The Contract

Some people find that internet in general, and blogs and emails in particular 'corrupt' our language. The same set of people will find that my blog vindicates their claims. I am not attempting to write something "good" from a literary point of view. I am not even trying to write a good blog. However, I will try to capture things that I find meaningful, at this point of time. I am trying to take little snapshots of my thoughts, so that a couple of years later, I can look at them and go "Haa Ha". (Hint: I am a Simpsons fan).

It is very interesting how after a couple of years you have moved so far from the 'old you', so much so that he is a totally different person from your current self. You can't understand his emotions or justify his motivations. The same pitfalls related to 'judging' an-other person seems to apply in this case too. I understand why many people are obsessed with the notion of 'metamorphosis'.

I was motivated to start writing this blog when I began to read Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations". That, and because I was feeling bored and unproductive. The idea that one could write something like this book, without a 'top down' structure, and still make it meaningful(?) is very encouraging. I find it very difficult to think about a 'topic'. I feel that they are arbitrary, and completely breaks the flow of things. Language, meaning and communication are very interesting subjects. So is their manipulation. Personally, I always perceive a 'gap' in what I want to say, and what I think people will interpret my words to mean. In other words, I am very poor when it comes to putting my thoughts into words. This 'gap' irritates me to no extent. Whenever I try to minimize this gap actively, I start stammering and end up looking dumber than George Bush. This mistrust in language runs pretty deep.

I could imagine that in my utopia, people communicate without language. But is it possible, atleast in theory? I assume that each person is a "closed" system with respect to thoughts. From the moment we are born, we are input with chemical and physical stimuli, but never thoughts. Nobody can give you a piece of "thought". Everything we know is defined as its relationship with everything else we know about. I visualize this as a pot of clay in which I am allowed to create patterns with the help of a stick. I am not allowed to add or remove clay. Now whenever I create a pattern, its "negative" is formed automatically. The interesting bits about us is in the patterns. Can two such systems communicate without error? Can I transmit one pattern from system one to system two, without both being same to begin with? I think the answer is no. Humans saw a revolution when we learned to communicate, however imperfect this is. Perhaps the next revolution will be when we develop a collective consciousness. One big fucking pot of mud?