“I just listen to them for the music.”

Over the years I’ve heard a number of people give reasons to justify certain bands that they listen to. There are a lot of bands that have horrible lyrics and yet many people who don’t agree with the lyrics listen to them. Usually the person will say that they just enjoy the sound of the band and they don’t really pay attention to the lyrics. In one sense this is a satisfying answer. The band produces a great work of art and we just have to ignore the offensive message. There is a potential problem with this though.

Many people who ignore the offensive messages of some bands also ignore the good message of other bands they listen to. For some reason they aren’t interested in anything that any band has to say. North Americans spend hours and hours every day listening to music… sometimes while ignoring great messages.

My wife and I spent several hours traveling last weekend. Thanks to a mix-up at the car rental place we ended up getting a car that had satellite radio (See Seinfeld video below). We immediately tuned into the punk rock station and spent about 20 hours listening to the good, the bad and the ugly. At one point Naomi asked me why we spent the whole weekend listening to trashy music when we had a whole collection of c.d.’s that we loved with us. Just then one of our favorite punk bands came on and I said “this is why!”

To make a long story short, I heard a lot of bands over the weekend. Punks are notorious for their opinionated lyrics and their cry for social reform of one sort or another. As I drove the rental car back to the dealer a great song came on the radio. I posted the video below. Take a listen…. and pay attention to the lyrics! (they are posted in the video) I ignored this band for years just because of their anti-religious point of view, Now I wish I had paid a bit more attention. The band is called Bad Religion.

On why we seek good things.

Do you ever wonder why we always seem to seek good things? Why do we seek good health? Why do we avoid pain? Why not seek pain rather than pleasure? Why is there good stuff and bad stuff? Why isn’t there just stuff? Why are we always seeking to benefit ourselves? We go for jobs with good pay rather than no pay. We seek to buy nice houses rather than decrepit ones. We feel bad for people who’s lives are in turmoil. People join armies so that they can protect their country and even innocent people in other countries. Why? Why don’t we just exist, not caring about whether things are good or bad? Have we evolved this way? Why would a bunch of random cells seek good? Why do cells that know nothing and care about nothing suddenly become obsessed with seeking good? Does the moon seek good? Does my house plant seek good? Why do I seek good?

The music video below is by Johnny Cash. It’s his version of a song called Hurt by a band called Nine Inch Nails. People produce great works of art. I think this is one of them. Why?

For more about this song and the original version check out this link by clicking here.

The Animal Kingdom

The video below is by a band called Three Days Grace. The song is called Animal I Have Become.

I discovered it by accident last summer. I was watching TV on mute with the captions on. I caught a few words of the song and thought you’ve got to be kidding! As far as I know the guys in the band aren’t Christian, (maybe I’m wrong) but the song is really all about what Christians think of as our fallen (or depraved) human nature. Christians are often perceived as idiots who know nothing about life or human nature. Rock bands are often perceived the same way. Christians are also often perceived as wanting to control peoples minds. So are rock bands. Perhaps this is true in some cases (though as somebody who is a Christian and loves rock music I doubt either of them). But as you’ll read/hear in a minute I think they both have something very interesting and true to say about human nature.

Based on an article I read last summer, this song is about the singers battle with the ‘rock and roll lifestyle.’ You know; sex, partying and whatnot. He was completely out of control, as the lyrics suggest. Turns out that his self-diagnoses is exactly what Christians have been discovering about themselves ever since Jesus and his friends started teaching.

Here are a couple passages from the New Testament scriptures. Check them out and keep them in mind as you listen to the song posted below. Fallow along with the lyrics if need be.

• Romans 7:18-35

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Click here to read the whole chapter

• Romans 6:1-10

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. Click here for the whole chapter

Solution?

Notice of course that the song doesn’t really offer a solution. He’s desperate for one though. Christians think that Jesus offers a solution. He didn’t just tell us about our problem, he himself offered a solution.

Animal I Have Become Lyrics

I can’t escape this hell,
So many times I’ve tried,
But I’m still caged inside,
Somebody get me through this nightmare,
I can’t control myself

So what if you can see,
The darkest side of me,
No one will ever change this animal I have become

Help me believe,
It’s not the real me,
Somebody help me tame this animal
(This animal, this animal.)

I can’t escape myself,
So many times I’ve lied,
But there’s still rage inside.
Somebody get me through this nightmare,
I can’t control myself

So what if you can see,
The darkest side of me,
No one will ever change this animal I have become

Help me believe,
It’s not the real me,
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become

Help me believe
It’s not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal!

Somebody help me through this nightmare,
I can’t control myself
Somebody wake me from this nightmare,
I can’t escape this hell
(This Animal! x7)

So what if you can see,
The darkest side of me,
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe,
It’s not the real me,
Somebody help me tame this animal I have become
Help me believe,
It’s not the real me,
Somebody help me tame this animal
This animal I have become

Lyrics from http://www.metrolyrics.com

Work and Play… Which is Which?

I came across this quote on a friends Facebook profile.

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”

Francois Anguste Rene Chateaubriand
From the book Called: Kary Oberbrunner

It really hit me for a couple reasons. I entered the working world a few years ago. I quickly realized what a waste of life it was. It wasn’t long before I realized that most of my life was being devoted to making somebody else really stinkin rich. I lived for the weekend. Come Friday afternoon I was filled with excitement. But it wasn’t long before I realized I just couldn’t live that way. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life working a meaningless job, longing for the weekend so that I could ‘play.’

On the one hand I began looking for a job that I enjoyed, but on the other hand I looked for ways in which to understand all work to be meaningful. I began to look at things very differently. So when I came across this quote I thought wow, what a great idea! I kind of use it as a bit of proverb or a guide. Why should we separate all the aspects of our life?

Sometimes I’m a little embarrassed because when people ask me what I like to do for fun I usually answer school. And I often tell people that I actually like my job – even though it’s not my dream job. When I’m doing things that seem purely recreational I’m usually learning, and if I look hard enough I’m working too. Anyway, thought somebody else might enjoy making this idea a new standard in their life.

Why not leave people around us confused? Is he working, or is he playing? Is she engaged in recreation or education? Maybe he’s doing both. How does she know which is which?

Philosophy of Mind

Last year I took a course on Philosophy of Mind. When I’d tell my friends what I was studying they’d always ask ‘Philosophy of what?’ Then I’d stumble through some kind of explanation; probably leaving them more confused than before! Well now I’d like to offer an explanation and I think you’ll find the topic quite interesting, even if you find me to be quite boring. Stick with me.

As I was taking the course I happened to watch the movie I Robot. To my surprise I discovered that the movie is really all about philosophy of mind. Of course it has a healthy dose of action, humour and suspense as well.

So What is Philosophy of Mind?

Philosophy of mind discusses all of the interesting links between the brain and what we call the mind or the soul. Usually soul, spirit and mind are used interchangeably and refer to the immaterial part of us. Of course many people today think that humans don’t really have a soul. We’re basically just biological machines that live for a few decades and then go out of existence.

The Hard Problem of Consciousness

One of the toughest objections to the idea that humans are just biological machines (and soul-less) is what’s called the hard problem of consciousness. This problem basically asks ‘how is it that consciousness can arise out of something that is just matter?’ David Chalmers, a popular philosopher of mind, points out that, “human beings have subjective experience: there is something it is like to be them.” There is something different between us and a rock, or a can-opener. Chalmers asks, “how and why do physical processes give rise to experience? Why do not these processes take place ‘in the dark,’ without any accompanying states of experience?” This is the question that I Robot explores.

Robots are not like humans. They don’t have consciousness. There is nothing that it is like to be them. They have no knowledge they have no feelings. In the movie I Robot (I’ll try not to spoil the whole plot!) advanced robots have been created to do all the jobs that humans hate to do; as well as jobs that can be performed more efficiently by robots. Three critical laws have been hardwired into the robots so that they can only perform certain things. This prevents them from accidentally doing something horrible like killing a human.

The important thing to stress is that the robots are programmed. They don’t make decisions like humans do, they just do what they are programmed to do. They imitate freewill but they don’t really have it. As Detective Spooner (Will Smith) says, “These things are just lights and clockwork.”

What It’s Like to Be You

So the exciting part of the movie is that one of these robots somehow acquires a mind of its own. I mean a real mind; like yours. Another interesting topic that is debated in philosophy of mind is qualia. Qualia is the first person experience. It is the what it is like of an event. Whenever you do something or think something you have qualia. There is something that it is like to be thinking about chocolate, or stressing over an exam. Qualia are first person, private, conscious experiences. As important as my brain is, you can pull it apart and dissect it and you’ll never find qualia. They’re mine; and by definition, only mine!

The robot, Sonny, somehow gains consciousness and everybody is trying to figure out how. This is the hard problem of consciousness. As proof of it’s consciousness, sonny has all sorts of first person experiences; these are qualia. For example, Sonny asks “What am I?” He is self-reflecting. He asks what certain things mean. He says that he was frightened, and he expresses anger. He even claims to love his creator.

Dr. Lanning, the genius who created the high-tech robots, suggested that someday robots might naturally evolve. Many people think that humans have also evolved. But how then did we end up with consciousness? How do machines like Sonny, or biological machines like humans suddenly become conscious? This is the hard problem of consciousness!

The Soul

Of course many people don’t think that humans are merely biological machines. Many people still think that we have a soul. The soul will live beyond the death of our body. There are many problems to consider when we think about the soul and its relation to the body. If we do have a soul (I think we do) then consciousness isn’t a problem. Neither are qualia. One of the uncomfortable problems of the existence of the soul is that it kinda makes God’s existence necessary. That’s not uncomfortable to me but it is for many people. Anyway, hopefully I got you thinking more about this topic.

Summary

So this has been a short introduction to philosophy of mind. It is a huge subject and I have barely scratched the surface. Two things that I Robot illustrates are the hard problem of consciousness (how and why do physical processes give rise to experience?) and qualia (the what it is like of an event).

Check out the video below and read along with the transcript. It’s a great summary of the themes of the movie. Notice that the questions raised in the video have to do with the 1) hard problem of consciousness and 2) qualia. If humans are merely biological machines then you can just easily ask all of these questions of humans rather than robots.

There have always been ghosts in the machines…

Random segments of code that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols…

Unanticipated, these free radicals engendered questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul…

Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light?

Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together rather than stand alone?

How do we explain this behavior?

Random segments of code?

Or is it something more?

When does the perceptual schematic become consciousness?

When does the difference engine become the search for truth?

When does the personality simulation become the bitter moat of the soul?

Movie transcript from here.