How I spend my Saturdays

[melmel1214]

Ever since I've gotten into psychology, I've always been drawn to evolutionary psych--probably because it answers a lot of questions that I've always had. These are questions that, as far as I can tell, most people don't think about, but that, whenever my mind wanders to thinking about them, really seem to haunt me. It's like, my mind can't wrap

Comments

[pirate42]

don't tell my physics professors, but i think you're right, the universe ends somewhere. space is still expanding...into what? i have always thought of the "infinite universe" as the part of the "everything" (space + white + beyond white) that we (human beings in general) can understand, and therefore the only part we need to worry about. for our purposes, that's it, and as far as we can comprehend it goes on forever. in the bigger picture this universe is only a part, but there's no way we, me and you stuck on the earth, are ever going to be able to visualize the rest of the picture beyond a blank vague white. (i personally believe we'll get a bigger perspective after we die, but that's a different discussion

[melmel1214]

OMG AT FIRST I DIDN'T, BUT THEN I DID! Why is it black and white?!? It looks so old! I thought it was from, like, the 20s...

And I loved your comment :), especially your Kansas analogy. Steve Pinker once talked about this stuff--like, just because a brain is incapable of comprehending something doesn't mean it isn't real (i.e. our "infinity" is like a dog's "Mean Girls")--in one of his classes I took. But going with the animal analogy, I guess the major difference is that we are capable of knowing (some of) what we don't know, whereas other animals lack this metacognition and are thus able to live blissful lives of poop and Kibbles and Bits. Hmm, this begs the question: is it better to be a dissatisfied human, or a satisfied pig? ;-)

Maybe I'll go look for some Pinker books and flip through em...Or maybe we should take justice online the next time it's offered...?

found this today

[pirate42]

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, or books written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you now because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without even noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer..."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Re: found this today

[melmel1214]

[from wikipedia:
"J.D. Salinger alludes to Rilke in various works, including the novel Franny and Zooey and the short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish."

!!!

Also, did you read this quote in Niffenegger?]

I love it. I might use it in my personal statement.