Episode 14
Welcome to Minding Your Mind, a weekly show for those looking for new thinking about old knowledge in the areas of Time, Living, Success, Health, Love, and Happiness.
In episode 13 I talked about having a panic attack and how I overcame it.
I’ve said it many times before and, because, for me…, it is true. I write out of pure inspiration… Most of the time what I write or talk about are things that simply occur to me…; they just come to mind.
Hello, William Garcia here. I am your host and author of the book titled Now O’ Clock… Being Mindful… it Always is.
Often enough, I do not recall any triggers that get my mind firing on a particular topic… If there are…, they may come from a spark in my subconscious mind? It is the only explanation I have for now. But…, I don’t know for sure.
Maybe I don’t need to know…, if all I want to do here is share my thoughts with you…; not…, offer advice.
Furthermore, you may want to question what I talk about…, and that is a good thing. I’m with you… Question everything…, now…, more than ever. We used to when we were children… remember?
Now…., why was that? Is it a natural ability we have lost, or was taken away from us? Maybe it is neither…, but I have my thoughts about what it could be.
In a moment…, I will share my mind about why I believe…, it is something too many of us have allowed to happen.
Just keep an open mind and know…, that my thoughts…, are mine. Many of you will agree or…, at least, be able to make sense of what I say. But do not ignore what have been established as facts…, I don’t… I just have my own perspectives.
Still…, when I say question everything, you may as well question established facts too…, why not? After all, facts can only be applied in the present…, and change is a perpetual constant… I’m almost sure you agree.
I have my own perceptions about life and living during these extraordinary and challenging times and, yes…, people with similar perceptions are more likely to have a positive and engaging meeting of the mind about a particular topic… I hope we can engage.
In life…, and about so many beliefs and customs…, I may be right…, and you wrong. You may be right…, and I wrong. We may both be right…, or we may both be wrong.
It may depend on people, place and time… Right?
But what if there is no right or wrong when it comes to life and living?… In many cases right or wrong may seem to be arbitrary when they are not. Such it is with the unfamiliar. Even so…, this may not be a bad thing.
It shows me there is no…, one way… There is your way…, and there is mine. My way…, is my…, one way. Your way…, is your…, one way. When we have similar perceptions about a particular topic, we can share, one way…, together. We can have a positive and engaging meeting of the mind.
Think about it as connecting and disconnecting with different people, on different topics, at different points in time and places on our journey through life.
Actually…, we have been doing this all our lives, and will…, until we run out of life.
There is no great secret here. We have always been related to each other as humans…, though not, necessarily in a familial sense. It is just life. Everything and everyone in life…, relates to or is connected to everything else and everyone else in life.
Already, there are many customs and beliefs among different people all over the world? For example…, as the say…, “When in Rome do as the Romans do” …, and people do…, and it’s ok. It is the way it ought to be.
There will always be more than one way, and most of them, fortunately…, are good ways.
Meanwhile…, we should all just leave the judging of others…, to God. I believe…, it makes living along and getting along…, better and easier.
As it is…, most of the people in the world are doing just that…, right?
Makes me wonder if in the end…, nothing else matters. At least…, not enough to hurt each other about.
Anyway…, today…, what is true or false may not matter tomorrow…, and I get that we rely on things being there then. The question becomes, will I be there tomorrow?… Of course…, I can’t know that.
I can’t know…, simply because everything evolves with the passage of time…, and because it does, we are always…, always living in this new moment for the first time.
That one may not be mindful and aware of this…, changes nothing. You don’t need to know if it is raining somewhere for it to be raining there.
Then…, there are the mindful ones…, perhaps you, who adapt as Time spends life…, even as it opens new windows for us to explore with open eyes, minds and most importantly, a keen sense of curiosity. The keen sense of curiosity we had when we were children…; the same sense of curiosity that begged us to question everything.
It is the pursuit of answers through questions born out of Curiosity. It is how we as individuals and the collective mind acquire and make sense of new knowledge to be applied to the advancement of our existence as a specie?
Having said that…, the pursuit of knowledge is a never-ending journey. At least it appears that way to me, since there will always be more unknowns than there are knowns. How do I know that…, I don’t?… Do you?
Of course, there is no great revelation here. No one knows everything…, not even the collective mind.
Remember when the prevailing belief…, was that the world was flat? …Well…, the pursuit and the evolution of knowledge and its application to a past present took care of that… Didn’t it?
I know…, I did mean to say…, past Present. Because remember…, every Past was first a Present. It is just that we are accustomed to simply say…, the Past.
Still…, I like the word Present…, I am always in it…, so are you.
The reality is that our presence in the now becomes the past almost simultaneously. But it does not change the fact that we were present in it.
Who says the past must be more than an instant ago? It is still the past. Who says the future must be more than an instant from now? It is still the future.
Sounds like I am splitting hairs here…, right? Well…, I’m not. What I am splitting here though…, is life from time.
A quote titled. THE ONLY TIME
“Now” …is that constant Instant…. between the past and the future… It is the only Time we live…, and the only Time we can do something…, about almost anything”. – William Garcia
I realized I drifted from the main topic for a moment there. But I hope it aroused your curiosity to mind your mind about what I just talked about.
Still…, talking about knowns and unknowns…, to date, the history of human knowledge may be contained in…, what I refer to as…, volume 1 of a vast…, yet…, finite set.
On the other hand, Time is necessarily infinite…, for it is only within it, do we live and can accrue knowledge.
It begs the question…, if there is no life without time…, then there could be no knowledge without life… Sounds obvious…, right? Then…, does it stand to reason that so long as there is time, there would be life? If the answer is, yes, then we would have to rethink, or in this case, reimagine the finality of life itself or the infinity of time.
Well…, most of us have experience with the finality of life…, be it the death of a loved one…, or the knowledge of the millions who once inhabited the earth since the beginning.
Still…, can you imagine how many volumes of knowledge there could be…, centuries out? Of course…, we can. That there is a volume 1…, and that there will be life as far as the mind could see…, volumes will increase.
As for Time…, could it be because, as I believe to be the case…, we cannot imagine its end, simply because we are born it?
A quote titled: Of Man and Fish
“Fish do not get water, and Man do not get air. Each is born in its own element. Just the same, Man nor Fish get Time; they’re born in it”. – William Garcia
Now Then…, could it be that our ability to imagine the end of time would depend on which volume we are on…; Volume 1000, perhaps…, or is it impossible? To answer my own question…, and still living out volume 1…, I say it is impossible.
Two things I can imagine, however…, is first…, that the body of knowledge contained in volume 1 is but a taste of what is yet to be known… what is yet to be discovered…, and second…, that we will continue to be born in the inexhaustible element we know as…, Time.
Here is something perplexing to contemplate…, maybe something to mind your mind with. It may be that by the time humans get to volume 1000 they will have evolved and transitioned into a dimension wherein Time is not the ultimate host element…, where humans are born in a new element. But what would that element be? I don’t know…, but I can imagine the answer would be found in the domain of artificial intelligence, AI.
This thought experiment is my mind.
Listen…, I am all about living in the Now…, it is all the time there is …, and all the life I have. But I believe it to be a good exercise…, when, from time to time, we look to our own horizon and wonder what may lie beyond.
Anyway…, let’s get back to volume 1…, where I leave the world of imagination and reenter the world of knowledge.
Now…, when it comes to knowledge it may be true, we do not know we don’t know until we learn…, or it occurs to us that we do.
I say it may be true…; and not necessarily…, that it is.
We have said it to ourselves many times: …, “I did not know that”. But what we did not know and come to know happens in the same instant…, in the same Now. It happens in the seamless continuum of life in time.
Let me try to explain what I mean by this. Let’s start with the reality that…, quote…, Life lasts but an instant…, unquote. This is the title of chapter 2 in my book. There I present undeniable proof that life does last but an instant.
Furthermore, the Now exist within the same instant we live in, and it is even shorter. So short it is…, that it cannot be measured… For just a moment…, think about what I just said.
In chapter 9 in my book, I explain how impossible it is to measure the Present…; the Now.
To me…, this can only mean…, that when talking about knowing…, it is not that we don’t know…, but that we don’t know…, we know…, until the moment we become aware that we do…; follow me? I hope so. I realize how mind- tangling it all sounds.
Well…, this is my mind…You may have to mind yours about what all I just said.
Now… let us talk about the people we rely on…, the experts. If they believe we know most of what there is to know, to me…, that would be a terrifying proposition… Don’t you think?
It would make the great expanse…, that is the fertile mind and our sense of curiosity…, to be laid to waste.
Fortunately, this is not the case. They seem to agree we only use 10% of our mind…, and this may validate what I believe when I say that there will always be more unknowns than there are knowns. By the way…, how did they come up with 10%? Couldn’t it be 9 or 11%?
Anyway…, think about it though…90%… That is a mind-boggling amount of brain power just laying around in terms of the history of human knowledge dating back centuries ago and contained in volume 1.
This being the case, maybe we really know nothing…, Right? Well…, not really. We do know some things…, but only a few things in terms of scale and the seemingly endless possibility of unknowns.
The Beast has…, over time…, become bigger, faster and hungrier.
Listen…, I’m not going to reference other chapters in my book again. Get it. Read it. Mind your mind in it.
So…, what do we do with the 90 % brain power we have yet to tap into? Well…, enter… Artificial intelligence, AI. I mentioned it a moment ago and…, by the way…, it is nothing new.
What is new however…, is that it has become the Mind of the Beast. It determines the speed, size, appetite and what daily distractions we live with. By design and intent, it determines how much influence and control it exerts upon us as a people…, as a society.
In a modern world, there are many things we do not have to do for ourselves any longer. There is so much we do not have to think about…; figure out. It would seem we are becoming more and more mindless.
Do you know what I am talking about?… I believe you do.
But…, don’t get me wrong here. There is…, like all else in Life…, good and bad in, and, with anything.
But the speed…, the speed of AI appears to have no limit. It is like there is a by-date and no one knows what it is. It is like there is a gravitational force pulling us or sucking us into the future at speeds that keeps us moving so fast while at the same time being constantly distracted with the next new thing…, new things that become obsolete even before they are old. With speeds that could cut in half…, in half the time, the 90% brain power we would normally tap into to perpetuate humanity.
What is the hurry?… What are we racing against?… It can’t be Time… Right? But what if I…, am not, or do not want to be in a hurry? In that case you may have to make up your mind about how fast you need to go…, or how fast you want to go…, to live.
I choose to set my own pace while I can.
To quote the great Mahatma Gandhi…, “There is more to life than increasing its speed”.
Listen…, it is simple…, we are either in control or controlled. Stress anyone?
By the way…, do you know the boiling frog syndrome? If you don’t, look it up.
Slowing down to taste life one sip at a time is doable, manageable, personal, and worth it. Life is about more than just being alive…, it is about living. Cheers!
What is the by-date again?
Listen…, don’t panic. Well… just a little bit. At least there is the great equalizer…, that which cannot be manipulated or managed even by AI. Of course…, I am talking about Time. But you knew that… Right? You see where I am going with this thread?… Maybe, not. You may have to listen to this episode again. Maybe, you may have to listen to all my previous episodes to get a better sense of my perspectives…, my mind. In many cases you will find that we can engage.
Anyway, what about real intelligence? What will we do with the 45% we may not have to use?
They say the brain is a muscle. If that is true…, what happens when a muscle is not used for an extended period of time? Does it atrophy? Of course, it does.
Now…, can you imagine what that could mean? It could mean a complete surrender to AI. It could mean…, that in a not-too-distant future…, the human brain may go from weighing 3 pounds to 1 ½ pounds. It could be that we become less human.
Listen…, I realize this all sounds unrealistic, and even if it is not, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Either way, none of us alive now…, will not be at that time.
Maybe the experts know if what I am talking about is fantastical or that there are elements of truth to it. If they don’t, maybe AI will let us know.
Meanwhile, we still have real power…, human power…, real intelligence…, human intelligence. With it…, shouldn’t we be thinking about slowing things down? Shouldn’t we do what we can…., while we can…, so that the world can slow down and taste life one sip at a time…, so that we can all cheer together?
Hey… I never said we couldn’t dream.
Still…, I think it is very important to consider slowing the advancement of AI. We should always be mindful that we do not run out of time…, that we simply run out of life.
But can we slow down? Is it too late for that? Have the experts already surrendered? Is this all a result of, not what ability we may have lost or was taken away from us…, but that we have unwittingly surrendered to AI? Will we be forced to adopt…, “It is what it is” …, as our guiding principle?
These are existential questions to me…, and I am beyond being curious. I am concerned.
I posed many questions here today…, questions born out of my own curiosity. I am sure you are just as curious and have your own…, ask them. Get answers where and when you can…, and then question the answers. We should not let curiosity die.
Meanwhile, hold on to dear life if only for the love of life…, life that ignites as it extinguishes.
Maybe the experts can send us all a don’t worry text. Of course, that is if, at that time, AI allows them.
It’s Now O’ Clock. Time to be curious.
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