On nothing more substantial than pure whim, I searched for “Statler and Waldorf heckle Obama” and “Joe Biden looks like Sam the Eagle” on the Internet. I found both. In a world where 1.6 billion (supposedly) intelligent beings generate and share information via an electronic network with over a trillion unique locations, it’s becoming increasingly easy to find people who have exactly what you’re looking for. Then I wondered what it would be like if there were a trillion people out and about (obviously not all on one planet).
There was once such a sci-fi novelette published in Analog called Tangible Light. In the heavily populated confederation of planets called the Reticulum, there is a place where people go to look for the life histories of people with the same phenotype as they. The statistics of large populations is such that they find five or six individuals who have followed almost exactly the same path through life, only specific details differing. The story is about one such individual whose father liquidates his entire estate so that he may get access to this information.
Stories aside, ours is a civilization that has existed for over 2000 years and has seen the coming and going of approximately 100 billion members. If we discount specific details owing to modern circumstances and technology, almost everything that you go through, somebody else somewhere, sometime has gone through before. The only problem is that we don’t have access to all that experience. Perhaps in the future we will. I hope for something far more advanced than Yahoo Answers or stackoverflow.com, something that will allow a person to search for individuals with similar phenotypes, especially those who have advanced beyond the point in life where he is at present, essentially giving him a glimpse into his possible futures and which actions will take him along which path. That’s the theory, anyway.
P.S. you may recall I put a negative spin on the same subject some time ago: You mean it’s all been written before?
P.S.2 the title is a homage to the Battlestar Galactica scriptures
Found your blog while thinking of how to tweet the Battlestar Galactica scripture so it’s probably appropriate that I mention Twitter *LOL* http://twitter.com/GreatDoubt
“Great Doubt believes in everything partially but in nothing absolutely.”
Interesting. So do I actually.
H,
Well, not many people dare to say it that way especially when one is brought up under the influence of a particular religion. I was and it took a long time for me to change my perspective of things. I also studied software development in university though so perhaps that has influenced my philosophy somewhat – sort of like the character development in Battlestar Galactica. *LOL*
Thanks,
Sherman
Wow. You just added to the point of this post. Fortunately though, I was spared a dogmatic upbringing. But I may have inflicted one on myself as a teenager by taking rationalism and Ayn Rand too seriously.
I’ve yet to watch the last 10 episodes of BSG. An amazing piece of work…
*LOL* Glad that I’m able to add to the point of your post! Not many people share the same viewpoint so please do join my little forum and post at http://www.GreatDoubt.com
You would also probably be interested to know that Great Doubt is a concept in Zen Buddhism. If you check out the last episode of BSG, there’s reference to ending the cycle of rebirth which is also a Zen Buddhist concept.
Yup, Battlestar Galactica is really an amazing piece of work. You should check out the documentary on it too – The Last Frackin’ Special, I believe it was called. *LOL*