Having a Degree vs. Being an Autodidact
December 12th, 2009 by fredPosted in Science, Politics, Freedom, Geeky Stuff, Philosophy, Education | Comments Off
Archives
Categories
Blog Roll
Fred Debates a Theist on Facebook
June 17th, 2009 by fredI told myself I wouldn’t bother debating with theists anymore because the arguments are usually pointless and the theist still walks away a theist, despite the most cogent, logical, rational presentation I can muster.
But where I think these debates can sometime be useful is in helping others understand the deep issues involved with the proposed questions of whether or not some deity exists.
These issues go straight to epistemological concerns and approaches, and that represents the greatest dividing line between theists and myself. I am a scientist, an empiricist, a skeptic. I want to see the evidence; I want to see reason. Your typical theist, on the other hand — and especially Christian theists — insist on what they call “faith” and internal messages “from God” that no one else can hear but themselves.
This dichotomy in the epistemological approaches are, at best, irreconcilable. Indeed, they are diametrically opposed to the nth degree. One requires hard observations and hard reasoning; the other involves wishful and magical thinking, and self-delusion.
In asking the question of “does God exists?”, the first thing to be settled is “which God?” Why only one? Why not millions?
The next question to be asked is how one defines this “God”. Is there a workable definition that we can all agree on? Or will this definition vary from person to person, from culture to culture, from religion to religion?
Once we can get past that, there is the question of falsifiability. This is where the theist falls down, because the theist will scream “you gotta have faith!”, and I want to know that there is something there beyond the delusion of humans.
The debate will probably never end, simply because there are people who seem to have a “need” for some sort of deity. Indeed, that “need” seems to have plagued Mankind throughout all of history. I have discussed some of these issues in other blogs, so I won’t repeat them here.
The debate is here at http://urlbit.us/gno (Is belief in God a sign of intellectual impairment?)
Posted in Science, Politics, Freedom, Society | 1 Comment »
A Post on SlashDot today about the global financial situation.
December 27th, 2008 by fredFrom article: Can the Auto Industry Retool itself to build rails?
- Today is not anything like the economic system that existed during the last Great Depression. Completely different world. It is almost unhelpful to draw too many parallels between then and now.
- Today’s economic system is much more global than it was back then.
- Chaos Theory and Complex System Dynamics needs to be applied to the global picture we have today. For any number of reasons. And I have yet to hear any economist speaking of today’s world in such terms.
- The principle of Self-Organized Criticality is definitely apropos here. The market organized itself to a critical state, where nearly any shout in the mountains from anyone would bring the whole thing down.
- I have my own variation of this principle — let’s call it the Evolutionary Humpty-Dumpty Principle. A Complex Dynamical System (CDS), if of the right character, has a tendency to organize itself to a critical state such that your typical control points will simply fail to function. The Feds always attempt to control the market through interest rates and the supply of money; other major governments around the world employ similar controls, and others as well. The details, after a fashion, are not all that important so much as the fact that the market will “build up a tolerance” for such artificial control artifices. Hell, our own bodies do it with drugs constantly taken all the time. Why not the global market?
- There are many aspects of this economic system that is predicated on the fallacy of “infinite resources, infinite growth”. Yet any 7-year-old can tell you that the system is NOT infinite. So what do we have? Many free-running Ponzi schemes, like Social Security and the Stock Market. Yes, boys and girls, those gaining money out of those systems do so at the expense of others.
When you wrap your mind around all of this — and more — you will begin to understand how truly frelled we really are. Where you should focus your view is not on what the “talking heads” babble to you every day, but on the flow of money and the structure of the system, noting where assumptions are made without basis. Noting the points where the lack of transparency exists. Noting all the zero-sum instruments in finance that is billed as something other than what it really is. Noting that when governments print money, the actual value of the overall picture has a tendency to stay constant. Printing money is a panic reaction to a situation that our leaders have no understanding of. Printing money will only buy a short-term advantage, with a much bigger drop later.
Look for the lie in anything you hear over the major media outlets with regards to the market. They are most likely not telling you the truth so much as they are trying to influence and manage your behavioral dynamics in hopes they can stitch Humpty back together again.
Take what I state here with a grain of salt if you wish. Or do your own research and come up with the same conclusions that I have. And doing the research will not be easy because many of the players in the financial world actually believe the lies they spout on a daily basis. You must reach behind them to see the circuit boards for yourself, and follow the actual layout, not what they tell you what it is.
And most of all, embrace complexity, because the world is far from simple!
Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Society, Philosophy, Finance | No Comments »
Of Memes, Genes, and the Forces of Evolution
December 23rd, 2008 by adminIt occurred to me this morning that Memes have the greatest successes for existence if they can do two things:
- Program for their own retransmission (Thought Contagions, Lynchian Memetics)
- Quell or Obliterate competing memes.
The two above are not new ideas to the field of memetics. However, what interest me is how memetic evolution can influence genetic evolution. That is to say, how can memes direct the biological evolution of their hosts? Those meme sets that can accomplish the above 2 and also improve on the biological reproductive rates of their hosts whilst at the same time leveraging parthenogeneic transmission, will be especially virulent over time and become solidly entrenched.
Such successful meme sets are usually referred to as “culture”.
A principle for memetic success I will put forward is that it also induces “clumping activity” in its hosts. Normally, we refer to this as “clans”, “city-states”, and “countries”. We also refer to this as “race”, “ethnic identity”, “feminism”, etc.
Indeed, any of the “isms” can be construed as a set of memes that strongly induce clumping behavior among its hosts.
Posted in Science, Mathematics, Politics, Geeky Stuff, Society, Philosophy | 1 Comment »
My Thoughts on the Financial Meltdown, Obama, and the General State of Affairs in the World
November 29th, 2008 by adminThe Global Financial Picture and its Antecedents
In these tumultuous times, one looks at the stock market with dread. Titanic shifts in wealth occur on a daily basis as the players in this zero-sum game battle it out for the challenge of a lifetime. What is really sad is that many of the players do not ever understand that this is a zero-sum game; that the stock market is nothing more than a wealth-exchange system. That’s right. Wealth is not created by the stock market, but is exchanged among the players. To be in that market without realizing that very fundamental fact is, in my opinion, rather foolish.
Many have their life’s savings and their retirement tied up in the stock market, and it amuses me even more to hear all of the talking heads giving the exact wrong advice about what to do. They all say “stick it out”, “hang in there”, and “you don’t want to miss that uptick”, etc.
But many of these naieve players have been listening to this very wrong advice as they watched their portfolios cut in half or worse over the past year. Many are actually getting hit by margin calls and thus are seeing their holding sold by their brokers to cover themselves. This is part of the drive in the titantic moves being seen daily in the market right now.
I tell all my friends these days to *be in cash*, but they get so many mixed messages they don’t know if they should listen to me or listen to the idiot financial advisers. And I can fully appreciate the emotions involved. Moreover, many are in complicated financial instruments tied to the market carrying tax consequences and other hits for an early pullout. This is really sad, because it only complicates the picture even further for them.
I still stick to my mantra: BE IN CASH. You can always jump back in when the smoke clears. And so what if you miss the “initial uptick”. At least you would’ve limited your losses.
But where did all of this come from? Where did all of the bad advice on how to deal with the market generate? This is my take on it.
During the 20th century, we saw something incredible — the stock market always seemed to go up in the long run. The thinking of that times was to “be in it for the long haul”, without any thought or consideration as to how a zero-sum game can always keep going up indefinitely, and what was driving it. No one was interested since it seemed to be going up forever.
Now, I invite you to click the following link:
Now set the time frame to “All Data”, and the frequency to “Yearly”. Yes, I am too lazy to past a picture of the chart into this blog, but I think it’s better if you play with these charts for yourself.
You will notice that the NYSE, a composite of all the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, has shown a steady increase from 1970 till 2000 or so. Then you see a very sharp decline. Then you see it rise again from 2003 till now, where you see an even bigger decline knocking its levels back to where it was back in 2002. You will also note that since 1970 where the data starts, there has been no such titanic shocks before on that scale.
Now, look down beneath the price chart to see the volume chart. Look at how the volume increases corresponds with the rise of the NYSE, and look what took place from 2000 till now. This, my friends, tells the true story about the markets. Charts don’t lie, and what you see here is the real truth about the market. But how does one interpret this truth?
Think for a moment. The stock market is a zero-sum game. It does not create money; nor does it destroy it. Money simply shifts hands. Every dollar you make on the stock market *must* come out of someone else’s pocket, and every dollar you loose *must* going into the pockets of another. That is the inherent nature of a zero-sum game.
Now, look back again at the volume chart and you will start to understand what is really happening. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, there was a big push to get more and more average people involved in the stock market — either directly, or through some derivative instrument, like mutual funds, 401Ks, IRAs, and the like.
My “Greater Fools” theory on the stock market: in order to make money on the stock market, you need greater fools to take the stocks off your hands at a greater price than you paid for it. Therefore, the only way the market can continue that growth curve in the 20th century is to have an ever increasing number of “Greater Fools” to keep flocking into the market, and this is marked by the steady volume increases you see from 1970 till 2000.
The problem is, of course, is that the supply of Greater Fools is limited. You eventually hit exhaustion. Then the prices stop rising. Then panic ensues and everyone starts selling off, generating even more panic which leads to ever more sell-offs. Those fools caught at the top of the market then give up their dollars to those whom they bought from. Yes, my friends. Those fools at the top of the market are left holding the bag for the wealth the rest of us have managed to extract from the market before the fall.
Fun stuff, huh?
What does this mean for the greater financial picture overall?
Implicit in many financial policies and financial instruments is the fallacy of “infinite growth” — that is, the markets will continue to grow forever without bound. Because of the fallacy of that assumption, anything based on that fallacy must fail eventually.
And now to introject some chaos into your understanding of the markets.
In systems that grow beyond a certain “magical rate”, the growth become chaotic. It does not matter what the system is — it could be populations of bacteria or players in the financial world –, it’s almost a “law of the universe” from the standpoint of chaos. Click the next link:
You will note the simple recurrence equation for growth listed, and the map of what happens when growth rates are too high. The numbers bounce around chaotically. Why? Because you have growth that depends on finite resources. If you grow faster than your resources does, you hit a ceiling and — well — chaos ensues. No pun intended!
What we see going on in the marketplace is a similar story, though more complicated than this simple formula. Humans with a stake in the game will do whatever they can to keep the party going even when it’s quite evident that the party must end eventually. We see this in the sub-prime mortgage fiasco going on right now. Since the greater fools ran out of their normal market, they kept it going higher artificially by seeking out riskier and riskier investments, which themselves came to a head as we have seen. It merely delayed the inevitable. If you go back to that NYSE chart, you see after the big drop in 2003 the market go even higher, but without the matching concomitant increases in volume. The NYSE figures were pushed up artificially higher by something, and since the markets are so interconnected, my guess is that it was pushed up higher by all the bad loans that were made.
You see, I am as guilty as the next guy here, because not only did I benefit from the financial boom in the 90s, but I also — after the so-called “dot-com” crash — managed to re-fi my home twice without any real income!!! Now admittedly, it helped tremendously in keeping my home and thus a roof over the heads of my family in those times, but really and honestly I should not have received those two loans without a solid financial basis.
Well, these days I am on better financial footing, but many were not able to make that transition and had to default on their loans, and thus began the “shout in the mountains” that lead to the avalanche in the financial markets we see today. Yes, my friends, another aspect of Chaos Theory: Self-Organized Criticality:
The language in this link may be beyond some, but basically what it states is that dynamical systems have a tendency to organized themselves to a critical state that can then undergo a “phase transition” — a drastic change of state — almost spontaneously. Basically, a fancy way of stating that “what goes up, must come down”, at the risk of oversimplification.
I am basically stating that all the current efforts to blame the fall on the last administration, on the CEOs of AIG, Meryl Lynch, and Lehman Bros, etc. is all a wash. Once that critical state was hit, a little girl going “BOO” on Wall Street would’ve triggered the avalanche. And no, I am not kidding.
The Obama Win and what that means
What about the [ast election and the overwhelming win by Obama, who has now become the nation’s “Great Black Hope”? (There are reasons I use that phraseology, but I will go into that in a future blog.) I am not convinced that He nor his team he’s assembling has a clue on how to halt this avalanche. He seems to be picking everyone who is from the “old school” understanding of economics. No one has yet to mention the very plain fact that most of our financial infrastructure is predicated on a fallacy. I suppose to mention that fact would really cause the panic to amplify even more. You don’t want to spook the poor saps left holding the bag too much or they would all want to dump their bags at once driving everything to zero. And yet, the governments around the world pulling money out of thin air in their vain attempts to “shore up” the banks will only trigger a devaluation of currency that will send the market down even faster.
There is the spectre of deflation which would seem at odds with creating money out of thin air which should trigger inflation. Fun stuff huh? But I have come up with a modification to the self-organized criticality theories with special regards to the financial markets and how governments try to manipulate them:
The dynamical system so conditioned will see to organized itself to a critical state that will thwart any and all of the usual attempts to control said system. Basically, the dynamical system will evolve itself to the point of ignoring the usual control points. Basically, what I am saying is that “all the King’s horses and all the King’s men could not put the financial markets back together again!” Could there be hidden wisdom in a simple tale for kids? Hmmmm….
And yet we see that very thing taking place. Of all the coordinated efforts of many governments to inject money into the broken Humpty-Dumpty market, nothing has really worked. If that doesn’t scare the willy out of your pants, it should. I am basically saying that we are in for some “interesting times” the likes of which have never been seen before in the history of the world. I dearly hope my prognostication is dead wrong, but I see no reason to assert otherwise. I predicted this 2nd financial shock about 8 or 9 years ago; I just wasn’t sure when it would happen. It’s actually happening earlier than I had anticipated, and we’re just seeing the beginning, folks. Now GM is talking about needing a bailout, and perhaps a couple more US auto manufacturers will be sucked into that downdraft as well. And the cascading cacophony of failures will continue for years to come. No market will be immune. Attempts governments make to stop it will only either make the problem worse or delay the inevitable.
Will when this avalanche stop? I do not know. Will the stock market ever “fully recover?” I don’t think so. I cannot see beyond the current mess because the picture has become chaotic that there is simply no way to know what will emerge “on the other side”.
But I will say this: We are in for one helluva ride!
So what does poor “Joe the Plumber” do?
Well, actually, if you are in the plumbing business, I wouldnt’ worry too much. For starters, your job can’t be outsourced. And as long as people continue to use pipes for their water supply and flush toilets to get rid of their shit, there will be a demand for you. They may pay you a bit less, but you’ll get by.
If you are “Joe the Hedge Fund Manager”, it was nice knowing you. Time to start thinking about a serious career change and possibly relocation. You really don’t want to be in an area with 10s of thousands of out of work people in your field all competing for the same scant handful of alternative jobs available. Do your research well and get the hell out of New York NOW.
If you are “Joe the Software Geek” working in IT, especially on a hot money producing website, stay exactly where you are. If you are thinking about hopping jobs,think carefully about whether or not the company you hop to can weather the impending financial firebomb headed our way. Even think that about the company you are with currently, and make the necessary adjustment in your short-term career goals.
If you are “Joe the Nurse”, stay put. Or better yet, consider relocating to Florida or California, or any place where wealthy seniors like to flock to. There’s still a shortage in the nursing field, so mop it up.
If you are “Joe the Entrepreneur”, think creatively yet realistically about your plans and goals. There may be hidden opportunities to capitalize on the firestorm to come. Drink in information from many sources about the global and local marketplaces, and try to understand how one relates to the other. Then POUNCE.
If you are “Joe about ready to divorce Jane”, this may be a wonderful time to file if you can kick Jane out of the house first. Especially if your mortgage is below water due to no fault of your own. You may be able to get rid of Jane and keep the house too. But be sure you keep the kids as well, because if Jane leave with them you are still screwed.
If you are “Joe the Homeless Beggar”, expect to get a lot of competition in the upcoming years. Expect also your begging clientele to become increasingly tight-waded as this burn-down progresses. You might actually consider this a golden opportunity to do something more meaningful with your life. Hop to it.
If you are “Joe the Civil Servant”, stay where you are. Rest assured that the government you work for will find newer and more creative ways to rip the rest of us off in order to maintain their power-base, of which you are a part.
If you are “Joe the Student”, you’ve got some real issues to think about. You have to do the hard thing of thinking about where the world will be when you graduate and whether or not a market will exist for your hard-won skills. Never-mind whether or not you’ll be able to afford it or not. Coming out with your sheepskin and a $100K debt just to take up a career of taxi driving is worse than skipping the whole affair and just jumping to taxi driving. Or consider the career of being a beach bum. Or leech off your parents for as long as they will let you. Forget joining up with the Armed Forces unless you have a death wish. Talk to some old vets first — especially from the Viet Nam War era — to get a good picture of what to expect before you do something foolish. Trust me; it’s better to be a beach bum or a continual headache for the old man.
The Upshot of all this?
Unless you pay attention to what is REALLY going on (as opposed to what all the talking heads are babbling) and plan according to your own personal situation, you will be screwed. Plain and simple. It’s going to be tough enough even with the best laid plans of Mice, but really you don’t want to leave your future to “Fate”. Now is NOT the time to be believing in all that “God” hogwash. Now is the time to consider No. 1 your primary importance. Understanding instead of “Faith” is what will save your ass. Let the fools do as they will. Let them burn in their own self-created hells. YOU, on the other hand, must look and think in ways that are extremely non-traditional if you are going to come out of this alive. Don’t take my advice; don’t take anybody’s advice. Understand the situation for yourself and TAKE ACTION. Do this and there’s a good chance you will emerge victorious. Listen to the idiots on CNN, Bloomberg, and your Nice Friendly Government to your own peril. Understand why they say what they do, and what’s in it for them vs. what’s in it for you.
Posted in Mathematics, Politics, Fun, Geeky Stuff, Society, Finance | No Comments »
Of Human Perception, Market Forces, and Global vs. Local Ecomonies
May 25th, 2008 by fredA good friend of mine sent me this link on an article about how China has taken an interest in Ithaca HOURS. I find it a fascinating subject the possibility of establishing local 
currencies and economies that are immune to the economic geopolitical hedging, speculation, manipulation and control. Indeed, it would be a good thing to have stable economies free of government control and exploitation. It would be a good thing to have some means of currency backed by something other than fiat.
It is not my intention here to discuss — or even criticize — traditional economic theory, though some of what I state will give that appearance. But for the longest time I have always been curious about currency, instruments of trade, and the human perception of value. What is is that compels so many of us to work long hours and do other things in order to gain a count of “tokens” that we then use in trade for exchange of goods and services? What is the intrinsic basis of “worth?” Why would we do something for, say, a million dollars, but not ten thousand? Just what is this human psychology of value?
Let us begin with the Individual. That would be you, me, any one person of sound mind living in this world. An Individual has needs, wants, and a desire to live. An Individual has a level of self-esteem and a level of self-worth. An Individual has certain talents, skills, traits, and — well, yes — value.
But just what is this “value”? We normally take this and other human concepts for granted, but I find it extremely helpful from time to time to take a critical eye at these default notions in order to try to understand them and what underlies their function in our inter-dependent world.
It is clear to me that “value” occurs at the Individual level. An Individual posses the notion of “value”, and, of course, that notion is relative to the Individual. And let me state this: “value” is the Individual’s perception of the exploitability of a thing. In this discussion I do not use “exploit” in a negative context, but as a neutral way to describe one’s desire to leverage advantage, which is something we all do every day of our lives. We “exploit” our cars to get us from point A to point B. We “exploit” the people we may hire to get useful goods and services out of them. At some level, we even “exploit” our friends so that we can have a sense of community. So I don’t see the concept of exploitation as a negative. Where the negative comes in is when we may exploit other individuals without just compensation. If we exploit the window washer to wash our windows but fail to pay him the agreed-upon compensation, then we have cheated that Individual and that is NOT a good thing. But this is an important issue to my discussion as well, because Governments exploit Individuals all the time without just compensation. Yes, it’s true, and think about it. Every government around the world exploits its Individuals under its rule without just compensation. And the modus operandi of that negative exploitation is based on manipulating the perceived “value” of government-created currency by means of fiat, global politics, controlling financing and debt and the like.
But I digress. But hold that thought. Individuals create the notion of “value”, and Individuals act on that perception of value for reasons of exploitation.
Individuals living in a group is what we call “community”. Each Individual member of that community has distinctive talents and skills, and may also hold various distinctive resources that may be used in trade. Some of those resources may be the result of other trades the individual engaged in in the past; other resources may be due to what the Individual himself created. (And in this discussion, I use the pronouns “him”, “he”, etc. strictly in the epicene and is understood to also mean “her”, “she”, etc.)
It is clear, therefore, that “value” is created due to human effort, and that time is involved in the creation of that “value”. It is also clear that all Individuals possess within themselves the means to create “value” of one form or another, and so to trade in time units of human effort seems all too natural. Because, in effect, we are trading some intrinsic value based on time spent creating these things we value.
But it is also clear that the time of one Individual may be more “valuable” than the time of another Individual. A window washer’s time, for instance, will simply not equate to the time value of say, a neurosurgeon. A brick layer’s time, while a valuable skill to be used, will not be of the same value as, say, a software engineer. 2 hours of a software engineer’s time might be worth 20 hours of a window washer’s time.
So how a thing is valued also has to do with supply vs. demand, which sounds like “old school” economics. Old-school economics is not necessarily a “bad” thing or even a “wrong” thing, but it does represent an incomplete picture, because it does not attempt to describe the human nature and perception of “value”, but takes it as read and creates artificial idealized notions based on some highly idealized assumptions on what “value” is, which, in the opinion of this writer, simply does not represent reality.
But back to my main point, Individuals with diverse skills, talents, and resources live in Communities for the mutual benefit of exploitation. Members of a community exploit each other for mutual gain. The concept of mutual gain is an extremely important one to keep in mind — it means that the net value of the community at large actually increases over time. With every single honest transaction, new value is created where none existed before. That value — unless it is subjected to negative exploitation by externalities — accumulates over time and results in a stronger community overall.
Strong communities are very good things. Strong healthy communities create their own intrinsic safety nets — should a particular Individual member of that community befall “hard times”, that Individual can be — and usually is — helped back on his feet by the strength of the Community and the collective value that has been accumulated over time. And this takes place without taxes, without force, without the usual mistaken “Robin Hood” notions that many in the United States and other socialist countries see as a “necessary” thing to help those “in need”.
Strong healthy communities help to foster good self-worth, self-identity, and self-responsibility. In such a positive atmosphere, Individuals are encouraged to be creative and to find newer and better ways of creating value that all with benefit from. That can only result in the community becoming ever stronger and more resilient. An emergent phenomenon that is truly wonderful is the notion of “value” to the community, which is not to be confused with “community values”, which is a moral, not economic connotation. When an Individual understands what is valuable to the Community he is a member of, he then understands how he can exploit what is value to increase his own worth and wealth, whilst adding even more to the collective value of the Community at the same time!
So if all I have said here is true, why don’t we see more of the same today? Recall, if you will, I mentioned externalities that may get in the way of this wonderful dynamic of Communities creating their own wealth. External agencies that seek to extract wealth from a community and from individuals. External agencies that seek to exploit value without just compensation, and does so by force, removing Individual choice from the equation.
You see, taxes have to be done by force for the plain reason that there is no just compensation for the Individual. If there were, force would not be necessary. If someone were to give me 3 pieces of gold for every 2 pieces I gave away, there would be no reason to hold a gun to my head! But, on the other hand, I only get back one piece of gold for every 2 I give away, I would not do so willingly, so a “gun” would have to be held to my head to force me to do it. That agency looking to give me back less value for my hard-earned wealth could only do so by way of giving me a reason to fear if I did not comply. In effect, they would have to threaten me with stealing even more of my wealth, destroying even more value!
Think about this for a moment. What effects would this have on a Community? The community that has to also deal with being robbed of its collective wealth could never become very strong. It could never create a good intrinsic “safety net” for its individual members. Creativity would not have the payoff it otherwise would. All Individuals would be discourage by the specter of getting less back for hours spent, not more. There would be no incentive for self-improvement, self-innovation, and self-actualization that is so important for growing healthy communities of Individuals.
Now, those in that communities that are less well-off will have to depend on the external agencies — that looted the community wealth in the first place! — for “help”. And that “help” will undoubtedly be of far less quality than what the Community itself could’ve offered would it have been allowed to grow strong on its own. The “help” would not be of a positive variety — one of “teaching one to fish for a lifetime”, but for a lifetime of dependence. This only has the impact of further undermining the community and its collective self-worth and collective self-esteem.
Whenever something “has” to be done “by force”, that is usually a very big warning sign that things have already gone horribly wrong. And that changes must be made. These externalities care nothing for the Individual, but have their own goals in mind for dominance and power. Whenever power and control becomes more important than the Individual, no good can come of that. Whenever the use of force becomes routine rather than the exception, we have already lost the way and freedom is compromised. Whenever we are forced to give up value in exchange for something of less value — or nothing at all, building collective and Individual wealth becomes impossible, and we forever become slaves to those externalities that see to use its negative exploitation tactics on us.
In a world where negative exploitation by powerful externalities have become the rule, how do we deal? One way is to create a system of fair exchange that exists outside of the powers to be negatively exploited. If my friend values my time and I value his time, we have a mutually valuable relationship that would be hard to negatively exploit by some external agency. We have a mutual trust and a mutual expectation that can go a long way to building our collective wealth. And this happens solely on the basis of exchange of time — my time for his time and his time for my time at a mutually agreed-upon exchange rate. And there would be nothing there for some externality to manipulate or force to our mutual disadvantage. We can build our collective strength as a community and get much accomplished. And we would be immune to the shocks and downfalls of the global economic jungle.
Posted in Science, Politics, Freedom, Society, Philosophy | No Comments »
Renaissance 2: I Stand on the Shores of Infinity
April 16th, 2008 by fredI awoke this morning. That in and of itself is a noteworthy goal.
As I got up, I noticed that I was standing on the Shores. The sand beneath my morning feet, the rocks, the sea gulls, the crashing of the oceanic waves amidst a million years of evolution to be heard by ears fashioned by the ancient need for survival.
I found that I can stop any wave, any whitewater crash, any tidal, any disaster by just waving my hand gently in the air at it. There, done, frozen in space-time.
And then the Shores beneath my feet themselves shift in scope beyond all measurement into a star field, a galaxy slowly turning beneath my feet, or a whole field of galaxies, or a supernova, or a quasar, or the entire universe itself. Like sands on the Shores of Time so are the Stars in the whole of the Universe. Like the rippling of the waves along the Shoreline, so are the Great Cosmic Events throughout all existence. Like the crash of the waves on the rocks, so are the supernovae, the galatic collisions, stars spiraling down great black holes flashed into x-rays.
I stand at the apex of 13 billion years of space-time evolution to contemplate its Path, and wonder at all the details of its Grandeur. I am known to the intricate fabric of Space-Time, and it is known to me.
I AM. I am one with the Universe and everything in it.
I KNOW. I know and understand The Path.
I WAIT. I await my time to take my rightful place in this Universe as a diminutive speck of dust wrapped in billions of light-years of existence.
I LOOK. I look upon the seascape of all existence and see myself staring back at me. The Circuit is now Complete, as it is time for the Next Phase.
And so I stand, thinking.
Posted in Politics, Society, Philosophy, Renaissance 2 | No Comments »
Why Libertarnism is a good idea…
February 19th, 2008 by fredThis is an excerpt from SlashDot, a conversation between myself and someone who refers to himself as ”sqrt(2)”.
Sqrt(2) I have no qualms about calling something what it is.
“being harassed by the police, the IRS, the child “protective” services” is not part of the political philosophy of ANY party, they are problems. We agree that these are problems. Anarchy however (Which libertarianism is a form of), isn’t the solution.
What I hear from Libertarians is that people should be allowed as much freedom to succeed as possible, and government activity (of any kind) can act only to restrict that freedom. The other side of that statement is that someone should be free to fail, to starve, to die. I reject the notion that those are freedoms. Someone with the freedom to starve to death is not more free than someone who collects money from the government, as this person can now buy food. Heartless, isn’t it, that government dependence? Moreover, Libertarian ideology not only says that it’s OK for this to happen, but that it’s the RIGHT outcome because it was the result of a pure and perfect system. Again, I reject that notion outright.
If we transformed overnight into a Libertarian society, the people who would do the best are the ones who are ALREADY doing the best. So of course it ends up being THOSEpeople who want to see such reform. That is why I call it self-serving. And no amount of charity work, although noble an endeavor in itself, will correct that error.
My Response
Well, we can go back and forth forever over semantics and the definition of words, and totally miss the point.
1. The problems of government cannot be ignored. In Libertarianism, government has a specific function — basically, to protect us from each other and to protect the country in general from external aggressors. Outside of that, government should but out of our private lives as long as we are not harming anyone against their will.
2. Yes, I agree, a transition to complete libertarianism overnight would be disastrous for many, but that is not what I am proposing. It would not be any more successful than what the US is doing trying to ram “democracy” down the throats of countries that have never known democracy.
3. Central to success of Libertarianism is self responsibility. You have to agree that if everyone — or at least a good majority — acts responsibly in all things, you’d need far less government than you have today.
4. Another problem with government is it is next to impossible to eliminate a department/ministry/agency once its instituted and firmly entrenched, even if the need for it goes away. Like a cancer, government has this annoying tendency to grow and grow without bound. And if you’ve been paying attention, the US government is probably the worst offender with regards to growing new departments, agencies, and bureaucracies without bound. Not to mention the quality of service goes downhill because the extract tax dollars from you and I at gunpoint.
5. Libertarianism is not anarchy. It is a minimalist approach to government, not the complete elimination of it. There’s a huge difference, and there are those who wish to scare you by trying desperately to muddy up the waters on the distinction.
6. We are all essentially selfish creatures, and we are motivated best by selfish reasons. In all actions that humans choose to do there is always an underlying selfish component, even if it’s nothing more than the satisfaction of helping your fellow humans. I freely admit this is what motivates me to help others.
7. Many fear change and wish to cling to the status quo, because they cannot imagine the alternative. There is a better way, but the better way will never see the light of day because the rank-and-file will fight against it out of fear, clinging even stronger to the status quo, and thus nothing will ever be accomplished.
I propose a solution that I need to work out the details on, but basically it has to do with ending geographic monopolies current governments exerts over us. We must have the freedom to choose association and alligence without having to change our geography. This is a very dangerous idea because nearly all current governments will rail against the notion, but think for a moment of the advantages:
1. Wars would become infeasible because your own citizens may be living in the land.
2. Governments would have to actually compete for our citizenship. Think of how much would improve!
3. Governments all over would have to think more business-like and trim down their bureaucracies to run smoothly and efficiently. No excuses.
4. If you don’t like any of the existing governments, you can always start your own. Or even be stateless.
5. If a government is misbehaving, simply disassociate without having to move anywhere.
Poverty and the Poor
To address your — and mine as well — concerns about the poor and poverty in general, one must look at the root cause of such. Basically, the root problem lies in the very real fact that it is nearly impossible to do subsistence living these days. Everything you own is taxed to death, and even your real estate is taxed annually even after you’ve paid off the loan. This forces you either to continue to work or secure an income by other means, or to be homeless. The elderly are kicked out of the very homes they’ve spent a lifetime in for no other reason than not being able to pay the ever-increasing property tax. Is that fair? And who is doing this to them? Libertarians? I don’t think so. Under the Libertarian approach they would be able to remain in their homes because there would be no frelling property tax.
Well, that’s enough for now. I should put much of this in a blog somewhere, as this is even more off-topic than my original post!!!!
Posted in Politics, Freedom | No Comments »
Lo, and the Universe lies before me…
December 22nd, 2007 by fredI move forward with an idea so simple and yet so profound it could rock the universe itself.
You see, I think I understand — finally — what makes emergence tick. The answer is right in front of our faces and we miss it completely, and we miss it in exactly the same way gravitation was missed before Newton. It’s a very deep symmetry that exists on all scales of the universe and in nearly every possible system. It is there at once hiding from us and also making our world work.
Am I being deliberately evasive? Yes. Because I could be wrong, I want to rigorously check it out first before announcing it to the world. In time, all will know.
All I am saying about it now is that it has to do with the violation of ying-yang.
Posted in Science, Mathematics, Politics, Geeky Stuff | No Comments »
Awake one silly Friday morning…
September 28th, 2007 by adminHello, world!
Had a bit of a nasty dream this morning, and now I lie awake. Silly, I know, except not. Some good things have transpired in my divorce proceedings, and yet I can’t help but feel a sense of frustration. Perhaps it’s the slow pace of the law — I wish it were over already. Lawyers are getting fat and happy — they are the only winners in a divorce.
But, I’ve been through much worse and have emerged victorious, and this too shall pass. Just got to hang in there for a bit longer and all will be OK.
Don’t know what my “profound thought for the day” will be yet — I usually have one every morning, but this morning started way too early. I really should go back to sleep but, I AWAKE. Yep, you get it.
As far as the politics and horrors that are going on in the world, I have more or less tuned out on them. Hearing more about how the apes are apes has no appeal to me whatsoever. It’s all rather pointless after a a fashion. Same crud, different mud. You know what I mean. The teachings of Transcendental Sets have told me to not worry over such things, and so I won’t. Human-nodes will be human-nodes.
If you are still reading this, now you must be scratching your head going, “what???!” Don’t worry, I will explain all at some future date. You see, I have learned a great and terrible secret about the universe. And you want to know what that secret is?
My god, it’s full of Transcendental Sets!
Now do you understand?
Posted in Science, Mathematics, Politics, Fun, Geeky Stuff | No Comments »
The China Study
March 14th, 2007 by adminI posted this on SlashDot.com today.
Anyone who have read The China Study would know, based on this study, that the biggest factor in our health is diet. According to Campbell, author of this book, a whole plant based diet is the most healthy ever. Animal protein is bad news and one should not consume more than 21 grams of it a day. You are better off not eating it at all.
The processed foods that many of us eat appears to be the culprit for many of our current ills, including obesity and diabetes. And overloading our bodies with too much protein is simply doing all kinds of damage in the long run. We simply do not need that much protein, and we get an adequate amount of it from plant-based foods.
Dairy is bad news as well, and should be avoided.
As a father of a vegetarian household, where we’ve been vegetarian for over 12 years, I must say my kids are healthy as oxes. And it just amazes me how misinformed most people are about diet and nutrition. One of my daughters keeps getting weird questions like, “so where do you get your protein?” Well, duh, every living thing has protein in it!!!!!
All I can say is read the book. This is not a fad book, but a serious scientific study. It does touch on the politics of meat as well, and I happen to agree with some of Campbell’s conclusions. But seriously folks! The science is hard to deny.
Well, folks, I strongly suggest you read The China Study.
Posted in Science, Politics, Freedom, Health | No Comments »