memory

One Weird Trick To Being One With Everything. This is a thought experiment. And also an experiment experiment. I hope you'll play along. I recommend riding the vibes and letting definitions of everything be flexible.

The Starting Point

Boy, it seems really true that I'm not you and you're not me. What the hell are all the "we're all one" people going on about?

The Natural Curiosity

I wonder what it's like to be you, to feel what you feel, to see through your eyes and think through your mind. 

A Secret Context

While I want to know what it's like being you, I definitely want to still be me while I do. 

I want to remember myself while having your experience.

The Finger

But wait! If I were really having your experience, I wouldn't know I was me in the having of your experience, because what it's like to be you doesn't include also remembering what it's like to be me.

The Moon

This next step is the fun one (at least for "me").

Most thought experiments have you imagine something to see what would be different with different conditions, or a different worldview. "What would the world be like if…?" 

The interesting thing here: when I really imagine what it's like to be you, as best and as hard as I can, I wind up with: a description of world exactly as it is right now.

Do you see?

If I were fully, actually, directly having your experience, "I" wouldn't know it.

Interestingly, I already don't know it – that's where we began! That's where we are!

Ergo

So a fun conclusion here is: I'm already having your experience. And what's it's like, from "my" point of view is that I don't know what your experience is like.

Results?

You can, of course, play with this simply as concepts. Manipulate it with the algebra of logic. Feel free! 

But in my experience, it's more fun to "pretend" it, or "try it on", or "act as if", or "ride the vibes of it". And when I do, I feel instantly more connected to you and also everything else. 

It feels like a dropping of the belief that you are a fundamentally different thing than I.

And by "belief" here I don't mean "logical proposition" so much as "embodied expectation of what the world is".

I also find myself more curious and playful. More loving, even.

Something in me looks around in a kind of surprise: "huh, I guess I am you".

A Circle?

An interesting thing: I'm still at the starting point! I still don't have access to your subjective experience. I'm still curious about what that might be like. But I now have an embodied experience of the belief that I am, in fact, you.

Pragmatically, why not just believe that? The facts of the matter don't change, but it seems to make things nicer. It seems to make me nicer.

Your Turn

I've tried to play with this with people before. In person, some cool stuff happens. At minimum, it's usually a fun time. At maximum, it turns into a sublime sharing.

I don't know if it plays as well as a bit of text, but this here's one go at it.

So let me know: what happens when you play with this?

What will the future literally look like? This idea comes from watching Mad Men- seeing smoking and drinking freely at the office for example, and my brother once pointing out that if a show or movie ever wanted to make it really clear that it was set in the 1990’s, all they’d have to do is have multiple people driving Saturn cars.

So here are a few of what I think (hope) the future will literally look like:

Gas stations will be very rare, and parking spaces will almost always have charging stations.

Having a garage in homes will be rare because car ownership will be rare. Using self-driving Uber-esque systems will be way more affordable, and car ownership then will be similar to antique car ownership now.

Lawns will be very rare, and permaculture-style of local fauna that doesn’t need care, upkeep, or watering will be common.

What do you think the future will look like?