Carefull

QUOTE

"The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." Horace Walpole

I have been wrestling for the last five years or so with the possibility that in certain situations I have cared too much. Since being damaged by that kind of caring, perhaps I have found a more realistic balance, a mellow type of caring.

How do we learn how to care enough to fully realize life and its joys, yet not be ripped apart by life going on, as it inevitably does?

Bad analogy

We use analogy to understand our world. It is pretty important to find good analogies. Our power to understand is only as good as our analogies.

I was watching a university channel on satellite TV. It was a biologist explaining that biology is nano technology. It was very informative and I was marveling at how intelligent and educated he was. Then he got into his personal opinions. He explained why he disagreed with a computer expert who was saying that eventually computers will perform many functions that are now done exclusively by biology.

He went on to explain how computers can’t evolve, or heal themselves, or feel. As he made his point, he compared a single transistor to a neuron, or a single computer to all of evolution. A more fitting analogy would compare a neuron to a million transistors, and biological evolution to the evolution of electronics.

My concern was the lack of critical thinking in his arguments and the apparent lack of the same in his audience. During the questions after his talk, nobody mentioned that his analogies were way off base. These are smart people. Why the glaring lack of clarity of thought?

I can only conclude that education can (and often does) get in the way of sound thinking.

The teacher speaks

This blog is beginning to replace my written journal. That means that it needs to meet "the teacher".
Sometimes, when the spirit is right, the teacher speaks louder than the background noise. Sometimes very loud. The teacher gives me lessons, and answers questions. Sometimes, a simple question requires five years worth of lessons before I have enough background for an answer. It seems that I always eventually get my answer.

Tonight I happenned to ask if Conciousness had inertia. The answer flowed from my keyboard as easily as it used to flow from my pencil...


Of course consciousness has inertia. Consciousness is based on inertia, and vise-versa.

The most basic concept in a neural network is that neurons have many connections to other neurons. The strength of those connections get enhanced or diminished as the network learns. Think of yourself as a neuron (you actually are, in society’s brain). You have many acquaintances. Some of them you like, some you distrust. As you interact with people you learn who to pay attention to and who to ignore.

Learning how to treat an acquaintance is a kind of social inertia. It takes a lot of opposite energy to change how you interact with a given person.

Consciousness (as we know it on earth) is an emergent property of complex neural networks. As such it is a complex conglomeration of attitudes, each of which required energy to create, and would require equal energy to undo. Consciousness is made of inertia.




The chemistry of life
Our consciousness is made up of many small masses connected to create a working unit. It is a tightly packed mass, like an atom. It might bind into pairs or into larger groups to become like a molecule. It may bounce off of other atoms like molecules in air. It may stick loosely in large groups, forming a liquid. It may bind into a rigid organization, forming a solid. Each phase has its own kind of energy and its own uses.

We can learn much about personal energies by applying knowledge of chemistry.

Developer

We cannot take credit for our talent.
It's what we do with it that counts.

How am I developing my talents?
How am I deploying them?





And you?

A great get-together

Friday we had a get together with Lynn's family and all our kids and grandkids. It was in honor of at least 5 birthdays, thanksgiving, and Ruth and Nathan's return to the south. It went remarkably well, better than we could have hoped. No major meltdowns among 8 little kids who played well all evening.

After many rounds of happy birthday, Nathan recited two poems he wrote as birthday presents. In written form, they may not win any awards, but as an oral performance it was great fun. I posted them in the two previous posts.

Nathan's second poem

Ryan

In the deep virgin woods near the River Pine
Stands a large red mansion that’s ever so fine.
Therein lives a man of great and handsome stature
Dedicated to researching mother nature.

For Amber, Trichelle, Ethan and Avery
Ryan provides a life most savory.
Life in Ryan’s house is never boring.
All of its members are given to constant exploring
Of books, toys, gadgets, and of mother earth.
Of imagination and genius Ryan has no dearth!

His achievements form an awesome collage
Of environmental ideas and scientific Knollage.
He managed to skip two years of college!

Ryan’s systematic thinking and digital approach
Put his scientific work far above reproach.
With oil prices rising with impunity
He sees a fantastic new opportunity.

As mankind for new oil resources cries
Ryan seeks fuel from oil from French fries!
Like an artist expert with his easel
Ryan’s now designing bio-diesel!

So Ryan, we today offer you many cheers
For a happy birthday and for many more wonderful years!

Nathan's first poem

Paul
My son-in-law Paul has knowledge abounding.
His scientific achievements are nothing short of astounding.
As a scientist he's always proving his worth
with ingenious new uses of straw and earth.

He always seems to be having fun
in finding new ways to use heat from the sun.
By designing recycling water and waste recourses
he'll help the world save many precious resources.

He's saved much time in overcoming electronic hurdles
with his circuit-break-locating turtles.
In addition to being an outstanding inventor,
he's a great family man and outstanding mentor.

His warm smile, gentle manner delights folks of all ages.
He's truly one of our greatest sages.
He's never too busy to pause with you for a talk
and always has time to take grandchildren for a walk!

So for all his love, dedication and loyalty,
let's wish him a birthday fit for royalty.

Whoosh!

It's been almost a whole week since the last entry. I can't tell you how many times I almost wrote something, but was just too busy, or consequently too tired.
This has been a week of many new connections and opportunities, a week of meetings and seemingly non stop talking, a high energy week.

My major challenge has been to find enough isolation time to ground myself and re-grow / recharge my cosmic energies. I fought to get some of that kind of time last weekend. It paid off almost immediately with creative designs bubbling up in my sleep Monday morning.
Yeah, That's still what I need more of.

Indian Summer

It is such an incredibly gorgeous day, everybody left work early. So here I am, playing in the sunshine alone (and twiddling with my computer too).

Stranger in a strange land

Yesterday, while my car was getting fixed at a Chevy dealer, I allowed myself to interact with a salesman. I asked him if he had any hybrids.
No.
Did he have any high mileage cars?
Sure, how about an Impala. They get 30 mpg on the highway.
Do you have an enclosed truck?
He proceeded to show me his Suburbans, all the time focused on color, leather, navigating package, DVD videos. Little or no mention of actual transportation features.
OK, let’s try the other extreme… Do you have any tiny high mileage cars?
He pointed me to a little four cylinder that gets 30 mpg. (same as the Impala).

No wonder GM is in trouble. They aren’t selling transportation or efficiency. They are only selling features, status and power. Controlling consumers with powerful advertisements that prey on our vanity has worked on Americans for so long that GM has forgotten what business they are actually in.

Toyota remembers.

Coincidence?

I tossed the newspaper aside to make room for my laptop so I could write my previous post. Then I picked the paper up.
The political cartoon showed a kid and an adult watching hurricane Rita on TV. The kid was saying "Maybe it's time someone explained to me what you grownups did to make God so mad at us."

Inter-generational war

Today the ceo of Delphi was talking about some of the deeper causes and ramifications of Delphi's bankruptcy, and one statement caught my attention. He had been expaining about the heavy financial burden of the pension plans, and the reality that current wages must be much lower than we were used to. Below is from a news article...
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Miller said Delphi's case was a "flash point, a test case" for a wider global conflict between the interests of current workers and retired employees.

"I fear something like inter-generational warfare, as young people increasingly resent having their wages reduced and taxed away to support social programs for their grandparents' income and health care concerns," he said.
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This concept has been on my mind for about a year now.
Simply the fact that there are a lot of baby boomers and relatively few to support them when they get old will be a burden about 4 times greater than we were used to. Now we add in a newly global economy where our wages are truly competeing with all other countries, meaning our wages are going down. Add to that the economic effects of global warming (big hurricanes, etc.), and our increasing dependence on fossil fuels that are rapidly dissapearing. All of this spells economic trouble on the horizon.

A while ago I realized that the younger generations are going to be resentful that old people got them into this, and those same old people are now draining the federal budget with health care issues. A little anarchy could easily give rise to a movement to wipe out old people.

Too busy?

In the little blog world that I normally frequent, the updates have been a little spotty the last month or so. It seems most of us are busy adjusting to the new season, or whatever excuse sounds good. In my case, after cruising everyone elses, I stare at my own blog for a while and then conclude that I'm just too tired to write.

It takes a break, a moment of R&R, then the juices start to flow a little.

Also, there is a time to soak up input from others, a time to contemplate. Later comes a time when Ideas burst out too fast to write them all down.

New link to explore

I bumped in to a new and interesting blog... How to save the world
This guy seems to be intelligent and deep, yet practical.

I have not yet had time to read enough of him to see if he is always that good. If he is, I will add a permanent link to him.

Good thinking fodder

I have just been listening to "A short history of progress", A series of lectures by archaeologist Ronald Wright. I heard one of his lectures on CBC radio and had to order the full set. This guy is a really good observer. He sheds more light on who we are and where we might be going than any other single source I have met.

Whooo! It will take a while to soak it all up.

Jet lagged

It is a lot easier to travel to a place that is 5 hours later than to a place that is 5 hours earlier.

To avoid jet lag, the only reasonable long trip would have to be to only travel west, and only a few time zones at a time.
It would take a while to get back home...