Some Scattered Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 4 of Black Mirror

I would write this into a cohesive post but am in a bit of a crunch, so hopefully these can serve as helpful notes for someone who would like to write a thoughtpiece on this. Feel free to take, just happy to get these ideas out. I bolded the parts in particular that I thought could be nice aphorisms from the episode:



I saw ep 4 of black mirror, a truly beautiful revealing of the importance of death in the human story. with a presentist mode of existence, and the important characteristic ability that we have to "forget" (a la Nietzsche), would we really want to keep going, if we had the chance? easy to say yes now, hard to know what you'd say then.
this was the first good episode this season for me,
the importance of life's ephemeral glow.
her decision to stay with the girl into eternity was so much more heartbreaking than the option to die and preserve the meaning she lived
cheating death does not evade nothingness, if anything, it emphasizes it
sartre would have loved that episode
we live with this paradoxical yearning to both escape death and experience a type of meaning that transcends life. this episode sort of demonstrates that we can't have both, in a really beautiful way.
singularity is bullshit, technology can't "solve" existentialism.

Conversation with a friend:
i had to like, think for a while just to reconcile the emotional disturbance it left me with
thats a sign of a good ep

yeah
It's so creative, even as a premise, then to build that world, build the characters so that we care about them, and then introduce a conflict and meaningful resolution
All in 90 mins

Yes! How could they do so much in so little time!
High maintenance also is good at this in its own way
Like you know so much about everyone so quickly, from so little

Character driven plot development

But this black mirror had this kubrick-esque quality
Where even at the end, during the supposedly happy ending, you can't help but feel there is something deeply disturbing about all this when you're looking at those circulating lights at the very end
Similar type of discomfort u get during the outro to 2001 odyssey

Just like, not readily explainable, but you know there's something

This is what Heidegger called "working art"

conversations

when sum1 makes a judgment, i always have the CHOICE to see the truth in what they say or find fault with it. it's not an honest clash of our 'intrinsic beliefs,' it's not a verification of his truth or denial of his falsehood, it's just a choice that I make at that moment. always.

it's different/difficult to think this way, I believe many of us are entrenched in the idea that we have clearheaded, explicit stances (think politics etc) and when someone makes a judgment they are either saying something true or false and we will bring that to light with our reaction/response. but it's not like that. it's always just a choice that you make. a 'yes' or a 'no' almost at your whim, depending on what path you feel like going down at that moment. every. single. time.

so i think a fun exercise to do given this inherent illusion we have in discourse is the following: try to catch yourself. whenever you are about to disagree with what someone says (maybe out of habit of hearing this kind of thing or otherwise), immediately stop and say "yeah," and find SOME inkling of truth in their judgment to bring to light. or on the other side, when you are about to agree with someone because this string of words is one that you have subscribed to (or for whatever other reason), just stop and find something wrong, something to pick at, something to argue against in what was said. you'll find that you can make this swap almost every time (and eventually, with ease), and may be awakened to the malleability of dialectic. agreement is susceptible to whim. choice is beneath reason. it's actually a very grounded, practical way to make that classic 19th century realization that there is no truth.

void 2012.

A Depression Diary

So solid and relatable to the contemporary... do not fear sinking, for at the bottom of the ocean lies the greatest treasure that human existence can offer--the unshakeable, exhilarating freedom from Truly Not Giving A Fuck

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

on a different but related note, I was thinking about how happiness is not something you can pursue. it's something you remember. to start pursuing happiness right now is also to confidently assert that you are unhappy now (which you can't really know) and then start searching for a quality so vague that 'searching' for it doesn't even make sense. that's a basically a formula for disappointment. pursue definitive things. remember happiness.

Brief Conversation with David Foster Wallace

Or rather, with my interpretation of one of his quotes:

re: Sklaroff wall post

good job, but there's still something troubling about it

like, why does one throw one's entire self

rather than like, most of it

it's a suicide of a different type in that sense

if you give all of yourself to something

there's nothing left

hella selfless, I suppose

me

yeah

Zak

perhaps virtuous

in that sense

me

i mean i'm willing to go far as to say the self isn't really anything but a conglomeration of ones interactions with society or w/e

all existence is external

looking into the self one will not find much

that's why people get much happier helping other people (peace corps or w.e) than by helping themselves

....

______________

but ye in response to your response to my sklar comment

i guess what i mean is

there is no throwing 'most of ones self' into something

as long as you are not committing suicide

you are throwing your whole self into all of existence

whether thats just religion or like 5 things

doesn't change that fact

existence is all one anyways

human categories distinguish it

but once you say 'yes' to this moment,

you are saying yes to all of existence

does that make sense?

3:09 PM

Zak

i think i follow but maybe not that last "saying yes to the moment = yes to existence" bit

me

its the same thing as saying as long as you are not committing suicide
you are throwing your whole self into all of existence

Zak

and i kind of agree with the

you are what you do

you are what other people experience

me

and "existence is all one anyways"

there is only one binary

truth and nihilism

nihilism is a saying 'no' to the moment

Submit to reality

"Submit to reality, then you will truly experience freedom."

One must first submit to a reality. At first this is an obstacle, but eventually the obstacles turn into stepping stones that the will can incorporate into its possibilities. Then a realm of freedom is born. Fulfillment/happiness is a byproduct.

piano example at 59 minutes illustrates it further.

http://www.veritas.org/Media.aspx#!/v/223

Amazing

Procrastination

Insightful

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2886187