To Create We Must First Imagine It

"Start with the end in mind. To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it."

-Steven R. Covey

God is to a Philosopher what zero is to a Mathematician. The Philosopher begins with perfection, or the Mathematician with infinity, to be in the right mindset for the discovery that follows. What better place to begin than by defining the desired end?

To create we must first imagine it and our imagination always steer towards how things "ought to be". While everything about this process is difficult defining the destination is usually easier than defining the steps required to get there which is itself easier than the implementation of it.

"As far as we can tell, this planet may be the only island of meaning in an ocean of 400 billion suns."

-Brian Cox

A God In Our Image

If we think of Gods as being perfect versions of ourselves then wouldn't it make sense for another specie, with intellect, to create Gods to be perfect versions of themselves for worship? How likely are the two Gods going to have similar qualities?

The human specie has created thousands of Gods for themselves which have always been extensions of the societies that they were created from. War fairing societies have created Gods of war, sun worshippers have created Sun Gods... Each God tied to a philosophy from that society.

I find the act of creating a God both fascinating and arrogant. Who are we, after all, to claim to know the business of a supreme being? Who are we to know what comes after death? 

We don't know anything...

The Future We Want?

What is written with Freedom today can be censored tomorrow making the "eraser" as mighty as the pen. Who ever controls the media controls people's minds. In the digital/A.I. age re-writing history may become as easy as asking an A.I., with the proper controls, to search and replace specific terminology with something else. 

This blog is using the blogger's backbone, for example, which is currently owned by Google who also owns Gemini... one bad decision is all it would take for this blog to be "cleansed" assuming, of course, it would require it.

We may also see the sort of technology capable of scanning someone's thoughts and arrest them for thinking negatively about the current regime - insuring total control.

Freedom of speech/thought is necessary to insure the growth of our specie. If we look at any country under a dictatorship, we can clearly see that one of the cost for obedience was progress.

We currently get to choose the sort of world that we want to live in. We need transparency, we need to elect political leaders with our best interest in mind, we need to be proactive about these issues. It's easier to prevent a technology to take over than it is to remove it once it's implemented.

A Teacher's Lesson

When my dad was younger he was misbehaving in school, as young boys often do, and was approached by a teacher who asked my dad the sort of questions that make you think differently about the situation. 

Without knowing it, that teacher changed my dad's life and ultimately shaped his parenting style. I vividly recall his questions/speeches that would make me think differently about the misbehaving situation I had gotten myself into. 

It helped shaped the sort of person I've ultimately become. I've always felt like I had an above average critical thinking skills and I have my dad to thank for this and his teacher.

Some of Socrates Thoughts on Democracy

“Why do we let just anyone vote? You wouldn’t choose a ship’s captain by popular vote, but by expertise.”

-Interpretation of Socrates/Plato

The issue with Democracy is that we chose leaders based on popularity rather than qualification. Additionally, the intelligent man has the same voting power as the idiot. When given the opportunity, we tend to not want to do effort and since being intelligent requires effort it means that, if (again) given the opportunity, we would rather not become intelligent. A parent that doesn't value education likely won't have kids that values it. Over time a threshold is reached where a political leader only needs to appeal to the idiot in order to gain power.

“The crowd rewards charm, not wisdom.”

-Interpretation of Socrates/Plato

A Democracy can only be maintained if we remain vigilant about who we choose. Socrates believed that it's not possible for the masses to make an informed decision about whom they pick. How else would a Democracy work? If voting is only reserved for the few then would the rest of the population accept the vote?