It's hard to tell what to do with thoughts like these...

For what purpose am I alive?

Am I alive...
...because I'm destined to do something?
What if I'm destined to do something worthless?

Am I alive...
...because I'm fulfilling a god's plan?
What can I do that a god can't?
Why wouldn't god do it her/himself?

Am I alive...
...because of a progressive series of events?
What kind of an excuse is that?

Am I alive...
...because two people decided they wanted one?
Why am I not just a servant?

Am I alive...
...because somebody, some people perhaps, wanted to see what would happen?
What's the difference between life and a complex simulation of life?

Am I alive?

I have had two thoughts today:

1) With regard to voting machines: I think the touchscreen notion is terrible, for reasons beyond just the fact that I have to usually enter my debit card pin at least once in the checkout line. I think the idea of updating voting technology is wonderful.

Here is what we would do INSTEAD of touch-screen voting machines: We would have regular paper ballots. BUT, when the paper ballots were counted, and everything was said and done, there would be a protected database with which individual voters could take a PIN they were given at the time of voting, and use said PIN to look up what happened to their individual vote.

First, it wouldn't be that much extra work (and relatively cheap) to store the votes in a database later accesible by the general public with their PINs. You have to count up the damn things anyway, right?

Second, the system could be made very secure simply by assigning a completely random PIN to each vote/voter pair. A PIN and a vote can be matched, but neither the PIN or vote could ever be matched to a person.

Paper ballots, you could say why bother? Electronic voting machines with no paper trail? You have to make one, and this idea is it.

2) I fucking forgot this thought.