Beautiful, isn’t it?
It is.
(…)
Do you want to know something cool?
Sure.
It looks like that because of refraction. Particles in the atmosphere scattering the shorter wavelengths of light. It’s all predictable physical phenomena.
Say what you want, but we both know that this feeling of awe is not something you can put into words.
Because ‘beauty’ is just a neurological response, and language is a clumsy tool for describing the internal state of the machine. It’s like trying to describe the flavor of a steak by listing its chemical compounds. You can do it, but you miss the… well, the steak-ness of it all. The pleasure is the point. The explanation just helps you find another good steakhouse.
And you’re satisfied with pleasure as your sole motivation? Do you not yearn for a higher sense of meaning?
Meaning is a concept we invented because we find randomness uncomfortable. The universe is a glorious, chaotic accident, and humanity’s one great act of genius was to build a seawall of logic and order to hold the chaos back. Law. Contracts. Traffic lights. That’s our purpose. We make it ourselves.
Traffic lights?
Think about it. Two people get to an intersection. Without a system, they either crash, or they sit there in a passive-aggressive standoff forever. But we invented a simple system of red and green lights, and now, magically, we can navigate the world without killing each other. Most of the time. It’s a manufactured miracle. Don’t go looking for the divine in the green light. The genius is in the people who agreed to believe in it.
But that agreement, that desire not to crash… that’s what I’m talking about. The impulse to cooperate comes from somewhere deeper than a municipal handbook.
It comes from a cost-benefit analysis. A totaled car and potential injury versus waiting thirty seconds. It’s just math. We’re clever, selfish creatures who are smart enough to realize that long-term, cooperative selfishness pays better dividends. That’s what morality is. A good long-term investment strategy.
And what about a bad investment? When you help someone at a great cost to yourself, with no expectation of reward? When a soldier jumps on a grenade? Is he calculating the future dividends of his platoon?
No. He’s running an old, old piece of software. A biological imperative for tribal preservation that overrides his personal risk assessment. It’s a glitch, a heroic glitch in the self-preservation code. But it’s a glitch all the same. I prefer to live my life without glitches.
So you see a hero and you think, “Ah, faulty wiring.”
I think, ‘A tragic loss, spurred by an irrational but evolutionarily understandable impulse.’ It doesn’t mean I don’t respect the action. I just don’t have to pretend it was a message from a higher power.
You and I both know deep down that there is something special about our world. There is real beauty all around us. You can see it right in front of your eyes at this very moment yet you continue to deny its reality. Beauty and virtue unites us. They makes us human.
We live our lives how we want to and make up rules so we can live together. What you perceive to be real is a delusion.
Right…
(…)
The sun is almost below the horizon now.
Yes. Predictable. The angular diameter of the source is now below the horizon line.
Or maybe… it’s just gone quiet, to let us think.