Sense is an illusion

    This is a translation of an article that has had a very strange effect on me. The original

    checkerboard

    Fields Α and B are of the same color.

    Most likely this is the most important thing that I have ever written, because I believe that I have found nothing but the meaning of life, or its absence. If you are smart / educated, the beginning of this essay may seem quite standard to you. Watch out for the thought nonetheless.

    Main argument


    Meaning << Emotion << Chemistry << Physics The

    "meaning" of life comes exclusively from emotional experience, which is based on chemistry. We know that emotion, and even spiritual experience, is inherently a chemical event. Nowadays, with the help of science, it is possible, using drugs and / or direct manipulations with the brain, to induce a “spiritual” experience.

    Of course, it is possible that these changes simply make us susceptible to signals from the real world of spirits, but I find this possibility insignificant to discard it with a little discussion. In the same way, I exclude the possibility that the “demon of the floor” used telekinesis to drag a cup of coffee into its bowels when I accidentally released it from my hands and it fell to the ground. In short, when there is a transparent, scientific explanation for anythingthere is little reason to buy something else that requires the supernatural.

    I affirm that all goals and aspirations, no matter how high or “selfless” they are, are no more than equally equal illusions based on biology, which is based on chemistry, which is based on physics.

    In short, the meaning is coined by people as an explanation of why we do what we do. We are building this illusion because the alternative is too unbearable.

    Goals


    All my goals, and the goals of everyone I've ever met in person or through extended experience, are based on emotions. Take me, for example, because I can speak authoritatively about myself. Frankly, these are the main things that I wish for in life (not necessarily in that order):
    • Feel in control of your life and destiny
    • Be respected by those around me, at work and beyond
    • Love one woman but be sought by others
    • To be educated and wise enough to understand the world
    • Use the above knowledge to help improve the lives of others.
    • Shares the experience of the beautiful with smart, interesting people

    First, there are fairly standard goals, and most will somehow agree with them. Next are those goals that are recognized as more "higher", and those who are inherently more selfless are occupied with them.

    But they are not like that.

    We have all heard that the concept of altruism is selfish, because it brings pleasure to the giver. Well, this is a model explaining this observation. The desire to help others, as well as the desire to be powerful, is quite natural and based on emotions. In both cases, the result is a chemical injection of pleasure into the brain of one who achieves his goal.

    The only difference between selfish and altruistic desires is whether the result of the desire is positive for others in addition to you , or not positive for you at all. Desires existalways for you. Even when you desperately want to sacrifice yourself for someone you love, you still do it, because if you don’t do it, you doom yourself to even greater suffering. This is not a selfless act; it is the result of the fact that you are forced to perform an action, just as you are forced to look for food, a house or a couple.

    Animals also have desires. They want to control their territory or kill competitors, mate, breed, etc. Many animals even like to masturbate and mourn the loss of their loved ones. In fact, our desires are not very different from the desires of animals; we simply fooled ourselves into believing that they were different through complex self-deception.

    For example, go and ask an ordinary parent why he or she has children, you will receive the same answer as if you asked the monkey why she threw a shit at someone. "Um, because that's the way it is ?" And if you are lucky and you stumble upon a “sublime” thinker, he (a) will answer that the children give them a strong sense of accomplishment, or even that this gives them the opportunity to live after death. In any case, everything is only for the benefit of the parent.

    But if you think about it, there are simply no other options. Unborn children are not worried about the fact that they were not born. People have children for themselves, not for their unborn children. People have children because chemistry tells them to do this, which manifests itself in the form of emotion, "I just want children ...". Well, of course, you want them.

    And we call it our personality?

    Sublime and low goals


    Now let's be honest. I believe that all human goals, whether they are basic and frankly selfish (to have enough money to have sex when you want), and goals of a higher order, such as (I want to help Africa, even if it ruins my career .. .) Are essentially the same. They are all chemical based and offer chemical rewards.

    The desires of a 45-year-old accountant with a paid home loan, a beautiful wife, two children and a healthy bank account in the amount of 401-thousand dollars are no different from the desires of a 17-year-old drug dealer who lives with his parents and tries to return his former.

    Let's appreciate these desires:

    Banker
    • To be a good father
    • Be respected at home and at work
    • Make your wife happy
    • Get the next boost
    • Keep bad guys away from their family (votes for Republicans)
    • Send your kids to good colleges
    • Finally buy this summer house

    Drug dealer
    • Make enough money to buy your own corner
    • Get a better car to impress your ex
    • Get a gun so people know that they’re not joking with me
    • Get better clothes
    • Walking more to be more attractive / threatening

    Okay, now the real fun. Let's look at the gopher (yeah, the real gopher):

    Gopher
    • Get more sticks for a better house
    • Find more food
    • Attract that female over there
    • Protect the cubs
    • Get more sticks for ...

    Now a Buddhist monk.

    Monk
    • Discard meaningful attachments to the material
    • Learn to let go of self
    • Concentrate on the current moment, not before, not after

    What do all these things have in common? All of them lead to the same thing when they are achieved.

    To the injection.

    This is the sound of pleasant chemistry entering your brain. Chemistry is almost the same for a banker, drug dealer and monk. It is processed with almost the same filling in the brain. Injection is a source of happiness.

    Everything else, such as spirituality, meaning, purpose, etc., is added after that. There is no point in the life of animals, because they are not complex enough to create it, as an explanation for what they are doing. And we are complicated enough, so we have it.

    I wrote earlier that I believe that free will does not exist. Interestingly, the concepts of “meaning” and “free will” are identical in one key point: they both do not exist, but we desperately need them to maintain a healthy society.

    So what to do with this knowledge?


    Once you wake up and realize that all your desires and pleasures ultimately come down to chemical interactions, there are several ways you can go.
    1. To realize how painful it is, immediately throw it out of your head and continue to pretend that the meaning is real. Essentially fall asleep again.
    2. To realize how central the emotions are and to reject all “sublime” aspirations. Devote your life to the pursuit of pleasure, as in any case, this is the only source of meaning.
    3. Maintain double awareness. To realize that this is an illusion, but to participate in it for your own sanity. Follow a life path that allows more people to experience happiness and less suffering.

    I chose the third. I chose meaningfully, as if I had free will, recognizing that it does not exist, but operating as if it exists, because there is no other practical alternative, given my limitations as a person (or society).

    An interesting question pops up to the surface: how many other unawakened people just chose the first option?

    conclusions


    The most amazing awareness that comes with this knowledge is that ignorant people and people confused in life are fundamentally no different from me. The fact of awakening does not negate the fact that I derive meaning from chemistry. So when I’m in an elevator filled with Christians supporting Bush and I look down at them for their stupidity, by and large I’m no different from them.

    Yes, I am aware of my limitations, but that does not remove them. I enjoyed the fact that I'm cooler, right? Like I'm aware of a secret they don’t understand. Well, and how is this different from having fun at the church on Sundays? Or from eating a good plate of ice cream. There is no difference.

    Injection is an injection. All this is one and the same.

    I can tell you that this awareness gave me a different perspective on religious people. Religion and spirituality are the ultimate manifestation of illusion, because religious people create alternative worlds from which meaning originates. And again, I wonder how many of them do this because they looked through an illusion, but that was too much for them.

    Another interesting point is that being an unspiritual atheist who believes in intrinsic motivation is even more absurd than being religious. At least a religious person has support for his claims - even if it is false; an atheist who believes in intrinsic motivation does not have such support. The only atheists who have firm ground under their feet within the framework of meaning are those who create it in the context of illusion.

    When the CEO comes into our elevator, and then the monk on the next floor, things of the same sort happen in our heads. I’ll say that the monk is stupid because he has rejected too much of what pleases the material world. The director thinks that we are stupid, because we do not have two country houses and a yacht. And Christians look down at us because they know that Jesus is the answer.

    We all subscribed to our little fantasies, and all of them lead to injections of pleasure. We like to know that we are part of a small group that is “in the subject”.

    And yet, I will say that I am better, because I know that none of this is real, which leads to the next point.

    Conclusion


    There are two types of people: those who know they are participating in an illusion, and those who still believe in intrinsic motivation. There are two principal classifications of creatures. Animals and 99% of people on the one hand, and aware people on the other.

    The answer to the question "why?" simple: we are chemical machines driven by evolution. We wish power, attractiveness and happiness only because those who achieve them are successful in spreading themselves. Perhaps the meaning itself is a meme used by evolution to persuade us to obey its orders. Her method of hiding the dullness of everyday life. Sense is a necessary illusion.

    The question is not whether you can throw off your worldly, selfish desires. You can not. No matter what your desires are, no matter how selfless they are, their fulfillment still leads to happiness for you. This is the nature of the living entity, and this is what makes them your desires. The real question is whether you can evolve your goals so that they become useful to others at the same time, satisfying yourself.

    This is the moral of the new world of awareness. Increasing happiness and reducing suffering is not something that needs to be done for another world; it is something that needs to be done simply because we know what feelings are and we should try to make others happy just as we ourselves would like to.

    This is also the definition of an advanced society. An advanced society works from within the illusion and strives to achieve the connection between the happiness and suffering of the world. In other words, when one person suffers, the world suffers, and when people are happy, the world is happy.

    Awareness of the illusion also makes the concept of virtual worlds a little more interesting. Once you consider the illusion, it becomes much less strange to seek pleasure in alternative fantasy worlds. These other worlds finally give us the very thing that we get from the "real" world, injection itself. What is the essence of the difference where it comes from?

    In general, I do not see this realization as completely dull that I am sure will be the main reason for complaints (and as a result the reason for denying this awareness). But at the same time, to see this as evidence of a complete lack of meaning in your lives, let's make a distinction between intrinsic motivation and the motivation we can create ourselves. Let's use this awareness to create our own meaning.

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