Samantha Atkins wrote:
> Adrian Tymes wrote:
> > Would it be fair to ask how long until Atkins overtakes, say, Smith?
> > ^_-
>
> You mean Smith as in the Matrix agent common name? :-) Shit, they're
> onto us.
Then let them come. There is no agent...or, at least, there won't be.
^_^
> Well... I've considered that if there isn't a God (and I've spent most
> of my life believing there isn't) then it is high time we built one -
> build an intelligence that does have as close to all the
> "omni"-characteristics possible in this universe. But without all the
> high-handed ego-tripping attributed to such in some people's model. Or
> better still become gods and goddesses ourselves. If we dare and are
> willing to change as radically as that will require. It is a wierd
> thing to think about when most of us have trouble even claiming what
> human greatness and uniqueness is in us. We monkeys don't like to stand
> out too much. Especially when we have little idea what the heck is
> going on inside of us and less willingness to field our guesswork and
> vague glimmerings lest the other monkeys ostracize us or worse.
Complete understanding is not required to use power, though it does
help. As for standing out...if we can find a way to transform ourselves
in such a way that the average human being can willingly repeat what we
pioneer, I think we will not be as alone as we feel even today. The
past exists; the future is being created - so those who live in the
future do not have as much evidence that their world has other
inhabitants as do those who live in the past.
> But when the God module kicks in things happen similar to stuff in the
> mystical literature. I don't levitate or anything really wild like that
> but it feels as if my being is lifted up and sometimes turned inside out
> and that I am within or in communion with or at least sense deeply this
> much larger Presence, Power, whatever you want to call it. The "me"
> disappears mostly or melts into whatever this is or gets recast
> somehow. The emotions soar into the heavens. It goes beyond anything
> I can put into words pretty rapidly. Often it will include what seems
> like a tremendous amount of information and intensionality and directed
> energy sweeping through me. I have guesses (ranging from faulty mental
> wiring to too much religous upbringing to substances sampled in my
> youth to Vingean powers looking for agents to ???) but no real
> explanation for it. It just is - now and then. Thankfully rare enough
> it doesn't totally sweep me away. It came close when I used to meditate
> more. Whatever it is meditation intensified it quite a bit. So I
> stopped doing that because shadows of whatever this is became too strong
> to allow me to concentrate on my work easily.
What you describe is a phenomenon that many people have noticed, albeit
under different names. Modern sports labels it as "in the zone" or "on
fire", Buddism (I think) calls it "nirvana", psycology notes it as part
of its "altered states of consciousness", et cetera. No one has yet
been wildly successful at quantifying it, especially its causes, though
not for want of trying. Concentration and reflection - most popularly
achieved through training and/or meditation - seem to induce it, or at
least contribute either to the frequency of its occurence or to the
frequency of the affected person noticing. (Then again, noticing may be
because part of the person's attention *is* on the self during these
activities.)
I have not experienced quite the levels you have - or maybe I am used to
such relative extremes that the same level of anything does not
overwhelm me as much - but I have experienced that type of state, and
even brought it under some control, to tap into in my professional work.
(In my case, it most often takes the form of sensing what my body and
mind desire - entertainment, a particular type of nutrition, challenge -
and planning my activities such that an enhanced work state comes on
just as I settle down to write code. It does not always work out,
but it does often enough to boost my average performance, and thus my
salary. The balance is that, when I wish to relax, I will often find
my thoughts naturally flowing in some completely random direction,
sometimes flowing into an improvement or a feature add to some project
I'm already working on...though I think it helps here that I tend to
have a lot of projects at once, even if splitting my attention does slow
down average completion time.)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:38:15 MDT