There are only two real mysteries.

There are only two real mysteries in the universe.



Mystery Number One: Why is there something and not nothing?

Mystery Number Two: How come we are conscious, what is consciousness, how come we think?
All the other mysteries are sub-mysteries, and depend on these first two.
Slightly connected,  a poem attributed to the Persian poet Hafez (1326 -1389):

I wish I could show you, 
when you are lonely or in the darkness, 
the astonishing light of your own being.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3D printers – about time I got one eh?

Image
Since I've been selling a 3D printer program ( PhotoToMesh ), since 2010, more than 4 years ago, I thought it might be time to get hold of a 3D printer myself, instead of relying on indulgent friends and beta testers. Here in Italy it was cheaper to by from a local distributor than Amazon.it, since if the distributor has a shop nearby, you can save 50 Euros on delivery by going to pick it up yourself. So it cost 599 Euros for my XYZPrinting DaVinci 1 3D Printer. Foolishly I had not thought to read the measurements of it, and when I saw the box in the shop I thought: Ah, what do I do now? I had to push down the back the seats of my little Kalos car to get the box to fit in it. I found a place for it at home, but with difficulty. Now when I buy things that cost that much I always feel a bit sick in my stomach. Am I doing the right thing? Will it work? Is it a waste of money? I decided to set it up the following morning, when I'd be bright and intelligent. Ok, stop smi
Read more

How I don't learn from experience

Image
On the morning of last day of the year I fixed a friend's audio amplifier, a Luxman L30. The right channel had gone. We'd bought the replacement transistors on E-Bay. They arrived on the 30th. I'd previously looked inside the amplifier and thought "buggar me this is going to be awkward. I'm going to have to desolder four heavy duty power duty transistors just to get at the circuit board." But I'd said I'd do it and thought I'd better have a go. I was slightly worried about the job and it even disturbed my sleep. In the holiday morning though I uncharacteristically decided to stop watching TV and get on with it. I found the solution, did the job, and got the amplifier working again. (See the end of this blog entry for details). I was so happy when I heard music coming out of both speakers. The evening of last day of the year. The food was nice, the wine was fine, the company pleasant, but after the first hour I was bored o
Read more