Spelunking the Universe
Archive for August, 2009
The Power of a Proper Education
Aug 24th
The US and likely most people who are attached to the capitalist system believe that money can heal all wounds. However as nice as that would be it is generally not the case. It is incredibly pleasant for me to see that I’m not the only person that sees this and indeed I’m not the only one that sees the true cure for many many wounds.
The one of the two fellows who spoke at my Graduation Ceremony mentioned that he was running a project to educate Kenyans. This project wasn’t to throw money at them, nor to throw food at them, nor to assign them to any subjective system of beliefs for personal gain. This was and is a system that I can strongly support, the idea of educating the uneducated.
There are no negatives to a proper education, it helps expand the understanding of the world around us as well as our own bodies. A proper education can and will provide people with a better personal attitude. Unfortunately in the US we’ve got small groups of people fighting a proper education in order to push their subjective systems of belief (again for personal gain). But as Mr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson has stated before, nations that break away from scientific discovery also break away from financial security, and he has said that this is why we will never nationally support the destruction of scientific theory or a proper education, rich folk don’t want to die poor.
But back to Africa. There are three major things that every person not only needs but they deserve, without exception. These three major things are Healthcare, Housing, and an Education. There is absolutely no exception at all period. Now I am a bit loose with Housing, because I actually include food under that domain but if we wanted to expand so it was less abuse able, you could say “Healthcare, Housing, Sustenance, and Education.” Regardless all these things are required for a nation to be just and if it doesn’t have ANY piece of these, regardless which one, it is an unfair and unjust society.
In the case of Africa they are largely missing all four. However the foundation for this pyramid is Education, above all else. Without an education the people are left to believe not what is true but what is most convincing, the most charismatic or more likely the most violent rule in lands that are lacking in education. Many times these people are not the best people for the job. With an education comes an understanding of proper healthcare and proper home construction techniques. Renewable systems of living are also built in the architecture of education so that people do not strip the land they live in bare and end up greatly diminishing their chances of survival.
I could go on and on, but it is quite simple, if a nation is to succeed financially and quite frankly in any other sense (even *bleh* morally) they must have a strong and legitimate educational system. Such a system is not a democracy either, just because you do not like Gravity does not mean it doesn’t exist. But that’s a post for another time.
Video Games, God, and Creationism.
Aug 12th
There is something remarkable about video games. The sheer scope of what can be done even in the simplest of senses is astounding. Frogger even presented you with a universe (however small) where you interacted with a moving environment and dealt with ever present adversity. From there it has gotten all the more complicated, with creatures and characters becoming more and more lifelike. Spore even presented an entire universe that was diverse, sure the game play was as stale as year old bread, but it was a diverse universe regardless.
So I’ve been thinking, relatively recently, about what this plays in the understanding of creationism. Creatures in video games are alive, but they are alive just because, the creator said they are alive and thusly they are alive. There are no complex mechanics within their bodies, they are solid blocks that function just because. They are held to the ground not by gravity but instead because the creator says they are held to the ground. When they eat the food just vanishes, it doesn’t flow through a series of complex systems. The sun above shines just because, there is no complex system of physics going on in the background.
These systems exist as they do because they were created. There is absolutely no reason to add organs, if you are creating all the laws of a universe you do not need them. There is no reason to make the sun complex, it can be just as beautiful as our own just because. Indeed the suns in Spore are stunning. Water can be gorgeous just because, trees can be there just because, and indeed all live can exist just because. It doesn’t have to degenerate, there is no necessity for cancer, and with the proper knowledge even intelligence can exist just because. It does not require an incredibly complicated interconnected system to function, it can just be. Yes sure the code can be a little complicated but even that gets ever more streamlined as the understanding of creating grows for people. There is nothing stopping us from making something ultimately incredibly and infinitely simple but time.
To me this is the big problem with creationism. It is not to say that a creator couldn’t just be very terrible at their job, that’s true, perhaps they added in a bunch of systems because they are batshit stupid. That’s fine and I can accept that. However it could not go hand in hand with being all powerful, all knowing, or all anything. These sort of mistakes are almost below human, they are insanely complicated mechanics to pull off tricks that could be as easy as a single switch. The sun is the sun because it is the sun and it glows because it is the sun. There should be no underlying mechanics beyond that. If there is that is a very distinct example of poor coding.
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
– Antoine de Saint-Exuper
So that is my problem I think. We exist in a fantastically imperfect universe and are fantastically imperfect beings. For each reason there is a previous reason and for each of those reason their exists a previous reason. All of these are unnecessary and should really boil down to “because”. The problem is that our universe does not function on a single “because” yet we try to explain it as such outside of science. That to me shows a severe disconnect between fantasy and reality.
To think, that sort of thought all stemming from a bout of World of Warcraft. Goes to show that gaming really is rotting my brain.
Why “Anti” is the ignorant approach to Abortion and the proper approach.
Aug 8th
Now I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of killing anyone. I find it highly unfortunate that we at times place ourselves in situations where people are killed or where it becomes difficult to support the sustained life of a certain person. It’s a shame and indeed is a global problem.
However on that note of killing there is another major problem with (at the very least) the US’s general take on problems. Militant cures to social problems has been an issue that has unfortunately reared its ugly head many times in the short History of the US. We often have situations that require a small amount of regulation and instead assault them with a violent fervor that is unnecessary and in the end entirely destructive and unhelpful.
While this might look like its obviously leading to any of our various failed “wars on X” I’m actually looking more so at Abortion. Abortion is an issue that we are told is very much on the forefront of people’s minds, I disagree, I do think though that it is largely blown out of proportion and discussion on it are wrought with misinformation and deception.
When looking at a problem that you see the first response should not be to outlaw it. Outlawing something does nothing to lessen the issue. The people who would have done it will still do it, the people who were unlikely to do it will not do it, and the people who would have never done it are still never going to have done it. What you do do however is create criminals for no better reason than to justify a crusade against differing life views or styles.
Abortion really should just be a last response to medical problems with mothers and the birth of their children. I recognize that it isn’t and that is what we’ll look at. First the answer to nearly all problems is education. Believe it or not if you educate people honestly and openly about a situation they will inevitably come to an educated conclusion about it. I’ll admit that doesn’t happen 100% of the time but nothing ever does that humans can verify.
So first you educate people fully about what? Well sexual education, abstinence education is an entirely unscientific system presented to kids for no better reason than to push religious beliefs on them. This is a terrible idea and it has been proven that it doesn’t work, how is it proven? Well unwanted pregnancies are a good example. I can educate people not to breath because it makes me feel better but it is their biological need to breath that will override my personal views.
Once you have educated people and they know of all the highly effective methods (as opposed to ones that only work in theory) to prevent pregnancy until they are prepared. After this we move onto the next issue. What if people take all the proper precautions and are still finding themselves in the situation of an unplanned pregnancy? Well we take after various wonderful places (such as Sweden) and we make it feasible for them to still be able to raise the child or at the very least we make the time between conception and birth as non traumatizing as it can be. Strong support for the expected mother and all the information necessary to be a strong parent. Or even explaining the possibility of Adoption (albeit that is for many just as tough a question as abortion, its not easy for the mother at all).
So we’ve accomplished two fold a fix. First we educate people openly and honestly treating them as they should be treated. Then for the people who may still get pregnant (a very small percentage assuming the first step) we treat them with respect and help give them all the available options. You will find that the amount of abortions in the country would indeed drop dramatically.
The stories about fun time weekend abortions are likely as strongly based in factual events as reefer madness. Don’t allow people to take extreme militant approaches to problems because it will never do anything but make it worse. Historically this has and likely will always be the case. I just hope that with my generation growing, more intelligent and grounded people will take control of governing bodies. Who knows.
ADIOS: The Nations of Bellum
Aug 5th
I’m a bit embarrassed that it has been this long and I haven’t given official names to the warring nations of Bellum. So without any more shenanigans I’m going to do so now and give you some understanding of them.
Future Updates (They Exist)
Aug 2nd
I’ve finished up the last of my college so expect updates (some very noticeable even) to be coming on a regular basis soon. Maybe not daily, but we’ll see what we can accomplish 
. So much like the future, while not technically existing (misleading headers tisk tisk) it is certain to come.