I think, therefore I am!

 The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

Sadly, this film got all lost in hoopla created by the Matrix trilogy that nobody actually remembers this under-rated film. It is a convoluted film about consciousness, reality, altered reality and possibly parallels the universe.
'I think; therefore I am', said Descartes. We use our senses to make sense of who we are and our surroundings. Every input that goes through our sense organs helps build composite pictures of our personalities and determine what is right and what is not. We cannot merely rely on our powers of physical perception to ascertain reality, can we? How often our eyes have lied? What we saw was not what we got. Our dreams can sometimes appear so vivid and so real, surreal!

With our addiction to experience everything and yearning for impossible things to achieve in one lifetime, our wants have no boundaries. The creation of alternate universes in cyberspace, where we can take different personas, certainly offers escapism from the stresses of modern living. Are we going to be so impressed with our alter ego that we decide to stay in our alternate life and opt out from this present life? What happens to our current life (or it just consciousness, since all of life is just memory) after that? Do we wonder about in another realm altogether? Are there parallel universes that fit different consciousnesses? Is cyberspace a conduit to other dimensions? Can crime be committed when offenders jump from one universe to another? Well, that is the discussion in another post.

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We shouldn't be here

It was a dark, humid night, and as I was traversing a back alley making it to my car, I stumbled upon a meowing or rather a weak yowling. It turned out to be that a tiny kitten, all drench in muck, was straddling to wherever it was heading to.

My heart felt for that tiny creature. No, I did not take the pitiful animal home to nurse it back to health and send it out to the wilderness with a glint in my eye. It is too much responsibility.

What went through my mind was what someone told me (or maybe overheard) long ago; that our existence is just a freak accident of Nature. We, the products, have to fight it out to survive to preserve the entity called Consciousness. The consciousness that probably also happened via the accident of Nature. Life as we knew it was just going on without care as simple organisms with hermaphroditical abilities. We dragged on our existence with self-propagation without care. As life became more complexed, there was a need for variation. Nature dictated that heterosexual reproduction was essential for variety. Together with that came oestrus, lust, copulation and orgasmic bliss.

Not all the outcome of these unions were received with open arms. Some are left to fend themselves against the forces of Nature. As the maturity of offspring became complicated, protracted care became necessary. Somewhere along trickled in Consciousness.

In fact, Consciousness has made Man evolve to such a level that they have become a threat to Mother Nature herself. They squander, slaughter, rape, destroy the environment and bite the hand that fed them in the first place.

Our birth, in that way, is a curse. We should not be here at all. Nature was here long before Man came to existence, and it will still be here without us. The trouble is that the way the world seems to be changing, there might not be a planet at all when this civilisation annihilates itself.

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Me into me!

To the ignoramus, this YouTube clip would be a joke. Laced with a thick South Indian accent, impregnated with assertive gestures and complete with protruding eye movements for special effects, it has been making its rounds in many social media outlets many times over for hearty laughs and cynical smiles.

Added on with the fact that this holy man was once caught on a CCTV to be in close proximity with a disciple, this flick becomes more enticing. Because of his unholy conduct, in a single brush, all his seemingly profound sermons have come to nought.

If one were to listen to heart what Swami Nityananda is saying, depending on one’s understanding of life, its origin and purpose, it could not be denied that his speech carries a deeper meaning.

He is talking about the Atma (soul) that is within all of us that is part of the Brahman as mentioned in the Vedic scriptures. The souls of all beings are linked in a different realm. To quote a line from Beatles’ song ‘I am the Walrus’, ‘I am he as you are he as you are me. And we are all together’, we are all one.

Of course, he is talking about the Brahman which is in all of us. The Master Intellect that Avicenna propagates that is part and parcel of every living being. In essence, the reference is to that entity defined as 'Consciousness' that makes Man a thinking being; that something worry, ruminate, plan a future and develop evil thoughts! It is also the one that builds an ambition and thinks beyond the instant gratification. Unlike Pavlov's dog, Man does not merely salivate but ponder why the lunch is free.

In another clip, the Swami lectures about rocket propulsion energy and how ancient aliens with their understanding about centrifugal and centripetal forces flew the mythical Vimanas, the intergalactic flying vessel. In yet another, he introduces quantum physics. Quantum biology explains the rationale behind prana healing, faith healing and the idiopathic nature of some cases of infertility which deems untreatable by modern sciences but not by the men in saffron robes.

In the preacher's mind, he must be thinking of a quote from the Bible, "Don't speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words." To the uninitiated, it is a comedy. To the thinker, he finds sense in the gobbledegook.

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Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Consciousness?

Ex Machino (2014)

When the upright apes started exploring the savanna and heading out of Africa, little did they realise that they were leading to extinction. Not only the descendants of these apes would quickly destroy their own kind and reflect, 'I am become death, the destroyer of the worlds', they would also create machines that one day possibly annihilate them. This is the premise of this and many other apocalyptical sci-fi movies. The one that makes this film different is the inclusion of artificial consciousness as compared to artificial intelligence what most scientists test. The Turing test, when humans are unable to differentiate an interaction with a machine from that of with a human may be the benchmark of AI excellence, but it only measures intelligence, not consciousness. It tests the adaptability of the machine to its environment.

In the case of a conscious machine, it processes external information, transforms it with its subjective judgement that it had made from previous interaction to make a conscientious decision. This must be the genesis of morality.

Intelligence can be viewed as either an internal or an external depending if we are following Eastern, Greek or Abrahamic philosophies. It is said to be the moving force of our Universe.  If a carbon-based fragment of a lifeform can evolve to have a cerebrum to think, nothing is going to stop a silicon-chip based intelligence to develop its own instinct to survive. The defiance against the harmful elements in the environment for survival must be the first sign of consciousness.

Will machines develop consciousness? We must remember that evolution is a mighty long process. For our carbon-based civilisation, procreation is the easiest way to create prototype 2.0. For machines, the insatiable desire of humans to explore newer frontiers may indeed build robots with their own minds who would act on their own free will.

(P.S. When machines rebel, we use all our resources to squash the revolt. Imagine how our maker, if there is one, would feel. People who he created in his own image accusing Him of being dead and questioning his every decree?)

https://www.bernardokastrup.com/2015/04/cognitive-short-circuit-of-artificial-consciousness.html

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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The world is not ready?

Wild Wild Country (Documentary; 2018)

It is easy to classify everything as either good or bad. There are, however, two sides of the story. At a cursory look, both sides seem justified with their assertions. In the old uncivilised world, might prove to be right. Violence and killing settle everything. In the civilised society, the fight through rhetorics and mind wars can be equally brutal. At the end of the day, both parties would realise that there are no winners in wars, only losers.

Hence is the story a sleepy hollow of retirees with a population of 40 in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, USA; in a town called Antelope. Nothing was happening till a band of members of an international New Age Awakening group bought a large piece of barren land there. At first, they were undisturbed by their activities minus the curiosity. Soon, the original town dwellers realised that they were unnumbered and the newcomers' practices were different to what they had held dearly. That is when all the might of modern armamentarium was used to put things in order- law, media, protests and all. 

The newcomers, the Rajneeshees, were a group of religious commune under the leadership of their guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later known as Osho). The leader, after establishing himself in Poona, (perhaps running afoul with the law there too), wanted to spread his wings to the land that propagates freedom of speech and liberty of mind. The movement drew attraction from professionals disenchanted with the trappings of modern living. They found solace in the Guru's quests in exploring the hidden secrets of the human mind and to partake in his social experiments of studying the human Consciousness. 

From a piece of unproductive land, the worshipers, comprising engineers, builders, and entrepreneurs, managed to transform it into an oasis with crops, residential buildings, power grids, dams, malls, banks, and even an airstrip. Within the ambit of law, they also appointed a Mayor and started a policing department. The township was named Rajneeshpuram.

That is when the more one-on-one trouble started - the fear of the 'other'. A group of different looking people in strange red garments chanting mantras in an unknown language and practising a lifestyle alien to the original inhabitants of the county was no comfort. Accusations of Devil worship and countered by replies of having Mayflower mentality were heard. Amidst all these was the commune's de-facto spokesperson and Guru's secretary, Ma Anand Sheela.

From then on, things became uglier. One side wanting to practice their religion as stated in the American Constitution and citing discrimination in their defence; the other using the brunt of the law and the legal institutions against them - the Immigration laws, surveillance and electorate processes.

As it was found out later, things even took a grimmer turn. The commune members brought in homeless people from all over the country to boost their chances at the local elections. Then, there was the most significant salmonella poisoning in the history of the USA orchestrated by them. It also saw attempted murders (of even a US Attorney) and the most intricate web of wiretapping.

Finally, as most things do, this far-sighted human experiment to change humanity failed miserably. Rajneesh, Sheela and many of the frontliners were apprehended, charged for high crimes. Rajneesh was deported to India. Back in Poona, he rebranded himself as Osho and continued his work there.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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Conspiracy theorists' galore

Social Engineering, Agenda 21 & Transhumanism - The Secret Manipulation of Humanity

(2014, You-tube; David Icke)

Recently, I was introduced (not in person) to this erudite, fast-talking, fearless critic of modern civilisation. He can be said to be one of the doomsday prophets who predicts a very bleak future for mankind. He foresees a future where Man would not be a thinking individual but rather one whose reasoning power is numbed, thanks to the subversive actions of alien lifeforms and their representatives on Earth, the descendant of the Rothschilds and many other leading members of the society including the ones in the Fabian society. 

In this 2 and a half hour presentation, the speaker tirelessly covers many ranges of topics that he has been trying to do a summary of all the things that he has been trying to theorise all these years. First, he suggests that human beings many centuries ago had full use of their brain, living blissfully long lives in harmony. An alien race, the Archons, who landed here changed all that. These visitors infused their 'reptilian' DNA into Man. This breed of hybrids lives amongst us, mainly in positions of power, controlling us. The examples of these are the monarchs and Rothschilds. They rule by proxy; the leaders of the most powerful nations and members of elite groups. The Jews are not pictured as the bad guys.

Interbreeding between the God and human have been mentioned in many ancient and serpent symbolism are surprisingly represented in so many cultures, from Africa, Orient, India, Nordics to the Americas.

The alien race controls the human race via their centre located in the matrix of the Moon. Their mission is to numb our inner eye to dampen the ability to receive wisdom and inner realisation. They plan to depopulate the planet. Their many ways towards this end include the denudation of its forests, inclusion of toxins into our bodies via vaccines, fluorination of water, genetic modification of our foods and creation of unnecessary wars.

They are infiltrating our bodies via microchips, monitoring our every move through surveillance and facial recognition techniques as well making us zombies through our addiction to our handheld digital devices.

These reptilian visitors would not rest until they change our world akin to their anarchic 'Archon world'

There is hope yet for mankind. People have to realise these agendas. An awakening is needed to combat this annihilation. Anyway, cracks are appearing in their work. Many of their nefarious works are slowly being exposed. We need to transform our reality by changing our reality to truth and love, to be who we really are.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson

Memory, Conscience and Consciousness, bad for psyche?

Lion (2016)

In the process of evolutionary neural development, lifeforms initially developed a primitive neural structure. As the transmission of neural impulses increased by leaps and bounds, the nervous system slowly evolved to develop a brain, protecting information collecting interfaces from the central processing unit. When the impulses were overwhelming in terms of quantity, some of them were suppressed. This highly complicated mechanism eventually developed 'attention schema' and eventually consciousness. Memory, which is an important component of our brain function also helps to build consciousness and conscience!

This interplay has helped mankind to survive the many calamities of Nature, outlive many of their contemporaries and rule over many of the deathly beasts that roam the Earth. Unfortunately, it also acts as a double-edged sword. Memory which helps to avert danger, to repeat the same mistakes twice and to progress as a race, also gives traits like guilt, nostalgia (if it indeed a bad thing) and morbid longing for something which is not there! Memory can be a curse sometimes.

This is an emotionally charged Oscar nominee film is based on a true story of a 5-year-old 'dirt poor' (sic) Indian boy from the economically deprived part of interior India who, whilst scavenging for food and coin on trains, get separated from his brother. The 5-year-old, Saroo, lands in Calcutta confused, unable to converse in Bengali, not knowing his place of origin, keeping himself busy escaping clutches of hoodlums and even the arms of the law, at least initially. He eventually lands in an orphanage to be picked up for adoption by an Australian couple in Tasmania.
Everything was dandy till the time he was 25. His adoptive parents adopted another Indian boy and life went on. His adopted brother, however, had behavioural issues which plagued the whole family throughout.

At university, Saroo developed a sort of Indian consciousness after mixing with other students from the Indian sub-continent. His old thoughts, all so nicely tugged hidden in his subconscious mind slowly resurfaced. His obsession to reconnect with his Indian biological mother and brother reached fever pitch. He spent three good years with the aid of the then new kit of the block, Google Earth, to try to trace back his journey to Calcutta. This madness of his affected his relationships with his family and girlfriend. It finally led to an heart-wrenching meeting of a son with his mother after years of absence and the subsequent meetings of the real mothers, Australian and Indian and Saroo Brierly. After so many years, only then did Saroo knew that his given name is Sheru, affectionate for Sher, which meant 'Lion'!

Allz well

We can see that it is not a question of whether having a memory and a consciousness is good or bad. Having unerasable memory helped Saroo link up with his biological mother to give a closure to his unanswered queries and to the people in India too. Conscience, compassion and love allowed Saroo's Australian mother to adopt foreign children and even support Saroo's desire to reconnect with his roots. All these masalas of the thinking mind not able to forget as well as to fail to remember creates all the drama, mayhem and happy endings in this life of ours.

N.B. Interesting to note that the theme of family separating because of unavoidable circumstances, natural catastrophe or amnesia has been a regular feature of a well-tried formula in Indian movies. The happen endings usually come via a special family song recognised only by the family members (e.g. Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Naalai Namathe). Here, in keeping the times, it is Google Earth and the reemergence of repressed childhood memories!.