On Will Power & Reality (Part 1)

I am a very strong believer in the human will power. So strong that I at times overexpect from "will", and in the process am let down by it.

Remember the quote by Arthur C Clarke? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Now I put this here for three reasons. Firstly, the idea of magic must have existed since a really really long time, simply because we have a word in ALL languages to express it. Secondly, magic always enthralls us and reflects those things that we REALLY might want to do! And finally, whats magical at one point of time, almost always becomes "real" at a later point in time.
Magic is a strange concoction of belief, disbelief, awe, wonder, desires and quests.

Lets look at the way technology has evolved.

• Flying in thin air (for a human being) was considered magical at a point of time.
• So was the idea of touching the moon.
• Controlling any kind of physical activity from a distance, without contact, was magic. Now we have remote controlled mechanisms for almost everything & we also have thinking things (called computers) who can interact within themselves without any physical contact (bluetooth etc)
• Hearing a persons' voice coming out of a small handheld thing, which at times is connected to nothing in the world, and then speaking back to the person in the same "thing"? Wouldnt it sound magical if you were to explain it to your 17th century girl friend?

Doesnt it look like that these things have happened because entire generations of human beings have "willed" them to happen? Of course, there have been well meaning skeptics too, who might have tried to stop these people, using perfectly rational sounding arguments like "this has never happened before!" But they have only managed to add meaning and aura to the word magic.

• Becoming invisible, travelling to future, and making other planets habitable sounds magical to you today??

Now lets look at the way societies have evolved.
From the time of hunting in the wilds for food, man has been seeking better tools to hunt (basically "more comfort"). And we have had the metal ages, to Industrial Revolution, to Information Technology era.

Over the years, everyone has been seeking "development", and thats what has been happening. We have a certain unspoken definition of development, which implies 'more money, more comfort and more entertainment for more people'. And thats what we keep striving for all our lives, and keep getting too.

If you notice closely, you will see a pattern. "We want it, and over a period of time we get it."
I will put it a little differently. "Unknowingly, we create our reality ourselves, as we live it along."

~~~end of part 1~~~

(originally on Avanoo: http://www.avanoo.com/pl/post/3562 )