Secrets of the Universe: Basketball Brain Games, Bill Hicks and Pete Holmes

VIDEO: National Geographic - Brain Games

Not to brag or anything but I discovered the secrets of the universe. It happened over a holiday weekend at the Gold Coast. It was my first travel experience since returning home from a year abroad. I also had the pleasure of reconnecting with an inspirational running mate I ego-tripped around Portugal and England with.

As this blog indicates I've been entertaining different perspectives on what makes reality. With the help of some organic substances and this National Geographic 'Brain Games' documentary which was showing at the time everything was unlocked. Thank you Universe!

Not unlike like an M. Night Shyamalan finale, my world view was turned on its head.  Everything that I thought I knew was pulled from under me. The question now is what does one do after unlocking the secrets of life. These comedic bits that interestingly reference hallucinogens and Bill Hicks offer some Call to Action

Home Reading: 'Out-of-body Experience' (Astral Travel) and 'What a Coincidence!' (Synchronicity)

<< crossposted on the 'Loz in Translation' blog

I can't recall how my fascination with "consciousness" began. I've always been intrigued by reality, more specifically 'hyperreality'. It has its roots in my love for wrestling and exposure to it in movies. I was formally educated on it in my Design Studies classes in University which was around the time seminal movies like Fight Club and The Matrix were being released.

My year abroad definitely awakened and accessed parts of my consciousness. A powerful sense of Déjà vu struck me at a particular sight on the Main Square in Riga, Latvia so much so that I was compelled to text my Couchsurfing host of it. I read books on mastering memory when I was in Den Haag. I've had my reality shaken by scammers in Istanbul. I've referenced Dreams and Synchronicity in previous posts as well.

Below are two books I've read recently on these themes, I've highlighted passages which resonated with my recent line of thinking:

'What a Coincidence' by Susan M. Watkins 

Ch 5. Random Thoughts, Media Feedback
Thus the vocabulary of your interest determines the symbols used by your inner senses, exactly the way dreams operate. Within the safety of that framework, chosen and adapted by you, coincidence will often seem to cycle around bits and pieces that suggest themes you should be paying attention to...

Again, this is exactly what your dreams are up to, or rather what you are up to in your dreams, even when you don't remember them consciously. In that way, coincidences are the awake world extensions of the dream state...

Or maybe just learning to acknowledge coincidence is enough to maintain a link to the inner, natural workings of consciousness. Maybe coincidences are always there, muttering in the background, forming the internet of our days, a media hullabaloo of their own. And when you do notice them, even peripherally, your intuitions spring to attention and force you to ask questions about your reality: What's going on here? What is it I have access to? Something? Nothing? Everything? And once you've asked these questions, you can never quite go back to thinking of your position in the world as meaningless or mechanical.

My fascination with Astral Travel only recently came about through the compelling conversations I heard between Comedians Duncan Trussell and Pete Holmes. As someone who places a premium on living in the moment and being "present", I later realised it was odd that I'd be fascinated by leaving one's body and going to far off places.

The Out-of-Body Experience by Anthony Peake 

Ch 10. The Physics
Recent suggestions by Professor Stephen Hawking and an associate, Thomas Hertog of CERN, make this an even more fascinating proposition. They have presented a complex mathematical model proposing something that they term the 'observer created universe'. They argue that all these universes do not branch off and exist in isolation, but they exist simultaneously in a state of 'superposition' You will recall that this is the state a particle is in before it is 'observed'. It exists in a superposition of all possible locations where it may statistically be found when the probability wave collapses.

Let us step back and take account  of exactly what one of the world's leading physicists is suggesting - you are creating your own universe as you go along, and so is every other consciousness. And this goes for all the other people you interact with in a lifetime. We are all existing in our own personal computer game in which each decision brings about a different version of reality, but (and this is very important to grasp) the potential outcome of each decision exists whether or not you choose it.

Find other books in the Home Reading and Road Reading collection here
Read my previous post on Synchronicity here - Travel coincidences and Counting the serendipities

The conscious observer and what happens when Super Mario skips World 2

I've been exploring the complex field of quantum mechanics lately and have been fascinated by its implications on reality and consciousness. It's quite a dense undertaking but even the slightest understanding of it is enough to blow your mind. It only invites more curiosity. I'm particularly drawn to the idea that reality is manifested only once an observer arrives to "measure" it.

The Observer Creates Reality simply by Observing 
The truth is, everything in the universe is ultimately Energy, and Energy is influenced by Mind. Something only appears as matter when it is being observed. Quantum physicists talk about electrons, or events being potential, rather than actual physical entities. So that there are various potentials, basically until somebody looks, and then it sort of forces the universe to make a determination about which potential is going to be actualized. All of existence is fundamentally an unlimited quantum field of energy, a sea of infinite possibilities waiting to happen.

As I understand it, it's not unlike a video game only loading the maps that players have in use. True?

The following video from Dorkly apart from being hilarious touches on existence without a conscious observer. This raises the question of whether you believe animals and other living things are conscious. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does the program carry out the simulation? Is the following scene even possible without Mario?

VIDEO: Mario Skips World 2

- A Cybernetic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
- Quantum Reality
- Quantum Double Split experiment (video)

'Wreck It Ralph' - Play the game that makes you happiest

'Wreck It Ralph' is an upcoming Disney movie about a Video Game villain looking to adopt a hero persona when he finds himself dissatisfied with his lot in life. Breaking from convention and searching for one's identity is an integral part of the human experience. This premise has been explored before in animations 'Antz' and 'Megamind'. The protagonist searching for more outside the frame of the Collective and the superhero Narrative respectively.

In 'Wreck it Ralph', Ralph explores others game universes to find an existence that might make him happier.

VIDEO: Wreck It Ralph - Official Trailer 

Wedding - Game Over

WOWW - World of Warcraft Wedding

My brother got married on the weekend.
This happened.
Scene: Bridal Party photos at Centennial park. We're having snacks as the couple take photos.

Maid of Honour: So now that he's married, how many in your group is there to go?
Best Man: Only one actually and he's as single as can be. Do you have any friends by the way?
MoH: I might actually
BM: What are their credentials?
MoH: Well she's got a got a good job, owns two properties...
BM: Oooo, that seems kinda intimidating
MoH: And what about him?
BM: Well he's a Level 60 Night Elf...

Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell: We are in a simulation echo. God was originally a mortal programmer who "sacrificed himself as a player"

Mind-blowing comedian Duncan Trussell and community creator Dan Harmon discuss the idea that we are in one big simulation echo:

Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Episode 33: Dan Harmon 

DUNCAN TRUSSELL: (20min mark) We're getting really good at simulating reality... In the next couple of years we're gonna figure out a way to map the neural structure of the human brain and simulate that within one of these games - well its not gonna be a game anymore at that point. It'll be a habit trail for disembodied parts of the consciousness that think they're real right?
So the idea is if that could happen with us... Then it probably already happened
DAN HARMON: (in unison) already happened
TRUSSELL: We're in it
HARMON: If it probably happened then it did happen. Because its an infinite universe and time doesn't exist except within the confines of one universe... then what you have is an infinite simulation of universes. I guess the question is, is there something outside of that?
TRUSSELL: Well no that's the original programmer. Then suddenly that's where you get to this thing where - I never understood the whole Jesus died on the cross for our sins... I never could understand what's the magic behind that. How does that work? Of course that's just an archetype for humans eating the God. That's in a lot of different religions. Then suddenly you have this thing where No, the person who died WAS God. The original programmer was mortal, that was a mortal being that figured out how to make the simulator and that poor sonofabitch died so we could be infinite in this f*cking thing

HARMON: Because God so loved us he gave his only begotten son - He loved the videogame so much he went into it and found out that the way for the game to last forever is to sacrifice himself as a player
TRUSSELL: He had to die cuz he was mortal. He wasn't a simulation. Whoever started the f*cking echo of the simulation. Whoever started the simulation, creating the simulations inside the simulations. That was a mortal.
The paradox of God is that God was mortal, the programmer died a long time ago. He's long gone but the echo of his creation goes on infinitely folding in on itself perpetually...

Find other Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell conversations here:

- Ousted 'Community' creator, Dan Harmon speaks to Duncan Trussell about "permanence"

- Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell: We are in a simulation echo. God was originally a mortal programmer who "sacrificed himself as a player"

- 'Wreck-It Ralph' and Simulation Theory: Are we characters in a Video Game?

AV Club's Nathan Rabin talks about Podcast Culture on Marc Maron's 300th episode of WTF

Comedians Marc Maron & Pete Holmes 

I've spoken before about my appreciation for comedians Marc Maron and Pete Holmes as well as my love of Podcasts. I've referenced and excerpted their stories to supplement my travel stories and my own personal journeys.

Inspired by these artists, I'll be starting my own podcast. It will explore similar existential themes found on this blog, talking about the journeys we take and the connections we make. Its a work in progress at this stage so stay tuned.

Marc Maron recently aired the 300th episode of his celebrated 'WTF podcast'. To mark the occasion he spoke to several people to find out what impact his show has had for its audience, his peers and the wider culture.

Maron phones AV Club's Head Writer Nathan Rabin to discuss the show's impact culturally:

Marc Maron's WTF - Episode 300
MARC MARON: (18m 40s) I felt that my voice was valid and that whatever I'd done in my life to get me onto a mic was what I'd bring to it. And its very odd because I don't think how I talk or how I engage is necessarily unusual but as I do it more I realise that there is some sort of craving for organic or frank conversation. That's always been how I've talked to people and that might speak to why I don't have a lot of close friends. Its draining in a way.

NATHAN RABIN: I think part of it is you listen to a talk show, especially a television talk show. People sort of engaging in socially mandated charades, the host is pretending to be interested and the guest can get 8 minutes of television, the guests can promote their product.

You never get that sense with WTF. You never get the sense that you're interested in somebody as an entertainer or as somebody with something to move. You get the sense that you're interested in humanity and you're interested in the shared humanity. You're interested in where you overlap. You're interested in where you clash. You're interested in how you can see the world from antithetical places yet share this thing that everybody shares which is being human

Maron speaks to another of my current rolemodels, Pete Holmes. The two of them are inward-looking but genuinely curious people, Pete unashamedly admits his 'You Made it Weird' podcast is a direct ripoff of WTF. Holmes is one of the leading lights in the new generation of Alt comics, he discusses what WTF has meant for Maron's comedy and podcast successors.

MARC MARON: (1h 15m 08s) You and I need to talk to people to get a sense of who we are. We crave that moment... I always relied on other people to feed - looking for these answers that are gonna make my life easier or better... I'm a pretty selfish and self involved guy and through the course of the podcast from the feedback I get and the struggles I go through and how people relate to it... I'm amazed that whatever I've been accused of which is selfishness - that my struggle with being me in the world is helping people

PETE HOLMES: It's a type of alchemy... we both turned selfishness, a little inwardness, a little navel gazing into something that's actually helping people...

I can definitely relate to their sentiment about relating to the world through conversing with others. I'm the same way.

Find previous Marc Maron podcast references here:
- Adam Carolla - On being sedentary
- Doug Stanhope - On happiness
- Norm MacDonald - On being in the moment

Find previous Pete Holmes podcast references below:
- Pete Holmes collection: Adjacent experiences
- Matt Besser: Travel coincidences and Counting the serendipities
- Duncan Trussell: Traveling, living the dream and remembering it
- Kyle Kinane: Being excited everyday
- The Sklar Brothers: Performing, possibly failing - That's living the dream
- A question answered with a quote: Comedy Podcasts