Desi Anwar | March 17, 2012
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jusdogin
3:24pm Mar 18, 2012
bawel. everything was created by the lord God
bawel
1:55pm Mar 18, 2012
I seems that the writer still observes materialism paradigm which holds that consciousness is generated by brain thus consciousness is material (when our head knocked by hammer then we “lost” consciousness etc)
Consciousness in non material. Today’s science can’t explain consciousness and don’t even know how to ask.
The new paradigm says consciousness is non matter yet it’s REAL while matter is NOT REAL.
In other words, subjective experience (consciousness) is exist while objective reality is not exist.
The latest scientific experiment called “Delayed Choice Quantum Eraser” proves this new paradigm. This experiment derived from the famous double slit experiment. It’s so weird and mind blowing (provided that you understand it according Niels Bohr).
The only way to explain it is the theory that universe is basically a (giant) computer simulation(like Sim City game) and we (conscious being) is the players in that game!
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I just finished reading a book called “Please Look After Mother” by South Korean novelist Kyung-Sook Shin. It tells the story of an aging and forgetful wife and mother to five grown-up children who, on a trip to visit them in town, gets left behind at the train station. She disappears and, despite an intensive search by the frantic family, is never to be found.
The novel, narrated from different perspectives, including the mother herself, is a beautifully written tribute to this figure we all owe our lives to, often take for granted and expect to always be there. She is also someone we don’t expect to have a life of her own, let alone to have dreams, harbor secrets and longings; or if she does, they’re not something we’re comfortable with or interested in. Mother, for most of us, is a permanent fixture, a constant in an ever-changing world and whose life comes to a stop the moment ours begins.
Until one day, she disappears. Suddenly the children’s world is shattered as they try to deal with the loss of this being. By this time, they all have defined their lives, but they soon discover that in truth they know very little of this woman. Mother is an individual as well, and up until that point, they cared little about discovering who she really was and how she felt. Or whether she was actually happy.
A sense of self is something we all have, but its not what we think parents should have. Their role is to worry about us, the children, and not the other way round.
Sometime ago, my friend’s father disappeared. He didn’t get lost like in the novel. One minute he was at home as usual, relaxing in his favorite chair, and the next he was gone without a trace. He walked out the door with just the clothes on his back and never came back. He was getting on in years but his memory hadn’t come close to disappearing into the darkness of Alzheimer’s. He had been, as far as my friend was concerned, a happy dad, enjoying the quiet pleasures of his retirement and the comfort of his home in a village where he was well-loved and often visited.
For years my friend and the family searched for him. They searched the neighborhood, hospitals and even consulted psychics. Sometimes there would be a reported sighting somewhere and trips were taken to look for him, but to no avail. Fortune tellers told my friend that her father was still alive, somewhere, and my friend believed it. Somehow she would know if he had died.
There was a point when the concern about his disappearance turned to questions. Questions that shifted from “what happened?” and “where is he?” to “why?” He was her father. My friend was prepared to see him grow older and accepted the fact that one day he would pass away. But his disappearance was difficult to comprehend. She wondered if the man who walked out of his house one afternoon, never to come back, was the same man that she had known all her life.
Who was he and where was he going? What went on in his mind? Was he looking for something else? Perhaps a new life, new surroundings and new people? Did he ever think about her, his daughter, and the rest of the family? Was he happy? Had he been happy all his life or was he waiting for this opportunity?
It took my friend a while before she could come to peace with his disappearance and stopped looking for him. If he was still in full possession of his mind, perhaps he would come home one day. Perhaps he did not wish to be found, in which case, she would have to live with that fact. If he had lost his memory, she hoped that some kind people would feed him and take good care of him .
However, if he was no longer the father that she knew, who was he now?
What is this self that we identify ourselves and others with? And is it the case that when we no longer have memories of who we are, we cease to have a self?
Consciousness, according to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, is that which we lose when we’re in a deep sleep or under anaesthesia, and to which we come back when we wake up. It is to this sense of self that we return to every waking morning; this “autobiographical self” that characterizes our human existence and without which we cannot put any meaning to our lives and relationships.
When we go into our final sleep, we will lose this consciousness, never to wake up again. But what happens when we do wake up, and instead of finding our old selves, we have no idea who we are and why we are here. Would we feel lost in this world? Or would we discover a completely different self?
Desi Anwar is a senior anchor at Metro TV. She can be contacted at desianwar.com and dailyavocado.net.
The novel, narrated from different perspectives, including the mother herself, is a beautifully written tribute to this figure we all owe our lives to, often take for granted and expect to always be there. She is also someone we don’t expect to have a life of her own, let alone to have dreams, harbor secrets and longings; or if she does, they’re not something we’re comfortable with or interested in. Mother, for most of us, is a permanent fixture, a constant in an ever-changing world and whose life comes to a stop the moment ours begins.
Until one day, she disappears. Suddenly the children’s world is shattered as they try to deal with the loss of this being. By this time, they all have defined their lives, but they soon discover that in truth they know very little of this woman. Mother is an individual as well, and up until that point, they cared little about discovering who she really was and how she felt. Or whether she was actually happy.
A sense of self is something we all have, but its not what we think parents should have. Their role is to worry about us, the children, and not the other way round.
Sometime ago, my friend’s father disappeared. He didn’t get lost like in the novel. One minute he was at home as usual, relaxing in his favorite chair, and the next he was gone without a trace. He walked out the door with just the clothes on his back and never came back. He was getting on in years but his memory hadn’t come close to disappearing into the darkness of Alzheimer’s. He had been, as far as my friend was concerned, a happy dad, enjoying the quiet pleasures of his retirement and the comfort of his home in a village where he was well-loved and often visited.
For years my friend and the family searched for him. They searched the neighborhood, hospitals and even consulted psychics. Sometimes there would be a reported sighting somewhere and trips were taken to look for him, but to no avail. Fortune tellers told my friend that her father was still alive, somewhere, and my friend believed it. Somehow she would know if he had died.
There was a point when the concern about his disappearance turned to questions. Questions that shifted from “what happened?” and “where is he?” to “why?” He was her father. My friend was prepared to see him grow older and accepted the fact that one day he would pass away. But his disappearance was difficult to comprehend. She wondered if the man who walked out of his house one afternoon, never to come back, was the same man that she had known all her life.
Who was he and where was he going? What went on in his mind? Was he looking for something else? Perhaps a new life, new surroundings and new people? Did he ever think about her, his daughter, and the rest of the family? Was he happy? Had he been happy all his life or was he waiting for this opportunity?
It took my friend a while before she could come to peace with his disappearance and stopped looking for him. If he was still in full possession of his mind, perhaps he would come home one day. Perhaps he did not wish to be found, in which case, she would have to live with that fact. If he had lost his memory, she hoped that some kind people would feed him and take good care of him .
However, if he was no longer the father that she knew, who was he now?
What is this self that we identify ourselves and others with? And is it the case that when we no longer have memories of who we are, we cease to have a self?
Consciousness, according to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, is that which we lose when we’re in a deep sleep or under anaesthesia, and to which we come back when we wake up. It is to this sense of self that we return to every waking morning; this “autobiographical self” that characterizes our human existence and without which we cannot put any meaning to our lives and relationships.
When we go into our final sleep, we will lose this consciousness, never to wake up again. But what happens when we do wake up, and instead of finding our old selves, we have no idea who we are and why we are here. Would we feel lost in this world? Or would we discover a completely different self?
Desi Anwar is a senior anchor at Metro TV. She can be contacted at desianwar.com and dailyavocado.net.
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