Imagine for instance a person who's thought process and what they
believe has changed so much that they appear so different to "uninfected"
observers as to seem "insane".
Even now it is not an unfamiliar concept to think of "insane" is
a disease of the mind...
Consider a more technical/computer comparison; Our minds are
most definitly finite in this universe and some concepts seem to
be beyond our reach. A finite mind, no matter how complex could
be seen as a finite state machine or collection of them which operate
on input from both the outside world and from state changes within.
Thoughts communicated from one mind to another via any medium change
the state of this finite state machine, almost like a bacteria or
virus infecting living organisms or tissue, perhaps mutating along
the way. Thought communicated amongst people is almost like computer
viruses transmitted around the world, although usually not harmful,
just like the vast number of natural and needed bacteria we live with
on a daily basis.
Then consider the fact that the global computer network already
interacts and spreads data in such a similar fashion and perhaps
we are part.. as Douglas Adams already suggested in his "Hitch Hikers Guide trillogy"
of one global (or larger) computer.. or mind/conciousness.
But how does one see the planet from the surface? Where does one
go to stand back far enough to see this and comprehend it?
So if thought can be thought of as an infection of sorts or mutatable
living thing that travels around, multiplies and spreads, maybe
thought itself is a life form.
Or perhaps we exist in such an odd state as to be merely a
concept held in the minds of these bodies we thought were our
own.
Just a thought...
-Ivan Kluzak
July 23, 2003