After a big project like this page, we usually try to relax, and boy did we relax yesterday, we fell like a rock when night time came. It was half the sleepiness that caught up from missing last night, and a bit of other things that finally allowed us to crash like a rock in the night.
But after those events, there usually comes a time of uncertainty. We are an anxious mess under the cover(s), and it is quite clear to anyone with eyes that we need to keep doing stuff, or we start to run out of general purpose. (Funny how this is the case when we have a doll with Purpose in our system, but not even it can help sometimes.)
So for the first proper entry in NeoCities, I came to start meta thinking (not using the Meta tag, saving that for metablogging) about this: Why do we think so much about stuff?
One thing that you may quickly come to realize about us is that we like to see the world around us to a degree that not many do, which might apply to the concept I mentioned before: meta thinking. In short, I based this off of "metagame", a concept in videogames that attempts to make the most optimal decisions by thinking ahead at the options that an opposing player can do.
On one hand, this is very powerful when used right, due to its inherent ability to catch simple plays off guard with carefully crafted plans and breaking uneven footing with premeasured and thought out counterplay. On the other hand, the further this meta game goes, the more fun is optimized out of the game by the simple fact that it all becomes a strategy and arms race to become the best and know every possible outcome, instead of the unpredictable and on-the-fly thought process most games reward. (and a player that starts performing insane moves, not as in insanely effective, but as in completely disparate, can throw a well crafted meta game off guard long enough to secure victory.)
On a similar vein, thinking about thinking and going deeper into topics that might seem relatively shallow at a glance is a very interesting exercise, albeit one that spends a huuuuge amount of energy and can lead into the very famous existential crises if done poorly. But the thing is, while we have figured out how to turn this off in the recent days, sometimes we find it worth to analyze topics beyond their initial impressions, even distressing ones, with the objectives of further comprehension and possible development of a plan of action to integrate corresponding measures into our life.
But then again, the question I made at the title is: why do we think like this?
Well, there are various reasons, and funnily enough, one of them is the simple fact that, without having done so, maybe we would not be here as we are today. It was this intense reflection the one that not only pulled us out of the darkness we had been in and encouraged us to start seeking professional help, but it has also played critical roles in cracking our eggs, both trans and plural!
Of coourse, this is not a novel concept for everyone; it is easy to tell that introspection to an unexpected degree is what can help a lot of people come out after their first exposition to unknown terms. However, it does play a role in this story regardless, for not everyone figures it out the same way. As you can probably tell, some people need the concept to be revealed to them in a specific way or need to go through some pretty thorough counseling before realizing, while some others need less time, or conversely, can realize the existence of concepts but deny their involvement due to internalized fear or hatred.
But of course, that's not the only reason we think a lot. Ever since we were a kiddo (and we are beginning to realize we might have been plural even back then) we've had a passion for understanding and unweaving the mysteries of the world we live in. Though we may not live in a world where magic is abundant and the elements of the world can be controlled by knowledge alone, generations past would easily be forgiven for thinking what we have in this present world is arcane knowledge. Consider that the way you are reading this is basically a worldwide connection of knowledge passing through a device that is basically special sand being coerced to count through the primordial power that fuels our world's existence being contained and applied through various methods and transferred into this sand, allowing it to make images. Now, that's just a computer and the internet. And yet, even going back 100 years, this would have made almost no sense.
And we are here to figure out how it all works, and how we can help make it even more interesting for those who want to help. This brings us to a critical thought that we should discuss, but for now we'll tease you with it: if you've ever heard of Solarpunk, you may already know about this, but in short, we have a civilization that currently has all that it needs to make a new era of peace. Sadly, the ones that are in control of that civilization are power hungry, or maybe fearful of losing that power, and are doing things to make us forget that we have the power to change things when we act together.
Right, I don't think we answered the question beyond the innate curiosity we've always had. But maybe that is enough for now. To know about the world is to know that we can change it if we act together, and the more we know, the better our actions can become.