Real World Connection 1: Lego Democritus: The Video Game

So a few days ago, when trying to see if the Aperture Science Facebook page had stolen a quote^*, I found this gem:

"And when I am dead, the matter which composes my body is indestructible—and eternal, so that come what may to my 'Soul,' my dust will always be going on, each separate atom of me playing its separate part — I shall still have some sort of a finger in the pie. When I am dead, you can boil me, burn me, drown me, scatter me — but you cannot destroy me: my little atoms would merely deride such heavy vengeance."^**

Bruce Frederick Cummings, under the nom de plumes "Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion,^***" said that in his diary/book The Journal of a Disappointed Man. After being rejected from the army, Cummings found out he had multiple sclerosis, and five years to live. His response was to think, philosophize, and write. I think the above quote, where he says that no matter what happens, the things that [literally] make him will keep going, that his death just gives matter to make new things, has Democritus' atom theory neatly interwoven. Democritus deduced that all things were made up of small, indestructable blocks called 'atoms' (the un-cuttable), and that these blocks linked together in infinite variety, to build the world around us. When something died, the atoms would separate, and join with other atoms to build new things. Cummings is saying that once he dies, his atoms will do just that: separate, and build new things!

The other connection I noticed was that Cummings mentions that he doesn't care what happens to his Soul. Democritus taught that the Soul was made of special atoms, which could only link with other Soul atoms. When the body carrying a Soul died, the Soul too would break apart, the atoms then wandering through the universe to build new Souls. Cummings didn't care what happened to his Soul, because regardless of what religion was right about what happens after death (Heaven, Hell, reincarnation, The Void) his molecules would keep going, and that in a way, he'd always have a presence.

He took solace in the fact that even when he was gone, his parts would carry on. Mauling this over, I was reminded of two things:

1. An xkcd comic, where a man and his daughter are playing with Lego bricks, when the man stops and wonders 'what happens to what we build when we take it apart.' His daughter points out that the Lego bricks just go back in the bin (return to the universe, to be reused), but he counters by explaining that what was built isn't bound to those pieces; they can go on to build trucks, buildings, spacecraft, anything. The comic then shows the daughter, later in life, deciding to be an organ donor, working on the logic that just because our organs make us up, it doesn't mean they're bound to us. Once we die, they can be used to help others. Basically the recycled atom idea, but on a more visible scale.
   
                       
   
   
2. A Carl Sagan quote
   

   "And we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos we've begun, at last, to wonder about our origins. Star stuff, contemplating the stars organized collections of 10 billion-billion-billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and perhaps, throughout the cosmos."

   What he was saying was that life was made of the molecules of broken down stars, and that over the eons, those old, recycled molecules found their way into making sentient beings, which then started wondering how they came to be. The star-stuff began wondering about the stars. The universe has, in a way, become self-aware^****. The recycled atoms have looked around, and started trying to learn about how they happened.

I think this is a good way to look at life. Even when we as we understand ourselves are gone, the things that made us carry on. They build new things, which in turn pass, giving their atoms back to build more. Even if we're gone, we make a contribution that carries on for eternity. I think that's an idea that is just ridiculously inspiring. "Nothing really dies. It just comes back in a new form."

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On the advice of one of my friends, I'm going to try putting my longer parenthesis'd rambling down here with general notes about stuff. If I like this format, I'll stick with it.

*something about saying that "the sky is the limit" is stupid, cause we've gone past the sky, to the moon. It was pretty inspirational, and I might use it if I make a post about humanism
**Full text: "To me the honour is sufficient of belonging to the universe — such a great universe, and so grand a scheme of things. Not even Death can rob me of that honour. For nothing can alter the fact that I have lived; I have been I, if for ever so short a time. And when I am dead, the matter which composes my body is indestructible—and eternal, so that come what may to my 'Soul,' my dust will always be going on, each separate atom of me playing its separate part — I shall still have some sort of a finger in the pie. When I am dead, you can boil me, burn me, drown me, scatter me — but you cannot destroy me: my little atoms would merely deride such heavy vengeance. Death can do no more than kill you."
***While I'm not a fan of nom de plumes, I do think he chose a pretty rad pen name.
****At least, that's how I've always read that quote. The universe getting to the point were a part of itself looks down, and wonders, "were did all this come from?"