the Infinite Monkey speaks: even if it hurts
Random brilliance from across the blogosphere…
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Choose love today. Choose, even if hurts you–even if it takes from you something you want.
– Chad Jones
from:
Freedom, Responsibility, Liberty, & License
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Posts tagged ‘Fear’
Feb 3
6 Comments
Jan 28
Movie Quote Monday – Blade Runner
I recently saw Blade Runner for the first time:
In the future (2019, haha) a company has “advanced Robot evolution” to the point of being virtually indistinguishable from humans. These robots have super strength, naturally, and “at least equal” intelligence to their creators. And so of course they are used as slaves off-planet to do probably crappy and definitely dangerous work that humans don’t want to do.
In a big surprise to everyone, six of these “Replicants” mutiny, kill 23 humans and jump a shuttle back to Earth. Replicants “were designed to copy human beings in every way except their emotions.” It was estimated that after a few years they would start developing their own emotional responses, and so they were built with a four-year life span. These six Replicants have come back to Earth in search of a way to extend their lives.
It was pretty thought-provoking, and the first thing I considered was how many books and movies include robots or computers that have jumped the gap from being purely machine to having self-awareness. Some humans (at least in the fictional world) have a burning need to create sentient life by non-biological means, and I find that interesting. Why is this theme so pervasive in fiction? Why are we so fascinated with that idea?
Why, if this is a wide-spread fantasy and we can write stories in any way we want, does it almost always turn out to be humanity’s doom? Or at the least rather deadly.
Of course if a robot has self-awareness, but not compassion or empathy – you know, the kinds of things you develop when you have a childhood – then that would maybe not be a great thing.
Beyond that, it seems rather cruel to purposely create a being to have human emotions and then discount that being’s “humanity”, abusing it as though it were merely a machine.
At the end of the movie, the main Replicant antagonist laments his own death:
Roy: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those…moments will be lost…in time…like…tears…in rain.
That seems pretty human to me – not wanting to lose your thoughts and memories, not wanting to let go of your experiences. Those are the things that build upon one another and help make you who you are, but once we’re gone, our own personal involvement in the world melts into a collective memory. Our uniqueness is lost in the downpour of human history.
So my question is, is it wrong for a conscious being to do whatever it has to do to protect its own existence?
Exactly what constitutes “life” for these artificial humans? And then to what extent is society responsible for protecting that life?
Who was really the monster: Frankenstein or the creature he brought into being?
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Ensnared by Doubt
I often fall into the trap of doing nothing.
I shy back from words or action because I think I’m not the right person. I don’t know what I’m doing, my words are jumbled up, I’m a nobody, probably my thoughts are all wrong, people will think I’m crazy, I’ll look like a fool.
I doubt myself: my intellect, abilities, emotions, my experience, knowledge, understanding, my opinions, beliefs…my everything.
Sometimes when I’m prompted to do, my confidence gets lost in the folds of these doubts. And so I don’t.
I don’t speak up.
I don’t reach out.
I don’t.
I’ve been following along as a fellow blogger, Alise, prepared to take a step outside of her comfort zone and travel to another country to help young girls who were rescued from a life of sexual slavery. At one point, a commenter suggested that the money Alise raised for this trip could be put to better use by sending trained counselors, or funding a building, or buying food. I don’t believe it was suggested with malice, but it reminded me that confidence-damaging words and ideas can come from any direction, even from people who mean the best.
Doubt can be a snare, small and easily disguised. A slim cord that lays in wait. One emotional misstep and it snaps tight so quickly that you don’t know what happened. Suddenly you’re choked for air. Your mind races through escape routes but the loss of oxygen debilitates to the point where you simply can’t think, and the easiest thing is to just go quiet.
That sounds so scary, and in my physical life I would fight – I would kick and claw and do whatever I could to get out of that snare.
But in my emotional life it’s just the opposite: it feels scarier to fight against negative thoughts than to give in to them. And so I go quiet, I sit still, ensnared by doubt.
Alise is in another country today. In her last post before leaving she said, “I know that there are people who are probably better suited for this trip.” And she wasn’t going without fear, but she was going. Maybe she’s not the most qualified person to go there, but she has something that nobody else can offer, and that’s herself. She is uniquely qualified to offer up her heart and her love and her support to those girls.
A lifetime of experience has taught me not to be myself. But here in the intimate setting of this world wide web, I’m training myself to grow in the right direction. I’m forcing myself to speak up, and reach out, and do. I’m learning that it’s okay to be me. After all, I’m the only one on the planet who can fill that job.
I constantly look outside of myself for positive examples like Alise. And I constantly find them. I also find encouragement and kindness from the friends I’ve made in the blogging community. You all let me be foolish and silly, and occasionally incoherent. You let me change my mind. You let me pursue thoughts and ideas willy-nilly, not only here but in the comments on your own blogs. And you never tell me that I’m crazy or a nobody or that my thoughts are all wrong.
You help me face my fears and fight against the choking power of self-doubt. And that’s pretty darn awesome.
♦
Items of Interest:
The Nitty Gritty (what Alise expects in Moldova)
New Memories (Alise’s last post before leaving)
Risk is scary. Regret is worse. (by Kylie: a great post about facing our doubts and fears)
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Jan 20
the Infinite Money speaks: on a bigger love
Random brilliance from across the blogosphere…
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The past four years have brought so much change to my life, but so much more hope. Not hope in politics or right beliefs, but in how we can relate to one another in our differences. I have hope that we can choose kindness even in disagreement. I have hope that we can find peace even when there is uncertainty. I have hope that we can love one another with a love that is bigger than our fears. This is a hope that brings change, and it begins with me.
– Alise Wright
from:
That Hopey Changey Thing
Alise blogs at Alise-Write.com
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steadily skipping stones 