Philosophy Futurism

Concise futurisms

2011-07-03T09:42:00.001+10:00

Space travel:
Those who can, will, because those who can't will kill them from fear of intellect, xenophobia and jealousy if they don't leave Earth.

Singularity:
Not the exponential boom of technology beyond our control, but the use of technology to allow direct communication between peoples. Once people connect directly to technology and eachother, discovery and computation will become exponential several times over.

Aliens:
When a generation suffers futureshock in a near-singularity time, the youth will be so different from them that they will truly seem alien. They will look as strange or stranger than the humanoid aliens of our modern fiction. Once humanity is in planetary diaspora, different evolutions at pace will quickly make interplanetary aliens to eachother. There will be a planetary federation, not from discover of the other, but creation of it.

Singularitarians and transhumanity:
The rise of photonic computing will coincide with the rise of brain-computer interfacing, and therefore, singularity. This is a result of the primacy of photonic interfacing with neural systems, far beyond the immediate potential of nanotechnological means. Once this hurdle is reached, quantum computing, biological data storage and dna micro-sculpturing and sophisticated nanotechnology will be possible.

Cities:
As we become more sophisticated at construction, our cities will be progressively more biomimetic and computer-designed. They will be dense and clustered like termite mounds, above and below ground, leaving suburbia to waste away. There will be greater use of inter-building throughways and intercity high-speed transport systems.

Work:
With robotic implementation in much arbitrary work, there will be use for unskilled 'labour' in virtual reality game systems which employ psychological elements of gameplay to guide the player/worker to think about seemingly abstract and fantastic problems, which are just realworld problems translated into game design. (There is a reason game addicts will play to death)

Love:
'Love at first sight' will come to mean a compatibility analysis followed by hormonal and biological modification, not the currently standardised 'hormone analysis' of intuition or lust. As biotechnology improves, genetic compatibility becomes moot; babies can have their immune systems, etc strengthened accordingly and families will become stronger as a result of the 'partner/friend' paradigm.

Evil empire:
Internet speed and internet technology availability in the population are inversely correlated to the potential for a global empire. 'Evil' will be maintained by a sufficient proportion of the paranoid population online, which will stymie any chance of full infiltration, regardless of the entity's ethics. (See: proliferation of conspiracy theories as 2nd largest content online, pre-social media).

Concise Optimism for Better Living (geek edition)

2011-06-25T04:41:00.001+10:00

How does a science-fiction writer reconcile dreaming about the future with the practical probability that he may never live to see it? There is a simple mantra for increasing happiness and life satisfaction in this condition and lifestyle.
"Live the best today, build the best tomorrow, tell yourself that you'll live forever."

The current condition of your body and life should be optimised. If you die tomorrow, planning for a better tomorrow and a best today serves that outcome. If you deceive yourself into delusions of geriontological immortality, you will never think too small, you will never fear insurmountable mystery and have no need for regret with the (albeit unfounded) knowledge that all wrongs may in the future be righted and all errors corrected. Once you do die, you will not lament this misapprehension.

Cataclysm of the bright and new

2011-06-24T03:45:00.001+10:00

Behind my eyelids, neatly shut,
There lies the deepest sea.
Though cold in waves mid ocean caves,
The dark is mystery.

Then as my mind begins to wind,
A chasm is alight.
This zephyr born of physics torn
Is fragile as it's bright.

A notion clear, it does appear,
An origin of race:
A people founded in the sound
Ideal of progress' pace.

They built new land where there was none,
Found truth amongst dismay
By planting seeds for metal trees,
They burnt this world away

With trouble spent and victory won,
They moved to claim the sky
We make our homes with rubble thrones
And bid the new goodbye

Test of image upload

2011-05-31T16:16:00.000+10:00

Hyperarousal

2011-05-30T04:12:00.000+10:00

In modernist study, the hypothesis is raised that the rise of industry, and concurrent explosion in advertising, caused great anxiety in pedestrians. Notionally, the heavily postered and billboarded walls were eye-catching in an overloading manner to which the average person was not accustomed.

If we increase our sensory perception ability via multiple sources of vision (360 view, radar overlay, AR HUD overlay, sense of position in reference to constant map, metadata overlay(s) and/or non-visual sensory enhancements), what is the limit to our sensory ability?

Was this 'hyperarousal' real, and if so, was it a neurological threshold (actual limit to stimuli input capability which has been met generationally with greater 'skills of inattention', or perhaps a limit the rate of stimuli input *increase* over time), a psychological threshold (such as 'future shock' or social/perceptual conservatism), a lack of perceptual coping heuristic, or a correlation with another cause (stress from social change)? The historical elements can only be assessed speculatively with the inherent error of anecdotal evidence, but a study could be constructed upon potential limits to perception.

If I ever have time, I will collect the current studies of attention and ascertain a likely threshold for the focused and distracted human mind's ability to perceive. Then, I can construct an experiment with measures stress levels (physiological and post-/ad-hoc psych survey) with taught heuristic inattention, request for threshold level attention, and request for above threshold attention. Notionally, the hypothesis would be that stress increases with attention demand. A follow-up study (is hypothesis is confirmed), would be to test whether it is the stimuli variable of pace, density or eye-catching content which increases stress. Hypothesis from modernism would be the last variable, but the greatest implications for future technology would arise from the addition of the first two variables.

This is a hypothetical study, not a planned one. Consider it a 'if I had the time, this would make a decent thesis' pipedream.

Perceived Veracity of Experience value

2011-05-30T03:51:00.000+10:00

The PVE value is an aggregate value to compare contexts upon how 'real' they seem (veracity means 'truthiness'). The word 'real' was omitted because 'virtual reality' and 'augmented reality' are the main sources of comparison to 'real reality' via PVE, so using 'real' would complicate and confuse the issue. Especially given the notion of 'surreal', 'other-worldly' or 'bizarre' situations in 'real reality', which notionally have a smaller PVE than day-to-day life. These contexts are those in which things seem 'too coincidental' or you feel the need to 'pinch yourself' or test reality for the potential of 'just dreaming'. This is the abridged necessity for a standardised PVE value in psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, sociology, marketing and media. The further justification in an upcoming paper which I plan to work on over the mid-year break will include reference to the 'uncanny valley' phenomenon, virtual reality experiments, the 'explicit media psychological implications' contraversy and study, post-traumatic stress disorder and abnormal psychology implications of realistic media, recent marketing studies on memory fabrication from advertising media content type, philosophical reality uncertainty (in media and post-media effects) implications, and finally, the requirement for a standardised value for comparison in future study (given the moore's law, etc liklihood of further improvements in media realism and immersion).

This paper will be journal submitted, but probably rejected due to my lack of title or university employment position. If I find a co-author to steal credit from a faculty, or submit to a lesser journal in psych or phil (or both), I might have a 'snowflake's chance', as it were. Any comments or questions, leave them here or email me at ultratempum@gmail.com

The speed of vision: an insight into sight.

2011-05-30T03:19:00.000+10:00

Consider a hummingbird. Smaller brain means shorter connections from eye to brain, meaning quicker perception. We can barely see their movements, and this is to be expected. Elephants: larger brain and slower perceptive ability. This is not a rule, as snails have suboptimal neural systems (in regard to perceptive speed), which results in a slow, albeit short, connection from their eyestalks to central nervous system.
If (and when) humans develop a means of accelerating some of their neural network, the perceptive latency from eye to brain would reduce, much like a hummingbird, and our ability to detect faster motion improves. Similarly, should we implement a computerised proxy between our eye (or equivalent) and brain to amend or clarify the data, the latency would increase.
Not only would this mean a perception of faster, or not-as-fast motion, time itself would be perceived as slower or faster, as our concept of time is an aggregate of our perceptions. 'Time racing' is due to unconscious or excited inattention/forgetfulness, which results in 'smaller' memories constructed over a relatively long time.'Time at a crawl' is due to enhanced attention from impatient, pharmaceutical or meditative neural stimulation without environmental focus to create a single set of memories, thereby constructing many fragmented memories over a relativeley short time period. Furthermore, our pattern-seeking tendency engages at a different level of complexity with these 'fast' and 'slow' eyes. Allow me to elaborate with extreme examples as explanatory architypes.

Fast eyes:
Faster vision, shorter neural connections or faster transfer from eye to brain: for example, Hummingbird.
The fastest eye would see not 'objects' as we perceive them, with imperceptible vibration of nanoscale structures shaking out wavelengths of light which appear as solid surfaces of matte or gloss colour with varying transparency. This eye would see a world with imperceptible motion of objects: a single step would take a week, with miniscule differences in position over time, such that the step appears completely frozen. However, the lines would blur. The invisible vibration of matter in its solid form would become a tightly bound, yet writhing mass of tiny particles (too small to see individually, but visible as an ocean of vibrating dust). The normal aspects of vision would remain, but the texture of the world would gain such vibrant and excited content. The difference between the objects 'table' and 'floor' lose meaning with the perception of the physical continuity and constant nanoscale transfer of particles between the notionally separate entities. The fast eyes are blind to the world of social, and even standard physical interactions: only the small, quick, aspects remain: the trivial and omnipresent, yet hidden and fundamental.

Slow eyes
The slower perception via neural proxy, brain enlargement, or similar; the elephant.
The slow eyes cannot perceive people, for they move too quickly. Rather, the slow eyes see 'peoples': cultures, economies, the patterns of market and mass psychology, the maths of large numbers and the interactions of collective identities, growth of nations, memes, trends and fashions. This slower vision sees far more than the normal eye can see, with the pattern of 'lunches' no longer confused by the 'interim meals': a normal human vision would see the banal routine of a day, but slow eyes see the pattern of life as the motion of trends. By focusing upon an element, daily, weekly, annual, centenial routines can all be brought to close comparison and the importance of people and actions becomes truly apparent. With this vision comes great insight into the future and understanding of the past. Much of the depths of psychology and personal identity can be understood as part of a greater organism of 'similar cells with similar design, but different circumstance and function through time'; the human as a mimic and a template, with supportive and instrumental function to a people.

These two 'eyes' are the polar extremes to a scale gradient of potential experience (and not even the absolutes of the scale). The placement upon the scale is proportional to the degree of perceptive alteration.

Now here's the important part: we can all already conceive of reality through these eyes; they are mere frames of reference or perspective shifts. Yes, they can be permanent alterations or defining differences between organisms, but the imagination can allow us to aggregate our knowledge and simulate experience. Why would you simulate a change in time's perceived pace? To gain the greater understanding of reality and its machinations. Were I to elaborate upon this point, I would fall prey to repetition.

Prejudice Prediction

2011-05-04T04:04:00.001+10:00

In 20 years, the age of voting will be lowered. The generation that will be in power in 20 years time has been described by current authority as 'refusing to grow up', but this is just a cultural acceptance of media made for youth as media in its own right: a perception of young people as valid people. Lowering the voting age is the first step to reduction in agism and an important part in removing unjustified prejudice, thereby empowering youth and allowing their contribution to society. Much of the over-14 age group work, pay attention to the greater community and have informed opinions about justice, ethics and politics. They do not have a sufficient rational deficit over the average voter to justify restriction, unless we are to instigate intelligence testing for all voters. This will allow them cultural respect and laws which take their needs into consideration. It will also result in a reduction in the use of their agegroup as a vicarious excuse or 'scapegoat'; Eg: "We should follow my beliefs because I am acting for my defenceless (age 14-18) 'children'". Hopefully, this will also reduce the stigma and prejudice of the term 'child' and use of the phrase 'just a child', which is as insulting as 'just a negro' and 'just a woman'. It may pave the way for further efforts in reducing agism at the other extreme, affording respect for the elderly as 'wise', rather than 'frail and cenile'. Generally, these stigma act as self-fulfilling prophecies.

Cyber

2011-04-18T13:52:00.001+10:00

4am: the new midnight. Alone, by the back door of the seven-eleven in the wound-up overpass of the upper hills district. Same routine. Same bad taste in my mouth. Bitter, salty, and the distinct burn of a certain cynicism towards life. A flavour I was beginning to grow fond of from sheer familiarity.
These nights arrive on waves of endorphins and the hackneyed cliches of vice, just as regular as the setting sun. He walks out, package in hand. A quick drop and it's done: I wait a moment before swing past and collecting the parcel. Old John knows I'm good for the money and he'll get it later. If he didn't trust me, it'd be gun in the parcel and the only thing to drop to the ground would be me. Sometimes the subtlety of city manner is under-appreciated; sometimes it's just not there to begin.

It starts to rain on the train home. Streaks of red and blue flash from the fleeting business district as we pass through. 'Course the only business there is entertainment, but money makes the world go round. Even pimps' worlds.

I let my coat trail rivers behind me as I enter the door, bringing it up to my fedora as they meet on the hat stand. He steps into the hallway. The parcel conceals itself in my back pocket.

"Wet out." He fixes me with the kind of face that sucks guilt from you like you were fixed at the end of a straw. Drawn out long, yet hollow and cold. A straw or a gun barrel.
"Very." I reply to the floor sliding past him. He knows where I've been and I can feel his eyes being dragged by the back of my head across the room. I sit at the window of our first floor penthouse. The cardboard walls couldn't support another floor, but the view from the hilltop is a luxury of the ghetto. We can see everyone for miles. It's easy to notice the towers when you're not in one.
The entertainment district is still visible to the south, but I've got all the entertainment I need in my back pocket.

"We got six hits while you were out. That's sixty dollars right there", Terryn announces softly to the back of my chair. I turn to face him slowly, arm slung across the chair to hold me in place. "Is that our day?"
"As far as I know", he replies, a little hurt. He hates when I ask. The totals always seem to come up short; the disappointment making him feel a little more guilty.
A hit is a scan: we sell our privacy at ten bucks a pop. You want to find a market for your business? You need to buy a sample to test the water, so to speak. Every new start-up takes a few people from the registry and buys their lives. Everything we do, buy, sell, consume, pollute, commute, breathe: for ten bucks you buy the right to voyeur 'till your company busts. This is our life. Almost.
There isn't much call for ghetto market-share, so we embellish a little. We write analysis and identity creation software to emulate the unwashed masses. If people are just numbers, we just add them up, divide them down and take a cut for ourselves.
"Sixty means we don't have to organ-grift tonight", Terryn reminds me. We also steal body parts from the victims of the street to sell to black market medicine. I choose not to discuss our extra income.
"Living in a slum means we do."
I decide the discussion's over. He understands.

"If wealth be darkness born, beware, for soon the price of light will rise."
Terryn puts a hand on my cheek. I stare up at his baby blues. "What is that?"
Terryn smiles. "Don't know. Saw it on a wall this morning. I think it means 'stop harvesting gore'."
"That's one hell of a literary interpretation there, Terryn. Reading into that a little?"
He kneels before me: eye height. "Yeah."
His lips are soft. The caress is all the sweeter for it's brevity.

I walk to the bathroom.
Terryn mumbles behind me as I close the door: "I'll suit up..." Or maybe "R sued tarp." I assume the former makes more sense.

Nitrocol. Sweet, hot death. I pull the tip off and suck in: green haze straight into my lungs. The bitter, salty taste finally disappears. The cynicism remains. C'est la vie.

I walk back into the room.
Muscle spasms in my arms twitch beneath the black synthetic skin of my shirt.
The edges of my vision blur. Engage 'Warp Five', Scotty. Fuck spacetime.
My ego builds: I can feel a desire to fight, to run, to screw.
He comes out of his room: full black suit, goggles and mask, nothing left of him. Like our corporate pimps I rip off the mask and bring his face into the harsh light. I kiss him; exactly as cheap as the corporate pimps. Everything we need for the night is slung across his broad shoulders. The night is in our hands. The knifes are just in mine.

End of the night.
Parts in fridge.
Called the go-between, they'll be here in an hour.
Set the analysis to run, a thousand faces emerge from the light dancing across the walls and disappear into numbers to be stored. Over and over, the robot judges, reduces compresses. Everyone we could ever know is reduced to nothing around us. I feel the buzz of a god's power through my veins.
We embrace in the glow of the faceless faces, the filtered, fractured crowd. We embrace in the warmth of my love. Just mine. He doesn't even need to be there. I embrace and he's along for the ride.

The blood on our hands from the night's collection is so alien now. So long has it seemed since any of us bled. To bleed is human. I don't know what we are now. Were we to tell our forefathers that the hammer and sickles which we would build in the future would be so fantastic that we would cut into ourselves, plant them and call them flesh, call them 'us', they would burn us for witchcraft, perhaps hunt us like animals. Though what we can do with our hands now is surely witchcraft. Even now, both our distracted minds upload and collate the faces of the many, performing the jobs no other machine can: part of the computer totality that is the metaworld of internetted information, a crucial brick in one big wall of computation. I am being used, but it is symbiotic. I am EVERYTHING. NOTHING CAN STOP ME.
"Nate", he starts, holding my hand, "Unplug. We need some time alone together."
'Alone together', I wonder?
'Alone'... 'Together'?
I unplug from the wifi internet and rub my face with my hands. It always feels strange removing myself from an enormous shell: a loving, demanding, greedy and growing, raging ocean of humanity, even when I'm not high.

It is comforting to know that he is feeling this too. This lonliness. I plug across to him and we lie down beneath the sheets. The older years in the Great Illusion, so many dead. Lonliness always reminds me. So many friends died... No. So many lies were not friends. Were not real. There are no seven stages for finding out that your friends were just figments of a tainted, cripplingly malicious AI's robotic imagination. No, just two stages: confusion, despair, confusion, despair, confused desparation, desparate confusion. Confusion. Confusion. Despair.
He's feeling the same, seeing the same, remembering the same people: Diane, Jordie, Natasha. So lonely now. So lonely together.

2011-04-06T21:05:00.000+10:00

On descriptive ethics of responsibility in modern western society: Protecting another's welfare.

Obvious case:
Your neighbour has a slave. You discover this. Is it your responsibility to act?
- Yes. You must tell law enforcement, or act to defend the enslaved.

Less obvious case:
Your neighbour has a mind control machine which was turned on by a villain and makes him a slave to the programs in the machine while it is turned on.
- You must tell law enforcement, or act to defend the enslaved.

Grey area:
Your neighbour has a serious drug addiction and can't bear to leave the house for any activity which isn't slaving away for dealers as payment.
- Some say that you should have an 'intervention', some say that it is the right of the person to chose to live their life that way and it is their own business.

Greyer area:
Your neighbour is a sex worker. You have really reliable information that the local sex industry is ENTIRELY constituted by pimps who put the workers on drug addiction to make them more devoted and loyal.
- many would say that it is 'bad' and even 'wrong', but little action is taken, perhaps due to perceived danger to the self and poorly enforced laws.

Very grey area:
Your neighbour is a sex worker. You have heard that sex industries are inherently corrupt and have anecdotal evidence to support that notion. There is a chance that your neighbour is being taken advantage of in the highly risky business of the industry, but no certainty.
- many would be concerned. Some advocate laws to check up on the industry. No actual intervention nor investigation is taken.

Clearer area:
Your neighbour is a sex worker. You assume that the sex industry is a reflection of the corruption inherent to 'selling one's body'. Should you perform an intervention to remove that person from that lifestyle?
- No. There is nothing wrong with having sexual confidence and ability and making money from that endeavour, any more than a professional athlete can be payed for their classical 'physical exertions' - (which are arguably less worthy of payment). There has been no evidence to show that safe sex with multiple partners is psychologically damaging; just other factors in corrupt industries (exploitation is not inherent to the act, just an unregulated and underground industry).

At some point, responsibility to protect the welfare of another is an unjustified imposition upon their freedom of life choices. If a drug or machine enslaves, it is faceless and hard to define; if an industry or society enslaves it is near impossible. We need a method of determining the border lest we rarely do enough, and occasionally do too much.

Nichomachean Pragmatics - draft 1, to edit

2011-03-23T05:34:00.001+11:00

Allways remember:

To know a person simply is simple. To know a person well can take a lifetime. You need only know a person simply to control them, but you must know a person well to let them control you.

Personal Knowledge:
- interests, idols and social circles are displayed in the selection of material to decorate the walls and desks of living spaces.
- temperament is displayed in the choice of words; it is what they wish for you to perceive of them from how they express their vocal content.
- agendum is displayed in the words themselves; what they wish to know and to be known.
- strength of will and ease of mind are displayed in the how they speak about themselves and how they appear to treat themselves.

-friend lists are arbitrary; judge a person's friends by the attendees at many of their events and the joviality of public comments upon their postings.

- a person's reasonne d'aitre can be very simple. Usually it is either 'living for experiences', 'living to complete a goal', or 'living to maintain and continue dynasty'. If a person claims not to have given it thought, either they are the first, or seeking the second. In this state of seeking they are very susceptible to manipulation, or they will live for self-destruction.

-judge a person's upbringing by socio-economic and cultural (fashion, car and manner of speech), age, teeth and cynicism/agreeability (inherited from difficulty of earlier life/parental outlook). Family and developmental social status can be gathered from responsibility expressed (from requirement to develop skill early on), healthy/excessive dominance/submission (defensive/adaptive to threats (authority based) and social challenges (sibling rivalry, multiplicity).

Manipulative Action
- the confident can be coerced actively; request aid as a subservient so that they may act by expressing ability.

- the meek may be coerced passively; frame a request as a safer, less active of all possible actions. Action must be said to be unavoidable and your request is the most agreeable.

- insert psych of manip here -

-always evaluate a comment in regard to the time of posting. Are they likely to be rushed, bored, tired, is it close in time to another post which may impact their personality?

To be compiled into coherent theses

2011-03-14T13:05:00.001+11:00

1
Locke- free will is 2 things: determined likihood to act (deterministic influence- locked in paradise- no future desire to leave) vs current ability to act (locked in office while getting notes -desires fit agency, but not the determined liklihood to decide to leave in future); not potential to take any possible action with agency (who locks the door?).

2
Ethical invention: how much power is too much in warfare and can ethically use 'would happen eventually anyway, better done now with ethical basis' (or is just biased, simplistic, post-hoc rationalisation?)

On Australia

2011-02-13T12:01:00.001+11:00

For a long time I thought that this country was a lost cause, making plans to flee and find somewhere worth some national pride and affiliation. It felt like the nation was a servant to a dead British empire with an hypocritical anthem of sharing land, empty promises of multiculturalism in an era of race hate, and an ever-depleting identity. We were Americanising (a country which I do not consider ideal), monarchistic eunuchs with an allegiance to another country's powerless, meaningless royalty, and we slowly lost anything that used to be 'Australia'.
We lost our ridiculous phrases, irreverent manner, casual and open demeanour, friendly courage and love of our land. We became ken done charicatures of token puppets, iconic, yet banal architecture and carcinogenic lifestyle: all faded by vicious creatures and serial killers.

But I was wrong. All we need to be a great nation is to open our eyes. Like a newly born human, our nation's youth has developed an adolescent search for identity, history and a future worth pursuing.

These are the incontrovertible truths:
We are a desert land of scorched beauty and unique creatures finding innovation in their struggle to survive. Equally, we should promote our strength and perseverance through adverse environment and idolise the beauty of creative innovation.

We are a small continent, not just a large island. If we are to be a single country, we should acknowledge the vastness of our land and allow those who would attempt it, the chance to tame the wild wastelands. We should unite not as federation of states, but as nation shared: a single vision and law with bodies to apply these agreed rules of governance.

We are a nation in Asia, not a colony. We cannot deny our geography. We must not cling to this false and tired image of the 'summer britain' or 'England's far off colony'; we are a new land in the south- a meeting place for cultures and peoples, populated in majority by our curious neighbours and the world's explorers. We are a chance for new beginnings and the salvation of those who choose to test themselves in our terrain. The aboriginal people were not the first here and the English were not the last. 'Boundless plains to share' should have meaning. This meeting place should thrive with the input of limitless perspective and insight, without a national religion, limitations to the bounds of culture, nor immutable tradition. Australia must progress and develop, not as a smaller brother to other nations, but a powerhouse of world change in its own right. Sharing and acceptance will not weaken us, it is the lifeblood of our unique opportunity and potential. No other nation has such a platform for a truly global nation.

We should forge a republic with equal respect for all the sources of our history. We should write our laws with debate and discussion, tailored to the land we see before us, not the traditions of cultures and aristocracy born in a far off locale. We don't need a commonwealth, a monarch, a Union Jack, Union flag, Britannia anthem, nor governor-general.
This new Australia should be uniquely Australian in its identity- we have so many characteristic forms of life, land, manner and history. Australia didn't begin when it was named and won't end when it grows to maturity.

Our anthem will show resilience, innovation and the power within a connection of peoples.
Our flag will bring the pride of what makes Australia unique.
Our currency will hold a story of our history and that which we hold to be forever important.
Our constitution and concrete rights will be those which our people decide FOR our people. These will be the bond that holds us together.

Of Known and Unknown

2011-01-27T00:34:00.001+11:00

From: ultratempum <ultratempum@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:33:50 +1100

To: ultratempum<ultratempum@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: of known

I walked along the last of what seemed to be an endless stretch of red earthen road.

It was hot, dry and tiring. I was nowhere, but I could see where I was going ahead in the distance.

The lights of the city were so soft. Unlike the bright neons of the attention thieves in the dense entertainment districts or the endless, uniform squares of the flat, soulless suburbia, this city just glowed: shone like late afternoon sun on leaves, unassuming, organic and peaceful. That isn't to say that the city appeared still. It hummed with a hive of life.

The city was a hive, in a way. Based on the design and construction of termite mounds, the city walls were the same red earth as that which surrounded it. As I got closer, I realised that what appeared to be city walls were not the walls of a fortified castle, but rather just the walls of the outer buildings. The city had no defined boundary, nor controlled border; just a turretless, hazy edge, seemingly unwelcome from the pure lack of interest of the inhabitants toward visitors, rather than specifically defensive and suspicious.

I approached the outer edge where the road just stopped, having reached the doors to the outermost buildings and seeking no further terrain: an unconquering, uncurious road, content with its confines and humble purpose. As I began to walk along this perfect and pristine, flat though slightly textured and incredibly gripped plastic, I noticed movement along the high walls of the surrounding outer towers by which I ventured.

They were small creatures, no bigger than a metre, crawling along the outer surface of the buildings toward me. As they weaved rapidly closer, they leapt to the roadside before me, two to the floor and one atop a street light. They were children, with eyes that flickered purple to green, then to blue, white and finally to the soft, deep ochre of the surrounding city.

"Hello", I started, slowly. "My name is Leighton. Nate Leighton."

The children stared at me unnervingly, scanning up and down my body silently. I opened my mouth to speak again, but the child up the back on the light spoke first.

"We know. Why are you here?"

The children were frank and unsurprised. Their quiet curiosity was both alien and animalistic at once, so that their strange mannerisms could only be defined as 'inhuman'. At least, not as I knew it.

"I am here to see Victor Petrez", I stated, hoping for their assistance or disinterest, either being preferable to this quiet and disquieting silence.

The city was completely silent, except for the slow, soft hum of the giant turbine at the city centre, which was no louder than a breeze through a forest canopy. Despite the unfamiliar design and appearance of the city, it was intensely peaceful and calming. There was traffic, all of it silent with the small, one-person vehicles sweeping gracefully around the city in synchronous harmony without lights nor signs to co-ordinate their ballet. They all passed along the city floor, any of the many tiered passages between buildings, or from roof to roof, draining like water into the slipstream created by the turbine to fly away to another, distant settlement.

"You don't need to see him here. You could have seen him via the site. You don't need to come here to see anyone", the front-most child responded. Despite the discouragement, she pulled a small device from her back pocket and threw in onto the ground between us. It unpacked into a small screen and propped itself up. Victor Petrez looked up at me.

"Yes?", he asked. "What do you want?"

I looked over to the children. "I could use some privacy."

"That's unfortunate.", the child on the streetlight replied. "There isn't really that notion here. Not with conversation at least. We can move away, if that makes you more comfortable, but we will know everything that you tell him, just as will everyone else here."

I, of course, knew this. It was hard to get used to. Speaking to one person was like speaking to everyone at once. Sort of.

This is one of the cities of The Known, a group of people who have chosen to collaborate their knowledge on a daily basis – to have a hive memory. Everything that anyone sees or hears is used to automatically update a collective knowledge base. This base is accessed inside the eyes of every Known, projecting the knowledge onto the world around them.

This has increase the rate of progress in the city, reduced the social inequality that privileged knowledge brings. There is no ability to cheat, steal, live secret lives, or 'get away with' crime. Because everyone knows what you know, if you think you are morally justified in an act, everyone else does too. Being a Known means being of similar mind because everyone's upbringing is based on the same ever-growing knowledge base. There is every kind of love without taboo and the most successful community-wide cooperation the world has ever seen.

Originally, the Known were a small collective. They used what they knew try to improve the greater society around them. Most people prevented their entrance to shops and public places, would ostracise them from conversation, would remove their rights. They were feared for their shared eyesight. As progress increased, they began to change their bodies to improve their abilities. Their new appearances was the final straw. They were the other. They were exiled.

They built new cities like this one. Clean and self-powered with mining, farming, commerce, transport and housing all inclusive. Soon the population grew, people began to leave the other cities to join them, knowing that the life was different, but better for them and for the world around them. They were producing in surplus and the rest of the world feared them, trading only in limited wares. New products frightened the old cities. The world around the Known grew suspicious and paranoid with the growing fear and isolation. Today the cities are tearing themselves apart with civil war as some drive for a pre-emptive strike against the unarmed Known (who could easily make powerful weapons should they desire) and others resist the unnecessary violence.

I looked into the strange eyes of Victor Petrez. "I want to become a Known. Please let me. I've walked so far, for so long to get here."

Petrez looked back with a blank expression. "You could have asked anyone here, you didn't need to disturb me. Follow the children."

The children stood up tall, suddenly civilised and much less bestial than they had appeared when leaping from walls and perching on high. They walked ahead in a line across the road, where the traffic slowed and stopped in anticipation of their passage. No markings or crossings, just synchronised harmony. I followed.

The room which we entered across the road was small, like a janitor's office, with tools hanging from the well-lit walls and a semi-transparent ceiling allowing a soft, even sunlight through. One child directed me to a large, dentist's chair and I sat as they ran out the door to resume their play. Instantly, a tall man appeared through the door, closing it behind him. The adult Known are very different. The children must have been just four or five years old, having their intelligence and senses enhanced at birth and getting rapidly used to movement and the world around them. By the Intermediate Youth age, determined by the age of full environmental awareness to that of full, adult physical development, they are ready for their body alterations.

The tall man was wearing the same clothes as all Known do – the dark, padded, second skin which provides them with much of their extraordinary strength, agility and comfort. It is said that it maintains ideal temperature, protects against UV, radiation, chemical agents and anything else that the cities might deploy in the future. It also houses much of their interaction and intelligence technology. This is what I had come to receive.

"We aren't all the same, you know", the tall man stated, answering a statement that I had not yet voiced. He knew, as did I, that outsiders viewed the Known as literally a single organism. Joining them was seen as being eaten by a vast and alluring monster; a meal for the Siren.

"We project all manner of designs about ourselves to present our individuality, but only the Known eyes can see them. It's the same with the signs on the streets, the advertising economy, all of the information we share, create and consume." The tall man turned on a round, ring of red light which hung from the end of a metal arm.

"If we give you our eyes, you must see for us as we see for you. You do understand that?", the tall man spoke quietly in a sincere, yet rehearsed manner.

"Yes", I replied. "So will you take me?"

"We do not 'take', Nate. We trade. We work together."

I wanted to ask how he knew my name out of habit, but stopped short.

"Well done.", he continued. "Repressing the urge to ask how I knew your name shows a willingness to understand and adapt to the basic ways of our city."

"Uh... Thanks?", I muttered, wondering whether he could read minds as well.

"You are probably wondering whether I can read minds. Unfortunately, we've just had a lot of the same replies to the same questions and comments. By using the same script, we can anticipate newcomers' actions. We don't want anyone acting violently here and acting in a strange manner to the script is a 'heads up' about the potential for even stranger, unpredictable responses."

"So, have I passed then?" I asked jokingly, though quite seriously wanting a reply.

"This isn't a test, Nate. And yes, you have." The tall man answered with a completely straight face. I stared back at him, unsure of how to respond.

"That was a joke", he assured.

I was surprised. "I didn't know that you could joke!"

"We aren't machines, we're just people like you with a single ability which tends to lead to many others. We aren't restricted or obligated to act a certain way, we aren't brainwashed or even guided. There is a basic fact of psychology that allows people to live together in harmonious communities and has since the dawn of man, or at least the dawn of some creature before man. That fact is that our minds are guided by our experience and the closer your experience is to another persons, the more similar your thoughts are likely to be. We aren't one creature, nor are we psychic or special in any other way. We all just act for ourselves upon what we know. Our legality is our morality, neither of which needs to be enforced or written down. Essentially, the Known is 'get along to serve yourself'. The rest just falls into place.

He handed me a piece of paper with a line on it and a pen. There was no writing on the sheet.

"If you really want to take on this ability, to share your eyes, just sign here." He put his hands behind his back and smiled his a soft glow of his now-purple eyes.

"Don't contracts usually have... words? What do you want from me in return?", I asked, prepared for something entirely different.

"Your eyesight in return for ours. A more than fair trade, information is free, we lose nothing by sharing it. If you want the eyes to see it, we will give that to you in order to improve our vision. 'Get along to serve yourself and serve yourself to serve all.' But, you are right, this is a strange contract. If you feel uncomfortable about it, I can write something on it, but it's largely pointless. We all know what I have told you. You haven't been coerced. If you sign here, we will all see it. Paper records of contract are for the benefit of those who weren't there. Everyone is here."

"Oh", I was speechless, considering 'Oh' to be hardly a speech. Part of me was in awe of the simplicity that I could see, the lack of bureaucracy. Part of me was petrified by the reminder that I was being watched by so many eyes, so to speak.

"I do have one more question" I announced, regaining courage. "What do I do in... intimate moments?"

"Ah", he replied, understanding my concern. "Well, only information is stored and transmitted, not a live video feed. No one even knows whose eyes saw what, just that it is known. If you still require some privacy, which most people are content without, there is a mostly painless procedure to temporarily disable transmission. You will lose our sight and share none of your own, but the only remaining sign of guilt in our society is symbolised in this act. If something goes awry near you during this period, there will be a great deal of suspicion."

"I see", I answered resolutely. "I'm ready to sign."

I quickly picked up the pen and wrote my name. The tall man picked up the piece of paper just as quickly, looked at it for a moment and set fire to it.

"This flame is symbolic of the unnecessary cement for our trust, which will be intimate and unconditional."

I stared at the ash in his fireproof hand.

"If you burn the contract, how does one break it?"

He smiled at me. "I speak with my own voice. I make my own mind. So too will you. There cannot be this ability without reciprocity. If you give up the sight of others, we will lose your eyes. There are no conditions to this agreement. It is a formality to the statement of your will to belong with us. Leave and no one will seek you."

With that said, I smiled too. I didn't know how I was going to adapt to this world, but at least I wouldn't be alone in my efforts.

On the collective memory system

2011-01-26T20:01:00.000+11:00

When using a system of collective memory, it is not dissimilar to utilising wikipedia. Your senses inform you, but are stored, analysed, categorised and used to update the 'wikipedia', which others can then reference. Ideally, you would have instant HUD access to geotagged and visually analysed forms with superimposed AR metadata which augements your knowledge about the world around you, rather than needing to contact a depository of knowledge in servers, as is the case in modern wikipedia.

With this ability, one knows what anyone sees. If you talk to one of the known, you are telling all of the known and asking all of the known. Identity is separate and preserved, consciousness is limited to the natural and self-assigned augmentations to mental abilities of the individual, by the individual. The known are not anything more than a set of individuals who consent to sharing their experience in order to gain the privilege of all other known's experience. Beyond that they are not obligated by any other concession of privacy, identity, obligation or responsibility. One must contact others by mutual consent and 'knowing someone' is not akin to 'accessing what they experience', as one known does not know who contributes what to the collective experience- just as wikipedia is not an invasion of the privacy of its contributors (in fact, even less of an invasion, as the data is not attributed to even a login name or pseudonym- only admins may access this info with consent of the known majority in the case of tampering, hacking, and intentionally misleading input).
There is no authority, no hierarchy, no superfluous demands of pride or public collective identity (though outsiders may request this information, given that they do not have private conversations with privileges of 'secret divulging of information' with a known). This is not the Borg, as there is no imperative to enforce mental or physical modification, no removal of individual rights or identity, just the underlying system.

The known is the ultimate collaboration on all possible knowledge and the ultimate appendage for human memory.

Fw: Upcoming book

2011-01-26T18:58:00.001+11:00

-----Original Message-----
From: ultratempum@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:57:10
To: Blog Ramblecloud<ultratempum.cloud@blogger.com>
Reply-To: ultratempum@gmail.com
Subject: Upcoming book

I have decided upon a new blurb: the genre of this book will be 'Transhumorist'.

"Within the futurist philosophies and conjecture of Transhumanism, there is much to discuss. Due to the issues of utopic or apocalyptic consequences from today's actions, the discussion quickly becomes very serious, prophetic and occasionally terrifying. The Singularitarians and dystopians, Transhumanists and traditionalists, the religious and the desperate idealists: with the potential for radical change, many ideas become quickly surreal. This is an ideal platform for humour and the utilisation of the surreal for entertainment. This is Transhumorism."

Rational Egoist Conclusions 1 - the justification for peace and unbiased justice

2011-01-10T15:02:00.001+11:00

One should punish perpetrators, but not co-conspirators, regardless of faction or purpose (to reduce precedent for bias).
One should choose peaceful resolution over guerilla militant resolution if possible to achieve goal, as militant resolution will result in the confirmed retribution upon violence perpetrators, but peace may not risk casualties (better outcome in endgame).
If x attacks y to achieve a purpose and successfully does so, x should provide the perpetrators to y for retribution (to set precedent for justice and reduce ongoing conflict, and therefore casualties).
Therefore, those who enact violence should be prepared for equal actions upon themselves (rule of unbiased justice promoted by the greater society of x to create best casualty endgame for x).

Why you shouldn't celebrate what you do, Why you do, And what you should instead

2011-01-01T04:12:00.000+11:00

Why you shouldn't celebrate what you do,

Why you do,

(And what you should instead)

I apologise for the long title, but it sums up this post quite nicely. So let's begin.

New Year's (Eve, Night, and/or Next Day)
This celebration is dedicated to the passage of time and the purest of annual celebrations - the very
...annual-ity...
of the year itself.
This celebration is irrational because of its placement in the year and its superfluous content.
1) Every celebratory festival is annual (not least of which the 'birthday') - we can define a year by memory of any one of these events. This celebration serves no purpose beyond any others.
2) The timing upon the 'last day of the last month/first day of the first month' of consecutive years is based purely upon the arbitrarily determined calendar.
2.1) There is no geological, social, vocational, meteorological, astronomical or naturally-founded difference between the day before and after this event. The only delineation between years is the calendar: A construct for bureaucratic regularity. Should we celebrate the 'Sign Here' stamp or the 'Middle name is initialised' convention?
2.2) The change from 31/12/00 to 1/1/01 (or 12/31/00 to 1/1/01 if you're American, etc) is only one of three components to celebrate. If we wish to celebrate the division of time, why not celebrate it 12 times a year, or 365 times (if not a leap year)? Sure, this is the only day that all three change, but I would think that a small quirk of a number progression would be more impressive at 1/1/11 or 2/1/12 and other palindromic sequences: but these aren't celebrated more than New Years!

Christmas (or Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, etc)
These celebrations are key religious rituals which occur annually, and as such have become prime candidates for culture-wide (and also culture-specific) acceptance as a public and marketed holiday.
These candidates are irrational because they don'e serve their two alleged purposes and the remaining purpose is somewhat insidious.
Purposes:
1) Historic celebration: None of these days coincides with the actual date of the celebrated occurrence. Jesus wasn't born on Christmas day, he was born months earlier. The day couldn't be celebrated even on that day, as it isn't well evidenced to be any one day (only evidence indicates a range of possible days). Hanukkah is an arbitrary placement of eight days to commemorate a series of eight days that may or may not have been important (depending on a miracle of slow-burning oil) at unknown time of the year. The rationale for Ramadan needs to be kept in summary - essentially, it is the stage in a lunar cycle, as determined by astronomy (not moon phases) at which point (or at some time during the MONTH of which) Muhammad may or may not have revealed the Torah to some or many people. Not wrote, revealed. And not to everyone, just some. And not the day, just some day in the month. Even though the month and year is not bound to the calendar, which is Gregorian. So it's a possible fuzzy line which probably doesn't coincide every year with an even which may not have happened. Kwanzaa is African-American black pride set for a week around the time of Christmas to be specifically different to 'white man' Christmas. Despite Jesus being a Middle-Eastern Jew killed by Mediterraneans born and living in conditions not dissimilar to African post-slavery Americanisation; Hence the black propensity to engage in 'Hillsong'. So no historic relation to time beyond the Christian celebration.
2) Religiosity: These days are supposed to enhance religiosity by reminding people of their obligations to the religion and gather them together with others in the religion. Like a cult annual get-together, but with less sacrificial slaughter... Well, some slaughter for the feasting (at the end, for Ramadan). OK - very much like a cult get-together. Either way, Christ wasn't born on Christmas, it wasn't in a manger, Kings (wise or otherwise) didn't hunt down a pregnant she-carpenter and Venus is always bright (in the mornings and evenings!). So you're reminding Christians that the folklore is tenuous by reminding them of the tenuous premises that didn't happen 2000 years ago (Jesus born around 23AD). Hanukkah is reminding people that they are in the religion to see less. Not reminding them of struggle like Passover or togetherness like all the other Rites, but 'special oil'. If there was anything to make the religion less impressive, they might have celebrated that instead. Ramadan isn't a celebration, it's a starvation in order to increase possibility of religious hallucination. This one is actually very good for the religion - trick them into doing it and they might see or hear something to keep them praying for life! Not great medically or rationally, though. How does starvation commemorate a book release? And Kwanzaa, again, is anti-religious. Probably alright for black pride for a while, but it has all but died now.
So 3) Publication of the religion and promotion of it into the community for acceptance, privileges and potential conversions!
Christmas = nativity scenes in shopping centres, carols ("Silent night, holy night..", etc) - why doesn't it make sense? Because of Santa, shopping/marketing, hats, bon-bons, hams (and other token 'xmas' foods), the name 'xmas', trees, baubles, tinsel, red-green combos, SANTA AGAIN, reindeer, snow themes, gingerbread architecture, and stockings. Jesus who? Therefore, fail.
Hanukkah = a candle in the window facing the street to promote Judaism. Why fail? No-one in the street knows that it does and few modern Jews care enough to put a fire hazard near their curtains.
Ramadan = a month of hungry Muslims and no-one else notices. "Come to Islam - We've got... hungry, horny people..." No sell.

Easter
Christian festival that became public parlance in most of the Western world and much of the Eastern.
Why is it irrational?
- Jesus died at some point, perhaps followed by a miracle or two. So a rabbit hides chocolate eggs. Real eggs are edible, but these need to be replicas. 'Hidden eggs' doesn't make sense (unless you are aware of nesting birds), so a rabbit hides them. They aren't rabbit eggs. Rabbit's don't lay them. Why a rabbit? Eggs are meant to be 'new life' and were blown hollow and painted, then this became dull to we commemorated the commemoration with chocolate replicas. It's also around the start of spring (in one hemisphere), so a rabbit was chosen (probably an original feast item, now a novel and cute delivery critter). Conclusion? Meaningless and very culture specific occurrence was corrupted beyond recognition, so now kids get fat and run around the garden annoyingly (but not enough to be slimmingly), with a very silly folklore, which is promoted as some kind of impossibly silly truth, until the child is old enough to remember that their parents are lyers.

Winter Solstice
(If you do celebrate this - as Katoomba in the Blue Mountains of Australia does) - to celebrate the shortest and coldest day, one goes out after work (or on a weekend) into the early dark and celebrates in a festival.
Irrational because: It is the time when it is LEAST wise to go out at night - longest and coldest night should not be celebrated in the streets - Bears sleep through this because it ISN'T fun.

Summer Solstice
There are some who celebrate this in hot climates throughout the day, if it falls on a weekend. When the sun is the hottest, do not celebrate this day outside in the middle of the day. The next day you will look back with fond memories of the time your friends all died from heat stroke. It commemorates survival.

Monarch/Head of State/National days
Monarchs are not special people - they are inbred and pampered upper-class people who either have no real power or too much power (because any power is too much for a monarch). Heads of state have an important job, for which they get paid. They have much pressure, with a nation of 'employers', but get over that by not listening to them at all. This works out fine, because they are often forgetful and easily swayed at the brief and widely dispersed election periods (at which the population doesn't even allocate said Head of State). Neither of these types of people, neither Monarchs nor Prime Ministers/Presidents, are abnormally intelligent, competent, iconic, heroic, nor noteworthy people. Do not treat them as demigods.
Regarding National days, patriotism is counter to globalism. The intercommunication of peoples and creation of trans-national group identities over the internet reduces stigma, discrimination and perception of others as different, unacceptable or fearsome. Patriotism and nationalism create the necessity of an 'other' - those from whom resources must be taken, not shared, who must be invaded, not visited, and who must be with us or against us (egocentricity results in a country unable to believe that another country could be neutral toward them, or not care at all - or not have heard of them). While this does bring people together, it is at the exclusion of others. Why not keep National identity for conversation and the passport and celebrate humanity? Or Earthling, to be non-organism specific?

(and finally) Birthdays
See New Years - the final second of '65 years old' isn't different to the first second of '66 years old'. So you're one year further from being born and one year closer to death. Hurrah? You can mark years with any holiday, so why celebrate this one?
And so (on this topic) I introduce the final part:

What should you celebrate?

Well, I can answer that.

IMPORTANT Birthdays: The 'coming of age' has long been a ritualised ceremony in global traditions, but it is largely arbitrary in its placement, or entangled in folkloric assumptions and superstition.

You should celebrate:

The birth of a child; with close friends and family of the parents; in order to give presents to those who are embarking upon an expensive, but community-beneficial practise of child-raising. Mass-publicise the name of the child at the event, so that the child is born into recognition within your social and familial circle.

The child's first memorable birthday; with close friends and family of the parents; in order to create a place of importance, community and support as one of the life-long and prestigious 'first memories'. Play novel songs for the first time in the child's life, including secret and uncommon songs played during womb growth (apparently increases familiarity and preference for songs/rhymes when heard post-natal) and create surprising, exciting and loving instances for memory (make recordings of entire event).

Start of adolescence birthday; with child's friends and family; in order to create excitement, anticipation about and inform about coming changes. Share enjoyable and exciting memories about own/others' adolescences, teach skills for adolescence (dance moves, social tips, awkwardness cover-ups, dating advice).

End of physical and major brain growth birthday; with friends, family, family friends, important associates; celebration of maturity, chance for major familial and social decisions (inheritance and will discussions, legal discussions, career options, academic decisions, chance for speeches).

Start of menopause birthday; with friends and tactful/favoured family (not a day for mockery, tactless ridicule nor degradation); celebration of wisdom, new life stages, announcement of life priorities and celebration, and shared gratitude for earlier stages of life (as next stage will be the most important and meaningful, and not everyone gets a chance to reach and make the most of it). Speeches, fine food (quality, not quantity feasting, due to age preference) and celebration of life's achievements - vocational, creative, social, or personal.

Every birthday should be noted and congratulated. Cakes are for those who enjoy cake, but a favoured dessert should be the traditional course, not a specific one with which to generalise. For Parties and Gifts, see the following celebrations (which may or may not coincide with a birthday).

GIFTS AND FESTIVITIES

Equinox

To celebrate with friends internationally (but not interplanetary) - geographically with your nearer friends in a party of cold-to-warm or vice versa, and as a well-wishing or virtual get-together with cross-hemispheric friends of the opposite change. Celebrated twice a year as the first and second equinox, which may be vernal or autumnal depending on hemisphere (not mentioned in celebration, so as to improve global celebration). This celebration, while no longer warning of a change from frugality to plenty, does celebrate the reality of colder/hotter days to come and the regularity of change.

Solstices

Summer: celebrate with close friends locally (as opposite in time to alternate hemisphere and other planets), at night (Which is extended and warmer) outside (if possible), with calmer festivity than equinox (So as to make equinox more impressive - like New Years to Easter).

Winter: celebrate with close friends locally, in the middle of the next weekend day, inside, with warm food and relaxed, social joviality.

Wake

Celebration of a life completed; held after funeral. Kept as they are with an implicit ban on sad remembrance of the loved-one's demise, with favour for joyful reflection upon the loved-one's life.

Profligacy

When a person gets a promotion, a payout, a prize, an inheritance or comes into abnormal wealth, they should hold a party. At this party, they are obliged to buy presents for those who have previously done so for them or for those who have aided them in a time of need. This builds social coherence, excited anticipation, motive for future comradery and a cost-sensible expenditure upon presents.

Cheering

When a person is in dire straights, they can hold a frugal get-together whereby friends and relatives are invited around to provide morale support and social bonding, along with discussion of the problem and brain-stormed remedy. These events can lead to community-wide fund raising, awareness campaigns or time strain-relieving from those with spare time. If any guest or invited person considers them self in comfortable finance, there is an implicit and unspoken request for assistance without necessity for embarrassment on either side, should assistance be omitted.

In Summary:

The main problem with modern festivity is its foundation in hollow economics and empty tradition. By its nature, tradition is a product of familiarity and repetition. These traditions can be started at any time, should a society deem them worth repeating. Many current traditions have neither a visible link to a noble and worthwhile origin, nor an underlying purpose in reality. By giving traditions purpose, their importance, worth and adherence may multiply. Furthermore, the festivities which I have mentioned can be celebrated by all and any religion, without prejudice, with placement for environmental awareness, inclusion and global identity. Furthermore, the remaining festivities remain salient, due to the lack of diluting sub-holidays, apparent in the myriad token events EVERY year.

The original economic reason for annual, spending-driven holidays was the combination of an origin formed by a successful marketing campaign via a canny company and annual governmental support due to the increased local spending surrounding the regular market competition increase (as was the case with consumerist Xmas, artificial Valentines Day, and the candy of Halloween). However, these trends now extend for over a month before and after Xmas, weeks either side of every minor 'one day' event and entire industries built upon the empty marketing itself (plastic Santas and 'Christmas lights'). These products cost money and resources to make, provide nothing for the consumer, and which represent the marketing which sold the product in a circular system which eats away at resources and pumps out money for no purpose. If these holidays were adhered to less, the factories might mass-produce products with inherent USE, reducing landfill and idiotic wastage of resources, with the same cashflow, but with less repetitive and lazy 'traditionalist' marketing, as companies compete for novel advertising and must-have products. With more money left over from reduced major-gift buying, people could buy more expensive things, driving the market demand to better products, resulting in better products dominating the market and factories turning from cheap shit production to part production for more ambitious and expensive designs. EG: Buy 5 santa hats and 60 Xmas lights, powered for a month, or buy an iPhone? If you buy an iphone, the santa hat and light people will produce parts for the better xPhone, which people buy for the same price as iPhone, because the factories are now competing for part-manufacture contracts. But if Xmas stays as it is, no xPhone is made, just santa hats which people wear every year because the same fat man in a fluffy suit told them to. The economy never really 'suffers' - a major depression is just a slow correction - reduction of christmas novelty production would be a quick and minor correction, resulting in a stronger global economy. Wow. Just spent ages answering a question that no-one asked. Still, glad that I wrote it.

QR code: philosophyfuturism: http://reader.kaywa.com/

To Love An Artifice

2010-11-02T04:30:00.000+11:00

Were I to build a robot love
I could change it in a day
And if I broke it's robot heart
I'd change it's mind to want to stay

Though, if I knew my lover's mind
Was not somewhat set in stone
There would not be a truth to love,
With any problem overthrown

So I would chose what not to change
(And I would make it simple grief)
So as to make our love more real
With troubles resting underneath

But still I'd know it was not real
The life it leads is just my own;
Though tools are not a part of self,
They do not make me less alone

In older age we'd look at life,
My senior skin not worn by choice,
It's programmed age would mock my own
It's frailty: just hoarsened voice

And in the light of mortal life,
I'd look at all that I had done;
I'd spent my time and love with this
And it had made what I'd become

And so, though I had made its mind,
Its learning changed that mind from birth
And it has made me who I am:
I leave it here to watch the Earth

Atheist Blog

2010-10-21T21:58:00.000+11:00

A new Atheist Blog (not that new anymore)
For Google to find it, it needs a link, so here's the link!

http://www.atheistcrusades.blogspot.com/

Telepresence Killed the Holograph Star

2010-05-24T21:47:00.000+10:00

Telepresence killed the holograph star and might just make hermits cool again - WITH ROBOCALYPTIC CONSEQUENCES!

A range of new telepresence robots are appearing in the market at the moment, fuelling speculation that this may be a market player and maybe even become pervasive in the future of society.
So what are the implications?
Hermit powerhouses are given real plausibility - ruling from an ivory tower can do everything that a successful business-person must do, screens roaming conferences and meetings, everyone sees you and sees that you are real and personable, but assassination attempts are out of the question.
It also means that if a powerful person at the head of an empire is made invulnerable in this absolute-removal way, no one can ever be sure if the person on the screen, the voice, the idea and commander and chief - it could all be a complex AI, a series of simulated voices and images. Yes, in some ideas of a future with complex robots, this could be a possibility with anyone - but the technology to make an iconic leader who doesn't actually exist can be used NOW. If Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook, had never appeared in public, we would all believe he existed from tele-presence appearances and the assurances of others. Osama bin laden may not exist either - not even as a hired actor or two - we have the technology currently to simulate any of these non-physical personalities, who never make appearances. In the near future, with the potential pervasion of telepresence robots, any powerful business could make their CEOs hermits by necessity. Protect the person: protect the brand. This also means that you could go down to the shops or into the office and pass the horde of telepresence robots, not thinking twice - but they could all be iterations of one good AI construct! (see Neuromancer's 'Wintermute' AI construct).

Another implication - the old street-side holograms. With Augmented Reality posing serious threat to the necessity for holograms/phs in society, telepresence robots may removes the last niche for such an investment-heavy technology as holo-tech. There appear two types of typical holo-tech fiction: the advertising/entertainment projections (think Bladerunner street corners and cyberpunk stripclubs) and the communication holograms for greater personability of a long distance semblance of a person (think "Help me Obi-wan, you're my only hope" -Star Wars). If people find it natural to speak to a Mebot style gesture+face tele-presence robot, then why invest in the enormous problem that holograms represent?
(Note: holographs are 'floating' 3D images projected onto thin air, holograms are communications via this means - holo-tech is anything using holograph technology in any way)
Currently, we have 3D screens and boxed-in hologram projectors. To move the hologram out into the open, even in between two platforms will take a LOT of time and money. For it to ever catch on, it has to provide something novel - the same reason we take cruises, but not zeppelin rides - it was new tech, but it wasn't worth it - everything it gave us, we already had by other means. If we get a hologram on the market that projects between two plates, why not just use a 3d tv and augmented reality for ads and billboards and attach that 3d screen to a robot for telepresence? What do we gain from the flickering, ghostly hologram that could make the enormous price marketable?
If you want the novelty for appearance, get the cheap glass or perspex holograph models they sell in Chinatown. If you want functionality, buy some AR glasses or a 3d tv. All tech comes out with a hell of a price tag - what niche is left to bring the price down or adopt the tech before it sinks into obscurity alongside the zeppelin/blimp and 'crystal coke'?

Some new telepresence robots:
http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/05/mebot-the-telepresence-robot-with-body-language-video/
http://singularityhub.com/2010/02/04/willow-garage-creates-awesome-open-source-telepresence-robots-video/
http://singularityhub.com/2010/05/19/anybots-debuts-new-15k-telepresence-robot-is-it-a-fail-video/
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Redefining 'Cyborg' - Draft

2010-05-11T04:10:00.000+10:00

Cyborg (n): An object, not constructed directly by 'processes involved in life', being implanted

within the bounds of a lifeform's entity to enhance the 'processes involved in life'.

Necessary conditions:

- distinct from 'held tools' (hence, 'within the bounds', not external to, but implanted)

- distinct from parasites or transfer of biological biproducts (hence, 'not directly')

- not centred around typical biology - can apply to any possible 'lifeform', butdistinct from parasites or transfer of biological biproducts (hence, 'not directly')distinct from 'held tools' (hence, 'within the bounds', not external to, but implanted)

- excludes 'non-life' aspects of nature (hence, 'processes involved in life', not 'biological

processes')

EG: can be alien, non-organic compound based life, energy-based life,

but CANNOT be geological forms, cosmological entities or physical processes

which do not conform to the parameters defined for 'life'.

- does not have to be made by x to implant in x - can be made by AI for human, by human for

any life or any compatible interrelation involving 'by a designer'for a lifeform' (not by theorised theological designer, though)

- can be constructed by atypical 'lifeforms' and machines (eg, robotics, AI constructs) as

an 'act of will' (hence 'not directly') rather than an incidental biproduct.

Problem: 'processes involved in life' is used as a substitute for 'biological processes',

but exclusive of 'act of will' and therefor, higher order cognition. Though 'for processes

involved in life' implies the same restrictions - so a mechanical heart is cyborg, but a

computer augmentation isn't - as it applies to higher order cognition. This means that two

different, more complex terms must be used.

- non/un-intentional life processes vs

- all life processes?

Intuitions

Necessary:

- 'borg' lifeforms of intelligent aliens, cyborg animals, cyborg humans

Borderline:

- humans with synthetic organs and unnecessary augmentations - may not require life enhancing purpose, just functionality. Eg: implanted intelligent jewellery or even detrimental intelligent implant?

- abstract lifeforms with intelligence designing their own modifications?

- plants with artificially assisted biological processes (Eg: mechanical high speed

xylem vessels)?

- having non-functional electronics implanted or having them become inoperational later?

Excluded:

- rocks with computer screens, nebulae with spaceships in them, a functioning

computer chip inside a corpse or flask of inactive organic matter/chemicals, eating an

operating silicon chip (outside body-boundary, as in excluded 'lung contents/stomach

contents transfer zone') as opposed to having an operating chip in your bloodstream.

To deal with atypical, counterintuitive and specific scenarios, a few distinctions must

be drawn within this definition.

The Function Distinction:

There are two contrary points of criteria which we may adopt for cyborgs from classical

intuitions.

a) a cyborg contains any artifact of function which extends the capacities

of the particular modified lifeform beyond those which it would have without

the artifact, or

b) a cyborg contains any artifact of function which extends the capacities

of the particular modified lifeform beyond the capacities of other lifeforms of

its kind.

The distinction can be more succinctly characterised by a medical (a) restorative modification

or a superfluous (b) augmenting modification.

To define a lifeform as cyborg, one might suppose that it must be sufficiently different to

the 'normal', unmodified lifeforms of its kind (therefore 'b'). Otherwise, lifeform x is

modified with y to become an 'x with a y modification', rather than 'a cyborg by virtue of y'.

Examples of medical modifications (a) would be: replacement hips (technically a machine via the pivot, rather than

an inert object), synthetic organ replacements or repair parts, cochlear implants (even if

they did provide human quality hearing) or a permanently-fixed contact lens (more contentious

as to whether it qualifies as a functioning machine).

Examples of augmenting modifications (b) would be: powerful robotic limbs, enhanced bionic eyes,

brain-enhancing computer implants, embedded nanobots which increase homeostatic efficiency, or

even an interactive-screen tattoo.

The problem arises with the thought experiment of 'an injured soldier, with amputated arms and legs

from battle. The soldier is given robotic arms and legs to replace the lost limbs, but their

function and ability exactly replicates the limbs that were lost. The form of the arms and legs

are not even most sturdy or durable, with the same pain, vulnerability and expected 'lifespan' of

the previous biological limbs.'

In this case, we are tempted to say that the soldier, now more 'machine' than original biology

is surely a cyborg, but the modifications are only medical in nature (a) as they provide no

abilities beyond those of the soldier's species (homo sapiens, presumably).

The Ratio Distinction:

This distinction is of less importance to the sincere characterisation of 'what it is to

be a cyborg' and more of a distinction for the purposes of accuracy and thoroughness.

- What amount of the original lifeform must be altered before the entire lifeform, complete

with modifications, can be considered a cyborg?

One suggestion which commonly appears in answer to this question is 'more than half', being

the typical method by which we consider one to be 'more machine than man'. However, while this

notion has a long history in transitions of species in biological alterations (full genetic modification),

in interbreeding nomenclature and the categorisation of new species, it may not necessarily

apply to this scenario.

Kevin Warwick, Keith Mann and other 'cyborg' pioneers are keen to apply the term to themselves

with only one small, enhancing, technological implant. There is a hacker who has replaced a

lost digit with a synthetic finger containing a usb flashdrive. Should we consider him cyborg?

It would be fairly strict to require MORE than half the lifeform to be artificial, so perhaps

a middle ground between 50 a 5 per cent is appropriate. To determine this amount, here are some

methods by which we could decide:

i) a cyborg must have a 'sufficient' amount of augmentation to the ability they would have without

the modification (this does not imply whether the augmentation is superfluous or medical); or

ii) a cyborg may be regarded as 'a cyborg of x degree' specific to the amount of the body or ability

which is accounted for by artifice; or

iii) a cyborg can be determined by the specific context in which they are defined, that is,

'x is a cyborg by the conventions of country y, but not by those of country z'. or

iv) the nature of the modification may need to conform to a scale of importance, for example,

a robotic arm, though 20% by mass, is of greater importance than 20% of your mass constituted

by synthetic fat or nanobot-bone marrow.

The Origin Distinction:

Put simply, an artificial system which utilises lifeform-matter to augment its a-biotic

machinary, regardless of the ratio or function of its parts, is distinct from a cyborg.

This is due to the 'cybernetic organism' definition requiring that the form is a

modified organism, not just an organism-artifact hybrid (though this may be regarded as a

type of 'cyborg' in the less specific sense).

This distinction may become of less importance with the inclusion of atypical forms of life

into the relevant 'organism' criteria. Perhaps the ability to self-modify will become a

loose criteria for life, thereby making the distinction impossible by laws of contradiction.

However, for contemporary conceptions of biotic and a-biotic forms, the distinction remains

valid.

- An organism may become a cyborg if it adopts artifact into its form.

- An artifact may only become part of a cyborg once adopted into an organism. This

artifact reliquishes its definition as an object in and of itself once part of the

organism, and as such, is not merely a hybridisation of equally important biotic and

a-biotic parts.

Unfortunately, this definition becomes complicated. The question of whether technology (Te)

adopts biology (B), the converse, or they equally combine, is one of 'intentionality'. The

use of this term in this sense does not imply consciousness, but rather the 'objective' of

the Te or B form.

- if Te intends to adopt B and they combine, the form is not a cyborg

- if Te and B intend to merge with knowledge of eachother's objectives, the form may not

be a cyborg (under the previous definition, though a hybrid may be deemed 'cyborg')

- if B intends to adopt Te and they combine, the form is a cyborg (all other criteria

having been met).

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Singularity Paced

2010-05-11T04:01:00.000+10:00

NOTE: This writing is an attempt to write science-fiction in an exponential increment. It also probably doesn't count as Philosophy Futurism. But it's close enough, so screw off. ENDNOTE.

With darkened, slumberous eyes, I weep

For all my friends who did not live

To times as these with breath drawn deep

On fumes which only stories give.

They lived, and yes, they loved life too,

Their minds content, now rest,

But all the world they might have seen

And thoughts to them impressed.

In here and now we wonder why

We cannot turn our lead to gold

We cannot breathe our spoiled sky

We will not grow forever old.

But should we gleam once more a hint

From minds though great, now gone,

All solutions ever sewn

Might mend this time we’ve torn.

Perhaps, if I may just suggest,

We bring to them the legs to dance

And you may think this just a jest

But I endorse the smallest chance.

Then on the street they will rejoice

On legs now part decayed

For once more will we live our lives

With friends from former days

Though bringing back the now long dead

Has problems, I do not deny.

The careless man may lose his head

And dancing could let fingers fly.

So in the stead of losing limbs

Let’s say we take the mind

And read what’s left of every corpse

And see what we may find

In drifting daze of dying brain

The remnants of great thoughts remain

And though the body cannot speak

The need to know need not refrain

We take the head of every friend

Immersing all in acid blend

And burn away the saving face

Till only skull shine marks the end

In vice of virtue, storm the brain

By cracking crown of head in twain

With forceps move the mental matter

And with clear head we start again

A storm of brains will light the hall

A train of thoughts will catch our fall

With every error now corrected

The melded minds will rule us all

And we will hope

And we will dream

That we may soon

Join the machine

For glory lives

In morbid saviors,

Death’s release

Just mutes behaviours

Nothing seen

We will forget

All that’s been

We will beget

One last thought

For all time

Shared amongst

All our kind

Never ends

Never fails

Just amends

And curtails

And fixes

And changes

It furthers;

Arranges.

Helps us,

Helps it,

No fuss,

No quit,

Rest,

Dares,

Loves,

Cares,

Life.

A couplet is condensed.

A verse about existence.

A poem about possibility.

A novella on love.

An epic on time.

A collection on self.

Library on importance.

Complete art.

Complete self.

Some truth.

Much truth.

Most truth.

Known.

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The Ever-ending Privacy Trend

2010-04-17T06:00:00.000+10:00

The Ever-Ending Privacy Trend

People in cars are in their own protected little world. Like the anonymous members of 4chan, the driver can yell and scream anonymously and be safe in the knowledge that he or she is surrounded by inches of steel, glass and plastic. An abusive bullet on a highway.
Twitter can feel like that. It isn't hard, you talk to people: people you know or know of. You might be originally surprised when people reply to what you say, assuming that you're yelling in a crowded and noisy room - anonymous by virtue of drowning out. But they do hear. Everyone hears everything. Most things don't get a reply, so we assume that they weren't heard and forget about them. Toilet wall graffiti. But this graffiti is signed.

So know we zoom out. Anonymous, yet named people all yelling at once, assuming that they aren't really being heard much of the time. Remember the last time you posted something and one or two people replied? It's very easy to feel like that was like sidling up to someone in a crowded room and cupping your mouth to their ear, but it isn't. Remember the last time you saw a comment, status or blog and read the reply, retweet, response? They all felt like that too.

" 'Mr X is feeling lonely.'
Mrs Y: What's up, X?
Mr X: I guess I'm just not feeling myself these days...
..."
Easy to feel that you're just talking to another person isn't it?
Imagine that you're having this conversation on stage with microphones and a giant screen zooming in for effect.
Even when you think about it this way, on Facebook, it's a giant hall of everyone you have ever befriended - even those acquaintances that you thought you'd friend request/accept for the hell of it. They are all in the hall - all listening, some remembering, some not caring and skimming past.
With twitter, it's everyone in the world.
It's everyone you hate, everyone you'll ever meet, everyone you will never meet, everyone who is taking a breath right now - a working, thinking mind for every GRAIN OF SAND in a small beach. 7 billion potential listening ears. That's a big hall.
And yes, they aren't literally ALL listening in - but they could. They all could.
Now think about this.

http://amnesiablog.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/us-library-of-congress-archiving-all-public-tweets-even-yours/

Every second of the great, vast, loud hall that is twitter is now on record.
Searchable, stored, fact. Every 'goodnight', every drunken comment, every seemingly personal back-and-forth with a friend, every comment to a famous person. Right now I can search the word 'nervous' or 'embarrassed' and hear every private memory from around the world someone I don't even know has mumbled to the ether. I don't need to have a cupped hand to my ear. I don't need to be seen. I don't need to be within a kilometre in the great, vast noisy hall. I just need to have a whim and search.

Is the guy yelling on his phone on the bus irritating?
At least he isn't getting stored in the library of congress as well.
Sweet dreams, street walkers.

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Questions for the Rationalist

2010-04-17T05:25:00.000+10:00

By combining philosophy and science in this blog, it was inevitable that I would be met with the tricky philosophical implications of applying the scientific method to our realities (the basis for Futurism).
So here we cover some questions for rationalists of all sorts.

1) Is it moral to use the theistic techniques of 'guilt-looping' ('The God Virus', Darrel W. Ray) and mimetic forces to spread a lifestyle of rationality?
- perhaps this is different if you use 'the Socratic method': teaching people to teach themselves?

2) Is truth an important facet of existance?

3) Consider: 'life gets more complex, so you need more reality-interpretation skills while growing up to survive, but that counters early indoctrination'. Is this active or passive spreading of a non-theistic perspective?

Comments:
"teaching people reality is not an imposition" (Matt Dillahunty, The Atheist Experience TV Show, #645)

Or perhaps some beliefs are so fundamental to identity, that the conscious perversion of those beliefs is akin to brainwashing - or in a philosophical regard, even 'murder'?

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