This one is well overdue, since it’s already year 2026, but, honestly there was little to report on my aging or health. No major developments so far, the issues I mentioned in previous posts are either stable or, in some cases, there even are minor improvements (no explanation, must be temporary). So, I’ll just post my current photo, perhaps it will illustrate changes that I’ve missed. Here you go:
“Зачем нужна дорога, которая не ведёт к храму?” – спросила старая женщина из известного фильма: “Покаяание”, и эта фраза сразу завоевала популярность среди людей. Звучит красиво, как-бы противопоставляя духовное материальному. Но, на мой взгляд, от дорог, которые не ведут к храму, почти всегда больше пользы, или, по крайней мере, меньше вреда, чем от дорог, которые ведут к разного рода храмам. И дело тут совсем не в материальности, просто не надо отождествлять духовность и религию.
I have much greater respect for the sacrifices made by atheists, than for those made by people who believe in happy afterlife.
For a rational mind, based on facts and science, there may be little doubt that we cease to exist after death. Of course, one can’t rule out the possibility that we live in some kind of simulated reality — but since this can be neither proved nor disproved, you’re free to believe it if it helps.
In fact, that might be the most rational choice, and here’s why: if death is the end, you won’t be around to regret being wrong, but while you live, that belief can make things feel less miserable. It will let you hold on to hope until the very last moment — and then, in case you were wrong? Well, nothing, as I already mentioned in one of my previous posts.
I believe, the difference between ordinary and effective people is the way they decide on their actions. The ordinary people, more often than not, base their decision on how they would feel while doing or not doing something; the more successful ones decide what to do based on how they will feel after they do or don’t do it.
And, as you might guess, I haven’t followed this rule enough myself.
I’m getting in the habit of counting how many times I call myself an idiot during the day. The rate seems to be increasing with age, after 60 anyway. My personal best is 4 times in a single day. Let’s see when I break the record.
I was about to write a smart-ass comment, something like: “We learn from history that we do not learn from history”, but then I thought the quote is to obvious and somebody should have said something similar in the past. I did some searching an and voila: Hegel in his “Lectures on the Philosophy of History” wrote:
“What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history.”
Bummer… Still, I think, my version sounds better 🙂
I just thought that my long explanation in these 7 posts, including the summary, might be a bit confusing; so I’m making another attempt to seal it with even terser summary. Here it is:
The illusion of time dilation is nothing more than Doppler effect: if two observers are moving away from each other, each of them will see the events from the other observer as happening slower, when they turn around and start moving to each other, the events/time of the other observer will seem to happen faster, and when they meet their theoretically precise clocks (not the atomic clocks also affected by the doppler effect – don’t start again on that “evidence” of time dilation) will show exactly the same time.
That’s all I wanted to say. It was good to get that out of my chest…
You know, I used to write poetry many years ago. Perhaps one day I’ll publish some of that old crap here. But time to time I feel the urge to write again and some lines are coming to my head now and then, which I never write down. So few years ago, I had some lines in my head, and it has something like: “… There still will be another dance, another song, another thrill…” and more in that vein. I no longer remember that one, but, some new lines are starting to emerge by themselves, and they contain things like “… Never again…” and “… won’t feel the thrill…”. I guess, this is just another symptom of getting old.
It would seem that nothing is lost in the universe: stuff transforms from one state to another, matter can annihilate and become energy, and energy can transform back into particles of matter. Lifeforms die becoming building blocks for other lifeforms, and every single cell is the direct descendent of that first molecule that found the best way to replicate itself billions of years ago. Yet that doesn’t seem to apply to the best and the most precious creations of the universe: the human minds, which are largely wasted, leaving behind scrapples of work and questionably affected minds of some unconcerned and forgetful children. What becomes of all the collected memories and wisdom, unique set of skills, unspoken or ununderstood thoughts and ideas, unwritten poems, untold stories or the music that has been conceived but never recorded? But then again, what does universe care? There are no laws requiring conservation of everything… or are there?
Maybe it is preserved in some mysterious ways we don’t fully understand. Or maybe it is too new an invention and the universe hasn’t found the way to preserve it yet, or maybe we are the ones who are destined to do it.
Armen' s Random Thoughts 