Fragments on emptiness
These are a few of many written fragments from 2024.
Space and time are not what you think they are.
The notion of closeness in space was radically disrupted by the first transportation technologies. Boats changed the degree of separation, as did the animals we domesticated to ride and carry our resources.
Even before that, space and distance were contingent. A summer mountain ascent can prove infinitely more difficult than the same path during winter. Our physical bodies also shape our experience of distance. A young, nimble woman and an elderly man relate to 10 km of walking very differently.
The Internet, in harnessing digital signals transmitted by international wires, has converted the surface of the earth into an enormous brain that operates at roughly the speed of cultural cognition. Space online is flat, horizontally sprawling. Each destination is one link redirect away. Though proxies, nested networks, and the dark web hint at hierarchy.
Time too is heavily contingent. Sitting on the balcony in this Portuguese countryside, time has thickened and expanded. The days pass rapidly while each moment is still pristine. Back in Cambridge, my scheduled days pass by quickly, but each moment surges with tasks, and my impression of time is rather more grid-like.
The upshot is that we can transform our space and time. Given that you can shape your space and the tempo of your life, how do you choose to orchestrate how they interact?
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Look for the pleasant sensation.
Do not "try" to do well.
Learn slow so you can act fast.
Do a little less than you can.
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The world is just atoms, governed by the laws of physics, right? These atoms are made of subatomic particles that also have wave-like properties. Or so I’m told. But that’s what the world really is, right?
What about words? What is this word “here”? Is it an ink etchings on paper? Is it a shape that you and I have learned to recognize?
Why do "die" and "diet" appear so similar yet feel so different to read? Can we have some thermodynamics to explain this, please?
What are memories? "neural patterns…" the neuroscientist says. But what is a pattern? Are there specific particles that make up a pattern? The water molecules that comprise a wave at time t are different from those that comprise a wave at time t+1. There are no objects that comprise the pattern.
What and how can the meaning of “daffodil”, the memory of sunlight, and the fear of death come from a collection of atoms?
Thank you Max! Since we can not control the length of our lives, it is helpful to control the length of our moments. Compare the passing of a minute when you are typing into your computer or rushing to work. Then take a full minute to be empty and still to watch the sun rise. Our mind will comprehend that minute of stillness as much longer than 60 seconds. Perhaps, slowing down time in this way, if done frequently enough, will lengthen the perception of our time here on earth thus leading to the satisfaction of a long life no matter what its true length.