The weight that hovers above us all

I'm watching "Igby Goes Down". The central character, Igby, has an interesting set of parents. A scary mother played most excellently by Susan Sarandon, but a much nicer mother than I've had to deal with the last half of my own life and an excellent father played by Bill Pullman, as his schizophrenic dad. There is a scene with Pullman, who loses it while showering with his silk pajamas on. He starts raging behind the translucent glass door, smashes it with his fist and then sits there in the shower as his young son tearfully watches him. Dad (Pullman, in a tour de force, performance) says:

"Igby, I feel this great, great pressure... coming down on me. It's just, constantly, coming down on me. Crushing me."

Bill Pullman

Can you relate? I can relate. I think we all can relate. And we are all at risk of our parent's phobias, paranoia and psychosis.

But it got me to thinking. How is it, this general fear, paranoia, crushing pressure of Life, doesn't crush us all.

I think for many, they simply don't feel it, they are oblivious. some of us are too stupid to see it, some, too intelligent, or are simply such good Artists that they are generally rewarded and recognized and are constantly slipping out from under it.

Others, bear it with no difficulty. Some, bear it with some, or all, duress. Some, simply cannot handle it, some complicatedly cannot handle it; they flip out, run off, are flighty, flaky, or lost.

If you feel it then, I think you are intelligent. At least, in some way. How you handle it, is the thing, you see. Because it is always there, for everyone. It's simply how you handle it that matters.

And I started to wonder: how do I handle it?

I realized, if I looked at it, with my "inner eye", that I could see it, hanging there above me. A dark shadow, a heavy dark weighted thing, suspended there above me, always, waiting to crush me. But I handle its being there simply by, ignoring it.

Sisyphus rollin' that ball up that hill

I'm aware it's there. And I do things to keep it there, keep it from descending upon me; I have a buffer between myself and it. It is a fearsome thing, that weight, but one that needs to be kept at bay. For it is only when that buffer does close in upon you, crushing you, that things can then become dangerous.

We are all at risk. We all have things to keep at bay. It's all in the dignity you choose to show, the actions you choose to play to keep it at bay, that give you the quality of your life. It's your Life. It's the quality you want to have, your choices, that give you that happiness in life, or that great sadness. It's your choice.

Choose well.

Virtual Reality Lovers?

Yes. We are getting very close.

Very close to what? You ask?

Watch the video first. Then consider... just what's next?

And while we're at it, here's my contribution to this topic, a short sci fi story I wrote, "Simon's Beautiful Thought".

Did you know that there are already many kinds of remote manipulators?

There are suits you can wear (like the Vivid Cyber Sex Suit), hooked up over the internet to someone else of your choice, where you can each manipulate the other person's body, like virtual touch.

This suit was killed by the FCC for lack of proper testing issues, but come on, it's really only a matter of time.

There have been "waldos" for some time, allowing you to manipulate a mechanical glove located anywhere in the world. Surgeons are using devices like this now to perform surgery half a world away from them. This was a concept that has been around since before I was born and that now, was a long time ago. I remember reading about "waldos" when I was a kid and had first started reading Sci Fi back in the 60s.

According to Wikipedia: Waldo (1942) is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein originally published in Astounding Magazine in August 1942 under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. It is available in the book Waldo & Magic, Inc., as well as other collections. This story is not related to the story "Magic, Inc." other than both stories being about magic in one form or another.

"The essence of the story is the journey of a mechanical genius from his self-imposed exile from the rest of humanity to a more normal life, conquering the disease myasthenia gravis as well as his own contempt for humans in general. The key to this is that magic is loose in the world, but in a logical and scientific way.

"Waldo Farthingwaite-Jones was born a weakling, unable even to lift his head up to drink or to hold a spoon. Far from destroying him, this channeled his intellect, and his family's money, into the development of the device patented as "Waldo F. Jones' Synchronous Reduplicating Pantograph". Wearing a glove and harness, Waldo could control a much more powerful mechanical hand simply by moving his hand and fingers. This and other technologies he develops make him a rich man, rich enough to build a home in space. In the story, these devices became popularly known as "waldoes". In reference to this story, the real-life remote manipulators that were later developed also came to be called waldoes."


There are and have been for many many years, devices that mimick Human sexual organs and give pleasure, in some forms, going back thousands of years. One can already hear someone who isn't there, or see them; we now have videophones, for real, something that was for decades the domain only of science fiction movies.

Now you can also touch them and they can touch you. Finally we can create an attractive, real looking individual out of thin air, or from others, as a composite of your perfect ideal of a mate, as in the case of the virtual Japanese Rock Star.

AI is coming along nicely and it won't be long before you cannot tell that you are not talking to a real live person.

What's next? Obviously, The Virtual Lover. A fully computer generated, love and lust interest that simply does not exist and is always there at your beck and call. Literally. In wearing the right suit, or simply having the right components, you will not only not be able to tell that it is not a real person, but you will come, possibly, to prefer the fake over the real. Because as they say, no one can make lover to you, like you. Really? Well, some think so.

And having a virtual lover will be much easier and will come before a virtual Romantic Lover, because motion is always going to be easier to mimic than intellectual romance. But don't think that won't be next somewhere down that road. You can already buy a mock up of a male or female porn star. That hot person on the screen you lust after you can indeed feel what they are like close up and personal. What will it be like when you can have Brad or Angelina living with you at your home, at your beck and call, for every blow by blow action you could possibly require or desire?

I kind of makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.

I remember reading a sci fi story decades ago about a guy on another planet that ran androids. Realistic looking robots, that a good "handler" could handle up to 9 or 13 at a time when working in the field digging or whatever. They had houses of ill repute for the Human laborers in these communities on these outer planets.

And as happens in real life, as has happened in the Old West, one of these guys comes to fall in love with one of the "prostitutes" only to find in the end, that it was a robot wired to a bed with a receiver beneath the bed that read his thought waves and responded in sexual responses to give him the most responsive and intense lovemaking session that could be possible. Think about it, ever been making love with your lover and they kept not quite doing what you needed and it was frustrating?

But think about that a little further and you begin to see the weirdness. He was basically making love to, himself. Maybe masturbation isn't a big deal, but when you actually fall in love with your hand, the object you are using for physical pleasure, when you actually have fallen romantically in love with a physical component such as a machine... that can't be good for the Human Race as a whole.

I suspect women have this problem more than men, actually, as men tend to be a bit more coarse in their actions and desires. But in this case, that would, could, never happen. Except in those moments when you don't know what you need and your partner magically just, does. But even that can be rectified over time as the AI would "learn" what you need and figure it out eventually, giving you exactly what you need, when you needed it. So, do you think people, especially some people, would find that addicting? See a problem here?

When you toss in that there are already life sized, realistic looking dolls (around $7,000)  where you can feel you are in the room with almost a real person, throw in some mechanics, speakers, a remote, maybe bluetooth connection to a very fast computer and some mobility and balance, voila, you have a real date. Even if the mobility issues are somewhere in the future, the rest is all pretty doable. Scary. You will literally be able to have a lover that you can keep in the closet until you want her. Or him.

Then there is the issue one article mentions, is having sex with a robot (or a doll), cheating?

At some point (for some, there will ALWAYS be some for whom) there will no longer be any reason  to even have a mate of their own. As a soul mate, (more like a CPUMate) will be able to be manufactured. What does that say when we no longer need to work for our relationship, we just design it to work with us?

Sean Young in BladeRunner

That doesn't even bring into call the whole BladeRunner concern, we're still just talking machines here.

But, that still brings along with it some serious, real concerns.

If you take a couple, who have a strange orientation, even antisocial, and turn them loose with one another, you can get some very interesting, and scary things. Serial murder partners, rapists partners, strange fetishists, weird psychosocial behaviors. Because they support one another's beliefs and ethics and spiral into very strange areas. Areas that may be counter to a healthy society. Surely, there will be some countermeasures and some situations that are very positive for the world.

Surely this will be good for some, especially those "objective fetishists" types who can get turned on my a street sign, a clock radio or a toaster. But what about normal Human relations? How will all this affect, that?

Then again maybe, finally, those Aliens will come down to Earth and show some interest in interacting and shaking things up a bit.

Win the battle, or win the war?

One of the biggest, the most important things that I have learned in life, is two part.

First, to try to eliminate ignorance when and where ever I can. You know, there is so much ignorance, misunderstood facts, misinformation and disinformation, that whenever one can, we really have a responsibility to speak up. Now, we have to be careful there because if we have that misunderstood / misinformation or disinformation (something the world learned from the old Soviet KGB days), well, we don't want to be spreading around the insanity, do we?

So I always try to be sure of my facts, to triangulate in a good journalistic (old) fashion attempt to be as correct as possible and to STOP talking when I get into grey areas. Better to say, "I don't really know about that" than to keep talking on what you THINK is true. At least say, I THINK this is true, but I'm really not sure. That too is dangerous, but at least you placed the caveat to emptor.

 
Second, I need to know when to drop the discussion and just let it go. One can, as they say, win the battle and lose the war. I want to win the war, as it were.

Sometimes, it is so easy to get caught up in winning the battle, or making your point, or pushing it to where the other person has to nearly (perhaps only in their minds) kowtow to you, that you lose them in the end.

About that, I don't think I really count. It is true that the chest beater will get the attention and move up in the world, I've seen it many times. People who call attention to themselves, sometimes when I was even the one to point things out and they got the profit. The thing about that is, you have to know that you are making a difference. Many times people have come back to me to say, "Hey, you said that first" or "He got that from you." Which feels pretty good. And later, they have a deeper appreciation for my sensibilities and I reaped a later benefit that was more hidden.

Still that being said, I have learned that putting your head down and working hard, can easily get you nothing. Certainly not as much as the chest thumpers. So you have to let people know, you are intelligent, especially if you are wise, that you are knowledgeable and have a good sense of self and purpose. When you do that, I've seen many times, that those in power, deferred to me, who was quiet in the back of the room at times, over that of the noise in the front, much to their disdain as I had "stolen their thunder". But I didn't, did I? I think it is good if you come across as smart, and classy, rather than otherwise.

Anyway, it is really too easy to get caught up in winning that battle. And you really don't want to lose them in the end. It is many times better to simply make your point, and move on. Frequently with people I have known, if I did that, they would later come to say they see things in that way, or claim it as their own discovery, disclaiming my responsibility in their change in attitude or understanding.

But really, what is more important? That they now see things more clearly, more correctly? Or that I get due credit for making the world a better place?

Religion as disease and addiction

NPR had an interview on Fresh Air on June 23rd recently on the topic of "Compass of Pleasure" why things feel so good. It was about addiction, from sex to junk food. Researcher and Editor in chief for the Journal of Neurophysiology, David Linden talked about the science of pleasure and addiction. Usually I try to be tight and one step in front of the other, but I'm going to just throw some things out there this time, so don't take it too seriously; but it should be interesting....

It was his contention that we do not find someone has heart disease, and then treat them as criminals or defects. Rather we educate them and treat them for their issues and expect them to take care of their situation in order to continue living a good and full life.

So too, he said, we should treat addicts. Once they know what their situation is, we should expect them to be responsible enough to seek the right way for them to make it through life. If we apply this same theory to those people who believe in religion, and it is very much a similar kind of thing, perhaps we can get them the help they need in order to make it through life without living their delusion so they can then become stronger and more productive Human Beings. When you look at how many take on religion to replace things like addictions, exchanging one for the other may seem like a good thing, but there is a downside.

Fred Previc who wrote, "The role of extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity", said: "...the final expansion of DA could have prompted the rise in abstract reasoning, human creativity in the form of art and music, and religious behavior....Both abstract reasoning and religious thought involve an emphasis on nonvisible (distant) space and time, and both are linked to the upper field....It might also seem strange that two ostensibly antagonistic processes--religious behavior and abstract (scientific) reasoning--may have co-evolved....both phenomena are concerned with abstract concepts and comprehensive frameworks with which to comprehend spatio-temporal events in the external environment".

This is something I've been alluding to for some time now. Though I've proposed it goes back further in time and evolution as to the beginnings and what sparked this to begin in the first place. 

So, in taking another route beyond the creation, to it's abuse, one has to ask, "is Religion a disease"?

Dis-ease? Is it an addiction? Do you receive dopamine rewards by believing? Is it the energy of God the religious feel? Or, does believing in something outside of yourself, thus abdicating yourself from all responsibility because of the "Will of God", simply give you a rush, or flush your nerves with chemicals? Consider how pleasant religion makes the religious feel. Have you ever seen the face of a "believer" in church, in the "raptures". Kind of looks like a heroin addict just after they shoot up, doesn't it? Now, consider how leaving it, leaves one in withdrawal.

Try, being a severely religious person, then stop it. Look to the Middle East. Consider that those suicide bombers, may very well have been "losing their religion" and so, the only way out, was suicide and hey, why not take out as many "infidels" (and other "True Believers") with them.

So try being a religion addict and suddenly stop. See what happens.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Independence Day, America!

This is the day, two days after Independence was declared, that the Declaration of Independence was finally decided upon, and a month and four days before it was first signed by John Hancock and the others.

Yes, it's good to remember every 4th of July (and daily in-between I might add) exactly what we are celebrating.  One might think we are celebrating fireworks, over eating and drinking.

And actually, I think we are. We are celebrating a reason to celebrate. That's fine, as long as we don't lose sight of what exactly the celebrations were originally all about.

Freedom.

But what does that mean? Well, if you don't know yet, go read a book. Or, if you can't handle that, watch a good movie. I have a really good suggestion for a good movie on that topic, but I can't make it yet, as I'm currently writing it. But when it comes out, go see it. It's going to be really fun.

To really understand what the celebration is about, you cannot just hear what it is about, you have to know what it was like to live back then. I don't think we can even imagine now what it was like. No technologies like we have now, much fewer people, only 13 states, most of the US under other's control or a vast possibility beyond the Mississippi.

But it meant no more control by England. Free to pursue our own devices. Taxation with Representation. Immigrants were welcomed. Years later for America, commerce was King, not the King of England.

First and foremost, American Independence meant spilled blood. That of our ancestors, or the founders of this country, not just the Founding Fathers, considering, they lived through the war.

On a more positive side, France gave us a great symbol that has turned into the symbol for America, the Statue of Liberty, "Lady Liberty" herself.

Frédéric-Auguste BartholdiLady Liberty Banquet
Re-created by Chef David Féau

“In 1871, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who had already won a measure of success with patriotic sculptural works, was commissioned by Edouard de Laboulaye, a prominent scholar and politician, to sculpt the goddess Liberty; Laboulaye planned to give it to the United States to commemorate the historic relations between the two nations at the time of America’s centennial anniversary of independence. The iconography of the monument was based upon French and Roman models. It was to take the form of the Roman goddess Libertas, which had long been a symbol of freedom in Europe. . . . Laboulaye approved Bartholdi’s clay study model for the statue in 1875, and then he inaugurated the Franco-American Union, which was to have full responsibility for the monument and the raising of money to pay for its construction.


"One of the great fund-raising events in the pains to build the Statue of Liberty was its kick-off banquet given at the Hotel du Louvre on Saturday, November 6, 1875, by the Franco-American Union. . . . The event was a glittering affair of some 200 guests, which included such distinguished names as French president Patrice de MacMahon, U.S. ambassador Elihu Washburne, descendents of Marquis de Lafayette . . . also present were prominent liberals Victor Borie, Louis Wolowski, and Henri Martin. The event, which raised 40,000 francs, was thus enormously successful both financially and socially.

"Based on newspaper reports, the banquet was described in Hertha Pauli’s 1948 classic volume, I Lift My Lamp: The Way of a Symbol: ‘The splendid dining room of the Hotel du Louvre was decked out in the red, white, and blue colors of the American and French republics. Two hundred guests, French and American (all male; the affair was strictly stag) sat at three tables forming a large U. At the end a gorgeously colored transparency depicted the proposed work. Its arms seemed to rise from the sea.’ The dinner was at once scrumptious and symbolic. Its leading dishes were specially named for the occasion.”

 Lady Liberty Banquet
Serves 6

• Potage Pritanier—Mock Turtle à l’Américaine
• Hors d’Oeuvres variés
• Turbot à la Hollandaise—Croustades à la Washington
• Buissons d’Écrevisses de la Meuse (Sauce à la truffle noire)
• Filet de Boeuf Lafayette
• Cotelettes d’Agneau aux petit-pois
• Poularde Caroline
• Faisan et Perdeaux Bardés
• Salade de chicorée
• Haricots verts à la Mâitre d’hotel
• Turbans d’Ananas au Kirsch
• Parfait glace au café
• Dessert assorti

Wines: Marsala, Bordeaux en Carafon, Haut-Sauternes, Cos d’Estournel 1865, Chambolles 1858, Clos Vougeot 1868, Veuve Clicquot extra sec, Clicquot superior

When Lady Liberty was commemorated, a poem was read, written by. Emma Lazarus and is now permanently engraved on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands. Most people only know of it, a part:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses...."

But there is more. Years later, one man made it his goal to see that poem on a plague on her base. It spoke to the world and welcomed those who needed protection. We forget sometimes, that we have traditionally been that big brother, or big sister to the world. It's a heady and heavy responsibility we have sometimes not wanted. We have wanted to hole up in a cave, to be isolationist.

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Here in Seattle, we will celebrate with fireworks around our own statue of sorts, The 1964 World's Fair Space Needle. They have taken to making it quite a spectacle and something to be seen in person.

Have a happy, healthy and pleasant 4th of July, 2011!

Happy Birthday America!

Weekend Wise Words - Frederick Douglass’s “Fourth of July” Speech

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

"Frederick Douglass's Fourth of July Speech is the most famous speech delivered by the abolitionist and civil rights advocate Frederick Douglass. In the nineteenth century, many American communities and cities celebrated Independence Day with a ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence, which was usually followed by an oral address or speech dedicated to the celebration of independence and the heritage of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. On July 5, 1852, the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York, invited Douglass to be the keynote speaker for their Independence Day celebration." - Commentary by L. Diane Barnes, Youngstown State University

I'm including only the end of Mr. Douglass's long speech and the poem he noted by William Lloyd Garrison. Thanks to milestonedocuments.com web site:

"The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, “Let there be Light,” has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen, in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God.” In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:"

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free, Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee, And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign, To man his plundered rights again Restore.
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good, Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.
God speed the hour, the glorious hour, When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower; But all to manhood's stature tower, By equal birth!
THAT HOUR WILL COME, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house, the thrall Go forth.
Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive, To break the rod, and rend the gyve, The spoiler of his prey deprive
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.

Have a great 4th of July weekend.

Whale Wars?

There is a TV show (on cable) called, "Whale Wars" about a group called Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who fight against whalers. You know, it's pretty rewarding to think that there is a show on about what the movement was all about so many years ago. A rockin' title song, these guys are like heroes and they have their own cable show! I find it amazing.

When I was a kid, it was all about trying to get the adults to understand that we have got to start thinking about the environment. We were idiots. They thought we were nuts. But we kept pushing. Talking about it. We had kids. They talked about it. These kids grew up, took over the corporations, the Media. And now we have a show like "Whale Wars". Amazing.

The Ady Gil

Last season, in an attempt to cross the path of a Japanese whaling boat, got the Sea Shepherd's fastest boat cut in half. No one died, the board of inquiry in the end decided that both were at fault in the incident and perhaps that was the case.

Before it was cut in half

The entire thing has to do with whaling being world wide illegal. Except for certain Native populations who have been doing it for a thousand years and research issues.

Japanese Whalers

Research. That is the hole in the law. So, Japanese whalers have decided to push that law to its limits. And the Sea Shepherds have decided that someone needs to point out to them on a daily basis that they know they are full of nonsense in their contentions. And all this takes place around the coldest spots on Earth, the south pole, Antarctica. Where falling in the water can get you killed just by the water's temperature.

Capt. Paul Watson

According to Wikipedia: "The Toronto native joined a Sierra Club protest against nuclear testing in 1969. He was an early and influential member of Greenpeace, crewed and skippered for it, and later was a board member. Watson argued for a strategy of direct action that conflicted with the Greenpeace interpretation of nonviolence, was ousted from the board in 1977, and subsequently left the organization. That same year, he formed Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The group is the subject of a reality show, Whale Wars."

It's a fascinating thing to watch, images of the waters down there, what the international crew are doing. We can all yell about the environment. Here are some people out there risking their lives, putting their money where their mouths are. Whether you agree with them or not, you have to give them credit for putting their beliefs on the line. The whalers are doing this for profit. These guys are doing it because the believe killing off something as incredible as whales, is simply immoral.

Even if you don't believe in what they are doing, they have still put on a good show. But if you do care about what they are doing, it's hard to stop watching. I would love to see a film crew on the Japanese whaler's boats to see what they are going through. I don't think they are bad people as such, just with a different mind set about what they are doing. I'm sure they think they are in the right, as they have the law on their side... sort of.

It's one of those arguments where both sides could be considered correct, especially from their own sides. I happen to believe they need to leave the whales alone. But then I think they should leave the dolphins and porpoises alone too. I know we need sanctuaries around the world to allow the fish to breed. I know we are fishing our oceans out of fish and non fish. I know we are being stupid.

For once, it's just kind of nice to see it exemplified on a weekly basis, that someone isn't screwing around about doing something about it. Even if they are a bit misguided. But I'm not so sure they are.