My opinion: Jón Gnarr - Pinocchio Jón Gnarr skrifar 7. mars 2015 07:00 My own existence has long been on my mind. Who am I? Where do I come from, and where will I go? Do I have a soul or a spirit? Besides thinking about this a lot, I have read a myriad of books on spiritual issues, and studied all kinds of meditation and religious writings and the theories of the principal philosophers. I have read psychology. And I have, of course, observed myself and others. For the last years I have been fascinated by research in the field of neuroscience, especially the human brain. Our technical skills are now so great and advanced that we can focus on the core of ourselves. We can examine and study phenomena about which we could only speculate before. What is the will? What is free will? What is the self? What happens when we die? What is love?Striking results are published every week, like research that shows that our brain has made a decision up to five seconds before we make a conscious decision ourselves. There is, of course, a certain paradox in these researches. That’s mainly because now the brain is examining itself scientifically. And these researches and their findings lead us into the most unlikely fields: philosophy and ethics, psychology, physics and theology, to name but a few. Nothing seems to indicate that this science will not transform our view of the world during the next years and decades.Why do I always repeat the same mistakes?I have often felt like a passenger in the vehicle that is Me. I have often wondered why I have done things this way and not the other, why I reacted like this and not differently? Most people are familiar with this. Why do I love this person and not someone else? Why do I always repeat the same mistakes? Why can I not break bad habits etc.? The list is endless. Our existence is full of doubt and questions. I, like many others, have often felt like I am being lead into and through some situations. Like some outside elements are steering me, and usually this fares best when the part of me that I feel is “myself” is thinking about something else. This has been so decisive in my life that I have tried to find out what it is. Is it God? After extensive examination I have concluded that it is not so. Why would God confuse me, make me drive somewhere I did not intend to go, and make me run into my cousin there by accident? If God is messing about with such trivialities, he is not the God he pretends to be. He would focus on assisting people who really need help. He would not think about me at all. So I reject this idea. But what about angels and dead relatives? Is it possible that this lot is in another dimension with the task to help me and others in our daily troubles? It is an inviting idea, but I don’t think it holds. There is nothing to support it. And the effect of this work is almost none, considering the labor that must lie behind it. I’m inclined to think that this is intuition. You follow your intuition, it is not always conscious. And it is not God, or the devil, or grandmother’s ghost, or Michael the archangel who leads us on, but our brains.It’s just a ride!After a long search and great effort I have concluded that the main reason I have not found myself is that I do not really exist, at least not in the sense that usually is attributed to the word. I’m just a biological robot controlled by the supercomputer which is my brain. This computer controls my whole life, my perception and awareness of reality. And it confines me in the same way. I can only see certain colors and only sense a few dimensions. It gives me information. And when I dream at night I am looking at my own thoughts. I am a passive instrument of this brain. My personality is like an avatar, and in reality just a certain interface. Some people like it, and others don’t, but I am no more a real being than a character in a video game. What I feel I am saying here is, therefore, a misconception. My brain is just using my fabricated persona to get information to your brain. Your brain is using you in exactly the same way by making you read this. Our brains want us to interact as much as possible to share information, genes and even bacteria between us. An attractive girl meets a handsome man and starts kissing him. Is it love or something spiritual? Or are their brains just using them to exchange bacteria in order to strengthen their bodies’ immune system? I think so. The Internet is another good example. The human brain did not make the Internet so that we could enjoy looking at porn or playing Candy Crush. The Internet is an information network between brains, and our conscious selves only see a fraction of what goes on there. The brain is the real leader in our lives. We are being tricked by ourselves. But we can relax and try to enjoy it. We do not, in effect, exist and therefore there is no reason to be afraid or be angry. It’s just a ride! Have a nice weekend. Viltu birta grein á Vísi? Sendu okkur póst. Senda grein Jón Gnarr News in English Mest lesið Þegar móðir mín kvaddi okkur fyrir einu ári síðan í dag Gísli Hvanndal Jakobsson Skoðun Þegar ómennskan vitnar í lög Bubbi Morthens Skoðun Líf án ótta og gjöfin í andlegri vakningu Birna Guðný Björnsdóttir Skoðun Þessi stórskrítnu norm í óbarnvænu samfélagi Sólveig María Svavarsdóttir Skoðun Góðan daginn, ég ætla að fá … ENGLISH PLEASE! Ólafur Guðsteinn Kristjánsson Skoðun Framlengjum séreignarleiðina til að vernda heimilin Vilhjálmur Hilmarsson Skoðun Um vaxtahækkanir og verð á hveiti Haukur Skúlason Skoðun Álit Einhverfupaunksins um ABA meðferð og kennslu á Íslandi Sigrún Ósk Stefánsdóttir Skoðun Samkennd samfélags Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir Skoðun Kenningar úr gildi svo að kirkjan þarf að komast á annað stig Matthildur Björnsdóttir Skoðun Skoðun Skoðun Framlengjum séreignarleiðina til að vernda heimilin Vilhjálmur Hilmarsson skrifar Skoðun Líf án ótta og gjöfin í andlegri vakningu Birna Guðný Björnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Kenningar úr gildi svo að kirkjan þarf að komast á annað stig Matthildur Björnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Dansaðu vindur Berglind Ósk Guðmundsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Þessi stórskrítnu norm í óbarnvænu samfélagi Sólveig María Svavarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Um vaxtahækkanir og verð á hveiti Haukur Skúlason skrifar Skoðun Öryggi byggir á mönnun og launum Jórunn Frímannsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Álit Einhverfupaunksins um ABA meðferð og kennslu á Íslandi Sigrún Ósk Stefánsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Mammon hefur náð lífeyrissjóðum á sitt band Halla Signý Kristjánsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Forgangsorkan verður ekki skert Tinna Traustadóttir skrifar Skoðun Umhyggja - hvað er það? Árný Ingvarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun „Við höfðum öll rangt fyrir okkur“ Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson skrifar Skoðun Akureyrarbær greiðir götu kvennaathvarfs á Akureyri eins og kostur er Ásthildur Sturludóttir skrifar Skoðun Þegar móðir mín kvaddi okkur fyrir einu ári síðan í dag Gísli Hvanndal Jakobsson skrifar Skoðun Íþróttahreyfingin og gerviverktaka Ástþór Jón Ragnheiðarson skrifar Skoðun Tölum um tilfinningar Amanda Ásdís Jóhannsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Óttinn við íslensku rafkrónuna Birna Guðný Björnsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Áskorun til Sjúkratrygginga Íslands – hugsum í lausnum Björn Bjarki Þorsteinsson skrifar Skoðun Afnemum launamisrétti Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson skrifar Skoðun Hvað hefur Ísland gert? Katla Þorvaldsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Viðhorf almennings og neytenda til sjálfbærnimála fyrirtækja og stofnana skiptir miklu máli Soffía Sigurgeirsdóttir,Trausti Haraldsson skrifar Skoðun Ýmislegt um rafmagnsbíla og reiðhjól Valur Elli Valsson skrifar Skoðun Taugatýpísk forréttindi Mamiko Dís Ragnarsdóttir skrifar Skoðun Hver er ég og hvert er ég að fara? Ellý Tómasdóttir skrifar Skoðun Þeir borga sem nota! Tómas Kristjánsson skrifar Skoðun Að hjálpa fólki að standa á eigin fótum Jón Þór Kristjánsson skrifar Skoðun Samkennd samfélags Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir skrifar Skoðun „Heimferða- og fylgdadeild“ Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson skrifar Skoðun Til varnar mennsku kúgarans Hans Alexander Margrétarson Hansen skrifar Skoðun Þegar ómennskan vitnar í lög Bubbi Morthens skrifar Sjá meira
My own existence has long been on my mind. Who am I? Where do I come from, and where will I go? Do I have a soul or a spirit? Besides thinking about this a lot, I have read a myriad of books on spiritual issues, and studied all kinds of meditation and religious writings and the theories of the principal philosophers. I have read psychology. And I have, of course, observed myself and others. For the last years I have been fascinated by research in the field of neuroscience, especially the human brain. Our technical skills are now so great and advanced that we can focus on the core of ourselves. We can examine and study phenomena about which we could only speculate before. What is the will? What is free will? What is the self? What happens when we die? What is love?Striking results are published every week, like research that shows that our brain has made a decision up to five seconds before we make a conscious decision ourselves. There is, of course, a certain paradox in these researches. That’s mainly because now the brain is examining itself scientifically. And these researches and their findings lead us into the most unlikely fields: philosophy and ethics, psychology, physics and theology, to name but a few. Nothing seems to indicate that this science will not transform our view of the world during the next years and decades.Why do I always repeat the same mistakes?I have often felt like a passenger in the vehicle that is Me. I have often wondered why I have done things this way and not the other, why I reacted like this and not differently? Most people are familiar with this. Why do I love this person and not someone else? Why do I always repeat the same mistakes? Why can I not break bad habits etc.? The list is endless. Our existence is full of doubt and questions. I, like many others, have often felt like I am being lead into and through some situations. Like some outside elements are steering me, and usually this fares best when the part of me that I feel is “myself” is thinking about something else. This has been so decisive in my life that I have tried to find out what it is. Is it God? After extensive examination I have concluded that it is not so. Why would God confuse me, make me drive somewhere I did not intend to go, and make me run into my cousin there by accident? If God is messing about with such trivialities, he is not the God he pretends to be. He would focus on assisting people who really need help. He would not think about me at all. So I reject this idea. But what about angels and dead relatives? Is it possible that this lot is in another dimension with the task to help me and others in our daily troubles? It is an inviting idea, but I don’t think it holds. There is nothing to support it. And the effect of this work is almost none, considering the labor that must lie behind it. I’m inclined to think that this is intuition. You follow your intuition, it is not always conscious. And it is not God, or the devil, or grandmother’s ghost, or Michael the archangel who leads us on, but our brains.It’s just a ride!After a long search and great effort I have concluded that the main reason I have not found myself is that I do not really exist, at least not in the sense that usually is attributed to the word. I’m just a biological robot controlled by the supercomputer which is my brain. This computer controls my whole life, my perception and awareness of reality. And it confines me in the same way. I can only see certain colors and only sense a few dimensions. It gives me information. And when I dream at night I am looking at my own thoughts. I am a passive instrument of this brain. My personality is like an avatar, and in reality just a certain interface. Some people like it, and others don’t, but I am no more a real being than a character in a video game. What I feel I am saying here is, therefore, a misconception. My brain is just using my fabricated persona to get information to your brain. Your brain is using you in exactly the same way by making you read this. Our brains want us to interact as much as possible to share information, genes and even bacteria between us. An attractive girl meets a handsome man and starts kissing him. Is it love or something spiritual? Or are their brains just using them to exchange bacteria in order to strengthen their bodies’ immune system? I think so. The Internet is another good example. The human brain did not make the Internet so that we could enjoy looking at porn or playing Candy Crush. The Internet is an information network between brains, and our conscious selves only see a fraction of what goes on there. The brain is the real leader in our lives. We are being tricked by ourselves. But we can relax and try to enjoy it. We do not, in effect, exist and therefore there is no reason to be afraid or be angry. It’s just a ride! Have a nice weekend.
Skoðun Álit Einhverfupaunksins um ABA meðferð og kennslu á Íslandi Sigrún Ósk Stefánsdóttir skrifar
Skoðun Akureyrarbær greiðir götu kvennaathvarfs á Akureyri eins og kostur er Ásthildur Sturludóttir skrifar
Skoðun Viðhorf almennings og neytenda til sjálfbærnimála fyrirtækja og stofnana skiptir miklu máli Soffía Sigurgeirsdóttir,Trausti Haraldsson skrifar