Intellectual Autobiography

2010-10-17T19:45:00.001-07:00

As a child my favorite super hero was the Flash. The comic neglected to go into the physics of how his everyday epic went on, but to travel at such speeds his mind must think beyond all comprehension. In fact, it’s safe to say he was only as fast as he could think, lest he run into walls. So, he could essentially live eons in one lifetime. However, this warped perception of time would have undoubtedly had social disabilities. He would have seen people in the time scale which we see plants. Plants respond to stimuli, but so slowly it’s hard to notice all at once. So too, conversations must have been hard, each one wasting away precious seconds, but what for him must be years. This hero worship stoked an intellectual obsession with temporal dynamics. Really this is the only early indicator for my intellectual goals, other than ironic coincidences like my parents’ choice of profession, my dad working in refrigeration and my mother getting a PhD in microbiology before going into medicine; but that is just irony, like my leap year birth date.

My real pursuit towards my current intellectual ideals evolved over the last four years from philosophers, generals of men, and writers who struggled with their place in this universe. Karl Von Clausewitz, a general in the coalition against Napoleon, wrote a book “On War” which has astounding meaning when abstracted outside of the realm of war. For a man surrounded by war he stands firm that the acquisition of knowledge can lead to human perfectibility. However he goes on to say that, “Most men are neither capable of achieving intellectual mastery over complex areas of the human activity nor much interested in it.” He developed theories, the representation of art by way of concepts, and as representations even the most realistic theory could never match reality. Therefore, his theories do not tell one how to act but develops one’s judgment. This led him to his conclusion that no one system is right to the exclusion of all others.

A 20th century writer, Robert Pirsig echoed this sentiment in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He concluded that the scientific method would not find a universal truth because if there are an unlimited number of hypothesis’ to test, the results are inconclusive. There is no universal truth because truth is a construction of time (Albert Einstein). Without the ability to manipulate time the only universal truth is that time will manipulate us. Therefore, the best we can do to complete our goals are to “reduce the scope of chance” and “remain faithful in action to the principles we have laid down for ourselves”. These terrifically smart people are saying that there is no ultimate meaning of life for each individual because each is different and subject to their time.

So, from here each person should find a subjective truth which exposes purpose in their life, and combined with means each person can create something of value. Each has their own individual talents for which they would benefit the human race by contributing to and for me biology was the answer to it all. As Pirsig said, “When reason thus defeats its own purpose something has to be changed in the structure of reason itself,” and Biology gave me a way to change the structure of time, or how we perceive it. To bring us that much closer to Flash’s potential of eons in one lifetime.

Time travel. It sounds so strange to all of us, yet we do it every day, at a set pace which is relative to person and place. I was driven so profoundly into searching for the alternative to an unknown afterlife after my thirst for knowledge put me at odds with faith-based religions. I think Bertrand Russell said it best, “What we need is not the will to believe but the wish to find out, which is exactly the opposite.” Belief in the truth without the need for proof provided me with no comfort for my death or afterlife. Instead I wish to save myself through the knowledge I have acquired. If there was nothing before this existence, and then this reality sprung forward, it is not impossible to believe that it will once again return to nothing. But, since something once before came out of this nothing it is not absurd to believe that something will once again occur from nothing. Or something always exists. Since I have no proof of either, I choose not to invest much thought into something I cannot prove. But science gives me the chance to prove what I have the means to accomplish.

After having set this as my goal I have met up with some resistance along the way from people I respect. I have found true that if you want to be smart, surround yourself with smart people; if you want to be smarter, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you. “For by doubting we come to inquiry, by inquiry we discover truth.” (Peter Abelard) I am often asked why I would want to submit myself into multi-year stasis. It’s my only known way to dictate my own freedom or security. Ultimately it’s my way of gaining control. To control my death, length of life, and the amount of knowledge I can acquire. To do this I must give up self-dictating control completely and let myself be carried away with time and the actions of others.

Ultimately I asked myself what meant most to me in life. Whether fame, wealth, knowledge, or happiness. Knowledge and happiness struck me as the two to which I most longed. But happiness has it crests and troughs, and cannot be sustained at the climax. Once gone despair must set in, or at least contentment which pales in comparison. Knowledge, however, compounds upon itself producing lasting results. And so, I shunned a life pursuing happiness for one in search of knowledge absolute and long life. Cryonics offered more potential learning and longer life than any other field.

However, I believe no other contribution of the 21st century would as influential as the successful stasis and rehabilitation of a human being. This would redefine the limits set since the dawn of intellectual thought. Now the human race is not merely evolving as time descends forward, but is instead dynamically changing as a part of the process. Henceforth, mankind can change as one entity, with individuals acting as cells in the greater works of the human organism. While erasing the stigma around death we could elevate ourselves to new levels of learning and social well-being, with as much emphasis on the rights of future citizens as those in present day. The questions and sound logic of great minds put forth in my mind the question of ultimate concern, of why mankind exists and what purpose should they pursue. It was through their love of reason and torment with logically explaining why we are here that I have sought to perfect the science of cryonics, because the price of failure is, like that of the great minds of yesterday, a momentary existence.