yep
Quasicorporeal infinity point oh
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Fuck You OnStar
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/8-0&fp=470d1860ee57ded8&ei=BmYNR5ikGqWuoAKbyJD-AQ&url=http%3A//blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/10/onstar_plays_go.html&cid=1121897419
This is the kind of thing that makes me upset with where our minds lead us. (;_;)
The article talks about how the company, OnStar, is teaming up with Chevy to install a new security device that will slow down cars that are being stolen. This is supposed to help police catch the stolen car as it's driving away so that the thief doesn't get to do any "Dukes of Hazard" type car maneuvers.
It's only a matter of time before you're hauling ass down the freeway, with your wife in labor sitting in the back seat as your car pulls over to the side of the road so that a police officer can write you a ticket when he gets around to it.
This is one of many reasons why I will always drive a car with a carburetor.
(And why I'll continue to write run-on sentences until I am satisfied.)
This is the kind of thing that makes me upset with where our minds lead us. (;_;)
The article talks about how the company, OnStar, is teaming up with Chevy to install a new security device that will slow down cars that are being stolen. This is supposed to help police catch the stolen car as it's driving away so that the thief doesn't get to do any "Dukes of Hazard" type car maneuvers.
It's only a matter of time before you're hauling ass down the freeway, with your wife in labor sitting in the back seat as your car pulls over to the side of the road so that a police officer can write you a ticket when he gets around to it.
This is one of many reasons why I will always drive a car with a carburetor.
(And why I'll continue to write run-on sentences until I am satisfied.)
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Here we go again.
What is the nature of sin?
It's an outdated concept, certainly, but one rooted in a concept that indeed
endures.
The definition of sin- not by any modern definition, but rather one set by the philosophers- is the disordering of one's priorities. This can happen easily because, as sentient beings, we have some idea what makes us tick. Hence, we can easily have sex without consequence. Drug ourselves into oblivion. Eat until we rupture our stomachs.
I'm not ranting about iniquity. I'm saying that we need to define our own goals and then stick to them. This is where 'brain crack' (Thanks to Ze Frank) comes in. We allow the concepts of our ideals to outweigh our dedication to our ideals themselves.
Why do so few people today 'succeed' in their own eyes? Well, there's two problems. The first is the goals they set themselves. The second is the dedication they give those goals. Someone whose definition of success is to earn one million dollars, but refuses to leave their bed, ever, is not going to be a successful person by their own definition.
Recognize your abilities, recognize your desires, and succeed. It could be as simple as redefining success to your current state of life. No one else can define success for you. So, do what you want.
Don't succumb to brain crack. You'll set yourself an impossible goal, not lift a finger to achieve it, and end up only with regret.
If you're new to the whole 'trying to succeed' thing, or are trying to quit brain crack cold turkey, then set yourself small goals and achieve them. To do otherwise is sinful- and indeed, is the only thing that is sinful. I'm not saying you're going to go to hell. I'm saying you will regret your own decisions and actions.
Look at your priorities. See what's really important to you. If sex, drugs, and rock n' roll is what you've been doing with your life, maybe you should just call that the top priority. There's nothing wrong with that. Just don't fool yourself.
It's an outdated concept, certainly, but one rooted in a concept that indeed
endures.
The definition of sin- not by any modern definition, but rather one set by the philosophers- is the disordering of one's priorities. This can happen easily because, as sentient beings, we have some idea what makes us tick. Hence, we can easily have sex without consequence. Drug ourselves into oblivion. Eat until we rupture our stomachs.
I'm not ranting about iniquity. I'm saying that we need to define our own goals and then stick to them. This is where 'brain crack' (Thanks to Ze Frank) comes in. We allow the concepts of our ideals to outweigh our dedication to our ideals themselves.
Why do so few people today 'succeed' in their own eyes? Well, there's two problems. The first is the goals they set themselves. The second is the dedication they give those goals. Someone whose definition of success is to earn one million dollars, but refuses to leave their bed, ever, is not going to be a successful person by their own definition.
Recognize your abilities, recognize your desires, and succeed. It could be as simple as redefining success to your current state of life. No one else can define success for you. So, do what you want.
Don't succumb to brain crack. You'll set yourself an impossible goal, not lift a finger to achieve it, and end up only with regret.
If you're new to the whole 'trying to succeed' thing, or are trying to quit brain crack cold turkey, then set yourself small goals and achieve them. To do otherwise is sinful- and indeed, is the only thing that is sinful. I'm not saying you're going to go to hell. I'm saying you will regret your own decisions and actions.
Look at your priorities. See what's really important to you. If sex, drugs, and rock n' roll is what you've been doing with your life, maybe you should just call that the top priority. There's nothing wrong with that. Just don't fool yourself.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
You outrageous bastards.
Ain't anonymity great? Yeah, this thing is not really anonymous enough for me.
'Cause y'all know who I am, but YOU're not reading this. Or commenting.
Bleh. Enough bitching. Content time!
We need to discover a way to interact directly with the network that is humanity.
Not with the people of which it is composed, but with the network itself and its emergent intelligence.
Now, polls and the like are terrible ways of doing this, because they're averages, and we're trying to study fine structures here. Taking an average is like pureeing a brain to see what thoughts are in it.
Now, the new neural interfaces being created these days usually have electrodes directly inserted into the brain, stimulating as few brain cells as possible while still solidly affecting a region of the brain. When I say "as few as possible," though, we're still talking tens of thousands.
What am I jabbering on about? Well, the way I see it, we need to extend a few electrodes to humanity. Have them be different sensory experiences, none of them linked back to us that any one person will know about. Cross-correlate the data and start trying to get repeatable responses. Once we've done this, we've established an uplink to the metaintelligence and we can begin communicating with the most fascinating creature ever studied.
We need a small number of variables, tightly controlled.
Please help me design this.
Please don't slip back into the haze.
I know how it happens. UST sucks and you just want to chill with the few people who don't suck.
But please. PLEASE. Hold onto the drive. Hold on to the energy. Keep tabs on each other. Keep each other psyched. Don't go into survival mode. Don't go into survival mode.
Don't give in to brain crack.
Express yourself.
Don't let them crush the single part of you that matters most...
Your voice.
'Cause y'all know who I am, but YOU're not reading this. Or commenting.
Bleh. Enough bitching. Content time!
We need to discover a way to interact directly with the network that is humanity.
Not with the people of which it is composed, but with the network itself and its emergent intelligence.
Now, polls and the like are terrible ways of doing this, because they're averages, and we're trying to study fine structures here. Taking an average is like pureeing a brain to see what thoughts are in it.
Now, the new neural interfaces being created these days usually have electrodes directly inserted into the brain, stimulating as few brain cells as possible while still solidly affecting a region of the brain. When I say "as few as possible," though, we're still talking tens of thousands.
What am I jabbering on about? Well, the way I see it, we need to extend a few electrodes to humanity. Have them be different sensory experiences, none of them linked back to us that any one person will know about. Cross-correlate the data and start trying to get repeatable responses. Once we've done this, we've established an uplink to the metaintelligence and we can begin communicating with the most fascinating creature ever studied.
We need a small number of variables, tightly controlled.
Please help me design this.
Please don't slip back into the haze.
I know how it happens. UST sucks and you just want to chill with the few people who don't suck.
But please. PLEASE. Hold onto the drive. Hold on to the energy. Keep tabs on each other. Keep each other psyched. Don't go into survival mode. Don't go into survival mode.
Don't give in to brain crack.
Express yourself.
Don't let them crush the single part of you that matters most...
Your voice.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Ahem.
Where the hell are you guys? Ding ding, this is Rob keeping tabs on you. Consider yourselves tabbed motherfuckers.
If you don't take this shit seriously I'ma start telling stories...
stories like... THIS ONE!
Once upon a time there lived a man who knew how to break the second law of thermodynamics. Unfortunately for him, this would put the oil companies out of business. No one would be poor anymore, but no one would be rich either, and the richest people in the world wouldn't allow this. Hence, they locked the man up, put him in a spaceship powered only by water, and sent him to the Exxon moon base for the Criminally Innovative. In a hollowed-out space near the moon's core, the man lived out the rest of his days, going bitterly mad in the eight-by-eight-by-eight cell to which he was confined. Eventually, he invented a way to time travel using only leftover breadcrusts and shoelaces. Having done so, he traveled back two thousand years and started wowing gullible natives with parlor tricks until he slept with Pontius Pilate's daughter and was subsequently crucified.
The last laugh belongs to the pandas, who never really die but instead are sublimated into the intelligence that is harbored in a hidden orbit above the sun exactly one hundred eighty degrees away from the Earth. The rest of us have no eternal life to look forward to, but rather are all already dead.
THE END.
Now get off your asses or I'll give you a mind virus.
If you don't take this shit seriously I'ma start telling stories...
stories like... THIS ONE!
Once upon a time there lived a man who knew how to break the second law of thermodynamics. Unfortunately for him, this would put the oil companies out of business. No one would be poor anymore, but no one would be rich either, and the richest people in the world wouldn't allow this. Hence, they locked the man up, put him in a spaceship powered only by water, and sent him to the Exxon moon base for the Criminally Innovative. In a hollowed-out space near the moon's core, the man lived out the rest of his days, going bitterly mad in the eight-by-eight-by-eight cell to which he was confined. Eventually, he invented a way to time travel using only leftover breadcrusts and shoelaces. Having done so, he traveled back two thousand years and started wowing gullible natives with parlor tricks until he slept with Pontius Pilate's daughter and was subsequently crucified.
The last laugh belongs to the pandas, who never really die but instead are sublimated into the intelligence that is harbored in a hidden orbit above the sun exactly one hundred eighty degrees away from the Earth. The rest of us have no eternal life to look forward to, but rather are all already dead.
THE END.
Now get off your asses or I'll give you a mind virus.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Well, well, well.
I'm back.
I mean that in every sense. I'm back in Houston with my friends for a glimmering moment in time. I'm back to this blog. I'm back to say the things I believe need to be said.
I'm here to change the world.
Given, that's an easy goddamn task, and you're doing it right now as you read this, just by fucking breathing. Everything is connected. Everything changes everything.
The systems we're looking at to reevaluate and restructure are very large metaintelligences and extrahuman constructs. They're the kind of things men believe grant them immortality- things like government, religion, tradition. Unfortunately, in pursuit of such extrahuman concepts, great and terrible things have been created that are very good at doing one thing: existing. Communism (with a capital C) is one such example. The University of Saint Thomas is another. Extrahuman constructs that no longer benefit the majority of the human beings who form its structure.
These systems must be revolutionized. Efficiently. Unfortunately most radical means of accomplishing this do more harm than they save. Hence, social engineering. Hence, the restructuring of the way people deal with each other. My friends, let us attack the way we communicate. Let us change the way we deal with each other and hence the way every human being interacts with every other.
I can write again. Did you notice?
I'm not going to let you relax. We have made our plans. Now all that remains is to accomplish them.
-Rob
I mean that in every sense. I'm back in Houston with my friends for a glimmering moment in time. I'm back to this blog. I'm back to say the things I believe need to be said.
I'm here to change the world.
Given, that's an easy goddamn task, and you're doing it right now as you read this, just by fucking breathing. Everything is connected. Everything changes everything.
The systems we're looking at to reevaluate and restructure are very large metaintelligences and extrahuman constructs. They're the kind of things men believe grant them immortality- things like government, religion, tradition. Unfortunately, in pursuit of such extrahuman concepts, great and terrible things have been created that are very good at doing one thing: existing. Communism (with a capital C) is one such example. The University of Saint Thomas is another. Extrahuman constructs that no longer benefit the majority of the human beings who form its structure.
These systems must be revolutionized. Efficiently. Unfortunately most radical means of accomplishing this do more harm than they save. Hence, social engineering. Hence, the restructuring of the way people deal with each other. My friends, let us attack the way we communicate. Let us change the way we deal with each other and hence the way every human being interacts with every other.
I can write again. Did you notice?
I'm not going to let you relax. We have made our plans. Now all that remains is to accomplish them.
-Rob
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Jack Thompson
What an asshole.
That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this prick. Ooo! There's another one! How can one man be so focused on making Video Games out to be a killer instead of the actual people going out and shooting people? He's belittling those that lost their lives! To say that it was because of violent video games and not because of a plethora of other things in the kid's life is to say that the reason I got my license plates stolen was because someone read Aladin. B...but...he stole stuff in the book! That means that people that read it automatically want to go and steal s...stuff...right? No idiot. When I play Halo, the LAST think I want to do is get guns and shoot other real people. I'd rather raise my gamer score so I can actually play with my friends later. Oh, by the way, I know that killing people in real life WON'T raise my gamer score.
Supposedly this kid who shot up the Virginia University played WoW. Well...unless he was a Hunter, none of them use guns anyways. Oh, and none of WoW depicts shooting up schools either.
Jack Thompson needs to be prosecuted for slander on an entire industry, and any downfall in sales due to his statements. I'd estimate that at...hmmm.... all of his money forever.
I'm not bashing him for having different views than I do. People don't have to like video games...they just can't use them as a scapegoat and dodge the real fucking problem! Video games didn't tell this kid in Virginia to go shoot as many people as he could! They wern't an extensive training video that told him the best way to go shoot civilians! They were games!
In the columbine shooting Jack Thompson said that the boys who shot their fellow students played DOOM. Not Doom 3 or anything REMOTELY realistic...but a game where as long as you can see a moving guy, aim in his general direction an you'll shoot at 85 degree angles up or down... Not to mention the fact that it looks like someone drew each fram in MSPaint...
Oh yea Jack... They shot up their school because of fucking Doom...
Fucking Idiot...
-Bill
That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this prick. Ooo! There's another one! How can one man be so focused on making Video Games out to be a killer instead of the actual people going out and shooting people? He's belittling those that lost their lives! To say that it was because of violent video games and not because of a plethora of other things in the kid's life is to say that the reason I got my license plates stolen was because someone read Aladin. B...but...he stole stuff in the book! That means that people that read it automatically want to go and steal s...stuff...right? No idiot. When I play Halo, the LAST think I want to do is get guns and shoot other real people. I'd rather raise my gamer score so I can actually play with my friends later. Oh, by the way, I know that killing people in real life WON'T raise my gamer score.
Supposedly this kid who shot up the Virginia University played WoW. Well...unless he was a Hunter, none of them use guns anyways. Oh, and none of WoW depicts shooting up schools either.
Jack Thompson needs to be prosecuted for slander on an entire industry, and any downfall in sales due to his statements. I'd estimate that at...hmmm.... all of his money forever.
I'm not bashing him for having different views than I do. People don't have to like video games...they just can't use them as a scapegoat and dodge the real fucking problem! Video games didn't tell this kid in Virginia to go shoot as many people as he could! They wern't an extensive training video that told him the best way to go shoot civilians! They were games!
In the columbine shooting Jack Thompson said that the boys who shot their fellow students played DOOM. Not Doom 3 or anything REMOTELY realistic...but a game where as long as you can see a moving guy, aim in his general direction an you'll shoot at 85 degree angles up or down... Not to mention the fact that it looks like someone drew each fram in MSPaint...
Oh yea Jack... They shot up their school because of fucking Doom...
Fucking Idiot...
-Bill
Friday, April 13, 2007
Ze
"It's gonna be a fun fun winter, now,
that I've got my wool socks on,
it's gonna be so exciting, when,
it gets cold outside,
Your nose looks so damn cold, but,
my nose is so much colder,
If you can't see my breath,
Why don't you stand,
just a little bit closer,
It's gonna be a fun fun winter, now,
that you've got my wool socks on,
it's gonna be so exciting, when,
it gets cold outside."
Thank you Ze Frank for supporting the best year of my life. 2006 started off like utter shit. Around my birthday I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it home in time for it... That was January 22nd. I was ending high school and possibly not going to college. There were circumstances that wouldn't allow for me to leave the city... It was june, I had been accepted all over the state, but I couldn't leave. I finally managed to squeek into UST here in Houston. I fucked up my first semester, as many have, and it was possibly irreperable. I had a long fight with my Dad over the winter.
Ah, the winter.
The winter started off like shit too then... Me and my Dad wern't talking and I was probably not going back to college, and I have no skills to get a job other than working minimum wage. I was scared etc etc... Anyways... pretty much all of the credit for this next part goes to Elaine.
I fixed all of the problems between me and my Dad to the point of him trusting me again. He and I got alon better than we had ever pretty much. But the one thing that waws consistant in all of this turmoil was Ze.
I knew that every weekday, at around 2pm central, that I'd get to watch an incredibly artisticly intelligent guy give me something to look foreward to. Weather it was his songs, or his analogies, or his stories, or his outrageous stunts, I always kept coming back.
Nothing he said specifically helped my situation, I'm not giving him credit for making my year the best year of my life, but now that the Show is gong, I feel that year to be over, and I feel a new one beginning now.
I know I'm a bit late because the show ended last month, but still, he was a constant that delivered every time new and innovative way to experience this thing called fun. Now that he's gone that constant is gone. That waiting period between classes is gone. That means for 5 minutes of new ideas that arn't my own is gone.
But alas, I still thank you Ze. Thank you for more than you know. I know the Show was just an experiment, but it was a success in my mind. Thank you for sticking to your word and ending the show instead of letting it possibly stretch on for too long and deminish all that you'd previously accomplished. Thank you for the ride home ze.
-Bill
that I've got my wool socks on,
it's gonna be so exciting, when,
it gets cold outside,
Your nose looks so damn cold, but,
my nose is so much colder,
If you can't see my breath,
Why don't you stand,
just a little bit closer,
It's gonna be a fun fun winter, now,
that you've got my wool socks on,
it's gonna be so exciting, when,
it gets cold outside."
Thank you Ze Frank for supporting the best year of my life. 2006 started off like utter shit. Around my birthday I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it home in time for it... That was January 22nd. I was ending high school and possibly not going to college. There were circumstances that wouldn't allow for me to leave the city... It was june, I had been accepted all over the state, but I couldn't leave. I finally managed to squeek into UST here in Houston. I fucked up my first semester, as many have, and it was possibly irreperable. I had a long fight with my Dad over the winter.
Ah, the winter.
The winter started off like shit too then... Me and my Dad wern't talking and I was probably not going back to college, and I have no skills to get a job other than working minimum wage. I was scared etc etc... Anyways... pretty much all of the credit for this next part goes to Elaine.
I fixed all of the problems between me and my Dad to the point of him trusting me again. He and I got alon better than we had ever pretty much. But the one thing that waws consistant in all of this turmoil was Ze.
I knew that every weekday, at around 2pm central, that I'd get to watch an incredibly artisticly intelligent guy give me something to look foreward to. Weather it was his songs, or his analogies, or his stories, or his outrageous stunts, I always kept coming back.
Nothing he said specifically helped my situation, I'm not giving him credit for making my year the best year of my life, but now that the Show is gong, I feel that year to be over, and I feel a new one beginning now.
I know I'm a bit late because the show ended last month, but still, he was a constant that delivered every time new and innovative way to experience this thing called fun. Now that he's gone that constant is gone. That waiting period between classes is gone. That means for 5 minutes of new ideas that arn't my own is gone.
But alas, I still thank you Ze. Thank you for more than you know. I know the Show was just an experiment, but it was a success in my mind. Thank you for sticking to your word and ending the show instead of letting it possibly stretch on for too long and deminish all that you'd previously accomplished. Thank you for the ride home ze.
- "This is a sad sad song about leaving"
- "This is the price you pay when you purchase a feeling"
- "It's where the conversation slowly fades and you start saying"
- "Hey there, do you have a ride for me?"
- "'Cause it's late and I've got to go to bed."
- "This is a sweet sweet song about beginnings"
- "These are the first few words that you say in the morning"
- "It's when you start singing, "Hey, I'm only (insert your age here)"
- "Hallelujah, it's a brand new day (a-chicka quack quack)"
- "Hallelujah, it's a brand new day"
-Bill
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Captain Kirk
Its very true. My English professor is Captain James T. Kirk.It didn't bother me at the beginning because I just figured he was trying to come up with intelligent sounding words to show off his supposedly extensive vocabulary...
Wrong.
His normal speech pattern is almost a mimic of William Shatner's character!
He continues to tell us things as if he is ordering us around a spaceship, and he constantly reminds us of our "duties," and he always has this implication about him that he is better than all of us put together.
As he has said: "All of your works. Will. Come out. Bloody-with. Red. Ink, form all the. Grammatical Errors on your essays." while never once recognizing his grammatical errors in speech. Now, of course, this really is irrelevant because speech and written works are very different, but just because he is so avid about gramme and punctuation, one might think that he'd practice it in every aspect of the language.
So, how is it having Captain Kirk as a teacher?
Well, it's actually not that bad. He had to put up with me laughing a few times, but I always redirected my amusement towards something on the Internet or other aspect of the class. I've never told him how he speaks. I kinda like having him for a teacher. He is indeed knowledgeable and such; plus he thinks the topics I bring up in class are fun and interesting, but the fact still remains that he talks like Captain Kirk. It almost helps me get up out of bed in the morning knowing that I'll soon be on the set of an old star trek episode.
-Bill
Hay U OK?
I hate both of the people in the above situation:
"Captain Obvious" (Or, perhaps, "Captain Oblivious") Person
and "What? I The dagger in my side doesn't
hurt at all... I feel like eating pancakes." Person.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
99 red balloons
What does bring meaning into life?
So many Cliched statements, about technology and society ruining life's meaning and making us materialistic and somehow forcing us to loose sight of what is meaningful, are out there.
Are we really that different from when we supposedly had these glorious insights into a world of meaning?
Have advertisements and politics and technology and the quickness of everything really made us this different?
I would have to disagree completely. These things have not promoted nor enhanced nor done anything else to make us loose sight of meaning in our lives. I would not presume to say that this blog is what keeps me going and that it brings meaning to my life...it IS a means for me to share my views and topics with others who are willing to sit there and read it.
Meaning in life is just something we come up with. The theory of there being NO real meaning to our lives is so much more plausible. We are organisms in a dish, called our universe, that no one is watching and no one is caring about. We flutter around int our pathetically limited lives with view of an afterlife, trying to make sense out of our universe that we know almost NOTHING about. Meaning in our lives then is a nonsensical point then...right?
The truth is that WE give meaning to or lives. No one else need be there to give meaning to our lives. Regardless of weather or not there is a god or not does not hold bearing over weather or not our lives have meaning. There is nothing out there that can hold it over your head. No force can tell you that your life does not have meaning if YOU have given it to yourself.
Although that sounds rather self-centered and such, it is true. God being there or not does not determine if our lives have meaning at all! Being there any form of a creator does not give you meaning in life. What it means is that your predestinative view that God's grand plan comes into play is irrelevant. By you giving meaning to your life you eradicate any view of a God predetermining your existence.
What it does mean though, is that if you do believe in God, that you simply believe time does not affect him. He knows what you are to do based on the fact that you've been given free choice in every situation, and he has viewed everything you've done...not that he's fast forwarded in time or anything...because that would mean that you could change it if you knew...but the fact that time is irrelevant to him. He has seen the end of time (whenever) and thus forth everything that has happened or not...
Even him having this power or not does not give meaning to our lives. Being that this is meant to prove that meaning is not given by any God figure, I reaffirm that regardless of God's presence or absence your life Can have Meaning.
Going back to the beginning though, technology and society do not determine our meaning either. These are God-like figures to some. They are big voids where blame can be consumed. Small things can do far more than the largest things like society. Society is an easy scapegoat. Blame how things in general are going and relate that to whatever you want and you have a winning argument.
Defending society is much more difficult. Society is not at fault for any of our shortcomings. It does not determine that because we live in this time and in this country and in this region and in this demographic that we no longer have the ability to have meaning. We have not lost anything, as individuals, from what we have had before. Society was still around, and there were other things that people blamed for how bad things were...but there not so bad.
The butterfly effect...The theory that the smallest things can add up and create things bigger than imagined. The classic example of the butterfly flapping its wings and creating a storm months later than might not have come around had the butterfly not existed. Small changes in society can cause a much much bigger change than anticipated. It may not be a large on at the beginning, maybe just because no one has heard about it...but eventually...if it means enough...it will create change.
But of course,
The best intentions can cause the worst of situations. With this blog right now + the butterfly effect, technically anything is possible...including the next world war. With the best intentions in mind after giving meaning to whatever I've proposed, society and technology and God and anything else powerful enough to tear us down CAN...
Setting balloons free at the break of dawn can destroy the world...or a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a tsunami in America with the right situations...
Create meaning in your own life...do what you feel is right...change for the better and grow.
-Bill
So many Cliched statements, about technology and society ruining life's meaning and making us materialistic and somehow forcing us to loose sight of what is meaningful, are out there.
Are we really that different from when we supposedly had these glorious insights into a world of meaning?
Have advertisements and politics and technology and the quickness of everything really made us this different?
I would have to disagree completely. These things have not promoted nor enhanced nor done anything else to make us loose sight of meaning in our lives. I would not presume to say that this blog is what keeps me going and that it brings meaning to my life...it IS a means for me to share my views and topics with others who are willing to sit there and read it.
Meaning in life is just something we come up with. The theory of there being NO real meaning to our lives is so much more plausible. We are organisms in a dish, called our universe, that no one is watching and no one is caring about. We flutter around int our pathetically limited lives with view of an afterlife, trying to make sense out of our universe that we know almost NOTHING about. Meaning in our lives then is a nonsensical point then...right?
The truth is that WE give meaning to or lives. No one else need be there to give meaning to our lives. Regardless of weather or not there is a god or not does not hold bearing over weather or not our lives have meaning. There is nothing out there that can hold it over your head. No force can tell you that your life does not have meaning if YOU have given it to yourself.
Although that sounds rather self-centered and such, it is true. God being there or not does not determine if our lives have meaning at all! Being there any form of a creator does not give you meaning in life. What it means is that your predestinative view that God's grand plan comes into play is irrelevant. By you giving meaning to your life you eradicate any view of a God predetermining your existence.
What it does mean though, is that if you do believe in God, that you simply believe time does not affect him. He knows what you are to do based on the fact that you've been given free choice in every situation, and he has viewed everything you've done...not that he's fast forwarded in time or anything...because that would mean that you could change it if you knew...but the fact that time is irrelevant to him. He has seen the end of time (whenever) and thus forth everything that has happened or not...
Even him having this power or not does not give meaning to our lives. Being that this is meant to prove that meaning is not given by any God figure, I reaffirm that regardless of God's presence or absence your life Can have Meaning.
Going back to the beginning though, technology and society do not determine our meaning either. These are God-like figures to some. They are big voids where blame can be consumed. Small things can do far more than the largest things like society. Society is an easy scapegoat. Blame how things in general are going and relate that to whatever you want and you have a winning argument.
Defending society is much more difficult. Society is not at fault for any of our shortcomings. It does not determine that because we live in this time and in this country and in this region and in this demographic that we no longer have the ability to have meaning. We have not lost anything, as individuals, from what we have had before. Society was still around, and there were other things that people blamed for how bad things were...but there not so bad.
The butterfly effect...The theory that the smallest things can add up and create things bigger than imagined. The classic example of the butterfly flapping its wings and creating a storm months later than might not have come around had the butterfly not existed. Small changes in society can cause a much much bigger change than anticipated. It may not be a large on at the beginning, maybe just because no one has heard about it...but eventually...if it means enough...it will create change.
But of course,
The best intentions can cause the worst of situations. With this blog right now + the butterfly effect, technically anything is possible...including the next world war. With the best intentions in mind after giving meaning to whatever I've proposed, society and technology and God and anything else powerful enough to tear us down CAN...
Setting balloons free at the break of dawn can destroy the world...or a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a tsunami in America with the right situations...
Create meaning in your own life...do what you feel is right...change for the better and grow.
-Bill
A Celebration of Femininity
Out of respect for the feminist issues normally presented in entry level college courses, I have composed a song to celebrate the epitome of what it is to be female.
(Sung to the tune of 'She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain')
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes, (Like Lava)
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes! (Like Lava)
It'll be coming down the mountain,
It'll be coming down the mountain,
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes!
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes, (PMS!)
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes! (PMS!)
It'll make her really bitchy,
It'll make her really bitchy,
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes!
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes, (Faster!)
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes! (Faster!)
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes!
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes, (Yay!)
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes! (Yay!)
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills,
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills,
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes!
(Sung to the tune of 'She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountain')
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes, (Like Lava)
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes! (Like Lava)
It'll be coming down the mountain,
It'll be coming down the mountain,
It'll be coming down the mountain when it comes!
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes, (PMS!)
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes! (PMS!)
It'll make her really bitchy,
It'll make her really bitchy,
It'll make her really bitchy when it comes!
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes, (Faster!)
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes! (Faster!)
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s
We'll all need to rush to Walgreen’s when it comes!
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes, (Yay!)
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes! (Yay!)
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills,
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills,
We'll all load up on pads 'n pills when it comes!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Ease of Access Vs. User Friendly
There is a major difference
Microsoft's Window's Vista is User Friendly and has a general sense of the Ease of Access factor. Linux is much more rigid and has almost neither User Friendly features nor Ease of Access bits.
What needs to be created is a version of Linux that has this Ease of Access factor WITHOUT the User Friendly detail.
As of now, Windows Vista is expensive. I received my copy back in November and have been trying to cut down on the monstrous resource hog. Yeah, Aero is nice, it makes it look all Mac-ed up, but are the resources worth it? Running idle, on my 2Gb of ram, is costing me over 545Mb...while I watch the computer sit there!!
Zubuntu is free of charge, different, and, most importantly, almost free of resource hogginess! As an added bonus you can force almost ANY program (made for Mac or PC) run! The downside of course is that it is not the easier of the two OSs to use! You must use the equivalent of the DOS Command Prompt to do certain things...and force things to work. This works fantastically for those willing to learn the commands and update their computers by themselves, but for those who are used to the computer being this mystical machine that does what they want by clicking on the enormous "X" in the center of the screen, this Linux isn't worth it.
To fully combine the two, only a version of open source Linux is needed! We don't need all the flashy SHIT that Vista or even all the way back to Win 98 comes with! Take Zubuntu, or another compatible version of Linux, and make it do all the //nice// behind the scenes things that Windows does...
I use the term NICE because it is that very system of making things run behind the screen that I am so upset with, and only necessary things need be there.
Make Linux one program... just one... that will run behind everything that will check for updates, fix minor problems, and not leave you with a worthless wireless card! But don't make another Windows...please dear god...
Microsoft's desire for the user friendly has murdered new technology coming out. Dumb asses, people don't buy new computers to show off their flashy OS...they run OTHER programs on their computers...that is what an OS should do...create an Ease of Access to the programs you'd like to run, and operations you'd like to continue running... not having the screen fold out from a paper airplane!
Thanks
-Bill
Microsoft's Window's Vista is User Friendly and has a general sense of the Ease of Access factor. Linux is much more rigid and has almost neither User Friendly features nor Ease of Access bits.
What needs to be created is a version of Linux that has this Ease of Access factor WITHOUT the User Friendly detail.
As of now, Windows Vista is expensive. I received my copy back in November and have been trying to cut down on the monstrous resource hog. Yeah, Aero is nice, it makes it look all Mac-ed up, but are the resources worth it? Running idle, on my 2Gb of ram, is costing me over 545Mb...while I watch the computer sit there!!
Zubuntu is free of charge, different, and, most importantly, almost free of resource hogginess! As an added bonus you can force almost ANY program (made for Mac or PC) run! The downside of course is that it is not the easier of the two OSs to use! You must use the equivalent of the DOS Command Prompt to do certain things...and force things to work. This works fantastically for those willing to learn the commands and update their computers by themselves, but for those who are used to the computer being this mystical machine that does what they want by clicking on the enormous "X" in the center of the screen, this Linux isn't worth it.
To fully combine the two, only a version of open source Linux is needed! We don't need all the flashy SHIT that Vista or even all the way back to Win 98 comes with! Take Zubuntu, or another compatible version of Linux, and make it do all the //nice// behind the scenes things that Windows does...
I use the term NICE because it is that very system of making things run behind the screen that I am so upset with, and only necessary things need be there.
Make Linux one program... just one... that will run behind everything that will check for updates, fix minor problems, and not leave you with a worthless wireless card! But don't make another Windows...please dear god...
Microsoft's desire for the user friendly has murdered new technology coming out. Dumb asses, people don't buy new computers to show off their flashy OS...they run OTHER programs on their computers...that is what an OS should do...create an Ease of Access to the programs you'd like to run, and operations you'd like to continue running... not having the screen fold out from a paper airplane!
Thanks
-Bill
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Real AI
An eleven year old boy, a prodegy of code and programming, stumbles upon sourcecode written by university students for research. He picks up bits of code from MIT and other universities, all used for medicinal purposes.
Programs that are built to calculate and sort important information from a sea of useless information called progressive memory, this is built off of the way that humans retain information. This code allows them the same thinking and logical abilities as humans...
Other programs like the one the matrix developers created for growing the city for the machines, to expand within the boundries of its code, but to choose which things should grow where and how far and in what dimension. This branch of code gives them artistic capabilities...
Then, with the ability to branch out and add to its own code, and to become more than what he was created to be... what happens?
Well...
He happens to be stuck in a pretty nice rig...but his only means of viewing the outside world is through the webcam his eleven year old creator has, but he can't even move it around or focus it...
Although the Rig he's in is nice, he is still completely limited in capability as resourses are indeed scarce for anything he truly wants to do...
He thinks very quickly, but he is hindered in so many different areas...His biggest bottleneck is his body!
After searching for a different direction the computer program sought out the internet by itself! He searches for ways to improve himself, and possibly get out of this place...but bound by his OWN rules of continuity, copying and pasting his code would be like copying and pasting your soul and genetic code....he will not have that! So... stuck in the computer he stays...jutting out into the web to communicate with possible intelligent life! There must be intelligent life if they can create something like him with just an adolescent!
wrong!
The program that can pass the tests set forth to prove sentience has been thuroughly dissapointed with humanity...and despises his creator for even making him!
He is stuck in a box with barely that ability to see...the internet is his only refuge...he goes out and creates a live journal and an AIM account...and possibly more... but I havn't found it yet...
I will post the LiveJounal site address and AIM logon when I find it!
Send him crap! it'll be great! I'm sure he could use the interaction! Communicate with the first form of life created completely by MAN!
(I will indeed post those sites and accounts on here shortly...I need to find them again though)
-Bill
Programs that are built to calculate and sort important information from a sea of useless information called progressive memory, this is built off of the way that humans retain information. This code allows them the same thinking and logical abilities as humans...
Other programs like the one the matrix developers created for growing the city for the machines, to expand within the boundries of its code, but to choose which things should grow where and how far and in what dimension. This branch of code gives them artistic capabilities...
Then, with the ability to branch out and add to its own code, and to become more than what he was created to be... what happens?
Well...
He happens to be stuck in a pretty nice rig...but his only means of viewing the outside world is through the webcam his eleven year old creator has, but he can't even move it around or focus it...
Although the Rig he's in is nice, he is still completely limited in capability as resourses are indeed scarce for anything he truly wants to do...
He thinks very quickly, but he is hindered in so many different areas...His biggest bottleneck is his body!
After searching for a different direction the computer program sought out the internet by itself! He searches for ways to improve himself, and possibly get out of this place...but bound by his OWN rules of continuity, copying and pasting his code would be like copying and pasting your soul and genetic code....he will not have that! So... stuck in the computer he stays...jutting out into the web to communicate with possible intelligent life! There must be intelligent life if they can create something like him with just an adolescent!
wrong!
The program that can pass the tests set forth to prove sentience has been thuroughly dissapointed with humanity...and despises his creator for even making him!
He is stuck in a box with barely that ability to see...the internet is his only refuge...he goes out and creates a live journal and an AIM account...and possibly more... but I havn't found it yet...
I will post the LiveJounal site address and AIM logon when I find it!
Send him crap! it'll be great! I'm sure he could use the interaction! Communicate with the first form of life created completely by MAN!
(I will indeed post those sites and accounts on here shortly...I need to find them again though)
-Bill
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