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Life's But a Walking Shadow

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Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing. Have you ever been tempted to wield total, absolute power over everyone ? Come on, be honest... have you? Maybe just a little bit? Forget for a moment about all the paperwork that might entail or the money it would cost; right now I'm just talking about the power . All those annoying people out there who are so chaotic and disruptive: all thinking their own thoughts and disagreeing with each other; all those radicals and extremists who worship the wrong gods or vote for the wrong politicians or go to the wrong movies... wouldn't life be so much easier if you could make their decisions for them? If you could decide what they should think; who they should love; how they should live... wouldn't that make the world so much better...? Okay, okay, I'm being silly. Obviously no one would ever be so arrogant as to think that they alone should get to dictate the worldviews and mindsets of every other person in existence. What kind of s...
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Consciousness Itself: Part Two

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" We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. " Andrew Niccol; The Truman Show " Oh dear. I think you'll find Reality's on the blink again. " Douglas Adams; The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Escaping from Escapism Philip K. Dick (a writer whose relationship with Reality was often, shall we say, pliable ) wrote, among other masterworks,  The Man in the High Castle ; a landmark "alternate history" novel in which Germany and Japan had won World War II. Most of the action of the narrative takes place in the Japanese-controlled Western sector of the former United States, and follows a diverse assortment of characters whose lives and fortunes interconnect in various ways. One of those characters is an older Japanese businessman, Nobusuke Tagomi. After a particularly disturbing and traumatic experience, Tagomi desperately tries to find some inner peace, and is inexplicably transported (for a few enigmatic minutes) to our wor...
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Consciousness Itself: Part One

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" On its journey back, it amassed so much knowledge... it achieved consciousness itself. It became a living thing ." Captain Kirk, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,  Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!  Or that the Everlasting had not fixed  His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!  How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable  Seem to me all the uses of this world!  Fie on't!  Oh fie fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden  That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature  Possess it merely.  That it should come to this! Hamlet, in the throes of an existential crisis, contemplating the horror of his own existence. Oh, for the love of...  Sit down, Rebekah. Sit the hell down before you collapse on the floor.  My heart is beating like a trapped bird in a cage, Shawm. You really know how to pull the rug out from under someone. You... you are a menace. How can you ask me that so calmly? " Ho...
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