Real emotions arise from experiences—whether real or misremembered or contrived by the mind in its natural state. Artificial emotions arise while processing the effects of artificial stimuli. Whether those two statements are true is open to question. But assuming they, especially the second, contain a kernel of truth, one’s perspective on the world may change. The emotions that emerge from the consumption of alcohol or marijuana or cocaine or oxycodone or hundreds of other mind-altering substances, then, are artificial emotions. Is it possible, though, for an emotion to be “artificial?” The spark for the emotion…yes. But the emotion itself? What might an artificial emotion be like? Perhaps a combination of tenderness and rage. Or a simultaneous mixture of depression and pride. Maybe disgust and joy? What are hallucinations but imagined experiences…and their attendant emotions? Is an emotion artificial if brought about by misinterpreted reality? The mind is an amalgamation of interpretations of reality and fantasy—not the reality or fantasy itself, but its interpretation. Without the ability to interpret experiences (actual or imagined), the brain is simply a protomind; an embryonic potential, nothing more. Note that the definition (utterly unofficial) lacks the qualifier, correctly, for interpret. This entire paragraph may consist of incorrect interpretations and outright manufactured assertions. So, too, may be humans’ understanding of everything we thought we knew.
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Spilt milk gathers no moss. The early bird gets the flu. All is fair in love and burglary. Better safe than parental. What does not kill you makes you angry. The only thing we have to fear is measles. The unexamined life is not worth taking. Actions speak louder than fish smell. Don’t judge a book by its reader. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man sleepy, weepy, and corpulent.
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Historically, more people have died of religion than cancer.
~ Dick Francis ~
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I attempt to be grateful for everything positive in my life. And I succeed with some frequency. But, too often, things get in my way: hurricanes, lies claiming people are eating pets, ballistic missiles, deranged politicians, climate change, monkey pox, abortion bans, a murderous sheriff, pharmaceutical price-fixing, and a thousand other actions and events like them can dim the prospects of global peace and happiness. Humanity, it seems, is a killing culture. We could change, of course, if we were adequately (and collectively) motivated. What keeps us from attaining what is possible? Maybe it’s that we all have different dreams and are insufficiently compassionate.
It is because we are human