Extra-terrestrials

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." -Arthur C. Clarke

The fact that life spontaneously formed on Earth approximately 3.7 billion years ago is gobsmacking, to say the least. Scientists still struggle to understand how life came to be. This, might I add, is a black-hole in knowledge that religion conveniently utilises to serve up a ‘God-of-the-gaps’ to society. But I digress.

Despite the incredibly small chance of life forming (and it is, indeed, incredibly small. Hooray for being here!), there is an equally incredibly large number of potentially-life-hosting planets out there in our big, scary universe. What I’m trying to say is, there is probably life outside Earth.

WHOAH.

When you stop and think about that, it’s pretty freaky stuff.

In fact, there are probably multiple sentient alien races out there.  Perhaps they have fought one another in a war of attrition, and wiped themselves out in the process. Or perhaps they have developed an intelligent society, with a body of science and technology that far surpasses anything we have ever seen before.

Can you IMAGINE?!

Being extremely curious beings, we humans have made several attempts to “contact” life outside Earth, using strange communication methods that I don’t fully understand, projecting some kind of message out into ‘space’.

There is something tragic about knowing that unless something extraordinary happens, you and I will probably never meet these beings in our lifetimes.

But at the same time, do we really want to meet these aliens? As a species, we have controlled, eaten, exploited or made extinct almost every other species on the planet. If there is another intelligent life-form out there, we will probably either control them, or they will control us.

Or, as Arthur C. Clarke so eloquently put it: “I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.”

It is tragic that our desperate quest for power and vengeance so often leaves us worse off; an eye for an eye does indeed leave the whole world blind. Humanities thirst for command over one another, and over other beings, is a blight on our species.

I can just imagine an alien race looking down on Earth, studying us from afar, and concluding that our inability to have foresight and compassion will ultimately be the end of us.

We kill each other, destroy the only planet we have, and subject other animals to our furious desire for control. Humanity’s obsession with ‘leaving a mark on the world’ has literally left the Earth scarred. Currently, the (probably harmless) threats of nuclear attack from North Korea put the whole Earth – and all life on Earth – at risk.

So maybe we do actually NEED an alien race to come here and go all ‘iRobot’ on us, forcing us to change our ways for our own good! Or maybe that’s a bit extreme. Maybe we humans ain’t so bad after all.

I mean, look at all the great things we have collectively achieved! We created the Beatles! (Before you laugh, on a recent google search of the top human achievements, one website had ‘The Beatles’ at #2. Putting a man on the moon only came in at #4.)

Sure, we have our flaws, but we humans are, by definition, only human. Upon looking at what we have created, achieved and developed, it is easy for us to think that we are gods, however we are really no more intelligent that the humans that existed 6,000 years ago. We all have the same Earthly needs, fears and desires as those pre-historic humans. We also have the same flaws.

Therefore, while we may not be evolving much (although flipping through the Darwin awards, it’s clear we still have some kind of ‘natural’ selection) I can only hope that humanity will eventually have the collective foresight to realise that we are mutually dependent. We depend on not only each other, but also other species and our environment.

After all, when the last tree is cut, the last fish killed, and the last river poisoned, then we will all realise that we can’t eat money.

And maybe then, the aliens will want to hang out with us. 

the reckless philosopher

Brachydactyly

One of the most unexpected side-effects of the internet is the ability to make everyone realise “nope, I’m not the only person that does that”. If you think you have some weird body part, thought, or habit, chances are there is someone else who does that too.

Perhaps with time, the days of people being afraid to air their dirty laundry in public for fear of being ridiculed will disappear. People can stand up and say ‘I sometimes pick things up off the floor with my feet, and I am no longer ashamed, because YouTube and gifs on Tumblr have taught me that this is a common and wonderful skill!’

For example, I have a genetic condition known as ‘Brachydactyly’. You can google it if you like. Until recently, I thought I was a complete weirdo because I had a slightly strange finger. I assumed I had been crushed a little bit in the womb, and so it hadn’t grown properly. Even though it is hardly noticeable, it has always troubled me.

UNTIL NOW!

After some Googling and Wikipedia-ing (definitely a word), I found out that I have type D brachydactyly, sometimes fondly called ‘clubbed thumb’. It is actually a genetic condition affecting between 0.4% to 4% of the population. As I learned, it is particularly common amongst Isrealis and the Japanese.

I also learned that Megan Fox has brachydactyly. It's a pretty cool and exclusive club, I know.

As I researched more and more, I found other people with the same condition. Some people seemed to complain a lot, others joked about their condition. I even read about one person who had become a classical pianist despite having brachydactyly on many fingers. Personally, I simply found solace in the fact that I was not alone, and that I was one of a unique bunch of people with a relatively harmless genetic condition.

Because, I mean, let’s be honest, if I had to pick ONE genetic disorder to have, I’d pick this one. And despite years of being slightly self-conscious, the internet had given me courage to stand up and say ‘Yes, I have brachydactyly! And, even though it sounds like the name of a dinosaur, and even though it makes me really bad at thumb wars, it makes me unique and I like my thumb!’

My point is that, nobody is really that different. If you have something, someone else has it too. If you have thought something, someone else has already thought it.  

In a way, it’s pretty depressing. Because the flip side of the statement is essentially ‘any talents you have that impress those around you are also held by many, many other people’. Oh, you think you’re really good at picking things off the floor with your toes? Perhaps you occasionally whip out your skill at parties to impress (or disgust) your friends? Well, turns out you aren't special.

You think your blog is awesome and worth reading? Join the millions of other hopeful bloggers out there in cyberspace. * Sobs *

You think I'm saying people aren't different and special, but no, that’s not what I mean. You are special. Your bunch of physical and mental traits, yes it’s true, when viewed individually are uninteresting and common. But there is nobody out there that has the same unique combination of traits as you do. And that makes you unique.

If something about yourself gets you down, or you feel alone, just remember that you’re not alone. If you’ve felt it, someone else has felt it too.

We should all remember that we’re all in this life together (see: previous blog post), and when it comes down to it, we all want the same things. So if you’re feeling upset about a quirk, remember that you’re probably not alone!

And if you’re feeling great about your mad skillz: you probably don't want to look up your skill on the internet, because might just feel humbled to the point of sadness.

“Many people need desperately to receive this message: 'I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone'.” –Kurt Vonnegut

the reckless philosopher 

Sonder

Today I discovered an interesting new website. New websites remind me of the awesome power of humanity when we set our minds to achieving something, and how collectively we have created the ‘Internet’ (capitalized out of respect), a tool that has changed humanity.

The website I discovered is called ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’ (thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com). The “dictionary” itself is a collection of words that are completely made up. In the websites information page, it says: ‘All content is original [i.e. made up], is published for it’s own sake (sorry, no ads) and is intended to be read at night.’ I love websites that are intended to be viewed at night, because they are invariably the most weird and wonderful kinds of websites. It’s like that deep, dark part of YouTube that you never voluntarily go to, but you somehow end up there via a path of (seemingly unrelated) “related” videos.

One word that has been created on the website is:

Sonder

To realize that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

What an exceptional word, and poetic definition! I implore you all to start using this word in everyday speech.

“Ah, my life seems so complicated right now!”

“Ah yes, but sonder my dear friend, we are all in the same boat.”

“Sometimes I get so angry with her, but then I just sonder for a while, and I remember that we are all in this together.”

Wouldn’t that be nice if we all remembered to sonder?

As I type right now, the word ‘sonder’ is repeatedly underlined with a red squiggle. Goddamit Microsoft Word! I hope that one day, words like these become so frequently used that they permeate through dictionaries, and eventually enter the realm of ‘words that Microsoft Word accepts’ (HELLO ‘bling bling’, which was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2003).

That’s a funny thing about language, if we all decide to use a technically non-existent word, and it becomes so frequently used, then eventually, it becomes a word. It’s like trying to make ‘fetch’ happen, but as we all know, it’s not going to happen.

The same goes for using a word incorrectly. For example, the word ‘access’ used to be a noun, not a verb. One would have to say ‘ I want to gain access to something’ rather than ‘I want to access something’. Now, however, it has transcended into the verb club.

Personally, I despise the use of adjectives as adverbs, and I can only hope that they NEVER transcend into the verb club. Examples are everywhere: ‘eat healthy’ (I think you mean eat healthily or eat healthy food thanyouverymuch!) or Nando’s’ despicable catch line ‘eat interesting’. Perhaps most embarrassingly, Melbourne University recently assumed the tag line ‘Dream Large’. Oh dear, Melbourne University, I can only hope you don’t intend for your students to ‘dream large’ when it comes to their grammar skills.

Anyway, I digress! I’d hate for this blog to become a place for grammar Nazism to fester in it’s own big-headedness.

What I really want to say is, we should all remember to sonder. Sometimes it is very easy to be caught up in the complexities of our own lives.

I’ve always had a weird fascination with people I see on the street. If I’m sitting somewhere in public, it’s hard not to watch others and think: “I wonder where he is going. I wonder what his name is, where he is from, what he’s thinking. What’s his story?” Each of us has our ups and downs, each of us have our own hopes and concerns.

For me, my first ‘sonder’ moment was when I was about 7. It was my birthday. I arrived at school and nobody had remembered. I ran around asking my friends ‘don’t you KNOW what day this is?!’ Like, JEEZ, this is basically as important as Christmas, guys.

Slowly I realised that although to me this was an extremely important day, to everyone else this was just any other day. Suddenly it hit me like a wall of bricks; it’s someone’s birthday on any given day of the year, and for everyone else it’s just a regular day. The world does not revolve around me. Sonder, dude, sonder.

The book ‘1984’ by George Orwell touches on the concept of the power of words. I believe it to be true that if we don’t have a word for something, it’s hard to fathom that concept. For example, if there were no words for ‘freedom’ or ‘frustration’, it would be hard (to an extent) to imagine those concepts. That is, however, a conversation for another day.

My point (at long last!) is that we should always sonder while we are dealing with others, including animals. If we can bring this word into the public domain, then perhaps more sondering will happen. If more sondering happens, there will be more compassion. And with compassion, we can make the world a better place.

“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.” -Einstein

the reckless philosopher 

Hello

So here it is, my very first blog post.

So. Much. Pressure.

I’ve spent the past few years wanting to start a blog, but my internal dialogue usually goes something like this:

‘Oh, maybe I should start a blog!’

‘Everyone has a blog these days. Nobody would read YOUR blog. How narcissistic!’

And then, I crush my blog thoughts and go back to everyday life.

But, if YouTube and Facebook have taught us anything, it’s that we humans are FASCINATED by each others lives. We want to see and know everything about each other, right down to ‘what gross stuff came off that Biore pore strip I just put on my nose’. And I’ll be darned if my life is less interesting than a pore strip.

And like most things that appear on YouTube or Tumblr, there won’t really be an order or logic to it, because it’ll just be things that come to my head. 

I can only hope that my thoughts - which sometimes feel so powerful and brilliant inside my head but occasionally come out unclear and crazy - will eject onto the page with an aura of coherency and eloquence. So let’s throw all caution to the wind and do what a Nike marketer would tell you to do.

the reckless philosopher