1. Free will
2. Humor
3. Play
4. Change
Doubtless there are more, but can any hunch or theory or model or hypothesis or mythos or philosophy or system or formula or code or Ph.D. thesis or fairytale or novel or poem or religion or deity or pathognomy or whathaveyou that leaves out free will and humor and play and change be complete?
These days - and speaking for myself (for who else can I speak for?) - when I come across an idea or a website or a work of art or an etc that has interestingness and thereby causes me to raise an eyebrow and walk my two hips…left, right, left…from slouch position to attentive position in my chair, I seem to split into autonomous, Janus-like halves. The credulous half is energized by the draught of fresh air, and the skeptical half says “well, there’s something there but where in it is free will, humor, play, and change?” So far, when the two of them finally start talking to each other, dialogue-style, at least one of the above four steps are missing, the inner conversation quiets down, and at some point I find myself in silent slouch position again, or as Phaedrus called it, lateral drift.
Yet, over the course of time, there is a weird, mysterious sense of progress, as if we humans are destined to sniff out completeness and move toward it but never to actually arrive there.
Why?