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"College"
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Here is my “This I Believe” essay. I still have a little time to do some last minute polishing before handing it in tomorrow.
William Bailey
Ms Lundberg Anders
English Composition I
03 November 2009
Making Virtual Sense of the World
I believe the imagination of the human mind possesses a bondless clout of divinity that allows it to contemplate the most complex mysteries of the universe. I deem curiosity is the magnetic desire of the imagination to discover the answers to the mind’s questions. I consider questions to be the result of a curious imagination at work. Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity; of life of the marvelous structure of reality.” By simply being curious and questioning the reasons for life’s existence, my imagination was able to conceive a completely new theoretical lens for me to observe the world through. This eccentric observation of the world allowed my mind to form a new obscure hypothesis that rationalizes the meaning of life, death, and the reality of the universe.
My imagination initially began working on this theoretical project after I became curious about how and why life exist. I thought I would be able to trace the roots of life back to either the theory of evolution or creation. I was soon disappointed after discovering a major flaw in both theories. They both might explain how life came to exist, but they lacked
explaining why life came to exist. I then questioned why evolution and creation were my only choices. Why wasn’t there a third or fourth choice? This inquiry sent my mind on a mission to discover just one other choice; a choice that had somehow eluded the theorists of the world. During this exhaustive search my mind even pondered if the reality of life was a flawed belief to begin with. Unable to discover any other reason for life’s existence I began analyzing why death existed. I wondered what will happen at the moment of my expiration. Will death claim my mind and body utterly forever? Will my life have just been a rare anomaly of the universe, or will some omnipresent divine force of good allow my soul to exist beyond my human remains? Soon after reflecting about my death I began questioning why life, reality, and death existed as a whole. And that was when the stars aligned, and my imagination conceived its peculiar hypothesis.
To envision my theory, one must first realize that perception is not always reality. Just because something is perceived to be truthful does not mean it is the truth. For example; the world is flat, the sun orbits the earth, the universe is motionless, or humankind will never harness the atom, fly, or go to the moon. As history proves the perceived reality of any subject is only based on the knowledge of the moment. Perception is not static; instead it renews itself as new truths are discovered. Recently this discovery process has been accelerating, and thereby changing the perception of reality on a plethora of subjects.
The mind of humanity is thinking, understanding, and discovering like no other time in recorded history. Over the last century the intellect of humanity not only started jogging. It began leaping. One giant leap was how only sixty-six years passed between the Wright Brothers historic fight to the landing of a man on the moon. Another leap of understanding has been the speed at which the human intellect has discovered technology over the last twenty-five years. This evolutionary leap of technological understanding continues almost daily to fundamentally transform how we work, learn, communicate, and even play.
Just consider what has happened to electronic games since Atari Corporation released Pong in 1972. Back then people would lineup in the lobby of a department store impatiently waiting, for their turn to play a simple game where a boring little blip pinged back and forth on an ancient monitor. Now compare that with the complex virtual reality video games and lifelike virtual interactive games, like Nintendo’s Wii, that exist today. By simply extrapolating this evolution of virtual world technology into the future; I can envision it evolving to a point where it perfectly replicates actual reality and makes true to life virtual interaction possible. This is the Holy Grail of virtual world technology, and what the electronic gaming industry is striving to take from concept to reality. Once it comes to fruition this technology will not only make living a virtual life possible, but also allow someone to suffer a virtual death. This futuristic equipment will create a world so realistic that when a person’s mind is plugged into the machine, so to speak, he or she will not be able to differentiate the virtual world from the real world. They will categorically believe that the reality of their life and surroundings are absolutely factual. I also believe it will be possible to distort time in the virtual world. Think of this as the ultimate time management of a person’s life. A way to learn the lessons of a lifetime over short increments of factual time. To this affect a person would be convinced he or she had lived for forty years in the virtual world when in truth only a fraction of factual time had passed.
To expand my theory, consider the following paradox of reality. Instead of this life, world, and universe being factual, they are virtual copies. That currently we are the benefactors of real world technology that allows this virtual reality to exist. On the surface this theory seems plausible and especially when compared with random-chance. Presently the scientific community is split on how life started on earth. On one side are the random-chance theorists, and on the other side are the intelligent-design theorists, yet both sides lack the evidence needed to prove their theories. The odds are so great for random-chance to have positioned the sun at the perfect distance from earth and placed all the essential building blocks for life to exist on earth, that it staggers the mind. Just to give you an idea it would be like flipping one-thousand coins consecutively, and have every one of them land tails side up on the first try. The random-chance theorists argue that since the universe is infinite, and contains an infinite amount of planets, “random-chance just happens.” The intelligent-design theorists argue that “because the odds of random-chance appear impossible, earth and its life must have been created by intelligent-design.” My own theory combines both sides. I believe random-chance had to take place at some point for intelligent-design to ever happen.
To conclude my theory, this I believe, that it is theoretically possible for the true paradigm of this world to be one where it is a virtual proving ground for the soul. A place where God, or the powers that be, uses the choices made during a person’s virtual lifetime to judge if that person’s neurological functions will be restored to their true body. This will allow her or him to wake up in Heaven or a more utopian oriented society. Their virtual death here would be in sync with their virginal awakening there. This theory not only offers a third choice on how and why life might exist, but also explains how life after death would be possible. It even offers a moral reason, for all having to be born into a virtual existence to begin with. Society could stop evil from ever entering the world of genuine reality by robbing their actual bodies of the opportunity for eternity.
By,William Bailey (C) 2009
Thanks for the website tip. I look forward to checking it out. I went back for a master's when I was 45 years old. I had a great time and the students- both younger and a few similar in age- were as kind as could be. I'd do it again without thinking twice. Luck.
Hi William, This inspires me! I've been considering going back to college, also. Thank you for sharing this....
In Spirit,
Bear
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