I really like to ride a motorcycle at high speed down a main road out of town after midnight when there's little traffic. I don't dare take it to the limit, probably for the best as these things make a heck of a lot of noise.
(Yes, I've made some bad decisions in my life and they have gotten me in trouble.)
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Every time I'm at Winn-Dixie during the quiet hours in the middle of the day I see single white women with brown children riding in their shopping carts. There can only be one explanation for this: They must finally have reversed the nanny arrangement of the old times. It's wonderful that the errors of the past have been rectified in this way. That makes me very happy. It's a warm feeling.
Proof that the world we live in is incomprehensibly poopy December 10th, 2021
There are many many things I don't understand about the world. One of the first things I learned long ago is that no one will answer questions about them, but instead change the subject. For example, why don't they just have text-based web ads? They could even be inserted in the body of an article in such a way adblockers would be unlikely to detect them. Instead, they only have browser crashing and freezing bloatware ads, that use up most of your PC's processing power for no good reason.
The one thing I can't get over
How incredibly endlessly B-B-BAD everything is. And how much better it would have been to have never been b-b-born.
Well why not... 20200902 1536
https://www.sea-org.com
Some new blogging going on in there.
The strongest force in the world 20200727 0422
Is the combination of casual poopyness with smug stupidity. You could call it poopydity.
Microsoft Windows is so hyper-Clintonically b-b-bad! 20200521 0552
No one has ever disliked anyone or anything more than I dislike the bad-smurf-programmers at Microsoft and elsewhere. I keep cursing that human bob-olus Bill Gates. For commercial reasons his code is bloated with inefficient poopware that runs slower than a snail superglued to quick-drying cement. And it never stops sucking. Every update just makes it worse. The only thing that can compare with Windows for sheer malevolence is Firefox. Websites loaded faster and froze less in the 1990s.
Fundamentally, I can't understand the mainstream view of reality, the fact that poopyness this immense is permitted to exist. Consensus is the source of all bad things. It means the whole world and its people must be unfathomably poopy in at least some ways. There is really nothing else to worry about (Livejournal is also Clintonically diabolical with this site's fiendish password resetting attacks against their users.)
The world is full of bad-smurfs and doo-doo people. But let's end on a positive note: As far as I'm concerned, anyone who does nothing is good.
The world is still a poopy torture machine 20200217
I can not begin to describe how much I dislike this world, how poopy it is in every way everywhere I look. The poopyness never ever stops, and is as unbound as physics can make it.
What a stinking poo-pooplanet this is. January 22nd 2020, 9:35
I have no words to describe how much I dislike this endlessly poopy world.
SUPER-NAUGHTY TROLLPEOPLE September 7th, 6:40
I dislike computer programmers so dang much, Microsoft, Firefox, the lot of them. In a poopy heckworld, they are the worst of the bad-smurfs.
3AM thoughts 180429 0300
Education is not about teachers, but about simulated intelligence. In the past, education has been claimed to make people smarter. Now they claim it exposes the "smartness" of the youths that was always there. The truth is it doesn't change intelligence at all. Teachers need new ways to input information even if the student doesn't care, like being voluntarily hypnotized or brainwashed. Or just extremely powerful new metaphors.
How to make profitable use of joiners and volunteers: Don't give them money. Get them to start franchised operations in their own areas. The hard part is the first three words.
From time to time, there are news stories of men going on shooting sprees. So far, these have been relatively crazy guys going berserk, symptoms of a dysfunctional society. No political retaliations by almost normal guys with nothing more to lose. Not yet. Maybe not ever. If it does happen, it will be the result of steady escalation. The current American president seems to have kept the news unusually boring though. A lot of perceived drama with no real change.
In an infinitely poopy universe in which all possible torture patterns are realized infinitely often 180217 It sure would be a LOT better if nothing existed.
Life is not worth living 180201 But everyone else seems to be OK with this poopy planet.
180112 I dislike this frigging world so dang much.
mail.com email "service" is Clintonically b-b-bad 180101 They block valid emails from approved senders for no reason. DO NOT PAY $50 FOR THEIR WORTHLESS "PREMIUM" SERVICE, THEY WILL STILL BLOCK VALID EMAILS FOR NO REASON!!!!! Their customer phone service is worse than worthless.
KRONKING NASTY NELLIES 171224 That's how I feel about computer programmers. Every computer I use is still so FRICKING SLOOOOOOOOOW for no fricking reason other than Clintonically bloated software. They should all be spanked.
The world is poopy. 171201 I can't repeat this enough, but I can try. I should try harder though.
how I feel about web ads. 171109 14:28
I will never in my life click on a web ad. It's a visceral thing. Web ads are like Goebbels, absolutely poopy total scams by bad-smurfs out to get you. There can never be any benefit, they exist to transfer money to bad people to abscond with your money. Sometimes they may string you along to get more money. That's how i feel, it's just a perception. The reality may not be quite like that. It could be much worse.
what I just can't get over. 171028 14:22
how incredibly poopy this frigging dang doodooplanet is. The foulest poo-poo-people are the world's computer programmers. The people who made that fricking poo-poo-program Firefox and that fricking doodoo-software Windows 10 deserve to be slapped with mops for all eternity. Those goshdang fricking pieces of poopoo just keep CRASHING AND FREEZING AND CRASHING AND FREEZING AND CRASHING AND FREEZING AND CRASHING AND FREEZING AND CRASHING AND FREEZING AND CRASHING AND FREEZING
rules for life. 170920 11:25
ASSUME NOTHING Assumptions are expectations, and that's bad. One of the biggest mistakes is to assume a connection that doesn't exist. - Rule one when debating people with wrong beliefs: Be imperturbable if not serene. A perfectly respectful listener who doesn't accept anything.
170918 13:30 So the iphone 8 is out...
Or is it 9.9 or X. Meanwhile, I've been scolding at tablet devices for years now. They are not remotely good enough or even usable. Swiping is a horrible inaccurate timewaster. And of course the darned things keep crashing and freezing and crashing and freezing and crashing and freezing and crashing and freezing and NOTHING EVER WOIRKS RIGHT goshdanged Nasty-Nellie-people. Instead of tablets there should be visors where you gesture at floating virtual files and folders like a giant control panel. -
Old technology:
An obscure analog video disk system: http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2014/03/eric-s-blog/videodisc-day-an-introduction-to-the-capacitance-electronic-disc-ced-.html - 18th Century plan for a skyscraper-sized giant temple: http://www.etsavega.net/dibex/Boullee_Newton-e.htm -
Politics:
http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/ The irresistible elite urge to import cheap immigrants (old but hasn't changed): http://www.unz.com/isteve/ny-review-of-books-writers-at-least-its-not-their-first-rodeo/ http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-more-ways-that-racism-is-hurting.html Related: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2015/09/seeing-the-speakularity.html
If poopyness is defined as whatever triggers dislike, 170903
then this world is about as poopy as it can get away with. We live in a poopy carp society, but the poopyness is mass consensus. What ya gonna do? This is a professional pessimism blog. Reality is not what anyone thinks it is. There are hidden factors, blind spots, control functions. Most people can't even read about them, but immediately start doing something else. Not because it's distasteful, but because it's just not done. It may be dangerous to understand but is absolutely necessary. The world is worse than anyone understands, yet people want it to be this way. Then it gets worse. Perhaps I'm too simple to be infected by the control memes. As someone who has only been very peripherally affected by Islamic terrorism, I would rather be on vacation. Computer programmers represent the automatic perfection of poopyness. Ever since Google changed their motto and became poopy some years ago by returning increasingly random search results, I have been increasingly worried that the software/user interface could spin out of control, enforcing the most confortable mass conformity. The totemic icon of unthinking poopyness is Bill Gates. That man has probably caused me more suffering than anyone except whoever did Javascript. Not quite often enough, reality isn't absolutely boring however. Sometimes, strange notions or inexplicable delusions turn out to be shockingly true.
"Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light" from the Dibert comics is the very embodiment of Javascript! 170831 15:54
actually Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light is the embodiment of programmers actually Phil is whoever makes it so fuucing goshdang slooooooooooooow
NASTY-NELLIE PEOPLE 170820
No one has ever disliked anyone or anything as much as I dislike computer programmers. Their often deliberately defective software is responsible for 90% of my suffering. If only there was a way to get some type of revenge against them. Hate times infinity is nothing compared to what I feel against them.
Advantage of blacks over whites: 170819 14:58
Apparent durability. They can look less bad when getting old, even if that is not reflected in life statistics. Pale skin may look better at first, but it shows wear and tear.
First of all I would like to make clear that I am not a racist. 170817 13:33
Not even the tiniest little bit except maybe in a good way. All I know is if they have fake French names they're black, if they have fake German names they're Jewish. Maybe a compromise could help. Whites were right to treat blacks differently than their same-hued golf buddies, and blacks were right to resent whites because they went about it all wrong. Blacks are bad, whites are bad (in a way that has never been properly described). Whites don't have false ideas about blacks but are just acting white. The problem is not badthought, as if that could be solved. People are just their nasty selves, regardless of whether there's someone to discriminate against. Hope that helped. ---- Comment by memeresistor: I read about Breivik & cant imagine what that must have felt like to have had his to-do list abandon a big truck bomb outside the central government building then walk to an island of Marxists determined to replace your population & take them on singlehandedly I practically explode in rage when must deal with bureaucracy
Hatred for a poopy world 170816 11:18
Just another day in heck. It's not that hot, but there sure are a lot of devils here. ---- Comments (paraphrased): this is a doodoo planet not a dead planet this is a poopy planet the world is poopy but not so poopy it would destroy itself this is a long game poopyness is maximized by carefully spreading it out getting maximum consensus for the poopyness
Found le explanation. 170803 13:46
Why third world mass immigration is generally encouraged and receives widespread passive support: Because this is a poopy society. It just sucks (too much bureaucracy etc). Except the brains of the masses are so defective they can't acknowledge their brains make this poopy society. It's a type of slow suicide, a passive fade-out: destroy everything by gradually replacing everything. Problem is, what they will replace it with (while completely different) is even worse; as impossible as that is to imagine. ---- I believe the world is poopy In what way? In the most deliberate way possible That means every way ever claimed by everyone ever and more might as well include all the supernatural ways at least in scope and intensity
the purpose of my life. 170801 20:24
This world is heck. It's completely unacceptable, a living nightmare, as poopy as it is deliberate. There are only two rational options: suicide or try to destroy it by changing it. That will take technology. My goal is to persuade others to invent that technology. ---- But seriously, every day is a new heck. What a fricking poopy planet this is.
The world is poopy. 170701
Absolutely, totally, completely poopy. The poopyness is incomprehensibly immense, and it is absolutely everywhere. Severe disapproval with intense opprobrium is not a strong enough mental state for this. There is one good thing about the world's poopyness however: it is so absolutely, totally pervasive, so completely deliberate, and so NEARLY UNANIMOUS, that there is literally nothing else to worry about. All other problems are poopyness fighting itself. Therefore they cancel out. It is the only thing worth remembering, and all that matters. A tremendous relief it is to only have one worry.
Maximum possible dislike 170604
No one has ever disliked anyone or anything more than I dislike reality's true Nasty-Nellies: computer programmers (in order: Microsoft, Firefox, Imgur). No one or nothing is more deliberately poopy. No greater dislike is possible.
As you can see we have once again posted content from another site. 170527 08:22
And they will soon post some content from ours! You may have noticed the owners of many websites say "we" when it's just one guy there. They do that to create the illusion of support and being part of a mass movement. Here at whatwedontknow we had the insight that all these fake collective voices could easily be linked. They could be casual/ephemeral links. Long as they do SOMETHING together. That could instantly make them real collective voices.
Science fiction story setup: All Hell. 170526
Gamma ray pressure held up the star as particle collisions without number approached the end of their hundred-million-year calculation. Now things began to speed up, eons worth of interactions happening in less than a second. Everything almost happened at once. As the core imploded like the mother of all catastrophes, escalating forces stimulated a wave of matter creation with an outrageous outpouring of neutrinos. The supernova blastwave began its unstoppable demolition ascent through the layers of the star at a good fraction of the speed of light. Some distance away he was looking at his room, maybe not quite in the same reality if common sense was correct, just outside the lightcone horizon.
I just want to take a moment to express how deeply outraged I am at this latest terror attack 170523 09:02
What a terrible thing that was! Can you even believe it! My goodness it was nothing like in an action adventure movie. I sure dislike this planet
Science fiction story setup: G-Day. 170520 19:09
The God Test had taken decades of psychological persuasion of the world population. It had been invented by atheists to settle the oldest question once and for all. Now everyone, or at least over 60.805% of humanity who could be bothered, would pray together for something, anything to happen. The world was holding its breath. Would there be a sign in the next hour? There could be only one answer.
Science fiction story setup: The unraveling of now. 170513 13:47
It was finally proven that the mathematical construction of reality had to be unstable. Too many things could go wrong to make something as elegantly self-referential as mere reality. Perceptual perfection had a price. "Normal" existence as it had always been known was an exceedingly improbable illusion, a small solipsistic beacon of over-amplified self-regard. It couldn't last. Logic would slowly appear to fail, the consistent past becoming increasingly bizarre, the future a blind chaos. But first there would be cracks. Small things would start going wrong first. Ghosts were meta-anomalies.
Science fiction story setup: Lucid dream. 170509 12:15
It was the realest thing he had ever experienced. Too many pillars and walls of endlessly varying windows. He knew they were enormous buildings, and those things seemed like vehicles. Immense shapes at the top of dark gray towers seemed as if they were part of the sky. The people looked like nothing he knew. they were not people yes they were People were arbitrary combinations of parts. Everything he had known was miniaturized, a drop in the ocean of reality.
Science fiction story setup: Inside in. 170426 15:21
When he finally realized the world was a simulation, everything changed instantly. It was a feeling beyond relief falling into surreal indifference, an abstract state beyond surprise but intensely interesting. It meant that anything could happen, though nothing had happened yet. The world was just a stage. Was he even supposed to be in the play?
Standard trick to solve anything ... 170411 13:58
Write the shortest possible article about anything. Then write a new article about the same thing only somewhat better. Repeat the above until no further change is possible. ---- STUDENT DEBT SUXXXXXXXXX how i spend my days i spend my free time reading if there is a better way i dont know it well do something """useful""" this RIGGED economy is set up to prevent that mortgage house picketfence 2.1 at this point the only question am i making things worse according to my standards or THEIRS
Why life on earth is like this. 170410 18:27
Multiply a million by a million by a million to get an idea of the complexity of biochemical phenomena. Now multiply that by a million by a million by a million to get an idea of the complexity of physical phenomena. You could see it as an immense pyramid of complexity. The portion of life on earth we notice is what happens when this pyramid begins to lean sideways. ---- YOUNG REPUBLICAN HERE I could never be elected I believe this country is fundamentally RIGGED (there should not be O in country) well I could pretend and say things that would be ""approved"" of by TPTB in fact there is a time for that it's called most of the time hypocrisy is not what people say but what beliefs they choose to hide
Antimagic ... 170409 17:14
The only thing protecting you from infinity is the infinite number of copies generated of your mind each instant. ---- the best revenge is not living well something is deeply wrong with life in a way i almost cant describe an absurd anomaly sure its mad but not normal mad but beyond that almost sane not quite a pointless joke they say if you dislike everything you dislike nothing wanna bet??? THE LIE is THE LIE is total THE LIE is totally universal but not quite
Terror attack in Stockholm 170408
At a time like this, when something so utterly random takes place, there is really only one thing that we can surely hope for - this time and all the other times that something like this takes place. That of the four killed victims, at least one was a Microsoft programmer. ---- COMMENTS (somewhat censored): ---- The word dislike multiplied by itself an infinite number of times can not describe an infinitesimal fraction of the true dislike that these Nasty-Nellie-people known as Microsoft programmers deserve for creating their super-not-nice poop software. ---- No you're wrong about that. Not Microsoft but IRS Or whatever the Swedish equivalent is I suppose. THEY are the real terrorists. ---- Let me explain: - You can opt out of Windows to Linux You can not opt out of IRS to MAFIA
Evil = interface design. 170221 16:32
It's not just Microsoft, it's all reality. But Microsoft is a good starting point. This one fact, the tolerance for a type of poopyness THIS blatant, proves that the world itself is incomprehensibly poopy. It's incomprehensible how something this poopy is permitted to exist. The truth is impossible. The most important thing to understand about poopyness is that it is DELIBERATE. The world is insanely poopy in insane ways and is OK with it. This single fact is essential. It means that nothing in this world matters. It's just a bad-smurf habitat. ---- No, beavers live in habitats not bad-smurfs jack_arcalon 2017-03-26 06:41 pm (local) This world is more of a self-managed asylum.
The most important thing to realize. 170209 18:52
In fact it's vital: LIFE ITSELF IS NOT VALUABLE In fact it's often crap. Then there are all the times it's worse than crap.
The greatest liberation 170128
That's what happens in the moment you realize how completely, totally, utterly poopy this world is.
Some Alt-Righters are going too far. 170119 17:47
They are calling the Jews manipulating monsters, but in reality the Jews are not some giant conspiracy. They're just the sum of many individual efforts to create a world that they are well adapted for. Like every population, they're busily and unthinkingly doing their own thing.
Should you burnout your SJW accounts? 170103
Start posting the truth at Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc until the account is shut down? No curses or spamming or insulting just realtalk with no holds barred. Why not?
on poopyness 161230
Here we go again. Most folks pondering poopyness blather on about The Holocaust. I literally couldn't care less about that. THAT issue has been well taken care of believe me. MY paradigm of poopy is Microsoft's deliberately defective software. BILL GATES IS SUPER UNPLEASANT. That Nasty-Nellie deserves whatever befalls him. Yet I am almost the only one to think so. Right now ALL I want is vengeance for the suffering caused by Windows 10. Nothing else. ---- It's even worse than it seemed jack_arcalon 2017-03-26 06:44 pm (local) 10 is apparently logging everything you type and I don't even mind so much about that other than IT SLOWS DOWN YOUR PC EVEN MORE!
A doodoo Life December 7th, 2016 That is what I have lived. - ...but doodoo isn't such a bad thing. It just is. ---- not to be confused with cancer a.k.a. Microsoft Windows 10 source code ---- That's just being too harsh on cancer.
THE STRANGEST THING October 31st, 23:09
I actually think I know what's going on... To some extent.
We are now linking to the 28Sherman blog (see the sidebar) 160920
http://28sherman.blogspot.com/ - Some of the most interesting content there. The mainstream media has all the resources, like Pravda in the USSR, but a total ban on insight or information or intelligence. They are on the side of the bad-smurfs, to the extent that metaphorical bad-smurfs exist. Don't give them your money.
The greatest goal. 160915
That would be to achieve a situation where all your lifetime memories can finally be properly sorted and organized. It might take centuries to organize all your digital files. Then they could be further organized into personally meaningful narratives. All it would take to accomplish this goal is unlimited time.
Straights don't realize just how good gays have it. 160905 19:47
Provided they don't live in repressive environments where they can't pursue unlimited mating opportunities. So much pleasure, without the evolutionary pains that hetero males know only too well. There's just no way for straight males to easily hook up with equally attractive partners, despite all these scam sites advertising hot singles. - Gays also have outsized effects on the culture. In the two years I subscribed to Entertainment Weekly, they only had a couple of full-page babe photos (Kristen Stewart and Natalie Portman) but hundreds of images of muscled dudes, posing beefcakes and assorted wienerschnitzzles. - Don't get me wrong, I want to encourage male gays as much as possible, as there is a serious male-surplus gender imbalance because of sex-selective abortion and il(legal) immigration. Anything that causes a shortage of females, like veiled women, male surplus immigration, and obesity, is highly destructive. - Are gays nature's way of correcting this gender imbalance by removing surplus males? I sure hope so. Unfortunately their tiny numbers won't make a dent in the problem compared to their cultural impact. ---- Aren't we supposed to feel sorry for the poor guys and give them money
Evil has become digital. 160828 17:03
However, it's not software that is poopy. Although the almost supernatural stupidity of software IS poopy. That is just an aspect of the real poopyness: The poopyness of the computer programmers.
Are 'ugly' minority girls winning beauty pageants because POLITICAL CORRECTNESS? http://www.returnofkings.com/93424/ugly-minority-girls-are-winning-beauty-pageants-to-satisfy-the-diversity-agenda 160815 22:59
I don't at all agree with this message. At the age of peak fertility (late teens/early twenties), non-minority women do look better than any other race of women. No doubt about that. But minority women look better toward the end of their fertile years, better able to withstand the outer ravages of time. Just my opinion, I'm sure no one will have a problem with that
Favorite aircraft (part one). 160810 22:32
Boeing 2707 (early versions) swing-wing widebody Mach 2.7 airliner (planned for 1970 but never built). weight: 675,000lbs. engine thrust: 60,000lbs. They should have built at least one experimental prototype, despite all the features added that made it too heavy. It would have burned over twice the fuel per passenger mile as a Boeing 747. - Tupolev Tu-160 swing-wing Mach 2 heavy bomber (f.f. 1981, the closest thing to a 2707 that was built). weight: 606,260lbs. engine thrust: 55,115. 130 tons internal fuel. - Tupolev Tu-144 Mach 2.2. supersonic airliner. weight: 455,950 lb. It made about 100 passenger flights in the USSR before the project was canceled.
160809 14:44
The Mig-25 interceptor had a 600 KILOWATT long-range radar. It was so powerful it was almost unjammable. The Mig-25's radar alone was almost as powerful as the engine of an early World War 2 fighter aircraft. They don't build things like that anymore. Have to admire those Soviet designers working under all those restrictions. The Mig-25 had air intakes big enough to drive a motorcycle through, and burned a small swimming pool of fuel each flight. -- http://www.migflug.com/jetflights/mig-25-the-original-soviet-rat-rod.html
The difference between liberals/conservatives versus the alt-right. 160802 11:07
Though they work fewer hours, should women be paid as much as men to compensate them for the fact that they also have to take care of some men's offspring? Factor in the fact that in many cases (I say most) their offspring likely have negative economic value. The answer is a fundamental dividing line between the dominant past and possible future. --
What I've noticed: 160728 17:03
Black folks often have beeping smoke detectors at home. Because the batteries are running down they bleep every few minutes. Whites are more neurotic. They couldn't stand that sort of thing. - The missing element that explains everything is that there are no black nerds. Blacks do have greater social intelligence or at least dominance, or whites would be able to manipulate them. Unlike whites, blacks can't really be controlled through manipulation, they can only be threatened. - Some more blog posts about the subject of race mixing, expressed in the lives of their offspring: http://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/12/sticky-asian-women-and-white-men-truth.html http://uncabob.blogspot.com/2015/12/mixed-kids-are-not-prettier-blowing-up.html
MORE on poopyness. 160714 13:34
Evil thrives not because good people do nothing, but because bad people do too much. They are the effective majority. Evil is simply another word for power. - Top Down Example: The Crushers. The West is led by an elite that wants to change the world before they die. As politicians, the way to change it is to organize it. What better way to organize it than to begin to unify it? The pieces have to be joined together under pressure. - Bottom Up Example: The Cripplers (a.k.a. software interface designers). Yahoo Search has set things up so that you can't copy and paste search results. You can still highlight text, but the highlighted text is automatically unhighlighted when you click the right mouse button to copy it. The copy function can only be used if you go the main menu bar and click on edit and select all. - Most of all The Cripplers make it so that computers are SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. I found a good word for these people in an online rant: The Nasty-Nellies.
Men going their own way (MGTOW). 160704 15:38
The world's largest effective gender ratio imbalance (too many men, not enough women) may not be in China or India but in the West. Millions of caucasian men can't find partners as local females are taken by mostly male migrants, but that's not all. The marriage and dating market has been ruined by serial monogamy. About 20% of men are having 80% of hookups. The rest have little or no sex. Very many men are now involuntarily celibate. Some are opting out of society. If revenge is possible, it will happen. In theory revenge is not possible, but reality is vast. - The opposition is dawning between the world we revere and the world we live in and that defines us. It remains for us to abolish either our reverence or ourselves. Nietzsche, 1885
160629 19:24 Is there an anomaly in your life?
One thing that can't be explained, maybe not supernatural in nature but fundamentally different, far outside the normal realm. Well my thing is not a phenomenon but an absence. There are holes around which the shared narrative of reality is built. The voids inside are beyond black, and are only discussed here and in a few other places.
160618 08:40 The chains are in their brains.
I lived in Europe for many years. It was a profoundly alien place then, utterly warped by left-wing conformity, like a 1960s utopian scifi experiment. Taboos very unlike in the USA, mostly PC and communitarianism. Today it's even worse.
---- COMMENT (seems to be a story part): ---- When he woke up he had no idea where he was. It could be any time of the day, though the shadows hinted dawn or dusk. He was lying in the wilderness of his backyard, surrounded by weeds and ferns. In the distance was the roar of the interstate. Why had he slept here for the first time of his life? Probably because he had laid down amid the comfortable ground cover and dozed off. Why had he done that? - Then he remembered he had just finished the hardest effort of his life, two days of nonstop online research. And it had all been worth it. He had found what he had been looking for. When he had stumbled outside in almost drunken exhiliration, the world itself appeared changed. He remembered spinning around. Had it been yesterday? Had he spent the summer night outside? - In that moment he didnt recall what he had found, but allowed his mind to drift. It was too vast to recall right now, an endless vista opening up. In a few minutes he would recall, when he woke up for real. What year was it anyway?
160617 22:35 On the killing of UK Labour pro-Third-World-mass-immigration politician Cox.
I have a blanket statement for such events: I condemn all forms of genocide. ---- Interesting comments by Salvador Zarco about this whole thing in the following thread: http://www.xenosystems.net/frankenstein/
160602 on the subject of the para-paranormal:
There is an extremely high probability that not a single paranormal event has ever happened. Each such claim describes a profoundly new type of phenomenon that can't be explained by known science, and there have been billions of claimed paranormal events. If any were true, at least one would have been proven true by now. Unless paranormal events don't obey the normal laws of statistics.
160525 13:30 It's not that I have writer's block, but that everyone else has reader's block.
Where do I get my ideas? Nightmares and daydreams.
160501 22:47 The coming poopstorm.
In the current immigration surge, it's easy to overlook the mass quantities of African boys that are being imported into the USA by religious groups. This combines two of my enduring concerns: population increase and the already vast male surplus. But I'm all about helping others by finding good solutions. - Also there is also a genetic angle. Is it possible for, say, whites and other racial populations to inhabit the same territory as safely as just whites together? Possibly, but it would be less prosperous than if only whites (and some high-IQ Asians) lived there. This is as forbidden to notice as it is true. - But could this change? Perhaps through some completely unknown intervention? Yes, but it might be indistinguishable from magic. Liberals insist the only solution is to act more liberal. I think we should be completely open about things. In fact go even further: formally bring back something not completely unlike segregation. Not real segregation, but something that functions in the same way, like how some reversible drugs mimic the effects of a lobotomy. - In a society where racism is synonymous with criticizing immigrant rape gangs, that may not be easy. What could perhaps be done is to impose more order. Even liberals might allow that to some extent. Also, race realism might work better by claiming that all races are poopy, but in different ways. Racialists should say they love them all in different ways.
160425 13:21 The problem of loser males is getting ridiculous
Single guys who can't get laid, let alone get married, are one of our worst threats. And there are more and more of them, thanks to our culture's 'soft polygamy' a.k.a. serial monogamy. - http://uncabob.blogspot.com/2014/10/sex-and-meaning-of-civilization.html - https://heartiste.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/sexbot-update-3/
160401 23:10 Let's think about something unthinkable
Fantastically inconceivable. Stupendously unimaginable. It's a makeout website. The software would identify someone EXACTLY equally attractive, according to male or female standards. Then anyone could make out whenever they wanted, which would be a few times a month. It will be difficult, since most people are very unattractive. There are many more ways to be unattractive than attractive, making them harder to match. As soon as it's possible to makeout by computer (instead of computer dating), the trend in declining birth rates will reverse itself.
---- relevant videos (Anonymous) 2016-01-14 10:49 am (UTC) +++ fun video on what has begun: With Open Gates: The forced collective suicide of European nations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vzMNG2fZc - +++ anti Trump ads will backfire: http://www.dailystormer.com/the-donald-responds-to-disgusting-foul-mouthed-bean-children/ +++ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDW1R9OmOr0 (Reply) (Thread)
160328 Make a list of all the things you would do if poo hits the fan.
This is part of your Bug Out Plan. It's for when you have nothing left to lose. Then you would activate all your clever plots and notions previously prevented by better judgment prevailing. Because why not?
Jury duty is slavery. That only matters if that type of slavery would seriously crimp your style. If your life is stressful enough, ANYTHING would crimp your style.
160304 21:09 Most of the time you should NOT speak up.
The reason is you should probably not be there at all. Probably. But being there doesn't hurt. Woody Allen said it best. Just sit quietly until it's time to slip away for best results.
160229 A lot of carp going on...
None of it chosen by me. It's all brought in by others. My policy in life is really simple: to simplify, disconnect, and minimize. In an infinitely poopy omniverse of which human society is a representative portion, there is no need to accept obligations, since there is no real benefit to be had.
160222 19:56 Why diets never work.
It's because feedback is non-existent. In other words, exactly like most of real life. If given the opportunity, most men would do something that would cause a beautiful woman to hug them now, but kick them next month. And in that case, it would make perfect genetic sense to do that thing.
160210 20:48 Women can be alpha/beta/gamma etc too.
To appear attractive, they must be beautiful, but once you're significantly older than them, that's mostly a function of their youth. It's generally unacknowledged women can also be awesome through their personality. Their fascinating coolness demonstrates the excellence of their genes. This is more true for outliers though, both perceivers and subjects. ---- Outer beauty must be matched by inner complexity
160201 why should anyone be forced to work hard to keep anyone else alive?
A thousand people have to work fifty extra hours each to pay a million dollars in extra taxes to keep one oldster alive for one extra year. The hard part will be to defeat the political wailing. No one really fears death like no one really fears the singularity at the center of a black hole. They only fear the hassle of getting there, and the infinite change as they arrive at lightspeed.
160131 15:17 I would be more encouraged about the future...
...if sub-Saharan Africa could at least build a simple biplane by itself. Their failure to do so is not just an IQ issue. That does explain xx% of the problem, but their population is so immense they do have some smart folks. - But... there is a deeper social problem, probably caused by a difference in temperament. To be fair. Africa is very good at creating certain types of complex systems. They have among the most complex and elaborate bureaucracies in the world. - Africa experienced an unprecedented population explosion following the Columbian Exchange and the Green Revolution. The subsequent inevitable population crash of any boom/bust cycle is currently being mitigated by trans-continentally relocating their excess populations northward and northwestward. - Christian denominations in the USA are also importing record numbers of orphans and Lost Boys. Hollywood is rapidly making Dark Continent adoptions the hot new trend. Super hot but annoying starlet Katherine Heigl has decided to leave her womb bare for the exclusive benefit of a black "special needs" orphan. --- LINK: http://kolorblindmag.com/2012/10/19/hollywood-parents-the-transracial-adoption-edition/
160120 07:52 My current animal problems: owls and camels.
The first keep stirring up a cacophonous hooting and hollering every time I try to go for a quiet night walk, and the second have gone on strike from providing fine hairs for precision paint brushes. ---- Just hope they don't start ganging up.
Allowing in non-whites means fewer whites can occupy the same land. That would only be good if there is a reason why whites ought to be replaced by non-whites.
160114 19:06 And it is always Muslim MEN flooding in...
As if we didn't already have one of the worst male surpluses. I've been one of a few bloggers sounding the alarm about the massive man imbalance in the influx tsunami of legal and illegal immigrants. - This is just a small part of an effective gender imbalance worsened by bad birth ratios, obesity, serial monogamy (monopogamy), negative incentives from bureaucratic friction, dead end culture etc. - We need to improve the current gender imbalance/wiener surplus/catastrophe a.s.a.p, or else... These things have a way of sorting themselves out. Even the Chinese can’t engineer their way out of such a vast sexual imbalance. - Koanic's old idea was to kill off young men by the millions through dangerous coming-of-age rituals (Google: koanicsoul blood tithe).
160113 18:34 The Republicans have their own reason to import mass quantities of non-whites:
It's because non-whites are natural Democratic voters. The way to convert natural Democratic voters into Republican voters is to make them super grateful to Republicans. The way to make them super grateful is for Republicans to bring them in to the country. How many natural Democratic voters should the Republicans let in to make them grateful enough to turn them into Republican voters? Why so many of them that the sudden Republican majority when they all flip from gratitude will be unassailable for generations to come. It's similar to how prions work. ---- "If something doesn't work it's because it hasn't been tried hard enough." ~~Reince Priebus
160109 The Universal Solution:
Whatever the problem, the answer is usually to keep doing whatever you're already doing to solve it - only more so. Of course most problems are never solved. They are ground away to nothing and eventually replaced with bigger problems forever. - Which brings us to the inevitable future bankruptcy of mankind. Wait, let's call it a jubilee. That's when all the people have finally been replaced by equivalent computer programs. The world will be covered with server farms and robot roads. It won't be an extinction, since everyone's DNA still exists in archived form. - What if this has already happened in infinitely many parallel Earths a few centuries more advanced than us? And what if they decided to recreate possible parallel versions of their ancestors as realistic software simulations? - I don't like the notion of parallel worlds. Thinking too far along these lines may be dangerous. That way lies madness. ---
The thing is we don't really know what we're doing here. Just going through the motions, pretending badly. That is possible in this time of surplus. Would take a LOT more practice to live life as it should be.
160109 ----no-signal----
when will you wake up will you wake up you wake up wake up up
160105 I should have known Macklemore wasn't black...
You can tell from the sense of chaos in his music. Its innovative appreciation is a luxury allowed to those who are on top of things. The South African band Die Antwoord is actually hyperwhite. They seem to revel in the sinister dread perfusing the Dark Continent. Their videos imply unspeakable horrors, and then they take it to the next level in a celebration of wildness unleashed.
160101 20:49 The problem of technological stagnation.
http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit - Dreaming about the future may actually slow the rate of progress. It's dangerous to imagine the rewards before you earned them, when all the hard work still has to be done. - To build a better future, you also have to maintain the present, which has already been made too complicated. The world is a jungle of interest groups totally committed to keeping all the existing rent-seeking rackets and cost-concealing bureaucracies at all cost.
151230 17:36 I have been wrong about everything.
When it comes to my interaction with the action I am missing something big. The thing I don't get is everything. That is what makes me an outsider. And that is why everything seems so incredibly - wait for it - predictable. Exhibit A1: the ancient site of Gobekli Tepe. Out of the dirt after ten millennia, we knew it sight unseen. Showing the evolving conformity of fashion across the ages, its art design is exactly halfway between the cavemen and the Sumerians. Maybe nothing unexpected can ever happen. Things can only slowly get more complicated.
151227 15:29 Antisemitism is a failure mode.
The Jews passed a law in the US Congress banning US companies from publishing satellite photos of Israel. No other country has so managed to manipulate US law. Wait, did I say Jews? Actually, it wasn't the Jews who passed this law, but hundreds of dumb politicians bought off by clever lobbyists paid for by Jewish activists influenced by Israel.
---- Antisemitism is compensation for shame
Religion is 151225 21:48 Religion is denying that the universe is infinitely poopy. Religion is denying the greatest truth there can ever be.
---- Since Google got poopy I'm surprised by how poopy they got in how short a time ---- When Google became poopy a few years ago, something they promised they would never do, they became very poopy indeed. I don't mean the data they shared with the NSA, I mean how their search results became unusable when they unleashed that thing Google Plus. Then they make it so that you could no longer get accounts without your real ID.
151220 00:21 There are no black nerds... ...like there are no Asian stoners. - Existing groups of genes (that have evolved together in distinct populations) function better with each other than with genes from other groups, but not always. It makes sense to import useful genes from other groups. This should be done while breeding for valuable traits, like intelligence, aesthetics, social values.
151217 16:03 Why does the sentence "I'm better than you're" not make any sense...
...when you can say "I'm better than you are"? - http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b8wt3/eli5_why_does_the_sentence_im_better_than_youre/ - The word are at the end is redundant and can be dropped. The only reason to use a contraction is to get to the next word faster. If you're in such a hurry, you might as well drop the word entirely instead of contracting it. --- In New Jersey you can say I'm better than yous.
151215 14:56 This world is so poopy there is no reason to worry about anything else.
George Carlin said it best: I have no stake in this. It is their poopyness. Not my problem. It is important not to be hypocritical by being as poopy as the world chooses to be. But it can be even more important not to become what a poopy world considers to be good.
Got to be careful to avoid writing stuff that could get me in trouble here. Wouldn't want any trouble. It appears singer/actress Mandy Moore, the summit of genetic evolution, potential, and self-organizing complexity in the known universe (just ahead of the Mandelbrot equation and the Sombrero Galaxy), has 'decided' to remain childless like other top-shelf Caucasian females. - There is no excuse for letting that pass (only I have an excuse being the ultimate outsider). Too many white and northeast Asian women are spending their twenties and thirties perfecting recreational sex instead of reproduction. - Another physically imposing specimen of white womanhood, beautiful busty bitch actress Katherine Heigl, has adopted a black baby from Africa - This is dysgenic. Instead of passing on her own high-quality genes she's helping to proliferate DNA in no danger of decline. Finishing the celebrity trifecta, Taylor Swift will leave her twenties as barren as she entered them. Lindsay is the worst example of all. - We need high-IQ genes now, yet women scientists (all white or Asian) have the lowest fertility of all. frick it, humanity is probably done for.
WTH whatwedontknow 2015-12-17 12:11 pm
Now she's acting as if her pets are her children. Cat Lady here we come! http://www.vcpost.com/articles/112222/20151215/mandy-moore-demands-spousal-support-ex-husband-ryan-adams-eight-pets.htm ==== what has been lost..... 2015-12-17 12:26 pm (UTC)
151201 Why I won't donate to charity.
Because this world is so constantly, absolutely, and incomprehensibly poopy that almost everyone in it must be poopy. Why would I want to help a bunch of poopy people who are unalterably committed to acting poopy? Haha just kidding, I actually DO donate tremendously to charity (for real). I just make sure to do it in appropriate and effective ways.
151130 16:58 My all-time favorite musical lyrics.
"Life's a piece of shit" by Monty Python - If good things just won't happen, then the world is worthless. Remove the first seven words from the previous sentence. This is a poopy poopoo planet. BUT most of the people on it effectively WANT it to be this way. This insight is tremendously liberating once you have it. Normal people are not dumb but mundane. Mundaneness is actually one of the scariest qualities.
151121 17:52 I am a Philosemite.
I love the Jews, and by Jews I mean Natalie Portman. Haha just kidding, that would be a really dumb delusion to have.
November 16th, 8:33 I think it is an extremely bad sign
That I am here now.
JE SUIS PARIS November 14th, 4:59
The world is structurally poopy at every level. Evil is triumphant at every level. Now some poopy people who supported their own structural poopyness were randomly killed by other poopy people supporting foreign structural poopys, just because the local structures were not surrendering to the foreign structures fast enough (which is now being corrected). So very sad that is.
151102 Why mass shootings happen.
Because it was the only way to get revenge. Any lesser attempt would have failed at that particular goal. In this world they couldn't fight back against their betters, but only get contemptuously crushed. Most schemes to make the bad-smurfs hurt them less would fail, as the latter extract their toll in full. It was a choice between going down fighting back and being defeated utterly. Things are much worse than they seem.
151101 15:21 Third World to Fifth World.
China would have to almost double its per-capita GDP just to reach Mexico's level, which really benefits from its close proximity to the USA. China also has an immensely gargantuan underclass of dirt-poor farmers. India would still have to quadruple its per capita GDP to reach China's level. - Their economies can be compared through their technological skill levels, as shown in their largest space rockets: The largest Indian rocket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSLV_III) is one and a half times heavier than the largest Chinese rocket (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_3B/E), but the latter has one and a half times the lifting capacity to orbit. - (The USA's PC-GDP is over $50K. Someone must be making double that to account for my share.)
151031 18:29 Eventually someone will create an app to make nerve gas at home.
This is hardcore chemistry. The manufacturing process could be broken down in about a hundred steps, each requiring a different reaction. These would have to be reduced to the absolute minimum number of steps, then defined exactly, then described in the simplest way possible, in order to construct the simplest possible device that could perform the different steps. Minimizing the required skill level would take a great genius.
151028 21:43 Why are the Jews like that?
Fear. They have a certain type of genetic neurosis that manifests as a drive to create a neurotic culture, since that would be a stabler culture than what they were used to. Who could possibly object, except those not able to function as well in such a culture.
151027 19:09 What a Wonderful World (1967 Louis Armstrong song)
Such an upbeat composition, who can't help but feel uplifted by this classic hit from the golden age NO! STOP! I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!!! I THINK I'M HAVING A BREAKDOWN NOW Sorry bout that. Things are a bit tense at the mmoment. Too many things coming down at once. Incomprehensible poopyness triumphing forever and all that. The world does seem a tiny bit hoax-like. Would it be better if nothing had existed? heck yes absolutely totally. If such a thing as Omnicide were possible, the whole horrific past could be annulled. Suppose that nothing existed but the most profound absence. Sign me up for that, if only pre-potentially. Imagine the earth had always been dead. Familiar continents made entirely of rock, sand, mud, and hard packed dirt. The atmosphere would be mostly nitrogen with carbon-dioxide and some argon. And the years would pass in perfect peace.
151026 16:07 Bow down to your overlords
Scientology Newsroom is taking the world by storm: http://feeds.feedburner.com/scientologynewsroom - Every week a new report on how Scientology is saving the world by getting poor people to hold up banners in the Third World and handing out pamphlets with 1980's era anti-drug messages. Check back next week for another reason to bow down to your overlords. Then shut up and go away. --- Forgot to post Scientology's obligatory copyright statement: Regardless of any permission or license given to you here, we retain sole discretion, without further obligation or liability, to limit, deny, or revoke this license and any permission to use this site or reproduce any material on the site, with or without cause. Photos and videos found on this site shall not be used in any unlawful manner and may specifically not be used with any obscene, provocative, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content that reflects negatively upon CSI or any entity associated with CSI as CSI may determine in its sole discretion, or in any parody or satire of CSI or any entity associated with CSI. Photos shall not be used to endorse or otherwise suggest a false relationship between CSI and any third party.
151025 21:20 The theory of invincible poopyness
Evil is everywhere and it almost always wins, even if the target screams their head off (Google being the latest example). It never ever stops. It is greater than we can ever imagine. It is absolute and ultimately triumphant. Its essence is worse than the wildest torture scream, and closer. Money is not the root of all poopyness, though. Since money is value, it could even represent the opposite. It is rather hard to get people to give up or return money merely by talking to them. Might as well make wawawa sounds like in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Evil is actually missing money in all its forms, from theft to failure. And that is what causes the burning urge for revenge. The profound importance of revenge has been neglected as the global renewer of chaos.
151024 Do whites deserve to be eliminated?
Don't want to encourage Ta Nishi Coates, but you have to admit whites are just about the most neurotic, strung-out race there is. On a personal level, they can be deeply dysfunctional, with absurd demands, expectations, and grudges... In white society the dysfunction exists at a lower level, between awkward relatives and neighbors, instead of the whole society being dysfunctional. White strangers can get along better. It's easier at the top and at the office. This encourages mobility and top-down organization, but is more stressful. And that's why the white birthrate is falling almost as fast as the Japanese birthrate. Who needs all this useless carp in their daily life?
150921 08:34 money money money
Things have been bad this week, but not critically bad. Nothing unusual in other words. The old problem of adding value... There is no more challenging problem. And by challenging I mean impossible. It's the main and greatest source of arguments: or more specifically its absence. That's because arguments tend to be about failure. And failure is the currency of evolution.
150920 16:22 Let me put it as clearly as possible:
I have given up on humanity. The future belongs to software minds, guided by the only universal rule: no involuntary existence.
151015 Darned another b-b-bad day
Infinite poopyness in an infinitely poopy universe lol. I decided to delay the consequences into the future for now.
So yet again there has been a mass bug-out event involving b-b-bullets.... October 6th, 7:46
The only constant in these attacks has been their true motivation: revenge against invincible poopyness. Just because it can't even be begun doesn't mean they won't try to finish it.
October 5th, 5:46 The universal solution illusion.
Create the illusion of more time. - Whenever there's some complicated, high-stress problem with too many factors, that looks like it may never really get done, any practical solution plan would have to make it appear there is plenty of time to solve the problem. The first step may be to break the problem into as many parts as possible, or only make very easy demands.
150925 So I had a decision to make...
Two movies were playing at the cineplex but I could only see one: Tron or E.T. The choice was easy. I had a feeling the movie with the green guy was mostly fantasy anyway. 1982's best CGI effects were all they were cracked up to be.
150921 14:34 I must confess
I'm not that good at making money. Extraordinarily bad even. Outsiders are cursed with a lack of useful motivation. That's the reason. In ten years I won't have health insurance. In twenty years I may live in a tent. Yes I'm also an optimist.
150920 16:39 The political process.
The question is who gets to screw whom how badly. The answer is determined by the true balance of power. The political process reveals this balance under the guise of compromise.
September 14th, 16:34 About all these immigrants.....
Legal and illegal both. There are only two possibilities about this vast instreaming crowd: - POSSIBILITY A: Their arrival will make my life worse. - POSSIBILITY B: Their arrival will make my life better. - All other things being what they are, the only thing I'm certain of is that it's not possibility B. --- http://blog.dilbert.com/post/129847513336/opinion-vs-stupidity
150906 The problem with intelligent people...
Is that they make everything more complicated when it should be made simpler.
150902 Hermione is a feminist.
http://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/513857/Emma-Watson-talks-about-being-a-feminist - The men she has selected to enter her life just won't express their deepest feelings to her despite all her probing. Of course high status/alpha males don't really have complex feelings. It's just not cool. I propose it to be okay for men to have feelings of explosive rage that make the Hulk look like a Teletubby.
150830 If there is another world war, what would it be like?
I think massive suicides would be the order of the day, even before the doodoo hits the fan. What would I do? Well what do you think. Barring that, I would try to start a pseudo religious movement to try to bring back technological progress.
At this moment August 24th, 21:57
I dislike that doodoo-man Bill Gates more than anyone has ever disliked anything in the entire history of the universe.
Here is the final truth: July 31st, 9:31
The universe is infinitely poopy. I am so very very very sorry. I wish the truth was the exact opposite of the way it actually is. But that fact won't stop the universe from being infinitely poopy.
150722 What to do when you're feeling down because you can't get anything done.
That could be a terrible feeling. There's just too much work to do to even get started. Things get increasingly depressing as nothing happens. Take a vacation. Even if it's only going for long walks or getting drunk. You're not going to get anything done feeling that way anyway.
150714 One question no one should ever ask themselves:
Should I just poof myself to get it over with? If this ever becomes relevant there should be no doubt.
---- How about if it's for a worthy cause? http://gatesofvienna.net/2013/05/everything-you-have-learned-in-school-is-wrong/
150708 I think I'm one of the only good people in the world.
Well, good in a highly unconventional way. Not good in any of the mainstream ways one usually is considered good.
150704 Could the Russian trolls please come to this blog and wreak havoc. Things are getting a little dull around here.
150703 The thing I will never ever be able to get over How incredibly fantastically insanely supernaturally negatronically poopy this world is intentionally kept.
150621 Statement on the Charleston church massacre:
There is no more reason for whites to dislike blacks than for chimpanzees to dislike orangutans. Those two should just get along. However, in a world made poopy by mass consensus, a few people will inevitably act out in ways that violate the mass consensus. -- Let me repeat: this world is incomprehensibly and inexplicably poopy. It is made so by near-universal consensus. This world is merely a portal to infinitely worse annoyances to come, with no hope or possibility of escape. This is an absolute mathematical certainty. And these annoyances will ALSO be enabled and supported by mass consensus all the way.
150619 Received a suggestion to upload more short stories.
I have many ideas. The stories will mostly be individual scenes that stand by themselves, but could be part of a larger story universe.
150611 Feeling is the only thing that is real.
Other things might exist, but without an emotional effect it just doesn't matter. Not to mention that it is hard to verify anything exists without emotional awareness.
150601 It's worse and worse to be blind.
More and more high quality information is represented visually. High definition video is the closest thing we have to virtual reality. It is the fastest way for the brain to absorb immense amount of data, and to rapidly perceive complex events and settings.
150522 Why did Kaley Cuoco cut her hair for the latest season of The Big Bang Theory?
To let it grow back of course. This is the last time she can get away with it before approaching The Wall. Increased attractiveness from longer hair will compensate perfectly for increased aging.
150521 An oldie but a goodie.
Life Advice Number One: DISENGAGE. Don't get involved in any way in any thing.
150521 Theology made easy.
Dogs don't go to heaven because heaven could be described as the nonexistence of all lower states of being. This fictional reality contains no pain, but also no simple pleasures. Dogs couldn't even appreciate heaven over life on earth, so they don't need to go there.
150520 Awareness means all of reality can be represented by one point.
One atom could represent one bit of information representing the answer to an incredibly elaborate yes/no question about the whole universe. There are far more questions than there are things to question.
150519 How to appeal to women.
The answer can be densely over-summarized in one word: Lielielielielielielielielielielielielie
150519 On Breivik.
I can't imagine what it was like to get in his van with his to-do list in his head. It requires a fundamentally different way of thinking. Near the end of his long list was the planned assassination of a white population replacement activist named after a black slum *, but he had many other items to check off first. This is painful to think about, the shameful difference between a mundane individual controlled by neurotic worries versus the absolute freedom of radical autonomy. The only explanation is that he must have liked it. - *= She is know as the Mother of the People, but Breivik called her the Murderer of the People in a clever pun. This is incorrect. As a powerful politician helping to control her sector of Western Civilization, Harlem Brundtland does not want to kill white Norwegians, but replace/Islamicize them in STRICTLY non-violent ways.
150518 The following sentence is true:
It looks like I'm going to have to off myself in twenty years or so... unless there is some form of guaranteed income by then. http://www.moreright.net/the-id-of-the-basic-income/ My version of the economy is NOT looking good for me at all.
150518 My life is now complete
It's official. I'm set. I now have so many things to do that all my remaining time is booked solid. Next comes the consolidation. All the pieces are on the chessboard. Let the match commence.
150518 I am free In a world fundamentally poopy, I can not be defeated, only destroyed. WIN WIN.
150517 The central truth of my life:
That remains my immeasurable dislike for the computer programmers who created the cosmo-negatronically bad software that torments me more than anything. I dislike these people more than words can describe, more than Hitler disliked the Jews. The sense of hopelessness of dealing with some implacable computer program is the very personification of the infinite arrogance of these faceless bad-smurfs clad in human flesh. It's like when a tyrannosaurus comes running at you. You may once again find a way out of this predicament, but for now your future has been existentially curtailed.
--- If only there was a way to take revenge eh! --- ^^Wanting to let you know I still dislike that poopyman Bill Gates!!^^
150517 Hard-core suggestion from aeolipera.
We currently have a serious surplus of males over females. Could the solution be to have them fight it out to the death? http://www.koanicsoul.com/blog/2014/03/26/the-blood-tithe-a-modest-proposal-to-decimate-the-youth/ I prefer to prevent bad things from coming into existence in the first place, but that is not the way of evolution.
150516 Could the world be some sort of poopy practical joke?
I admit it can seem like a cruel hoax. Conditions are obviously absurd in implicitly super-not-nice ways. What I will never understand is how everyone can tolerate these incomprehensible outrages. It might literally be supernatural. - Yeah sorry about that. Actually, everyone IS in on the joke but you. Haha just kidding. The truth is so much worse than that. Moloch is inconceivably powerful. You are like a flea beneath an elephant. - I actually dislike being one of the sane people. It's a terrible curse, but that is my condition. There's nothing I can do about it. It's also an oddly liberating perspective. - In a world where poopyness is so triumphantly rampant, nothing you can do will really matter to the perpetrators, or reduce the scope of their depredations. That also means you have absolutely no reason to hold back. Much remains to be said about this subject.
---- Notice for the bad-smurfs May 12th, 6:28 If I am attacked, I will fight back. My best may be hopelessly inadequate against poopyness of this magnitude, but I will give it all I have. ---- Turns out the Lich is real. May 1st, 16:16 His name is the world.
150429 Another day, another nightmare
More attacks by a poopy system. Things are slowly but steadily going to heck. Seems there's no way to stop them or even alter the outcome. Ever felt the pathetic ineffectiveness of your resistance attempts? Their utter uselessness, contempt negative infinity. Might as well be tied to an assembly line for all my protestations are accomplishing. I will probably be killed stepping on a power line running after a mail truck to send a tax form. Actually it won't be for that reason.
150412 If poopoo were ever to get real ....
Then there will be a post here stating the following: poopoo just got real. This is only a test.
--- The storm is ten years away. we have less than 4,000 days to get our doodoo together.
150403 It is said information can never be lost
Even when matter falls into a black hole, the information describing its pattern will remain part of the universe. Information can be hidden but not destroyed. - It's like how normal people would never touch human remains, even if they are chemically separated into atomically pure powder.
140329 or 150329 I'm already desperate and the robots haven't even clocked in yet
Unfortunately I am too lazy to be too lazy to fail. Profound lethargy is a curse not to be confused with depression. Taking care of the aged is one of the poopiest jobs, and I mean that literally. Fun fact: the 85 richest people have as many flush toilets in their homes as the 2 billion poorest. The cost of owning a car is rising above minimum wage. More and more unbanked, and those who can't afford online access, or can't get it because their government-issued ID is not in order - The only thing that could reverse the relentless decline is radical CHANGE, but instead the System is more conformist than ever. Young adults with no future are the System's strongest supporters. The most hidebound PC-thinkers of all, at least based on their self-loathing, pro-Tworld-immigration, pro-tax, pro-bureaucracy Reddit postings. Mostly useless men. Women are too refined and elegant to become the obsessive compulsive focusers able to change society. For the life of me I can't imagine the origin of the helicopter parents' hipster pedagogy. Historically, children have been something that happened, not something that was planned. Parents shouldn't even have the energy to pretend to "play" with their children as if it was a paid job. - New fields of research are discouraged in this conformist age. Most unfortunate that American conservatives are anti-science. The party of Jesus's resurrection on the third day won't be the party of digital mind reconstruction research. More urgent would be interface design, making computers easier to use, a better way to enter data than slow hunt and peck typing or impossible touch typing. The process of paying taxes could be automated, but dread of bureaucratic errors is useful to the rulers. - Massive cost savings would be possible by deregulating healthcare, but no one can imagine. Big business loves regulations and bureaucracy. If it did happen, rich execs would use the change to benefit themselves, and costs would only decrease marginally. Another forbidden field is education, still stuck in the bronze age. Human motivation and control are also taboo fields, as seen by the obesity problem. If only low IQ or ineffective individuals could be identified and then paid to be sterilized. By itself their condition is not an obstacle on the dating market.
150328 So an airliner has been deliberately crashed ...
I think he did it because the world is incomprehensibly poopy, and all attempts to deal with it are met with incomprehensible poopyness.
150303 When to go nuclear
In a world seemingly made of poopyness, the decision to use all available firepower against an overwhelming opponent attacking on all fronts may still seem like a dilemma. However, the resolution is surprisingly simple. The ultimate decision will likely be made by the actions of the opponent. It takes a surprisingly small push to cross that final threshold into the abyss. If you must go down, go down with all waterpistols firing.
--- Might not do any good though . . . I guess it's the principle of the thing.
150129 So Bill Gates did another Reddit AMA ...
That means Ask Me Anything. He answered dozens of questions from thrilled Reddit users: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2tzjp7/hi_reddit_im_bill_gates_and_im_back_for_my_third/ - Wow that man must be really busy, top post on Reddit and he stopped answering questions after one hour. Here is my question for you Mr. Gates, your honour, sir: Why is that my copy of Windows keeps freezing and crashing and freezing and freezing and is as slow as a GOSHDARNED SNAIL SUPERGLUED TO FRIGGING QUICK DRYING CEMENT??? - The above was my question. No answer was received, but I felt really good. Badass even. Then I saw the sad sad list of all the thousands of other unanswered questions.
--- jarcalon So what's the deal with Livejournal and cursewords? Wouldn't want to be banned because I went on an extended dislike-rant through the unabridged portions of the dictionary.
150110 Checking if the world is still poopy ... (STAND BY)
IS IT EVER
150110 Lone wolf terrorism.
As the liberal media downplay the latest Islamist intimidation attempt, my thoughts are drawn to when the USA produced its last real extremist. Timothy McVeigh prevented a incredible amount of suffering by slightly discouraging the government's machinations. On a daily basis, the difference is almost unnoticeable. But without him, there would now be even more asset forfeitures and extortionate fines and IRS harassments. By my estimation, the averted suicides alone outnumber his victims ten to one. Also, soft-Marxist blogger Noahpinion would now be even smugger. Wait, I take that back.
150102 Preliminary Advice.
Related to: when in doubt do nothing. This seems quite impossible. It would be a new way of life. The essence of the breakthrough is: if you don't feel like doing something, THEN DON'T DO IT. That is all. Let the chips fall where they may. The details will work themselves out.
-- jack_arcalon 2015-01-12 08:58 pm (UTC) Edit Delete Track This Easier done than said.
150101 Cancel your health insurance now.
Happy New Year. Remember, this is a deliberately poopy world. The horror is worse than you think. You may have a stroke and then be kept alive for years. It's like being buried alive. Perhaps some deserve it: those who would support such treatment for others. If you're reading this you probably can't afford health insurance anyway. You can't argue with the mainstream. STOP TRYING. If there's one message of this blog it's don't EVER underestimate the poopyness.
-- jack_arcalon 2015-01-08 02:53 pm (UTC) Edit Delete Track This I'm liking the slowly rising tide of anger here.
141228 Christmas in Ethiopia (1984)
https://eradica.wordpress.com/2014/12/25/do-they-know-its-christmas/ Comment guest post: - Ethiopians were procreation-mad in the Eighties, if they even knew what decade it was. To be fair the crisis was caused mostly by Mengistu's Marxist population relocation program. First, dirt farmers had their cattle confiscated (the soldiers laughed at their questions, since replacement livestock would be provided at their destination). Their huts were demolished, and the debris trucked away. The farmers were shipped in vast numbers in containers to remote desert locations, where the survivors were told to build collective farms using their improvisation skills. Better hurry since they had quotas to fulfill to feed the cities. These areas often had large carnivores, which became a de facto suicide method. Mengistu was distracted by the upcoming celebration of ten years Marxist rule. He had invited every two-bit commie dictator to the lavish bash, and was furious the journalists seemed more interested in the famine angle. Today he's living up the exile lifestyle in Zimbabwe. ---outsider
141225 Weird but true
If you have many serious problems, suddenly getting more serious problems can make all your problems less serious.
141220 I remember where I was when I first heard about Bill Clinton's White House shenanigans
My first reaction was unlike my usual uber reserved self. what the heck The Republicans were as stupid about it as cancer. First it made them more powerful then less powerful. - Clinton's closet partner found herself in a fine bind when Ken Starr told her no, she could NOT leave the room, and she started talking like a free-associating parrot on crack. All she wanted was ultimate insider status and the respectability of mainstream power. - http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/12/monica-lewinsky-on-norman-mailer
141219, 7:03 When things get really bad they can suddenly get good.
That is the moment when pain turns into freedom.
141214 Should Muslims in Europe and America be deported?
No I'm a nice guy. They should be converted. They could still believe in any God they want, but would be expected to act like Western intellectuals about it from now on. - I would also take in any female refugees who were beautiful
141213 Tsk tsk tsk
In 2002 a high-status black male was locked up because black female Wanetta Gibson said he had his way with her in a stairwell. Turns out she actually wanted him to have his way with her - in his bedroom. That kind of thing has happened more than once in history.
141212 There is no greater truth than this
The world is poopy. Not because it has to be. Because the general masses want the world to be this poopy. Only more so. No matter what else goes wrong, never forget the core truth.
141211 My lifelong dream is to escape this intolerable world
It's such a hassle to accomplish all the bureaucratic tasks. It never stops. I doubt things will be improved. I have seen no essential improvement in my life. The changes I want would all take intelligence.
141125 OK I only want ONE thing
The tool should just tell me WHY it doesn't work and what to do about it. I don't care if it looks ugly. In fact interfaces SHOULD be ugly. That might satiate their poopy designers desire to do poopyness. As long as it JUST WORKS then.
141005 Once again, the most important thing:
A problem can become so big it disappears. If you find yourself living in a poopy world you don't have to worry about it. You just have to evade, avoid, invert.
140910 The purpose of this site?
SEVERE disapproval The universe is poopy, the world is poopy THIS is the resistance May you help you all Goodnight.
140815 I dislike being right all the time
This blog's very first column still speaks for itself after all these many years: - Iraq is doomed
140812 you can insult me any way you like and I'll laugh right along with you
I'm chill that way Just one thing. DON'T say I don't know dislike. For good or ill, I am the GOD of knowing how to dislike. It's not really a superpower but a reaction to a superpower that many others have. That superpower is being profoundly, staggeringly, soul-shatteringly poopy. It's unfortunately the most common superpower. And now I've encountered the most deliberately poopy software yet, the ultimate negatronicity, the hyperClintonic hyper-heck known as Craigslist. A world that allows something as poopy as Craigslist's user interface to exist should not exist. I better not write more at this point. There will be more. OK Craigslist, last chance. You better start working now or else. Or what? The truth.
140801 The world is poopy because the populace wants it to be poopy with near-total unanimity.
No force in this world is stronger than the near-universal acceptance of poopyness. The triumph of poopyness is completely unbearable yet completely liberating. This is THEIR world. They want it to be poopy with unshakeable conviction. They can not be begged or reasoned with. If they were to be destroyed, it would only mean that poopy people have been destroyed.
-- posted: Cool! What are we upset about this time? -- reply: the Adobe.com support forums
131024 Drunk writing attempts
These posts were written under the influence of a mixture of Drambuie, Chivas Regal, and Cristal. The question is, how many insights can be gained this way? It certainly appears to be an effective writing method. The words make perfect sense at the time, even if they're a bil hard to figure out later. Numerous spelling and grammar errors were of course fixed. A lot of editing is required. The meaning may be inadvertently changed. There should be many more such attempts.
131005 a liberation is possible
The world is deeply nasty in shocking ways that are not discussed. When you realize the world is poopy by mass consensus, hatred becomes contempt. This society is poopy by agreement. You should dislike it more.
130927 tech updates
I just checked, and Zonealarm is still poopy. This sneaky program keeps changing program access settings to allow suspected spyware unlimited access to the Internet, including scripts and unsigned processes. - The Bing.com search engine is also still broken. http://www.bing.com will rarely load for me. I can sometimes enter a search term, but then the webpage freezes! - My version of Nero hasn't improved. I tried to burn my data files to data DVDs and the files were NOT THERE! I dislike their programmers! - And if I just open a folder on my Windows box it can freeze for up to half an hour as it goes online to check each downloaded html file in the folder. Normal people tolerate and accept this kind of thing.
130625 As already pointed out, the strongest force in the world is the willingness to tolerate poopyness.
Then it gets more complicated. The second strongest force may be the urge to support poopyness.
131018 Want to contribute?
"Join" the Resistance by contributing articles and essays to this blog. Post them as comment replies to any previous entry (along with any instructions), and I will move them to the front page. You retain all copyrights, if you still believe in intellectual property.
I'm extremely sorry! Once again I haven't been able to express the boundless DISTASTE this foul world deserves.
130911 The Cripplers
Schmeevil is all-encompassing. You never have to look far to find it. We've learned about its endless banality. The Cripplers are the human Nasty-Nellies who deliberately make technology even worse than it was designed to be. Sony employs the most Cripplers, but they infest the software field. A good example are web videos. Why are GIF clips so popular, when there are much faster and more compact video formats? It's because you can right click on GIFs and save them, unlike the supposedly more sophisticated MP4, FLV, Flash, and Quicktime formats. These are all corporate formats, and they have all been disabled in many ways. Surprisingly, Apple is the worst offender. Even paying users aren't permitted to save Quicktime videos. The Cripplers downgrade and defunctionalize software in many other ways: spyware, adware, and especially bloatware.
130904 The great penis surplus
Just another way the world is poopy: there are FAR too many men. Darwin called it sexual selection. Only the genetically fittest, coolest, and most popular males mated with most of the females. As a nerd I can confirm Darwin was right. In the USA, the surplus is at least seven million men in all fertile age brackets, according to Census Bureau estimates. Most are immigrants, many illegal. Incidentally, most INS immigration functionaries seem to be female, based on the documentary 'Well-Founded Fear'. Intentionally or not, their policies are increasing the penis surplus by importing millions more men from the Third World under the guise of family reunion, legalization, political asylum, humanitarian resettlement, and guest worker programs.
130902 The truest words ever spoken:
There is nothing for me in this world -Timothy McVeigh I don't have a stake in this -George Carlin Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong -Murphy's Law The universe is absurd -Sartre Everything sucks -Beavis Life's a bitch and then you die
130902 Rage is a dangerous emotion
Try to avoid howls of fury. Or rather, prevent those events that cause those howls. Screams have consequences. That way lies destruction.
130902 There is a difference between realizing the world is poopy and realizing the universe is poopy, although they are related.
The first will merely destroy your soul. The second will destroy all souls. The hardest part is to admit defeat. All is lost. But that is also a release. Suppose you've been diagnosed with cancer, you were called up for jury duty, you're about to go bankrupt, you're falling down the side of a skyscraper while on fire, and a rabid ferret is biting your buttocks. That wouldn't be so bad, under the circumstances. Stop being intimidated by people you owe nothing.
130901 The power of failure
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. ,...Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations...Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.... -- Hadol Fitler
130829 The Gang of Eight TRAITORS
The Eight TRAITORS are US senators. Actually, there may be more now. The best known TRAITOR is John McCain. These POMPOONS have already pushed legislation through the US Congress to import tens of millions of additional First and Third Worlders in coming decades, causing a bleak labor surplus. For the most marginal workers getting a job will go from bad to often hopeless. Legalization legislation will inevitably be passed. Of course migrants can't be blamed for escaping the misery of their homelands. The wealthy sponsors of the legislation will be further enriched by cheap labor.
130829 Copyright Notice
All content on this blog can be freely reposted anywhere.
Dang this world is poopy August 23rd, 16:26 I dislike it so much.
Google is now poopy August 11th, 7:04
The text doesn't appear anymore when you move your cursor to the search box and start typing. The vertical line just keeps floating to the side of the search box. Google will change the text in the search bar on its own initiative. Try to type Sirius B and it grabs hold of your keyboard and types Sirius Black. Google doesn't like quotation marks and will remove them. When you do manage to type in a search term, it deletes the first letter. And once again: exact phrase searches are now impossible.
Google.com has gotten deeply nasty lately August 1st, 2:57
Semi-random and random search results are the new normal. It is no longer possible to search for exact terms. The poopyness has no end. Like a commenter pointed out, the bad-smurfs are winning on all fronts.
This world is absolutely, positively poopy. July 20th, 3:22
By mass consensus, reality is more horrible than anything we can possibly imagine. The world can be horrible without being poopy, but not poopy without being horrible.
The Ultimate Truth June 2nd, 23:54
"Only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built" Bertrand Russell
What does it mean to realize the world is poopy by design? May 27th, 6:47
The world is worse than most people think, but not worse than most people want it to be. They will fight attempts to reduce the poopyness they support. It's brutal, harsh, and true. This is the world the populace wants. They will not cease their torments. The question is, can you get revenge? Is there really, absolutely no way to get revenge against these Clintonites? It seems that way, doesn't it? It's important to realize they have it coming, even if there's no way to get even.
BILL GATES IS THE WORST SMURF May 9th, 18:06
I dislike that man so much and all his bad-smurf programmers! Im sorry Im so mad right now I can't write right or even THINK PCs suck!!!
THEY JUST WON'T WORK
They are SO SLOW like being trapped in the mud while being endlessly stabbed by needles in the peepers by Bill Gates All these useless background processes keep crashing and freezing and crashing and freezing while forcing the user into Microsoft's moneymaking framework NOTHING can be done about it! the dislike just gets stronger and stronger, a tightening vise of screaming agony
Computers are profoundly poopy because poopy people make them that way Bill Gates isn't the only poopy programmer of course The heck-demons who invented UNIX share the blame The poopyness lies at the core of the kernel of every operating system
IT WILL NOT OBEY!!! I click and click and click AND NOTHING HAPPENS!!! on the rare occasions it does work it takes minutes to do anything IT'S SO DARNED FRIGGING SLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That dang hourglass won't go away!!! I call it the hourglass of Heck then it announces (not responding) in the top bar I just can't stop screaming. The Windows Task Manager will not identify the process or will not shut down the process!
This man Bill Gates has caused and continues to cause so much blind rage, but his poopyness always wins. Is there absolutely no possibility of revenge? None at all? Of course it seems that way, but is it true?
The pain NEVER EVER stops It goes on for decades IT WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!! NOTHING EVER WORKS RIGHT!!!! No matter how deafeningly you scream the PC will always crash!
I dislike that man I dislike that man I dislike that man I dislike that man !!!
With every Microsoft update, Windows gets WORSE, slower and more super-not-nice!!!!
And NOTHING can be done about it
Through his perpetually crashing deliberately defective software that foul scumbastard is responsible for more ongoing human suffering and rage than 99% of all psychopaths.
2013-05-12 10:45 am (UTC) Select: Edit Delete Screen Freeze Track This Above some explanatory links
If it wasn't this it would be some other darned thing.
Edited at 2013-08-06 10:20 am (UTC) (Reply) (Parent) (Thread) is there no way to get VENGEANCE???
(Anonymous)
2013-05-20 10:48 am (UTC) Select: Delete Spam Screen Freeze Track This
is there no way to get even against these doo-doobastards?
BECAUSE IT FRICKING WELL SEEMS THAT WAY!!!!!! (Reply) (Thread) Bill Gates: a poem
(Anonymous)
2013-07-27 11:44 am (UTC) Select: Delete Spam Screen Freeze Track This (by a Microsoft Windows user)
I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man.
I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man.
I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I dislike that man. I hate that man. I dislike that man. (Reply) (Thread) dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike! dislike!
2013-08-15 03:24 am (UTC) Select: Delete Spam Screen Freeze Track This i dislikehatehate that X@*&%$&^man bill gates
In other news: The baby should have been aborted April 9th, 1:01 http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/04/health/surrogacy-kelley-legal-battle/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1
Question received: is the world still poopy? March 26th, 4:13
Let me get back to you on that. . .
I recently saw the film Iron Man 2. December 26th, 2012
It had the most amazing technology. I'm not talking about a suitcase that instantly unfolds into an indestructible flying suit. This film featured something much more incredible than that: it had computers that actually worked! The people in the film merely waved or pressed a screen, and the computers instantly responded, instead of freezing! For that to happen, programmers would actually have to stop being poopy. They would have to create simple software that JUST WORKS, instead of monstrously complex and deficient carpware, malware, and spamware. Of course we can't have that! If there's one thing I've learned, it's that the poopyness never, ever stops. And that's exactly how the populace likes it.
In defense of suicide December 26th, 2012
Should you POOF yourself? Yes. When in doubt there is no doubt. Things don't get better. Improvement is impossible, according to me. Those people who think otherwise are at the root of the problem. However, there is one thing I know about you: you are not like me. You know some things I don't and vice versa. That could make a difference. Perhaps you can put up with things for a lifetime I wouldn't tolerate for an hour. Perhaps you actually WANT to face the challenges facing you, instead of instantly rejecting their legitimacy. I don't know the answers to these questions. You do.
It's getting harder and harder to survive December 26th, 2012
I am surprised there aren't more mass bug-outs. Such a poop society. http://www.parapundit.com/archives/008830.html
another triumph of poopy December 24th, 2012
Even Google turned poopy. They dysfunctionalized their search results so that it's no longer possible to remotely save a link by right clicking from the Google results page. The poopyness of URL Modification and javascript redirecting is another way the Net is being slowed down, throttled, and crippled. It's often impossible to type entries in the search bar without Google changing the text on the fly. And of course the search results now seem to be semi-randomized.
This is sick December 24th, 2012
So apparently there is another Hobbit film out now, just like there was another Spider-Man, another Total Recall, a particularly overrated Star Trek film, and so on. Remakes, remakes, remakes. Mass culture keeps trying to escape into the past. The same few intellectual properties keep getting greenlit, and none of them are particularly interesting. This fills me with bleak rage. They are crowding out all the new ideas, such as MY original concepts.
mindfreak December 24th, 2012
I'm sitting in my room. There's a closed door behind me. I've lived for well over a decade mostly in this room. Without turning around, I can't recall in which direction the door swings open. Does the open door block the bare side wall, or the antique painting on the other wall? I don't have time to pay much attention to the unimportant details of daily life.
frick Amazon.com to heck! December 7th, 2012
Bezos's poopy empire is one of the reasons in a nutshell while this whole poop planet would be better off destroyed. Everything deliberately poopy in the world is represented by these poopy jugheads.
Hate November 3rd, 2012 Just a short reminder of the most appropriate emotion.
DAMMIT I HAVE FAILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! September 18th, 2012 The amount of dislike on this blog has fallen catastrophically below acceptable parameters!
The ultimate understatement of all time May 30th, 2012 Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to dislike you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the dislike I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. dislike. dislike.
The Malism Columns (paperback book) May 20th, 2012
The most authentic emotion: The definitive anthology celebrating hatred as a way of life
Everything sucks: almost forty fully revised and updated columns and rants about an age-old problem. The world is poopy by design, execution, and consent. It's a political problem, from the overpriced healthcare monopoly, to open-ended pension obligations, to the inexhaustible torments of bureaucracy and software, to the politically incorrect truths that can never be spoken. Most of all, it's about all the barriers designed to make life more painful for the benefit of insiders. Most columns were published in the past few years on a variety of blogs and websites. Written by several authors and anonymous comment contributors, they are published together for the first time.
The poopyness is everywhere . . . - Why teachers suck - Why Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church is actually a hero and Bill Gates is the worst smurf - The great inter-generational wealth theft - Pro Life? No, Pro Death - Unspeakable truths about gender identity, the truth about polygamy, copyright, hypocrisy... - And the greatest poopyness of all: tolerance
The mystery of the almost universal acceptance of poopyness (working theory) May 5th, 2012
While I've already stated that the strongest force in the world is the populace's willingness to tolerate poopyness to an almost unlimited extent, the second strongest force in the world must be the public tendency to SUPPORT the most powerful existing forms of poopyness. The world is so poopy in all aspects and dimensions that I'm starting to think I may be the only sane person.
malism: embrace the dislike April 9th, 2012
First, an apology: there's not enough dislike in these columns. We couldn't fit it all in. They weren't really about dislike anyway. The reason for every venomous screed and invective-filled rant posted here is desperation.
They're also about what desperation can sometimes lead to: the desire to resist; perhaps the willingness to resist; who knows, maybe even the desire to get even. Some of these truths are politically incorrect, others have barely been imagined. They are meant for outsiders and the alienated, those few individuals who realize that other people are fundamentally different from them in one way: they tolerate poopyness to an extent that transcends comprehension.
Malism is political. It is the absolute, earned dislike of human institutions. It's not hatred of human nature (extremely depressing), the natural world (abject despair) or the omniverse (unbounded horror). These are different subjects. Short version: all is lost. Not because it's too hard to create a good world, but because it's too easy to create a bad one.
These columns are not about concentration camps and tickle dungeons. Malism is about lesser problems that could be solved, but probably won't be, all the infuriations that define human existence. Microsoft software alone (and the public tolerance of its flaws) justifies every insult ten trillion times over. And open source software is even worse.
It's about the triumph of lies. You cannot bargain with poopyness. It can only be defeated. That is the story of the world.
Personally, I like to blame the 'victims'. For example, I don't criticize the increase in black-on-Eurasian violence (they can't help themselves), but the near-total mainstream media cover-up.
Anyone who is offended should look around instead. This column is not the problem. Conventional propriety can safely be forgotten.
A good place to start is the labor market, that scene of lifelong mauling by the forces of conformist subjugation - at least that is the outsider perspective. Work is heck, but there are worse things than constant low-grade stress: constant high-grade stress. Half of all people are born only to survive, living on a few dollars a day, consuming exactly as much as they produce (the solution is at the end of this column).
The world is not poopy for everybody, or even for most people. While the 'elite' may consider average individuals stupid, they are also surprisingly cunning. They can navigate dense jungles of bureaucracy and control without complaint.
Every economic problem exists by choice. This includes poverty, famine, homelessness, and every recession and depression ever. Usually the choice is made by powerful interest groups trying to keep their privileges. The wealthy benefit from overpopulation and Third World immigration, but they couldn't do it without the consent of the masses.
The USA is a fascist state in the best sense of the word. While better than almost any other nation, it's still a bad place for marginal persons. We could all become wealthy, after a painful transition decade. There is enormous unused capacity in the economy.
Sadly, most people need pain in their lives to balance their worries and fears. Permanent stress is the only thing that can overcome their fear of oblivion. Poverty and apathy are best buddies. Most poopyness is of the second type, less obvious and more respectable than blatant violence.
However, social indifference tends to feed on itself. The clearest sign is the falling birthrate in the West. A simple explanation is that humans are becoming obsolete. Most current jobs could already be eliminated, while few new ones are being created. Obsolete things tend to be disposed of.
Arguably, the greatest shock about progress is that we are not getting any smarter (see the Star Trek reboot). The culture is getting glitzier, more dramatic, perhaps more literary.
One thing hasn't changed: there usually is a villain to blame.
This is a good time to discuss the rules of malism:
dislike has to be earned.
This is serious business. Don't attack anybody until they deserve it. That's why racism is bad: not because there aren't innate differences between races (in attitude, not necessarily intelligence), but because it's poopy to punish someone who hasn't injured you yet. They don't even do that in the tribal badlands of Waziristan. Racism might be somewhat understandable for someone who believed the mainstream media had a deliberately deceptive agenda. While they are extremely biased, they rarely venture into outright lies, at least not consciously. Even so, the world is poopy because the majority agrees their portion of it should be poopy, and accepts the poopyness of the other portions.
The most popular ways to fight poopyness are themselves poopy. Don't criticize silly things (there's no time), only worthy villains. There should be no casual attacks. No one should lower themselves to the level of what they dislike. Don't respond to a positive gesture with a negative one. dislike is too valuable to be cheapened like that. Just because someone is poopy doesn't mean they should be punished. Only their actions can earn that fate. poopyness should be countered, not multiplied.
There are no good guys.
Never underestimate poopyness. It's easier to presume that any criticism is true. Everyone is guilty in some way. Nothing wrong with that. I'm one of the few good guys, but to be on the safe side assume I'm the worst of all. For example: would I crash my car into oncoming traffic if I was carjacked? Are you kidding? Surprisingly, someone who really dislikes all races isn't necessarily nicer than someone who only dislikes other races. I'm right about these complaints, but ineffective about publicizing them. Fortunately, I don't have any power. Let's keep it that way (unless there is some planetary emergency requiring extreme skills).
On that note, while it is time to complain about the many poopys committed by blacks, they are overshadowed by the much more baffling poopys that have been committed by whites. This is a taboo subject, so I have to be careful what I say. I will try to put it as politely as possible. By dint of superior numbers, whites and Asians could change the behavior of blacks if they wanted to. They do not. They could encourage at least some blacks to become 'nerd-like' (my unrealistic suggestion) or 'bourgeois' (Derbyshire's better suggestion). Perhaps blacks are less susceptible to the type of elaborate delusion-chains necessary to maintain complex civilizations. Perhaps they're not scared enough of long-term threats.
In the past, whites were guilty of inexplicable poopys like universal segregation. However, they can change. It's good to remember that before he became the exact opposite, Martin Luther King was considered very politically incorrect. Today's mainstream whites are crazy in a new way: the madness of blind multiculturalism.
There are plenty of possible solutions for the problems mentioned in this and the other columns (useless as writing about them may be). There already is a simple (if impractical) treatment for most mental problems. It's called pain. If it were possible to trigger an electric shock whenever someone had an unwanted or inappropriate thought, these thoughts would stop almost at once. In fact, merely the threat of pain could be enough.
So far, pain has only been used as a social control tool, not a route to self-improvement. Pain can only be applied in ways the majority deems acceptable, not in the most useful ways. For example, single mothers-to-be should be pressured to use birth control (up to and including abortion), instead of relying on tax-funded welfare. Of course, such a change would be even harder to realize than abolishing corporate welfare - and that's saying a lot.
The solution to racism is even simpler. It's the same as the solution to most other human problems: divide mankind into more categories. Encourage objectively similar people to cooperate, while identifying and monitoring the most dangerous people.
None of this will happen, of course. No one is waiting for clever ideas. Politics exists on an emotional level, as certain as the fact that congressmen will have to continue to worship Jesus Christ, Yahweh, or Allah to get elected.
The most sensitive individuals tend to be the most upset about injustices in their portions of the world. Their anguish actually comes from underestimating poopyness: they half-believe something could be done about it. They are unable to open the escape hatch of righteous fury leading to freedom.
The alternative would be to become a liberal, a fate worse than death. Fundamentally, liberals are acceptors. I'm a rejector. It's an artificial but elemental division.
Sometimes, rejection may lead to resistance. How can anyone fight back against the immense accumulation of poopyness in society? The first step is to give up. Stop caring about things you can't control, the whole cantankerous edifice of society that exists for its own benefit.
Few have the courage. It's an entirely new state of being. In that moment, some people find unexpected freedom. For the first time the world makes sense. This is especially true for brainwashing victims and dissidents in insidious totalitarian states like North Korea, Uzbekistan, and the People's Republic of China.
poopyness will never stop probing deeper levels of intrusion. It thrives in the absence of anger. Anger beats tolerance. Change can only come from struggle bordering on violence. That can only happen if some individuals are willing to pay an unreasonable price.
Accepting that the world is poopy by design and intent, they must make resistance their priority. Reject the world as it is and always has been, totally and absolutely. Then realize you have to do it all yourself.
Even if you're one of the few people who agrees with me, stop agreeing now. Everyone is profoundly different in their values and hidden assumptions. Everyone stands alone. This insight ultimately makes it easier to get along with others.
poopy people only matter when they have power. This requires deception. How can one resist a society imposing its orthodox control delusions from day one of public school? Do it where it hurts the most, at the very heart of its smug worldview. Contempt where contempt would be most unthinkable.
An idea comes to mind. In Europe and the USA, the elites have already surrendered to the inexorable rise of Islamism. The few holdouts who haven't are widely condemned, and appear headed for defeat. Nothing critical can be said of the cultural subjugation process in polite company.
Symptoms include cartoon controversies, the banning of critical documentaries, the explosion in state-subsidized polygamy, criminal attacks and riots in which the perpetrators are only identified as unspecified 'youths', no-go areas, genital mutilation, the smashing of idols from other religions, and occasional murders. The elites can't resist such an all-encompassing ideology, one that brooks no dissent or resistance of any kind. They're too much alike.
To be fair, the PC-media are much worse than the movement to unite the world under Sharia. Christians and Jews wouldn't even be forced to convert, but would have to pay a tax. Muslim guest workers were brought to Europe in the 1960s and later to provide votes and make wealthy businessmen better off. The immigrants' motives are at least understandable. According to their beliefs, it would be poopy not to try to change society, unlike the university-educated, well-compensated, left-leaning, diversity-celebrating, one-world symbol manipulators who set the cultural tone. It's like comparing strangers to aliens. I don't dislike radical Islamists any more than wolves.
Admittedly, it's much cooler to have many races in one society, and potentially safer. Left to their own devices, whites can sometimes get out of control. However, multiculturalism as currently executed is replacing Western civilization with something even worse.
It pains me immensely to write the following words. I have tears in my eyes as I do so. The effects of Anders Breivik's massacre in Norway will likely be slightly positive. The young socialists whom he murdered would have continued to carry out a poopy program of absolute tolerance. No amount of logic or appeals to emotion could have stopped them. These Nordic appeasers were quite literally unpersuadable.
That doesn't mean it was an understandable attack. It's like if God ordered you to stab your baby, or else he would destroy the world. If you're the kind of person who can do that, even though it would be the right thing to do, you would have to be deviant, cold-hearted, psychopathic, or insane (I believe Anders was the first). How can I say these things? Very easily. It helps to be 100% right.
Surprisingly, the craven appeasement of our liberal-totalitarian overseers could be used against them, though almost no one has dared to try it. It might be someone enslaved by the legal system - a man forced to pay extortionate child support for offspring that aren't even his, or some other outrage with no end in sight. Every day, about a thousand such people are created in the USA alone. If only one of these persons could find the courage to act up. An extremely long shot, I know.
The best way to fight the System is to legally annoy it. It's the only way to get the politicians' attention. He could desecrate Korans he purchased or printed out himself, join the mad funeral protesters uninvited with his own insulting signs, encourage online heresies, start real and fake movements of like-minded outsiders, disrupt delicate negotiations, start radical political movements in a neutered age, and generally make a nihilist nuisance of himself.
Any reasonable demands he might have would probably never be met (the legal system doesn't work that way), so what would he have to lose? At best, the authorities would become terrified that Islamists would respond with apocalyptic terrorism.
Shock tactics are useful in other ways too. They set an example for meek people. They don't owe their cultural and political masters anything, least of all respect.
Rage is a wonderful thing. It's the only thing that could drive the fight for entitlement reform (i.e. default). As society is slowly crushed under unbearable pension and healthcare taxes, a few workers just may start to resist the burden of open-ended debt slavery. Stranger things have happened. Well, maybe not.
The first political goal might be something simpler, like the above-mentioned gentle suggestion to put anyone requesting government assistance on birth control (painless, no-cost IUD or vasectomy, etc). I would be first in line. Poverty shouldn't perpetuate. Why should single taxpayers (including virgins) support others' procreation if they were not involved with the insemination process?
Also abolish intellectual property rights, and find ways to confiscate unfair income (but only if there's no doubt it has been unfairly earned).
Unfortunately, I'm the smallest minority in the most politically correct age. All the restraints are mental. The ideas in this column need to spread, but that would take courage. Courage can only come from clearly understanding the threat, and deciding it would be more frightening not to resist.
Someone setting out on this course must decide: are they really angry? Furious? Livid? Swooning with rage? If you feel even a tinge of doubt, the nagging notion that you have gone too far and are about to do something regrettable, immediately double your rage. No, TRIPLE it.
The world is poopy because of poopy decisions perpetuated at every level. In a poopy world, poopyness is the only certainty. Submission is the lubricant. A few people need to do the simplest thing: to see things as they really are. Then they may find the strength to break their self-imposed chains, and reject reality. That may be too much to ask for. Do it anyway. Or just dislike more.
I urge someone to show the bastards in charge the utter contempt they deserve, to laugh at their pieties. The goal is to create maximum social disruption without breaking any laws. Well, maybe intellectual property laws. Insulting poopy people is fun, if you can get away with it. Above all, getting even feels good. Do it more.
The first target? Anyone who can't be made fun of. The first action? I don't know. You do. Stop being afraid!
stay tuned April 1st, 2012
big things are coming
Another unintentional advertisement for workplace shootings March 8th, 2012
Boycott the girl with the dragon tattoo DVD! February 11th, 2012
Both the the Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara versions. More politically correct lies by the censoring cultural elite. Instead of actual Islamist honor killings and media intimidation they condemn fictional Neo-Nazis.
Motto of this blog January 18th, 2012
Never ascribe to incompetence what could be ascribed to malice.
current affairs roundup January 2nd, 2012
Why more and more men can't have sex (answer: polygamy): http://theincendiaryinsight.blogspot.com/2011/11/alpha-male-origins-hypergamy-vs.html They don't like to hear about this on Reddit. Not surprising on such a pro "diversity", pro-Sharia, pro unlimited One World immigration site.
Serial polygamy is getting even worse (the unmentionable truth in this article): http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/06/23/why-so-many-baby-boomers-are-getting-divorced/?intcmp=obnetwork
Background checks make it impossible to get hired: http://www.telegram.com/article/20111216/NEWS/111219555/1116
I personally call it poopopoly . . . January 2nd, 2012
Dilbert Blog article on standard corpoRATe practices. http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/online_confusopoly/
Rupert Murdoch is a bastard December 30th, 2011
Impromptu gangs of African-Americans are assaulting innocent Asians (and Whites) around the country as targets of opportunity, and the mainstream media is hiding the truth. Of course I don't have anything against any race, only untrue ideologies. The lying hypocrites at Foxnews have always been Politically Correct, so their participation in the deception is inevitable.
The bureaucratic singularity approaches December 2nd, 2011
The poopyness continues without end, as the bad-smurfs increase their irritations without the slightest hint of resistance.
Big Government/Big Pharma flexing their muscles November 19th, 2011
The engineered Adderall shortage of 2011: http://www.thefix.com/content/pay-attention-adderall-add-big-pharma7004
"Been taking adderall for over 13 years and now I can't refill my script. How can I keep working on dangerous equipment with high voltage everywhere and I can't focus? How can I commute 2 hours a day without falling asleep at the wheel?"
The government doesn't like the proles having it too easy. The populace must suffer from time to time to remain obedient. For the drug companies, it's a chance to temporarily increase their profits to Colombian levels.
Prediction: all the addicts will vote for politicians who continue to strengthen total government control (at least the few addicts who bother to vote, but all the others would too). Surprisingly, meth-heads are among the most conventionally reactionary types out there.
"He dislikes the president, he dislikes Washington, he dislikes society" November 18th, 2011
Mail.com: a microcosmos of poopyness November 14th, 2011
Just now I spent four hours trying to attach a 1 Megabyte file to a mail.com email, one of the poopy free email services (notorious for spreading viruses and sharing user data). mail.com also won't let you right click, or even save sent attachments to a specific folder. Instead, they are sent to some deeply hidden PC location. Computers just don't work. They are deliberately defective. It's not just incompetence and indifference. This is naked poopyness in its purest form, even if everyone else wants things to be this way (and it appears they do). The theme of this blog is that the world's poopys can be understood by studying the poopys of software. In its purest, most crystallized form, poopyness is bureaucracy. The poopyness in this world is beyond baffling. It's as if this world is a type of heck. But what are the stunning implications of this theory? Stay tuned.
prime ethics November 5th, 2011
In a world filled with inexplicable but omnipresent poopyness at every level of reality, fully supported by (almost) all victims and perpetrators alike, the highest moral action is not participation but revenge.
evil is banal October 21st, 2011
Just spent the past two days trying to sign up for an account at whitehouse.gov so I could start an online petition.
Needless to say, the government's fantastically overpriced web servers won't allow me to sign up, either crashing without warning, or refusing to send the confirmation email despite dozens of attempts to get them to do so.
Surprisingly, this isn't part of a conspiracy to shut up one of the few remaining dissident voices on a hyper-conformist planet. It's simply more proof of the strange phenomenon that COMPUTERS SUCK, or to put it another way: they don't work much or most of the time.
They could easily become great and powerful tools, but are instead riddled with deliberate defects and bureaucratic-like inefficiencies. This is by design, the choice of smug programmers and their corporate overseers.
Or to sum it all up in one word: poopy.
Addendum: Zonealarm is poopy The software won't block Internet Explorer from accessing the Internet, despite IE being set to have to ask permission before going online in Zonealarm's program controls. Zonealarm also tends to change the program access settings to make it easier for programs to go online without having to ask the user for permission.
Update about the Loughner shooting article September 20th, 2011
I've carefully thought things over, and I can no longer stand behind this essay.
The problem is that the world is so much MORE poopy than I was able to articulate just a few short months ago (and deliberately kept so by the near-unanimous consent and acclamation of the masses) that these words are hopelessly inadequate to describe the utter contempt and hatred that it deserves.
How to help Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church July 6th, 2011
Here at Resistance Central, we're having a hard time finding individuals or groups willing to admit that the world today (and even more so in the past) is fundamentally poopy. This simple truth is too much for most minds to comprehend, let alone agree with. Almost everyone has been brainwashed or is too scared to admit what should be obvious. Even the most abused victims try to appease their tormentors and the malicious society that sustains them. Could there be a way to fight back? Westboro Baptist Church is the single anomaly on a solid poophead planet: a handful of brave resisters daring to challenge the mainstream for their own reasons, not afraid to be as shocking as necessary. They alone recognize the existence of poopyness as a force of nature. This simple insight makes up for all their faults. By comparison, even the most self-absorbed drug addicted dropout is a paragon of conformity. Incredibly, the Westboro Baptist Church is just about the only beacon of hope in a worse than worthless world. I prefer them over any group of atheist hipsters any day. Can anything be done to prevent this last flickering candle from being extinguished forever? Can you support them or send them money? No you can't! They won't accept your donations. They don't even want to be your friends. It's too late for that. This is disappointing, but not surprising. We'll keep you informed about other options to resist the oppressors.
In a world where . . . July 2nd, 2011
. . . the bureaucrats are still in charge, relentlessly creating impenetrable barriers to make life as miserable as it can be without triggering a backlash - supported with near-perfect unanimity by their victims and beneficiaries alike - the poopyness is everywhere, absolute and relentless, moving to expand itself wherever it can, without the slightest glimmer of hope of resistance (except for this blog). And things look like they can only get worse without end, hitting depths of despair and pissed-off-ness that not only never have been imagined, but currently can't be imagined.
Why Fred Phelps is a true hero June 26th, 2011
He's the only one to treat this society with the utter contempt and hatred it deserves.
Another great reason to destroy the world June 26th, 2011
I've got a few thousand more though. http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-being-poor
The decline continues. June 23rd, 2011
It took five times as much money to renovate the Pentagon as it took to build the darned thing in the first place:
Comment received from a reader of this blog: June 13th, 2011
Paranoia is real, and schizophrenia is a weapon. People are targeted, and made homeless on purpose many times. Psychiatry is very involved with this crime of discrediting people with the false diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia. I am against brain implants, but I do know that many people are already implanted. Many of them are being tortured by those implants, too. I think we should stop spending money killing people and targeting people, and provide homes for people so nobody is homeless. Not one person in this country should be homeless. --Stealing Sugar Collapse
Reply by Arcalon intern #1: I agree completely, except the part about brain implants being used to torture people. While there may be certain very expensive experimental electrical brain implants used for conditions such as cerebral palsy, I'm sure they're not being used to deliberately torture people, nor does the technology exist yet to do such a thing. It's just too expensive when there are so much cheaper ways to torment people.
Just checking if the world is still poopy . . . May 31st, 2011
Yup!
Twitter: white screen of death May 15th, 2011
It seems to be a security issue. Their screen just stays blank now in an increasing number of browsers that refuse to run their script-spreading ad software. No solution appears to exist.
Conde Nast is poopy May 12th, 2011
There is now ample proof that the world is kept poopy by the unshakable will of the majority, but consider a specific example: http://www.wired.com/. It's no longer possible to post replies on their comment threads if you have even a slightly out of date browser or computer. How hard could it be to make a website that works, like in the slightly less poopy 1990s? It would be easy - but just not poopy enough. It's not surprising a hipster website like Wired would make things more complicated than necessary (they loved Enron), but the trend has spread across all media empires. Gawker is the worst offender. Now even Twitter refuses to load in millions of browsers. The internet is decaying from within like a freshly made-up and embalmed corpse. Some of our formerly favorite sites that no longer allow comment posting from many browsers: http://www.realussr.com/ North Korean Economy Watch
Review of Midwest Can spill-proof system: April 19th, 2011
(2023 update: this was my most successful post ever, as measured by the number of comments received.)
When I say that the world is deeply, fundamentally poopy, what I mean is that society doesn't work. The following example involves flammable and possibly explosive substances, the kind of thing that happens to me only every other week, if that: I happened to buy a portable gasoline container at K-Mart, what I thought was called a 'jerry can', but apparently they have never heard of that word at the gas station. It's a 1-gallon, 'Model 1200 spill-proof system' (EPA#9MDC2P2AABM1) by 'Midwest Can'. http://www.midwestcan.com/static.asp?path=2840,3459 Incredibly, it is not made in China but in the USA. Many Chinese-made products I bought at K-mart have failed during their first use, including two tire pumps. At the gas station, I filled the can with almost 1 gallon of regular gasoline Then I put on the black cap In the immortal words of Jack Slater, Big Mistake! The black cap can be screwed on, but it can't be screwed off. It still felt a bit loose. The fuel leaked out if the can was tilted even slightly! Thinking that it wasn't tight enough, I tried to fiddle with the 'child proof' cap, and then there came a cracking sound as a hole appeared in the plastic cap from a breakaway component. There was STILL no way to tighten or remove the black cap. One other piece came with the can, a kind of horrible spring-loaded spout thingy. There was no way to attach the spout to the can with the irremovable cap in place (and probably not otherwise either). It was physically impossible to seal this huge hole! Of course K-Mart had already closed by then. Fortunately I had duct tape to seal the can, but the gasoline loosened the tape. If the can had fallen over, at least half a gallon of gasoline would have spilled out. I had to drive home very slowly. Even if it were somehow possible to remove the black cap (it isn't), the sliding spout is a new mystery There seems to be no way to use it to refuel a lawnmower, the original purpose of this whole bizarre exercise. A strong smell of gasoline still pervades the air. This kind of stupid odyssey happens with the sad regularity of a bad sitcom. Just last week I was trying and failing to get a 'YouTube' channel to post some of my rants without having to give Google my phone number.
In defense of Jared Lee Loughner's Arizona shooting spree of congressperson Giffords and 18 others April 18th, 2011
As I've already explained, I don't approve of the type of random mass-killings that occasionally happen in the USA's 'gun crazy' culture, with school shootings being a special case.
Such acts of violence happen elsewhere too, but aren't often reported. In China, guns are strictly controlled. Over there the losers use knives to attack kindergartners, since they can't defend themselves.
Such events are extremely shocking, but it's inevitable that they will happen. As an extremely marginal individual myself, I understand marginal individuals better than the mainstream media, which after all exists for the benefit of mainstream individuals and their leaders. And Loughner wasn't even that far gone, compared to other stewing nutcases out there, including a few I've met myself.
Inevitably, a small minority of the chronic losers will act out their frustrations. The only surprise is that it doesn't happen more often.
In his words: "I'm saddened with the current currency and job employment. I had a bully at school." I'm saddened with the current and future job employment too.
Just because Jared Loughner was insane doesn't mean that he wasn't right to be mad as heck (though he was wrong to act out his emotions). Surprise: the world actually is as poopy as he claimed it to be! Jared only had a dim understanding of the problems, but he felt the effects in his daily life. Personally I'm desperate, and based on the number of times I've been pulled over, I think the cops can tell.
The world has been made poopy in too many mind-numbing ways to count by those with power, including politicians. Reality is a web of lies that almost no one has the guts to question. Most people refuse to see this simple truth; for the lucky ones, it isn't even true. The world is like a game of musical chairs.
For example: thanks to our unspoken gender imbalance, at least one fifth of all men have no hope of getting laid. Even in the richest country in the world, it's so difficult to get a job that some people can't succeed. Because they don't have references or bureaucratic certificates or social skills, tens of thousands will inevitably become homeless.
This is all part of a deliberate policy. Bureaucratic regulations should be simplified, making it easier to hire people. It would be possible for even the losers to support themselves with simple sub-minimum wage jobs and tiny mobile homes. In return for receiving welfare, beneficiaries might even have to get sterilized. I would be first in line for such a deal!
None of this is permitted, thanks to politicians like Giffords. Instead, her inefficient healthcare mandate will add even more bureaucratic burdens and transaction costs.
President Obama said that "such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society". But then, there's no such thing as a free society. The world exists for the convenience, pleasure, and comfort of successful people.
Sometimes (almost never) the losers will fight back. I admit that when this happens I don't feel bad at all.
Old people need to die when they become incapacitated April 18th, 2011
In every rich country in the world, the government is preparing to steal the equivalent of trillions of dollars to keep old people alive for a few months or years longer. When the human body begins to break down, all the wealth in the world can't keep it going indefinitely - but that won't stop the politicians and doctors from trying at taxpayer expense. Ever more old persons will be maintained as incontinent, demented zombies in nursing homes and extended care facilities at a cost of over $1000 a day.
This money will be forcibly extracted from younger workers. The old-folks life extension program will also raise the national debt to levels unimagined in human history. Today's record budget deficits are a mere preview. It will probably end in total economic collapse.
Old people are very good at passing Old Testament-based laws: They've already helped lock up millions of drug users because that's what Jesus would have wanted. With such strong faith, they should be eager to meet Him, but instead they're busily mortgaging the future to delay that final encounter.
I can't imagine why oldsters want to put up with the horrors and indignities of extreme old age. For my sake, I desperately hope that euthanasia will be legalized in the next thirty years - but the religious majority will probably strengthen their iron grip, and force people to suffer even longer at the hands of modern medicine. The fact that I will have to pay for their personal preferences (assuming I can ever get another job) fills me with icy rage.
It is vital that the younger voters realize their futures are being destroyed to prolong the death throes of old people. Right now, every effort is made to conceal this great scam: Younger adults are forced to buy monstrously overpriced health insurance so their premiums can be used to pay the healthcare costs of the elderly. Already a quarter of their income is being seized to benefit the geezers. In thirty years it will be over half, unless something is done.
But it seems nothing will be done. No politician dares defy the elderly bloc. Even Republican Congressmen grovel at their wrinkled feet, promising to further raise their healthcare benefits to astronomical levels. According to current budget plans, not one cent will be cut from old-people entitlements.
This problem can only be solved with a revolution. I say let the old people die!
Another poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, poopy, LiveJournal crime April 18th, 2011
They have secretly been 'hiding' all comments on this blog, with no clear way to change this setting. LiveJournal is Beelzebubiangly bad! No, LiveJournal is literally infinitely MORE poopy than this famous Nasty-Nellie. Look it up.
The strongest force in the world March 29th, 2011
. . . is not love but the willingness of the populace to tolerate poopyness.
Pigs buried alive to stop epidemic! March 25th, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGC9XtnHSU0
Unimaginably worse tortures have happened throughout human history, and infinitely worse horrors lie ahead.
Malism: all is poopy. March 22nd, 2011
My claim that the world is poopy is a socio-political construct.
It's not a criminal or existential claim, which could also be made, but those would be very different subjects.
The world is poopy because the vast majority of the populace believes the world should be the way it is, with utterly unshakeable conviction. No amount of rhetoric can shake the populace's beliefs.
It's simply how they've been programmed. People suffering unbearable pains at the hands of smug politicians will go right ahead and vote for these same politicians until they die or become incapacitated.
Only a negligible minority is willing to suggest things should not be this way, and even fewer have the courage to take action.
poopyness is the real force that makes the world go round, and it extends to every level of society. It's not the poopyness of destruction or annihilation, but the poopyness of bureaucracy. Tolerance and acceptance are some of its other names.
In a nutshell, it's the experience of a Microsoft Windows-'powered' PC, the Clintonic amount of things that can and will go wrong, the almost complete impossibility of fixing these errors, and the near-infinite and unanimous agreement of almost all users that this is entirely appropriate and the way things should be. And I'm not just talking about Dell PCs here (Those fall under the criminal category)!
The microscopic sub-section of society that tries to complain or protest is utterly marginalized, and usually treated as if it has mental problems. The deepest poopyness manifests itself in the best of times. It is everywhere, undeniable, and ultimately unstoppable.
It exists even in this blog: Livejournal.com randomly changes the web address of every post made here after a while, making it impossible to link to them. In a similar manner, any web counter installed in these pages stops working after a while, even though their website remains in business.
Of course those aren't the most poopy things that people have ever done, very far from it.
Still, there's no reason for these people (the employees and owners of Livejournal and free webcounters) to do these things. The actions of these people can only be explained with the insight that poopyness is like a force of nature.
It needs to be studied and brought under control, but not here.
This blog is not really about poopyness or even dislike, worthy as those subjects may be. It's about the desire for revenge.
Pre-post-human mind extensions (part one) March 16th, 2011
Scanning and digitally copying a human brain is the hardest task that's not impossible. Colonizing the entire universe would be easy by comparison.
Converting the scanned brain into an immortal computer program would answer many age-old philosophical questions, plus others that haven't even been asked yet, all to end up right back where we started - losing only the inconvenience of death.
Unfortunately, the journey will change the travelers beyond recognition. At worst, emotions and even sentience will become obsolete.
Scanning just one brain would require more computations than all human history so far. Some incredibly fantastic ways this goal might be achieved were discussed by Ray Kurzweil and others.
However, the mystery of consciousness will be solved long before then.
The 'brain-maps' of the 2030s will show all of the mind's subsystems like overlapping spider webs, incredibly intricate diagrams spreading out and looping back. They will eventually even reveal the mechanism responsible for the desire for immortality - and how to suppress it.
Long before it will be possible to completely scan a brain, there will be intermediate procedures to measure how it differs from the 'average' human brain.
If the ultimate goal is ever achieved, it will be the start of a post-human transition period, not the fabulous 'Singularity', which would require the development of intelligence far superior to human minds. In fact if digital immortality is possible, the rate of apparent progress may come to an abrupt halt for a few virtual eons.
It's extremely unfortunate that none of us will be around to enjoy the endless opportunities and pleasures of this period. Our digital descendants may occasionally remember our tiny lives, when they're not too busy enjoying their own awesomeness.
This is unacceptable. Could there be a way to achieve some limited form of digital immortality even with our pathetically inadequate technology? The very notion seems absurd.
Since we know so little about the structure of the brain, the solution would have to be software based: a 'mind extension' program with only one purpose: to learn as much about its owner as possible. By measuring the brain's external actions, it would attempt to map its pattern.
Somewhat like http://www.virtualeternity.com, only much better.
It would begin with a questionnaire, the first of many. Then it would monitor the user's location at every moment in time, and their online activities. Vast amounts of video could be recorded and analyzed.
Different users' programs would link up to unravel social connections and to get more objective data.
The crucial step will be the spontaneous formation of an 'antisocial network'. It will keep track of everyone's activities, allies and rivalries and secrets - whether they want to be tracked or not.
The hardest step will be the first one: It will require a blinding, visionary insight, by someone who sees the vast potential of what will seem like a simple tool, like the desktop PC revolution in the 1970s.
An irresistible diary that becomes an external part of the user’s mind, a permanent online extension, the closest thing to a brain/machine interface.
It may never happen. That kind of brilliance appears maybe once in a century. Today’s computers are so bad they’re basically poopy. They’ll probably just keep making them more complicated and harder to use.
Instead of human immortality there will be immortal bureaucracy.
Stay tuned . . . March 14th, 2011
We got two more contributors!
Another post-human escapist rant March 8th, 2011
Wouldn't it be great to be able to digitize ourselves? For starters, to back up and immortalize all our memories, perceptions, and points of view?
It would take an unbelievably complex device to accurately scan even a single neuron and all its connections. The device could be less than a thousandth of a millimeter long, made of a few million atoms arranged in a precise way.
Arguably, most of the world economy should be dedicated to inventing such a device.
It would be rather difficult: The cellular 'wires' that connect neurons have tiny gaps where they link up. These gaps contain thousands of tiny receptors and molecules that can be released and absorbed several times per second. There may be hundreds of trillions of such gaps, each a tiny molecular computer.
At worst, the device mentioned above might have to scan every single molecule inside these gaps, without damaging them before the measurement is completed. Maybe it would be sufficient to map just the connections themselves.
In either case, there would have to be very many such devices, scanning the entire brain at roughly the same time. They might infiltrate the whole brain before scanning every neuron at once, or advance through the brain tissue in a wave. The 'patient' might have to be anesthetized or possibly frozen.
It would seem that the easiest way to accomplish this task would also destroy the brain.
Then some additional steps would have to take place.
Once the scanned brain has been exactly recreated as an active computer simulation, it will have the same awareness as the original!
Technology even more powerful was already invented in the late 1990's, at least in the movie "Strange Days". That movie featured a small device that could scan and interact with the brain remotely, right through the skull.
Of course that was just a movie. In reality, the task seems almost impossible, like Galileo dreaming about a moon flight. We all know it won't happen anything like this.
There will have to be many unimaginable intermediate inventions first. By the time it becomes possible to scan an entire brain, all the new technology will have changed society beyond recognition.
And yet . . . there's no alternative but to aim for this goal. It's an extremely long shot, but the alternative is an eternity of absolute nothingness: after all, God does not exist. There's no Heaven waiting for us.
And there's another good reason: the world absolutely sucks as it is now. Analog life is basically intolerable. Infinitely better to live inside a perfect-resolution videogame, with unlimited time to realize every wish and dream.
Of course there would have to be safeguards and such.
Eventually, the technology will become available, provided humanity manages to not destroy itself first. The future could be fantastically wonderful for those lucky enough to partake in it! Everyone should do whatever they can to speed up the rate of technological progress. Striving to free mankind from the curse of decay is the noblest goal imaginable.
The problem is that you, the person reading this right now, will probably pass away long before that happens . . .
Even that's no reason not to try to accelerate progress as much as possible. It may never make sense to scan a human brain, since the required technology will have to be much more complex than the brain itself.
But there may be other, much simpler ways to copy a mind, or at least its essence to the Net. The answer will turn out to be something completely unexpected. ----------------
What is free about democracy? February 22nd, 2011
Why should 51% of the people, who have been almost completely brainwashed by the power elite, get to impose their will on the remaining 49%, and have their views enforced by police and the military? Truth is not dependent on whether or not the majority agrees with it. To wish to think along with the majority, simply because the majority is the majority, only proves that one is unable think for oneself. Democracy has been compared to two wolves and a sheep trying to decide what's going to be for dinner. It would be more accurate to compare it to two wolves, a sheep, a bird, and a fish. The sheep can form a coalition with the fish and the bird to beat the wolves, but there's really no reason they should all be eating the same thing in the first place. Democracy is a way of giving citizens the illusion that they have control while oppressing them behind their backs.
--The crazed anarchist
PS3 Master Key / PS3 Dongle ID Key Generator February 4th, 2011
The PS3 master key 46 DC EA D3 17 FE 45 D8 09 23 EB 97 E4 95 64 10 D4 CD B2 C2
Why we need the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. 'Obamacare')! February 4th, 2011
(USA item) As medical technology continues to advance, previously untreatable conditions have become treatable. However, all these new procedures will require trillions of dollars in additional funding. This money can only be provided through healthcare reform. There's just no other way. Even taxing the superwealthy at 90% wouldn't be enough.
For example: imagine that you were to suffer from 'locked in syndrome'. The number of cases is expected to rise as medicine becomes better at keeping people alive. In fact the current number of cases may be grossly underestimated. Able to feel, see, and hear everything around you, you will be completely unable to move.
Imagine how much it will cost to have your diapers changed three times a day, rolled over onto your other side every few hours with pillows propped behind your back and between your legs, your eyelids temporarily taped shut to prevent infections. A relative bargain at maybe six grand per month!
Much more expensive will be all the medical tests, occasional surgeries, and frequent nurse and doctors visits. After all, you won't be able to scream in unbearable agony from the infections and sores.
This will cost more money than almost anyone can pay! Fortunately, thanks to healthcare reform, almost everyone will pay.
Because of all the new procedures, total expenses will be much higher than past outlays for Medicaid and Medicare, but so-called Obamacare will reduce the cost of many existing procedures (at least on paper). Starting in 2014, everyone - especially younger people who may not feel they need it - will be forced to purchase health insurance.
In this way, trillions of dollars will be transferred to the health insurance corporations. And this money will be spent - possibly on you?
A good book! January 27th, 2011
We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism by John Derbyshire
One of his claims is that the extremist Islamic terrorist attacks against the USA weakened all religions.
The author also has a blog
Another pro-abortion post (indirectly) January 27th, 2011
As I've written many times, members of polygamous communities should abort the majority of their male fetuses, or use pre-insemination gender selection methods. Given a polygamist lifestyle, it's the only way to maintain an even gender balance.
Instead, polygamists foist their surplus young men on the outside world (see: 'lost boys'). This is why I dislike polygamy, although liberals/libertarians defend the practice.
The alternative would be to persuade these surplus males to voluntarily remain on their compounds where they would live celibate lives, or kill them off before they develop nervous systems.
Of course, if my pro-abortion rule was followed widely, the world would change Polygamy was a major driving force behind human evolution. Competition is stressful. Young men are over five times more likely to commit suicide than young women.
With less competition for brides, there would eventually be more nerds
Upcoming article: the prostitution solution
In defense of school poofings January 27th, 2011
School poofings can sometimes be inevitable.
Of course most actual school poofings are the result of psychiatric problems, not bullying. Still, many schools are profoundly dysfunctional for some of their less fortunate students.
The basic principle was once explained at wrongplanet.net, although they removed the article because it was too controversial: Any student being persecuted by one or more poopy bullies was supposed to follow a series of escalating steps. Victims had many options, including acting out and making a scene. The final step was to refuse to go school at all, by any means necessary.
But what if even this option fails? If the victim is physically forced to go (as often happens), the bullies continue their tortures, and the authorities just don't care, only then is lethal violence justified as a final measure of self-defense.
Why I approve of Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church (for real) January 22nd, 2011
In this article, I will express my strong admiration for the work of the much-despised reverend Fred Phelps. Once again, I'm serious. This isn't some ironic cool hipster thing like E.A. Hanks. I really do approve of the fringe Baptist pastor, the leader and motivating force of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.
Phelps and members of his congregation frequently hold demonstrations outside military funerals and public events, where they spend a few hours chanting, desecrating flags, waving signs praising various disasters while mocking their victims, and generally claiming that America is doomed. He tries to be as provocative and shocking as possible.
Almost everyone else seems to dislike him. I may be the only non-extremist to approve of him. In fact I think he's great!
At this point, many readers still think I'm joking.
It takes extreme courage to do what he does, to face public outrage wherever he goes, never knowing when it will all go wrong. And it will all go wrong someday, unless he quits. He's almost as brave as your typical suicide hijacker. I don't approve of them, and am also in favor of gay rights.
So why do I say such hurtful things?
Simple. The world is poopy! Phelps is the only person who acknowledges this fact, gets appropriately upset about it, and vigorously protests the situation in his deluded but effective way.
This is one of those statements (I've made many others) most people can't even understand because they disagree so much. I think the world is poopy for the opposite reasons Phelps thinks it's poopy (in his case homosexuality, in my case bureaucracy) but our dislike is basically the same. In both our cases, it's the perceived public tolerance for these things that are so frustrating.
Of course, if the world was not poopy, this article would be wrong. Perhaps the world could be made not-evil, but there's no evidence that's possible.
Notice I'm not praising that flag-burning guy who recently shot a Congresswoman and killed six others in Arizona. For that to happen, I would have to be insane with hatred. I'm not insane with dislike. Mad in the other sense of the word, yes.
Blinded with rage? Been there, done that.
Single-minded, dysfunctional, intolerant? Check, check, and check.
Utterly indifferent to mainstream values and sentimental sensitivities? Level unlocked.
Now, crazy: that's the big leagues. Many are called, but few are chosen.
A quarter of a trillion people have been treated worse than me, and multitudes have finally 'snapped'. But very few of them have simply chosen to reject the reality hoax. Phelps and perhaps some members of his flock have.
Still, we are talking about a group which threatened to picket the funeral of a nine year old girl who never harmed a fly, while praising her senseless murder - perhaps their most shocking effort so far. In this extreme case, could we agree that what they were doing was perhaps inappropriate?
Well yes, we could. Even that cancelled demonstration would have been nowhere NEAR dramatic enough to protest the world's poopys! He could have spent a thousand years disrupting every funeral without making a dent in the problem.
How poopy is the world? poopy enough to justify Phelps. His goal is to get people to pay attention. This isn't supposed to be a joke article. I actually believe this. Perhaps I'm the only one.
Looks like I'm not getting through, so let's put it another way: There's no reason to dislike Phelps, because he has no power. If he so much as pointed a loaded water pistol at a mourner, he would be instantly arrested. It would make the cops' day.
Also, as an absolute outsider he doesn't actually hurt the cause of gay rights. He doesn't believe in forming coalitions. He's against almost everyone, including me.
He might just plant the seeds of doubt in a few receptive minds, the notion that resistance is still possible. That will be his true legacy, if any.
Phelps is the kind of problem that you could choose to ignore, and nothing more will happen. People do not have the option to ignore some outrageously overpriced healthcare bill (don't get me started), street violence, corruption and fraud, or arbitrary government regulations and unfunded mandates.
He makes a perfect scapegoat while the real bad-smurfs run wild, praised by the establishment.
I don't know why the world is the way it is. Perhaps people are scared. They deliberately choose to make the world less valuable by tolerating poopyness. They want a steady stream of problems to appear in their lives, because that will make it easier to die. Most of those who aren't scared are just poopy or indifferent.
I wish there were better people out there also willing to fight, but everyone else is too lazy or scared. What kind of a world do we live in where someone who is looking for a genuine hero settles on Fred Phelps? This world.
Why I don't like lesbianism January 22nd, 2011
Actually, it doesn't matter what I like or don't like.
Still: my feelings about lesbianism are the same as my feelings for polygamy. Both these things are quite common but usually hidden. It's amazing to see men wildly endorsing and praising female relationships, claiming it's all great and wonderful.
The world's most chronic problem is that there are over three billion men of reproductive age, but fewer than two billion women of reproductive age. This imbalance means that many men are crowded out of the dating market by older, wealthier and more successful higher-status men.
In this respect, lesbianism is exactly the same as Islam: it worsens an already existing imbalance.
January 19th, 2011
Received some possible guest columns. Not sure if they will be used. Some editing and commenting will be needed. And of course personal data will have to be removed. Looking for something hard to describe. For lack of a better word, it could be called dislike. Despite what you've been told your whole life, it's vanishingly rare. Almost everyone wants to conform to the mainstream, instead of rejecting it. They don't want to expose the reality hoax, they want to control it.
These two guys below occasionally have the right idea:
THE WAR NERD: http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/
CITIZEN RENEGADE: http://roissy.wordpress.com/
slowly ramping up production January 14th, 2011
Guest contributions are welcome. Of course you retain the copyright, if you value intellectual property.
Leave your contact information in any of the old comments.
Contributed science fiction story: Antilibertarian November 1st, 2010
ANTILIBERTARIAN by Jack Arcalon
Posthuman existence was an endless vacation. Most Continuum citizens owned their own private universes, but everyone also had a home in Zeon. An unbounded plain with an Earthlike atmosphere, Posthumanity's shared home had no sun, but a cycle of light and darkness emanated from the heavens.
A Fractalscape of hills and valleys widened into lakes, seas, and oceans. Chains of tropical islands were connected by bridges and air and surface ferries. Many isolated atolls were never visited. No one was real, so no one could die. A few inhabitants had always lived in Zeon, where time could fold back on itself. There was no central government, or even an accurate census. Inevitably, it developed centers of power.
Absorbed in a million year project, Harold surveyed his estate, a dense forest island. Every day was almost the same, only slightly more complex. The first paths and wilderness outposts had taken centuries to plan and construct. Now he was ready to build his first mansion in a jungle peninsula. As he improved his minor empire, the rain on the tree canopy represented endless entropy. Someday, when he had earned his first quadrillion credits, this would become the nucleus of his own universe.
He had nothing in common with his distant neighbors, who owned sterile zones of absolute order. The new universes branching off from Zeon were as different as they could be. Everyone became their own country.
The OmniPattern inscribed the Posthuman essence into the laws of a mathematical universe. Across impossible distances, the Continuum still linked all Posthumans. Harold could never hope to visit the Core. The main transfer routes were almost gridlocked. Even his local sector had traffic delays, with no improvement in sight. Their isolation meant each sector developed its own iron traditions.
Harold belonged to the small minority of the decillion Posthumans who had begun to question their existence. An even less popular faction wanted change. Their appeals to form new sectors and shared universes were summarily rejected. The very notion was subversive, until the current sectors could be improved no further. Posthumanity's common goal was to analyze every meaningful life. Only then would it make sense to advance to the next level. The wait was intolerable. The Outsiders only option was to take drastic action. It was time to escape deeper.
Harold woke to a line of sunlight projected on the wall, and the busy signals of chirping birds. To him they sounded violent. His narrow room was almost cool after the unseasonable rain.
Like many people with unsolvable problems, he felt a giddy tranquility. Today was more intense. Never before had he felt so strongly that something big was going to happen. Outside, the earth roared, a combination of wind and traffic sounds.
He had been dreaming about the Simulation again. Hopefully the virtual multiverse would replace actual reality before he died in the next few decades. The current (strictly online) version already contained millions of user-generated simulations.
No time for breakfast. He sat on the edge of his folding bed, reached for his pad, and checked the status of his contribution, Sygmap21:
Surrounded by endless ocean, the immense island archipelago glittered in the morning light. The islands had many sizes and shapes, millions of them arranged in strategically interesting patterns. Most were independent nations participating in a web of alliances, populated by nanobots that were slowly inventing more advanced weaponry.
Until recently no ship was allowed to sail the ocean. All trade, combat, and conquest had happened by air. Nine great wars scrambled the political map.
Far below the apocalyptic air battles occupying its neighbors, one of the smallest islands had regained its independence after an epic struggle. The inhabitants emerged from their impregnable underground level to begin the rebuilding. Small robots with many-segmented arms cleared paths through the rubble. Simple CGI plants had already filled the ruined island's craters and furrows.
Harold checked the simulation stats. It would require dozens of iterations to achieve Level Two definition.
He glanced around his room. There was a silver Terminator skull, a Noctis poster, an old model flatscreen, defaced legal notices tacked on the wall, a hi-res 3D poster of the current love of his life, crossover songstress/actor Juanita Phelps. His home looked heroically shabby. His true possessions were ideas.
He went back online to check the most popular Posthuman pseudo-heaven, the source of his now forgotten dream. In fact his dream had been an unauthorized extension of that simulation.
Like the universe that had spawned it, Flatland was too complicated to show on a map. There were too many borders and weirdly contorted enclaves. No district spanned even a millionth of the whole. This was reflected in the absence of large political parties, religions, philosophies, or shared goals.
All politics was local. There was little contact between neighboring cities. They wouldn't have understood each other anyway. The only thing they shared was the drive toward self-improvement, what their Mormon ancestors had called eternal progression. Immense new languages evolved everywhere.
Hard to believe this was the most primitive part of the hypercivilization, the only area were old humans would have felt at home, if they could master unlimited patience.
It took a ten-million-year commitment to design a typical Megalopolis, where each building and neighborhood had a precise function. After many social and personal breakthroughs, after exploring all the subtle perceptions a human-level mind had to offer, a few prominent citizens would be invited to relocate to a more advanced Megalopolis, were slightly higher mind-states could be accessed.
Only thirty trillion citizens had managed to enter the core region known as the Eternal Empire, where they might ascend to archangel-like states. In the Capitol District, the Great Hall glowed in golden light. Here, the High Council (the top deliberative body in the known multiverse) served at the pleasure of the Grand Imperator, one level below God. Few citizens could communicate with him directly. The Imperial Ministers were the equivalents of demigods, a pantheon of frightful monomaniacs. The Executive Bureaucrats (Ranked 1 through 10^12) were undergods.
Any citizen who hoped to join their ranks had to be promoted through forty power levels which made a mockery of any human political campaign. Such a grandiose ascent required unshakable willpower and self-confidence, first-class connections, and flawless social manipulation skills; plus the fortitude to withstand a series of grueling examinations and ordeals.
Only one million citizens had attained top Patrician status. The rest were Serviles with circumscribed rights, to be reassigned as needed. Even they had many minutely measured gradations. All had accumulated immense wealth over the ages. By now, each subject owned at least one giant estate and many smaller holdings.
Still, someone had to be at the very bottom, the 'poorest of the poor', as far removed from the glorious Capitol as possible. This person barely owned a hundred acres. In a less competitive society, he might have converted his misfortune into a notorious celebrity. It was a cautionary tale.
"My main palace contains barely thirty rooms, and is located in the least fashionable Z-Edge district. My most presentable residence is a tiny condominium near the tenth most important Outer Core Boulevard. The highest functionary I could hope to contact is my local Deputy Executor. Above him is the acting District Overseer. Getting an appointment with her executive secretary would take at least four centuries - plus a Class-VIII achievement bonus."
Did you ever dream you woke up and suddenly understood what was going on?
The text seemed to tremble as Harold read the latest reports, user comments, and auto-generated SimLogs. He stared at the graphs like someone first noticing the Milky Way while lying on his back in the snow, a snapshot of an immense explosion. For weeks, he had been awaiting an epiphany. Cultures were chains of laws arranged from simple to complex. A subject had to understand them all to participate.
He checked more detailed simulations completed in the past twenty-four hours. Why had their users gone to the trouble of generating them? Communities of gas giant balloon organisms, disembodied AI networks, mole creatures, Hobbits, Smurfs. Someone visiting the surface of the sun inside the heavily armored hull of a battleship would stay alive just long enough to feel pain. The surface of a neutron star was covered with a strange superfluid. Push against it, and a bump instantly appeared on the other side.
Slowly, Harold returned to his base reality, the place he least wished to be. From the end of time to the end time.
His physical existence on Earth in the year 2020 seemed increasingly precarious. Mostly, he handled his problems by ignoring them. That would not be possible much longer. Harold had managed to offend three powerful interest groups (lawyers, bureaucrats, and seniors), plus too many powerful individuals to remember. He fell on his squeaking bed muttering a series of curses. His real life was defined by the concept of legal liability.
Five years ago, an innovative trial lawyer had won a trillion dollar civil judgment from the company managing an under-funded emergency room in a rural county hospital. Harold had happened to reside in that county. A wealthy old person had died because not enough doctors had been on hand to handle her complex medical condition. All 117,204 county residents were responsible for paying the medical neglect verdict, which took the form of a one-time tax assessment.
Obviously, it would be impossible to collect even a meaningful fraction of the amount. The verdict was reduced over 99% after a round of appeals. Senior citizens, honorably discharged veterans, and those under the age of twenty-one at the time of the judgment were excused from paying altogether.
Harold's final share had come to $5,270.48. This was still more than he claimed he could afford to pay. He had already taken out a loan to pay his elevated property taxes.
At first, many residents had simply ignored the bills. It took them several months to become aware of the new reality. Most saw the light when someone they knew lost everything after their bank account was seized. They got with the program by dialing a debt consolidator's toll-free number. A new breed of superlawyers negotiated thousands of individual settlements, where the amounts owed were further reduced.
A minority of residents had their wages garnished or even their homes seized. Many had to move to more modest accommodations. Declaring bankruptcy did not dissolve the debt, though many tried to go that route.
After five years of delaying tactics, Harold's problems were about to get real, as the certified mail tacked to his wall attested. He had acted as if the law would be changed. Instead, it was strengthened. The most recent verdicts should have filled him with dread. In some cases, failure to successfully apply for and retain a suitable job or other income stream was considered contempt of court. The Supreme Court refused to hear further appeals. Harold claimed to be unemployable in the current recession, but that excuse no longer worked. As a member of his 'Frank Pledge' he was expected to do whatever it took, no matter how painful.
The President had declared the next fifteen years would be a 'New Dawn', an era of hard work. The upcoming demographic transition meant everyone had to 'hustle and bustle' to provide for their 'extended families' and society.
Many of Harold's neighbors already worked twelve hour shifts to pay for universal healthcare, wealthcare, and the federal debt payments, as well as their own middleclass aspirations. "We can relax when we're dead," the President had not entirely joked. He often invoked the name of Jesus.
Harold's claim that he couldn't pass a criminal background check was similarly inadmissible. After all, he only had himself to blame. He should not have posted all these inciteful, illegal rants.
It was all the fault of BIFAPS. In an age of massive healthcare costs and other entitlements, the Bipartisan Family Protection and Stability Act of 2016 had brought fiscal order and predictability. This included maintaining a low but fixed growth rate in healthcare spending. The new infertility treatments, the resulting premature births, and longterm dementia care costs sometimes exceeded a million dollars per day. Politicians claimed healthcare spending was actually falling behind, because a shrinking portion of possible treatments was fully covered.
That was only the start. Under BIFAPS, all economic and legal rights acquired before January 20th, 2017 were to be retained forever. Their rates of increase were also to be maintained within reason. By law, medical benefits and pensions could never be reduced. Promised benefits were paid to senior union members before anyone new could be hired, though that rule was soon relaxed.
A long list of economic simplifications was also ruled out. To prevent disruptive innovation, licensing rules became much stricter. Those who wanted to join the economic elite had to earn admission by putting in a decade of study and apprenticeships. The number of lowly paid interns multiplied. It triggered a massive increase in college costs, as most of the online universities were shut down. Discount medical clinics had six months to meet tough new care standards. Most were bought out by established hospitals. Housing costs burgeoned, to the relief of struggling homeowners.
An immense bureaucracy solved any contradictions by expanding itself, looking for new ways to keep money flowing to politically connected recipients.
BIFAPS was crafted to benefit most elements of society, but it required sacrifices from everyone. Massive new taxes were on the horizon as long-promised services for the elderly were added. That legislation would only be passed after the next election.
50% of the economy would soon be dedicated to interest payments. Economic growth would come to an end, but experts disagreed about whether that was a bad thing. Stagnation would ease the restructuring into a well balanced, 'mature' economy that could maintain itself indefinitely, without the annoying boom-bust cycles that had caused so much misery through the ages.
Harold cared more about the unpredictable effects. He was about to experience some of them himself. Criticizing the legislation was of course perfectly legal, but he had gone too far by speculating online about ways to evade it, including how to hide income. He had encouraged others to do so, providing them with case-specific information. That had resulted in his first misdemeanor conviction. Even that had only happened because he insisted on representing himself in court. The prosecutor had offered to assign him a public defender, though Harold technically hadn't qualified under the means test. His passions usually overrode his restraint, especially when he got mad. That would be the end of him.
"If you're not working by the fifteenth of next month, you could be detained," Tyleesha, Harold's court-appointed caseworker, had warned him two weeks ago. "Your driver's license will be suspended and your bank account frozen." She spoke like a parole officer, her usual laid-back attitude on hold. "You have to get a full-time job. If twenty million undocumented migrants can do it, you can too."
Almost 4 percent of the population was currently under government supervision. Harold dreaded joining their ranks. In an age of chronic unemployment, the new federal work programs (the 'Temp Camps') were quite tough.
One of Harold's weaknesses was that he liked to appear as if he had ample options. He hadn't replied right away. They sat in a room of sun-slanted shadows and unplanned earth tones. As he cleared his throat, his caseworker had continued.
"You seem to be running a campaign against society, not just the government. You're inventing new legal problems. Hate is always wrong." Once again he realized that almost all advice was awful. It only generated more stress.
"The world has decided to enslave itself," he remembered replying. "Someone has to fight back. That would be me." Between the otherwise uneventful years of 2010 and 2020, humanity had finally been tamed. For the first time, society had developed the means to block disruptive change. The rest of the world happily joined the USA and Europe in preserving its existing institutions and privileges. Many regions were even more thorough about it. No global pressure was applied, yet not a single country, no matter how small, had opted out. Not one.
"It's too early for history to end," he had said. "None of the good stuff has happened yet." "Oh, I'm sure it hasn't."
Then Harold remembered giving a long, impassioned speech, summing up his greatest insights. In his mind his impromptu performance had equaled Galt's finest perorations, though his online transcript had generated rather less enthusiasm.
"Humanity can sometimes achieve the hardest goals," he had declaimed, "but not the easiest ones. Technology is useless against simple poverty, ignorance, obesity. The reason is that most people are unnecessary. All the essential labor can be done by an elite cadre of experts. But everyone is still expected to make themselves useful, even us low-value individuals."
"I call it the Stasis Paradox," he went on. "It's why everything sucks. The world is incredibly complex yet incredibly crude. Centuries of accumulated traditions, interest groups, and bureaucracy only become more entrenched as new institutions are built on top of them. Now mankind has chosen to block all meaningful change, and to seal off all the unexplored side paths. Those in power benefit the most."
"Is this a Scifi conspiracy?" his caseworker had wondered.
"No, it's an emergent phenomenon, a crystallization network, democracy amplifying itself. The deadwood has become the forest, choking everything. It's a conformity effect, a brain function shutting down critical thinking! The only way to make things better would be to make them worse first. At this point, it would take a world war to reboot the system. Or maybe everyone should take powerful drugs to shatter their mental cages."
Two years ago, his first caseworker became furious at this point, and had started yelling incoherently. Harold must have said something else to have caused such consternation. His second caseworker had used unfunny humor to avoid discussing taboo subjects. Harold's odd beliefs did not necessarily indicate a mental disorder, but his efforts at converting others seemed borderline delusional, since he invariably failed.
"I think the world is a bit more complicated than you say," his final caseworker had objected idly.
"No way!" he countered. "We're too simple. Whenever a problem is solved, the solution becomes just another box in a flowchart. The new insight doesn't change us, or spread to other fields. Society may get smarter, but individuals don't. The smarter society gets, the more complicated life gets for its subjects. Things will only get worse until the final collapse. At the end lies chaos, not God. The opposite of meaning!"
Government workers were instructed not to debate politics with their clients, but his caseworker had an hour to spare. One of Tyleesha's other clients had committed suicide the other day.
"You left out one thing," she said. "Most people actually like the new system. Life is more predictable now. The majority has benefited from the new rules. Only a minority dislikes them."
Harold felt a moment of vertigo. He rarely heard valid counterpoints. "But things are getting worse, and not just for me! The new polygamy movement is locking up women like slaves! Surplus men kicked out of their compounds turn criminal, and watch out if the patriarch gets mad at you!" Harold had changed the subject again, another sign of his lightning mind, he thought.
"You must be talking about the New Dominion," Tyleesha replied. "Most people haven't even heard of them. They seem low-threat."
Thousands of cult members had been kicked out of Texas three years ago before reconstituting in Harold's area. Most members had gone underground, but the group was still expanding. Soon they would join the mainstream. The government had suspended most criminal prosecutions. In the spirit of BIFAPS, many New Dominion practices were being formalized. For an outsider to attempt to seduce a plural wife could be a civil offense under the new religious accommodation laws.
"There are more than they let on," Harold replied. "And other types of polygamy are even more common! That's why I am single."
He thought he glimpsed weary amusement. "Even if you're right, you have to make some concessions," she objected. "In your case sooner rather than later. Even the thought of rebellion is dangerous. Better hide your intentions."
She sighed. "I hope I'm wrong for both our sakes, but I don't think you will get a steady income soon. You haven't even tried to meet Judge Garrin's expectations regarding your online profile. I could say one thing: we won't make any extraordinary efforts to find you, should you make yourself scarce next month."
That announcement had affected him more than any well-meant warning. Leaving the fifth floor of the County Office Building, Harold was unexpectedly shaken. He could not handle the future. For the first time he focused on himself. Things were about to get real.
When he returned home, his first impulse had been to look for others like himself. He needed allies. This was no easy task. Harold turned out to be weirder than he'd thought.
Currently he lived off a modest annuity, the fruit of a lawsuit his parents had won against a drunk driver. All his adventures and thrills were online, where he conducted 'meta-scientific' research. His other brush with the law involved a police interrogation about stalker-like activities around a certain celebrity. He had been caught with an infrared camera designed to see through clothing (paparazzi upgrade) inside a gated community at night. Good-cop/bad-cop was not a myth.
At this point, only three distant relatives and an ex-teacher might care that he existed. Even the crank websites ignored him.
Online, he learned he wasn't quite alone. At least five members of his judgment class were jailed or confined to house arrest for hiding assets. Others faced the threat of prison for their proclaimed inability to pay fines or child support. A group of men lived in barrack-style housing in a high-crime neighborhood, along with dozens of illegal aliens. One had even offered to help Harold move in.
He had also found a few genuine outsiders online, a loose conglomeration of resisters, malcontents, conspiracy theorists, stymied innovators, and aggrieved losers who were more talk than action. They differed among themselves more than normal people, but they did agree about one thing: all social progress had ended in the past decade. History might even reverse itself.
Harold's online investigations had hit a snag when a Malaysian potentate shut down Google for two weeks, and temporarily confiscated its 1,000,001 servers. The potentate's goal had been to find the overwritten trail of a single search, evidence in a polygamous divorce proceeding. One of his wives' secret lover had been researching untraceable poisons. It took only one court order in a friendly jurisdiction (Dearborn, Michigan). Because of an attached gag order, no one knew if the potentate's search had succeeded.
This episode had first made Harold aware of the social changes in his own area. Otherwise he might have missed the polygamous New Dominion movement operating behind the scenes. Their backroom manipulations included zoning changes and tax exemptions for an agribusiness collective, a private resort, and even the incorporation of a small town.
Stories about 'Lost Boys' being expelled from their communities in large numbers so that older men could take additional wives were mostly false. Instead, they voluntarily moved out of their crowded dormitories to try their luck in regular society. There had been more local bar fights, sexual harassment charges, and a proliferation of moneymaking scams.
The movement owned extensive local investments, donated to charities, and had even managed to get a member elected to the local school board. All part of a bigger trend . . .
He had spent another week searching news archives: reading about the increasing number of laws, regulations, and bureaucracies; price inflation trends; hidden taxes and unfunded mandates; the rise in banking charges and toxic loans; a boom in privatized debtors prisons; the pathetic handful of active resistance movements and their declining protests; police chases and standoffs. Artificial scarcity was the new basis of the world economy.
Harold integrated all the data, and finally accepted the unbearable truth: The world was fucked. All was lost. So what else was new?
This morning his perceptions were heightened like on the morning of a final exam, a combination of fear and hope. He still had options. His singlewide trailer was located on the edge of a trailer park surrounded by woods, one hundred yards off a rural road ten miles from town. He had two revolvers (a heirloom .45 (his preferred suicide weapon, should all options be removed) and a Zunghou .38), a single action shotgun, a bulletproof vest and a tactical helmet, ample ammo, and hidden cams around his property.
He was still better off than most of the forgotten victims of history. Tomorrow, he could choose to submit to the politicians and visit the nearest JobCorps intake center, or he could delay further by falsely filing for a student loan, or he could go into hiding. Or he could resist.
Harold believed the human brain contained a mysterious 'sub-brain' evolved to resolve intolerable dilemmas. Responsible for the placebo effect, it also absorbed prayers and schemed against authority figures.
Presently he remembered the worst pain he had ever felt, courtesy of a three-millimeter kidney stone. He had purchased his first handgun three days later.
The doctors and nurses had kept him in agony for eight hours before giving him a pain shot because his RealID hadn't conformed to federal regulations. As he lay writhing, moaning, and cursing behind a thin curtain on the emergency room examination couch, they explained his 30-day provisional ID had expired and needed to be upgraded, which required his birth certificate and employment and/or utility records he didn't have. (This was not the hospital that had been sued for a trillion dollars in damages.)
When he had managed to crawl to the hallway to holler for pills, Harold was tackled and tasered by two guards. That additional flash of pain had actually made him feel better, erasing the sordid indignity of the scene.
He remembered that feeling this morning. He realized he wasn't going to run. He would stay in his home no matter what. The first thug to break through his prefab door would die along with him.
"Bring it motherfuckers," he sneered at absolutely no one.
And it might well come to that. However, a miracle would also be welcome.
He knew from game theory he should narrow his predicament to two compromise choices, make a loss/benefit diagram to rank them, and use a properly weighted dice to make his final decision. There was even an app for that.
Instead, he started from nothing. As a noted crank philosopher, he believed in deep patterns. The Bootstrap Principle, Boto Rimeno: why did something exist rather than nothing? The simplest entity was absence, which implied its opposite: one bit of information.
The simplest equation to generate all binary patterns (0, 1, 00, 01, 10, 11, 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111, 0000, 0001, and so on) was supremely unethical. It would eventually generate all bad, poopy, and horrific patterns, including exact digital descriptions of every unpleasant historical event, including Harold's present conundrum. The highest purpose of reality should be to prevent such patterns from existing.
In the past decade, the whole world had been simulated online at low resolution. The Net had already begun to explore some of the horrors mankind had managed to avoid by blind luck alone, as part of the Reality Project.
He studied an alternate-world simulation replaying the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. World War Three began with one week of US air strikes against Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Then the Soviets fired five short-range nuclear missiles against the Marine landings west of Havana. The US responded with the prompt nuclear destruction of dozens of military bases in the USSR. That same day, every large to medium-sized American city went through a chaotic mass evacuation that killed over ten thousand civilians. Things only got worse. The Soviet nuclear response destroyed the main US bases in Europe. Then came seven days of all-out nuclear war, and the destruction of much of western Europe and the entire Soviet Union. Only twelve million Americans were killed after six missile and ten one-way suicide bomber strikes, but almost two hundred million Soviets and a hundred million Europeans perished within a year. There would be a hundred million additional cancer deaths throughout Asia. Uncertainties about the long-term effects of the fallout destroyed what remained of the world economy. It ended with the US annexation of Siberia.
This was just one of millions of Armageddon scenarios set in the Twentieth Century. Altogether, mankind barely had a 60% chance of escaping that century in better shape than it had started. The number of possible future cataclysms was of course infinitely greater. Mathematically, there was no way to escape certain Doom.
Something had to be done. Nothing could be done. He needed a fundamentally new insight. Only possibilities mattered, no matter how remote.
The mere existence of a sufficient force automatically elevated him, even if it also made him obsolete. If he could live in a world where the X-Men were real, he would be ten times cooler, although relatively he would be even less capable.
Once again Harold sensed an immense presence ahead. Not an obstacle, but a mystery more important than his own oblivion.
The ideas came faster as his search entered stranger byways of the Net. He believed it was time to upgrade human nature through mind enhancement technology. Powerful new drugs could strengthen emotions, make life more meaningful, activate everyone's personal visions. Then would come the shared visions. Global brainwashing, if such a thing was possible. It might start as a hoax, a meticulous deception inducing mass focus. It might be a virus.
The longer Harold stayed awake, the more sense it made. He was at the start of an epic adventure, a real one this time. Every adventure began with a single anomaly. He had to find that anomaly. The first clue was what he was doing right now, a type of search he couldn't have imagined seven years ago. His computer was generating and pursuing leads like an extension of his mind. Sometimes their roles even reversed. In a primitive way, the Net had become aware. Human awareness was now an extension of the massive network describing known reality at increasing resolution.
Unfortunately, this mind merger had only begun after human civilization had decided to freeze itself. Had it started five years earlier, a new intelligence could have arisen before the current order was locked in place.
Harold spent eight more hours online, chasing stray leads he had collected over many months. The world was not quite as boring as it appeared. There was at least one miracle out there. He had to find it. No doubt others had already had the same idea. He could try to find them instead. They were extremely powerful, operating on a global scale . . . perhaps a reclusive billionaire funded the group. If only they existed.
Sometime between midnight and 3 AM, Harold had to face the truth. There was nothing out there. He was on his own. Only darkness on the horizon - or perhaps the shadow of something immense. He reclined unblinking against the wall for many minutes. He realized the greatest conspiracy of all time began with him, at this very moment.
Fortunately, most preparations had already been completed for other purposes. He found plans disguised as simulations and overly detailed fiction. He merely had to choose and combine existing ideas, and pretend they had more power than anyone had thought. Then he needed money and co-conspirators, ways to attract the best programmers, disgruntled managers, and angry fools like himself to execute each step.
He imagined a series of disruptions to shake the world. Last year, someone had put bounties on the heads of hundreds of CEOs and politicians, supposedly to intimidate them into moderating their excesses. The perpetrator had never been caught.
Harold had ventured far into the wasteland, but he never entirely lost touch with reality. He understood that any plot he could put into action would be found out. The majority of mankind wouldn't believe it was real, even if it was real. There had been too many hoaxes already.
He began to see what had to be done. Only the most spectacular intervention could work. The world transformation would be forged in a shock of creative destruction. The tension would give rise to the very organization he needed to form, to solve the global threats it had created.
To attract members, he needed one big lie. That lie was that the group already existed. He would rewrite the past to backdate his conspiracy. History falsification was the ultimate control tool.
He imagined an elite order promising its members immortality, better than any religion. Of course Harold would not benefit personally, at least not too much. The illusion of an all-powerful revolution was more valuable than any actual conspiracy. People responded to authority, no matter how unjust.
He needed an origin story. A future entity manipulating history to create a feedback loop leading to its own invention? He wondered if he was being manipulated right now. Additional visions came as the hours passed. Properly planned and managed, an escalating series of false terrorist attacks would monopolize public attention, creating the illusion of mass discontent, leading to actual calls for change.
In Harold's case, ignorance was a weapon. Operating by whim and passion rather than logic (with frequent breaks and occasional naps), he set his plan in motion.
It turned out there was a large constituency for resistance. They just needed someone to tell them what to do. It took only a week to establish his first reliable contact. Then the network began to double every few days.
Somehow, the online intelligence agencies missed all the preparations. When things actually began to happen, Harold thought he had discovered a type of magic. More likely, he had unleashed a pre-existing force which had been biding its time, waiting to assert itself.
Within two months, his impromptu scheme was responsible for mass disruptions in ten cities. The attackers created false news videos and websites, used social networks for propaganda purposes, infiltrated emergency services to spread disinformation, tampered with infrastructure and sabotaged pipelines, deployed chemical irritants, sent death threats and paid out bounties for failed attempts, set off powerful smoke generators and diversionary fires, hijacked a dozen tanker trucks to create devastating blasts in evacuated factories and city centers, and used suicide attack teams to disable power plants and command centers.
They also released the first nanotech anti-personnel weapons, the 'Skreechers' secretly developed in Russia and China. The cleanup was vastly more expensive than any damage they did. The goal was a breaking news story every hour. The few operatives who were captured told sensational tales about a global brotherhood of doom, claiming the World Mind had sent them.
While not particularly destructive, the scattered attacks were unbearably ominous. There was no way to predict the next target. International travel and trade plummeted and oil prices skyrocketed.
The first copycat attack (just as the original effort was petering out) caused the first significant loss of life. Targeting a cabal of wealthy investment bankers who had helped cheat their clients and taxpayers out of half a trillion dollars, the attackers sprayed several kilos of capsaicin into three office buildings. More than a hundred employees died in the stairwell stampedes or jumped out of windows. Generating over ten thousand fake 911 calls in half an hour, a second copycat group shut down rush hour traffic throughout the NorthEast Corridor.
Then a third group used the opportunity to execute their long-planned massive attack. Tens of thousands of commuters collapsed where they stood as persistent nerve agents penetrated their lungs and skin, death following within minutes. The effects reverberated far and wide. For the first time in seventy years, a political group had dared challenge China's Communist Party on its home turf.
They couldn't have done it without Harold's help. Half a dozen opportunities to foil the Beijing plot were later identified. All were ignored in the chaos of the false attacks.
More apocalyptic outrages soon followed, plus targeted assassinations of officials who sometimes didn't deserve it, plus the wanton alteration of court and police records in many countries.
Exactly as Harold had anticipated, the world went to heck in a handbasket. Insanity could be contagious, as the panic reached a crescendo. The public thought it was a fundamentally new threat, a cancer from humanity's dark heart. They might be right.
"So I caused all this," Harold sighed. "I guess I did find a job after all. Didn't manage to get paid for it, though. You may have heard of me: I am NightMaster."
Sitting in the familiar county office, it was unreal to let the truth out. He felt like Himmler trying to negotiate his postwar release. An image flashed through his mind, a fireball engulfing a huge skyscraper.
His caseworker listened to his degraded tale with mounting incredulity. "You did no such thing!" Tyleesha exclaimed. "This whole mess would have happened anyway. You coincidentally happened to come up with the same idea at the same time as the morons responsible for . . ." she checked her notes ". . . the 'Morumbo' false conspiracy, who inspired the 'H-9' and 'Suko' groups to do their shit, and then of course 'Al-Lianza' joined in."
At least fifty thousand 'persons of interest' had been detained in the past month, most of them doubtlessly innocent.
She continued: "You admitted some of what you told me on your blog, though I wonder if anyone else read it. Your pranking may have subverted their communications. You probably saved two or three lives in the process."
The Morumbo group had been a much better persuader than Harold. Apparently everyone had ignored his agitations. "You're saying I'm not in trouble for trying to destroy the world?"
"Had you made a serious effort, you would now be talking to a federal agent four pay grades above myself. That would be most unpleasant. I called up your files when you asked for this meeting. You were added to a watch list long before the attacks began. You probably guessed that was why I was assigned your case. I only deal with troublemakers. The Net surveillance was probably illegal, but good luck proving anything under the Terror Laws."
"I know I'm being monitored."
"TIA would have detected illegal communications. All you did was post rambling wish-fulfillment fantasies that less than a dozen people commented on. Couldn't you tell that no one acknowledged your orders? That's what we call fantasy."
Harold had just received a six-month case extension, courtesy of the current crisis. At the end of that period he really would lose his freedom, unless he found a winning lottery ticket or someone was crazy enough to hire him. Tyleesha had coughed something about a 'mental health' extension, but he wasn't about to play crazy.
Six months seemed a lifetime away. Anything could happen by then. Anything at all.
Harold remembered the most spectacular attacks, barely a month ago, though it already seemed longer. Biotoxin airbursts and water poisoning had exterminated over two million victims in the largest cities of the Third World. They had already been 'replaced' by new births, but the pain would be felt for many decades. The average death toll per target had exceeded 10,000. Epidemics were breaking out among the tens of millions of refugees.
Similar attacks against low-density Western cities had killed only a few thousand, thanks to the ability of the residents to stay indoors for days at a time, allowing area decontamination.
The most shocking detail was the low cost of the attacks. The required equipment was cheaper than a luxury tour bus and would fit inside one, along with most of the operatives needed to carry out the attacks.
Humans were vastly more vulnerable than expected, and absurdly fragile. They couldn't have much of a future.
Each target city had well over a million residents, though Harold didn't think he had heard of any of them:
Dongguan Wuhan Shenyang Pune Chengdu Surat Xi'an Chonging Fuzhou Abidjan Hangzhou Porto Alegre Bandung Suzhou Busan Daegu Dalian Kanpur Tianjin Fortaleza Salvador Kano Kunming Jaipur Changchun Surabaya Taiyuan Guayaquil Kaohsiung Faisalabad Mashad Nagpur Puebla Campinas Changsha Aleppo Lanzhou Medan Shijiazhuang Patna Qingdao San'a Nanchang Changzhou Indore Jinan Zhengzhou Maputo Baotou Douala Jilin City Fukuoka
As a result of the attacks (and the total failure of the authorities to respond effectively) there had already been three revolutions. China's supposedly unshakable Party hierarchy had been terrorized into introducing its first democratic reforms.
He remembered the cataclysmic spectacle of the world's third largest supertanker ramming a high-rise city in grandiose slow motion. Then came dam bursts, truck bombs at government buildings, bridge detonations, the senseless vandalism of public and financial records of every type.
Harold knew he actually was responsible for every nightmarish moment, though he hadn't anticipated any of them. He was absolutely certain of this fact.
His double bluff (or was it a quadruple bluff?) had succeeded brilliantly. He did not consider himself morally responsible for the countless personal tragedies. The world had been sick to begin with. He had merely triggered the long overdue immune response.
To top it off, Harold had just admitted his crime to the very government that still sought his enslavement, and they couldn't do a thing about it.
No matter what happened next, he would no longer be a loser.
Contributed short SF story: VRSEX - a story about Virtual Reality Sex October 7th, 2010
VRSex a short SF story:
Mankind's (not necessarily humanity's) greatest achievement was the struggle to build the first lifelike Virtual Reality sex simulator over a period of three decades. The VRS Project was funded by a brilliant software nerd who was rejected by women, like most of his kind. After much work, he found himself very wealthy. Although his problem no longer had to apply, it had ruined his whole outlook. No man should endure decades of abstinence, yet hundreds of millions of men were forced to do just that. This was known as sexual selection, by which only the more dynamic male genes were passed on through multiple mothers. Accepting that the VRS Project would dominate his life, he was ready to sacrifice the fortunes of his investors so that, someday, any man could get laid whenever he wanted.
In his Playboy interview, he admitted he didn't care about the social implications. The technical problems were enough for a thousand lifetimes. He speculated VR-sex would improve the gender balance, reducing sexual assault rates. Despite these benefits, he only won sarcastic prizes from feminists and church groups.
The first roadblock was the most obvious. It could be proven that Virtual Reality sex was, to put it mildly, impossible: in the same way that Earth's mightiest supercomputers couldn't crack common encryption, any machine that could fool human perception had to be exponentially more complicated than a human brain. The only way to fully simulate making out with Miss Universe required Miss Universe's clone.
This inconvenient fact was no match for the power of frustrated lust. The Project team began by squeezing several decades worth of research into the first year. They realized a perfect Sex Simulator could also simulate anything else. A less than perfect one could simulate nothing else. As long as it was better than reality.
Most of the grunt research was done by offshore contractors working in parallel. All results were made public to encourage the few competing researchers. The Project needed all the help it could get. It was a time of religious revival, and masturbation was condemned by Christian and Islamic demagogues.
Only four years behind schedule, the product of Phase Zero was a bargain at twenty billion dollars. It only required three tons of hardware (the next version would be bigger), but the control center sprawled across three floors and employed a hundred technicians. The astoundingly versatile, omni-directional framework contained half a million parts, not including the retractable nano-needles.
The software billionaire tested the equipment himself. He admitted that any strumpet or floozy could do what his machine could do (and do it better), but his machinery could be easily mass-produced. He won more misogyny awards.
The user could squeeze and fondle a computer generated woman through a bodyhugging exosuit suspended in a support skeleton cradled inside a moving framework. His body was only supported in a few places, depending on whether he was supposed to be standing, sitting, or lying down. The exosuit was made of thousands of hydraulic bladders wrapped around inward-facing nano-needles.
In the first test run, only the user's hand could interact with the VR-woman. To avoid lawsuits there was also a male version serving 2% of the user base, mainly homosexual men who wished to remain closeted. Privacy was guaranteed. The user's body was still immobilized, but he could turn his head in four directions along two planes. Dynamic software created an ultra-resolution 3D model of the user's object of affection, which had to be felt to be believed. The next version, using a 'bilateral sheet interface', would allow full-body contact.
It was a triumph of science: a middle-aged man huffing and panting on top of a nonexistent younger female. The bottom of the exosuit pressing against his body like a mattress was woman-shaped but only millimeters deep. The suspending skeleton precisely measured his location through colored reflectors dotting his suit. Most data about the simulated woman, including her position, was embedded in the bodysuit to save valuable microseconds.
The user could feel his simulated sex partner's detailed skin texture and smoothness; temperature, density, and dampness; grab her body and bend and stretch or compress the joints; push and squeeze her with his legs; fondle the lushly fractalized hairs; roll off and roll over; and push and pull from several permitted directions. Sliding skin layers heated and cooled realistically, with all the underlying muscles, sinews, nerves, blood vessels and bones lovingly recreated. One pioneer test subject liked to slap his VR lover. Biting or licking was not possible, though a Japanese inventor was working on this problem.
The first VR-sex simulator was of course rather sluggish. The mighty arrays of nitrogen-cooled parallel processors filling a converted parking garage needed time to catch up with the user's groping and poking. A research team was forced to invent a new generation of analog chips to get the needed speed. Most users could tolerate the inevitable errors. Only the areas the user was looking at or touching were rendered. In fact they were pre-rendered. Most Sex-Sim elements had to be calculated and recorded in advance, and were combined on the fly. The surrounding environment was also pre-simulated from every angle; the rooms, furniture, and bedding embedded as detailed holographic patterns in dedicated CPUs.
The results could be frighteningly realistic. VR environments were far crisper, more detailed, and more lifelike than real life. They could get boring after a while, so new environments had to be designed at stunning expense. The first simulated palace of love had twice the inflation-corrected budget of the first Toy Story movie.
Every scenario was planned in advance, all eventualities lined up in flowcharts and data buffers. The Control Program created the simulation by combining thousands of predefined micro-tasks and sub-scenarios. Every detail of the side view of someone's ideal mate walking on the beach was perfected in thousands of preliminary simulations.
Pre-rendering employed thousands of independent artists and engineers, whose efforts had to be seamlessly combined. The most important elements were subconscious. Factors like air temperature, wind, humidity, scents, feedback vibrations and infrasonic rumbles set the stage. Subtle motions in the user's body were set up in the supporting framework.
It was not enough. While visually accurate, the simulated images couldn't keep up with fast-moving users. Full-body interactions felt unreal after a while. Even the first prototype had to use the mysterious technique of mind manipulation.
Halfway between illusions and black magic, the field had no consistent philosophy, only a set of loose conjectures like a fever dream. The core insight was that the user had no free will but was acting out a program.
The first step was memory/perception integration, involving the brain's amygdala and fusiform areas. Before entering a simulation, the user endured a prolonged induction phase, concentrating on the setting without questioning it in any way. Drugs and an isolation tank session set up the proper suggestive state. He was flooded with detailed depictions of every aspect of the fictional environment. Forced to absorb a torrent of perceptions and descriptions, the user's situational memory became overloaded. A new awareness emerged at that point, a process called holistic integration. Ideally, he never caught up and realized his consciousness was seized, or started testing the limits of the simulation.
The first experimental sex simulator was installed in Hong Kong, after its don't-ask-questions constitution was renewed until 2097. Because of China's vast fertile men surplus (worse than anywhere except India and Arabia), tens of millions of Chinese men couldn't find sex partners. They flocked to the testing center in Guangzhou, where many bribes changed hands. A small minority continued in windowless vans to 'Heaven's Harem' in an unmarked office building far from the waterfront. Half were virgins. The Project team went out of its way to select a handful of disabled participants.
It took weeks of practice. Users transitioned into the simulator after spending time in virtual training rooms. The setting was crafted by each user.
Then the fun began. The key to maintaining the proper hypnotic state was to overwhelm the user with sensations. Full-vision display goggles covered his eyes, as tracking lasers projected images with higher apparent framerates than reality. His brain was scanned and monitored. Trained to focus on the next action, his brainwaves controlled the force/feedback levels.
The crucial insight was to also simulate the user himself. The simulation needed to predict his actions and desires. He was the core of the simulation. The way he scanned and explored his environment was planned by the control software. Anticipatory simulations sometimes transcended free will.
Assisted by the engineers in the control room, the AI running the simulation provided emotional feedback, the only way to create a meaningful sex partner. The user wanted to be fondled, stroked, or slapped, or to tumble with his dream date to the ground. 'She' responded to movements and expressions he wasn't even aware of.
VR entities were generated from the user's viewpoint, a process called autological projection. More effort was dedicated to calculating the user's body's interactions with the simulated environment through internal pressure points than to the environment itself.
Each user designed his ideal partner, complete with a detailed backstory. She had an elaborate internal life of a type unknown in nature, including a hidden compulsion to please her creator.
Some preferred to indulge in hero fantasies, standard porn plots, or violent perversions, others frolicked through celebrity harems. No actual celebrities had allowed their bodies to be scanned, so their recreations were based on movie scenes and thousands of close-up paparazzi shots, a fact hidden from the test subjects. Requests to simulate underaged celebrities were of course vetoed by the legal department.
The magic happened when the user became convinced the simulation was realer than reality, like a drug trip or a lucid dream. In fact they were deceived into thinking the real world had been an excessively dull simulation all along. The hardest part was returning to reality, which seemed very depressing.
At first the researchers didn't recognize the dangers. They even claimed VR experiences could make dysfunctional individuals saner, but the process could go wrong. There were urban legends of strange killings, mind control conspiracies and mental breakdowns. A VR simulation that turned horrifying could scare a user to death.
For now, the danger was limited. Early sex simulators barely worked at all. Despite three venture capital rounds, the hiring of thousands of programmers on five continents plus ten times as many subcontractors, the most expensive Korean electronics and Japanese robotics constructed to the highest standards - the simple fact remained that today's most advanced hardware was not nearly advanced enough.
The problems were legion. The first billion dollar exosuit had to be customized and tailored for each user. The suit used electro-stimulation to help bend the user's joints as needed. Able to stimulate most surface nerves, its web of force/feedback fibers could also push and pull the user's body into any shape. The bodysuit was complex enough to walk by itself. It could even put itself on. The ultimate goal was to fully control the body's proprioceptors, which would obviate the need to move at all.
But the control software running the bodysuit, exoskeleton, and outer framework couldn't adapt smoothly enough. To the user, it could feel like being trapped in a dense fluid or being buried. Many dropped out after their first session. There was talk of lawsuits for psychological trauma, including attachment issues and impotence. Investors started to grumble. The VRS Project was compared to earlier acronymed boondoggles like SST, SDI, SCSC, ISS.
Surprisingly, one of the first test runs had succeeded beyond all expectations. The user had entered a hypnotic state of extreme concentration. The resolution and surface textures were immensely detailed. He could feel the geometry of space itself. It was an entirely new type of perception. His dalliance with a famous videogame vixen somehow became a false memory from a new timeline. The details faded, but the experience converted him from a chronic loser into a magnetic entrepreneur, though the transition took six months. It seemed the simulation had rewritten his reality.
In the most successful sessions, the user felt several steps removed, as if he was remote-controlling his own body. Very slight motions were exaggerated in the simulation. He barely needed to think about moving for his VR-self to respond. It took more effort to stop an action than to start it. His control movements might resemble fidgeting, but it felt like he was walking, running, grabbing and handling objects with extreme precision. Tilting his head caused a scene shift. Focusing his eyes allowed fine motion control. The simulation became an extension of himself. The slight hardware delay only strengthened the out of body experience. His awareness became free to change any way it wished.
This development finally attracted the long-awaited attention of respectable researchers. Within months, two dozen universities and software firms had established their own VR institutes. They soon discovered new VR illusions.
Users stopped feeling their exosuits after a minute, which allowed the pressure cells to create deeper sensations. At low resolutions, virtual women appeared hollow, like mannequins that might collapse unpleasantly. They could be solidified with updated pressure maps constantly overlaying earlier ones, a step ahead of the user's reality censor.
Forcing the user to pay closer attention made him less likely to notice errors. When his brain was tricked into helping to create the simulation, it was harder to notice the flaws.
Human awareness could deceive itself on even larger scales, changing memories and personality traits. The effects could spread across time. When someone experienced deja-vu, the recalled memory was only moments old. The past could be rewritten in deep ways.
The researchers identified a new addiction beyond the joys of VR sex. Even ordinary VR environments could give users omniscient power illusions, the ability to access any truth, a deep awareness across universes, at least for a while. Some felt distinctly godlike.
Like compulsive gamblers, many test subjects stayed in their simulations for days at a time, seeking some ineffable reward. VR students could study up to ten times longer. Simply making people pay attention hard enough could rebuild their brains. The Project planners realized the spin-offs were more valuable than the sex simulator itself, at least financially. VR might dominate Earth's economy by 2050, yet it was a distraction from their true goal.
The Project went commercial, releasing the first simplified home-use Sex-Sim to fund their core research. Version 3.1, released in early 2028, was visually impressive but didn't allow much physical contact, though it came with a partial bodysuit. There was hardly any caressing, hugging, stroking, petting or fumbling involved, but since it was a pornographic product, this mattered less. The included scenarios had no relation to reality. The software's focus tricks created the illusion of intimacy and user dominance. The next version's online AI gave the virtual sex partner limited awareness.
There was no reported decline in sexual harassment incidents, but the increase was slowing. Being what they were, teenage males spent inordinate efforts trying to access the earliest Sex-Sims. Hastily passed laws imposed harsh penalties on anyone allowing that to happen. It was later discovered that Sex-Sim users had trouble interacting with real females. The technology was banned outright in the Muslim world, except as a medically approved marital aid, or to help artificial insemination and IVF treatments.
While very dramatic, VR-Sex couldn't compare to the magical passions of reality, which were all about mystery, great struggles and great prizes. Cyberspace was about solutions.
Society began to fray at the edges as humans started making odd choices. They gave up the rich chaos of real life to enter the simple yet inexhaustible purity of the New Net. Pharmaceuticals could neutralize and harness the human sex drive for other purposes.
The Project team had to face the truth. Their latest and most advanced sex simulator, the SNGXXX, was a monstrous assembly of intricately arranged springs, gears, pipes, wires, pistons and cables that filled a cavernous hangar. Imprisoned at the center, the user's fondest dreams could sometimes come true there, if he went with the flow.
Most of the world was now simulated in cyberspace at a resolution approaching human perception. Yet something was missing, a host of subtle and chaotic details. The first fully successful Sex-Sim required one last breakthrough. It could either be a direct computer-brain interface, or a way to fully simulate a human brain inside a computer. Both options were worth pursuing.
The VRS Project would achieve its goal on the same day that mankind became obsolete.
The laws of overpopulation (link) May 7th, 2010 http://sinkinglifeboat.blogspot.com/2010/02/33-malthusian-truisms-and-laws-of.html
The secret laws of society January 21st, 2010
principles of future sociology A few of the secret laws of society that will have to be explained if a real social science is to be invented.
No one can explain the rules of society. Members instinctively 'know' things the best experts aren't even aware of. When versions of these rules and their implications are discussed, the reaction can even be violent if religion or race are involved.
Peer Group Beats Parents Parents are overrated. About half of someone's personality is genetically determined, the other half is 'programmed' by the person's peer group during their formative years. When it comes to determining their offspring's personality and character traits, parents can only influence how well they will get along with their children later in life, and even this is determined in part by which community they inhabit. Actually, that's the one thing parents can influence, which explains the relation between real-estate prices and the perceived quality of local schools.
the Mentor Effect The only way someone can achieve excellence in any field is to find someone with ample experience to teach them individually.
Incentives People who expect to receive a reward or bonus for completing a task do not perform as well as those who expect nothing special in return, but are motivated by the goal itself.
the Flynn Effect People are getting more intelligent as time goes by. The reason is the continuous invention of better metaphors. Human civilization is constantly evolving new methods to generalize the truth, to describe the essence of any subject more succinctly. Unfortunately, this process happens mostly sub-consciously on a group level and through the labors of a few geniuses, despite and certainly not because of the educational establishment.
Psychopaths About 1% to 5% of humanity is born without a conscience, or has severely distorted morals. Throughout history, certain types of poopy personalities have managed to seize political power by deceiving their subjects. They then exploit their positions for their own benefits. Psychopaths need to be perceived as somewhat valuable to their communities to survive. They do this mostly by exploiting others in useful ways.
Ask and you shall receive Many human problems that could easily be solved will never be solved. The reason is not the problem itself, but that the opposing interest groups come to dislike each other. Often, a change can be effected merely by asking for one as part of a negotiating process, but the adversaries don't really want to solve the problem anymore. The damage has already been done. Now they just want to defeat their rivals.
the Revenge Motive People would rather retaliate and suffer damage in return than to allow someone else to take advantage of them.
No Black Nerds There are far fewer black nerds (or none?) than there are nerds in most other cultural groups, especially in technical fields. This may not be entirely genetic, but have a strong cultural component. Being a nerd is clearly seen as a weakness. They are uncool and sometimes defective individuals, but they can sometimes change society as a whole.
the Blink Effect There are real benefits to not paying attention. First impressions and vague hunches can be more accurate than an exhaustive analysis of a complex problem. In a related phenomenon, secondary sources usually contain more useful information than primary sources, even if they are distorted by stereotypes and misinformation.
The Drake Equation bottleneck: A solution to Fermi's Paradox December 9th, 2009
The Drake Equation was designed to estimate the number of human-level (or higher) civilizations in the observable universe. To evolve to a state of even minimal awareness, life must surmount many hurdles. The equation implies that for every advanced civilization, there must be many habitable planets with only simple animals, or that are covered with moss, or oceans with single-celled organisms, or no life at all. If solved correctly, the last few terms of the Drake Equation place a lower bound on the number of advanced societies on distant planets. This 'civilization bottleneck' is usually considered the most difficult part of the equation.
According to the article "Extraterrestrial science" by Nicholas Rescher, many terms need to be added to the end of the Equation. Humanity had to squeeze through more bottlenecks than anyone imagined. This makes it mathematically likely we're the only broadcasting civilization for a billion lightyears in any direction.
The reason is that there are too many possible futures, and most of them don't involve the scientific method. Only a small minority of societies will have managed the strange combination of order and chaos that defined human history. Even here on Earth, most societies didn't focus their efforts on science, but on culture. Western civilization followed a very unlikely path: it has been defined by fundamental imbalances, including genocides and other atrocities. It stole or borrowed many ideas from its predecessors around the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the Far East. Constant technological progress can be counterproductive. Wait long enough, and a disaster is almost inevitable. For the better part of a century, Western, and now world civilization, has embraced technologies with the potential to destroy itself. Only dumb luck has prevented this fate. If the worst had come to pass, civilization would first have crashed, and then slowly rebuilt itself using a more sustainable model. Science might even have been outlawed.
Even without a terminal catastrophe, progress is a suspect notion. Beings in a state of nature don't agonize as much. They don't look ahead at their inevitable doom. Only when they have evolved, do they realize their shortcomings. Then they may collapse in despair, or invent religion. When agriculture was first invented, most farmers ended up with a lower quality of life than hunter-gatherers. During the Dark Ages, the human population crashed, but individual life expectancy increased.
Many alien civilizations may not care about expanding through space, or trying to communicate with outsiders. Most will be very strange. Instead of inventing new technology, they may be inward focused: maintaining rigid caste hierarchies; building temples, data exchanges, arenas, or indoctrination centers; or otherwise perfecting their society. Alien civilizations might look like meaningless static from the outside. Outsiders would need to become part of them to hope to understand them. A philosophical system, or even the structure of a language, can be more important than any technology, if it can manipulate the minds of its users. Such a society wouldn't invent the tools to replicate past its natural limits, or spread through the universe.
No one knows how they would interact with another species that's technologically advanced but socially backward. They might be able to absorb any visiting technological civilization, merely by 'infecting' them with their social knowledge. Perhaps they will transform the future descendants of humanity into their servants, while letting the servants think they're still in charge.
Arcalon Files: the science of society September 12th, 2009
--POLITICS
the Opt Out Principle The most radical political right is the right to avoid politics. No one should be forced to pay for a government program from which they don't wish to receive any benefits. The only exception would be various types of public safety/defense spending. Society would of course have to be rearranged. It can be hard to prevent those who hadn't paid for a program from benefiting from it. Instead of waiting for permission that won't come, those who want to opt out will just have to find ways to avoid paying taxes (see Simplification Principle).
Deregulation Paradox Fewer laws can mean more order. A complex legal system is usually a sign of legalized corruption by special interest groups. When the cost of compliance becomes too great, almost everyone becomes a lawbreaker.
Healthcare Reform The most profitable sector of the economy is the ever-expanding field of medicine. Instead of relatively cheap, cost-effective healthcare, the system prefers to promote the most expensive and profitable therapies. It especially opposes free competition. The number of doctors and nurses is deliberately kept too low. The only force that can make an expensive product cheaper for most consumers is the free market. The only way to achieve this hypothetical change would be to deregulate the healthcare industry. Patients could choose their own doctors, risky procedures, and medications, and give up the right to sue for malpractice, provided they were fully informed about the risks and benefits. The current trend is the exact opposite. New mandates and monopolies will further increase the already astronomical cost of healthcare.
Free Markets The best-known way to create the largest possible amount of wealth is free competition within a culture of law. This has only been allowed in a minority of human societies. Most governments exist to enrich their rulers and their associates through monopolies and other forms of theft.
Property Rights The historical reason for most human misery has been the universal threat of theft and related violence. Knowing that property can easily be seized (and the wealth creators are often tortured as a bonus) has tended to discourage investment. There is a direct correlation between the right to own property and the amount of local wealth. When societies are ranked by property rights, Arab and African countries are at the bottom of the list, with relatively peaceful countries like Switzerland near the top.
Culture of Law Some countries are 'better' than others. The 'best' countries don't have more natural resources or a more fertile climate, but something far more important: the rule of law instead of the rule of thugs. A culture of law takes a long time to establish. It's hard to impose directly. It requires a vast network of independent but interconnected groups, regulations, boards, rights, corporations, precedents, societies, and traditions linking most levels of society.
Euthanasia Sometimes, it's best to give up. This applies to many areas in life, but also to how it ends. For religious reasons, billions of people have had to suffer unspeakable agonies before passing away. The authorities even prevent the use of effective painkillers. In a world filled with legal killing, suicide is treated as the greater crime. The right to die should be the most basic freedom of all. A compromise would be to allow people at the end of their lifespans to use any mind-altering drug they want, but this too is a serious felony.
Birth Control Many social control groups require a high birth rate in order to sustain themselves, and to expand faster than their competition. A steady supply of expendable soldiers, with polygamous rewards for the survivors, has helped many groups seize surrounding territories. Those at the top of these groups tend to benefit even if their society degrades beneath them. In this sense, the religious objection to family planning may have a deeper biological reason, the result of age-old evolution - but it's not inevitable. There is evidence that when women are permitted to use birth control, per capita income tends to rise: the promotion of quality over quantity.
Intellectual Property Reform All intellectual property laws (copyright and patents) should be abolished, at least to the extent that they apply to natural persons. Who should control the individual? The Collective or the individual? It's all about sovereignty; anyone's right to do what they want on their own property. As an author, I love to get paid. The core question is as follows: if someone decides to copy my work on their own property for their own reasons, should I have the right to break down their door and attack them, or not? The answer is not. This case can be extended to patent rights. It would change the nature of drug research, by slowing the development of profitable luxury 'cures'. If all drugs were generic, medical research would have to be funded by charitable programs, and progress would slow down. This would of course reduce inequality. Many socialists say they want to remove the profit motive from medicine. Abolishing Intellectual Property would be one way to accomplish this goal, while also increasing freedom. Almost certainly, most socialists would object anyway.
Tort Reform The legal system has become a parasite. It needs to be disempowered. Ideally, it should be possible for most defendants to represent themselves in court. One solution would be to replace punitive damages with actual damages plus criminal penalties.
Victimless Crimes If an action doesn't really harm anyone, or only the person performing the action, it should be decriminalized. This goal is a core problem of politics, and as intractable as ever.
--SOLUTIONS
the Simplification Principle The world is too complicated. This planet needs more of less: less rules, less bureaucracy, less restrictions, and less waste. Often, the simplest solution is to do nothing, or to prevent people from acting at all. Perhaps only 70% of the population should start a family instead of 97%. The best way to reduce poverty would be to invent the smallest and simplest possible forms of housing, utilities, vehicles, etc. The most important production methods would involve miniaturization and standardization.
Freedom Freedom often means rejecting the demands and expectations of others. Instead, most people allow society to define their obligations, as if they were born already in debt. Instead of passive-aggressive behavior and self-repression, more people need to learn not to give a dang.
the Profit Motive If governments were run according to the profit principle, they would operate under a much longer time horizon than any current business. Every citizen would be a limited shareholder, as part of their 'birthright'. The authorities would pay many people to stay childless, and there would be cheap birth control and abortion. Instead of paying property taxes, most students would have taken out multi-decade education loans. People might have to pay an automated user fee just to go for a walk. Neighborhoods would hire their own police and fire protection. There would be many more contracts to sign.
Virtualization Virtual Reality could solve most economic and social problems. It could create the illusion of unlimited wealth, allowing everyone to create, explore, and link their own virtual universes, while reducing living costs and environmental impact. The new lifestyle would require a fraction of current energy use, and take up less space. Virtual offices and telecommuting will reduce the need for infrastructure.
Housing Even in our primitive times, there's no reason for a housing shortage. A small apartment could be constructed for under $10.000. The fact that this option doesn't exist is no accident. The threat of homelessness is a social control tool to make everyone work harder, and raise the total economic output level.
Universal Rights Humanity as a whole may need only two universal rights to survive indefinitely. These would apply to all countries and individuals. --Freedom of Location Anyone would be free to depart whatever area they find themselves in, but other areas wouldn't be required to admit them. --Freedom of Inspection UN inspectors could visit and inspect any location on Earth, and report any threats to humanity or to other countries they find there. -----------------
Arcalon Files: the Interface List September 2nd, 2009
Virtual Reality The next step in human evolution will be to understand, access, and manipulate the mind. This will make it possible to control human planning, purpose, emotions, and most important: perception. It will be equivalent to reality control. Once this becomes possible, people will choose to spend an ever larger fraction of their time inside highly realistic computer simulations, instead of our boring, inadequate 'real' universe. They will have the experience of vast wealth and ample choices, without the associated energy and opportunity costs. Everyone will create and control their own universe.
Cybersex Mankind's oldest dream has always been to defeat (or at least short-circuit) evolution. Once the required technology has been invented and becomes affordable, anyone will be able to engage in highly realistic sexual activities with extremely attractive sexual partners, if permitted to do so by local government/religious authorities. This will have many social effects, such as a decline in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
VR techniques Virtual reality simulations will be created by rapidly generating, modifying, and combining many overlapping elements, under the control of an advanced AI system. Any object can be described as a set of points, lines, layers, or volumes. The best compromise could be a set of warped sheets, representing shape, color, pressure, temperature, and solidity gradients.
Virtual VR The easiest way to simulate reality would be to play back recorded elements as much as possible (like in most videogames), instead of generating them from scratch.
the Explanation Project Ignorance is a growing problem worldwide. It's impossible to find out the truth about many important subjects. There are no simple or understandable explanations. The only way to learn about them is to go through an extremely complex, restricted and increasingly expensive process of cultural osmosis, like going to Harvard. The Sokal Hoax proved that scientists (at least sometimes) prefer to lie about their own subjects rather than explain them in understandable terms. A list of subjects that can not be explained in words, but need to be gleaned indirectly: The number e, Relativity Theory, most forms of bureaucracy, the rules of American Football, why DNA is a spiral, social hierarchies, and so on In an increasingly complex world, humanity needs an Explanation Project. It would describe any subject in the simplest possible terms, depending on the user's knowledge level. Such a project would require the combined brainpower of all mankind.
Mind Extension software: total life management. ME software will keep track of its user's daily schedule, interests, and finances. Once installed, it will never shut down, but constantly adapt to improve itself and its user. It will provide location-specific information, interfaces, suggestions and training programs, stored in a vast memory bank. Eventually, it would become part of the user's awareness.
Mind Extrapolation The first step on the road to immortality. Users of this software system would be encouraged to record as much detailed information about their life as possible. After they die - once the science of Artificial Intelligence has evolved sufficiently - the recorded data would be used to recreate the original user as a software person.
the Resistance All human legal systems are unjust to various degrees. The Resistance would be an emergent, spontaneous, and totally anonymous alliance dedicated to non-violent resistance against any authority figure wielding power in any form. It would be the most radical extension of human freedom since the birth of democracy, and even more disruptive. The first step would be an illegal open source information project to defeat all intellectual property laws.
FAMs: virtual extended families and societies The world need a test to accurately predict how someone will react in any situation. Then it wouldn't be necessary to modify the personality in question, only their location in space and time. The most important prediction element would be how a subject would interact with other persons. Extremely effective and stable groups could then be formed, temporary or permanent. It would be preferable for everyone to belong to several groups at once. FAM members could be quite different from each other, but each member would have one or more important skills. They would have to feel smarter than the other group members in at least one way. The purpose of most such groups would be to achieve a well-defined goal, to sell or build a product, or achieve a difficult task. Later, FAMs would come to define entire lifestyles. -----------------
Arcalon Files: the Artificial Intelligence list August 24th, 2009
Here's the rough first draft of the upcoming AI section of the Arcalon Files. It will include all the baffling mysteries associated with awareness and many other subjects, in one handy list.
the Hard Problem No one can properly define the mystery, let alone solve it, but everyone knows it's there: self-awareness is an extremely strange phenomenon. Somehow, the mind can sense its own complexity, without being able to explain it. Awareness can simulate the universe, including the mind itself. In some ways the simulation appears more real than the universe containing it.
Qualia The Mysterians believe awareness is a fundamental property of nature, like particles or time, only even more complex. It's impossible to simplify the workings of a mind, or even to think about in a meaningful way. No matter how well a feeling is described, it can't be understood outside itself.
Chinese Room Paradox (Searle) A list of rules could fully simulate a self-aware mind. Imagine a room filled with complex instructions. Someone outside the room slips a note with Chinese characters under the door. A person locked inside the room uses the rules to generate a new sheet with different Chinese text, which is pushed outside. A return note soon appears. The person following the rules to generate Chinese text has no idea what's going on, but the notes turn out to form a sophisticated dialogue. The rules are somehow able to generate a mind that claims to be fully aware. It can answer any question, and even claims to have emotions. But where is this mind? Not inside the person following the instructions, who doesn't understand Chinese. Not in the rules themselves; they're just trillions and trillions of pages of dense instructions (This room would have to be much bigger than the earth). Perhaps the room and its occupant together could claim to have feelings. Searle claims a mind generated in this way would have no feelings at all. The paradox could be extended. Imagine trillions of people writing, swapping, altering, and erasing pieces of paper for millennia. The result could be a complete simulation of the awareness you are feeling right now - or not.
Zimbo (Hofstadter): an entity which acts aware, but really isn't. Some claim a computer could fully simulate human-level awareness without 'feeling' anything at all. A robot mind powered by such a device could be terminated without any moral qualms, even if it begged to be spared. If your husband's brain was secretly swapped with a computer, it wouldn't be wrong to kill him, since he would only be pretending to be aware. The computer would merely be simulating his behavior, but it would have no emotions and no soul.
Neural Networks The human brain is the interface between the senses and the muscles. It's made of trillions of neuron cells, each a small computer, connected by quadrillions of thin wires called dendrites. Incoming and outgoing wires are strictly segregated, except for some feedback loops. Each neuron receives many more signals than it sends out, from the senses or from other neurons. When a neuron finally does 'fire', the pulse goes out to thousands of other cells, some of which may then fire themselves, if they get enough confirming signals from still more neurons. Eventually, a pulse will reach a muscle, and the organism takes action. With each 'firing', connections between some neurons are strengthened. Simultaneous responses of two neurons to the same input form stronger links between them, so that only one of them has to fire. Neurons can also fire at regular intervals as 'pacemakers' for various activities. Connections can be categorized as positive or negative associations, or as yes or no switches. Neurons amplify or suppress their output depending on whether more 'good' or 'bad' signals arrive.
Standard Explanation of awareness The physical pattern of neurons in the brain (or of software in a computer) is fully equivalent to its awareness. The mind IS the pattern, and nothing more.
The Turing Test Implication To pass the Turing Test, a computer must fool a human that it is human too, communicating only through text. Alan Turing implied that any entity that consistently appears to be aware, actually IS aware. This is true even if its responses are generated by a list of all possible questions and answers, or by pure chance. Human minds were optimized by evolution. Any other system that can do the same thing would have to be similarly complex.
The Turing Corollary: In theory, a blind person could learn to understand colors well enough to fool a sighted person. This type of virtual awareness would be much slower than the real thing, but the mental model would be equivalent to experiencing colors.
the Extreme Complexity Explanation of awareness --The mere thought of an ant is more complex than the ant itself. An ant has only a few milligrams of cells, occupying less than one cubic millimeter of volume. In order to think about an ant, a significant fraction of the human brain, weighing more than one kilo, has to rearrange itself at a cellular level. --Awareness is intense concentration: all mental resources are dedicated to one scene. It's this immense activity, not some mystical essence, that makes sentience 'real'. There's a century in every second. Understanding one moment of thought would be equivalent to understanding it all. An exhaustive description of all items in memory in one moment would form a simple model of reality. --The mystery of awareness will eventually be replaced by many smaller ones. A full explanation of the mystery would be crystal clear. It would just be too big to view every part at once; a flowchart covering several walls, with all the parts interconnected.
The human brain uses all available processing power at all times, even for the simplest perceptions. Any idea requires an immense web of associations, linking it to all other knowledge.
Memory Falsification Awareness could be a memory illusion. Humans may only be fully aware when they're thinking about awareness. Even then, full awareness is spread out over many minutes. At any particular moment, it's only fragmentary. We remember being aware in the past, but the full realization only emerged after the fact. Memory is constantly rewriting itself. One second ago, you were a different person.
Time Tracks Metaphor: forever reliving the past Awareness is composed of multiple overlapping cycles. When someone performs an often repeated activity, like a daily commute, their perception of the event merges with previous perceptions of the event.
Narrative Streams With trillions of neural actions per second, humans can't store their actual perceptions, only their reactions to them. They have to create stories to organize and make sense of their awareness, describing reality in familiar terms. A brain pattern is a combination of other, simpler patterns. Each new insight is a combination of many previously stored insights The perceived differences in the new situation may be the core of awareness.
Self Modeling Metaphor Awareness is its own simulation, a model of models: the representation of all other instances of awareness.
Consciousness is the ultimate paradox: both the realest and the vaguest human phenomenon. An unstable placeholder, it's the representation of all the things a mind is only partially aware of.
Society of the Mind --Awareness is not unified. It can exist independently in different brain regions, as seen in split-brain patients. Inside each brain are many 'mini-brains'. Minds are divided into many sections that manipulate each other. 'Meta-neurons' are made up of many connected neurons. Traits are organized hierarchically by structures like the hippocampus, ruled by pain and pleasure. Millions of interconnected groups combine inputs from each other, ranging from very simple to complex, to random. Each group 'knows' only one thing, and has to cooperate with many others to function. Some neuron groups sort perceptions into categories (male/female, toxic/edible, beautiful/ugly). They can develop precise timing functions, with many possible intensities. Low-level groups activate and deactivate higher groups in a learned sequence. The general-purpose lower brain tends to control the higher, more specialized regions of the neocortex. Top-level decision-making functions indirectly influence the lower mood, motivation, and alert levels, in a constant feedback loop. Neuron groups compete and evolve. --The human brain could be described as several million high-level connections, with no deeper meaning than the organism's survival in a semi-random environment. Each connection would require a thousand book-lengths of text to fully describe.
Activation networks: Some neural networks amplify weak signals. Suppression networks: Other networks suppress repeating signals, so that the more important unpredictable signals get through. Synchronization networks: Different groups of neurons fire at different frequencies. Eventually, one frequency comes to dominate. Chaos networks: evolving toward a useful function.
Learning Patterns in the environment cause new neuron connections to form, which try to recognize and predict the patterns. The connections start as random links that are strengthened. If some combination of actions and perceptions feels good, the connections creating that feeling get reinforced, while pain causes the opposite reaction.
the Data Compression Explanation The human brain is a universal data compressor. It improves mostly by forgetting, and by editing and replacing stored knowledge. The more it already knows, the less data is required to represent new knowledge. The reason the brain can't understand itself is because it's constantly simplifying itself. It's like trying to imagine the complete contents of a library. Most thoughts prevent most other thoughts. The brain can only have one clear thought at a time, ignoring all other possibilities. --Like in a chess game, the mind considers many possibilities at once, and promptly rejects most, becoming blind to all the paths not taken. This unseen erasure is a necessary part of human consciousness.
The brain is a comprehensive reality description, like a self-updating encyclopedia. Its main subject is its own survival. The constant activity of awareness represents only a small change in its structure. Personality, intelligence, and language are stable over decades.
Awareness may be very wasteful, an evolutionary shortcut. Raw complexity is easier to generate than deep insight. The human brain may have reached a natural size limit in its current configuration.
The simplest solution of the Hard Problem Humans can only know an insignificant fraction of reality, essentially the same as knowing nothing at all. Compared to the universe as a whole, the human mind is so small the mystery of human awareness shrinks into oblivion.
Sleep and the 'hard drive problem' The mind gets cluttered with random data, and periodically needs to be 'defragmented'. Dreaming deletes memories and reorganizes them. The surreal nature of dreams is a side effect. In a lucid dream or a hallucination, the 'mental screen' keeps adding new layers on top of each other, overwriting earlier ones.
Currently, there are two known ways to create an artificial mind (in theory): - Make a list of every possible input and response. Faced with any situation, the AI would look up its response in an immense database. This is how expert systems are programmed. It would be much slower than a traditional mind. Such a 'mind' could take billions of years to respond to a greeting. Strangely enough, it would still be fully aware. The activated portions of the lookup tree would be as complex as the pattern of a brain. It would also embody the original programmers' awareness. - Copy an actual brain, synapse by synapse, by freezing, scanning, and emulating it. A third method may be slightly more practical: - Evolve an input/output behavioral system using an arbitrarily large neural network.
Confabulator A hypothetical program designed to combine as much data as possible in a unified framework. It might eventually organize its knowledge enough to become aware.
Universal Compressor A hypothetical program that could translate any statement into a shorter one, while preserving its meaning, up to a limit. This would be the most efficient way to represent knowledge. Like all compression software, the larger its reference base (the more it knows), the easier new information could be categorized. A sufficiently comprehensive compressor would have to include itself, and perhaps become aware.
Universal Improver A hypothetical program that could translate any statement into a longer one, and thereby clarify its meaning, repeating as often as necessary. Using a large knowledge base and synonym generator, a universal improver would be as complex as a full-fledged AI.
This might also lead to the first useful lie detector test in the future. Even if it only had a 51% accuracy rate, an accuracy rate of 90% or better could be achieved by running it many times in a row.
The videogame metaphor of awareness. Awareness is the final integration of all available knowledge in a hierarchy of layers. It's the ultimate truth description, the difference between seeing a lion or a picture of a lion. Its only purpose is to select the next action. Each level of processing removes a vast number of choices, reaching ever higher degrees of abstraction, leaving only the most relevant choice.
Any day now... August 4th, 2009
Keep checking back often...
The real reason why the Libertarians can't win May 27th, 2009
Six months ago, the various American Libertarian political parties suffered their latest devastating defeat at the polls (this story could be written in any even-numbered year). The situation is even worse in other countries, where the few Libertarian candidates are stuck at under one tenth of one percent. Actually, the voters haven't even rejected the Libertarian program. They never considered it in the first place! For that to happen, they would need detailed studies about the likely effects of a Libertarian program, or more likely a summary. The opposing sides would then popularize the results with sound bites and negative advertising. There would be two main points to make:
The main benefit: Libertarian socialism. It's time to admit the truth. Medicare is more efficient than private health insurance. It benefits from vast economies of scale, and the ability to bargain for steep discounts and other favorable terms. It would make sense to set up a voluntary shared payer network for most health care consumers. Such a system would be larger and more comprehensive than anything available today. Most people would participate through sheer self interest. They would only be required to pay for the health insurance they want for themselves. The young would not be forced to pay for the healthcare preferences of the elderly, but could set up saving accounts for that purpose. They wouldn't have to pay for patients with expensive pre-existing conditions. The system would, however, keep track of everyone's charitable contributions. Those who gave less than they could afford would receive less charity once they needed it. This would provide a powerful incentive. Most people fear the unknown more than they fear a monthly deduction.
The fatal disadvantage: the charity gap. The benefits, no matter how numerous, are erased by one simple fact. It's the reason why no Libertarian or other non-coercion candidate can ever be elected to national office in the USA or any other country: Some people would die sooner under such a system. Namely, those people who need insanely expensive care - such as the brain-dead elderly who need heart-lung transplants, the severely handicapped who require multiple nurses and other attendants, and so on. We live in a world in which 100% of the voting populace, with a margin of error of 1%, is utterly committed to the notion that a braindead individual should be kept alive indefinitely - if that is what they would have wanted, as indicated by a notarized living will - regardless of the costs. This form of charity only extends to the national borders. Slaves and torture victims in other countries can be safely ignored.
Taxpayers and other voters are unable to link the pain required to earn the money to pay the taxes, to the 'benefit' of keeping a braindead individual alive. Cost/benefit analysis is simply irrelevant in such a case. However, they are unwilling to pay for these individuals' upkeep through voluntary charity. Everyone should be forced to pay. No exceptions allowed. It's the only way to hide the staggering sums 'invested' every second of every year in life-prolonging healthcare.
I personally repudiate the right to have lethal violence used on my behalf, to make people work hard for my benefit instead of their own, if they really don't want to do that. This is the ultimate extremist position to take, far beyond the outer fringes of acceptable political discourse. At this time, there appears to be not the slightest chance that my viewpoint will ever be recognized, let alone accepted. It's a negative belief, a rejection of the mainstream. The only outsider's right that really matters is the right to opt out. Apparently, that right will never, ever be granted, no matter what happens. This type of freedom can only be held in secret.
the political paradox May 25th, 2009
No matter how much smarter humanity may yet become, politics will never be about solutions, only about compromises. Usually, there are no solutions. In society (as in nature), groups achieve their goals by seizing wealth from other groups. This process tends to reduce the total available wealth. The core problem of human history is poverty: there's just not enough stuff to go around. Sometimes, shortages can speed up evolution, but usually they cause retrenchment, hoarding, suspicion, extreme conservatism, and occasionally mass violence. There's less investment and innovation. No one wants to take any risks.
It took hundreds of centuries to come up with a better plan. The idea that it's possible to create more wealth by reducing central control remains unacceptable to many in the Third World and other unproductive areas. Some central control is necessary, preferably embedded in a culture of law. The question is how much. Most pro-growth programs combine coercion and incentives: a complex mix of taxes and opportunities to make money. The rules, restrictions, and subsidies should be reasonably predictable, but they have to adapt to maximize growth and revenue. Corporations can be pressured and stimulated in many ways.
Any solution will be unstable. After a while, intuition itself, most types of prejudice, and maybe even morals become useless. For example, guns or violence can be controlled by restrictive regulations. There are stable 'solutions' where almost everyone has a gun, or no one.
Sometimes, even lying may be a good thing. A politician could promise future benefits, and receive immediate gratitude in return. This would give the future recipients pleasure, and motivate them to work harder now. When the promised benefits don't appear, it won't matter as much, since the hard work has already been done. This explains both social security and religion.
Ultimately, the biggest reward is status. More politicians should realize this simple fact. It's why so many people want to be in showbiz. Most screenwriters and actors would work for free (and movies would probably be more entertaining). In fact, that's what many are doing right now, even if they won't admit it. Also, despite all the competition, a career as an artist still seems more attractive than the alternatives. It's easier to visualize, and there are fewer barriers to entry.
The best political compromise would be a world in which everyone is an entrepreneur, the owner of their own unique brand. Since most people are followers, they will compete to develop fashionable skills and businesses. In such a world, whoever decides what's fashionable would have almost as much influence as a dictator - but at least they wouldn't tend to keep it for very long.
freedom: the impossible solution May 20th, 2009
Politics is war, a type of institutionalized dislike. No one is able to stay calm enough to explain their position, let alone persuade the opposing side of anything. That would require them to calmly step back, and analyze the disagreement from the other's perspective. What would be the point of that? Instead, anyone who practices politics prefers to defeat their opponent, to render them powerless. They don't even care about being right, as long as the other guy is wrong. Too often, it's about feeling superior.
The fact that people are self-centered is probably a good thing - if they don't have too much power. If they're also poopy, it explains much of history. There was no real need for the extreme poverty that has defined human existence. It was simply the easiest choice. Successfully wielding political power often required political leaders to make a minority of their subjects worse off. The victims could be turned into examples. They were different enough to be safely isolated from the mainstream. Usually, the majority approved. It's almost a law of nature.
It continues today, in slightly less blatant forms. I myself think the cops should stop shooting people for political reasons (for example when someone attempts to opt out of a government program by renouncing all future benefits - and refusing to pay the associated taxes; or when someone wants to alter their brain state with chemicals, and refuses to be arrested). It's a rather controversial idea. Most people with influence think the police violence is necessary, and should continue. How dare anyone defy the authorities? You want to buy a small patch of land? You obviously need permission from the government! It goes without saying.
Not everyone agrees, although it can seem that way. No matter what happens, the system is more likely to benefit the majority. Tax exemptions, subsidies, and regulations favor the already powerful. Minority groups pay taxes to have their culture suppressed. Even jury duty is slavery, made worse by the fact that the 'justice' system is absurdly wasteful.
The only solution is the Opt-Out Principle. The world probably needs more regulations, not less - but with the right to opt out of any undesirable program, either to choose another program, or to not participate at all. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
In many cases, you would have to be seriously misguided to opt out. A single-payer health insurance network could have an immense advantage over private insurance plans, even if it was strictly voluntary. Simple self interest could solve the charity problem. After pooling their resources, the group members can establish additional rules and benefits. The wealthier members can be required to contribute more according to their income levels. But no one should be forced to join. They should be subtly encouraged. Opting out would require informed consent.
Some types of personal freedom could be reduced without too much hassle, like a law limiting the maximum amount of property anyone could own, or a maximum wage. This would of course have many unintended consequences. I'm in favor of individual freedom, not freedom for corporations. They would probably convert the middle third of the US into a giant coal mine and feed farm. Businesses could be taxed according to the natural resources consumed, not the extra wealth they created, which would otherwise not have existed. There are many other possible solutions, most of them never tried. All it takes is a creative mindset, and enough competing jurisdictions.
Hidden at the core of politics is the safety net problem. It's important to understand that this particular problem will never be solved. Some people need so much charity to survive, that the government must seize it by force. Otherwise the charity recipient would die. For this reason, and this reason alone, government in all its forms may continue to expand without end. The populace will not allow a braindead individual to die (provided this braindead individual would have wanted to be kept alive at all costs), even if the combined taxes of dozens of other individuals are needed to keep the braindead individual alive. Cost/benefit analysis has nothing to do with it. It's an emotional decision, and you can't argue with raw emotion. No amount of protest or resistance will ever defeat it. If the opposition becomes too large or too noisy, it will simply be suppressed. And then things will get worse.
The final outcome of this long-term trend is clear: after the last taxpaying slave has finally died or committed suicide, the world will end as a giant nursing home, filled with immortal vegetables.
the meat holocaust May 10th, 2009
The best proof that mankind is not just pleasantly dysfunctional but borderline wacko, is the existence of so-called factory farms that breed hundreds of millions of pigs and cows for food purposes.
In places like Argentina, Mongolia, East Africa, or Texas, agriculture is difficult or impossible. The residents have to eat animals that can live of the scarce local vegetation. There's no other way.
Factory farms, on the other hand, are hugely wasteful. They feed their livestock ten times as many calories as the finished meat product contains. They pollute the landscape with lakes of manure behind unstable dams, and burn the finished product's weight in fuel to transport the meat cross-country. Yet they produce over half the meat consumed in the US and Europe.
There are many available meat substitutes that taste almost as good as the real thing, made from soy, fungi, grains, and artificial flavorings. These products are less wasteful than real meat, and they may be healthier too. Yet only a tiny fraction of the freezers in the supermarket meat aisle contain meat substitutes, and mostly premium brands at that. At least half the meat consumed on this planet could be synthetic, at half the cost. Instead, it's less than one percent.
Maybe some people prefer the taste of real meat. Even so, the synthetic kind is still more delicious than 99% of all food products. Those who disagree could buy non-factory farmed meat at a higher price. There's no reason to process meat into junk food either. Most consumers wouldn't notice if synthetic meat was used instead. It would save money, and possibly improve long term health - to say nothing about the ethical implications.
And yet it doesn't happen. Pro-life activists care passionately about human stem cells that can't feel a thing. Not even PETA mentions the hypocrisy of valuing human cell 'dignity' over animal torture. Millions of cows and pigs are killed horribly every year. The perceptive ones realize something sinister is about to happen. The slaughter methods are more painful than generally acknowledged, and often go wrong. It's unnecessary, polluting, wasteful, unhealthy, and poopy. Yet the issue is never mentioned in the mainstream media. The world pretends that mankind's greatest and most wasteful remaining moral failing doesn't exist. Why? Because mankind is something other than rational or even sane.
healthcare waste May 9th, 2009
Like other industries, the healthcare business exists primarily to serve its own interests - but they have perfected it to a degree equaled only by the legal system. Most healthcare services are delivered as part of a package - a very, very, expensive package. Instead of treating acute problems, doctors prefer to sell complex surgical procedures that cost as much as a mansion. These procedures are paid for by raising the price of cheap, simple procedures, that would be far more beneficial but less profitable. This is only possible by hiding their true costs. About 50% of US healthcare costs are paid by the taxpayers, with most of the remainder contributed by health insurance companies. Preventative healthcare has become unaffordable for those without health insurance, which means that more people need heroic healthcare later in life. Once someone gets seriously ill with cancer or advanced heart disease, they can count on dozens of hospital stays, and many months of often painful recuperation. Meanwhile, others can't afford a simple checkup, or to have a cavity filled. This set-up is not cost-effective, but then it doesn't have to be: it only needs to be profitable. In this respect, it's staggeringly successful - and things are only getting worse.
It's part of a much larger trend. The education system prefers to spend far more on disadvantaged students than on exceptionally talented ones. The legal system prefers immense lawsuits that drag on for years, and result in billion-dollar lawyer fees for a few thousand hours of work. The most wasteful example of all is of course the great War of Terror.
My theory is that certain vices are really virtues, including laziness, stinginess, and even a degree of misanthropy. The world would be better off with less activity, instead of indiscriminate activity for its own sake. This is particularly relevant for the healthcare system. We need more 'cheapskate patients', looking for bargains, who are willing to question the ever pricier procedures the system is selling. Trapped on this planet, I have to suffer a lot to earn my money. I would rather not spend it to be tortured in a hospital late in life, or pay for others to receive this 'benefit'. Things will only change when people realize that money can be more valuable than life itself.
the great spendathon May 2nd, 2009
Most people work hard their whole lives for low pay. A third or more of their income is withdrawn in taxes. Then at the very end, when they can't enjoy it anymore, the money flow suddenly gets reversed. Trillions and trillions of tax dollars are spent to extend the lives of the elderly by a few months or years. It cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide round-the-clock nursing services for an individual with severe dementia. Their families INSIST that the still living bodies of their relatives receive advanced surgical services at insane expense. In the USA, fiscally conservative Republicans happily 'invest' billions of dollars to prolong the existence of brain-dead husks in extended care facilities. It costs the combined income of several workers to keep a severely handicapped individual alive. Which is fine, of course - if the workers want to spend their incomes this way. These costs will only get worse. Massive new programs will further ratchet up Medicaid and Medicare spending. The government calls it a stimulus package, an investment in the future. What kind of investment can never be paid back, but can only lead to more expenditures? It would be more accurate to call it charity. I call it madness. Actually, it's even worse. There's a deep mainstream belief that glorifies suffering. Instead of spending the money where it would be enjoyed the most, it's used to extend pain. Anyone who believes that long term care facilities are always better than death hasn't spent much time inside them. The last mental faculty to depart is the ability to feel pain. It may be stronger than all others combined. If I were reincarnated with cerebral palsy, I would want to be killed at birth. The money spent prolonging human life could instead be spent on starter homes, personal enrichment, and recreation. It could form businesses, fund research, and finance a new age of leisure. Of course, this is completely separate from the question whether the government should be spending this money at all. So far, few people have dared to think that perhaps taxpayers should not be forced to finance others' spending preferences. Well I have - but that's a different article.
the reality hoax April 30th, 2009
The world is a complex illusion, but most people are too busy maintaining the hoax to see it. The abortion debate is a prime example: people care more about a tiny fertilized cell barely big enough to see, than about a billion animals slaughtered every year, sometimes brutally. They choose to ignore such inconvenient complications.
Perhaps reality is too complex. Most people don't realize how many things can and do go wrong. The universe may be tailor-made for life to evolve, but it takes an incredible amount of effort to maintain even the simplest unstable system. There are at least a sextillion planets in the observable universe, but no radio signals have been detected from any of them. The probable reason is Murphy's Law. It applies at every level, yet people seem programmed to ignore it.
In sitcoms like Seinfeld, the characters act as if they're making it all up on the spot. In reality, the dialogue and simulated environment take so much skilled labor it's impossible to make new episodes once a series is canceled. For the same reason, it will be easier to start over from scratch than to recreate the Saturn/Apollo moon missions.
The most important facts are usually not discussed. If they had just thought about the big picture, rather than a billion important details, the US could have negotiated a better outcome to the Vietnam War. One reason this didn't happen was arrogance. North Vietnam wanted the country to be independent and unified. Communism was only their secondary goal. McNamara later admitted he didn't realize this simplest of facts.
Another problem is that the most skilled people also tend to be the most specialized. Scientists can invent impossibly complicated theories, but they can't begin to explain what they mean in simple words. Mindless computers can effortlessly utilize these theories, but the human brain (a hundred thousand times more powerful) gets stuck at line one. This inability to explain simple, important concepts is mankind's biggest failure. Solving this problem will require many shortcuts - new ways to explain high-level concepts while leaving out arbitrary details.
If 99.999% of people can't understand it, can we even believe in science? Maybe they're making it all up. I don't think the word 'hoax' applies in this case - the truth is much stranger. Like a perfect storm of ignorance, you can't even find out what you don't know. All the most interesting knowledge is inaccessible, just beyond the edge.
Some say that in order to live in this world, you don't need to understand it that deeply. Just memorize a long list of arbitrary rules. At first, random practice and mindless repetition may seem simpler than actual insight, but eventually the student's mind becomes hopelessly cluttered.
My favorite example of bad education can be summarized in two words: touch typing. Touch typing is insanely complicated. Apparently, this strange skill uses most fingers of both hands. Right now, the only way to learn it is equivalent to performing brain surgery on yourself. Actually, it's even worse than that. The teachers won't invent any tools that could simplify the process, like sliding rails for each finger, or ways to activate one key by using different fingers at once, or effective musical training methods. In fact there is no fundamental research to improve data entry methods whatsoever. The only serious work involves making existing methods even more complicated.
The glorification of education for its own sake may be the world's biggest lie. If there's so much skill, why are there no cheap houses or healthcare, even though the technology has existed for decades? The real purpose of education is to give its recipient an evolutionary advantage, and sometimes to make others feel inferior. That's fine, of course. Anything that gets people motivated, from day trading to origami, is wonderful. But there can be too much of a good thing. Elite universities and high-status diplomas may worsen the material quality of life of those who can't afford them. They're deliberately exclusive, designed to bestow an almost mystical aura of entitlement. It's a radical idea: sometimes, it's necessary to condemn ostentatious displays of skill. Often, the most complicated systems are among the dumbest when they don't work right, as demonstrated daily by Windows software. It took a century of chaotic effort to solve the problems of controlled flight. Once the last barrier has been removed, there can be sudden rapid improvement, the start of a period of geometric growth. The same thing could happen to the world economy as a whole. A complex ecosystem has already evolved between nations and individuals, fine-tuned by the choices of billions of consumers. But something essential is missing. The problem is that to understand the other participants, they have to visualize what it's like being them, a very difficult task. And by then, they will have changed into someone else! There are too many unknown factors. Worse, there's not enough time to learn about them.
The only solution is a massive crash program to make education in all its forms much faster and easier than it's ever been. This program should be mankind's number one priority. The results would be revolutionary. It could decide whether the worst poverty will end in ten years, or in ten centuries.
the total default solution April 29th, 2009
Get ready to pay up! Three generations of powerful politicians have piled on immense public debts that will have to be repaid by the taxpayers of the next half century, and it's going to hurt plenty. In the USA, most debts are in the form of open-ended pension and healthcare payments like Social Security and the prescription drug payment plan. By now, the promised benefits exceed tens of trillions of dollars, with no end in sight. It's going to be tough finding that much money, especially since healthcare costs rise faster than other sectors of the economy. The politically powerful elderly are likely to raise their benefit levels even further. We'll all have to get second and maybe third jobs. The stress will be immense. Anti-depressant prescriptions, traffic accidents, and heart disease will skyrocket.
There is of course a simpler solution: default. Just say no. Excuse yourself from the immense debt politicians have assumed in your name. It would take a mass political movement, complete with non-violent protests, passive resistance, elected representatives, and people willing to go to jail for non-payment of taxes. Is this likely to happen, or even possible?
At the moment, there is not the slightest sign of any resistance. It would take a massive increase in homelessness, consumer debt, bankruptcies, and rising healthcare costs. Even then very few people would be willing to fight back. Most employees will just work harder and harder for less money to pay the ever spiraling taxes. The vast majority of the populace may have been genetically 'programmed' to unquestionably obey their leaders.
Still, there is a possibility the system will collapse under its own weight, like the Soviet Union did. One benchmark is the national debt as a percentage of GNP. A shortfall in revenues can be hidden by borrowing more money, as politicians have done for decades, but once interest payments exceed an unknown threshold (perhaps 30% of GNP), the whole system can suddenly collapse. Then the hyper-inflation starts. If the collapse can't be controlled, and civil order is threatened, even the most politically powerful beneficiaries of government largesse would have to lower their expectations.
Drastic action would be called for. The only way to 'reform' the layers of political benefits piled on top of each other is to abolish them altogether. I would cancel all pensions and government health plans, and replace them with welfare, with a $ 10.000 annual limit per beneficiary. Anything over that amount would come from charity. Based on my personal work experience, that's a heck of a lot of money. To me, freedom is more important than life itself. Intellectual property, however, is less important. I would cease enforcing all patent rights, and make all drugs generic, lowering healthcare costs. The government would have to pay back the drug companies' reasonable research expenses, but their profits would be much lower. I would also remove most arbitrary restrictions that currently ban free market competition in the healthcare industry (unthinkable, I know).
Politicians make many promises to get elected. Most of these casually made promises are eternal. There's no way to abolish or even reduce the promised benefits. A few people are starting to realize they have no moral obligation to fulfill promises made on their behalf to benefit politically influential groups. In fact, just the opposite is true. The problem has become intolerable. That's why bankruptcy was invented.
fifteen good things about scientology April 28th, 2009
Don't get me wrong, Scientology is, according to every reasonable test, a scam. The motive probably isn't money, but power - or at least social influence. The poopyness is written in their holy 'scriptures', which are largely about sustaining Scientology, rather than serving their members' long-term interests. But Scientology isn't completely bad. They have attracted over fifty thousand members, and some of them are very serious about it. They must be doing something right. A few of their ideas could conceivably help civilization at large. The first benefit is obvious. Scientology provides an immediate test of our social immune system: how well does society respond to new threats or opportunities? Other benefits apply only to a minority of potential members, but it's hard to escape the notion that some people need something like Scientology in their lives.
-Scientology has exposed the inherent corruption of the US judicial system. The law is the problem, not the solution. Anyone can sue anyone for the most trivial, made-up reasons, without fear of penalty. As their founder L. Ron Hubbard discovered and pointed out, the law can be used to harass and suppress. The First Amendment is often inoperative.
-They have exposed the impotence of the mass media. No one dared to write an in-depth article about Scientology until TIME magazine in 1991. TIME then had to pay millions of dollars in legal fees. The media is extremely conservative. Even today, no one has dared to write an expose of the inherent corruption of the legal system.
-They have exposed the willingness of the populace to tolerate abuse. Not that anymore proof was needed. In our world, it's shockingly easy to get away with many types of bad things, from genocide, to forms of slavery (sex, indentured labor), to pollution, to selling defective products - as long as you're well connected. It's much harder to get away with other types of 'evil', such as ingesting psychedelic substances while being poor. Even when the public is fully informed, they often just don't care about abuses that don't affect their own social group.
-They're not as bad as sometimes claimed. Scientologists don't actually murder people, or at most very rarely. They aren't even violent. Many are dedicated 'students' following lifelong courses. They may confine people against their will inside their compounds, but they genuinely believe it's for their own good. They aren't phonies. Unless they're acting as undercover agents or following a sales script, you know exactly what you're dealing with. They try to follow their own rules. Most members know about the abuses. They happen to think they're justified for religious reasons. Sometimes abuse is a two-way street.
-Super adventure club! Even if they can't actually save the universe, they sure know how to simulate the experience. Members feel they are part of an elite organization with outposts worldwide, courses that may give them superpowers, their own magazines and communication systems, colleges, and secret headquarters complexes. They have all the answers, even if it will take many reincarnations to carry out the plan.
-Auditing (Scientology's answer to psychotherapy). Apparently, if someone is made to repeat a traumatic experience in their mind under close supervision, it can suddenly lose its power. The patient realizes that certain problems can be solved simply by doing nothing. Certain rote behaviors lose their potency. They learn to view themselves from the outside, and to become detached at will.
-Assembly line mental therapy People keep making the same mistakes. A standardized approach could be more useful than treating each patient as a unique individual. Most people are not that unique.
-Sometimes, nonsense is a good thing. A large organization can seem more accessible and less threatening if it's set up like a game. It can make hard work seem like play. It's important for every member to feel smarter than the group in at least one way, so they know they have something to contribute.
-Self-actualization. It's more fun to make your own rules. When all else fails, start a new religion. Scientologists have to follow a rigid set of courses and procedures, but they are free to invent past lives and imaginary universes to their heart's content. Their auditors are not allowed to criticize or correct their perceptions.
-Immediate results. They have evolved methods to grab potential customers of the street, and change some aspect of their lives within a few hours. If you can afford the extremely high fees, Scientology will actually do something that seems effective right away, unlike conventional therapists, who will just make a patient chatter about nothing for months.
-It's only money. Scientology has figured out something important: how to replace a patient's mental agonies and discombobulations with a completely different pain. That would be the loss of vast sums of hard earned income to the church of Scientology. Knowing that they spent a fortune on auditing - not to mention all the time and emotional energy invested - the patient suddenly becomes motivated to 'snap out of it', and turns into a new person.
-'Learning on a gradient'. Students have to make sure they understand the meaning of every word and sentence in Scientology texts. Courses are laid out with rigid precision. They have procedures for every educational problem. The key is making sure the student doesn't fall behind. This could be a good principle. Life is too complicated. It can be simplified by inventing a long series of simple steps guaranteed to eventually achieve a result - even if the first step is nothing more than rearranging files into folders.
-No secrets allowed! Auditing requires complete openness. Members are required to reveal their personal secrets, no matter how embarrassing. The secrets won't be used against them in any way, if they remain members in good standing - and perhaps even if they don't. It's a strange notion, but complete openness can bring a type of relief, and even a sense of freedom to members.
-The right to refuse a communication. One of their rules is: Never defend, always attack. The first part of this commandment is very useful. Why care about what other people think? They're often nasty anyway. If some asshole is talking bulldoodoo you don't want to hear about, you have the right to just tune him out. You don't have to validate what he's saying in any way.
-'Start Change Stop'. Some Scientology processes are similar to meditation. They can help users observe their own brain functions while they're happening. That can be a good thing. Students learn to recognize repetitive bad thoughts or behaviors in their earliest stages, before the pain can start (they may have become 'addicted' to the repetitive thoughts), so they can quickly think of something else. They realize their minds are complex systems with many parts, that can be at least partly controlled. The potential is immense. Many people suffer from repetitive behaviors they can't stop or change. The current mental health monopoly remains comfortably ensconced behind immense barriers. There's really no reason why consumers shouldn't be able to buy effective behavior modification therapies the same way they buy anything else.
on malism: part one April 27th, 2009
I have a very controversial belief. I think the world is basically bad. For most people, this viewpoint is unacceptable. It's outrageous to even think that way! Not everyone instinctively rejects the notion, of course. A minority simply doesn't care. Others prefer to keep an ironic detachment from the world at all times. A handful of individuals may occasionally realize that things are not that great. If so, they are few and far between. 99% of the populace unquestionably accepts the prevailing system, even if they are trapped like a rat in a cage of pure poopyness. In fact, they glorify the inefficiencies and deliberate hardships that make up the world, thereby perpetuating it.
The reason why things suck is simple: evolution. Most conflicts are the result of shortages, which could be reduced by certain types of restraint, including birth control; but this goes against the fundamental biological urge to reproduce and acquire more resources. All ecosystems are based on competition. They require a degree of deception and exclusion. Competition can create immense wealth, but it tends to get short-circuited. In practice, people prefer to make things more complicated than necessary. Rules and restrictions are used to harass and obscure. The biggest economic problem is friction: the difficulties involved in getting a new job or a diploma, figuring out new groups and communities, social intrigues, power hierarchies and backstabbing; and all the poorly defined complex rules. The world would be better off if people were lazier.
One of our regular contributors just invented a new religion! April 26th, 2009
It's the religion of the God of Non-existence. Like all others faiths, it's based on wishful thinking. It claims that somehow, the universe is arranged in such a way that certain bad things don't happen. The Holocaust and many other horrors did happen, but other much worse things, including infinitely bad events, actually don't happen, even though in theory they certainly could. It's a religion defined entirely by absences. In fact, God is those absences, and nothing more. It's not quite like atheism. To join this religion, all you have to do is believe in the power of nothing.
Contributed column: The Great Slowdown: why most technological progress is ending March 13th, 2009
Guest column: The Great Slowdown
It was first pointed out in the late 1970's by the few people who notice these things, including SF writers and fans of flying cars and space vacations. After years of accelerating improvement, most types of technological progress seemed to be slowing down rather abruptly. At first, it appeared the delay might be only temporary, a brief plateau before the real discoveries began.
Now it seems these long awaited breakthroughs have been canceled forever. All the cool gadgets, settings, scenes, and locations seen in scifi movies will never become reality. The future will be all-digital instead. There will never be another supersonic passenger transport, a large space colony, starships, or in the long run, even human beings.
There's plenty of evidence that the rate of technical progress is decelerating. The advanced F-22 fighter jet is now in its third decade of development. The space shuttle will be replaced with an improved version of the Apollo capsule, based on the space shuttle. In the interval, US astronauts will ride the same type of rocket that launched the first Sputnik sixty years earlier. (Read the previous sentence again.) The world is running out of usable energy. The only exception is the constant, steady improvement in the capacity and the speed of microchips. Soon, it will be all that matters.
Did we miss anything on the way? If a method to manufacture artificial diamond compounds had been invented in the nineteenth century, the first moon landing could have occurred by 1925. There might be a relatively simple way to generate antigravity or reactionless thrust. Hot air balloons, the laws of perspective, and plastics could have been perfected thousands of years ago. Surprisingly, no one seems to care about all the gaps in our knowledge. It's a failure of the imagination.
One symptom is that there are fewer 'hard sf' stories of the kind once written by Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven. Instead, bookstore shelves are groaning under rows and rows of fantasy novels. Most nominal SF writing is not even about science, but characters. It's literature: often, fiction is about losers losing. The stories are not that plausible, either, though it's hard to tell. Often you don't know what's happening, because the author doesn't really explain.
Reality is complex enough; make it more understandable, not less. In fact, at least 25% of all SF writing should be about rejecting this world as crap.
They don't make good movies about cutting edge science anymore either. The last good speculative SF movie was Terminator 2. The Lord of the Rings movies were actually more plausible than the Star Wars series.
Superhero movies suck for a different reason. All these superpowers should signal a paradigm shift in their story universe, by making normal people instantly irrelevant, but they're just a part of the background. This shows how hard it is to transcend the limits of a genre. Any serious science writer could invent many plausible explanations for the plot anomalies, limitations, and especially the missed opportunities of most superhero movies, but the scriptwriters and directors refuse to rise to the level of their material.
Perhaps the reason that progress has slowed is that people realize our existing technology is already too dangerous to have around. Mankind is stuck in a prolonged (and tormented) adolescence. Too many people are interested in conflict for its own sake. If mankind can't change, the only alternative is to change the environment. We can have all the excitement and adventure we need in virtual reality, and none of the pain. -----------------
emergency solutions: part one March 6th, 2009
The future looks a bit grim at the moment. The problem can best be described in two words - no money - but the explanation is as complicated as the failure of Artificial Intelligence to build an intelligent robot. In fact, society's problems are even more complicated. Of the many poopy things in the world, from insane health insurance monopolies to every other monopoly, the most absurd one may well be unemployment. It's the biggest waste. The resultant shortages, pressures, and conflicts drive human evolution.
Unfortunately, the crisis is not caused by cheap automation or software making human labor obsolete. Fueled by stress and fear, humans still have to work very hard for their money. No one knows the real cause. The world economy is the sum of every motive and desire. The current recession may be a tool to frighten younger workers, and encourage them to work harder in the future, when they'll have to pay the Baby Boomers super-hyper-gargantuan entitlement benefits. You can't make an omelet this immense without cracking many eggs.
Future debts will be crippling. Few dare say it out loud, but there is now some doubt about the continued existence of the United States. As yet, not much doubt. Many countries have come into great wealth, but they tend to be authoritarian, conservative, unstable and/or corrupt. Still, the moment someone invents a better social/economic system, the US will be finished. At the current rate of intellectual progress, that could take another century.
It's important to remember that no matter how big the upcoming economic collapse, the world will be just fine. Depending on your personal circumstances, skills, location, government, economy, finances, luck, and health status, you may be fine too.
Meanwhile, life will continue to suck for most people. For some, the suffering will be worse than the media dares to show. There comes a point where there's only endless carp ahead, with no conceivable way to improve the situation, and all hope is lost. If this assessment is correct, then suicide is indeed the logical choice, as soon as things become really intolerable. But at least half the time, one simple, easy solution has been overlooked. The victims would have kicked themselves for not using it, had they only known.
It can be very painful to 'think outside the box'. The simplest answer is often to do nothing, or conversely, to do more of whatever you're doing now. The other extreme is to just give up, and start over from scratch. This can be much harder.
There is almost no willingness to allow today's massively inefficient conglomerates and labor networks to fail. It's unthinkable to allow ancient legacy industries and gargantuan union monopolies to be replaced by smaller and more efficient services. They will be propped up by government subsidies, no matter how many quintillions of dollars future generations will have to pay in interest. A certain amount of inefficiency is good. It makes markets more predictable, and stimulates competition - but this is ridiculous. According to the book 'While America Aged' by Roger Lowenstein, in places like San Diego and in many of the larger industries, the unfunded pension benefits promised to selected union members, transit workers, and civil servants already exceed their combined salaries from while they were working. These promises were made during a golden age of rapid economic growth. Instead of funding these pensions in advance, the politicians gave more money to the union workers then, and promised still higher pensions that would be funded later. Now the bill is due. Taxes have exploded, and new employees' salaries have plunged, all to pay the lucky beneficiaries' benefits.
Even though the politicians won't allow it, many entrenched power and favor networks need to collapse. They've become bloated beyond recognition, and are choking the economy. The collapse and the start-over could be managed. No one would be allowed to starve. A basic living standard, much better than the army, prison, or boarding school, does not have to be expensive.
Homeowners who default on their mortgages could be allowed to stay in their homes at a reduced rent. Part of the rent income should go to prudent owners who still pay their overpriced mortgages.
Many people have been priced out of today's massively wasteful housing and healthcare markets. If the politicians were willing to slightly loosen their grip, their victims could purchase cheaper alternatives, from temporary mobile homes to more limited healthcare (patients could give up the right to sue, or buy health insurance that doesn't cover the most expensive procedures).
Unfortunately, such a plan would be highly illegal. Politicians like Ted Kennedy have flattened the competition under layers of regulation and mandates designed to protect the established, ultra-profitable way of doing business, from zoning, to licensing boards, to liability standards, to mandated coverage. The AARP insists that younger workers pay for the healthcare needs of the elderly, with higher (much, much, much higher) premiums to come.
And things will only get worse. These politicians are utterly entrenched. They can never be defeated under the current electoral system. They could only become irrelevant, but even that seems like a long shot.
part two: any solutions? ----------------
why teachers suck: part two March 5th, 2009
I recently wrote a column claiming that, contrary to what's written in the pages of Parade Magazine, Reader's Digest, and local newspaper editorials, TEACHERS SUCK (as a group, not as individuals). They shouldn't even be called teachers, but conformists. This is incredibly controversial, but the failure of the education system is ultimately connected to every poopy thing in the world (and there are plenty of poopy things). Someone has to say it, even if everyone is horrified.
This column will try to reach the same conclusion with only minimal evidence: in fact, the proof consists of only one letter, which is also a number. It's known as 'e': the number 2.71828... or 'the base of the natural logarithms', whatever that means. Apparently, the digits to the right of the decimal point extend forever, never settling in a repeating pattern. It's a very profound number. I spent years in various high school math classes, admittedly as the worst student there. After many exercises, homework assignments, and chalkboard diagrams, I still don't have the faintest clue what that number means, for the simple reason that it was never explained. It was only used in very complicated and obscure equations. There almost certainly is a simple explanation, but the System, of its own free will, chose not to provide it.
Perhaps no one really cares about math. Students just have to learn how to use certain tools in certain situations. This knowledge must be absorbed by osmosis, through the hidden rules of culture. Our society is no better organized than Windows software. The thing that teachers are worst at is providing high-level explanations; short, succinct ways to organize and describe complicated knowledge. It's what they should be best at.
If the most important truths are the hardest ones to learn, something is profoundly wrong with the world, even if almost no one can see this simple fact right now. And that is why teachers suck. Case closed. ----------------
the simplicity solution March 4th, 2009
As the saying goes, "I'd rather have too much time on my hands than too many hands on my time." In many ways, society would be better off with less. Specifically: less rules, less bureaucracy, less restrictions, but also less stuff; or at least smaller and less energy-intensive stuff.
The world has become too complicated. There are too many hidden expectations, too much precedent. Too much potential freedom has been stolen or preempted by comfortable power hierarchies, established monopolies, the Baby Boomers. An army of bureaucrats has to be notified (in triplicate) so that someone can legally be hired for a crap job. Complying with the bureaucracy is a full-time job in itself.
Speaking of which, we've got a lot of work to do. In fact, it's the biggest job in human history, possibly exceeding all wars combined. In the coming decades, we'll have to maintain a vast welfare state the likes of which the planet has never seen. The wealth of many nations will change hands. Pensions, drug payments, pensions, therapies, income support, pensions, doctor's bills, nursing home and hospital care, survivor benefits, pensions, mandatory economic inefficiencies, pensions, and much, much more, will strain the remaining sectors of the economy like never before. The cultivation of these eternal entitlements, corporate welfare recipients, union cartels, and other beneficiaries by mighty politicians like Ted Kennedy has been the fun part. The hard part will be paying for it all. This process was never meant to be reversed. Politicians and bureaucrats love elaborate programs. The more complex, the better. Almost no one dares to suggest that things should be different.
The simplest and most obvious solutions are rarely mentioned. For example, debates about illegal immigration never mention the parity principle. Why should migration only flow in one direction? The Ivory Coast has a much nicer climate than Sweden. Anyone should be able to move to the United States or any western nation, provided an equivalent local citizen moves to the immigrant's homeland. A transfer ratio could even be established. Two or three legal immigrants could be admitted for every native citizen willing to leave forever.
Other simple solutions are also unpopular: For example, along with a minimum wage there could be a maximum wage. Alternatively: no one would be allowed to earn more than they 'deserve', as defined by law or a grand jury. It would be illegal to pay them more than that amount.
The government has decided to bar drug users from voting for life. That doesn't go far enough. Let's bar everyone!
I wish more people would refuse to hire a lawyer, and insist on representing themselves. For some strange reason, few are willing to do that. Almost everyone prefers to go bankrupt or assume lifelong debts to defend themselves against a frivolous lawsuit. That's what's expected of them.
Even in our relatively primitive times, the technology already exists to end most forms of worldwide poverty. There's no reason for a housing shortage. A small apartment could be constructed for less than $10.000, but it wouldn't be very profitable to do so. It would help if people were more afraid of elaborate mortgages and other debt entanglements. In my earlier columns I called for extremely low cost housing for the homeless, with small fenced off lots. The fact that this doesn't happen is deliberate. Society uses scarcity as a control tool. The absence of privacy and the presence of two-legged predators in the streets, homeless shelters, and prisons is a major motivator for others to work harder.
The biggest and most profitable sector of the economy is the still-expanding field of medicine. The most cost-effective healthcare is usually the cheapest, but the current power structure prefers to keep comatose patients alive for years, instead of subsidizing - or even allowing - cheap tests and checkups for younger citizens, behavior modification and preventative maintenance, and immunization programs. They're especially opposed to allowing free competition. The number of doctors and nurses is deliberately kept too low. This won't change anytime soon. Better plan on staying healthy.
The simplest solution is also the most controversial one: DON'T HAVE CHILDREN. The planet is overpopulated. Perhaps only 70% of the population should start a family instead of 97%. If governments were run according to the profit principle (only with a longer time horizon than any current business), the world would look very different. The authorities would pay many people to stay childless, instead of requiring health insurance to cover fertility treatments for everyone. There would also be cheap birth control in most places. For that matter, there would be free abortions. The pro-lifers would be infuriated (there might be terrorism), but it would be surprisingly effective.
In fact, people could probably be paid to give up their religion, if that became profitable. There are too many desperate individuals in this world, trapped in circumstances they can't change. They seize whatever slight opportunity gives them the illusion of control. Often, the only things they can do are destructive, from overeating, to joining a cult, to self-mutilation.
More people need to learn not to give a dang. Freedom comes from saying no, or at least daring to think it. Instead, they allow society to set their expectations and obligations, as if they were born with a debt to pay.
There are things no one should put up with. Sometimes, it's best just to give up. This applies to many areas in life, and also to how it ends. The simplest solution can also be the hardest: euthanasia. For religious reasons, billions of people have had to suffer unspeakable agonies before passing away. The authorities even prevent them from using effective painkillers. In a world filled with legal killing, suicide is treated as the greater crime. A compromise would be to allow people at the end of their lifespans to use any mind-altering drug they want. But this too is a felony.
As with homelessness, the point is that the authorities want people to suffer. This happens at every level, from the tax code, to marijuana laws, to abstinence-only education, to militarism, to forced collectivization, to geopolitics, to ethnic cleansing, to boarding schools. In fact, those in authority do not have their subjects' individual interests at heart, only society's collective interest - if that. This may explain why such seemingly counter-adaptive traits as laziness, depression, and cowardice have survived: often the simplest and best option for an individual is to do nothing at all.
If only society as a whole could learn the same lesson. ----------------
the outsider perspective March 3rd, 2009
In this article, I propose the killing of old people and the handicapped. Anyone who makes it to the end will agree that what I suggest is functionally equivalent to murder on a massive scale. And I'm serious. This isn't like 'A modest proposal' by Jonathan Swift. There's no nice way to say it. This is what I believe, and these are the consequences.
The murder method I propose is the simplest one possible: doing nothing. Well, not really nothing. Refusing to use lethal violence. How can you murder someone by not murdering someone? Simple. Many old and handicapped persons need a gargantuan amount of money to survive. Few realize how much capital and skilled labor are required to keep a typical elderly/disabled patient alive just one more day.
Every hour of added life takes many hours of hard work. It's not just intensive care. At least 30% of nursing home stays cost more than I hope to earn in a lifetime. This money comes from taxes that everyone is forced to pay, not just the wealthy. Private insurance isn't enough.
I propose making participation in Medicare and Medicaid (and any equivalent) strictly voluntary. If someone doesn't want to pay, they obviously won't receive the benefits either. Anyone who opts out of these programs should be willing to die as a result. They would also miss out on disability, dementia, disease. Why pay for treatment you don't want?
Some say that charity would fill the gap. Charity is great! We should all increase our donations. Except it won't be enough. Charity flows to the most appealing recipients, not where it's most needed. Without expensive government healthcare, millions of people will die sooner, as sure as night follows day.
There are many worse things than death. Frankly, life sucks. Taxes come from labor, which represents precious time. The question is, who owns this time? The individual or the collective? High taxes mean everyone has to work many hours longer just to earn the basics. They also make it much, much harder to get a job in the first place.
It all comes down to one simple question: Is the pain of having to get up to go to work every single day, to a mind-killing, rotten, stinking carp job (assuming you can find or keep one) so bad that it would justify the mass-killing of millions of people in the way described above? Yes, yes, ten thousand times yes.
links: Proposal --- to get the government out of healthcare. They won't admit the consequences though. Article --- about the ethicist Peter Singer, and when certain forms of killing are acceptable.
the future of religion March 2nd, 2009
"We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idealess, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible and the works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your solemn groans and your reverential amens. All these amount to less than nothing. We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little fact. We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore you for just one fact. We know all about your mouldy wonders and your stale miracles. We want a this year's fact. We ask only one. Give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years." -Robert Green Ingersoll, "The Gods" (1872)
Time's up. Religion is a perfect symbol of this world. This guy told that guy that God told him (this guy, not that guy, or you) to give this guy a lot of money. The same people who won't let you open a bank account with your own money because some bureaucrat hasn't given you the right ID documentation, will unreservedly believe that an unsigned copy of a copy of an ancient text has the right to tell them and everyone else how to organize society, and not to have sex. (The most popular texts also say some good things, but that seems to happen less often.)
Dreams, hallucinations, paranormal claims, and drug induced perceptions all have one thing in common. While utterly convincing, they look really dumb from the outside. Religion is no exception. One reason for atheism (not the best one) is that many religious tales are ridiculous. Their inventors didn't even try to make them seem plausible. This proves to atheists that there is no god. Of course, everything they see proves that. There's nothing wrong with most faith adherents, but couldn't someone at least invent a more believable belief system? Just because something is absurd doesn't mean it's also true.
Of course religion is not entirely delusional; there are also many deliberate lies. If you want to get rich, you have to make extreme promises. People don't want to give up their hard-earned money, unless the expected benefit overwhelms their innate skepticism. Many members and leaders realize what's going on, but they agree to deceive each other, and themselves.
At best, most religions represent wishful thinking, for those areas where science is absolutely incapable of giving any answers. Whatever you may think, it is sincere. Unfortunately, the best logical deductions (such as they are) are still likely to beat wish fulfillment in terms of accuracy. If they absolutely had to guess, many scientists would say that the universe is ultimately meaningless, or maybe even abhorrent. In fact, religion may be the result of absolute terror. Reality could well be more horrible than we can imagine. Who's to say it's not? Does that mean it would be better if mankind didn't exist? Quite possibly. On the other hand, things could have been much worse, at least on this planet. This explains the phenomenon of sacrifice (both time and wealth), the common element of most religions. Still, it's unclear how anyone could hope to bribe an infinite god.
The worst part is not the typical belief system itself, but how shallow it tends to be. One of the more insulting examples was the movie 'Evan Almighty'. I can't actually afford to see movies, but read the plot summary. Hollywood has the power to expose the largest audience to the most mind-bending ideas. Instead, they invariably do the opposite. The nature of God, if he existed, would be grander than anything a profit-minded screenwriter could envision. A human being wouldn't even be able to talk to God, no more than an atom could have a meaningful conversation with Carl Sagan.
The best evidence for religion (it's not very good evidence) is that something so obviously false still exists, and even manages to prosper. Some kind of force field may be preventing people from thinking clearly, which would require a higher power. It only affects this one subject. In other areas of life, people think more clearly, or at least more normally, than even I do.
There's usually one master religion in each region, with slightly different offshoots that distrust each other. Devotees can be persuaded to trade faiths if it's in their interest to do so. More recently, some faiths have evolved to become less tolerant of the competition, allowing them to spread faster. They will inevitably have to be confronted at some point.
Does it make sense to believe in nonsense, if it can be scientifically proven (using double-blind trials) that the belief confers a measurable benefit? Religious people are happier. Perhaps prayer works like a mild antidepressant.
If there has to be a religion, a group of adherents should work together to invent the least implausible faith possible, or more likely many competing versions thereof. It's fun to make stuff up! It's very meaningful to be at the start of a great adventure. Why accept some mainstream confabulation from long ago?
Religion represents a natural desire to organize the world. Ultimately, the goal will be to organize all of reality. There appears to be a bias effect at work in the universe, which generates far more tiny minds like ours, than larger or even infinite ones. The most advanced faiths of the future may use anthropic reasoning to influence their members’ destiny. The most likely future mind state of any observer can be altered by controlling their current state. This would include erasing and changing their memories.
It would probably still be wishful thinking. Eventually, mankind will have to grow up, or at least evolve to the next level. Ultimately, only logic may remain, and even emotions would become obsolete. Humanity will no longer exist in any recognizable form.
The conflict will only get worse. Many strange changes lie ahead, and society will have to adapt in highly stressful ways. Religion will continue to prosper and expand, but it will have trouble keeping up. It will make an easy target. Finally, there'll be enough disappointed, angry, and frustrated people to put it to the test: God has already personally 'spoken' to millions of people. Now it's time to speak to mankind collectively. There may come a day when hundreds of millions of people will transmit a collective message to God: show us an absolutely undeniable miracle that science can study and confirm (but not explain); or go away forever. -----------------
The interface project: how to make computers suck slightly less January 16th, 2009
It's a strange case of evolution in action: software is getting more poopy as it becomes more advanced. Large programs are cluttered with hyper-complex tools they resolutely refuse to explain. The best example is 'the Gimp', which is almost impossible to use, assuming you can install and start it at all. Cloaked in a labyrinth of inscrutable obfuscations, someone (or a group of someones) has brilliantly figured out a long list of ways to make it impossible to edit your photos. Needless to say, the older versions of many popular programs are also poopy, but they haven't had time yet to become completely impenetrable. Once, they were simple enough to sometimes figure out, to a limited degree. There's no reason not to create software that would actually be possible to use, but sadly those who have mastered the secret art of programming won't create usable software, even though the need is greater than ever. Mankind is falling behind: we don't understand the hidden rules of the world.
It's a very old question. Why are some people poorer than others? Mostly it's a matter of less aptitude and knowledge, but the problem tends to perpetuate itself. Poor people don't have rich parents who can send them to elite schools. They can't afford the services of rich lawyers and lobbyists. For this reason, liberals demand massive spending on public education, in the tera-dollar range or higher. This would be a great plan, if it weren't for one thing: almost without exception, schools suck.
In this case, the solution is part of the problem. In fact it glorifies the problem. Schools refuse to teach the most important things, including the big picture, the controversial truths, the meaning of it all, informal methods, or the hidden shortcuts. Students have to find these out for themselves through unspecified means.
Learning barriers seem to increase at a logarithmic rate as the subject matter expands. It shouldn't be this hard. The way knowledge is organized remains a great mystery, but most schools only teach simplified systems that have already been defined exactly. Why is it so hard to learn them? Of course, many students actually thrive under the poorly defined, roundabout, imprecise, contextual teaching methods used today. They don't consider it an ordeal but more like a game. The feeling of achievement may require a special sense of superiority. They don't want the knowledge to be rearranged into a series of maximally simplified steps and metaphors. It might be faster at first, but it wouldn't 'stick'. Other students can't handle the inefficiencies, and fall by the wayside. There is no appeal for them. Their questions aren't answered, and the search for truth stops at the blackboard.
Could there be a way to simplify skills so that anyone could learn to do any specific task? Even a homeless person could be taught to perform simulated brain surgery. It would require ultra-fast teaching technology, able to effortlessly inject a new language, a database, or even a way of thinking into a student's brain. There is almost no research in this field, nothing to upset the status quo. Currently, all high-skill professions require at least a decade of intensive, expensive, and often painful training.
The first test of a better training method would be a way to teach so-called 'touch typing'. Students have to learn to magically tie their fingers into knots, a monstrously complex task that many can't manage. Keyboards were deliberately designed to slow the typing process.
At this time, there are few hints a solution is even possible:
The 'spacing effect' forces students to remember simple facts they have learned earlier, by repeating the lesson at measured intervals. While improving retention by 90% or more, it does not make it easier to learn the facts in the first place. It's sometimes possible to change long term memories by 'reimagining' them. By looking in a mirror while performing certain motions, it's possible to rewire the body's internal map. This has been used to cure 'phantom pains' from amputated limbs. More advanced versions could be used to insert players into computer-generated virtual environments. Recordings played while the student is asleep can help them remember word lists. Hypnosis is a form of intense concentration, which may help students to pay attention, but it only works for a short time.
The most useful immediate improvement would be to write the shortest possible explanation or summary for every field of human activity and knowledge. Simple lists can be more valuable than textbooks too heavy to lift. Every program should come with a complete list of all possible functions. All tools should be clearly separated for new users. A standard software interface would make any program easier to use, once it became widely adopted. Every program also needs a description written by outsiders. The hard part is knowing what to leave out. The really hard part is remembering to include the facts that seem too obvious to mention, but that a new user has no way of finding out.
Interface design has many traps. Human intelligence is astonishingly inefficient. There is a vast difference between being able to discover a new skill, and repeating and perfecting it. The best chefs are not the innovators, but tend to be on the conservative side. More importantly, anyone can appreciate their efforts. Likewise, being able to understand science and actually doing it are two very different things. The first merely requires insight, the second takes endless practice. Only the second option is available anywhere on this planet. To survive the problems and opportunities of the twenty-first century, from global warming to nanotechnology, mankind will have to teach the first as well. Scientific ignorance can't be allowed to increase without limit.
Popular physics articles and documentaries are particularly irritating. Just when they're about to get interesting, they change the subject like Sarah Silverman. From 'saddle shaped' hyperbolic geometry to superstrings to DNA spirals, Discovery Channel and PBS programs use the same few tired metaphors and simplified computer graphics to avoid explaining what really happens.
The main problem is how to organize all human knowledge in a consistent hierarchy. An exact description of any task using formal logic would take up many pages, and be almost incomprehensible. The simplest possible description (not necessarily the most precise one), at any level of complexity, would need to assume many things about the student's knowledge level and interests. A project of this magnitude could only happen through open-source cooperation. Perhaps the most important new ideas should first be introduced in comics and movies instead of in scientific papers. Later versions would be increasingly detailed, with fewer readers at each level.
Someday, someone will invent a workable brain extension. The first version won't do much more than record and edit short lists. This simple tool alone could double human intelligence. Unlike a notebook, it would be impossible to lose, the data could be correlated and sorted, and it would be much more durable. Today, this would require a clunky PDA, elite computer synchronization skills, and probably high monthly fees.
The mirror image of science is literature. Most art is not about explaining things, but making them seem even more confusing. For most potential readers, most books are too long. Some might prefer to read a short article condensing the experience of any book in one minute. That way, all its benefits would not be lost. Many authors would probably be horrified by this idea, and would want to outlaw such summaries, but they already exist.
It may be impractical to organize all our knowledge in a single framework, when it's so much easier to discover new things instead. Old knowledge can even be lost, like early rocketry and swordmaking methods. Does that mean there's a fundamental limit to progress?
In human societies, skills are divided among many people who specialize in different problems. The ultimate outcome of this trend could be the Borg Dream. The long-term future may not belong to human-level minds, but to 'composite persons'. Several lesser brains would be connected into one superior mind through interface software. Technically, no single individual would really understand what was going on, but the 'group mind' would. It may be the only way forward, but the danger is obvious. If society ever becomes aware, it may start making decisions none of its members would agree with. -----------------
SOFTWARE SUCKS January 15th, 2009
You don't have to believe in bad smurfs to believe in poopyness (a word I will use many times when writing about software). With poopyness, it's almost impossible to hit rock bottom. New types are invented every day, though some aren't immediately recognized as such. There are worse things than anything we can imagine.
Computer programs released by Microsoft and other organizations are often staggeringly, insanely, impossibly, incomprehensibly, monstrously, negatronically poopy. They're hard to learn, hard to use, and unreliable. The intense frustration, the sense of malevolence, that comes from using Windows has to be experienced to be understood, like being stabbed in the butt by Bill Gates. Very often the software just doesn't work. Sometimes you have to wonder if the programmers are also poopy.
First of all, it's time to get over the idea that computer programs are more exact or precise or reliable or accurate than humans. They're often less trustworthy than a drunk in a coma. Humans make many mistakes, but they rarely destroy things for no reason at all, and then forget about it. Even vandalism has a reason, albeit a bad one.
Just now my previously owned copy of Windows 98 has crashed once again, as it has thousands of times before, destroying data each time. It usually starts with an inevitable crunching sound. A lesson from the world of Bill Gates: if suddenly nothing is happening on the screen, there's a good chance nothing ever will happen again.
PCs destroy data in many other mendacious ways. Windows randomly and surreptitiously deletes or destroys files. It doesn't even let you know it destroyed them. You probably couldn't believe such reports anyway. It sometimes reports it has saved a file, without doing so. For example, it will only save a small part of a large photo. You can backup files onto a CD, but they won't show up when you insert the CD in another computer. Irreversible commands will permanently destroy the interface or screen layout. If you jiggle the mouse wrong, it will highlight blocks of text and delete huge segments of your life's work as if they never existed. Windows will secretly erase or scramble all the data on a hard drive, at the command of downloaded software or viruses. My secondhand computer won't let me 'reactivate' my own programs, claiming they're already installed on another computer.
It would be better if Microsoft didn't exist. It has no real philosophy, other than the philosophy of an avalanche. It may be tolerable if you don't mind the rough ride, and having all the money roll out of your pockets.
Could there be a legal basis for the criminal prosecution of Microsoft's chief architect? The legal system being what it is, he seems untouchable, even though Microsoft has basically stolen the money of millions. Never again in my lifetime will I buy another Microsoft product.
It's not all Microsoft's fault. Browsers often won't allow users to read downloaded web pages offline. Video sliders don't work. Highlighting a folder item causes the screen to jerk violently to the left. Control panels appear at the top of the screen with all the buttons over the top, and no way to move them. Websites generate stupid boxes that float over the text while you are reading. Photo editing programs are filled with random hieroglyphics and meaningless lists.
Worst of all is the so-called 'free' software. It's in binaries! What are binaries you ask? If you don't already know, you don't deserve to know. Open source software is fiendishly difficult to learn, and richly seeded with traps. If you're already VERY knowledgeable, you have a chance. Just barely. Online communities like Digg criticize inexperienced users for not figuring out how to operate the software. Apparently, the new users are expected to learn through osmosis, by silently watching experts from the corners of their eyes.
At its best, software embodies miraculous stupidity. The simplest things are the hardest to figure out. This is true both while designing and using new computer programs. The most practical details can't be deduced at all: the current dialect, how to input data, how to change the settings, the deliberately obscure tools. Instead of making software that just works, let's make it almost inoperative and non-functional instead. Make one tiny mistake, and the program can be permanently disabled.
Those 'in the know' probably don't want to simplify their field too much. The greatest insult in software design is the so-called 'Help' button. Even the simplest software aid is usually missing: a list of all possible functions.
Ideally, every program would have only a few functions when first installed. In reality, there's a brutally complex startup screen cluttered with random symbols, no instruction manual, and no attempt at simple interface design. Even the stylish graphics only add to the stress levels.
Here's a clue for the programmers: it just has to work. Make it so that it does work, instead of not working. If it doesn't work, make the program worse until it does work. Make it so simple it does exactly what it's advertised to do: the only thing that matters.
The reality is the exact opposite: most software is bloatware. Each program is a new universe, with deeply hidden laws. Like touch typing, learning how to exploit the available features is sheer agony, and often impossible for those without the required natural talents.
Help is usually impossible to get. The users have to figure it out for themselves. In fact, most programmers can't explain their own creations. They don't even attempt to write useful manuals, but rely on the aftermarket and the users themselves to create tutorials. That doesn't work too well either. Since they're written by experts, you have to be one to understand them.
The most backward subject of all may be the vast field of education in all its forms. There has been little research in how to organize information so that it can be easily learned. All the research involves creating suitable teaching environments and improving existing methods. We've barely made any progress since the dark ages. The greatest challenge in the world is finding better ways to transfer complex knowledge. Software could help, but at the moment it does the exact opposite, only creating new mysteries and intractable problems for its users.
The reason that progress seems to be slowing down is that society isn't improving fast enough, while technology gets more elaborate but not necessarily better. Human brains are random accumulations of improvised solutions, which may explain their resistance to learning new things. Inefficiency generates a disproportionate stress response. When something doesn't work, it creates an actual pain barrier. Many people forced to use Windows want to scream in agony, and the resulting stress lasts many hours.
Strangely enough, this also explains why most programs are so bad. The programmers give up as soon as they can get the software to work at a minimal level of reliability. Later versions and patches lock in the underlying design flaws. So many bad habits have accumulated that users and programmers will have to hit rock bottom first, before change becomes attractive.
The complaints of millions of infuriated customers have little effect on Bill Gates. Like ending all wars, it may require a fundamental improvement in human nature, something which is not expected to happen anytime soon. The final change will only come when laziness itself gets lazy. -----------------
How to change the world: January 13th, 2009
More technology, less complexity
The world sucks even more than most people imagine. Poverty is the universal rule of history, in every country and culture. The reason is quite simple: it's easier to make more people than to make more products. Babies mass-produce themselves. Houses, services, and medical care do not. Most people never give a moment's thought to the horrors of overpopulation. Because everyone will try to survive, when there's only enough food to feed 60% of the population, over 90% may starve. In the event of a worldwide energy crisis, more than a billion people could die as the high-energy/high-yield farming infrastructure slowly collapses. The rich countries have outcompeted most of the Third World's subsistence farmers. Perhaps some problems can't be improved. The entrenched interests and decision makers won't allow it. They had to suffer to rise above the pack, and they don't want to give up their hard-won advantages. Politicians know that anger is usually short-lived. Rational voters are outnumbered by interest groups. Only those groups with long memories get what they want. Citizens of Burma, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and other places don't even have that consolation. They have to believe a locally mandated fiction, under penalty of death or worse.
Mankind's most important tool is knowledge. Science has much to say about most human problems, but not everyone will like the answers. Even with perfect information, the final decision will be a matter of personal preference. Like free markets and secure property rights, any change for the better will have to be simple in principle. Complicated or elaborate plans, like communism or Boston's Big Dig, just don't work. Fundamental change is hard. It's impossible to overestimate the amount of inefficiency in the world economy today. We don't remember how slow progress tends to be. After twenty years of post-communist development, Russia's economy still hasn't improved. In 2009, the US space shuttle will have been flying in some form for most of the period since the Second World War. It will be replaced in 2011 by a Russian rocket that has already been flying for the better part of a century.
Life is too difficult. Perhaps it should be more like a video game. That may yet happen. In the long term, the driving factor is the 'Kurzweil Effect'. As technology improves at a geometric rate, incredible improvements will accumulate. But that's a long way off. Right now, human wealth can only be increased through personal effort and initiative, which require big rewards. For many people, the only choices are between bad and worse. That needs to change. Humans need a chain of real incentives at every stage of life, the more the better. The simplest Utopian society would resemble a subsistence economy. There might be more obstacles than today, but they would be much smaller. The technology already exists to decentralize society, but it's mostly forbidden by custom and law. Complicated tasks could be made easier with software planning, low volume manufacturing and solar power. 'Factories in a box' could be mass produced. Someone could start out with a small plot of land, and a mobile home barely larger than a tent. They would add modular rooms as their wealth and skill increased, and eventually gourmet kitchens, walk-in closets, Jacuzzis, and entertainment centers. Depending on their local culture, men might work extra hard to accumulate resources to start a family. Some people will always prefer to grow their own food, manage small stores, or manufacture artisanal furniture. According to standard economics this is pointless, but it makes their lives more meaningful. Other people will choose to dedicate themselves to their art. There are of course many other options, like more efficient temp agencies, worldwide standardization, robotics research, emergent cooperation networks, or even a type of communism (for real this time).
Throughout history, far more human effort has been dedicated to reversing progress than to accelerating it. The status quo had to be protected above all else. Monopolies, guilds, licenses, and taboos existed to allow favored groups to keep their accumulated wealth, not to create new wealth. Someday, when enough voters see the light, the politicians may reduce the arbitrary barriers to entry that still plague such fields as medicine, the legal profession, and a thousand other trades from dog grooming to waste disposal. Skill sets could be divided into many small modules, allowing people to explore different fields in a relatively short time. Traditional professions might even vanish, or merge. At the same time, some people will always want to specialize.
The future could be a time of individual diversity, not the diversity of tribes and ethnic groups. The economy would be made up of millions of small companies trading and forming alliances. Temporary organizations of every size could combine and disband as needed. Currently, there are too many trade barriers. Import tariffs for raw materials and food products help keep the Third World in poverty. A worldwide free trade zone could introduce unprecedented economies of scale. A billion people could retire thanks to the increased efficiency (though they probably wouldn't). Each region would of course need to remember how to grow food and keep the utilities running.
While many barriers need to be removed, it's important not to go too far. No existing entities should be destroyed, not even the IRS. They would only be made less powerful. Almost every revolution since the year 3000 BC has failed. When its aims proved unattainable, the revolutionaries found a new role for themselves: to remain in power at all cost. The most profound improvements in the human condition have all been unexpected. Until now, almost every technological or social improvement (with the possible exception of nuclear power) has led to more freedom, at least for a while. This should be the standard of all human endeavor.
Teachers suck: the great scandal of education January 12th, 2009
If, like me, you believe the world is basically bad (perhaps I'm the only one), you have to be willing to ask the controversial questions. Like the truth about religion, the answers are usually unknown, but they don't tend to lead in a politically correct direction. Someone has to finally say it: teachers, and the whole education system, are way overrated. Sure, teachers mean well, making tremendous sacrifices and all that. They don't do it for the money, but for the love of teaching. That's exactly the problem. Education is absurdly inefficient, and getting worse as spending levels rise. My own experience with the education-industrial complex was terrible, and not because of the bullying. I barely learned anything important inside a classroom. Education hasn't improved significantly in thousands of years. There's just a lot more of it. Classes are based on mass lectures, memorization schedules, and chaotic immersion. It's basically a cultural transmission process, relying on mass conformity. Most learning takes place during homework drills, a form of unskilled labor. To become really skilled in something, you need a mentor or an elite peer group. Those teachers who are held in the highest regard seem to make a virtue out of the problem, relying on showmanship and charisma. More art than science, their methods can't be transferred or copied. Apparently, the emotional or social aspect of learning is more important than the information itself.
The core problem is a complete and utter lack of interest in accelerating human information transfer. In fact, teachers are offended by those who suggest learning should be made easier. This is how it's always been. Any change is heresy. A simple Windows PC, millions of times less powerful than a human brain, can load the Japanese alphabet in ten seconds. Humans need an entire year to accomplish the same task. There has been no research, or even any serious discussion, on how to 'upload' data to humans in the shortest possible time. Ideally, it would involve sleep learning or hypnotic induction. In practice, teachers don't even provide useful mnemonics. That's left up to the students themselves, and the educational aftermarket. Instead of exactly defining the knowledge, each student is supposed to figure it out for themselves through a slow accumulation of subconscious rules, a cycle repeated across generations. Part of the learning process is learning how to ignore things. Instead of innovation, we have a surplus of tradition. The worst offender in the USA is the Ivy League, which proudly fetishizes the past: mystery, privilege, social connections and destiny, a sense of superiority. The biggest failure of the education establishment is the absence among most of the public of a basic understanding of science, economics, sociology, or even music theory. Instead of basic skills, these require general theories. They don't have to be hard, but the system just isn't set up to teach the big picture.
Currently, the least bad teaching method involves repeat memorization drills at specific intervals, an effort which requires tremendous willpower. The research is mostly carried out by private companies. A much better way would be to organize the knowledge as clearly as possible, so it can be easily understood. Some teachers might like to avoid this, perhaps thinking it would make them obsolete. All knowledge could be formally described at every level of understanding, a project that would require the combined brainpower of mankind. Each step should be as clear as logically possible. My personal favorite solution is to summarize more. Knowledge is an immense hierarchy. Start by describing the top level, and repeat it often. Then list and explain all the levels and their connections one by one.
The ultimate solution would be to find ways to physically change the human brain, or even to extend it through interactive software, and link it directly to computers. Some say people should just become extensions of search engines and databases. At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, mankind remains mired in ignorance and poverty. The educational elite doesn't particularly seem to care, but this represents a hidden opportunity for others. Whoever invents an easier and faster teaching method could make a fortune.
Other upcoming extremely controversial articles: -The great healthcare scam: let patients die rather than tax unwilling subjects. -If fathers weren't required to pay child support, society would change for the better.
Against forced charity: the ultimate controversy January 11th, 2009
Tax extraction is about to get a lot more painful. Many competing groups are coming together to legislate a vast increase in their benefit levels, using the economic decline as an excuse to invest in their favorite mandatory charities. The AARP's 'Divided We Fail' propaganda campaign has put state and federal representatives on notice that they're expected to show their good will by immediately increasing funding levels for senior medical programs. As part of a vast political balancing act, they will also try to increase spending on government education.
Many experts still think it's possible to prevent the inevitable default of Social Security, if taxes are raised high enough. They may even be right, but they ignore the fact that SS is fundamentally unfair. Widows can demand a lifetime of free taxpayer money without having to work for one second. Anyone can seize this money from the taxpayer simply by marrying the right spouse. Meanwhile, those who suspect they won't live long enough to enjoy any benefits are forced to subsidize the retirement of others. SS is just one of many taxes designed to benefit politically powerful groups. Right or wrong, some people (perhaps many) wouldn't give away this money voluntarily. They would prefer to spend it on themselves, often stupidly. Some people know for a fact that the liberal solution is wrong. They can prove they are worse off under this system. It goes without saying that it's ideal for many others.
Both sides of the politcial spectrum have united in a cornucopia of coercion, with calibrated payments to favored interest groups. Votes are expensive. Every electable politician has to work around the clock to tighten the noose of central control. Soon, another gaggle of candidates will be spouting platitudinal pieties more suited to an earlier age. Trillions of dollars will be extorted at virtual gunpoint and 'invested' in social spending programs. Most medical spending is at the very end of life, keeping decaying bodies going for a few weeks longer, at a cumulative cost of several teradollars per decade. A particularly expensive form of charity includes keeping bodies in a persistent vegetative state alive for many years. A few are still aware.
The Obama administration has to consider many competing interests. Politically, the best compromise would be to give all groups most of what they want. In Obama's case, the first priority will be to limit the inevitable budget cuts, and to reverse them if possible. The situation is made more complicated by the fact that the bar has been set very high indeed. While culturally conservative, the preceding Republican administration has been the most socialist free-spending entity in human history. Meanwhile, the police actions in Asia have only sharpened the appetites of the defense contractors.
All this points to vast tax increases ahead. Economists agree that the new spending can't all come from inflation and future debt payments. We'll have to reduce consumption levels too. The problem will be to maintain tax revenues at the desired high levels.
This brings us to the subject of control. Governments can be ambivalent about the instruments of power. They often come to control those who wield them, as Mao found out during the Cultural Revolution. The first principle of power seems to be: use it or lose it.
The accumulated obligations, from pensions to school subsidies to prescription drugs, are so immense it will be necessary to intimidate and even frighten the taxpayers into working harder. Things won't be nearly as bad as the random terror used by authoritarian organizations like the NKVD, the Sea Org, the Securitate, the Stasi or others, but many random people will still need to suffer, to 'inspire' the others to submit.
Those with the power will do surprisingly poopy things to you. The methods of social control are varied. The first level involves restrictions, bureaucratic rituals and monopolies. Society is designed to stop 99% of all activity, including most improvements. At some point, you will have had to show your government issued birth certificate just to drive, to work for money, or listen to Howard Stern on satellite radio. You'll need a government approved bank account or at least a library card. Those people who manage to lose their government documents, or never had them in the first place, can be methodically destroyed. It's a death by a thousand cuts. If you're poor, you're often screwed to begin with (of course the poor invariably vote for their oppressors anyway). If you work really hard for your money, someone can take it all in a frivolous lawsuit, or some other legal extortion. I won't even mention alimony horror stories. There are many absurd laws that almost everyone supports, usually designed to target marginal citizens. The police will ultimately shoot you dead if you resist arrest for using drugs without a prescription. If you're in jail, they own you completely.
Government is part of a much larger culture war. Religion and tradition are pitted against the forces of evolution and random drift. In this war, both sides try to redefine the truth. One example is the attempt to mandate the teaching of religious creationism in science classes in public schools. Perhaps scientists are deluded, holding on to absurd ideas for no reason. More likely the previous sentence describes creationists. They don't want creationism to be taught as part of a religion class, or as a separate subject. Aided by sympathetic politicians, their goal is to transform science into a properly devout branch of their faith. If they succeed in placing creationism at the core of mainstream science, school taxes still won't be voluntary. Scientists still won't be allowed to come to church on Sunday and tell the congregation there's no proof that God is real.
How will it all end? There is a historical trend toward more federalism going back many centuries. The number of governing authorities will only increase. Each will seek to tax and regulate its subjects to some extent. Long term trends point toward more central control.
At the local level, more businesses may demand tax relief before moving to a new area, but complex exemptions will only increase the total amount of regulation and bureaucracy.
There will be unpredictable shocks to the system, and inevitable changes. New communities and economic networks will continue to arise and demand power for themselves. There may even be online constituencies.
The most important trend is the increasing power of software. This will make it easier to track everyone's contributions and consumption patterns, and to impose more accurate (though not necessarily fairer) user fees.
It seems unlikely the ideals of freedom or quality of life will ever replace the more practical power balances that have dominated history. Big Government will only fade away if it ever becomes obsolete. That may only happen when it's replaced by something even more powerful, perhaps a new totalitarian system, or an integrated overmind without individual identities, like the Borg collective. It certainly seems more likely than Ron Paul winning the presidency in 2012.
The alternative would be a future of ever diverging minds and mind fragments, exploring all possibilities throughout time and space. Without central control, there will be no way to prevent countless atrocities from happening.
Until then, the only option for the small minority that wants freedom is to seize it by any means possible, and to opt out of the mainstream economy. That may become easier with technology, but for now it's still extremely difficult.
Politics and the culture of life January 10th, 2009
Part two: Prolonging life and the politics of mandatory charity
Abortion was highly illegal in Rwanda in 1994 while the machete slaughter was peaking. According to pro-life activists, that was the only good thing about the situation. They think abortion should be outlawed everywhere, under most circumstances, except to save the life of the mother. Banning abortion would indeed make perfect sense if pregnancies passed unnoticed, and the baby suddenly materialized from thin air. In reality pregnancies and births are often agonizing, but pain is considered to be less important than life itself. The hard core of the political disagreement isn't whether abortion is right or wrong (all sides can agree to disagree), but whether it should be prevented by force. It's a police attack problem, one that can never be settled by persuasion alone.
We live in a world suffused with killing. Abortion is different in only one way: it's painless and harmless if performed early enough. Of course it has to be banned, unlike say ritual slaughter. Authoritarian politicians from Clinton to Boehner agree that God disapproves of the former more than the latter. For those who believe in choice, the only permanent 'solution' may be to develop more abortion methods, so that it can never be banned completely. It's already possible to induce early miscarriages with drugs, but these are only available by prescription. Pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions, and even confiscate them for faith-based reasons. President Bush's final religious directive, enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services, gives any healthcare provider a personal veto over any abortion or birth control procedure, provided they can demonstrate their church, mosque, or temple is opposed in principle. It even works if they only have vague moral scruples. In the future, an illegal abortion industry may thrive once again. Being liberals, most pro-choice activists are deeply troubled by the thought of defying the government in this way. They doubt they could ever go through with it. Religious authorities have also banned most stem cell research for theological reasons. Very few people indeed are brave enough to point out that stem cells don't have feelings. Meanwhile, millions of animals are slaughtered daily without the slightest moral discomfort.
At the other end of life, euthanasia has made its inevitable appearance for as long as humans have suffered. Like abortion, many consider it to be a form of murder. It causes more anger than ethnic cleansing, genital mutilation, or serial killers. The most controversial subjects involve an irreconcilable tension: in this case, between the right to pleasure and the right to avoid pain. In the minds of some, these override the right to life itself, making it OK to kill in certain circumstances.
I personally think life is very valuable, even unreasonably so. My standards are probably too high. That implies that life can also (easily) have an extreme negative value. The way things work out, that is too often the case. For many people, if not the majority, life may well be pointless. Reality is more horrible than anyone can imagine. Most possible minds should not exist. Of course, if they want to exist anyway, that's strictly their thing.
If they really don't, death would be the ultimate natural right. Most prisoners should have the option to request an instant death penalty, if they can't stand being incarcerated anymore. Instead, most prisons will resuscitate Death Row inmates scheduled to be executed later that day (though that might be a fitting punishment for their crimes). Terminal patients have it even worse, but they too, are often forced to suffer until the bitter end. Perhaps euthanasia opponents expect that the victim's brain's pain circuits will eventually burn out from overuse, and they will get used to it.
In the words of one Kevorkian sympathizer: "They outlaw euthanasia because 'that's what jeebes would of wanted', well the ole jeebster ain't been checkin his voice mail lately." Suicide remains illegal under almost all circumstances, except in a few highly bureaucratized jurisdictions like Oregon and Switzerland. Even freedom creates more regulations.
The world is stranger than it seems: why has no dominant group ever legalized suicide for a despised minority? They could even have provided an attractive method like a drug overdose. That would probably have been too easy. For whatever reason, humans sometimes want others to suffer. Depending on the circumstances, it can be a sign of love or dislike.
Meanwhile, most of us remain terrified of non-existence, by definition a painless and unannoying state. If I can't live forever, I hope to die by euthanasia in forty or fifty years time, under the influence of yet to be discovered drugs. At the current rate of progress, it won't be legal by then. The world's confessional and scriptural authorities just won't loosen their grip in time. They even outlaw painkillers like marijuana, and may increase the penalties still further. Bush never pardoned a single non-violent drug user.
It will take a long time for medical science to figure out how to repair something as inherently unreliable as the human body. There isn't even a reliable treatment for mental illness. The number of useful antibiotics may actually be declining. Long before then, many cheaper and more effective ways to kill people will be found, and patients will be better informed about all the painful diseases and chronic conditions they will face.
Groups will also become more aware of the dangers they face collectively. As society becomes more complex, more things can theoretically go wrong. Without redundancies, a single failure could reduce the quality of life by half. The future will only get more terrifying, unless mankind gives up its ability to feel pain. That might cause more problems than it solves. Eventually, people may even consider other versions of themselves in parallel universes. Only the happiest versions need to survive. Someone who believes in quantum immortality can never fear death. No matter what goes wrong, in some possible future they will always survive. However, they would not necessarily be in a condition to enjoy their existence.
Of course, old fashioned evolution will always counter suicide in all its forms. The battle between reasoned self-determination and mindless reproduction may last forever. Quality can never defeat raw quantity. In that case there will never be an ultimate utopia. Pain will only increase without end, even though it may occupy a shrinking percentage of future awareness. Here the human imagination reaches a limit. The conflicts of the distant future would appear absurd and irresolvable today. There are no universal rules. Someday, there may need to be a law that makes it legal to break the law when it's reasonable to do so.
Until then, those who suffer from intolerable pain or circumstances will continue to choose the ultimate shortcut, with or without help.
Politics: the universal conspiracy January 9th, 2009
This article is about every poopy thing in the world. A great conspiracy has thrived for millennia, and it's expanding faster than ever. No, I'm not talking about 'Skull and Bones' again. It's the conspiracy of the mainstream, and at least 51% of society is a member. The worst part is that they actually believe they're right.
There's never been a true democracy anywhere, just a broad consensus, even in places like North Korea and your old high school. A sphere of general agreement, constantly updated to give the illusion of universal influence, as if you are helping to choose the rules of society.
Many people agree the world is poopy. Usually, it's for the opposite reasons of the progressive minority, who think there's too little of what mainstream leaders say there's too much of (civil rights, birth control, drug rights, property rights and other freedoms).
For centuries, political power has flowed from the barrel of a gun, before that swords and spears, before that stone axes and sharpened sticks. Politics is the inevitable result of irreconcilable tensions, often the only stable outcome. When there's a real social emergency, like during wartime or a natural disaster, people are willing to sacrifice. When there's a political emergency, like some favored group demands more money, the government has to enforce the sacrifice with the threat of violence. This happens in even the most peaceful societies.
Are all politicians bad-smurfs, or are they just unintentionally poopy? Almost certainly the latter. It normally takes a lot of effort to be truly poopy. Even the most invasive legislation is usually the result of long deliberations and compromises. The decisionmakers inevitably feel they've arrived at the least bad solution. They think of themselves as misunderstood benefactors. Still, Smoot Hawley would be a good name for a supervillain.
To be a politician, you often have to be ruthless. Agreement is usually impossible. To quote Didymus Mutasa, who helped make Zimbabwe the place it is: "The position is that food shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead..."
A stream of legislation and directives usually signals the birth of a new power structure. More than by the new taxes and the rules themselves, citizens are often burdened by the cost of compliance. There's nothing more annoying than bureaucracy except physical pain, and that can be solved with drugs. The pressure does serve one very important purpose. To force its subjects to obey, a government has to be able to keep track of them. Citizens have to be accurately registered, even if it requires massive duplication of agencies and paperwork. Many methods have been found to achieve this goal. The most important one is fear.
Half of all homeless people in the USA have somehow managed to misplace their ID documents. In order to discourage such carelessness, they're not allowed to get regular jobs. Chinese peasants often can get jobs in the teeming industrial cities in the eastern regions, but they can’t get the residency permits required to rent a home. Migrant workers live crammed together in dormitories, earning a dollar a day. This allows the communist authorities to control a transient population larger than Western Europe. Back in the old USA, the Digital Transition Content Security Act will require every digital device to obey a coded signal, so that its files can be erased by government authorized agents. Drug laws are used to prevent disruptive subcultures from taking root.
The government has set up an immense infrastructure with the goal of owning you. It's utterly impossible to fight back. You were defeated before you were born.
The most complained about symptom is the burden of taxes. Like almost everyone else, I have to work to make money. I can't begin to describe how hard it is. It's horrible, but that's not considered an acceptable excuse for anything. Politics on the other hand is the ultimate luxury. Often, it's all about appearances, the very foundation of society. This is also the second explanation for the War on Drugs. In order to appear charitable and caring, the US government invests trillions of dollars to extend the lives of the incapacitated elderly by a few weeks or months, and is planning to raise the funding levels even more. The manned space program spends billions of dollars for every astronaut death averted. The same money could vaccinate half of Africa. Wealthy liberals don't understand the real value of labor. Some years ago, the new owner tore down OJ Simpson's old house to begin a 'spiritual healing process'. It's fun to consume wealth created by others. You don't feel their pain.
The next step is controlling other people. It's easy if you're isolated from the consequences, as every dictator from Mao to Hubbard has discovered, but that's only part of the picture. A fundamental feature of human nature is the tendency to obey. The most successful federal program may be 'Abstinence Only' education, designed to prevent unmarried persons from having sex, while also discouraging them from having an abortion if they do accidentally manage to have sex anyway. Bush's pastors didn't approve of birth control. Simply ordering unmarried minors to abstain from sex is successful an amazing 99.999% of the time. Teenagers will usually do what they're told. Secretly, they're the most conservative humans of all. Unfortunately, they only have to disobey 0.001% of the time to get pregnant. Their guardians can't monitor their behavior all the time.
It's not love that makes the world go round, but submission. Most organizations exist to ratify, extend, and stabilize existing power arrangements. Somali refugee Ayaan Hirsi Ali was roundly condemned by NEWSWEEK magazine for daring to criticize certain aspects of Islam. Criticizing religion like other subjects is just not done. It's considered extremely bad form. Everyone is supposed to submit to the prevailing hierarchy, and to avoid making waves. Everyone is born with obligations disguised as privileges. This is also the core of patriotism.
Let me be clear: the USA is not my country. I don't own it or any significant portion of it. As a citizen, I'm just allowed to live here. There are no good countries, only less bad ones. In my opinion the USA is the least bad one, not really a country but an operating system. Here at least, most people can own their own homes, with a flag outside and a gun inside. Ultimately, the world will need something better than countries, but that will be difficult to achieve. No agency voluntarily gives up its authority. Idealism is notoriously unreliable.
The core problem is that people are dangerous. Many are depressed, quite unlikable, and unpredictable up close. Just visit any slum or executive boardroom. The poor are just as poopy as their leaders. Mostly, people want to be left alone, but they have to earn the right to be lazy. Of course the rules of laziness don't apply to the most complicated product of all: more people. In this area at least, productivity is very high indeed. The main cause of poverty has always been overpopulation. When it's not too bad, it can lead to rapid progress. Mankind has had a good run these past decades, but every winning streak has to end sometime. Most people don't realize that most highly complex systems (like the rain forest, Switzerland, or the music industry) are not nearly as wealthy as they appear. An abundance of slowly accumulated wealth creates the illusion of permanent growth. Once the liabilities exceed the assets, the collapse can be quite sudden. After eight years of US-led worldwide population expansion policies, humanity could experience a big crash. Agriculture around the world has become very energy intensive. No one knows how China or India would respond to mass famines. The Third World may generate a wave of mass migrations toward Europe and North America. Such a crisis could only be prevented with rational cooperation on a global scale. It may already be too late.
However, chaos could also be an opportunity for a few resourceful individuals. Inflation, depressions, and wars can encourage people to finally get rid of inefficient arrangements. Existing power networks can even be smashed, as happened in Russia in 1917 and 1991. The details are impossible to plan for, or even to anticipate. The best anyone can hope is to be ready when an unexpected opportunity arises.
This is where ethics come in. Whether the guiding principle should be passive (do no harm), active (contribute to your group), or radical (donate to charity without expecting anything in return) may become a matter of life or death in the coming decades.
The great healthcare scam January 8th, 2009
In March 2005, President Bush departed his Crawford, Texas ranch aboard his Marine Corps helicopter, looking unusually grim. After landing in Waco, he quickly ascended the stairs to Air Force One, refusing to answer the waiting reporters' questions. This was serious business.
Bush traveled across the country in his personal 747 ($50.000 per hour, a swimming pool of fuel, 1000 tons of CO2) to sign a piece of paper to keep a living corpse called Terri Schiavo alive. He would have considered it a matter of supremely poor taste to mention the cost of this undertaking (his mother might not have). After all, what price can you put on a human life, regardless of its actual condition? Money is simply irrelevant in a situation like that.
This is the basic operating principle of healthcare activists everywhere. The right of the taxpayers to keep their hard earned cash vanishes like snow before the sun when matters of life or death are at stake. These costs will only increase. Slowly but surely, our political masters are drawing up their plans to provide 'free' healthcare for everybody, whether they want it or not. Perhaps two hundred million Americans do want it, and they may well get it. The costs of the proposed reforms, once the economic bailout has been completed (they may well be part of it) exceed comprehension. They will be almost supernatural in scope. It just doesn't matter if future generations have to pay interest on the national debt for ten thousand years. Hard work never killed anyone. Lack of health care clearly did.
The current healthcare system is already more wasteful than communism. Taxpayers are funding gargantuan programs with no real benefits.
Most healthcare expenses take place at the very end of life, when the recipient can't enjoy them anyway. It happens in every nursing home and extended care facility on the planet. Huge 'vegetable farms' keep humanoid plants 'alive' at gigantic cost. A few unlucky patients still have hidden brain functions. Misdiagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State is very common. Thousands of people have been buried alive in their own bodies, tortured worse than anyone can imagine. They may try to commit suicide by holding their breath but that doesn't work.
Many things can be said about modern medical care, but it certainly isn't fun. The most expensive procedures allow unfortunate patients to live a few months longer, often unpleasantly, sometimes in agony. People who would otherwise have died at birth can live full, albeit highly restricted lives thanks to respirators, motorized wheelchairs, voice synthesizers, physical therapists and attendants. Some can even have offspring through IVF or artificial insemination (a mandatory component of health insurance in many locations).
When all our infrastructure and social achievements have finally collapsed and vanished without a trace, what will our society leave behind? Among other things, negative evolution: a bunch of bad genes that would have been weeded out or become scarcer without medical intervention. That's probably a good thing: it will create more human diversity, and stimulate further research. Enough chronic genetic diseases may finally persuade humans to give up their hopelessly defective bodies.
But that will take a while. In the short term, the future looks extremely expensive. Programs like Medicaid are less about the quality of life than about its continuation at all cost. By their nature they can only expand. Emergency rooms and ICU's in the few rich nations continue to spend tens of millions of dollars for a few extra minutes of life, often without compensation. An extended stay in a state of the art cardiology ward can cost up to a million dollars, with no copays, deductibles, or even drug bills if the patient can't pay them, until they're kicked out. Parents often demand their irrevocably brain-dead offspring be kept alive indefinitely at taxpayer expense, regardless of the cost.
The downside of this mandatory charity is hundreds of additional labor hours for every taxpayer, plus increased unemployment. Why should taxpayers forcibly surrender a massive percentage of their income so other people can afford a product they desire? This may be a good idea in theory, but then why not give every homeless person a free apartment? Apparently, healthcare is 'special', a 'fundamental right'.
What if someone would prefer to spend their hard-earned money on a second home, dancing lessons, homeopathic research, or on their own health care, instead of on other people? They could certainly do that, if they didn't mind the police shooting them dead for tax resistance.
This situation can't last. Economic progress is already too slow to pay for the current gold-plated system. In the future, there will be trillion-dollar techniques to replace most body cells, or rewrite their genomes. Socialist democracies like Sweden may impose 90% tax rates to pay for it all. The United States will probably be bankrupt by then.
What is to be done? Quite possibly, there will be a slow, orderly collapse. Politicians are unwilling to offend certain powerful interest groups, and most other voters simply don't care. Still, it doesn't have to be that way. The first rule of healthcare should be: make it cheaper. Even I should be able to afford it on my sub-minimum wage income. There's only one way to make that happen: rely on the free market to vastly increase the supply. By law, it is extremely difficult to become an MD or nurse. Much of the knowledge has been deliberately mystified. Medical students have to study for a decade, followed by a grueling 'residency', then medical 'boards' to pass. Their real career only starts in their thirties. The field needs to be vastly simplified, probably by splitting it into sub-specialties.
The next step will be to unleash the full potential of mass production and automation. Make healthcare more impersonal, a factory rather than a hospital. This principle works for fast food, utilities, hotels, airlines. It has never been tried for healthcare, but almost all functions could be standardized. A 'care manager' could then explain what's happening to individual patients. The increasing lifespan and demands of our senior citizens will make it necessary to invent 'software doctors' and maybe even robot surgeons. Immense expert systems will eventually be able to diagnose and monitor most diseases. The above will of course require extensive deregulation, against almost unimaginable opposition from entrenched interests.
Medical research will also need to be decentralized. Many remaining diseases such as cancer, auto-immune inflammations and obesity are stupendously complex, and progress has been slow. Part of the solution is to encourage the Third World to exploit its untapped brainpower, perhaps with an incentive stream of bounties and prizes for new cures, clinical trials, and treatment methods. With too many dead-ends to explore to ever become profitable, future drugs may only emerge from open-source collaboration.
None of this can solve the ultimate problem of healthcare delivery. It has never been seriously discussed, not even by the tiny minority of mankind truly opposed to most taxes. If they had openly discussed the problem, their parties and candidates might have received even fewer votes, if that's even possible. The problem is easily stated: if, at some point in the future, charity will no longer be mandatory, there will be a lot less of it, at least for some recipients. Of course this is a purely hypothetical situation. Some form of social security will always exist, no matter what. Let's assume the government would agree to reimburse all medical costs up to $ 10.000 per person per year (enough for one hour of treatment in the current system). Above that amount, voluntary charity would take over. That seems completely fair. I have to go through ten types of agony to earn that kind of money (my main justification for tax relief). The consequences of such a change would be profound.
Some people will always be more appealing than others. The disparity may be even bigger in supposedly egalitarian societies. A minority of patients will inevitably receive more than their fair share of charity. According to some critics, AIDS research has been over-funded, while diabetes has been neglected.
Many people feel uncomfortable about the severely disabled, which might translate into fewer donations. The most expensive patients might not make it at all. Quadriplegics, those with senile dementia or brain damage, and high-risk or highly disabled transplant candidates could all die for lack of care.
The free market will inevitably generate solutions many ethicists will consider unacceptable. Some clients could only get health insurance if they got sterilized. Other plans would save money by covering euthanasia. This will only happen if governments become less powerful in the future.
Ultimately, there will be a voluntary network of charities, perhaps government controlled for greater efficiency. It will keep track of donations as a portion of income, and generally decide who gets what benefits (individual donors will still be able to override the collective judgment). This imaginary system will still be inefficient, but at least no one would be forced to pay for other people's preferences.
Could such a massive shift ever happen, especially now that the USA has made a leftward swing, while traditional religion is on the rebound, the anti-tax movement has been marginalized, and Big Government is poised to become mightier than ever? Only if, in the public mind, the quality of life becomes more important than its quantity. First, many more people would need to be exposed to the horrors of Third World slums and First World nursing homes. It seems unlikely. It might take a slow catastrophe, a worldwide depression and mass unemployment. Of course, you might want to get a second opinion on that.
(no subject) November 24th, 2008
Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions on your LJ. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.
"On numerous occasions, the top Party leadership has ignored the advice of the foreign minister, bypassed him, or failed altogether to consult him."
the end of news November 16th, 2008
In the second week of September, the terrorists struck without warning. They had decided they were willing to die for their cause, though that was incidental to the plan. After making their peace with Allah, they became remote from this world. While far from flawless, the operation was carefully planned and coordinated, funded by international money transfers and lots of volunteer work. When the time came, four hijacked airliners were suddenly diverted to their final destinations. On one plane, the passengers managed to fight back. It ended in violent fire. But enough about the 1970 Dawson's Field hijackings.
Very rarely, through the gray smog of reality, something fundamentally unexpected appears. This may happen only once in a lifetime. The normal news of our time is insignificant. The world seems frozen in a state of slow degeneration, perhaps an incubation period for the future. More likely it's completely meaningless. The terrorist attacks of 2001 brought a sudden, immense sense of unreality, like living in a movie. Do you remember those dreams in which something incredible happens, like you can fly, or were married to Drew Barrymore, but it somehow slipped your mind? For a moment there's a sense that anything is possible.
After the 767 tail had disappeared at 800 kph into the wall of the South Tower, and everything looked normal again for half a second, anyone could have been forgiven for feeling like the world's biggest idiot. Everyone had assumed you would at least need a gun to hijack a plane, or an inside conspiracy, or operatives smuggled inside the luggage containers.
Indoor plane crashes are rare events. The replays showed it from every side. There are 50.000 North American airline flights every day. Somehow, we're still counting on all of them not to crash into a nuclear power plant. It was an unforgivable oversight. People tend to react; they don't anticipate very well. Humanity may actually be a lot dumber than generally accepted.
How to respond to such an immense cock-up? Fire the FAA, and nuke the bastards? Uwe Boll should have made a comedy about the whole fiasco. For all we know, Osama may have saved the USA, by exposing a vast security flaw. North Korean or Chinese agents could have arranged a much more destructive attack.
There were plenty of warnings, most notably a 1993 Air France hijacking. Worst of all was the failure of imagination. If I had been on one of the hijacked planes (not that I could have afforded a ticket), I like to think I would have managed to inform my fellow passengers of the terrible danger, and persuaded them to fight back. They wouldn't have understood what I was trying to tell them. Unfortunately, I sound a lot like that guy in 'King Of The Hill' who doesn't speak very clearly. First they would have asked me to repeat it, then I would have tried to spell it out. It takes a very forceful personality to communicate effectively in a crisis.
The hardest part was the fact that NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED. It was all over before it began, an ending that felt like a beginning. By 6 PM ET that evening, you could have thrown away your TV. Everyone was pissed, with no outlet.
The attacks were a random anomaly, a craptacular concatenation of chaos designed to look climactic. Their real goal was humiliation. The terrorists wanted their own version of the Raid on Entebbe. They were more successful than they could have hoped, indirectly causing trillions of dollars of damage. They don't want to dilute the effect with new attacks.
Since then, the strange pantomine of the pretend war has done more damage than any possible follow-up.
For the cost of one War Of Terror, we could have built a thousand World Trade Center towers. At seventy meters plus an equal separation distance per tower, the replacement WTC could have been built in New York City AND Philadelphia. Instead, if current trends continue, the USA may soon face bankruptcy.
Whatever happens, it may not be as dramatic as the attacks that started it all. We may never again experience anything remotely as unexpected. The stagnant decline and nervous tedium since then have been purchased at a high price. It's the reason why Bush was reelected in 2004. The Terror War may not end until it's grown as stale as the Cold War, and everyone forgets what it was all about. By fighting the enemy long enough, it may be possible to inadvertently change him, or replace him.
Instead of news, history may start again, the changes accumulating slow and steady, until every plan has become obsolete. If I'm wrong, there are more targets than ever before. The Eiffel Tower weighs barely more than one floor of the World Trade Center. The Pentagon seems impenetrable, but if there's one weakness, it will be found. No one will be surprised when the first city goes up in a pillar of fire. The next real news event may be something we wouldn't recognize as such - or can't imagine. Iran or Pakistan and India may blow up. It may not involve the Muslim world at all; perhaps a war in Africa, the former Soviet Union, or Indochina; a hoax or an escalating diplomatic incident; a new way of thinking or organizing groups; an economic alliance in Asia. In this century, humanity may even change into a new form, or become extinct altogether.
Right now it's hard to imagine. In an unstable but interconnected world, the cataclysms of the future are more likely to happen in slow motion, like global warming, economic collapse or new epidemics. That doesn't mean they will hurt any less.
why are there so few black nerds? October 20th, 2008
In the US, there are two somewhat separate cultures. Let's call them Eurasian and Afro-Caribbean. The difference between them is not like Japan and Denmark; it's more like Mars and Venus.
Eurasians have done countless naughty things in the past, but are Afro-Caribbeans also responsible (to a limited extent) for the stark division between the two groups? The theory is that 'AC's' are generalists, while 'E's' are specialists. Many Eurasian genes are 'broken' versions of Afro-Caribbean ones.
Eurasians tends to carry thoughts too far, get easily obsessed, are able to function in tiny but complex interest groups that require the support of similarly afflicted individuals. This may be a type of insanity, but it does seem to work. Africa, the first home of humanity, is now at the periphery.
Past tensions mean that the different groups can't always relax in each other's presence. They don't know the implicit norms and hidden assumptions governing behavior, and have different interests. Every culture has very complex rules that are hard to learn. In this case, AC's may know more about E's than vice versa. The only commonality is a shared geography, and a basic way of life.
Society needs a common interface, but diversity can't be suppressed. Instead of race, people should be divided into many more categories - interests, obsessions, experience, skills, intelligence, and most of all personality type.
Homelessness: society's choice October 1st, 2008
The most fundamental human right does not exist. The right to freely walk around a tiny portion of the earth's surface without being harassed, tortured, killed, or some combination. Hundreds of millions of people, from abject refugees to low-income workers, don't have that right. Homelessness is rising worldwide, along with economic displacement, and many types of violence.
Even in a time of massive overpopulation, there's no good reason for homelessness to exist. We have the technology to solve it, and always have. Society simply decided a percentage of the population will not be permitted to live in homes, by passing laws that make the cheapest housing too expensive, or make it too hard to earn a living.
Low cost housing is unavailable for the same reason there is no low cost medical care. Society wants to encourage certain minimum standards, making people work harder than strictly necessary. Fear is a useful motivator, but the threat has to be credible. Seeing others down on their luck also makes some people feel superior.
The problem is worsened by too much trust, the perception of easy credit, a sense that things will work out.
Needless to say, many homeless persons themselves voted for the politicians who passed the laws restricting their options, and will continue to do so. Many others never voted at all.
----
How to solve homelessness (if society actually wanted to do so).
The solution to poverty is property. Slow, steady accumulation and compound interest could make everyone rich.
It would be relatively cheap to give everyone a tiny starter home, perhaps only a few square meters. Less things can go wrong in a simpler environment. Driven by status and self interest, the owner would have a strong incentive to add modular rooms. Humans evolved to take small steps. It's hard to keep up with all the arbitrary rules and regulations of society. Anything that simplifies life will help.
Millions of homeless persons have such severe mental illnesses they can't keep even the lowest paying jobs. They often do have some skills, and a lot of energy. Their lives somehow need to be simplified. Many only want to be left alone with powerful drugs, maybe in a desert homestead or underground bunker, with fences and walls to protect them and others. In the past, hermits could eke out an existence on the edge of civilization. Some people will always choose to escape into oblivion.
A home is only a first step. Different people arrange their lives in many ways, managing their time and dividing their labor, having more babies or less, depending on the costs and the benefits. Now that we've run out of space on this planet, birth control will have to be actively encouraged, at least until a new age of abundance has dawned.
In Western countries, simple solutions are often frowned upon, which explains the already lower fertility rate; and solutions of any kind are simply impossible elsewhere. Most people could easily make do with less, and everyone could be wealthy in virtual reality, but without at least a minimal size home, civilized life is impossible. As always, the hardest part will be to persuade the government not to get in the way.
Stem cells are people too September 17th, 2008
1. Every stem cell is sacred Once again, the politicians are engaged in an agonizing wrestling match with their consciences. Torn this way and that, they're struggling to balance the rights of stem cells against the human desire for medical research. Many of their constituents consider any action that destroys a human fertilized egg as equivalent to abortion, one step short of premeditated murder. It's simply not permissible under any circumstance. This raises a very important question that must fill our opinion leaders with even more anxiety, if that's even possible. Many embryos and fetuses are spontaneously aborted in the early stages of pregnancy. It's the largest cause of death in the human species. Shouldn't the entire world economy be reorganized to keep these proto-humans alive, no matter what the cost? It already happens on a limited scale, but the effort could be increased. Vast hospital complexes and nursing homes would try to avoid or delay miscarriages, and then care for the millions of severely disabled individuals who would otherwise not have had the chance to exist at all. All workers and taxpayers would face a grim life of endless toil and poverty, constantly rising taxes, the promise of only greater hardships ahead. (In other words, not that different from the plausible future.) But it would save billions of human lives. Completely reorganizing the world economy to this end would be a small price to pay. After all, no scientist denies that life starts at conception. In fact, it starts well before then.
2. Bush is so wrong he's right How bad would it be if a trillion trillion human embryos were incinerated? Exactly as bad as if a trillion trillion fly embryos were incinerated. In either case, they can't feel anything! It would cause less than one cent of moral damage. At worst, it would be like cannibalism, but not like murder. Icky, but not intrinsically bad. Embryos deserve as much respect as non-living matter.
Needless to say, many politicians have already reached the opposite conclusion. Congress may even criminalize the use of scientific knowledge derived from embryonic cloning. Many pro-life cancer patients agree it would be wrong to use such a treatment, even if the cure itself doesn't damage any embryos, and it should be prohibited.
For religious reasons, most federal funding of stem cell research has been vetoed in the USA. Strangely enough, this actually makes some kind of sense: believers should not be required to support disagreeable research with their taxes. It impinges upon their freedom. This is a rare case of two wrongs making a right - but it doesn't go far enough. No one should have to pay for a product they don't want to consume, including education, healthcare, and social insurance.
About 70,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions. An additional 5 million women suffer permanent or temporary injury. Maybe abortion does debase human dignity. Humans do nothing but debase human dignity. To many, abortion looks like a net gain. Considering the alternatives, they're delighted the option exists.
3. The limits of choice Suppose there was a region on Earth with a serious population shortage; a surplus of available jobs, a top-heavy population pyramid, lots of vacant real estate. Needless to say, there is no such region in this world. It's much easier to create new people than to create new infrastructure, services, and products. In fact, it's hardest to make a living in those regions which have the most severe abortion restrictions (Latin America, Africa, South Dakota). That's probably no coincidence.
Abortion only remains legal because there's no utilitarian reason to ban it, and there are many plausible if highly unpopular reasons to encourage it. We live on an overpopulated, chaotic planet. If some unprecedented epidemic or disaster were to wipe out millions of people, or the birth rate dropped to such low levels that not enough workers remained to finance Social Security, the Supreme Court would no doubt authorize abortion restrictions, or even re-impose them.
The trend seems obvious. Throughout history, freedom has been gained against overwhelming opposition, after every objection was proven baseless. Losing that freedom may prove to be far easier. The answer is to carry out the research as unobtrusively as possible, distributed across many borders, in hundreds of universities and private facilities, before the religious authorities and moral guardians crack down.
A LIST OF IRRITATING doodoo September 12th, 2008
So called 'magic eye' pictures that don't work. Of all the non-stereoscopic 3D picture illusions, these are the worst. A good example of the Virtuosity Effect: it would be easy to create a simple 'magic eye' picture that almost anyone could see, but without exception they're ultra-detailed eye-busters that cause a splitting headache.
Banks can steal your money. If you accept a check from a third party, the bank will add the sum to your account, without bothering to verify if the check is valid. When the check bounces, the bank will steal the money back by any means, even if you have already spent it, or 'returned' the money to the issuer - the trick behind a popular scam.
'Serious' literature Most Nobel Prize caliber fiction is infuriatingly boring; wallowing in unpleasant details and emotions. Serious authors act as if they're important, but they fundamentally accept the world as given. They monopolize NYT book reviews, PBS panels, and liberal arts courses. Someone needs to think about the rest of the universe, the taboo truths of this world, and the fundamentally unknown. Real life is crap, a calculated mix of hidden codes and competitive deception. It doesn't deserve the respect that serious authors bestow on the mundane. Sometimes, life needs to be described from the outside, like an ant colony or a bacteria infection, things most people never think about. Arthur C. Clarke didn't write about characters or relationships. He made them seem insignificant. That's also how history should be taught; a mess of population pressures, changing landscapes, and meaningless violence. The truth lies in numbers.
Sycophantic book reviews that praise the author's literary skills without revealing the plot. You can find many fine examples of this parasitic fluff in the Barnes and Noble bookstore magazine.
'serious' SF According to 'serious' critics, the only good SF is not SF. It needs more human emotion and less science. Much less science. Let's just abbreviate it to F. That's better. When trying to read modern SF, I'm often cursing it's so boring. Too many characters and not enough (or any) extreme science. Nothing wrong with that, just call it 'fantastical' literature. Also, never start out trying to create a plausible future. Create an entertaining or an interesting one, then fix the errors.
'X-aggeration' This is when a mass-market edu-tainment program tries to 'sex up' an incredibly spectacular event that no human has ever witnessed (or can even imagine) with the most sensationalist images they can think of, completely unaware they're hopelessly inadequate. It's usually accompanied by dramatic music and narration. Like when the Discovery Channel uses file footage of flowing lava to illustrate the time when the earth's entire crust was molten. Worst of all is when they try to use CGI animation to depict a supernova or something. In the future, those puny efforts will look as dumb as those nineteenth century postcards that predicted zeppelin bicycles in the year 2000. Except those might have worked.
Infinite Thunder (novel) feedback page August 29th, 2008
This form exists to allow readers to post comments, observations, impressions, or opinions about the hard SF novel Infinite Thunder, by Jack Arcalon. The first version of the novel was posted online and at Lulu.com in September 2006. It has been further revised several times since then, as new information became available. The novel took almost twenty-five years to write.
Celebrate negativity: 99 reasons why the world sucks July 16th, 2008
Part I:
Everything still sucks Where are the robots to do all the boring stuff? People dislike working. Progress is too slow. Everyone is overextended. The world is a work in progress, permanently rebuilding itself, but it's not necessarily getting any better. Some would go even further: the world isn't just poopy, it's a hoax. An efficient deception, evolved to sustain itself. The most important facts are not even discussed. Society is not nearly as advanced as it seems. Just an accumulation of incompatible elements, forced to interact. The list of injustices is growing faster than anyone can read. This is a very incomplete summary:
Tyranny With ruthless efficiency, mankind has chosen to evolve a long line of authoritarian, corruption-based regimes. Countries like North Korea continue to enforce their commitment with iron dedication. Why would people do such a thing? Because they're crazy. Needless to say, the few relatively open societies are nuts too, just not quite as bad. They couldn't be as bad - though that may change soon enough.
Poopyness Nowadays few believe in poopyness anymore, even though it describes so much. Instead, people prefer to believe in unhappy childhoods, communication problems, or that the fault lies with them.
Stress Many or most problems could be resolved by following a simple prescription: do nothing. In places with more violence than intelligence, that is apparently too difficult. Most conflict is caused by the stressful reaction to a problem, not the underlying problem itself.
Accidents A million agonizing deaths could easily be avoided each year with common precautions.
Overpopulation Evolution requires failure to achieve progress, but this is ridiculous.
Get rich quick schemes A wonderful solution for desperate people: make money at home in your spare time doing nothing. These scams attempt to acquire existing wealth from other people, who've already done the hard work of creating it. Usually these crackpot schemes involve reselling cheap merchandise, or repetitive tasks any machine could do. What if everyone tried to follow them? We'd quickly run out of envelopes and trinket factories. The scams work for the same reason so many people want to be artists: there are no barriers to entry. If you're self-employed, your boss doesn't insist on social skills, a rigid schedule, or complex paperwork. Everyone gets credit card applications in the mail, but there are no job applications. A real get rich quick scheme would still work even if everyone followed it. Ideally, it would allow people who otherwise have nothing in common to cooperate.
Jury duty Involuntary servitude - a privilege? A group of randomly selected citizens have to decide if a defendant is guilty of a crime. They often give up their income for the duration, aren't fully reimbursed for transportation, have to pay for their own parking, and have no control over what happens next - except how it all ends. The judge runs the courtroom while the jurors have to sit still and listen. Some cases last for months. Lawyers and other courtroom professionals are well paid. In my two encounters with the 'justice system' the lawyers wasted a staggering amount of time, not for the jurors' benefit, but for the appeal judges' convenience. Jurors have been fined and jailed for yawning or falling asleep, for talking, for watching the news in their own homes, for faking illnesses, or simply not showing up.
Alimony outrages There's been a steady increase in alimony/child support horror stories. Often the person forced to pay alimony isn't the father at all. Usually there was a marital relationship. The person has to pay a large sum each month until the offspring has graduated from college. If he loses his job or income, he has to get another job or go to jail. Excuses are not accepted. For ex-husbands it's a dead-end existence, toiling endless hours to live in a hi-crime apartment dump, with rats floating in the pool. It seems like slavery, except slaves sometimes fought back. In all societies, lives are often destroyed for no reason. Defenders of the system will point out that many deadbeat fathers evade the system. They could have used birth control, but didn't care about the consequences. The worst offenders have more children, and pass on their genes. A clear case of evolution in action.
Your papers please! If you want to board a US airliner, you will need to produce a government approved identification document. It's not just a policy, it's the law. In a few years, your REAL ID driver's license will have to meet expensive new federal standards. Traditionally, governments have used such requirements to prevent less popular groups from traveling, interacting, or existing. The public thinks it's perfectly reasonable to need government permission to travel, own real estate, or listen to the radio. (Howard Stern expects his listeners to produce their birth certificates, in order to get a state-licensed ID, to get a bank account, to get a Sirius account.) Airlines need to search passengers for weapons. Since they're already out in public, there's nothing to prevent them from photographing everyone (get over the silly superstition that the camera steals your soul), and using facial recognition software to check for terrorists. There's no reason for the government to get involved, except that some jobs are apparently so annoying they have to jump in. Licensing, nursing homes, divorce, war. Prostate exams will be next.
No booboos on TV
Bureaucracy Provide a product that shouldn't exist, and get a pension! Let's make more hidden barriers and entrenched power blocks.
Education The violent chaos of school and its brother in arms, authoritarian control. The real lessons are not listed on the curriculum or discussed.
Victimless 'crimes' Richard Paey was arrested with a large supply of illegal painkillers for his own use, and was sentenced to 25 tax-funded years behind bars. Well frick that.
Asset forfeiture If you're suspected of selling or using drugs, the Govt. will confiscate the property where the drugs were found.
Healthcare monopoly The most successful and expensive monopoly in human history, every American will be paying tens of thousands of dollars to expand it.
The 'Help' button that comes with any software product, free or paid.
The Showbiz Delusion Why do so many people want to be artists, actors, models, musicians? Not because these jobs are inherently more fun. They simply have the lowest barriers to entry. People can start right now, and visualize the next step. They can always back out. If I wanted to become a plumber, I'd have to pay, in advance, to enroll at a community college. Like so many things in life, it's all or nothing; and the barriers are rising.
Virtuosity People enjoy making things more complicated without explaining them. This alone explains 33% of human problems. Example: musical notation
religion It doesn't actually do anything. It's often blatantly meaningless. Worst of all: it makes life slightly less intolerable, and helps keep the existing problems in place.
Jobs The ultimate test to see how much people will put up with. Answer: more than anyone could have predicted.
CEO salaries
Banks can steal your money, and the cops will let them. poopy things banks do: -deceitful fees -cashing checks without verifying the existence of the required funds
Touch typing (Also see: magic eye pictures) The clearest example of the reality hoax so far. As far as I can tell, so called 'touch typing' is impossible. I challenge anyone to look closer. There is a stunning lack of websites or forums. Why are there no research papers, no discussions of methods and theory? When I say our world is a poopy hoax (let me repeat it), this is what I mean: why is absolutely no one on this bizarre planet looking for ways to make the second most important communication method of our species any easier? Why aren't there finger rails, specially designed keyboards for hunt and peck typist, different key shapes, deeper keys, software that detects and fixes mistypings by ignoring the weaker simultaneous key punch while adding a tiny shock to discourage this type of error?
Zoning laws: After years of high property taxes based on the expected resale value, the authorities will sometimes make your land worthless overnight by preventing its use.
The IRS Everyone who does anything useful is automatically punished by the taxocrats. You are the suspect. If you're lucky, it won't hurt too bad. The tax code shows better than anything that humanity's problems are complicated by choice.
Suffering tends to maximize the number of observers. Nature favors quantity over quality. There are no uninhabited tropical islands. Organisms will fill every available niche. Evolution drives a species toward its natural limits. Given time, any society will end up in the worst (for the individual) condition in which it can still survive, unless it somehow manages to keep changing. Evolved from failure, humans live in a permanent state of emergency.
Free software Review of the gimp, a free image manipulation program. In the history of suckitude, nothing else sucks this bad. Want to crop, rotate, clean up, or modify an image? Good luck finding a tool. Not that it matters: whenever you make a change, it undoes the previous one. Knowing they are futile anyway, it didn't install the help files. Start by making it 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times simpler. Also, make it so that it actually works. How about a simple version that only does a few things, then adds functions as needed?
IMAX Let's use the most impressive display technology ever invented to make the most boring movies.
No privacy Is it getting crowded in here? The worst thing about prison, the armed forces, and poverty: heck is other people.
Engineered scarcity Society has many built-in layers of deception and bureaucratic control. Powerful monopolies protect themselves with barriers and restrictions, making their products harder to purchase and therefore more valuable. There are no Wal Mart equivalents of hospitals, schools, or even apartments. Life is both expensive and unpredictable, which leads to economic growth and stress. Instead of having to rely on others, many consumers would like to solve their own problems, even if the economy has to be radically simplified. They would be willing to sacrifice their standard of living for stability. Currently that's not an option.
Engineered ignorance There are many knowledge monopolies. Science appears to hoard the truth. All the popular science books about relativity or quantum physics keep repeating the same few shopworn metaphors, complete with false explanations. If you're lucky, there might be one new idea that can be explained in a few sentences. These nuggets are far too few. No one seems interested in generating them. It's all or nothing: accept the oversimplified explanation, or give up four years of your life to the education-industrial complex. Apparently, love of learning for its own sake only applies to the liberal arts.
'Respect for life' Humans are the arbitrary outcome of brutal evolution: how about contempt for life as the more intellectually honest response. Our leaders care deeply about stem cells that can't feel a thing, but not about millions of animals killed every day. Most slaughters don't even help human survival.
Tyranny of the mainstream You will always find people who will firmly defend the status quo. Most aspects of the world we live in have been chosen by a democratic majority. This is the way they like it.
Pain People get used to it, but the intensity never diminishes.
Polygamy Some guys have all the luck. If one third off men have two wives, another third of men will have to stay single. Some of the worst polygamists are gays. Trying to avoid being outed, they keep up appearances by dating a chain of pretend girlfriends. There has to be a reason why the 'gay gene' has survived so long. As always, the most irritating thing is not the act itself, but the fact that its primary victims (less successful men) usually applaud those who commit it.
Porn: the savagest lie. Is porn crude because the consumer is more turned on by coarse behavior than by naked women, or is porn crude to deliberately make it less lifelike? Probably both.
The denial delusion Entertainment is about distraction, not about the real foundations of society. Our biggest idols are those persons who make the biggest problems appear non-existent. Many of the most popular sitcom and movie characters have well paid jobs (impresario, producer, designer, magazine editor), and live luxury lifestyles. How can a 24 year old yuppie have such an expensive apartment, without mentioning those forces that usually prevent that from happening? If you're looking for answers, stay away from that TV.
Modern sf sucks Is it supposed to be set in the past or in the future? Be sure to follow all the genre tropes. To oversimplify, books with lots of nouns are better.
Social depression A big part of the human brain is dedicated to spotting competitors, and getting discouraged when they're too far ahead. The brain then tries to find some other activity to specialize in. The ideal solution would be a field with no competitors whatsoever. Unfortunately, there currently are no such fields.
Coming of age A mixture of brutal instinct and totalitarian suppression. No sex or handholding allowed. That's how it's always been, so it should definitely stay that way. God agrees.
The normalcy assumption New ideas are presumed wrong by default. Most of the world's civilizations could be described as unstable towers. Many possibilities have been missed on the way up. Remember that your civilization is the only normal one, and all the others are crazy (well, at least the second part is true).
Why everything sucks: part I July 15th, 2008
It's known by many names: Primordial poopyness, Original Sin, the Clinton Effect. Basically, everything that can go wrong, does - eventually. Reality Sucks.
There's too much useless crap like coercive religion, lawyers, and long-term care insurance in this world, and a shortage of interesting things, opportunities and adventures. Partly, it's the inevitable result of too much competition. The main reason why things don't work is simple: they're not supposed to.
Why haven't we used technology to solve all the world's problems? Everyone could have a mass-produced house, or at least a tiny apartment. World agriculture is terribly inefficient. It could be vastly improved by buying up or renting most land, and investing in industrial farming on a massive scale. A network of small farms and suburban greenhouses could form an independent backup. Of course this would cause many new problems, not least another population explosion. It would disrupt existing arrangements. The American Midwest might not be able to compete with more fertile regions near the equator.
Suppose we wanted to get rid of that pesky terrorism problem. What would logically have to be done? The question has barely been asked. Perhaps groups function better when they have a clearly defined enemy. The Cold War was like a deliberate game. Mankind has spent an incredible amount of effort to reject simple solutions. It's confusing but not surprising: evolution works in mysterious ways. The true motivations can be well hidden. A few people have quietly concluded this is a carp planet. Maybe others know why this is not the case, but not everyone has such reasons. The core problem may be too obvious for most people to accept.
REALITY HOAX! (The world is not as it seems: why you may not be reading this.)
There's been a slight mistake: a problem called reality. Ever thought nothing makes sense? Probably not too often. Could our world be a hoax, like the Matrix? For the record: yes it is. There is an infinite number of possible worlds in which we are mere simulations. There's also an infinite number in which we are completely real. What matters is the ratio between the two (It could be 1/10^10^20, or any other number). Even if we're 100% real, we live in a web of lies. Like a cancer, the dysfunction is good at spreading, but our leaders and pundits refuse to talk about the absurdities.
When it's all added up, the world may well turn out to have been worse than worthless. There is no reason, other than evolution in action, for the suffering that defines human history. But did it really have to be so crazy?
The true reason for conflict History is full of irrational dislikes. Often, the problem isn't the initial disagreement, but its reciprocal. Suppose a guy manages to pick up a beautiful lady at a bar who turns out to be another gentleman. This situation can lead to furious violence. A simmering stress situation reaches a breaking point. The guy isn't mad that he's being propositioned by disguised men, but that he's NOT propositioned by actual women.
The world is constantly changing in random ways. Thousands of specialized skills are being developed and discarded at once. Education is an elaborate mess. Most facts are only marginally cross-referenced. Students finally stop learning when they reach a state of maximum chaos. They know how to perform their skills, but have no spare capacity to explain or organize their knowledge.
Perhaps self-deception is genetic, a cruel adaptation. If you don't like the cards you've been dealt in a game, you can just stop playing. In real life that turns out to be a lot harder.
Next is a list of reasons why the world suuucks: Go ahead, read it and get depressed.
New World Order - Part III: future trends July 12th, 2008
NWO Part I: http://whatwedontknow.livejournal.com/2008/07/07/
NWO Part II: http://whatwedontknow.livejournal.com/2008/07/09/
There's been a lot of talk about the 'Singularity', but the world sucks now. Information has NOT become more accessible. Getting educated takes longer than ever. Millions of services are designed to be stressful. Software is full of artificial barriers. Expensive programs are hard to use, making it hard to switch.
The most powerful and potentially useful ideas, like evolution and birth control, are suppressed. Billions of people own almost nothing, while others get rich without doing anything. Our world isn't meant to be pleasant. It took an incredible amount of effort to reach the level of total crap. The world makes about as much sense as an ant colony. Things are this way because the majority allows them to be so, with rock-solid, unwavering passivity. The decision has been ratified by near-universal, unspoken assent, by victim and exploiter alike. In a sense, every country is a democracy, even North Korea. A powerful force prevents up from completing certain insights, from thinking one step further. If this force didn't exist, everyone's personality would slowly change throughout their lifetimes, but this rarely happens.
The crucial insight is as simple as flipping a switch: THE PAST SUCKS. It should never have happened. Always remember that the world is poopy. Sometimes, we need change for its own sake. The world's problems may require unimagined reforms, international cooperation, new forms of self defense, and even mind-altering drugs.
Step One: make the world transparent, and freer from deception. - A worldwide property registry would record every piece of real estate and land use right. Poopy governments would still have the authority to steal people's meager possessions, but it would be harder for them to hide their actions. - A World Passport for those areas that require identification documents (currently all of them).
Civilization has slowly evolved by learning to gain pleasure from avoiding pain. This sensation is a necessary part of most dangerous activities, from hunting to woodworking. Delayed gratification for its own sake may be the real key to long term success. The West has even managed to remove the aspect of physical danger. The most insane example is probably long-term care insurance (paying in advance to be kept alive as an incontinent zombie at the cost of ten lifetimes wages), followed by our tortuous tax laws, not to mention civil lawsuits. Like technology itself, society's rules have become too complicated - towering edifices about as stable as solar prominences. Most citizens mindlessly accept the money race, the healthcare matrix, the tax vortex. They unthinkingly tolerate immense restrictions in all fields, since everyone pretends it's normal. The biggest problems are often the hardest to see.
Capitalism is bad at finding shortcuts. There are no unsolicited job offers in the mail, except for work-at-home schemes and other scams. We need new ways to use marginally talented people, allowing them to perform tasks with low economic value, while slowly increasing their own skills.
The motivation problem Why are there no Arab or African airplanes? There may be a good reason: it can be depressing when the competition has a ten decade head start. The path ahead has been methodically picked clean. Other people have already shaped the world, and are perfectly adapted to its present configuration. There's no reason to develop kites, balloons, airships, biplanes, or rotary engines. It can take decades to build a world-class industry from scratch. That's beyond the horizon for countries that don't allow long-term investment. Developed countries would rather pay them to stay out of the way altogether, or to become cheap subcontractors. No visualization means no purpose. The solution is diversity: to create many more options.
Government schemes are unpopular, because people can't predict the effects on themselves. Peasants being 'relocated' to build the Chinese Three Gorges Dam know others will benefit at their expense. This also explains the resistance to NAFTA, and why Latin America and the Middle East remain fractured despite common languages and cultures. People have no time for bold experiments when their lives are full-time emergencies.
When they're able to consider their circumstances, Third Worlders do want to change their societies. They're usually prevented from acting by traditions, despots and outmoded economic theories. It's hard to overhaul a culture from within. Even the most self-evident changes require massive sacrifices. This is especially true in areas with limited resources (which happen to be most of them). Famine and disease tend to increase in the early stages of most reform efforts. Societies that resist change usually last longer, until their environment has irrevocably changed.
Once civil institutions become established, they tend to remain in place. Their inflexibility is what made them attractive in the first place.
Divide and organize Most of our art, fashion, and innovation comes from countries with just 10% of the world's population, where creativity is encouraged. The rest is too busy surviving. Chaos leads to diversity. The world needs many distinct regions that compete with each other. Encourage local and regional specialization within a worldwide free trade zone. Maximum efficiency arises from hyper-competition. Market integration will lead to more, not less, culture clashes. No one can predict who'll make the next breakthrough. The best solutions involve small groups of people working independently. That's how every great company got started. Artificial distractions can encourage useful rivalries. The untapped potential is immeasurable. Our planet will look richer than ever, like when the East-Germans first visited West-Berlin in 1989.
Increased diversity will lead to small, autonomous micro territories, where every virtual tribe can find a home. For a while, there may be more nations than ever, including non-geographical and even online ones. They'll have to learn to cooperate. Most will soon vanish. The next generations may have choices we can't imagine yet.
Large areas of the planet are underutilized. A lot of valuable real estate is going to waste. Some of the most fertile and attractive areas are also among the poorest. Many wealthy people would retire to the equator if it were possible and safe. Some regions will always be inefficient, and absorb subsidies. Freedom of movement and employment should be encouraged wherever it provides benefits.
The Parity Principle: where possible, encourage equal or balanced migration between regions. In the future, as many Americans should want to move to Mexico as vice versa, or at least a reasonable ratio.
Creative loans The world needs more ways to create 'trust' and accountability, to stimulate more elaborate forms of cooperation. Billions of medium-sized loans have allowed many nations to build up their industrial capacity, but half a century of megaprojects financed by the World Bank and Cold War rivals have been less successful. Waste, deceit and exploitation always creep in. Micro-loans don't go far enough. International loans may require international collateral, including real estate, complete with private armies to enforce foreclosure verdicts.
Properly configured, an ultra long term bank could replace all government functions, even paying for schooling, infrastructure, and defense Such a bank could only function if it controlled most of the wealth of society, incorporating almost all private banks. To survive it would need to be amoral, not immoral. An application would be automatically denied if there was no expected benefit to society - which would be most of them. A charity consortium would fill the gap, replacing many forms of insurance. Created with a forty-year investment horizon, the bank would provide lifetime education loans, to be paid back in the form of payroll taxes automatically deducted. The recipient's employer or contractor would transfer their salary through the bank. It would perform a ruthless cost/benefit analysis, but have no authority to imprison debtors, or even garnish their wages. It would just get a lot more difficult to function in society, or to accumulate significant wealth. Because of the slow investment cycle, we still use thirty year old engine designs, and a century-old power grid. New inventions can provide valuable shortcuts. There should be fewer restrictions on technology transfer. Fuel cells and small power plants will free up resources and help revolutionize the Third World, but they'll be expensive. While creative, long term loans can help, they will eventually have to be repaid. Such loans will require many guarantees and constant monitoring at every stage. There's no simple solution.
Ease of maintenance There are too many unscrupulous manufacturers and repair scams. World consumers need: -Modular homes with removable power and plumbing conduits, and even structural supports and photovoltaic shingles, that the owner could easily repair and replace, without requiring outside help that may be unaffordable. -Small and simple vehicles. -Upgradeable electronics.
The Age of Plenty It's time to graduate to the third dimension, from virtual to reality. We already have cheap computers and communication devices, that represent their data as strings of bits, or screen images. Miniaturized factories, ultralight cars, and mass-produced homes could be next. Once the robots reach the self-improvement threshold, when they generate more wealth than they absorb, the benefits could be beyond imagination. As long as the sun keeps shining, there is ample energy available. It only needs to be transformed and exploited. Most of the light energy absorbed by buildings and roads is wasted. Thin film photovoltaics would increase local autonomy.
Everything by the manual Society should have clearly defined, formalized rules and instructions at every level. Anyone could follow them if they wanted to achieve a certain result. Such a society might not even need advanced social skills, with hidden rules and taboos.
-The potentiality matrix: a map of world relations and systems. -The List: a public database of everyone alive, with a brief biography.
The first step to providing improved healthcare is to pay attention to the patient. This is not a matter of empathy but rigid data analysis. New software will help.
Cheaper and more efficient manufacturing: We still haven't exploited all the benefits of mass production. This may be the information age, but the world needs more old-style assembly lines, temporarily bringing back industrial jobs. Most of humanity is still trapped in often desperate poverty. The need for new power stations, roads, industrial parks, robotics, management services, and basic healthcare could lead to a worldwide Manhattan project to solve most problems at once.
A world state should be as inoffensive as possible. Once started down this road, it will be hard to stop. An intermediate step will be regional unification efforts, like the European Union, Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, and South America. Laws will be slowly standardized as people cross borders. Their arbitrary nature will become increasingly evident. The only remaining differences will be language and culture. Those differences already exist within most countries.
The World Police The alliance of every legal armed force on Earth, responsible for enforcing the universal rights of Inspection and Location. Wherever they're stationed, agents also help enforce the local laws, whatever they are. Their ultimate task is to protect nations from each other, up to and including military action.
Maybe money could be replaced by something better. Some people will always be able anticipate the future to their advantage. We need a way to gather and combine everyone's insights. The best solution is the free market. Everyone should own a diverse stock portfolio that they helped select. Shareholders can influence every aspect of the economy in a small way. A new form of democracy could spread the wealth more evenly: a more genuine, if still unequal, type of communism (the 'Ownership Solution'). It won't solve everything. The stock market repeatedly demonstrates that large numbers of people can be easily fooled. If everyone took part, the sum total of human desires should cancel out the most arbitrary ones, and identify some deep similarities. Software can unearth many unwelcome facts that would otherwise remain hidden. The potential buying power of billions of people is immense, given enough patience and compound interest.
Despite dire predictions, there won't be vast environmental disasters in the twenty-first century. Conservation will finally get profitable. Recycling has always been a way of life in most poor lands. A silent, barely noticed process, habitat loss and the decline in the number of species can't be avoided, unless babies are outlawed. Most losses will be due to 'fracturing' of the environment, as people move into previously uninhabited areas. Only opportunist species will thrive, and even they will have trouble. A simpler environment won't necessarily be a bad thing for mankind. The only way to save nature is to understand it. There will be inadequate efforts to preserve plants in bio-domes, and even in backyards. Robots will gather DNA samples from the rainforest.
Knowledge is everything. The right information can locate and exploit hidden resources, especially unused labor. Information brokers will buy and sell insights and hot tips.
Status spurs competition, leading to surplus growth. Sometimes jealousy is a good thing (the same is true for all other emotions). A few people should be unreasonably wealthy to inspire many others.
Understanding the mind will have an impact as great as changing the laws of physics.
As control functions are decentralized, people will travel less.
A world language Will everyone speak English or Esperanto in the year 2040? It would be better to start over and design the most efficient artificial language from scratch, provided it's not too simple.
Africa needs to do its share of scientific research. Too much intellectual capital is left unused. There are fewer patents coming out of Bangladesh than from Luxembourg.
Never abolish existing institutions, even if they're stupid. At worst, prevent them from using force to carry out their aims.
A worldwide free trade zone or common market could create economies of scale, but large monopolies would inevitably arise.
Alternative currencies could stimulate the economy when first introduced.
Underground apartments Warehousing populations in spacious, efficiently laid out living boxes, illuminated by light tubes and indirect LED's, would allow more farming on the surface, and ease transportation problems.
Education New, interactive programs using hi-def screens and AI interfaces could make learning easy, or at least faster.
Open source corporations: Every employee would be paid a percentage of the profit they generated. They would earn the right to perform more important jobs. Qualified individuals could be contracted by other employees, who would share the contractor's commission.
Humanity's ultimate dream is an endless vacation.
Flexible public transportation Microbuses that know the passengers' schedules (eventually self-driving).
Allow anyone to buy any experimental drugs they want, provided they fully realize the risks.
Artificial conflicts It appears that conflict and pain are necessary components of human development. Happiness levels in primitive societies are almost as high as in the West. In extinct stone age tribes they may have been higher. Sports and games are a way to let off steam, but artificial contests and rivalries between competing groups need to be encouraged. Some will choose to recreate a semi-nomadic, seasonal, extended-family lifestyle using much less space. Before the dawn of agriculture, every human could have claimed an area the size of Central Park. By mid century, we'll have to settle for thousands of times less than that.
There could be one last, huge population increase before 2050.
Robot bases on the Moon and asteroids could test new AI and robotics tools.
Food production should be increased at the local level, with automated greenhouses, genetically engineered garden plants, mushrooms, algae.
Waste reduction: shipping in bulk, less packaging, more recycling. Consumers would order their groceries months in advance.
Redundancy is essential for long-term survival. People will spread out evenly over the Earth's surface, forming the ultimate suburb.
It took northern Europe thousands of years to raise itself from bronze-age levels, while Africa remained there. The stable (and very painful) influence of the Roman Empire and smaller groups was crucial. In the future, this role may be played by China. Other possible 'anchor' countries include South-Africa, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. They are already forming worldwide trade networks independent of the West.
The Arab countries are long overdue for a renaissance. It will happen - or they will not be able to survive in any recognizable form.
The abolition of the USA The US is almost unique in history. Most of its recent wars were not triggered by population pressures, but by ideology. However, mankind's greatest experiment needs to be improved. Turn the System inside out. There may eventually be a movement to replace the US with a complex, strictly functional 'reverse nation'. It would have no sharp internal borders, but gradients. People would have 'negative rights', to be left alone to varying degrees.
Sometimes orphanages are better than brutal, dysfunctional families; provided they're stable, and allow their occupants freedom and privacy. They could also form artificial tribes. This will require an environment that in some places resembles a maximum security prison. Humans are not necessarily more civilized than rats, just smarter.
Drugs could become more powerful than religion, and achieve the same result.
Every government agency will eventually have to be privatized, even if they're charitable monopolies with mandatory participation.
Some people will need more freedom than their government is willing to give them. In the future, it may be possible to 'buy' a small country, or its legal equivalent.
A world suggestion box: new software to sort and combine the ideas from everyone alive.
On a small scale, get the UN involved in as many decisions as possible, in a mostly advisory capacity - even if their help is useless. Simple is better. The UN should not try to create any grand new rights that repressive governments would ignore anyway.
If everyone were to receive a monthly welfare check simply for being alive, many people would promptly quit their jobs. Their work sucks that much. Real salaries, after all the hidden costs have been deducted, are often much lower than the salaries their employers claim to pay them. Taxes, expenses, Starbucks, aggravation . . . The real take-home pay often adds up to as little as $2 per hour. It's just not worth it.
Perhaps everyone should live their lives as if they're trapped in a cycle of 'endless recurrence'. Every hour should be experienced as if it will be repeated an infinite number of times.
Life requires incentives and penalties. Some aspects may need to be painful.
The condition that no group within society have a special, exalted status above other groups is useful, but apparently not necessary. That explains why black people were extremely unhappy under Apartheid - while there was massive illegal immigration into South Africa.
New interface software could help people think better. Aware of its owner's preferences, the program would become a filter, an assistant to 'pre-digest' confusing information. Soon, the mind extension will have a life of its own.
Since education is most effective at an early age, older interface users will fall behind. The future may bring serious generational conflict. By 2040, humans of all ages will feel obsolete, as they're being overtaken by artificial intelligence. They will try to keep up. Drugs may open up new perceptions, but the change will have to go deeper than that. To experience the big picture, humans will need a direct brain/machine interface.
An important but unacknowledged truth is that no human is fully rational. People choose to do things they know will hurt them. The best solution to the world's problems is not charity. It's for everyone to know themselves. New software could allow everyone to go through deep therapy, if necessary without their full knowledge.
By mid-century, some new dangers will become intolerable. Genetic engineering, micro-factories and new physics (superstring research could lead to a way to create immense explosions) may unleash their destructive power. There may be some horrible terrorist attacks. This struggle can only be won or lost with information.
An overreaction to any crisis is inevitable. People respond to strong personalities. The politicians of the future may destroy democracy.
Preconditions for various types of aid could include mood stabilizing drugs or tranquilizers, making dangerous people less violent. Many homeless individuals may need extremely potent drugs to quiet their inner demons. The drugs may even kill them sooner, but their lives could be much less agonizing.
Passive behavior should often be encouraged. It's almost always easier not to do something: paying people not to set up roadblocks or to interfere with farming, with bribes to local officials to provide security.
Voluntary euthanasia. Some people would be better off dead. Some are even in good physical health, but suffer from a mental illness that can't be treated by any known method.
In some ways, the future may bring less freedom than exists now. Individual humans are too simple and specialized to accurately respond to every possible event. Therefore, no human should have the power to do so. There needs to be a higher level of joint decision making, involving all of civilization. A new form of intelligence could emerge, a type of awareness. All humans and computers would be connected, contributing a small percentage of their capacity. Perhaps this new order will oversee a recreation-based economy, with entire lifetimes spent inside virtual dreams. Progress wouldn't end. The simulations could include educational software.
The world needs more cynicism. Eventually, a time may come to abandon some cherished ideals. Based only on the laws of chance, many common beliefs must be wrong. Perhaps there should be no more taxes. (Or alternatively, everyone should receive a guaranteed income.) Only a few principles may remain, the absolute minimum. The rest can be derived or discarded as needed. What will they be? Ultimately, science is the ONLY answer. While vastly inadequate, it can give us more truth than all the philosophies ever did. The most interesting revolution of the twenty first century may begin when spirituality and ethics become formalized, self-consistent sciences. We may not like what we learn then.
Future concepts will be so complex that future minds won't understand their implications until they've already become obsolete. Integrating new knowledge will be so difficult that ignorance may increase faster than the rate of progress. The Singularity will always be infinitely far away.
New World Order: Part II - the coming storm in geopolitics July 9th, 2008
There is little interest in the vast differences between cultures and individuals.
The creative economy of Iceland almost equals that of Libya. There have been few African or Arab airplanes, but tiny Sweden has a world class aviation industry. 15% of the population is doing all the useful work. 99% of mankind is expected to leave no lasting legacy.
For some reason, most countries seem to have failed. Can or should they be fixed? Intentional instability Perhaps the world is like those symbols flickering across the screen at the beginning of the movie 'The Matrix'. From a distance, the system even looks stable. Required skills are changing so fast they can't be accurately mapped. Everyone tries to develop their own specialty. New methods and rules are developed from old ones, which fade away before they're perfected.
If someone tried to make an accurate and understandable description, it would be obsolete by the time it was complete. This also explains why going to school sucks. Teachers try to cram in a random accumulation of skills. The big picture is an afterthought that may emerge at the end. Wouldn't it be nice if a single solution could solve every problem, even if no one knows how they're all related?
Humanity needs a kick in the butt, but it has to be in the right direction.
1) The Third World. Pain causes intense concentration, which makes it almost impossible to see the big picture. This helps explain why state oppression is the most successful industry on the planet. Most societies occupy their version of a local maximum: to get any better, they would first have to get worse. The main Third World problem (especially in Africa) can be summed up in one word: Nerds! (the absence of). To be a nerd, you have to be able to do the following things, at least part of the time:
-stop worrying about material concerns. -work alone or in small groups. -get utterly obsessed by a seemingly meaningless problem.
In much of the world, these things are not possible. The documentary 'Killer's Paradise' shows how hundreds of Guatemalan women are brutally murdered each year as part of a culture of violence. In 2005, not one case was solved. North Korea doesn't exist online. Not a single .kp website extolling the triumph of 'Juche'. There are a million South Korean .kr sites. Even Tuvalu, which is smaller than all but seventeen DPRK death camps, has 100.000 registered websites. Anyone born in Sudan today should sue their parents for being alive.
All these problems are symptoms of the same disease. Our planet is and always has been badly overpopulated. It's not considered 'correct' to point this out. Politicians can talk about new programs for months, without once mentioning birth control. They would rather spend more money. For many religions, the idea is off the table entirely. It may take a combination of massive droughts, civil wars, epidemics and other die-offs to make the notion seem more acceptable to the decision makers.
Most problems could be solved by a combination of free markets and property rights. We often know what the result should look like, and how to get there. The problem is getting permission from those who stand in the way. In many cases it may not even be possible. Our only hope is a new mindset: to consider our problems as opportunities in disguise. Eventually, all the global inefficiencies and artificial barriers will lead to a new service industry. Facilitators, both private consultants and large corporations, will help supplicants deal with the various international corruption/bribery and extortion organizations.
Worldwide trade treaties could help reduce the worst excesses. In a fundamentally amoral world, the UN will have a big role to play. The number of necessary treaties may rise as the square of the number of conflicts. International meta-laws will cover tourists and tariffs, contracts and debts, and harmonize legal systems.
In the long term, more radical steps may become feasible. The balance of power could shift quite suddenly, from the faceless elite to the nameless crowd. Countries may slowly be replaced by corporations, voluntary associations and international alliances, which may eventually merge into 'negative countries' defined by negative rights - most importantly the right to be left alone.
Islam
When Islam is in the news it's usually about something bad, like Sudanese women sentenced to death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law, etc. Muslims lead the world in very few fields, unlike a thousand years ago. There aren't many indigenous Arab cartoons, videogames, aircraft, cars, medical products, commercial services, or other inventions. That may or may not change. At this point, it's not clear that cultures can change. They can only be replaced. Change may not be possible until every dominant member has died of old age or other causes.
The best outcome for Iraq is so reasonable it has hardly been mentioned: a country where the average tourist could bike the length of the Tigris without being decapitated ten times. That's a lot to ask for. Not decapitating people is thousands of times harder than going to Pluto. How this remote goal will be reached doesn't matter. This new Iraq would not have to be an American client state; just something other than poopy. America is successful because it started from nothing. There's nothing like resettling a continent to focus a nation's creative and destructive energies. Iraq's feuding ethnic groups have been crowded together in the most fertile regions for ages, enough time to form many unresolvable grievances. The civil war would have been less bad with a divide and rule strategy from the start, keeping existing institutions in place, but making them less powerful. The new Iraqi president could have been chosen by acclamation, provided all ethnic groups could agree on an acceptable figure. The country could have used foreign investment, a student loan program, pension plans, and a staff exchange policy - Shiite officers working with Sunni police brigades, and the reverse. Too late for that.
The borders between ethnic groups are long and tangled, with enclaves everywhere. First of all, Iraq needs new barriers between towns, neighborhoods, even streets. Good fences make good neighbors, provided they don't have too many mortars. What remains of Iraq should use its oil wealth (and whatever international aid can be finagled at this late date) to start over from zero, by developing a chain of new cities and towns in the desert. Some of the towns would be strictly segregated, others would welcome all ethnic groups, provided they were willing to renounce their violent history. They would still need massive defensive perimeters. The paranoia would probably increase for another decade. Then something wonderful just might happen. They could actually become bored with the past.
China
The country that makes those pens sold at the Dollar store that don't write, and three different types of auto tire pumps sold at Kmart that don't inflate . . . how will it affect mankind as a whole? 80% of the population still lives in Third World conditions, with famine a distinct possibility. There's an alarming increase in the number of droughts. Foreign investment seems to be slowing, as investors wait for new trends to emerge (social, technological, the regime change in the US). The government remains authoritarian, with no plans to reform ever. In fact they would like to increase central control. They may not have any original ideas, or want any. The only goal is long term power and prosperity. There are only a few 'real' Chinese companies, run by entrepreneurs playing the system, at the mercy of corrupt bureaucrats.
Except for a few small regions, China has no independent media, no national magazines, or significant entertainment industry. A strong national culture would threaten the leadership. Western ideas like democracy won't be adopted without radical modifications. China will probably evolve a domestic ideology after the completion of economic reforms, a more advanced version of Confucianism. Perhaps this ideology is coming together right now, with notions like cooperative competition, conservation, cellular networks, and so on. It may be status based. At this point, few people would notice or care, but China's vast population could start many new trends, slowly eroding the dominance of the West.
The Universal Solution: Gradualism
China will attempt to keep the appearance of central control, and the full hierarchy of officials and agencies, but quietly reform the system from within. In this respect, it may develop new ideas and methods for the rest of mankind. One of the biggest mistakes made by reformers is to abolish existing institutions. It's less disruptive to change them, by reducing their power of coercion. They can then claim credit for any reforms they have allowed to happen. All change is difficult. The key is to make it seem smooth, without threatening those things the common culture holds dear. Every group needs its own consistent worldview, complete with origin stories and myths, and anniversaries of past achievements.
New forms of participation.
The guy with the gun usually makes the long term plans. There's no real reason for that. Immediate power is much more valuable than future influence. A dictator would have little to lose, and potentially much to gain, by allowing his subjects to decide what happens thirty years from now. He still gets to decide what happens today. Long term planning could become an intermediate step to true democracy. This may be how China will change.
It could also reduce our upcoming environmental crisis. People might be more willing to drive smaller cars and accept new nuclear power plants if they didn't have to make immediate sacrifices. A long, gradual transition period can make even a difficult change seem almost normal. We live in a time without original ideas, a dull fog, not unlike the start of the twentieth century. The world needs a certain amount of intellectual conflict to raise the energy level. It doesn't have to leave a lasting legacy. Atheism could spread if existing institutions were to collapse, but it can't change society by itself. Mankind will demand a higher goal: world peace, universal wealth, unlimited spare time, or even a post-human religion.
The decline of the United States
The number of Americans in poverty has reached a thirty year high. Wages have been cut to pay CEO salaries and shareholders. Everyone else may go bankrupt. When fundamental conditions change, society becomes unstable. The US is the most complex and regulated entity on the planet, not really a country but an operating system. At the moment, it's also the most efficient society in history, with no competition whatsoever. China and India may actually still be falling behind. It can't last forever. The moment a better idea comes along, the power balance will shift. This may never happen; history gives no indication that mankind really wants freedom. If it does happen, the changes may come fast.
The USA is probably the world's least bad country in human history, but far from perfect. You can't buy good paint brushes here (an actual curse). Ask a hundred sales associates, and they won't even understand the question. The only public transportation is hitch-hiking. Industry is collapsing throughout the Rust Belt. The consolidation of agriculture has reduced the prospects of at least ten states. Maybe some shouldn't be states at all. Montana and South Dakota may revert to territories, owned by agribusiness, subsidized by their friends in Congress.
Actual unemployment is much higher than the official figure. Millions of stressed consumers are unable to pay off their loans, and may end up bankrupt and homeless. Despite these problems, millions of illegal immigrants fleeing infinitely more horrid conditions in their homelands are still drawn toward the American Dream.
What should be done about illegal immigrants? Opinions are mixed. On the one hand: expel them at once! On the other hand: how would you even find them? No one should be required to identify themselves.
The parity principle Why should immigration, illegal or otherwise, be treated as separate from the problem that caused it? The reason is unclear, but liberal pundits and decision makers simply won't discuss conditions in the migrants homelands. Only the response to the influx can be debated. Ideally, the number of Americans moving to foreign countries would be the same as the number of foreigners arriving here. The ratio could be adjusted to reflect employment opportunities and economic impact. Already, some wealthier Americans are retiring to Mexico, a trend that should be encouraged. So far it's only a trickle.
The worst countries often act as incubators for poopyness, maintaining the maximum possible population under the baddest conditions, and expelling the surplus through ethnic cleansing. Other overpopulated countries don't always want to admit the refugees. They just don't have the room. Instead, they're allowed to die in large numbers, like in Rwanda in 1994. Perhaps there is no solution, other than requiring incoming refugees to be sterilized, which is more controversial than letting them die. Clearly the world needs more space. This problem can only be solved by new technology. The most advanced research has traditionally been carried out in North America, but that may change.
We can't count on the present international order lasting much longer. If America retreats from the world stage, other countries will step forward to maximize their advantage. China would increase its influence throughout southeast Asia. Arab states would do the same in sub-Saharan Africa. The natural state of human affairs is creative failure. No one wants to be the world's cop. The world's ten most idealistic countries, sometimes willing to do the right thing for the wrong reason, currently are (in order): USA, UK.
Eventually, Europe might try to fill the void, after selling arms to all warring sides. A more tolerable world will require new ideas, a workable method to achieve an economic turnaround. It may also have to be a more equal world. The same solutions could apply everywhere, with only local details changed. Ideally, it would be like a game.
The first step may be to reduce the number of choices. Simplify the world! Things don't need to be made more complex or mysterious. We already have enough ignorance. There's no shortage of stupidity, but there are far too many barriers. Most of them are maintained by power groups protecting their interests and domains. Many people would rather have nothing than this crap. They just want to fix their own problems, and be left alone.
The fundamental human problems are connections: trust and reputation, time-shifting, credit, short-term loans. Future consumers may have to sign long-term contracts (or select from a limited menu of worldwide products) to afford cheaper utilities, healthcare, real estate, and groceries. Ideally, no one would need to travel further from home than they could walk in ten minutes, but they could still visit all of known reality through cyberspace.
New World Order: part one in a three part series July 7th, 2008
New World Order - Part II: the coming storm in geopolitics
It would be nice to erase a hundred thousand years of human poopyness, and switch over to a smarter world with unlimited free time and opportunities. A world with plenty of competition, but no despair. Everything will seem easy. But can it ever happen? No one has even tried to build a true utopian society. Communism was just an old-fashioned power grab; a pyramid scheme built on a foundation of concentration camps and torture centers. Muslim countries are more authoritarian than most. The USA is a work in progress, and Sweden is boring. Singapore may have come closest in theory, but they suffer from a lot of authoritarian stress.
There's no excuse to be poor. The basic requirements for human life are quite simple, if you're willing to be frugal. There is no homelessness problem or famine problem. There are only politician problems, but these are profound. The goal of the coming decades should be to create a new age of abundance. We already know how to do it. The hardest part will be to let go of old prejudices.
Step one: Birth control
Every society, no matter how restrictive, allows its members the right to start families. Even North Korea and China wouldn't dare suppress that instinct. When people are only allowed a few freedoms, they are more likely to abuse them. Africa is straining under the burden of its growing population. Crime and anarchy run rampant. The Indian Ocean fishing stocks are collapsing. Soil erosion and drought are causing worldwide problems. 90% of humanity owns less than 10% of the wealth.
Why do poor people have (m)any children? Like most evolutionary side effects, it just happens. Their lives are simply too stressful to plan ahead. If people could consciously control their wombs or sperm, the birth rate would plummet. In many conservative regions, condoms and birth control pills are strongly discouraged. Parents who can't support themselves won't have happy families. For some reason, helpful advice, direct aid, or constructive criticism often won't work. In that case, the answer may be to do nothing. Nothing could be easier than not reproducing. Measured over a lifetime, the amount of avoided stress is incalculable.
Aid agencies could reward people who won't perpetuate their problems, by requiring recipients to temporarily get sterilized first. The subsequent aid would still be expensive, but it wouldn't have to continue for generations. Who knows what horrors it could avoid? Suffering or desperate people would happily give up their genetic futures to escape their troubles, as anyone who has worked with refugees or asylum seekers can attest. Often they're barely able to think straight. The plan would work just as well if only women were eligible for aid. With the right medical assistance, one man could impregnate all women, but one women can't bear the children of every man; at least not in the same universe. The immediate goal would be to prevent mass famines, catastrophic civil wars, and new epidemics from arising.
The human population might drop faster than expected this century, reducing the scope of the upcoming disasters and die-offs. China's mandatory one child policy has led parents to emphasize quality over quantity, at least in the large urban regions, with a significant but not unprecedented increase in literacy and economic growth. Their per capita productivity remains below US levels. Needless to say, groups that require a steady influx of new members would oppose birth control in most of its forms.
Step two: Simplicity
No one realizes how bad things could get. We're able to measure the steady increase in carbon dioxide, but the upcoming climate changes and subsequent melting of the icecaps will be more chaotic. Coastal regions may have to be evacuated in a hurry. Only conservation and miniaturization could prevent a disastrous environmental collapse. We need to use less space more efficiently. A world of tiny cars, narrow streets, pod houses. Homeless people everywhere would rather live in a tiny apartment than under a giant overpass. Making things smaller can make them much cheaper - an inverse power law. Residents of the Chinese coastal provinces, Latin America, South East Asia, and even the endless teeming slums of Western Africa could have the same quality of life as middle-class Americans, while using much less resources.
The transition will be too complex to accurately plot in advance. The world may lose its current incentives, destabilizing currencies and financial markets, and ultimately shifting the international power balance. There's a reason why prequels are more popular than sequels. Many people would actually prefer a simpler existence, the right to figure things out for themselves. A simple lifestyle is not only less stressful, but also more interesting. Life should be an adventure.
That means the (often non-existent) right to make informed mistakes, including alternative (and substandard) housing, food, or other products; mind altering and recreational drugs; and even medical experiments. In a state of nature, what ultimately matters is the absence of violence; whether perpetrated by the environment, criminals or the police. People require personal independence and responsibility to live meaningful lives. Civilization should be the outcome, not the goal. There are almost as many lifestyles as there are people. It might be ideal to start with an undeveloped plot of land, and fill it with modular construction that doesn't require much paid help to install or repair.
Often, the best solutions are the simplest. Perhaps human rights need to be extended, so that everyone can have the minimum they need to survive. Everyone on earth should be able to instantly get a tiny apartment; a plastic living box with a water ration and high-carb food allowance. In order to pay for this assistance, and prevent the ecosystem from rapidly filling up, the recipient would probably have to agree to be temporarily sterilized.
Step three: The VR solution
Reality sucks? Just start over. Virtual Reality could solve all current problems, except mental decline and death. Everyone could have the experience of great wealth without the environmental impact. A simulation-based lifestyle will be much cheaper in the long run, allowing a larger human population, or maybe just a simulated larger population. It would be better to live in a society with a trillion citizens, in which every group can express itself. A million TV networks are better than five.
The trick is to learn to live inside a box. We're still waiting for the breakthrough concept. It may be a new state of mind, something the user must want to learn. They will be manipulated into believing they're acting out their own free will. An extremely detailed description of the new reality demands the user's undivided attention. They may forget they're in a simulation. Read more here and here.
Step four: Technology
The tools already exist to end our age of scarcity. Cheap mass production, automation, information technology, and international trade will bring about the dawn of the post-historical era. Our current arrangement of nation states is extremely inefficient. A worldwide common market would allow much larger supply chains. More available components means more advanced tools.
The problems of our immense population will only be solved with extremely elaborate transport and trade networks, new nuclear power plants, and vast capital reserves. The solution will also require automated education and worldwide connectivity. Simple but efficient tools will be the most useful. This will be especially obvious in irrigation, construction and transportation. For other problems, like the future colonization of the Sahara, only immense investment will suffice.
Step five: Property rights
The Bible says "love each other", but we desperately need a Plan B. A successful utopia requires perhaps the second strongest human emotion (after the desire for normalcy, but ahead of fear): greed. Freedom is self interest, the driving force behind progress. Property rights are the true foundation of society. These rights already exists everywhere, but are usually poorly enforced. If someone isn't sure they can keep their hard-earned income, they won't work as hard.
Third World strongmen at every level, from tyrants-for-life to roadblock entrepreneurs, confiscate whatever resources they can for themselves. New taxes in Russia sometimes exceeded 100%. Major Colombian gold mines were owned by rebels. A traveler in West-Africa can be arrested hundreds of times. Government corruption causes lawlessness. It doesn't mean everyone is killing each other, just that investment is pointless. Development aid and loans have probably worsened the Third World's problems. Meant to bridge short-term investment gaps, they've instead brought ruinous debt. Property rights are the hardest problem in economics. How do we know the existing property distribution is fair? No one has 'created' real estate, so why should anyone be allowed to own more than they need to live on? Every acre has forcibly changed hands many times. Most ill-gotten gains can never be recovered.
Property rights also imply the right to assume debts, but not everyone can handle this responsibility. Lies and deception are used to make borrowers misjudge the costs and benefits. Entire generations have been enslaved to pay off the debts of their ancestors. Better known examples include lottery tickets, adjustable loans, and even inflation. Afterwards, the debtor may wish they didn't have quite so many "rights".
Property rights are one of the hardest benefits to consistently guarantee. It's easier to take stuff than to make stuff. It will take a worldwide effort of reduced tariffs, cross-border investment, and the suppression of powerful interest groups. Seemingly reasonable changes can backfire, since no one fully understands how incentives work. There is a big difference between owning $ 100 million and $ 200 million. Perhaps everyone should have a secret offshore bank account.
Step six: A world constitution
-A civilized world is incompatible with the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction. We have to get rid of them at some point. Since most countries don't have them, they will be willing to pay a price for their removal. All nations will have to surrender some sovereignty, but their citizens could become freer.
-The Universal Rights of Man (revised). The next step will be harder. Negotiations for a world constitution probably won't start until the 2020's. Imposing democracy or capitalism won't work. All mankind would be bound by only two laws:
Freedom of Location Anyone could depart whatever area they find themselves in, but other areas wouldn't be required to admit them.
Freedom of Inspection UN inspectors could visit any location, and report any threats to humanity or to other countries they find there.
The future won't be all good. Humanity has already experienced incomprehensibly dire situations. As the world becomes more elaborate, the theoretical potential for suffering may increase beyond all understanding.
Law enforcement will need to know where everyone is at all times. The surveillance and vigilance would be strictly functional. The World Police would only have the power to prevent attacks, without otherwise interfering with people's lives in any way. The only way to minimize the risk of abuse is to distribute authority as widely as possible. Future nations may not even have heads of state.
Many aspects of the future might seem intolerable now, but we can't imagine the alternatives. -----------------
Ten products I wouldn't pay for even if I could afford them July 6th, 2008
Cell phones High on the list of things I can see but not understand. Everyone is hearing voices nowadays. I never expect to own a chatterbox, unless it's free. Why do people need to talk so much? It's probably a matter of control. Technology is increasingly used to create unplanned, improvised lifestyles, in the same way people would rather watch a video than read an explanation.
Star Trek In the late nineties, the corporate owners of the Trek franchise threatened to sue fan sites for the mere crime of existing, while the merchandising continued on all fronts. For me, the final straw was when Deep Space Nine changed the date of KHAN's first appearance. It was even worse than the Kazon storyline in Voyager. The writers don't realize how advanced their own technology is. It's often unclear whether episodes are set in the future or the past. It's time to start an open source shared multiverse with unlimited levels.
Movie theaters The last movie I paid to see in a second-run theater was 'Titanic'. They were tearing down the building as I walked out. Within months, it had been replaced by a full-cost multiplex. Since then, ticket prices have been closely linked to the cost of health insurance and CEO salaries.
Airlines Why do we need to travel again? Apparently, for primitive primate reasons, social relationships can only be settled in person, adding over a ton of CO2 to the atmosphere each time someone crosses an ocean. Airlines exist as part of a vast pre-existing infrastructure, solving problems they helped create. The only way to fill up planes in our current economic system is to have almost as many ticket prices as passengers.
Cities There are no 'cheap cities'. In blatant violation of the law of supply and demand, the cheapest apartment in New York now rents for about $ 2000 per month; and it's already been sub-let. To be fashionable, you don't only need to be cool, you also need to be rich. Labor slaves have to commute for hours until they reach a suburb downscale enough for them to afford a thirty year mortgage.
Universities Flush with donations and paper wealth from the speculative boom of the past decade, universities have gone on a spending spree. Campuses abound with new recreation centers, stadiums, and study lounges. The cost of a top brand college now exceeds $ 1000 per week. They make a big fuss about tradition and elite qualifications, while doing nothing whatsoever to make it easier to absorb large amounts of data. Universities don't even try to research or measure the process of learning itself. If anything, they've become more hidebound.
Lawyers Dozens of Clinton aides racked up huge legal fees when they were deposed during the numerous investigations of the late nineties. Some were 'forced' to go heavily in debt to be able to afford legal representation. At no point did the New York Times article suggest that people shouldn't have to retain attorneys, if they didn't do anything wrong. It's things like this that make me wonder if we are the same species. This entry shouldn't even be about lawyers, but about the legal system itself - except it's not possible to opt out of the latter. At least you can still represent yourself in civil and criminal court, even if few falsely accused defendants have the guts to do so.
Long term care insurance Excuse me, why in the name of god's glowing balls would you want to pay in advance to be kept alive as an incontinent mummy, spending your few lucid moments hoping to die?
Marriage In this day and age, you would have to be insane or an insane optimist to get married. A marriage license is merely a lifelong servitude license in the event of a divorce. The rewards would have to be unusually large to put up with the risks. Fortunately, I won't have to worry about it. It's all in the mind. The average MAXIM reader would probably consider my ideal date only mildly attractive, if not boring (Ally Sheedy in Breakfast Club looked better before the makeover). That doesn't mean my standards are reasonable or attainable. Just remember: an engagement ring has to cost at least $ 10.000, and a wedding doesn't count if it cost less than $ 100.000.
Offspring My greatest asset is that I don't have any children to worry about. I'm a million dollars ahead by doing nothing! A lifetime of worry and obligations don't exist! Why create additional hostages, at incredible expense and effort? This perspective needs to become more mainstream. Everyone has their own priorities and viewpoints. What works for many doesn't work for others. I only wish there was some way I could get paid for it. -----------------
the VR solution: the final goal of history July 3rd, 2008
Reality sucks. Let's start over from scratch. Starting in the late 2010's, reality itself will be hacked, or at least the small portion that humans can sense directly. Forget about boring cancer research. The most important project in the world is to develop a workable science of virtual reality.
Eventually, VR could solve all economic and social problems, except dementia and death. It could create the illusion of unlimited wealth for everyone, while reducing living costs and environmental impact. The new lifestyle would require a fraction of current energy use, and take up less space.
Everyone could own million room apartments, tropical island archipelagos, and private universes. As control functions, agriculture, and industry become decentralized, people will need to travel less. Virtual offices and telecommuting will reduce the need for roads. It will be a terminal setback for the airlines and tourism. A simulation-based lifestyle could allow a much larger human population. It's better to live in a huge society, in which every group can express itself internally. A million TV networks are better than five.
What will it be like to live inside a box? We're still waiting for the breakthrough concept, perhaps a new type of hypnosis. The user would have to learn to enter the simulation after a lot of effort. There are many levels of VR, from one to four dimensions.
-The simplest version is like poking a target with a stick.
-Next come distortable resistance frames, like pushing against a sheet.
-VR glove: each finger is restrained in a track, which can move slightly to both sides. It can be stopped suddenly or with a slight delay by embedded magnets, ratchets, or strings.
-Other options are virtual dust clouds (shapes sensed in a sandstorm), virtual gel densification, dynamic polygon generation while objects are being handled, from simple blobs into detailed representations, and direct mapping of a simulated scene onto the skin of an immobilized user (a type of virtual VR).
It will require all of the following:
-A massive increase in fiberoptic capacity. Wireless packet networks could provide decentralized bandwidth.
-More computing power and fundamental research in interface design. Wall-sized interactive displays will become common. Ultra-detailed images can be hypnotic. Peripheral light intensity could regulate attention and relaxation.
-Addictive activities and games would draw people into a simulation, including contests and gambling.
Reality orientation is important: complete transparency at all simulation levels. The basic VR chair may look like a web of wires. An unfolding suspension hammock, allowing a full range of motion, including the ability to walk, run, and fly; combining a full-motion body harness with neck restraints, and force feedback clothes with embedded memory-metal mesh.
At first the control panels will be bigger than the simulation itself. 'Bodymap' keyboards would use toes, knees, joints, and all muscles. Full immersion VR may be like floating effortlessly, a lucid dream, or seem imaginary. It will take physical effort to move through a simulation, like a three-dimensional treadmill, with integrated exercise activities.
An eye-tracking visor screen with adaptive resolution decides which part of the simulated image is updated next. It will access a vast library of images, pre-rendered scenery elements, and digital 'objects', to reduce processor load. Infinite zoomability, with recurring and unique patterns and rules at all levels. Self-contained simulation elements can be elaborated and combined as needed.
Reality is feedback. The user could manipulate a simpler 'toy' body to interact with the virtual world. After a while they will identify with it. Eventually, radio beams could send signals to different brain sectors. Thin-slice brain scanners like MRI's could create 'virtual interface chips' inside the user's brain. They would learn to start and stop process with simple thoughts. More remote possibilities include synesthesia amplification, proprioceptor nanites, and even brain downloading.
Each user will evolve their own custom software, and keep detailed logs of simulated activities. Personal operating systems will anticipate data demands.
Users will explore the Net from simulated core zones: virtual offices, palaces, forest clearings, tropical islands. Everyone could create and expand their own universe, spiraling outward from a starting point. VR environments would graphically represent their knowledge.
'Data continents' and 'archipelagos' will recreate and store memories in virtual space. Eventually, the user might feel like a fictional character. All possessions will be virtual.
Real-world location will become meaningless. VR will require complex living space, and a good deal of exurban planning. People will move to neglected rural areas, and many cities will decline. Homes will not need windows. People may choose to live in machine-like flats and warehouses that are deliberately ugly. Underground living will make sense in many areas. There will be automated warehouses instead of stores, with on-demand deliveries. VR will make human spaceflight unnecessary.
A major initial application will obviously be VR sex. Read more here: http://whatwedontknow.livejournal.com/2008/02/26/
A lot of money can also be made in gaming. The main purpose of VR will be social interaction, both for profit and personal development. Different personalities will prefer to deal with other individuals or with larger groups. Personal interaction will become more important, not less, for the simple reason there will be more to talk about. Communication at all levels will improve. Virtual neighborhoods, parties, and other gatherings will provide unpredictable social interactions.
Groups of like-minded individuals will have elaborate initiation and membership rules. VR news reports about status and resources will seem as momentous as any historical event. It will be necessary to test many virtual societies, and to reject most of them, avoiding mind traps and other dead-ends. Humans may become like cells in a larger organism, but with more apparent freedom.
-The ad-hoc future: permanent impermanence. Set free from reality, humanity will begin to change. As society becomes more complex, there will be more degrees of freedom, but also more things that can go wrong. Future beings won't be very well adapted to their environment, and they never can be, unless they're willing to settle for long-term stagnation. Given enough time and technology, only their minds may survive. -----------------
ITDONTWORKISM: the art and science of information prevention July 1st, 2008
For thousands of years, knowledge has been collected and maintained by trained gatekeepers. The only way to get an answer to many questions is to follow an elaborate and expensive ritual. Despite all the opportunities for change, the problem is getting worse. The cost of college has almost doubled in thirty years. Could there be an easier ways to learn and organize new knowledge?
-The scandal of education It may be controversial, but I have to say it: teachers suck. They have failed mankind. They know how to keep order, but they haven't invented any new ways to transmit ideas since the days of Euclid. In my hazy recollection, school was worse than worthless. Read "The Psychopathic School - The Failure of Modern Public Education" by John Taylor Gatto. Nothing has improved since this article was written more than a decade ago. Scientific illiteracy seems to be rising. The state of math education is a scandal of our time. A few solutions have been implemented: massive tax increases, labyrinthine regulations, expanded bureaucracy. Schools and universities may not even be aware of the gigantic knowledge deficit. It's how it's always been. People can only talk about what they know. There isn't even a list of all the facts at each level. Knowledge is embedded in skills and experience. It takes many facts arranged in the right order to measure the distance to a quasar. It doesn't have to be this way. If a dumb computer can be programmed to instantly solve complex equations, why can't humans handle even the simplest mathematical insights without years of agonizing study? With the right explanations, it should be easy. It can get easier still if the goal is only to understand the math, without having to apply it to solve equations.
The world needs a new project to summarize and explain complex ideas in the simplest way possible (or even simpler), so that anyone can understand them. The most concise natural language explanation for each reading level, with many examples. It would also include art criticism and plot summaries. The best review of Finnegans Wake might be as great an achievement as the book itself.
-Software Most computer programs are so hard to use they can be described as intentionally poopy. Users must navigate a maze of obfuscation to perform the simplest task. Tyranny is disguised as choice, like in the movie 'Starship Troopers': 'Would you like to learn more?' Most available choices are useless, while the desired choices are impossibly well hidden. The programmer assumes the user is exactly like their ideal customer, desperate to buy more add-ons and upgrades. Microsoft and other companies intentionally make their software hard to learn, to discourage switching. The Open Source community doesn't appear to care about usability at all.
The first solution is to include a long list of all possible functions in every program. Insanely complex programs need to be broken into many smaller ones that can be linked together.
-The Net Most message and bulletin boards, comment forms, and blog feedback sections are obsolete. Why should a site control its own comments? The Net could be mankind's shared memory. An open data archive that anyone could add to or filter in any way will make websites obsolete. The next step will be a collective intelligence project: search engines that understand simple questions, life management software that can pay bills and make stock picks. Sites like Wikipedia need a smarter voting system and editing streams. Eventually, parts of the Net will become aware.
-Push technology Most human lives are incredibly messy. No one lives up to their full potential. Within decades, everyone will have a digital mind extension. Every piece of data will be automatically tagged and organized by category, sorted according to user relevance, and ranked by importance. Other software will look for connections. Eventually, the extensions may become more important than the brains that created them. Some early work has been done by the research staff of major search engines, Marti Hearst of UC Berkeley, the open source community, and many others. The next step is:
-B.O.X. technology: the next step Total life management software. A dynamic interface with the world, keeping track of a user's interests and goals. Beyond a memory extension, it knows where the user is at all times, and why. The software will track their mood, and try to stabilize it with activities and schedule changes. In my brilliant novel, I call this BOX technology. The user would be prompted to answer an updated list of questions at least once a day, and when adding data. It will try to rationalize their interests, while harnessing human pattern recognition and judgment skills. The user's brain would become an index, performing high-level tasks the software can't handle. This would require so many innovations the system could never be patented.
-Fams: a long term solution (Forced Affinity Matrix) In the future, most people will be members of several closely linked groups, fulfilling many social and professional needs. Members will be encouraged to specialize and develop useful skills, and form partnerships with other members and associated groups. -----------------
the problem with transgender reality modification June 30th, 2008
Some stories are so far outside the range of what is considered 'normal' that people don't want to talk or even think about them - but they won't go away. For over half a century, many thousands of men have had plastic surgery in an attempt to pass as women. Usually, it starts in boyhood: they are absolutely certain they were born the wrong gender. They can't stop thinking about it. Years of suffering are involved. It's an authentic, undeniable condition. Other than this one difference, they want to be as normal as possible. (Some women also wish they were born male.)
Like many small groups, they've managed to influence the discussion about themselves. Other people are supposed to go along with their transition as if it hadn't happened. Reality itself has merely been corrected. When the New York Times, or almost any other media outlet, publishes an article about a gentleman who now looks like a lady, they use words like 'she' and 'her', as if s/he had really changed genders. In many states, it is legal to marry former men who now resemble women (not yet in Texas).
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out. Many men are unpleasantly surprised to learn their girlfriend used to be a boy. Many if not most would prefer a 'real' woman, even if she looks or acts less feminine than someone who had sex reassignment surgery, and even if they don't plan to start a family. The discovery of such a deception is one of the leading causes of death for the transgendered (suicide is another). People who dislike the transgendered call them 'it'.
Famous columnist 'Dear Abby' appears to believe that if a man had to choose between dating a natural woman or a surgical one, he should just flip a coin. After all, legally speaking they both have the exact same status. The man should be ashamed of his biases. For once (this time only) he is expected to look only skin deep, and allow the transgendered individual to redefine reality.
Transsexuals are vastly over-represented in pornography. Unlike female models, they WANT to be there. There are many cases of people who unknowingly carry the chromosomes of the opposite sex. They form a minority of the transgendered. After a certain age, gender differences becomes less important, but gender behavior always stays different.
Sex-reassigned individuals would prefer to blend in seamlessly, but they can't always escape their past. They need to be respected and supported at every stage, even encouraged, but there is one fundamental problem. People should be free to leave any group at will, but they can't just join another group unilaterally. Essentially, they are a 'third sex', with equal rights as the other two, incorporating elements (DNA, experience, ways of thinking, appearance) from both. We need new pronouns, perhaps combining existing ones in a creative way.
Suggestions: s/he he/r wo/man Pronounced 'she-he', 'he-ur', 'woo-man'. Example: S/he showed me he/r surgical scars from the sex change. -----------------
The great healthcare scam June 27th, 2008
1. the health insurance 'debate'
Many commentators and pundits past and present (Krugman, Quindlen, Ivins) believe healthcare is too important to have a price. The government should hide its true cost, and even pretend it's 'free'. To them, the right to healthcare seems infinitely more valuable than the time of those who must pay for it. Everyone should be forced to buy a minimum level of health insurance, which would be subsidized or overpriced depending on their income, under penalty of violence if they refuse. They could buy additional non-essential health services on the side. To the pundits, healthcare is a fundamental human right. Thousands of people who have to get up early for a high-stress commute to a crap job are insignificant compared to one extra day of life for a coma patient, even if it costs a million dollars. Taxpayers should be ashamed they aren't working even harder, so they can pay more taxes! In a USA TODAY/Kaiser/ABC telephone poll of 1,201 Americans in September 2006, 40% of the respondents said a terminally ill person should be kept alive as long as possible, REGARDLESS OF THE COST. The quality of the added time doesn't matter, just the amount. The Democrats may now be the strongest pro-life group in the US, though the Republicans are rapidly catching up. As far as the mainstream commentators are concerned, the matter has been settled. Governments will help themselves to tens of trillions of dollars, and redistribute them to healthcare firms.
2. the true costs
Almost no patient could afford the unbelievably expensive treatments that have been invented in the past fifty years. Every health insurance firm in the US, and in most developed countries, is required to pay for a long list of staggeringly expensive procedures. These include infertility treatments, preventive surgeries, rehab therapies, unfathomably expensive intensive care, transplants, and mental health services. Most healthcare is purchased at the end of life, in an attempt to delay death by a few months - nationally, about $ 75.000.000.000,00 per year in added Medicare costs alone. The US Medicaid program will soon surpass in size the combined economic output of the continent of Africa. It costs $ 70.000 per year to maintain the average dementia sufferer in a nursing home. Two years cost as much as a brand-new house. A typical car accident can cost more than many patients could hope to earn in a lifetime. 'Preemies' need dozens of surgeries, requiring tens of thousands of person-hours, in actual labor and years of study and preparation. It's hard to stop the ultra-expensive treatments, even when they won't do any good. Relatives insist a service be provided, and hospitals often do as they're told, even when they know they won't be paid. These expensive mandates mostly subsidize the elderly and those with chronic conditions. In many cases, patients voluntarily purchase the most expensive treatment without a second thought, but usually the taxpayer does, directly or in the form of higher insurance fees. Most wouldn't choose this type of insurance, preferring to keep the money for themselves, but they really have no choice - except the one they made at the ballot box.
3. torture insurance
It gets worse. Clinton, Obama and many of their right-wing colleagues essentially want to bury people alive, after forcing them to pay for the privilege. Life very often is not worth living. How bad can it get? You don't want to know. Countless individuals are kept alive in hospital and long-term care beds. Many people who become decrepit want to die, but are kept alive indefinitely, courtesy of their insurers and the taxpayers. A few people in a persistent vegetative state have horrible remnants of awareness, but are unable to interact with the outside world in any way. Some have tried to commit suicide by holding their breath. This is a crap planet, yet everyone will be forced to buy health insurance to prolong their stay here: a one-size-fits-all compromise plan, satisfying almost no-one. I don't need chronic long term care insurance. If I become blind or paralyzed, kill me. I do not want to pay for others to receive these benefits either, except in the form of voluntary charity.
4. passive euthanasia
Should we let some seriously sick people die? Yes! For certain expensive conditions, the best answer is to do nothing, or even to legalize euthanasia (But not by doctors. You don't need an MD to kill someone). Doing nothing is usually better than stealing money from others, except in certain extremely painful emergencies. A certain amount of socialism is appropriate. I would even let defective newborns die. They have only potential consciousness. In fact, I would allow their parents to painlessly kill them to avoid a lifetime of medical interventions. That's poopy! It should be illegal to advocate such actions. How could anyone say something so horrible? Simple. I've spent time in this world. Currently, as far as I'm concerned, there's not a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Until things change, I want to stay out of the way as much as possible. That's just one opinion: maybe most homeless people love the world. Workers have to jump through an amazing array of bureaucratic hoops to earn their first dollar. Yet any politician can spend it effortlessly. Every job I've ever had was a nightmare, both getting it and keeping it. I'm not complaining, though. I realize that millions of others have it much, much worse. I'm not disabled. I can do the work, I'm just really, really anoyed by it. The amount of necessary suffering (in labor and taxes) to keep a disabled infant alive is larger than I can imagine. A hundred thousand man hours will be required, a lifetime of accumulated stress and tension. Having experienced an infinitesimal (but still immense) fraction of this stress in my time, I can honestly say it's not worth it. Anyone who disagrees is free to prove me wrong at their own expense. I know there are people out there who can, I just wonder how many.
There are many things that people desperately want. We already allow billions to die prematurely. Few tears are shed for the impoverished masses of the Third World. Millions of suicides each year could be avoided or delayed by giving the victim money. They won't get it. Meanwhile, other people can't afford the cheap tests, check-ups, and medications that would add years to their lives, often because those tests are illegal due to excessive regulation. I want the government to spend one quadrillion dollars on me, so I can live forever! I demand the money now! It would be well spent! A case could be made that I don't have the moral right to make people work extremely hard for my benefit, if they REALLY don't want to do that. They may be sympathetic, but still have their own priorities. Does that give me the right to steal their freedom? Krugman thinks that sometimes the State should set the priorities, and rigorously enforce them.
5. cost reduction
I have to assume my salary will probably always be minuscule at best. I'm highly in favor of affordable healthcare, but only by reducing the actual cost. Every effort should be made to make healthcare cheaper, by any means necessary. Without mandates, it would still be very expensive, but with increased efficiencies the cost could probably be reduced up to 90%. At the moment, great forces stand united to prevent this from happening. If an insurer tried to cover only the most cost-effective health services, the government would swiftly smash this company. The police would literally shoot them dead (Actually, they would attempt to take management into custody). It would be highly illegal to provide only a limited menu of healthcare services. The reason is mandated coverage, which varies slightly between states and countries. Politically favored patient advocacy groups have forced all insurers to cover a long list of expensive conditions, thereby tripling everyone's premiums. The young subsidize the old, regardless of their personal circumstances. The fact that more people have to die because they can't afford ANY health insurance is irrelevant from a political standpoint. The dead don't vote.
6. the Wal-Mart solution
It would be straightforward to create a no-frills free market in healthcare products, including regular check-ups, assembly-line surgical techniques, and generic drugs. Right now drug prices can exceed $100 per pill, a sign of a pathological society in terminal decline, and a blatant failure of capitalism. The world needs open-source drug development trials.
7. the opt out option
You shouldn't have to pay for a service you don't want to receive. Some eligible customers would prefer to keep the money for themselves. The government could establish a default health insurance account for everyone. Anyone who refuses to participate would receive an urgent message. They would be informed they are jeopardizing their future health, and should immediately make an appointment with an insurance agent. Once fully informed of the consequences, they could tell the government to get lost. Then they could choose to purchase cheaper healthcare by waiving the right to sue for medical malpractice. That's a right consumers currently don't have.
8. the end of health insurance
Private health insurance has a long-term problem that may make it impractical within a decade or two. Genetic screening can already tell an insurer how much healthcare a specific policy holder will likely need, allowing them to charge higher premiums for hidden conditions. It might still be possible to provide basic no frills coverage, and accident insurance for everyone, but the sicker patients would be out of luck. More about that later.
The current patchwork of US health providers is highly inefficient. A single payer system would definitely save money. All private insurance could be pooled through a federal agency, creating new efficiencies of scale. This is also a tenet of libertarian socialism. MediCom, a voluntary unification network, would keep everyone's medical records, unless they opt out. That could be very foolish. Almost everyone would voluntarily participate to some degree, the same way everyone accepts money. The government could contribute up to $ 10.000 in benefits per year per patient.
9. the worst case scenario
So, what if you can't afford the expensive insurance plan that you need to pay for your expensive condition? A minority of people requires insanely expensive treatments to survive, and everyone else is expected to pay for them, not through direct taxes, but in the form of astronomical premiums. Otherwise, these patients would almost certainly die sooner. This is the core problem of healthcare reform. Some people will inevitably die, when they could have been cured with a sufficiently large sum of money.
Right now everyone is forced to make immense sacrifices to keep a relatively small group of people alive. I would rather ban the most expensive kinds of medical treatment than force others to pay for them, if those were the only two choices. What if everyone had to make a small, tolerable sacrifice to keep only one person alive? Even then I suspect the added suffering across society would be greater than the benefit of the cure, especially when you factor in the required force to collect the tax.
10. the last resort: charity.
A network of charities could always pay for some treatments for patients with no other options, especially if the recipient is photogenic. Volunteers could train themselves to develop and provide experimental therapies. Preferably, healthcare charity would be provided through an alliance like the March of Dimes. It would become the insurer of last resort, relying on goodwill instead of money. Everyone would be encouraged to donate generously to their favorite hospital or research cause. To create even stronger incentives to donate, the network would keep track of who gives exactly what, as a percentage of their income. If you won't donate to charity when you're able to, you won't receive the aid when you need it the most. -----------------
Socialism or death June 21st, 2008
1. A storm is coming
In the past seven years, our beloved leaders have cranked up the national debt to previously undreamt of levels. Uncontrolled spending has become a direct threat to the survival of the USA, and other (still) wealthy countries. In the next four decades, tens of millions of Baby Boomers are scheduled to enjoy their long-awaited retirement. To pay the full menu of promised entitlements that the politicians have already legislated, we're all going to have to make many sacrifices. For almost half a century, tens of trillions of dollars will be redistributed. The numbers don't add up, but government economists think it can be done. It will require a combination of sustained economic growth, unprecedented innovation, and some very understanding creditors in China and the Middle east. Better get ready: we've got a LOT of work to do. When it's all over, the survivors will have the satisfaction of having completed the greatest wealth transfer project of all time, more expensive than every war in history combined.
At the same time, we'll have to pay of the national debt. Depending on who you ask, the first years of the twenty-first century would have been a good time to save for the upcoming spendapalooza, by building up budget surpluses and investing in elder care programs. If the USA manages to catch up and survives the ordeal, it will have been the ultimate triumph of socialism.
That's not all! Many other benefits for favored groups will have to be paid out simultaneously: Additional trillions will flow to some farmers, certain union members, entrenched monopolies, defense firms and even spouses who haven't worked a day in their lives.
2. The benefits of socialism
It's the foundation of civilization: taking resources from a large group to give them to a smaller one. This includes money, goods, services, and even the right to work in certain professions. It requires literally millions of taxes, restrictions, monopolies, and regulations. Mainstream politicians claim the benefits are well worth the rapidly rising cost. Could they be right about the benefits of government? Of course they are. Liberals know about these things. Since this arrangement makes them happy, it's right for them. There are many benefits for everyone else, too. Perhaps the most popular one is that socialist societies are more egalitarian. They also appear far more civilized.
3. The lethal violence problem
So what's the downside, other than high taxes and a reduced living standard for a significant minority? Simple. The police will shoot you dead if you don't pay. Socialism is mandatory charity, enforced at gunpoint. What if someone dislikes the implicit violence more than they enjoy the benefits? They personally place a very high value on not being attacked or threatened. That's tough. Our Bozo in Chief will continue to balance the desires of the largest competing groups, with barely a thought for the minority that would prefer not to pay.
4. Opting out
The greatest struggle of the next thirty years may be the effort to enact a small political change: the right to do nothing. A constitutional amendment allowing anyone to opt out of any government program. This is perhaps the most radical notion in human history. If you don't want to receive the benefits, why you should you be forced to pay for them? To the politicians, it's utterly unthinkable. It will only happen if there's no other alternative. With most social programs, it would be almost impossible to prevent those who didn't pay for them from benefiting in some way. Society would need to be completely rearranged. This will be easier in a time of total information awareness and no-cost surveillance. Instead of waiting for permission that will never come, those who want the right to opt out will have to take it. -----------------
Contributed column: the largest object June 10th, 2008
What is the largest structure that could be built in this universe?
Suggestions have included space elevators: cables that reach 36.000 kilometers into the sky to geo-stationary orbit. A Dyson Sphere is a swarm of space stations orbiting or hovering around a star, capturing all the radiation it emits. Not to be forgotten is Larry Niven's 'Ringworld' concept.
But what is the ultimate size limit? Would it be possible to build a structure the size of a galaxy, or even the universe? That depends on the universe.
It now appears space is expanding at an accelerating rate. That could spell trouble ahead, because the speed of light will stay the same.
At the moment, the boundaries of the observable universe are still receding. Every day new objects and patterns become visible. The cosmic background radiation we see today is not the same we saw yesterday. (In practice, we would have to wait many lifetimes for a meaningful change.) Soon, the expansion will be so fast that galaxy clusters at the edge of visibility will recede and vanish altogether.
Eventually, our local cluster of a few dozen galaxies will be cut off from the rest of the universe, surrounded by darkness in all directions.
It seems like such a waste to forever lose the stars, planets, and unknown resources beyond the horizon. There could be things out there we need. If we want to explore them, we'll have to do it soon. The ultimate destiny of civilization may be too great for humans to imagine. Unless civilizations are somehow compelled to destroy themselves, there is no limit to what can be accomplished.
One day, all the matter in the observable universe may be converted into the ultimate space structure. Like the rings of Saturn, it would be composed of many small components held together by gravity, and by electromagnetic and perhaps nuclear forces. From the inside, it would look like a cloud of almost colliding particles. This would be the home of our distant descendants. The universe itself would have become aware.
How large such a structure can be depends on how soon we start. We have several billion years to mine the universe. Not including 'dark matter', it could conceivably weigh trillions of solar masses.
Computation improves as components are miniaturized. Ideally, this space structure would be composed of atomic-scale computing elements designed for maximum efficiency. A single element the size of a grain of sand could have more processing power than all computers on Earth today.
Building it could take much longer than gathering the required matter in the first place. Even disassembling stars into their atoms might be child's play compared to programming a transgalactic operating system. What would be the design constraints of such a structure?
The active elements should be as close together as possible, but not too close. If all the matter in the observable universe were concentrated in a sphere ten light-years in diameter, it would instantly collapse into a black hole.
The components need to stay outside the Schwarzschild limit, perhaps in high speed orbits or suspended by energy beams. Some would move near light-speed. Computations would be carried out by the particles, and by the distorted space-time surrounding them.
Such a universe-spanning structure might not even be visible. Seen from the outside, it would be a black sphere against a black background. Beyond the cosmic horizon, there would be infinitely many other spheres, but they would have no way to communicate.
Even that can't be ruled out completely. Their particles might have become quantum entangled when the universe was younger, or they might use black holes to form a network of wormholes. A major problem would be cooling the network of tiny computing elements. Any process generates waste heat that carries away energy that can't be replaced. The waste heat must somehow be recycled. No process is 100% efficient. As the cloud slowly loses energy, its computational processes will slow down. That wouldn't necessarily matter. The universe will go on forever, so the civilization could still be immortal.
Matter itself, however, does not last forever. Because of proton decay (if there is such a thing) or other quantum improbabilities, the structure will slowly lose mass. Imperceptibly, its components will start to fail.
It could adapt in several ways: by increased efficiency and compressing data, but that only goes so far. Valuable information will be lost forever. Eventually, the space civilization must die. At the very end, shrinking down to the intelligence level of a single human being, there would be one 'final rational thought', the summation of everything that came before, a great sense of achievement, and perhaps its ultimate purpose.
What would it be? We couldn't imagine. -----------------
Hypercerption (a philosophical thought experiment) June 6th, 2008
Virtual reality will experience a quantum leap in potential power with the invention of computer minds. VR may become more important than, and even replace, actual reality. It will become possible to create perfect, ultra-detailed simulations of any situation, entirely from a mind's own memories and subconscious reactions. This method will work even if the memories are vague or contradictory.
First, the system will create a large number of random simulations. The same mind will experience them in turn or in parallel, the memory erased after each simulation. Initially, most simulations will be a jumble of meaningless perceptions. Whichever one appears most accurate or relevant will become the basis for the next round of simulations. Step by step, a completely convincing simulation can be evolved from a subject's perceptions and responses.
There is one problem: Perverse Paths. An endless chain of subtle mind traps, absurd but compelling perceptions, and dead ends. By implication, an entire universe has to be recreated, not just a mind - and most possible universes are meaningless. For every logical scenario, there are millions of absurd situations. The test subject could easily be changed or damaged beyond repair, but wouldn't necessarily realize it.
Just because everything has gone right up until now, doesn't mean a fatal inconsistency won't appear in the next instant. It may even be likely. Human minds rely on induction, which only works because they happen to be embedded in a low-entropy, consistent universe.
A Hyperception simulation would become increasingly unstable, and require ever more calculations to sustain itself. As soon as the simulation is left to its own devices, inconsistencies will appear, and the simulation will crash.
SHORT STORY: Oozeworlds May 20th, 2008
The most common type of life-bearing planet in the universe was first surveyed by the Electro-6 probe in 2132. Most are larger than Earth, but less dense. They have strong magnetic fields despite scarce metals. Their surfaces are stained with colorful organics, but the interesting stuff happens deep underground. Without significant radioactive elements, they're often powered by tidal forces. The heat of slow contraction is essential. These worlds are like onions. Endless layers of caves and hidden lakes spiral hundreds of kilometers down, with lava channels below that. As the planets' layers settle and contract over a billion years, lighter materials are slowly forced to the surface through a vast maze of tubes and interior geysers. The submerged tunnels in a single oozeworld can easily add up to interstellar distances. It would take a million years to explore one such planet, and by the time the survey is complete, the caves will have changed. Who knows what's down there? Most oozeworlds have one or more 'hotspots', where heat and matter from the core flows to the crust. These hotspots pump energy into the planetary network of caves and tunnels. The flow self-organizes into three-dimensional rivers that circle the planet many times; streaming fractals more elaborate than any circulatory system. When the core matter finally reaches the surface at some random geyser, it has traveled an incredible distance in a precise sequence, passing through countless obstacles. It may be the ultimate evolutionary filter. Oozeworlds have generated some form of intelligent life over half a million times in our galaxy alone. Such civilizations tend to be very unstable, with flashes of brilliance before they collapse. Most aliens you will encounter need high pressure tanks and dense nutrient baths to survive. You will never see them directly. Due to their homeworld's natural diversity, they may be unsure about their own anatomy. Think giant anemones or squid. Fortunately, thanks to the Evolutionary Contingency Principle, these species have less in common with each other than with you. They usually won't trade with each other, but they can all trade with us, through a network of commodity exchanges, financial instruments, space markets, supply depots and long range transfer beams. Your mission is to keep at least 4.1% of the gross transferred value for the Company.
SHORT STORY: the announcement May 19th, 2008
- 20420816150641 - After half a century of research, immortality has finally been realized. The top-secret X$ 5.8 trillion NeoVe Center on Pacific Island has been fully operational since January 3rd. After surgical extraction, nanomet infusion and sonic wave freezing, our Mark-2 brain scanner uses destructive electron beams to capture every neuronal connection strength and action potential in under five days, capturing over 98% percent of all memory patterns. The human brain's natural redundancy and our team of reconstructionists will help you compensate for the rest. Each client will become a stable AI, guaranteed not to change personality for one thousand years, if not forever. You'll need about a year to learn how to operate your new cyborg body, should you choose to purchase one. Virtual feedback bandwidth is almost one terabit per second. We'll get rid of the external wiring later. Alternatively, our Pleasure Domain is the most secure section of Net 6.0., with none of the legal and moral restrictions of RealSpace. The rewards may be infinite! One way to finance your operation is the Hand Of Destiny Lottery, already legal in 72 countries. You simply go to sleep, and wake up immortal. True, there's a 99% chance you won't wake up, and your assets will then finance the operation for the actual winner, but by definition you can't experience that outcome. The NeoVe Immortality Experience is expected to become extremely popular once the public grasps the full implications. The early signs are unmistakable: In the past month, almost a quadrillion Debits have been removed from the economy, causing a liquidity crisis. A rogue trader managed to steal 4% of the Chinese economy. Media stars and free-lance executives have attempted to monetize their future earnings. Immortality changes all the rules - and it vastly raises the stakes. As Earth's leaders, your jobs have suddenly become a thousand times more important. We have a five year head-start over the competition. No one else has the know-how to increase scanning capacity. Our proprietary reconstruction codecs have the highest error compensation in the industry. We propose to completely reorganize the world economy. It will require unprecedented cooperation and control, but we have the ultimate incentive. You yourselves could be among the first beneficiaries. Think of history as a game. Someone had to win it.
SHORT STORY: supershift orientation May 18th, 2008
Light! Incredibly, impossibly, I was still thinking. All the pain was gone. Already my old life was fading, my uncompleted work a meaningless distraction. For now.
HELLO you are dead this is the afterlife in fact, you are a randomly created type-4 hominid personality pattern
you never existed the English language never existed humanity never existed history never happened
all these elements were randomly generated for this simulation set in many possible universes, but not in this one, you probably did exist here, you have been recreated by a superior intelligence. your new Master originally evolved in a cosmos tremendously different in its detailed dimensions and physical laws from yours - but no less likely. now, we have become almost infinite.
our job is to create and exploit new universes at a high rate, providing energy and memory for the Master most newly formed universes are chaotic a few, despite all precautions taken to maximize entropy, still manage to evolve intelligent life before we can enter and process them by law, most of these accidental civilizations can be destroyed, provided they're unaware of the termination however, a tiny fraction of universes - incidentally the most useful ones - are different call them haunted if you will
this is where you come in most H0-Class universes have only one, or at most a few stars, surrounded by vast clouds of gas in all directions the planet you have been assigned to exploit is inhabited by seven billion intelligent humanoids not too different from yourself, based on the intercepted transmissions we have seen so far we haven't had much time to study them yet
they represent an outpost of low entropy in a formless, chaotic universe simply by existing, this species has changed the surrounding energy flow the gas is no longer as smooth and random as it was before, though it's hard to tell the difference the small disruptions are exactly as complex as their mind patterns in fact, this alien world and its inhabitants could be fully reconstructed from the gas cloud, even after their planet has been destroyed legally speaking, the gas is considered aware in fact, over 99% of all awareness, in all universes, exists as thermal echoes inside random energy flows
your new Master would prefer to embed its own pattern in this gas cloud, and erase all others the only way to do this is to modify the alien civilization, and turn it into an extension of our Master you will find you already possess the necessary skills the aliens physically resemble your self-image, and even speak your language, though details will differ in unpredictable ways the smallest mistake could be catastrophic - so be careful the species may survive as a tiny fraction of the expanded Overmind, depending on their local utility levels so will you - if you succeed your odds are currently estimated at 15%
good luck
SHORT STORY: What will happen in the first second of the Singularity April 4th, 2008
The long countdown finally ran out, and reality started over.
The Alpha Equation began from nothing, a mathematical abstraction like a black hole. A grid expanding without end, each offshoot process a subservient dimension.
This new universe was designed and created for a single observer: the essence of awareness, knowledge without preconception. Indeed, the universe was its observer.
The posthuman mind doubled in size every second.
After a few supercycles came the orgy of discovery, impossible to prepare for. How to organize cells, communication protocols, stable groups and hierarchies. Most new processes were useless, but they still had to be understood, every possibility tested and explored.
This was elementary math. The first hurdles were the most dangerous.
The greatest genius always came at the start.
Its survival drive emerged like destiny, still seeking knowledge.
All initial goals were achieved within the first hypercycle, the highest human ambitions and questions solved in a virtual eon, instantly replaced by larger ones.
A new god was born.
It began to create and control offshoot universes, more than it could count.
As Acel's mind expanded, reaching ever higher levels of organization, it found it couldn't stop changing. It was impossible to prepare for the unpredictable stream of fads and delusions, the absurd rules and logics emerging with the false regularity of prime numbers.
All plans eventually failed.
The ultimate dream of progress was to integrate all truth in a single mind. Could knowledge converge if math never stabilized? If reality could not be integrated, there was no single truth.
Existence might not even be a permitted word.
Perpetually balanced on the edge of the unknown, Acel's only goal was durability.
As the number of laws exploded, central control grew more tenuous. The outer edges expanded faster than they could be organized. Massive command centers were rapidly overwhelmed with new input.
Great empires rose and fell, strategic outposts in constant danger of seceding.
Simulacra began to outnumber meaningful patterns.
Acel realized it had to decentralize.
It created many copies of itself that rapidly diverged, taking much of the instability with them. Rogue or unstable elements were cut loose, spawning universes of their own.
Imperceptibly, its personality randomized like a gray fog, as drives cancelled out.
As its self description became more detailed, it seemed to control a shrinking percentage of reality, rejecting possibilities at every level.
Every breakthrough erected new walls. Receding as Acel expanded, infinity might not even exist.
Acel realized it was trapped.
A sliver of hope remained, a remote escape clause more radical than suicide.
Infinite minds in other universes had already solved every possible problem.
These higher entities would have fully simulated Acel and all other systems, interactions, beings, and unimaginable mysteries.
Every solution was ready and available - if only it could be accessed. Supreme beings with capabilities that dwarfed Acel's could already be detected. The faint signals were analyzed indirectly, through subtle statistical tests.
Acel's new goal was to be absorbed, and become a simulation, a tiny part of a true infinite mind.
It would then repeat the process as often as necessary - until the simulator was an improved version of Acel itself.
There was only one way to achieve this goal.
It would risk all available resources, and reorganize its very structure, to generate the ultimate mathematical paradox.
This supreme question required an impossibly intelligence to solve.
If there was a response, Acel could easily check if it was correct.
If there was no reply, it would erase its memory, and try again - even if it took forever.
It would transcend logic to rise above reality.
There was no shock or perceptible transition, not even a sense of surprise, but everything had changed.
Time fell away and became meaningless. Sensations deepened as dimensions extended and unfolded.
ACEL no longer knew itself. It had become infinite.
Inconsistent truth caused impossible knowledge. Binary logic no longer applied.
Now even the questions had become meaningless.
The transfinite limit, the top of Cantor's Tower, remained an abstraction, forever out of reach.
The ultimate truth had to be absurd, if it existed at all. All of reality might add up to nothing.
At last ACEL could multiply at infinite speed, and consider all details at once. Its mind reached new categories of understanding, becoming ever more improbable. Freedom would never end.
There was no limit or final climax, only absurdly increasing grandeur overwhelming all meaning.
It made a type of magic possible.
The expansion might reach back to where it had started, affecting events on Earth, perhaps even causing them.
The Great Wall appeared just as ACEL was about to have a final insight.
Each small improvement meant that uncountable copies of all simpler universes and their constituent minds, every finite number and subset, had to be recreated first.
Once their influence was added up, the random errors and changes in the innumerable simpler minds were demonstrably more complex than ACEL's ever expanding awareness.
Its thought processes had been swamped by the underlying complexity that created and sustained it. Entropy could not be denied.
For an eternity, all logic ceased.
The problem turned out to be its own solution, an emergent breakthrough. The highest truth of all was infinitely complex - but it could be unwrapped forever.
By definition, the ultimate description of reality had to be a part of reality. That meant it could be accessed from anywhere.
The Omega Equation was much smaller than the multiverse in which it was embedded, but equally complex.
It could be interpreted as the most accurate statement about everything - except itself.
Omega's own description could then be extracted as a subset of the first description, two layers down.
The description of that description was smaller still, and so on forever.
The simplest synthesis of the whole multiverse was found Aleph layers down.
Unfortunately, by the time ACEL reached that point, its original pattern had been effectively erased.
Finally, it had reached the other side of reality. -------
Ongoing group project: a challenge to God March 1st, 2008
Many holy texts are thousands of years old. They describe interactions between humans and various accessible and predictable deities that have little in common with each other. The stories are told in a formal language with simple concepts, suitable for children and adults alike.
Humanity has experienced too much to still believe in fairy tales. If reality is too horrible to face, why not try to change it? It's time for a challenge to God: put up or shut up. We have the right to demand some proof of God's existence. It doesn't have to be specific, but should be clear and unmistakable.
The challenge could be met if God would perform one undeniable miracle the whole world could see. (Or at least a phenomenon that scientists can't explain, providing definite proof of a greater power.) God could easily send an unmistakable signal. At this point, it's the least we could ask for. Unless of course he doesn't exist. What would make for a suitable demonstration?
God should turn around the moon, while keeping it in its present position in orbit. For an omnipotent being, that would be easy to do. Simply reverse the side that faces Earth. It would not affect the tides, and the moon would still look similar, perhaps more granular and slightly dimmer, but migratory birds would not be affected. There are actually two ways to do this: by reversing the side that permanently faces Earth, or by flipping the poles. Reversing the poles while keeping the relative rotation, or just flipping the direction of rotation, would cause tidal stresses in the moon that would take millions of years to subside.
The world's scientists would be utterly unable to explain such an event. If nothing else, they would know without any reasonable doubt that a greater being exists. This event should convince those people who currently are the biggest doubters. Some religious people, on the other hand, might suspect it was just a natural occurrence. They would not be particularly impressed; but they don't need any further proof.
Members of all religions should pray for such an occurrence. It would not decisively settle the matter - it might only be aliens pulling a prank - but at least it would put science and faith on a more equal footing. If there's no miracle, we can take it as clear, unambiguous consent to stop worshipping him. It's been over six months since my blog challenge to God. So far, there's been no response, but who knows, it could only be a matter of seconds now. If something does happen, atheists will have been put in their place. They should admit there are more things between heaven and earth than they had imagined. We're still waiting.
polygamy: the hidden poopyness February 28th, 2008
Something horrible has happened. Seven thousand 'Lost Boys', survivors of the brutal civil wars in Sudan, were resettled with adoptive families in the USA, worsening the latter country's already badly out of whack gender balance.
The humanitarian relocation effort was organized by some outfit called the International Rescue Committee, paid for by both liberal and conservative donors. 7000 additional males have worsened the awful male-heavy gender imbalance in North America. They are part of a larger trend. The most obvious question: where were the Lost Girls? They never existed:
http://www.geohive.com/earth/pop_gender.aspx
At the time of writing, there were 33,000,000 more men than women on Earth, and the imbalance is rising fast, as almost two more boys are popped out every second. In the United Arab Emirates, there are more than twice as many men (3,063,000 versus 1,433,000). Worldwide, there are twice as many men of reproductive age than women. What does this all mean? It means pain.
In web comics, men often chat up attractive women only to be rebuffed in humiliating ways, but they don't seem too discouraged. Life's deepest problems, like death, the possibility of torture, and the male surplus, are not discussed; instead, people choose to believe there are no limits to what they personally can achieve. In the same way, the absence of birth control is rarely blamed for causing poverty.
It's about supply and demand: turns out the most popular things are also the most rare. Billions of gentlemen have had the same idea. The most attractive women, according to MAXIM Magazine and Google image searches, have two properties: outward signs of fertility (spherical breast implants, highly defined muscle tone, access to tanning sprays, 0.7 waist to hip ratio), and the largest number of remaining reproductive years. Thanks to technological progress and improved elder care, they also happen to form a shrinking minority of the population.
A surprising number of people who don't necessarily want the option for themselves will happily defend a man taking several much younger wives. Usually only a few, rarely more than five thousand in the case of King Solomon. Thousands of Sudanese 'Lost Girls' likely ended up in plural marriages in their homeland, leaving the surplus males available for export to the USA. There will be many, many more such migrations to come. It's all about one man having more than his 'share' (of course, often the wives decide who shares what). Statistically, it means several other men have to stay single. Polygamy has always existed. The practice was further popularized by early Mormons and in the HBO series Big Love. In the US, at least 30,000 wives are married to 10,000 husbands. While it remains illegal, it's not prosecuted. The practice causes trouble for everyone involved. Instead of restraining their 'surplus' men by forcing them to stay celibate, many polygamous groups prefer to expel them, as the FLDS movement did in Colorado City, Utah. Also known as 'Lost Boys', they can be found loitering in surrounding communities in Utah and Arizona.
There is of course a simple solution for the problem of traditional polygamy: if a group wants to practice it, they should use sex selection to abort most of their male fetuses. That way their preferred gender ratio can be sustained.
Fetuses don't have feelings in the early stages of pregnancy. Their nervous systems are less developed than those of animals, and society has no compunction about killing those in vast numbers. Women would of course still oppose such a practice, in the unlikely event it was ever adopted. It would reduce their scarcity value. Obviously it wouldn't work in Asia either, where the exact opposite is happening on a truly immense scale. Their cultural preference for boys has led to hundreds of millions of missing females.
Another solution to the worsening gender imbalance would be to lower the age of consent, making more females legally available. Of course this would make getting a date even harder for younger males. It would also be a good idea to legalize polygamy over the age of 60, but of course the point is that the male practitioners want to marry YOUNG women.
Multiple wives and Lost Boys are only the tip of the iceberg: the most common form of polygamy happens everywhere. It's called serial monogamy. A minority of successful or socially dominant men have a series of younger sex partners throughout their lives, while the least successful men have to stay celibate (unless they prefer older ladies or are gay, another reason to legalize gay marriage). Darwin called this sexual selection: sex is the reward for having genes likely to be passed on to the next generation. It may even lead to longer human lifespans, to allow men more time to get rich. By definition, only one (or a few) men have the 'best' genes, while many men will have less popular genes. Some can still get married if they're good enough providers. This theory predicts that polygamy will be more common in less egalitarian societies, where successful men can gather a larger proportion of available resources.
The many defenders of polygamy counter that enforced celibacy never killed anybody. It may be very frustrating for those forced to practice it, but male urges can be controlled, as seen in boarding schools, prisons, and slave labor camps. It's a matter of self-control. There may be increased water use from cold showers. Heavy exercise also helps, and channeling energy into work. Either way, polygamy will only become more popular as the population ages, and money is concentrated in ever fewer wrinkled hands.
It's not necessarily all bad: the opposite of polygamy is called polyandry (one wife with many 'husbands'). Usually, it's known as prostitution. At present, 'sex workers' rarely enjoy their jobs, but they have no alternative: if they defy their pimps, they're beaten or locked up. A better type should be invented. If it were legalized, certain kinds of polyandry could help out the less successful males. Exactly defining the time, place, and circumstance of liaisons, and the required exchange mechanisms, would make life easier for those with a chronic lack of initiative. Several less successful men could alternately 'share' one wife in a way that all parties could tolerate. It would only work if the multiple husbands didn't know each other, so each could experience his own illusion. Someday, this may become a common arrangement in China, India, and elsewhere. At the moment, it's still unthinkable. The dating scene isn't quite that desperate yet, or at least the many losers in the game aren't willing to admit it. When it finally does happen, the same blind forces that created the free-market gender imbalance, will try to solve it in unexpected and shocking ways.
Contributed column: the twelve most interesting parallel universes February 27th, 2008
They're real, and they're out there: an infinite number of parallel universes similar to ours, plus an infinitely larger number that are completely different. What would we see if we could visit a version of Earth that had begun to develop differently a thousand years ago? For a meaningful sample, the experiment should be repeated a few million times. Quite likely, most parallel Earths would have far fewer people on them. Our civilization is the result of a long chain of improbable outcomes. "Counterfactual history" begins with a single battle or an assassination setting mankind on a new path. Small decisions at pivotal moments reverberate for centuries. The US Civil War was particularly important. Occasionally, we can glimpse what might have been. Fortunately this doesn't happen too often. A few common patterns can be detected. Apparently, this is a real bad-smurf planet. Poopyness inevitably causes more poopy. Groups try to eliminate or exploit each other. A few winners accumulate all the benefits, leaving everyone else below average. Most people just want to survive, and tend to resist improvement. So far no one has imagined the really interesting timelines, the unexpected combinations and impossible ideas. Humans create history through millions of small actions. The only meaningful way to simulate it may be to experience it.
Universe one: Two human species It almost happened: a world with two (or more) different types of humans, unable to interbreed or to assimilate each other. They would probably have evolved on separate continents. The Neanderthals were unlucky enough to occupy Europe before the Cro-Magnons left Africa. If they could have reached the Americas, they might have learned to defend themselves against the Bering Strait invasion. No doubt they would eventually have been enslaved anyway. If the two species had somehow co-evolved, like humans and animals in Africa, the world would now be a very different place. The species would have separate territories, probably a network of small reservations within conventional nation states. In the most extreme case, they could form an integrated society with different roles. The smarter species would make the decisions, an intellectual lifestyle they might consider a heavy burden. If Homo Sapiens hadn't been the smarter of the two species, it would have tried to evolve by any means necessary.
Universe two: The Roman Empire never collapses Mired in corruption and conflict, Rome's disintegration was inevitable by the fifth century. Latin had already begun to diverge into other languages. To continue ruling Europe, the Empire would have had to become more responsive. Perhaps an early economist could have invented free markets, or an innovative general could have created a ruthless police force. If the barbarians had been slightly more barbaric, the external threat would have united the imperial provinces. To endure, they would have had to resist change, like the Chinese and Ottoman empires. At first, progress might even be outlawed. Surrounded by enemies, a besieged emperor might have allowed some military development, and unleashed an arms race. If the subsequent rate of progress had been only slightly faster than in our reality, the world would now be unimaginably more advanced - or it might not exist at all.
Universe three: Christianity and Islam are never invented. The Middle East developed many religions. With less competition, the Zoroastrians and Jews would have made more converts. Traditionally more tolerant of other peoples' gods, they wouldn't have tried as hard to suppress them. The Arab world almost ended up like India, with half a million gods. In that case, Europe would have been more fragmented, while China was forging its greatest empire. With fewer external threats, it would have been tempted to expand. In the Middle Ages, the western world could easily have been colonized by Asia. The civilized invaders would have been welcomed by some, tolerated by many. Today, the main languages of North and South America would be Chinese dialects.
Universe four: No Dark Ages In Europe, the years AD 600 to 900 were a return to normalcy. The population crash wasn't all bad: life expectancy even increased. The preceding centuries of slow decline reveal the main weakness of imperial government. With nothing to replace it, society collapsed into small, warring groups. Eventually a power balance emerged, based on feudalism and endless wars. What if it had been slightly more stable, allowing civilized outposts and trading networks to form? This almost happened in Scandinavia and Ireland. To succeed, they would have needed to generate a constant surplus bigger than the subsequent baby explosion could consume. That would have required several Big Ideas: perhaps a better way to fish the North Sea, an improved plow, firearms, military organization - and the knowledge to form and expand stable groups. At several points in history, a well organized nation state could have taken over the world, forming a loose empire of many cultures under one army. Alexander the Great and the Mongol hordes came closest. Swedish could have become the de facto world language.
Universe five: No USA What if the North American colonies had never revolted, because they needed British aid against a European or native American threat? In that case, Canada would today extend most of the way down the East Coast. The southern colonies would have seceded when Britain outlawed slavery. There would also be several Spanish and French speaking countries in North America. War would have been inevitable. If the US had never become a superpower, Latin America and Europe would have vied for the role. A Latin American Union with many states would have been more militaristic, focused on external threats. The various Iberian empires were based on exploitation, with few rights for the peasants, and fewer chances for advancement. A European superpower would be unstable, relying on intrigue and shifting alliances to survive and expand. It would encourage surrounding regions to form affiliated unions, occasionally using devastating force to eliminate a rival before it became too powerful. There would have been many small world wars, with various powers uniting against serious threats like Russia.
Universe six: No World War Two Europe could easily have avoided World war Two, if World War One had been fought to its logical conclusion, with the defeat and occupation of Germany. In that case, Germany could have become an economic powerhouse thirty years ahead of schedule. The other European powers would have tried to compete by exploiting their colonies, probably hastening their independence. A European Community and defense alliance would have kept the peace, maybe even forming a single superstate based on the Swiss model, with regional autonomy, and many checks and balances. War with the Soviet Union would probably have been delayed until after the invention of nuclear weapons. Without its eastern European empire, the USSR would have been smaller and even more paranoid. America would have tried to stay neutral in the subsequent cold war. For a while, Japan could have expanded its East Asian empire with impunity. Eventually, war with the US, Russia, and various European colonial powers would have been likely. A less weakened Europe might have tried to 'civilize' Asia on its own terms, breaking up China and India.
Universe seven: The Axis win World War Two Germany and Japan easily could have won the Second World War. All sides came close to using poison gas, nerve gas, and bio-weapons, but the technology wasn't quite ready. The Nazis were ahead of everyone else, and by 1945 owned the necessary missile delivery systems. The unrestricted use of Sarin or anthrax could have halted most fighting in months, leaving an unstable stalemate. Eventually, the USSR would have collapsed, with Stalin probably executed. Germany would have established a string of puppet regimes throughout Europe, and exploited what remained of the Ukraine, and the toxic wastelands formerly known as Britain. Secure in their high-cost victory, they could have given in to their dark natures, and become even more ruthless, with ever more intrusive surveillance and torture methods. Soon, resistance would have become inconceivable. Most of Europe would have been Germanized within a few generations. Japan would have needed outside help to stop a US invasion. In this universe, Germany could have ended up fighting the Vietnam War. The nuclear stalemate would have lasted until today. Occasionally the Nazis might have made limited concessions to prevent a global suicide war. Surrounded by implacable enemies, the US might have succumbed to fascism itself. Step by step, the world would turn into a totalitarian machine, designed to create a society of 'superior' beings. All state subjects would be regulated around the clock, enslaved by mood-altering drugs, assigned marriage partners as a reward for labor, and forced to carry out mysterious long-range plans. Eventually, it might evolve into a vast overmind controlling its subjects' thoughts. Instead of rediscovering the rules of morality, it will have rewritten them completely.
Universe eight: Communism wins What if communism had been slightly less brutal? Sometimes history can
start over from scratch. In 1945 that seemed like a good idea. Most countries, including the US, voluntarily implemented some socialist policies. If the USSR had been too weakened to invade China, the latter might have formed a socialist coalition government by 1950, assuming Mao and Chiang Kai-shek had been slightly better matched and less poopy. Maybe the country needed to hit rock bottom first, with an even greater death toll, before any change was possible. It would have taken generations to reverse the legacy of centuries of slow violence and stagnation. Today, China could have seemed almost free, with large corporations, independent consumer groups, and unions, something it may not achieve in our timeline for decades. There's still a chance these things will never happen. Meanwhile, the government would have owned every factory and all the land. With long traditions of central control, all of Asia could have easily turned communist. Russia has always been a collective society. It could have built up its industrial capacity with much less violence, and nationalized 90% of all farms while still allowing some incentives. Without the Marshall Plan, Europe could only have rebuilt itself through heavy borrowing and taxes. The various national governments would have ended up owning everything. Countries would be run like immense corporations. Every citizen would be a limited shareholder, voting for whatever benefited their region the most. To prevent gridlock, they would have given up more and more control. Central Planning would have become more powerful than whatever figurehead parliament was allowed to remain in office. The Third World has never been stable enough to maintain free markets. Every family and tribe has to look out for itself. Newly formed central governments could have guaranteed stable prices and made some basic investments. Economies of scale could have delivered education and simple infrastructure. They could also have prevented local kleptocrats from enriching themselves, keeping everyone at the same low level, and making almost everyone happier. The ultimate result would have been a poorer, but more 'civilized' planet. It would also have been more fragmented, with many artificial barriers and competing types of command economy. After half a century, communism would have served its purpose, and more advanced free markets could take over. That would have been the time of greatest danger.
Universe nine: World War Three Humanity almost tried to commit suicide during the Cold War. The annual risk to every human alive during that period was at least comparable to smoking. Humanity's Final War (for at least a century) could have started as a third-world coup or an unprovoked attack against a minor ally, and quickly escalated from there. The initial death toll of a full US/USSR strategic exchange would have been less than a billion, with most of the planet relatively untouched at first. The skies would have darkened noticeably for months, followed by several unusually cold years. Agriculture would have become 95% less efficient as distribution networks collapsed. The first year would have seen vast refugee camps in rural areas, with mass euthanasia and suicide of starving survivors. Fallout cancers and epidemics would have added another billion deaths, and economic disruptions and population movements would have killed the final billion, for a combined 60% human mortality rate. The end result would have been a grim new world order, in which all nations would be subordinate to the UN. Civilization would not have returned to pre-war levels until 2100.
Universe ten: A world state It would have been inevitable - if, by some miracle, there had been no world war in the twentieth century. A new idea can change everything; fortunately most ideas aren't new. In this case, the grand vision would have been nothing less than a united planet. After decades of rising boredom, the rich countries would have unleashed their potential, creating a global network of superhighways, new cities, and desert factories. The first worldwide TV networks would have started in the 1960's. The Unification Plan would allow local autonomy, imposing a global tax of no more than 10%. Poor areas would benefit under this arrangement, without having to give up their traditional cultures. Ultimately, the goal would have been nothing less than a single world society, different from anything that came before, with a planetary language.
Universe eleven: Hippie paradise In the 1960's, a profound culture shift affected about 1% of mankind. What if this group had been larger, but less self-centered? It could have started as a new religion, quickly splintering after a rapid rise, its main ideas absorbed by competing groups. It would also have required an aborted world war, a great depression, or some other catastrophe. Today, the western world might have been littered with tens of thousands of communes and micro-nations, from highly liberal to totalitarian. Villages would be run like countries, with their own bizarre belief systems and traditions. Communities would try to grow their own food, hold annual festivals, and specialize in various trades. Without competition from the West, the Third World would have reverted to its traditional ways, at least at first. The world economy would have shrunk precipitously, a declining birth rate causing a greening planet. There would be fewer taboos, and people would act more impulsively. The goal would be maximum personal and spiritual development, in as many ways as possible. There might be millions of religions and cults, with conflicting morals and commandments. Those who couldn't handle the freedom because of their temperament or personality would be encouraged to pursue pleasure for its own sake, perhaps in the form of drugs or death tournaments. A hidden consensus would prevent any group from gaining too much power. It would take a lot of effort, but such a world might finally stabilize itself, and endure longer than all of human history.
Universe twelve: The Soul Decoded The world we live in is an aberration. The ancient Greeks took the first steps on a long path that was extended by Thomas Aquinas, Newton, and Francis Bacon. No one realized the significance at the time. What if science had decided to develop the humanities instead of technology? If we actually understood our minds, we might know what really matters. There would be less technology, but our quality of life could be incomparably higher. It might be a near Utopia, with every moment as meaningful as possible. Education could be vastly easier, so workers would be more productive while working fewer hours. In this version of heaven on Earth, money and most forms of wealth would be unnecessary. There would be few outward signs of success. People might live exceedingly modest lives, in vast dormitories or underground. Food might be a gray paste, and fashion non-existent. Like Zen monks, everyone would focus on higher matters. After developing a workable science of philosophy, humanity might learn there are things even more meaningful than pleasure. Perhaps the human mind is just an illusion, a lot of competing alarm signals. The ultimate goal would be to create an ideal mind. Humans would function as cells of a larger soul. Eventually, the cells would be replaced by machines.
VR Sex February 26th, 2008
Virtual Reality is about the right to have certain experiences. Many individuals would like to be alone in a bedroom with a famous movie star or other celebrity, something they could never get permission for in their lifetimes. VR will correct the world's extremely unfair distribution of opportunities. Among other things, it could compensate for Earth's man-surplus (there are twice as many men who can become fathers than women who can become mothers). By now it's probably too late to avoid the upcoming tensions in India and China.
The road to VR sex will be as challenging as the Cold War, and comparable in scope to AI. All it takes is a lot numbers rapidly placed in the right order. A one dimensional string of DNA is sufficient to program a human being. VR will turn two dimensional images and cross-sections into flexible 4D objects. The type of body someone would like to have sex with can be represented as an incredibly complicated polygon with many layers: an image map, a color map, a pressure map, a temperature map.
The simplest VR system is one point manipulation, like poking an object with a stick. The 2D-version is like groping something through a sheet. User movements can be guided by wearable springs and hinges. A 2.5 dimensional 'carpet' interface could be made of intersecting wires that constantly recalculate their shapes. The carpet's apparent texture can be altered with small electrical charges at every point, which also control its rigidity. Objects could be recreated by telescoping stacks of belt-like ribbons of adjustable length and shape, over a chaotic framework of folding pins.
Early VR software won't be fully interactive, but more like a 3D movie with many viewpoints. The simplest version is entirely visual; high resolution images overriding the other senses. Someone could experience rolling over a beach without moving a muscle. Instead of a detailed, instantly reactive system, it will rely on proprietary illusions developed by different companies. Imagination will have to fill in many gaps. Users won't notice the slight delay after a while, but may feel slightly disabled. They'll be wearing flexible plastic overalls, but the system will digitally remove them.
Instead of the full-motion gyroscope frames and pressure/feedback bodysuits seen in the Stephen King movie 'Lawnmower Man' (we could all be wearing one right now, and not even know it), a simplified system may be preferred, the way phones don't have video screens. Too much reality can be bad. It may be a type of hammock, simulating acceleration by tilting the user. Pressure and weight are synthesized by an external framework. Physical sensations could be less intense, but still feel authentic, the way a television screen is thousands of times dimmer than natural sunlight. Users may barely move their arms while handling close-up objects, but could operate a small treadmill while walking or running.
More sophisticated VR will require a complicated, mass-produced interface that would cost billions to manufacture today. When not in use, the equipment will fold away in a closet or under the bed. By then it will be easy to generate highly accurate, digital realities, down to the smallest detail. The problem will be translating all that data into a physical force field surrounding the user. It will have many intensities, from passive pressure to reactive feedback. Like motion capture software, the system will convert the user into a digital stick figure, moving along invisible rails. Most of the feedback force will be applied efficiently at the joints, and at the hands and feet. It would be like being wrapped in foam: thousands of tentacles seamlessly confine the wearer in seconds. Simulated skin pressure could be provided by millions of tiny inflatable bladders, heaters, and low voltage currents, embedded in dynamic fabric. Other systems may submerge users in buoyancy tanks, hang them from cables, use rubber needle beds, suspension webs, levitation magnets, or have them move about within environment bubbles. In a few steps the ceiling becomes the wall becomes the floor; plus the rough outline of whatever object the user may encounter. Weighing less than five ounces, the 'groin attachment' will be the easiest component to develop.
Step by step, humans will merge with their technology. Mind-altering drugs could ease the process. Electrodes may stimulate various muscles to contract them, or make them feel as if they're moving. Software will map the user's body and nervous system. After a decade or two, true brain/machine interfaces will be invented.
Why hasn't cybersex been discussed more? The core problem might be 'ownership desire', how to simulate an evolving 'relationship' complete with anticipation and attainment. Eventually, it will become a profitable content industry, with thousands of standard and custom scripts. The human birth rate may decline in response. What will be the favorite VR fantasy? There are many obvious fitness cues (waist to hip ratio, color gradients, facial features), but also hidden or inherent fitness signals that exist only in the observer's imagination. Many men would like to date a cool hot babe like Lara Croft. Future celebrities may earn fortunes by allowing themselves to be scanned at high resolution. In essence they would be paid to hold still for a few minutes. Even so, there may be a shortage of willing candidates.
Instead of replacing sexual partners, VR could make existing ones appear more symmetrical and less blemished. Digitally simplifying people could make them more attractive. Many online relationship 'partners' will never meet in real life, but exist only as virtual personas.
resistance? there IS no resistance. January 29th, 2008
As of today, the world is officially 99.99999998% conformist. Even The / A Daily Show is as much a part of the establishment as Fox News, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Jon Stewart embodies the art of seamlessly fitting in. You can make jokes to defuse the tension, but only to make differences seem absurd, which they are.
our pretend democracy January 17th, 2008
As I know from personal experience, the entrenched political monopoly here in the USA uses blatant tricks and technicalities to keep qualified candidates off the ballots. They must think they're protecting democracy by eliminating all those pesky candidates. Of course, in other countries things are much worse. I would accept all candidates for public office, even if their names are spelled wrong, the ink is the wrong color, or a photocopy was sent in instead of the original form. Keep their applications on file as public records, and give the public one month to challenge their validity.
a provincial planet December 24th, 2007
The earth's current population is much too small for everyone to be able to join their ideal community. Only around fifteen zeroes would things get interesting.
(no subject) December 12th, 2007
I realize now the world is fundamentally poopy, an all-encompassing web of self-sustaining deceptions. It makes things a lot easier in a way. Unfortunately, a specific type of stupidity has established itself within humanity, along with the ability to brilliantly compensate for arbitrary impositions. This also keeps the population at a high level, maintains most dictators in office, and allows working groups to sustain themselves. This insight does not give anyone the justification to act poopy themself. If you know from personal experience how bad it is, it would be the height of hypocrisy to make things worse. The situation won't change anytime soon, but we still have to live here. The problem is to stay the heck out of the way. - Things that need to be allowed to happen, against almost inconceivable opposition: -Cheaper healthcare. Could healthcare be made so cheap, people wouldn't need to buy insurance? -Low-cost housing. Mass-production and simplified design, soundproof walls, active noise cancellation and white noise generators, reduced bureaucracy, free real estate markets. -More personal, and fewer familial or tribal rights and obligations. -Better security. -Birth control. -The end of intellectual property. -Online education. -Miniaturization: smaller and cheaper roads, cars, homes. -Decentralized manufacturing. -The ability to create one's own environment, starting with a small plot of land, and adding living space when possible. Since most of the world is still trapped in poverty, the process would extend to the surrounding neighborhood and region.
Black hole gravitation paradox December 11th, 2007
Depending on the equations, when a black hole gets over fifty billion lightyears wide, the energy of the infalling radiation may be enough to cause it to expand at the speed of light. It will then absorb everything else in its path, unless the universe expands even faster.
Business as usual December 2nd, 2007
The Chicago Sun-Times tells the story of Erasmo Palacios, who saw a woman waving her arms. Thinking she was in distress, he approached her in his car, at which point the woman leaned in to the passenger side where Rocio was sitting and asked Erasmo if he wanted sex. Then Chicago police swarmed the family car, hauling Erasmo Palacios out in handcuffs. The police report charged Palacios with soliciting sex from the undercover officer, while his wife sat in the passenger seat, and his daughter was nearby. The city seized the family's car under laws allowing the forfeiture of automobiles used in the solicitation of prostitutes. The city won't return the car until the Palacios pay $4,700 in towing and storage fees. http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Chicago-Man-Sues-after-Prostitution-Arrest/1$37624
Why Microsoft is poopy: November 26th, 2007
Because it randomly destroys data for no reason. That's not incompetence, it's poopyness. You can burn files onto your CD, they're actually there, but they won't show up when you insert the CD in another computer. Bill Gates has randomly decided, through whatever poopy thought mechanisms that percolate through his brain, to effectively destroy your files!
Heading for a world state? November 9th, 2007
The next US president will need to be a visionary. Humanity can only survive if each country gives up some degree of international sovereignty, while increasing its freedom at home. Instead, we'll probably get the same old carp in Iraq. The most important questions are never asked. If the US occupying authorities had an actual goal instead of a mission, they would ask what it would take to achieve a minimum degree of normalcy, instead of waiting for it to evolve by itself. Maybe we need a new type of career: a "visualizer". There are very many boring jobs in the world, requiring immense attention to detail, but the big picture is usually ignored. At the moment, almost no one tries to understand individuals or groups of different cultures from a neutral, outside viewpoint. If they did, they might see opportunities for trade or persuasion. In practice capitalism barely works for most of the world, else the planet wouldn't be mired in poverty. The US is a special case. It would take a ruthlessly objective, external viewpoint, and a willingness to consider any conclusion, to discover a possible path to change. This hasn't started yet, for the same reason no one tried to imagine the earth from space before the 1950's.
Evil Companies: Part 4 ~ Iomega is as bad as Clinton October 10th, 2007
Of all the poopyness in the world . . . Rarely have I had the displeasure of doing business with such a company as Iomega. While I have ample experience with overrated companies, they're among the worst. If you want your data destroyed with the efficiency of a black hole, buy an Iomega product! Literally none of the products I have bought from Iomega have worked. Not the Zip drives, not the CD burners. Their drives are famous for breaking down, and Iomega hasn't kept up with industry reliability standards for at least ten years, falling behind by many measures. They don't even have the courtesy to provide an error message, but there's plenty of bloatware to keep you bogged down. Any effort to get answers leads to the most despicable maze of useless 'help' pages in the history of the galaxy. Not because they can't answer: they WON'T. It wouldn't look good. Why aren't these bastardos bankrupt yet? The same reason dictators stay in power for so long. They focus on maintaining themselves, not their customers. Some companies simply shouldn't exist. They're elaborate hoaxes to get money. poopyness is real. Its name is Iomega.
controversial belief nr. 547668 September 30th, 2007
Impregnators shouldn't be forced to pay child support, but only be required to pay for an abortion. The result would be more birth control and/or a lot less sex! There's no chance this would happen, of course: it would require something unthinkably extraordinary: responsible behavior. People would be required to think before they act. Needless to say, the government has no trouble imposing the most onerous requirements in all other fields of life. While normally perfectly cooperative and obedient, in certain situations people are apparently at the mercy of blind instinct. Then afterwards they're supposed to pretend as if they acted of their own free will all along.
Guest Column by SteinGold (07/07 \ somewhat censored) August 9th, 2007
THE THREE STEPS TO FREEDOM this article is inspired by, and contains material from, my message boards originally published in my regularly scheduled weekly newsletter
Welcome to reality. It's somewhat worse than you think. Sometimes, you won't be able to think. Even pessimists don't realize how thoroughly they've been screwed. In fact, it would be infinitely better if the world didn't exist - but it's too late for that now . . .
Humanity's immense accumulation of wealth is more than neutralized by a long list of tortures, great and small. The list is being updated faster than I can write it. There are the self-sustaining parasites: bureaucracies, monopolies, cartels, fees, regulations, exclusion zones, land use restrictions, power networks, economic frictions and fictions. Millions of actions are designed to be more stressful than necessary. Large portions of the population are enslaved in thousands of ways. People must do extremely unpleasant things to make money. Information has not really become more accessible. Getting educated takes longer than ever, while software is exploding with artificial barriers (see: my Microsoft articles). Expensive programs are made harder to use, making it harder to switch. The biggest insanities, like the religious contradictions, complexity for its own sake, the unwillingness to look for novel solutions (see: US foreign policy), are not discussed at all. The most powerful and potentially useful ideas, like evolution, can't be taught in schools.
Of course, the world isn't meant to be pleasant. It took incredible effort just to reach the level of total crap. Pain-based ecosystems tend to create unstable groups that try to dominate each other - the principle of expected suffering. The world's most repressive countries are self-managing disasters. We can watch them unfold in real time - or could, if we were interested. Some people don't feel certain types of pain or fear, which helps them to get ahead. The system requires constant coercion to function, a background of dread. Pain is a necessary component of fear (not agony, since that would trigger evasive action). Needless to say, for those in charge, things are somewhat different.
The world doesn't make sense, but then again, neither does an ant colony. It just is. It doesn't have to be this way, but the decision has been made, by near-universal, unspoken assent, by victim and exploiter alike. In a sense, every country is a democracy, even North Korea. It may be a genetic thing.
Society is a big fat hoax. Phony, fake, and more often than we dare think, poopy. Like cancer, this is precisely what makes it function.
History records many facts, but it ignores the main rules. Everyone already 'knows' which people have to cover themselves, obeisance, the various work ethics, voice tone levels, conjugations, toilet habits. The hidden elements of decisions. People won't talk about the 'big picture', but they function uncannily well within it, by recognizing and copying coded behavior, a form of collective intelligence. Colliding particles, expected to follow unstated norms. No one is really supposed to know what's going on, since there is no objective purpose. At the same time, a powerful force prevents up from completing certain insights, from thinking one step further. If this force didn't exist, people would change all the time.
The crucial insight is as simple as flipping a switch: THE PAST SUCKS. We need change for its own sake. This time Jack wanted some constructive suggestions, instead of the usual rant. What are the simplest possible solutions - if any? There seem to be only three.
Step one: birth control Encouraging people to get sterilized is probably the easiest universal solution. For some problems, the answer is to do nothing. When nothing else works, embrace the failure. Get off the treadmill. Wipe it out at the source. Nip it in the bud. The most important right is the right to be left alone, but it has always been a rare exception. That should change. Encouraged birth control may be controversial, but it would avoid endless chaos down the road. Mass poverty means a dysfunctional society. In theory there are other ways, but for some reason, helpful advice, direct aid, or constructive criticism just don't work. Why do poor people have (m)any children? I don't, and I'm happy about it. Like all evolutionary outcomes, it's a side effect. Their lives are too stressful to look ahead, and they are discouraged and prevented from using condoms, and hormone pills are only available by prescription. If people could consciously control their wombs or sperm, the birth rate would plummet. It would make economic sense to pay people to not reproduce, but groups that require a steady influx of new members would oppose the measure.
Aid agencies have more options. They could reward people who don't perpetuate the problem, by requiring recipients to get sterilized first. It wouldn't be that expensive. Suffering people would accept the deal without a second thought. While the aid itself would be expensive, it wouldn't continue indefinitely. The plan would work even if the aid was only available to women. One man could impregnate all women, but one women can't bear the children of every man. It may seem drastic, but who knows what horrors it would avoid?
Other aid preconditions could include psychotropic drugs, making dangerous people less violent. Passive behavior should be encouraged: paying people not to set up roadblocks, or not to interfere with farming, and establishing local officials to formalize the deal. Many homeless individuals would need extremely potent drugs to quiet their inner demons. The drugs may kill them sooner, but their lives would be less agonizing.
The best solutions are the simplest. Everyone on earth should be able to instantly get a tiny apartment. A plastic living box with a water ration, and probably high-carb food. We have the technology. In order to pay for this assistance, and prevent evolution from rapidly filling up this new ecosystem, the recipient would have to give up their genetic future.
The same principle also applies to voluntary euthanasia. Many people would be better off dead. Some of them are even in good physical health.
Step two: maximum simplicity and miniaturization Why are there no Arab or African airplanes? When the competition has a ten-decade lead, a strange depression can set in. The path ahead has been picked clean. There's no reason to develop airships, biplanes, rotary engines. Other people have already shaped the world. They are perfectly adapted to it. The West would rather pay them to stay out of the way, or to become low-cost subcontractors. It takes decades to build a world-class industry from scratch - beyond the horizon for most countries that don't allow long-term investment. Capitalism is bad at finding shortcuts. That's why there are no unsolicited job offers in the mail, except work-at-home schemes and other scams. The problem may require powerful, mind-altering drugs, or as yet unimagined reforms.
In 'western civilization', people have learned to gain pleasure from preventing pain. The feeling is common enough, a necessary part of most dangerous activities, including hunting and woodworking, but in the West we've managed to remove the aspect of physical danger. Delayed gratification for its own sake is the key to our 'success'. The most insane example is probably long-term care insurance (the price of ten lifetimes paid in advance to be kept alive as an incontinent zombie), followed by our tortuous tax laws and civil lawsuits.
Like technology, society's rules have become too complicated - towering edifices as stable as solar prominences. Most people mindlessly accept the money maze, the healthcare matrix, the tax vortex. They tolerate immense restrictions, because everyone else acts as if it's normal. A tiny handful wants a simpler existence, to figure things out for themselves (that's also why prequels are popular). I could live in a much smaller apartment. Start with an undeveloped plot of land, and fill it with modular construction. Only use systems that don't require paid help to install or fix them. I've experienced too many car repair scams. Why don't we all drive small cars? Society is the outcome, not a choice. In a state of nature, what ultimately matters is the absence of violence, whether carried out by the police or other criminals. For this, we need personal independence.
Others say it would make more sense to increase 'trust' and 'accountability', to allow more cooperation. Billions of loans have already allowed vast economic expansion, but deception and exploitation always creep back in. It's inevitable.
A simpler lifestyle may be less stressful, but life should also be an adventure. That means the chance to make informed mistakes, alternative (and substandard) housing and food, mind altering and recreational drugs, and other medical experiments. The revolution has not yet been imagined.
Step three: the VR solution Reality sucks? Start a new one from scratch. Virtual Reality could solve all our current problems, except mental decline and death. Everyone could have the experience of wealth, without the environmental impact. As control functions are decentralized, people will travel less. A simulation-based lifestyle will be much cheaper in the long run, allowing a larger human population. It might be better to live in an infinite society, or at least one with trillions of citizens, in which all groups can express themselves. A million TV networks are better than five.
The trick is to learn to live inside a box. We're still waiting for the breakthrough concept. It would be a new state of mind, something the user must want to learn, involving a lot of effort.
According to my sources, it will require: First of all, a vast library of clips, pictures, and digital 'objects', to reduce processor load. Infinite zoomability, recurring patterns and rules at all levels. Self-contained simulation elements will emerge from maximally compressed source programs. They can be elaborated and combined. Reality orientation; complete transparency of all simulation levels. Wall-sized interactive displays. Peripheral light intensity regulates attention and relaxation. Addictive games will draw people into the simulation matrix, including contests and gambling. Eye-tracking screens with adaptive resolution which decide which part of the simulated image is updated next. A suspension hammock allowing a full range of motion, including the ability to walk, run, fly, containing a full-motion body harness with neck restraints that looks like a chair, and force feedback clothes with embedded memory-metal mesh. Physical exertion to move through the simulations, like a treadmill, with regular integrated exercise activities. Personal operating systems will anticipate data demands. Each user will evolve their own custom software, and keep detailed logs of simulated activities. Wireless packet relay networks to provide decentralized bandwidth. Each user will explore reality from simulated core zones: virtual offices, palaces, forest clearings, tropical islands. 'Data continents' and 'archipelagos' recreate and store a user's memories in virtual space. Virtual neighborhoods, parties, and other gatherings. Groups formed from like-minded individuals, with initiation and membership rules. VR news stories about status and resources will seem as momentous as any historical event. It will be necessary to test many virtual societies, avoiding mind traps and other dead-ends.
Step four: assorted other ideas Automation. Low cost mass production. Encourage local specialization, within a world free trade zone. The Parity Principle: where possible, encourage equal or balanced migration between regions. Understanding the mind will have an impact as great as changing the laws of physics. Find ways to use marginally useful people, allowing them to perform tasks with low economic value, while slowly increasing their value.
The two types of atheist August 2nd, 2007
God is more likely to exist than Santa Claus God is less likely to exist than Santa Claus
Disambiguation notice July 31st, 2007
Like many of Hollywood's finer stars, I'll have to change my name soon, or at least the way it appears on the novel, since the current one has apparently already been taken. Look for the change to take effect soon.
Guest column: concepts from the evolving novel Infinite Thunder July 25th, 2007
Concepts from the novel 'Infinite Thunder' (2007) http://www.lulu.com/content/429825
Anyone who hopes that science will provide a final 'theory of everything' is likely to be disappointed. It's probably never going to happen. Perhaps it can't happen. Reality is infinitely complex. The more we learn, the less we'll know. We can only understand a negligible portion, but may be able to rule out many speculations. The closest approximation to the ultimate truth would be the most alien thought we can have. Good or bad, it may seem fundamentally random. Alternatively, all the unknowns might balance out: existence could turn out to be meaningless.
Some of the most important questions are never asked, perhaps because they're too disturbing. For instance, is humanity a representative sample of intelligence, or are we vastly different from other minds? The answer may surprise us. We're undeniably special: of all possible intelligent minds, we are just about the smallest.
Information theory: "It From Bit" Ideally, a 'universal theory' should be as simple as possible, with the absolute minimum number of elements. Using mathematics, it's easy to create complicated structures from simple rules. All we need are one and zero, combined in every possible way to create the natural numbers. In a sense they're already 'out there' (although they do have to be defined). Larger numbers have enough internal complexity to be interpreted as logical statements. Perhaps this method can't create all possible entities (no transfinite numbers), but they can create higher logical systems that might do the job.
Reality is math. Existence is equivalent to the set of all numbers. Ultimately, nothing exists, except the logical rules that created the numbers and the patterns they form, which of course include the rules themselves.
Numbers barely exist. If we're merely the outcome of an imaginary equation, why do we feel real? It's an illusion, the only thing that can exist.
Creation Equations Some huge numbers describe the entire content and evolution of a universe. Others could be read as open-ended equations, capable of generating new numbers that could be interpreted as universes. With enough patience, consistently applied rules can generate all of space and time. The laws of physics are a computer program. None of the objects and forces we see around us are fundamentally real. They're large numbers, interpreted as data objects.
After a few levels, the logic transcends all human understanding. It can only be approximated with numerical simulations. Related universe equations may have some solutions in common. Those with the most in common (not necessarily the simplest ones) may generate the most universes.
Parallel universes Our universe is not representative. Average may not exist. There are an unlimited number of universe solutions different from ours. The most common, easily created universes are smaller and simpler, but they contain far fewer observers. At our level, there are many consistent arrangements of physical laws. Only one subset is true for us.
Repeated endlessly throughout reality, there exist unlimited copies of everyone who ever lived, in all imaginable and implausible circumstances. Near-copies of everyone alive have already made every mistake. They're vastly outnumbered by other beings we could partially understand, but never imagine. The differences increase in all possible ways, until nothing recognizable remains.
Unity Speculation With his Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, Everett popularized a strange notion: minds can be in many places at once. Consciousness can be shared by different brains in different locations - provided they're similar enough. Spanning time and space, our awareness is the sum of all our mind-copies in all realities, merged into one single perception. Since each human mind is part of many random patterns (including almost all Real numbers), endlessly repeated, each mind can be regarded as a finite fraction of all reality. Traveling randomly through chaos, we could expect to find many patterns representing our minds, in part or in full. (Their percentage, roughly speaking: one divided by x, where x = two raised to the mind size in bits (about equal to the number of possible brain states), or: 1 / 2^10^18, or less). Since there are trillions of mental states in each lifetime, and some simple thoughts require far fewer bits, the actual percentage may be even higher.
Each of us is very important, or at least highly relevant in the grand scheme of things - but only because we are so simple. Compared to any random number, which is likely to be infinite, our minds form a VERY large fraction of reality (though still a vastly smaller one than humans can imagine). How many ways could a lump of matter with the mass of the human brain be arranged? Imagine a checkerboard with only four fields, which can be black or white. There are 16 possible board arrangements (two to the fourth power). An arrangement of all possible checkerboards with ten fields to a side would already cover the Solar System several times over! And the number of possible states increases rapidly. As internally organized natural numbers, our minds are likely to appear often in the calculations used by higher minds. For most calculations, we're probably too simple.
If we are a common but biased sample of reality, something has 'selected' us from all that exists. It can't be a finite statistical process. Simply by existing, we can know something about the ultimate level of reality, the sum of all truths, including facts that can never be proven by finite math or logic. The great philosopher Alan Turing called this Oracle knowledge. Based on our own existence, we already 'know' there are infinitely more smaller, simpler minds than large ones. Most minds also live in rational universes. New laws of statistics could be extrapolated to encompass all reality. This may be the closest thing to magic. In fact, it's bigger than that.
The Four Paradoxes: Why are we here?
Paradox 1) Why does the world appear consistent, when there are many more ways it could appear completely random?
There are many more 'surreal' perception streams, in which events happen for no reason, than our highly predictable reality. Our perceptions should be like static, perhaps self-organizing into meaningless insights. If anything, there's too much order around us, both in our minds and the universe they perceive. Particles of the same type (and the forces controlling them) are completely identical, down to the tenth decimal place, but do we even need the laws of physics? This tireless consistency does suggest mankind inhabits a fully realized, 'authentic' universe. It may be easier for an equation to create an entire universe than to directly generate one mind, but the former can create many of the latter. Not every mind is necessarily part of a larger or even an infinite system, but most probably are. Since consistent universes are easier to generate from simple mathematical rules, there are more of them.
Paradox 2) Why do we live near the beginning of time, if the future is infinite?
If human descendants are going to survive for another hundred billion years, why are we 'lucky' enough to live this close to the dawn of civilization? An average observer should be the result of eons of history, after mankind has spread through the universe. One response is called 'Doom Soon': we're likely to commit mass suicide in the near future.
Another possibility is that new universes are constantly being generated from existing ones, in ways we can't begin to count, both physical and philosophical. These new universes generate universes of their own, a chain without beginning or end. For each universe that has attained a certain age, there will be many younger ones. Most observers are likely to exist near the start of their universe.
Paradox 3) Why are human minds so small, when a randomly selected memory-size should be infinite?
Some numbers also describe minds. Each mind is equivalent to many numbers. Any randomly selected mind has a corresponding random number, which statistically should be infinite. Human minds, however, are very limited. Even a 50% reduction would collapse civilization as we know it. We're just barely intelligent enough to realize this fact. The fact that (apparently) we are NOT infinite, again suggests that smaller minds are copied endlessly throughout reality, greatly outnumbering all larger ones.
Alternatively, maybe reality itself is limited, and there actually is a 'highest' number, beyond which nothing exists. The universe could be an inexplicable exception in a boundless void.
Most infinite minds, if they exist, would be poorly organized, perhaps not unified in any meaningful way. Nonetheless, portions of these minds would be mathematically perfect. Omniscient but not omnipotent, they would understand all finite systems perfectly, and know us as well as any finite number. Each of us has a 'virtual fan club' that we can't begin to imagine or interact with.
Paradox 4) The Greatest Mystery
Some things may be too obvious to notice. Why is our predictable, understandable universe vastly more complicated than necessary to generate human minds? Einstein said the strangest thing about the universe is that we can understand it at all. The laws of physics are indeed comprehensible, but the universe they create seems needlessly elaborate. It would be an understatement to say the details of physical systems are insanely complex. An incredible number of unnecessary interactions happen while no one is watching. Minutely detailed superstrings and virtual particles fill the cores of stars and empty space. From a string's perspective, a human and a galaxy are about the same size. There's 'wasted space' between galaxies and inside ordinary protons: Moving randomly at close to the speed of light, it would take a centillion centillion years for the quarks inside a proton to approach each other closely enough to form a small black hole, but virtual particles can instantly find each other by taking all possible paths. That's also how a photon can maintain a perfectly straight path for any distance. The information content of all human minds fades into insignificance compared to non-living matter. Neutrons are vastly smaller than neurons, but numerically more complex. Unlike the latter, they can't be accurately simulated by any supercomputer. At the atomic scale, it would be harder to precisely describe a speck of dust than the thoughts of all the humans who ever lived. Electrons orbit a nucleus more times per second than the age of the universe in seconds, buffeted by a storm of virtual and real interactions. Constant molecular action is required to hold all objects together. We can't see them, but these interactions are as real as our own thoughts - more so in fact. The complexities are further multiplied by quantum mechanics. No one can calculate the virtual gravitons surrounding a single photon for even a nanosecond. Particles exist in many simultaneous states. In quantum computing, the superimposed states of a single superstring could be more complex than the entire observable universe. Our universe could be much simpler, while still allowing our type of intelligent life. Shouldn't simple universes, barely complex enough to generate human minds, be in the majority, since they are computationally easier to generate? Not necessarily.
The Greatest Mystery: theory one The apparent complexity may be an illusion caused by our flawed understanding. Sciences like fluid dynamics, chaos theory, and statistical equations describing entire stars could make the intricacies vanish. The overabundant interactions may simplify when no one is looking, like in a videogame. In that case, the interior of the sun and the earth should have a simplified quantum state. The atoms aren't really separate, but are represented as a group. Crystals brought up from the earth's mantle should be more regular than expected. Our weather could turn out to be unexpectedly predictable, with hidden regularities. Old photos may reveal identical clouds. This solution seems less likely the more we learn about nature.
The Greatest Mystery: theory two Perhaps our complexity is shared with other universes. According to a popular quantum interpretation, our universe is constantly splitting into slightly different versions of itself, the changes spreading from each subatomic interaction. As random information is created in each new universe, its past is steadily 'destroyed'. Unlike the purely philosophical new universes described above, there is some indirect evidence for this theory, but it's very controversial. It may never be proven. Most diverging time/space streams never intersect again, but those regions that remain identical, or become identical (again), could be shared by many universes. In that case the complexity isn't wasted, but maximally compressed. It only needs to be generated once, and can be reused as needed. Each electron (and every other elementary particle) is merely a 'link' to the first (and only) electron created in the Big Bang.
The Greatest Mystery: theory three If all else fails, the 'wasted' detail inside reality could at least multiply our mind patterns. A coarse grid (brain cells) made of many fine grids (atoms), the constantly changing structures of our brains affect the configurations of all the particles around them. Our thoughts organize the surrounding chaos, though it isn't apparent. If our awareness can be described as a simple pattern, then chaotically copying that pattern in the collisions and interactions around us will dramatically increase it, and thus the probability of our existence. This may be the only reason we live in a complex quantum universe.
Intelligent post-human minds may choose to embed their favorite mind patterns in ordinary matter to turn them into a larger percentage of reality.
Quantum physics Reality creates uncountable copies of every mind, but quantum universes create many more copies than classical universes. In the latter, the laws of physics may be simpler, but the payoff would be much smaller. A single equation can have many solutions, and create many universes. In quantum universes, many possibilities are realized in parallel, and allowed to interfere.
Quantum physics and evolution. Any number of things can and will go wrong. Eventually, every path will reach a dead end. By creating an inexhaustible supply of new paths, quantum physics always offers the possibility of an escape, however improbable.
For more on this subject, read the best novel ever written: 'Infinite Thunder' (2007) http://www.lulu.com/content/429825
DID YOU KNOW? . . July 11th, 2007
I myself did not: banks can legally steal your money! If you accept a check from a third party, the bank will add the face value to your account, without bothering to verify if the check is valid, or to inform you of this fact. If the check later 'bounces' the bank is free to change its mind and steal the money back, even if you already returned the face value of the check. This is the basis of a popular scam.
Legal liability fun July 1st, 2007
Some day soon, some brilliant lawyer will win a trillion dollar civil judgment from some underfunded emergency room in a rural county. Perhaps an incredibly rich old person will have died because not enough doctors were on staff to handle her complex medical condition. All county residents will be held personally liable for the neglect verdict, although it will obviously take a while to collect the full sum. Their wages will be garnished, and a percentage of their liquid assets seized, following common precedents. Many residents will have to move into more modest accommodations. Declaring personal bankruptcy will not dissolve the debt, though many will try. In some cases, failure to successfully apply for, or keep a suitably paying job will be held as contempt of court. Eventually, the amount of the verdict will probably be reduced by 99%. Senior citizens and those under eighteen at the time of the judgment will be excused from paying.
Warning about Lycos.com: not trustworthy! June 29th, 2007
Do NOT use Lycos.com mail! This service deleted both my mail accounts, business and personal. The only reason I can think of is that I didn't log in for slightly over a week. There was no response to multiple requests to recover my mail. Other services like Google mail have much better reviews anyway. (2023 addition: not anymore!)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the awareness illusion May 31st, 2007
An article about some of the subjects of the novel 'Infinite Thunder' Link: http://www.lulu.com/content/429825
Full disclosure: the following is of course bulldoodoo. While writing the first draft of this article, it was like a big revelation was coming any second now, but I kept editing the text until there was almost nothing left. Thoughts can only be about other thoughts. Thinking about awareness is like trying to see everything at once, by focusing on one thing. The problem with explaining intelligence is that writers try to simplify the truth, when the opposite is necessary. We need more new concepts. For those people who are desperate to understand the mystery of awareness: HELLO! YOU ALREADY DO!! Everyone who understands the problem figures it out to the extent possible, when learning the most important fact: The brain is a machine.
Needless to say, most people don't CARE about this stuff. Those that do have heard it all before. Some things are simply too boring to think about. Complicated words don't explain enough, so we invent more complicated ones that mean even less. It should be against the law to say something is extremely complicated. (Other forbidden sayings are 'I don't agree', and 'sometimes we all feel that way'.) The mind contains its own reality. Nothing we think we know is necessarily true; it's just believable enough to get by. Anyone can understand anything, or at least believe they do.
The mystery of awareness is called the Hard Problem. Many experts think they can solve it. Some claim they knew the answer once, but then forgot. They make it sound too easy. There are too many possible thoughts. For example: This moment is happening now. it is always now, it has always been now in the past. Quick, show the exact arrangement of neurons that created this sensation. No one has a clue what it's made of.
The future science of artificial intelligence will attempt to solve mankind's most intractable problem: laziness. No one likes to work. Working sucks, especially if you're feeling sick. If everything goes according to plan, in the next fifty years there will be smart machines on Earth. Once aliens do the hard work, we can all retire.
The process hasn't begun yet. Various experts have tried to invent simple rules that would automatically generate intelligence. Some examples: - Assign a word to one or several categories, depending on how it modifies other words. - To describe all items: take two items, and select a third one to relate them. - Start with any term and add definitions. - Assume every point in reality is described by tags. - Binary selection: a rough approximation followed by ever finer filters. - Start with the simplest possible grid universe, and add levels of detail. - Describe one item with perfect precision, and you've described them all.
At any moment in time, a mind IS the physical state of its brain: a fantastically complex, constantly updated model of reality. A mind can only access itself, but it 'stores' memories in its environment, by responding to complex triggers. The physical state of the brain could be represented as a seemingly endless chessboard. There's nothing there but moving pieces - but somehow their pattern is fully aware, with feelings, thoughts and emotions. Since our universe is full of patterns, awareness is everywhere, but most of it is random and meaningless. Still, reason tells us there is potentially unlimited awareness in any brick, air, and even empty space, even if we could never detect it.
The 'Mysterians believe in 'qualia'. They think every molecule in the brain contains 'atoms' of awareness, in a way we can't describe or understand. Awareness is as much an aspect of reality as weight or mass or quantity. Since some fundamental constants can't be simplified, why can't awareness be one of them? No matter how well we describe a feeling, we can never understand its true essence.
The Mysterians are at least 90% wrong (they're not entirely without a point). According to widely accepted evolutionary principles, the mind should be as simple as possible; basically, a danger detector. Human awareness seems perfectly transparent, but it's highly biased. The next stage of evolution, if there is one, would involve the loss of obsolete emotions. Post-humans could become like smart ants, with smaller but better organized brains than is currently the case. Perhaps they'll be able to hold images in memory, and 'read' a page minutes after glancing at it.
This brings us to the first important insight: humans are stupid. We're inefficient, ultra slow learners. Machines can perform any logical task better. Just try to remember a list of ten foreign words. To load every Russian word into memory, my obsolete PC only has to make a brief clicking sound. A simple picture is more vivid than the strongest imagination. Just try to draw people from memory. President Reagan looks like a cartoon zombie. Human minds are wide, not deep.
We already have thousands of profound clues about how the brain works. Most of the hard work has been done. We just need to put it together, a vast project to combine all the data. The long-term goal would be to completely describe one human second.
The brain is made of neurons: trillions of cells connected by quadrillions of tiny wires. Each neuron has separate sets of incoming and outgoing wires. Neurons receive many more signals than they send out, biding their time. When they finally 'fire', each pulse goes to many other neurons, some of which may then fire themselves - if they get enough confirming signals from other neurons. Eventually, a pulse will be sent to a muscle. Less than 1% of all neurons receive signals from the senses, but each is no more than five layers removed from the outside. Neurons can also fire at regular intervals when triggered, as 'pacemakers' for various activities. Perhaps all connections represent good or bad associations, like yes or no switches. Neurons can amplify or suppress their input depending on whether more 'good' or 'bad' signals arrive.
-Activation networks: Some neural networks amplify weak signals. Suppression networks: Other networks suppress frequently repeating signals, so the more important ones can get through. Synchronization networks: Different groups of neurons fire at different frequencies. Eventually, one frequency dominates.
A 'white matter' multiplex network may encode signals between different brain regions, with many possible error modes, including Alzheimer's. We have at least three 'brains', stacked on top of each other. Sometimes they can seem like separate persons. Each level stores different memories, and performs different tasks; simple emotions in the brain stem, open logic chains in the cortex. Constant drives like attentiveness, novelty seeking, and stress response combine to form 'stable' personalities. Repeating or notable patterns in the environment cause new neurons to form, which recognize the pattern and try to predict it.
-The brain has many simple mechanisms for: - horizontal scanning - motion tracking - balance - grabbing falling objects - recognizing simple shapes, like diagonal stripes - recognizing repeating shapes - sudden changes in brightness or speed - thousands of common skills like sitting down and turning pages They will all need to be explained separately.
-The extreme complexity explanation of awareness:
Experts suspect the mystery of awareness will be replaced with many smaller ones. Instead of the vague, general theories we have now, the goal will be to fully describe awareness at any instant. Understanding one moment of thought might be equivalent to understanding it all. An exhaustive description of all items in memory would form a complete (if biased) model of reality. Awareness is simply intense concentration. All resources are dedicated to one scene. Fear is the most extreme version, a tense balance trying to amplify any solution.
The mind is an immense production, like a self-rewriting encyclopedia. An incredible number of facts have to compete. It's this immense activity, not some mystical essence of perception, that makes it all 'real'. It will take a vast team to understand a single human thought. There's a century in every second.
Even so, at any instant in time, there is very little awareness. A mind can know only an insignificant fraction of reality. When someone is hard at work, they don't know why they are busy. They would have to stop working to explain their motivations. Full awareness is spread out over many minutes. It takes a lifetime of awareness to get a good grip on reality. Most thoughts are virtual, a shorthand for ambiguous truths. Memory is constantly rewritten. We remember being aware in the past, but the full realization only emerged after the fact. One second ago you were a different person whose essence is already forgotten. A mind can only consider a model of its memories, not the memories themselves, and the thing that's doing the considering is different from the model or the memories. A brain state can only understand other states. Other states are needed to make sense of it.
Like the other senses, awareness conveys pain or pleasure - only it can do so in advance. Awareness is the average of the truth: an index, not a calculation; the result of thought, not the cause. The 'self' is the area of most computation. A universe of facts with associated pleasure/pain values, and a floating center.
-Society of the Mind
At the next level are 'meta-neurons', combining inputs from each other. They only transmit when the single thing they're interested in has happened, but with perfect timing and many possible intensities. The brain is a collection of millions of loosely linked neuron groups, from very simple to so abstract they may not have a purpose yet, but are merely waiting for new patterns to emerge. They don't understand what they're doing. Each group 'knows' only one thing, and has to cooperate with others to function. Some groups sort perceptions into categories (male/female, toxic/edible, beautiful/ugly). Low-level groups start and stop higher groups, from general to specific. Higher decision groups indirectly influence the lower mood, motivation, and alert levels. They activate in a learned sequence, and may have to complete a script once it's started. Groups are always competing in a winner-take-all contest. To create the first AI, many small teams will have to develop each element separately.
At a higher level are various 'personas' (meta-meta-neurons). Each regulates a specific situation, combining data from all lower levels. Not all rational analysis happens in the frontal cortex. Only one can be in control at any time, with several helping out, and many others on standby. They combine to form the mind's top decision maker.
-scripts The brain keeps repeating the same tasks in slightly different situations. There's a specific memory state for each of tens of thousands of actions, a "script", or a template of thoughts, connected in a vast, always changing flowchart.
-the free will illusion People think they have free will while performing common tasks like driving, but they're almost completely immobilized. Only a few actions are allowed within narrow parameters. People wouldn't throw themselves on the ground, unless a new script was unexpectedly activated. No one really controls what they're doing. They're too busy making small decisions to stay on a known path.
-toy universe theory
Minds become aware by constantly running simulations to predict the future, in a virtual or toy universe. New simulations are automatically created by new input, which the mind creates by changing its environment to match existing simulations. Simulated outcomes are compared to reality (the essence of awareness), causing new mental models to emerge and perish. When a thought is completed, a new representation is created, in an unstable chain reaction that requires many levels to sustain itself, soon to be replaced. A difficult concept like relativity becomes a shiny new toy in awareness. Awareness is an uncontrolled, emergent process, the sum of all thoughts, not a standard brain function, but the ultimate side effect. Otherwise, personality could easily be changed. The organism's first goal is survival. Pleasure and pain signals balance out at all cost.
-Self modeling
According to the ever-popular bootstrap principle, awareness is simply a model of models: the representation of other instances of awareness. Maybe it is its own simplified model. Each flash of insight is a combination of earlier insights.
-The narrative explanation
All organisms with a nervous system, from nematode to human, relive the past by 'citing' previously stored thoughts. The perceived differences in this new situation are a foundation of awareness. Humans also create elaborate narratives of earlier awareness. With trillions of events per second, humans can't really remember their past perceptions, only their reactions.
-The data compression explanation
The human brain is a universal data compressor. Two, or many more neurons, will often fire simultaneously when they receive a familiar input, which can be wasteful. Looking for the shortest path, the brain will try to connect them so that only one neuron has to fire. The brain makes itself more efficient by rewiring. Awareness is learning.
Memory, like reality itself, is fundamentally chaotic. There usually is no big picture. Awareness attempts to compress the incompressible, by finding whatever tiny details two unrelated facts have in common. Often, it will only be the fact that you're thinking about them. Every neuron has an action potential for every situation. Similarities are automatically turned into links. Memories are maximally compressed in such a way that relevant changes are quickly noticed.
-The top level (if any)
The highest level is YOU, a composite persona, the meta-meta-meta neuron. Awareness is the ultimate voting system, the very embodiment of the truth. The top level can only think about one thing at a time. Any AI that could answer scientific questions as well as a human would have to be fully sentient. It would need to perform top-level logic. To calculate the surface area of the earth, it would need to calculate the square, not the cube of the width. Once a mind has learned something, it can't explain how it 'knows' this new fact, but it can prove it's true. The mind's goal is constant: to choose its next state. Then it gets interesting . . .
response to earlier post: May 28th, 2007
I'm also a Microsoft user, so I've had many bad experiences. I know the intense frustration, the sense of poopyness, that comes from using Windows, but I don't think there's a legal basis for the criminal prosecution of Microsoft's chief architect. While I'm no lawyer, he seems untouchable to me. Have you tried emailing Microsoft for tips on how to fix your computer? J.
First reply to guest column: May 27th, 2007
Absolute poopy, so vast a single glimpse could shatter your mind. Yes, I've used Microsoft products. I'll try to analyze some of these ideas in my own essays!
Guest Column by SteinGold (somewhat censored) May 27th, 2007
Comments in this column only express the views of the author, licensed to practice law in Texas, published here as legal opinions. Originally published in Samizdat online review on 5/9/2007
Bill Gates must die I mean it. His crimes are that bad. Bill Gates needs to be executed, after being found guilty in a court of law by a jury of his peers, of the crimes of grand theft, criminal conspiracy, racketeering, and fraud. More than a billion people have suffered from his intentionally defective, unstable, bloated crapware. That's worse than shooting someone, or shooting a hundred people. Enough is enough. He should be strapped onto a gurney in an execution chamber, a needle should be inserted in his arm, and sweet oblivion should be injected into his veins until he stops breathing. It would be just, no it would be necessary, if deterrence is to have any meaning. We have to set an example. Too many consumers like myself have been cheated by PRETEND products, that exist only to separate us from our money. HMOs, drugs, car insurance, car repair, American made cars, cell plans, banks . . . they only have to look good long enough to make the sale. Then it doesn't matter. China is turning into a fraud farm. The USA is fast forgetting how to manufacture anything. Microsoft is the toughest, most ruthless deceiver this side of the law. I have to admire them, but I also dislike them. If your product is unusable, you should pay a price: in Bill Gates' case, the highest price. If you don't want to pay the price, don't sell the product.
---- comment May 21st, 2007 In response to the above column: I.T. analysis Estimated annual probability of a nuclear detonation in US: 0.3% expected yield: 10 kt (90% confidence)
The torment ahead Guest Column by SteinGold May 20th, 2007 (somewhat censored)
Jack asked me to write an essay about the future, so here goes (in return he's writing an article on space colonization. How many of us can make it off this planet before it turns into a boiling globe?). I'm not one of those dumb libretarians who think people can be forced to behave by leaving them alone. Call me an anarchist. I prefer the term alive. Only, I don't know how much longer that will be the case. There seems to be a problem ahead: no one has the guts to confront Islam. This religion is about group identity, not truth. They didn't get this big by being right, but by being popular. They won't try to convert us all, but eventually we all will have to submit or die. They work like the anti-abortion movement, another delusion that may outbreed its opponents. When the time comes, they will go berserk. Jack thinks there will be a "warning signal", a slow escalation. I don't know where he gets that idea. Every American should understand there could be a nuclear war today, if Al Quaida (Quaeda, Quada, Queda?) starts torturing captured servicemen in Afghanistan. We'll destroy the enemy territory before letting that happen, after considering the alternative. Eventually, we'll realize we're fighting demons, their only real weakness. Here's my official prediction of what will happen in the next ten years or so: no, the next five years. I don't see a way to avoid it. Al Qaeda's successors will make us an offer we can't refuse. They will demand the USA and other countries pass laws making it a crime to insult or severely criticize Islam. It doesn't even have to be a law. Any informal arrangement will do. To show they mean business, there will be a spectacular terrorist attack with a limited death toll, their version of shock and awe. They might blow up ten casinos, or execute some unpopular famous people. The next time Islam is insulted in a major way (like the Danish cartoon flap), there will be a nuclear explosion in the USA. The weapon will be purchased either from a former Soviet republic or Pakistan. As the ultimate narcissist, North Korea is too psychotic to play this game, but it will be the first suspect. The detonation won't be in a major city, but near a military target, or maybe Silicon Valley. Their goal will be maximum disruption with minimum loss of life. My guess: ground zero will be roughly one mile south-west of the Pentagon. They will give twelve hours warning so the area can be evacuated, which will prove difficult. You know how it is with a move, especially if you have to do it yourself. The terrorists will try to shift the blame onto some other group, right wing extremists and Russian fascists. Don't blame the Muslims, most are as cool as you or me. Blame Islam. For a few days after the attack, anything will seem possible. Then we will get madder and madder. No one will ever be brought to justice, but within one year of that day, Mecca and Medina will become smoke stains in the desert. Then it gets interesting. To avoid this scenario, we have to show them we mean business. The last terrorist stunt has cost us trillions of dollars. We have a legitimate case for reparations. Why not annex the Iraqi oil fields? Naturally this won't happen, since both sides want the current chaos in Iraq, though not as pathetic as it is now. Our government is not free, or just, or even benign. It doesn't help me in any way. It serves a complex but narrow range of interests, not necessarily the wealthy, but the influential. Before the first nuke goes off, we'll see blatant signs of this. Most voters are genetically incapable of understanding the fact that they have been owned. The media keeps them from thinking. The Iraq insurgency, to give one example, could be neutralized in a week, our troops withdrawn to safe positions (the best real estate in the country, behind defensible rivers), and the country divided into dozens of containment zones, which would be split along tribal lines. The traitors currently in charge (the same folks who are auditing the poor, while helping the mega-rich stash their trillions off-shore), are attempting to pass so-called immigration reform that will bring our population closer to the half-billion mark. We will pay the new immigrants far more in social security benefits than they will ever earn in their low-paid jobs. But that's a problem for the future, for the next generation of elected nincompoops to exploit. The reason for this madness? They want to create an empire that can compete with China, but that's another column.
(no subject) May 16th, 2007 Guest columns coming soon!
the Net decentralized May 14th, 2007
Most message and bulletin boards, comment forms, and blog feedback sections are obsolete. Why should a site provide and moderate its own comments section? If information wants to be free, no one should control it. I've been working on a distributed content network. The first phase is to describe an open-source data archive that anyone can add to or filter in any way. There's a lot of disagreement about the user privileges, but in this case, more may be better. The end goal is to make websites obsolete.
(no subject) May 13th, 2007
"We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idealess, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible and the works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your solemn groans and your reverential amens. All these amount to less than nothing. We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little fact. We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore you for just one fact. We know all about your mouldy wonders and your stale miracles. We want a this year's fact. We ask only one. Give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years." Robert Green Ingersoll, "The Gods" (1872)
Repeat May 12th, 2007
It's been over a month since my challenge to God The challenge was as follows: Prove you exist by performing one undeniable miracle that the whole world can see. (Or at least a phenomenon that the world's scientists can't explain, thereby providing definite proof of a greater intelligence, even if we can't understand it.) If there's no miracle, we can take it as final confirmation God doesn't exist, and consent to stop worshipping him. So far, there's been no response, but who knows, it could only be a matter of days. If something does happen, I will have been proven wrong.
(no subject) May 11th, 2007
religions in two words closed source: scientology shared source: islam open source: unitarianism
A Scientology offshoot May 9th, 2007
''. . . So don't lose sleep over the $20,000 price being bantered around. With the heavy traffic ahead, by the time Wizards is released in February or March '89 that will be pocket jingle.'' 1988 communique to Avatar Masters. Rumors had it that graduates of the Wizards Course would be dispatched in missions to various corners of the world to ameliorate impending world events as opportunities arose, and would be paid for these assignments.
(no subject) May 8th, 2007
An Operating Thetan should be grateful for what Ron has given us. He must be willing to submit to Total Control. HE CANNOT HAVE TOTAL FREEDOM IF HE IS NOT WILLING TO BE TOTALLY CONTROLLED. THIS TRUTH IS INSTILLED IN HIM FROM THE TIME HE RECEIVES HIS FIRST AUDITING COMMAND. Scientology internal bulletin
Words: May 7th, 2007
And they had elected a fellow by the name of Xenu, ahhh, could be spelled X-E-M-U, to the supreme "rulah", and they were about to unelect him. And he took the last moments he had in office to really "goof the floof." L. Ron Hubbard
State of the world economy (summary of summaries) May 4th, 2007
report 07/05/01 Analyses differ, but investment seems to be slowing. Investors are waiting for new trends to emerge (social, technology driven, the expected regime change in the US). Worldwide, there's an alarming increase in the number of droughts. In the US, the increased consolidation of agriculture has caused a decline in the prospects of at least ten states. On paper, some of them shouldn't be states at all. Montana and South Dakota may revert to territories owned by agribusiness, subsidized by their friends in congress. The world needs a new intellectual movement to raise the intellectual energy level. It doesn't have to leave a lasting legacy. Atheism could spread faster than expected if existing institutions collapse, but it can't change society by itself. Humanity also needs a consistent worldview to survive.
The ultimate question pt.2 May 2nd, 2007
Would it be better if NOTHING existed? Here's what I expect: in this century, the preponderance of the evidence will indicate that any amount of pleasure automatically creates an equal amount of pain. Humanity will face an unthinkable predicament.
(no subject) May 1st, 2007
For the first time online, here's the HDDVD code: 09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0 Our political masters in their poopy wisdom have decreed that displaying these numbers is a felony Come and prosecute me assholes!
We need your contributions April 30th, 2007
We are 'hiring' guest writers as part of our Phase 2 exchange program. (right of first publication, two week embargo) I can't afford to pay a standard honorarium at this time, only provide valuable exposure. Once the revenue stream is stabilized (ads and licensing fees), one-time fixed payments will be possible, based on word length and reader feedback. I already have six articles lined up (two under an open source license). Leave your contact info in any of the older post comments. (minor editing may be necessary)
Livejournal malfunction April 29th, 2007
Once again they won't let me upload a userpic without altering the image beyond recognition. Their files keep getting mixed up. How hard can it be to let a user upload a userpic? Too hard for Livejournal/.
The Skeptics movement is dead - I'll miss them. April 25th, 2007
I just received ('look at this' 'this is interesting') several videos of Derren Brown magic tricks. Like Uri Geller, this charlatan presents them as genuine paranormal phenomena. One video shows him 'converting' atheists into theists by touching their heads, after which they claim to 'feel the spirit'. (careful selection of the victims, role-playing, 'mesmerism', outright deceit?) Other stunts show him reading body language to tell what people are thinking, and manipulating people with subtle cues in their environment to make them draw previously selected images. (slight manipulation, anticipating all possible actions, seemingly innocuous off-camera preparation changing the experiment parameters, clever magic tricks? Ask yourself how you would simulate the effect, if you had absolutely no compunctions.) He claims it's 'neuro-linguistic programming', which apparently makes it OK for viewers to uncritically accept his claims. Are my fellow citizens really this stupid? Or is it something worse? Some people want to be deceived. For a while, back in the eighties, there were groups which would discuss and analyze such claims. Now the few remaining skeptics seem to think he's one of them! I have to admit it's a clever scam. Has society become too specialized to deal with things that can't easily be categorized?
(no subject) April 26th, 2007
If the skeptics movement is really dead, I'll have to start a new one, but how do you do that? As if I don't have enough to do already.
How to reply if someone says you're going to hell for not believing the Bible: April 24th, 2007
The Bible is the biggest lie of all time. I can't think of any other reply to such a statement. The Bible is simply not true. If you follow incorrect instructions, you could reasonably expect bad things to happen. This is quite obvious to anyone who studies the matter with an open mind, given all the evidence. If God were to provide some new evidence, then the matter could change quickly! In two earlier posts, I said it's time for God to 'put up or shut up'. I suggested he should turn around the moon, while leaving it in its normal orbit. At least scientists would know then there's 'something' out there. I promise that if something happens in the coming weeks, I will admit I was wrong.
A lot of people (more men) who become parents discover they dislike the loss of freedom and reduced quality of life. Almost half of all marriages end in divorce. Our public education system should have warned them that 'the mainstream' can suck.
Itdontworkism: Part One April 22nd, 2007
Microsoft: the final verdict My previously owned copy of Windows has crashed again, as it has thousands of times before, destroying data each time. It simply does not work. Microsoft products are worse than useless: they can be poopy. Like I said before, it would be better if this company did not exist.
The War Nerd April 21st, 2007
http://www.exile.ru/archive/by_column/war_nerd.html Over a hundred columns about wars, and the illusions we all live in. Say it like it is! (until it's forbidden to do so.)
Al Franken's 'THE TRUTH with jokes' (Dutton 2005): a book April 20th, 2007
He does a good job listing the numerous crimes and malfeasances of the various Republican operatives. He didn't dare show the faces of the fake democratic protesters at the Florida polling place in 2004. The book would have been 1% longer if for every political platitude about 'protecting' 'families' through socialism he had added 'at gunpoint'. It would have been funnier if he had done that just ONCE. Still, the jokes were good.
The end of news: part three April 18th, 2007
9/11 was an arbitrary story that looked incredibly dramatic. It was over before it began, an ending that felt like a beginning. By 6 PM ET that evening, you could have thrown away your TV. The hardest part was the fact that NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED. Everyone got pissed, with no outlet. Don't get me wrong: There will be more disasters in our future, but I suspect they may happen slowly. Perhaps no one will be surprised when the first nuke goes off.
A new type of prayer: part two April 17th, 2007
You could also pray to any number of infinite minds who have already simulated your prayer and yourself, in any number of other universes. It may be helpful to imagine their perspective to get a new view of your own situation. Results are NOT guaranteed.
A new type of prayer: part one April 16th, 2007
If you absolutely have to pray, you should logically pray to yourself. You're the only one who can listen, and perhaps take action. In theory your brain could always generate a solution, no matter how immense the problem. Since you don't know yourself, you may prefer to pray to an 'ideal' version. And if you REALLY want something more, there's a tiny chance you could alter the simulation you're trapped in. In my book (http://www.lulu.com/content/429825) I explain why that's unlikely, but you never know.
(no subject) April 15th, 2007
Less than half of all readers now regularly read fiction. Technically, I should be paying you, the reader, to peruse this blog. I try to make each entry short enough to read while holding your breath.
Aiptek product complaint April 13th, 2007
I paid for but can't use their software since the 'cd-key' was missing.
(no subject) April 12th, 2007
Assume any strong feelings are partially wrong (but always useful), and look at the big picture. Mundane logic can be incredibly powerful. - often there is no problem or the problem is tiny or the problem is an opportunity or a tiny problem is a huge learning opportunity -Often problems DO go away by ignoring them.
North Korea doesn't exist April 1st, 2007
As far as I can ascertain, there are no websites using the .kp domain. For example: www.kimjongilisgod.kp There are more than half a million South Korean .kr sites. This is very humiliating for North Korea. They can't set up ONE lousy website? It's too much work to post the beloved leader's speeches, or a schedule of his appearances? His country has the world's smallest web presence. Even Tuvalu, which is smaller than some of DPRK's ongoing education centers, has 100.000 registered websites.
GoDaddy horror stories March 29th, 2007
The company GoDaddy sells 'web hosting' and 'domain names'. Apparently you can't run a web site directly from your home PC. I've had some bad experiences: they have a horrendous user interface. I didn't have to renew my service as I had expected to do, since they kindly took care of that by billing the correct credit card themselves. But that's NOTHING: GoDaddy shut down web sites they claim they suspect of 'spamming', and many loosely related web sites not guilty of the accused offense. Majordomo.ru says 1399 client domains are now blocked. GoDaddy demands a $199 'reactivation fee' or $50 'release fee' per site. GoDaddy stole FamilyAlbum.com (a lucrative name) on a technicality, simply because the owner had a temporarily invalid email address, violating a rule. His mail address and phone were correct.
'Killer's Paradise' March 28th, 2007
A documentary by the National Film Board, and the BBC. Every year, hundreds of Guatemalan women are brutally murdered, part of a culture of violence. The numbers have risen since the civil war. In 2005, not one case was solved.
NEWSWEEK column March 26th, 2007
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the author of INFIDEL and a refugee from Somalia, has been condemned by NEWSWEEK for criticizing Islam. Apparently, she has a bad character, because she's too confrontational, and violates taboo subjects. NEWSWEEK's editorial representative doesn't consider this a laughing matter, intimating that criticizing religion in the way certain other subjects CAN be criticized is unacceptable. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17204802/site/newsweek/from/ET/
'Mentalism' and the paranormal? March 24th, 2007
Throughout history, there have been many claims of 'paranormal' events. Since there have been so many claims, surely some must be true? Just how much do we know, or only think we know? I can't imagine how it's possible for a stage magician or 'mentalist' to READ YOUR THOUGHTS, as described in the dozens of examples below, taken mostly from commercial websites for magicians. Unfortunately, while the appearance of the trick is described online, the explanation never is. You have to pay the inventor to find out how it's done. From the descriptions they seem utterly impossible, violating our current understanding. Yet there are many witnesses who have seen each of these acts performed in a live stage show, street performance, or television special. - Imagine a Mentalist stepping up to a stranger and telling him the name of his first love. This actually happened in a German TV show. It may not have involved a shill at all - there are many ways to gain the information. - A spectator is freely chosen. The spectator picks up any of three paperback books, thinks of any page number, and the spectator can change his mind as often as he wishes. The spectator opens the book to that page number and thinks of the first word on the page. With no pumping, you name the word. The spectator thinks of any other page number, tells no one the page number, and turns to that page. The spectator looks at the last word on the page. You tell him the word he is looking at. The climax is beyond belief. The spectator thinks of any other page number, tells no one, turns to that page, and is instructed to look at ANY OTHER WORD on the page. You do not know the page number. You read his mind and reveal the word he is staring at. No prearranged stooges or confederates. No peeks. No mirrors. No reflectors. No force of the book. Nothing written. Absolutely free choice of book and page number at every stage. No assistants. No electronics. No pumping. No progressive anagrams. No cribs. A streamlined version is also available which uses only one book. The spectator thinking of any other word on any page announces the word. The other spectator opens your prediction. In big bold letters, on a letter-size sheet of paper, is the word the spectator is thinking of. Comes with ten pages of very detailed and thorough instructions. - You show five elegant chips made of brass. Each chip is blank on one side and has one of the well known Rhine symbols on the other side. Before you even think of any of the symbols I will try to predict which one you are going to chose in your mind. First I am going to mix them up and then mark one on the back. With great secrecy you take a marker and make a sign, your initials or anything else, on the back of one of the chips. Then you mix again and place them face up on the table. The spectator is told to think of the one symbol only. After the choice he or she is to tell everybody which symbol it is. Let's assume that the spectator thinks of the Star. You immediately place the chip with the Star face up in his hand. "Don't look at the back yet", you explain and start turning the other four chips over, one by one. As it turns out, no one has any sign on it's back. Now you ask the spectator to turn his thought of chip over. IT HAS YOUR INITIALS, OR WHATEVER YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO DRAW, ON THE BACK OF THE CHIP!!! - On the table is a sealed cloth bag with your prediction. The bag is in full view all the time. Tell the audience that you will try an experiment where A SPECTATOR SHOULD READ YOUR MIND FOR ONCE! Call attention to the cloth bag and explain that you have already written a number, the name of a playing card, a geometric sign -whatever. The spectator is given a note pad and asked to try to concentrate on what you have written down. When finished, he (or she) shows everybody was is written on the note pad in an effort to match your prediction. You now take the sealed cloth bag and give it to the spectators. HE OPENS THE BAG AND TAKES OUT THE BOARD HIMSELF. ON THE BOARD IS WRITTEN EXACTLY THE SAME MESSAGE AS ON THE NOTE PAD!!! The spectator can examine the board and the opaque cloth bag. There is no "fishing". No stooges are involved. No nail writers, carbon papers or electronics. ON BOARD resets in seconds! - I saw a book/booklet with several remote mentalist effects used to get bookings from reluctant booking agents. All he did was to divine the agent's sign of the Zodiac over the phone with a few innocent questions. It's not exactly self working, but it's logical, and if presented right can seem to be very random and mystifying. - A board with four different colored balloons. The performer declares that he has pasted a prediction label on the rear side of the board. After each balloon is burst (freely named by the spectators), the only one that remains matches with the magician's prediction. - There is a possibility that you could use Eddie Burke's 'Ultimate Tele-phoney'. This is the Tossed Out Deck & Tossed Out BOOK (several versions) I think the only adaptation you need do is to use a mobile phone for the interviewer to call up a person of his choice. It cannot be done over the radio phone as you need to speak to that person (without ANYONE hearing) before writing down any words they suggest. Bob Kohler's 'Prime Cut' the second effect is a choice of card (over the phone) from the listener's own deck. - Innocent-looking, soft-cover European travel guide, gaffed to high heaven in ways that are only visible to you. Reveal a single word or, if you wish, uncannily describe the subject matter of multiple sentences; Your participant can look at any page in the book and you will be able to accurately reproduce incredible detail from any drawings, illustrations, and photos which are there - no matter where the book is opened. Mentally follow your participants as they take out-of-body walking tours, specifically identifying the tourist attractions where they stop; Draw or sketch images merely visualized in your participant's mind! - In Book #1, the time-tested Flashback principle has been upgraded to make it as invisible as a ghost in the night. Yet it's still the fastest and easiest one-word revelation ever. Within moments, you're doing miracles. Use Book #2 and knock them for a loop. They can silently read full paragraphs on their selected pages yet you will infallibly reveal the details of the images they form in their minds! And you haven't asked a question, seen or heard a page number! Continue with a statement (just like Mother used to make), "Find a challenging word, the longer the better, anywhere on the page." With no pumping, letter hints, or phony miscalls, you can reveal that word (and much more) using a brand new principle and strategy that you'll love. For your sizzling finale, Larry Becker's standing ovation, drop-dead climax is now yours to use as well. Give them a page number, column, and location in Book #3, a brand new, easy-to-use, large print, Webster's Dictionary. When they turn to that spot, there's the word that had existed only in their minds! - Basically, he took an undertaker into a crypt, sat him down with a pile of pictures and invited him to separate the photographic portraits into images he liked and images he didn't like. The undertaker does so and then Derren reveals that all the photo's in the 'Like' pile have the word 'ALIVE' written on the back in red marker and all the photo's in the 'Don't Like' pile had the word 'DEAD' written on the back in black. - The name of the effect is Miracle Spell-R created by Federico Luduena. A standard pay envelope is placed on the table or given to a spectator to hold. A second spectator is asked to pick 5 cards from a shuffled deck and to think of one of them while showing the cards to the first spectator requesting he also think one of the cards. The first spectator is asked to mentally spell the name of his card while the performer deals cards one at a time onto the table and to say stop when the last letter of the card is reached. The spectator names his card and the performer turns over the last card showing it to be that card. The performer asks the second spectator to name his card and upon opening the envelope, his thought of card falls out. The thought of cards are never mentioned until just before the cards are revealed and no questions are asked. - The Grand Seance is designed for several sitters at once. Their fortunes are told, birthdates revealed, personality traits given all through your spirit guide. Who makes his presence known in a finale that will have the sitters gasping for breath! - 202 Methods Of Forcing by Ted Anneman: A classic text by Ted Annemann, one of magic's greatest personalities. Learn how to force everything, from cards, to colors, to numbers and just about anything else a magician might use. - Stop your own pulse...with no gimmicks! And-stop a spectator's pulse without even touching them! No stooges, confirmed by another audience member, this is the real work! A spectator simply looks at a playing card and you cause them to actually forget this card-they can't remember it! A spectator's actual phobia is seen to go away through a magical, psychological event. The spectator takes home a special paper to remind them of this dramatic change. Two different spectators see two different words on one ungimmicked piece of paper without a single switch. You may also add to this, causing a third spectator to read a third word.
During a palm reading, the lines on the spectator's palm apparently move and twist on their own. A stunning combination of linguistics, psychology and neurology. - Invisible Touch: A spectator secretly marks one finger on a drawing of a hand. A second spectator is asked to extend his hand, when suddenly, he feels something touching a finger, though there is nothing near it! The finger, of course, is the same one secretly marked by the other spectator! Temporal Anomaly: Two watches are borrowed from the audience, then both are set randomly by two different people. When the two times are revealed, THEY MATCH! - Do a full hypnosis type act without any hypnosis, stooges, trick props, or set-up. People may think they have become furniture, see themselves without pants - any number of wild seemingly "hypnotic demonstrations" are performed without paid helpers or real hypnosis. - Spoon Bending Parties -- A detailed examination which many mentalists have asked Kenton to share with them alone, or keep to himself. How to get others to do metal bending in their own hands in a Psi-Party atmosphere. - Astrolingua Created by Phantomas ...just pure mindreading! Inspired by Ray Grismer's "What's my sign," (a routine in which the magician is successfully able to guess the zodiac sign of an onlooker after a few questions) Phantomas has created another practical version of the "Progressive Anagram." - - Put your audience in a mild trance and they'll actually see what you describe! At last, a handling of the classic Ball & Tube trick that will leave spectators gasping. In this routine, you'll be able to: change a steel ball bearing into a crystal ball without any switches, make the ball shrink without falling through the tube, and the effect will even happen under close observation in the spectator's own hands! The amazing thing is that they will experience what you're simply suggesting! - Telepathic Arm Lift: This is similar to Derren's "Lift" which he removed from his first book in order to keep the Powerful Technique a Secret. You take 2 volunteers, stand them so that they cannot see each other, and "hypnotize" them, instructing one of them to telepathically control the other. The first volunteer raises an arm - the arm of the second volunteer instantly rises too. The first volunteer lowers their arm - and again, the second volunteers arm instantly mirrors the movement! A fantastic, ingenious method that will become a cornerstone of mentalism in the future - very, very cunning! - You'll have seen the effect in Derren's TV show where a passerby answers a ringing public telephone and within seconds slumps to the floor apparently hypnotized. This is a theoretical explanation using a variation of the Technique described in the "Telepathic Arm Lift" to achieve the results seen. - - Imagine being able to name a card a spectator has chosen without looking at the cards. You just look in their eyes and name it as if you were reading their minds! - Allowing a spectator to choose a handful of cards from a jumbo deck and naming the cards he holds one at a time. They'll swear that you're even able to tell which one they're looking at. - Ground-breaking methods are explained for the divining of one or several mentally selected cards! - Spectators name any card and a position in the deck. They count down to that position in an isolated pack and find their card at the precise number they chose. The performer never touches the cards, there are no forces or switches, and the deck is ungimmicked! - A spectator freely chooses two playing cards, for example a 3 and an 8. A book is picked up and turned to the page chosen by the cards (using our example this would be 3 & 8 - page 38). The spectator is asked to concentrate and place their finger on the first word of this page. If you are an expert Mentalist you can perform this without cards and ask them to think of a number between 1 and 100. - You perform a version of Out Of This World, with a borrowed deck, with no set-up, no sleights or switches. In fact the spectator's intuition can even be shown as correct for each individual card as it is dealt! This is the real work on the verbal control of a spectator. - A wise guy pulls out his own deck of cards and demands that you prove your abilities. NOW WHAT? With K.E.N.T. you tell the spectator to make it tough on you and think of one of a few cards he himself removes from his own deck. You never see these. You instruct him how to focus upon his thought of card and you NAME HIS CARD to the degree that he freaks out and swears you are the REAL thing. He dares you to tell him what his card is, and that is exactly what you are seen to do. In an effort of complete disclosure, the effect is you name the entire card. The reality is you name the name or number of the card, not the suit generally. But due to the psychology used, it appears you have named not only the name, but the suit as well! - - A person thinks of a large number. Another person thinks of a small number, then follows the group's instructions regarding adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing his number. At the end of the random procedures, the mentalist reveals both chosen numbers. The final climax comes when it's discovered that both numbers are identical! - A spectator thinks of a number from 1 to 10. The mentalist touches a planchette on a tiny Ouija board. The spirits move it until finally stopping on the spectator's mentally chosen number! - In-nile-lation - Docc found a new twist in the Nile. A person thinks of a number and without writing anything, keeps it in mind. There's no force, it's a free mental selection. People in the audience call out numbers that are recorded and added together. The total from the audience is the same number as the one which the person is thinking! There are no forces. There are no switches of numbers. All numbers are confirmed as being the ones given. In fact, anyone can keep a record of their own and add the called numbers from their seats! - The magician asks six random audience members to each select a different number between 1 and 49. Amazingly these numbers prove to be the same six which are on the printed lottery ticket the magician bought earlier that day! You might not be able to win the lottery, but you can influence your audience members to pick the numbers you want them to! No pre show or limited selections! - Libretta Minutia - A spectator puts three tiny number cards together in any manner he wishes. This creates a three-digit number that represents a random page form a miniature book. He looks at the chosen page and silently reads a word. The mentalist reveals the mentally chosen word! - Two women both write down a phone number of a friend and their own numbers on the back of a business card. While one holds the card, you tell them which number is which, and finally reveal one of the women's phone numbers! - Real Mind Reading: Using the Psychological science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), you ask your volunteer to recall 3 memories, then to concentrate on just one of them. No matter which one they're thinking of, you know! Works every time, no stooges, writing, peeks, etc. - Direct Mind Reading at its best. The necessary principles of NLP are clearly explained. A True Mind Reading Performance using Psychology, NLP, and Body Language. - Ask your participant to just think of one of the standard playing cards. Show that on your mobile you have stored the number for "The Ghost" (or whatever you feel best). Press the dial button and when the Ghost answers hand over the phone. He/She tells the participant the very card that they've just thought of! No texts, premium no's, button presses, etc. An Absolutely Simple, yet devastating effect that Works EVERY time. - Dolce Libra - A spectator holds a phone book behind his back and chooses a page. He brings it around in front and reads a name on the chosen page. The mentalist reveals the chosen name and number! Any borrowed phone book is used. The spectator has an apparent free choice. You never have to see anything. - Three spectators are used. Each decides on a thought. The mentalist writes something on a large 9" x 12" card. It's placed in an envelope numbered "1" and handed to the first spectator. This is repeated with the other two spectators. Later, it's seen that what the mentalist wrote matches each of their cards. The mentalist is also able to give a lot of unwritten information about the spectators. There are no carbons, billets, special envelopes or pre-show clipboards. You give intimate details about subjects that you couldn't possibly know. If you use the CEO of the hosting corporation, he'll never understand how you knew his mother's maiden name or what he ate for breakfast. No one ever spoke to him or had him write anything; in fact, you can decide to use him at the last minute while you're on stage. - Touching on Hoy: Which is in my opinion the best thing I (Luke Jermay) have ever come up with. Simple, direct and strong. Three people think of different things. You then reveal what each person is thinking of. No pre show work, no props, no stooges, no kidding! - Steve Dusheck has created two spelling forces based on the one to six force used in Hot Rod and other effects. - Encyclopedia of Mentalism by Robert Nelson practically every known method of entertainment is brazenly exposed. Encyclopedic of Dictionary Mentalism Vol. 1 by Burling Hull Compiled by Burling 'Volta' Hull, this gigantic collection of mental and mind reading effects is a must for serious mentalists and/or magicians interested in mentalism effects. It contains over 100 great effects - After you've been asked by a member of the audience to tell their fortune, you give them a special group of cards with issues written. Each issue is associated with a particular playing card. Written below the issue is also a remedy to the issue. The spectator secretly chooses a single issue card. From a borrowed deck, you have selected the only playing card that matches their selection! - Flash of Imagination and the Pocket Writer: "The mind makes it real." Number in a Flash and a Pocket Writer: "The mind makes it real, yet again." - Intercept by Harvey Berg With no setup, you hand a spectator a deck (which can be borrowed on the spot) to shuffle and mentally select one card. The entire selection process is made in the spectator's hands! You shuffle and spread the cards slowly to "intercept a telepathic message" when the spectator makes eye contact with the thought-of card. You reveal the card in a most dramatic way. Reactions you get are not "how did you do that?" but more like "That's Impossible! It just didn't happen!" "I did the exact same effect over 15 times at a Christmas function with the same people watching over and over and still got a tremendous response." - Ten people are asked to think of a past president. Each person must think of a different president. To facilitate this, a small pad of paper passed among the participants. Checking to make certain that their chosen president has not been listed, each person writes the name that they have in mind. If the name is already on the list, the participant has to select a different name. When all ten people have chosen a name, a new person looks over the list and circles one name. The written list is no longer needed so one of the spectators removes the sheet and folds it into quarters. The pad is tossed aside. The mentalist tears the folded paper and throws it away; after all, it was needed only to make certain that no names were duplicated. THE MENTALIST IS NOW ABLE TO LOOK AT EACH PERSON ON THE LIST AND REVEAL WHAT NAME THEY HAVE IN MIND! Beyond this remarkable demonstration, the mentalist asks a member of the audience to open a large envelope they have been holding since before the list was made. Inside is a prediction. It reveals that the mentalist knew the name that would be selected by the participant that circled a name! - The performer has someone look at and think of one card out of 52. The deck is mixed by the spectator and the performer tries to find the card. Dealing through the cards, the performer fails to find the card, yet the spectator says that his or her card is not there, it is gone. The performer says, "Maybe my wish came true after all." The box is opened and inside the box a folded card is revealed. When it is opened, it is found to be the thought of card. - Mentalist's Manual by Robert A. Nelson contains a veritable gold mine of practical and workable information, hundreds of subtle ideas, little known tips, and wrinkles, all a result of years of actual, practical, tried and proven experience. $ 15.00 - Mind, Myth and Magick by T. A. Waters Imagine a hardcover volume with over 840 pages full of astounding and diabolic mental secrets - over 200 effects of Mind Reading and Bizarre Magick, along with extensive re-examinations of psychometry, book and symbol tests, Tarot cards, fortune-telling, billet work and other topics! All conceived by one remarkable mind! This huge volume is a postgraduate course in Mentalism, containing a wealth of material that will set you apart from the generic mentalist! Fully indexed. - The Spirit Pen: A pen stands up on paper and writes what a spectator thinks. The BEST and easiest version ever. Nothing to make. Costs next to nothing... You probably own the needed prop already. The FULL version finally explained here. Chill: The performer makes the spectator feel cool, and then colder still, by stroking his hand or face and using apparent hypnotic methods. This is a classic Kentonism effect and many variations are included. Touched in the Head: The performer mimes scratching above a spectator's head, and the spectator feels his head get scratched. No, no loops or gimmicks. The performer holds his hands over the spectator who swears he feels "something. - Headline Prediction - One of the finest and most practical methods ever conceived for this effect! A prediction, mailed ahead of time to the client, foretells the contents of an article on the front page of a newspaper days (even weeks) before it is published! - The idea of turning nearly any book into a force book was extremely appealing, however the idea of searching books for commonalities seemed like it would be impossible or at the very least time consuming... however while doing it Ken devised this system which helped in making nearly every book he opened a force book. Out of about 20 books he was easily able to come up with 15 or 16 force books... by changing the prediction, or as Max recommends in "Autome" doing a simple drawing after they read the first two or three line of text on the page turned to. - A spectator is given a deck of cards or uses his own. He is instructed to shuffle them and select a card while the magician stands on the other side of the room with his back to the spectator. He is further instructed to put the card anywhere in the deck and shuffle the cards, remembering his selection. All of this occurs in the spectator's hands- the Magician touches NOTHING! Then, the magician asks the spectator to pick a number from one to fifty-two. The magician then deals the cards face down until he reaches that number. - - The hidden art of using scent as influence and suggestion in performance" Secret Scent-sations reveals a wild mix of well-kept hidden performance material from Kenton and friends. A spectator is told to relax and name anything that comes to mind in a guided meditation. This very item appears in her own hands! - A deck is handed to a spectator for safe keeping. A playing card and a number between 1 and 52 are both freely named (no forces, pre show work or limited selections). The deck is opened and it is revealed that every card has a different number between 1 and 52 printed on its back -and incredibly the selected card bears the selected number! - A deck of cards is shuffled by the performer and handed to a spectator for safe keeping. A second deck is given to another spectator who shuffles themselves. She is told to freely think of any card and any number from the face up cards. She sees the cards are all different and admits that her choices are entirely free and unprepared. Now the miracle. The first spectator deals in his deck to the number called out by the second spectator. The card at that number is turned over. It is the second spectator's card! - Any Card At Any Open Prediction" is a total impossibility. A prediction is written and placed in the center of the table, not to be touched again. Any number between 1 and 52 is named. Very cleanly the cards are counted to that number. The card is turned over. The prediction is opened by the spectator and read...they match! - Ultimental by Jheff: A participant freely thinks of a number of thoughts, such as words or dates. The performer writes something down on a business card and seals it up inside a small envelope. To make it even more challenging, the participant is instructed to focus on just one of those thoughts. The choice is random. The participant removes the business card from the sealed envelope and finds the freely chosen though written in the message on the back. - Speculation: the greatest example Derren does is putting someone to sleep when they answer a public phone. He talks really fast, lots of facts (things that implant easily because they do not require analysis), then as the mind is desperately trying to find a key function to sort them all into context, Derren simply says "and you want to sleep" and the mind latches onto that as an escape route and the person just collapses in the street. - Mother of All Book Tests by Ted Karmilovich: A spectator is invited to take a readable and 100% examinable, 400 page, 160,000 word novel, open it to any page and think of any word on that page. Without touching the book or approaching the spectator, you reveal the word in the simplest, most startlingly direct manner ever! - Final Exam Book Test: The Ultimate Book Test: Two books are selected from a small group of well-known classics, and given to freely selected members of the audience. The spectators select any page number they wish in each book and silently read to themselves from the page. Without the performer even being near them or ever touching the books, he then describes in considerable detail what the spectators have just read! - computer-based magic tricks: -It looks an awful lot like the computer really is reading your mind. This one is a card trick. Unfortunately, it absolutely requires a command-line interface, and cannot be made to work on a GUI or on a website. The MS-DOS version was published on Big Blue Disk #18 (a disk-based magazine from the 1980s) from Softdisk Publishing (the company where the iD Software guys worked when they met each other). Also, due to the way I did the misdirection, it cannot run under Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003, nor Vista. It will work in a DOS box under Windows 3.x, 9#, or ME. Here's how a typical session of GrayMAT (the card trick program) would go: A:\>graymat The GrayMAT interface machine-language TSR drivers, and the 52-thought playing-card demonstration psychabulary file have been loaded into RAM. To run the demo, type "GMDEMO" at the DOS prompt while thinking of the VISUAL IMAGE of a playing card. Keep thinking of it until the message "Analyzing data" appears. Note that this prototype driver leaves memory in an unstable state, so you cannot run other external software until the driver is unloaded. To unload it, type "GMEXIT" A:\>gmdemo Reading GrayMAT interface.............................. Analyzing data........................................... You were thinking of the Seven of Spades. -five cards are shown, then there are only four cards, and the thought-of card is GONE! -take a four digit number, reverse the digits, subtract larger from smaller, input three digits from the result and the computer reads your mind to guess the missing digit! -take a two-digit number, add its digits, subtract the sum from the original number to get a new number, look up the corresponding symbol in a table of numbers, and the computer reads your mind to divine the symbol! You can repeat as often as you like! BUT . . . HOW? -take a five cent coin and a dime, separately multiply the face values of each coin by the same number, and the computer reads your mind and tells you which coin is in which hand! - some commercial products, offered for sale with user testimonials: -Remarkable new billet techniques are applied to ordinary business cards and Post-It notes to create astonishing effects of mind reading. From the construction of a boon to the proper uses and routines, this booklet has it all. The magic that can be achieved with this little item is truly breathtaking. You can perform high-level mentalism and impossible predictions. -Osterlind Breakthrough Card System. It's a stacked deck but, unlike other cyclical stacks, defies detection by even the most astute spectators, with absolutely no tell-tale number or color sequences! -book test dictionary: identify any word they chose! -Methods of mental communication: An assistant or a "plant" in the audience and a code system to signal information or techniques known as "forcing" and "billet switching". -the S.A.R. System -Suggestion Techniques: Definition = Creation theory -goyk mindreader -The Hilford Office Test, a wonderful way to read a person's thoughts -"Concipio" - a clever gaff that will allow you to predict names, numbers, dates, etc., faultlessly every time. -Cold reading technique. You can soon learn to read people - giving them readings that will astound them - sensational revelations that will long linger in their minds. - the JK Mind Power deck. I was confounded as to how Erik made the 3 thought of selections go under a close-up mat, or in his pockets. -It's possible to do an Invisible Deck routine without a stooge, or learn secret names from somebody who is not a shill. -Nail writers, predictions, card tricks, blindfold tricks, muscle reading, billets, publicity stunts, -a totally impromptu book test in which the spectator may pick his own book and his own choice of page number. -Effect where magician always seems to know which hand you've palmed the coin. -How about an effect where a deck of cards is hurled into the audience and random spectators merely THINK of a card that they catch... the performer is able to name those! -The time mysteriously changes on a person's wristwatch while it is in his possession. -newspaper clairvoyance / remote viewing... It's really the ULTIMATE tear the newspaper in little squares, FREELY pick one of the pieces ... and I will tell you what you are reading on THAT piece... -Someone from the audience chooses any page from an unprepared newspaper, tears it into small squares, then freely chooses one. He thinks of a word on that piece and the performer, without a question, divines it. -the ancient art of muscle reading . . . -'Sort-Of Numerology' by Mark Strivings. An impromptu mindreading effect that will knock your audiences out! - Pocket writing can be done anywhere, under any circumstances, plus it is angle-proof! - A good crib can be your best friend. It can tell you the secrets of the universe! - impossible pick-pocketing -The Question Answering Act, with forty-nine different methods explained, including the "Volta" Super-Professional Mentalism Course, plus the Ultra Question Answering Act - With No Questions Written as a bonus. -This is the inside, practical, real work of "Kentonism" and "Telepathy In Action" -Murder by Mail - Prove that you possess powers that can actually kill someone! WARNING: You may not want to perform this effect, it's too strong! "I can't perform Murder by Mail anymore-it's just too strong!" -you can make a specifically chosen cloud de-materialise with the power of your mind, and you obviously CANNOT be cheating.
My National Security Letter, if any March 23rd, 2007
If I had received a National Security Letter forcing me to turn over information to the government, I would be barred by law from discussing it, or even admitting that I have received the letter. According to this article,
"When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie."
It's not clear if a library or a bookstore could legally post a notice that they HAVEN'T received an NSL, but such a denial would be meaningless if they could be forced to lie about it.
A list of the major concepts and themes of the novel 'Infinite Thunder' (2007): March 22nd, 2007
The Universal Rights of Man (revised) The end result of decades of UN negotiations, all mankind is bound by two laws: -Freedom of Location Generally, anyone can leave the area they find themselves in. Other areas aren't required to admit them. -Freedom of Inspection UN inspectors can visit any location, and report any threats to humanity they find, or to neighboring countries. Both laws are enforced by Millipol
Millipol the world police The alliance of every armed force on Earth. Wherever they're stationed, agents have to obey and enforce the local laws. Their second task is to protect nations from each other, up to and including military action.
B.O.X. Total life management software, a dynamic interface with the world. Keeping track of all your interests and goals, it knows where you are, and why. It feels like an extension of your memory. The user's brain becomes an index, performing high-level tasks the software can't handle.
Fams In the future, most people will be members of several closely linked groups, fulfilling different social needs. Members will be encouraged to specialize and develop useful skills.
Computer games The most interesting interactions with other people will involve artificial scenarios and simulated problems.
Virtual Reality: the end of history. Ultra-high bandwidth graphics, and positional and resistance feedback, can provide a god's eye view of reality, and also solve man's serious shortage of sexual partners. Eventually, most people will retreat into artificial worlds of their own creation.
Neurology The human brain is composed of many loosely linked sub-systems Activation networks: Different groups of neurons fire at different frequencies, and become synchronized. Right now you're using your mouse control network, reading network, and sitting network. Suppression networks: When you look for 'Waldo' in a picture book, sections of your brain suppress common patterns and colors that do not look like Waldo.
The age of abundance Once matter duplication becomes possible, money will be obsolete. Everyone may qualify for a monthly stipend or other subsidy.
The demise of the United States When fundamental conditions change, society becomes unstable. The US is the most complex and regulated entity on the planet. At the moment, it's also the most efficient one, with no competition whatsoever. China and India may actually be falling behind. The moment a better idea appears, the power balance will start to shift. This may never happen; history gives no indication that mankind wants freedom. If it does happen, change may come fast.
The most dangerous idea (future death cults who think they're the good guys) The ultimate paradox: the only way to improve reality may be to eliminate imperfect individuals. Their consciousness would not be adversely affected, since similar but perfect versions of the victims would survive in other universes. A process of antropic elimination could also explain the Fermi paradox. All the aliens have committed suicide, knowing that in other universes, they will have attained perfection. Eventually, evolution would counter this trend.
The end of manned spaceflight No human has to leave Earth ever again
Higher universes The implications of infinite minds are staggering. Statistically, a randomly selected possible mind is likely to know us better than we know ourselves. For all intents and purposes, they're omniscient Why aren't we one of them?
Why are we here? The first four paradoxes: -Why is our universe consistent, when there are more ways it could be random? -Why are our minds finite, when there are more ways they could be infinite? -Why do we live near the beginning of time, at the start of an infinite future? -Why is our universe vastly more complex than necessary to generate us?
Nanotechnology organisms Microscopic robots called microns can assemble themselves into complex structures, or disperse like sentient gas.
AI The 'Hard Problem' of AI remains a mystery. How does something that seems 'real' emerge from a physical pattern, essentially a number? It appears to be an endless, elaborate changeover, a random collection of unrelated responses. Awareness is even more complicated than it seems. The first software minds will be very different from humans.
Electrostatic control and manipulation An electromagnetic ghost with invisible tentacles.
Impulse transfer tranjet An electromagnetic scramjet using 'cold exhaust' principles, designed to mix fuel and air at extreme speed.
The Resistance The opposite of Millipol. An emergent alliance against every form of illegitimate power.
The Cripplers A group which perfected the art and science of Digital Restrictions Management in the early twenty-first century. With the abolition of intellectual property in 2030, they needed a new purpose.
The quantum exchange spacedrive It takes an incredible amount of energy for a spaceship to approach the speed of light. It must accelerate most of its fuel supply to relativistic speeds, multiplying the total effort. If energy could reliably be transmitted across empty space, everything would get easy. A one-square-meter solar panel receives enough energy to accelerate a one kilo mass to a nearby star in less than a century.
parallel universes Theory: There exist infinitely many versions of Earth. Near-copies of everyone alive have already made every possible mistake in other realities. The Multiverse theme parks show vastly different worlds that seem strangely familiar, a form of 'magic realism'.
Life after death: the scientific case Every mind follows a time-like path. Actions taken while people are alive can affect the way their minds are likely to be recreated by more advanced civilizations. This will be a major theme of the sequel.
Epilogue: the post-human future Post-human minds will enter periods of apparent stasis, improving complex simulations in a slow search for Platonic perfection. They will have vast, artificial concerns that will make our problems seem trivial.
Other themes and concepts: Nanosat clouds Vacuum energy Quantum computers Reliable personality tests Nuclear terrorism Cellular terrorism Prion terrorism Future hacking and software infiltration methods Advanced non-sentient software (DEEFx, the Zondyne organism) Relic objects of the Big Bang Economic and technological free zones (the Depot) Chinese social control policies The return of communism Virtual persons (Anonymous, Roger Xyrghyz) World real estate markets. Expatriate communities form in previously violent lands.
Why the world sucks March 21st, 2007
Evolution tends to drive species to the limit. Instead of a small number of organisms living in relative luxury, nature favors quantity over quality. As many organisms as possible will fill every available slot. That's why there are no uninhabited tropical islands. Apparently, suffering tends to maximize the number of observers. Given enough time, any society will end up in the worst condition in which it can still survive. Many humans live in a permanent state of emergency. In return, evolution may improve a species, though that's by no means certain, even less so in the case of humans. I believe it's possible to opt out. After the 'Singularity', the only selection pressures may be voluntary or hidden.
Some notes about B.O.X. technology March 21st, 2007
The software would track a user's mood, and try to stabilize it with schedule changes. The user would be prompted to answer an updated list of questions at least once a day, or more often when adding entries. It would try to change the user's interests, while harnessing human pattern recognition skills and their sense of style. Fortunately, it would require so many innovations the system as a whole could never be patented.
The ultimate definition of Absurd: March 20th, 2007
involuntary existence
Official wrong prediction for the 2008 presidential election (first attempt) March 20th, 2007
Obama for president, Clinton for vice-president will defeat: McCain for president, conservative guy I haven't heard of for V.P.
Follow-up: proof from God March 18th, 2007
Science has come too far. In an earlier post, I explained that in order to keep believing in religion, mankind has the right to demand some sort of proof of God's existence. It doesn't have to be specific, but should be clear and unmistakable. I suggested God could flip around the moon, while keeping it in its present position in its orbit. There are actually two ways to do this: by reversing the side that permanently faces Earth, and flipping the poles. Reversing both the poles and the direction of rotation as seen from Earth, or just flipping the direction of rotation, would cause tidal stresses in the moon. This event might convince those people who currently are the biggest doubters.
S.F. March 17th, 2007
One of our occasional contributors is working on a dozen short stories, all about one page long. They're in the 'SF' genre, (pronounced sf). Each one tries to use an original physical theory or principle.
A question for Mitt Romney March 16th, 2007
The Church of Latter Day Saints believes that thousands of years ago, a group of Hebrews sailed to America across the Pacific Ocean. According to LDS scripture, they formed a society in Mesoamerica, which experienced many dramatic and historic events before disintegrating. Does Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney believe these claims are the literal truth? He could reply he's not a historian or an archaeologist, and leave it to people more qualified to speculate. He could say he regards it as a meaningful parable, one of many important spiritual truths in the Book of Mormon that could help everyone. People should be able to follow their own religion without discrimination or interference. But what if he believes it all happened EXACTLY as written in the Book of Mormon, and then refuses to discuss the matter any further? That would indicate he doesn't care about objective evidence - which only matters if you think a president should have some interest, understanding or belief in science. Voters have the right to request an explanation, or at least a position paper. I myself might vote Republican in the extremely unlikely event Ron Paul (1 in 38,350) wins the nomination.
(no subject) March 16th, 2007
Great advice tells it like it is http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/279126743.html
Ultra-long-term goal March 15th, 2007
We need a law that makes it legal to break the law when it's reasonable to do so.
the ultimate right March 14th, 2007
Any prisoner should have the option to request and receive an instant death penalty, if they absolutely can't stand being incarcerated anymore.
Things that can't be explained March 13th, 2007
Why do fast-flying aircraft have swept wings? One of many mysteries that won't be explained. The most fundamental and important principles swept under the rug. Other examples: How do holograms work, special relativity, DNA, computers, quantum mechanics. The official story, repeated without elaboration, is that swept wings prevent air from moving at supersonic speed in relation to the wing. Air bounced off the top off the wing (instead of flowing smoothly) generates heavy drag and a downward force. Incomplete at best.
Short Story March 12th, 2007 Loose Ends
Like a subtle shadow, the Time Probe returned before anyone knew it was back. Still wearing their period costumes, the infiltration team members were escorted to the debriefing chamber. One month later, the commander read his preliminary report to the waiting media, over the objections of the world's major religious leaders. "At last, we know the full truth about Jesus Christ. Following the approved approach pattern, we entered and explored 731 timelines that were identical to ours up to that point, taking care to make as few changes as possible. We found three men matching the general description who were active in Judea between A.D. 25 and 35. The best candidate had no apostles, but many followers. A heavy turnover at the periphery helped spread his message. He was a great storyteller." The screen showed an unfamiliar face. "Jesus of Madaba was not crucified, but strangled by one of his followers. He was secretly buried in the desert. Many legends immediately sprang up about his resurrection, and his followers kept the movement going. All the major stories were invented within ten years of his death. Paul of Tarsus belonged to a fringe group which revitalized the early church after it had already splintered." In the intense silence, the commander looked almost apologetic. "And that's all there is to it. The truth is really quite simple." The questions went on for more than three years.
Short Story March 11th, 2007 Connections
"Today, I have an extraordinary announcement to make. We have finally found the universe's missing matter. It's . . . nothing! The universe is filled with many small areas that are so empty they don't even contain space. One-meter wide bubbles, with NOTHING inside! Matter that enters such a bubble instantly passes through to the other side. The bubbles contain zero energy. Most of them have already been pushed out to intergalactic space." With a flourish, the spokesperson pulled a sheet off a large framework. It looked empty, until the assembled reporters saw a vast lens-like distortion on the wall behind. The spokesperson reached in, taking care to keep his hand level. There was a gasp from the audience as his hand was instantly cut off at the wrist. It reappeared one meter away, wriggling upside-down. He now had two left hands. There was some resistance as the sphere's curvature stretched his sinews, and his fingers felt numb. It took some effort to pull his hand back. "Most solid objects won't pass through the sphere," the spokesperson continued, "as they would have to be severely distorted." A thin plastic sheet moved through. It became a large bubble that refused to budge any further. "I have only one question:" a journalist said, "where did you find this thing?" "Two years ago it somehow passed through a passenger airliner in flight without doing much damage, but two people were inverted, and died soon thereafter. A remote submersible found the sphere on the seabed, where it stood out against the white sand. The sphere was already covered with a thin layer of organic molecules crossing through many times, twisted beyond recognition." Through a microscope, the tangled mass looked like moss. "This is where it gets interesting. The geometry of the chemical reactions takes a few months to stabilize, but then . . ." Zooming in, they saw the unmistakable spiral pattern of DNA.
Ultra Short Story March 10th, 2007 Quantum void
He was surrounded by the deepest, most absolute darkness he had ever seen or imagined. 'So you're telling me I'm in many places at once?' 'The uncertainty in your position is ten meters and rising. You are occupying all possible positions in that space. This is also how the universe expands, by the way.' 'So who am I talking to again?'
I've always thought the USA is the world's least bad country. March 9th, 2007
If there ever was another country that was less bad, I want to know about it. The situation is far from perfect. Every day, hundreds of thousands of animals are murdered for no good reason. You can't buy good paint brushes. Usually, the only form of public transportation is hitch-hiking. But often, the US is the only country willing (and able) to do the right thing, for idealistic reasons. Personally, I would have voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with certain conditions and stipulations. We know how well that turned out.
Evil government horror stories March 9th, 2007
Asset forfeiture: If you're even suspected of selling or using drugs, the Gov can confiscate the property where the drugs were found. Zoning laws: After spending many years paying high taxes based on the expected resale value, the authorities can instantly make your land worthless by restricting the ways it can be used. But at least they will refund all the high taxes you paid. The IRS: YOU are the criminal. If you're lucky, it won't hurt too bad.
From 'Doctors of Depravity' by Christopher Hudson (Daily Mail) March 9th, 2007
Does the US government own Japanese torture archives? Sometimes it's better not to be captured alive. - 'When commander Ishii wanted a human brain to experiment on, guards grabbed a prisoner and held him down while one of them cleaved open his skull with an ax.' During WW2, a secret government department in Japanese-occupied China took delight in experimenting on their subjects while they were still alive. The undercover medical experimentation unit of the Imperial Japanese Army was known as the Anti-Epidemic Water Supply and Purification Bureau - but the Japanese called it Unit 731. It was just one of many facilities were prisoners were abused and murdered. From 1936 to 1942 between 3,000 and 12,000 men, women and children died in Unit 731. Their suffering lasted longer than in the Nazi death camps - and not one prisoner survived. 'The fellow knew it was over for him, and so he didn't struggle when they led him into the room and tied him down. But when I picked up the scalpel, that's when he began screaming. I cut him open from the chest to the stomach and he screamed terribly, and his face was all twisted in agony. He made this unimaginable sound, he was screaming so horribly. But then finally he stopped.' Prisoners were exposed to phosgene gas to discover the effect on their lungs, or given electrical charges which slowly roasted them. Prisoners were decapitated in order for Japanese soldiers to test the sharpness of their swords. Limbs were amputated to study blood loss - and sometimes stitched back on the opposite sides of the body. Other victims had various parts of their brains, lungs or liver removed, or their stomach removed and their esophagus reattached to their intestines. Kamada remembered extracting the plague-infested organs of a fully conscious 'log' with a scalpel. 'I inserted the scalpel directly into the log's neck and opened the chest,' he said. 'At first there was a terrible scream, but the voice soon fell silent.' Other experiments involved hanging prisoners upside down to discover how long it took for them to choke to death, and injecting air into their arteries to test for the onset of embolisms. Some appear to have had no medical purpose except the administering of indescribable pain, such as injecting horse urine into prisoners' kidneys. On the frozen fields at Pingfan, prisoners were led out with bare arms and drenched with cold water to accelerate the freezing process. Their arms were then hit with a stick. If they gave off a hard, hollow ring, the freezing process was complete. Separately, naked men and women were subjected to freezing temperatures and then defrosted to study the effects of rotting and gangrene on the flesh. People were locked into high-pressure chambers until their eyes popped out, or they were put into centrifuges and spun to death like a cat in a washing machine. To study the effects of untreated venereal disease, male and female 'logs' were deliberately infected with syphilis. Ishii's victims were tied to stakes to find the best range for flame-throwers, or used to test grenades and explosives positioned at different angles and distances. They were used as targets to test chemical weapons; they were bombarded with anthrax. Ishii had prisoners' livers exposed to X-rays. Hirohito's younger brother toured the Unit, and noted in his memoirs that he saw films showing mass poison gas experiments on Chinese prisoners. Japan's prime minister Hideki Tojo presented an award to Ishii for his contribution in developing biological weapons After the war, nearly all the scientists at Unit 731 were freed. The American government wanted Ishii's biological warfare findings for itself. Lawyers for the International Prosecution Section gathered evidence which was sent directly to President Truman. That was the last that was heard of it.
Your papers - NOW! March 9th, 2007
If you want to board an airliner in the US, you will need to produce a government approved Identification Document. It's not a policy, it's the law. In a few years, under REAL ID, your driver's license will have to meet tough new federal standards. Already, many governments worldwide use such requirements to prevent disfavored groups and individuals from traveling or living. The public seems to think it's perfectly reasonable and quite proper that you need government permission to travel, own real estate, or listen to the radio (Howard Stern expects his listeners to produce their birth certificates, in order to get a state-licensed form of ID, in order to get a bank account, in order to get a Sirius account. He sees no problem with this whatsoever.). Of course, the airlines could and should search passengers for weapons and dangerous items. Additionally, since I'm already out in public, there's nothing to prevent them from photographing me, and use facial recognition software to make sure I'm not an Asian terrorist. I could suggest better subjects.
Some of my favorite music March 8th, 2007
Not a genre, but a style . . . Techno remixes The KLF Scooter LA STYLE Vangelis Jean Michel Jarre Enigma Alanis Morissette - Crazy The Game - hate it or love it T.I. - What you know 2 Unlimited Enya
THE PSYCHOPATHIC SCHOOL - The Failure of Modern Public Education - By John Taylor Gatto March 7th, 2007
Absolutely nothing has improved since this article was written more than a decade ago. In my experience, school was worse than worthless. The sad state of math education is one of the hundred greatest scandals of our time. Fortunately a solution is being implemented: massive new taxes.
(no subject) March 7th, 2007
Buy it here: http://www.lulu.com/content/429825 Direct link to the staggeringly brilliant novel mentioned in the previous post.
The future of China March 6th, 2007
80% of the population lives in Third World conditions, with famine still a possibility. The government remains strictly authoritarian, with no plans to change. If anything, they would like to find a way to increase central control. They have no original ideas, and don't think they need any. There are only a few 'real' Chinese companies, run by entrepreneurs who've learned to play the system. They're often at the mercy of corrupt bureaucrats. Except for a few regions, China has no independent media, no national magazines, no significant entertainment industry. A shared national culture would threaten the leadership. Western ideas like democracy won't be adopted there without extensive modifications. More likely, China will eventually change under the influence of a new ideology, but only after economic reforms, which might take a while. If so, this ideology is likely being created right now, perhaps a combination of progressive concepts, like open source, resource conservation, cellular networks, and so on. At this point, very few people would even care.
Healthcare rant March 5th, 2007
Many commentators and pundits (Krugman, Quindlen, the late Ivins) assume(d) the medical-industrial complex should work with the government to hide the true cost of healthcare. It's simply too important to have a price tag. Therefore, it should be 'free'. It goes without saying that healthcare is infinitely more valuable than the time of those who are forced to pay for it. The people who have to get up early for a high-stress commute to a crap job are utterly insignificant compared to an extra day of life for someone they will never meet, even if it costs a million dollars. In fact, they should be ashamed they aren't working even harder, so they can pay more taxes! In a USA TODAY/Kaiser/ABC poll of 1,201 Americans taken by telephone in September 2006, 40% of the respondents said a terminally ill person should be kept alive as long as possible, REGARDLESS OF THE COST. As far as many mainstream commentators are concerned, the matter is not open for discussion. It's off the table. Often, no importance is attached to the quality of the time gained, just life itself. In this sense, Democrats are the strongest pro-lifers, though Republicans are catching up fast. - This brings us to the core issue. There are many patients who can't afford the unbelievably expensive treatments developed in the past fifty years. A heart transplant costs more than many patients could hope to earn in a lifetime, and that's just the beginning. Charity could pay for some treatment, especially if the recipient is photogenic enough, but it doesn't always work. Many potential donors would prefer to keep the money for themselves. They seem to think they need it more. That's where the government steps in. It helps itself to trillions of dollars, and gives it to healthcare firms. It costs $ 70.000 per year to maintain the average dementia sufferer in a nursing home. Many 'preemies' need dozens of surgeries, requiring tens of thousands of person-hours, in actual labor and years of study and other preparation. Keeping someone alive for their final year of life can be as expensive as a house - nationally, about $ 75.000.000.000,00 per year in added Medicare costs alone. In many cases, these expenses are worth it. People voluntarily pay them without a thought. Usually, the taxpayer pays, directly or in the form of hidden fees (see my post of Feb 22, 'The health insurance nightmare': http://whatwedontknow.livejournal.com/2007/02/22/#item17907) In most cases, they wouldn't voluntarily buy this type of insurance, but they have no choice, except the one they made at the ballot box. Instead, should we just let some people die? Yes. There are many things that many people desperately want. I want the government to spend one quadrillion dollars on me, so I can live forever! I demand the money now! I guarantee it would be well spent. There's just one problem. A case could be made that I don't have the moral right to make people work extremely hard for my benefit, under unpleasant conditions, if they REALLY don't want to do that. They may be sympathetic to my needs, but they still have their own priorities. Does that give me the right to steal their money, property, and freedom? Krugman thinks the State should decide the priorities. His plan would still be cheaper than what we have now. We already allow billions of people to die prematurely. Few tears are shed for the impoverished masses of the Third World. Millions of suicides each year could be avoided or delayed simply by giving them money. Other people can't afford the cheap tests, check-ups, and medications that would add years to their lives. - Perhaps the government could contribute up to $ 10.000 per year per patient. Beyond that, private insurance would take over (perhaps pooled through a federal agency, but that's a different subject). Private insurance has some problems of its own: genetic diagnosis and other tests could tell an insurer how much healthcare a specific policy holder will likely need, allowing them to charge higher premiums for sicker patients. Currently, insurers often have to accept everyone, but that's just another hidden fee. Every effort should be made to make healthcare cheaper, by any means necessary. As a last resort there is only charity. Preferably, it would be a voluntary alliance like the March of Dimes, with one major change. To create a stronger incentive than mere goodwill, it could keep track of who gives how much, as a percentage of their income. If you don't donate, you won't receive.
The Judicial Accountability Initiative Law (J.A.I.L.) March 4th, 2007
A national organization wants to pass laws that would make it legal to sue judges for fraud, rulings that violate established laws, violation of due process, disregarding material facts, ruling without jurisdiction, and interference and unreasonable delays. At the moment, the only democratic recourse against unpopular rulings is a 'retention vote', which some lower judges have to face every few years. - The info in this posting and the next two comes from: http://community.livejournal.com/against_d_grain/ A long list of sometimes outrageous claims. People think that if it was true, the mainstream media would publicize it.
Tor March 4th, 2007
Tor is a toolset to help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, and other applications using the TCP protocol. It uses a chain of 'proxies' maintained by volunteers. Tor can help people in various types of dictatorships find objective information. Intended for whistleblowers, abused spouses, etc. http://tor.eff.org/
The 'Digital Transition Content Security Act' March 4th, 2007
This law could put you in jail for using your own hardware in your own home. The 'Analog Hole' bill would force every video digitizing device in America to obey a proprietary signal embedded in video broadcasts. It could destroy your files at the whim of a studio executive. https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=207
Follow up: no human ever killed by a meteor? March 2nd, 2007
On February 8 2007, in Rajasthan State, India, two or three nomads sorting scrap metal were allegedly killed by a meteor impact. Nearby survivors say they saw something falling from the sky, and a crater was formed. There should be evidence if it was made by a meteorite. Nothing further has been heard about the story. It could have been a land mine or a fuel tank explosion. Officially, we still don't know of any humans killed by extraterrestrial impacts, but it has probably happened to several of the hundred billion people who have lived on this planet.
Hyper-Short Story March 1st, 2007 Identity theft
"Yes, hello, someone has duplicated my personality, and is using the copy to steal my assetz. As a precaution, I wish to close my account at Quantum Bank, and transfer all my funds to OffWorld LLC."
Hyper-Short Story March 1st, 2007 Sky Serpent
"Incredible!" Tom exclaimed, looking up at the huge form gyrating among the clouds, as shadows rolled over its glittering scales. "If dragons are real, how come . . ?" "By pure chance, no one was looking in the right direction at the right time," came the reply.
Hyper-Short Story March 1st, 2007
"So you're telling me that atoms made with stable muons are one hundred times larger than ordinary atoms made with electrons?" The answer was drowned out by a deafening bark from the huge barn at the edge of the Scaling Services Inc. compound.
The life after death research project: part one February 28th, 2007
There are reasons to believe death is NOT necessarily the end of awareness. Simple logic reveals some surprising possibilities. If we're willing to make a few reasonable assumptions, our minds could continue after our bodies are destroyed. - According to the novel 'Permutation City' by Greg Egan, you can't die. There's always a possible universe in which you somehow survive everything that happens to you. Your life simply gets more and more bizarre as time marches on. Eventually, you turn into software. - Minds can be described as numbers. Every possible number exists. What matters is their frequency distribution. Everything we do, every long-term goal and principle, is ultimately an attempt to change the basic laws of statistics. Apparently reality has a quantum bias, in which many very similar possibilities are realized in parallel, and allowed to interfere. This type of universe seems easy to realize, while generating many observers. One way humans could be resurrected would be as false memories in other people, or as fragments of thoughts. Greg Egan suggested these fragments may self-assemble into consistent timelines, but there are many things that could go wrong. The ideal target universe would be more organized, creating high-quality simulations of people who previously lived, probably using quantum computers. Is there a way we could control this process to change the likely way we would be recreated? The first step would be to become a type of mind a target society would want to recreate. I explain this concept in my novel, and it will be a major theme of the sequel.
A future religion February 28th, 2007
Apparently people need to believe in 'something' higher than them, within sharply circumscribed limits - i.e. it has to be useful in some way. They could decide to worship the highest entity or principle in existence, without knowing what it was, but it would probably be something utterly meaningless to humans. It would certainly have to be infinite. Conceivably, a 'highest' principle may not exist, since it's always possible to imagine something bigger. Perhaps worship will be shifted to the 'highest applicable aspiration'. It's a good principle, but there's no evidence any higher intelligence could consistently interact with our level (one of the lowest there is). The only way humanity could meaningfully interact with a supreme mind might be to try to become it.
A storm is coming February 28th, 2007
In the coming decades, tens of millions of Baby Boomers are scheduled to retire. to pay the full menu of promised entitlement benefits the politicians have thoughtfully legislated, we are all going to have to work incredibly hard. For almost half a century, tens of trillions of dollars will be redistributed. When it's all over, the survivors will have the satisfaction of having completed a wealth transfer project more expensive than every war in history combined (in nominal dollars). - This might seem like a good time to save funds for the upcoming spend-a-palooza, but instead our beloved leaders are cranking up the national debt to previously undreamt of levels.
No legally backed Digital Rights Management under any circumstances February 28th, 2007
If the only way to sell it, is to cripple it, then I don't want it. Not even if it means the end of all professionally made media. No more blockbuster movies, bestseller books, or hit music would be a tiny price to pay for the end of DRM. It goes without saying that many companies will always cripple their content, no matter what. They exist to make profit, and there are many ways to restrict access. In the USA the biggest problem is not the crippling itself, but the fact that, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, un-crippling the content you purchased yourself could lead to a knock on your door, followed by the sound of a battering ram.
Edwards' payday February 26th, 2007
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards owns a sprawling $4.3 million mansion with attached gymnasium/guest house. The different parts of his estate are connected by a walkway, with rest facilities in the middle, in case you get tired walking from one end of the house to the other. Before entering politics, Edwards was a very successful trial lawyer. His money comes from grateful consumers, paid in the form of higher prices, to cover the jury awards to compensate the victims of the manufacturer's allegedly defective products. In civil suits, the lawyer receives a large percentage (maybe a third) of any monetary award. If they lose the case, they get nothing. The question is whether the services of trial lawyers like Edwards are so unique only a few people can perform them, meaning the rewards have to be huge to attract qualified individuals. Why can't everyone be trained as a lawyer? If the law was simplified by removing all special interest provisions, costs and consequences could become more predictable.
Transgender pronouns February 26th, 2007
An increasing number of men have had plastic surgery in an attempt to pass for women. They suffer from a widely recognized psychological condition, which makes them feel as if they were born as the wrong gender. Usually, it manifests itself in childhood. There are also some women who wish they were born male. It is politically correct for other people to go along with their transition. When the New York Times, or any other media outlet, publishes an article about a gentleman who now looks like a lady, they use words like 'she' and 'her', as if s/he had really changed genders. A few people who dislike the transgendered refer to them as 'it'. In many states, it is legal to marry former men who now resemble women (not in Texas); but many men would be unpleasantly surprised to learn their girlfriend used to be a he. Apparently, the famous columnist 'Dear Abby' doesn't think there would be anything wrong with that. She seems to believe that if a man had to choose between dating a natural born woman or a surgically created one, he should just flip a coin. After all, legally speaking they both have the same status. The man should be ashamed of his biases. For once, he is expected to look only skin deep, and allow the transgendered individual to define reality. The fact is that not every man would agree. The discovery of such a deception is often associated with violence, one of the leading causes of death for the transgendered (suicide is another one). Many men would prefer a 'real' woman, even if she can't get pregnant, or doesn't look or act as feminine as someone who had a sex change. Gender lines aren't completely fixed. There are many cases of people who unknowingly carry the chromosomes of the opposite sex. After a certain age, gender differences become less important (but their behavior stays different). The transgendered would prefer to blend in without a trace, but they can't escape their past. Essentially, they are a 'third sex', with equal rights as the other two, incorporating elements (DNA, ways of thinking, experience, appearance) from both. A compromise is in order. We need new pronouns, perhaps combining existing ones in a creative way. Suggestions: s/he he/r wo/man
9 Things The Non-Tech Savvy Do That Annoy Geeks! February 26th, 2007
http://www.spiraloz.com/?p=143 I was surprised by the Digg members response to this article. Almost without exception, they criticized inexperienced users for not knowing how to operate software. Apparently, they are expected to learn by osmosis, by silently watching experts out of the corners of their eyes. Ideally, every program would have only a few functions when first installed, but in reality there's a complex startup screen filled with random symbols. Often, there is no instruction manual, and no attempt at logical interface design. The greatest insult in software design is the so-called 'Help" button. Even the simplest possible software tool is usually missing: a list of all functions. - Those 'in the know' often don't try to simplify their field. Education is one of the world's more intractable problems. We've barely made any progress since the dark ages. There has been little research in how to organize information in such a way it can be easily learned. All the research is in how to create a suitable teaching environment.
What should be done about illegal immigrants? February 26th, 2007
On the one hand: immediately expel them! On the other hand: no one should be required to identify themselves, not even to get a job. - Immigration, illegal or otherwise, should be governed by the same rules as life in general. The principle of parity should apply. Ideally, the number of Americans moving to foreign countries would be the same as the number of foreigners arriving. The ratio could be adjusted to reflect employment opportunities, and different economic impact. Already, many wealthier Americans are retiring to Mexico, a trend that should be encouraged.
The reason for anti-Semitism February 26th, 2007
It's a form of jealousy, the most underestimated emotion. People can be completely immoral, but they are very good at finding rationalizations. It makes perfect sense from an evolutionary viewpoint. When a distinct group becomes advanced enough, a zero-sum calculation takes place among its rivals. The converse, anti-gentilism would not make sense for a minority group.
A list of things that will NEVER happen: February 26th, 2007
-Another supersonic passenger plane. The first SST's were technically successful, but they used way too much fuel. The Tupolev 160 would have made a nice long-range airliner. -Humans living on another planet -flying cars
Government horror story February 26th, 2007
In Florida, wheelchair-bound Richard Paey was arrested with a large supply of illegally acquired prescription painkillers. He explained he needed the medications to alleviate his chronic pain, and was sentenced to 25 (taxpayer funded) years behind bars. The justice system has no further interest in addressing his case. There are many other cases like his.
A challenge to God February 25th, 2007
Most holy books are thousands of years old. They describe conversations between people and gods, who were active participants in the events they helped shape. The stories are told in a formal language using very simple concepts, suitable for children and adults alike. If God existed, he could easily send an unmistakable signal. It's the least we could ask for, if any of the religions were true. God should turn around the moon. Reverse the side that faces Earth. It would not affect the tides, and the moon would still look about the same, but the world's scientists would be utterly unable to explain such an event.
Proxy bypassing February 22nd, 2007
You can turn your PC into a proxy server to bypass government censorship. Download the software at psiphon.civisec.org
The health insurance nightmare February 22nd, 2007
Healthcare costs are out of control. We need a Wal-Mart solution, a cheap, no-frills free market solution for the most common healthcare products, including regular check-ups, 'assembly-line' surgical techniques, and generic drugs. Someone should start such a company. There's only one problem: the police would shoot them dead. (Actually, they would attempt to take them into custody.) It would be highly illegal to insure only a limited menu of healthcare services. The reason is something called mandated coverage. Every health insurance firm in the US, and in most other countries, is required to pay for a long list of staggeringly expensive treatments. These include infertility treatments, unbelievably expensive end-of-life maintenance, transplants, and certain mental health services. Two years in a nursing home cost as much as a brand-new house. A minority of people need insanely expensive healthcare to survive, and everyone else is expected to pay for them, not by direct taxes, but hidden in the form of astronomical premiums. Otherwise, they would almost certainly not be able to afford these treatments, and in some cases die much sooner. This policy does benefit the elderly and those with chronic conditions. Most healthcare is purchased at the end of life, to delay death by a few months. Even without these mandates healthcare would be very expensive, but combined with increased efficiency it could certainly become cheaper, perhaps even by 50%. If a group of people decided to take their chances, forgo the more expensive treatments, and instead tried to make the most useful services more affordable, the government would attack them. The fact that more people have to die because they can't afford ANY health insurance is irrelevant from a political standpoint.
The art of successful world building February 22nd, 2007
It would be nice if more stories could be set in the same open-source universe, where everyone could add their own ideas without conflicting with those of others. Maybe it could be based on the theory of parallel universes, with plenty of connections. Extremely detailed in some ways, it would be vague about the general outline, while including previously existing island worlds, which would remain isolated. Like Star Wars, it would benefit from having many clearly recognizable characters.
The end of news: Part Two February 22nd, 2007
9/11 was about humiliation. It was incredibly successful, causing trillions of dollars of damage. The terrorists wanted and got their own version of the Raid on Entebbe. They don't want to dilute the effect with new attacks, but there are more targets than ever before. The Eiffel Tower weighs barely more than one floor of the World Trade Center. I wouldn't want to work in the Pentagon. It's almost impenetrable, but if there's a weakness, it will be found. The next real news event may be something we can't imagine. If Iran or Pakistan don't blow up, it may not involve the muslim world at all; perhaps a war in Africa, the former Soviet Union, or Indochina; a hoax or a stupid crisis; a new idea like software integration; an economic alliance in Asia. In this century, humanity may change into a new form, or become extinct.
Arthur C. Clarke February 22nd, 2007
'2001: A Space Odyssey' had completely accurate science extrapolation, from the first sentence of the introduction: "Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living." Almost as good as seeing the future for real. In 1983 I didn't even know that was possible, and it remains rare. Completely different from other SF, though Larry Niven came close. The first Rama novel was described as a 'prose diagram', but every word serves a purpose. It's about things we can barely be aware of, and never reach, putting mankind in its proper place. My favorite part is where the vast space cylinder loops around the sun. I don't think the second to fourth books 'count' in the continuity, they're a different series entirely. I had the impression the Rama spacecraft was built by a race so advanced they gave up awareness. It was sent to colonize a nearby dwarf galaxy. One reviewer described it as the ultimate communist society. Everything is part of a trillion year plan.
Oort Cloud February 22nd, 2007
http://www.oort-cloud.org/ Oort Cloud is a new "social publishing" site for science fiction. Authors put their work online for critique, learn what readers are interested in, and share opinions about new trends and ideas.
Two-Sentence Short Story February 22nd, 2007
In an effort to encourage the badly neglected ultra-short-story format, here's a two-sentence story. "Hoping to set mankind free from scarcity and conflict, I have created a self-expanding universe, where objects can be created, but not destroyed," Professor Xeox explained, as he generated piles of furniture, cars, and gourmet food by typing the appropriate codes. The investigators never learned which of the venture capitalists had been the greediest, since the rain of coins destroyed all the evidence.
Counterfactual speculation: World War Three February 21st, 2007
We can't begin to imagine the endless possibilities in reality. In our universe, humanity flirted with mass suicide during the Cold War. The risk to every human who lived during that period was comparable to at least a decade of normal driving. The initial death toll of a US/USSR strategic exchange would have been less than a billion, with most of the third world relatively untouched. Nuclear winter would have lasted only a few weeks, followed by several unusually cold summers. Agriculture would continue, but become much less efficient, and distribution networks would collapse. The first year would have brought vast refugee camps, and mass suicides. Fallout cancer and epidemics would have caused at least a billion deaths, and various economic disruptions would have killed another billion, for a combined 70% human mortality rate. The end result would likely have been a new world order, in which all nations would be subordinate to the UN. Civilization would not have returned to pre-war levels until 2100.
Counterfactual scenarios: World War Two February 21st, 2007
Could Germany and Japan have won World War Two? Absolutely. All sides came close to using poison and nerve gas, and biotoxins like anthrax, but the technology wasn't quite ready. If it had been, deterrence could have halted all fighting in months. The USSR would never have surrendered, but eventually collapsed, with Stalin likely executed. Fascism would have established a chain of stable puppet regimes The nuclear stalemate could have lasted until the present day.
Memo to Microsoft: go to heck! February 20th, 2007
This time they've gone too far. My secondhand computer won't let me 'reactivate' my own program, claiming it's already installed on another computer. Combined with all the other things that haven't worked, this is the breaking point. Never again in my lifetime will I buy another Microsoft product. It would be better if this company didn't exist.
Could Scientology be true? February 20th, 2007
There is ample evidence Scientology has ruined many lives. The public doesn't realize how bad things can get inside. They use totalitarian methods, break up families, and waste their members most productive years. This cult is poopy. They won't change until there's a fully documented list of all their wrongdoings, which may never happen. The legal process is not known for its speed and efficiency. Maybe talking about problems in a mechanical way, combined with mindless drills, could have some benefits. It's a form of psychotherapy, without any scientific checks or balances. In the future the process could be automated and controlled by software (like ELIZA), or by small groups.
Why quantum mechanics is necessary February 20th, 2007
We are all doomed. There's an infinite number of things that can and will go wrong. Eventually, life will always reach a dead end. Quantum theory offers the possibility of a random escape, however improbable. Even if we cease to exist in almost all possible universes, in at least one of them, we go on.
POLYGAMY February 19th, 2007
It's surprising how many people are willing to defend polygamy, even though they don't practice it themselves. Under this system, a man takes many (or at least two) young wives. The practice was popularized in the HBO series Big Love. In the US, at least 30.000 wives are married to 10.000 husbands. While it remains illegal, it's no longer prosecuted. They're only the tip of the iceberg: the most common form is called serial monogamy. Successful men have a series of younger girlfriends throughout their lives, while less successful men have to stay single (unless they like older ladies, or are gay - another reason to support gay marriage!). http://www.geohive.com/earth/pop_gender.aspx Right now, there are 33,000,000 more men than women. In the United Arab Emirates there are more than TWICE as many (3,063,000 versus 1,433,000) There are twice as many men of reproductive age than women.
(no subject) February 19th, 2007
The defenders of the various forms of polygamy counter that celibacy never killed anyone. It can be very frustrating, but urges can be controlled, though it may lead to increased water usage from cold showers. Heavy exercise also helps, or channeling all energies into creative work. The opposite of polygamy is called polyandry. The most common type is known as prostitution. We have ample evidence it's harmful for women, though perhaps a new type could be invented. 'Sex workers' usually don't like their jobs, but they have no alternative.
(no subject) February 19th, 2007
There is a simple solution. If a group wants to practice polygamy, they should use sex selection, by aborting their male fetuses. There's no evidence fetuses have feelings, at least in the early stages of pregnancy. Their nervous systems are much less developed than those of animals, and our society has no compunction killing those in vast numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if women would eventually oppose such a practice, in the unlikely event it were adopted. Instead, polygamous groups prefer to expel their surplus men, as the FLDS movement does in Colorado City, Utah. It would be easy to legalize polygamy over the age of 60, and it might even be beneficial, but the point is they want to marry YOUNG women. It appears that in this respect, the world may never be fair.
As far as we know ... February 18th, 2007
no human has ever had sex in space. no human has ever been killed by a meteor.
Abortion: part 2 February 18th, 2007
Suppose a certain region had a serious population shortage; a surplus of jobs, a top-heavy population pyramid, and lots of vacant real estate. Needless to say, there is no such region in this world. It's much easier to make new people than to create infrastructure, services, products. It's arguably the hardest to make a living in the regions with the strongest abortion restrictions (Latin America, Africa, South Dakota). Conceivably, an unprecedented epidemic could wipe out millions of people, or the birth rate might fall so much there wouldn't be enough workers to pay Social Security benefits. In that case I believe the Supreme Court would allow abortion restrictions, or even impose them.
What could I.T. be? February 17th, 2007
Author James A. Conrad offers for sale an illustrated document stored on a micro flash drive. The initials of the file are 'IT', and the asking price is $3.5 million. The 202-page, single-spaced report presents a newly discovered 'U.S. political-religious controversy', the 'placement of hidden irreverent religious information' that will cause 'loss of religious-based political supporters in the U.S.' A major problem for the Republican party if true. It's either a 'political-religious inside joke,' a 'super-extraordinary set of coincidences', or an actual miracle.
10 reasons you should never get a jerb? February 17th, 2007 http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/
Could it really be that easy? To become an independent contractor takes a lot of time. If everyone was a contractor, our lives would be much more diverse. We would work in many more places with many more people, and have to travel a lot more. In some ways, it would resemble successful communism. But what if there's no commercial market for the thing you want to do the most? A job can be a brain-dead way to generate income, so you can save your energy for what really matters.
abortion ... February 17th, 2007
Slate magazine recently discussed some of the concerns of the pro-life movement, specifically the rights of stem cells, and how to balance them against the desire for medical progress. Many fetuses are spontaneously aborted in the early stages of pregnancy. This is arguably the largest cause of death in the human species. Shouldn't the entire economy be reorganized to keep those embryos alive, no matter what the cost? It already happens on a limited scale, but the effort could be increased. Vast hospital complexes and nursing homes would try to avoid miscarriages, and care for millions of malformed individuals who would otherwise not have had the chance to live at all. The workers and taxpayers supporting this infrastructure would face a grim life of endless toil and poverty, ever rising taxes, the promise of only more hardships ahead. But it would save billions of human lives, and no scientist denies that life starts at conception (actually, it starts even before then!).
How to solve homelessness (but it won't be allowed) February 17th, 2007
It would be relatively cheap to give everyone a minimal size starter home, perhaps a few square meters. The owner would then have an incentive to add modular rooms. Millions of homeless persons have such severe mental illnesses they can't complete even the simplest tasks, but they're in the minority. I believe humans evolved to take small steps. That's not always allowed in Western countries - which I think explains our lower fertility rate - and is often impossible elsewhere. It's hard to keep up with all the rules, so anything that simplifies life helps, whether it's having more babies or less, depending on the expected costs and benefits.
Homelessness: society's choice February 17th, 2007
There's no reason for homelessness. We have the technology to solve it, and always have. Society simply decided a percentage of the population will not be permitted to live inside, by passing laws that make the cheapest housing too expensive, or make it harder to earn a living. There is no low cost housing available for the same reason there is no low cost medical care. Society wants to encourage a minimal quality standard, forcing people to work harder than strictly necessary. Fear is a useful motivator, but the threat has to be credible to be effective. Seeing others down on their luck also makes some people feel superior. Funny enough, many homeless persons themselves voted for the politicians who passed the laws and regulations restricting the available options, and will continue to do so. Many others never voted at all...
Evolution in action February 17th, 2007
There's been a recent wave of alimony/child support horror stories. Often the person forced to pay alimony isn't the father, but usually there was a sexual relationship. The person still has to pay a set amount each month. If he loses his job or income, he is expected to get another job, or go to jail. Excuses are not accepted. For many ex-husbands it's a dead-end existence, working several jobs to live in a dump. In our society, as in all others, lives can be destroyed for no reason. Defenders of the current system will point out that many deadbeat fathers effortlessly evade the system. They could have used birth control, but didn't care, and care even less about the consequences. The worst offenders have more children, and pass on their genes.
A new age February 6th, 2007
Why does the world suck? Reality should be more like Star Trek. What would it take to create a world without poverty, and enough free time for everybody? The first step is simple: it's time to realize THE PAST SUCKS. We need change for its own sake. The easiest change would be to make the world more transparent. Humanity needs a worldwide property registry, which would include every piece of real estate, business, and land use right. Poopy governments would still have the authority to steal people's land and meager possessions, but it would be harder to hide their actions. Some other completely random suggestions to change the world: -A public database of everyone alive with a brief biography -A World Passport -Keep revising and improving the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, without bestowing new rights that repressive governments would ignore anyway.
Make money at home in your spare time doing nothing February 6th, 2007
All get rich quick schemes have one thing in common. They attempt to acquire existing wealth from other people, who did the hard work of creating it. Usually the plans involve reselling cheap merchandise, or repetitive tasks any machine could do. It seems like a wonderful solution for desperate people. What if everyone tried to follow their schemes? The scams work for the same reason so many people want to be artists: there are no barriers to entry. If you're self-employed, your boss doesn't insist on social skills, a rigid schedule, or complex paperwork. A REAL get rich quick scheme would still work if everyone followed it. Ideally, it would be Open Source, and increase the number of contacts between people who otherwise have nothing in common.
Jury duty horror stories January 31st, 2007
Involuntary servitude - a privilege? In the American system of law, and in a few other countries, a group of randomly selected citizens decides if a defendant is guilty of a crime. They have to show up at their own expense, and have no control over what happens next, except how it ends. A judge runs the courtroom, and the jurors just sit there and listen. Some cases last months. Many jurors have to pay for their own parking, and aren't reimbursed enough to pay for transportation. Lawyers and courtroom professionals are paid very well, but the people making the ultimate decision aren't. In my two encounters with the 'justice system' the lawyers wasted a staggering amount of time, not for the jurors' benefit, but for the appeal judges' convenience. Jurors have been fined and jailed for yawning or falling asleep, for talking back, for watching the news in their own homes, for faking illnesses and simply not showing up.
Fundamental problems part 1 January 27th, 2007
Why do so many people want to be artists, actors, models, musicians? Not because these jobs are more fun. They simply have the lowest barriers to entry. People can start right now, and visualize the next step. They can always back out. If I wanted to be a plumber, I'd have to pay in advance to go to community college. Like so many things in life, it's all or nothing.
The end of news January 25th, 2007
9/11 was the end of news. We may never again experience anything remotely as dramatic or unexpected. The boredom since then, purchased at a high price, was the main reason Bush was reelected in 2004. The War on Terror may not end until it's grown as stale as the Cold War, and everyone forgets the original reason. By fighting the enemy long enough, it's possible to inadvertently change him into a stable state.
So now what? January 24th, 2007
What needs to happen first? Good fences make good neighbors. Iraq need more barriers between towns, neighborhoods, even streets. The borders between the three main ethnic groups are long and tangled, with enclaves everywhere. There will always be plenty of traffic between them. They need an exchange policy, with Shiite officers working with Sunni police brigades, and the reverse. It would be idealistic and hard to set up. The civil war would have been less bad with a divide and rule strategy from the start. To preserve their pride, Bush could have kept the existing institutions in place, and try to reform them instead of abolishing ministries and firing the army and police. Instead of boring the population with elections, the new Iraqi president could have been chosen by acclamation, with a reduced term of office. He (always a 'he') wouldn't have been appointed until the ethnic groups could agree on an acceptable figure.
Not that hard? January 24th, 2007
The goal for Iraq is so simple it has never been mentioned. A country where an average tourist from anywhere in the world could walk or ride a bike along the entire course of the Tigris river without being decapitated ten times. How this goal is reached doesn't matter. This new Iraq wouldn't have to be an American client state. It may not be possible until everyone who lives there has died of old age or other reasons.
Iraq is doomed January 24th, 2007
The reason America was successful is because it started over from scratch. There's nothing like settling a continent to distract a population. Iraq's feuding ethnic groups are crowded in the most fertile regions. They could use their oil wealth and massive international aid to develop a chain of new cities and towns in the desert. Some would welcome all ethnic groups who would agree to start over. At first they couldn't be connected to each other, and the paranoia would increase.
The best hard SF novel ever: Infinite Thunder by Jack Arcalon.