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I realized something while driving down the highway today. Actually I realized part of it a long time ago. I was cruising along, when suddenly traffic came to a stop. Then it took off again just a few feet ahead. The reason for the stop was the there was a point where people in cars could suddenly see all of the cars in front of them. The highway is kind of level for most of the trip to SF, but there are 3 places where it isn't. During the level spots, one can really only see a few cars ahead of oneself. But during these 3 places, one gets a sudden view of all of the cars in front of them, most of them with brake lights on, so people tend to hit theirs as well which leads to the traffic jams at these 3 spots. Kind of why horses wear blinders, I would guess.

That part I realized a while ago, the reason for the stoppage at certain places. What I reasoned today was: the ability to see further down the road and put on ones brakes because one can see the danger of other stopped vehicles ahead, can be apply to life. Those people who can see further into the future, discern events that might happen, are more than likely to hit the brakes in their own lives to avoid the future possible danger. Those who can see more possible futures also see more possible problems.

So, the complete idiot is happy, because he sees no future danger. The "smarter" one is the more one could see into the future and therefore also has the greater the possibility of being paralyzed by it. Those who see more might panic at things most people do not see coming. Better foresight might not actually be a blessing!

The Edward

Who's paying for this...

Many years ago (back in 1990) (I guess I could have just started with "Back in 1990" instead of stating generic time frame then feeling the need to clarify how long ago, but I just I figure things in parenthesis can be skipped and the original will still make sense. So you can skip this overly long explanation and get back to the topic at hand. Wait, are you still reading this? Hmmm... now what... Maybe I can stop you if I push this button) I came up with this belief, and like all beliefs that I make up, I believed it and started telling people that it was something I believed. (And they all called me crazy, until...) I believed that this Universe and all that was in it was just one giant video game. (the The Matrix came out in 1999.) (See on those last two parenthesized comments, I did a continue. I believe that is the first time in my life that I did that. Glad to share this moment with you.) Not only that, I figured out the rules - I believed I was playing until I ran out of quarters back in the Real World. So, I believed I must be really rich, therefore immortal in this world (are at least hoped). As long as my "real" self keeps feeding in quarters into the machine, I am okay.

Then it struck me, I do not do much. I didn't travel much. I didn't look around much. I mostly stayed in and read and when I did go out, I would tend to look at the ground. What a waste of processing power! If someone went through all of the trouble to create this world for me to play in, I should look around! More than that, when I had bad days, I figured that I wanted to screw them (the people with the game machine in which I lived), so I would look at objects as far away that I could see, and everything else in-between. (because, like in a PC game, the more one looks around in the a game, the harder it is on the PC to calculate everything on screen. If one buys Doom and looks at the ground, the computer is almost idle. But, looking around, spinning around, running around, etc, it can really tax a computer, sometimes overheating it. I figured the Universe was the same way.) This started my "travel as much as I could" phase.

At some point, I realized that maybe the price isn't fixed. Maybe they are charging me by the bandwidth (how much processing power I use)! Maybe my "real" self will run out of money sooner if I waste the power on looking around too much. Then began my "shut in" phase. If I never left my house, I could like a lot longer!

Just recently, I realized that I might be on a plan like cellphone companies offer. I'm paying a fixed rate for some large amount of Universe processing, and pay a premium for anything over that. So, I need a balance - use my allocated time, but try not to go over. Look around, do things, don't be a shut in, but don't waste my time looking at things solely to waste time. With time being the coin I pay.

The Edward