Enjoy the Show

There is a whole new world of adventure sports meant only for selected enthusiasts. It’s certainly not for everyone considering the severity and risk involved, sending chills down the spine for even experienced ones. It starts from simple roller-coaster rides to sky diving from moving airplanes, hiking to unfriendly mountain peaks,  climbing ice valleys,  bungee jumping from a height close to 60 story buildings, boarding the volcano sites etc.  Even if this is unreasonably risky or dangerous, why do those people happily choose to do this? It’s just because of one thing,  experience! 

The notion of experience goes beyond the obvious. Einstein proved in his special theory of relativity that the speed of light remains constant in all frames of reference. Let’s understand this. When you are walking on a road at 5km/hr speed and a bus is approaching you from the front at 55 km/hr then the speed of the bus you measure or  experience is 60 km/hr, called relative speed. Now just replace the bus with the light which is moving at speed of  1.07 billion km/hr. In this case, something interesting and unexpected happens as per special theory of relativity . Even if you are moving at a finite speed, the relative speed of the light doesn’t change. It remains constant. And what actually changes is the time!  Time in fact slows down and this scientific effect is called as time dilation. 

 Let’s look at the same phenomenon in a different way. The speed of light is actually the speed of information traveling from objects. We experience things when we directly interact with objects or information. What will happen when we move faster than the speed of light as a scientific hypothesis?  There will be no extra information available and the experience will come to end. There will be nothing to experience including space and time. The time itself will disappear when we see time as a series of experiences rather than an absolute dimension. And for some reason,  this is not permitted by the innate code or laws of nature by restricting the maximum speed of light to its threshold. The slowing of time in fact retains our ability to experience the world. Let’s ponder for a while, we claim to exist because we experience the world and not the other way round. To illustrate,  if someone has never experienced a snowfall even in his or her wildest dreams, the snowfall doesn’t exist for that person’s reality.  The dilation effect thus retains the human or material existence as well. 

Once a college boy was riding a new sports bike while showing his girlfriend aerobics tricks.

He shouted. Let me show you something

See, now I have taken both my hands off the handle. I am having fun. 

See,  now I have taken both my legs off the pedal, I am having a great thrill.

See, now I am standing on the bike. I am having ecstatic feelings.

The bike toppled soon after. The boy continued to shout in the same tone

See, now I am tumbled upside down.  I am having a Fractured Bone!

All the excitements, pains, happiness, and sufferings are just part of our experience. They are the contents of our experience. What truly matters is not the content, but the experience itself. Life is entertainment when we see it as a series of experiences rather than a set of serious activities. It’s like watching a movie in a multiplex theatre.  It seems we are wired to exist, interact and experience the world around us. We have no choice but to enjoy the show!