What you see when you die

 by Greg Ralbovsky
 published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Since the dawn of ideas and discovery, man has looked up to the stars and dreamed of what lies around us and beyond. Humankind has achieved greatness in exploration and development, but we still know very little about the expanding universe and our spiritual reason of life. This can easily be compared to the Internet, as it continually sprawls outward and reaches far depths. Consequently, many people dedicate their lives to finding the answers of not only the Internet, but of reason.

Today, many people look back at the ideas of the past. Professors look to the ancient stories "The Odyssey" and "The Inferno" to explore navigation, fantasy and mystery. Sages seek the wisdom of Nostradamus, religious zealots seek their Holy Scriptures and political leaders bind themselves to the love of the law. But where does the man or woman of the Internet look to find council?

Catonakeyboardinspace.

The page is hosted by the online animation site ytmnd, an acronym of the quote "You're the man now, dog!" said by Sean Connery in the movie "Finding Forrester." Catonakeyboard speaks Aristotle, dreams Da Vinci, composes Beethoven and crafts Frank Lloyd Wright all into one.

What many people will want to remember when going to this site is that, much like life, many people will not understand. They may log on and see a feline sitting on a dated miniature keyboard flying through outer space with some complementary keyboard music, but some might see something else.

As humankind presses on fearlessly to the next century, will people continue to explore reason and try to console their hopes, fears and dreams? It has been proven in history, proven now, and will be proven in the future that the human spirit will always feel the need to seek answers.

That answer is on whatyouseewhenyoudie.ytmnd.com.

— gralbovs@asu.edu