Cosmic Entanglement, Consciousness & Bodily Existence

Witnessing the last moments of existence of a living being only reminds us that our existence, in this world that we call ours, is transient and fragile. Although we spend most of our days not thinking too much about it, we are bound to face this reality from time to time and ultimately at the time of our death. It is, in fact, both appalling and essential that we avoid such concerns on a daily basis for our existence would be otherwise flooded with angst and sorrow.

However, in these moments when we are faced with the vanishing of life, we sometimes, feel that we can grasp a short preview of what our existence and the universe are all made of. Of course, such realizations could arguably be described as vain attempts at dealing with grief. I like to think that, though pointless, these moments can only help our understanding of the universe or whatever that might have a purpose in it.

Does it seem so far-fetched (which religion or philosophy isn't?) to think that our bodily manifestation is nothing more than a mere puppet remotely controlled by our true self emanating from a different plane of existence through some sort of cosmic entanglement?

Death could be conceptualized as the simple action of severing this cosmic connection, disconnecting our true self from our "puppet". I have such a hard time believing that our material existence is the only reality. There has to be a more transcendent explanation than simply accepting our condition as it is.

How can we believe that either there is nothing else than the creation of our consciousness and its destruction at the end of our life? Or that something magical and/or religious is there to explain it all? Can't we theorize something in between? Why wouldn't there be something linking our physical universe to a spiritual one obeying our yet-to-come understanding of science?

Isn't there something transcendent in all creatures able to ask themselves such questions? And by that reasoning, can we reach some sort of partial conclusion that we, or part of us, can exist in so many different planes of existence that our true essence does not vanish but only evolves through multiple states and connections?

The Most Absurd Quote Ever

"Life is like a box of chocolates. It is full of chocolates that look exactly like the ice-cream in the picture above, or not. Maybe."

The Necessary Stupidity Of Our Daily Lives

As a highly intelligent (at least we like to think so) animal, we were granted the ability to be self-conscious. Such a gift can also be considered a curse as it can plunge us into the abyssal anxiety of death. We all are aware that it will happen to us one day, we all witness it around us and yet, we tend to discard any thought related to that metaphysical question.

Some of us find answers in religion, some think they do in science and some of us just accept it as a non-negotiable reality. The fact and the matter is that we all dread that last moment when our final breath comes and we leave our earthly existence to embark on a journey to the unknown. Clearly, living with that thought in our mind on a constant basis wouldn't be bearable and we might, ironically (if one can find irony in this), kill ourselves to avoid the thought of our own death. It seems odd and terrifying to me that the answer to this question that Evolution came up with was to give us the ability to be stupid and make it possible for us to forget about the most important question of all for 99.9% of our existence.

So, we go through our lives from one relatively pointless goal to another, without trying to figure out the big picture, blindfolding ourselves from our own insignificance and effectively denying ourselves the right to question the purpose of life or the anguish of death.

So my advice to you: embrace your stupid side and enjoy all these insignificant moments as they are part of the human condition.

Our Alternate Plane Of Existence

As members of a biological species, we are all made of organs, cells, molecules and atoms. The specificity of biological species is that they reproduce and are in constant re-arrangement of the matter that they are made of. Every second, millions of cells in our body die and are replaced by brand new ones that are made of reprocessed biological material. This never-ending (at the phylogenetic level) recycling machinery has been at work for at least 3.5 billion years on our planet.

Being in this constant re-arrangement state and spreading our molecules around us seem to have given birth to our ontogenetic desire to leave traces of our existence after our death. One could consider that artistic expression, literature, accomplishments in sports etc... are no more than a mere unconscious attempt at fulfilling our phylogenetic programming at the ontogenetic level.

Recent advances in technologies have had a profound impact on this aforementioned process. We are now all leaving traces of our existence everywhere. This is not restricted to the Elite anymore. And the most fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is that the traces we leave are not only non-biological (we don't spread dead cells around us) or static (when it comes to writing on paper in the attempt to reach literature fame), they are capable of self-reproduction. As a matter of fact, all the tweets we send are instantaneously sent to thousands of computers, stored locally or just passed on to another computer. They continue to exist on hard drives after they have disappeared from the user searchable information. Consequently, all the information that originates from us is transcended to a silicon plane of existence where it will continue a life of its own. We have to be aware that our pictures, videos, texts end up in the primordial silicon soup that is the Internet. I see in this realization a very close parallel to the primordial soup that was once the cradle of life on Earth. Could it be at the origin of a new type of life or for that matter intelligent life? Could it be at origin of a digital double of each and everyone of us?

I can't wait for my digital double to taste a digital hamburger!

Will The Discovery Of Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) Change Our Faith?

The discovery of Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) is a ground breaking moment in human history. For the first time ever, we have reasonable proof that another Planet than earth in a not-so-distant Solar System could support human life. This only can lead to the conclusion that there probably is an astonishing amount of planets similar to earth in the Universe. Therefore, it must be very likely that life exists beyond our blue horizons.

Although I am thrilled by this discovery, I can hardly fathom the perhaps not-so-distant day when we discover life or, even better, intelligent life outside of our solar system. The world will be profoundly shaken and hopefully come to the realization that all our earthly conflicts have zero significance at the scale of the Universe. How will earthlings integrate this discovery with the religions they have believed in for centuries? How can we fight on earth over whose God is right when life is not limited to our planet?

Will we discover that Prophets visited other planets as well ? Or for the lack of such a fact, will we join our faiths and those of aliens in a common belief or understanding of an almighty essence in the Universe?

Can The Panspermia Theory (or as I like to call it: The Cosmic Bukkake Theory) explain a single origin of life in the entire Universe? I highly doubt it. So, if life emerged on different planets, at different times, under different (or why not the same) forms, shouldn't this come into conflict with our earthly faiths?

It certainly does not answer the question of God but it might bring us closer to it.

What Matters In The End?

I haven't updated my blog in a long time as I have been facebooking and twittering hectically!

Anyway, I'm in the mood for blogging today so let's hope my words will make sense! Today's post isn't going to be about food, technology or travel but rather about the human condition.

I, indeed, can't help but notice how little we think about our human condition on a day-to-day basis. We actually avoid to do so as the anxiety generated by any metaphysical questioning can be overwhelming or at least unwelcome. We all live our lives hiding from reality. We go from one insignificant thing to another, oblivious to the fact that we know nothing about our origins, what we are in the universe or what might become of us after what we call "death".

Of course, religion is an answer which only certainty comes from faith rather than actual proof. Faith is a powerful anxiolytic and in a way those that truly experience it must avoid some terrifying anxieties.

I, for myself, have a hard time believing in God or at least any religion created by humans. If not for something that most might consider insignificant, I wouldn't even consider believing in God... What is making me contemplate such an act of faith happened more than a year ago when my 10 year old dog was diagnosed with a myeloma and was in a lot of pain. At that point and I remember it with great accuracy, I turned to my wife and asked her "'If there is a God, why would he/she make such a harmless little dog suffer like this?" I don't think I had ever asked that question with such defiance and hatred for nothing seemed to make sense to me in this world. My parents having passed away, one might be shocked that I would only ask this question when confronted with the suffering of a dog. I think that there was something unbearable for me in seeing my dog suffer like that as I saw it as pure and pointless suffering.

When it comes to human beings, we all tend to try and make sense of death eventhough, I'm pretty convinced of it, it absolutely doesn't make any. The death of my mother when I was 21 and more recently of my dad, have at least made me realize that our presence on earth is transient and very insignificant. Whatever we hold dear doesn't last and the elusive feeling of happiness or our quest for it is just a mirage.

We all have certitudes. We all think our life is going in one direction eventhough it's going the opposite way. We all tend to think we'll do the important things tomorrow. But in the end, we miss many things and often the most important ones.

When we get to that defining and final moment, at the very time that our eyes are going to close for the final time, what is left? What mattered? What a terrifying and unbearable question, right?

My answer is that everything might seem pointless... This little masquerade that we call life, these moments of happiness that don't last... Our pride in the fact that some of our genes will be living on in the form of our children? Aren't we contributing to more insignificant lives? Or is there really a point? Will humanity ever reach a Nirvana or a state of higher wisdom with complete understanding of our very own existence and the fabric of the Universe?

In the end, we're only left with questions and that terrifying and defining moment when our eyes close for the last time......

To end this rather dark post, I must write about my dog, that one year later and thanks to chemotherapy is still alive and actually well. Should I consider this a miracle? Should I believe in God? Who knows? I just might...