Interview with Symptom777

Whenever your ready...

um...............
ok, now then

Tell us a little bit about yourself. The sides of you which you may not present to Frostcloud. For example, what kind of car do you drive, what's your favorite tv show, and where you born/currently live?

Well, Kyman - first off I refer everyone to my profile, which has been there since day one suprisingly - many people seem to make asumptions without even checking this out, so for those who don't know about this here it is:

All of this is true, except possibly the last bit (although on average...)

I was born in Nigeria, my father was a teacher, and went over there when it was still part of the empire (ha!) to teach English. I think partly out of a sense of duty, partly for the money. Anyway, my folks were there for about two years, and I was born about 6 months before they returned home. I don't remember anything about this. Interestingly the return journey took me through more countries than I ever visited until about 5 years ago!! I stayed in the UK from 1961 until 1992, going to school, grammar school, Cambridge Uni (for one year) then to Leeds Uni where I studied Electronic Engineering.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a fighter pilot, partly because it seemed cool, and partly because I thought WWII hadn't actually ended yet. At seven this dream was shattered - (a) I started wearing specs, (b) I realised WWII HAD ended. Instead I decided to become an engineer (at about 8) - my hero was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This I did, working as an Engineer for about 8 years.

Mortgage rates (17%), falling house values (60%), and boredom forced me out of Britain and out of Engineering.

I have always been fascinated by almost everything, especially astronomy/cosmology/space and the human mind. I believe that these are connecetd subjects. As a kid I kept my own star-catalogues, created my own encyclopedia of space ships, and collected UFO stories. I gave up on UFOs at about 15 (a bit longer than religion - I gave up that at 11, finally disgusted by the hypocracy of it all).

I have two cars - a VW Polo (my company car) - this is a silly little bright blue tonka toy. BUT it is highly fuel efficient, easy to park, and due to it's low weight can get to 50 kph faster than most things on the road. This is a source of great amusement to me - the car looks so dumb, but goes like shit. My other car is a Fiat Coupé - now unused. Very nice, but it's Italian!
I have two motorbikes, a Suzuki GSX750 which is totally reliable, looks nice (ugh) and is more than adequate. The other is a Moto Morini 31/2 which is currently being rebuilt in my garage. I'm thinking about buying a Triumph Thruxton, or a Buell, or maybe a Kawa z1000, or........

I've been driving since I was 17, and riding since 18. So far I have not killed myself, nor anyone else. I have broken my pinky and my big toe - that's it.

Favourite TV show? Difficult - I don't watch that much TV anymore - certainly nothing that would keep me in. I tend to watch comedies: League of Gentleman is a fave, Seinfeld I also like, and The Office.

What else?

That's interesting that your belief in UFO's outlasted your belief in religion. Does your lack of faith in religion include any notions of god? Is it simply a conflict with their interpretation of reality, or do you extend that entirely to any idea and possibility of god?

Do you still keep an ear tuned for any information related to extraterrestrial intelligence?

Larry King Live had a show last night about UFO's. It appears there are a shockingly high amount of reports of UFO's and accounts of obduction, often by individuals with high social status such as policemen and military personal. What is your explaination for these reports?

2) If you could change anything about Frostcloud what would it be? What would you keep the same?

It started as a conflict, the church (I felt) was too hypocritical to be serving the god they proclaimed to serve. Would a (reasonable) god put up with this sort of nonsense? Why did these people go to church? Then you ask the questions: what is in it for the congregation, and what is in it for the priest. As time goes on, I have become rather more sophisticated in my thinking (yeah, really - I was only 11 at the time). Now I can't accept the notion of god at all. It is illogical, unreasonable and unlikely. I hold to my view that omnipotence and free-wil cannot co-exist (in more than one being!). Therefore we have to accept that we are robots, or accept that there is no god. I don't believe I am a robot! (And this also references back to the simulation argument which must also be wrong). We are here, we do have minds and we do have free-will. Ergo, no god, no supercomputer.

Yes. But I certainly don't expect to see an alien or his spaceship. I do think that it is possible that we will receive some signs from extraterrestrial intelligences (though probably not deliberate ones); but not that we will meet them just yet - another few million years are probably required. I would not be at all suprised to find (signs of) lifeforms on other planets within our solarsystem.

We are an intelligent race - would we go round buzzing other inhabited planets, kidnapping the people there, and doing silly stunts? Yes, probably, once interstellar spacetravel is as cheap as owning a car! But in that case we'd see LOTS of spaceships - and I mean all of us.

Stress, boredom, neurosis, lack of sleep. Aliens are today's Kobolds.

I'd have white writing on a blue background, instead of the other way round.
If I had the skill and technology, everytime someone started a thread, they'd get a message - WE ALREADY DONE THAT- PLEASE REFER TO>>>
I'd have a log in message for {insert name of offender here} to say - OK THIS TIME TALK SOME FUCKING SENSE YOU MORON.
I think I'd be a bit stricter with the categories.
Finally I think there should be a big warning message everytime someone posts in a thread with a brilliant answer, that the last time anyone even looked at this thread was TWO YEARS AGO, and that the thread starter hasn't visited FC since he posted it.

You said 'in more than one being'. Does this mean you do not have issues with spirituality, as you do with religion?

Do you suspect for that topic to be on Larry King Live there must have been a powerful manipulation? Why would he do that show?

Are you an alien???

I suppose thread topics are like stories of human relationships. The details change, but the same stories keep on repeating themselves. Interesting. What is you favorite all time thread, and why?

3) What makes you really angry? What makes you very happy?

I mean that it is posible for an omnipotent being to have free-will (in fact he must by definition), But it is not possible for there to exist (in the same world) other beings who have free-will whilst the omnipotent being is also there!! I beleive that there must be a world where there is an omnipotent being, just that in that world what is possible to do isn't very much! "spirituality" is a cathedral - a word with many interpretations. Of course I believe that people can be spiritual, but not that there are spiritual beings. If you said that my belief in modal reality was spiritual I could both agree and disagree, but it would mainly be a semantic argument.

Not at all, this show is designed to make money, not to inform you. Information (if any) is a by-product. This is why "The News of the World", "The National Enquirer" , etc. exist - you think the people whoi sell these papers care anything about anything except circulation and aadvertisement revenue? People are interested in all sorts of things: ghosts, aliens, spirits, telepathy, telekinesis, the loch ness monster, god, angels, Area 57, UFOs, living without food, the healing powers of magnetism, psychic surgery, blah blah blah - none of these are real, but you can see documentaries and read articles about them every day if you want.

Yes, under Dutch law I am a legal alien.

Can't answer that!

Angry: greed; inability for people to see that people react in the same way they would if pushed; bad driving; kids playing football against my garage door; the pricing structure of mobile phones/airlines/trains; hundreds of e-mails offering me viagra at discount prices; people who come to my door to convert me to their bizarre religion who don't even understand it themselves and/or bring their children along;
Happy: sex; motorcycling; helping other people; smoking; a good joke; someone who helps me.

"At a White House party, a woman approached Calvin Coolidge, famed for his silence, and said "Mr. President, I made a bet I can get more than two words out of you." He replied: "You lose." "

Ah, so you have been getting my e-mails?

4) What kind of near future would you like to see, and how do you suggest we get there? Now, what future do you actually see unfolding?

Um - no, I haven't been getting your e-mails. I'm actually too lazy to log in.....

Near future: more understanding between peoples, more socialism, some kind of general world business plan. It can't go on like this.... I think we should be thinking about spreading wealth and oportunity, energy and the environment, moving underground and returning the earth to a general forested wilderness.
What I think wil happen is just more of the same, and nothing very exciting - just more gadgets for us, and more pain for them.

Business is an extension of the whole, so it would make sense that it turn a profit for everyone. I suppose the process of getting their will be full of tension and conflict like anything else, but how else will we progress to that point.

You said you are peeved over the hundred emails offering viagra, hence my attempt at humor.

5) Do you like to travel? Where have you been in life that you think was interesting? Where would you like to go someday?

We have to move on, Capitalism is the best we have so far, but i'isn't that good. Somehow people have to realise that driving a 5 litre car that eats 1 gallon every 5 miles doesn't actually improve their life, but does actually hurt the lives of others. Statistical morality is the answer, I think. We are a bit morally lost nowadays because the world has become so big, and yet so close by. a thousand years ago the world was small, and distant. A jury of your peers would be people who knew you - now it has to be people who don't know you! Hurting other people would have been a simple matter of actually physically attacking them, or denyng them food, water, shelter. Now we hurt people on a daily basis, but just don't care. Take the car, rather than walk; have a 60 inch telly, whilst your neighbour has no food; fly to the other side of the world for your deserved holiday, whilst your neighbour gets skin cancer from the depleted ozone layer; spend a week's wages on getting pissed, whilst your neighbour is dying of thirst. Where is morality nowadays?

{QUOTE]
You said you are peeved over the hundred emails offering viagra, hence my attempt at humor.[?QUOTE]
Yeah - sorry missed that one, was in serious mode, oops.

Not really, there's loads here I haven't seen yet! I have a thing about people telling me what wonderful people live 3thousand miles away, and how beautiful it is, blah, blah, when they don't even talk to the people next door, and have never even walked along the street half a mile away, and look at you funny if you mention that a sunset, cloud, tree, bird, whatever is interesting/beautiful. Let alone people who take a year out to travel - wankers!! They can only do it because 6 Bn people on the planet can't!!

Here is interesting, and now. Always will be.

BUT, I have to say I'd quite like to see:

The grand Canyon, the pyramids, and epsilon eridani.

Seen the sistine chapel, not worth it. St Peter's was impressive, but mainly in the sense of you fucking hypocrites!! It's big mind.

Turkey is good - nice people(ha!) recommend it highly to IAJ.

Economics is a game, but the values assigned to us are not representative of our worth. This is the game where money becomes worth, as opposed to health. Money is often used to sustain health, but because it is the primary focus, health is way farther down on the list.

How can the economy be controlled? People are so possessed by it. It is driven by human fear and greed, on a collective scale, and so all of us individuals are sort of swepped away by it. Its not a sacrifice to give to others for the sake of health, but in the ego's perspective it is viewed as a personal loss. How can the most powerful group in the world, the common man, regain influence over the direction of the economy?

That's a good point you make about here and now. If we lived somewhere and when else, here and now would become vacation. Our familiarity really does blind us to our own worth, the worth of others, and our environment.

The grand canyon was amazing. I can post some pics of it if I can find them. I got about 30 shots with my digital while flying over it on our way back home.

Be sure to check vegas out since you'll be so close. The hoover dam is a nice spot too.

6) Do you prefer dogs or cats, and why?

I prefer cats.
1) don't have to walk them
2) bury their own poops
3) don't eat other animals poops
4) quieter
5) weigh less
6) smell less
7) have little raspy tongues instead of big slavvery tongues
8) don't piss on your motorbikes wheels
9) can climb trees
10) don't piss on trees
11) when was the last time you trod in cat shit?
12) can occupy themselves
13) catch and kill irrritating bugs
14) are not scared to attack anything, given the motivation
15) Never surrender
16) can eat without making crumbs
17) can be left home alone
18) never bite your ankles
19) don't try and rut your leg
20) they're just better, ok

7) Do you adhere to any system of faith, organized religion, personal philosophy, or any particular belief system that you would like the world to focus more attention on? And why?

No.

Actually I will come back to this.......

So:

I don't have any religious faith, in that sense I am an atheist. I don't have a structured personal philosophy, though I do have some concepts. I do have a particular belief system when it comes to what the world; but I don't care very much if other people believe in it or not. A little bit of course, because I find that other belief systems tend to be destructive at worst and unhelpful at best.

So, for those that don't know, this "belief" is modal reality.
Basically modal reality state that the world we see and experience around us is real and exists. It exists because all possible things exist. The world is possible, therfore it exists.
This concept was originally dreamt up to answer counterfactuals: what ifs.
Such as "what if Kennedy had not been shot?", or "what if I had crossed the road?". These counterfactuals raise questions about what the world would be like if one thing had happened instead of another. Modal reality makes these counterfactuals real, rather than hypothetical; ie it gives them a meaning which otherwise they don't have - how can we think of a what if, if there is no alternative?
But it answers a lot more questions, too. What is reality? That which we see. Are we real? Yes. Do we exist? Yes. Why is the world like it is? Because it is possible. Why is the universe so fine tuned? Because it is possible. Why did life evolve on Earth? Because it is possible.
Of course this world (and by world I mean this entire set of possible things, this universe) is not the only possible world, all possible worlds exist. So when we ask a what if, in another possible world that what if has played out; in another possible world Kennedy was not assasinated, in another possible world I did cross the street.
Another "possibility" is of course to simply think about what is a possible world. Is it possible that there is another world where we are resurrected when we die?
As far as my own interpretation of modal reality goes, it makes god unnecessary (and indeed I don't believe that god is a possibility in this world, although in some worlds a god like being maybe possible, but in a restricted sense), and it makes all the questions of probability and chance disappear. However small the chance is, if it's greater than zero, it is happening: maybe not in this world, but in a world. And however small the chance is, this world is possible, and here it is.
So we aren't created by a super being, we aren't simulations, we aren't disembodied brains inventing the world around us, we aren't part of a universal spirit, or one with nature, or any thing else: we are what we appear to be - thinking animals living on a small planet going round a yellow dwarf star in an unremarkable arm of an unremarkable spiral galaxy in one cluster of billions of clusters of galaxies in a universe that started some 15Bn years ago, simply because it was possible.

A world where kennedy wasn't shot? Interesting. I'd be jealous if I thought I'd still exist there.

Does this include realities which we may describe as hell, based off experiences in this world where power is corrupted and people are objectified and victimized?

How do you account for dependent origination? I believe it is a buddhist law or belief, among others, pointing that no thing can exist that isn't dependent on some other condition, hence their unseperable relationship or connection. Are you saying man is an independent condition?

Do you only apply the term athiest to yourself in the context of other people's faith? It sounds as if it never comes to your mind until someone supposes a faith in god or religion.

8) What topics/forums do you enjoy discussing most and who do you enjoy discussing these topics/forums with?

You do, Kyman, you do.

It sounds possible, doesn't it? But I guess this is debatable. At any time there will be an infinite number of despotic and hellish possibles; but experience here suggests that these are not long-lived and that eventually morality/decency prevails. Problem is, what can we derive about all possible worlds from just one example?

In our world at least, such hellish realities are narrowly confined in time and/or space, they seldom outlive the despot who starts them up.

So although I am open to the possibility that every time I make a decision for the good, there is a possible world where I make the opposite decision - I am not wholly open to the possibility that a world exists where everyone conytinuously makes these "bad " decisions. My own belief (ha) is that morality is a self-preservation device - truly despotic and evil societies are self destructive. Ever played any RPGs? Being evil is really hard work, and surviving is even harder!

Things have to be possible ; I don't believe that it is possible for a man or a man-type thing to spontaneously appear.

I don't think of myself as an atheist anymore than I think of myself as non-woman, or non-black, or non-American, or non-accountant. The fact is that I am all these things, but this isn't a self-view. In everyday life I don't even think about god or non-god. It does only " erupt" when people talk about religion. Just as if people talk about (say) murdering people, my anti-murder side would show up, without me otherwise thinking about not murdering people on a daily basis.

Religion is a power device; there are con-men and marks. If you are a mark I can try and convince you how you are being conned; if you're a conman, I'll try and put you out of business - but it isn't my life's work by any means.

My view on religion is not very different from my view on pyramid selling or network marketing - they are all insidious evils.

I don't mind, I'm open to it all. The main problem is the total lack of intelligence displayed by certain people here; often people who just spew out garbage or vitriol without ever stopping to think. I have no problem with agreeing with people on one subject whilst vigorously opposing them on another - some people however appear to take an opposite view to everything. Often the people I enjoy listening to (reading) are not necessarily people I discuss with: Misfit, Leouna, Miko, Kolriss, Frish, Drom, Kyman, Mr A, Mindsweeper, St. Bean - to name a few are all interesting; but some of them I almost never engage with, some I disagree with, and others I agree with (and that changes from topic to topic). I'm also open to changing my views on people as some of those mentioned above might attest. But liking people/enjoying what they write and agreeing with them aren't the same!!

Actually I quite like the odd insaniacs who turns up, but most aren't long lived.