As one of the comments mention, if you can't store instructions on how to read the data on an alternative method, then getting the info back off of one of these things will be pretty much impossible, unless they do it in such a way that makes the instructions view-able with just a Magnifying glass in the same compound that lasts as long. Also making the Bible available for so long is not something I personally agree with, it's caused enough divide and violence than every other conflict in history combined by a HUGE amount. If we have the opportunity to pass on our experience, we need it to not be clouded with peoples beliefs or interpretations and instead for it to be provable facts and experiences we have had personally (not from ANY ancient texts).
Not from any ancient text? That is history of human thought and experience, and personally I would not like to be without the mining for the Self in the Upanishads, Dao De Jing, etc. Just if looking at the ancient Greeks, the concept of extasis or standing outside one's self is a very abstract and incorporeal approach to reality which has given us much of the intellectual objectivity we so cherish now (even though rationalists don't want to admit where it really comes from). So what I really think is that modern, rational people should come out of their own prejudices against religion and spirituality (even though political powers have always abused it -- just look at US politics today) and get over that your local pastor when you were 10 was ignorant and not spiritual. There is more to the human experience and the depth of consciousness than some priest dressing up in a robe and having memorized a scripture whilst not knowing anything of depth. The very division you are so against you now propose yourself, but you think it's OK because you're "on the right side". Which is pretty much what started all that mess to begin with. People with blind belief in dogma and cultural artifact also need to wake up. Many people here in the US, for example, say they "believe" but the reality is that what they believe and what Jesus said have nothing to do with each other or else is twisted beyond recognition. Even then, what is mere belief going to do for you without experience? So mining for the self and the nature of reality in consciousness should be ignored and its expressions destroyed or lost? Before making such important decisions, if one is too lazy to do the hard work of mining one's consciousness, then take LSD or mushrooms and think about these things. Those substances will not merely create illusions, they temporarily sever the addiction to the senses so your mind stands on its own, just like the 4000 year old yogic practices central to the Vedic lore intend to free the mind from the disturbance of physical input/static. Having said that, I recognize how "the Bible" was put together by some church fathers in the 5th century who were most certainly aware of many other gospels and different versions of their accepted gospels (and complete ones at that, as the current ones were certainly cut down) and as such it is not that dear to me. They cut those gospels because it would not serve the position (political and economic) of the churches. Any spiritual figure goes through a formative stage, a stage of seeking and practicing some discipline. It was that way for Buddha, Rama, Jesus, etc. The church cut 17 years of his life out -- clearly the formative stage -- and suddenly he's 30 and it's prime time. If the church let on that Jesus had a formative stage, it would have to allow people to go through all kinds of growth stages, and worst: it would imply that "common" people could aspire to the truths Jesus talked about and realize them -- and hence not need the church. So the church painted the "always perfect Jesus" picture as beyond the reach of any individual, leaving the church to control and minister and thus maintain their position of power. That, in combination with putting Latin as scriptural language beyond the reach of the common man, made the figure of Jesus the sole property of the church, or at least that is what they intended. Yet, that's what we generally know of Jesus, but in my mind that sort of mangling has nothing to do with the actual figure of Jesus and even what he reportedly said and did. But somehow that is all the same now. When I read some words of Jesus and then think about the church or some minister it has very little to do with each other to me. Yet people are not even willing to analyze their own prejudicial way of thinking about this. So really "the church" (or one's rejection of it) is influencing your mind even though you say it doesn't. It's even worse now, if you even mention "Jesus" people will be like "did you really just mention Jesus?" as though their minds are not even their own and they allow some sort of cultural peer pressure to control their mind -- which is pretty much the millennial state of mind. To put it crudely, experiencing the depth of consciousness and realizing your own individuality is not for people who have allows their contemporary cultures to make them their bitch. Some of the words attributed to Jesus (though there is always the filter of the times) are really some of the most modern thoughts expressed and they have affected Western morality to a great degree. "The Bible" actually undermines the Jesus message a lot because Old Testament does not come from the same place as the New Testament, and in my mind they don't have much to do with each other than the OT being somewhat a historical reference to it. Well, my crystal may not necessarily have Superman or Harry Potter on it, although it is interesting to note that most popular movies and TV series that people make and watch voluntarily and with passion are about human beings with supernatural powers and insight, even though we are so rational and don't believe in it, yet we can't get away from it. And when science won't allow us to express our innate intuitions and desires in supernatural ways, we imagine that science does allow this -- Science Fiction -- and get our innate feelings met that way. So the means through which we allow ourselves to believe have become different, but not the innate desire and faith itself. But then people will say, "Yes, we are irrational and will continue to love the supernatural and untapped powers of man, but the difference is now we know it's not true -- yet we will continue to entertain it as true to satisfy ourselves." Well, what a farce that is, leading some make belief life whilst being spoon fed by special effects guys when you have an infinite universe out there and haven't even tapped 5% of your own consciousness yet. If consciousness is not central to the world and to yourself, then how is it that everything takes place in it? Have you been able to get away from it? Even what we call "objective reality" is not anything that is not taking place in consciousness as there is no object that isn't a subject in reality. And the cover-all, cop out word "solipsism" cannot even come close to explaining the nature of consciousness and its experiential reality. Some of the ways in which the pervasive reality of consciousness has been expressed imply that consciousness is not just the product of a brain, but rather that it exists everywhere in in everything. For example, Jesus said, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Or that there is a oneness between the individual consciousness and the universal consciousness, "I and the Father are one." The Vedic seer doesn't say the word "God" or "Father" or anything like that, and had a completely different cultural context concerning the root of consciousness, yet he said: "Aham Brahmasmi" or "I am Brahman" or "Tat Tvam Asi" or "That you are" with the latter "Tat" or "That" being one of the more abstract ways in which the innermost being or self of the universe and its oneness with the individual was referred to in Vedic lore. Just as the self or consciousness-root was considered as the basis of the phenomenal flux of nature or "stones", so the Vedic seer said, "Standing still he outruns all the runners." What people call "religion" in many cases was a sincere exploration of consciousness by brave and very human individuals. To not consider the explorations into consciousness of humanity through time and ignore or destroy the expressions of it in words would be like saying "Let's destroy all poetry but let's keep Facebook in that crystal." It's insanity. You're welcome
Mixing fiction with non fiction or building texts out of malice to control other peoples beliefs and opinions is just wrong, I just meant keep out the old texts that tell you to kill other humans, don't eat certain food on particular days of the week or at all, don't accept blood during surgery, destroy all those who do not believe what this book says, treat this life bad because your next life is what is important. just general crap that you really wouldn't want to put onto future generations to have to sort out the bullshit from the truth. My small generalization was just a tame way to say keep out the "stories" told in the past that can not be proven by the very sciences that made it possible to even create the archive for storing such a long time. As for the junk that is known as "social" media and "reality" TV, plus all the other distractions the planet currently has, none of that should be archived as anything other than a foot note warning to what they should never do in their own time period. I've never been in a place in my life where I felt I could fit in anything more than what my main senses share and my immediate consciousness is living, if every person was reflecting on the past or looked off in the future, then now would be missed out on. With people generally spending their time inside their head being anywhere by now and when they are forced to be in the now they will distract themselves or make up extra meaning for it when really there is none. Old texts are not worthless, but if we're only going to copy it with it's errors and all then it can not be shared as fact and must be labeled as fiction, because all ideas shared must be an acquired interest that turns to passion and not something you have forced upon you through fear or ridicule. Most shared texts need to have value to improve ones skills, well-being or knowledge or otherwise should be know as the art work it really is - which should only affect emotions or influence new ideas. Twisting meaning out of everything is a sure way to waste the short time your given to live now. Poetry is art, facebook is bad art
Well look, I was just trying to show that there is more to "religion" and/or spiritual experience through the ages than some hijacked copy of someone else's existential experience and what we think of it today due to poor church conduct and distortion. The whole problem is "organized religion" vs the "religious experience", in that at the core what is referred to as "religious experience" is really an individual experience that then gets pedestal'd by (at best) some well-meaning other person that either is unable or unwilling to commit to consciousness exploration to such a degree. Just like people who believe in science but don't understand it (most of humanity), so you end up putting the scientist on a pedestal without having to address the true issues or doing the work of giving meaning to data -- and from there giving meaning to models. I'm not knocking science or rational thought, but I'm also not saying that those things represent the entire spectrum of human experience and the totality of consciousness. And there are some common threads in various cultures that are interesting and might indicate that there is a deeper experience of reality by humans in very different times and cultures, which is why it's important not to just swipe it all away with one stroke of the hand. I do find it a bit surprising that you think consciousness explorations of our ancestors in the past "cannot be proven and are therefore worthless" whereas the very little we truly understand of scientific findings has now become "true understanding and proven fact." Maybe it just means that you have not experienced things that enable you to see the likeness in their experiences (or their expressions of those experiences, which is more likely). Fact is not truth, never has been, never will be. Facts or data are construed into models intellectually, which we believe best fit together proportionally without (we believe) the imposition of any non-related belief system. But the model is still a belief system (and fueled and vetted by greater belief systems in which it is fitted) and in many cases a very individual one at that because most of the belief people employ in their scientific perspective is really a belief in the scientists or material priests and the material results of such processes, whilst not understanding the scientific findings very well at all. But even when we are pretty well informed about the scientific process and the data we've harvested you still can't say that your model is anything but a model, however rich its yield. If you think we, at best, have anything but vetted models you would not be understanding science. Also, the scientific community still employs specific types of modeling of reality that can clearly be shown to be influenced by Christian and mechanistic modeling of 200 years ago which do not conform to the absolute objectivity we like to believe we possess (which, if you study the history of mechanistic thought is very much influenced by the illusion of objectivity and the "clock and the clock Maker" idea). The rationalist's mechanistic objectivity is completely destroyed by what is implied by quantum reality (and even in many ways by relativity theory) but they just willfully choose to maintain their way of thinking and world view. I'm saying that most people have not come out of mechanistic thought at all, even though they say they have and relativity and quantum theory would have forced them out to a greater degree by now if they had truly internalized those findings (no solid objects floating in nothingness exist, it is all energy and relationship). People are maintaining thought patterns out of fear and habit even when scientific findings and their implications clearly don't support it. "Standing still he outruns all the runners" bears much more resemblance to entangled particles of quantum theory than do most "rational" thoughts of people today who think of themselves are reasonable beings. In the end all this leads many to then conclude that the universe and the findings of science cannot be experienced any other way than by intellectual construct and modeling (which by its very nature is antithetical to the 'nature of nature') and that direct experience of reality by our innate, intuitive faculties is not possible. (mental visualization vs direct perception) It is my opinion that consciousness is at the basis of matter itself, and that our consciousness is inextricably tied into the universal consciousness, and as such it is possible to directly perceive "the atom" (another construct which doesn't remain when you look closer, even 'scientifically'), not just believe in an intellectual model of it. And in my mind, science as mostly practiced today, however valuable it has been, is only the exercising of part of your consciousness (mainly the intellectual part) whilst ignoring or glossing over the other portions of our consciousness, which are immense and very dynamic and alive. In many and most ancient cultures the people who are dedicated to direct perception of reality or the shamanic experience or however you want to call it were considered venerable, whereas now mind expanding substances and practices are criminalized and forced to the outskirts of society (which itself is being whipped up by the blunt beast of consumerism). So I'm not surprised that consciousness is demoted to such a lowly place, even by those who could not exist without it and live and move and have their being in it. Modern society thrives on having you focus your mind outward and not exploring consciousness within. It is the very thing that keeps consumerism going to as large a degree as it does today. So a lot of human experience is focused on a very small part of the consciousness spectrum. As such, I believe the experiential approach of our ancestors (which of course vary in value) will one day be seen at least as a chronicling of human consciousness realizing its full scope through time, and that it will be seen that they were not as ignorant as we now think, and that there were people alive then that had a much more profound understanding of reality than do many today. But to say that (even) university educated people today are devoid of dogma, belief systems, and ignorance and have a deeper understanding of reality than all our ancestors to me is not true at all. There is a difference between being well-informed and wise, and there is a difference between utilizing a belief system in order to get free from it (training) and thinking the belief system informs you with truth. A model is not truth, ideally you utilize it to train your mind so you can partake in a more experiential reality. We understand everything with consciousness yet almost ignore it exists and just accept its motions and activities subconsciously; but consciousness itself is hardly explored. Scientific mindset has always been about what might be possible or discovered; it has not been about becoming deterministic based on what we've found so far. Many people still believe in the "glorious accident" idea of humanity and consciousness being some freak accident in an otherwise sterile and vacant universe -- which was easier to maintain in those years when science didn't claim yet that there are untold billions of planets. But since now we have to consider that, indeed, untold billions of planets do exist, and that on our planet, forms came into being in which consciousness flowered in complex ways, that just maybe this is part of the universal evolution, that consciousness is at the basis of all matter and that is realizing itself in adapt forms such as ours. So then people say that's like throwing back to the medieval times and saying the earth is the center of the universe and such nonsense. No, that is not what I'm saying, I'm saying this is what actually happened in our solar system, that the universe itself produced our solar system; elemental matters formed into clouds and systems and planets came under the shower of light of nuclear fusion and connected to the center sun that way, which further grew forms of increasing consciousness until man came into existence, who now looks back at that same universe which is also himself. Then the very thing that allows you to see that, consciousness, enslaved by some dark material priests and nay sayers, says, "You're are a freak and an accident, we know that on those untold billions of planets nothing like you exists -- even though we have not found one planet close enough to even actually, optically see or physically explore." But consciousness itself is saying that about its own supporting form (body). To me that sounds like the universe that became you may know some more about itself than some external process might "prove" by some probes. No theory so far has even lasted more than a few centuries without drastic revision or total replacement, yet we are so sure now. But humanity has always carried consciousness with it. I've lived for a while and seen how people live, and I know that hardly any effort is made in general to explore consciousness. Mostly we are using our bodies as pinball machines and juggle some intellectual thoughts around. So if you (general 'you') say I don't know sh!t then I might agree, but I also know that you don't know sh!t enough to say that you have "proved" something or know anything about the place of consciousness in the universe. So Facebook is like kickboxing, martial art without the art
My view of it tho, is if there is value in the spiritual then it will find it's own way into our future and not require this scientific discovery to do so "Modern society thrives on having you focus your mind outward and not exploring consciousness within" - This is absolutely true and not only for the reasons you mention. they also do it to themselves out of the need to feel important and "good", I mean it's pretty bad when a single human doesn't have the power to stop even one of the injustices that is caused by the monetary & government systems on our planet, the second you realize everybody's life is as valuable as yours and that the pure chance that placed you/them into the hardship we must endure, it makes it terrible to look inwards past the empathy pain you feel for people worse off than you and that people with more "power/control (money)" do nothing to easy their pain makes me personally feel I never belonged in this time, so I know exactly what your saying view of all this is and feel it's also way more important than any scientific beliefs, but reality is the only medium we can communicate together so we must abide by it's laws and limitations we discover through shared knowledge aka science, we can not make meaningful change in our reality without our physical world and bodies, so to think that thought and inner exploration can drive a change outside of oneself would be incorrect, ALTHOUGH it can build the motivation for people to be empowered to make the changes occur. There are people who still believe the world is only 6000 years old, even with the solid proof, yeah it's possible the creation may have occurred mid way through the natural cycle, but it doesn't explain how we are able to see things billions of light years old in the reflected light we capture, why would we create a ray of light for an object we have not perceived that we measure through a machine we made, it's absurd and the excuses I have read are even worse. The thing that gives me the most comfort is that humans will either figure out how to live together on our planet or die off and the planet will go on fine without us into it's natural cycle regardless of what we think or feel, only through science can we extend beyond our planet and escape the ultimate fate set before us (with our star dying after a few billion more years), so if we don't sort it out, it may take another few evolution cycles, but somewhere intelligent life will go on - everything else seems sort of small and insignificant if you take your perception out far enough away from the actual reality. So if your exploring your mind, do not get lost from our reality - there could be many.
>>"My view of it tho, is if there is value in the spiritual then it will find it's own way into our future and not require this scientific discovery to do so "<< Well it's always been with us because it's not an invention or cultural artifact, but something innate. What I'm saying is the modern scientific viewpoint is no replacement for it and has not duly explored the most central part of the human experience, which is consciousness. But then how could one do this "objectively" without an instrument as complex and subtle as the brain and mind to do it with? One could say human beings are all already well equipped to do just this. That's also why science cannot give meaning very well, although people with their own processes in place to glean meaning will appreciate the scientific findings about the universe, I would think. I just think it's very destructive to demote human consciousness and make it subordinate to the fragmented findings of science as so often happens today. The fact is, you can dream as you want and focus and set your parameters as you will (or let your culture do this for you, as is most often the case) but that dream will come to an end. Will we really have dreamt lucidly or did we allow our minds to be filled with second-hand knowledge that we didn't even really understand to begin with? Do you know and own your own mind? Einstein often had intuitions that took months and years for him to work out and for which there was no logical indicator; the sum that added up to those pictures or insights had not yet been worked out, so how could these have manifested in his mind? To me it's just life and if one is not open to the mystery in everything then it's not because you know things, it is because have closed yourself already. When they grow old people often think back with nostalgia about the innocence and magic of childhood, but really it is this openness they are missing from which they have fallen into hardness. Einstein said, “I have been thinking the whole of my life that I would demystify the universe. But what has happened is just the contrary. The deeper I went into existence, the more the mystery deepened. I am dying full of wonder, I am dying in wonder.” Jesus said, "It is given unto babes." How is it so different?
There is a movie called "The time machine" 1960's version, where they had talking rings where the user would spin the rings and it would produce an audio giving details of what has happened. Later in the movie the professor travels back to his original time and takes some paper books in order to re-educate the future mankind. My question is if you had a chance to preserve paper books or using the memory crystal for storage what would be stored for future mankind and why? If you recall the voyager series of space probes had information stored on it about earth in the hopes that an alien race would interpret and understand.
I think it comes down to what Glenn said, that included with/in the crystal should also be the means to read or play the content, because if that crystal would be found in another time it may not even be recognized for what it is and fall into oblivion. Ideally, something should happen with the crystal when sunlight hits it, so that it at least captures the attention of whoever finds it. Or maybe at least some sort of magnifier or prism map that explains how the info could be accessed, or something. Since it probably won't be possible to include a power supply that lasts any significant amount of time, the sunlight might have to be relied upon for a power source to at least point toward its content, if not actually play the content somehow. At least the Voyager golden record included a player "Dark was the night, cold was the ground" was one of the songs on there:
