To ask for weird realisations you’ve had about life?

[goergia]

Things about mundane life that you’ve never given much thought but suddenly think “Now I think about it, that’s weird.”

I had one of these today. I live in a mid-terrace, neighbours are nice and quiet and we don’t hear a peep. A few days ago I had a snoop at one of the next-door neighbour’s house on Rightmove after seeing it was for sale, and realised that they have their bed right up against our party wall as I do mine. So even though I sleep in bed alone every night, there’s actually 2 people who I don’t really know just a couple of inches away from me! I don’t know why but for some reason it creeps me out. I’ve realised that in terraced houses you’re actually sharing one building with lots of people, many of whom you will NEVER interact with.

@SleepingStandingUp

That I was born a human being, I could have just as easily been a worm, a sloth, a fish, a may fly that lived for just a day or a creature that lives in total darkness in the abyss of the ocean. Well I suppose it depends on how you identify "you". The creature that came from your mother's womb could only be a human, thanks to evolution. Unless by you you mean soul and you believe souls just happen into any living creature regardless of their level of self awareness?

I came from my mother's womb yes so of course I would have to be born human. My thought was maybe more philosophical in that if I was never me, maybe I could have been any creature on this earth. The thought often occurs to when watching wildlife programmes, I see a school of sardines or group of bats in a remote cave and I think what if I wasn't me but born as one of them instead.

Just typed out my responses and lost it!
Short version- morality isn’t carved in stone. It has a history. It’s not universal or a given or something worth having (necessarily).
That sexuality and punishment have a history too (Foucault) and that judgment isn’t something that should be based on presumed universal beliefs.
Or something like that

Most people are mad.

Same. An ex was obsessed with space and I was like stop I don't wanna hear it. Like causes me anxiety to think of the size of the galaxy and other planets but I've no idea why 🤷‍♀️

@SolarPortrait

Also I don't and won't have children (that ship has sailed) - it dawned on me that I have broken a hereditary chain that ultimately goes back to the first humans on earth.. all my ancestors diligently continuing this chain, through so many obstacles and it gets to me and stops. Forever.

I have had this thought too but I feel very positively about it.

Depression, addiction and arthritis are all in my genes and bloody hell, I've suffered with it all. Just as my mother and uncle did, just as their parents did. Like hell am I bringing some other poor sod into this world to suffer too, no I'm happy to put a stop to this particular lineage.

Never leave home without a she wee ( iam 50)

@lameasahorse

That nobody likes someone who is struggling. And whatever they say most people do not really give a shit.

On the other side of the coin - people who ‘struggle’ often struggle about many things and use one or two people as sounding boards but are never willing to listen to their problems or struggles in return. They also moan that no one cares when in fact the people they lean on have done nothing but listen and advise 🤷‍♀️

The realisation that time - the 4th dimension - is a human concept which exists only in our heads. There is no physical manifestation of time and it exists only as a means for humans to chart progress from one event to the next.

Some scientists now think that time doesn’t even exist as a concept; that everything happens all at once and ‘time’ is a means of indexing our memories.

It’s a complete headfuck.

Thanks for the headache @DoctorManhattan 🤯

people who ‘struggle’ often struggle about many things and use one or two people as sounding boards but are never willing to listen to their problems or struggles in return. They also moan that no one cares when in fact the people they lean on have done nothing but listen and advise 🤷‍♀️

I agree.

@RachaelN

The realisation that so many people around us are stupid. I know this makes me sounds horrible but I assure you I treat everyone with the same respect. But I am educated to a high level and find it so difficult to find people to have a good conversation with. Most people talk abou trivial subjects that bore me beyond belief.

People think that way of you as well.
I'm sure there's areas where you lack.
Like having empathy.

@DoctorManhattan

The realisation that time - the 4th dimension - is a human concept which exists only in our heads. There is no physical manifestation of time and it exists only as a means for humans to chart progress from one event to the next.

Some scientists now think that time doesn’t even exist as a concept; that everything happens all at once and ‘time’ is a means of indexing our memories.

It’s a complete headfuck.

Sorry what now? Are they suggesting that if time doesn't exist as a concept, then history is not a thing?

[quote BorderlineHappy]@RachaelN

The realisation that so many people around us are stupid. I know this makes me sounds horrible but I assure you I treat everyone with the same respect. But I am educated to a high level and find it so difficult to find people to have a good conversation with. Most people talk abou trivial subjects that bore me beyond belief.

People think that way of you as well.
I'm sure there's areas where you lack.
Like having empathy.[/quote]
Indeed - I find so-called ‘intellects’ who make their degree an aspect of their personality, to be the most boring, mind numbing and actually quite stupid people going

@DrManhattan I have often thought that about time, and find it comforting. It’s as if we are experiencing a 2 dimensional painting by travelling along the canvas, so we see red, then green, then blue. It’s only by stepping away we realise that the whole picture has always been there.

Same with time. We experience the 3 dimensions by moving through time, but if we were to step away we would see that everything, everywhen, exists. It is there. Time is just bath a limit and a mechanism for how we experience it.

@Squiff70 No, it’s more the idea that history has always existed and continued to exist, before, during, and after it was experienced. Put another way, everything is history. And no, that doesn’t preclude free will, because free will is still a component that shapes it.

@doctorManhattan
Why are you using my user name?

That I'm here, existing. That other people see me, literally, as I see them.

Can't explain it, but sometimes it just shocks me that I'm alive, living, making conscious decisions and being.

That I'm still waiting to feel 'grown up'
or one of the 'adults' at 38 when I'm married, own a house and car and have a child.
Realising that I will still probably feel that way at 70 if I make it!

[quote Blert]@Squiff70 No, it’s more the idea that history has always existed and continued to exist, before, during, and after it was experienced. Put another way, everything is history. And no, that doesn’t preclude free will, because free will is still a component that shapes it.[/quote]
🤯

@Getoff

But isn't blue (or red, green whatever) a distinct wavelength? So we will all see the same colour.

We could/do choose to label wavelengths of light with colour names, but I think colour itself is a concept manufactured in the brain, it's not a property of the "real world", it's merely an allusion to something in it. Just as two different people may not have the same experience/feelings about eating the same food, we can't say that two different people looking at the same wavelength experience it the same way.

The "real world" is unknown and unknowable, all we have is an idea of it created in our brain. This is of course somewhat shaped by what is out there, although most of our important knowledge of reality comes not from direct experience, but by a brain-washing process imposed on us by our elders, who pass down group knowledge via something called "education". So what we think of as reality is in many ways just a cultural construct.

Something mind-blowing I saw on Youtube recently is a scientist of some kind has proved that, in terms of perception, we are not adapted to see "reality" accurately/truthfully. Surprisingly, having you senses adapted to maximise accuracy of perception is not the same thing as having them adapted to see reality in ways that maximise your probability of survival.

The example he gave was this: imagine a world where oxygen varies from place to place, an organism needs oxygen levels in the range 19% to 22% to thrive. One organism see the colour green when oxygen levels are in the range 0% to 50%, and the colour red for the range 50% to 100%. Another organism see green for the range 19%-22% and red everywhere else. The first organism will have a better comprehension of reality, but will become extinct, because it will be out-competed by the one that knows exactly where it needs to go, even though it knows nothing about the rest of the world.

Could you link to this video please?

@Yamyam13

That I'm still waiting to feel 'grown up' or one of the 'adults' at 38 when I'm married, own a house and car and have a child. Realising that I will still probably feel that way at 70 if I make it!

I'm still waiting at the age of 59..... I stil can't resist a quick 'hopscotch' or go on the swings when I get the chance.

Someone bought me a plaque on my 50th that says "if you haven't grown up by the age of 50 - you don't have to.

So, I'm just following that advice!

@knowinglesseveryday

I'm formally educated to a very high level, and I definitely don't think that people are stupid. People make different choices and also have different opportunities, or aspirations. Education isn't alway formal eg via college or university, and sometimes you have to learn to unthink some of the things you learn there. Especially over time, as things move on.

I agree. Many of the people who call others stupid just mean they do not agree with their views. I am regularly appalled by people calling others stupid about Brexit, voting Tory/Labour/Green etc with no reasoned debate, just that their views are different

@mynamesnotMa

That education is mostly brain washing. Those that are truly intelligent are free thinkers and usually classed as trouble makers as they don't conform.

I remember hearing something remarkably similar to this in an interview by that great thinker Jimmy Saville. I took it as being creative back in the day but now think that those who think themselves so intelligent as to be above the rules of society are not to be trusted