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Saturday, August 31, 2019
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Undulating Quantum Probabilities
Someone once told me that the world is upside down but our minds correct this and we see the world right-side up. Sky side up. This is not true. The world is right-side up and our eyeballs are curved like a crystal ball that focuses light onto the retina. The resulting image is a projection of the world-oriented upside down because of curvature. The brain does not care that the image is physically disjointed from reality because it can represent the data in almost any orientation. It just so happens that the most adaptive way to represent this data is in a way that doesn't disorient us and lead to injuries; right side up.
What if I told you that the world around you was actually made up of large waves. The floor that seems so flat and straight that you stand on every day is actually undulating and flowing like a steady wave swishing against the rocks. That your mind, from birth, has been correcting for this odd state of nature by filtering out the extraneous oscillations of matter and straightening the world out. Making it useful. Coping with reality for pragmatic purposes the mind manipulates and interprets the universe in a way that "makes sense".
What if I told you that as your mind was forming in the womb you began to see the world as it is; an infinite amalgam, a gelatinous kaleidoscope, a soupy stew of chemistry in motion. Molecules bursting and reforming. Absorption and osmosis. Cell division and quantum entanglement. All there before your eyes. Your skin was not a barrier but instead, it was a fine cheesecloth where molecular bodies eloped. In your ears, you heard the soft whispers of reality as it vibrated and cajoled.
Then, as time went by and the mind developed you slowly morphed the world around you by integrating and discerning inputs. Separating and combining elements and discovering patterns. Your mind, like the universe, churned and moved, creating its own perception of reality. And after birth, you continued to straighten out the world. Soon you learned a language, making the whole endeavor more complicated, rewarding and troublesome. Some are better than others at interacting with reality. Some attempt to probe its deepest mysteries. Some reach for the stars. Most don't care.
None of this is true, of course. You were never able to perceive the quantum world or cell division. As the brain developed it slowly began to perceive the environment from a more macro perspective. Our sensory organs are limited to certain biological parameters. These dictate the range of sensory data we can imbibe and modulate its representation. The size and shape of an eye, for instance, limits its magnification and focusing of light, its field of view and the number of and type of components, ie rods and cones, and potential nerve sites.
But reality is an undulating molasses of possibilities flowing about in front of your face. Our bodies are made up of the most complex set of biological structures, which are all composed of undulating quantum probabilities. Sometimes, with the help of drugs or other tools, we witness a bit of what the world would look like if we could perceive the quantum world. Reality would bend and sway. It would disassemble and reassemble before you.
Too bad.
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Sunday, August 18, 2019
Pretending Entertainment
I used to work for a large video game store. One where you might Stop to buy Games. I mostly sold bullshit. Grown men coming up and saying "I wanna pretend I'm driving a car. Is there a game for that?" Pretending and having imaginary friends was once relegated to children but now, it seems, that children do not grow up. Looking for any excuse to feel accomplishment in virtual worlds to distract from the reality of a failure to accomplish personal goals is the purview of men who've been neglected by their parents and devalued by society. Getting self-esteem from simulated successes creates a fog of delusion that, if cleared away, reveals an inflated ego ready to burst.
Finding camaraderie in a chat box and slaying imaginary enemies feels good but when the electricity turns off and the mind is still what is left?
I am not immune to such imaginings but I am skeptical of my attachment to the medium. As I have aged I find myself getting less and less fulfillment out of video games. At times in my life I would spend 2-4 hours a day, 7 days a week immersed in sculpting the imaginary life of a digital avatar but lately, I find that this pursuit has much less appeal. While, even now, I spend some time each week playing Dark Souls 3 or some other engrossing game, it is significantly less than in the past. I'm finding now that if I spend more then a few hours a week playing a game I feel guilty.
I do watch television a lot but there seems to be a disconnect between an interactive medium and the one-sided nature of non-interactive art forms such as film and TV. When you are a passive observer it is harder to get wrapped up in the accomplishments of others. These forms rely on the empathy of the viewer to relate with the emotion on the screen where video games place you in an active role giving you a sense of control and the ability to manipulate outcomes and solve problems.
As much as I feel that video games can be a huge distraction, it is certainly not the worst activity and I shouldn't give myself too hard of a time about something that I get enjoyment out of and a sense of identity to some degree. Being a "gamer" isn't a bad thing but for some reason, I am not committed to the "cause", whatever that means. With such an easy life and so much abundant wealth, it is no wonder that so many are able to have such enticing and satisfying experiences in the safety of their own homes. No longer does one need to venture out into the world for glory and heroics. They can do it from their couch.
I am not immune to such imaginings but I am skeptical of my attachment to the medium. As I have aged I find myself getting less and less fulfillment out of video games. At times in my life I would spend 2-4 hours a day, 7 days a week immersed in sculpting the imaginary life of a digital avatar but lately, I find that this pursuit has much less appeal. While, even now, I spend some time each week playing Dark Souls 3 or some other engrossing game, it is significantly less than in the past. I'm finding now that if I spend more then a few hours a week playing a game I feel guilty.
I do watch television a lot but there seems to be a disconnect between an interactive medium and the one-sided nature of non-interactive art forms such as film and TV. When you are a passive observer it is harder to get wrapped up in the accomplishments of others. These forms rely on the empathy of the viewer to relate with the emotion on the screen where video games place you in an active role giving you a sense of control and the ability to manipulate outcomes and solve problems.
As much as I feel that video games can be a huge distraction, it is certainly not the worst activity and I shouldn't give myself too hard of a time about something that I get enjoyment out of and a sense of identity to some degree. Being a "gamer" isn't a bad thing but for some reason, I am not committed to the "cause", whatever that means. With such an easy life and so much abundant wealth, it is no wonder that so many are able to have such enticing and satisfying experiences in the safety of their own homes. No longer does one need to venture out into the world for glory and heroics. They can do it from their couch.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Book Review: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Lonesome Dove is an engulfing western tale about more than just a cattle drive to Montana, which is one of the driving forces for the plot, by the way, but it is really about loneliness and regret. Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae are two retired Texas Rangers that take the advice their old rangering buddy, Jake Spoon, tells them of the riches they could make as the first cattle ranchers in Montana, which is only three thousand miles away from their small ranch in Texas. Captain Call, as they call him, decides to take Jake's advice and amasses a three thousand-headed herd of cattle and horses and a dozen or so green cowboys, and, along with the non-stop communicator Gus, they all make their way across almost three thousand miles of a mostly unsettled and completely wild frontier. None of the men had previously been that far north and none knew of the dangers that were waiting for them.
From snakes and lightning to Indians and stampedes the group discovers a plethora of life-threatening opportunities on their path to Montana. Jake Spoon takes up with a whore from Lonesome Dove named Lorena who pays a heavy price for her fare across the desert wastelands to somewhere better. Along with such environmental hazards, we soon find that Jake Spoon is being tracked by a lawman from Arkansas named July Johnson, who has his own demons to contend with. Namely, his wife Elmira, who decides to seek out an old flame while July is gone with her son Joe tracking down the outlaw with a utensil for a last name. Unfortunately, July's story is not riddled with the kind of success and glory he was after. This book is filled with surprises that challenge the expectations of the reader as well as the characters within it. Failed expectations all around.
I love the writing style in this book. The narrator speaks in a way that exudes period-specific authenticity and it is if they are the best storyteller in the old west. The narrator is smart and witty. They really pay attention to what's important in the world and tells the story as if they really care about the characters. The narrator knows the characters' histories, thoughts, and feelings and represents them in a way that straddles the line between intimate and detached. The inner turmoil that accompanies the human condition, especially the harsh life one would experience in the 19th century American West is displayed with vivid exposition.
Over the course of the book, the main characters are methodically massaged into existence and soon they are as real as your closest friends. The dialogue also seems very authentic and captures a time when people spoke plainly but not without style. Augustus McCrae is well known to be quite the talker and to those that enjoy conversation, a cattle drive can be a lonesome place indeed. Many westerns focus on quickdraw duels, bad guys in black hats and small-town life but not this book. This book is about humanity and all the good and bad that comes with it. It's about the relationships we choose and the relationships we don't. It's about the decisions we're forced to make and the times we decide not to make one.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and plan to read more in the series. There are three more books and I am sure they are just as enthralling. The mini-series, by the same name, starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Danny Glover is a great representation of the book and makes a good supplement after reading the book. It isn't often that I get so wrapped up into a book that I can make it through over 800 pages and wish there was more. Since there are more I have to decide whether I want to make the commitment back into the world Larry McMurtry has created. A world so rich with detail that it can take a little out of you just imagining it. I recommend this book.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
Hero Problem
Maybe the hero story is meant for children to have someone to look up to. Heroes exemplify the virtue of the culture and teach children the values of the culture. Whether that means to be brave, physically fit, intelligent or trustworthy, children can learn how to be useful adults and understand hierarchies with stories. While these stories are useful for children they can also create a heuristic that models the world in a far too simplistic way. As we mature we should be more and more critical of our tendency to simplify and gloss over important details. We should try to see the world as it is instead of as it might be imagined.
I am sure that those that have interacted with immediate danger will learn a valuable lesson but if you can prepare someone or help them avoid something bad then they are more likely to survive and pass on their genes. Those that listened to stories and comprehended them, as well as applied their lessons, would have had an advantage in our past which has led to a species that is prone to hold storytelling as a major virtue. The vast majority of humans can understand the lessons that come from stories and we value those that write and act out compelling stories. We are primed to seek out stories as they may help us to survive. This is why the entertainment world has amassed so much wealth, especially in the US.
The problem is that stories would be boring and confusing if they were too realistic. Real-life is oftentimes slow and most of the time nothing interesting happens, especially in the relatively safe 1st world countries around the world today. So, stories must be simplified and made interesting and an easy way to do this is to create a hero versus villain scenario. This creates drama, conflict and an opportunity for a lesson to emerge. Some clever writers play with this theme and will have the hero and villain roles swap or become ambiguous during the story. This is difficult to pull off but if done well can become even more compelling as it illustrates some of the actual vagueries of life. If it is done poorly it leaves the audience with nothing concrete to learn and just creates confusion as to who they should root for.
The reason this concept came to me was that I was watching a video about Jordan Peterson "wrecking" people with his words. It seems ridiculous to take a few excerpts from interviews and think of it as some intellectual victory. Even a long debate between two expert communicators may only result in a minor positive effect on the cultural landscape. Taking a few minute-long clips out of context that makes one person look smarter than another is misleading and disingenuous unless your goal is to attempt to idolize them.
Jordan Peterson could be more humble but if he is as qualified as I believe he is then he has every right to state his case as an expert in the fields of study that he speaks on. Also, he is probably in the minority of those with high IQs and so when interacting with most people on earth he will be the more intelligent and since he usually only talks about what he knows about he seems even more intelligent. He is confident and listens intently. He thinks about his responses more than most but he is not a hero or some kind of perfect human. He gives advise that many people need and they are benefiting from it and he has a great deal to say about humans but even he isn't completely aware of all the variables related to how humans behave. No one person can know everything about psychology or philosophy or any other complicated abstract pursuit.
The real key to our success in the modern world is not the efforts of individuals on their own but of individuals working together. We rely on specialization and the integration of a variety of disciplines to gain real insight into reality and in the pursuit to maximize prosperity. This does not mean that the efforts of individuals such as Elon Musk or Thomas Eddison did not have a major impact on the world but they were not alone in their projects and they were and are not devoid of failures.
Real people are fraught with inconsistent beliefs, personal flaws, and other unbecoming attributes. We often neglect these aspects in ourselves and those we deem heroic. We do the opposite with those with villainize. We focus on their flaws and inconsistencies and deem them unworthy. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
The judgment of others is a crucial skill in that we live in a world of both free and compulsory association with others. We must attempt to accurately judge the character of others in everyday life as well as in the more disconnected realms of politics and foreign relations. This article is not an attempt to deny the importance of assessing others' virtues and vices but the understand the gray and unsteady nature of such endeavors. Really, it is in the pursuit of personal understanding that we can see the nebulousness of others. If we can see ourselves more accurately we can see others as having many good and bad qualities and respect the vagueness of judgments.
At some point, we do need to act on these judgments and sometimes it comes down to deeming someone slightly more good or slightly more bad but we should be careful of our confidence in our judgments. We should seek wisdom in our understanding of our own frailties in an effort to understand the frailties of others and we should be wary of our desire to deify and hold others up above the rest. The inclination to idolize others can blind us to reality and create obedience when the moral act would be defiance. The opposite is true of course.
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