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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.