The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer

Keeping up with the Googlers #10

2006-05-08T04:44:00.000+01:00

Googler may refer to:

An expert user of Google search
An employee of Google, Inc.

In web-meanderings I usually end up reading yet another product/technology/website/business review. Sometimes those pieces of news are refreshingly insightful, sometimes they are not, and it may take some time to admit it that they don't contribute to my life in any significant manner. On the other hand they do keep my thirst for news quenched. That's a start.

No wonder though, that after having fed myself with this gumbo for quite some time, I eventually felt an utterly painful need for something else. Something that is not tech or news or cheap entertainment that Internet is so full of. And oddly enough, I have found the thing I needed in the place I didn't expect it to be. From present day's perspective though, there couldn't have been a better place for this material, and there couldn't have been a more logical source of top-quality information than this:

Google Video: From Googleplex

(note for those who don't know: Googleplex is the global headquarters of Google Inc., located in Mountain View, California; Google Video is a service hosting all kinds of motion picture material: from free commercials and home-made shorts to premium, paid content - video.google.com)

From Googleplex is a collection of movie clips divided into two main categories:

Google Tech Talks
Authors@Google

The movie clips published there (available both as free download and streaming) are essentially recordings of lectures and talks that happen to regularly take place at the Googleplex. It turns out that Google - in order to keep their emloyees' minds fresh, and their ideas up to date, I presume - takes an effort to frequently invite many prominent or important or in some other way interesting personae (usually a combinantion of the three) and lets them freely present their ideas, products, read their books or just simply share their experiences of what they do, how and why the thing they do seems to be important or innovative. Most of the lectures are ca. 1hr long, usually with rather thorogh Q&A at the end.

Here are a couple of gems that I've personally found very interesting (or sometimes even deliberately humorous):

If you don't feel like doing anything at the moment and care to take a plunge into the avant garde of innovation, give it a try. Keep up with the Googlers!

Reviews of some of the more entertaining and mind-bending ones soon. Enjoy.

Tags: google web20 innovation IT lectures biodiversity

Of Sheep and Men #9

2005-10-24T20:00:00.000+01:00

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.
Tim O'Reilly

Sheep live in herds. They flock. Just like birds, fish, instects...

Whatever the species, there are three simple rules that each individual creature seems to follow:

Separation - avoid crowding neighbours
Alignment - steer towards average heading of neighbours
Cohesion - steer towards average position of neighbours

If all members of a flock follow those three simple rules, we can observe a phenomenon which has been dubbed an emergent behaviour, a superorganism which seems to move as a unified whole, as a single entity.

Why am I writing about it? Because many phenomena observable in nature often have their counterparts in much more complex and abstract systems, whose resemblance to natural processes is often overlooked or at least undervalued, or disregarded.

Exactly this phenomenon, the phenomenon of flocking, the law of separating yet aligning yet remaining cohesive, perfectly applicable to human societies, that is precisely what the future of the Internet will be.

The architecture of participation that so many tech-evangelists have pointed at in the recent months (among which, btw., O'Reilly seems to be a prominent figure, not merely a publisher of books and guides for geeks and nerds), the one that has exploded with the advent of blogs, rss and tag aggregators (for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, go: technorati.com, del.icio.us, flickr.com, blogger.com and watch all over for TAGS and FEEDS, and ponder for a moment where all of that comes from), wouldn't be possible ever, if human beings didn't want to stay close to other human beings.

Not physically. In the largest metros of the world we've already had enough.

We want to stay close. Humankind has reached another stage of its development. It wants to flock around IDEAS.

Common. Uncommon. Popular. Unpopular. Wise. Stupid.

Some will create them, others will just consume them, develop them, spread them forward.

Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and making technology more efficient for computers. Web 2.0 is about connecting people, and making technology for efficient for people.

And a week ago a group of entrepreneurial programmers from Palo Alto (which is btw. only a simple factoid, they could have come from Iceland and noone would care) released the first version of a new open source webbrowser, that encompasses all the social networking (yet another cool term for the architecture of participation) features: tagging, del.icio.us favorites, instant blogging etc. Whether this particular incarnation of the new generation of web browsers is a smashing hit (in my personal opinion: if they do their homework right, then yes) or a short-lived venture is not yet known.

But yes, those guys have made the connection, too. Unsurprisingly for me, the browser is called Flock.
Go ahead, try it out.

Appendix
This blog is a prime example of the emerging architecture of participation.
First of all, its supposed role is proliferation of ideas.
Second, the blog itself, and the individual posts as well, are tagged semantically (look below).
Third, it is an attempt at infecting you readers with my own passions and interests and therefore, my favorites ('starred' in Flock, automatically saved in del.icio.us and automatically published here) are available for all of you to follow (look right).

Tags: web2.0 flock

Engines of Creation #8

2005-08-28T18:00:00.000+01:00

"I teach you the overman. Man is something that is to be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?"
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

John von Neumann (to Stanislaw Ulam)

Have you ever wondered how the world would look like in 200 years from now? Or in 500 years? Or in several millennia? Has it ever occurred to you by how much the human civilization has changed over the last hundred years? Have you noticed that even though the world changes every day and billions of people work hard to make those changes happen, no one is actually thinking to what it might eventually lead?

Sure, you may say, prolongation of human life, control over diseases, raising living standards, consume entertainment to achieve yet another level of leisure and pleasure, liberties, proliferation of ideas, free speech; a society of artists, thinkers and inventors.

And, somewhat surprisingly, there is an ultimate goal to which it all leads. A world of ageless equals, a world in which science reached singularity. A world of posthuman beings who began to consciously shape themselves as they please. And the conception phase of becoming posthuman has just begun.

Science-fiction blah blah? Drug-induced visions of a geek? Far from it.

Take a look at science of today. On an everyday basis information technology meets mathematics meets physics meets chemistry meets biology meets medicine meets psychology meets sociology meets information technology. Whatever the discipline, whatever the topic of the research, whatever the progress and ensuing appreciation from the community, the Net has become the de facto layer of the universe where results of all human activities meet. And they get tagged, bookmarked, indexed, hyperlinked, back-tracked, blogged and commented. They mix, boil and mature in the cauldron of cyberspace, more and more frequently popping up with offspring, adding up to the ever growing web. Ideas and science roaming freely, and thus I'm not hestitating to say: we are a few steps from curing all diseases and eliminating the problems of famine, poverty and unequality. We are about to meet everyone's basic needs and thus start fulfilling our dreams.

And for that we are changing ourselves.

Knowledge and skills' hierarchies required from a human being are changing right here and now. The emergence of Google, being the most sophisticated of all digital support systems, renders the history-long value of factual information stored in one's brain less and less relevant. The value lies in the intrinsic skill of navigating the waves of this new, uncharted ocean of cyberspace rather than solving large-scale complex problems on your own. When you download and set up your Google Desktop, fire up your Google Talks, Skypes and Firefoxes, you suddenly become hooked up to the ultimate repository of human knowledge and to the ultimate social network of unprecedented momentum. You might feed yourself with news, views, ideas or entertainment of your liking and do it in an instant, become a specialist in any given subject, and once you consume enough you are able to leave a mark of your existence by feeding the Net with whatever you might want to say. The universal information society is born, the universal planetary society is within reach.

This is the present. And what about the future?

The advances of modern science and the wonder of the Internet give us an opportunity to enter and unchartered and promising path of self improvement, to feed our pride on one hand and to become capable of consuming what we created on the other.

If we can cure the sick why shouldn’t we strengthen the healthy?

Why shouldn’t we hardwire our feeble minds to the net? Why shouldn’t we join forces with the artificial intelligence systems to delegate all storage, look-up and computational tasks that our 200 MHZ brains cannot endure? Why should we restrain from thinking faster, experience the world more vividly and in its entirety?

Moreover, why shouldn't we let our bodies immerse in the omnipresent nanobots who will shape our surroundings and eventually ourselves to our requirements, or simply to suit our mood?

No one will punish us for opening Pandora's box, for equipping ourselves with wings of posthuman intelligence and agelessness. Yes, we need to step carefully in modifying our brain function, our genes, and our physiology, but let us not hold back out of fear or false admiration for nature as we find it.

There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants overtake the evolution. Subsequently, they will become ever more perfect, but there is only one time when they are born.

You and I are alive at this moment. Let the engines of creation work full-steam.

And let a thousand flowers bloom.

http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/nano/

http://www.extropy.org/

http://www.posthuman.com/

http://www.human-evolution.org/

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html?pg=5&topic=tech

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/futurebody

Darwin, Evolution & The Flying Spaghetti Monster #7

2005-08-22T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hey Folks,
You may have not noticed by know, but a new religion was born! (again, for those of you who don't know, please do your homework first: religion according to dictionary.com).

The particular religion is called Pastafarianism and it's sole purpose is to hail The Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as The Divine Creator, The Chef of the Universe or: That Ugly Thing In The Sky, Yeah, The One That Looks Somewhat Like A Gargantuan Spaghetti.

As many other religions in the past, Pastafarianism is a reactive movement that has recently been established by His Grace, The Truely Blessed In His Pursuit of Common Sense, Bobby Henderson. The direct cause for the formation of Pastafarianism was the decision of the Kansas State Board of Education to allow teaching of intelligent design back-to-back with the theory of evolution!

What Bobby Henderson basically did and the will be remebered for throughout eternity: he invented this funny belief in The Flying Spaghetti Monster and in an open letter to the aforementiond Kansas State Board of Education, he requested his theory of creation to be taught alongside darwinism and intelligent design. Thus, effectively rendering the KSBE a bunch of idiots, ignorants and zealots in eyes of the greater part of the civilized world.

By doing that, he started a big fuzz, that soon changed in to an internet phenomenon (10 mln hits to his website, a majority of blogosphere reviews at least mentioned the subject, a wikipedia entry on the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Blessed Bobby Henderson ans well, and so on and so forth...) that – courtesy of me – you can become part of.

No more talking this time, follow the links and enjoy!
Tags: pastafarianism desing evolution spaghetti

Deirdre of the Sorrows #6

2005-08-19T03:00:00.000+01:00

As some of you probably know, and some probably don’t, I spent the last weekend in the green country of Ireland.

Ireland is very much out of the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer’s scope, as – and again most of you should be aware of this fact – it is short of anything even close to ‘metropolitan’. But on the other hand, the biodiversity of the human population is definitely there. And the adundance of behavioural patterns along with it.

This short (4-day long) stay in Ireland reminded me of a peculiar state of mind, which - in turn - is described by a rather kinky word:

spleen P Pronunciation Key (splēn) n.

1. A large, highly vascular lymphoid organ, lying in the human body to the left of the stomach below the diaphragm, serving to store blood, disintegrate old
  blood cells, filter foreign substances from the blood, and produce lymphocytes.
2. A homologous organ or tissue in other vertebrates.

Obsolete. This organ conceived as the seat of emotions or passions.

Ill temper: vent one's spleen.

Archaic. Melancholy.

Obsolete. A whim; a caprice.

[Middle English splen, from Old French esplen, from Latin splēn, from Greek.]

Have you ever wondered what 'spleen' is? Not in the medical sense, though, because we all know what this spleen is and what it does (those of you don't know, or have doubts, please take a look at the modern medical definition or the Traditional Chinese Medicine view).

The word apparently comes from the Greek splēn and for instance in French, it refers to a state of pensive sadness or melancholy. It has been popularized by the poet Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821-1867) but was already used before, in particular in the Romantic literature (18th century). The connection between spleen (the organ) and melancholy (the temperament) comes from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. One of the humours (body fluid) was the black bile, secreted by the spleen organ and associated with melancholy. In 19th century England women in bad humour were said to be afflicted by spleen, or the vapours of spleen and there also is an expression 'to vent one's spleen' which more or less means 'to behave in an ill-tempered' manner.

At least that's what you can - more or less - look up in the dictionaries. But I've just recently learned what it meant for me.

For me spleen is the oblivion that I had been experiencing for the last... - God only knows how long. Three years, perhaps.

It's this troubling awareness of things in existence, compared to which the unbearable lightness of being is the least of your worries.

Spleen is what you see in the mirror every single forsaken morning if you were brave or dumb enough never to ponder on the meaning of today or the significance of tomorrow...

Spleen is the state of mind in which you are sometimes lost for words and you quitely wonder how amazing it is that telephone silence can convey emotions...

(...)

Ireland.

The gentle breeze filled my nostrils and brought the scent of the ubiquitous meadows scattered along the banks of the River Shannon. I sat on top of one of the turrets of the King John's Castle, watching a girl beside me, a girl whom I had only seen for the fifth time in my life, yet I felt as if I had known her for ages. Her face shone vividly, brightly as that of a morning star. Her curious, demanding eyes pierced me through, frantically trying to fathom the elusive.

Ahh, and her lips were crimson.

Our eyes crossed every now and then, smiles cheered the gloomy sky and the by-standers could hear short, muffled outburst of our innocent laughter. We were on top of things, and the whole world seemed so far away, left down there, at our feet. For the taking...

I took a deep breath and I finally felt the spleen letting me go; slowly at first, but steadily. Until it was all gone.

We got up and I let the ancient tears be washed away... by this compassionate, and understanding, Irish summer rain.

Take it, grieving Deirdre of the Sorrows, take it all. You're on your own. I'm not running away anymore. I'm not chasing you.

The Mind-Machine Interface #5

2005-08-09T07:02:00.000+01:00

In this episode of what is slowly coming to be known as the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer, I would like to restrain myself from just simply pulling off another brilliant yet utterly abstact piece of writing. This time I would like to take a deep dive in what the future, not the present, might bring for us, and share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Ironically, as mentioned in the BBC's article here ('Thoughts read' via brain scans), the very idea of making an intellectual effort to 'share' one's thoughts may become obsolete one day.

First of all, I have to admit - I had to read the article twice before fully realising what its implications were. Then I decided to take a sandwich and a beer, hoping that the bad dream would be gone by the time I finished.

But - of course - it didn't.

I decided to be a little more proactive and reloaded my browser a couple of times but it didn't help either. The bloody news was still there, heralding that my worst nightmare might come true in the forseeable future:

All these stupid pricks' thoughts going public. Wireless. Blogwise. Searchwise. Newsfeedwise. Google-AdSensewise (creepy...).

No. I'm not saying that people are stupid in general, but I do imply that some people are definitely less witty than others, and therefore, their thoughts should remain truly theirs for eternity. Full stop.

Let's perform a short intellectual excercise:

First, assume that The Mind-Machine Interface (or whatever you call the device; the marketing approach would sugest something like BrainGoogle or - for the sake of simplicity - Broogle) is a common device implanted in our glasses, hats, teeth or wherever else one might feel it's convinient to have it (yep, I know what you're thinking...). That in turn would mean: about 90% of the civilized population of the planet would use it on a daily basis.

Now imagine that in a couple of years since its introduction, it - as the common sense dictates - assumes the role of what used to be your iPod, mobile phone, PDA and - eventually - your PC.

And lets assume that the cities (or perhaps even the whole globe, who knows?) are covered with broadband wi-fi networks.

And, last but not least, the most likely assumption: everyone will think that he's the smart-ass of the neighbourhood. Why not tell that to everyone? You know - just in case they haven't heard before (blogwise, serachwise, emailwise etc.).

Dr John-Dylan Haynes of the University College London who seems to be the head of this particular research project, reportedly said: "We are still a long way off from developing a universal mind-reading machine". But being a long way off doesn't mean "we are not on the way at all".

Dear Dr John-Dylan Haynes! I strongly urge you not to proceed with your project. For the sake of the human civilization, your invention if improved and applied, would prove to be a disaster ten times as severe as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaskaki, a hundred times more vicious than the American cable TV, and at least a thousand times more lethal than an Iraqi 'foreign combatant' with a purpose.

It would mark the end of the Information Era, and the rise of what the historians (that is, if any of them survives) would later on refer to as The Time When Everything Collapsed, Cities Crumbled, People Almost Died Out And All Of That Because Every Single One Of Them Thought That He Was Smarter Than The Rest Or In Other Words: The Era Of Major Shit (or Pandelirium for short).

I reiterate: please, don't!

For those of you who are still not convinced: An Example of The Things To Come [below]

Drifting into the abstract - an interlude #4

2005-08-07T19:00:00.000+01:00

As I begun writing these short pieces of literary genius, I did not expect any substantial feedback: except from the people who usually pretend to be the life-time members my little fanclub. Plus, there may exist a soul or two whose devotion cannot be explained.

But there's also been some elaborate and thorough feedback. This one actually puzzles me a little, as the only method of my blog's syndication (so far) has been the on-line status message in my IMs. Thanks guys.

What struck me though, when I briefly read the incoming mails and comments, is that most of your remarks focus on the form rather than the content. And I would rather like to have some content-related tips from you. In order to help you a bit I decided to short-list subjects that I'm personally interested in and from which you might freely choose:

The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer - the core topic continued, or how I percieve the life of / in a big city
Vanity fair - or the current standpoint of the international politics
When crushes crash - everything you wanted to know about my love life and were always afraid to ask
Peregrinations of a stranded mind - or a collection of reading tips and some comments on what's hot and what's not in whatever I come across on the news or what I sometimes stumble upon in the blogosphere

Please, help. And please - leave me a sign of being here - comment.

The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer - Introduction #3

2005-08-07T01:00:00.000+01:00

As many of you probably know, every major city consists of layers.

Like an onion.

And like an aged onion - they are covered dust, they smell, and they are often covered with webs of all sorts that effectively give them shape, integrity, continuity and flow.

Unlike onions though - cities don't work very well, when chopped to pieces, and no - you can't add them to your soup.

But let's get to the point. Modern cities are complex, multi-layered structures. If you ever plan to functon effectively in an environment as unwelcoming as that, you need to have a basic understanding of how it works and who are you very likely to interact with once you're there. And for that you need to have a comprehensive guide which will walk you through all the dos and don'ts, pros and cons, tips & tricks. You will be able to find all that, and - believe me - much, much more, just right here - in the Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer. Later on I will elaborate on what the Primer is in itself, and perhaps I will try to explain and teach you how to apply all the priceless information that it consists of, but for now - let's take a glimpse at what the Primer is about.

Now, go back to the first sentence of this Introduction, read it aloud, try to understand the message it conveys, and read on:

The very upper layer is usually the world of the on-the-roof swimming pools, 400 sq. m. luxurious condos with helipads, and driving ranges for the senior (actually so senior that you could probably call them senile) executives whose big fat leather armchairs are just one floor below.

Then, if we happen to fall from grace, we might have a chance to experience the mid-upper layers, which - again - consist of some luxurious condos, offices with windows for the senior (but not-yet-senile) execs, plus a handful of occasional restaurants, sightseeing terraces etc., usually with telescopes for the ubiquitous tourists.

Under the mid-upper layer there is of course the mid-mid layer - not much intelligent life ever observed there - which consists mainly of whatever you want, and its very sheer purpose is to give cover to the ground floors beneath.

These, in turn, thrive with commerce and entertainment, and to some species are by far the most important of all earthly habitats.

The abundant flora and fauna of the ground floors makes up for what is usually referred to as the human civilization, which basically means that whatever you may find there, it is supposed to be civilised - one way or another.

Not-so-unexpectedly this opinion is often exaggerated.

But the omnipresent life knows no boundaries, respects noone's limitations, obeys nobody, and spreads frantically. It spreads upwards, outwards and... yes.

It also spreads downwards.

As most of you probably know, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, the abundance of species observed today on Earth is a result of eons of natural selection, ages of adaptation and centuries of sex. Over the years this simple triad of processes has given us such unique marvels of biology as the mighty spielbergsauria, the homicidal hitchcock birds or the suicidal lemmings. Moreover, according to Darwin, and contrary to the common sense of the citizens of Utah, the human being is itself a rather goodlooking and fairly reasonable byprocess of the aforementioned phenomena.

What many of you - evolutionists, and none of you - creationists, might have forgot about, is the basic principle of evolution: it is an on-going process, and even though many species disappear from the surface of our beautiful Planet every day, hundreds of new ones appear to claim their place.

In order to prove it to you, I will try to describe (in detail, if necessary) a handful of examples of the homo sapiens sapiens subspecies that have recently come into existence in various places of the globe. As indicated before, the primary habitats of these fascinating creatures are located deep under ground, hidden from greedy eyes of zoologists as well as from the sunlight, yet - in the middle of one's everyday routine...

The Metropolitan Biodiversity Primer is meant to be your ultimate guide to the intricacies and peculiarities of a big, modern city. In the upcoming chapters of the MBP we will take a closer look at at a handful of interesting species, such as:

shape-shifters
quarterbacks
slip-sleepers
elvises and shakiras

Ah, and returning to the onion thing: the big cities make you cry a lot if you move too close...

Stay tuned.

Careful what you wish... #2

2005-06-25T02:00:00.000+01:00

I moaned a bit the day before yesterday and I eventually got what I wanted. A downpour of biblical proportions came over Paris and paralyzed trains, some metro lines and... the International Controllership Department in General Electric Healthcare, Buc, France.

Yep, when I left (or rather - 'was evacuated' by the safety personnel) after having put all the cables and the PC on my desktop, there was approximately 2-3 cm of water on the floor (or rather - above the carpet). This basically means that the Q2 close may be delayed a day or two, before the maintenance staff renovates our workplaces.

So, indeed, I got what I wanted. There is a gentle breeze, and the air even smelled of ozone for a brief moment after the thunderstorm had gone away...

This case brings some light to the not very obvious phenomenon of the retaliative temper of the forces of nature. This particular predicament's causality is rather simple and straightforward - I had produced a critical mass of disrespect that started to smell unpleasantly, and triggered a sanitation system aimed at razing the premises of an infidel (yes, me) to the ground.

Some may very well say that I'm interpreting the abovementioned chain of events in a very egocentric manner, not taking into account all obvious external factors that usually add up for a hell of a thunderstorm, such as: high humidity (from evaporation), electric load build-up in the lower atmosphere (winds, quickly moving clouds) etc.

Well, guys, if you don't believe in the fact that nature is simply mean, take the butterfly effect for instance (no, not the movie, that's just some people not using contraceptives and resulting in the conception of an individual as peculiar as the Kutcher guy...).

A quick reminder for those of you who don't know: the butterfly effect is a term coming from the depths of the exotic sciences dealing with chaos, uncertainty and bureaucracy. The idea behind it states that if a butterfly flapped his wings somewhere in a god-forsaken bar in Glenrock, WY, it would probably result in a hurricane in Southeast Asia. That's the theory.

Let's take a look at the implications of the above statement. Imagine, just for a moment, that there really was a direct cause-and-effect connection between the innocent butterfly and a frenzy in Malaysia. Now let's assume that each action requires reaction (or perhaps not requires, but rather takes it for granted; try punching a policeman - or another highly reactive elements - on the stomach, for instance). Now let's assume that there are some butterflies in Kuala Lumpur and that all of the would go out of hiding after the storm is over.

You see what I mean? Yes, the Malay butterflies would take revenge and start flapping their tiny wings frantically, until the world ended in a series of violent atmospheric events.

Even though these kinds of phenomena are hopefully rare and occurred only a dozen or so times on the geologic scale of time (perhaps mainly due to the fact that the Malay butterflies hardly ever figure out what actually struck them), nevertheless this is an almost empirical proof to the decadence of nature. And perhaps to the Monty Python-like sense of humor it prefers.

This in turn leads us directly to another conclusion: if you have wings and you've mastered the art of flapping them in certain ways (with a certain frequency, angle and target), you can actually evoke some vis majors and draw the wrath of others. If we take it one step further, we can assume that not only wings, but perhaps flapping your eyelids, ears or simply tapping impatiently with your fingers (as I usually do, when I'm fed up with the weather, and what I actually did before the deludge), you can be in big trouble in an instant.

Now, as you probably are aware of the fact that most of our uttermost needs and desires are subconsciously transmitted outwards in the forms of body language, temperature, breathing pattern etc., you probably already see my point.

Main point: it seems there is a proven and working link between what you think about and what will eventually happen.

Main point (poetic approach): Careful what you wish, you just might get it...

P.S. It's just started to rain again. If I auto-weather-analyzed myself, it would probably mean that I'm not pleased with my job at all. Which is not the case. So maybe it's this shitty coffee machine that I hate so much? Or is it just wishful thinking...

[disclaimer: no butterflies were either harmed or forced to do things they find ethically questionable during the experiments conducted for the purpose of this blog entry]

On life, universe and everything... #1

2005-06-22T23:58:00.000+01:00

No, it's not going to be about the Hitchhiker's Guide... It's not going to be about the Hitchhiker's hype (no pun intended). This one is about exactly what the title itself suggests.

Let's start with life: not very long, rather unpleasant, filled with things that may never come and passions that only could have been. To put it bluntly.

These thoughts, too pesimistic for some, too optimistic for others, have recently come to my mind without any particular reason, neither preceded nor followed by any spectacular events in this long and tormented existence of mine :) It's more of a general dissatisfaction and ensuing from it: war-like relationship that I have with the world nowadays. I've found myself to see it this way, I've found not to be afraid to admit it. I have finally found myself to change it.

Let's move on.

The direct reason for this entry has actually been provided by the universe, or at least by a tiny bit of it: the city of Paris and the infamous summer weather in the city of Paris.
In this very moment it's 1 a.m., the temperature reached 40*C today, and it seems it's not giving up on making my life more bitter, holding a steady 28*C in the middle of the night. This translates to a steady 30*C inside my room. God - if you're reading this - please, take me now...

Most of the people I know (and probably those that I know of, as well as a couple of million that I have no idea about) look forward to falling asleep ASAP, waking up before sunrise (ca. 4 a.m.)and jetting back to work, to the safe haven of their A/C offices and promises of discount price lunches at the corporate canteen. Not to mention, that the road to that ultimate happiness is paved with such entertaining activities as commuting for an hour or so in a can-like metro, in temperatures easily reaching over 50*C and humidity similar to the one, which you are probably able to experience in the deepest jungles of the Amazon.

If by any chance you are a part of this group, lift your right arm, punch yourself gently on the chest and listen to the funny, hollow sound you're now making. Go ahead punch again. BTW: bare fist, gorilla-like experiments recommended for the hearing-impaired.

The problem with you is, that the hollowness is right where it belongs. In your heart.

But returning to the tropical mind-boiling, stamina-draining climate that I'm experiencing and that annoys me greatly:

Doesn't it actually mean that the universe adjusts itself (i.e. by rising local temperature levels) in order to reduce the entropy of the local system? As it is quite contrary to the dozen of laws of physics that I'm aware of (and probably a few dozens of those that I've never heard of), this perhaps could be used as one of the first empirical proofs for the divine intervention. Go ahead. Just credit me for coming up with this one if you wrap it up, write down on a couple of pages, draw a chart or two and turn it into a nice-looking, streamlined theory/book/cult/religion. I really don't care what you do with it, as long as I'm famous.

As far as I'm concerned there's probably no conspiracy behind it. I've never been much of a conspiracy theories believer myself (I watched X-Files because there was usually nothing else to do on Thursday evenings). And frankly speaking: I don't care much whether it is the God or The-One-Whose-Name-Shalt-Not-Be-Spoken-In-Public or Whomever that streches his arm from the heavens to turn on the heater, snow-o-meter or pigeon-o-shitter.
What bothers me though, is that so many people have no choice but to clinch their fists and simply bear it. What bothers me even more is that most of them actually COULD have had a choice, but they irrecoverably lost the ability to:

form an opinion of their own
move from the less favorable habitats to those offering more humane living conditions
not accept their fate as it is, taking for granted, that there are probably many worse things in the universe, and just a few that are better - the latter being very unlikely to meet, unless stumbled upon, having been lead by their guardian angel...

So what does 'everything' have to do with it?

Primo: apparently nothing.

Secundo: for most of you still - apparently nothing.

Tertio: for a very small group of you - a lot, and then - after taking a deep breath and performing the most thoughtful gaze of your petty existence - a few more.

And this time and - mind you - this time only, the third group is absolutely, perfectly and beyond any doubt... INCORRECT.

There is no 'everything' around you. Not much of 'everything' is quite what it seems either.

Anyway: those of you still looking for a tight grip: find it, get a grip, set off from where you are to where you want to be. And not to where you think it would be nicely perceived if you ever got there.

In the follow-ups you'd probably start getting tips. This is the first lecture. And as always: it's just a piece theory.

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The whole point of this exercise is to prove that even a rather educated, focused and otherwise sane person might go slightly mad at a time, place and weather like this.

The complementary point: don't ever come to Paris in the summer, let alone for brief holidays. You'd be toasted.

P.S. Let's hope the change of the language won't severely damage the contents of this blog. After this quick warm-up (no pun intended, again...), a daily or bi-daily update from the inner world of big corporations shall begin. Stay tuned.

And thanks for the fish.