A Groovatron Named Paul: Part 1

   I'm Paul, your typical junior high student. I don't mean to brag but I've got some serious hall-cred, I'm the trendiest trendsetter, and nothing beats playing on my phone whilst sitting near my weirdo best friend Arthur, who, by the way, tries far too hard to be a robot. Sometimes he even thinks he is. I'm positive I've caught him taking notes in binary. I'm all he's got though, and boy is he lucky to have such a cool friend like me.

   Life was as smooth as streaming a youtube video advert free on kicked up wifi. Nice. As with any good story though, there must be a reality tearing, punch to the face it's so true realisation. It was the seventh of may, a beautiful... I was adopted. Sorry, That's the important part. I, Paul, had been adopted at a young age. I could't believe it. My mother and father were bewildered I had never caught on. They said it was "quite obvious" and found my melodramatic reaction somewhat confusing. They tried so hard to explain everything away "We're human, and… you are clearly a robot. Groovatron 2000 model to be more precise. It says so on the lower edge of your torso chassis!"

 Whatever. All these years I though I was just born with a sweet tatt. The ladies love a sweet tatt. But apparently the story of how I ended up where I am now is that some robocouple ordered me off of Ebay, but could't pay the shipping. I was sent back to the warehouse where there was some minor damage inflicted upon my groove modulator not covered by warranty. You know what else isn't covered by warranty? My GREAT sense of humour. In any case my price was slashed and I was gobbled up by my now Mum and Dad (I guess there was some truth to the story that babies are brought home by the FedEx guy). They unpacked me mint from the box, which only served to increase my value thank you, and I've been chillin mother flippin villain ever since.

   Until now that is.

   After this whole "We've only loved you for the past fifteen years because we got you for three easy instalments of $29.99" crap (my words, not theirs), I decided I needed a change. I promptly got on the first ride out of town and headed into the big city to find myself. Of course I didn't go alone. My bromo sapien Arthur was eager for an adventure. As fast as I could say "let's go" I got an enthusiastic "affirmative". And so we were off like the most hip bandits you can imagine. The beginning of great things lie ahead of us. The GREATEST things…

Societal Benefits of Extended Lifespan

   When the topic of extended lifespan comes up, many times the focus is on the negative impacts such a change would bring. Things like competition for already scarce resources, overpopulation, and an accumulation of power in the older, more powerful generations are some of the fodder used to justify that such a change towards indefinite lifespan would be less than savoury, especially for the masses. I would like to focus on the benefits such a change could bring, as well as adaptive behaviours that could come along with it. As an aside, when I say "extended lifespan" I mean extended in the healthful sense, wherein decrepitude is either put off or eliminated.

   To start, lifespan has already increased dramatically since prehistory, and particularly so in recent modern times. Some may argue that developments in medicine and sanitation are the key source of this increase, but I would say it's a positive feedback loop. As these developments allowed us to live longer, people had more time to put their minds to creating more beneficial technologies, which in turn allowed for a longer lifespan, etc. And the benefits have trickled down, I may add, at a faster and faster rate. Although the rich do benefit by affording themselves the very best there is to offer, many of us still have access to wonderful technologies. Within a few short years what was once only available to the rich soon becomes a staple of the average consumer. A greater increase in lifespan could be an enhancement on this process.

   Looking towards the future, a society that has already achieved life extending technologies will have some key beneficial changes. For one, with an extended lifespan people would feel less inclined to have children. Although many still most probably would, they may not consider it until they are very old in our current terms, perhaps only a couple per century. Such a slow in birth rates would lead to a much more manageable human population growth and allow responses to things like overpopulation to be dealt with well in advance. The "stretching" as it could be said, of a person accomplishing typical life goals (having children, buying a house, starting a career, etc.) could be beneficial to the education system as well. If a person has exponentially more time to spend learning, and trying new things, who knows what kind of innovations could follow, along with a more educated society in general. Just as an extended childhood has been advantageous for humans relative to other animals, an extended "childhood" relative to our current notions could hold unseen benefits.

   A society with a longer lifespan is also more likely to take proactive measures against future threats. Our current society is more reactive because many of the threats we are dealing with will not much affect our lives, or at least not for many years to come. If you knew for example, that the worst possible effects of climate change would have a direct impact on your life though, you would be much more willing to take action now. Although at it's base it seems selfish, this very behaviour could save humanity as a whole by allowing us the opportunity to think ahead and actually take measures in advance of serious catastrophes.

   It's always good to weigh the pros and cons of a new technology, and the promise and peril it brings with it. Our ability though to deal with the consequences of many technologies is enhanced by lifespan increases, not detracted from.

Peter Burns & the Jelly

 PB&J is the story of one young Peter Burns. Peter Burns, all of twelve years old, goes for a pleasant ocean swim one day with his close friends. Whilst partaking in frolics and the delights of the magnificent sea, a jellyfish did undulate his way, as they are wont to do. Neither grasped the consequences of this chance meeting. Just as they engaged in a caustic handshake of sorts the two were freaky fridayed by some errant wifi waves seeking a home.
 Peter Burns, once average boy, is now a genius among his new Jellyfish brethren, while the former jelly inhabitant struggles to control even the most basic functions of it's new found body. As Peter Burns now finds himself with all the time in the world, he reflects on his life, deep meaningful questions of existence, and continually invents and tests harebrained ways to attempt retrieving his body! Meanwhile, his friends do they're best to minimise the multiple ways the Jelly ignorantly threatens Peter Burns' social life and physical well being.

Ecology of Ideas

 We are currently living in a time that is unprecedented in the creation, sharing, and access to ideas. New ideas are constantly being produced by both individuals and groups alike. Some serve a purpose, others are dreams or fantasies, many are retoolings of old ideas in a fresh way, and more still are created just for the sake of existing. To me, I feel the era we are going through can be likened to a "Cambrian Explosion" of ideas. During the Cambrian Explosion in Earth's history life erupted into an unimaginable number of complex creatures which, over time and refining laid the foundation for the major domains and kingdoms of life, as well as early structures of modern ecosystems.
  This is directly relatable to the current trend we're seeing in the proliferation and rapid evolution of ideas right now. We've crossed a threshold wherein the complexity and diversity of ideas has increased dramatically along with their sheer volume. I would say we are in the process of creating an ecosystem where ideas compete for resources such as popularity, and create dynamic systems by interacting much like actual life forms. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. Will the growth go on unchecked? Or, will certain strings of ideas prove to dominate the landscape creating an interdependent system just like modern ecosystems found in nature?

Grounds for the Equivalence of Nothing and Something

Recent exploration both virtual and mental has left me pondering relationships between the idea of nothing, and something. Nothing tends to be a bit of a loaded term in and of itself. It can be used to describe the lack of a specific something, a vacuum (which in almost all cases is not a complete lack of everything), the absolute absence of everything, and can even become a thing itself (as in a hole). I would like to attempt at describing a connection between the definition of nothing as an absolute absence of anything, its vacuum definition, and the existence of a something (be it an entire universe, a single photon, or anything else you could imagine). To my mind, it is not inconceivable that there are many ways to have both nothing and something at the same time, and is in fact, the likeliest scenario. By this, I mean that it is much more likely to have a collection of things that together sum to nothing, rather than just a pure and eternal nothingness.

Using numbers as an example, there is only one number that defines absolute nothingness, and as you've already guessed it's zero. Out of the infinite scheme of numbers there is only one zero, and yet, there is an infinite number of other ways to get zero.

1+(-1)=0

(-1)+3+(-2)=0

3*(-3)+9=0

You get the idea...

You can have as many somethings as you want, and they will sum to a perfect nothing as long as there is enough of a counter something. Something and counter something need not necessarily even exist at the same time, as long as the average is equivalent to nothing having existed. You could have:

At T1 Nothing

At T2 Something

At T3 Nothing

At T4 Counter Something

This is very simplified and need not be so black and white, but it gets the point across. You could even get the same result by removing both T1, and T3.

In conclusion, I'm stating that it's much more natural that the world exists in the delicate and ambiguous state of being both something and absolutely nothing at the same time because there are many more ways for it to do so, and is therefore much easier than maintaining, or even attaining to begin with, a perfect state of absolute nothingness.

A something from nothing isn't so improbable. It's probably the status quo.

Television Analogy of the Mind

As you may have seen in prior posts, I'm firmly rooted in a physicalist, reductionist view on things. When it comes to consciousness, or the workings of a mind in general (not just human), I see it's source as a collection of immensely intricate interactions among neurones, brain chemicals, external (environmental and experiential), and internal (amount of sleep, what you ate, levels of various hormones, etc.) states.
A useful if not overly simplistic analogy I have come up with to describe my view of apparent conscious behaviour I call the TV Analogy. I liken the pixels of a TV screen to the firing of neurones, and the input cable as external stimuli. As the TV receives information from the input cable, the state of it's pixels is changed thereby creating an overall change in what appears on the TV from the point of an outside observer. As this continually happens, we are given the illusion of motion and 'livelihood' to what is displayed.
I find this mirrors well (again, enormously oversimplified), with the action of the brain and its effect on apparent behaviour. As new external stimuli is received, the state of the brain is changed at the neuronal level, thereby changing the internal mental state and behaviour of the being. The sensory nerves and organs of the body act like the input cable, and the neurones and ultimate behaviour that they cause, can be equated with the TV display.

Bird Watching: A Guide to Geordie Girls

I occasionally watch the show 'Geordie Shore' with my girlfriend. If you haven't seen it it's Jersey Shore for the British. At times much of what they say is fairly unintelligible because of heavy slang and accent. What really got me thinking is their slang for girls. When they go out on the town for a night of binge drinking, vaguely rhythmic moving, and drama inducing belligerence, the main goal of the 'Lads' is always to 'pull birds'. At first I thought that it wasn't so different to being called 'chicks'. I was clearly overlooking the chance for something far greater though. There is a plethora of books on the market today that are on ridiculous subject matter but very entertaining, and excellent novelty items. So, I thought to myself, why not a book with the clever title 'Bird Watching: A Guide to Geordie Girls'. All it would be is a collection of pictures of Newcastle and Tyneside women enjoying the night life, their signatures, and maybe a blurb about what they enjoy best about the local nightlife. Throw in a couple glamour shots at some notable locations and you've got yourself a book! I'd love to hear people's reactions to this, especially as a UK or particularly a Geordie native if you happen across this.