What is paradise to you?

[Fkeu'itan]

Well, for me, I guess you're right. I want to be able to do what truly needs to be done. I want to be able to provide myself with my own food, shelter and safety of my own accord, not by having to earn money to buy it, but by actually being allowed to go out there and do it myself... The problem that I see is that when everyone else lives in an automaed environment, it actually does stop me from being able to do such things, as because I clearly live with ideals that are 'wrong' by most people's standards, it is often the case that they get to live their lives the way they want to, and the minority of people who do not want to live that way are forced into it, simply because it's what everyone else does.

I don't believe that I would be 'artificially limiting' the number of choices, I would be naturally limiting the number of choices. Right now, I think we are artificially enhancing the number of choices, which is fine for some people, but it isn't necessarily what I want from life. I prefer life's simple qualities, to be able to lie or even to work or to survive amongst pure nature is a great privilage. Perhaps life isn't all freedom in a world where survival is paramount, maybe there's not much free time to be laying beneath the stars or sitting in forest glades enjoying the sound of nothing but nature (although arguably, this free time woud be slightly more accessable if other people were willing to join me) but I don't mind that. For me, if there was a choice between living a non-life in a computer (even if it meant I could have everything and anything I wanted when I thought of it instantly), a half-life where you work, earn money, go on holidays etc. or a full life lost in nature's arms, I choose the third one every time.

Maybe i'm wrong, but when people talk about this idea of life, most people react with hostility for some reason, throwing out labels or slander. I'm not saying that anyhting new is bad, it's just that i'm not sure I like the idea of 'modern life'. Neither am I saying my choice of life is right or wrong, i'm not trying to convert anyone... I just wish that a lot of people here would uphold their moral that 'anyone can live their life as they wish, as long as it doesn't interfere with mine.'

[Aquaplant]

I supposed you are lucky in that regard then, because you have the necessary attributes to make it on your own so to speak, whereas the individual achiever method doesn't really work for me. I need the support that is provided either by machinery or other humans, because I'm just not that competent on my own. The reason why I lean for the automated option, is because I wouldn't want to needlessly burden other humans, just because I happen to have troubles getting by. When it comes down to it, we are all on our own in this world, no matter what.

Originally Posted by Fkeu'itan

Maybe i'm wrong, but when people talk about this idea of life, most people react with hostility for some reason, throwing out labels or slander. I'm not saying that anyhting new is bad, it's just that i'm not sure I like the idea of 'modern life'. Neither am I saying my choice of life is right or wrong, i'm not trying to convert anyone... I just wish that a lot of people here would uphold their moral that 'anyone can live their life as they wish, as long as it doesn't interfere with mine.'

I know what you are saying, but my problem is that I can't live my life as I wish, because I can't make it on my own, in a natural or modern environment. The very reason why I'm sort of against all the people who talk about the natural way and whatnot, is because I fear that I will loose what little technological help I have these days, if we were ever forced to revert back to basics so to speak. I simply can't make in the kind of environment that is your ideal, and all I would do, is slow others down for having to carry me along.

I'm not crippled or disabled in any physical way, I'm just weak. I don't think there is anything more to it.

[Moco Loco]

Originally Posted by Fkeu'itan

Neither am I saying my choice of life is right or wrong, i'm not trying to convert anyone... I just wish that a lot of people here would uphold their moral that 'anyone can live their life as they wish, as long as it doesn't interfere with mine.'

Well Fkeu, I'm truly sorry you can't live in your own paradise, since it seems so easily possible at least, in comparison to some other ideals I've heard.

Paradise (which I am defining as any place imaginable that you'd be happiest in) for me might be some places I've had reoccurring dreams about, one of which takes place about 500 years in the future. At the start of the dream, I'm usually in Maryland somewhere, in a house far away from any neighbors. I don't ever exactly find out why, but there are way less people in the world now ( ) and infrastructure is only just starting to come together again after some huge collapse and hundreds of years of problems. A Canadian scientist has brought back thousands of different North American plant and animal species from old DNA samples, and I always feel ecstatic when I recognize one. Money only seems to be used to pay for government services. Big cities are few and far between. The house the dream starts in (which I think of as my house) gives only a bicycle in a shed as transportation, and my nearest neighbor is five miles away. This place is by no means perfect, but I like it so much better than the world we live in today

[SaphirJD]

Paradise...

A place where i have not to worry anything anymore, where i have day after day demoscene music to listen to, nice cocktails and awesome food - and all that perhaps on a small island on Earth - or on my own planet somewhere in the universe

[apache_blanca]

whatcha, SaphirDJ! and what about the evil powers?
(and I bet your paradise is full of strawberries growing everywhere).

Originally Posted by Fkeu'itan

... I just wish that a lot of people here would uphold their moral that 'anyone can live their life as they wish, as long as it doesn't interfere with mine.'

imho with this degree of tolerance/respect we could get paradise right here much faster than it is normally believed...

Anyway, if I got it right, this thread is about people's ideas and one's own views about paradise - it's not about fighting "my paradise is better than yours".

Originally Posted by Moco Loco

...Paradise (which I am defining as any place imaginable that you'd be happiest in) for me might be some places I've had reoccurring dreams about, one of which takes place about 500 years in the future. At the start of the dream, I'm usually in Maryland somewhere, in a house far away from any neighbors. I don't ever exactly find out why, but there are way less people in the world now ( ) and infrastructure is only just starting to come together again after some huge collapse and hundreds of years of problems. A Canadian scientist has brought back thousands of different North American plant and animal species from old DNA samples, and I always feel ecstatic when I recognize one. Money only seems to be used to pay for government services. Big cities are few and far between. The house the dream starts in (which I think of as my house) gives only a bicycle in a shed as transportation, and my nearest neighbor is five miles away. This place is by no means perfect, but I like it so much better than the world we live in today

it was nice to hear about your concept at last Funny, I heard quite a lot about dreams/visions/ideas etc. similar to yours. One or two hundred years from now it's more or less the same only worse (2154), then there is some "crash" (a natural, technological, cosmic etc. disaster than makes the human population drop down real fast) followed by a "desolation period" - the survivors live in small communities separated by "contaminated areas" all struggling for life, then, gradually, 3-4-5 hundred years later things become much better - quite similar to what you describe with some variations. Less people, more (much more) green, people finally got it that they are a part of the world so they should find a harmonious way to live within it... Hmm...

[Moco Loco]

Well, one of my very favorite parts of the dream were the things brought back from extinction I even got to hold a passenger pigeon.

[apache_blanca]

oh, i do hope people in your paradise know how to do it - while keeping the balance!

Example: some decades ago bears here in the Pyrenneys - the eternal nightmare of sheep & shepherds - were considered extinct . A couple of years ago some green-minded people brought several dozens from Rumania (or smth) to restore the specie. Bears, being bears, started attacking sheep, cows, shepherds & backpackers. (I can't help thinking about the recent "bear talk" on the 2012 Meetup Camping thread). And here is the twist: one cannot kill a bear, it's jail - try to convince the judge "I shot the bear - but I say it was a self-defence!". The bear won't go to jail tho for ripping your heart out. The shepherds are complaining that now they are becoming an endangered specie. Where's the balance now?

What would have the right solution been? IDK; maybe to release the bears in some wild life reserve? What if there's none - then, first, create one and only then bring the bears? I say, I don't really know. I just hope people in your paradise keep all the possible implications in mind when they bring things back from extinction (I am not sarcastic or anything, I am just thinking that there are soooooo many factors involved, it's difficult to keep Everything in mind... We'll see in 500 years )

[Fosus]

Both Pandora and Earth are paradises. Just different ones.

[Moco Loco]

Originally Posted by apache_blanca

What would have the right solution been? IDK; maybe to release the bears in some wild life reserve? What if there's none - then, first, create one and only then bring the bears? I say, I don't really know. I just hope people in your paradise keep all the possible implications in mind when they bring things back from extinction (I am not sarcastic or anything, I am just thinking that there are soooooo many factors involved, it's difficult to keep Everything in mind... We'll see in 500 years )

I understand your concerns, but it was only stuff native to North America that was restored, and really most things. I don't know what the huge catastrophe was that happened, but it destroyed many of the ecosystems. I'm glad I never dream about those times.

[Ja'k Dawsiin]

paradise is only possible if there is no trash to be taken out, no landfills, no heaps of garbage and waste of resources/matter, everything used is equally returned within the balance. that is not possible on this planet, in the context of 8 billion+ skypeople. my idea of paradise on Mother Earth, would only be possible after a planet-wide zombie apocalypse and only a few two-legged carbon-based viruses survive, to become part of the natural chain.

[Disco Scratch]

What is paradise to me?



Sweet mother of Eywa look at the size of those lips.

Now, in the sense of something real... what is paradise to me? A simple life...



Search for the "ESCAPE Cabin" if you're interested. Or just click these links.

I have no idealized utopian view of what paradise is, but I feel a nice simple stress free life would be great.

[allroock123]

Most of the things spoken upon here boil down to "Inner Conflicts of ethos values in regards to "relations" one "sees" so its much more of a spiritual reflection Being forced to represent itself through the justification of "New science findings in some cases" of course The symbology examples of Cameron's Avatar "reflects" upon Both ,, modern world view has a way of "politicizing" simple universal human concepts and taking spiritual recognition of one another completely out of the picture.. it comes "US and Them" our external "Rights" as apposed to "ones responsibility"

One can see some thoughts and frustration spoken upon this here from a native American
viewpoint but remember there are others as well of course ancestral recognition if ones past ancestors takes on a diffrent meaning if ones "ancestors' carried out in ones past history wounding acts ,, there's no way "science" can deal with ancestral wounding ,, Religious perspectives have no tools to really address them either ,, but peoples with a spiritual persptives of reality "do" and symbolicly the fantasy "Na'vi by example "Did so" as well with Jake They have ways of addressing these issues , That is why I have reflected upon the importance of taking a look at the story of the Haaudenosaunee "There past" there time of great sorrow and how they healed massive ancestral wounding .. To come to "See each other" once again . when people come to recognize or "see" each other at a spiritual level in community there is only "we" Human "being"--Being Human ,, able to reflect from this place of recognition that comes from this "Place" of exsistance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igJnApEtg1I

[specificracing]

A paradise for me is indeed a wonderful place to live in. It could be a very clean haven surrounded with trees and flowing water. In other words, it is a location that is really free from danger.