of, and they're not so much objective as object-oriented.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
No. Bits of culture, science, etc... are interesting because of their situatedness: what was necessary to bring them into being, and what they made possible.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
You'd be living as an animal. Take it or leave it as you like.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
I dunno about that, but you'd see a slew of books and videos on how to remove the bosons from your candy bars, icecream, and other fattening sweets. And people falling all over themselves to achieve true happiness and beauty through nonexistence.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 03:30 pm (UTC)2. No, I don't.
3. My immediate environment, like the flat? Or my attitude to London? The flat is as palatial as I can manage and I consider London to be a living entity worthy of endless investigation until I move elsewhere.
4. Not especially. I sit around by the computer a lot but then I go off walking.
5. Hmm, all three. I'm Russian Orthodox. Your restrictive Calvinist view of the world (I jest!) is a very skewed vision of the Christian heritage. Orthodoxy, with its basis in classical teaching, is Platonic in many ways. Russian Orthodoxy is Marxist, either by its fervent opposition to the Soviet experience, or in its millenarian utopianism. God save the Tsar or we'll hang the bastard. All power to the monks and monasteries. Whatever.
6. The Byzantine era was fairly good, in areas, such as Georgia in the 10-13th centuries, with its exquisite enamelwork, gorgeous women and groaning banquet tables. Persia under King Cyrus. Probably the Tang dynasty in China is my favourite. We've had utopia already, everything is in decline or mappo even. Unless we get off our arses. Going to war with America would be a good start. Or leaving the planet.
7. Oy gevalt.
8. Never, well, I hope not.
9. Your answer seems a bit like that part in film of The Time Machine with people wandering into vast halls filled with bowls of unknown fruit. Sounds fine, but I'd be wary of lurking warlocks. I suspect the continued presence of the past regardless of our efforts otherwise. I was raised by geologists, history is everywhere.
10. They'll be looking for another soon enough, mark my words.
I suspect I may be slanting my answers to appear less metaphysical than I am at some time of the day, but I'd prefer the hat. Devon Aoki looks a scary cast member from Eastenders, busaiku!. Who else is on offer? Could you arrange Terry Richardson? Although not for the sex, I might add.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 03:35 pm (UTC)http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3238,36-387415,0.html
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 03:41 pm (UTC)'The quantum theory of gravity has opened up a new possibility, in which there would be no boundary to space-time and so there would be no need to specify the behavior at the boundary. There would be no singularities at which the laws of science broke down and no edge of space-time at which one would have to appeal to God or some new law to set the boundary conditions for space-time. One could say: 'The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary.' The universe would be completely self-contained and not affected by anything outside itself. It would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE.'
Reflecting on the above quote one can imagine interesting answers to 1-9, especially 2, considering Hawking's situation.
Are you familiar with the Proust Questions (http://anthony.darrouzet-nardi.net/proust2.html)?
Jarry parry
Date: 2004-11-17 04:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 04:12 pm (UTC)2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'? My conundrum is that I believe in pre-determination, that our lives follow a course towards a definitive conclusion. So, I really don't believe I can top this life, so I prefer to enjoy the ride.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are? No, because I'm an incongruous human being. I see the inevitabilities of my actions in the broader sense, but the increasing complexities of my life cause me to "miss the mark" at times.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world? Actually, my body is going to seed because society came up with a more visceral definition of health in the 70's and 80's. You're only healthy if you LOOK healthy.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism? Platonism, mostly. I'm a slave to beauty.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come? I believe the Golden Age is now, because I have the most information about the current age to make any sorts of judgments without the oppressive influence of some curmudgeonly historian. That said, utopia will occur when all the memetic completion in our highly-evolved brains achieves some sort of balance with nature.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'? I accept personal authorship, because the other people have done a unsatisfying job in designing them.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things? Never. I use "fabulous", involuntarily, which betrays to the world what a big queen I am.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse? Oh, worse, definitely. The present is never good enough, because if it were than physical and metaphysical evolution would have no purpose.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I? I have a headache now. Fetch me my salts.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 04:48 pm (UTC)I don't believe in a strictly objective reality at all. The concept itself is necessarily a reductionist concept, because no human can process the full surface area of entropy in the universe. Is this a trick question or something?
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it was all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
Hell is where you hang your hat. Also, Hell is what you make of it.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
Yes, but I don't think this is the same thing as 'thinking reality is elsewhere.' Focusing on any goal relatively single-mindedly will have this same effect.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
I don't feel especially in tune with my flesh, no. To me my parts have always seemed like the dusty innards of an old computer fan. When the revolution happens, someone will have to come and tell me I've been shot, because I probably won't notice -- my mind will be 'elsewhere.'
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
Obviously not. Intentionally, anyway.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
I'm sure I've read about it somewhere, but I can't recall at the moment. Reality may not be 'elsewhere,' but Golden Ages and utopias necessarily always are. This should not rule out their usefulness as concepts; but at the same time, I don't try to eat photographs of chicken salad sandwhiches, either.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
Isn't Process supposed to be 'where it's at' now? I accept full responsibility for my perceptions, yes.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
No. I'm not sure what that means.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
Impossible.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
Well, for starters, I don't trust that pop commentators such as the authors of scientific articles in mainstream magazines will interpret or represent the discoveries with any level of understanding or insight. I'm not sure I'd be qualified to integrate the new ideas into my views without taking an awful lot of math courses.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 05:05 pm (UTC)But, to the point now. I'm going to choose a question + answer:
Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
Yes, I accept personal authorship for I can make the orange ochre, the blue ultramarine. My parallel worlds overlap and tangle, forming an interdependent link because I believe you can determine outcomes by a simple act of will. Try it, you'll like it.
Also try the new DFA (x3) compilation, you'll like it. Won't find any of that characteristic flippancy in Hong Kong indie.
Q 4 U
Date: 2004-11-17 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 05:51 pm (UTC)Ici ne peut-on s'empêcher de rêver, on projeta une utopie dans la brique et le marbre, on rêva que les Allemands nouveaux, toutes classes et origines confondues, vivraient dans la fraternité et l'insouciance de leurs besoins satisfaits.
Here one can't help dreaming, one projects a utopia in brick and marble, one dreams of new Germans, all classes and origins mixed up, living carefree and fraternal, their needs satisfied.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 05:52 pm (UTC)Put as succinctly as I'm able: There has been an awful lot of "reacting" to nothingness as if the reaction itself held some intrinsic meaning. Buddhism dealt with this quandry hundreds of years ago. Perhaps Chinese Confucianism really is destined to absorb the post-modern world, as we flounder about not knowing how to process the massive influx of constant information.
Re: Q 4 U
Date: 2004-11-17 05:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 06:15 pm (UTC)-Percy
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 06:28 pm (UTC)Exactly my words.
I hate quizzes and especially letting others know my results.
Date: 2004-11-17 06:42 pm (UTC)Maybe, perhaps.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
I'm not telling you.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
Yay for aloof detachment.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
Hmm, not necessarily a computer or a TV world. And seed? That sounds vaguely euphemistic. But yeah, I suppose.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
The core, yes. Marxism and Platonism, yes. The Romantic-deep personal guilt-individualistic philosophy of Western Christianity that remains timeless and transcends vulgar and coarse modern-day neomoralistic fundamentalism, yes.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
Hellenic Greece. The apocalypse. (Just kidding on the latter; I'm not sure of the future.)
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
Well of course my own parallel world is my own, but it isn't necessarily completely my own. A sort of collective parallel universe that is unique to me but is shared in the collective unconsious of humanity, if you will.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Hells yeah.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
Worse? But they'd have to desire something better, and by better I suppose it'd have to match my personal definition of "better" so perhaps it would be better (in another sense) to accept things as they are since it could be worse.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
If a physicist discovered the Higgs Boson, I'd screw him. And then screw him over.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 07:29 pm (UTC)I'm more interested in looking for reality among other times than among places or potential places.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
It is, and I haven't, so there you go. There's so much sex and so many good books here, why would anyone want to do themselves in?
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
I am an escapist, but a textural rather than a metaphysical escapist. I like, as Coleridge sez, "to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar." Deliberate dissociation is nothing metaphysical, it's very sensual--like pressing your hands to your eyes until you see stars--I like to read books about other worlds or books that make this world otherly, or noodling about on synthesizers making noises that seem strange and clever.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
You need to run. It's what makes us human, literally:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/health/17cnd-run.html
In the winter I hibernate.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
Nope. Reductive readers. There is more in this world, Horatio, &c.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
We do a pretty good job of making technology that makes us even more human than we already are. I don't see that changing.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
No one designed my worlds, although Bloom's been pushing an associate producer credit for Shakespeare. Apart from that, I'll accept responsibility.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
No...but how can you not fall in love with Montaigne? He's like your grandfather, only sharper. You can look back down the ages and see those "ironic points of light" still twinkling--they dim or expand over time but the brightest still give off enough light to read by.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
A Husserlian ekstase--probably intensely boring and ultimately unfeasible.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
The terms of these questions changed once with Martin Luther, once with Darwin and once with Warhol and Derrida--I think we're still good for another few decades now. Though figuring out why matter has mass might clear up a few things...
B
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 07:51 pm (UTC)Toothpaste is elsewhere. Pineapples are elsewhere. I am here, though. Which is realer, me or a pineapple covered in toothpaste?
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
Oh no. Because I can always cheat the system and make my own fun. I can, and don't you wave your beret at me and say I can't.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
If I noticed it, it would be because my concerns were there. Don't be silly.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
My body is going to seed because I masturbate a lot.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
No, but they are delivered to my doorstep anyway. Apparently there is no opt-out option.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
The Golden Age was the '50s and '60s, when men like Jack "King" Kirby and Steve Ditko turned superheroes from pulp trash into pop-culture icons. Utopia will come shortly after I find her clitoris.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
I design and promote parallel worlds and personal mythologies around other people, buddy. Objectivism is irrelevant; if enough people believe a thing it functions as though it were true.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Not unless their timelessness is an inherently obvious part of their value, i.e. they are old-yet-still-relevant. Most software and South Park episodes are precisely the opposite of timeless and yet I find much to praise in Dungeon Siege and the antics of Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
Man, if I gave my kid a present and he said "Is that all there is?" I'd be pissed.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
What you don't understand is that the Higgs boson carries the principle of Elvisness. There is a Higgs antiboson that carries mass like the Higgs boson, but carries a heavy charge of Antielvisness; exposure to anti-Higgs radiation causes Parkinson's disease and stunts growth.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 08:38 pm (UTC)Peace
Professor Griffel
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 09:01 pm (UTC)The terms of these questions changed once with Martin Luther, once with Darwin and once with Warhol and Derrida--I think we're still good for another few decades now. Though figuring out why matter has mass might clear up a few things...
Yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 09:07 pm (UTC)Reality is right he...hey! Where'd it go?! I just had it a second ago. Now I know it didn't just grow legs and walk off...!
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
Yes, but it doesn't matter. None of this matters. Just make sure people have food and shelter at all costs...even if they are just temporary illusions.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
When Momus writes an opera about me. "The Guy Who Does Stuff Fairly Well Vs. The Jack Sexy Trio." It's a working title. An atonal work in the vein of Alban Berg's Wozzeck.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Yes, because at the time I described the object that's how I felt and forever from that point I will have always felt that way at the time of the description. It's not my fault if the object doesn't live up to the reputation of being "timeless." Sheesh. That's the problem with the world today...nothing is built to last anymore...oy....
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
If this was discovered, I would change number six to "When I finally have enough change to buy a Vanilla Coke."
May I have my hat, please, sir?
Date: 2004-11-17 09:15 pm (UTC)2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'? Not at all. If my life as I live it was (not were) all there is, I couldn't top myself. I'm doing the best job any self-proclaimed, one hundred percent certain superhero could ever ask to do. The world needs more, not less of us.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are? My environment is my concern. I live in it. I'm part of 'my environment' (and not terribly fond of the quotation mark.)
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world? No, it's going to seed because we're designed to get older, go to seed and die. We are also living out of the evolutionary environment for which our bodies were designed. Thus and therefore, evolution demands it. If I am going to seed (I am,) it's because I'm less genetically fit.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism? I don't subscribe to beliefs, including the one where I don't subscribe to beliefs.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come? A time back enough that bad memories can become fond ones, and any minute from now. That was too easy.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'? I accept all authorship of every world I have ever designed (e.g. the transformation from girl into superhero, the relationship with oddities of perception.) I know her true name. I won't speak it here. JHVH
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things? Never. Also, never use the words 'infinity' or 'eternity' in a poem unless you are an old, dead, poet of the canon.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse? It would be worse. Remember on how all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Evolution is progress. So in a sense all progress depends on the unreasonable cells.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? They'll just come up with some other damned important particle, forgetting that God is a word, just like reality is a word. Animals. Let them discover those.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 09:19 pm (UTC)Questionaires..
Date: 2004-11-17 09:30 pm (UTC)It's on TV a lot now so I guess it must be elsewhere.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
No, enjoy it while it lasts.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
Upgrading one's environment can surely bring them into alignment. Interior design is more fun though.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
I have my head in the clouds and but luckily I have a wife who makes me exercise.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
If I could remember what they were then I guess I might reject them.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
The Golden Age will come in four years from now. Utopia is so passe.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
I am an unreliable narrator, however my 'script' is going to 'development hell'. I can't be objective, I think it is great.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
I try not to but 'timeless' is so last century.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
That is a parallel world which is another of those utopias.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
God Particles are the emperors new clothes.
Richard G
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-17 11:32 pm (UTC)Something like the Higgs Boson is so far removed from anything a layman might understand (which is the way scientists like it) that there's no danger of it shaking the established church in the same way Copernicus or Darwin did. Apart from anything else, the church doesn't have the hold over the public that it once had.
Meanwhile, while a bunch of scientists pat themselves on the back, and congratulate themselves for explaining away God, millions starve and die of preventable disease around the world.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 12:00 am (UTC)I am wondering whether your icon is a picture of Margaret Lan Tan in concert?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 04:07 am (UTC)1-10 =
Date: 2004-11-18 04:16 am (UTC)trevor > musicrelated.net
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 04:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 04:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 10:02 am (UTC)And the winner is...
Date: 2004-11-18 11:21 am (UTC)Do I qualify for the pointy hat?
Date: 2004-11-18 11:41 am (UTC)I actually don't know what reality is. If it's the world I'm forced to share with other people, then it's overrated.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
I'm sure that, if such a thing could somehow be irrefutably proved, it would have a peculiar effect on me. I'd either top myself or laugh and get on with it with a lighter heart. Not sure which.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
I think it would be hard to downgrade my environment, because it's already utterly shite.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
It's not going to seed any faster than anyone else's... Well, any other reasonably healthy person. If only I were off in another world - perhaps the odds of me getting stomach ulcers and cancer would then be significantly reduced.
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
No. Well, run Plato past me again and I'll have another think about it.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
The golden age, obviously, was before I had to go to school and accept the pitiful and vulgar reality of other human 'beings'. Utopia will come when they accept my reality instead.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
I despise objectivity. Objectivity is the most subjective position a person can possibly hold.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Yes. I think I've done that. Since time is a kind of mental trap, what is timeless helps one to escape such traps.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
It could be either, or both. I think the only examples we have at hand are differences in Eastern and Western cultures. Some things are better and some worse in East and in West.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
See answer to question two.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-19 12:29 am (UTC)1. Do you think that 'Reality is elsewhere'?
No. Reality is what is. Where would we be if reality were elsewhere? Even fantastic constructs within our minds exist and are the product of reality.
2. Do you think that 'If my life as I live it were all there is, I'd top myself right now!'?
It makes no difference to me whether there is life outside of my own. I'll never know one way or the other.
3. Do you notice yourself downgrading your environment because it's not really where your concerns are?
I think I have a tendency to downgrade my environment when I'm not particularly enjoying my situation; I'll turn my thoughts to less immediate affairs simply to avoid the challenges of my immediate surroundings. It could be argued that a lot of intellectual discussion is simply a means for escape from ones environment.
4. Is your body going to seed because you're off in some other world, for instance a computer world or a TV world?
I don't understand what is meant by "going to seed". I do believe that while I use the computer (some 10+ hours a day, on average - by both profession and obsession) my body deteriorates, which is why I counter the "mind time" (in front of the computer) with "body time" (spent at the gym).
5. Do you subscribe to the core beliefs of Marxism, Christianity, or Platonism?
I subscribe to my own personal belief system which may or may not contain elements of the above.
6. When was the Golden Age, and when will utopia come?
We're living in the Golden Age. Utopia is both impossible and unbearable.
7. Do you accept personal authorship of your own parallel worlds, or know the names of the people who designed them? Or do you call them 'objective'?
I don't own any parallel worlds.
8. Do you find yourself using the word 'timeless' when you praise things?
Only when referring to a certain drum and bass album from the late 90's.
9. What would a world in which people wholly accepted the present as 'all there is' be like? Better, or worse?
In such a world it would be impossible for any tasks which take a long time to be completed. As such, we wouldn't have musical instruments, farming, schooling, or really anything which makes the modern world what it is. While I acknowledge that currently there is a need for people to concentrate less on the future and more on themselves in the here and now, a world in which nobody thinks ahead would simply stagnate.
10. How will these questions change if physicists discover the Higgs Boson or 'god particle'? (Beware, trick que-whoooooooooooosh OMG, where am I?
*sploink*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-20 04:54 am (UTC)