Philosophy of an Introvert: Vol. 2

By Justin Reynolds

One guy's collection of think pieces pondering how humanity may grow as our world inevitably changes. Stuff like becoming an interplanetary species, real world game simulations, a different perspective on immortality, and more. Let's see how well this ages!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Justin Reynolds
• Release date: Oct 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218296971

Justin Reynolds

Justin Reynolds is a certified observer of humanity who often participates, which means you've probably never heard of him considering that’s not a real credential! He has traveled extensively across the world garnering experience and insight on things most people think about at 2 am when they can’t sleep, so he decided to write a book about it, hoping someone may find his opinion useful. He enjoys cooking, running, martial arts, and obviously writing.

Book preview

Intro

As far as intros go , there's plenty of profound and beautiful ways to describe life, despite how complicated it can be. Likewise, talking about people and who and what they are can be just as liberating as it is confusing. Sooner or later I think everyone is presented with the more abstract questions of whatever world they live in, and we're often tasked with finding answers through our own journeys. Most of the time those journeys intersect, and we help each other figure things out without even realizing it. Other times we're left in solitude to ponder such questions without much help. Either way, this world is made of near indistinguishable connections and touchpoints intertwining the fates of all life in some way shape or form. Even if you don't agree with that in the philosophical sense, it's an established fact in the way of cause and effect. Through these entanglements we all come up with our own hot takes on what they mean and whether or not we should pay any attention to them, myself included. For my own path, I'm just an observer of humanity who often participates in such musings. Meaning I pretty much pass the time by writing books about things I have an opinion on with just the right amount of experience to go with them. It's...not the most impressive thing to try and explain to new friends I suppose, but I digress. Point is, when it comes to life, no one has it all right, and very few have it all wrong. Most have a bit of each, albeit we're often thrown off balance and tasked with recalibrating in so many realms of existence overlapping one another. Here's hoping all my thoughts and rants about life in this book can help with that.

Humanity will probably become an interplanetary species by accident

Here's a question to get us started off: what does humanity look like as an interplanetary species? Granted, for some of you I imagine that question is the furthest thing from your worries these days.

Nevertheless, I think it's worth asking these sort of, far out questions that seem arbitrary and irrelevant to some of you reading this perhaps. The ironic part is even though I empathize with that notion, I also believe thinking about such a query will be someone's full time problem someday. Who knows, might even be one of your great grandchildren someday. Regardless, every which way we compose our civilizations today leaves imprints on what's possible down the line. This topic is one of those things where, for all the foresight humankind has cultivated over the past half century, there are realities being sown that we're almost incapable of imagining when it comes to where humanity should go next long term, similar to our ancestor’s lack of anticipation for today's digital world.

To be honest, I kind of look at it like the creation of the light bulb. Hear me out now. Most of us are taught that Thomas Edison was the inventor of the light bulb...aaannd that's pretty much the end of it. In reality, the idea for the light bulb was conceptualized by many people who worked and failed at the idea well before Thomas Edison came along to refine it in a noteworthy way. Such a revolutionary innovation saw several people make progress on it for years without any real recognition. Case in point is the fact that I can't even write this without googling their names. I only know of this off the top of my head from briefly learning about it in college years ago. Regardless, the main takeaway I find lies in how the same route of progressive innovation can be scaled upward toward something like humanity becoming an interplanetary species. Right now, the notion is just something tech moguls preach about every now and then, and the usual counter argument toward such pursuits (and one I'm privy to myself) is, Why waste time trying to colonize other planets in the future when we've barely got a grip on what's happening on Earth in the present? It’s a valid argument, yet I admit if there's ever going to be an ideals time for humanity to take this endeavor seriously, the ideas and logistics are going to need to be conceptualized and built up, bit by bit over the course of generations, not all at once by some guy who convinces humanity it's a good idea. With this will probably come a good amount of failure. I mean, trying to expand what we perceive to be the most intelligent species in the universe to another physical plane of existence long term? Sounds like a tall order. The nuance with such an order comes in the form of expected failure vs unnecessary failure. Think about it, there are things that make sense for humanity to screw up at the first time around, like predicting the weather perfectly in a new atmosphere for instance. Or maybe building perfect infrastructure that resembles existing cities. On the flip side, some mistakes are outright avoidable, like allowing tribalism to take root in the social, and even economic sense. I mean, being close minded to people and ideas outside your own sphere of understanding? Well, that's a plight humans have faced constantly across our time exploring and integrating lives with one another. Even though you could argue such plights are natural, I think most people today are at least more aware there are realities to life that extend beyond their current understanding. Little by little even the most ordinary of us see there are a multitude of layers to the human experience that go past everything one may be wise in. I think when we insist on denying that, humanity begins to stagnate.

Ultimately, the potential of failure goes beyond these examples, but I'd say there are a few areas that are most important to pay attention to moving forward. For one thing, you have the general flow of information among whoever actually ends up on places other than earth. No matter what, communication is the umbrella for all methods in setting up a new civilization. That being said, I think the number one question that needs to be answered before anything else is: who controls the flow of information in these massive experiments, and why them? From there, you'd probably want to use those people to help figure out all the raw technology you'll need to biologically keep everyone alive long term. Things like different tools to collect food, water, shelter and develop infrastructure for instance. Once that's all set up, figuring out politics comes into play. Who's going to be in charge of these new societies and how will they be governed? If you get past that, next you need an idea for an economy right? How will resources circulate these societies in an efficient manner? Who's gonna be tasked with ensuring a close-minded class structure won’t flourish? Then there's what I'd personally consider the most important thing to consider, which is pretty much every social phenomena you can think of among a new civilization of humans living on a new planet. I fully admit I'm probably biased in saying this, but how people are able to build long lasting lives plays a huge role in even being motivated to advance a civilization. On a grand scale, quality of life isn’t just defined by resources, but by the meaning people organically find in living for themselves and each other alike, all while using those resources to sustain that. Interestingly enough though, I think the structure of education is a subpoint in those