Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Picture a bacterium. You know how bacteria reproduce, right? They just split into two, and then you have two bacteria. They're both the same creature, and yet they're two distinct creatures now. It's just as if you could suddenly clone yourself, in such a way that it's impossible to say which is the "original" and which is the "clone", because you both appeared from the same place at the same time. Now imagine that you could in fact do exactly that. Right now. Your body, your mind, even your memories, everything would be copied, and neither person could be said to be the "original". What would happen?

Well, I think that's clear enough. Your "soul", for lack of a better term, would simply get divided as well. Obviously, you wouldn't see through the eyes of both people at once or anything, because you have two different brains now and they are not shared. You would become two people, and they would still be you, but of course, they would both be individuals in their own right. So, I think it's hypothetically possible for two people to be one person, so to speak.

And, of course, we evolved from bacteria that did exactly this. (Yes, I know that there's that whole issue of creationism, but if we were to assume a literal Christian interpretation of Genesis here, then this whole post would be moot anyway.) So, in a sense, we are those bacteria. We're the "same" organism, with the same "soul".

Now, my theory doesn't really require all life to evolve from the same organism. All that was merely to explain why I think it's possible for us all to have the same soul. This "soul" would be something fundamental to life itself, so I imagine life on other planets would also share this soul. Perhaps things we would consider inanimate have it, too... many times has the belief been stated that the Earth is "alive" in a sense.

I think, perhaps, the universe wasn't created by God, but rather, the universe is God, and life is, in essence, an animate manifestation of it. Our bodies, our minds are sort of like a window into this collective "God mind", if that makes any sense. Imagine that, for instance, our eyes are like security cameras, and God's watching 'em all in the back room. That's his sole purpose: to see what we see, hear what we hear, feel what we feel... except instead of merely watching, it's like he's actually living it. That's God's purpose, to be the universe, and to explore itself.

Of course, this is all in fun, it's all unscientific, and it has no practical application. But I do think it's as valid a theory as any as for the origin and meaning of the universe. Thoughts?

- Kef

P.S. First person to say "tl;dr" gets eaten. By some Linux, or something.

_________________
404 sig not found

tl;d are
but i got the jist of it, and i say NO

On what grounds?

_________________
404 sig not found

Hmm...it seems interesting, though I'm not entirely sure. Normally, I'm not in to thinking about "where we came from" and such, but this is interesting nevertheless.

Disk =/= Deep thinker, in these situations.

_________________

TL;DR We're robot Amoebas.


First off, Why would god create billions and billions of life forms to watch on TV? Eventually it would get boring, and they would end up making every one else, except a main cast of 12, into extras. Then we just end up becoming one of god's sitcoms on the more holy version of TBS, and we end up getting shoved out of the line-up for new episodes of Star Trek, produced by J.J. Abrams.

Then we would eventually come back under the title of "Humanity: The New School" and the nerd of the original 12 would be back as a counselor.

_________________

I can always trust you to come up with a thoughtful reply, COLA.

_________________
404 sig not found

Interesting you bring this up, Kef. I had remembered watching a History Channel documentary about the technology of Star Trek and something about the teleporter came up. It basically said you'd die and be replaced by a copy. Would you be living as the copy or be dead?

_________________

I normally don't buy into any of this sort of thing, but this struck me as a very poignant way of viewing the universe. It's a neat way to tie everything together.

Mind you, I don't agree with a word of it, but I still liked it.

Now, if we get rid of the Dying part, then we'd have an army ready to go in minutes!

_________________

*sigh* COLA, do you ever say anything serious here?

Look, I don't mind the occasional joke -- heck, I make 'em myself -- I just think you're a little excessive on 'em.

_________________
404 sig not found

Look deep, friend, for your swimming pool is shallow.

_________________

I rest my case.

_________________
404 sig not found

I'm not arguing this here.

_________________

*Prestige spoilers*

Reminds me of the prestige.

*Presitige spoilers end here.*

_________________

Oversoul, much?

Sorry, reading Grapes of Wrath in English.

_________________

The teleporter problem is probably my favourite problem in metaphysics. It hurts my brain so much thinking about it. What if you did die? The copy would be exactly the same as you so no one would know except you. Except you wouldn't really "know" either because you're dead so in all respects there is still a "you" walking around and aaslkdfjhre.

_________________

Good thing my hypothesis neatly resolves that problem.

_________________
404 sig not found

Not really. Even if two people shared a "soul" or whatever you want to call it, the instant they start having separate experiences from one another, they will essentially be different people. Their memories will be different and their experiences will affect them in different ways.

_________________

That's no different from when a bacterium reproduces. (A bacterium isn't intelligent, of course, but I don't think that makes a difference.)

_________________
404 sig not found