From The New York Times:

Try Living in Elon Musk’s Company Town

To some, Elon Musk has given Brownsville, Texas, a reason for being, a future. To others, he’s a colonizer, flirting with white nationalists online while exploiting a predominantly brown work force.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/opinion/elon-musk-spacex-brownsville-texas.html?smid=em-share

I understand just how lucky I have been to have not been affected by what should be known as the winner’s curse. That would be the same as the “lucky one” who wins a jackpot gambling and is forever cursed by a recurring gambling addiction, one that transforms into other addictions as that dragon of joy can never be recaptured. I live a simple life, one defined by reading about and reflecting on events and how people react to them around the world. My reflections are consolidated pretty much daily during walks on trails that are just lonely enough with my two best friends, a couple of life-loving golden retrievers whose greatest joys are running in the woods, swimming in lakes, smelling, listening and perhaps even chasing that which deserves to be chased- usually stick thrown by your’s truly.

A couple of questions for Mr Musk et al: do you subscribe to the insight that one should always keep the company of those who seek the Truth? And do you also see the risk in not running from those who claim to have found it? I would point out that if that is the case, some self-reflection on the true value, or mirage thereof, of omnipotence might provide some solace. We all seek meaning in and for our lives, and contributing to a “better world” is commendable, but narrow definitions of what that entails compromises its merit.

I look at this world as a place we all visit throughout many lifetimes, reincarnation being a reasonable hypothesis in my estimation because of the beneficial nature of evolution. I see the spirit of each one of us as the unique sum of consolidated experience gained through a multitude of precursor lifeforms including  all those we recognize today starting with viruses and bacteria which conjoin at the end of life in a process that culminates to this point from our perspective, in us. In my view, this process should logically continue incrementally, spirits big and small amalgamating continuously to ascend to ever more expansive “being(s), be they stars, galaxies or gods or even God.

Believers of many sorts may condemn such thoughts as blasphemous- but are they really? There is nothing here that contradicts the expressed beliefs I have read of any theology, these are extensions into new territory that are as yet unclaimed by any.  Realists may ridicule such an idea- but recall that our best, most advanced and modern physics claims to understand only about 4% of what we know is affecting our Universe. That leaves plenty of room for many other ideas. This is something I see as in the realm of possibilities. At any rate, when looked at this way, the quest to improve our world must limit/minimize detrimental impacts on any part of it, most especially parts on which any species is critically dependent on for survival, so we do not eliminate what may be critical experience(s) from our own spiritual compendium and so handicap our own potential.