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cW  ·  4815 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What is existence?
mk, fascinating stuff. i really like this concept of bootstrapped existence. do i understand correctly that it is poking fun at a very nearsighted understanding of existence.

i have a bit of trouble with the term "relationship." after all, as a term, it organically developed to describe connections between things thought to have objective existence. i realize this is a bucket-o-crabs problem, and that we have to begin untangling the Möbius strip somewhere, but language may become a problem down the line -- as it often does, smuggling in connotations which don't work at extreme levels of zoom.

i don't really want to alter the trajectory of your journey -- i'd much rather go along and see where it leads. but i personally approach this matter by attacking individuality, rather than existence. SOMEthing exists. we simply have a hard time describing it. we pretend that this thing of things is separable, composed of discrete parts as an old grandfather clock seems to be. that we, who are in fact a part of it, can remain separate from the the rest of it. such illusions are necessary in order to maintain the conventions of civilization and the conceits of humanity, but when regarded very closely, the idea of separation breaks down, turns out to be entirely artificial. this is all quite pivotal for existence, which, as i have just been reminded, literally (historically, etymologically) means "to stand forth/to stand out." we are thus turned back to the question of the pre-socratics, which is how to reconcile the one with the many, and flux with permanence.

excited to see where this thread goes! must continue, among other ways, over cocktails.

-cW