>Alex,
>Thanks for the welcome and the response. When you get to my age, age does
>matter. Sometimes it wakes you up and says "Gotcha!"
Heh, heh. Happens at my age too ... not sure quite how I got here so fast ;)
>Before we get into
>virtual matter, may I ask the following. What is your(our) real reason for
>desiring material things. I mean beyond the basic 'necessities' of food,
>water, shelter, blue jeans, computers, etc.? What is it about the human
>condition that drives us to solid-state matter? Lots of people have
>suggested an answer to that one. What doest thou think?
Well, my analysis of it isn't terribly deep. I *like* things. I love
watching movies. Where would I be without my vcr? Well: alive,
functioning, probably quite happy, but enjoying life just a bit less, unable
to pop _The Killer_ in whenever a damn well please. Books. Sure --
libraries -- I don't _really_ have to own the books I've acquired. But I
like to write in books as I read them. Sure, I could live without writing
in books; marginalia aren't quite as vital as water. But I'd enjoy myself
less. Gold jewelry. Now there's something no one _needs_. But I like the
way it looks against my skin, so I have some, and when (if) I can afford it,
I'll have more.
I desire material things because they give me pleasure, and I believe life
is to be enjoyed.
And yer a little new around here to be thouing me, don't you think? ;)
________________________________________
Alex <ablock@facstaff.wisc.edu>
My father is not a bad man. He is only a weak one. And he only did
what so many men do: he divided women into groups, although in his case
it was not the body-and-soul dichotomy of the madonna and the whore but
the intellectual twins, the woman of the mind and the one of the heart.