Restrictions

Now and then I'll go back and read some of the things that I've posted in the past and, as you may have noticed by the lack of posts and the general tone I've taken in the past few years, I frequently feel tapped out of material to talk about.  It's not true that I don't have new ideas or concepts.  Insights abound, but frequently, especially as of late I feel like there are breakwaters holding back exactly what I want to say.  Sometimes it feels like no matter what words I use, it doesn't completely adequately express what I'm trying to say.  Language fails me and it never used to.  Perhaps it's confidence; perhaps it's practice. 

As I sit here and type I think, as I always do as I post.  There's an internal monologue going on reflecting on how what I'm saying comes across and gauging how well what I've said is illuminating my thoughts.  And, I've just been well off the mark for a long time.  That makes me want to post less and less.  It make the task of writing feel difficult.  It feels like a task or chore that I have to complete rather than self-expression. 

I realize as I sit here thinking about it, that the answer is pretty simple.  Many of my posts back in the day were very controversial to me.  That I put out my views for anyone to see was very personal.  I think that personal touch is what is missing.  The emotion.  The piece of who I am is missing from my writing.  I've become fairly robotic in a sense.  I do relay emotion, but not in a way that makes me vulnerable.  It's the vulnerability that made my posts of a strong quality to me in my head. 

I'm well aware that except for a few select posts, most of the time I write only for myself, but the act of putting that vulnerability out there was what made this a powerful experience for me.  I will have to try to put more of myself out there again in the future.  There is so so much going on.  Life didn't end when college did.  Although sometimes it definitely feels that way.  I'm still around.  And I'm still alive and kicking.  It's about time I put myself out there again.  My whole self.  Unguarded.  Open to wound.  Open to the world.

The first act that I'd like to do to accomplish this is to publish my full name right here.  But, I know that a lot of the stuff here would harm my life if I was attached to it.  More than anything, I would like to.  But I can't.  It's worth my job to continue to protect myself there.  But I will tell you one thing.

My name is Bryan and that's going to have to do for now.

What is Life and Who Are You

No really.  What IS life?  Not your life and my life, but life in general.  What is the determining factor between life and non-life?  And I'm not talking in a pro-choice / anti-abortion argument.  I mean what constitutes something living.  Near as I can see, life as I define it seems to be the point when someone or something realizes that it's alive.  Think about it.  There was a point where you weren't alive.  Focus on memories you have from long ago.  Think back as far as you can to your earliest memories.  And try to push back just one more day into your past.  Just one more memory further.  Are you really alive before you remember?

Take for instance a video recording of you as a baby.  Coo coo... yes very cute.  But is that you?  Think about you and everything that makes you... you.  Focus on you, the you that's inside your body.  Your mind, your heart, your soul.  What ever you call it.  Focus on that point.  Take it in.  Everything that is "you".  Focus on it.

And watch that video.  Watch that baby.  Is it you?  Can you find yourself in them?  They become you, but you're nothing like them.  And everything that they are has changed.  Granted they become you, and you are identical genetically, but nothing that makes you ALIVE is the same.  The voice in your head that's always with you.  That's all that life is to you. 

People are only able to comprehend based on their own experiences.  Everyone knows the voice in their head.  That is their life.  Everyone else has one, but we can't begin to imagine how different they are from ourselves or how similar.  I believe that you are alive from the furthest time in the past that you can currently remember and you will be until that voice stops speaking.

This leads perhaps to a lot of ethical life questions, but none of them are relevant.  It also seems very self-centered, and it is, but it's not a bad thing.  Self-centered is not selfish.  Selfish is favoring yourself over others.  Self-centered is a starting point for recognizing sentience.

Who are you?  You're the voice in your head that's been there from the beginning and will be there until the end.  The rest is irrelevant.

I think, therefore I am.

Day 939

Just a little project I'm working on in my spare time.

The Universe

I've spoken before about the cosmic see-saw of the universe between energy and matter and I've come to a few new conclusions. 

Energy is simultaneously repellant and attracted to itself.  This explains and is seen in the idea of universal expansion.  If given enough room, energy will space out far enough to limit as much contact with itself as possible.  Like the light from a lamp, energy dissipates as quickly as possible into the lowest energy-density the volume allows.  A room with no obstructions does not have an area that is brighter than any other if the light source is uniform.  Like light, when there is no where for energy to go it becomes forced into contact with itself.  This changes energy's properties.  It creates matter.  Energy that is forced to come into contact with itself overcomes its repellant properties and forms matter.  Look at the skeleton of the universe and how stars and galaxies form along it.  These are the areas where energy is most dense currently.

Matter attracts itself.  This explains and is seen in gravity.  The entire matter-based universe pulls toward itself.  Or else stars would never have formed.  If matter acted like energy, there would be nothing in the universe but a uniform quantity of particles resting end on end.

The more matter there is the more it tends back toward energy.  If too much matter is attracted, matter forms a black hole and reverts to energy. Additionally if matter breaks down small enough it also reverts to energy.  For instance, the decaying of atomic nuclei.

Matter is the form of energy trying to overcome it's own repelling tendencies when energy becomes too dense.

The cosmic see-saw between energy and matter explain the attractive and repelling forces in the universe.