The Butterfly Selfie Effect

I find myself thinking about Zhuang Zi and his little story about the man dreaming he was a butterfly only to awake and wonder whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that he was a man.  I am not entirely sure what he was trying to get at, but I suspect it has a little to do with our infatuation with our self.

Now, it is quite natural to want to define our self.  After all, "Know thyself" is inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.  And, as individual organisms, we are biologically programmed to stay alive long enough to reproduce (this question merits much larger discussion for obvious reasons, but, in general, this is true and I don't want to get bogged down with it at present). However, I think Zhuang Zi was looking at a much deeper question which ,until recent scientific discoveries, was merely a philosophical question:  We are not entirely what we think we are.

Now, the purpose of these blogs is to bring up certain concepts that will be central to the story Time Is Space.  And, one concept is the possibility that we are not fully capable of truly understanding who and what we are.  It is, at times, an incredible conundrum, yet, it is an astonishingly absorbing question which can be quite satisfying to try and pry open.  

I am unable to answer the question for you, but I will leave you with a very fine video to watch on this subject.  It is a video from the Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell people and it is both entertaining and stimulating.