Top ten reasons why Music is better than God

As concieved of by my girlfriend and I.

10. Music doesn’t make promises it won’t keep.

9. Music is always there, even when it’s not playing.

8. Music most definately exists.

7. You can make up your own music, and no one says it’s wrong or false.

6. Music can comfort you when you’re feeling upset.

5. Music doesn’t hate you if you listen to something different.

4. Music doesn’t make you do anything special.

3. Music never makes you feel guilty, and doesn’t care how you live your life.

2. Music never hurt anyone.

1. Music doesn’t demand that you love it over anything else.

Everything

So how does one write about everything?  This blog was origionally meant to be a philosophical sort of peice on eventually everything that’s worth writing about.  And maybe it still will be.  That’s the thing about everything, though; everything is so overwhelming.  I mean, there’s so much of it.

Here’s what happens: I see everything; the way the world is, how everything is, and of course, I want to change it.  Who wouldn’t?  How does one go about changing the world?  One with no power, and very little influence.  Fortunately, in this information age we’re living in, one can cry out in the internet in the form of a blog.  One tiny voice in the darkness.  Sure, not many people may hear at first, but who knows?

Oh, don’t think I’m dilusional.  I know I’m not actually changing anything with this thing.  I’ve barely even started with this.  And I know very few people read this right now.  As I said before, though, the purpose of this bolg is more for me, really, to get my thoughts in order.  Because I do eventually want to change the world for the better.  The key word there, however, is eventually.

See, this is the thing right now; and it’s been happening for decades: everyone says they want to change things, but very few do much about it.  Most people are pretty much complacent with everything.  And I know, right now I’m just joining that mass of voices, that mass that cries out loudly, and yet remains motionless.  But the reason I don’t move is because I don’t have a plan yet.  Yet I plan on making a plan.  For everything in this world is not okay, as much as I like to remain an optimist.  Good parts of it are extremely fucked up, actually.  And of course, even the parts that aren’t as much could still use some fixing.

How is this going to happen?  Really, it could not be simpler in concept.  As I said before, this is the information age.  Communication has never been simpler, more direct.  It is possible for anyone to reach nearly everyone in the world using just a computer.  And if a group of people big enough agree on something?  Well, the possibilities are endless.  The people of this world are just starting to come together; just now starting to realize that all of us are the same people, the same group.  All it needs, I think, is something, something to draw it together just that much more.

The world needs something, someone to unite around.  It’s been too long without that.  Maybe it’s possible that that can happen soon.  Within our lifetimes.  And the world could see changes previous generations have only dreamed of.  It seems fantastic, impossible.  But then again, maybe it isn’t.  As a wise man once said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”  The world needs someone like John Lennon again.  Maybe that would change some things.  And if enough things change, everything can change.

The Universe

The universe is big.  Also very old.  Current estimates are about 13.7 billion years.  The question is, of course, what happened all those billions of years ago?  The leading theory is that it started from a big bang, but still no one knows how all the matter and energy for the big bang got there in the first place.  Did it just appear out of nowhere?  That makes as much sense as any other explanation.

The universe is a crazy place.  It has some crazy laws that humans have only recently determined.  Quantum mechanics, for example.  When a photon has two possible paths, the path it takes isn’t determined until it’s observed.  So until someone detects it, it went down both paths and none at the same time.  It’s almost like, there’s random to the universe, but the universe doesn’t like things being random, so it’s just like, “I’ll wait to see if I actually need to determine which way this photon went.  Right now it doesn’t matter.”  The universe is lazy, really.  But who could blame it; it has a lot of work to do.  You, know, making sure the forces work at the same strength, keeping the speed of light constant; that sort of thing.

Speaking of which, the fundemental forces: what’s up with that?  So there are four, right?  Gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces.  But for some reason, gravity is a lot weaker than the other three.  Like, a lot weaker.  For example, take a small magnent, and lift another magnent with it: the magnetism of that one small magnent just overcame the gravitational force of the entire Earth!

And another thing: physics right now is, and has been for a while, at a bit of a standstill.  There are two leading theories of the universe: Relitivity and Quantum Mechanics.  Basically quantum mechanics explains the behaviour of atoms and subatomic particles, and relitivity explains everything bigger than that.  And of course, the two theories can’t be reconciled with each other.  So people are making up new theories to try to explain this.  Some of these theories involve extra demensions in order to work.

Okay, think about that for a second: we’re famillar with three dimensions in everyday life.  Okay, four if you want to include time, but some of the string theories out there call for ten or even more dimensions of space.  That’s seven more than we’re aware of!  For that to work, the dimesions would have to be curled up on themselves, so small that only subatomic particles can move through them.  It’s like those old video games where when you walk off one side of the screen, you appear on the other side.  It’d be like that.  One superstring theory I read calls for the existance of an extra temporal dimesion!  That’s right, two dimensions of time.  Don’t ask me how that works.

I for one, think these theories are kind of ineligant.  Why add extra dimensions if you can’t even detect them?  We have no idea if those exist at the moment.  The musician in me, however, likes the idea of the universe being made out of tiny strings that vibrate at different frequencies to make up everything.  I’ll have some more on some of this stuff later.  The crazy thing about the universe right now, though, really, is that we think we know so much about it, but any day now, some new theory could come along to blow all this out of the water.  It’s happened many times before.

Life

Hello, and welcome to the first post in a three-part series.  If you can already guess the other two, 3 points.  Life, as I’ve said before, is an amazing thing that I am extremely grateful that I have.  Especially since I don’t know what the alternative involves.  Life is a beautiful thing.  How did it start, though?  We still don’t know.  Some people would say it started from a god, but I am inclined to believe that if the universe started from a god, it probably just started it all those billions of years ago and didn’t intervene much, if at all, after that.  But more on that in the next post.  So life arose through chemical reactions that just chanced to form a molecule that could replicate itself, and the rest is evolution.

Now, many people don’t quite understand evolution, especially those creationists who fervantly deny it.  But creationists are silly.  Besides, the ideas of the universe being created is not mutually exclusive with evolution.  It’s only when you want to take literally a 2000-year-old book that contradicts facts that are now obvious that you run into problems.  We have no idea how life began, but we know how it changed.  When you have random changes in life, such as what happens when it reproduces, the stronger mutations survive to reproduce.  You give it several billion years, and all the complexities of life arise.

That is one of the most amazing things about life; you start with something extremely simple, and over time, due to completely natural laws– not even laws, due to logic; strong survive, weak die– it grows complex and intricate.  And if you keep life for the four billion or so years its been on Earth, you get things as complex as a whale, or an oak, or an eagle, or a human.  Which brings me to another marvel of life: intelligence.

I am a sentient, self aware being.  I can think.  How is this possible?  How am I doing this?  I am capable of abstract thought; I can think; I can think about thinking.  And I can communicate what I’m thinking.  This is incredible.  I often am deep in thought, only to suddely snap back to reality and realize I exist.  I am alive in this body.  This is very strange.  Thought is such a mystery, really.  What causes thought?  No one knows; the inner workings of the mind are extremely mysterious.

There are, of course, theories, as there is for everything.  But does the entire process of sentient thought arise solely from bioelectric chemical reactions in the brain?  How does a bunch of neurons clumped together form a person.  I am inclined to believe that there is something more at work here.  But what?  And how does it work?  I doubt thought can ever be fully explained, really.

Oh, life is a spectacular state of being.  So many mysteries to contemplate.  So many things to experience, to think about.  Which was, really, one of the purposes of this blog to begin with.  Well actually, I had begun hoping I would think up some answers.  I’m starting to doubt I’ll come up with many.  But it’s just as well, really.

Death

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  Well a lot has been happening in my life recently.  Unfortunately, you won’t get to hear about it, as this isn’t a personal blog.  In any case, I’ve decided my next topic is death.  What happens after it?  Of course no one knows, unless you care to try religious answers.  But if you’ve been reading up to this point, you’ll know this blog is religiously neutral.  So I will be considering possibilities.

I must admit from the outset that death scares me.  Mainly because there is a definate possiblity that death is just that.  The end.  If there’s nothing beyond death and we just stop existing.  It is for this reason I do not like to talk of death very often.  But this being a philosophy blog, I figure it needs to be discussed sooner or later.  So what happens if there’s just nothing in death?  And there’s no you, no anything.  Well I suppose you wouldn’t know, so it doesn’t much matter, but still, it is a disconcerting thing to think about to say the least.  Perhaps that’s why we contemplate other things happening in death instead.  Well in any case, there are still possibilities, so let’s move on to less depressing ones.

One thing I consider, is death being an endless dream, one from which you don’t wake up.  The dream is clearer, sharper, and more coherent than even the most lucid of living dreams.  I don’t know why this would happen, but it’s something that I like to think about.  If a dream is what happens when your are disconnected from your body, as you seem to be during sleep, this would make sense.

Of course, nothing could happen after death if not for the existance of a soul of some sort, so I suppose I shoud set aside space here to discuss such a concept.  The real question here, is what makes a person a person at the fundamental level.  Some would argue the brain.  But can such a small organ be the basis of all self-awareness?  I find it hard to believe that the brian is the sole cause of such a complicated and unexplainable process as consciousness, which is what keeps up my hope that there is a soul that could possibly survive death.

And if it could survive death, why not rebirth.  Reincarnation is another idea I like to entertain.  Perhaps we are reborn in a new body, memories all but erased.  This, I think if I got to vote, would be my favourite afterlife option.  To start life anew.  Wouldn’t that be amazing?  It’s interesting though, it leaves open a lot of questions.  How soon after death would one be reincarnated?  Instantly, or after an amount of time is past?  Maybe they spend time in a dreamlike state in between lives.  Could someone be reincarnated as any life-form, or just a sentient creature?  What about extraterrestrial life?  Is it possible to be reincarnated as a creature from another planet?  These are the kinds of things I think about.

And all this leaves open the quesion of where spirits and ghosts fit in.  Being the agnostic that I am, their existance is a definate possibility.  And I’ve known people who claim to have experienced it, people I am not quick to discredit.  But that seems a topic for another day, as this post is going on fairly long.

Life, I believe, is such an amazing gift.  We must all try never to lose sight of that.  Just being here, just existing is such a wonderful thing.  I think I’ve already said this, but it merits reiterating.  The fact that we’re alive, and can feel and experiance everthing life has to offer; it’s just unbelievable.  Death will come for all of us, but it will come when it comes, and it’s best to not think of it.  For now we are alive.  Shakespeare’s Hamlet asked, “To be or not to be…,” but for me it is no question.  And as he concluded later in that same monologue, it is better to live, and suffer anything life has to throw at you, then face the uncertianty of death.

By the way, I realize I have not even considered some of the other religious possibilities of death, and to be fair, I should.  They will be in the next post.

Foundations

Hello, and welcome to the musings of 6d60.  Today, I shall discuss a theory that I mentioned in passing in my introductory post.  Well, I’m not sure if you would call it a theory, but that matters not.  I mentioned how I think everyone has a certian level of being that is their core beliefs and vaules, which defines who you are as a person.  Because really, what defines someone as a person?  Defines who they really are?  It would be their actions, what they do in response to various situations.  And your actions are determined by your beliefs.

Now when I talk about beliefs here, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not referring to beliefs as in religious beliefs, or lack thereof.  I mean, sure, that can sometimes be taken into account in decisions, but not always.  I’ll state from the outset that I am agnostic.  Why I am is a topic for a later post.  But whether or not someone believes in a god, for example, does not affect their every decision.  I’m talking about beliefs more basic, more fundamental than this, the very foundations of belief and personality.

These foundations of belief and personality are things people hold as absolute ideals.  Now, as I know myself better than anyone else, I’ll use me as an example.  One of my foundations is freedom; I believe that people should have complete freedom of speech, thought, belief, and action, provided, of course, that this doesn’t interfere with the freedom of anyone else.  Another basic belief I have is that something is wrong only if it hurts another person.  And realted to this, I think that hurting another, or forcing them to do something they do not wish to is wrong, unless they have already done so to someone else.

Now, one may think that beliefs like this only really come into effect in hypothetical stituations and discussions, but it is astonishing how much they affect your personality.  For example, an ex-girlfriend of mine and I basically broke up due to a difference in belief of the definition of the term right.  She said it was the highest ideal that one should always strive for; the best, most noble thing you could do.  I merely held right to be “not wrong”.  Needless to say, she was too much of a perfectionist for me.  She was always questioning her actions, whereas I never think about such things.

Another reason we ended things was due to our foundations on emotions; I believe emotions derive from logic– that is, if you feel something there’s a reason for it.  And if the reason doesn’t make sense, you should ignore the feeling and just do what you want; it will pass.  This former girlfriend of mine had it backwards from what I thought.  Her logic came from her emotions.  She would follow her emotions whether or not they made logical sense.  I was always trying to figure out where her feelings came from, and basically trying to slove negitive emotions of hers.  But in the end I just couldn’t do either.  Our relationship failed because we differed in key foundations of our respective personalities.

In my opinion, every couple should have a talk early in their relationship about all aspects of philosophy they can think of.  Because when it comes down to it, people who differ too much on some important foundations are simply incompatable.  It’s best to get that out of the way early, I think.  Saves a lot of frustration, confusion, and heartbreak later on.

Oh, by the way, I realize this was more of an opinion peice than philosophy.  I’ll get into more of that later.  Next time I believe I shall delve deeper into my thoughts on right and wrong, and good and evil and morality.

Origin

I am, at the request of a friend, originating a blog as of this post.  It shall be mainly on the topic of philosophy, so if you are one who is interested in such things, to use an outdated expression, stay tuned.  But first, on the topic of the thing that I decided the topic of this poast, the first post should be; the origin.  Specifically, the origin of my username, which is also the title of this blog.

6d60, besides sounding like the same number twice, has an additional significance, as I like the number 60.  Now here is why: 60 is the first number which is a multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  I find that entertaining.  In a way, 60 is more even of a number than something like 10 or 500 or 1000.  Because those numbers only seem even due to our base-10 system.  A base 60 system would be much more practical for math.  It would make dividing much easier, as dividing by any number up to 6 would result in a single, non-repeating decimal.  But the merits of base 60 could be an entire post.

I like all the numbers in that series.  It starts with 1, obviously, because 1 is a multiple of 1.  Then 2, as two is a multiple of 1 and 2, then 6, which is a multiple of 1, 2, and 3.  Continuing on until 12, the series goes 1, 2, 6, 12, 60, 420, 840, 2520, 27720.  60 is the biggest of these numbers that is still manageable.

Now, the origional topic of this was why 6d60.  Well 6 is also a part of that series, and I like 6 as well.  And the d is the initial of my first name.  My username was origionally going to be just d60, but unfortunately, four characters were required.  6d60 also matches the convention of the roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, in which the notation NdX means roll N x-sided dice.  There is, of course, no regular 60-sided polyhedron.

Now, philosophy, as I mentioned, will be the main topic of this blog.  I have in interest in such things, mainly because of how much what you think defines who you are as a person.  In my opinion, there is something everyone has, at their lowest level of their being, that is what makes them them.  I’m not referring to a soul, although that would be an interesting topic for a later post.  I mean that everyone has a basic set of core beliefs and thoughts, that define how they behave, and by extention, who they are.  And these are the basic philosophical beliefs.

Because really, everyone is a philosopher, whether or not they are conscious of it.  Everyone has thought of the nature of the world, of life, of how they should behave.  And everyone has ideas on these things.  The purpose of this blog shall be to define, and share with the world my ideas on such things, and also discuss the various merits and possibilities of others.  I should hope never to deride the beliefs of others, however, if you are easily offended by such things, best not to continue reading this blog, I think.  As crazy is this universe may be, perhaps with a bit more thought, it can be understood that much better.  And with that noble mission determined, I believe I shall go to bed.  Because sleep is good.