People on Busses

Old thought:

I was recently on a bus and I was doing something social (surprisingly enough) which just means that I was with some other college people, or at the very least, near people who I thought were in college and I noticed something strange… now I have been on public busses before, and I like to think that I know a little something about how people act on busses and it has come to my attention that older people seem to avoid us younger folk. I’m not sure if they’re afraid or disgusted or perhaps they harbor a grudge and don’t want to give us (college age kids) a chance to prove them wrong. I’ve also noticed that no matter how full a bus is, there will always be one standing person blocking everybody from going to the back… it is ok (and I encourage it) to walk up the two steps and stand in the back of the bus, as crazy as that may sound.

So Scott Thought

You've Gone a Little Too Far There

I'm going to start with: I hate blogger, they've done some things to annoy me again, I don't have time to rant now, but it's coming and oh do I hope it is spectacular. Next, I didn't really think this thought was going to get this long, I think I may have forgotten exactly what it was about and gone a little too far with it (hopefully that will be funny to you soon).

This thought comes from much deeper (in my brain, not necessarily, you know deep stuff or anything) thoughts. I would like to say I’m just scratching the surface because I really enjoy the thoughts I have about this. That being said I have a hard time articulating them, so let’s go one step at a time. The thought is this: people have a tendency to take things farther than they should (or initially intended). A lot of the time people have good thoughts and set about plans to enact them in good ways. Then they become extremely passionate about what they are doing and get carried away. Eventually they end up doing something pretty awing but it isn’t always what they started out wanting to do. The process can be a quick one or a very long one. I have two examples to help demonstrate this. Say you’re playing an online mining game, and your initial thought is that you want to get to the center of earth (or the bottom of the screen, or you want to find the rarest metal or you want to make the most money, or any number of things), so you make a plan for yourself. Since this is a game, you start off with pretty much nothing which means you can’t just drill to the center, you have to make some money to get a better drill, bigger fuel tank, etc. You make a plan to get your money, but then as soon as you can, you’re going to go to the center of the earth. Then part way through, you don’t realize it, but you say to yourself, I’m going to clear the whole screen, then it will be really easy to get to the center, and what you’re doing is clearing the whole screen, not going to the center of the earth. Admittedly, this will accomplish your goal, but you’ve changed goals, and it isn’t necessarily for the better. A longer term example, one that spans more than one lifetime, probably more than a hundred years really, is religion. Don’t get me wrong, I think religion can be a great thing, but I also think somewhere along the way, the real reason the religion was started got forgotten. Somebody I know was recently saying that they thought if you took all the world’s religions and put them together you would find the one true religion, or answer, or something. No offense to that person, but I don’t think that is right. Some of today’s religions have just gotten too far off the path that makes me inclined to believe that putting them all together would just give you some big wash. I do think you could trace all religions back to a single origin of thought that created one or a couple religions, then as those got slightly perverted along the way, some people thought they could fix it and started their own religion, which in turn was also perverted. As a final thought, I do think some people today are using their religion as best they can to accomplish some of the things that the religion was originally intended for (and also things they believe to be correct), but I also think it can be extremely difficult with the way their religion has changed.

So Scott Thought

Being God

Here's an old thought for you all. I actually have some new ideas about this that are pretty cool (subjectively), but I often have a hard time explaining them and my brain is jelly right now so I haven't written them up yet, but you'll probably see them sometime in the future. Also, I've been toying around with idea of having guest bloggers, i.e. other people writing things for my blog. This may seem a little silly because this blog is ScottThoughts, so maybe I'll write my thoughts about your thoughts or something. If anyone is interested, let me know, we can try to figure something out. Anyway, here's a thought:

It would be really cool to be god, because the earth is just way too interesting. I think it would be the coolest story ever. Imagine if you got to watch the entire earth from the beginning, not every little detail, just the big picture. First you would get to see the earth and solar system form… awesome! Then you would watch all plants and animals evolve (including dinosaurs)… super awesome! But then you would watch the human story… and I don’t want to act like we have the best species ever, but I do have to say I think we Homo sapiens are really interesting. I think that would be the coolest part about getting to watch the earth. Just think about what we’ve been through so far, and where our race could be going. How long will we survive? When will space travel happen? Will we make it to the destruction of the sun? Where will we go then? There are just so many questions to be answered.

So Scott Thought

New People, New Thoughts

This thought and the three following it are meant to be read from newest to oldest, or as they appear on my blog roll, top to bottom (which I am unhappy about, I should make a post about how I am really starting to get bothered by blogger... grrrrrr, not happy). Anyways, you don't have to read them in that order. Enjoy!

I am meeting new people (yay! This should hopefully continue happening for the rest of my life, I don’t have any reason believe otherwise) and these new people bring new ideas, which give me new thoughts. Here are some new thoughts I have, thanks to having met new people. I would preface this though, they are not new thoughts as in things I’ve never thought about before, but rather thoughts that I’ve had and was recently forced (due to the conversations) to explore more deeply and then inspired to write down for you all. So without any further ado, here are those thoughts:

So Scott Thought

Zombiepocalypse

We were discussing the zombiepocalypse, but in a different sense than I ever have before. Of course we’ve all put a little thought into what would happen if the zombie virus outbroke, or if hell overflowed and dead corpses reanimated, or however it happens. And furthermore, you’ve probably thought how you want this to happen because living in post-apocalyptic zombieland would be kinda cool and fun or whatnot. Some people even go as far as prepreparing for this event. I think that’s so diculous, it’s ridiculous on many levels. First of all, different causes of the apocalypse require different preparation. While some things hold true for everything (kill the brain), if it’s the virus we’re dealing with, you can’t get their blood on you, versus hell overflowing, you just can’t die. These require different approaches and weapons. Secondly, if you’re prepreparing, you’re cheating and I don’t appreciate that. It’s going to be hard enough to survive without you getting a head start. Also that’s stupid because the likelihood of this is relatively low. You don’t see people preparing for a meteor hitting earth but that could happen. Don’t get me wrong, having a gameplan isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but buying a machete is over the top. Also, discussing what would happen and how you would respond is an interesting topic of conversation, which is what I did with the new people the other day. Basically, my idea would be to form a band with the people I like most and know well (that were still alive obviously). The people I was with didn’t seem so keen on this idea. It was their opinion that were that to happen, most groups of people lose morality and the leader of said group would turn it into a ruthless, kill all outsiders, do absolutely anything it takes to survive type of minination. I would like to think I know better people than that. Plus if I actually was to create this band, I would not want to be its leader. Also, the scientific mind that I possess cherishes the thoughts of all others. Thoughts beget thoughts and the human collective is so much more powerful than the sum of its individuals. All (living) outsiders would be more than welcome if they proved they weren’t destructive to the cause, and if they were destructive, they would either be turned away, or if absolutely necessary, confined in a space of their own, apart from our own.

So Scott Thought

Natural Instinct

One of the reasons I think I would be able to do well and follow my zombiepocalypse plan without losing my morality is this little thing called natural instinct. I saw some rabbits recently, and when I got close, they ran (hopped) away. I did a quick evaluation of their natural instinct and thought to myself, they see me as a threat to their way of life and don’t want me disturbing them. I can surely see how they may view me as an imposing figure. Then I reviewed my own thoughts and my natural instinct is to leave them be. It has been that way my entire life. I had brief thoughts of trying to assist them in some way, which would no doubt be possible, but I think I would have a hard time convincing them of that and thus any interaction would probably be destructive in their minds, thus I leave them be. I would like to mention natural instinct can be overridden by past experiences if there are enough and they oppose natural instinct, and as a simple example, there are some domesticated rabbits that do not have an aversion to their masters because they have understood that this is a being that with help me and love me. I believe my natural instinct is good enough that I would not become a terrible person in the event of an apocalypse.

So Scott Thought