Saturday, June 26, 2021

haiku possibilities




a full moon rises
illusion of perspective
third rock spinning east

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Mission Achievement 101


Born into a world of complication we each pursue a personal journey. Projecting our vision, uplifted by our talents and within the constraints of our life we pursue a many fold path perhaps to change the world a tad, perhaps to create something amazing, or in the very least to construct experiences that feel satisfying.

Who can say what has stirred the bottom our individual visions, but ourselves. Traditions passed down for generations, an inspiring documentary or fictional account, a well reasoned desire to be part of a positive civilization. The variety of sources humans draw upon to fuel their life works is endless. One might even speculate the cause effect chain recedes atomically back to the moment of the Big Bang. Yet in our mortal lives we are touched most by our experiences, and the unique combination of thoughts and feelings that underlie the daily objectives we pursue.

How we pursue those dreams is also a unique mix of skill, available resources, especially time, and the constraints before us. In many cases we hone our perceived talents and then apply them to our vision as we can. For many if not most, the practicality of living within modern society takes first priority. The learning and skill achievement guided out of necessity to feed ourselves and the choice to pursue a family or acquire property or support a community. Education of many varieties serve as the matrix that scaffolds the pyramid of nested abilities that each human erects for themselves. To what extent each individual pursues their dreams both real and phantom, will be judged directly and indirectly by society, ones community and ones self.  

Accomplishing things in life is like so many things, a personal endeavor. There is no set linear progression or protocol standard than can ensure success. Nations, religions, self-help books, and academic institutions make those promises all the time, and to a degree may deliver. Ultimately, the individual must step forward, perhaps climbing the stairs of established societal patterns, or perhaps bouldering up a hillside not yet explored. In all likelihood, each of us will find our own path, garnering our skills along the way to sculpt a life full of positive experience that we can call our own.

Seize the day!

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

The Marriage Between Earth and Humankind



The civilization we're born into sets expectations. It's essentially an arranged marriage from the start. From an economic perspective the traditional hope has been that each human will play a proactive part in the regional pyramid scheme. The human hegemony on Earth has only been active for a few thousand years and yet total domination by our species is pretty much in place. Promises of pleasure, prestige, and power have all contributed to the ongoing proliferation of humankind. 

At the evolutionary level our bodies tell us to survive using all tools possible. At the family level procreation and loving respect fuel the drive. At the community level competition and tribalism incentivize our efforts. At the regional level nation state engines rally its people to produce at ever increasing rates to secrete opiates that entertain and empower the primal mind and collective.

As such, to date individuals generally ride currents of influence from all these traditional sources. Love of gods, of government, of family, of wealth, of career are all vertebrae of the backbone of civilization. If our goal is to build and sustain heaven on Earth, a biodiverse, planetary environment within which all Life can thrive, then the human hegemony model must be designed. Evolution moves too slow.

To achieve that end, civilization and the human mind need a metamorphosis. Imagine a world where each human is educated to the fullest with the end goal to contribute to a healthy planet; a world where every vocation plays its part in reaching and maintaining an Earthly paradise of living things. 

Who am I kidding, Civilization and Evolution are in cahoots. Humanity is the ultimate invasive species, spawning and consuming at every turn. Each human a cancer cell bent on its own salvation. The Earth is at the mercy of a paradigm that eschews compassion and reason for self gain and tribal pursuits.

It may take a few thousand more years, but it's a pretty good bet that we'll trash the ecosystem, and take ourselves with it. It's been a good run, and the Earth has the unwitting resolve to survive its divorce from humankind. In a few tens of million years, the Anthropocentric Epoch will a layer of sediment under a freshly evolving new order.

Sigh.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Spectrum Reflections



"Life is problems. Living is solving problems"- anonymous

Everything occurs on a spectrum. 

There really is no black and white except in abstraction. Even a lightbulb that is off at room temperature radiates light as atoms above absolute zero shed infrared photons that our eyes don't detect. A light switch is flicked an the electrical hardware makes differential contact over thousands of microseconds causing the alternating current waves to thrust out along the wire to gradually over milliseconds heat up the bulb element to rising high temperature and illuminate non-linearly spreading light particles around at fantastic, but finite speeds. Perhaps at t minus one second the room was relatively dark and at t plus one second uniformly lit, but the continuum of observation demonstrates just how dynamic that two second interval is. And yet the human mind in its hurried journey through the day will describe the room as dark or lighted.

Such is the brain's evolutionary power. It can observe and analyze and categorize in a moment surrounding phenomena and then activate responses to benefit survival. Of course, modern humans have time to consider more deeply the occurrence of these phenomena as in my light bulb example. Yet humans still employ irrational analysis often, if only because rationality itself occurs on a spectrum. A movie with a jump scare scene, for instance, activates a reflexive cringe of fright predominantly for entertainment, stroking the neurons of fear to create a thrilling experience.

Thus is the challenge of humanity, to reign in its inherited evolutionary traits, so that in all wakes of life we can ride the enchantment of living without deception undermining the balance. So as we seek knowledge, love, and the whole spectrum of human experience, we need to take care that we aren't misled down a path where abstraction walks us and the world over a cliff.