At odds with the earth

In class some time last week, someone brought up the idea of humans being at odds with the earth. We talked about how there's a hierarchy of beings, and how everywhere we go and everything we do is enabled by "the fruits of exploitation", as someone put it. It seems to me that thinking of this fact as a bad thing is a relatively recent change. For the first long while of human's existence, we had to be at odds with the earth to survive. The earth was a hell of a lot bigger and stronger and scarier than we were. Harsh weather, savage animals, natural disasters, poisonous plants, diseases, etc were obstacles we had to get over just in order to survive. So being at odds with the earth, and climbing our way up the ladder by domesticating animals and creating new tools wasn't a bad thing, it was completely necessary for survival and a natural instinct. Only now, we've climbed all they way to the top of the ladder and are still climbing higher and higher and higher, far beyond necessity. We have not only survived the earth, but have conquered it. Further, we have not only conquered it, but have enslaved, corrupted and polluted it. Only now are we realizing that now that we're at the top of the hierarchy of beings (and far in the lead), we have a responsibility to preserve and protect the things that are under us, the things that we have stepped on to get here. It's not just a moral responsibility though, it's actually now necessary that we preserve these things. We can't currently survive without oxygen, fossil fuels, trees, animals, etc. The elements of the earth that we used to be at the mercy of, then conquered, once again have us at their mercy because we are dependent on them in order to sustain our style of living. Now that we've set in motion all these negative side effects of clamoring to the top of the hierarchy of beings, we have to go back and repair as much of the damage we caused as possible. It's a strange circle we're traveling in... And we can't seem to have the foresight to see the next curve coming up, even though if we look back we'll see that same curve happening over and over in our past.

Some thoughts on Radical Alterity

So, a common theme that just keeps popping up in Radical Alterity is this whole paradox of communication: The more we communicate with others, the more we destroy communication; the less we exchange, the more we have to communicate. They also extended this to knowledge by saying that the more we explore outward and expand our knowledge, the more the world shrinks. I found these concepts really interesting. Once we'd discovered the world was flat, and had explored all major areas, are world became smaller. And now, with globalization, the world is still becoming smaller and smaller. Technology connects everyone closer and closer. The authors also said that if you go looking for the origin or the cause of something, it becomes familiar, but loses it's secret. This connects to something we were talking about in class, asking why can't we just appreciate the vastness of the universe? Why can't we just say wow. that's crazy and I don't understand it, but it's beautiful? I'd rather just look at the stars and admire how beautiful they are, not think about how many light years away they are, or what gases they are composed of. Figuring all that out is interesting, but it takes away the wonder of it all.

This seems to be an impossible thing to get away from though. Humans are naturally curious and driven to communicate and find things out about their surroundings. We are in a shrinking world, but there doesn't seem to be much to do about it. And is that even a bad thing? Maybe the point of communication IS to get to a point where we're all so connected that communication isn't even necessary any more. So then it wouldn't really be a paradox anymore, it would just be a natural human process occurring and working toward it's goal.

an outsider's perspective of friday's class

Having read over a few people's blogs about Friday's class, I felt like I should talk about my experience with it, since I was outside of class. 400 miles outside of class actually. It was a really strange feeling knowing that from that far away I was getting the same class experience that everyone else was, since everyone was only plurking. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much if I were actually sitting in class, thinking about how I didn't really need to come to class that day.

The thing about plurking through class is that it doesn't have a centralized concept or theme or idea. Some may say this is a good thing, but it's been challenging to gain from this class when I can't ever put my finger on what the point of the class is, or what the central concept is. I like plurk because i can find a conversation topic that i'm interested in and comment on it, and I don't have to participate in the threads that don't interest me. Unlike in class, where if the discussion is about something you don't care about or don't want to talk about, you still have to be a part of it, even if that just means sitting there listening.

I definitely contributed more to class via plurk from 400 miles away than I would have had I actually been in class during a verbal discussion. It's a little unnerving not being able to match a face with the screen names i'm having a conversation with, but i'm getting used to it. okay this blog is kinda boring, but i'm gonna read this afternoon and hopefully be inspired to write more. the end.

Who would actually want to live forever like that?

First blog... here goes.

I took a philosophy class Fall quarter and we used examples like the "Pleasure Machine" and the "Desire Manipulation Machine" as objections to the Utilitarian value theory (the only thing that is intrinsically good is pleasure) and the Desire Satisfaction theory (the only thing that is intrinsically good is the satisfaction of desire). The pleasure machine made you feel only pleasure and the desire manipulation machine replaces unlikely desires with more attainable ones. These two machines worked as objections because according to the theories, we would want to be put in the machines, but here's the thing: we don't. I don't want to be in a pleasure machine or in a desire satisfaction machine, no matter how awesome i'm sure it would feel or how happy it would make my life. It just seems to be robbing us of something, somehow... So here's my question. If we wouldn't want to be put in to the pleasure machine or the desire manipulation machine, why would anyone want to be put into Morel's machine?

Even if you're living eternally, you're just living the same week over and over. And even if you're unaware that you're living the same week over and over, I just don't think I could choose to put myself into that kind of life. If it's even a life... Becoming a hologram with a soul doesn't sound that great to me. I understand that the fugitive in the book has other reasons such as the fact that he's on the run and can't return to the real world and that he's (almost obsessively) in love with Faustine and wants to be with her forever. But still. Would you choose to be a part of the machine? A part of a twisted invention? A part of something that robbed the people surrounding you of their real world lives?

Even if the invention were later improved and perfected, would you really want that for yourself? Would you really want to wander around like a zombie unable to see and learn new things? Why do we strive for immortality? Why can't we just live our lives the best we can and be content at the end?

One more thing. I think it's interesting how the fugitive comments that the inventor was duped by his own invention, yet he follows in the exact footsteps that Morel did. Morel couldn't have what he wanted so he chose to trap as much of it as he could and just keep that bit of it forever. The fugitive couldn't have Faustine, so he did the same thing by just holding onto the one thing he could have: everlasting admiration and observation of her. But he doesn't actually get to be with her. I don't understand why you would settle for a fake life with the person you love who doesn't even know you exist, let alone love you back. Just let life run it's course people.