Gilbert Stern | Guildenstern (noexplanations) wrote in musings, @ 2010-10-04 11:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | daniel jackson, guildenstern, rosencrantz |
[Gil's Blog: King of Infinite Space]
[There's a blank screen, and then a grainy image appears, which clarifies after a few seconds to reveal a young man in a t-shirt. He's not paying attention to the camera just yet, too busy futzing with it and yelling to someone off-screen]
Just shut up for a few, Ross! I'm doing my vlog, can't you just quit it for five.minutes? Five minutes, that's all I ask. Then you can regale me with Soliloquy to an Uncut Daisy or whatever it is you want. Okay?
[There's a murmur from somewhere off-camera that sounds vaguely like an assent, albeit a disappointed one, and the man turns back to the camera, rolling his eyes.]
Honestly, you'd think if he didn't have attention on him every second of every day he would poof out of existence out of non-belief. ...Shit, you're on, aren't you. You've been recording? ...'Course you have, the light's on. Shit. Well...just ignore that bit, could you? I'll...delete it before I post it or something.
[He clears his throat and leans back in his seat, attempting to give the impression of wisdom beyond his years, but only manages to look uncomfortable. He gives the camera a tight smile that seems almost contrived before speaking, addressing the camera and whoever's watching.]
A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
“A sense of obligation.”
See, that's what's wrong with the world. Nobody cares anymore. If they ever did to begin with, and that's a question for the ages, really. What's the point in living in a universe that's equally content if you are or you aren't?
[He pauses, partly for effect and partly to reflect on what he just said. The more involved in his own train of thought he gets, the more animated he becomes, gesturing with his hands for emphasis.]
Not that I object to existence. It's quite nice, and certainly beats the alternative, the alternative of course being a great expanse of nothingness. I would much rather have something than nothing; something is tangible, real. You know where you stand with something. But nothing? No, it's the antithesis of something, a complete lack of being. I can't even imagine what that would be like, not really. But can anyone, when you get right down to it? It boggles the mind, a complete vacuum of being, a state where you are nothing and nothing is you. The brain can't quite grasp it, and that's the problem with trying to comprehend it. You quite simply can't.
...But I digress. You do exist, and so does everyone else - or the ones who are still alive, at any rate - and yet nobody really cares. The universe just goes on, ticking like some giant doomsday clock, regardless of anyone. You could die, today or tomorrow or next week or next month and so on, and it would just tick on as if nothing had happened. As if none of us truly matter, and maybe that's the point. Time is infinite, we are fleeting. Just specks of dust on the cogs of time, inevitable but on the whole insignificant.
...Well there's a happy thought.
[The video continues for a few minutes, the argument gaining in enthusiasm if not actually getting anywhere, the speaker's train of thought almost visibly spiraling as he can't quite put the pieces together to say anything of any deeper meaning. He's almost there, but never quite close enough to get it, and instead keeps returning to the image of a clock. He knows that one, likes it quite a bit, so relies on it heavily when his words can't quite express the ideas his mind is trying vainly to reach. Finally he gets fed up, the exact moment manifested as a short, frustrated sigh, a slight dissatisfied twitch at the corner of his mouth, and he wraps up his thoughts and moves on.]
So what do you think, dear viewers? Is it all just pointless inevitability, time ticking on until its conclusion with no regard for anyone living in it? Or perhaps, does it continue to tick precisely because we are here, a Schrödinger's Cat, of a sort? Neither one nor the other, but existence makes it so? And if we were to go, time would in fact cease? An interesting thought, I should think. So tell me what you think. Just hit that little button there, type out a response, and send it my way; I'd be interested to know.
[He leans forward now, giving a little wave to the camera that looks rather absurd, and shouts to someone, presumably in the next room]
Alright! I'm done now, so what was it?
[Murmuring from the other room, not quite distinguishable, but it sounds unhappy, as if the person belonging to it were sulking.]
Oh, come on, I was doing my thing! It couldn't wait, now stop being such a-
[Camera goes dark; recording ends]
[NOTE: All replies are in text-form, as if replying to a video on Youtube. Just as with the usual Youtube set-up, you can like or dislike it in addition to your comment (if you choose to give any)]