i think by this time now everyone has heard of the notion that since starlight takes years and years to travel to Earth, some of the stars we see when we stargaze might really already have blown up way before this planet even formed, or maybe our sun had mysteriously imploded minutes ago though the sky is still blue and the waves are still, uh, lapping. (ever wondered what the waves lap when the writers say "lapping waves"?). or if it's nighttime then suddenly the moon will cease to shine anytime now cause of something that happened eight minutes ago to the sun. or if it's a cloudy night then, sigh, i guess we won't know till tomorrow.
but anyway, back to the point, how about the fact that all our sensory perceptions take time to reach our consciousness? the time difference is much shorter but still there, yes? for example, by the time we see a speeding ferrari, the actual ferrari has shifted a few microns away to the left when we actually *see* it (although the difference in distance is very negligible for Proton Sagas.) And when we hear a sound it really has ceased. Everything in our present experience is just staggered feedback from the past, we are living in the past! And it's not even a consistent lag- we hear a sound that really began further back than the light we see, and all this depends on the distance from the origin of these emanations. In the end, there's a future, a past that includes both what to us has happened and what's happening, but no present (suggested by some cool philosopher i forgot who). So there's no carping of the diem, what we've seized is really already gone...
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for those who caught the news recently, you know the Bukit Merah stabbing incident? I was there at the murder scene before they carried the body off! ugh. and cause the man ran off from where he was stabbed to the place where he collapsed, there's two pools of blood (the start and the end), and this horrible red trail along the escalator. It's really a lot lot lot of blood. and it's very sad cause he was like just there in a foetal position and the blood had stopped flowing so there's just this stationery pool around him.
Looking at a human body rather than a human really is different. maybe because it's not an in-bed-peaceful-death kind of thing, he didn't look like he was sleeping at all, but like there's this deep, deep vacuum in his body that's not going to be filled no matter how strong it is or what anyone does.
it's weird to be exposed to shocks of violence. to come to terms to the fact that life might be gone just like that contradicts life itself, i mean, if we die suddenly then everything becomes very ironic, like taking psle, o levels, a levels, brushing teeth that morning to prevent tooth decay, having a bank account, tying our shoelaces, go for ns checkup, mugging for bloc test, exercising regularly, ...
but anyway, back to the point, how about the fact that all our sensory perceptions take time to reach our consciousness? the time difference is much shorter but still there, yes? for example, by the time we see a speeding ferrari, the actual ferrari has shifted a few microns away to the left when we actually *see* it (although the difference in distance is very negligible for Proton Sagas.) And when we hear a sound it really has ceased. Everything in our present experience is just staggered feedback from the past, we are living in the past! And it's not even a consistent lag- we hear a sound that really began further back than the light we see, and all this depends on the distance from the origin of these emanations. In the end, there's a future, a past that includes both what to us has happened and what's happening, but no present (suggested by some cool philosopher i forgot who). So there's no carping of the diem, what we've seized is really already gone...
---
for those who caught the news recently, you know the Bukit Merah stabbing incident? I was there at the murder scene before they carried the body off! ugh. and cause the man ran off from where he was stabbed to the place where he collapsed, there's two pools of blood (the start and the end), and this horrible red trail along the escalator. It's really a lot lot lot of blood. and it's very sad cause he was like just there in a foetal position and the blood had stopped flowing so there's just this stationery pool around him.
Looking at a human body rather than a human really is different. maybe because it's not an in-bed-peaceful-death kind of thing, he didn't look like he was sleeping at all, but like there's this deep, deep vacuum in his body that's not going to be filled no matter how strong it is or what anyone does.
it's weird to be exposed to shocks of violence. to come to terms to the fact that life might be gone just like that contradicts life itself, i mean, if we die suddenly then everything becomes very ironic, like taking psle, o levels, a levels, brushing teeth that morning to prevent tooth decay, having a bank account, tying our shoelaces, go for ns checkup, mugging for bloc test, exercising regularly, ...
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