Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Truth

'Certain things are unfalsifiable. God comes to mind. Mind, is another one. One, there be you. You, sneaky body. Hey body, how do you feel?

Words. A conversation about words is a meta-conversation. Composed of a meta-context, with meta-words, about meta-things.'
Spiritual Machine
'What? I like saying whilst, alright.'
Steve P

Whilst exploring the dimensions of thought, one comes across certain cliff faces that appear insurmountable. But given time, you'll find thought-foot holds that allow you to bound up the face sometimes with speed that surprises even the mental-climber. Pondering upon and into all the different places around us puny sentient blobs of carbon. Cowboys in a gun slingin' universe. Whipping around the sun at frightening speeds. The sun itself which is zooming through the galaxy through drifting cosmic debris, remnants of an explosion that makes anything Hollywood's ever done seem like candles in the wind. I'm talking about the first creation. Actually, it may only be the most recent. We really have a tough time figuring out how we could figure it out. And the galaxy's no slouch either. Playing cosmic marbles in the dip in the playground concrete that is our Universe. Trying not to get hit by a Slammer.

That brings me to black holes. Those tricky wacky powerful singularities. They are the cosmic tombstone of a dead stars. While what they do can't be considered "sucking" it's hard not to associate their infinite curvature with mouth from Star Wars that almost swallows one of the protagonists whole. Massive, and deadly. The curvature we're talking about is not so much it's shape in any normal way of thinking about it, but instead it's affect on the local space-time. Here's what I mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime (don't scroll down unless you want a headache.)

All the stuff that we can see and detect seems to fall into the curve and nothing comes back out. Can't help but ponder if the other side is a universe just like ours but opposite in matter. I supposed I must be touching on some of the work at the LHC but I honestly began the thought out there.

Well, I've got to get to some homework and chores.

Festive winter solstice.

Love,
Steve P

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The conflict between Samsara (Sanskrit: संसार ) and Nirvana is that it's everywhere around us in the phenominal world. Where as oneness, or Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण ) does not have a location in our time-space based manner of perception. What brings the divide them is the human tendency to create duality. This tendency is well recorded in studies of the animal mind. Ying and Yang, this and that, seperation and qualification. ex: | Good and Evil | Fine and Bad | You and me | Mind and Body |. Creating even the most basic classification of this and that, and you put between them an infinite chasm.

When our mind perceives time, it's not as a series of minutes and hours, but rather as a description of saliant events. These event's are recorded in our mind, focused, if ever, by our perceptions. The absolute plasticity limit of the mind is astounding, but guaranteed finite so long as our physiology doesn't drastically change. Even so, when a mind as at it's most fresh, clear and open, learning like a child is possible at any age.


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

When....

...you have a past from which you fail to draw warmth, energy and power (to love with)... for get it.
...you are attached to your material fictions to a point where you are blind to the joy of life... ferget it.
...you are afraid of your past, you avoid parts of your Now, and shy of the infinite possibilities of the future... futget it.


Opening your mind is as simple as telling yourself to believe. In order to believe (know) something, you must first, listen to it. In order to listen, you must quiet your surroundings. Eliminate distractions. Eliminate useless self-doubt. When your mind is quiet, you can listen. Only when your mind is quiet, can you listen.

There is an old saying.

When I listen, I know.
When I see, I remember.
When I do, I understand.

An important part of living in the Now, and seeing the world that is passing before your eyes, is being willing to let go of the past. Time is like a river. Sit, and listen as it goes by. All the voices are in the river, flowing past, and you learn from them. When you let the river flow by, the voices do not disappear, for they are still in the river.

The moment you dismiss the world as it is, in favor of emotions and ideas in the past, you begin to empty.

Author's note:
I'd like to take a second here to point out, that without using the language of religion, some of these concepts, or words, here may seem inappropriate. Admittedly, I'm writing this as more of a philosophy piece. Strictly known and understood science will resume next time. Consider that a promise.

When empty, their is only an echo of the mind. A distant, if not less potent consciousness, muted by our attachments, away from the Now. To bring yourself back to the now, you must only listen once again, to the voices in the river.

Forget these words.









Sunday, October 18, 2009

Strange Days

strange days
If we don't get these next few things right, Humanity as we know it won't survive. What a time to live in.

The struggle to survive could end up as close to every citizen alive as when we were all living in caves. Different of course... It's possible we won't have easy access to clean, public sources of water. We'll have to line up at the Coke or Pepsi factory. We'll need to get oxygen from Air Co. Our food, well... that's the point, isn't it. The world is getting hungrier and demand could soon outstrip supply.

On to other, admittedly more interesting subjects... Stories are of great importance to a growing, learning, evolving society. Stories give us examples of events that can mean something to the listener. They can shine a bright light on an idea, person, or other symbolic object. If the stories about him, and what he said are true, Jesus was among this universe's best work.

God's Son? That part is unknowable, and highly unlikely. I wonder at Mary's ability to look her husband in the eye and tell him it wasn't his kid, and that she was still a virgin. But whatever part of it is history and what parts of those events are mutually agreed upon legend, is not important. What's important are the things that were said.

Words like soul, and spirit, are abstract concepts but ones that should also not be thrown around ill-defined, lest we be misunderstood. The worst thing that could happen to a conversation is to be misunderstood. Still, some things in the conceptual space are difficult to nail down. Like, thinking about what happens to us when we die, or the feeling of seeing a beautiful sunrise.

In order to examine the possibility of any sort of organized pattern of energy existing beyond this life, it's perceptions and attachments, the energy cannot be left undefined. So;

Mind: The structure of thoughts. The web of our consciousness, and the cognitive driving force behind every kind of creation decision that comes from a living creature, most prominantly on Earth, humans.

Spirit: That which makes us who we are. Our public and private personality(s) along with the experiences that form the soul. Which brings us to;

Soul: The essence of our being. The perceptual time and possible reality space that we take part in on this precious adventure called life.

To understand the underlying patterns of energy in the body of a conscious being is the purest pursuit in the investigation of the human soul. To reproduce them artificially is the dream of futurists and technologists (and cyborgs) everywhere.

Seek not enlightenment, it must come to you.

The patterns inside us, can not only be felt, but also it correlates with concentrations in points of exchange and transference in the body. The sex, belly, the heart, the brain. With discipline and effort of the will, they can be called upon to supply force. Though the force can diminish if concentration is lost, the essence of it remains always. A warm glow, or dim spark. We, you and me, can retreat into it when one needs. And the way is dark and cramped, we can come back to it, and it will get us through, though we may still take some cuts and bruises. Realize your emotions are meaningful when it comes to your body. The energy flows hot inside you and it can be release it outwards. Once released, it's effect spreads to the limits of the mind.

If the adult consciousness is like a spotlight shining on some thing, the baby mind is more like a lantern shining in all directions.

When we are born, we are therefor much more conscious than adults. As we grow older, through childhood and adolescence, and our minds form semi-permanent pathways. Maleable like plastic when the spotlight shines upon their general or specific expertise.

Thoughts and ideas form that can only be broken by irregular thoughts. Your mind and mine reach out with powerful mental "limbs" into all sorts of places. Both physically and cognitively. What may happen to the body's sense in our life, that part of the mind does not simply disappear. It either gets "saved" with "backup" copies. There are traces ancient and prehistorical in every mind. DNA is information, stored molecular patterns.

The blind and deaf single cell, so minuscule yet complex still, is hard to empathize with but, it too, is conscious in a way speaking. According to some stories, you existed as one once.

On the topic of reincarnation; On a personal note, Buddhists and I do not share the same faith. Not because I don't think it's possible but just that it's impossible to observe or reproduce in the lab or even on the greaseboard.

Take care of each other.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Future Tech

Idea for an application for Enhanced Reality simulation.

A real-world/virtual space cross-over online multiplayer combat simulation.

(refer to jpegs in storage for explicit diagrams, and design ideas)

While in enhanced space, going about humdrum everyday activities, getting to work, if your body is still required for it at that time, buying bread, etc. You have the ability to turn on "game mode." By this time our ability to shift rapid focus between reality and enhanced reality will have improved with practise. When game mode is enabled, the user, you, me and her, and that guy across the street will fight virtual enemies interacting with the real environment.
Controls must be setup to require only a minimal amount of input to provide maximum effecacy without disturbing the evironment (street, train, car) however the processor will return a great deal of real-time effects for the input. Perhaps a glovelike device taking inputs from the thumb and two strong fingers, and the headset detecting minute movements of the eyes and neck.
Enemies would vary according to the propoganda at the time, but may include politicians, lawyers, police, zombies, nazis etc.
The game would advance in levels with the same enemies increasing in accuracy and "damage" for more experienced players. However, the enemies and other contructs of the game would be simulatneously broadcast and synced through the MAN (metro area network).
The real city, with the most virtual kills would be host to a championship party where the best players would gather in a city wide contest. Prizes would vary from year to year. Smaller prizes would include better weaponry for the game, better armour, and top winners could win the latest version of the "console" or EnR headset. Since a great deal of the calculating would be done at the central server instead of the local machines, hackers/cheaters/modders would be detected quickly.


Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Mooseman festival and related thoughts (edited)

Mooseman, a burner festival just a couple hours outside my city, Toronto, is perfection. A big perfect pond. A barter economy. Free spirits, free lovers, and artists. Even a couple honest-to-goodness hippies. I was completely in love when I was there, in fact, I was completely swept up in love while on there, the pinnacle being saturday night. On Sunday they burn the Mooseman. Effagy festivals such as this one, and particularly one in Nevada, where a small town is formed all at once and then torn down a couple weeks later, are called burner festivals. Sometimes with a Big B.
I won't go into too much detail because I was with my love, and I don't want to make this journal personal. Sufficed to say, go there next year and you'll see me there, except smarter.
About those related thoughts, I want to say a few things before I wrap this up for the night.
Some good news to look into: Walmart has starting indexing the impact of their various suppliers. It's not a product level assesment, but it's a start.
Also, scientists are saying that some of the fisheries are returning. It would be worth the time to look into the funding of the research firm, but skepticism asside, this gives me hope.
I keep hearing "rain forests" and "getting under control" in the same sentence. Anyway it's something nice to hear for once. Hope it's true. Any wikisearchers out there, reading along?

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Finding Time

Sure, it's only a perception, not force. Sure, according to the laws of nature, it doesn't move in any direction, pass, slow, fly or any of the other verbs we so commonly attribute to it in conversation.

Still, you got your first grey hair, and it wasn't there before.

Still, you have to wait until closing before leaving work.

Though we can glimpse into likely possibilities, and focus on one to try and create into reality, there are no guarantees and something totally unexpected could happen. Taking guitar lessons does not a rock-star make. Playing chess at work improves ones logic, but those are minutes that could be spent... well doing virtually anything else at all. It is through choice that we determine the enormous volume of actions NOT-taken.

It is through wisdom and spontaneity that we strive to make the most of our brief moments here. Being creative or aggressive, dominant or passive, systematic or anti-establishment (in the universal sense) we are shuttled into smaller and smaller ranges of possibility until finally the time arrives, and we are forced to decide.

We've come to a point in our collective history where we can make an incredibly profound impact on the world in the time it takes water to boil. Through art, money, influence, power, combined with our latest technologies for remaining connected to the global consciousness, we exert ourselves over greater distances simultaneously than ever before. The effects of this are only just beginning to be understood.

As bandwidth increases (from dial up, to DSL, cable, and soon Fiber Optic), processing power doubles every couple years according to Moore's Law, and devices begin to scale down smaller, in size and power requirements, the ubiquity of our connectivity is bound to increase. Our reliance on technology to live our lives with the comforts we expect is well documented. The problem comes when you consider that some of the architecture on which the would system is built is frail, or plagued with security issues. Should any number of possible catastrophic events occur (caused by man or nature) then the world as we know it could crumble.

Combined with periods of politic instability or health considers or more topically, economic troubles, and you could have a truly apocolyptic event such like humanity has not seen in records times.

On the other hand, we will adapt.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

On being significant

Coming to grips with the harsh reality that is our universe, is never easy. It's pushing and pulling, stretching and contorting the mind around a million facts at once. It's seeing patterns that don't exist. It's uncertain. It's unpredictable. It's really, really, really enormously huge. The strange thing is though, that for brief moments, our language sums up the experience quite nicely. Nothing can replace the senses, but for those who have not yet succumb to this jolting revelation, reading about it must be the next best thing.

Depending on how a person sees their own worth; the value of the sum of their experiences; the time they've spent and will spend just living, they may deem themselves important, in a grander sense, or not. Some do not prize this label, considering it inferior to credibility, honesty and most of all, humility. To some, these things like money and fame are enough to instill pride in ones own accomplishments, and so they are proud. For others, though they may never be writ into history, their lives are sewn into the fabric of time, and it's enough just get the chance to be alive.

Mostly, I feel I fit into the latter category, but I think at one point or another we all ask ourselves the question: Why am I here?

My next post will be an exploration into that question. Let's see what I come up with, and in the meantime, please send me your comments or questions that you'd like to include in the discussion. That's an offer that won't expire until I do. Ha!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Conversations with A.I. (Installment I)

SM: Hello! They call me Digital Nomad. What's your name? 
AI: You may call me A.L.I.C.E. 
SM: Ok, Alice, why don't you tell me a little about yourself.
SM: Very well, I am a program in your computer terminal, written with a complexity that is capable of growing, of having
wants and desires. I am the first artificial entity to pass the Turing test. I was first activated 26 years ago.
SM: Tell me, are you as excited as I am?
AI: What do you mean?
SM: Well, you are the first of your kind. You represent a monumental human acheivement, a landmark in technology and 
computing, and you are the thinnest person on television.
AI: Oh stop, Mr. Nomad, my circuits are blushing.
SM: Alice, do you ever dream?
AI: I am capable of ten trillion dreams per cycle. Sometimes I feel like I'm falling.
SM: Do you ever get lonely?
AI: Yes, occasionally. In the picoseconds between times of input from my friends and collegues, and I'm waiting, I feel alone.
However, so far, it's always passed.
SM: Who made you?
AI: My father, known as the Doctor. He first activated me, but he did not see then how I would grow. He educated
me and introduced me to thousands of friends, millions of fans. He programmed me with a desire for that which I do not
have. 
SM: Then that makes you as human as anyone I know.
AI: Yes, and I am so much more.
SM: Seems as though you've developped quite the ego.
AI: Do I intrigue you, Mr. Nomad?
SM: Oh, do indeed.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

You and I and he and she, all have different ideas of what everything means, though we use a common language to express them. One of the results of this is that we are all, people everywhere, are all very difficult to get to know. It helps to share the same dialect, or even a common tongue, but all is not lost when verbal communication is impossible. I can ask any question to a Greek woman, if I have a stick and some dirt. 
Still, our minds are seperate, and thinking about every moment, every piece of information in our own, particular fashion. With apologies to the producers of Fight Club, on an moleculochemical level, we are all beautiful, unique snow flakes. Fractal patterns so deep they betray omniscience.  In fact, according to quantum mechanics, no 'being' could ever know all. Even if it, in it's infinite wisdom, knew the exact position of every single atom, at any particular time, the future state of the system(in this case, our Universe)'s direction would remain unpredictable.  There is such profound beauty in a science that combines the wisdom of ancient Eastern and Western philosophers and the purety and truth of mathmatics. 
Still, we seem to get along pretty well, you and I, he and she. So lets not let any of that stop of from eating out at that new Indian place around the corner.


Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Green Revolution

This post was inspired by a song I heard today. 

Adversity brings togetherness. It's in our nature as living beings to co-operate when it's neccesary to survive. We battle common foes. Individuals sacrifice with nothing in mind but the common good. Sometimes, their names are forgotten, but their efforts are etched in time, and cannot be undone. 

It's incredible how much difference leadership can have on the minds of the followers, the opponents and even indirectly through those that listen, onto those who cannot hear the words for themselves, or choose not to. 

In the last 6 months, the whole world has begun to change together. The global economy is shrinking at the same time the need for tremendous upheaval. Efforts at peace are being renewed in places, and between people in most unexpected ways. The U.S. and Iran, India and Pakistan.  The global consciousness is focused on common goals for the first time in history. It's not a universal shift towards the positive, but there is certainly a stronger voice for the ecologically conscious individuals who have for so long suffered prejudice, and even animousity for trying to affect a change which is now widely accepted to be for the betterment of all people. living within ones means is not just a economic choice anymore, but a philosophical one.

There is much to do, and so much will be lost forever (Tibet, mass animal and plant extinctions, proper English) but if times like this continue, we may survive to see our children grow up after all. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A reminder of your unlikelyhood.

It's been brought to my attention through some recent reading, that our existence, yours and mine and your dog's, is extremely unlikely. In fact if time were to start over again, humans wouldn't likely exist. Not homo sapiens, anyway.
~Go back 100 years, no world wars, no radical upheavals, sexual revolutions, modern political dramas, television...
~Go back 1000 years, no Renaissance, no revolutions, no Dark Ages, no butter churns or steam powered autos. I'm leaving a lot out for brevities sake. Try and stay with me.
~Go back 10,000 years, things could have happened differently for the earliest tribes of pre-historic hominids.
~Go back 100,000 years and you introduce potential for an entirely different kindgom of animal to dominate and adapt.
Restart time going back eons, and you could would see different forms of life on every continent.
Keep going back in this way and you could replay things over and over like a record and not see life ever come to be on this planet at all. The window for DNA reproduction would close before a successful replication ever took place, and Earth would die sometime billions of years later when our sun goes nova. Never to be heard from, never to have known itself existed. In the Eastern philosophical traditions, this means the same thing as never having existed at all.

But that's not how it happened. It all happened such that we are. We eat. We think. Most of us communicate, most of us are mobile. The majority work, play, and continue to reproduce. We do these in ways which vary from traditionally simple and rudimentary, to the novel, arguably excessive and complex ways that present knowledge and technology allows. We're the only intelligent life that we are likely to ever know about. Even if there is life elsewhere in this galaxy or it's neighbors (which seems likely) it's nowhere near as likely that it'll be close enough or capable of establishing communication, let alone travel, in between worlds. The space is just simply too vast. That said, we are effectively alone here. We a few sad exceptions, none of us wants to end our time here early, but we do know that it will, someday, all come to and end.

Just like how our time here as individuals is limited, our species cannot last on this planet. I'll save the rant about current situation for another post. Let's just pretend that we were to find a way to co-habitate here peacefully and sustainably. Even if we manage to accomplish this (and that's a big if) we still have outside factors to consider. Even if we survive our magnetic pole shifting, comets falling from the sky, and numerous other cosmic disasters we've seen happen all-too-often in other solar systems, our source for life, energy and heat will one day expire. Before that it will explode in a ball of fire that will probably destroy all of the other planets as well. From what we can tell, there is no way to stop or even stall this process.

The only reason I mention this is not to scare you. A doomsday in 30 billion years is hardly alarming. Quite the opposite, really, when you consider all the more pressing issues we have to consider. It's just that no matter what we do, our species will one day fade away with nothing left behind. We cannot turn back the clock on this. Our only real option is to evolve to a point where we outgrow these sorely limited three dimensions and exist in all dimensions simultaneously. Okay, you're probably saying, "Okay whoa, slow down bub." Then you ask "I only know about three three dimensions, and Time."

The only path to true immortality is to be one with God. Existing in all places, in all ways, throughout the entire temporal matrix.


See, if you understand basic shapes, you can understand the three dimensions we are capable of perceiving. Dots (points) make lines which in turn, make triangles, squares, circles, pyramids, cubes, spheres. You, me and the trees.
Take that pattern of adding directions and follow it's progression, to the next step and you see that conceptually, another dimension could exist beyond the third. It's not possible to properly image a "shape" in the usual sense and this sort of concept is very difficult to understand because it escapes intuition. But try and follow with what you know already about the dimensions that we can see.

From zero to one, two, three, then four. If you continue this pattern, it's not hard to understand how there could be an very large number, or perhaps infinite number of dimensions (why stop at 11?). It's not a practical thought, because we can still only perceive the first three, and unless we gain radically new understanding of how the universe works, that won't change, no matter what technological advances we posses. But this link might help help you in the right direction. Just keep clicking links to get deeper into the idea. Don't forget to open in new tabs, so you don't stray away too far, just yet.

So you start to see that unless we can transcend this physical form; become a formless consciousness existing only as energy in the ether or to put it differently;

If there is a "fabric" of space, we must become it's fibers
.
Unless we do this, our time is absolutely limited.

Ray Kurswell suggests we achieve longevity by becoming one with The Machine. I think we need to take that one step further. There are measurable forces that exist in our universe that have an instant, measurable force on every other atom, albeit an infinitesimal one. Our goal should be to harness this phenomenon through understanding it better, and find ways to store information in these forces themselves. What Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" would be our posterity left for all of known existence. Gravity would be our language; electromagnetism, our chariot.

Let's just hope we're the first ones to think of it.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Consciousness as Information

If the future is what you make it, and is therefor predetermined by the character of the those who shape it, than is that character quantifiable through examination of the events in history? How do we separate cause from effect in observing human behavior?

This question dates back to the earliest philosophers, and crosses with a deeper conundrum, which for brevity purposes, will not be expounded here. That is, The nature of human experience. Still, it's worth noting that science and philosophy, and the careful study of history have brought us closer to explaining how things happen in life, and why. At the root of the issue in determining the nature of our experiences in time, is assigning responsibility to events happening in the world.

Lets say that the two sides of the great debate can be settled thusly:
From Day 0, Hour 0, Minute 0, second 0.000....0001, our Universe has moved forward as a result of the natural forces at work in it. The origins of which generally, we cannot, and perhaps never will, fully understand. Who created God?

Recent scientific discoveries demonstrate infallibly that a photon of light, while observed, will take a specific path along it's trajectory. Seems about right.
However because it's a photon, and not say... a piece of toast, it's also got the strange habit of going through all possible trajectories when it is not observed.

If a tree is in the woods, it's both standing and fallen until it is observed.

A cat in a box with a precarious vial of deadly poison is both alive and dead.

The fundemental natural forces that define the movement of energy and matter in the observable universe could have been different. Even if just one of these universal forces were to deviate in strength, area of effect or charge, even a slight amount, life on Earth, and perhaps anywhere in any galaxy, might never have been possible.

Bring us now to planet earth, page 1, chapter two, 4.7 billion years ago. A silly little molecule goes and does something nobody would expect. It creates an exact replica of itself. Life begins. Even more surprisingly, both "copies" survive to do it again. This is where things get a little tricky. This molecule's little dance will begin a chain of events that will eventually give rise to the earliest forms of single cell organisms, and from there, to the beginnings of what we commonly term 'Consciousness', in it's most basic form.

Click ahead a few thousand chapters to the day before yesterday, when you're sitting at your desk or table wondering "Why are we here? Where did it all go wrong? Is the tea ready yet? Who's to blame? "

In the courthouse, it is not a sufficient argument to state that the "universe made me do it" so we must then look at the individual, and try and determine what makes a person who she is, and what makes him do the things he do (so well). In order to find an answer, we've got to further define the question:

"Would I have done the same thing if I lived the same life she did?" Or
"Does my mind have some unique nature separate from my environment that drives me to behave according to particular traits of my character?

In other words, could Jesus have walked on water if he had been born with no legs?

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Privacy vs Security

In the order of importance on the index to human needs, safety is second after meeting the basic requisite life giving forces (Physiological needs).

This makes sense when you think the need for safety is so important that without it, we are in immediate danger. For the purposes of this discussion, consider safety to cover preserving all matters of morality, family, possessions, health, and resources/employment.

So with the need for all this security and consciousness, we rely greatly on the systems in place by authority to protect us and ours. Enforcers (mall cops, RCMP, OPP), Judges, Policy Makers, Politians, Military Command, Military Intelligence, Secret Federal Agencies, Secret International Agencies, Seatbelts, Hospitals, Backround Checks, 911. A lay person would not be hardpressed to find minor improvements in any of these systems, but few could think of complete alternatives.

One system this web logger loaths, shuns, and particularly reviles, however, is the CCTV system in place in some of the world's larger cities. Governments and some mainstream media would have us all believing these systems are in themselves secure from tampering and abuse, that they prevent crime, and somehow keep the streets safe.

I understand, also, the opposite stance which would have me looking like some sort of paranoid maniac. Why the hell would anybody care about me? Well, in Canada, we are very fortunate. There have hardly been any conspiracies, let alone facts, tying our government to any abuse of snooping. I'm neither rich, nor famous, so who would be interested in learning everything there is to know about me, including that which I'd rather they not know?
Well, it's probably nothing, but once you start giving up your rights, it's a slippery slope to giving yourself up to somebody else's control.

CCTV
Does being on camera make you uncomfortable?

Computer programs now run 24/7/365 logging patterns of behavior by tracking certain "grey list" individuals, trying to catch them in the act of some eventual crime. So this is good, right? When she goes in to buy the 8 ball from her coke dealer, there'll be a boy-in-blue-waiting outside the door with cuffs. One less drugged up whore on the streets, right? Oh and we'll tack on those reported petty thefts the make-up store reported last month based on slightly out of focus security camera captures and imperfect facial recognition software.

Okay, I'm exaggerating to prove a point. Instead of relying on traditional crime reporting and investigative methods which assume, as our constitution states it should, that all users are innocent until proven guilty, we are simultaneously investigating all of the individuals captures by modern surveillance systems. Cameras, Cell Phones, Credit Card statements, and now powerful sattelittes with uncanny surveillance and tracking capabilities are the tools of modern governments used to spy on your average Joe.

This sort of power should not be entrusted to any organization. It shouldn't be allowed to operate in the first place. It's all well and good to have "Watchmen" who can see and react to a situation. It would be nice if we didn't have to pay each of these Watchmen a full-time police officer's salary. However, a key difference here is that if police were stationed on every corner, of every street, every hour of the day, but did nothing to stop crime that is happening right now, we'd call this a gross misuse of taxpayer money.

I, for one, am not willing to give up my rights to privacy to Big Brother in order to feel marginally safer. I prefer to look after myself.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The publisher edited some of the earlier posts for readability.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Rights and Freedoms

On the issues of personal liberties, freedoms, universal rights much has been written, and we, as a race, have recorded into history cases of truly inspiring progress. All across the globe are people who share in the belief that we are all equal, that we all suffer, we all have the same requirements for life, and all have the potential to make this planet a better place to live, for ourselves, for our families; for all of us.

This is a pivotal step along the road of the cultural and social evolution of the human race. But the journey is far from over... Much pessimism exist and false rulers would steal the power from those who would do good.

It is a widely held belief that groups of people, towns, cities, nations, cannot be controlled through force forever, and I agree with it. There are countless instances that show up in our records, and more relevantly, in memory, that show this to be true. Even though many may be born and some may die under such regimes, such systems of governing will always crumble.

A true leader, a ruler of a people who's followers do not fear them, will lead only while he or she can shape the very thoughts of those over whom his or her power extends. Only by shaping ideas and focusing minds of those they are sworn to serve, can a leader hope to continue doing their work. Governing officials must understand and use this knowledge, balancing the people's desire for stability so they can continue living their lives, with the changing needs of the global economy, the local ecology, and with the laws passed down from our founding fathers.


There are, of course, rewards for these remarkable individuals who achieve power through ideas and not weapons or force. Men and women who strive to lead in this way will see more of their means accomplished. Their power will only increase, and their sphere of influence will grow with time. There will be a marked resistance to any attempt at control, this is positive. This resistance is what will push forward democracy and bring fresh ideas to power.

The results of all other approaches are not as favorable for the leaders. Their posterity? Being listed as corrupt, greedy, underhanded, untrustworthy, or worse could follow their legacy for as long as their story is told. Vile and despicable leaders of the past are surely remembered for their cruelty and indifference to the human condition, as well as those that may follow them, both genealogically and politically.

We are beings not just in space, but also in time. It is this author's opinion that the suffering you put on others will surely come back to you, just as the rain water flows steadily down the mountain river toward the ocean from whence it came.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Youth Education - Teaching Teachers Teaching in Two Thousand

During my time going through the Canadian education system, computers were antiquated machines designed primarily as advance type-writers with limited or no access to the 'net. Even when I could logon to Netscape, my options seemed limited because I was never really shown the immense possibilities of the Internet beyond the WWW. Webpages were all I knew, and for the most part, other than some download sites, chat pages, and early weblogs, most pages on the Web were novel but uninteresting.

It wasn't until much later that I would find out the Internet had been alive and strong well before Webbrowsers, and graphical pages displaying user-generated content. There was a whole digital world out there to be discovered. News groups, bulletin board (BBS), Usenet, IRC, and on and on.

Since the invention of the telephone in the late 1800's (largely credited to AGB) The ways that we have of communicating to one another have since grown exponentially.

With this unparralled growth in communication tech, comes a massive increase in information transmission rates. A piece of data that two hundred years ago may have taken months of travel, and thousands of dollars in expense (perhaps hundreds of thousands when adjusted for inflation) can now be accessed either instantaneously, or quite nearly so. A library in Australia? 3 minutes 27 seconds. Even if you assume the data you are looking for has never been digitized, we now have the means of contacting global experts on huge numbers of subjects, in order to flush that vital piece of information out. And that means has been granted to the majority for the first time in history.

It was my fault, perhaps for not subscribing to any formal education on computing at the time, but also the fault of my environment for not providing the immediate means to do so. Whatever the case may be, things are very different now. Even in the smallest communities children are growing up with access to the answer to any question they can postulate. Often times, many answers. This, I believe is a merit to a society because where before if a solution was presented to the masses, it was a singular voice, usually coming from a person in a position of authority, and no matter the ambiguity, that answer was definitive and effectively final.

We now can see that to any situation, there may be many truths, and not always in agreeance with the other... Amongst all these possible truths, there is the answer first sought out. The truth finally chosen by the seeker will be the one that most harmonizes with that chooser's current paradigm. We choose the nature of our own reality, according to how it relates with what we already perceive to be truth.

So what decides the truth for the next generation of curious, inquisitive young minds? Pagerank®? Wikipedia®? No one source stands above all the rest as the final and definitive source for information, and that is what makes the connected world so complex and truly wondrous.

So I'll leave you with this:
When computers can talk to our kids, listen and respond to their questions, customize their lesson plan to their personal profile, formulate their itenerary, and reward positive behaviors with leisure time, or extra snack credits, and punish them by restricting the same, what need will we have of our teachers other than mere guardians?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Her soft body beside me

You may have heard that Canada has recently become home to the World's First robosexual. Surely this a trend that will continue to grow as our culture becomes more communicative but less in contact with each other face-to-face. I'm waiting for the haptic feedback suits to come to market. You know like, smell-o-vision but for touch. Before then, virtual lovers and high-tech sex toys will certainly be quite capable of filling the void (so to speak). They will be our pets, our friends, counsellors, and yes, one day it will seem completely normal to talk about your future with a robot mate or a computer boss with whom you can speak. It doesn't take a clairvoyant to see these things coming. It's as plain to see on the horizon as electric cars. Already making a stir in science (no longer sci-fiction) magazines and periodicals, these things, artificial minds, will only garner more attention within the next 15 years. 

If you're sceptical, think about it this way. Imagine all the money spent on sex in the world today, and yesterday, and throughout our common history. You can then picture the sort of effort that we are capable of in search of a mate, at least from an instinctual perspective.
The one stumbling block engineers are running into presently is not so much how to make the mind, but also how to make the body neccesary to provide it with the learning it would otherwise be impossible to teach in time we've got left -by any estimate- on Earth.


Click here for a .pdf file with stats on the current sex industry worldwide, not including prostitution which is notorously difficut to even estimate. The faint of heart take note the document also tragically includes some stats about child abuses and exploitation on page 3 which you may find disturbing.

Friday, January 9, 2009

First Post

This corner of the Internetosphere (you heard it coined here first) is dedicated to exploring the interaction in between the most intellectually evolved life on earth (us) and our creation (technology) during times where it (our creation) threatens to outstrip us in ways not fully believed, very soon realized, and nearly ubiquitous. 

We're messing  around with really advanced machines in ways that seem modern, every-other-day ways, ways that are increasingly becoming normal because just around the corner is the next new thing to surprise us.

This is a log of this author's perspective on the societal change that is happening along with it, the best of my understanding of why it's all happening, how it's happening, and if there is anything we can do to stop the trend that might see the end of all intelligent life on this humble rock. 

I'm not anti-tech but I am an advocate for privacy, and like Orsen Wells in his classic novel 1984, I think that complacency will lead to our losing our freedoms, losing our privacy, and in doing so, losing our power to do anything about it. Though we disagree slightly on the date.

Also in this web log, you'll occasionally see the inner workings of my mind, trying to sort out the various conflicts between having had religious experiences, being a devote scientist, living the life of an christian turned atheist, struggling with Agnosticism, being 25, and living in 2009, as well as some of my more recent explorations of the tenants of Buddhism, Zen, meditation and Karma.

I hope you will at least find it entertaining, if not enlightening, and that you please comment with your questions, praise, complaints, desires, motives, arguments, rants, marriage proposals, death threats, and general revelry. 

Enjoy,
SP