Directing the Future
20 SEC ESSAY: The future hasn’t happened yet. We know that. We know it because we live in the present. But of course, in reading it, this sentence has now become the past. As for the next sentence, it’s in your future, but I already know what it says, so has a little of the future entered your present? I raise this point for an important reason. We think of the future as divorced from the present, but the reality is, its seed is sown now. If we realized this, the future could well be a better place.
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20 SEC ESSAY: I worry about knowledge today – mainly because much of it isn’t knowledge at all. Rather, we have become information junkies, erroneously thinking that holding such information is knowledge. Yet true knowledge is what you do with the information. Knowledge is the outcome of thought. Knowledge is taking this information and producing awareness and wisdom. Knowledge, today, is simply data-processing, as if we’ve become an appendage of the computer rather than the other way round. The machines seem to be winning.
20 SEC ESSAY: I play with mind models. I construct ideas in my head and see how the world would operate if they were true. It is not belief, for at heart I accept that the only truth is there isn’t one. Rather I use reason. It is a discipline that is dying in the modern world. Things either have to be due to belief or science provable by data. It leaves a conflicting gulf where mind models should be.
20 SEC ESSAY: The Devil is in our genes. Not literally, you understand. But … The idea that behaviour can be inherited as well as due to upbringing is seen by many as an excuse for what people do. Of course, in a perfect society no one would do wrong, and we always like to think our society perfect. 
This was the case in Medieval times, where Christendom supposedly offered a perfect society. Hence, man could do no wrong; and should he do so, evil allowed the Devil to take over the person and cause his deviance, so it wasn’t his fault. And thus we have our link with the Devil – a defence for imperfection in a perfect society – which is, of course, absolute rubbish. My advice is simple. If genes have an effect on behaviour, try harder.
20 SEC ESSAY: The idea that there is consciousness within the universe will not go away. One way is to see it is as similar to the internet – something vast we all have access to. This allows us to see a possible consciousness as an enabler rather than dictator, with spirituality being a form of access, the ‘system’ providing evidence of what you want to believe. How democratic.
40 SEC ESSAY: Is the universe out there? It certainly seems to be – after all, we feel its effects all the time; and science certainly seems to be learning lots about it. But is this really the case? Well, most of the mass of the universe is currently classed as dark energy or dark matter – mainly because we haven’t the slightest idea of how it works without inventing something yet to be found. It’s the same with Big 
Bang. It all began with the expansion of a singularity. Yet this singularity is nothing more than a mathematical point of infinity. In reality, our understanding of the universe has moved on very little since the days of gods holding it in place. Indeed, the history of our knowledge of the universe seems to go hand in hand with our changing view of our culture and society. So maybe the true reality of the universe exists only in our collective minds.
20 SEC ESSAY: I often think the Devil gets a bad press. Known as a trickster, his job is to make things bad for you. Without him, everything would be sweetness and light. But a question: what makes us advance as people? Overcoming the problems in life – problems that used to be laid at the Devil’s door. So maybe we’d not advance without him.
20 SEC ESSAY: Most ideas have a degree of commonsense, so why do things always go wrong? Usually the ideas or people are blamed, but this is not good enough. One thing I’ve noted about any idea is that it is invariably followed fanatically and above all else. I’m convinced this is the problem – we are unable to apply moderation. We should try it. Indeed, I’m fanatical about moderation.
20 SEC ESSAY: The problem with modern medicine is it is so pessimistic. Diagnosed, you have it. Yes, a cure may be available – or maybe not. But it is such a definite statement. Alternatively, alternate medicine is more optimistic. It usually offers a hope of improvement, often by treating the whole body. Now, you can argue this is nonsense, but if it makes you FEEL better, what’s wrong with that?
20 SEC ESSAY: Reason is a funny thing. If a person believes in God, then all around him he reasons proof of it. Scientists would discount such ‘reason’ – they have their own. But throughout history ‘reason’ has been proved against a particular culture at a particular time. Maybe ‘reason’ is relative. We should never class it as an absolute.
