Existence

This is a conversation I had once which was very intriguing...

There is no such thing as “existence” until we have made it exist. We are not here, until we have said we had a past and that we had a history. If “reality” is merely a word that mankind created, then what is “reality?” And if “reality” is what we make it, then what if we took “reality” out of our vocabulary? Would it still “exist?”

If reality is what we make it, and it only exists when say it exists; our past only exists when we create a past, then what are we doing? Who are we? Are we even here existing?
Reality is what you make it, but the thing is that it’s still reality, maybe very different from what you’ve been taught reality is, but reality none the less…whether or not we exist as we have always believed is irrelevant. What we are doing is surviving and gathering knowledge.
Survival of the fittest. But even with that knowledge we don’t necessarily know what we are doing or what it means, until someone or ourselves gives it a meaning or definition. Just the same as someone pointing something out and therefore it is, when before whatever “it” was, wasn’t.
It’s within our own surviving that we feel the need to have meaning and question which makes me think that there is something else, namely the singularity.
What do you mean singularity?
You should look it up but very basically it’s when humans merge with technology, essentially becoming a multi-minded organism, evolution through technology.
But doesn’t that worry you? If there is say, a “robot holocaust” our dependence and emergence with technology would have the capacity to destroy mankind. We would have lost our skill sets that generations before us have. Even the agriculture today depends upon technology…if that emergence happens, and then fails…
Yeh that’s possible but I just choose to believe the more positive possibilities. And either way I think merger with technology is inevitable, so it makes no sense worrying about the outcome.
Well yeh. I mean we already have dependence upon technology so much that we can’t go back. I just think we should be aware of it and try to minimize.

2050

Did you know that currently the human population is around 6 billion people? The earth's crust can only hold so much weight before it breaks. The more people we add, which is three people born per second, the more weight we add. Why do people insist on having such big families? I understand the religious values of procreation, but honestly people! Get your heads out of the sand! Look around! Do you really need more than two children of your own? There are thousands upon thousands of children that need to be adopted all over the world. Stop being so selfish.
Every second, three people are born > every day 1/4 million people are born > every year 77 million people are born. It is estimated that by 2050, the human population with be between 8.5 and 10 billion people. 10 BILLION PEOPLE. That is crazy! Yet, here we are, congratulating people who have 10 kids or more. Why? I look at those people and think "What are you doing?!" Can these people afford those kids? Not just financially, but emotionally...can these people give love to each child equally? I don't know. Our birth-death rate used to be equal. Now, our birth rate is higher than the death rate. Actually, the death rate does not even come close to matching the birth rate.
If humans continue to grow then we will take over the planet. Natural habitats will disappear. Our food sources will disappear. Our oxygen sources will disappear. Our lands for agriculture will become land for cities and housing developments. Smog will not only be in the biggest cities, but will cover the entire planet. Our planet will look disgusting. Our water undrinkable.
What are we doing? What are we thinking? What kind of world are we preparing for ourselves? For our children? For their children? What will we do to save the planet? What will we do to save our lives?

What is a great writer?

There are many responses to this question. If I ask my professors, they will list off the classics: Shakespeare, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, etc. Yes, these men are great. I love reading their stuff, except Shakespeare. I think he is a genius, but honestly, just say what you mean! (haha) But I'm not asking "who is a great writer" I am asking "what is a great writer." To this, I don't know what they would say. My friends say that a great writer is someone who can write with feeling, can take something bland and make it beautiful. I agree, this would constitute a pretty good writer. However, i think that a great writer can write something without feelings too. I write about things that I do not experience, most likely will not experience. But I try to put myself in that person's shoes, in that moment, and I write what I would think I would feel. Usually, when I write, I cannot write when I am emotional. I have to wait awhile. To me, a great writer is someone that can make you think that they are feeling everything that they write on paper, when in reality, they may not have felt or experienced this at all. I believe a great writer can write about anything. They can look at a pencil and write 50 lines about its "beauty." They can hear a conversation and take just a few lines and turn it into a story. To me, these are great writers. My friends don't necessarily agree. I guess the question still stands: What is a great writer?

What the Future Holds

We all think about it, the future. Where will we be in a few years? Will something happen to me? Will I be in an accident? Will I die? Will I be engaged? Will I still be in school? Will I be successful? Will I be pregnant? Will I be happy? All these questions run through my mind, as I'm sure they do everyone else. The future is scary. How can we be ready for it? Then comes the question we ask ourselves years later: If I could go back would I do it all again? I think about this question all the time. Especially being a student in college, I think about this question daily. I usually think about certain times in my life that I wish I could redo. I also think about the last couple years in reference to my own education. For instance, when I think about times that I wish I could redo in my life, I have to remind myself that every experience, every person that I have met, every conversation I have had has had an impact on who I am today, or at least has had an impact on the journey to the person I have become thus far. I may wish to forget those things, but then I have to ask myself, would I be myself? My answer is always no, I wouldn't be the same. I would be someone else, either nicer or meaner, smarter or more naive. When I begin to think about my education, I wonder if I should have gone to a different school to study Clarinet performance instead of coming here to study vocal performance. Should I have changed my major to English, or should I have stayed in the Music Education field? Is making this choice in career paths smart? I know that my dream is to work for National Geographic. Always has been. But the road to that ultimate goal is rocky and full of disappointment. Can I handle that? Is English really the field that is me? Or is there something else out there that I have yet to discover and I will change all over again? Am I actually changing? Or am I just finding what fits me the most?
Of course, all this pondering could go on forever. I just have one more thing. Do you wonder about the very far future? The future that isn't actually the beginning of something, but the future that is near the end? I always wonder if I will be happy with my accomplishments, am I going to be scared, am I going to be ready, will I have family, or will I be the end, because I am the end of my family blood line. Obviously, I get a little skirmish trying to imagine what my last years, days, hours will be like. No one could possible know. I think my favorite question of all time is officially what does the future hold for me?

Wonders

What is it exactly that makes a person be able to forgive and forget? Sometimes I look at other people and I wonder how it is that they have been through something so terrible and yet they live their lives as if it never happened. I think to myself, wow how can they do that? I wouldn't be able to go on with my life if something so terrible were to happen to me. Some people have this will in them and it is amazing to witness such courage. To be in the presence of something so great. Sometimes I wish I were stronger, that I had the strength to move on. I have the ability to forget, but do I hold the ability to forgive?