Although Vijun might never be here again, I had a strange urge to reply to this message to share my ideas on the topics mentioned. My only hopes is that he will return here, share a little, and maybe find that pleasure he was after.
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First of many quotes from vijun:
I am a twenty-three year old male that is currently living in Montreal. I would describe myself as an eccentric self loathing, depressed human being. I dropped out of high school when I was sixteen. I never had a job. I only leave my apartment when I have to.
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19 year old in Winnipeg. Depressed all of the time minus a couple days in a month, paranoid, self doubting, and socialy inept. Dropped out of middle school when I was 15. Never had a job. And I only leave my basement when I have to, or when someone disturbs my many musings and practicly drags me from here. Another guy messed up much like him yet I go on, day by day I can feel myself slipping deeper into the abyss and yet I go on. Why? Maybe it is because I fried my brain so bad on marijuana that I find every little thing amusing. Maybe it is because I am so cynical that I make a hobby out of it, and then try to force my perfectionist views onto it. Maybe I am just so blindly insane that I could frankly not give a damn what the world is and what it thinks. Or maybe, just maybe, it is because I believe that one day I will make a large difference in our world. How? Wish I knew the answer to that. From a broad view of myself, I have no real impressive skills which could clearly mark me out in the crowd. That of which I AM good at can clearly be done a thousand times better by those already doing it. Regardless of all my flaws and clearly imperfect/inadequate skills, just being is causing a difference (which may be direct or indirect and cannot be known until future events unfold).
Now enough ranting on that subject, I can understand the views of hopelessness which end up in suicide.
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Quoted from previous post of mine:
You live in this world of suffering, you hold on tight to your will which will keep your mind clear (for the moment), and more chances then not a person would try to find something to keep him or herself going. You might find someone else to share your problems with (slim chance if the world is huge and little to no population), and you might not. You could try to make the best of what you do have (build a home, start farming etc...) but in this hypothetical world your efforts would just be wasted. "Dang, my house was destroyed, time to rebuild.","Again? Rebuild.","Rebuild.","Why bother? *pulls piece of newspaper over body, but then it blows away*". This would seem to be the world of those who do have that bullet cocked in the chamber ready to introduce it to their brain. Why continue to suffer if nothing can stop it?
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I will continue on this subject at the end of this post, so stay tuned...
Traditions
Yes, human beings have a lot of strange irrational traditions which have been passed on from generation to generation. Somtimes these traditions will undergo small changes as time passes, following the way of legends and myths. Circumcision, a nasty little thing to do though in recent days it has it's purposes (such as penile malignant tumors (doctors will come up with just about anything that involves those hunks of cancerous flesh won't they?)) Monogamy I was not aware we practice as a traditional thing to do, I mostly thought of it as human nature seeking pleasure when disatisfied with that they have already been given. Date specific holidays are a tradition that has begun in recent days (recent not nesicerily meaning in the past several years), is somthing that will most likely stay until the day we are extinct or somehow lose the concept of time. These days are completly usless to do anything out of the ordinary at but some enjoyment might come out of it. Birthdays, okay so I was born and it marks another year of life. Why throw a party? Why recieve/give presents? Why recieve/give pieces of paper with sometimes humorous or touching art and words on it? (please try to keep capitalist gain out for the moment.) Valentines day. The Irish Saint who made this day famous I suppose does deserve a day in which to commemorate whatever it was he did (I read it somewhere but long forgot what he had done). Why dub this day "The day of love", or "The most romantic day" etc..? Each day has a reason for being selected out but do not deserve the worship they are given unless the whole idea of a specific holiday is meant to remember (ie, rememberance day, veterans days, martin luther king day and on and on).
Humans have dozens of large and small traditions that we keep going, though in my opinion is only meant to fill in some gaps in our lives to give pleasure or purpose.
Good and Evil
Oh boy am I gunna have some fun with this one. I have often questioned, argued and debated the subject of good and evil. These two action describing concepts have simple definitions. Good being an action that benefits or follows the will of others. Evil being an action that harms or ignores the will of others. The actions in which I follow are good in theory yet contain evil applications. I call this "The greater good". An extream example is, if I had to kill a million people in order to save a billion people. In the end it means good will come, but in the process I am commiting evil acts.
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Some people like to think of good and evil as a positive force and a negative force or good karma and bad karma. I see it as logical and illogical behavior that is passed on in your genetic code and your culture from generation to generation...
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A beautful observation, one in which I shall ponder upon further. Logical and illogical behavior does seem like nice way to think of "good" and "evil" actions. But how can we determine what is truely logical and what is illogical? Every person has their own point of view on how things should work which is passed on to others as you said. The main driving force which would seem to be 'logical' thing to do is decieded by the majority who think the same. But that majority thought could have been the end result of a butterfly effect set in motion so many years ago. Maybe the logical thing to do was to go out and murder, rape and steal. But I shall remain with the majority on that subject.
Gods
Since the dawn of time, intelligent man has worshiped unearthly figureheads in hopes that it will make a difference in their lives. First it was many, then knocked down to a couple. Is it our fear of death that makes us turn to these gods? Is it our minds wishing that our fantasies will be fulfilled by these entities? I have never really given too much of a thought about god or the plethora of gods. I follow my life following one simple rule: fate is the guiding force, I choose which path fate is to continue down. It may be silly, or incorrect, but it has got me this far so there.

There may or may not be these entities guiding our way of life, if they or he or she or it does not wish to show themself to me then so be it, time will tell if it is true, or not. I believe there is already a discusion taking place regarding this subject so I shall yeild.
Dr. Tear-your-mind-apart-and-rebuild-it
I have been to a couple of psychiatrists in the past five years and can say that they have done nothing for me, other then listen to me and insult my intelligence. However they say they did what they were supposed to do. Whatever. There are those who do study the abnormalities that exist, both from a scientific (literaly diving into the brain and looking) and philosophical (asking why is it happening and trying to understand how it got to that point) stance. One of these days I would like to join those on the philo' search for answers of the mind. Anyways. Is it right for these doctors to be so apathetic and untrustworthy to their patients? My opinion, no. Why? My personal beliefs and morals. Are all like that? I hope not.
Playing god... I mean, genetics
We have come a long way concerning manipulation of microscopic cells and their characteristics. Is this a correct, good, "logical" thing to do? Why not? Genetics is in a broad sence the same as any other science that is being studied. Instead of wondering how energy and matter work, how the stars and heavenly bodies move about, and how certain elements react to another or how playing around with the elements can cause different reactions, genetics is trying to figure out how life is working. But the moral implications of such tampering almost seems like life has been copyrighted by who is doing the badmouthing of this scientific field.
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It is time for us to start creating better humans.
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This would seem to come down to a question of morals. Besides that, how do you think the rest of us ungenetically enhanced creatures would act towards an engineered human? How would these engineered humans act towards us? Hard to tell, could be trouble or could end up enhancing our way of life. Only way to fingure that one out is to do it.
Virtual Reality
I too wish virtual reality was advanced enough to be able to escape it all. Until the day that we have made holodecks, your imagination should be all that you need. Or at least it is all I need to escape reality once in a while. Virtual reality that you see in books, movies and tv are just development stages to reach the mighty goal. Most of which is not publicly available ot won't be available until sufficient marketing schemes are made. If you want in on the development then read a book, take a coarse, and start making that hardware and programming the software. Any one of us could be the father of the early holodeck system which could spawn the future Star Trek like thing.
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A virtual reality entertainment center in some large North American cities where people can go to watch real movies on IMAX dome screens and play high quality 3D video games in a private room on dome screens that are about 60% to 75% smaller than your average dome screen.
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For the first statment, I believe they have said item you are refereing to in a major city (cannot remember which, add short memory to my list of flaws). It features a huge dome that closes over the audiance and it plays the imax film on it. No 3D models that jump out at you yet. If what I have seen on the list of 2004's greatest acheivments is the most advanced holographic image to date, then we are under a year or a few years away from 3D holos. Personal dome 3D video game centers? Money is the major concern. To play one of these personal stations would cost a butt load of money.
Betting on ability rather then chance does occur though not very often. Betting by chance adds some unexpected twists to the world of gaining and loseing money, which by my understanding is whats so appealing about it. If you bet by talent then it is the same thing. Many unexpected twists can occur depending on the talent being exploited. You also have to factor in human competitiveness and cheating (this might be done by hacking, disabling your opponent and all that nasty stuff, but in terms for money 'all is fair in love and war').
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High-tech luxury apartments in some large North American cities that would include the same smaller versions of the IMAX dome screens that I wrote about above. Imagine watching 3D television and performing most of the activities that I wrote about above. These apartments would be very expensive. They would probably cost $100,000 a month or more but I would be willing to spend that much if I could afford it.
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Suggest it to an architect. Build the system yourself. Such a system would simply be an accessory that the consumer would have to add to their household. At the moment computer gurus are trying to intigrate all the stuff that makes a house a house into a computer system. A house run by a not so evil ai HAL computer. Expect such a house to be finished in the coming year to three years. When it will come out on the market might be a few more years down the road.
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In the near future- A computer program that can be your friend, teacher, or sexual partner.
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Artificial intelligence is coming along quite nicely. Sure there may be the odd mad scientist computer geek who has created an AI system (somehow FT comes to mind), but what I do know of what is happening so far in that field is: a group of university students has successfully made and implimented a digital aquarium. The fishies swim, the fishies eat, the fishies get the hell out of there when a bigger fishy wants to eat it, the fishies also learn and use that knowledge. However all that is based roughly on a system call fuzzy logic which I never really studied up on, but I should or maybe ask in the computers forum. Be a few more years until full AI is made. However I shall again stop there because there is a thread discussing AI. Minus the AI. A computer can be a friend if it wants to be, or told to be. To be a true friend, to react as a friend would, it would have to choose you as it's friend. If you catch my meaning. A computer as your teacher. It can be done. Might have been done. If not, people are not ready to make a virtual teacher, or got better things to do. Sexual partner computers. With the proper AI it could be a nice thing to talk to and share with. As for the other meaning of love, this AI system would have to be in a robot that is built to male/female specifications, or have an external genetalia hardware that can be connected via USB or whatever else. Very difficult make but might be useful for the truely desperate and or depraved.
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In the near future- A computer program called that is called What Do Desire? Imagine a computer program that is as realistic as the matrix. You simply have to tell the computer what you want to experience and you can live out almost any scenario that you can imagine.
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As I said before, your looking at a long while before that happens.
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In the near future- I also believe that virtual reality could be used to reduce deviant desires like pedophilia. (Real pedophilia not cultural pedophilia)
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A nice idea but it would only promote the desires for such vile acts against children. The best way to solve such a problem (hard to say but it might never be solved), is to get those psychiatrists in there to ask why. My thoughts about pedophilia, I see it happening because of two reasons. 1) These individuals get the strange idea that since they cannot get anything from women their own age, or at least above the law regulated age requirment, that they see children as a naive and easy target to get off on their perverted desires. 2) This theory might not be too common or might just be somthing completly assinine, but they do it as a form of subconscious intrigue. Perhaps they or ones who were close was subjected to it when they were young and they were intrigued, or as an adult they saw examples of it and it sparked a form of delight in them. Hard to say unless we actualy study the problem rather then throw them away for years. Virtual reality could be used as the release to get them away from the younger crowd and into the adult crowd for my first theory if done under theropy conditions and continued onward through life. As for Virtualy reality cureing the second, it could be done but might take a long while to do.
Ending Statments
One rotten apple ruins the bunch. This might be a good metaphor for the human race in a certain perspective. However as I have heared a few say, "The humans perfect world is an imperfect one." I read in Time magazine that we have actualy tried the perfect in every sence world. I forget how these experiements failed but that is inconsiquential since for my purposes the keyword is failed. "It was a disaster. No one would accpet the program, entire crops were lost...I believe that the human being defines their reality through misery and suffering..." Agent Smith - The Matrix. We are all connected as you said, and the majority wants chaos with the balance, illogic with the logic. Can we break out of this scary spiral of death? Possible. A theory I forulated (though it is probably not an original one), is to take fifty individual children from the moment they are born and keep them isolated. Give them AI teachers and parents with the programming for "good" nature. Let this new society multiply for a while, then wipe out all of us, and then let the good society out to enjoy what this planet and universe has to offer. Only way I see to cause a fairly instant solution to the problem. As for a long term solution? I might be too ignorant to see a solution or maybe just too cynical to think that our instincts will ever change.
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I believe that I have the right ideology to solve most of mankind’s problems, but what I believe is irrelevant because I don’t have masters’ degree or a PhD.
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That's good that you have the right idea for change. You don't need a degree or any other piece of paper. Gather some attention and spread your ideas. Do what Jesus did minus all the talk about god. Gather a flock, tell them your ideas, and tell them to spread the word.
Now for the part I promised oh so long ago. It is my hopes that this is not your last letter ever to be written here. You might not show up again and join me in exploreing your views and debateing over the views I have written to counter your own. The more I think about what I wrote before concerning suicide the more I hate myself now after reading what SEEMS like a suicide note from you. There is nothing that I can really do from the internet to aid you in finding your niche in this world. I just hope that you and everyone else can gain some perspective about what I have written on the subject and try to consinder a different path to take.
Since I do doubt myself and what I have written thus far, I would like to add the usual disclaimers such as, I am extreamly tired at the moment. If I have offended anyone then I shall edit the offensive parts out. And feel free to prove me wrong in what I have said.
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