(Mar 9, 2018 02:23 AM)elte Wrote: The answer to that question is it's because I always had a longing for a real heaven instead of being totally gone.
Speaking of grandiose imaginations, let’s do a thought experiment, okay? Try to design it. Try to create a perfect place in your head, but it has to be a real one, or one that's possible, not just a moment, or a slice of some fantasy. No, it has to be one that can sustain the amount of peace and happiness that you desire for all of eternity.
What would it be like?
When I first did this thought experiment in my early twenties after my father’s death, I knew then that no such place existed or ever could exist. I could not come up with one single scenario that could fulfill even my own desires, much less all of mankind’s.
Everyone wants to be known and understood, which, in and of itself, is extremely difficult, given the fact that to "know thyself" is often misleading and deceptive. To sidestep this dilemma, most people insert an all knowing creator, a highly intelligent alien, or some sort of artificial intelligence, take this scene from A.I. Artificial Intelligence for example. This is, of course, very similar to what Yuval Noah Harari alluded to in his new book—an A.I. that will know you better than you know yourself.
Shortly after my father’s death, I had two dreams about such a place. Oddly enough, they both contained some of the same earthly elements that Tarkovsky used in his 1972 film "Solaris," and this was way before I had even seen the film.
There’s a scene in "Solaris" that reminded me of your empty cup. Most of his films contain water in various forms. In the beginning, there’s a shot where it’s pouring rain and the camera focuses in on a teacup filling up with rain.
There's this great quote from his book "Sculpting in Time".
"Modern mass culture, aimed at the 'consumer', the civilization of prosthetics, is crippling people's souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being."
His film "Solaris" is based on Lem’s book. The book contains a quote from Stanislaw Lem that sums it up quite nicely.
"We are only seeking Man. We have no need for other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is. We are searching for an ideal image of our own world: we go in quest of a planet, of a civilization superior of our own but developed on the basis of a prototype of our primeval past."
Take a look at me now...
"You're the only one who really knew me at all."
Maybe that’s why Phil Collins has had, not only one, but three divorces.
Good day to you, elte.