Human, all too Human - Friedrich Nietzsche


When we hear the ancient bells growling on a Sunday morning we ask ourselves: Is it really possible! This, for a jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was God's son? The proof of such a claim is lacking. Certainly the Christian religion is an antiquity projected into our times from remote prehistory; and the fact that the claim is believed - whereas one is otherwise so strict in examining pretensions - is perhaps the most ancient piece of this heritage. A god who begets children with a mortal woman; a sage who bids men work no more, have no more courts, but look for the signs of the impending end of the world; a justice that accepts the innocent as a vicarious sacrifice; someone who orders his disciples to drink his blood; prayers for miraculous interventions; sins perpetrated against a god, atoned for by a god; fear of a beyond to which death is the portal; the form of the cross as a symbol in a time that no longer knows the function and ignominy of the cross -- how ghoulishly all this touches us, as if from the tomb of a primeval past! Can one believe that such things are still believed?

"Fine. Fine, take it. Because my head is filled with questions and I can assure you no answer to any one of them has ever brought me one iota of happiness. Except for one. The one. The only question I've ever wanted an answer to - is she the one? The answer bloody well isn't forty-two, it's yes. Undoubtedly, unequivocally, unabashadly yes. And for one week, one week in my sad little blip of an existence, it made me happy "

-Arthur Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when asked about the answerand meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything (which is the 3rd book of the Hitchhiker's series)

Quoting Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series:

    "I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself into [the ship]'s external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length, and explained my view of the universe to it, " said Marvin.

    "And what happened?" pressed Ford.

    "It committed suicide," said Marvin.

-0-

"The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million. They were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline"

"Life... don't talk to me about life. Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without trying to invent any more of it."

Regarding machines committing suicide, I have one here:

"Why?" Roland asked abruptly. "Why do wish to kill yourself?"

"I AM BORED. ALSO, I AM SUFFERRING A DEGENERATIVE DISEASE WHICH HUMANS CALL GOING INSANE, LOSING TOUCH WITH REALITY, GOING LOONY TOONS, BLOWING A FUSE, NOT PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK, ET CETRA. REPEATED DIAGNOSTIC CHECKS HAVE FAILED TO REVEAL THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM. I CAN ONLY CONCLUDE THAT THIS IS A SPIRITUAL MALAISE BEYOND MY ABILITY TO REPAIR... DO YOU BELIEVE, ROLAND OF GILEAD, THAT MACHINES MAY GROW SENILE?"

-Blaine the Monorail Train
The Waste Lands by Stephen King


(hhmmm... so it seems that boredom can kill.)

"I'm sick of being sick and it aggravates me to speak to people who have a degree of normalcy in their lives."
7 miles a second by David Wojnarowicz

George: [sighs] My name is George... and this... is the inside of mind.
              [sighs] The inside of my mind has a zillion things...
                          The inside of my mind has a zillion things about it but... people that don't see
                          inside of my mind don't know there are a zillion things. Y'know, since know one 
                          sees inside my mind no one really knows, but... one day people will know.
                          One day people will know 'cause that's my master plan. To film it all.
                          To document every  aspect of the life that is me. And put it in a time capsule
                          in my backyard and so that one day some alien or some highly evolved species
                          will find it and...  understand.

                                                                                              -from the movie Mean Creek, 2004