Peter, <Sunday's Sermon>
Following up on Mr. Beene's comment, I have often subscribed to a belief that the development of the Internet may very well be ushering in the first stages of a new sentient species that may soon dominate our planet within a mere couple of thousand years, a species known as Homo Sapiens Goup-Mindus. When we think of experiencing or engaging in "group mind" activity Star Trek's terrifying BORG civilization often comes to mind. Group mind existence is often described as a horrifying condition particularly because TV storylines, such as the BORG, are conveniently written in such a manner that such a state-of-existence is constantly being forced upon us. I suspect our species worked very hard over many millions of years to evolve a state of consciousness that explores concepts such as separateness, of individuality, and an acute awareness of our seeming temporal permanence as perceived out in the external environment. We're not about to give up such interesting perceptions, not without thinking long and hard about the ramifications. Helping us sort out the ramifications a are few luddites sprinkled here and there in every society, and that's probably a good thing. Meanwhile, there are those who occasionally voice their suspicions (or belief) that assuming we are separate temporal souls is a somewhat contrived concept. Sometimes we listen to their views and actually ponder the ramifications. Typically however, we simply file such odd views away in our sub consciousness. It would seem that most prefer to hurry back to playing the separateness game. At other times we get annoyed with such philosophical perceptions and end up crucifying the perpetrators of such blasphemy. As for me, I've come to the personal conclusion that experiencing consciousness in the form of existential separateness is both intriguing and terrifying. It's certainly an interesting game to play, perhaps over and over. If so, make sure you have plenty of quarters. ;-) </Sunday's Sermon> Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
