That was just a little thought I had the other day. I was recently exposed to the theory that even though there is some possibility of life on other planets there is also a possibility that nothing else like humans exists anywhere, even on earth. By that intelligence is not necessarily meant, other animals are able to solve problems, have societies, and communicate and if that isn’t intelligence… However other animals seem to lack something that humans have which is quite possibly imagination. Normally people don’t put much into imagination but giving it a moment of thought it occurred to me that without it we would just be monkeys.
Using my title as an example, a rational number is basically a fraction like 1/2. And of course fractions are basically division problems. Sticking with 1/2, if you divide one pie by 2 you get half a pie. That is a rational line of thought and thus 1/2 is a rational number. On the other hand if you think about it, each half of a pie is a distinct thing unto itself, you could almost think of each piece of a pie as a pie or just as a piece rather than say 1/8 of a pie (that’s a stingy sized piece for most pies I say). And if I understand correctly that’s the way that other animals would look at it. They don’t have the ability to rationalize that one piece of pie sitting there is the same thing as the piece of pie sitting over here, all they know is that it’s food and they probably want to eat it. Actually they probably know other things about it that we don’t like subtler scents that escape the human nostrils.
OK so this has turned into something that doesn’t make any sense. But my point is that humans have come up with all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily real and that has allowed them to come up with things that are. Other animals appear to lack this ability to imagine, to rationalize, to make expansive plans. If they had it, then they would be able to fully communicate with us, they would be able to write, they would be able to do math.
I suppose there are a lot of people who would just as soon not do math, and there is a case to be made for the way of nature being ideal compared to the perversions of humanity. You don’t get necrophiliac serial-killer lions after all. But we humans are what we are and there possibly has never been anything similar that came before us, and when we die out there might not be anything else like us that will follow.
Of course in writing this I’m saying nothing of god but that’s because god says nothing about it to me. Perhaps the christians and jews are right and moses was given the 10 commandments by god whenever that was and to god that was supposed to be be good enough for all of us plus or minus the gospels and so on (I don’t really know how all that stuff works and couldn’t care less). Same with allah and muhammad, to an omnipotent being perhaps 2-4,000 years is the blink of an eye and to one who is omnipresent all thoughts and actions are carefully timed and orchestrated. Or *gasp perhaps god fed people a bunch of bs or the people who heard god didn’t understand and made things up. Not to mention other people who just lied to serve their own agendas and perversions. I am reminded of a thought I once had that perhaps humans are made in god’s own image in the sense that god is an aberration and so are humans. We’re god’s mistake and god is the universe’s or something like that. It would explain a lot.
Well whatever kids. I guess my point is to appreciate things like math and books because they’re what we have that maybe nothing else does. I met someone the other day who didn’t think they’d ever read an entire book. People like that are out there, it’s just not important to them, they don’t make anything of it, they don’t have the ability to grasp it. I honestly don’t know whether that’s a shame or not, whether this person had missed out on anything or not. After all I’ve read thousands of books but perhaps I missed out on thousands of hours of other activities as a result. Certainly it’s hard to imagine that I gained any unique knowledge by reading the likes of Mo Hayder’s “Birdman” that either benefits or affords me a special advantage over anyone else. If anything I think it just sparked all kinds of depressive thoughts. So whatever. I guess I don’t have a point. It gets hard after you reach a certain… let’s call it a “state” to separate things out and be concise. Possibly everything is related after all. Or is that probably? Whichever one works for you.
