A Million Little Strings

I just thought, death only exists so that life can exist.
i don’t mean like without life then death wouldn’t exist or vice versa, but death actually facilitates life.
Individual organisms grow old and break. Evolutionarily it’s just not feasible for an organism to live indefinitely*- telomeres shorten, DNA gets a little bit fuzzy over time and stuff gets broken. It makes much more sense for organisms to reproduce- creating a brand new shiny organism to outlive them, then dying. This works. The species continues.

and so, death only exists as a means of propagating life.


*well, almost.

sounding like a pretentious arse must be an inescapable part of using tumblr

A commonly cited argument for intelligent design is the human eye.
It seems a reasonable thing to say that the human eye is pretty complex.
And shit, what about our brains? Often cited as the most complex object in the universe, the human brain has outfoxed us since medical records began. The wikipedia article for the human brain uses variations on the word “complex” 18 times! count them!

All this being said- the human brain is not complex.

Consider a computer. You can use software to model various things- collisions between two objects, gravity acting upon a particle. These simulations get more complex, simulating chemical reactions or climate models. A computer can even authentically simulate a less powerful computer.
But a computer can never successfully simulate itself. Think about it.

On that basis, of course the human brain appears incredibly complex. We simply do not have the brain power to internally emulate the working of the human brain within a control environment we can then observe. It is logistically, philosophically, biologically, mathematically and thermodynamically impossible.

But it doesn’t stop there- all the things that fill you with wonder and amazement only appear that way because the human brain is pathetic.

People flip a shit when faced with such concepts as the VASTNESS of the universe, or the SPEED of light, or the sheer FANTASTICAL nature of emotions- this is simply because the brain is incredibly simple and poorly designed for processing information in a logical way. We are all descended from a slimy mass of cellular structures, and the evolutionary cesspool that gave rise to us has essentially only equipped us with the mechanisms for propagating our species. This includes our very limited data processing facilities which are capable only of detecting stimuli over a very limited range of photosensitivity (blue to red), chemosensitivity (bitter, sweet etc.) and across a very very limited size scale (from roughly 10^-3 to 10^3 metres without specialist equipment).

A goldfish does not understand simple addition. Not because 2+2=4 is amazing, but because goldfish are stupid. In the same way, we have difficulty comprehending the universe around us. Not because it’s amazing, but because we’re stupid.

I don’t wish to entirely deny intelligent design, but it seems probable that many of us assume something is impossibly awesome just because it exceeds the scope of our squishy brains.

Causing pain to a human being is unethical, right? I chose this as a starting point as I think it’s something most people would agree on.
The nihilist or scientist may argue that we are but organisms made of tissues, of cells and ultimately of unfeeling atoms; and that ethics, as we define them, are fallacies. But almost everyone, even those who do not believe in the concept of a soul and things of that nature, lives as if they are not.
My conclusion is that we are humans and we view everything through a human lens. Just because such ethereal things as ethics, pain, and suffering do not make logical sense, I am an organism and so they make sense to me and I do not and never will be capable of purely logical thought.
CARRYING ON,

Causing pain to an animal is unethical. This is largely accepted as the truth, although people differ vastly on where they draw the line. Do you eat meat, do you work on a farm, what are your feelings towards animal testing, and so on.

Following recent biology lessons, conversations with friends, and certain documentaries (this really is worth a watch), I have re-assessed my views on animal testing. Time was I would argue that animals are LESS INTELLIGENT and LESS SENTIENT than human beings, so animal testing is (often) justifiable.

 I recently changed this argument to something along the lines of: most animals feel pain in much the same way that we do. As a living organism I recognise that pain is just… bad. Lowered intelligence and awareness does not affect capacity to feel pain. Therefore inflicting pain on other animals requires the same justification as it would to inflict pain on humans.

Okay, so the problem I’m having is this- I just discovered a few research paper/application things from biotech companies and universities. They have the intention of building an in-vitro pain model using pain receptors grown from stem cells.

My first thought was: this is good, this will help eliminate the use of animals in medical research

But then I thought HANG ON A MINUTE, they are making PAIN RECEPTORS. These bundles of living tissue in the laboratory will experience, by the most sensible definitions, pain. In fact, nothing but pain. But they’re not organisms. They’re not… aware. right?! does that even matter? My current moral stance is based on the concept that pain is wrong. shit son, I don’t know where to draw the line on this.

It is interesting how the organic values that we live our lives by are rendered totally meaningless by logical thought.

my friend just told me that i have helped them more than anyone else in their life.

and if it weren’t for me they would have committed suicide by now.

this is good. 

Holy fuck, so for the remaining 364 days of the year we celebrate only the achievements of men? Even the International Women’s Day website is shamelessly patronising- apparently women are all helpless hapless dowdy housewives in desperate need of inspiration and liberation… come on ladies, if we all work together then maybe one day we’ll be able to get jobs and drive cars!

This is like Black fucking History Month.

Whoever thinks it’s a good idea to separate the achievements of the species into gender and race needs a kick in the face, seriously.

Perhaps I’m missing the point, message me if you can explain this monstrosity of modern culture.

I had a dream where there was a burrow of woodlice in my garden. there were woodlice of all sizes, and once they got to about a couple of inches wide they didn’t get any wider, just longer, and the big ones were furry with little black eyes and really cute. but then i was looking in the burrow and a giant thing came out, about a metre long and 5 inches wide and covered in orange and grey tentacles and its skin was grey and slimy and stretched over bone like old roast chicken and quivering and twitching and it was so so fast and it jumped somehow and grabbed my t-shirt and i shook it off but some of the tentacles broke off and stuck to me and i took off my t-shirt and threw it on the ground and it dissolved.

when i woke up i couldn’t eat my breakfast and all day i was itching and feeling creeping up my back and arghrghsgdklgj