Deus Ex Speculo (God In The Mirror)

Part I: Thought Experiment

I wish to conjure up the image of a common object in your mind. The object is a Model 1911A1 Pistol, issued to members of the United States Armed Forces as a standard issue sidearm in the Second World War.

It is a recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol chambered in the .45ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge. A full-bore moderately powered cartridge, with a reputation for being an more than adequate combat and self defense cartridge, the 1911 pistol itself, adequate respectively.

I wish to ask a question, what is a “1911 pistol”? Is it an object, an image? It is comprised of iron, chromium, sodium, carbon. Its particulars derived from iron mines in South Africa, trees grown in California, the copper from South America. Everything it is, was at one point, somewhere else. There is nothing new in it's chemical, atomic, or molecular makeup. In fact, it could be argued that the only “New” thing about this pistol is the fact that it is presented before you, now, as opposed to some other time or place.

It takes no great predilection towards the sciences to understand that no two things are “the same”, it just so happens that you and your neighbors twin 2007 Toyota Camrys are approximations of an idea that was born into the mind of its designer, and the elements therein are arranged similarly enough to have them register same to the unreflective mind. The hands that crafted it are not the same, the metals contained in these Camrys are from different places in the world, the day, date, place, and time where they were both assembled are entirely different.

I hope I am not entering the realm of intellectual voodoo in assuming my own state and place of being as accurate in light of what I have already said, my only defense against such is the will that places these words to text, no more, no less.

So we have determined that the 1911 as an idea brought to fruition does exist, even if only as an avatar of that idea. However, nothing in it is unique, not the composition, nor the processes of modification that make it so.

I wish you to imagine a desert planet, the sand of which is iron, chromium, etc. The planet is gripped by an incredible solar wind, heating its surface and blowing its contents all about, this wind pushing forth heat at precisely the temperature needed to heat these elements to their melting point, and to blow them away into the cold air on the other side that would leave them in a different shape, heat treated to perfection. It just so happens that the wind happens to blow this molten metal into the perfect representation of what we perceive to be a 1911A1 pistol.

We know through our own will that these processes we will into action to be possible, we have also observed them occurring in our own environment without our intervention (though that is an irrelevance), so we have created nothing. The only thing we have done, is move these events and elements to a single point in space time. Even the moving itself does not necessarily require our will or energy to happen. Gravity being the foremost example of unwilled movement.

No-one can disagree that existence of iron, and heat, and is a factor greater than zero. What does this really mean? That these things will (pardon me) magically occur? Not necessarily. What is does mean, is that if EITHER time OR space is infinite, it will occur. I will leave the odds making regarding the size and scope of our universe as we currently know it to the mathematicians. As well as the odds making on the events I have presupposed in my exercise.

Part II: Dead Cities

So imagine if you will, the universe has a strange little corner, where it has not manifested life, or man. However, this corner is filled with buildings and cars and radio towers that produce signals eerily like our own. No-one built these buildings, they merely happened.

If this phenomenon were to present itself within our scope of influence, would it hinder our ability to recognize life, or even the lack of such? If our greatest test for determining the existence of civilizations is the remnants of what they willed to be. I've always wondered if we would even be able to recognize or detect life beyond our own planet, if it wouldn't be missed altogether. Perhaps we could never recognize something that developed without any need or use of our five senses, vice versa as well.

10 to the power of 9 is a great number of years for it to be so lonely out here. Even if we live on an atypical planet, and even if life itself is atypical.

Eternity is stifling.

Can anyone help complete my not so immaculate preconceptions?

Just some food for thought.

Do you experience insomnia?
I do.
This sounds like the kind of thing that will keep you thinking all night without falling asleep.
Don't get me started on internal combustion engines.
Every detail is connected in every thing that exists.
You can ponder the existence of something as seemingly simple as rock and go forever.
That way lies madness.
It's turtles all the way down, man.

a reply to: skunkape23

That is some deep stuff right there. And for the reason you just pointed out is why I choose not to think about things like anymore. Well that and the danger of some kind of “flashback”.

Got it 1911 gun, infinite time or space ... everything possible. That's is a bit like how the existance of DNA is explained that is by chance and bignumbers.

The key to your arg lies in the dating of the "1911"
You factored into it infinite time but you have a dated and worn piece.
Where in your infinite space and time have you considered the parameters DEMANDED by time, which leads to entropy.
I believe you are correct once you began to recognize "will" into the equation.
To apply a concept from Steven Wynn Miller, thought is the most important and expressive substance in the multi-verse.

Language is born from a thought.
a reply to: TurtleSmacker

this thread is giving me the hebbie jebbies
what if balbeek and tiwanaku are natural formations?
i am scared

a reply to: bulwarkz

It's certainly what keeps me up at night, my sleep penetrated (in a cold sweat), by the realization "Wittgenstein Knew"!

What I find worrisome, is the consequences of our (my) contemplation (in a finite place) of eternity may carry. A mind, a vessel of knowledge, seeking to know and to be known as eternity, the processing of such even in such a crude form as language, the only outlet for our desperation.

The big crunch is seen to be the ultimate fate of our universe, are fools such as you and I hastening its approach? Minds visualizing eternity in a finite and definite environment, causing information overload in the limited space our minds occupy. A vacuum that can only hold so much...sorrow.

I've always thought, that if "The body electric", were to have a single emotion as its expression it would be...sorrow. A universe where there is one constant. Sadness.

We know ourselves. Perhaps too well. The pureness of thought, of feeling, of the manifestation of our being, is shackled to language. Any man who has had to take a life to preserve the lives of those he loves, knows this to be absolute. The emotions surrounding the vents surrounding his ending of one life, to preserve another cannot be expressed in the language of mankind. The obvious paradox is that I can present the sentiment to any of you with absolute accuracy, but also completely miss the point altogether. The difference lies in your own experience in this world. My speech is only a weak modifier to your own action of thought.

The closer I come to my own end (it is near, I have cheated time enough), the more I come to realize, there is more to this universe than the religion of empiricism is willing to admit. Funny...I always operated under the assumption that I would find peace lying in my deathbed...I find only this horrible restlessness.

Beware of the gods you may see in the mirror.