In Response To The Brain Thing

http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/what_we_still_dont_know.htm

Sigh.  In THIS universe, perhaps. That would be the optimal size and functioning capability. In another universe the governing rules would be quite different. Again, you are applying the rules for this universe to _another universe_.

I know what you mean -- the surface area-to-volume ratio.  It is the reason that cells are so small.  It is why more ripples ridges surface area leads to greater exchange of O2 and nutrients.  It is why reptiles cannot be too big and it is why mammals can be any size they want in homeostatic range for species; because of heat transfer to inner body pulp.

The philosopher/German guy at 36:00 seems to be saying, or at least what I deduct, is that our evolution will lead to our own destruction.  If we replace body parts or microscopic cells with synthetic parts, this will eventually kill you.

And if we still feel a frenzy incessant desire push to make neurons snap by faster, to keep ourselves from aging ever, this seems incredibly shallow, a desperate need to cling to youth.. If that's all that evolution is ultimately leading to, well, that is an incredible disappointment.  It seems the only purpose of evolution is to perpetuate shallow unnatural ideologies.

At 37:03, oh wait, are you talking about the ability to truly understand others?  To empathize, perhaps, to the point of being able to guess what they might do next.  Are you talking about psychic powers?
((Somewhere, do the video reviewer or TV show lover who wrote, "she's not actually psychic, she's just so smart that she understand people's psychology and motivations better than they do." and this really made a lot of sense.  I went to see the movie dick and jane.))

At 39:18 -- interesting. Perhaps we ARE merely a computer simulation or imagination of the fancy from another species. Or biological experimentation.  Like set up an aquarium in which one is growing new DNA testing species or something. Maybe they did not mean to create a world of death and destruction.  I doubt they did. 

Then that means what they did create was bacteria. They wrote a simulation program that would evolve the bacteria into more sophisticated creatures. And it eventually evolved into us.  Version 3.0.  Humans.  And this computer game simulation got so out of hand - "it evolved to the point that it wondered why it had to take orders" (The Incredibles).  So-called sentience, self-awareness, free will as opposed to basal instinct, whatever you want to call it. You know, orders which are morals, basic rules of human existence, laws.  I'm thinking that it lost control way before humans were actually invented.  I'm thinking somewhere around the monkeys, that's when it lost control.

This could bring up some discussion of emotions, feelings, etc. also. in addition to the sense of desperation and frantic despair of feeling that one gets when lost control of an experiment, also have to go through the emotional roller coaster of having to go through this all over again. Geez, we already went through all this with our own species, now we have to watch another one go through the same damn sh?  The same suffering?

Similar to how parents have to watch their growing children go through the same trials, tribulations of growing up, the painful encounters and experiences that they the parents would love to forget, but are now forced to face again because their child is going through it.  Like I said, this could bring up some discussion but I'm too damn tired.

Then again, all this crap has already been thought of by science fiction writers, cults, paranoid people, ad ilk.  I really, really hope the truth does not rest with those morons.

As to the questions posed at 43:30 -- are we real?  Is it all just a simulation?  Is reality just a set of predetermined equations set with governing rules and parameters?  Is all of collective humanity just fake, just a make-believe set of experiences that do not actually exist?

Should a person just commit suicide because it's all fake, just a simulation, what's the point, anyway?

I say, NO!!  Dude, that's what reality _is_.  Look, if all that this philosophizing arrives at is the conclusion that it's all just a simulation in which we live -- well, that's what we already know of the universe, anyway.  Who here disagrees that reality is simply what one perceives?  That's just life.

What you're not getting is, here is an instance in which two people are actually agreeing with each other, but neither one of them realizes it.  It's like if two people are arguing with each other and they don't realize that they are both saying the same thing, agreeing with each other.  Wait, no it isn't...  The point is, if all it is, is "simulation," well, that's all we have.

You can still make it beautiful, you can still make it meaningful, you can still make it real.  So don't leave it.  Spend time in it, value it.  There's nothing else out there for us.  Okay there, is, but not yet.  I can imagine a storyline in which somebody is bored or fed up with this fake simulated life.  And so they decide to end it.  They then talk to the big creator, who tells him, "Well, what else did you want?"  That was your life, why did you end it?  And the guy is frustrated and despaired and says, "I ended it for nothing??" now he's mad because he didn't know what he had and he ended it way too quickly before even being able to complete, to enjoy the experience in its entirety.

What makes us think we are real?  If we are all just a computer simulation/experiment... well, we are aware that we are here.  We are self-aware, we are sentient creatures.  We perceive our existence in this reality.  Our computer games don't.  Because we are aware of it, and able to ponder our existence, means we are real.  Oh, wait.  "I think, therefore I am."  René Descartes, approx. 400 years ago, so never mind.

Not just 100s or 1000s of years.  Humans have been pondering their existence since the beginning of time.  How do I know this?  Because humans did not know anything.  They did not land on earth after being dropped from a different planet in the sky, get up, shake off, and say, "Well, a supreme being put us here, let's get to work."  They did not wake up _knowing_ where they came from and why they are here.  They did not know anything.  But they did possess the ability to learn.  So they must have got to thinking and wondering, why the hell are we here?  And they came up with the theory that an omnipresent being must have put them there.  Boom -- pondering human existence.

And they ran with it.  They did not say, well, "I don't see any reason to be here, let's just all commit mass suicide."  No; they lived life, they went through everything, hellish as it was.  They made it real.

Student Loans And Another Realistic Solution

Continuing on that, young yet grown adults think they are owed a college education.

No, you are not "owed" a college education, and certainly not for a useless liberal arts major.

I just realized.  You know what would help with the looming, ominous, threatening-to-collapse-the-world-economy-and-the-stability-of-the-free-market student loans that are threatening to sneak into college graduates' closet doors or under their beds and sneak up on them in the middle of the night and scare the hell out of them?

Apparently, student loan debt in this country is growing like a black lagoon monster.  It rivals only credit card debt as a debilitating flesh-eating disease that is causing the national economy to teeter-totter dangerously and volatilely on the edge of a cliff.  It is a horrible debt that severely cripples people's spending power, people's ability to get a job, people's ability to afford a decent living.  it turns people into slaves of the federal credit system.

I have written previously about a reasonable solution.  Students who don't know what they want to major in or who want to pursue a wishy-washy major like psychology could attend community college.  They should get their two years' of general education requirements done at community college, many of which have a two-year transfer program.

Next phase.  Scrap student loans from the equation entirely. 

For students majoring in science, math, engineering, or technology:  end the [[[process__ custom, requirement nono,, customary ritual ]]] of making them take out loans that have to be paid back.  In that stead, give those students grants that pay for those students' entire college education, and which those students do not have to pay back ever.

This would be genuinely investing in this country's future.  This would contribute to actively keeping this country at the forefront of the world's innovation and progress.

Having an entirely-paid-for education would encourage more students to enter the science and mathematics fields.

A kid would have to declare their major during the first semester of college.  Actually, that is being too [[[soft, forgiving,_]]].  To be totally honest, I think the kid should have to declare their major before they even set foot in college.  The kid could meet with different advisors for different majors before enrolling in classes.  They could look at the degree requirements for each major, see what sort of subject matter is going to be taught, and pick their major accordingly.  Once the kid declares a major, they would be enrolled in courses, all of which are of course required for their science/math major, including the general education to some extent.

Hmm.  Let us suppose there are a large population of recent high school graduates that really, really want something to do after high school and refuse to work.  Or parents really, really want their recent high school grad kid to do something with his/her life and refuse to make their kid work.  I think you can visualize it.  Perhaps the parents want the kid to have some taste of the college experience.

I suppose that even for dumbasses that don't know what the hell they want to do with their lives, at least some modicum of education is important.  For that reason, the nation could give those undecided kids some access to post-secondary education.

The same grants being awarded which never have to be paid back can be given to those undecided-and/or-liberal-arts students.  But there is a very strict limit.  The grants would only be paid for the first two years of education,

And only to community colleges.  Note that community colleges have a quality of education that compares easily and realistically with that of traditional colleges.  So the kids still get their quality post-secondary education they desire.  But this way, very little federal money, or taxpayer money, or tax dollar money, or etc. is wasted on kids that are liberal arts or undecided on their major.

I'll be even more honest.  Colleges could actually scrap the first two years' of degree requirements from the liberal arts majors altogether, without negatively affecting libarts students' education in any way whatsoever

Hopefully this would encourage students to be a lot wiser in choosing the path their lives will take.  Students -- and parents -- would know that a kid that is just going to college because his parents want him to, won't cut it.
Students would no longer have the option of going to college just to drink and party and go on spring break and be in date rapes.

Students and parents would know that no one is going to pay for a college education just to keep the kid occupied and out of the way for the next four to six years.  Students and parents would know that if the kid expects to survive, he or she will have to get a job.

Sigh.  I really hope that were this implemented, it would produce the desired results of grown kids either working in jobs right out of high school, or grown kids attending college to study something useful.  I really, really hope this would not backfire by way of mushrooming into a disintegrating mess of hookers and strippers and drug dealers.  You know, because the kids were too goddamn lazy to do something good and positive.