A World of Miracles

8/7/2019 A World of Miracles

1/24


2/24

2

AWORLD OF MIRACLESA Fictional Story on the Topics of Non-Euclidean Geometry, Existence and Morality

Jian Kang

2005, 2011


3/24

3

CHAPTER 1

The Start of Exploration

The Birth of Philosophy and Non-Euclidean Geometry

Thunder-like applauses burst from the audience as a lovely white rabbit appeared

in the magicians hat.

Thank you! Thank you very much! I hope everyone enjoyed the show tonight!

The young magician gave his thanks to the audience and left the stage, leaving the

puzzled people wondering how he had done the trick.

Hey, it was a nice show tonight, John, a high school girl ran toward the

magician as soon as he stepped in the back stage. She was Emily, Johns younger

cousin. The magician grinned: Thanks, Emily. It was just a simple one, really

But it seems so unbelievable! I just couldnt believe my eyes!

Well, I understand how confused people can feel when they are fooled by their

own eyes. John stared at his hat, from where the rabbit had been pulled out, you

know, this is also the way we human-beings see the world. We are living in a world

full of wonders

Like the pyramids? Emily interrupted.

Not just the ones built by humans (lets assume that the pyramids were created

by human-beings), but, more importantly, the miracles created by the nature. To

understand this, just imagine that we, like the ancient ancestors, have little

knowledge of the world. What would we think about the change of seasons, the

burning sun, the shining stars, the soft breeze, the forests and all kinds of animals

around us? At the moment when you see all these things for the first time, Emily,

wouldnt you be amazed?

Absolutely! I guess Ill spend all my life in wondering whats going on right in

front of my eyes and yet have no clue at all! Oh my how pathetic! Now I feel so


4/24

4

lucky that Im living in the 21st

century and that people have obtained lots of

knowledge of the world.

You are probably right. Now we indeed have some acceptable explanations to

the nature. But never forget all what we learn is just a drop of water, if the whole

secret of the world is the ocean. Two reasons for that- firstly, I guess you would agree

that there are still so many things out there, the mystery of aliens for instance, which

we are not yet able to explain; secondly, like a wise man once said, even highly

warranted scientific statements are open to further scrutiny and are not simply facts

or absolutely truth. All what we have so far are just explanations that make sense to

us for the moment, but they are not necessarily true.

Wait, wait, wait The first reason I can understand, but the next one is very

confusing.

Let me put it in another way You have watched the movie The Matrix,

havent you? asked John with a gentle smile on his face.

Oh yes! That is a fantastic movie! I wonder what if the movie was telling a true

story wouldnt it be scary?

Thats the whole point of it. John seemed very satisfied with the answer from

his audience. Among all the sharp sentences from the movie, I found this one the

most interesting - I hope you remember it, too - What is real? Define real

Aha, this was what Morphius once said to Neo, trying to convince him to accept

the truth of the world. See? My memory is not too bad.

Thats right. What Im telling you is that the idea in The Matrix does relate to

our every-day life. You know, every single thing we know about the nature is just

signals in our brain, but not necessarily true: for example, now you know Im

sitting here and chatting with you because you see me and hear me; however, what

you see is just what your eyes are telling you; what you hear is just what your ears are

telling you ---- in fact, your sensory organs might be sending you wrong signals and,

- though it sounds pretty scary - you might not exist at all!

I think Im getting it what you are saying is that we cant always trust our

eyes because they sometimes lie to us. In short, what we see might not be what it


5/24

5

is. But if we cant trust our sensory organs, what else can we rely on to explore

the world?

What a great question! But dont be hurry. Let me ask you a question John

raised his hat and smiled, what did you see in my magic show?

Hum I saw you put some beautiful ribbons into the hat and then the rabbit

jumped out from it.

Right. That is what your eyes told you ribbons went into the hat and a rabbit

came out. However, you know your eyes were telling you a lie because ribbons can

never transform into a rabbit, can they?

Of course not. Thats why Im so eager to know the secret to your magic, John!

Emily was hooked now.

I notice you used the phrase eager to know about the secret. I like it, because it

is this sentence that gave birth to philosophy. Back to more than 2000 years ago, an

ancient Greek philosopher believed that when people were amazed or confused by

something, they wonder why it was like so; they would ask: what makes it work like

this? What is really going on? You know, this was the very start of philosophy. Many

people look at the nature and think it is an unbelievable miracle - you still remember

what you felt when you saw I pulled the rabbit out of my hat, dont you?

Yes. I couldnt believe what I saw. Im pretty clear on the point that a trick is all

what the show is about, but I just want to know how you did it.

It is always easier to get a better view when you are outside of the picture. It is

the case of the magic show. However, the situation would differ a lot when we talk

about the nature. We know this world is not only a trick played by some great

magician because we are living as a part of it. In fact, we are rather like the rabbit that

was pulled out of the hat the only difference is the rabbit never realized it was in a

magic show. But we do - we know it by heart that we are a part of a fantastic

gigantic-scaled magic show, and we want to know the secret to it.

Whoa I used to consider philosophy as some thing so far away from my life

and only bored people are interested in it. Now it looks like I figured it all wrong!

You really should say sorry to the philosophers, you know that? John laughed.


6/24

6

But it is okay to make such mistakes as long as you finally discover the truth of

philosophy. I guess I could put it this way: we people are like the micro-creatures

living on the furs of the rabbit philosophers try so hard to climb to the end of the

furs to get a better view of the magic show; on the other hand, some people would

rather to live in the very bottom of the furs where they can stay warm and refuse to

think of anything about the great show unfortunately, they occupy most of our

population.

It is a sad fact, isnt? Emily sighed. However, this time she got no response

from John now his eyes were fixed on the ground. Emily looked down to find out a

rabbit sitting right beneath them, with a letter tied on its back by a ribbon.

How strange! John picked up the letter and unfolded it.

Dear Dr. Miller:

I guess by this point, you have noticed that my ideas are represented by my

messengers: Emily and John; and as their conversation goes on, I will express more. I

hope you dont mindthe way Im writing this paper. Now let me start from the birth of

Euclidean geometry. As John said to Emily, philosophy is mostly born from peoples

curiosity. And So is non-Euclidean geometry, I would like to say. After Euclidean

published his great work, many found P5 too complicated. With the belief that P5

could be induced by the other four principles, many people devoted their lifetime into

finishing the proof. It takes curiosity to come up with the question, and unbelievable

courage to walk along the path to eliminate P5. However, after two thousand years,

the questionable P5 still remained unsolved. Then it was Gauss, Jenos Bolyai and

Lobachevski who wonderedwhat if P5 is indeed independent of others and a new

type of geometry would be generated by substituting P5 by its converse statement?

Setting first step here, they began their lonely journey to discover non-Euclidean

geometry and finally achieved greatness. Once again, peoples curiosity played an

essential role in the revolution of geometry.

In short, it is reasonable to conclude that almost all creations of men are really


7/24


8/24

8

CHAPTER 2

Is there an Island in the Ocean?

Descartes Philosophy and Cantors Set Theory

Emily was so shocked by the mysterious letter that she kept talking about it with

John all the way back home, till the moment she fell asleep at night. On the next

morning, when the beautiful sun shine jumped into the room and waked her up, she

seemed a little unconscious and angry. She had had a bad dream.

Knock, knock It was John asking her to have breakfast.

John! You wont believe what I dreamed last night! Emily spoke loudly, I

dreamed that Jian Kang, the should-be-cursed writer of the letter, was an evil monster!

He was sitting in front of a bizarre computer, typing something like crazy I was

standing right behind him and looking at the screen.

Really? What did he write there? asked John.

Thats the scary part! I saw nothing but our names on the screen! When I just

began to wonder what in Gods name this was all about, that Jian Kang turned his

ugly face and looked at me and smiled John, I swear to God that was the evilest

smile I have ever seen! Then he pressed the Delete key on the keyboard, and you

guess what My body began to tremble and part, like a piece of board in a terrible

storm! I couldnt do anything other than screaming and watching my own body

disappearing!

What made Emily surprised is Johns answer: how do you know your dream was

not true?

What?! Are you out of your mind?!

You dont understand. John explained, just like what I told you yesterday,

what you think is true might not be true; similarly, what you think is untrue might

actually be the reality--you never know if your sense organs betray you

I didnt forget your words, but I just have kind of strange feeling after the


9/24

9

nightmare. Its like I was struggling and so tired in an ocean. I tried so hard to find an

island so that I could set my feet on it

Aha! Thats exactly what Rene Descartes (1596 1650) thought John looked

fairly happy.

Who is Descartes, though?

He was a French man, a great philosopher, physicist and mathematician. Many

people consider him as the father of modern western philosophy.

Wow

A very important man in history, wasnt he? I think the most famous sentence he

said, as you must have heard this before, was Cogito, ergo sum. In English, it should

be I meditate and therefore I exist.

Oh yes, I have heard this sentence so many times! But I dont know the meaning

of it.

Descartes believed the only thing people could rely on to discover the world was

logic, not eyes or ears. In short, he started off by doubting everything in his life and

tried to find something that was surly true. Its like what you said. He was struggling

so hard to search for a solid land in the ocean.

It seems like I do have some talent in philosophy! Emily said quite proudly,

maybe I should have studied this subject better two years ago but anyways, did he

succeed?

Thats the key part. Descartes refused to trust any knowledge that was given by

neither others nor his own sense organs so that he could start his search for the

absolute existence.

I guess the situation is like when you decide to start a construction project

somewhere, you have to clear up all the junks on the ground.

You got it. So Descartes began by doubting everything in the universe every

single bit of knowledge. By doing so, however, he found one thing he could be sure

his doubt itself, or his meditation. And hence, since his meditation exists, as a

thinking individual, he himself had to exist.

Meditate and therefore exist. His thoughts were really like mathematical


10/24

10

proofs!

Arent they!I hope you didnt forget Descartes was a top mathematician as well.

Now lets go downstairs and have breakfast. John looks at Emilys eyes and says,

surprises await.

When Emily saw a large envelop lying on the dinner table, she realized what the

surprise was about: is it the letter from yesterday? Again?!

NoThis is a different one, but from the same author though. John said as he

passed the evil envelope to Emily, I found it beside my pillow when I woke up this

morning Its a gift from the night angels, huh?

Emily did not appreciate the joke at all. She grabbed the letter and read it loudly

with awful lots of anger:

Dr. Miller:

So we meet again. Since my messengers have already talked about Descartes

philosophy, why dont we have a discussion on that topic here? Personally, I regard

Descartes as a Genius who added a whole new dimension to our knowledge and

enlightened our civilizations. Somehow, when I was reading the works from the

French philosopher, I found some interesting bridges between his ideas and our

course. Now Im going to walk through the bridge to probably the most important city

of the Mathematic Empire the set theory.

In the long, long history of mathematic, before Cantor (1845-1918) developed Set

Theory which became the solid standard background of Mathematic from then on,

most people barely questioned the existence and the meaning of the mathematical

systems, for instance, what is the number1.

Huh! This man must be out of his mind! He does not even know what 1 is.

What a fool! Emily pointed at the dinner table, it is 1 table, and there is 1 empty

plate on it!

Please continue to read the letter. Johns said in a peaceful voice.


11/24

11

Sigh alright, as you wish Emily kept on reading:

To the above question, most people would consider it as a fools question. They

would point at themselves and answer: I am 1person! Thats the meaning of1!

Aaah!!! Its soooo creepy! This evil monster reads my mind! Emily threw the

letter to John, I dont want to read it anymore!

This is getting quite interesting John caught the letter and continued to read:

However, they are wrong. A rock, a bird or a person is just some presentation of

1, but not the meaning of itin fact, you can never ever find the number1

standing by itself alone in this world. Then, the question arises: does 1exist at all?

This is a super scary question to think about, isnt it? If the answer is negative, then

every single thing based on the number system would be of no difference than

nonsense; without a doubt, the whole Mathematic Empire would collapse.

What should we do, then?

Just like Descartes found a solid land in the journey to realize the world, we have

to find something in mathematic that is independent from our intuition, a solid

groundwork which the mansion of mathematic will stand upon. And then, again,

Cantor put forward the formal definition of Empty Set as the very basis we are

looking for. It was not introduced in the notes that why and how he came up with it,

but here is my guess:

Just like Descartes questioned everything in the nature, its now reasonable to

believe that nothing is guaranteed validwhy dont we start by assuming nothing has

absolute existence in mathematic? However, under this assumption, nothing, or

emptiness, itself has to exist. We have a contradiction! Hence, there is at least one

thing we can be sure about: the existence of emptiness, or, in the language of set

theory, the empty set.

Then, based on the absolute existence of empty set, Cantor gave his

remarkable definitions of the natural numbers:


12/24

12

0is defined as the cardinality of the empty set ;

1is defined as the cardinality of the set: {};

2is defined as the cardinality of the set: {, {}}

In this way, the whole number system was firmly reborn, and people were ready

to rebuild the Mathematic Empire. So in my opinion, Cantors set theory is a lot like a

brother ofDescartesphilosophy: they were all created by questioning the existence

and validity of everything, finding the absolute existence, and coming up with a whole

new brilliant way to view the worldnot just by intuitions any more, but by our

independent logic.

Dr. Miller, I hope you found my little discovery not too boring, and enjoyed my

messengersconversations of philosophy, even they were brief and shallow. Oh, I

guess I should apologize to my poor messengers as well -now they must be dying to

figure out who we are. Lets keep it as a little secret for now. Ill talk to you later.

Nice day!

Jian Kang

Apr, 6th, 2005


13/24

13

CHAPTER 3

To Be or Not to Be, it is the Question

Returning to the Question of the Existence of the World

Hum... very interesting thoughts... John said as he passed the secret letter back

to Emily. However, Emily did not even take a look at it.

I just dont understand it, John! Why can you stand such a crazy stupid behavior

like this? That evil Jian Kang must be hiding somewhere and watching us, somehow

listening to our conversations and sending these ridiculous letters to fool us around. I

mean, what does he think he is? God?!

John fell into deep meditation. He understood that there was always something

far away from us - the things that were beyond our vision and imagination. Descartes

hoped to escape the epistemological confines of the mind by constructing knowledge

of the external world, the self, the soul, God, ethics, and science out of the simplest,

indubitable ideas possessed innately by the mind. He tried, in short, to find a

foundation to all knowledge, as Cantor tried to find the foundation to mathematic......

Oh by the way, where on the earth are these letters from? Could Emilys guess be

right? What is really going on? John asked himself.

Johns thinking was interrupted by a ring at the door. Before he reached the

door, it was already opened by Emily. There was nobody there - except a little white

rabbit with pink eyes. It looked pretty much like the one that amazed the audience in

Johns magic show the last day. This time, it came back to amaze the cousins - now

the rabbit started talking!

Hi! Fellows! You are all invited to my party tonight! Oh~~~ Yeah~~~~~~ The

little rabbit began to whistle a happy, but somewhat strange song, leaving Emily and

John standing here with their mouths wide open.

However, the song stopped all of a sudden as a little girl, who seemed to appear

from nowhere, walked into their sight. In the meanwhile, the rabbit turned back and


14/24

14

ran toward a tree in front of the house, saying loudly to itself: Oh dear! Oh dear! I

shall be too late! The little girl apparently saw the rabbit and ran fast toward the tree.

The rabbit took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, hurried on,

and disappeared. At this moment the little girl already made herself side by the

rabbit-hole.

Hey! Who are you? What are you doing in my garden? Emily shouted at the

girl. No respond. Something flashed across Emilys mind it was so crazy that even

herself wouldnt ever believe it unless she saw it with her very own eyes today the

little girl was Alice, and they were in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

Fueled with great curiosity, the girl, Alice, followed the white rabbit and jumped

into the rabbit-hole. From the moment when Alice appeared and the rabbit ran away,

none of them took a look at Emily and John at all, as if they didnt even exist.

Now it was all quite. Soft, cool breeze blew, birds sang, the sun shined, the

traffic started to get busy, and people came out to enjoy a great Sunday everything

happened as supposed to be, as if nothing had ever happened in this little garden

there had been no strange little rabbit or strange little girl.

I wonder if I was dreaming, John! Emily sounded somewhat exited. I saw

Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

I know... I saw them too, sighs John, the magician, and I dont think there is

anything to feel so excited about.

How can you say that?

I wonderif, I mean this is only my wild guess, we are living in somebodys

mind. In other words, we are just some characters created by someones imagination.

Emily couldnt believe what she heard. She looked at John: What?!

John continued: Otherwise I cant really figure out a better explanation of where

those letters were from or what happened just a second ago... You like watching

dramas, dont you, Emily?

Emily knocked her head, but she could not see Johns point.

When watching a drama or in other words, when watching a character living


15/24

15

in his/her life in the drama have you ever thought what if the characters have their

own ideas on their existence? What if they just live in a different world like we do,

but the only difference is their world is designed by the director while ours is in

someone elses imagination? Could it be the case that the characters in the drama

cant see the world outside, while we, standing way outside of the picture, can see

them from above?

Honestly, I have not... answeredEmily, you are probably right on the point

that world of the drama might exist, but I dont agree with you when you say our lives

are also designed by someone else.

Why not?

Simply because it is me and only me who can make up my mind. If I decide

to raise my hand, I dont think anybody could stop me. You see? Emily raised her

right hand upon finishing her statement.

Thats indeed true. However, you can never make your hand dance in the air

without get yourself injured, can you?

Oh thats the meanest argument I have ever heard.

John laughed. That was just an example, he said. My point is that, you have

some freedom on yourself indeed, but it doesnt mean you are totally free. You, as an

individual in the nature, are still bounded by the laws of the nature: when you are born,

you open your eyes and cry - thats the start of the journey of your life, as well as the

start of the bound on you; then, you grew up and your childhood passed you by like a

flash; at around 14 or 15, you began to notice your physical development and spent

more and more time everyday on just starring at yourself in the mirror and doing

make-up; and in your twentys, you...

Enough. Now I see your point. All what you are saying is that we are bounded

by the laws of the nature, right? says Emily, somewhat angrily.

Exactly... Its like apple trees may grow in different shapes depending on the

environments, but they can never grow cats.

Is that so? Then why a rabbit can talk? Why a little girl can jump into a

rabbit-hole? Emily argued. Obviously she was still confused and not satisfied. How


16/24

16

many people could easily accept Johns reasoning anyways?

This is kind of sad to say, sighedJohn, but all evidence shows that we are

living in someones imagination, and that the someone is like a god to us. We are all

just like actors and actresses, Emily, and our world is the stage. Everyone has a role in

the drama, no matter if it is right at the center of the stage under the focus lights or at

a dark corner where no one really pays much attention to. We may or may not have

audience, but we have to carry on for ourselves. We were pushed onto the stage

without taking a look at the script; however, the funny thing is, when we finish the

roles, we might find out what we did was exactly what the director wants us to do.

Some people call it destiny, but I prefer to call it the script of the drama the director

makes up his mind and lays out some rules for our play, and these rules, unfortunately,

are the rules of our nature.

And the director refers to...?

I guess you already know the answer. I have to tell you, your answer is much

likely to be right.

For a couple of minutes or so, the cousins just stood there and didnt make a

sound. It was Emily who finally broke the embarrassment: what an unbelievable

day... How I wish it was all a dream!

John didnt pay attention this time - he was now looking out of the open window,

where a gigantic bird was flying toward them. That is the most beautiful and bizarre

bird he has ever seen - all its feathers were flaming red and golden.

A phoenix! I have never thought of seeing a real phoenix in my life! Emily

shouted with great happiness, but very quickly her tone turned sad: I guess you are

right, John. I was wrong. The phoenix is not real. It is nothing but that evil Jian

Kangs dirty trick.

And he should feel ashamed for what he has done to us, agreed John.

The phoenix stopped at the window and dropped a letter there and disappears.

Humph... Not again! Emily said. Now it looked like she totally accepted the

fact that she had been living in someones mind.


17/24

17

John went and picked up the letter: Should I read it?

I dont care. I guess there is very little I can do about the message from the

God anyways.

John sighed in sorrow and unfolded the letter. Surprisingly, however, this letter

was different than the previous two.

The letter was written for them!

Dear Emily and John:

Im now writing this letter with guilty. I know at this point you guys already have

a clue about yourselves and the world you are living in. I also know that it has been a

difficult time for you guys to accept the truth - I mean, if someone came around and

told me the world I have been living in, every person that I have loved, every moment

I have enjoyed, my every thought and every move, and my every joy and every pain

was nothing but signal in someone elses brain, what would I think?

You are enraged by my selfish behaviors on you, my dear messengers, but please

believe me this is not a conspiracy or any personal. Its just the way it works. Your

world belongs to my imagination indeed, but it could also be put in this way: you guys

and I are the same existence - if this somehow makes you feel better. Now let me

explain: I believe a human, or any general existence, is a string of moves and

thoughts that occupies both space and time the difference between a girl and an

apple tree might be only that the string of the former is way more active than that of

the latter. Furthermore, at every point of time, any of your actions could have effect

on some other action strings (by which I mean some other existence); similarly, your

action string could also be affected by others. This sounds fairly simple, but it helps

to make it easier to understand the following statement: every existence is the same

one. It is the universe itself. Try to imagine a desk on which there are hundreds of

poker-card-towers. The towers stay close to each otherin fact, at each layer all

cards are basically mixed up. Suppose there is one man who is only half of an inch tall

and he is walking right on the desk, through the free spaces between the towers. If you

asked this little man to tell you what he sees, he would probably say he sees different


18/24

18

towers of cards in front him. However, if you are standing by the desk and looking

down, you would just consider all the towers as one big mix of cards. Now if, say, the

towers represent different individuals in this world, what could we say about

ourselves? In our scale, we are different existences like the different towers; however,

in a way-larger scale, we are all really the same existence that occupies some space

and some time. The sentences above are fairly rough, but I do hope you can get the

idea: you are me, and I am you. Together, we share the spirit of the nature like

everyone else does.

P.S: Emily, Im not an evil monster as in your dream; in fact, I consider myself a

quite nice person.

Cheers.

Jian Kang

Apr, 15th, 2005

Silence is all what was left after John read the letter.

Now I guess I have no other choices but to accept the fact. Emily finally broke

the silence, but hey, what if that Jian Kang is just a mere image created by the mind

of some existence beyond even him?

Nobody could debate you on that one, Emily, nobody. After all, we are all just

like water drops that leap from a river, where we come from and have to end our

journey. Then, the water drops dissolve in river, get mixed up, and jump again from

another place, at a different time, but repeat the same kind of story. Every drop of

water is different than another, and yet, all drops are eventually the same they are

the river itself, the absolute existence that combines both space and time as a whole.

Emily had no other choices other than to agree. She totally understood the

situation nothing now was too strange to happen there as long as Jian Kang wished

so when she saw the letters on the letter slowly faded and appeared again, she


19/24

19

grabbed the letter and read it aloud, without any uneasy feeling at all. This time it was

to Dr. Miller.


20/24

20

CHAPTER 4

The Deepest Fear inside You and Me

Guesses on Human Behaviors and Morality

Dear Dr. Miller:

I guess this would be the last letter in this paper. Im planning to divide the

content of this letter into two parts: the relations between Johns discovery and the

concept of spacetime, and brief discussion on our morality as finishing up this paper.

Why dont we begin now?

Now John and Emily have already realized the truth of themselves and the

world they are living in. They have come up with a good metaphor to describe the

picture. I like Johns metaphor since it reminds me an essential chapter in our lecture

notes that of spacetime. Consider the river as the universe, and the

flying-water-drops are all the creatures in it. In micro scale, the flow of the river

represents the unstoppable flow of time. Standing far away on the shore, you can

never distinguish the difference between the water drops as a matter of fact you

might not even notice the individual motion of every existence. In conclusion, it is safe

to say you consider the river as a whole existence, with space and time as different

dimensions to it. In terms of Non-Euclidean Geometry, this might also be part of the

concept of the spacetime.

Now think of it in another way: the world John and Emily are living in is no

more than a twenty-five-page-long term paper. As one proceeds to read the paper,

he/she could reveal the trueexistence of Emily and John, much like the way that the

cousins feel about their own. They think they have the freedom to decide things, but

the fact is, sadly, that the paper is already written and nobody is allowed to modify it

in any way. Emily and John are lucky because they did realize the truth about their

world, but how about the other people, if any, who just repeat their lives day by day,

without questioning the existence of their world? I somehow feel sorry whenever I


21/24

21

think of them.

However, asking the same question to myself, what if we are no different than

Emily and John, except ourbookis much thicker, more well-written and more

complicated; what if, again, we are all just characters in another greatbookfinished

long, long, long time ago, not to be modified or extended? Could our world come to

an end as we approach the last page of our book?

In my opinion, we, as self-considered master of this planet, have all asked the

same question to ourselves it is a part of a nature of us. I guess many would argue

that they have never ever thought of this worthless question, but I would answer them

that, this question, with great fear brought by it, hides at a very dark corner in your

soul. The reason why you dont feel it is that your mind blocks it from you due to the

fear it might cause to you this is a part of your nature, too. In spite of all this,

however, you still can experience it from real deep inside, for instance, when you have

nightmare where you are lost, murdered or disappeared for no reason. It is, I would

like to say, a distorted representation of the fear deep inside you, the doubt on your

own existence. Furthermore, believe it or not, I found this doubt to have a very close

relation on the morality and behaviors of us:

Because of question of whether or not we truly exist, there is something hidden,

but eternally burns deep inside our soul a desire to prove by, actual behaviors, that

we exist indeed.

First, lets imagine one day you wake up, and you find you cant do anything on

anything around you - you try to brush yourteeth but you cant hold the teeth brush;

you try to eat breakfast but you cant even move a piece of bread; you try to ask

people to help but you have absolutely no feedback as if you are invisible; the most

terrible thing is, you try to punch in your face to see if you are dreaming, but you

realize you cant even more your arms. In this situation, among millions of possible

thoughts flashing across your mind, I bet this sentence is what you would think of the

most: I dont belong to this crazy world! Yes, you may argue what you are about to

say in that case is probably: I must be dreaming; but this is just another way to say


22/24

22

you dont belongthere. In short, I think its safe to say one wouldnt feel his/her

existence if he/she cant make any effect to any other thing; in other words, one of the

most important ways people experience their existence is through the interactions

with other beings. We try to make ourselves believe we exist by making effect on

something else and consider the effect as an extension of our existence, and therefore

feel happiness. Very often, without realizing it, we try to fulfill the proof from two

different angles: quantity and quality.

About quantity, there are tons of evidence out there: I believe every civilization in

the world has tales or stories about seeking for eternal life, which is very similar to

say looking for a longer existence; When a child is born, the young couple usually

feel happy because, as a matter of fact, they strongly feel their existence is greatly

extended on their child; when chatting with closed friends or lovers, people feel happy

because they see their thoughts are accepted and flowing in others mind; when the

fans are applauding like nuts, a pop star feels happy since he easily experiences his

existence extended in his fans... In short, about any extension of our existence would

make us satisfied and courage to find another extension.

How about the quality approach? I think its easy to start by a question: why

are jokes funny? Is it the plots that make us laugh? I dont see much interesting plot

in lots of jokes considered funny. In my opinion, the essential factor in a joke is the

part to make you feel that you are more superior than the ones in the joke. To clarify

this up, lets consider the following scenarios: two men lost their lives today; one man

died from cancer, while the other one stepped on a banana skin, fell down and lost his

life as the cost. Im telling you one of these two scenarios is from a comedy while the

other is from a tragedy, and asking you to guess which is from the comedy. Now, what

would be your first guess? I believe the most natural guess for us would be the

banana-skin-death is from a comedy.

But, why? Why is the banana-skin-death somehow funny comparing to the other

one? What is the real difference between them in terms of funniness?

My guess is, the reason why the latter is more funny to us is that people would

consider the dude who steps on the banana-skin simply stupid, or extremely out of


23/24


24/24

Just at the moment when Emily finished reading the last line, the letter started to

burn in bright, cool flames. Emily held the letter, which soon became a fire ball.

John came close to his cousin and put his hand on the fire ball. He looked at

Emily and said: what we are holding in our hand is the last letter, the signal of the

end of our world.

Emily nodded: I know... I wonder whats going to happen now?

All of a sudden, light began to fade away. Darkness drew near and swallowed

everything they could see everything except the fire ball in their hands.

It was all quite. John and Emily felt they were flying in a dark space. There was

nothing they could hear and nothing they could see. However, they knew the fireball

thats once grabbed so tightly in their hands was right beside them, but slowly

growing into a huge, huge object with great brightness and heat. It is the up-coming

sun.

Now we are mere dusts near the sun. Our world shall be reborn, the cousins

thought. And then, a new story will begin.

Documents

A World of Miracles