melody

“We are not how the universe knows itself.
We are how humans know the universe.
Words and thoughts are our way of knowing, not THE way of knowing.
Translating a mountain into a word, into a measurement, does not bring new knowledge into the world, it brings new knowledge into us. The mountain was perfectly in touch with its own wholeness without neurons, without language, without learning our name for it.
We may have spotted the shores of understanding from our small boat, but we certainly didn't invent them.”
― Jarod K. Anderson, Love Notes From The Hollow Tree

“There had been a time, once, when he had not lived like this, a .32 under his pillow, a lunatic in the back yard firing off a pistol for God knew what purpose, some other nut or perhaps the same one imposing a brain-print of his own shorted-out upstairs on an incredibly expensive and valued cephscope that everyone in the house, plus all their friends, loved and enjoyed. In former days Bob Arctor had run his affairs differently: there had been a wife much like other wives, two small daughters, a stable household that got swept and cleaned and emptied out daily, the dead newspapers not even opened carried from the front walk to the garbage pail, or even, sometimes, read. But then one day, while lifting out an electric corn popper from under the sink, Arctor had hit his head on the corner of a kitchen cabinet directly above him. The pain, the cut in his scalp, so unexpected and undeserved, had for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. It flashed on him instantly that he didn't hate the kitchen cabinet: he hated his wife, his two daughters, his whole house, the back yard with its power mower, the garage, the radiant heating system, the front yard, the fence, the whole fucking place and everyone in it. He wanted a divorce; he wanted to split. And so he had, very soon. And entered, by degrees, a new and somber life, lacking all of that.



Probably he should have regretted his decision. He had not. That life had been one without excitement, with no adventure. It had been too safe. All the elements that made it up were right there before his eyes, and nothing new could ever be expected. It was like, he had once thought, a little plastic boat that would sail on forever, without incident, until it finally sank, which would be a secret relief to all.



But in this dark world where he now dwelt, ugly things and surprising things and once in a long while a tiny wondrous thing spilled out at him constantly; he could count on nothing.”
― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

“Is the daily spectacle of a revolving universe “illusory”? No, it is real, but it doesn’t involve the cosmos alone. It involves our relation with the sun and the stars. We understand it by asking ourselves how we move. Cosmic movement emerges from the relation between the cosmos and ourselves.”
― Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time

“Another fantasy film rolled suddenly into his head, without his consent:”
― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly