Random Thoughts

I dislike the concept of superior physical appearance because it is almost entirely based on luck... of course you can dress nicely, style yourself... but I would prefer a world in which your external appearance was a manifestation of your personality and demeanor... the things that you can consciously morph into your ideal. Unfortunately our biological responses dictate that it must be a major factor in aspects such as trust, lust, love.

While the the mind-body dualism may physically be disjointed to some extent, parts of our body outside of our central nervous system (such as our pancreas and other hormone-producing organs) affect our personalities as well. That being said, in a hypothetical world saturated with Ghost in the Shell-like body swapping technology, it is probably a trivial effort to emulate hormones and chemical balances to match our current personalities.

Lately, I've listened to a number of people who have argued that our ceaseless discontentment with ourselves and our achievements is a drive that is necessary for us to succeed in life. While I mostly agree with their sentiments, I also find it likely that we're being deceived into building ourselves into a prison of intractable social laws and new levels of possible disgruntlement. To quote Kaczynski (again),

'A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society. (This purposelessness is often called by other names such as "anomie" or "middle-class vacuity.") We suggest that the so-called "identity crisis" is actually a search for a sense of purpose, often for commitment to a suitable surrogate activity. It may be that existentialism is in large part a response to the purposelessness of modern life. Very widespread in modern society is the search for "fulfillment."'

I'll let you know once I've solved everything.