J. R. Molloy wrote:
> > "By the continuity of our culture we signify
> > that we are human. And all continuities are broken. We have lost our
> > immortality. We could grow three heads and thirty feet, and our skins
> > become blue scales, and so long as Homer and Michelangelo and Sophocles
> > live, mankind lives. And they are gone. If we were globes of green fire,
> > or red crusts on a rock, or shining bundles of wire, and still we
> > remembered who we had been, we would still be men."
> >
> > -- _Son of Man_ (1971)
> > Robert Silverberg
>
> Right, so by remembering that we had been infants, we would still be infants.
> By that same reckoning, we should *forget* that we had been infants, so that
> we *will not* still be infants, so that we can become mature humans... then
> forget that we had been mature humans... so that we can become transhumans,
> etc.
>
> Those who choose to remain as men cannot see beyond the crowds of mankind.
> Better to catch a single glimpse of the boundless universe beyond ideation
> than to live forever with Homer and Michelangelo and Sophocles in the museum
> of dead ideas.
>
> --J. R.
>
> Useless hypotheses:
> consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
> analog computing, cultural relativism
>
> Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
> but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
> (Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
Actually, we have memories, among other reasons, because of the persistent
chemicals in our brains which contribute to their electrochemical equilibriums.
Ross
-- Ross Andrew Finlayson Finlayson Consulting Ross at Tiki-Lounge: http://www.tiki-lounge.com/~raf/ "It's always one more." - Internet multi-player computer game player
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