Escape to Here Now

 Before I dive into this it seems kind of appropriate to mention how remarkable the times in which we live.  I think that a great deal of art has been produced over the last 50 years or more in connection with imagining what the world would be like at this time, although those artists might not place it exactly at this point. Honestly I don't think anyone could really imagine clearly, what is happening to us all, at this time. So cacophony just sounds good, an amazing nice sounding word do describe what is essentially the opposite of how nice it sounds.  Also I had no idea how to spell it and so thought this would be a " learning " experience for me. Frustration, however, is a bit of a more serious matter, although you can see it could and maybe does have something to do with cacophony.  I think that that an awful lot of the frustration we experience comes principally from " missteps " which seem to take on a whole variety of forms.  A miscalculation perhaps,...

  Now, I am often of two minds about miracles. The big question in my mind is are miracles that important?  Having experienced maybe a few what I would have to call miracles in my own life, I have to admit that they were important to me or for me.  The definition is mostly an extraordinary event.  And certainly one miracle for me occurs most everyday, which is the rising of the sun over the horizon, which is not actually arising, because we know we are just twirling around, in what we call the " emptiness " of space.  Nevertheless, there's an awful lot going on there, and although it is repetitive it is also unique. I don't know that anyone owns the copyright on miracle, but I feel I cannot fail to mention Jefferson Starship, Miracles, for one thing because it comes up almost immediately when you google miracles. ( not sure about caps again ) ... In particular this comes up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracles_(Jefferson_Starship_song) and the line: " if you ...

  I have for sometime believed that what keeps the British together as British, is there acute sense of irony.  I certainly could be wrong about that, but it does seem kind of essential to what makes them British. Here in the U.S.A. we , I believe, have a good bit of irony.  For example the number one word - United.  Well, that could or maybe should generate a good sense of irony. Anyway, what are we United about?  Well, I think two things that may bring us the U.S. together, is these ideas about democracy and prosperity, and maybe some vague idea that they are connected in some ways.  However, if you randomly get 25 people together and ask them to describe democracy or prosperity, then you will probably have quite a few very distinct descriptions, which would be distinct ways of thinking about these things.  Finally, if you expand that to 100 people, now, you will most likely get even more varying views on these two ideas. So, it brings up the slightl...

  Kind of hard to wrap your head around flesh and bones, because your head is flesh and bones.  But beyond that, the phrase is interesting, I think because it contains a bit of mystery.  The main mystery is that we are made of flesh and bones, mostly, and although we generally can not see the bones, we all know they are there. And we know or we generally learn, that both the flesh and and bones have to to mostly complete or we don't function properly.   You might think of this knowledge or information as " intuitive ". We know it, somehow, and most everyone knows it. The other thing is of course that flesh and bone are significantly different and it is also quite difficult to really understand that, but somehow when they are combined in their proper way, we work , as human beings, and we generally work pretty well. There are other things that are distinctly different and yet go to make a complete whole of a thing, for example, the tree and it's leaves.  The...

  I am currently somewhat concerned that crabbiness is reaching record levels both nationally and on an international level, and I'm not exactly sure what kinds of " therapeutic " or " rehabilitation " my be required to reduce the levels of crabbiness, we are currently experiencing.   Nevertheless, we can only remain hopeful. So what does that have to do with the arrow of time?   Well, the arrow of time is another blog I have been working on for some time :  https://arrowotime.blogspot.com/ The inspiration for the blog is really quantum gravity or quantum field theory, but it's kind of it's own thing.  My guess is, that I tend to blog there when my crabbiness levels have been reduced. So, how these ideas are more closely related, is; I began wondering if viewing the new astronomical observations were increasing or decreasing my crabbiness, and at this point I am just not sure. However, I think that these concepts might be related because, of how we vie...

  Now, this is more or less intended to be the nastiest, snarkiest, and meanest post,  I hope to ever do.  So, you have been warned. Maybe, it is not " exactly " on the ballot, but what the American people are now needing to make a " judgement " on, is what is the bigger crime (?), crime or how we treat each other.  ( Maybe, I could phrase that differently ) Now, actually, I am not sure how  much difference that decision will make, but what ever decision we begin to make, will affect how we proceed into the future, because, it is   OUR  future. 

  Well, when I think about biology I think about the tree of life. Not sure about capitals there, but anyway, one of the most remarkable events in my life time is probably , what is happening now, but was mostly a glimmer 10 years ago. And that is the study of biological mechanisms or processes out side our own solar system.  Now , sadly to say, biology students will have to have some training or experience with astronomy, which, personally I think is a good thing, and in the end will probably be very beneficial for many reasons. The correlation of biological data from around , were ever, in the heck we are, I think will turn about to have significance also for math, physics, and chemistry.

  Okay, you got two parties which can remain anonymous.  One party is in power, the other is in opposition.  Now the idea is like the opposition can represent some kind of " guard rails " for the one in power.  This is something like a four stroke, except two stroke. Anyway, to support their objectives, one party or the other " latches on " on to some cultural ideas/issues, and utilizes  those to promote their goals. Now all that sounds kind of reasonable, but these cultural items, go back and forth between these parties, and for one thing, the cultural ideas and issues often get smashed up in the process.   Disagreement is not bad.  It is a good thing. Is does however require mutual respect in order to be useful.   Stupidity, on the other hand, can be, and often is lethal. Oh yes, and words, remember to use your words, but try and use them properly. Seriously.

  Also, the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Well, at least, mostly free and pretty brave.   As far as beauty is concerned, well a rose by another name, remains.  So, if it's a goal, or reality, if it's aspiration or hope, well, all of us, have some of this inside.   And really, I don't think that it's a bad thing. It's a thing. And particularly when we are angry and upset or really have a great desire to blame others for our own problems: it's a good time to think about that.

  There's a lot of ways to untangle this, but first reframe as follows: Everybody does good and less good acts all the time.  It is virtues and the development of virtues that allow us to increase the frequency of good acts and decrease the frequency of less good acts.   Now here is the key elements.  We all have virtues, and there are lots of virtues, but some of these virtues are less well development.  In the situations, between good acts and less good acts, the two key virtues, IMHO, are honesty and justice.  Both of these virtues play key roles.  All, mostly everybody, possess these virtues, some better developed and some less. And in the end, all you have to do is look for your guarantee about -- how, this is all so easy --- But, of course, that is an entirely different story.

  Well, many people are aware that fear is deified in Greek and Roman mythology as Phobos, the brother of Deimos, and son of Mars.  I am not sure about confusion, but to me confusion and fear seem to be related someway, like cousins or something, that spend a lot of time together.  Although terror which is translated as Deimos, tends be be  strongly connected to confusion as well.   Fear of course is a pretty valuable commodity when it comes to dealing with threat, in particular immediate threats, and now we have this issue which is, what the heck is a threat exactly.  Fear is mostly effective in this pretty narrow band, where confusion is low, and there is a lot of clarity about -- Mr. X, (or whatever you want to call it), which is the threat.   Now, to get to the point here, what I am basically trying to demonstrate  is the lack of benefit of fear being a long term or effective motivational strategy because simply of the issue of fear ...

  When you think about a carpenter and a hammer and nail, you will immediately be aware that the " real " strength of a carpenter is not 1 nail, but in a succession of nails, some of which can be more of a challenge than others.  Often, in more difficult situations, a better perspective on the situation can produce more favorable results, although not always. As far as diversity is concerned, very often an increase of differing perspectives can be highly desirable when trying to evaluate or find solutions to complex problems, an idea in sync with the following economist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming But, ultimately I think the strength inherent in diversity, requires some degree of harmony which of course is a term mostly connected with music and art, but at the same time has a lot to do with science in the works of Newton, Leibnitz, LaGrange, Euler, Bernoulli, Gauss, Poincare, Noether,  Einstein, Galois, and a bunch more in that group ... Now, I have r...

  Right off these four things seem most like bumpers in a pinball machine.  Some people might think pin ball is a lot like life, but really human beings do not have that much in common with small metal balls. First, we can start with " failure is not an option ".   Whether it is an option, it certainly happens quite often, and then also un-expectedly.  One of the more important ideas in Zen is that, practice is what is more important, and success and failure are more like steps that happen as a result of practice.  Often failure can be as meaningful in the process as success.  For some reason we seem to feel more positively about the success parts. Then we have shame and guilt which are pretty common emotions and often experienced much differently by  different people.  The key thing is these are emotions, and like most emotions, it is sometime important for us to deal with them.  This is where the key element of justice as a personal vi...

  First you have to think about what is - a people - . It could be one person, and maybe in an ideal sense, a person would be of one mind.  But then if you have two people, most likely you have two minds, and roughly speaking two minds can integrate pretty effectively, but there are always issues and difficulties, but sometimes things work out.  And then you have 3, or 4 or 90 or 10,000 or however you can imagine it.  ( Imagine is not necessarily the best word for thinking about something like this ) Then it appears that the question becomes more of , can many minds, perceive things in co-operative and beneficial ways, and the conclusion has to be, yes, of course, because we have tons of information on this, that say people can be creative and harmonious and experience an awful lot of good feelings when working toward common goals, and reasonable objectives.   So now, to the point, what is the point?  Well, you have to take into consideration, that alt...

  At the beginning of the Cold War, to the best of my knowledge, there was only one "real" functioning computer on earth.  It is possible there were others, but mostly the one the U..S. had was all I am aware of. Official communication was done with typewriters and paper.  For some reason, at that time, people felt like, if it was written on a typewriter it was official or of some value, and I am not sure exactly why, but it might have had something to do with sale efforts by I.B.M. Anyway the data problem was IMHO, mostly about lots of miscommunication in a large variety of ways.  It of course should have been easier at that time to deal with it or a least figure it out, but really, for what ever reasons, that did not happen.    Today we have a countable (but large) number of computers in the world and a lot of " official " communication is done that way.  For practical purposes the computers are used in similar ways to how typewriters were used 70 ye...

  This may be a stretch, and I can't really substantiate this with dates or facts but guessing here, it is my belief that science was introduced by Muhammad  as an application of the spiritual principals involved in consultation.  If it is true, that would explain IMHO quite a bit about historical events proceeding Muhammad, from around 500 A.D. Whether or not this is true, it does jive somewhat with my limited, but hopefully growing understanding on this subject. It also could be helpful in understanding some of the meaning to the science of world peace.

  Imagine , just for a minute, you tune into the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, and now consider - a fantastic vision - in which Repuli-CAN-ism folks and  Demo-crat-ists suddenly and for no apparent reason, just started treating each other with respect, were cordial and friendly, spoke nicely to each other and even about each other and tried not to talk over each other, and  suddenly - like MAGIC - just started to work together  because - guess what - they probably all want the same things, same goals, or things of that nature. And then you just shut off that T.V.  'cause you just can't believe it, it's too ridiculous for words.  Now, even you are beginning to worry about --- nightmares --- and start thinking about what you ate that night. Just , too - too - too fantastic ..

  So, this is kind of a lengthy subject, on account of almost everyone for as long as we know about has been somehow involved with this, either individually or more collectively. First thing to be aware of is it's called search, which generally involves effort, time, persistence, risks, and all kinds of things like that. Often you are on this search, and find something, but over time you have to go back and start again, because, it wasn't exactly what you had in mind, or there is something more.  It's hard to get completion on this task. It is important to note that it is called " search for truth ", and you could say oh, " I'm out - just - looking ", but you know that's not the thing.  It's not about trying to find a spot for a picnic,  usually this task, involves a bit more commitment than that. It's pretty illusive, I think in part, because it is kind of invisible in ways, also, sometimes it seems like it just doesn't want to be fo...

  Many people are aware that our world-experience is becoming more and more complex.  This in part deals with large amounts of global interconnections, some change in technologies, and other variables like population.   But of course it might be helpful to consider what complexity is. Mostly it means there are lots of variables and it also involves perhaps many assumptions.  What happens of course in such an environment is, if you take some action, there is always a possibility that it will fail, and in fact it often does. Now, here is the problem bit, many people recognize that voting is a very helpful process on many levels, but the way voting is mostly configured is, you are voting for or against something. The problem here is that in fact we are really mostly voting for the same things, but because there are so many points of view, what are generally hopes for similar outcomes, are configured as oppositions, which often they are not.  This problem is...

  Sometimes people like to think about big numbers.  One kind of big number' to consider would be - well to start - is to think of all the minds on this planet.  Mind like things.  Well, you can start with all the people on earth, you could also include most probably all the animals and insects, and then you could throw in trees and other forms of forms of vegetation.  If you really wanted to complete this list you probably also want to include things like rocks.  And so when you add that all up, if you work really hard at it, you have a pretty big number.  You could even give it a name as that number would be fairly static, it wouldn't really change a lot. Of course, you really don't need to stop there, because as we  search deeper into the nature of " things " in general, we start to notice, that even on the molecular, atomic, or sub-atomic level we have processes or systems, which appear to be " mind " like on many levels.  Finally, as is ...

  It seems to me that taking inventory can be difficult.  Perhaps you have a situation where you need 500 forks and you know you lose some from time to time and you have to count all those forks occasionally. Maybe you have a very specific time for that.  Maybe you do it 2 times per year.  And after you count all the forks, you have to get so many more.  And then you are done.  You could even be in a situation for some reason, when you had too many forks. There are also simpler inventories,  which are like if you have none, then you have to find more.  I'd say this is a more common form of inventory and we probably are only vaguely aware that we are doing it, perhaps.    I think there is something kind of special about it.  It seems like a pretty common  activity , almost natural in  a way, although it can be unpleasant because, well maybe, counting 500 forks is not so easy, and maybe it takes time, that is hard for us to ...

  I think, and for no particularly good reason, that some of the most difficult problems in the world are problems that need to be solved, right here, in this country.   If American exceptionalism is anything at all, I have to imagine it is connected to the good ( or bad ), fortune, in having some pretty extraordinary people, and people who are both willing and capable of solving some of these kinds of problems, and the willingness to go after them.  As one past U.S. President once commented about a " shiny city ", well, a shiny city is not so much, unless there are some equally "shiny " people around to inhabit it.  ( You know what I mean? ). Unfortunately, we have not found our selves at a time in which doing nothing is really an option.  And so, what it comes down to is, we all have work to do, because, among other things, we all in this country need to become better, and solving some of these problems will not just rely on those with the greater abiliti...

  This is a hard subject, and personally very difficult for me to address.  Beliefs are personal to the person, and really our individual and collective identities are bunched up  and interconnected with " our beliefs ". And  clearly they must be rather unique to individuals and communities. Often our comfort level is higher with others that share most closely and connect to whatever kinds of beliefs we individually might have.  Also, there is a qualitive nature to it, as well, which is the idea that you might believe more strongly in somethings. Of course, there are all kinds of beliefs, and I am not sure there is a hierarchy of belief ,  although some might be led to that conclusion.   Ultimately beliefs are very strong motivators of action, which of course make them even more strongly connected to such enigmatic notions as identity.  It might be interesting to, in fact, speculate on what trees or dolphins or daffodils might believe. Clearl...

  Well, I guess you first of all have to demonstrate that one or the other exists at all.   I like to think that the easier of the two would be ,,, human beings.  I think that we have accumulated over many generations and hundreds and thousands of years, that, yes indeed, there may be quite a few.  Of course, the human non-beings, are possibly a horse of a different color. Which brings us now to progress.  Some might say that , oh , say 20,000 years ago everything was a lot better.  I think it was right about then that a huge glacier covered the North American sub-continent. Maybe, that was why ?   Anyway, today is certainly today.  Whether  collectively or even within small groups, we believe we have progressed, I think that's a good thing.   So, I guess you can sum this up with the following: Did they have French fries ( fries from France ? ) 20,000 years ago?  Might be a tough one.  

  Organization is another very difficult word to get a handle on, because it appears in so many context , and of course the  unpleasant experience of organizations, meaning some kind of institution which may not be all that organized.   In general, you can argue about whether " organization " as a whole is such a great thing, and you can even argue about whether there is such a thing as " organization " in an abstract sense.  But at the end of the day, hopefully, you can appreciate that  an important feature of organization , is the ability to achieve some kind of clarity, that will improve the effectiveness of actions or activity that need to take place.  So, in this sense organization might be a good thing, depending on how much clarity we can actually achieve.    This may be a kind of boomerang, but there is another concept related to organization, which is re-organization, which mostly has a kind of not so good reputation, but, in fact, i...

  Of course when we think of easy we should not forget The Big Easy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans But as to democracy, well, as blurry as my memory is of history no body has ever gone on at great lengths about how " easy " democracy can or should be.  Consider U.S. history, it might have been a good deal " easier " to pay the  taxes to England and of course probably worry about how to cheat.  Nevertheless, for whatever reasons, those guys decided not to pay ..... But now we got it, or at least think, or imagine, or hope that we have it, and I don't think it should come as  that big of a surprise, that hey, it might not be so easy. Well, what might exactly be the point ? Just maybe , we shouldn't be all that surprised about how things work in a nation governed by the people and for the people.   Just saying.

 Well, for sure, one thing we are all aware of is actions which pretty much everyone does, so it is something we are " intimately : related with. Now, an action is rarely , only , motivated by rational considerations. Yes, many of our actions are, I guess, evaluated by rational considerations, as, for example, whether the action is " possible " or " reasonable". But all or most actions are connected to motivations primarily.  One obvious example is hunger, which is is strong motivator for a lot of our actions.  There are many other motivations of this type, which influence or at least modify our actions. Regardless of that, almost all actions are connected to to major influences, which would be fear and confidence. When an action is taken or motivated by fear, it means there is some kind of threat or perception of threat. An action taken from confidence differs in the following way.  There are more avenues or possibilities that  those actions may take.  You...

  I am guessing if crabbiness detectors really existed they would be mostly broken at this point.  Crabbiness' directly following any kind of celebrations is generally the worst.   There are lots of variables to crabbiness, but unusually it is connected directly to a list which contains what you are unhappy about.  The level of crabbiness may not be directly related to the length of the list, but perhaps there is a correlation. (Whatever,) It seems to be, right now, what most Americans share  in common in our current situation or situations. Sometimes, this crabbiness can be a motivator , but any body who has a list knows, that very few things that are on the list can not be resolved  alone.  Generally, many people are  needed to resolve those items and so interacting with and getting along with other people is key to  removing items from that list .... On a more " philosophic " level, one of the things we are supposed to be all about in...

  Looking forward is a great thing because very often it allows us to avoid difficult or unpleasant things, like, falling off a cliff, running into things, and a whole host of other things of that nature.  Looking behind can be helpful as well. This is kind of motivated by the notion of a nation, specifically, the U.S.A. and looking ahead, hopefully to better times and kind of what that might mean.   Certainly, as a nation we have been through some difficulties and we have seen victory and defeat.  So far I think we have managed some " forward progress ".   I often think, because of the way our society has evolved that some of that may be kind of just big circles that may seem like going forward.   But I believe in this notion, that people can really govern themselves, and I also believe that people have the capacity to become better. Processes can be improved.  Discoveries can be made and shared. Insights can occur, individually and col...

  So this could be abstract or in some ways more concrete. The two simplest examples of inter-connectedness might be  the area of a square and the way one moment follows the next.   In the case of moments, it would be a very jarring experience  if one moment was not followed by another.   In the case of the area of a square, if you divide a square into four parts, and you know the area, and you know the length of one part you can determine the length of the other.  This sort of extends itself into the fundamental theorem of algebra. At the end of the day, we can find many example of how, things that might not appear to be connected at first, do in fact have sometimes " mysterious " connections and sometimes these connections are a lot more obvious.  It might be natural then to assume that " everything " is connected, but un-fortunately that is a bit difficult to claim because it's hard to put your finger on, what exactly " everything " might ...

 And so, world peace probably has a wide variety of meanings to a wide variety of people. For me, simply, it means a global security arrangement in which all nations can buy into, no nation is excluded, and from which no nation is threatened. Is this possible?  Well, over the last several thousand years, human beings have proved to be resourceful, capable of solving complex problems,  fixing things, and making things better.  Over all, I believe as a group, we still possess most if not all of these qualities, and therefore, it does seem possible that such an event might reasonably occur. Some motivation for this is, of course, what is often referred to as senseless violence. Now,  that does raise an interesting question of what you might mean by sensible violence, but I'm not going to go there. But, at the end of the day, how much could it really hurt?  In fact, it actually might feel pretty good ....  Maybe ?

  Now, starting with shorts.  In this context I am referring to a rapid and generally un-anticipated state change, largely related to electric or electronic devices.  Generally, the effects following the short is significantly different than those events preceding that. Back to entropy, the above is an example of an entropic or high entropic situation or environment.   Now entropy seems to act through out domains, like for example if you are in a domain like homogenous gases and liquids it  has certain effects and responses.  When you think of crisis, of course  this is generally a kind of high-entropic environment.   Now it also is very interesting and significant that in biological systems this same kind of things are going on.  Without a lot of expertise concerning this, I am aware that after Irwin Schrödinger   left Germany, was working on this concept and also work on with this concept has continued. To put this all i...