Dear Barry,
As you probably know, we are expecting an addition to the family shortly. So I found it funny the other day as I was wrapping up Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire that I came across this quote:
"We need coyotes more than we need, let us say, more people, of whom we have already an extravagant surplus, or more domesticated dogs, which in all fairness could and should be ground up into hamburger and used as emergency coyote food, to raise their spirits and perhaps improve the tenor of their predawn howling."
Some days I feel that about people and most days I feel that about dogs. I'm of the opinion the best animals are those in the wild, not bred into captivity, but I know you loved your dog so we'll probably disagree about that. The funny thing was right after reading that, I read about David Benatar and his philosophy of Anti-natalism. So instead of taking the side of no people for nature's sake, I was reading about no people for people's sake.
I'm sure you've read about it, but it was my first introduction to this theory which posits that procreation is morally bad. He goes further in stating there's an asymmetry between pleasure and pain. Pretty much meaning that while existing involving both painful and pleasant experiences, not existing involves neither pain or pleasure.. As absence of pleasure is not bad and abesence of pain is good., it is (in his argument) better to not exist(and not experience pain) than to live. He stresses he is not proposing suicide but rather the moral imperative to not expose unwitting (and non-consenting) future generations to a painful life. .
While interesting, I don't buy it.
And as you know me well, there is no way that I am going to articulate myself well enough to present a convincing counter-argument to a world renowned philosopher but I know I'd rather live through all the goods and bads of this life than not-exist at all. And all I can say is that I will do everything in my power to ensure my children are exposed to so many more good experiences than bad that there is no chance they'd ever regret being born. I know this doesn't get to the root of no bad is still better than any bad, but still, I'm standing firm.
In other news, did you see that wealthy people perceive their lives to be longer? The thought behind it is that they have the ability to experience more novel tasks throughout their lives which ingrains more memories and distinct time points that then can be looked back upon separately and thus giving the sensation of a longer more rich(I wish pun was intended) life.
But you don't have to be rich to do this. You just have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and do and try new things. It was once thought that the brain cells you were born with are all that you ever will have but new evidence shows that the brain can be stimulated to continue to grow and adapt well into adulthood. The key is to provide to novel tasks. This doesn't have to be a trip to Seychelles but just doing something different or even just looking at something from a different perspective.
Probably nothing new learned for you today but I thought I'd write to you anyway.
I've attached a few pictures from my run today. Yes those are Roman carvings from 2-4th century CE only about 1 mile from my house. Cannot wait for you to come and visit, though it feels like you're already here with me.
Until next time my friend,
Danny
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