Mansa Musk Pt. 1
'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' - J. Robert Oppenheimer
But that’s not the quote, is it(?).
Don’t get me wrong, Oppenheimer was a genius… Except: ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’ is not only frequently misquoted, but a mistranslation, as we can see from the holy text, the Bhagavad Gita.
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 11, Verse 32
श्रीभगवानुवाच |
कालोऽस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो
लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्त: |
ऋतेऽपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे
येऽवस्थिता: प्रत्यनीकेषु योधा: || 32||
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
kālo ’smi loka-kṣhaya-kṛit pravṛiddho
lokān samāhartum iha pravṛittaḥ
ṛite ’pi tvāṁ na bhaviṣhyanti sarve
ye ’vasthitāḥ pratyanīkeṣhu yodhāḥ
The verses are meant to be sung like a solemn beat poem. It’s quite beautiful actually, despite the dark context of the quote itself. This is the Song of God, according to them. Every word holy in and of itself.
The literal translation has several interpretations, as can happen after some 2000 years. Readers of the Most Copied Book in the World can attest to this.
While most commentary surrounding this verse does talk about death and destruction, one concept as a uniquely important motif sticks out.
Time.
One of many Holy Bhagavad Gita translation sites.
“śhrī-bhagavān uvācha—the Supreme Lord said; kālaḥ—time; asmi—I am; loka-kṣhaya-kṛit—the source of destruction of the worlds; pravṛiddhaḥ—mighty; lokān—the worlds; samāhartum—annihilation; iha—this world; pravṛittaḥ—participation; ṛite—without; api—even; tvām—you; na bhaviṣhyanti—shall cease to exist; sarve—all; ye—who; avasthitāḥ—arrayed; prati-anīkeṣhu—in the opposing army; yodhāḥ—the warriors”
Another one, with Ramanuja and Sridhara Swami's Commentary
Sridhara: “Being thus humbly beseeched the Supreme Lord Krishna partially revealed His absolute and ultimate position in this verse and the next two in comparison to material existence beginning with the words kalo'smi loka declaring that He is terrible and intrepid time the conqueror of all and is on the battlefield to destroy all these mighty warriors. Lord Krishna reveals that even without Arjuna slaying them, they will cease to exist do to Lord Krishna terminating their life span by His force of time. Lord Krishna destined that all the demoniac forces on the Earth were collected together in the guise of kings, princes and warriors in the Kaurava and Pandava armies shall perish relieving the Earth of its burden.”
Ramanuja: “The word kala or time is derived from kalayati which is synonymous with ganayati which is to calculate or count. Lord Krishna declares He is time which controls the life span of all living entities and will determine when Duryodhana, Bhishma, Drona and other royal dignitaries along with all the warriors will expire. Lord Krishna presently exhibited the terrible aspect of the visvarupa or divine universal form in order to show He was directly pravritah engaged to complete the activity of their destruction.”
They will Expire. Due to terrible and intrepid Time. He will terminate their life span.
Time, His ultimate position in “this verse and the next two in comparison to material existence.” Death is just a consequence of Krishna’s power over the world. To stand in the face of the great River Indus, of the passage of time, is to go against the very fabric of being. We must flow with the churning waters. A stone in the Himalayas transforms to a pebble as it obeys its fate to settle in the Indian Ocean.
Spacetime doesn’t seem so novel now, does it, Einstein? We as humans knew in our souls the inseparable relationship between the passage of time and the material world. The effects that time has on the body and spirit are very deeply ingrained within the human psyche, as evidenced by this book, written 2000 years ago. Modern physics simply confirms that we evolved to sense this connection over billions of years; the cosmic experiment of intelligent life.
Why Elon, and why now?
Woah there, cowboy. How did we get from holy texts to Elon Musk? And why does this guy keep starting his paragraphs with questions? Hate to break this to ya, but welcome to modern society, we’re on the brink of an even scarier one, and I have a few more questions to ask you. Grab a beer. You’re going to want to be sitting down for this one.
There are certain people along the course of history who can envision the future like no other before them. Alexander, Plato, Da Vinci, Tesla, Dostoyevsky, Huxley, Orwell, the list goes on. I realize we’re jumping around a bit so let’s get to the point of the essay, besides that this is my therapy after exposing myself to the radioactive substance colloquially known as the internet.
Elon Musk is one of these people. And he is emulating one of the most interesting yet forgotten figures of human history.
Musk has become quite the controversial figure over the past few years; to my dismay and others’ and for reasons I might get into a bit later, Elon has recently ‘Taken a Position’… as softly as I can word that. Within this position, I would argue, he posits himself as a savior of humanity. I mean that in no form of hyperbole. I think the man genuinely believes that he can help us back from the edge, based on the extremely unique circumstance that he has created for himself; and probabilistically speaking, if he had wished harm on us he would have already carried out an evil plan before his wealth crashed in the time after the initial Covid-19 crisis up to his acquisition of Twitter. Maybe Twitter is a major part of his evil plans… I digress.
But, if we really think what he says will destroy us is a probable outcome, even if it’s just 1% likely or less, how could we trust him anyways? Over the many years he has been publicly recorded contradicting himself on issues like environmental stewardship, higher education, and the future of fossil fuels like oil and natural gas to name a few. Surely, the dude is a broken clock and got lucky with Pay-pal and Tesla… Hey, wait a minute, he didn’t even start Tesla! And he says artificial intelligence is more dangerous than nukes, but now he’s investing in it with his ‘X-corp’???
First of all, he has been investing in AI for some time now. He put $100M into OpenAI when it was still a non-profit. Second, I know exactly what you’re thinking: ‘Oh, boy. Here we go again. Another self-proclaimed centrist here to exposit-vomit about how there’s a middle road and we can all just roll one up and ‘relax, man.’ It’s just capitalism and socialism again.’
You know where that saying came from: there’s more than meets the eye? … No, not that punk metal song by Testament… Although, it is a banger, and the lyrics are highly relevant to our topic today. And not quite Transformers either. The etymology of that phrase, is extremely interesting. Word Histories is a great site to just aimlessly scroll around on.
1-: From the opening lines of Memoirs concerning the City of Dublin, in 1755 and 56 ([s.l.]: [s.n.], 1757):
WHOEVER shall look studiously into the History of the great Cities of this Earth, their Situations, Constitutions, and Connections, their Growth, Vigour and Decay, will find therein much Matter of real Advantage and more Beauty in the moral Course of Things, than meets the Eye of a careless Observer.
2-: From the Preface, by the English clergyman John Upton (1707-1760), to Spenser’s Faerie Queene. A new Edition with a Glossary, and Notes explanatory and critical by John Upton (London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson, 1758), by the English poet Edmund Spenser (c.1552-1599):
What should hinder the poet, but want of art, from so contriving his fable, that more might be meant, than meets the eye or ear? cannot he say one thing in proper numbers and harmony, and yet secretly intend something else, or (to use a Greek expression) cannot he make the fable allegorical?
I absolutely love the quotes Word Histories has found. Not only because it reminds me of how creative a language English could have been sans Internet… but because of the contrast between them. It shows a beautiful side of humanity, the miracle of life and civilization on this rock that floats in the cold expanse of the universe; along with a more subtle and hostile suggestion… the axiom of secrets, the known unknown. Ignorance is bliss, but when you know of something lurking in the shadows, it can lead to fear, frustration, and violence very quickly.
What happens when you aren’t even in control of what meets your eye?
Do you feel that there is something is wrong with our society? What are you going to do about it? Solve inflation and the sovereign debt crisis? Feed every starving child in the West or Africa? Maybe a little smaller. How about shelter the homeless in California? No… you’re still too poor to actually make a difference like that, so now what? Surely our elected representatives can help us, they’ve got the funding. After all, they work for The People, and The People is talking about politics these days. Are you going to retweet Biden on Twitter, or Trump on Truth? Tell your parents about how they should be investing in bitcoin? Abolish the FED**! Call your senators about abortion rights, when it was never a right in the first place? Vote for the ‘Red Wave to save America’ that was never going to happen? The rich need to pay their fair share in taxes! It’s a slippery slope and they’re going to make my kid gay! Bunch of racist fascists on the other side.
**This is based though. Seriously, abolish the FED. Anyways…
I would bet serious money that the paragraph above raised your heartbeat by 20. Your blood vessels vasodilating to allow more oxygen to the brain and muscles. Your rational cognition waning as your body physically prepares to defend itself… from what? But all I said was a few words?
Slow down. Did you take a minute to really ask yourself what that thing is in the first place? Is it true to the best of my knowledge? Why am I seeing this? Why am I seeing this right now, on my phone? Who told me this? What do they get out of that thing being right or wrong?
Bingo. Now you get it.
Convenience of information is your ‘reality.’
When they’ve hacked the physiology and psychology like tech companies have, it’s as real as it gets. Everything becomes a known unknown. Every frame on your screen felt as a deep physical and emotional response. Information warfare, aimed at you and me.
What happens when you aren’t even in control of what meets your eye? You fear for your life, your family, your job. You’re angry about college debt and the economy and cancel culture. You lash out on Twitter and Reddit and Facebook, you need to defend yourself and what you ‘know’ is true…
From your fellow human beings. That other group. You know, the other group that happens to want essentially the same things as you? Your neighbor. The person sitting across from you on the bus. The person serving you dinner. Your babysitter. No one is immune, and you’re being programmed.
I’ll be the first one to say that something isn’t right with our society, but what’s on the news or your phone screen… ain’t the whole story, fam.
I find it sad that such issues have been heavily politicized over the years. Seems fairly common sense that we would like to keep the Earth as clean as reasonably possible. Our history, languages, traditions, and religions reasonably intact for the next generation. We can probably do it cheaply and efficiently too! I think that the average person would agree with me whole-heartedly. That it is possible to have our cake and eat it too. To live and let live. After all, we all share 99.6% of our DNA, the code of life. That is why I fell down this rabbit hole in the first place, it doesn’t make sense when you look a degree deeper, and I want to get to the bottom of it.
“Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
The powers that be must keep us angry and emotional, retweeting every Tucker Carlson and MSNBC clip, as opposed to calm and rational. And so, they arbitrarily choose our hot-button issues. Keeping us distracted from their methods and self-serving systems, and disillusioned with each other. Using ‘algorithms’ that ‘know you better than you do.’ And are getting more intelligent, exponentially, as every day passes. Have you seen ChatGPT? Have you used it?
Your life is a story, as the Romans likened memories to a ‘virtual’ Palace to help them remember things, buried physically and emotionally deep within you; your memories define you. Have you really been the sole writer of that story?
Have you been watching Musk as closely as you maybe should have been? Have you looked at his behavior more than what is just passively reported about? For all of my friends on the ‘right,’ do you think that his twitter acquisition was to primarily 'de-woke' the social media giant? For all of my friends on the ‘left,’ do you think that his pivot away from sustainable business practices such as Tesla Motors (if we could really call this sustainable, but I digress) towards SpaceX and then Twitter to Artificial Intelligence was because he sees primarily dollar signs?
While any of these may have been partial motives for his recent actions we need to look much deeper to understand the full scope of the issue. And if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have already caught on.
If you’ve made it this far you’re likely an older crowd, or at least one with longer than Tiktok-length attention spans, and you may be asking: ‘So… why is this new threat to human existence so different from the other ones, 'psyops' over the years? Governments have been taking money and rights from people for centuries.’
You’d be right. Humans have persevered generally towards freedom and wealth through many wars, empires, and tyrants.
‘Then stop asking me rhetorical questions and tell me something I don’t know already.’
This ‘psyop’ is different because it’s not coming for your money or rights. Not directly, at least.
As death is secondary to Krishna’s power over the world, those rights and loot plundered will be a mere consequence of The New Evolution; it’s coming for your soul.
***(Funnily enough, as I’m writing this over the course of a few weeks, there have been several videos/essays released on the same topic. Accelerationism is wild. Considering I was going to mention AI, gamification, and kids at some point during this, I’ll just drop these few videos for you to make of them what you will. I would recommend taking a healthy dose of salt grains if you haven’t already, as the topics in some of the videos are substantially embellished/ a bit corny, which places them as primarily content created for kids or young adults… which doesn’t make me feel any better.)
But first, our anti-hero Musk’s inspiration…
In part 2. (Sorry, things are coming out and evolving very quickly and it is difficult to compile my thoughts efficiently with how busy I am.)
<3 Paco