
How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, Philip K. Dick - perfmode
https://web.archive.org/web/20080125030037/http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm
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bmc7505
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words.
If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must
use the words. George Orwell made this clear in his novel 1984. But another
way to control the minds of people is to control their perceptions. If you can
get them to see the world as you do, they will think as you do. Comprehension
follows perception." \--Philip K. Dick

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drdeadringer
Ursula K. Le Guin also pointed this out, at least in her book "The
Dispossessed". For example: "This is my brush" vs "This is the brush that I
use" regarding -- in part -- the concept of ownership [be it personal or
communal].

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perl4ever
That idea (words shaping thought) is near the top of my list of "stupid things
that smart people believe and repeat".

Think about the history of words with a negative connotation that people try
to replace, and how the new euphemism acquires the previous negativity.

dang doesn't like it when people say correlation is not causation, but dammit,
the fallacy is everywhere! Changes in language accompany changes in thought,
but it's not causal.

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drdeadringer
I mentioned an author using a fictional society's phrasing to influence that
society's thought process on ownership. It was relevant to what I was
commenting to.

Please do share more about this "stupid idea" regarding "words shape thought";
as you say, I seem smart enough to share and repeat something stupid so I must
be able to understand you further.

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jhbadger
The problem is that often you hear things like "Tribal people X have no word
for 'lying' in their language" as if that meant that they couldn't understand
the concept. But of course they do, even if they call it "not telling the
truth". Similarly, people like to point out words in languages like German
that are compound words, and as amusing as things like
"Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän" (Danube steamship company captain)
are to English speakers, it isn't as if we can't understand the concept. There
just is no evidence that people of different languages think differently.

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thwarted
> _There just is no evidence that people of different languages think
> differently._

Languages are used to express ideas. We have debates on this very website
about the expressiveness of languages, how expressiveness of language enables
(in)efficiency, and which languages are best for a given task.

The expression of a thought influences and, in some cases, limits the kinds of
thoughts that can be expressed. This is evident when you see things like
someone "writing Java in perl".

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perl4ever
I've been writing perl in VBA. It seems to me that this, or your example,
demonstrate the opposite of language controlling thought. People have thoughts
that are very different from the norm in the language they are using, and they
find a way to express them. In fact, I've been recently trying to express my
usual programming concepts in a language that's far more of a straitjacket
than VBA.

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Trasmatta
If you liked this, I highly recommend reading his book VALIS. It's psuedo
autobiographical, and deals with the odd "visions" and "revelations" PKD
experienced later in his life. He was likely suffering from some sort of
mental illness, but to close the discussion there ignores the lessons PKD
himself taught us in his earlier works. Reality is weird and slippery, and we
don't really know what's going on.

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artsyca
You know, I'd have to suggest "Intergalactic Pot Healer" as a soft
introduction into the whole scene.

Thing about reality being slippery we have a tendency to acknowledge the fact
when we're reading the books but then to comfortably return to our regularly
scheduled mundane existence the minute the books are closed.

I still haven't been able to reconcile the sheer madness of the world with the
workaday banality and obedience I've experienced in this cursed industry.

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Trasmatta
I had some bad drug trips earlier this year, and one of the things that's
stuck with me is the realization of how bizarre our reality and existence is.
It manifests as an existential dread, where I realize that we're all walking
around in a world we don't understand, where most people don't seem to be
questioning that fact.

It's like, we all just started existing one day. You can trace that back to
your parents, to being born, to evolution, to the laws of physics, to the big
bang, etc, but that doesn't remove the bizarre fact that we exist and are
conscious for some reason but we have no idea why. (Or if the question of
"why" even makes any sort of logical sense.) Even the reality we think we
perceive is unlikely to be anything like what's actually going on. Isn't that
just so weird?

It's been about 5 months now, and I still get hit with these feelings multiple
times a day. It's accompanied with a strong feeling of anxiety, so I wish I
could go back to the old banality.

(Yes, I've been considering therapy for awhile, but it's difficult to get an
appointment with a therapist right now.)

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09bjb
I've been through some very similar stuff. It was two years after "I" was
blown to pieces before I had really integrated these strong pangs of anxiety,
memories that I was nothing at all and that ultimately reality is terrifyingly
absurd. It's been a long process of learning that these pangs are important
learning experiences, that they are fuel for compassion for others, that
curiosity and awareness transform them into something else... etc. etc. down
the rabbithole of self-care for the unwilling mystic.

If you're interested in what I did with all that since then, I'd be happy to
chat more and share what I've learned, where I'm at, and where I'm headed.
Seconded on the cup of virtual coffee, /u/artsyca, although of course I'm
perfectly happy not to crash y'all's party.

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Trasmatta
That sounds really similar to my experiences, and I'd love to chat.

> and that ultimately reality is terrifyingly absurd

Yep, this is exactly what I felt, and now deal with on a daily basis.

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harry8
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

Heard that a bunch of times. I was today years old when i discovered it was
PKD who said it.

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pmoriarty
If it didn't go away, did you really stop believing in it?

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perfmode
is there awareness without belief?

what is the nature of belief?

what is the nature of consciousness?

is consciousness the same as thought?

is there consciousness without thought?

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BiteCode_dev
The more I meditate (13 years now), and the more 1/5/6 seem to be yes/no/yes.
It is congruent with many meditators exerience and teaching, which of course
could be influencing this conclusion, not to mention it's not measurable nor
objective.

I'm not sure 2/3 are something we can ever answer.

And that spawns many interesting questions about the physical characteristics
of cousciousness. Does it start and end? It is present spacially? If you don't
need thought, do you need the brain to be conscious? Do you need neurons? Can
something without it be conscious? Is there only one form of consciouness? Is
it persistent? Is it a whole? It is homogenous? Is it something in itself, or
an emerging phenomena? Does it have a support, or is it a support in itself?

Unfortunatly, people tend to immediatly reach for spiritual, religious or
mystical answers to those.

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perfmode
what do you make of the confessions of sages? respectfully: perhaps, do you
prefer to stick to what can be understood from direct experience?

i personally can’t help but wonder how it is that many sages in different
times and places seem to arrive at corroboratory confessions of what they’ve
experienced as the ground of being.

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bondolo
It appears there really was a Snakes of Hawaii published in 1972 by V. Ralph
Knight ([https://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Hawaii-Nature-guides-
world/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Hawaii-Nature-guides-
world/dp/B0007134U0))

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earthscienceman
I searched online for a while but does anyone know (or have a source for)
where he gave this speech?

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perfmode
> In his undelivered speech "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart
> Two Days Later," Dick recounts

according to the Wikipedia article for “flow my tears… “, The speech was never
delivered

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_My_Tears,_the_Policeman_S...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_My_Tears,_the_Policeman_Said)

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earthscienceman
Ahhh. Thank you for digging that up.

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flowerbrower
Hahahaha I gotta find that story about how mice can't be made to be humans.

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rantwasp
in Valis terms: The Empire Never Ended

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djaouen
Or, in other words, "Not Our Universe".

