Spelunking the Universe
Posts tagged reality
The Reality of Modern Day Politics
Aug 13th
I’m only pleased about this video for two reasons only (everything else about it disgusts me), one it helps visualize exactly what happened to me on the phone a few days ago.
The second is that Anderson Cooper appears to be an actual reporter, I admit that I need to see more of his work before I make such a statement but at least in terms of this interview he did an amazing job.
This is unfortunately the reality of today’s politics :/. I am speaking partially from ignorance as I have only lived 24 years (as of the 28th of this month), so perhaps much of my life and much of politics has been about Demagogues capturing power through lies, hate, and seemingly unstoppable ranting. I know the few times I’ve watched representatives argue that is immediately what it devolves into. “Those guys don’t care if the whole country dies but we do.” Which is nothing but slander, a universally untrue statement that I’d be more than happy to defend.
I’m sure, while his own personal gain was (as is with likely most politicians) the priority, even Nixon would not have wanted to see America or Americans hurt. It is not something any right minded person desires, though I suppose watching this video that at least Louie Gohmert is anything but right minded (all jokes about Right and Left aside).
There is no such thing as Terror Babies, though nobody reading this needed to be told that, there is also no such thing as Anchor babies. Now you may argue “But Rico! There have been dozens of cases of illegal immigrants using their children to gain citizenship.” I would not fight that point and folks are probably right, I’m sure there are dozens, I bet that a tenth of a tenth of a percent of all the illegal immigrants living in the US today are using that strategy. But the point I’d make in response is that the amount of people doing this is so ridiculously small that it is unimportant.
It would be like arresting all white middle aged men because a percent of a percent have been arrested for rape. Well obviously if a small percent are doing it then it must be a problem for the entire population of that group.
Well over 90% of the illegal immigrants in this country stay here without requiring an Anchor baby, just as Anderson Cooper mentioned about terrorists (and in no way do I want you to equate either of these groups to each other!), the extremists do not need help getting people into the country, they don’t need a 20 year plan, and they don’t need any sort of tricks frankly. If they want to get folks here to kill Americans they will do so. I’m not trying to alarm anyone, neither am I alarmed (I have faith in people that might be unwarranted), I am merely backing Cooper’s point.
The only reason Politicians (I think all Republican but I’ll just say Politicians) are making this argument is because of Immigrants. They want to tighten security against something as ridiculous as “Terror Babies” so that they can begin to encroach on their real goal. Purifying the US of “Illegal Immigrants.” Sure most data shows that Immigrants are helpful for the economies of the states they are in, sure the crime rate in areas populated with illegal immigrants are no different than any other US area with similar per capita classifications, and sure the vast majority (enough to say all) are incredibly hard working and incredibly great people (as most people in the world are), but that doesn’t change the fact that they have another language they widely speak and it doesn’t change the fact that they are quite obviously different.
I’ve explained racism before, why it isn’t exactly surprising, and I’m not going to do it again. I’m also not going to act like White people are special in being racist, they aren’t. But in the case of these laws, they are being pushed for the sake of comfort and for the cause of racism. The use of fear to make these laws happen is terrible and the people involved should be removed from office and lambasted nationwide. Of course those who voted for these people should certainly rethink their personal life styles as well.
There are no terror babies, immigrants aren’t a problem, and this man needs some serious help. That’s pretty much the gist of what I’m trying to say 
.
The Customer is (not) Always Right.
Aug 11th
I’m sure a million and one places are discussing the actions of one Steven Slater, a man who has immediately become the embodiment of something I’ve been dreaming about for years (not with my current job but certainly previous ones).
Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of customers are nice people, they admit when they are ignorant, they try to get a good deal and they are civil. But at least once a day you get a prick, a person so rude and utterly uncivilized that you know even death would be too good for them (and certainly a punishment for whatever exists in the afterlife).
These people are sick and twisted individuals who can’t see, or just don’t care, that the person they are dealing with is just that “a person”. They treat them as a means to an end, a tool to get what they desire, the treatment is only better than that of sweat shop workers because laws do not allow them to beat the employee. If they could, they certainly would, for those that don’t believe this true I would suspect you haven’t worked retail. In the US the only difference is they threaten to have you fired instead of threatening you physically (which I admit is a massive difference).
This lady should have been tazed, as I think any nightmare customer should be, I’m not a fan of violence but there is a certain level of stupid and crass nature that deserves little more than a prolonged shock. It might just stop them from ranting at you about the place you work for a half hour, at some point you wonder if they think they are actually changing anything…I fear they might.
The argument that he could have hurt someone is largely being blown out of proportion by lawyers who are trying to make a name for themselves (as this case has gotten big already), anyone at anytime could cause harm to someone with any action, however the likelihood is generally extremely low, what he did had a very low likelihood of hurting anyone and that’s painfully obvious (to even the judge).
What he did do was become the personification of hundreds of thousands of collective years of pent up disgust and rage that employees have together garnered against a small group of people who only exist to consume and be blights upon the surface of the earth and human society itself.
Between this guy, and recent news I got, I do think that bullying may finally start getting acted upon. Customers should not be convinced that they are always right, nor that they are invincible, because this sort of hubris leads the already unstable down a path of endless irritation.
I can’t say this moment is as sweet as when the store manager at Circuit City announced he was calling the police to arrest a man (who was shouting across the store because he demanded we sell him all the Wii’s, no joke) but that is only because I wasn’t there. I wish this had been taped, what he did deserves a pat on the back at the very least.
We all have our short comings and the fact that we are in a setting where we have a wallet and the occupied structure has things to sell does not erase that fact. The only shame of this whole situation is that this lady is getting away without her name being known to the world. I find that to be a shame.
To those that say “But why not shrug it off, you have 200 customers a day and only 1 bad one, why let that get to you?” Lets say you have 100 people walk past you today, only one falcon punches you in the testicles, sure the other 99 left your scrotum unbruised, but you expect that of them and it has no real impact on you one way or the other. That one tooth shattering blow to the balls however will completely turn your world upside down, emotionally this is what is happening to people. They have 99 folks walk up, smile, and walk by. Then one guy comes running at them at Mach 5 and then fires off a fist of fury straight into their sac.
The shit bothers you for days at the least, it’s only through desensitization that any one event goes away.
Rico Examines “Technology and Depression”
Apr 17th
I was discussing this topic with my Mother-In-Law a short while back and felt it was interesting enough to post here. If you disagree, imagine instead I’m talking about puppies, because everyone loves puppies.
We’ll begin with the subject of change and the effects of it on our psyche. I don’t believe I’ll be citing anything today, so if you disagree with my points go check out case studies and I’m sure they’ll provide the same information. While it is true that change, and paradoxes, help expand the gray matter, many people are very resistant to change. This may be a survival mechanism, once you have mastered your surroundings, you would be very unhappy if those surroundings changed because now you would need to utilize more time (a precious commodity to mortal beings) to once again become learned.
There is an irony to this, the more open to change an organism is, the faster it will adapt and the higher likelihood that it’ll survive. So how is it, that humans have survived this long? As a whole humans have proven they are overall highly resistant to change, so much so that they’ve many times over developed belief structures that are themselves the ultimate hyperbole of static. Beings with unchanging infinitely wide power that exist for an unchanging amount of time over an unchanging swath of existence (namely all of it). The answer lies in a natural check, in a sense humans are one massive organism, while our bodies do contain various organs that seem to have no purpose other than to kill us, there are balances to these that keep us as a whole alive.
The relatively small percent of humans that are not only open to change but actively searching for it, these are what keep humans alive. While many people find distress in change, they can avoid it (to the misfortune of them and all around them), this small group however continually discovers and advances knowledge in the universe and thusly sparks change, which generally leads to longer and much less painful survival.
Depression, or at the very least stress, is derived from seemingly uncontrollable circumstances. The worse the feeling of no control, the higher the level of depression or stress. In most situations the loss of control can be rectified but it cannot usually be rectified quicker than merely avoiding it, which may be the reason that people largely avoid change or things they don’t understand.
However Technology has become basically unavoidable, for a truly productive life people must tie in with technology. This has some amazing ramifications, because I’m willing to bet that not a single person reading this article has a deep understanding of exactly how a computer works. Many people have a rough idea of how cars work, the mechanisms for their function are fairly straight forward. However a computer (though arguably no more complicated) has a much more daunting scope. You could contain all the knowledge of the collective human existence into a device that is the size of a dictionary. This is a daunting concept that mystifies PCs amongst many people, and puts plenty of money into the pocket of the “Geek Squad” 
.
We are technologically much better off than we were in the early 1900’s, but with that has come the inescapable necessity to learn and change. This is a massive, utterly unstoppable, reality that I do feel has made the majority of people less happy than they were in a relatively simpler time. War has always been here, disease has always been here, and wheels have been around for a long time. But technology, electricity, and the extremely quick evolution of information has put a globes worth of people who live off the idea of the rawest static ideals in check.
This is a very good thing however, forcing people to accept change and to enjoy new challenges has nothing but positive ramifications in the short term and in the long term. For the entirety of human history it has been the people accepting of change, and only these people, that has kept the rest of the human population advancing and alive. The larger this population becomes, the better the lives of all people will be. However it will be an uphill struggle considering just how strong the desire for static infinitives is. If you need a very real example look at America and Pluto. Or really America and basically any scientific advance in the last 100 years that didn’t obviously and immediately make life easier. I’d comment on other countries, but I don’t live in them so all my comments would be largely assumptive and that’s not fair.
Unrelated I would like to congratulate Volcanoes, you have once again reminded everyone just how badass you can be.
The Möbius Code (Part 4)
Apr 16th
[ Index ]
Part 1 – The Introduction
Part 2 – From Universe to Solar System
Part 3 – From Solar System to Earth
So when last we met (if memory serves) we were discussing the first life on Earth. Tiny tiny little organisms that one cannot see with their naked eye (unless you squint really really hard…ok you still can’t). Slowly the organisms become more complex, initially it was a matter of symbiosis for at least some. Small organisms began fusing to one another (see mitochondria) to create more complex and indeed more efficient systems. With the noticeably copious amounts of space in the sea and the development of an Atmosphere there was not much to worry about but taking in energy, via eating or sunlight, and reproducing like you had nothing left to do.
Some organisms split like a particularly tasty banana in your ice cream, others mated. As time passed and the bigger is better mentality started to pick up we begin to see visible formations in the sea. Eventually plants will dominate the sea and spread out onto land. With the introduction of a nice firm atmosphere (firm my way of saying effective) to protect their cells from the ultraviolet sunlight there was little reason to stay bound to the sea. The first’ ‘animals’ would be completely secluded to the sea and would spread quite well. Considering the absolutely massive nature of the ocean and its ability to reduce gravity’s effect on organisms it makes surviving and growing much easier than on land (at least initially, these days you get eaten by many crazy animals in the sea).
Once the surface land is absolutely covered in plants (maybe sooner) there is a revelation, as always, a copious amount of food leads to the introduction of something that’ll eat it. Indeed someday there will be a bacteria that absolutely engorges itself on our plastic waste, it is just a matter of waiting. As the first animals move to land they bring a second source of food to the land, that being them. Carnivores would soon fill that gap as well. I often wonder if the copious levels of land carnivores are what lead some animals to return to the sea. Indeed all sea mammals are incidents of animals that were initially land mammals and moved to the sea. The motion of a dolphin is hauntingly similar to the motion of a gazelle, and in some cases you can find the remains of what once were legs in whale corpses and other sea mammals as they move ever closer to lose all evidence of their previous adventures on land.
Somewhere in here you have dinosaurs rise. They have a pretty long and successful run (I believe there was a mass extinction or two) until the drop of a meteor that I’ve read was large enough to fill the rose bowl (or some football stadium). It impacted somewhere in the gulf of Mexico and utterly dominated the planet. Basically all life on Earth died. Before this point there were tiny little mice like animals, which might not be accurate, so just imagine a cute little mammal of your choice. Essentially before Dinosaurs were extinguished this was the pinnacle of our particular class in the animal kingdom. After dinosaurs mammals popped out and started to show their talents. It would be some many millions of years but eventually a particularly successful class of apes came to be the most dominant of all animal species (relative to land mass covered…and I suppose not counting insects).
People often wonder why Humans made that jump mentally. As I’ve stated before I think it was a case of substantial amounts of food. Evolutionarily there is no real advantage to being exceedingly smarter than your prey, it doesn’t take much to catch a Gazelle, strength and big teeth will do it more often than not. However with a single mutation of the brain taking it just far enough above the average level of ape intelligence it would become, much like the original organisms spreading across the planet, a snowball effect. With every evolutionary generation the human brain would grow larger, at one time even there was more than one type of human. However, for reasons I don’t know personally, one particular answer I’ve heard was the mistake by the now extinct humanoids to let their opponents spread into Europe and across to Asia, this essentially locked them into a small area and they died off. But again take that with a grain of salt.
So slowly but surely, this ever increasing effect, like the pull of a black hole growing with each uncontrollable growth we move on to modern day. Which is where we will stop for now. Tomorrow may indeed be the final episode of this little collection. It’ll be about what is to come (in the most general of senses) and the ‘end’…as well as a bit of philosophy that I hope someday to get clarified.
The Möbius Code (Part 3)
Apr 15th
[ Index ]
Part 1 – The Introduction
Part 2 – From Universe to Solar System
So where were we? Well science is not my strong point, I’m more about the philosophy of things using science as backup. That being said if you catch any scientific inaccuracies in here don’t be all too surprised. The general idea should be close enough for Jazz however.
Generally speaking the further away from a star you are the larger you are. I’m not entirely sure why but I’ve read a few times that it has to do with the lower temperatures. As planets are forming there was probably an issue with certain matter being burned away from inner planets (like say Ice) which didn’t burn off on the outer planets. This would give them much more mass to pull in even more matter until they hit whatever limit (that is before they’d start hitting those uncomfortably large star sizes).
While there are other planets in our Solar System and I’m sure with a good drink and a weekend you could get to know any of them and find them to be quite friendly folks. However there is one that is substantially more important at the moment. That would be Earth, which in the beginning like all other matter was in a fairly hot state. This molten sphere was spinning quite merrily, getting belted by frozen comets and meteor rocks and probably a unicorn or two (okay likely not the latter).
According to a report I read (and subsequently watched on FORA.tv, again you all should check it out), the Moon was formed from a rather large impact during the early days of the Earth. A massive object smashed into the Earth launching a fairly large, dare I say moon sized, chunk of rock into the atmosphere. Interestingly as the video notes the composition of the moon fits quite nicely with this theory and frankly I see little reason not to believe it, I imagine otherwise it would be quite hard for something the size of the moon to be flying by and get stuck in our orbit.
About 4 billion years ago, which frankly isn’t all that long when thinking about non-living things, the first life sprouted up. The presence of water on Earth is not exactly all that surprising. I’d be willing to bet that any planet in the relative range that we are from our star (that is further if their star is larger or closer if their star is smaller) would find quite a lot of water on them. Comets which were, amongst other things, pretty icy were pummeling anything they could get attracted to. Those planets too close to stars would have it subsequently evaporate and those further would have it freeze (special exceptions aside). However for your average planet in this area like that of ours found themselves covered in water. This is helpful because, generally speaking, you are going to be hard pressed to find water and not find life in it. Even extremely toxic, extremely hot, or extremely cold (see ice) water can have life either living merrily or at least being in stasis within them.
I personally wonder if Virus’s were not the first ‘life’ on the Earth. An in-between stage moving from the many non-living (see incapable or acting on own) things to the living. They have very simple processes and a very simple goal. Simply to sustain their existence through whatever means possible. There is and likely never will be any evidence of this and it is merely a thought. However what I can say is that once the acidity of the Oceans (volcanic activity is hell on a PH balance) were friendly enough the bacteria that sprung forth was quite happy to do so.
It seems almost silly to imagine hundreds of millions of years, in which every fraction of a second there is a reaction of chemicals and elements across an almost unfathomably large space would not return some sort of unusual side effect. It’s a very good side effect because without it we wouldn’t have chicken…oh or us. I keep forgetting you need to exist before you eat chicken.
The fact that life is so happy in water makes much sense. Ultraviolet light and other radiations that do well to destroy the genetic makeup that comprises life have relative difficulty permeating water as easily as other substances (exceptions like Lead aside). Unlike Lead and rock, Water is also easy to move through which is a very helpful addition. Though even without water I’m sure that some sort of extreme bacteria would live quite happily in a mercury rich cave dining on the walls.
At some point it became apparent that there was a massive orb blasting endless levels of ultraviolet light onto the planet. Organisms began converting this matter for energy creating a seemingly endless supply of food. They began to convert the CO2 flowing through the air (and wherever else it could squeeze its deadly butt into) into Oxygen. This process would help bolster the atmosphere and probably for a bit was actually quite extreme. Anything that wasn’t prepared to process Oxygen would have found the result quite fatal.
But whenever a massive supply of new food arises something arises to consume it. At some point in here there was surely something that noticed everything around it could produce energy if consumed. Carnivores likely arose at this point. Indeed on thinking back carnivores probably popped up before even the photosynthesis, I just get ahead of myself.
We now had carnivores, herbivores, water, and copious levels of oxygen. However all things included in this conversation are still so small that unless there is an absolutely grotesquely large collection of them we couldn’t see them with the naked eye. Stuff that would make plankton squint…well maybe not but it would sure as hell be hard for us to see.
Tomorrow we’ll move onto the first plants and hope that I don’t butcher too much while trying to make my various points. Who knows in a few decades I might have a nice solid little lecture out of this thing (I redo it yearly).
The Möbius Code (Part 2)
Apr 14th
[ Index ]
Part 1 – The Introduction
In the beginning of this particular Universe as likely each before it there was a point when all matter was crushed to a near 0 point. Think of it like exponential decay, you can keep going and going but you will never hit 0. Indeed that’s what happens with all the matter, it is crushed till it is absolutely as close to 0 as anything can possibly reach. This runaway series of events builds up likely the highest level of energy to ever be experienced by the universe at any given time.
Going back to yesterdays discussion on time I imagine that there is a vast amount of compression that is done. Indeed if time moved at the same speed during this point as it does in modern time it would probably take incredibly long periods of time long outweighing a human life and easily dwarfing the entirety of human (and perhaps biological) history. However with the warping of space (again reaching a near 0 point) could quite possibly be causing this otherwise unfathomably long period of crushing to happen in a relative instant. Although to be fair either way it doesn’t matter, it’s not how quickly that it happens but that it happens.
When the explosion first happens there is a point currently that I don’t believe is (or may ever be) understood. Now the following is how I understand it and again I may be wrong. This is the part that you should probably ask your local Astrophysicist about . Likewise I’ll be using the word explosion because it is easy to visualize, technically it was not an explosion. Disclaimers aside let us continue. The explosion created a massive amount of energy. This fantastic level of heat meant that essentially the entire Universe was plasma. As time passed a long the temperature cooled. Matter goes from a point that we can’t really simulate yet to materials that are exhibit able. You start off with very small matter and move up till you get to the familiar protons and electrons. There was during this time as well anti matter particles which is a topic that is a bit over my head. The best I could tell you for now is that when matter and anti matter connect they have some fairly explosive results. However as you’ll find in “Death by Black Hole” that Mr. Tyson feels that a universe entirely made of Anti matter would look indistinguishable of our own universe. The exception being that on contact with you it would kill you. But assuming you were anti matter it would all look and feel the same .
Over a good chunk of time (hundreds of thousands of years or something along those lines) protons and neutrons started to act quit friendly to one another and formed the first nuclei in the universe. Electrons stroll along and we finally have the required ingredients to make quite a large collection of different elements. Essentially the cooler things are (to a point) the easier it is for molecules to combine, it makes sense when taken into context. When holding some magnetic beads you will have less trouble getting them to connect when they lightly bump one another than when they are slammed into one another. The kinetic energy can be so great that it ejects attracted items apart from on another.
Initially the Universe was primarily Hydrogen which makes sense. It is easily the simplest element on the periodic table. Slowly as temperatures cool you will start to see other elements popping up. Gravity starts to become a noticeably dominant force collecting matter into…well for lack of a better term Colonies. These colonies began to form gas clouds, which consequently would make stars. Likewise this wonderful duo helped form Galaxies and the other stuff that anyone with a telescope and a bottle of fine wine (or cider for those of us who don’t drink) can find.
Essentially for stars they build up tons and tons of matter. As matter builds up you start to get heat (as one would probably figure). Over time you have a very very hot and very very large object, neatly enough it produces an equilibrium of energy where the force outwards is equal to the gravitational tugging inwards. That’s why it looks like a big ball, generally speaking when you are being pressed in and pushed out in all directions with equal force you will end up with a ball for most non-stubborn matter.
So with quite a few oversights we have gotten to a more familiar Universe (Note: These oversights are not necessarily because we don’t know, but because I haven’t read it yet which isn’t really a surprise considering the copious amounts of info available). With the next chapter I’ll try and take a stab at what I (at least think I) know about our own Solar System. For anyone interested in knowing more and more accurate information about your universe you can find some fantastic books by many talented individuals. Anyone who needs suggestions can email me, I’d be glad to give you a throng of suggestions on literature.
The Möbius Code (Part 1)
Apr 13th
Anyone who has known me or read this website knows that I’m constantly attempting to decode for myself just how the universe reached the point it has currently reached. With each passing year there is new information that gets gathered into my tiny tiny brain (well I suppose compared to body size its not too shabby). So the following is, to the best of my current knowledge, how I think the universe has come to be. I’ll also discuss personal philosophies on how I feel it is best to examine the universe.
First we need to establish my views on time. Without them it makes it somewhat difficult to grasp just where everything begins (which will soon look like the wrong term to use). To do this we introduce an item that you can replicate with a strip of paper and a strip or two of tape. It’s nice because it is easy to make a personal one for examination.
A Möbius strip is a one sided object in a three dimensional world. We could argue that it does indeed have a small almost inconsequential side on its edge however that doesn’t change the point of the example. You have an object that appears to have two definitive sides and yet in actuality it only has one. If you happen to feel creative take a strip of paper and twist one of the ends a single time. Tape that end to the other end and you should have in your hands a Möbius strip. If you take a pen and press it in the middle of either side and run it along you will find that by the time your pen reaches the point you started at that you have a line on both sides of the paper and yet never had to lift the pen. You have essentially taken something that cognitively and visually appears to have two sides and proven with the wonders of a pen (or pencil) that it is merely an illusion where instead a one sided object actually stands.
So this is important (as I imagine you hoped it would be) because essentially this is how I view two separate real world issues. The first is that of time and the second is of the origin of the Universe. Now time is a wonderful thing, without it (or at least without the phenomena we call time) most events wouldn’t be nearly as interesting. In fact no events would be interesting named because there would be absolutely no events. It would just be a paused screen for all eternity, sort of like running Crysis on the average Jo’s PC (Nerd Joke).
I’m willing to argue that time itself has no beginning and just may end up never having an end. While with current knowledge of the Universe it does appear that eventually the Universe will stretch to such an extreme point that absolutely nothing will be moving any longer. Technically with the absence of all movement there is no longer time. Though there is a vast majority of the Universe that hasn’t currently been examined. The two prevailing arguments I have seen is that either we have goofed our calculations of Gravitation OR there is a matter that is not reactive to light. It is known as Dark Matter for a very good reason, it is literally absent of light. As far as I know nobody knows how Dark Matter reacts with all things around it or when presented with high levels of torsion. If we assume that the vast majority of the Universe is indeed Dark Matter it may indeed have a reactive property to that of a rubber band.
Which to me seems more likely. Why? Well it would seem extremely unlikely given the nature of everything that this process would only happen once. It is entirely possible that of the infinitely many times that this has gone on through its process that we just happen to be the ones that ended up in the ever expanding and eventually final universe. I’m skeptical but I won’t rule it out.
Time, like the Möbius strip, are examined as if they are two sided objects. In fact however I feel that Time is indeed one sided much like the adorable paper strip shown above. Time has and always will, by necessity, exist. There is little reason to believe otherwise, while this may seem naive (and I’m willing to agree it might be) it does however clear up some larger issues such as the origin of the Universe.
As you may have surmised the previous lecture essentially explains my understanding of the Universe as of now. Unless we get into the Quantum Level (and well outside of my realm of understanding at this time) the general rule of thumb is that matter is neither created nor destroyed at any time. Even a black hole doesn’t destroy matter, it merely crushes it to a near 0 point and flicks off fantastically small bits of itself until the black hole ceases to exist. Stephen Hawkins has some wonderful literature on this topic if you get interested.
With this fact in place it seems illogical to think that the Universe is any different (or time for that matter). Why would there be a special exception that serves absolutely no purpose. Indeed adding the special exception seems to do nothing more but support extraneous and entirely unhelpful theories about environments that the living human can never interact with (without the aid of some strong narcotics that is).
So I think this will do it for the first part of this series. What we’ve hopefully established is that something can give the illusion of multiple dimensions while instead being a single dimensional object. Time is one of those things, it never truly began and will likely never end. At best we could argue at the zero points (when all the matter in the Universe comes as close to 0 as it possibly can just before exploding) time temporarily ceases but that is purely speculation. Secondly somewhat necessarily of the previous statement the Universe is something that has for all intents and purposes always existed, indeed there is no reason to think that it didn’t.
Hope to see you all here for part 2 (and beyond).
Don’t try this at home.
Apr 8th
I was watching a show called “Time Warp” on Discovery today, all-in-all it is an interesting show however one particular phrase caught me off guard…at least the first 12 times or so it was said. During the show a man put his arm in a bear trap, they threw things at an exposed wood chipper, and they also took apart a lawn mower so that the blade was exposed on almost all sides.
I really feel this warning has gotten out of hand. If someone watches a guy put his hand in a bear trap and goes out to try it they would have inevitably died early. All the television did was give them an idea, they would have found something regardless to do and it may have ended up being far worse. If a kid takes apart a wood chipper, and dives at the thing like a thrown mackerel…some event would have happened with some object at some point regardless.
There is only so much you can do to keep certain levels of stupid alive. At a certain point you start creating a dangerous dynamic. Imagine if well over 50% of the US required warning labels to survive, this would be catastrophic for the future of the country. Indeed you’d likely find people expecting the government to fix everything, the country building an impossibly large debt to a point where no amount of income could pay it off, and people would start thinking that having health care and education for all is a terrible terrible situation regardless of the copious examples of how when used properly it works fantastically.
Thankfully we aren’t there at this point but I do feel that this is something that really should be addressed. If you have to tell people that they shouldn’t swallow a live viper then there is a very very serious problem.
Experimental Neurosis
Feb 4th
The following subject should interest some people, for the rest of you…for shame! It’s a concept known as Experiment Neurosis. When I was actually taking Psychology courses (before the Major’s structure caused me to want to write a collection of depressing poetry) there was a particular concept that I found remarkable. Remarkable both in the fact that it was true and likewise in the fact that it didn’t cause an outcry of "Ah Ha’s!" amongst the class room. I was utterly dumbfounded by the lack of connection. A connection that should hopefully be set within all of you very soon.
experimental neurosis
medical dictionaryA behavior disorder produced experimentally, as when an organism is required to make a discrimination of extreme difficulty and "breaks down" in the process.
Now this definition is full of links that should hopefully aid anyone reading this in reaching a level of understanding that is required. It’s all pretty simple in concept which is why I like it.
Think of it this way. You have a dog (or if it helps a mean person) strapped into a box so that they cannot escape. They are presented with either a circle or an oval. If they click the button when they are presented with the circle they get something nice like food (for the mean person it could be something they like like watching babies cry) and if they click the button when its an oval they receive something not nice like a painful shock (or happy baby imagery). For those that know the terms we would call the first situation an appetitive one. The idea being that all an appetitive stimuli is is one that an organism actively seeks. Whereas the latter stimuli is an aversive stimuli which is simply a stimuli that an organism actively avoids.
What we do with this experiment is slowly make the oval look more and more like the circle until they are almost indiscernible. At this point it becomes a guessing game for the organism and after a even as little as a half dozen (perhaps less) trials you will see a spike in distress. If you continue along this path the organism will begin to show severe signs of neurosis becoming either highly aggressive or highly passive, attacking all things around them or looking almost dead.
Now imagine if you will a situation where the entire world surrounding the organism is structured with a collection of situations where the desired outcome is masked behind a circle and an almost indiscernible oval. This is essentially what hypocritical laws and customs create. In the US alone we have the following hypocrisies (off the top of the head):
Tobacco and Alcohol, the two drugs who hold the highest levels of deaths per year, are the only two drugs that are legal. Whereas much less harmful substances with much higher rates of quitting are illegal and have extreme penalties.
It is illegal to be sexually involved with someone under 18 but likewise teenagers are constantly shown in sexually suggestive situations on television, in music, and in everyday life. This creates a paradigm where you are told it is wrong and yet even the Disney network is doing it.
Humans are like any other organism built to sustain their genetic code and thusly are attracted to and pleased by sexual interaction. However we likewise have taboos that say that these things are dirty, calling people sluts, hoes, and other derogatory terms, actively sexual people are attacked when running for office and sex is the center of one of the most heated discussions in the US political scope: Gay Marriage.
Religions are almost always quoted as being belief systems of peace and love and yet slavery, homosexual prejudice, the twin towers incident, the crusades, multiple nations invading other nations, and even the events between Israel and Palestine are all stated as being supported acts of whatever major deity depending on the event.
Anyone reading this could likely name ten separate things off the top of their head that are hypocritical and yet pervasive throughout their country. This I believe is the cause of many of the worlds worst issues. If not the worlds worst issues it is easily the cause of the events that lead up to those issues.
Experimental Neurosis is what I feel to be the best explanation for the reactions people have with the unknown. The aggression against homosexuality being a grand example. There is no real outside way of knowing for certain who is and who is not gay. This creates a paradigm of circle and near-circle-oval that places the person (well their brain) in a level of discomfort that leaves them with two likely responses: High levels of Aggression or High levels of Passiveness.
It’s also likely why people hold on so harshly to their beliefs. The unknown is likely the greatest example of neurosis inducing stimuli one can deal with. It not only resents you with a circle and a near circle it essentially presents you with an infinite number of them. Even though statistically you are going to be victimized during the day most people are scared of the dark, the absence of light leaves us with a plethora of zones that we cannot see and thusly leaves us with many zones of neurosis inducing unknown. The brain enjoys distinct dichotomies because they are the simplest form of knowledge.
So as you look at the world around you, take some time to think of all the things that are one way but said to be another. Taboos, laws that conflict with personal desire, and the conflicting worlds of reality and belief. It’s a fascinating view on life that makes the quest for knowledge all the more vital to our survival as a species. If we allow neurosis to continually spread with every increasing hypocrisies we will likely not survive it. It only takes one aggressive neurotic in control of nuclear or biological weaponry to end the lives of many.