Cosmic Blog

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The long awaited, highly anticipated fight between Matt Hughes and the legendary Royce Gracie just ended.  I am disapointed with the outcome because I have a lot of respect for Royce, and I was hoping he would whoop Matt's ass.  Although I recognize Hughes as being a really tough fighter, I think he is an arrogant jack-ass and I cant wait till someone beats him down.  Gracie showed a lot of heart though when it looked really grim as Hughes had a grusome arm-bar locked in tight.  You could see by the expression, or lack of expression, on Gracie's face that he would have let his arm break before he would tap out.  Gracie is still a legend and no doubt there is no love lost from Gracie fans out there.

 I can't wait for UFC 61 coming up!  Sylvia vs Arlovski #3!!  Ortiz vs Shamrock #2!!  Great line-up.  I love Arlovski, hope he gets the heavy weight title back!

I, at this point in my life, am under the belief that there really is no such thing as choice. It is an illusion. You may think that you are "choosing" which brand of bottled water you pick up at the corner store, or which college or university you apply to, or which religion to believe in, or which morals and values to follow, but you really are not. What is happening is the neural network inside your brain starts firing and weighing each choice, and once it is satisfied with the amount of information it used to weigh each choice, then the heaviest weighted choice will come out on top. So the choice in the end is a product of the actual configuration of the neural net in your brain. That neural net is formed, and is always being re-shaped, by the experience you have had in your life, big or even seemingly insignificant experiences. Also genetics are responsible for how your brain forms at the time that you are too new to have any experiences, and, Im assuming, it also plays a role throughout your life as the brain develops. It is all Cause and Effect. There is no choice. Did you choose which human being, or other form of life, that you where to be? Did you choose which society to be born into and brought up in as your young brain developed? The only place that I think it could be possible that actual choices are being made would be in your soul. If there really is, which I like to believe there is, a spiritual aspect of our existance that goes beyond our physical bodies then I am willing to believe that there is A POSSIBILITY that the soul can make choices, but even the soul, I am so far assuming, is governed by cause and effect and the same principle applies to it causing it to also not have the ability to choose. It would be a product of the souls experience gathered over passed lives. Once you realize that this is the truth, that there is no choice, it can be an epiphanal experience. You can release all of your hatred, every last drop, towards all different forms of life. And you can look back at someone you hate, and take a look at their life from their perspective, and understand why they are a person that you used to hate. And you realize that part of the whole purpose of life is to have an infinite realm of all different life forms and personalities. Even things you used to hate, that are grotesque, or immoral, or outright terrible, can become beautiful. It is the nature of the universe and life. It is beautiful.

Now just because I have come across this belief, that I have no choice in the whole matter, does not mean that I am all of a sudden going to give up on life and go into some kind of vegetative state and not care about anything. No. I still want to make a positive change in the world for the human race, I still want to overcome my challenges in life, and I still understand that my actions determine my future and control my destiny. Because that is who I am, even though I didnt choose it.

I am happy to announce that I am bringing in a new format to Cosmic Blog that I think will improve the site greatly.  A couple of my friends are interested in contributing to the site, and after thinking about it, I realized that making Cosmic Blog a multi-author blog will bring in some great posts from authors with different backgrounds and perspectives, and will also promote more discussion on the topics.  So far we officially have three authors now, myself with a technology background, Ryan (G-Rock) with a political science background, and Johny with a psychology and history background.  I am also running the idea by another 3 people that I think will be great contributors who also have diverse backgrounds including philosophy, engineering, and biology.  The diversity is perfect for the site and I think the theme of Cosmic Blog goes along well with these people.  Stay tuned for some really great blogging!

When I was very young, back when the original Nintendo came out, I would occasionaly have dreams where I had aquired every single Nintendo game there was.  Then I would wake up, and disapointment would sweep over me as I realized that it was a dream and that I still only had a couple measly games.  Well, my childhood dream has come true!  Now you can easily download every single Nintendo game to your computer, which I did.  Only problem is none of 'em are any good!  Theres a few classics that I still enjoy but for the most part its not really worth wasting time on.

Now if only my dreams of flying in the air like superman would come true!!

Damn, it happened in Feb '06 but I just heard.  I really liked Dilla and Slum Village.  R.I.P.

I was raised a Christian, but very early on in my life dismissed the entire religion because it was so obviously B.S. a child can see right through it.  But, the more I became interested in the true nature of the universe as I became older, I started to notice little parts here in there in most religions that I strongly felt truth in, which do not even disagree with materialistic science.  This led me to believe that possibly some of this religious knowledge actually used to be extremely accurate, just that it has been misinterepted and even purposely distorted over thousands of years.  Once I came to this realization, I started looking at religion in a different way, and the more I look into religion, the more I believe this theory to be correct.  Now, to me, it seems like our most advanced understandings of the universe, including quantum physics, are really just rediscovering what some so called "religion's" expressed thousands of years ago.  A lot of people have heard of books like "Quantum and the Lotus", comparing quantum physics and buddhism, but it goes much deeper than this even.  It goes as far back as religion and almost all religions that I know of hint that this theory is true.  Today I looked up a topic of interest for the first time, the "Tabula Smaragdina", otherwise known as the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.  I came across a great paper called "The Tabula Smaragdina Revisited" by Karen-Claire Voss.  It was another great example of the theory.  I will not get into great detail here about specific passages but if you have basic understandings of the universe, galaxies, stars, atoms, physics, quantum physics, big bang(theoretical), etc, and you look at the oldest and most original religious passages, you will find many inexplicable consistencies.

Reading through Space.com looking for good pictures I found this article.  It puts our energy usage into a new perspective.  If only we could use energy so efficiently.

"A recent study found that a supermassive black hole’s process of generating energy from the matter falling towards its gravity well is much more efficient than nuclear or fossil fuels. A car with such fuel efficiency could drive for one billion miles on a single tank of gas, they say."

What an awe inspiring thing, this universe we live in with all the life it harbors and nurtures and even destroys only to produce new great cycles.  From galaxies to black holes, to stars, to planets, to star dust building blocks collected together in cells, collected together in bodies of life forms, all part of one beautiful connected collective.  The word beautiful is an understatement, I dont know how to articulate its true beauty.  Connections going infinitely deep, because of the "cause and effect" nature of the universe.  Producing all these beautiful life forms for me to observe, producing my life to live out. 

Experience is a beautiful thing.  I believe it is the purpose of our individual existences(Not to be mistaken for the purpose of life existing, as a collective).  Experience.  That is all we can do.  As individuals, our 75 year, blink of an eye, existence and experience is played out in front of our eyes, the only thing your being can do is watch it play out.  Whatever events "cause and effect" dictate for our individual lives to experience. It really is just a teasing blink of an eye relative to the billions of years of unlimited experience throughout the universe.  But at the same time even that 75 years is so much compared to no experience.  I cant complain.  I will definately enjoy the experience along the way, as I am forced to play out the role laid before me by the Holy and Great One, the collective universe.  So just Be, you cannot escape that, and sit back and experience your Be-ing.  The good, the evil, the happiness, the sadness, the consequences, the gluttony, the greed, the rightousness, the love, the hatred, the altruism, the mistakes, the embarassment, the sacrifice, the accomplishment, the victory, the defeat, the adventure, the beauty of LIFE.  That is all you can do.  You are nothing more than an array of 5 sensors attached to a CPU processing that information and forming it into the experience for "the observer" to watch.  Who is this watcher, this observer which is the deepest level of my being?  Is it my soul?  Does that element exist beyond my physical body and physical life?  One thing is for sure, the observer is the common bond that all life in the universe shares.  Release your hatred toward any being, we are all brothers and sisters, we all relate.