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"One day the magic was finally gone. There was no more wonder. What before would make you question what sit beyond the veil, and its impossibility in a linear u
by hnedeotes 6y ago
"One day the magic was finally gone. There was no more wonder. What before would make you question what sit beyond the veil, and its impossibility in a linear universe, no longer did. Everything was catalogued, every inch of soil, wrinkles around the corners of your mouth, the reflection on your iris when you were happy, or sad, circumstances you found yourself in. All of that had a rational thread that could be followed back to the big silent eye, data point by data point. There was nothing else to question, no possibility of impossibles, of something unseen. Just this never ending stream of letters that told you that's all there is, all that you are"
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- superzamp 6y agoQuoted from you, just now?
- DiggyJohnson 6y agoI just pasted it into my futureculture novel I'm going to not finish in a decade or so.
- dandellion 6y agoIt could even be one of those gpt3-generated replies. It's getting hard to tell these days...
- mckirk 6y agoWhat is the source of that quote?
- dandellion 6y agoI don't know the source, but it made me think of Gattaca. I should probably re-watch it.
- DiggyJohnson 6y agoDo you often recite paragraph length quotes without knowing the source? Am I being gullible? What a fascinating reply.
- zeepzeep 6y agoCheck the username...
- ALittleLight 6y agoWhat's ironic is that the person who posted the quote actually can't remember where it's from, their comment saying so is, at this writing, one comment down.
- hnedeotes 6y agoWell it might even have been in another language, or with totally different words... It's just an envelope, as the saying goes, it takes one to recognise one. The envelopes for the messages that is.
- dandellion 6y agoI'm not the one who posted the paragraph, I don't know if it's a quote from somewhere or something the grandparent came up with, sorry.
- hnedeotes 6y agoCan't remember where I read it.
- adamdusty 6y agoGoogle turns up nothing on anything from that quote.
- pbronez 6y agoThis is poetic, but I don't think it's true. The world is too complex to model perfectly. It's easy to feel like a digital lens is the whole world, but it really, really isn't. Twitter != Voters The small sat revolution is a big deal, but much mystery & magic remains.
- scarecrowbob 6y agoConsider the impact that simply believing the relevant portions of the world has been modeled "well enough". If magic and mystery is the good thing, then simply feeling like there's no place you can get to which hasn't been mapped might be enough to choke off that feeling, regardless of the resolution of the map.
- pbronez 6y agoAbsolutely. It's self-fulfilling belief. If you believe yourself to be trapped in an exhausted world, then you are. It's usually better to choose an abundance mentality. The idea that the world has been mapped to the point of killing all mystery is ludicrous. The Map Is Not The Territory[1]. There are mysteries lurking in your own neighborhood that you won't notice until you traverse it in a new way. Go for a walk with a child or dog. Take a bike instead of a car. Use a wheelchair. Volunteer with local advocacy groups. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation
- colecut 6y ago“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ― Albert Einstein With a little creativity we should never get bored.
- test6554 6y agoImagine a world with so much mapped data that it too needs explorers. Data recorded generations ago that has never been observed by anyone to study it.
- kilroy123 6y agoSadly, I've felt this many times while traveling the world. There's no place to "discover". Anywhere you go, tons of others have been there before you. You can easily look up pictures on Instagram or wherever.
- matonias 6y agoExperiencing a place is by far not comparable then just looking at a picture. A picture teaches you one thing, an experience 1000.
- ehosca 6y agothe 4/5ths is calling... https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53119686 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53119686
- adflux 6y agoYou have visited the wrong places, then. Plenty of truly "unexplored" territory in e.g. the Amazon. You can go off the beaten path if you choose.
- OnACoffeeBreak 6y agoBut the others were not there when you're there and certainly not with your state of mind. The world is not static and neither are you, which presents infinite possibilities for unique experiences and perceptions.
- ttfxxcc 6y agoThis post is hilarious. You clearly have not gone exploring if you limit yourself to what some travel guide tells you.
- gen220 6y agoYou might find this reading interesting: https://rolfpotts.com/walker-percys-loss-creature/ https://rolfpotts.com/walker-percys-loss-creature/ In a nutshell, you can intentionally choose to prevent others’ perception of a place from spoiling your own. One step further, you can even use their perception to enhance your own experience. You’re standing in a place that your extremely distant ancestors and cousins once stood, in a place where your nieces and nephews and children might one day stand. You’re connected to the narrative of humanity. The concept of “first” is a red herring in the narrative of humanity. It carries a lot less meaning than our current culture leads us to believe.
- otikik 6y agoNah.
- npteljes 6y agoSo, why do I like reading a story? It's already written. Yet that fact doesn't suck out the joy.
- hnedeotes 6y agoUnless someone spoils it out before you read it right?
- NovaS1X 6y agoI don't think so. Reading a book or watching a show isn't about the fastest route to a conclusion. To borrow a phrase: it's the journey, not the destination. IE: I'm watching The Crown right now. I've been "spoiled" on the outcome of the show through simple history and cultural knowledge (I'm Canadian). It doesn't make the show any less enjoyable when I know that Diana is going to die, or that Mountbatten was killed by the IRA.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoThere’s a different, maybe even better kind of enjoyment from surprises (or non spoiled events) in my experience. I won’t watch any movie trailer or read a review so that I go in as uninformed as possible.
- NovaS1X 6y agoThat's fair. There's also some stories/movies that are absolutely critical to come into fresh. Shutter Island is the first one that comes to mind.
- meepmorp 6y agoEven if I know the destination well, I often still enjoy the trip there.
- npteljes 6y agoThat kills a kind of a fun, but there are still others. Re-reading an old favorite for example.
- birriel 6y agoMy own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. -J.B.S. Haldane
- hooande 6y agopbronez had some great replies below. I wanted to add that more data = more questions. The more we understand, the more we'll have to find out and contextualize. There's more to exploration than mapping
- mejutoco 6y agoThis is a very interesting quote, thanks. If I understand correctly, Even if a lot more data is available, because of chaotic systems this causality of events cannot become totally deterministic. Otherwise we could predict the weather perfectly. I find it comforting, somebody else might too :)
- jxramos 6y agoin other words no space for mysteries here.
- the__alchemist 6y agoI hope this isn't a rehash of other replies, but this is a classic chauvinism, of the sort that humans have been subscribing to throughout recorded history. It's easy to feel confident when you don't know what you don't know!
- hnedeotes 6y agoYes, it's like that story about a pigeon in a test box that whenever he flapped its wings food would come. I would like to learn pidgeonian just to tell him that not everything is what it looks but to not feel bad, because when everything can look like something and be explained easier through that, everything else falls by the side.
- LdSGSgvupDV 6y agoIt would be extremely expensive for storing such huge number of data. Is this really doable? I think there must be some physical limitation.
- knolax 6y agoThe more you understand the world as it is, the easier it is to change what it is. Take joy in creating something new, not stumbling upon what has already been made.