Musings of a Human - a Collection of Thoughts by a Semi-Evolved Homo Sapien

By Derek Levandowski

As humans, we are condemned to short lives with our tiny brains, and by the time we start to figure out how to live, we die. Musings of a Human tackles pressing questions such as "Are we alone in the universe?" and "What should we make of artificial intelligence?" from the perspective of an average human. Part philosophy, part science, and part humor, this book is a light read for anyone who enjoys learning, thinking, and laughing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365346965

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Musings of a Human - a Collection of Thoughts by a Semi-Evolved Homo Sapien

© 2016 Derek Levandowski

All Rights Reserved

Dedicated to:

My wife, best friend, and the greatest teacher I know, Melissa.

and

Mom & Dad,

Thanks for not drowning me when

I was a defenseless infant.

Preface: The Purpose of This Book

Y

ou’re not going to find many answers in this book. You will, however, find a lot of questions, hypotheticals and opinions. My intention with this book is to lay out some of the topics that have interested me over the years, and why, and hopefully they will interest you, as well.

There will be some philosophical questions, a little bit of history, a little bit of science (and pseudo-science), some helpful tips, some hypotheticals, some predictions, some of my favorite quotes, some regurgitation of things I have found interesting along the way and felt like sharing, and maybe a joke or two here or there.

You may have different tastes than me, so I tried to include a little something for everybody in the hopes that you will at least find a good portion of this book interesting. This is obviously not the longest book in existence, but I tried to pack it with useful and thought provoking information in hopes that it brings you at least a few hours of light enjoyment.

I am a member of the Human race. As such, it seems there is an inner monologue in my head 100% of the time that is pondering various things.

Actually, I shouldn’t say it is always pondering. Sometimes it is commenting on things around me. Sometimes it is making jokes that I can’t say out loud. Sometimes it is even serious, reflective, introspective, and it does especially strange things while I am asleep, resulting in vivid and often bizarre, nonsensical dreams. My inner voice sounds like me, and I am going to go ahead and call it the most real and essential version of myself.

I don’t know if everyone experiences this inner voice, but if you don’t, let me know so that I can seek help.

To the best of my knowledge, however, and for the purposes of this book, I’m going to assume everyone hears this little voice inside of their head – their own voice, usually one that sounds much different in one’s own head than the one that comes out of one’s mouth, or that is heard through one’s ears when played back on a recording of some kind.

There is no way to turn off that voice inside of your head, although I am sure there are times that some of us want to. This means that your entire day, and by extension, your entire life, is spent in the company of yourself.

Even when you’re with other people, that little version of you that lives in your head is speaking to you. It tells you what to say, and sometimes its advice can be trusted, other times it cannot. It is there from the moment your brain begins to form memories until, presumably, the moment you die. I say presumably because I have not died yet, and cannot be 100% certain that this guy will be with me until the very end. But I like him, and I certainly hope he sticks around.

If he invites friends over, though, that’s when we’ll probably all go to the doctor together.

Perhaps extraordinarily busy people don’t make time for this little entity to say anything meaningful to them. Perhaps they are too busy baking cupcakes or delivering their kids to soccer practice, or speculating on derivatives (I don’t know what that means), or trying to figure out how to program the damn clock on the microwave, or trying to figure out why the air conditioner isn’t blowing cold enough air, or, in my case today, why there is a puddle of oil in my driveway where my practically new car is usually parked. People are busy, and I get it that a lot of people probably don’t have time to really think about what it is that they think about. I’m going to attempt to just that with this book.

I have trouble sleeping. And as of this moment, I don’t have kids. And I enjoy silence because it allows my brain to explore deep questions, hypotheticals, and the boundaries of what I know and what I don’t, and what I believe, and what I don’t.

I consider myself to be an average or typical human being. I have a moderate income, and live in the suburbs of a medium-sized American city. I am not particularly religious nor an over-educated elitist. My opinions are my own, and I don’t want to convince you, nor is the purpose of this book to try to do so. I just want to share them with you, because it seems like an awful waste to leave them kicking around inside this completely average brain that will one day either be burned to ash or rot out of existence.

The following 100 or so pages are my musings. These are the things that, as a typical human being, I think about. You probably have different things that you like to think about, and if you write them down, I’d love to read them.

Enjoy.

Are We Alone in the Universe?

O

ne of the things I think and wonder about the most is our place in the universe. Are we alone? If there is someone else out there, what are they like? Have they gone further with their civilization than we have? Do they ask the same questions that we do? Would they care if they found us?

Will someone save us from ourselves? Or is it just a matter of time until we are invaded by beings that will suck out our delicious, delicious brains?

The universe is old. The latest estimates are that the universe has been around for about 13.8 billion years. In other words, it’s nearly as old as the Queen of England. The Earth is only about 4 billion years old. There are some that claim it is only about 6,000 years old, but I have no intention of arguing with those folks, and will instead, for the purposes of discussion, go with the objective scientific estimates.

We hear the word billion, and most of us don’t even really understand how many a billion is, so here are some