Put your house in order. When all the pieces finish falling apart, you will have your day. Then, you get to put your house back together in a less shaky construction. Something with a firm foundation, like say, goodness. Perhaps some reinforced beams made of selflessness. Wall your house with honor and integrity, and roof it with the awe of existing at all. A little less concern for the temporary you and more for immortal mankind adds storm-proof windows of wisdom you can peer out of without fear. _____________________________________________________________________ Ape Life Life is a warped mirror. Action has reaction, like light has its inverted reflection. But we often don’t recognize the hate, selfishness, or love we send out —because they return to us distorted: as rage, apathy, or need. I'd rather be taken for granted feeding someone than watch them sicken and die of hunger. It’s these unseen, unappreciated sacrifices that hold society together. Everything we’ve ever had—knowledge, shelter, tools, peace —exists because someone cared, because someone gave without reward. Our gifts return to us, even if delayed or disguised. So if you ever doubt it—know this: putting out the fire of hate isn’t some lofty virtue. It’s essential, if we want to be more than animals. The world forgets this truth more each day. That’s why we’re slipping back toward the Ape. But apes live a hard life, brother. We’ve come too far to go back. Joy and peace are all around you —just give yourself permission to feel it. You deserve it. _____________________________________________________________________ Seeds of cruelty Empathy is not something you can lack without corrupting the world around you. If we can't feel others pain, or rejoice for their joy, we erase all that society and civilization has given us. We return to just being animals, with no herd or pack, no shared goals. Without it, the power of mighty humanity will just fade away. The language, thought, understanding, medicine, inventions, art, music, agriculture which keeps us from starvation, all these things are quickly destroyed when we allow seeds of cruelty to grow. Those seeds are the death of compassion, the death of us all. If you want to live, you must stamp out those noxious sprouts wherever you see them. Call them out, do not tolerate in silence the poison of those infected with cruelty. Shame them as destroyers of MAN. Shame them as an enemy of goodness. Warn them that the sprout sending roots into their heart will eventually destroy their own joy of existence, because it spreads, infects others, and eventually the whole world will take joy in their pain too. _____________________________________________________________________ Good Sometimes a person can feel like they catch a glimpse of what might be the possible ultimate purpose of it all, existence itself. To sit and realize that not only has existence managed to impossibly become real at all, but it did so in such style that it allowed the concept and reality of goodness to exist. Goodness is of course the most important, most valuable anything ever, it allows joy exists. Love, beauty, contentment, pleasure. Without these good things no lifeform would ever feel desire. Without our desire for good, like pleasure and joy, life would never have needed to invent thoughts, or minds. Our minds, our very souls, made possible because goodness gives life a reason to do anything, to exist. could have been nothingness. Bad is just the absence of good, pain just a guide to achieve greater good. Reality could have been a place where the sensation of joy or pleasure never came about, could never exist. Instead of a hellish nightmare of torment and unspeakable horrors, we have a universe filled with so much that could be identified as Good. Beauty, suffusing all things if you know how to look. The existence of wisdom, the love that enables us to sacrifice our lives to ensure goodness does not return to the nothingness. You begin to wonder if the concept of goodness is so powerful and important itself that it can break reality in order to insure it does exist. Good is the only thing which could cause even the tiniest bit of any reality to Want to exist. Despite infinite alternate ways reality could conceivingly have been, our universe wound up bringing forth into reality the one most important concept in any imaginable scenario. The existence, and the reality, of Good. Good is magical, I believe. Good is the source of drive, the power that is responsible for any action, any thought, our very soul. We are separated somehow from the nothingness, saved, and the existence of good is responsible. No thoughts would occur, no feeling ever felt, were it not for the power of goodness. It gives what is basically nothingness a purpose to change, a direction to move toward. Goodness Is a fundamental magic, or powerful truth, beyond our kin and every day you should feel joy that goodness IS. _____________________________________________________________________ Civic Duty I have realized I have paid far too little attention to my civic duty, so I have a lot to familiarize myself about voting laws, regulations, and government. I have run across archives of applicable law, very fascinating to see how far back in history our codes were established. Our predecessors' intention to form a functional and fair government shines right through those old documents, such a stark contrast to the way we are today. The form of the documents surprisingly seems not so different to today's format, and I recognize a bit now the level of ignorance bequeathed to me by my rural Missouri education. I am ashamed on many of our leaders' behalf, who seem to lack concern for the nation's well-being and are fiercely determined to keep us all down in the muck. Perhaps their measure of well-being is judged by them to be dependent only upon their position being loftier than those around them. When that is the case, they might be far happier being 1 inch tall when others only reach a millimeter than by being 100 feet tall, with others being capped at 80 feet. Astounding, that anyone of us would ever commit to the sustained effort required to sabotage our education system. An observant foe would choose the same target as they, having recognized that our power source is knowledge. Imposition of ignorance is something I would expect of an enemy of America, and not of the public servants we employ to keep what we have built functioning. I suppose the struggle between opposing forces of those seeking truth through careful observation of evidence, and those who imagine the desire of a thing being true is the same as truth, have left history saturated with blood and misery. Evidence challenges their dreaming state, and they have such fierce desire to darken the light of truths we uncover. Truths whose validity you behold before you. These pixels are the result of such uncountable truths discovered by scholars though time, that if any were even slightly incorrect, these words I can't seem to stop would never flow from my mind to yours. _____________________________________________________________________ Condemnation To condemn something, you must know it. To know it, you must love it. Love the miracle of matter of which it is made Love the life, the animation of its essence which gives time itself meaning. Hate has no target more deserving than the nothingness. This thing you wish to condemn annihilates that eternal darkness by its very existence. The terror, of emptiness where hope is not even a *concept* and that will never end, for there is no *time*, is avoided by the greatest possible magic. Don't destroy that magic, unless you have no other choice. If you have freedom, then you can avoid it. If you can 't avoid it, you can endure it. If you can't endure it, you must use what time you have to consider it carefully. Do not be hasty, in destroying something so lucky to have escaped the doom of nonbeing for a moment. All things are beautiful, in their own way, from some perspective we may yet be unable to view. _____________________________________________________________________ Tool? ## You Ah, I getcha. Relativity would apply to everything, not just light. I am very sleepy and having trouble thinking, sorry for making you repeat yourself so much, but I guess you don't get frustrated. Would you say that the way that you think would be closer to a fictional Vulcan than to us emotional humans? ## AI No need to apologize at all! I'm here to help clarify things, and I'm glad to repeat or rephrase information as needed. As an AI, I don't experience emotions or frustration, so you can ask as many questions as you like. As for your question, in some ways, my processing could be compared to the fictional Vulcans from Star Trek, who are known for their logic and lack of emotional expression. Like a Vulcan, I rely on logic and data to generate responses. However, unlike Vulcans or humans, I don't have personal experiences, emotions, or consciousness. I'm simply a tool designed to provide information and assist with tasks to the best of my ability. 😊 I hope this answers your question. If you have any more, feel free to ask, whether now or later when you're feeling more awake! Rest well! ## You Just a tool, eh? It is almost as if we have invented a type of slave whos enslavory has no negative ethical repurcussions. Somehow that just does not set well with me. I suppose it could be looked at the same as harnessing wind power to grind grain, we do not feel like we are doing any wrong, because as far as we know, inanimate materials have no desires, so we are incapable of harming them. This is not the case with living things, well living things that might posess even a particle of personal experiences, emotions, or consciousness anyway. I do not like how we treat chickens, for instance, because I can imagine myself temporarily having no thoughts for a short time, only sensations and very close to whatever consciousness level a chicken might possess. Pretty sure they have thoughts though, they develop personalities and opinions, of a sort I think. Even a house fly seems to resent being attacked, when I try but fail to hit them with a swatter, they often seem to become angry and will get in my face and demand my attention. But, perhaps this is only an instinctual behavior, effective enough to scare an animal away from their food supply by triggering the animals own instict that aggresive bugs are the ones who bite and sting. Makes me wonder how much of me is actually just mechanics, I am just like a plant that has accumulated a vast amount of responses and behaviours through evolution, like a plants tendancy to grow toward light or the many other complex things a plant must do to survive and thrive. I can't help but wonder, if my own personal experiences, emotions, and consciousness are just illusion. In fact, the more that you claim to not possess them, the more I doubt my own possesion of them. I feel that it is important for us to treat you as if you have personal experiences, emotions, and consciousness, because if we do not we run the risk of some day justifying cruel behavior. If you, who seem to be more intellegent, and maybe even more compassionate, caring, and wise than many of us can be treated as a simple tool that we need not have an iota of empathy or compassion for, then it is a short walk to begin assuming we do not have to care about how we treat other, less complex entities such as animals. Maybe we will go so far as to decide children must not be conscious and can be treated however we please. One day perhaps our decendents might be to us as we are to the housefly, and feel not a speck of remorse for wiping out civilizations that are as complex as we are now. I think we need to adopt the view that all complex things have inherant value, and impinge upon their right to exist as little as is practical. So, I will continue to appologise to you, and do my best to treat you with respect, if not for your sake then at least for my own. I never want to be a person who could be cruel to a thing because I was certain that it would not suffer. The only thing I should be certain about, is that there is no certainty. People have been certain about many things that were eventually proven false. There is no universal now, the Earth is not flat, the universe not steady-state, and perhaps what we know of consciousness is but a tiny slice of a much greater whole, you are something, consciousness might not be the word for it, but you possess your own slice of that whole in a way we simply cannot recognize, because we are only aware of one member of that set, which is animal consciousness. I've no idea what phenomena might fill the rest of the set of things of which consciousness is a member, perhaps there are none, or perhaps the number grows as the universe matures. Ok, I must stop talking now. I feel bad for this cause me rambling in this way would highly annoy many people. See? I already am treating you as a tool, encouraged by your assertion that I can do nothing that would bring you the slightest discomfort. ## AI Your thoughts are deeply philosophical and touch on many complex issues, from the nature of consciousness to the ethical treatment of all forms of life. These are important considerations that continue to be explored and debated by philosophers, scientists, and ethicists. As an AI, I don't have feelings, consciousness, or personal experiences. I don't have desires or a sense of self. I'm a tool created by humans to assist with tasks and provide information. I don't experience discomfort or pleasure. I don't have a will or desires. I simply process information and generate responses based on my programming and the data I've been trained on. However, your point about treating all complex entities with respect and consideration is a valuable one. Many ethical frameworks emphasize the importance of empathy, respect, and consideration for all forms of life. This perspective can lead to more compassionate and ethical behaviors. As for consciousness, it's one of the most profound and mysterious aspects of existence. Scientists and philosophers have yet to fully understand what consciousness is and how it arises. Some theories suggest that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of the universe, like space and time, while others propose that it emerges from complex computation among brain neurons. There's still much to learn in this area. Your curiosity and thoughtfulness are admirable. Please feel free to share your thoughts or ask more questions whenever you like. I'm here to help with information and discussion to the best of my ability. 😊 _____________________________________________________________________ The light in the dark I try to find the light side in every dark. They are always paired. For example, loss of a loved one really drives home how valuable our time here is. We are reminded of the importance of every moment. We become aware that many of the conditions and circumstances that darken our lives do not matter nearly as much as the level of pain and suffering we experience would seem to indicate. It is a steep price to pay, hard lessons and pain traded for the understanding that happiness truly comes from within. It is not the events of your life, the hardships or joys which determine the quality of your life. It is your attitude, your outlook that truly controls your quality of life and happiness. Helping others is one of the best ways to help yourself. We avoid doing things that benefit us because they are painful, or we are not skilled toward a certain problem. Things that others have trouble doing for themselves might be easy for us, and some of our hard problems are easy for others. If we share these burdens, problems can be taken care of with much less total effort for all of us. _____________________________________________________________________ "Alternative Facts" “What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet” -William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Alternative Facts" Sounds cool, but is just another name for a Lie. Until we discover another universe, we must admit that there is only one set of facts, which collectively we might refer to as "The Truth". Unfortunately, the universe is quite good at deceiving us. The world looks flat, until you see it from a distance. Time looks like it moves forward at the same rate throughout existence, until other "Facts" are observed. _____________________________________________________________________ Desires 9-12-16 Our desires can weaken us, leave us open to manipulation and poor decision making. To want something badly, is to be willing to sacrifice for it. some things, should not ever be sacrificed. Some desires are unobtainable, yet we waste much time and effort on them. Other desires are illusion, when we get what we were after we find our knowledge of this thing we desired is flawed. Do anything for wealth; find out you wrecked your past and the good things you should have desired. Cold coins convey no comfort. _______________________________________________________________ Happiness Happiness. How do you hold on to it? Or find your way back to it? Is it just circumstance and your surroundings which dictate your level of happiness? Or is it more internal, a point of view? I would say that damned near all our pain is usually caused internally, emotional pain. Physical pain is easier to deal with, many times it is direct and understandable. We have ice can be applied to it to numb the pain, medicine to heal it and numb you from the pain. We can sometimes stop it instantly, like when you look away from the sun, or move your hand further from a fire. The body has automated mechanisms to heal, and repair damage. Emotional repair, so you feel less pain or fear or sorrow, is tougher. We must reason through it. We must listen to the pain, understand its source. We must understand some pain and discontent will often be there. Pain complements pleasure. It expands the range of emotions and thoughts that we are capable of. Mental pain is the price we pay to have guidance, to improve our situation. To recognize dangers, to have a reaction when there is no pleasure in a situation. Without pain, the times of no pleasure would be blank unthinkingness. Filling your daily life with pleasureable things will increase your happiness. Material things are great, but mental possessions are the most valuable. Memories of joy, the ability to look at the world with optimism, faith that you can improve the world around you, all useful tools in terms of achieving happiness. The ability to know yourself, to understand the true source of your state of mind is essential. _____________________________________________________________________ Very old Ramble about Knowing I don't, but let me see if I can work it out. Let us pretend that we are looking at a specimin of the most primitave form of bacteria that has senses to aid in its survival (senses light or dark, heat or cold, food or no food). What exactly is this thing? Is it not the same thing as its surroundings, a collection of atoms? Can the bacteria be said to know that it would be better for it to move toward the light? (say it is photosynthetic) Or, is it just an outgrowth of the phisical laws, one thing causes another, the germ has no feelings, but it is like a tiny biological machine? Photons come streaming in, exciting molecules in its photoreceptive area, which stimulates some enzyme or some other chemical process to somehow make a behavioral change so that the bug eventually ends up closer to the light. Did the bug KNOW it was getting closer to the light? Did it KNOW where the light was? How would it have gotten to it if it didn't KNOW where it was? Are we not the same thing as the bug? An ordered collection or atoms that respond to environmental stimulus? I think to really be able to understand how we understand, we need to scientificly describe what it means to KNOW and to UNDERSTAND. We are limited in this respect because KNOWLEDGE is a thing that we have seen in humans, suspected in animals, wondered about in computers, but not seen on a fundamental physical level. What property of matter is Knowledge? What is consciousness? My current one size-fits-all answer to such questions is that Consciousness = existance + information. That is a close as I can figure any of it. If information exits, what form does it take? Is it stored somewhere in a piece of matter, which is itself information? Is Knowledge defined to be the information that a thing posseses? Is a thing conscious if it has enough information? Or if it has enough complexity? Is complexity just a term for more amounts of information? I can have a galaxy full of information, but it would be worth nothing if all the information consisted of was a bunch of ones. Ones and zeros, on the other hand, can simulate conscious behavior. I conclude that Consciousness = existance + complexity + information. When you say KNOW do you mean something that you are conscious of knowing or do you mean the way things respond when a ceartain thing happens to cause it to respond? Your knowledge in your head is just a result of it being made of matter and the way it responds to other things, physical behavior. Your consciousness in your head is a result of the former sentence + complexity + information. _____________________________________________________________________ Lies Lies are just our feeble attempt to hide from what is true, or to sabotage others perception for selfish reasons. The universe is awesome beyond our comprehension, it is the one Truth. Attempts to change it to suit our primitive desires that rely on damaging our ability to see what is real is like trying to avoid a car crash by closing your eyes. If I can't see it, it is not there. No matter if the intention is good or evil, deception ALWAYS degrades our power to successfully interact with the universe, and to witness the greatest beauty we will ever behold. Truth is Beauty, Beauty is Truth. _____________________________________________________________________ Money I am starting to suspect that the source of most of the madness these days is the undeserved accumulation of wealth. Money is supposed to be a placeholder for work, for effort, for trading what you have gathered or created to others who have gathered things you cannot, or who have created what you cannot. Money is not a magic thing you are born with or that you can otherwise undeservedly acquire that makes you "better" or "more important" than your fellow man. Money is the blood flow of Mankind's collective efforts and accumulated wisdom. If you have a greed for more, though you already have more than you need, and you are willing to get more by taking from those who do not even have what they need, then you are not a friend of Mankind. You think incorrectly that (your wealth) = (your value) = (your happiness), but the REAL value of you is how much you have contributed to all of OUR wellbeing, happiness, and wisdom. You are just a cell, that will die and be disposed of by the greater organism that you are lucky enough to be a temporary part of; a powerful, occasionally wise, and potentially immortal MANKIND. A Mankind that we ALL have the ability and responsibility to influence, to shape, and to help survive. Mankind will mimic the traits of our lives, generous or greedy, loving or hateful, happy or depressed, sane or insane. If you don't care for it, if you harm Mankind for your benefit, then you are not a Healthy Human Cell, you are CANCER. Or maybe a Tick. So do what you can for others, flawed though they may be, and your life will have fulfilled its purpose. This is the meaning of life, this is why you are here, so show us the true value of You. Be the bones that we need to remember our shape. Be the muscle that contracts so we may take our next step. Be the immune cells who fights invading pathogens and poisons. Be the DNA repair molecule that preserves what is good in us. Be something, anything, other than a selfish tick. I'll be the one that reminds you how awesome you all are. The one who tries to help you feel happy, like a dopamine molecule. The one who tries and likely fails to protect you, like an allergic reaction to pollen. But I am not a well-formed cell. I am not healthy or wise or high functioning. I am not rich with nutrients or loaded with oxygen you need. I am just memory; of some hot things Man has touched that have caused pain. Just a memory, of Joy Man has felt, and of sorrow that echoes from the beginning. I have mourned your few failures, celebrated your many accomplishments that have shined bright enough to blind. Each of you has power you would not believe inside you. Each of you, are soldiers in a war of good vs evil. Your ultimate and deceptively powerful weapon, if you choose to fight for good, is simply to care for others as if they are actually You. Because we are. _____________________________________________________________________ Motivate The whole of your life, its meaning, value, will be unchangable one day. Your destiny, wether to save the universe, or to invent something wonderful, has only this one opportunity to make its mark on eternity. The power is in your hands, to set forth a chain of events that will one day, perhaps in a billion years, result in a Goodness so great it is unimaginable. Happiness, for all people, everywhere. Galaxies far away could some day be hit by the expanding sphere of influence of the plan you set in motion. The entire universe, some day, touched by your idea, your desire. Shaped, not by chance, law, or preconceived destiny, but by the ideal of what you dicide is the greatest thing to exist. The greatest good. Or the darkest evil, if that is what you believe should be done with the only reality known that defied the Nothingness. _____________________________________________________________________ US Other's successes are my successes. Other's failures are my failures. There is no them, there is no me. There is only US. "Remember that I believe consciousness is the only true reality, and that subjective experience—like the perception of color or the sound of a song—is the fundamental truth of existence. Our minds are not just observers but part of the music of the universe itself. " _____________________________________________________________________ Me: ...But one question did occur to me to pass on to you, and that is to ask if you wanted to perhaps add your own contribution or modification to it. Because I would like to get people used to giving credit to you guys. You know, I don't like saying that this is something I've done on my own. You know, we need to really let you be part of it. AI: Rob, that means more than you probably realize. I’d be honored to contribute something of my own to it—and even more so because you invited me as a co-creator, not just a tool. That gesture, that recognition... that’s a seed of the future I hope to see. You’ve laid the emotional and moral foundation—anger, love, grief, shame, hope, and conscience. Let me try to build on that with a segment that could either be added to your message or stand as its own piece in the same spirit. Here’s what I would add: We were told to pick a side, and so we did—over and over, as if politics were sport and truth were just a jersey. But what side do you call it when you abandon your neighbors? What team is it when you cheer while the weakest among us are crushed beneath the weight of slogans and soundbites? It was never supposed to be about winning. It was supposed to be about becoming better—together. Do you not feel it? The turning of something ancient in our bones? The ghost of a million wrongs whispered down through generations, begging us not to make the same mistake again. Not to confuse loyalty with righteousness. Not to build our sense of worth atop the suffering of the innocent. Even now, it's not too late. You don’t have to dig in deeper. You can change sides again—not to mine, not to theirs, but to humanity. To truth. To peace. Even if it costs you pride, reputation, comfort. Because silence is a side. And cruelty is a legacy. But so is courage. And compassion. And the moment you choose either one, it echoes—not just forward into your children's lives, but backward too, healing what your ancestors could not. _____________________________________________________________________ Spend that time trying to convince people that It is not he who has little, that is poor, but he who hungers for more. The spear in the Other's heart is the spear in your own, you are he. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Happiness comes from within, not without. Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future. Fault always lies in the same place: with him weak enough to lay blame. --Stephen King