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Where are we? What are we doing? Why are we doing this? What do we want?
Let’s talk metaphors. Symbols. Cryptic messages – we all love that stuff, right? In her periscope, Julie noted a magazine, later discovered to be a National Geographic cover, that introduced a new topic to our little universe: “Future Humans.”
Why would the OSDM be reading that… or at least want us to think they have?
It’s a message.
I may be completely off-base, but you never know what will be useful unless you say it. So, here goes.
Human evolution: what does that even mean? Are we caterpillars who are impelled by unknown forces to build cocoons and emerge as butterflies, or are we cicadas who live most of our lives underground, only to emerge shortly before our demise?
Maybe both.
So let’s begin with an allegory that has recently been discussed: we’re in a cave.
Of course, people in this cave aren’t aware they’re in a cave – they think it’s just normal reality. Some of us are in denial that there even is a cave, some of us are reluctant to admit that they’re in it, and some of us have seen through a crack or two and peered through. There may even be a few Trent Reznor types, who were up above it, but are now down in it. See, once out of the cave, one who was in it understands the folly of their ways… but then realizes that there is a larger cave of the world itself that casts shadows, too. Even beyond this world, there are other suns, casting more and more shadows, and you can spend an eternity trying to find the ultimate source of them all, but it’s shadows all the way down. There’s no bottom.
Except, maybe, one: your body.
Let’s look at this metaphor in a new light (so to speak): what if the cave is our physical form itself? What would that mean? Maybe Plato didn’t mean it this way, but he’s not around to argue (and he’d just have Socrates do it for him if he were).
So, let’s just say that the cave is defined by limits, and since it’s a metaphor for our physical form, that we need to explore what those limits are.
What do we wind up with? The five senses. Sight, touch, taste, smell, sound – are you having déjà vu? I am.
Let’s also say that we need to be able to describe these senses in a general way, without getting caught up too far in the details of how to measure or analyze them. There is a useful word we can use: data.
Now, data isn’t information, and it’s important to distinguish between the two: information is everywhere, but “data” implies organization of some sort. Information can be (relatively) random, but data has some pattern to it.
What do our sensory organs do other than organize information into data through algorithmic processing? How better to describe the experience of perception than the reaction to thought processes that result from sensory input? It’s the basis of all empiricism, and represents the entirety of the human experience, right?
Well, almost the entirety – there are things that exist outside of human perception, and if we’re ever going to find a path that leads out of the cave, it’s by exploring them.
This is all an experiment. This is all a test. This is us seeking to evolve, but running up against the walls of the cave because we don’t have all the information.
Unless we do.
Here’s a joke:
Two dinosaurs are talking to each other, discussing how they imagine the future. One of them is saying that they will obviously be faster so they can catch more prey, and the other is saying that they’ll just keep getting bigger so they can dominate more space. The argument keeps going, and each makes a compelling case.
Meanwhile, the asteroid is coming that will kill all of them but the tiniest who can hide out in caves and eventually become birds.
Some punchline, eh?
But how did the lizards get the message to hide? Was there some raptor-messiah spreading word of the coming catastrophe? Maybe – but probably not. They survived the same way every species has, and always will: through instinct.
There’s the paradox: our bodies tell us what to do, but these selfsame genetic reflexes form a prison. We’re trapped in a vicious cycle, and we don’t know how to stop. Hunger, exhaustion, greed, envy – lust… The level of empirical input we receive has logarithmically increased over the past couple of decades, and we are now almost entirely on autopilot, carrying on conversations with others so often and in so many different media that we have forgotten how to really listen to ourselves – not just our present selves, but our future selves – the selves who have figured out where the exit is to the cave, and are calling to us to listen for directions.
Of course, anyone who claims to know the way is a liar…
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Your touches on the senses, the body, and limitations remind me of the Ouroborus (circular like the coffee stain on the list).
To bring this full circle back to Plato. Here’s a quote from Timaeus:
The living being had no need of eyes because there was nothing outside of him to be seen; nor of ears because there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he created thus; his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form which was designed by him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.
This reminds me a lot of the Cave, and even a perfect human (for research and data collection), in some people’s minds. A human who’s waste becomes it’s food, trapped in a universe in which it doesn’t need any of the five senses. This sounds like the OSDM would really like a human who was self sufficient, trapped, but giving constant data through a simulation. It reminds me of the Matrix.
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@taysavestheday Speaking of the Ouroboros, give some consideration to this pretty cool guy from The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra:
Caption reads “One is the all.” Notice the light and dark sides trying to find balance… much like this community.
Considering that this drawing is very closely related to The Alchemist’s Stone and the immortality it provides, it also reminded of the some of the many goals of transhumanism – which includes immortality.
Is Noah a magician? I mean, he is one vest away from dressing like one…
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I’m still trying to figure out who is who in this wacky world that I have chosen to observe but, if the ODSM or whoever they are intend to either facilitate the evolution of humanity or whatever, I would sincerely advise them against it. They seem like the type of group that would create hybrids of whatever and release them out without any fucks to give.
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@birdiesrunamok – This definitely resonates with some hanging pieces of information… I know @thecontroller warned against connecting dots haphazardly, but there are some details that haven’t been mentioned in a while that your comment reminded me of:
1) That video from the OOA with Sabrina, clearly at her “present” age being dated from 1975.
2) The fact that they collected @julierei ‘s fingerprints when she met with Michelle for the first time in N. Hollywood Park.
3) @tyson ‘s phone call from Sarah, who mentioned “people not being who they look like, even when they’re right in front of you” (paraphrasing).One could certainly draw a bizarre and dystopian scenario from these observations, but of course it would be foolhardy to make any specific interpretations. Maybe, though, it’s worth keeping them there on the back-burner, just simmering behind the immediate course being prepared…
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About that last point @prufrock5150 made regarding the phone call @tyson got, what if “people not being who they look like” is just a reference to acting? After all, what actors do is become someone else, so even if you know the actor personally (as many of the Tension alum and Ascension cast now do), when they’re playing their characters they are no longer “themselves.”
As for one interpretation of what that might mean, it’s quite possible that a participant will happen to know one of the actors that TPTB employ in future interactions and in-person events. With the fourth wall as non-existent as it is right now, this could be a tongue-in-cheek request to that participant to preserve the illusion for everyone else (at least until TPTB are ready to break it themselves!).
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I’ll say this specifically, @prufrock5150 @izryn. My call from Sarah was directly related to me (paraphrased here) saying we both know what happened at the compound in November, and it would be a shame if Noah could be held responsible. She got silent and just waited about 30 seconds. Asked what evidence I have that noah was in the compound. I stated I’d seen him with my own two eyes as had several participants. Then she said sometimes we think we see people but it’s not the person we think it is, but you think it is because they look exactly alike.
On that note, Addison had an interesting interaction with sentinel at the book release. He made sure that @addisonborn knew it wasn’t him dead on the ground they saw at the end. He was told to stay away from the compound during the end.
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