Time Flies…
Written 08/25/22
Published 11/20/23
Good times go by quick. This is the mental construct of time approaching a singularity. All of the "frames" of time, all of the events of my memory are compressed into an autobiographical concept map. When things are "good" or "bad," my map of this time is defined by the struggles that I overcame and the successes I experienced. Good times are free of the chaos and hardship. They're simply good. My map says "no problems" and that's it. That's the point. Things are good. No need to worry about anything now. You are here. You're fine. Do anything. If you do something and it feels good, good. If you do something and then you realize that it has negative consequences, then this is a boundary you need to be aware of. Don't do that thing. Otherwise you're good. Do anything else.
The reason my map says "no problems" and nothing else is because the other concepts are not important for survival. Natural selection of ideas dictates that if I have limited capacity to carry memories with me into the future, it would be beneficial to remember things that help me avoid death and suffering. Otherwise I would probably just die and then I have no ability to even access those precious memories I was holding onto. In practice we obviously have memories of good things, but bad things stick out. It's the same principle when the news cycles constantly push fearmongering and impulsive unverified gotcha pieces. It sticks out. It reminds us of the existence of death and struggle and suffering, and motivates us to avoid that.
Breaking news! Struggle and suffering is bad. But overcoming these struggles is what defines our self image. A long period of time with no struggle or suffering is good. That's it. It was good. Now it's gone. Our memories are defined by the struggles. We remember all the bad things that God threw our way and how we had to deal with it. All the good times, they're just good. But the overcoming of a finite struggle creates a finite success. It is the observer, observing a successful outcome relative to its own models of the world. The observer is the object of infinite Truth, and the success is the subject of the observer's finite models of the world in the context of utility towards a given goal. It creates a defined memory of success and happiness. It's good! It was good. Now it's gone. Everything is finite. This is life. Success is finite, struggle is finite. Everything returns to 0. The house always wins.
But then how did we get here? I dunno why are you asking me. We're here. The infinite struggle is between experience and the unknown. The unknown manifests persistently for billions of years with complex self relations in order to create a tiny little cell. And that tiny little cell might create another. And eventually those cells team up into groups of cells. And one of those groups of cells is Danny Devito. He's just here. Why? That's not a question to ask. The question is what to do before the finite struggle for life and experience inevitably toggles to the unknown. The house always wins. But every once in a while someone walks out a winner.
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TL;DR Time is a mental construct based on the particular chronological events of memory. Bad things stick out in memory because bad things might lead to death. Good things are good, but don't stick out. The observer is aware of something as bad, and creates a model to overcome this thing. Failure is common, the house always wins. But sometimes the model might actually work, and this results in going from bad to good. This shift from bad to good is something we can distinctly recognize as a change in the positive direction, which creates the finite illusions of Truth, being, happiness, success.
