The Golden Sphere of Possibility
From Black Iron Prison
Originally appeared as GSP - The Dialogue at The Principia Discordia Forum, written by LMNO
The Golden Sphere of Possibility
So, a bunch of us were hanging out in a bar, and I came across this flyer:
Hello, friend. Welcome to the Golden Sphere of Possibility. You think you just woke up here one day, right? Think again. It was your whole life that brought you to this. Fact is, you were born to be here. Go ahead, look around. I’ll be here when you get back. Looks smaller than it is, don’t it? It doesn’t even feel all that bad. But sometimes, you look through the shimmering concave arc, and you see all that you’re missing. Abandoned ambitions. Best-left-forgotten dreams. Things that could-have-been. Here, put your palms up to the Sphere, touch the surface, let me show you something. Feel that? That’s all the books you’ve read. And that parabola over there is your adolescence. Look up: It’s your CD collection. The pallet you woke up on? Your parents. Like I said, you were born to be here. It’s your life, it’s the golden encapsulation of your own existence. You painted yourself into this vessel. So, now you’re wondering why you feel that anything inside your sphere is possible, in your own life. Why now, why today, can you see the sloping sides of a Golden Sphere of Possibility, that you made for yourself? Because you stopped reacting inside of it, and took a couple of steps forward. You thought you could do the impossible, you tried to be self reliant, and bang. You smacked your head against the sphere. What’s that? Yeah. That’s when the knowledge of the end of the Possible sets in. When you didn’t know you were inside, everything was fine. But now that you know, you can see your entire, tired, call-and-response life stretch out before you, enclosed in this curved wall, this round capsule. Breathe, kid. It’s just abject panic that you’re feeling right now. Some even say that this is what death feels like: An unchanging life, immune and unfeeling to what you really want. Look around you. Look at these golden, curved walls. The glimmering ceiling. The hard ground. That’s your universe. That’s the world you’re going to be living in for the rest of your life here in the Sphere. You’re going to live out your life only being able to do what’s limited to what you have created. Or, not so quiet if you decide to take the rifle/bell tower route. Either way, long or short, it’ll feel the same. Static, unchanging. So, if you’re interested, I’d like to invite you pop the bubble… Just turn around. -- Black Iron Prison pamphlet
I turned to the group and said, “So, we have the same metaphor, with different words. That is to say, the Black Iron Prison and the Golden Sphere of Possibility both say, “There is a limit to what you know, shaped by how you see it, physically, mentally, and emotionally. See it as a prison, preventing you from what's outside your knowledge, see it as a sphere, containing all you know within it: What's the difference?”
Then RWHN said, “I know, ultimately, it's the same idea but I can see the Possibility vs. Prison being seized upon. They could seem to be different ideas.”
“Well, that's an interesting side digression, in an optimist/pessimist way,” I replied. “Angle: The BIP implies we are held back from knowledge, and we desire a way out. The Sphere implies that we are comfortable in our ignorance.”
RWHN frowned. “Perhaps some of us, I'm including myself, cling to the BIP metaphor too much, maybe? Do we need a new name? Do we need a name?”
I replied, “We need new metaphors.”
LHX interjected, “fuck yeah there needs to be a new name. Either a new name or no name. Because it is a gold sphere just as much as it is a black iron prison.”
Triple zero piped up, “about the optimist versus pessimist way... Yes, at first I thought ‘but what if people will say, but I LIKE it in here, and I am not getting out either way’? Prison makes people wish for a way out, a comfortable golden womb of existence just makes people want to snuggle in and make sure they've got enough for their comfort.
“Isn’t the basic premise of what we are looking for in the BIP that it isn't comfortable? at least, not just right now but if I work just a little longer and harder I might get upgraded to the cell which doesn't leak from the ceiling?
“About the name... Well, I think LMNO has demonstrated here that some names work better than others... And the Discordian network... Well... It's not really catchy enough to catch on, I think... How about the Abstract Container?”
“No emotional resonance,” I replied. “Basically, I think we should work with the BIP, Machine™, System®, CoN, et al until someone has a breakthrough that changes our perceptions. We can try to rephrase, re-parcel the concept and see what becomes of it, such as: The Property Line, The End of our Fingertips, The Goldfish Bowl, The Frying Pan and the Fire, or some such. Each of these new imaginings will lead to new ways of looking at the metaphor.”
“This place is like 'build-your-own-belief-system',” chuckled LHX, “and then launch it to see how far it goes.”
“Hell, I stole my personal concept of the BIP from RAW's "reality grid" idea,” I retorted, “so it's not like we're working with brand new material here.”
“What about ‘Golden Paradise Concentration Camp’?” asked Benaclypse.
“‘Happy Funtime Dachau’,” I shot back.
Ignoring us, SillyCybin said, “LHX, I think you're on to something with 'build-your-own-belief-system'. Many criticisms, including mine, of BIP in general are the negative connotations, reactive vs proactive. 'Prison' is a threat; 'build your own' is opportunity. I suggest an instruction manual for DIY belief: Paradigm Schematics, Metaphysical Knitting Patterns, Black Iron Blueprints... BIP exposed a problem. The sequel should be possible solutions.”
After thinking about it a bit, LHX said, “Jailbreak is more the theme than BIP.”
“Reconstruction,” added Cain.
“Yeah,” replied LHX, “in a way, that seems to be what a lot of the writing here is about; offering a new observation and launching a new proposal to the common situation (even tho it gets interpreted as 'us' = good, 'they' = bad).”
“I loved that bit in BIP,” said SillyCybin. “’You're invited to a Jailbreak’ (paraphrased) but then it all got a bit ‘You're in Jail,’ ‘Jail is bad’... there were positive ideas but they tended to get drowned out in all the doom and gloom. You could just call the sequel 'Jailbreak'.
“I’m just riffing here, but here are some ideas: What it looks like out there - a guide to recognizing your escape vector. Black Iron Blueprints - some of the metaphysical diagrams that have been posted lately and probably before I even got here. Picking the locks on your own mind - psychological reverse engineering and paradigm shifting from beginner to advanced (mantras, koans, self hypnosis, deconditioning.. etc).”
“I think just observing our cell is one of the main keys,” I said, “seeing that it's there, and what it's made of begins to offer specific, personal solutions that one doesn't need to share, because it's specific to your own BIP.”
Triple zero spoke up. “What if we made it into a board game? Basically, it would contain a whole bunch of both good points and bad points of all the religions and ideas we (and anybody) can come up with. For example, Christianity in all its virtues and flaws; same for Buddhism, Islam, Discordianism, flying spaghetti-ism, paganism, Cthulhu worship etc. Then the kid starts to play with it, put different concepts together, and notice what works and what doesn’t.
“So for that to happen,” he continued, “there need to be ‘ethical challenge’ cards in it. Stuff that tests things like ‘does your current religious allow for raping 6 year old girls?’, and more difficult challenges can become puzzling. For example: ‘hmm, but to obtain all those ‘save the dolphins’ points, I would need to play this ‘kill 11/12 of humanity’ dogma-card.’ Also, it should not really mention the actual religion the rule is lifted from.
“And the ethical challenges should be up for discussion. Even though there should be no difficulty about whether it's good or not to allow for molesting little children, it would not be a good idea to state this explicitly in the rules, since that would kind of go past the idea of the game. This way, the problem of finding out if something is good or bad is a long, long philosophical and/or ethical debate which doesn't come up with a clear solution. Maybe this game is not really for ‘kids’.”
“Wow, this ‘game’ of yours could easily be called ‘teach your kids to become sociopaths’,” I said.
“The question is,’ asked LHX, “in this game, can a model be constructed that is all-inclusive and stands up to everything that is thrown at it AND is pertinent in the realm of barstools? Barstool is a staple; not preaching to anybody who doesn’t want to hear it is a staple.”
“You get the Barstool. Do not pass Rebirth, do not collect 200 Karma Points!” I shouted.
LHX mumbled, “We already seem to be playing this game…”
“I would think that there would be a different approach between children and adults,” said RWHN. “Children are more of a blank slate, generally, as far as belief systems go. I don't think you'd necessarily want to give kids all these ideas, good and bad, about religions, philosophies, etc. At least, not literally. I think with kids you need to do things on a more symbolic level. For example, allowing a kid to do something, that while it seems totally incongruous to you, as long as it doesn't maim or kill them, just let them have at it. For example, eating applesauce with their elbows.”
Triple zero interrupted. “So what is the change we're trying to create, again? To tell people how to play the game? To make the game more interesting? To stop spoiling the game for others? To make them more skilled at playing? Or the cliché, to take it less seriously.”
“I say, to show the possibilities available,” I said.
“Hmm, not really good enough, I think,” he replied. “Also, there needs to be an incentive for the people to explore the possibilities. I'm afraid just showing the possibilities to them is not always going to be enough to make them actually explore them.”
“Ok, to realize there aren't too many negative consequences to exploring the many available options?”
“Let me take this somewhere different,” SillyCybin broke in. “There are two possible paradigms for the BIP - Static and Fluid. Static is, by definition, already as good as it's ever going to get. Fluid is the only kind that has a chance of improving. The question we ask is "Do you want to improve your existence?" If the answer is "Yes" then the static paradigm IS the BIP. By adopting, and yourself actively designing, the fluid paradigm one has, in doing so replaced the BIP with a bunch of building blocks.
“I never felt BIP was static, said Mangrove. “I mean, if a person is unaware of BIP, their BIP is still being changed & shaped by their experiences. However, i think that becoming aware of the BIP metaphor means that a person chooses to modify their cell, either more quickly, or consciously (and this is probably the most important bit). Some BIP cells change faster than others. Sometimes it's through deliberate, directed action, sometimes it's just the slow, inevitable process of time passing.”
“But if one is aware of the BIP,” interjected RWHN, “has taken into consideration how they got there, what influences it, etc., etc., and they choose to stay in their cell, then, at least, they've seen the options. Just because someone can see it, doesn't always mean they are going to want to leave it, change it, whatever. And nothing is permanent either. I think we all experience bouts of fluidity and static-ness. The idea is to know where you are going, or not leaving from.”
I replied, “I guess there's a difference between seeing the BIP and realizing you can reconstruct it.”
“Yeah I think you got me on that one,” said SillyCybin. “BIP is fluid but it's someone/something else thats making it shift. The difference between going and being led, maybe?”
“Yeah, I’d go for that,” said Mangrove. “The only way I can see the BIP being totally static is if someone reaches a state whereby they cease to have experience. It kind of goes back to the dreaded Crowley essay we were talking about earlier. When the monad capable of experience (a hadit) meets one of the possibilities available to it (nuit) it is a conjunction represented as 'love'. However, when the hadit chooses the experience, it is 'love under will'. Or, if you prefer your terminology, 'going or being led'.”
At this point, we were out of beer, so we made Mangrove go and get us another pitcher.
