From the quote rotator:
I said to myself: I cannot possibly believe that, and as I was saying it I noticed I had already believed it a second time. —GCL, G.9
The assignment is to write a short disquisition on something you find you cannot possibly believe, yet do. (Remember to tag your post with the assignment tag!)
Intelligent Design.
Bigfoot.
That I will one day win the Georgia Lottery.
That human beings are essentially good and want to do the right thing.
That flesh and technology will merge one day very soon, and no one will notice or care.
That I understand myself.
That I will complete The Buttocks Thing.
That I will one day understand the Buttocks Thing.
In a book I just recent finished (The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss), they refer to the concept of dividing the mind and simultaneously believing two contradictory beliefs “the Alar”. In this particular novel, it is the first building block skill to what is called “sympathy”, which we would call magic. Only by believing we can move the stone (which can in no way be moved by belief) can we move it by belief.
So if we believe hard enough, we can make God real? This sounds like a sarcastic poke, but actually it’s not. Have you ever read Teilhard de Chardin? Or the Physics of Immortality? Not sure if I believe it, but I couldn’t put it down. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if Teilhard’s “noosphere” can be considered roughly analagous to today’s “blogosphere” or — um — “net-o-sphere?” At the time I read these books, the Internet was not what it is today. And when Teilhard wrote his work, the Internet didn’t even exist. When you cross him with what Kurzweil is saying these days about The Singularity, I wonder what you get? Something like what we’re seeing on “Caprica?”
I’m actually working on this assignment. I’ve got my topic sentence written. Maybe I’ll use it to distract myself from getting my “Phoenix” piece finished.
I’m seriously considering writing up, “Why I believe in America”. I’m pretty sure that would fall into this category.
I believe some mystic Geek will just show up and shorten the time it takes my computer to load all Lyles-universe webage emanations.
Try this: NameBench does some tests and tells you the IP address of domain name servers that are faster than your current one. I did it yesterday. Faster already.