The Most Important Question

The Incessant Inquiry is Inevitable

THE INCESSANT INQUIRY

What was, what is, and what shall be?

These questions are, obviously,

The essence of philosophy.

Yet never do these questions, three,

Give answer to the heartfelt plea:

Whatever shall become of me?

Boku Watashi, Q.E.D.

I wrote that little bit of doggerel for what I eventually intend to publish as an I-novel, which is a Japanese form of fictional pseudo-biography first written by Tōson Shimazaki and Katai Tayama in the early 20th century. The verse was inspired by what caused me to stop posting to Alpha Game some years ago, since I was psychologically enervated by the constant requests to tell people what their SSH rank was on the basis of their self-descriptions.

What can I say? It was selfish, short-sighted, and all-too-Sigma, in retrospect, although to be honest I was fairly sure of it not being in my own interest at the time, let alone anyone else’s. I should have simply let all the self-obsessed narcissists flow past me, like Siddhartha on the riverbank, and continued to further develop the SSH as I’ve done with your help here, but I was insufficiently selfless at the time to do so.

I no longer despair when people blithely ignore a powerful analytical and predictive tool in favor of using it to indulge in their favorite pastime of mirror-gazing. Being modestly narcissistic myself, I am not immune to the alluring call of the mirror, but for the most part, I consciously reject it in favor of more productive activities like writing about ideas, events, and other people, whether they are real or imaginary.

Speaking of Siddhartha, perhaps one of these days I will post the musical tribute to the Hesse version of the mythical persona which I penned in a quietly philosophical moment years before AI arrived and allowed me to set it to the sort of music that my bandmates simply do not record.

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.”

Flow river, speak water

Flow river, speak water

Whisper secrets to Siddhartha

It’s very contemplative and relaxing, somewhat in the vein of David Sylvian in the Gone to Earth era. But that’s neither here nor there. For now, keep in mind this particular variant of the incessant inquiry is in response to a post about the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. Notice the way in which there isn’t even a glimmer of interest in the topic at hand. My initial comment here is an aside, a response to a self-appointed critic, presumably a Vance fan, who was objecting to the entire concept of the site, who is not the commenter in question.

It’s fascinating how the commenter, who is previously uninvolved in the discussion, suddenly leaps in to try to direct the focus of the site’s discourse away from the topic and toward himself, heedless of the literally thousands of other readers here or their presumed lack of interest in this new direction.

SIGMA: Vox's First Law: Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from insanity. The fact that it doesn't make sense to you simply demonstrates that your intelligence doesn't even rise to the level of midwit. This is further evidenced by your incorrect use of the word "their" in place of "they're". Note that you're literally using the concepts I created and the words I coined.

jak: Well hey...the fact that I understand what you're saying most of the time...does that mean I'm at least a midwit?

SIGMA: No. The concepts aren't difficult and I keep things very simple here.

jak: Fair enough. One more question: Based on my comments on this site, which role do you think would best suit me? When I was a kid I would kinda just do random stuff and I didn't figure out group dynamics until I found your material several years back. I'm still learning things every now and then.

SIGMA: Based on your all-consuming focus on yourself, your behavioral pattern is pretty obviously Gamma. You're neither the first nor the 1,000th individual to attempt to boil the entire SSH down to the question that consumes everyone: "but what about me?" If you are your favorite subject, you're either Alpha, Gamma, or Omega.

Now, I don’t blame jak nor should you. He’s doing exactly what thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of other VP, Alpha Game, and now Sigma Game readers have done in their discovery of the existence of the SSH.

Whatever shall become of me?

If you’re looking at the SSH as some sort of astrology, where Leos behave differently than Scorpios on the basis of their birth month, or as an Enneagram or Meyers-Briggs category that will justify your feelings in a given situation, you’re really and truly missing the point. But is that not your right, to use a tool in any way you happen to see fit?

Even if the designer does not envision a smartphone for use as a hammer, or a desktop computer as a stool, who are we to deny the tool’s user his preferred use?

In fact, if we take a ruthless and rational perspective of our mutual interest of the site’s growth, perhaps we should add a weekly Rate the Reader post that would permit readers like jak to post a self-description of himself of up to 1,000 words that I would post, and rate, and which the readers could likewise peruse and offer their perspectives. It might even prove to be a useful exercise in distinguishing one typical profile from another.

What say you, gentlemen and ladies?