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50. An Investigation Of Philosophical Inquiry IV
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In this week’s episode, we revisit our large list of philosophical inquiries, continuing from episode 46 with a set of new questions to challenge our minds.
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Music By Nathan Willis RIP
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Transcript
Celebrating Milestones
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Pursuit of Infinity. This week is our 50th episode. So I want to say thank you to all of you, our dear friends and listeners for supporting the show. As half of your co-hosting squad, I also want to thank my brother Joe and all of our guests who are so generous with their time to come on the show.
00:00:26
Speaker
It's been such a delightful journey, and we are so excited for the future. We had something special planned for episode 50, but we weren't able to make it happen just yet, so don't worry, it's still in the works and will be more than likely part of episode 52. So instead, here we are again with the continuation of our thought-provoking and seemingly endless list of philosophical questions.
Listener Engagement Strategies
00:00:49
Speaker
If you like these types of episodes, or if you don't, let us know wherever you watch or listen in a review in the YouTube comments section, our channels tag is that pursuit of infinity or on Instagram at pursuit of infinity pod. You can visit our patreon at patreon.com slash pursuit of infinity and get into contact with us there. All these things and more can be found at our website, pursuit of infinity.com. So head on over there and see what we've got.
00:01:17
Speaker
And without further delay, thank you so much for listening and I hope you enjoy this week's episode. Today
Does Achievement Equal Happiness?
00:01:34
Speaker
we're back with our large list of philosophical questions to jog everybody's consciousness.
00:01:45
Speaker
What do we leave off with, Joe? What number are we on? Number 35. You want to read it? Sure. Can achieving nothing make a person happy? I would say yeah. Because when I think about what it means to achieve nothing, like first of all, achievements don't necessarily equal happiness.
00:02:09
Speaker
And when I meditate, like the goal is to achieve nothing. And that makes me happy. When I'm done meditating, I feel great. And not everything that's not everything that results in a good mood or happiness has to be from a goal oriented activity or something that you do in order to achieve an outcome. So I think, yeah, you can, you can definitely be happy and, uh, and achieve nothing.
00:02:39
Speaker
See, I mean, I kind of agree with what you said. But again, like even when you're talking about the meditation part, it's like you are achieving like you kind of have a goal by meditating like that nothing that you're talking about during meditation is something that you kind of achieve. You know what I mean? So I think generally speaking that you're not going I don't know about because it says can achieving nothing make a person happy.
00:03:07
Speaker
I don't know, but I would say it's unlikely. I think, um...
00:03:15
Speaker
I don't know. Personally, I feel the most fulfillment and happiness after overcoming something or achieving something. So I think if you're the type of person that's not doing anything or has nothing to overcome, then you can fall into depression or lack of happiness and just looking for quick hits of dopamine.
00:03:40
Speaker
That being said, I think if you're like extremely conscious, you can move beyond that and not have to fill your ego with achievements in order to be happy. But I would say generally, it would be very tough for somebody to be happy while achieving nothing at all.
00:04:04
Speaker
I definitely see what you're saying, but you can, it definitely can happen. Um, it's probably not the best path to, you know, happiness, because like, it does seem that things affecting us in a way that makes us happy. Like it's like, it's something rather than nothing. But then again, like, is the question, is it even possible to achieve nothing?
00:04:28
Speaker
That's what I was actually just thinking too. I was like, when you think about it, it's almost like as if you're always achieving. Like in the instance that you mentioned with the meditation, that seems to be like achieving nothing. But in doing so, it is an achievement in itself.
00:04:48
Speaker
So that nothing is actually something because you can't have nothing really. Cause when you say like the goal of meditation is to, to be nothing or something or to, to feel nothingness, that's a, again, like that's, that's achieving something that's a goal.
00:05:08
Speaker
And I just don't think that it's possible. I mean, we can definitely like talk about semantics and say it's not possible to achieve nothing. But in terms of the question, it's almost like saying, is it, is it possible to be happy without achieving something glorious? And I, I still think that I would say yes.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree that it's definitely possible. And I mean, I just think about my own life. Have I ever been happy while achieving nothing? And there's moments where you're doing nothing and you just accept the moment and you can be happy with that. But that even then, it's interesting, you could say in a weird twist of words,
00:05:54
Speaker
that by doing nothing, I am achieving happiness. So there's an achievement regardless. But I think generally speaking, achieving would be a path to happiness, but you can achieve happiness without achievement.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, so true. So true. Because like the most fulfillment that you can have in your life comes from the achievement of something. You know, we're, we're pattern recognition, goal oriented, biological entities that move through the world with the motivations of whatever, you know, survival, happiness, you know,
00:06:37
Speaker
passing on your, your biological seed, whatever it is. So it's like everything we do, there's a goal or something, some kind of end achievement in mind. So it can really go either way. But I still go back to the fact that it's like, definitely possible to be like doing nothing, or not have a goal in mind and still find some sort of happiness in that.
00:07:02
Speaker
Right. But I like how you mentioned that to the biological aspect of it because it seems like no matter what we're doing, it's just the mind of a human being models in achievements, rewards. Even if it's something that you're not viewing as an achievement, you're still modeling your cause and effect that way. So even sitting and watching TV, you're not thinking that
00:07:30
Speaker
thinking of that as an achievement. But you are modeling the fact that if I lay down and watch TV, I can achieve whatever goal you're looking for in whatever you're watching. So it is just like it's always something that I think a human being is doing in the mind. But um,
00:07:49
Speaker
I would say generally, I don't think that you can achieve, I mean, you can, but it's not generally true that you're going to achieve fulfillment and happiness without achievements, but you can. And it's not generally a healthy way to go about living your life. But it is possible, but
The Law of Attraction: Myth or Reality?
00:08:11
Speaker
yeah. Yes. Number 36, does the law of attraction exist?
00:08:19
Speaker
I would say it does exist. Like for instance, people say you are the five people you hang out with most. I think that's a good example. If you're hanging out with a bunch of people who are depressed and angry all the time, you're going to
00:08:42
Speaker
attract that, it goes vice versa, I guess. If you are depressed and angry, it's going to attract you to people of that same nature, like misery loves company. But if you're upbeat and positive, you're going to attract others of that same mindset, basically. I think that's a pretty clear example to say that it does exist.
00:09:11
Speaker
I don't like the phrase law of attraction, the way that they put it. It gives me like, uh, the secret vibes, you know, that documentary, the secret where it's like, all you have to do is manifest, you know, positivity, and then you're going to get a million dollars or like, you can envision yourself, you know, getting XYZ car or air, you know what I mean? Just like kind of material dumb shit that they, uh, that they spout off in that documentary. But.
00:09:41
Speaker
On like a really, really deep level, I do think that there's something to it because when you think positively, when you have, again, if you want to go back to the last question, even if you have a goal in mind, your, your, your biological being is going to sort of automatically work its way toward what you're thinking and the way that your mindset is.
00:10:07
Speaker
So in that sense, yes, there is some sort of, uh, attraction that you can achieve by just using your mind. But I don't like the law part of it because to me, the law part of it, it brings in like a metaphysics of magic and manifestation that I think can be misconstrued.
00:10:30
Speaker
And also people can be taken advantage of in the same way that the secret took advantage of people by getting them to like continuously feed into their version of manifestation, which is, you know, you see it running rampant nowadays and like the new age woke kind of culture.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I don't necessarily like the law part of it. It makes it seem as if that's the only way it can be, which in a sense, that's why I said it does exist because it is kind of like a law. I like the idea of looking at reality as
00:11:15
Speaker
Not that you are the sum of your past, just like whatever you've done in your past is moving you into the future. Or you can, with the law of attraction, you can think about it as what's in the future is pulling you towards it instead of... Like for instance, you have to believe in something in order to make it happen. So you can believe in something and attract it.
00:11:44
Speaker
Before the Wright Brothers, people thought that human beings could never fly. It took the belief of the Wright Brothers to think human beings can fly for it to happen without the initial thought it would never have occurred.
00:12:02
Speaker
I like to think that the law of attraction might work in a way where you use your mind to feel yourself being pulled into the future rather than saying, I haven't done enough of my past to make it happen. Just think of it as the future pulling you toward it. Like there's some force there. Or realizing that if you create and cultivate a mindset where you're directing it towards something, you're better off
00:12:32
Speaker
in the journey of achieving that thing or grasping that thing. And that works in the opposite way, too. If you're somebody who is constantly engaging with negativity, you're constantly engaging with, say, TikTok or Instagram in a way where
00:12:54
Speaker
You know maybe your your feed is showing you nothing but. Liberals being super ultra woke and blue haired people like in colleges trying to shut down like conservative speakers or even vice versa you know like if you're if you're like a hardcore liberal and.
00:13:15
Speaker
You're watching the fascist regime of the Republican Party that's taking over the country, and that's what your feed is giving you. You're going to generally sort of exude that negativity toward the world, and you're going to move in that direction wherever you are, because it's what your mind is, quote-unquote, manifesting.
00:13:36
Speaker
It's what you're thinking. It's what you're feeling. And there is real tangibility to those things, regardless of whether or not you want to think of it as like a magical law. There's still tangibility to what you're thinking and how your thought processes are happening. Yeah, I agree. And yeah, it's not like, I don't try to think of it as like a magical law, like you said. But in a sense, there is a type of law to it.
00:14:06
Speaker
because it's natural. So it feels like it's a natural thing. And I mean, it's easy to see in everyday life. It doesn't have to be magical. It's just, I don't know, making an observation.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, like the way I like to think about something that will be labeled law is like the laws of thermodynamics. You know, these are things that are like immovable things that a always leads to B and leads to C. Whereas there are certain circumstances where the law of attraction won't apply.
00:14:44
Speaker
Um, if you have bad luck, you know, it could just be a situation that just didn't go your way or a series of situations that continuously don't go your way, even though you are trying to harness this law of attraction. So it's not a definite type of law, which is why I think maybe it can be like the idea of attraction maybe, or something along those lines, but law, I'm just not a big fan of, of that phrasing.
00:15:15
Speaker
Well, even you see things that we have called laws in the past end up being determined to not be absolutely true. Like, for instance, Newton's laws, they are 100% applicable and useful.
00:15:31
Speaker
But after Einstein's special relativity, it was determined that they're not absolutely true, but they still happen. We still use them to this day in scientific experiments and just in our basic knowledge. We use that more than
00:15:49
Speaker
Einstein's relativity, I mean, in your layman every day-to-day life. So a law in that sense can be applicable and true in a sense, but not be absolute, like I guess you were saying there. And you can look at laws in terms of legislation and you can see that we update and change our laws constantly and we call them laws as well. So yeah, definitely vernacular here is important.
00:16:16
Speaker
No.
Technology's Impact on Emotions
00:16:23
Speaker
I don't think they've taken away emotions. I don't think you can ever take away emotions.
00:16:30
Speaker
I understand where it's coming from because I think what it's trying to get across is more or less. We don't feel as much because we don't interact as much because we're staring at the screens and we're like, there's this, uh, this unnatural sort of.
00:16:49
Speaker
vibe to technology, but I don't think it prevents us from feeling our emotions. If anything, I think it has more of a potential to allow us to feel more emotions because technology is our main means of communication. And sure, if you're communicating with somebody
00:17:08
Speaker
digitally as opposed to seeing them in person, your emotions are not necessarily going to be conveyed in the same way or maybe not, not as, as effectively. But the fact that I can talk to somebody over a zoom call or something that I've never seen or met before, and I would have no other way of speaking to that's just one way that you can connect with another person and have more of an emotional connection than you normally would. If you were never able to talk to that person.
00:17:39
Speaker
But I do understand where the question is going, but I don't think that it's caused us to be unable to feel emotions that we normally feel. Yeah, I would say that they definitely haven't taken away emotions. I mean, you could kind of like emotions are a constant as long as you are human. So you can't take away emotions, but I would say
00:18:06
Speaker
that in certain areas it may, like apps and gadgets, may have stunted certain emotions and enhanced others. Like you took the view of the enhancement, which I agree I didn't really think about that, that just the easy connection that you can have with people from all over the world, you know, that will obviously enhance emotions at certain times. But then obviously you can think about
00:18:35
Speaker
how it might stunt emotions or feed negative emotions. But you notice there's still all emotions. So altogether it hasn't taken them away. But you know, you could argue that a lot of people in our modern technological era
00:18:56
Speaker
have a little less emotional intelligence because of only interacting with devices rather than human to human interaction. I think it's going to be shown in the next generation for sure what the effect will be because now is the first time we're seeing kids being raised on these gadgets and apps.
00:19:21
Speaker
you know these kids they're never most of them maybe not most but a lot of them spend more time playing with their technology than like when we were kids we played with toys with each other you know and it had that that play from human to human whereas now you see a lot of kids just being put in front of you know the ipad or video game whatever
00:19:44
Speaker
like we had the video games and the TV and you could see that certain I know at least for me certain kids that I grew up with who stayed inside a lot and just played the video games and you know they were a little weird you know so I don't know if you extrapolate that to the future and see maybe these kids that are just not getting the human to human interaction it might stunt certain emotions but not take them away
00:20:13
Speaker
And if you look at dating culture nowadays, where people are basically just dating with their phones online, that is a huge emotional stunt to anyone who is investing all of their emotional stability into that in terms of like, um, their relationships you see all over the place.
00:20:35
Speaker
People have very skewed and strange ideas about what their relationships should be like. This is also contributing to the de-masculinization of men and the de-feminization of females because there's this really weird disconnect. And I'm not even sure what's causing it, but I think
00:21:04
Speaker
online dating, you know, the whole Tinder phenomenon, I think is a big factor in that. Yeah, for sure. It's changed everything. This is like, as far as like relationships and people's sex lives go, it's like
00:21:19
Speaker
Tinder, it's like the biggest thing since birth control. It's like, we have no idea what we put into motion, but you can see it. It's just the early days of this and it's changed the entire landscape. It's just changing how men and women act with each other and connect. And you can imagine, you know, now we have AI coming, you can only imagine what
00:21:41
Speaker
AI where that will take us as far as how it affects us emotionally. People are having relationships with AI, you know, you download the app and you get a girlfriend on there or whatever. So and that this is just the very beginning. I think the AI is going to really exacerbate the the effect that technology has on our emotions. Yeah, I totally agree.
00:22:09
Speaker
And it might just be redirecting our emotions, but I definitely do not think it's possible to take away our emotions unless you're.
00:22:20
Speaker
You know, you do brain surgery on somebody, you give someone like a lobotomy or something, but I don't see technology as like literally taking away emotions. I just see it redirecting emotions and maybe stunting some here and there, like you said, but also advancing some in different circumstances. But yeah, really the, the glaringly obvious one though, is these, these people who would just seem, it seems like they're so miserable because
00:22:48
Speaker
It's like when you're doing an online Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, you know, dating routine, it just, it seems like people are mostly disappointed in it because they're not forming the human connections that you would if you were to meet someone in a more genuine way, because you're basing it off of again, like a fake avatar.
00:23:14
Speaker
You're basing it off of what a person looks like and not just what they look like, but what they're presenting. And another thing AI does is you can use it with filters to alter your, your features. So you're not even presenting your real self. So you've got two people who are only basing.
00:23:33
Speaker
their relationship or at least the beginning part of the, of their relationship on what they're seeing on their little screen and what they're seeing on their little screen is altered. It's not the real, it's not even like a real picture. So I think the future is bleak for relationships. It really seems like it, it's getting to a, uh, to a point where like you said, it's stunting emotional intelligence in a really bad way because the family structure is so important.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah,
The Evolution of Relationships Online
00:24:02
Speaker
especially with relationships, it seems, well, what is actually happening is Tinder and online dating, all this stuff is allowing men to not commit.
00:24:17
Speaker
It allows the top 10, 20% of men, meaning status. These men are getting so many options because 80% of the women just flock to the top 20% of men. And since they're getting so many women, it leaves
00:24:36
Speaker
the bottom 80% of men kind of struggling on the apps and everything. So then the men that are at the top don't commit to the women because they have so many options. And then the men at the bottom are kind of left to struggle. So you're seeing a lot of that lately. And I was also thinking of with a huge thing is
00:24:59
Speaker
Think of what porn has done in the last couple decades. It's just blown up and it's also affected people in such a profound way. It's like a true addiction nowadays. It's like a very true addiction.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, so it's a huge impact, the gadgets, the apps. But as you said, I don't think it can take away emotions. It's going to stunt some and enhance others. And at the same time, stunting one and enhancing the other, it's the same thing happening really. So like when you're
00:25:40
Speaker
Stunting one emotion and it is inherently enhancing another anyway. So if you're stunting your happiness or whatever, then it's enhancing the negative opposite of that. So no matter what you do, it's a trade-off.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, and it's our responsibility to make sure that the things that we expose ourselves to are trading off those emotions in like a way that's going to benefit us more. And it doesn't seem like technology does that for us. Or at least if we forfeit ourselves to technology and allow it to control too much of our lives, it seems like it's going to just kind of go in a negative spiral as opposed to enhancing more than it disadvantages.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly it. Technology is so amazing. The gadgets and apps are incredible, but what you said is exactly it. If you forfeit yourself to them, then it seems like it goes in a negative direction for people's emotions.
00:26:47
Speaker
If you just use it as a tool and keep yourself, it's so beneficial and it's so incredible. But societally, it's been very kind of dark lately. It seems like it's being pushed in a certain direction. And that's the thing. These things aren't just your own tool when you use the apps. It's not just for you.
00:27:12
Speaker
There are algorithms that are designed in certain ways. So there is an aspect of an outside force that can push you in certain directions. Like certain apps, they will feed you more things that you negatively react to.
00:27:29
Speaker
So it's feeding that emotion and pushing you deeper into that. That's why with like my Facebook, any of these type of apps, what I've started doing lately. Well, I did it a while ago, so I haven't had to do it lately. But anytime I would see something that made me upset, I would just exit and unfollow immediately. So I don't have like CNN anymore, Fox News. I don't have any news on there. I
The Influence of Social Media Algorithms
00:27:53
Speaker
curated my social media in a way that I don't see anything but the things that are going to enhance my mind or make me curious, anything like that. So it can be done, but it has to be consciously done. And even still, I find myself
00:28:15
Speaker
wasting time on the apps, which will, you know, kind of feed into a negative emotion, I guess you'd say. I'm glad you brought that up, because it's funny. So I have like my Reddit account, and then I had, I made a Pursuit of Infinity Reddit account. So I don't use the Pursuit of Infinity one. I just use my personal Reddit account. And the reason being, when I'm scrolling my Reddit,
00:28:44
Speaker
Like one time, for instance, I was scrolling Reddit and I'm, you know, just scrolling it and it's given me all the stuff it usually does. You know, the algorithm is definitely, you know, set to what I interact with. And one time I opened up my Reddit app and I thought that I was on my personal Reddit.
00:29:03
Speaker
And I'm scrolling and I'm like, what the hell is going on with Reddit? Like what's wrong with it? It's not my Reddit. This is weird. Like it's given me weird stuff, like not things that I've ever interacted with. Things I'm not used to seeing. Like it's just weirdly uncomfortable. And I realized it was on the pursuit of infinity Reddit, which didn't allow
00:29:21
Speaker
Which I didn't allow enough time to sculpt the algorithm to my needs and and to what I'm used to seeing and I caught myself Realizing that and I was like, oh shit like it's got me the algorithms got me and it's interesting how
00:29:38
Speaker
Even if you do try to curate it, it's still like it will, it will allow you to curate it. It will allow you to sculpt it into exactly what you want it to be. But the problem becomes when you allow it to sculpt you. And I really felt that in a very strange way when I realized that like everybody has their own version of the app.
00:30:03
Speaker
Because the pursuit of infinity version that I was on wasn't the right, it was a, it was like a very different experience. It was a completely different app. So when say, for instance, like my fiance, Alana, the other day, she comes home and she, she is playing this song on her, her Instagram. And she's like, Oh, you never heard this song. This is so viral right now. And I said to her, are you sure? It's not just viral to your algorithm because I've never heard it or seen it.
00:30:31
Speaker
And that's what happens. We each have a different version of these apps that we open up. They're like catered to us. And if you extrapolate that idea to the future of what AI can potentially do. Oh my gosh, it's scary.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, you could imagine. That's why I said you can use them as a tool if you consciously are aware of that and you're actively keeping tabs on it because you could imagine if you're just a casual user or you're not really too invested in curating it in a way that's beneficial to you.
00:31:07
Speaker
you could kind of just fall into certain algorithms and certain directions it can take you. And in that way, you could see how a person can be molded by their phone. They can become... You could imagine how this could be weaponized in a way. And I could argue that it is being weaponized in a way. But you could turn people into whatever you'd like in a sense if you have control over what they see enough.
00:31:36
Speaker
Propaganda is real, you know, but yeah, like you said you could imagine that with AI it's going to be just Scaled up to an unimaginable degree Number 38 does observation alter an event
00:31:56
Speaker
I mean,
Quantum Mechanics and Reality Perception
00:31:57
Speaker
according to quantum mechanics, observation alters an event. I don't know if that is true, but they tell me it's true. If you listen to quantum physicists, if you want to take it like a level deeper, you could say that
00:32:20
Speaker
The observer creates the event that so obviously it affects the event. I don't know. What do you think? I mean, same thing. The quantum physicists, they tell us that this is the case.
00:32:37
Speaker
And we talk a lot on this podcast about consciousness being the fundamental nature of reality and that you create your experience via your consciousness. And that idea in itself encapsulates the fact that if you observe something, you're changing the event itself, or like you said, you're creating the event itself. You can look at it as
00:33:04
Speaker
a situation like in a relationship, say, um, the way you interpret the way that someone is communicating something to you will alter the way that you communicate whatever back to them, which then will create or alter the event itself. So it has an aspect of.
00:33:26
Speaker
the alteration of personality and the alteration of actions being taken, which then may lead to something changing or an event happening. Um, but I mean, I don't really have too much on that because I'm not a goddamn scientist.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, another way I think this question could be formed is the classic, if a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, does it make a sound? And I would say to that, no, it doesn't make a sound. Because then you got to think about what sound is. I mean, there needs to be an ear to receive a sound. So if there's no ear there, there's no sound there.
00:34:09
Speaker
Sounds aren't inherent to reality. They're inherent to us as human beings. So we think the world is sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, etc. And is it just a coincidence that those are our senses? That reality is shaped to them? It's just how we experience it.
00:34:30
Speaker
If there's no observer to see something, there's no eye to see it. So it's pretty much, the observer is everything. Yeah. One of my favorite examples of this is light in general. Because light doesn't exist without eyes. It's funny they say, you know, we base so much of our science off of light, and we look up at the sun and we say, that's the source of light. When you're drawing something, you say, oh, where's your light source? But the source of light is in the eye.
00:35:01
Speaker
you know, the source of vision is in the eye you create.
00:35:06
Speaker
what you're observing and I guess like the the quantum way of saying that would be you're collapsing the information which is like say the the wave function you know that's like the information field and you're collapsing that into a particle by looking at it say so so say like the sun is is giving us the waveform of light the information field and then by looking at that and having the light reflect off of our
00:35:36
Speaker
off of things around us and meet our eyes, it collapses that information into something we can interact with. I think that's that's the way I think about it at least. Right. Like the yeah, the quantum mechanics version is like, I'm pretty sure it is.
00:35:55
Speaker
until something is observed, it exists as infinite possibilities. So then when you observe the wave function, it collapses into what it is. So that means whatever you're not seeing is
00:36:12
Speaker
infinitely everything else. But yeah, I mean, I don't know too much about that, but if it kind of aligns with what I think, so just seeing physical science kind of coming to the same conclusions that you can come to just through using your mind, it's
00:36:33
Speaker
It's science coming to the same conclusions that we come to using our minds and mind-altering substances and altered states of consciousness. It's pretty cool. Okay, number 39. If everyone spoke their mind, would this world be a better place?
Would Honesty Improve the World?
00:36:55
Speaker
We live in a world where a lot of people speak their mind. I don't think that we're living in a world with a lack of people speaking their mind. I think there are certain circumstances that people keep themselves sort of hibernated in their ideas and they don't like to express themselves based off of how they could potentially be judged. But I mean, it could really go either way. I don't think we have a shortage of it though.
00:37:19
Speaker
Well, I would argue that I think we do, but if everyone did speak their mind, would the world be a better place, do you think?
00:37:32
Speaker
So you're just saying it is already happening? I think so because look at the internet. It's given us the ability to speak our minds on a level that we could never have conceived of being possible before, at least in terms of volume. But I guess if I'm just sort of going to answer the question, if literally everybody spoke their mind, would the world be a better place?
00:37:55
Speaker
I guess I would say yes because I believe that conversation and expressing yourself to the people that care about you and that are willing to listen is the best way to evolve yourself and your own ideas. So, and it's also the best way to work out problems, speaking about it, talking, um, good speech.
00:38:18
Speaker
progressive conversations as opposed to shutting people down and you know the phenomenon of cancel culture.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree that, yeah, it would be a better place, but I disagree kind of with your initial point. See, the way I read it at least, or I thought about it was, would the world be a better place if everyone were truthful all the time? And I don't see many people being truthful. There's a lot of lying deceit and people saying what they might to achieve their interior motives.
00:38:55
Speaker
So I would say that there, in a sense, is a shortage of people speaking their minds. But if everybody did, I think the world would be a better place because truth is like the ultimate value. Truth is important. And I don't think it really helps anyone even, you know,
00:39:19
Speaker
Telling a lie to somebody or not speaking your mind to somebody just to make them feel better might seem like the right thing to do. But I think in the end, if everyone were always honest, it would result in a better society and just a more healthy mindset within each of us. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think just if people are talking more, people need to just talk to each other more.
00:39:48
Speaker
Because there could be an issue with speaking your mind being thought of as like posting on the internet.
00:39:56
Speaker
And then you're not getting the feedback loop of a conversation that's going to allow you to find that sense of truth that you're speaking of and to find a path forward as opposed to just like speaking yourself out into the ether, whether it be what's actually on your mind or not, because a lot of people also think that they think something or they think that their values align in a certain way.
00:40:21
Speaker
But in reality, they don't because they haven't been able to discover what they truly believe and what they truly think through proper conversation.
00:40:31
Speaker
I think also, especially nowadays, like as you mentioned with cancel culture, I think you have a lot of people afraid to speak their minds and a lot of people not speaking their minds because they're afraid to go against the grain of what is supposed to be or what the tribe is saying is correct. So I think you get a lot of people who are afraid to speak their minds because they don't want to get ostracized.
00:41:01
Speaker
But in truth, there's a lot of people doing that same thing, you know? So if everybody did speak their mind, they would realize they're not alone and they wouldn't be ostracized. People are just, they find it easier to go along with what they think they should say rather than speaking the truth of what they really believe. Such a good point. Find your truth and speak it, people. Number 40.
00:41:30
Speaker
Where does the universe end? Where does the universe end?
00:41:37
Speaker
I mean, I would say that the universe doesn't end. Can I use reality, honestly, with the universe? I would say so because the word universe pretty much means like the one, the all. So I would say so, yeah. Because like you think about it, we often think about the size of the universe and believe that size is also an absolute when really we're only
00:42:04
Speaker
relatively seeing size based on our scale. So you can't really determine a size to anything in an absolute sense because you could scale my body into an entire universe. You can zoom into my fingernail and zoom in forever. There's never been a bottom no matter how far we go.
00:42:26
Speaker
so everything is infinite simultaneously so like you can zoom outward forever but inward forever as well so there's no end to any of it as long as um there's an experience happening it's unlimited we are currently limited to our senses and our our human minds and our beliefs and everything else but i think ultimately there is no end and no beginning really
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think beginning and end are conceptions that are based off of our biological timeline. We think we begin and we think we end. I'm going to use one of my favorite quotes of all time that when I was talking to Roger Jackson, he said to me, it was one of the first things he learned in his Buddhist studies was, mind is beginningless. I love that. I love it, love it, love it. Because that makes it like they're
00:43:23
Speaker
There is no end. If there's no beginning, then there's no end. And again, if we're just going to use human conception and what we see with our senses as determining a beginning and an end to things, then we usually would look outside of ourselves and say, well, this big thing we see ourselves in must be, there must be an end to that too. But if you look at the earth, where does the earth end?
00:43:49
Speaker
Does it, does it end at a certain point at which there's like less helium or something in the atmosphere? At what point of the atmosphere can you say the earth ends? Or if you look at a planet that is like completely made of gas, where is that planet begin and end? You know, we look at things in such as this weird, definitive nature. And I think that's, that's where this conception comes from. And I don't think.
00:44:16
Speaker
that the universe has an end. Because again, if you just look at the definition of the universe, the one, the all, how can that have an end? It's that classic visualization where like, if you're standing on a cliff and you shoot an endless arrow, you know, like, what is it gonna do? It's gonna either hit another cliff or it's gonna continue. You know what I mean? So it's like, there is no end to where the arrow is gonna go.
00:44:43
Speaker
ever, because if it hits the cliff, that's the, that's the end. But it's also the beginning because you can stand up on top of that cliff and shoot another one. And if it doesn't hit another cliff, then it goes on literally forever. So you can't conceive a beginning or an end because mind is beginningless. Yeah,
The Infinite Universe Debate
00:45:02
Speaker
that's, it makes me think of, uh, what one of my favorite things to contemplate or just sit on is, uh,
00:45:11
Speaker
the duality of beginning and end, and just the transcendence of it, that, you know, beginning and end are the same thing. There's not a difference between the two. And you can think about this, you know, contemplate it in every aspect. And so like, this is the same question of the universe beginning.
00:45:33
Speaker
it's also every beginning is at the same time and end and every end at the same time as a beginning you can you know say the end of something is also a beginning of whatever it becomes or you know people are like oh it's going to happen at the end of my life well a beginning is also happening you know there's no uh there's no difference between the two they are the same thing ultimately is it's just
00:46:00
Speaker
It's the same exact thing. So I find that a really interesting thing to sit on sometimes. It brings to mind the concept of impermanence. Everything is constantly in flux. It's always moving. It's always changing. It's not starting somewhere and ending another place. When you die, your biology becomes the biology of the earth. Your consciousness, at least in my opinion, probably goes on to something else.
00:46:30
Speaker
It just seems that this concept of impermanence, this ultra circle that just continuously goes around and around, because there is something, it must just be this endless loop, it seems. Yeah, it's like energy isn't created or destroyed. You could use these dualities in similar ways. Whenever you may think that
00:46:56
Speaker
you know when let's say I don't know you were saying like an arrow so what like you shoot an arrow at a cliff and you know the arrow breaks the pieces and falls to the ground
00:47:10
Speaker
That's not the end of the arrow. The arrow is going to exist as what it is at that point. It's the beginning of a broken arrow. And then a million years later, whatever that was is still in existence, just in a different form. Yeah, it seems that the problem with our thought patterns is that we break things down into dualities in order to
00:47:37
Speaker
make sense of them to move forward in the world because that's the only way that we can do that. It's the only way that we can actually live and survive. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a direct reflection of what reality is because reality seems to be a unity. It seems to be one massive working processing system or something like that. That's the way that I can.
00:47:58
Speaker
even that description is in itself dual. There's a duality in that description. So every time we try to describe the universe, the one, we have to break it into a duality in order to understand it in a way that can benefit us.
00:48:15
Speaker
Yeah, we have to, we can't speak without dualities. It's the only reason that language exists and works. It's just dualistic by nature. So I mean, that's just in our nature to have to do that. Yeah. All right. Number 41. Is there a perfect life?
00:48:36
Speaker
No, there's no perfect anything. I don't think actually, actually, yes, all is perfect. All lives are perfect. Everything is perfect. But if you want to bring that down into a duality, into a dual sense and talk about it in terms of this life that we live here,
00:49:03
Speaker
Perfect is sort of a description. It's like an adjective that we use depending on our perception of reality. So I think perfect is going to vary from person to person if that's where this question is going. But ultimately, the way I like to look at things is that it's all going according to a perfect sort of divine, not plan, but
00:49:30
Speaker
Again, I use the word system. It seems like a process or a system, an ever-changing evolution of impermanence that is perfect because it exists outside of our definition of the adjective perfect because it has to. Yeah, I would say that all life is ultimately perfect.
00:49:57
Speaker
That's like you said, it's that another duality in perfection and perfection would be one that you could collapse into perfection with a capital P. So like when we deem something as imperfect, it's from the view of the ego and usually it's just something that is inconvenient or hurtful or something that leads to some type of suffering.
00:50:22
Speaker
But the way that reality actually is isn't the way that our ego constructs it. See, I like to think of it like an easy way to think of it is think of reality as the mind of God. Say, there is a mind that's beyond just your ego. And for you to tell the universe or God what is perfect is it's a silly thing to do when
00:50:51
Speaker
you know, something, you know, something that is quote unquote bad that happens is always leading to an ultimate good. So therefore it is good. So if you believe as I do that the universe is perfect and good in nature, then everything that's happening is perfect and good in nature and leading to an ever, like an ever increasing perfection or good.
00:51:18
Speaker
So i would say that there the perfect life to live is just the life you're living. Yeah for sure for sure and the perfect life to live is the life that.
00:51:30
Speaker
My dog is living in that every plant is living. It's just, we are all part of this biosphere and we're all part of the solar system and we're all part of this galaxy and all like this entire thing. If you extrapolate it all the way out and all the way in, you see it's all perfect. And you got to ask yourself if there was a such thing as an imperfect event or as something that was imperfect, but what did it even look like?
00:51:54
Speaker
You can't even conceive of it. Yeah.
The Perfection of Life and Nature
00:51:57
Speaker
I mean, like you mentioned earlier, uh, like the eye, the human eye, um, just to think about the perfection of that. I mean, that's the thing I'd like to try to acknowledge about everything that you see. It's like there's so much perfection. Everything is absolutely perfect to work in absolute order. It's, it's incredible. Um,
00:52:22
Speaker
Yeah, and that's the thing. When you feel like something is imperfect and you're thinking, well, this is the opposite of perfect, kind of reflect on why that is. I try to realize that there is something beyond my ego perception of something being imperfect. You look around and you see the beauty and perfection all around you, and then you have to realize this is absolute perfection.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, just look no further than the symbiosis of nature itself. You know, just take a seat in the grass.
00:52:58
Speaker
And just look around you. Look at the things that are around you. Look at all the bugs and look at the sky and the trees and how, you know, bees work with flowers to pollinate and how we're breathing out carbon dioxide, which fuels trees. And then they're, you know, pushing oxygen to us, which fuels us. And then we die and we become the energy of the earth. Like all of this shit. It is all a massive system that works in perfection.
00:53:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's like nature, as you said. When we look at nature, it's pretty obvious. You can see that there is no error. When you take yourself out of the situation and look at a system working so perfectly and beautifully, it's easy to say that there's no error. But as soon as something, quote unquote, bad or imperfect happens to you,
00:53:54
Speaker
then suddenly it becomes imperfection, it becomes horrible. But it's easier to see the perfection outside of yourself. But then when you're self-critical of something happening to you or something about you, then it's so easy to say, that's imperfect, that's bad, this is horrible. But in truth, what is actually happening with you yourself is also perfect.
00:54:20
Speaker
And what's interesting is that all you have to do is sort of change the way that your perception is and change the way that your thought patterns are. And you can actually see everything that happens to you, both bad or good as perfect, because you can see where it lies within the systematic actions of nature. Even if it, it feels bad at the time, you can still recognize the perfection of all. Agreed.
00:54:49
Speaker
number 42. What is infinity?
Infinity and Consciousness
00:54:55
Speaker
What isn't infinity? Infinity is absolutely everything. Infinity is
00:55:09
Speaker
reality itself. As I was saying, you can zoom in infinitely into your own hand and at the same time zoom infinitely outward. Infinity is basically synonymous with God. God would be infinity. Consciousness is infinite. It has no limitations.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think it is the human concept of beginninglessness and endlessness as well. I think that's the only way that we can conceive of infinity being that one reality. And again, we break it down into a duality of beginninglessness and endlessness because it's the only way we can figure it out. And that figure eight, I think is a great representation of it because
00:56:07
Speaker
It literally is endless. You're going, you're weaving in and out of beginninglessness and endlessness. Um, also a circle, I think is a, is a great and maybe less interesting icon for, uh, for infinity. Maybe that's why they use that figure eight instead. But I think circles are used in ancient cultures more, uh, and like a more direct way to understand beginninglessness and endlessness. And also, um,
00:56:36
Speaker
If you make a straight line, say from the radius of a circle to the top of it, there are an infinite amount of lines that you can make if you continuously do that all around the circle, because it is literally an endless shape. There's no beginning to it. There's no end to it. So maybe the best way to describe infinity is with iconography, with shapes as we do.
00:57:03
Speaker
I was just thinking also I would say infinity is the present moment. It's never not been the present moment. So what you're experiencing
00:57:18
Speaker
at this moment is infinity, and that's all you'll ever experience is infinity. Or you could say eternity, especially when you're talking about the concept of time, but it's basically the same thing. The present moment is infinity.
00:57:33
Speaker
Infinity is all that you'll ever experience. And, you know, you could start racking your mind and like speak, like thinking of concepts like, well, no, this isn't infinite because, and then dot, dot, dot, you'll start thinking of, you know, the past or what could be in the future, but it doesn't change the fact that all you've experienced is right now. The present moment is the only thing you've ever experienced. And if you think of something else you're still experiencing,
00:58:03
Speaker
the present infinity that's always happening eternity yes it's like unavoidable you can't take yourself out of it you're always in and you're always here even if you're not experiencing it in like a meditative sense where you can identify that you're experiencing infinity you're still experiencing it because it's all that is yes number 43 why do we strive for perfection if it is not attainable
00:58:32
Speaker
I think ultimate progress is just in our nature. I think it's in all biological entities to continuously progress. And our definition of perfection might not be what perfection actually is because it doesn't really truly exist in the way that this question is formed. But it's in our nature to try to be as good as we can. And even if
00:59:00
Speaker
We are great. Even if we do all the right things, there's always this sense of not being good enough. And I think that drives us as biological entities to greater and greater progress, regardless of the situation that we're in.
00:59:17
Speaker
It is, it's in our nature. I mean, if we didn't see imperfections as human beings or as anything really, if you never saw an imperfection, nothing would ever move. Everything would just be steady, still and perfect. There'd be no progress. There would be nothing at all.
00:59:37
Speaker
So, you know, seeing the imperfections and things and trying to, you know, change them to our concept of what we believe perfection to be is what creates movement in the universe. And that goes for any, if every single thing, every being felt absolute perfection, there would be zero movement ever. Nothing would change.
00:59:58
Speaker
So our belief of something being imperfect and wanting to change it and make it what we consider perfect is the only movement there is in the universe. It's the only thing making anything happen.
01:00:13
Speaker
in a sense, a lie. I mean, because as we mentioned before, everything is perfect, but our movement is happening in order to understand that. And then I would argue at a certain point, if you could attain that, then everything would collapse and you'd become one with everything.
01:00:31
Speaker
This brings to mind the imagery of the snake eating its tail. It's like we're fooling ourselves into thinking that we have to continue this movement because we're going for something that we already have. We're chasing our own tail. We're trying to achieve something.
01:00:49
Speaker
that is unachievable or that's already existing within our own hearts. Yeah, it's like some type of sick game. It's cool though. I enjoy the game. Let's keep it going. It's crazy. It truly is. But yeah, that's why you think about when you start to think of that, it's like, well, why? And that's why I think it's just the movement. It's just the movement of the universe. I don't think there's necessarily a why.
01:01:18
Speaker
I think the why is to play the game. Right, exactly. Have you ever heard of the concept put forth by James Kars in his book? It's called Finite and Infinite Games, where essentially there's two different types of games and the infinite game is the main goal because the infinite game is essentially you play the game in order to continue playing it. Right. The finite game is playing a game to see its end. Right. And this comes to mind actually
01:01:49
Speaker
It reminds me of Jordan Peterson would talk about this. He spoke of mice or rats when they're there together. Say there's a bigger rat and then there's a smaller rat and they're playing.
01:02:03
Speaker
The larger rat will allow the smaller rat to win the game 30% of the time in order to continue perpetually playing the game. Because if the big mouse doesn't let the little one win ever, then the little one is going to be discouraged from playing the game. So the point of the game, the point of playing is so that the game can continue.
01:02:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's like be good for goodness sake. For the sake of it, that's why. There's no outside motive or anything, you know?
The Existence of Sound Without Observation
01:02:37
Speaker
Exactly. It's for itself. Number 44.
01:02:43
Speaker
the sound happen if nothing is present to hear it which you already so eloquently described the answer to that is no by the way write me on it you can't can't win well yeah like I said before
01:02:58
Speaker
Sound doesn't happen if nothing is present to hear it because sound is created within an ear, within an organ. If a sound happens and there were no ears present, then no sound can be
01:03:18
Speaker
created within an organ. It's easier to think about sounds as if they're something that happen outside of you and not something that is created within your consciousness. It's created from these tools that we have that sense organs. So no sound doesn't happen if there's nothing to hear it, especially not an ear. There's no ear, there's no sound.
01:03:47
Speaker
Agreed. And that pretty much goes for every sense that we have. I think absolutely yes. This is a great one. I definitely think utilizing time properly makes all the difference in our lives. And I think it's so obvious. I mean, I think about my own life.
01:04:17
Speaker
And I'm happiest when I have a routine that I stick to. And that routine usually consists of using my time in a way that's productive to both my biology and my psychology. So it's going to differ from person to person, but this also reminds me of the earlier question of achieving something.
01:04:48
Speaker
And it almost makes me rethink my initial thought on that one because yes, achieving things throughout your day with a routine, using your time in a productive manner is ultimately going to lead you to feeling happy and fulfilled. You know, a lot of the stuff that I do.
01:05:09
Speaker
like maybe working out or eating or having fun. Um, doing work for the podcast especially is a really big indicator of how happy and fulfilled I feel. I think it's really important that people have things that they do outside of the tasks that they feel they must perform like work and all that stuff, work and sleep and whatever.
01:05:38
Speaker
And in order to live a fulfilled life, I think you do have to create meaning externally via what you do.
01:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with all that. Utilizing time properly will make you have a meaningful and happy life. I mean, you think about anything that creates unhappiness, sadness, or especially regret. Any regret you have is just you thinking about a way that you didn't use your time in a meaningful way.
01:06:13
Speaker
If you're always using your time in a meaningful way, then you're not going to experience regret or sadness. It sounds insane to say the opposite. Would you be happy wasting your time?
01:06:32
Speaker
This to me seems like an obvious yes that using your time in a way that is meaningful to you is the way that you create happiness in your life. And it's a way that you avoid the feeling of not being good enough.
01:06:47
Speaker
Even though that feeling is kind of all pervasive, I don't know about for everybody listening or for you, Joe, but for me, I do have this weird feeling that I'm not good enough. Um, that kind of persists even silently in the background, um, usually at all times, but, um, it's a good way to, to avoid feeling that and like an existential level.
01:07:12
Speaker
And I would say two of the strongest emotions, negative emotions that pervade a lot of people's lives would be guilt and regret. A lot of people, their entire lives will be just totally run by something that they regret or something they feel guilty of. And that's just a past event that you didn't use the time in a way that you should have.
01:07:38
Speaker
I mean, if you're doing something meaningful, then you're not going to have regret or guilt. So without those things, it basically just leaves happiness. Yeah, agreed, agreed. And I think we're going to let that sit for today's episode.
01:08:00
Speaker
We'll give you a little sneak peek of the next question, which is number 46. Is it more important to be liked or respected? I feel like we answered this question. I think we did. We'll have to scroll back through and see if it's a repeat. And if not, we'll, we'll hit that one up next time. I think there may have been one that was close to it. Really close. Yeah.
01:09:29
Speaker
you