Scientists are touting the benefits of disembodiment as a way to relieve suffering. The process involves uploading a patient’s whole brain onto a computer and then running scans on it. Another colony of scientists holds the view that we are a simulation of reality, that we have no intrinsic realness. A harmonizing Elon Musk says the odds that we’re real are one in billions.
The scientist says, “There are 37 trillion cells in the human body.” The poet says, “I am large. I contain multitudes.” Both of these statements knock hell out of our belief in littleness.
Knowledge comes from the inside, information from the outside. Information without knowledge is exceedingly dangerous. It built the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. With pants-down puerility, scientists christened the bomb “Little Boy.”
There are roughly 30 trillion cells in the human body. In my case, people call this vast constellation “Keith.” (Talk about ontic obscuration!) So how is this cosmic swirl governed? What holds it together? Gurdjieff used the term “essence.” A hundred years later people speak of consciousness. To watch a scientist’s eyes glaze over, say “consciousness.”
Science comes from the top down. Kindness comes from the bottom up. This is an extraordinarily beautiful time to be alive.
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
Men's Work 