What is the important of space exploration in our society?
I believe any exploration, whether space, deep sea, God particles, fucking deep self exploration, staring at yourself in the mirror for an eternity etc, all that stuff can only be beneficial for our species. There definitely is value in space exploration.
Do you worry about the heat death of the universe?
I don’t really worry about it as much as I imagine that it is a possibility in my lifetime and try my best to understand that. Death is all around us, and Our very existence seems incredibly tiny when we put it up against all of recorded history, and even tinier when we dig into the infinite possibilities of “life” before humans. Who knows how many incarnations of the universe have existed, will exist, or are all existing right now at the same time.
What defines consciousness? Do you think other animals can be considered conscious creatures?
I think the Dahli Lama once said that if you believe something to be conscious then it will be. I always found that fascinating. Just from experience with my cats, Its hard to think that they are not aware of their own existence. They know fear, they know affection, they communicate to me in so many ways their desires and their needs, as well as their boundaries and their limits. I always wondered why anything needs affection. It must go beyond our physical existence.
How do you create meaningful experience in your life?
Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet “Neither Good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.” This is something I think about all the time, daily actually. Every morning I think about how I can prepare myself for the day with that in mind.. I try to frame all my experiences as objectively as I can. When Neil Degrasse Tyson was on NPRs Wait wait dont tell me, he got 2 questions wrong. At the end of his session he said he enjoyed the experience, and while he would have liked to get all the questions right, had that actually happened he would have learned nothing, but since he got 2 questions wrong, he leaves the show with 2 pieces of knowledge he didnt have before.
I guess Im saying all experiences can be meaningful if you want them to be.
How do you manage ennui?
I just try to put my life in perspective and understand the push and pull of the universe, the ying and the yang. I did a lot of LSD, MDMA and mushrooms in my life. The crazy thing about those drugs is that it literally makes everything interesting, I remember turning on and off a light switch and just being amazed that this is the world we live in. I did that for hours on LSD. Even now, I can do it and still tap into that feeling.. I havent touched drugs in a long time and I have lived a sober life for about a year now, but those experiences still resonate with me. The great appreciation of even the most basic things in the world. With that said, I also understand that everything….. when its all said and done, will be dust.
In your opinion does this photograph of a pumpkin:
A. Reflect a profound reality (A picture of pumpkin is like the real thing)
B. Mask and denature a profound reality (A picture of the pumpkin is like a shitty version of the real thing.)
C. Mask the absence of a profound reality (the pumpkin was false)
D. Lose all connection to reality, becoming pure simulation (Pumpkins, as a natural phenomenon, are false and this picture I just handed you is just a napkin.)
E. All of the Above
Its a combination of A and B for me, Its a picture of a pumpkin, there were many pumpkins in the world, and there will be many more, and there will be many human interpretations of different pumpkins, some from the past, and some that will manifest in the future. This one doesnt stimulate me in a positive or negative way. But it could change in the future, or maybe an older version of me would experience it differently.
Source: UNDERSTANDING JEAN BAUDRILLARD WITH PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES
What is time? What is Macaroni Time?
I don’t even know if I believe in time. Its something, its relative, its a compass for me. But it is a great mystery. My whole sense of time got destroyed one acid trip, and its never recovered really. If anything it made me really appreciate the limited time I do have.
How do you make earnest connection in a world of instant gratification?
I kinda went through my internet phase and now am trying to ween off of it, or at least create a balance. Ive read more and more about these studies on how long, focused, repetitive mono-tasking helps but us in calm meditative state. I work out now 5-6 times a week, I read long books, not just your typical web articles. I try to listen to whole records and not just singles, and I love to draw and make music, which are long concentrated practices. I think we kind of got disconnected from these practices and habits during the internet boom, and when you think about it, the way you surf the internet is the equivalent of just watching a tv and flipping the channel every 30 seconds, or having a pile of books in front of you and trying to read one page out of them every other minute.
I can’t stress it enough, the past year I’ve gotten more done, by doing less. Mono-task. Connect with yourself, your environment, the conversation you are having. Just put the phone down and be in that moment, Sometimes even when Im driving, I don’t even have the radio on, just the windows down fully focused on steering this massive machine. Its really nice just to pause, and think, what the fuck am I doing? Who the fuck am I talking to?
Is factory farming sustainable or ethical?
Not yet, At some point scientists will be able to just grow Bacon from cells, then we’ll be in a whole other ethical boat. I have a hard time with food in the modern world, I dunno whats worst sometimes, the slaughtered animal, or the strawberries grown in china that get shipped in massive oil tankers across the ocean and distributed through massive diesel guzzling freight trucks.
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