I'm just going to let my mind flow ad drift into various ideas and question and philosophical pondering. So this is going to be make it as it come endeavor that's going to open up my soul bloody raw. I'm not going to use any images or quotes of other people or YouTube Videos like my other posts. The only thing I'm going to pre-define is the topic. Things will pour out of my mind and you can choose to agree,disagree or whatever. This is just going to be my mind spilled over the blockchain. I don't claim all these to be objective universal truths. Some of them may be. But one thing for sure is that these are 100% authentic personal experiences. I might end up lying if I say I'm revealing the truths about the universe. I'd be glad if I knew all the truths. I do work to know them all. But I have a long way to go. So for the time being, these are my understanding and my experiences. Let's begin:
Identity & Self
I'm a big GitS junkie. It's a franchise built for the purpose of technobabble. I've never had any real care for the characters or anything related to that. I don't watch things to know about people or incidents. What's the point. I know enough people and stuff in real life and why should I seek more baggage. Movies/ Television/ Books/ Games are nothing but mediums to learn, explore and transgress. That's why I'm concerned about the themes, narrative, ideas and pretty much nothing else. This has made be capable of understanding many "Mind-Fuck" philosophically deep convoluted stories at ease. I don't care about most things and end up seeing clearer than most. For an example I understood the movie Enemy (2013) after a single watch. Same happened with Donnie Darko and so many more cult movies and anime. I just have a tendency to just "Get it" while everybody else struggle.
It's all because I'm very receptive to ideas and metaphysical concepts/constructs. I "Get" the idea and most of the time I'm not even trying. Even the narrative of Ghost in the Shell is mere fodder for its technobabble. GitS franchise is more like a Techno-Philosophical double PhD made into an Sci-fi, Action, Detective series.
I've been a deep thinker for as long as I remember. What got me into GitS was a small review/recommendation on a science news paper about the 1995 film. The one thing that really got my attention was that the movie has a setting where the line between AI and Human is non-existence except for the "Ghost". As a teenager this was fully in line with my own views as a teen. When the movie started I had several scenes that looked like somebody has hacked my mind and written the scenes according to my own needs. Some of the claims and logical arguments were exactly the same as what has been going in my mind for years. Especially Motoko Kusanagi was at times just a mouthpiece for in the movie.
Have you ever watched a horror movie and wished if there was a character who said stuff like; Don't split up, Don't look back, Don't go in there, Don't do that stupid thing etc. In Ghost in the Shell (1995) Motoko was just that. She was the audience character for me. She was my soul sister. That's why I consider the Hollywood remake a Feature length character assassination. Motoko doesn't have much of a personality. It's rather an exploration on the existence itself.
Those who have already seen the 1995 might even go "What the Hell........." because of my claims. But that's just me. Many of her lines could have been from my teenage head. The first time I had at least a considerably clarified answer about self and identity was the last bits of the movie. I didn't really learn anything much. Rather it was a moment of clarifying what I already knew. It's like having a chat with a friend about some idea that's hard to express and in that conversation you suddenly become capable of understanding your own idea. I won't go into details here. But I will share a personal belief here.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex
Information Technology is an emulation of reality. The only way IT can progress and evolve is through following the syntax of reality itself. The best allegorical platform I can find to explore existential questions is the creations of Information Technology
Everything makes sense. Sometimes we are just too dumb to make sense of them. A question can only be either a dumb one or a not dumb one. Everything has an answer. If you don't find one, you are either asking wrong questions or you are not smart enough yet.
To me existence is like a mound of sand and the reality is gestalt. The mound doesn't exist but the grains of sand makes up the appearance of the mound. The mound itself isn't sand and no grain of sand is a mound. If you try to touch the mound, you'll be touching the sand. Add or remove grains and you've still got your mound. Remove each and every grain and at a point the mound disappears. Ask yourself who are you? Ask what is your "Ghost" or your mound of sand? Scratching the surface of your existence you'll find: I live at XXXX, I'm a XXXX who learnt at XXXX, my parents are XXXX, and you'll say your height, weight, gender, eye color and You'll say you are smart, pretty, kind, hard working, motivated, impulsive, calm, happy, sad, depressed, lonely, energetic etc. etc.
I'll tell you one thing. The deeper you go; the less you will find. It's like emptying the mound of sand or removing the codes of a program. Like matter that get simplified as you dig deeper with a microscope, digging deeper you'll find nothing to call "Yourself".
If you've been following me for a while you should know I speak very fondly about Relational Quantum Mechanics AKA Zero-Worlds interpretation and also The Diamond Sutra and for those who have hard time following I'll ask a few much simpler questions as I also have a thing for Occams's Razor: How come 1+1 be 2?
Just read that question again if you missed my point........
What's "One"? "1"? How come there be "2" "Ones"? You have linked 2 things. There is the one. The "Other" one and therefor there is 2. How about 3+3 then? There is one three, The "Other" three and these "2" things adds up to 6. The numbers don't really exist. They are just concepts. You associate numbers with objects. One couple and another couple adds up to 2 couples.
The "One" doesn't really exist. You can say there is one flower, one chicken, one couple etc. You could draw a symbol for "One" and another one of the same symbol and go on to call it "Two". You could say this is 5 year old me, this is 10 year old me, this is me 5 hours ago and you'll be just projecting "You" on to something that could be a memory or a photograph or a video. None of those are really "You". You are wherever "You" are and when "You" look there, "You" will be somewhere else. It's like capturing what present is.
Show me someone who say there is no present and I'll call him a liar. Show me the present and I'll call it a lie.
Then I'll call it the past.
http://www.jayarava.org/texts/kaccanagottasuttam-landscape.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81
https://web.archive.org/web/20140520233206/http://www.buddhisttexts.org/uploads/6/3/3/1/6331706/_vajra_prajna_paramita_sutra.pdf
If you are having a hard time with my explanations try the links and they may give you a sense of context. One thing I know for sure that only a profound understanding can truly change a person. A person can be made to believe things or be brainwashed or made to do things. But those things won't hold as absolute as understanding. That's why people like Socrates picked death over saying the things that everybody was saying in the first place. When you truly understand something, nothing can take that away from you or make you believe otherwise. If you asked to admit something else, you'd be faking it. But until you come to that level of understanding, your actions will remain fake. If I use a cryptocurrency analogy I'd say: Until you truly understand the project you are a fake HODLer. I started on STEEM as a fake HODLer. Things I saw and read kept changing the level of confidence I had. But at one point after understanding enough, I became a true HODLer who simply wouldn't sell without at least $100 STEEM or a better product and there is no way I'm going to change my mind. I understand enough about the project to see where it can reach.
Knowing something goes beyond believing something. Facts don't change; only theories does. But going from the theory to the fact can be a shocker. Understanding certain truths about yourself can change the way you live your whole life. Understanding works in Quantum leaps. There is no gradual little by little. You either "Get it" or your don't. The fear/reluctance of a quantum leap can hold you back from diving too deep. Realizing anything gets you past a point of no return. Truth is truth. You can't replace it. A lie can be replaced with another lie. A belief can be replaced with another belief. But when you ask the hard questions and figure out even a fraction about your own self and identity, there won't be any replacing.
I don't know if I were too hard to understand. I'm not even sure I'll be able to clarify myself in the comments. This whole post taking about 3 hours trying to explain myself the best as I could actually ended up filling my head with even more stuff to write. I might end up making few more follow up posts. Hope my deep personal thoughts/ideas helped you by adding something to your life.