question the life

We want more and more. Money, fame, power, mind… Whatever it is, we want more. And you are free to get more within legal means.

But can we be freer than free? Is there a superlative of free? It’s like dead - can you be deader than dead, can someone be deader that another person?

When something limits our freedom, we say, we want to have more freedom. But you either have it or you don’t have it. And the reality is, none of us have it. In our entire life, we have to follow certain patterns. There is not a single person which doesn’t follow the will of another person or group. You follow your boss, he follows the laws, the congressmen (should) follow the people, and the different people have particular rules themselves. A mafioso follows his bosses, the bosses follow the great mafia boss, and he has to be careful not to be caught - therefore follow certain rules. From this perspective, none of us are free. We are bound to live within limits, if we want to live in a society, of course. You could leave anytime and live alone in the forest. But within a society, there are rules, no exceptions (which limit the freedom accordingly).

Internet, one of the greatest inventions of humanity. It makes life a lot easier: mail, messaging, news, social networks - it’s part of our everyday life. Actually, our “every-minute life”.

We are caught by the internet, we are part of the internet. We can’t just plug our electronic devices off and continue with life as if nothing happened. Not anymore. Everyone has internet. If you don’t have internet, you are quite lost in our world. It’s hard just missing one single service (Facebook/Whatsapp/some other thing everyone uses) and you will miss out quite a lot.

It’s a thing of group pressure. Without internet, you are alone. And no woman and no man on this world wants to be alone. (It’s fixed in our DNA.) While all others have the internet and do communicate, you are somehow left outside. And that’s why we are trapped.

Take my dreams and give me yours Take my hand, don’t let me go Let’s escape the endless war Disappear in deep, white snow

So far we have been talking about the possibility itself. There is still a problem, probably the most “important” one - the paradox. Now, when travelling to the future, there is no such risk as you don’t interfere with your past (or someone else’s).

As you may have noted, in Time Travel #1 I stated the possibility of travelling to the past. Which, in fact, only covers what you see. To actually travel to the past, moving faster than light doesn’t really help you much. There is still a possibility of “wormholes”, but nobody really knows if it works.

Back on topic, the simplest way of explaining a paradox: You travel to the past, let’s say, two days back. You go to your past self and prevent it to take the ride back in time. What will happen to you? Will you just disolve, or will the universe explode? (love that quote) 

The answer is, we will never know. But let’s take another look at a paradox. We travelled back again in time. Now you destroy the machine you took to get to the future. What will happen to you (similar as paradox before), and what will happen to the time machine? It can’t actually exist as it was destroyed before it could travel to the past. Now does the machine then still exist or not?

And, a final thought experiment on time travel: You decide to travel 1 minute to the past. Now, if you are standing outside of the machine 1 minute before you go through, will your future self appear just because you thought of doing? What if you don’t do it then? Will the future/past self disappear? (from here on, the same problem as paradox #1)

If paradoxes wouldn’t have any consequences at all, then the time machine would be a cloning and copying machine too. You could clone yourself, or copy anything, as long as you are preventing it to travel back in time. So the whole story is quite complicated.

I'm planning to do a series on Time Travel. The first post will be about the possibility of time travelling. You can express your opinion in the answer box (not sure how it works)

Theoretically speaking, time travelling is possible in both the directions, forwards and backwards. But of course not in a trendy DeLorean. How do you get backwards? Quite a complex process. What we see is light. The speed of light is somewhere around 300,000km/s, so it's really fast. If what we perceive takes that speed to come to us, we got to be faster. If we are faster, we are effectively travelling back in time.

Don't understand? Here's a better explanation. Imagine a planet, let's call it Kubos, one light year away from our earth (remember, lightyear is NOT a time unit, it's the DISTANCE which the light travels in one year). The light would take 1 year to travel from Earth to Kubos. If some aliens would watch the earth with a telescope, they would see what happened exactly 1 year before, as that's the time the light needs to arrive at Kubos.

One day, you decide to travel to that planet. You take a spaceship which travels faster than light. While the auto pilot does its thing, you take a look at the planet. Everything stands still, moves very slowly or even backwards (depending on your speed)! And why? If you're at half of a lightyear away from the planet, you would see what happened there half a year ago. But as you are travelling faster than light, you get ahead of the information the light would have told you normally. When the light reaches you to tell you what happened, you are already gone.

How to travel to the future? Einstein told us. The keyword is Time Dilation. If you travel in a spaceship to (atleast nearly) light speed around the globe, the time for you goes on faster than on earth (refer to twin experiment). (Theory of relativity I won't go for any details)

Practically spoken, it's impossible. Our generation (and a lot more) will not be living to see this (if ever). Why? To travel at the speed of light would require so much energy, which is impossible to generate. Also, there is no proof of the possibility of moving faster than light.

Catchy title, but hard to explain. Humanity problems? We've got quite a few. We experience them every day, but aren't aware of them. Why? Because we are faced with them every day. Which leads us to our first problem --> habits.

We're all creatures of habit. Haven't you often forgot you did something because you did it automatically? Haven't you ever taken the wrong direction because it is the direction you would go normally? You're not alone. Actually, habits are quite useful. You do something without having to think about it - which saves a lot of brain resources. Nevertheless, if you have to change a habit for whatever reason, you will have your problems, because you can't access that brain resources which would have told you, "HEY! Stop! Go back!"

This habit forming can go extremely wrong - which is also known as "obsessional neurosis". This means that your mind forces you to do something, you cannot control it. For example, rhinotillexomania ("compulsive nose picking") -can lead to infections in the nose, which is situated very close to the brain. They share the same blood supply. Getting an infection anywhere in the area doctors call the "danger triangle" presents a good cause for alarm. (see www.skinpick.com)-

Another (personally very possible) example. You are going to work/school and shut your front door. You go to your car/the bus/etc and then a thought comes to your mind: What if the door isn't shut? You turn back to check, and it's closed. The next few days, you check twice if your door is shut. And then, you turn back 2 or 3 times if it's closed, because you just aren't sure and too frightened if it really was open. If you force yourself to just keep going on and NOT check, you will eventually get sweats, tremor or a high pulse. This is called "compulsive control" and one of the most frequently appearing obsessional neuroses.

Inside me is emptyness People think I’m meaningless Everywhere I want to stay They don’t need me, “Go away”

Many things I’ve tried in life Still I’m slaughtered with a knife 'Cause I'm useless everywhere 'Cause they start to shout and swear

But what they teached me, nonetheless Is that I searched for happiness And if you want to find it, too Then go away from thinking blue

You shouldn’t try to run for those Who’d leave you naked, without clothes But rather start to try and say, "I don’t need you. Go away"

I don’t read lots of poems. When I do, I don’t do it volutarily. Now, when I did it recently, one of them kept stuck in my mind.

THE EVENING (1826)

When people’s loud lust becomes silent:The earth rushes as in dreams Wonderful, with all its trees What the heart was hardly aware of, Old times, mild griefs, And quietly showers wander Sheet lightning-ing through the breast.

—Joseph von Eichendorff (sorry for the “sheet lightning-ing”, couldn’t find a better way to translate it - click it to see meaning)

If we take the first line aside, it’s just a nice description of the world around us. Nothing special. What makes it special, is this tiny little first line. When people’s loud lust becomes silent, when the evening comes, when people become old and don’t want more and more satisfaction in their lives, then they can really enjoy what the heart was hardly aware of when it was still busy.

Aren’t trees something we see every day? Why should it be such of a fascination, then? We just don’t notice them - of course, we see them - but we don’t take our time to look and admire them. For what work they do for us - they take our CO2 and convert it to O2, quite useful, eh?

Remember my post “First World Problems” a while ago?

“First World Problems”. What exactly is this? First World. Industrial countries. The wealth of the world lies here. So we’ve got everything. We still want more. That’s our essential problem - we want more. Everything is not enough. Got that super expensive phone? Yes, but I want one that’s more expensive! ——— Our longing for a longing for something has to be fulfilled - or else our life is boring and aimless. The problem is we set that goal too high. So instead of wanting more and more, try to be grateful for the day you’ve got today (and just think of the fact that it could be a lot worse).

In one keyword - lust. When people’s loud lust becomes silent, we start to enjoy every little thing. The nature. The showers. The trees. We are deluded by our striving for something.

The author, Eichendorff, grew up in a wealthy family. But his poems symbolise the return to simplicity and life enjoyment. They are also to be understood as society criticism like this one right here.

We know it. Or not. The truth. The reality. But the word "truth" is often misused nowadays. So many new discoveries which are the new truth, and then, later, that truth is dismissed for another one.

What is truth? Actually it's hard to explain. The dictionary says, "the correspondence of a statement with the thing about which it is made". A lie, concluding, would be a statement which pretends to correspond with the thing which is made. In other words, a fake truth. But this post is not going to be about the truth itself, but about why people lie. And the effects.

We all know, and our parents (very much probably) told us that lying isn't okay, no matter what the situation is. Some people see it differently, for example, some say it's even necessary when, for example, the truth would hurt too much. But the real moral situation is, that if they find out the truth, it would be a very much more frustrating experience than if you had told the truth.

A good lie has to be deliberate, which means that it has to be perfect with no room for doubts. Absolutely no room. Any little doubt would start debates and, eventually, the real truth will be discovered. But, however good the lie might be, it's only as good as the liar is. The inexperienced people would reveal themselves through body language - the face becomes red, they start shaking, getting nervous, and so on.

If you can lie or not, it depends a lot from the circumstances you grew up into, if you lied a lot in your childhood, then you are a good liar, of course.

But to get back to the moral part of lying, truth goes together with faith. You can say 1,000 truths, one single lie would destroy the faith altogether. Which leads us to other humanity problems, but I will cover this topic another time.

Still, sometimes we are forced to lie. Because sometimes that's what people want to hear - no matter what the truth is. Sometimes, a little lie can even help you, if it's not a complicated lie framework which could break down any moment.

Our world is divided. “Three worlds”, they call it. First world, the rich industry nations. Second world, the countries that are close to First world, and there is Third world, all the countries that “still need to develop”. As the wealth conditions are different, everyone focuses on other problems.

And here comes that keyword in, “First World Problems”. What exactly is this? First World. Industrial countries. The wealth of the world lies here. So we’ve got everything. We still want more. That’s our essential problem - we want more. Everything is not enough. Got that super expensive phone? Yes, but I want one that’s more expensive!

Another point is, that the internet made it a lot easier to exclude people from a group. You don’t have Facebook, you don’t have Instagram, you don’t have Tumblr, you don’t have WhatsApp, you get excluded. Or you get excluded just because they want it - you cannot enter their group, so you don’t get access to anything. And if you are not into that social stuff, then you’ll have a hard life.

Before the 21st century (or late 20th century), people didn’t seem to care that much. It was more like a survival story, and people were glad to still wake up the next day. Now, in times of (unsteady) peace, nobody has that thought anymore. We are used to that. We are satisfied. For a moment. Because then we want more. And more. Humans need to strive for something to feel good. If you don’t have any wishes, life would be boring, wouldn’t it?

The most concerning development, still, is the growing depression rate on teenagers. Years ago, before TV, SMS and Internet existed, they used to play outside, have fun, not think of anything but their game. No worries, no problems, no other world than their world. Nowadays, the children are either glued to the TV or can’t get away from their computer or phone. Why? The answer is simple.

Group pressure. In a group of 15 children, if one starts to use internet, the others will eventually start to use the internet frequently too. And if only six people are still playing outside, they will ask the others to come - but they won’t, they’re too busy with the internet. The rest of them will then give in and use the internet themselves. Which leads us to the “Cyber-Mobbing” discussion as well as my paragraph above about  excluding children through the internet (which has a not to be underestimated effect) - the world becomes sadder and sadder.

One last point. The world seems to be mostly depressed about what 80% of tumblr is about - being left alone. This is one of the worst things that can happen to a person, because the humans are “pack animals” - they are made to be together. That’s why no one can ever stay alone for too long without going insane. Another side-effect of the human set-up is the liability to habits. “Humans are creatures of habit”, you know that. We are used to having that person beside us, and really implanting ourselves into them. Which means, when they leave, we 1. destroy or habit 2. see that implanted part torn away from us.

The other “worlds” have to deal with other problems, of course. But the focus was on First World, which you know have seen can be very complex too. And if there ever was a “World Zero” or something above First World which didn’t have those problems, I believe that they’d find other problems. Our longing for a longing for something has to be fulfilled - or else our life is boring and aimless. The problem is we set that goal to high. So instead of wanting more and more, try to be grateful for the day you’ve got today (and just think of the fact that it could be a lot worse). For the ones from last point, I’ve got a collection of my blog posts which deal with this problem. (Links open in new window/tab)

Women and men are different. They are in rivality to each other. But for thousands of year, the male gender was the dominant one. Why? Because men thought they were better. Are they, actually?

There are quite a few objective differences. Firstly, nobody can dismiss the corporal differences. I won’t enumerate them now. Secondly, they have different thinking patterns. While the brain of a man would solve a problem in some way, a woman’s brain would fabricate an entirely different solution. Also, men produce more testosteron which lets them grow muscles - so every female body builder (without exception) takes testosteron pills.

In stone age, men protected wife and children. So it was just normal then, that the man was stronger. When that times passed, the people left behind that dark period of time, the men still made use of that. Proclaiming that women are mentally retarded as well. Still, some of the pre-Greek peoples did have female leaders. But these peoples haven't survived for long, because male-led peoples ran over them.

But history also showed us that women are nothing to underestimate. When Maria Theresia became "Archduchess" of Austria, no one took her seriously. But she actually did a solid work there, the people in the country had been going well.

In the 20th century, emancipation began. Women wanted to have the same rights as men and break out of the church's limits. They started to have careers - and therefore less children --- without to abstain from sexuality, in fact, the invention of the birth control pill and the condom pressed the birth rate down massively, while there was no repression on sexual intercourse.

Looking at our actual social situation, even in times of emancipation, men are paid more, there are more leading men than women and women still do most of the housework and childcare. Today, women are still "second class". But time changes. There are more and more female people in politics, the income gap shrinks, more men stay at home and care for children.

You are in front of death. It's over, you think. But, somehow, it isn't. You escape back to life. You survived.

Look at the word survive. It comes from French ("survivre"), which actually means "over life". So it is in German ("überleben"), it means "over life". So what does this mean, then?

When you survive, you faced death (or something similar). You knew, your life was going to end - it didn't. Your life was gone - and you are over life. You went over that point. So what, you may think?

I think this shows very well that we don't appreciate life enough. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc. I really am carefully. It won't happen to me. So why should I stop, then? We should start appreciate life more. We waste a lot of our life with life-reducing things, or caring about things we shouldn't. If you've had such a moment of "survival", you would know to appreciate life more often. Because if you did, you knew what it means to be "over life".

Our life is limited. We must appreciate every single moment it gives to us. And if you're unwell, don't worry! It will pass. And then you are over life. Any way, physically or mentally. The people who persevere will have this moment of over life. To appreciate life more.