TRUE FICTION

What is there about infinitely thin

slices of time like the pages of a book, and

Virginia Woolf ‘s idea of experience?

“From all sides they come, an incessant

shower of innumerable atoms; and

as they fall, as they shape themselves

into the life of Monday or Tuesday,

the accent falls differently from of old;

the moment of importance came not here

but there…

Today is thousands of leaves printed by atoms,

The mind receives a myriad impressions �"

trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved

with the sharpness of steel,

recognized by what we call our 'senses'.”

The universe is organized by the order

in which our sensual neurons fire electrons

at one another in the OK Corral of our brains...

an effort to find out who the hell we are and

what the hell is going on. And why? All

while the total of human knowledge doubles

every twelve hours, and our wisdom falls

to nothing more than her “Modern Fiction.”

But the story we choose to tell of ourselves

is a lie, because try as it might, wisdom is still

sitting back there in the dust of our stampede

to stupidity.

Author's Note

Try as it might, wisdom is still sitting
back there in the dust in our stampede
to stupidity.


and we still don’t know a damn thing
about anything important

 it comes down to that question of whether intelligent behavior has to arise from consciousness – and Tononi’s theory would suggest it’s not.

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

Vol, you are hard man. Surely, someone, somewhere, sometime, has exhibited intelligent behavior of some sort. And if it does not arise from consciousness, then from where? To be intelligent, first one has to be.

[Vol]

John,
Consciousness s not something that carries an innate sense of right and wrong in any refined way. From what I've read, the Quantum physicist's are rapidly coming to the conclusion that the universe itself is conscious. I am not sure how much of what we call "morality" is involved. The subjective judgement required to decide "right and wrong." requires something deeper, I think, an it is beyond us. Sure, we can occasionally rise above our selfish wants and needs, but historically we always seem to have found our way to destruction despite our best efforts...
I admit I am old and cynical, the world leaves no choice. There is little we can do beyond looking around at what we have become and attempt some kind of answer. Anyone who pays attention, and has even a modicum of understanding, knows Western Civilization is in rapid decline, while the East is on the rise... and we don't particularly like one another. The future seems less bright now than any other time in my short intrusion into consciousness,
Vol