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Fri, 13 Oct 2023 04:31:51 -0700
Andy from private IP
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An informal proof of Plato's Theory of Forms
I think that the platonic realm is real. Here are my reasons.

Reason number one: the extraordinary creative period in music and film from
around 1950 to around 2000, which produced numerous musical pieces and feature
films that are now considered all-time classics.

Can you imagine Back to the Future being made today? I can't. How about All That
Jazz? Definitely not. 12 Angry Men? Pulp Fiction? Any of the IMDB top 250? With
the exception of a handful of films made since 2000 (i.e., the Dark Knight
trilogy), I can't imagine any of those films being made today unless Christopher
Nolan is making them. In music, can you imagine music without The Beatles? Will
there ever be another group like The Beatles?

Reason number two: the democratization of content creation since 2000 has
diminished the quality of content overall, suggesting that only truly gifted
individuals possess the ability to access the platonic realm, and not the mass
market.

You only need to look at the dearth of quality content on Netflix to conclude
that not everyone should be a filmmaker. There are people out there telling
garbage stories that make no sense and do nothing but capitalize on mass market
drama.

Reason number three: truly gifted individuals have a limitless ability to access
the platonic realm and capture forms that are floating in some type of universal
ether.

Much like how a gifted computer programmer is many times better than an average
computer programmer, an expert writer/artist with a gifted imagination is not
just better than a novice-- they are 1,000 times better than a novice. And the
Greatest of All Time is 1,000 times better than a typical expert. The GOAT
writer would be William Shakespeare, and with that as a standard, it's obvious
that perfection (at least in work product) is attainable.

Reason number four: life in the present is too perfect to be random; yet life is
too seemingly random to result in the continued progress that has accelerated in
the last century and is only continuing.

We live in the future, and the future turned out not to be like the one in Blade
Runner. In November 2019, violent crime was at the lowest rate in the preceding
60 years, unlike in Blade Runner. In November 2019, many other metrics were at
optimal levels, such as education, access to knowledge, poverty, and other
measures of a society making progress.

Reason number five: the economic incentives today are tilted in favor of mass
market appeal, thereby discouraging the creation of art, thereby reducing the
possibility that today's Michelangelo will escape art from raw materials.
Despite this, true artists still exist, they are just lost in the noise.

I was looking for office furniture the other day and I stumbled upon Designs by
Rudy. This guy is making concrete and steel boardroom tables that are far beyond
anyone else that I've seen. This guy is so gifted it's unbelievable. Your
standard office furniture simply does not compare, which begs the question: how
are people like this found in a sea of mediocrity? I don't know, but it sure
seems like there's a lot more noise these days than in prior decades.

Reason number six: the twentieth century was the most important period in human
history and World War II was the most important conflict in human history,
thereby suggesting that there was something special about the twentieth
century.

Whatever it is, it is the reason the 20th century was the most important time
period ever. It can't be the mere existence of film or recorded music as such,
since those were invented in the 19th century. It appears to be the mass
availability of instant communication, which drastically accelerated the ability
to get things done and drastically reduced the inefficiencies of prior
communication. Although the telegraph was invented in the 19th century, regular
people didn't have access to instant communication for their own purposes until
the telephone became common in the 20th century. Instant communication over long
distances appears to be it. It brought us closer than ever before to other
people, reducing the burden of communication and making it easy. It is
consistent with the platonic ideal of a hive mind.

Reason number seven: people who get glimpses of the future either have an
extremely strong imagination or an actual ability to access the platonic realm
and see possible futures.

Are they crazy or are they gifted? Hard to say. I'm talking about people who
claim to see the future. My best guess, since I have this ability as well, is
that imagination and pattern recognition combine to enable persons with
this...condition to recognize when they have seen a pattern that is possible in
the future. So I'm not saying that I or anyone else can see the actual future.
I'm just saying that some people can see glimpses of possible futures. The
future is a platonic form and becomes real through a combination of chance,
luck, and free will in the form of people's choices.

Reason number eight: the manifest destiny of the United States of America,
having arisen from a blank slate and proved through trial by combat with the
then-greatest empire in the world, shows that America is a platonic ideal.

This subject has been written about countless times, and I feel like I can't add
much to the discussion. What I can say is that the idea of America, separate and
apart from the actual USA, is a platonic ideal form.

Reason number nine: the continued shared belief that America is the land of
opportunity, freedom, liberty, and justice, and having it be in large part true,
shows that America is a platonic ideal.

There are many ways in which the USA is imperfect. "Opportunity" is available to
all. "Freedom/liberty" is available to all. Justice...that's a tough one because
the justice system here is seriously screwed up. But honestly, the justice
system in the U.S. is probably better than 99% of the world. Is that overcome by
the way the U.S. excels in other areas? Probably, although I have a biased view
since I see too much of the justice system in my work.

Reason number ten: America and truth have become synonymous, which leads to the
conclusion that America is the realization of an ideal form. The USA is not
perfect, but the continued pursuit of perfection and ideals shows that idealism
is the truth. A portion of the platonic realm has become real, and the
realization is imperfect, thereby proving Plato's theory of forms.

One tenet of the theory of forms is that a real object will never be as perfect
as the platonic form. That's definitely true with the USA. As we strive for a
more perfect Union and to continue to pursue excellence, I think everyone should
keep in mind that the less imperfect the realization is, the closer we will come
to "liberty and justice for all."

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