Darwin
Hadn’t thought about it that way… point well taken.
When I hear a song by Elvis, Kurt Cobain and others who have departed, I am privy to 3-4 minutes where the future doesn’t intrude and the possibilities are endless.
That we have a mind that has given rise to everything in the past, present and will continue to do so in the future.
That we’re made up of the same material that was first created during the Big Bang.
The evolution of the motion picture. I love watching those really old films. I mean early. Like Thomas Edison’s assistant sneezing, or that video of the dancers on stage with the long robes that were colored in (pink, blue, and yellow, I believe). I look at that and think of the stuff that comes out now like Independence Day and am amazed.
One more (this ties in with evolution): at our most basic and primitive, our whole purpose is to pass on DNA and to make sure the DNA survives. We are ruled by DNA. Nature can be cruel that way. Once you have children, it wouldn’t matter to nature if you died because you’ve completed your purpose—to pass on DNA.
Lots of things I think about a pretty good amount:
I always think about sending a rocket “below” the earth to look for, uh, stuff. I realize there’s no direction in space but don’t you picture all the planets to be on the same line? Makes my brain heart.
When I get stuck in traffic, looking at all the cars and realizing there’s a story at least as long as mine about each of them, and yet I don’t know it
The Count St. Germain… Research that guy and tell me it wasn’t interesting to do so
The pace of progress in this century (well, last century I guess). From no such thing as powered flight to moon landings in less than 70 years. Unbelievable.
On a related note: my grandfather who died last year at age 99. I used to get blown away thinking of the stuff he had seen and lived through. This is a guy that was too old to get drafted in WWII, fer crissakes! If I make it that long, what will I be witness to?
Someone mentioned world infrastructure and I agree. Two weeks ago, I was in Vegas and took a trip to Hoover Dam. How the hell did someone build that thing? 65 years ago no less!
The fact that everyone, even criminals and the lowest dirtbags, was at one time someone’s cute little baby.
Lastly, my own not quite 6 month old daughter, Ava. From a 5½ pound lump of noise that slept all the time to a little person with her own little personality and likes and dislikes in less than half a year.
What will she look like when she’s 20? 40? What will she do for a living? What will think of her old dad when she’s an adult?
I’m blown away and humbled that she’s letting me tag along for the ride, if only for a while.
The Japanese rail system. Truly one of the wonders of the modern world.
I once flew from Beijing to Zagreb, Croatia. These two places have about only one thing in common: they were both conquered by Gengis Khan. People on horses managed to subjugate most of Eurasia. Unbelievable.
And I will second waking up next to someone you love. Especially the first time.
I can call my parents, who live half a world away, from my cell phone and it sounds like they’re in the same town.
Generally anything really powerful blows my mind. Formula 1 Racing cars, airplanes, helicopters, space shuttles. The fact that we can create things so powerful and then not only get them under control, but put them to use for work and for play.
I’ve seen most of these things in person except the space shuttle, which i sorely want to do! Imagine actually feeling the shockwave of a launch role up and hit you! I think it’s a mix of actually being able to hear and feel the power of these things even when a fair distance away. The first indycar race I saw was the loudest, smelliest, most awsome thing i’ve experience to date, a truely visceral experience wow!
One time I had amnesia for a weekend. I walked around my house, over and over again, feeling like I didn’t belong to any of it. I recited the names of my family members, over and over and over again in an attempt to get back the feeling for them that I knew I should have. I felt like an entirely blank slate with no connection to anything, like an empty person dropped onto a stage. On Monday morning I woke up feeling some ‘connected-ness’, I walked around happy and grinning, but then it went away, and I could FEEL it leaving me. Things were getting more distant and I knew it was happening. The rest of the day I spent missing that feeling of belonging, and crying and feeling terrible. The next morning I got it back again when I awoke, and it lasted a while longer this time before it went away again. Finally my life slowly fused back into my brain. Our consciousness and ability to make sense out of it all blows my mind every day.
Watching my 6 year old daughter and 6 month old son grow before my eyes is blowing my mind all the time. The knowledge that I am “THE DAD” now is incredible. I wonder if I am the omniscient person to my children that my dad was to me.
The fact that huge metal ‘boats’ can fly heald up only by the pressure differential between the top side and the underside of their wings.
The fact that from this seat here in front of my computer and near a phone I could communicate with anyone from within a large percentage of this worlds population.
That I can go into a supermarket and buy food from all corners of the world.
That e[sup]i pi[/sup] = -1 .
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- Anybody need lots of really thin wire? I went looking online for magnet wire a few days ago. I found a company that sells many sizes, the thinnest being 54-gauge. A one-pound spool of this stuff would easily fit in your hand: it measures maybe three inches diameter and three inches wide. It costs ~$3600.00 and contains 826,000 feet of wire – 156 miles.
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Sorry to hijack, but I think that would be the coolest thing ever. [important] I know you said you were very depressed and you had a hard time with it, so I hope I’m not offending. [/important] If I could just have amnesia for a few days, then get it back with no long term damage, that would be fascinating. I would just walk around, “Can I remember TV channels? Yep!” , “Can I remember how to cook spaghetti?, Nope.” “Who? Mom who? Check with me on Monday, I’ll probably remember who you are then!”
So you knew who everybody was, but didn’t have “feeling” for them? What couldn’t you “remember”?
Again, I hope this isn’t insensitive.
[/hijack]
Fingerprints blow my mind. The concept that in a space of about 1 inch by 3/4 inch is a totally unique design that has never happened before and will never appear again. and you have ten of them.
then I starting thinking about the vastness of all the other unique patterns. In a large building there maybe 1,000 people… and their are 10,000 unique fingerprint patterns.
What about all the people in a stadium at one time. 40,000 people, 400,000 unique patterns. that’s a lot of patterns already.
Then start thinking about cities, and countries. Although I know about high numbers, I have no physical concepts of millions and billions. I cannot conceive there maybe that many varieties in such a small space.
Then think about all the people in the world that have been here before us in only a few thousand years of time. can all those fingerprints be unique and original too? all in a 1 inch by 3/4 inch of space on your finger?
probaby not, there has to be some copies. but the concept keeps me up at night. kind cool… and nobody knows what they’re used for.
mike
Standing in a library looking at all the books that contain information that I don’t know. -more humbling than ming blowing.
The fact that I spend 1/3 of my life sleeping.