Strange Journeys through cyberspace

Too long to leave in the front page body, too short to be of particular use to you, I present tonights entry as it is, to read more simply click continue.

Found a nest of conservatives via oldcatman who are typical in so many ways. When you refuse to question your value system then you become too rigid - eventually you'll shatter. Wally often tells me to not bother, that there's nothing you can do to change their value choices but I'm an eternal optimist in this matter - I believe that each and everyone of us is able to make decisions and evaluate themselves in a constructive manner. A lot of the time I'm proven wrong but still I believe.

Oil as a bribe? A very controversial topic. I will add my link to the meme pool. Let me but ask this one question - are we a hundred percent sure that this document is authentic? Doesn't it seem a little 'too' damning? It's a possibility that must be examined and by independent investigators. Nothing muddies the water of truth more than partisan investigations. How can you ever be sure?

While researching a rebuttal I came across this informative summary of horrific Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It must be strange living in those cities now where the only thing people know is you came from an area where evil took place. Further exploration led to this sobering insight into the 'truth' a government presents to us. My buddy Slater always told me learn to question, question to learn. Maybe this could be an eye opener to the actions of current administrations.

The perceptionalism discussion continues with some interesting comments. I'm a whore, what can I say.

Finally, after doing some navel gazing of my own I came across my first entry. It's worth a read although it does meander from topic to topic and is also quite long. I read it again and enjoyed it, but mostly I enjoyed the comments. Ah I love the comments!

Perceptionalism

In my previous post, cckeiser asked me the following question:

I decided my response was post worthy. ;)

That is a very good question. Perception is fundamental to the philosophy of perceptionalism. If Perception is not understood, how can any insight be gained?

I think that we limit ourselves by only reinforcing the five senses. In reality, we have seven perceptions. We have visual perception which is our dominant one. The eyes allow us a tremendous amount of observational power. Everything around us is clearly an object or a person which cannot really be questioned. This person, this location, this material is clearly perceivable and therefore exists.

Then you have olfactive perception. A very subtle but very effective observational power into understanding and decoding the universe around you, because you must understand that the raw universe is absolutely full of sensations. While our perceptions allow us to understand the nature of that rawness, it also limits some sensational extremes. Look at a dog, able to detect and follow day old smells. Their perception of smell is much greater than ours. Yet nonetheless that ability to understand odors is a good defense mechanism built into our evolved bodies to prevent possible harm or help if we were living in a world where it became necessary to judge based on smell whether a food item was ok to eat.

Aural perception is only after visual for it's perceivable power to our understanding of the raw universe. Hearing has allowed us so many advantages. From reacting to the hush of an approaching lion in a sweaty African night to the communication of ideas and memes throughout an ever growing complex web of unique individual entities, sound has been a huge uplift in our journey as a species.

Tactile perception fills our perceivable universe with much of the solidness that we've all come to depend on. This window into the raw universe allows us to reaffirm without hesitation the fact of our existence in the universe. We exist and this tactile perception supports us. The act of contact surrounds our world with solidity and also raises the question of what is this barrier between myself and this desk? A collective colony of complex systems working together to bring about your awareness of that desk.

Taste just doesn't have a good synonym to go with perception. ;) This doesn't take away from it's power as a discerning tool in your understanding of the universe. Food is critical to our survival and at it's roots was a means to defend (again) against possible sustenance that may be harmful to our existence. Just because it has a positive side effect of making the world delicious doesn't mean it's not just as important as the other perceptions.

Mnemonic perception is not included in the senses as it's not used to filter the raw universe in the moment. The recall of past events, encounters and experiences is fundamental in our evolution as humans. Again with it's roots as a survival mechanism, mnemonic perception has evolved to allow us to make new connections between moments in our life in order to add to our complexity. The wonderful and terrible thing about memories is that they can be collectively recalled or collectively forgotten. Here also is where some of the limitations our perception begins to show. No two people remember the same exact thing. We all have our unique perception of an event filtered through the jungle of our traditional senses mixed with our concious perception.

As this is the newest of our evolved perceptions, conscious perception is also our most powerful. This is where the discovery of the self lies and is very ephemeral to our biological body. Our body is an evolved tour guide in a raw universe of perceivable sensations; yet it's the ephemeral perceptions that influence us the greatest in our day to day livelihood and our understanding of the universe. Learning and discovering new things about ourselves and the raw universe around us are what make us complete as human beings. Life and the Universe are profound concepts to ponder, especially when our increasing awareness of the balance of the world clashes with our present day disregard for the impact our existence has on those others entities struggling around us.

This planet that has given birth to our species and allowed us to evolve has become a disposable playpen for our excessive lifestyle. The impact not only on our future generations but the rest of the species living here as well is approaching a ridiculous level of arrogance. Who are we to destroy mother nature around us? What gave us the right to judge, sentance and execute all the other forms of life and our unborn children? But I digress.

Ultimately, what lies at the heart of perception is an observer experiencing it. This is your self. What is the self? What is an observer? Well I guess this is your soul. It's the only thing that makes sense.

As biological beings, our existence is based off of collective cooperation and competition of less complex systems. All of our cells working together to form organs creating a complex system to coordinate energy in order to house an ever growing interconnected neural network. This biological system then communicates with other systems creating ripples and then waves in the actions and reactions of other systems through a socialogical level. Herein lies the power of the internet as a tool to increase our complexity as a species by spreading ideas faster.

This complexity is I believe at the heart of spirituality. I think that the physical complexity of our brain is almost like a magnet to increased perception. It's almost as if some perceptual energy is drawn to more complex systems. These are all guesses mind you, and here's where I start to question myself.

I am a firm believer in science but am complelety unable to think of a way to test any of my theories. The closest thing to an experiment is the whole 21 grams question, that of whether our body loses some weight when we die. If this question is answered positively then that gives us physical proof that there is something there, some weight to a soul. The only problem with this question is that if there is no loss of mass then it doesn't deny the existence of a soul and close the book on this chapter of human evolution. That question will always exist.

All of this perception adds to our self. Our self is the most important thing in our individual universe. The key to perceptionalism though is the understanding and empathy towards other selfs. They are there, just as solidly in their perceptual world are we are, existing just as us in their individual universes. The leap of faith is believing that helping them through their troubles will end up helping us in ours. That's the connection that occurs when you have the insanely intricate pattern of connections that is our social existence.

Ultimately, believing in ourselves leads to us believing in others. Every single one of the 6.3 billion individual human beings out there has their own universe to deal with. Most are unpleasant. Some are tolerable. A few are pleasant. Each and every one of us should strive to make surviving in the raw universe for ourselves and the others around us an opportunity for individual growth. While pursuing your own path you can help others if you sense there is a need, and all that working together forms a system of cooperation and competition to acheive another level of existence. We may not even be aware of it implicitly - what does a neuron know of international politics? Despite this fact the 'lowly' neuron is an integral part of a more complex and perceptual entity - a human not being but perceiving.

Argh.

I find myself constantly distracted. There's so many things I want to write about that I can never settle on one idea and eventually I run out of time. It's 4:50am - my eyes are getting heavy and I haven't put down anything, all I've done is read, played some WSA & WW, sent an email or two and smoked a lot of cigarettes. It's damn cold outside too!

I wanted to talk about Perceptionalism, but I haven't finished formulating my thoughts. I do know that this saying from my Zen calendar is particularily important:

"Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth." - The Buddha

If the only thing you can possibly be confident exists in this Universe is yourself, then wouldn't this be the only source of truth that you can truely trust?

I will talk more tomorrow or when I have more time. How I wish I had been able to move out, ah well.

Return of the linkage

The content has been a little on the light side for a while here, but I have a good excuse. I've been frantically trying to help my dad put together his doctoral thesis and it's been taking all of my time at night. I might just have to rant about the uselessness of MS Word 2003 one of these days, man oh man for software that's supposed to make things easier we sure wasted enough time getting all the formatting and what not working. Anyway, as I'm at work I'll keep this short with some interesting links:

My Milenko brother Bubu has a list of things that Bush forgot to mention in his State of the union address. Very interesting read.

Do plants act like computers? An interesting theory explaining the behaviour of plants.

Now for something a little lighter (or do I mean higher?)- the Marijuana-logues. Pretty funny.

Finally, something that I could probably use - A video game controller that doubles as exercise equipment. Cool!

Every blogger and their dog

As opposed to giving my inexpert analysis of Bush's state of the union address, I've decided to post a few sayings from my zen day calender (which I bought yesterday). I mean how many people have already mentioned his militant unilateralism, his reunification of Church and State, his anti-gay mentality and his drug testing at schools. I'm just another guy, not even an American.

Without further ado:

"The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth."
- Harry Emerson Fosdick

"If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot." - John Bunyan

"Be melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself."
- Jalal Al-Din Rumi

"It is very hard to be simple enough to be good."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We say that someone has the wondrous ability to play the zither or the lute, but if we ask where that art resides, not even the wisest man can answer... This art, produced by something we cannot fully know, is like the innate nature of the mind that operates in all of our daily activities."
- Hakuin

"When we understand, we are at the centre of the circle, and there we sit while Yes and No chase each other around the circumference."
- Chuang-Tzu

"A buddha enters forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables, and objects of the mind and is not confused by them. Thus a Buddha masters the six sense objects, which are all marked with emptiness. A Buddha is free... and does not need to respond to anything. A buddha practices miracles that are grounded on the earth."
- Master Huizhao

"Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed."
- Walter Lippmann (Man! So right!)

"Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth."
- The Buddha

"Example moves the world more than doctrine."
- Henry Miller

"One instant is eternity; eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees."
- Wu-Men

"Today means boundless and inexhaustible eternity. Periods of months and years and of time in general are ideas of men, who calculate by number; but the true name of eternity is Today."
- Philo

Concerning Hats

I would like to post a longer entry but it's 4:35 and I'm drunk, high and very tired. I've gambled my fedora on a fellow named Chevy's ability to recover his leather cap that went missing. I love my hat but I have faith that his will be returned, but if it doesn't I will give up mine in exchange (he seemed to like it). I met a lot of interesting women tonight. They seemed interested in my idea of handing over the torch of power to the female half of humanity, and yet they weren't attracted to a completely passive, non-manly man. In my opinion that kind of male is what it's going to take for us to live in relative harmony with the rest of the world, and yet they weren't satisfied with that passive idealistic, non-agressive male. I guess what it comes down to is we have a job to perform as protectors and if they didn't feel that duty is being fulfilled they aren't interested in furthering that relationship. I say however that we as the dominant male species have to give it all up or none at all, so it becomes an interesting dilemma of sacrifice. Who's willing to give up what in order to save humanity.

I was at a great party and I met a lot of people. As a great believer in communication I spent the majority of the party talking to different people. I enjoy my job as an ambassador of dynamic quality but it can be taxing and overwhelming as well. When you enter a room and everybody is searching for common ground, providing that focus can be a strenuous and involving commitment of self. Alcohol and drugs are my social lubricant so somehow I survive. If only the weed didn't interfere with the natural selection process. I find myself unable to speak at any depth to the people I'm most interested in speaking to, and end up talking of frivolties and not important 'relationship' topics. I suppose it's my fear of public displays, somehow the dirty secret of my lack of experience will become a mocking conversation and I can only retreat in embarassment. So hesitiation and fear are my biggest obstacles, and yet I would be most comfortable confronting thorny 'relationship issues' in a private, one on one domain. But that's just me.

Wow, that was as close to a pure brain core dump as I've ever acheived. It probably doesn't make any sense whatsoever but I'm tired and my bed, ooooh it calls.

Evolution and the Internet

What has always fascinated me about the internet is it's constant evolution. From all the way back to the email and newsgroup days to the invention of the world wide web and HTML, there has always been innovation and progress in the software and the underlying mechanisms that provide the content which makes the internet such an incredible playground for so many people. I often regret not investigating it more while I was in high school instead of waiting until my first year of university in 1995 before I really jumped into the fray. I was there before mp3s and napster though, and signed up with hotmail before it was bought by Microsoft. ICQ was the premier (read: only) instant messenging service and you could still download software illegally from webpages. Ah the good old days.

Things have changed, and yet the underlying themes of evolution is still what makes the internet such a chaotic and upredictable entity. As people add new ideas and new software the complexity always increases and more people buy in. I have an idea (well really a modification of an idea) that I think would put the power back in the hands of the individual, which is I believe a fundamental strength of this CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet.

First though, a brief history of file sharing. Many of you are aware of Napster, and are probably aware of the ensuing reincarnations after it was destroyed. There are many to choose from and they all offer the same basic p2p service, that of allowing others to download files that you've already downloaded. It's a very communistic experience on a whole, however the contentious issue is that of intellectual property rights and compensation for artists. I'm not going to attempt to resolve that thorny dispute here, I'll save that for another day. ;)

One of the newer technologies on the block is a program called BitTorrent. This is a wonderful tool for people to distribute large, popular files without having to worry about paying massive bandwidth bills. What it does is section up whatever file you're downloading into small chunks which are downloaded piecemeal, not unlike other p2p software packages. The kicker here is that while it's downloading you upload the chunks that you've already downloaded to other people. The end result that as a file becomes more popular, you actually download it faster, and with a considerably smaller bandwidth load to your server. Of course in principal it's only useful for popular files, say something linked from slashdot.org, or a movie or television show from SuprNova.org.

What I'm proposing is the utilization of this idea for a floundering and expensive to operate technology: Streaming audio and video. As you connect to this bitTorrent stream, your computer finds other peers who are currently not uploading as they're downloading. The software negotiates an entry point and then you start getting the stream. There would have to be redundancy (as you wouldn't want it to be interrupted if a peer drops out) but as the stream got more popular there would be more than enough to choose from.

What this does is puts streaming technology back into the hands of individuals. The technology could be a replacement for current bandwidth intensive tools like internet radio or streaming mp3s, and could eventually be used to create an alternative to traditional TV and radio shows. Imagine that - news and entertainment from a wide variety of people and biases as opposed to just one or two from Fox and CNN.

Anyways, I just thought I'd put the idea out there as a) I don't have time to program it (if it's even programmable) and b) If I did have to write the software it would probably be so crappy as to leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who did use it. Basically I'm hoping some crazy ass software programmer likes the idea and goes with it.

If I was a movie...

Apparently I would be:

What Classic Movie Are You?

And yet thekitty constantly calls me anti-semitic.. ;)

Faith

I love TGM. To anybody who doesn't play video game or even most who do this forum will mean absolutely nothing to them, however as I've gotten to know these people over the years what I most often enjoy are the religious and philosophical debates from perspectives all around the world. It's a bit of a drift from the ins and outs of the SOF2 Demo, but it passes the time when you can't play, or are not in the mood. What follows is a comment I made in a thread that started about Pork.

I am not denying that there might be a greater successor to everyone and everything, I am just conflicted with your definition of the nature of our creator. On the one hand it is easy to think of god as some higher entity, personified by a reflection of ourselves. In your religions we are molded in his image which bestows upon humanity some mystical holy sanctity. In reality the worship of god is just a worship of ourselves, which can be healthy in some respects but only if it's acknowledged and not clothed in the mysticism of modern organized religion.

Evolution is our true creator and it can be just as mystical and holy if you think about it. Instead of being created at the whim of a 'higher being', Life has persevered despite the harshest conditions. This green, vital (well not so much anymore) Earth that we inhabit was once a rock, completely barren and inhospitable. The orbit was right, the conditions on Earth were right and some amino acids made a value choice to work together to form a more complex structure. Protein worked with protein and DNA was the result. That process, that very first step seems fantastic, almost mystical. But on the scale of things is it more incredible than that first fish leaving the sea or the first animal that jumped off a tree? Each one of these events can seem wholely unrealistic but here's the kicker: I have faith.

Evolution is a continual process of adding complexity to life. Evolution is my religion and it's backed up by science. What happens after we die? We can't know. All we can do is conjecture and theorize, but there is no way to actually test any hypothesis short of dying. So why bother worrying about it? There's nothing you can do, any idea you come up with is either a mental creation of your own or someone else, so let it go. You don't have the right answer so instead of worrying about it, fill your time on Earth here as if it was all you have, doing the things you want to do but at the same time being mindful of others and their needs. This is a much better way to live life as opposed to worrying about dying and any afterlife. Even if there was Allah and the afterlife as described in those books do you really think he would judge you poorly if you devoted your life to adding to the world as opposed to taking from it? Isn't that what organized religion is all about?

There's a church sign on my bus route that gets changed quite often, and whoever is tending that flock has a keen wit about them. The messages are always non-judgemental, funny or sad, wholesome and always appropriate. That sign the other day said "You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving." If you want to love your family, your significant other, your home or your planet, you cannot do so without giving something. If you're doing something that just feels right to you then you're adding to the world. Everyone should be able to figure this out, as I'm sure most have agonized over the question since they were old enough to be reflective. What do you want to do? Answer this and do it; you will be making the world more complex and thus becoming a part of the history of something greater: evolution.

A blogging milestone

Here's some meta-news - thanks to all the great comments and people who view this site I've reached 500 comments with 60 (including this one) posts. Thank you all for making this a successful blog!

Here's a list of the most prolific commentators: (Ok, I know I comment too much but what are you gonna do)

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
| comment_author | Comments |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
| ChefQuix | 157 |
| The Kitty | 34 |
| oldcatman | 24 |
| DavisLee | 23 |
| Jon | 22 |
| Bubu | 20 |
| Wally Glutton | 16 |
| KISS Fan | 13 |
| Mc P | 8 |
| christopher | 8 |
| ken | 7 |
| brad | 6 |
| Hank | 6 |
| cckeiser | 6 |
| JuxtaPositionYou | 5 |
| mose | 4 |
| Gord | 4 |
| | 3 |
| Sven Bjorn Borg | 3 |
| Tina | 3 |
| Marcus | 3 |
| NateK | 3 |
| Mooo | 3 |
| caylia | 3 |
| Elisha Van Weert | 2 |
| Ginx | 2 |
| lanegraflor | 2 |
| Gopher | 2 |
| Leon | 2 |
| sucky goo fo yoo | 2 |
| Guess who? | 2 |
| Donna | 2 |
| Emily | 2 |
| RipVan | 2 |
| Diana | 2 |
| lou | 2 |
| cindy | 2 |
| C.C.Keiser | 2 |
| Terry | 2 |
| Jonathan | 2 |
| The P | 1 |
| IronCurtain | 1 |
| dr love | 1 |
| Scalpel | 1 |
| Elisha 'flashpan' Van Weert | 1 |
| Elisha Van Wizzle | 1 |
| sOUpaNdsPoONs | 1 |
| bruce | 1 |
| Tofu Sandwich | 1 |
| Pixy Misa | 1 |
| tasberry | 1 |
| KISSfan | 1 |
| RISSA | 1 |
| Freedom of Speech | 1 |
| Common Sense | 1 |
| The BIG Picture | 1 |
| Fishlips | 1 |
| LUIS | 1 |
| Gary Chandler | 1 |
| dahood | 1 |
| qwert | 1 |
| jerome | 1 |
| Tim | 1 |
| Prosperity, The Board Game | 1 |
| JFKIII | 1 |
| Danny Wilde | 1 |
| chybaby | 1 |
| cj | 1 |
| anonymous gurl | 1 |
| SeaSide | 1 |
| cls | 1 |
| LasVegasNinja | 1 |
| Annette McFarland | 1 |
| airhedz | 1 |
| Channeler | 1 |
| Thodan | 1 |
| mountebanks | 1 |
| Dex | 1 |
| zarathustra | 1 |
| DR.LOVE | 1 |
| Huggy Bear | 1 |
| djmose | 1 |
| bjergins | 1 |
| rick | 1 |
| McP | 1 |
| refa9785 | 1 |
| Trisha | 1 |
| THIS IS REALITY PEOPLE | 1 |
| annabloom | 1 |
| Piere | 1 |
| Ingle Abhi
| 1 |
| Robin | 1 |
| The_Consigliere | 1 |
| hey zeus | 1 |
| Natasha | 1 |
| CommonSense | 1 |
| Michael (excuse my poor spelling im from sweden) | 1 |
| the loca lady | 1 |
| Rob | 1 |
| Wally | 1 |
| ChiefDJT | 1 |
| Paul | 1 |
| P.I. | 1 |
| Mezey Jennifer
| 1 |
| Carr Eve
| 1 |
| Jason Buchanan | 1 |
| Dr. Love | 1 |
| TheKitty | 1 |
| David | 1 |
| John | 1 |
| TheTruthCanBeFound | 1 |
| spud | 1 |
| phentermine | 1 |
| Amber | 1 |
| Josie | 1 |
| Rod Irwin | 1 |
| badndog | 1 |
| Kayrssa Lawer | 1 |
| Raul Ortegon | 1 |
| A Black Man with a Brain | 1 |
| Njike Ephraim | 1 |
| impostingacoment | 1 |
| dog-on-craper | 1 |
| What the hell is a name.....geez, all these questions are to much for my brain to handle..... | 1 |
| matipoopy | 1 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+

That old chestnut

I love my referral logs. Basically it's a narcissistic practice but it's also the fuel that fires my creative juices. 21 grams is certainly generating a lot of traffic for me but more importantly a fresh supply of comments for me to digest. It was recently posted in this Philosophy Forums discussion, which hasn't been as insightful as I would have hoped yet nonetheless the board looks very promising. I may have to switch from TGM to this new one, if I can find time again.

One of the comments in the 21 grams thread led to the old question of does a tree make a sound if it falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it? A lot of people seem to give up on this question as it seemingly comes down to semantics, however I think that there may be an answer and I've attempted it here.

What exactly do you mean by "lack of depth"? I've been struggling with this question for as long as I've been really thinking. I believe by the tone of your reply that you too have struggled with this question, haven't come up with any 'definitive' answer and are now trying to move on. But this struggle is exactly what gives a question depth, and the more the struggle, the more the journey to answer that question will add to the all that is you.

So really, I think what we need is to find some kind of place holder for this one and then see where it takes us as a society. In order to find an answer of best quality we should really try to disect this question and look at it from a different perception.

Does a tree make a sound if it falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it?

This question is deceptive because it blinds us by flattering our humanistic ego. It panders to the idea that we are all that matters, that we are the only observers. The question is always 'no one', but is it ever 'no man'? It is always perceived as 'no man'. This however is a key to answering this question. Are we the only observers?

Take for instance the perception of a squirrel. There are no humans around but a tree falls - you know that squirrel is going to run. It hears a sound, so the tree makes a sound.

Then you have the other plants. There are no humans or squirrels, but a tree falls and a bush vibrates from the soundwave caused. This vibration interrupts sap and hormones moving throughout the bush and produces some kind of response. Isn't that all obeservation is? Stimulus response, where the response is a reordering of internal static values?

Finally you have the rocks which at first glance would seem completely unaffected, but upon closer examination a small crack occurs in a boulder because of the vibrations, a seed that crystalizes due to previous stress. Stimulus, response. Observation.

As abstract as this concept may be nonetheless they are all forms of observation, which is the crux of this question. If one takes the question to ask if 'no man' is around, then of course it makes a sound! There is plenty to observe it and adjust or respond to the stimulus. If one takes the question to ask if 'no one' is around then it is a trick question, because there wouldn't be a forest at all, and thus no tree to fall.

While we're on the subject of politics...

Here's a couple of really good political links to digest:
George Soros delivers a withering but rational rebuke of the Bush Administration. He's a multi-billionaire banker who has been very critical of the current administrations foreign policy, and it sounds to me like he knows what he's talking about. You'll have to keep an eye out for this one as the world get's shifted to an information economy.
Washington Hawks urge more war. Pushing for military blockades of North Korea is just one of the ideas in their "manual for victory". I'm *so* very glad to hear that the man with his finger on the button is listening to these hardliners. Makes me feel much safer.
Bush's 'volunteer' enviornmental plan has little to no effect. Three cheers for Bush's devote devotion to the environment! I guess he really is trying to save our planet.

Oh the linkage!

The power of the internet is forged with hyperlinks. Google capitalized on it but now it's the bloggers time, time for the direction of traffic to be based on premeditated linking. As more and more people link to an article or site aggregator sites (like Daypop and Blogdex) pick up that multiple people are linking to the same thing and bubble up that article. This creates a sort of chain reaction once it reaches a critical mass - and then a meme is started and everyone (at least us news fiends and bloggers) soon knows about it.

Why is it important to link to things you agree with? Because if you agree with it, then you value that person perception, and theoretically you would like others to agree with you as well. The power of linkage the power of the internet. Why am I going on about linkage? Well I read an interesting article on WiredOpinion.com about calls for someone to critique a Glenn Reynolds’s recent post on U.S. foreign policy regarding Palestinians. Instapundit is a powerful soap box and when he writes people listen and believe him. Jonathan has written excellent critique of Glenn's rather short sited and irrational 'call to arms'. If other people link to Jonathans piece then maybe it will reach the critical mass I was talking about earlier and come to the attention of Instapundit. It requires a communal effort but it's often worth it, especially with matters of profound importance like people's perception of the Palestinian people.

While I'm at the linking game I may as well direct your attention to C. C. Keiser, yet another goodie found on my 21 grams thread. This fellow has some interesting views on something he calls Poly-Solipsism which I agree with pretty strongly. It's interesting when people can reach the same conclusions - does that validate them or just exemplify universal insanity? Who knows.

Willie Nelson

I'm glad to see after all these years Willie Nelson is still focused on the game plan. His message of peace has been constant throughout his entire career and those who love him love him for that reason. Check out 'What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth?', some words by Willie Nelson (link courtesy of oldcatman).

The truth is also my weapon of mass protection. Thank you Willie for inspiring us all.

Complexity and Chaos

News Years eve is a classic example of complexity and chaos. There's a chaotic mix of individuals sharing thoughts with strangers because for this one night, everyone's the party. There's also complexity between friends (old and new) based on the experiences of the past. You might say it's like a complex neural net with variable nodal points as opposed to static ones. Each experience and perception is different and unique but when shared with another, a stranger, they become connected to you as you are to them from that moment on. At some level a brief encounter with a stranger changes the course of your path, to greater and lesser degree, based on how much you agree with their perception.

Because we're all interconnected, every change in that network affects us all in some minute way. Most of the time we are completely unaware of how another's new connection will eventually affect you, but at the same time the old six degrees of seperation tells us that in reality, any of us is only 6 degrees away from anyone else in this world, going through relationships (big or small) between people. I could have sworn I've read that they did some kind of test to see if that was actually true. I believe that it works for the wired generation, but I don't know if it would work with the luddites. That's a strong term but at some point that's the way I'm going to feel about people who reject or don't understand the internet, and how powerful a force it's becoming in this world.

Communication is the act of sharing one's perception with another unique individual. Whether or not that act is valued depends on the variable personality of the people in question. Value and morals are the backbone of our society and if these common traits are not shared between individuals then the connection would probably be considered one of poor Quality. Quality is an interesting subject of it's own, but I feel that the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values does a more than adequate job of explaining it's significance. It's really hard to quanitify how influential this book has been on the development of who I am - I remember cracking it open on a tour bus in Australia and I can honestly say that the questions it asks and the story it tells have changed my life in subtle but positive ways. One of the most challenging books I've ever read, but well worth the effort.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was written in the early seventies, but the author, Robert Pirsig although reclusive has not been idle. Whereas Zen was challenging from a new idea perspective, his last book Lila : An Inquiry Into Mortals feels almost like an old glove in some ways, the ideas so logical and wonderful because of it's radicalism and fundamentally challenging tone. I am only a third of the way through and I'm hooked like a junkie. It creeps into my mind when I'm at work or play and I read it as often as I can. I shake my head in shame at the fact that a few years ago I would have been done the book by now but unfortunately there just never seems to be enough time.

What I've gotten from it so far is fairly tricky from a 'new meme to digest perspective' but logical if you follow his thought process. (Read the books!) He supposes that life is just a series of value choices at all levels of complexity and awareness, or at least that's what my take of it is. I believe he's going to rail against the lack of studying of moral in science when science is in fact governed by morals. It's like Wally was telling me earlier - in the 'big picture' field of study of Macro Economics there is no examination of the effects of politics when in fact everything business related is completely affected by politics. It's like people saying that the church and the state are seperate when in fact it's obvious that the choices politicians will make are based on their moral system which they've inherited from whatever religious system is at the root of their being. Of course they're related and to say that we can seperate the two is a statement of ignorance. You cannot suspend your morals when you're making political decisions. How then is religion not the most influential part of politics?

Well it's 5:30 am and I have to scrape the ice off my driveway at a reasonable time tomorrow. If I wait too long the temperature will drop to -20C and that just won't be an enjoyable experience. It was a great night tonight, many new people, many old. Two people that I've whored my site to at past parties came and told me how much they liked it. That was certainly a good feeling as it's never happened before. Validation! What a wonderful drug. I'll leave you with a final thought:

Complexity balances chaos to create experience and perception. Do you agree?