I find the concepts of legacy and life-after-death to be extremely interesting from a cybernetic perspective. Within each system, there must be contained within it a model of itself situated within its environment. This is necessary for predictive purposes. A primitive human needs to understand itself in relation to the flora and fauna that it finds itself surrounded by, as well as of the other humans around it. This means that you must form relationships, build a model of that person within your model-in-your-head so that you can predict their behaviors. These are all requirements of our pro-social evolutionary path. But, what happens when the people that you've gotten to know, who have integrated themselves most intimately inside of the model-in-your-head, die? Well, they no longer materially exist. But, their imprint is still left behind inside those models. People often say 'i felt them here' or something of that nature, but were they there or did the persons model-in-their-head make a prediction based on material circumstance that no longer materially exist but is meaningful to the person experiencing it? In this way, I love how Gilgamesh was literally brought back from the dead through the rediscovery of the stories, the models that hint to who Gilgamesh was and how they behaved, left behind in clay tablets. After thousands of years, people once again integrated Gilgamesh into their models-in-their-head and began to integrate his existence with their own. Gilgamesh lives, but as a cybernetic ghost.
It was a strange choice on their part to burn the library, was paper common by then? Or did they simply think "Well fire destroys most of our stuff, so surely it would destroy a library too right?"
Probably attributed to the "destroy the building, destroy the contents" thought path. Also, fire is an easy way to destroy most buildings; less energy expenditure than smashing everything.
Absolutely amazing.
Are you a Star Trek fan? Have you seen the Next Generation episode that makes a reference to the Epic of Gilgamesh?
Ok I am hooked on your channel 😊
I find the concepts of legacy and life-after-death to be extremely interesting from a cybernetic perspective. Within each system, there must be contained within it a model of itself situated within its environment. This is necessary for predictive purposes. A primitive human needs to understand itself in relation to the flora and fauna that it finds itself surrounded by, as well as of the other humans around it. This means that you must form relationships, build a model of that person within your model-in-your-head so that you can predict their behaviors. These are all requirements of our pro-social evolutionary path.
But, what happens when the people that you've gotten to know, who have integrated themselves most intimately inside of the model-in-your-head, die? Well, they no longer materially exist. But, their imprint is still left behind inside those models. People often say 'i felt them here' or something of that nature, but were they there or did the persons model-in-their-head make a prediction based on material circumstance that no longer materially exist but is meaningful to the person experiencing it?
In this way, I love how Gilgamesh was literally brought back from the dead through the rediscovery of the stories, the models that hint to who Gilgamesh was and how they behaved, left behind in clay tablets. After thousands of years, people once again integrated Gilgamesh into their models-in-their-head and began to integrate his existence with their own. Gilgamesh lives, but as a cybernetic ghost.
It was a strange choice on their part to burn the library, was paper common by then? Or did they simply think "Well fire destroys most of our stuff, so surely it would destroy a library too right?"
Probably attributed to the "destroy the building, destroy the contents" thought path. Also, fire is an easy way to destroy most buildings; less energy expenditure than smashing everything.
Keep going on the Gil themes, long and shorts.
Brilliant insight. See book Papyrus.
❣️