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among the things that you'd think don't ever happen include: a tornado touching down in brooklyn! holy shit. subway service almost all frozen, among other things. more signs indicating the end of the world. ___ says by the time we're older "they" would have found a cure for mortality. (reading this book called the Black Swan lately--there was a time when another they thought all swans were white until they found a black one. Other black swans include almost every major event in world history--completely unanticipated until it was already after the fact, when it became inevitable). What's right then is probably impossible to know, but the attitude taken has profound consequences. There are whole cultures that have no word for the future. and they're extremely primitive. westerners in particular believe that history only goes up and up. i, too, believe there is a point to civilization. I dont know of any better measure of progress than that mass of extra average gray matter directly attributable to the modern world. Humans have a telos and it's to be conscious (aristotle agrees). Yet, that lackluster futureless state can be approached from the other side of consciousness, from too much consciousness. there's a story about an oracle in egypt containing the truth--one precocious young person snuck a peek at it and "his life thereafter was spiritless, his actions were undistinguished, and he sank into an early grave." yikes. Component to such a huge truth is, i think, at least, that everything dies. A notion that's despite all its truth is thankfully--probably biologically--at least psychologically--inert, for most. We're made to believe life lasts forever, even while watching all that ubiquitous aging and dying. always important to watch which bluffs you call. so, to ignore some truths for the sake of other truths. to make assumptions, wrong assumptions even. etc. etc.