Play 311: Patterns
CHARACTERS
1
2
2
Know what’s weird?
1
What?
2
That we’re not actually any physical thing.
1
What are you talking about?
2
We’re not.
1
What about our bodies?
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That’s who we are physically now.
1
I don’t think I’m getting your point.
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That’s not who we are always though.
1
You’re saying we’re not the same person throughout our lives?
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Not physically.
(Beat.)
1
I’m really confused.
2
Well, every seven years our body is completely different.
1
It is?
2
Yeah, the particles that make up our body are all different.
1
Okay.
(Beat.)
1
I still don’t get what you were saying though.
2
Well, since our body’s made of entirely different particles, we’re a completely different physical thing.
1
I guess.
2
And yet we’re the same person.
(Beat.)
1
I guess that’s kind of weird.
2
Yeah.
(Beat.)
1
So what are we?
2
Just a pattern.
1
A pattern?
2
Yeah.
(Beat.)
1
Strange.
2
Yeah.
(Beat.)
We have all these lofty concepts of what it is to be human, or conscious, but when it gets down to it, all we really are is a pattern of particles that exists in space for a finite period of time. That’s it.
1
Yeah.
(Pause.)
1
Doesn’t seem to really make sense.
2
Nope. Not if you think about it enough.
(Blackout.)
posted by Ben Rosbrow @ 10:28 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've often thought about this idea. It really makes us question the nature of the self and personal identity. If identity is a constant thing, than it must be something that transcends material existence. Or, as they say, people change. What defines an individual one moment might have changed the next, and so we are new, different people in every instant of time.
This is something interesting to think about. They briefly discuss it in Waking Life. I'm not sure about everyone else, but a lot of the time, I'm seeking that one perfect moment where I KNOW I'm alive and existing, and life itself isn't a fancy convoluted bizarre coincidence of perception. I don't think I've gotten there yet, and if I have - all I would have left is a story.
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