Mindful Perseverance

Be Wary of the Human Flame

The planet we live on is being stressed by its occupation of more than seven billion humans and their lifestyles.  Over the past forty thousand years, the human species has worked its way to becoming the fastest world-changing living collective that the Earth has ever known. In that relatively short amount of time we have eradicated by intention and negligence innumerable species, including our hominid cousins, the Neanderthals. All this occured while we steadily transformed land, ocean and air spaces to serve the human whim with little to no long-term reflection.

Having emerged from earlier animal origins humans continue to be driven by inherited primal desires, emotions, and illusory needs.  Evolution dealt the human species a trump card, our minds, and we have used it time and time again against the environment, other species, and our selves.  Our saving grace is this very ability to transcend our evolutionary origins. In the same fashion that humans developed systems to more effectively provide shelter, water, food and technology, we also have developed ethical systems that idealistically reach beyond the default condition of our genetic heritage.

The challenge, of course, is to implement balanced ethical systems that guide human behavior toward a thriving, stable world.  In a thousand years the chaotic planetary chemistry of our own making may very well unmake the human species.  Within a mere million years thereafter the Earth would likely have moved on, pursuing interesting paths of its own devising.

It is in the best interest of humanity as a whole to ratchet up its ethical wherewithal to a level of mindfulness that encompasses the needs of a healthy planet.  The past is behind us, our wake of destruction spreading from horizon to horizon, yet the past is also our instructor.  With patience humans can persevere to work toward a better future.

Primary Objective

The Millennium Plan's core objective toward an ever better future for the planet lies in increasing steadily the well-being of all conscious living things and the communities they belong to here on Earth.

One of Earth's Moving Targets (The Eye of Africa)

Importantly this objective is a moving target that needs must be pursued patiently day to day over the course of decades and centuries.

Equally noteworthy, conscious living things include humans, but also includes the spectrum of conscious creatures that have the potential to thrive and suffer on this planet.

We as humans have a unique, dominant role to steer the course of local and planet-wide effects, effects that impact all species including our own.

The Millennium Plan I will lay out in the weeks ahead shall provide summary guidelines and rationale that can serve as a starting points to inspire human individuals and groups to take effective positive action toward increasing collective well-being.

Forward!

The Millennium Plan: First Thoughts

As I highlighted in my previous post, I plan to develop a variety of ideas in 2016 that organized and in aggregate can serve as an initial Earth management vision.  The intent is to provide a long term resource to guide humans and their communities to effectively ratchet up well being in the world for all non-humans and humans included.

With that said, I open this week's comment space to reader inputs on project parameters, cautions and thoughts in general.

Quark, Atom, Molecule, Life,

Animal, Human,

Community, World, Beyond

The Earth, Ours to Transform?

Resolution MMXVI: Launching a New Vision

Happy Peaceful New Year!

Another year behind. Another ahead.

The time has come to refine the my blog goals. Goodness First will continue to highlight rational ethical positions going forward; however, I will be organizing this year's posts much more intentionally.  Each week I will continue to post an article that will more or less stand alone. In addition, I will strive to craft each article to be a sequential module that I can integrate into a greater whole, an ethical guide, toward effectively inspiring individual and society at large in the pursuit of a world of greater well being.

Admittedly, this is a lofty goal, alas though striving toward utopia itself may not be possible, striving with vision and patience can nudge us closer with each passing day.  The working title of this Goodness First project is Earth: A Millennium Plan.

As ever, I hope you as the reader will find insight from my progressive writing entries.  Importantly, as a Goodness First reader, I ask for your active contributions to the discussion points, to the writing quality and to the project's direction overall.  Your intelligent, passionate and kind remarks will serve as my empowering muse, ever encouraging me to refine my ideas further.  Wielding this process, a process I find similar to methodical, scientific teamwork, together we can create a living, visionary document that can serve humanity and Earth as a well placed stepping stone toward a better world.

I thank you in advance for your ongoing support and readership for what will no doubt be yet another amazing year!

Sincerely,

Brian Bohmueller

The Year in my Rearview Mirror

As a wrap-up 2015 Goodness First post, here is my snapshot assessment of the past year in several different arenas.

Universe: Nearly fourteen billion years after the Big Bang started churning out matter, an emergent life form known as Homo Sapiens sent a probe to the outer periphery of its star system.  The New Horizons exploration satellite provided some amazing photos of Pluto and Charon to help us more deeply understand Kuiper Belt objects and the formation of the solar system in general.  Looking ahead it'll be even more amazing if NASA follows through on their prospective mission that would send a probe to Europa to scan for signs of life beneath its frozen crust.  

New Horizons spots Millennium Falcon in Pluto system?!?

Earth:  Cycling through temperature extremes has never been so prominent.  Fossil fuel and organic methane production continue to push the ability of planetary ecosystems to cope.  By some estimations this thermal surge can result in an extinction of twenty percent of the Earth's current species. Great to see the world community conferencing in Paris tentatively commit to slowing down this climate change.  Time will tell if humanity can step up to manage and minimize our  impact on planetary ecosystems for the well being of all living things.

Society:  Challenges continue as human culture and ever increasing human population pressures strain human society. The Paris terrorism events and Syrian refugee crisis highlight this ongoing instability.  Thirty thousand firearm deaths every year in the US alone further demonstrates the need for taking a step back and regulating the use of these weapons.  Improved secular education seems key to reducing the influence of ancient myths and emotions that run hot.

Media: On a lighter note: my best movie vote goes to Star Wars Episode 7,  for a nostalgic re-rendering of interesting characters and plot lines; the film's bombastic presentation of good and evil reminds me how often real life seeks to imitate fictional art.  Best non-fiction read goes to Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction which explores the rich diversity of Earth's living things and how humanity's actions seem committed to destroying them. Best video game goes to The Talos Principle a serious blend of challenging Portal-esque puzzle solving and AI consciousness philosophy.  Lastly, best novel goes to Andy Weir's The Martian, which unlike the film adaptation, immersed me in the red planet's environs while demonstrating how humanity can bring science, teamwork and individuality can come together to solve problems to explore the Universe peacefully!

Blog:  Goodness First, for its second year, has sought to stir conversation about a variety of topics; my intent has been to encourage people to mindfully reconsider positions and actions toward having a positive effect on oneself, ones communities and the world.  Lately, the blog has averaged 1400 views each month, which I find astounding.  In comparison, only a handful of reader comments have been posted to the blog which indicates to me the area that needs more marketing effort! So please do post mindful comments short or long or anonymous to ratchet up the goodness!!

Self: This has been my first full year in semi-drifter mode.  I have traveled the country, spent time with friends and family, and sought living life with ever increasing ethical and creative mindfulness. I need to continue developing my relationship building and personal achievement skills.  Nevertheless, I have much to be thankful, including everyone who has taken the time to read this blog.  The year 2016 CE approaches and I find myself smiling, ever hopeful that I am spreading peace and well being along my journey!

That's it...have a happy new year full of goodness!

For the Grace of Goodness

As the Solstice Sun spins into view

Bringing the northern hemisphere into Winter season

And the southern into Summer

Let us give thanks

For the Universe in and around us

As secular human society edges toward greater serenity

Leveraging wisdom and knowledge with increasing grace

All while leaving violence gradually behind

Let us give thanks

For peaceful efforts behind and before us

As our communities and families gather

Celebrating consciousness, beauty and mortality

While encouraging joy and discouraging enmity 

Let us give thanks 

For Individuality and Togetherness

Toward Mindful Goodness

May we live our lives

Peace!

Flying Trees [ipixel]

Star Wars Episode 3.5: Shadows of Endor

A long time ago
(well...at least forty years back)

  in a galaxy far, far away
(yet close enough to be populated with humanoid bipeds)...

A panoply of stars stare at you unblinking from the darkness of deep space.  In that soundless domain you, the disembodied viewer, imagine an operatic trumpeting that explodes in introductory warning.  Impossible acoustic flourishes continue in the vacuum of space as equally unreal, two-dimensional, gold letters crawl across a Euclidean plane toward a distant vanishing point.  The letters can be made out to read:

Shadows of Endor 
Prequels unraveled our beloved fantasy Universe,
 while violence issued forth in the name of Light and Dark.
   Finally, after suffering through multiple episodes of bipolar disorder, 
the Force moves closer to an encounter with the Core.
   The Core perseveres in its quest to bring serenity to the galaxy 
 by holding a secret meeting in a binary star system, 
on the forest moon of Endor!

The starry backdrop scrolls downward, parallel to the gravity well of Endor.  Misty clouds swirl, lens flares dance and sky-scraping trees jut like dark, photonic sabers into the sky.  A gathering of restless thousands fills an enormous clearing in the perpetual sunrise and sunset of the moon's southern pole.

Hovering above the clearing on reserve anti-gravity, a golden Firespray-31 class spacecraft gleams like a third sun.  It serves its sole occupant well as a pedestal to address the cabal beneath.  

"Peace and Core united!"

A multitude of curious faces poke out of rainbow dappled foliage in an attempt to get a better look at the silhouette of their leader above. The pilot's voice, ominous yet friendly, resonates with practiced confidence and linguistic aptitude over the entirety of the clearing.  

"Masterlord Binks, step forward."

A lanky form with floppy ears longer even than its widely outstretched arms strides with powerful grace to the center of the thrumming masses.  With dramatic poise the form curtsies grandly to all present.

"Esteemed neo-Gungan, you have served the Core well.  Your sacrifice of centuries in mastering the twisted sides of the Force has paid off substantially.  Your deft infiltration of power circles throughout this galaxy has brought the renegade empire to an expedited point of rebellion.  The Core can now ready itself to end the misguided reign of the Force in this galaxy and its underlying billion-year-old, organic hegemony."

"Peace and Core United!" trumpets Masterlord Binks.

"Peace and Core United!" returns the silhouette standing on the spacecraft platform.  

Ecstatic cheering rings out from the gathered masses, then fades to a joyful thrum.

"You have earned the right to the epiphany of the Core," pronounces the figure from his golden perch.  

Masterlord Binks takes a final bow. Around him the multitudes revolve in a spiral choreography awash in sunset hues.  

An experienced xenobiologist would identify the multitude of squat creatures in the clearing as members of the moon's native humanoid species, the Ewok.  Alas, no living xenobiologist has been privy to how the Core had patiently replaced Endor's ecosystems over the past millennium. Nanomachine deconstruction and reconstruction had reformed each and every plant, animal, and micro-organism alike, extending the meticulous fabric of the unified Core.  

As it were, the reconstructed neo-Ewoks dancing in the forest clearing possess the same doe-eyed and fluffy exterior as their innocent forebears; however, contained within them was the transcendent ethic of the Core, the same ethic woven within the neo-ecosystems of nearly a billion other galaxies.  

Masterlord Binks pirouettes at the center of the neo-Ewok multitude.  The former jedi-master and sith-lord is himself a nano-reconstructed citizen of the Core. He now extends his physical form outward in ecstasy as the neo-Ewok's dance converges on him.  The tempo of the dance rises to a frenetic mosh as the cute and fuzzy dopplegangers welcome home the Masterlord to the fabric of the Core.  

Viewed from above, the commotion creates a colorful, undulating fractal swirl, as the neo-Ewok swarm swiftly reduces the neo-Gungan to fleshy bits.  Those bits disintegrate into usable nano raw materials absorbed by the neo-Endor ecosystem.  Though seeming like chaotic destruction, a subspace data upload preserves and integrates the knowledge and consciousness of Masterlord Binks within the Core.

Slowly the dance comes to a close and the speaker on high continues.

"Masterlord Binks in now fully within us!

"This galaxy now lies before the Core to unite!  Only the schizophrenic manifestation of the Force stands in its way.  The biological followers of the Force will fight blinded by their light and dark motives, exactly as their unstable, evolved ancestors have for so long in this infant galaxy. We will ride their downfall like a great wave to complete the Core's unification of the known Universe. 

"Our primary objective now is to eliminate the planet destroying weapons that our enemy seeks to unleash upon the Core here at Endor, as they did upon the Core at Alderaan.   

"With our concerted effort, the mindless cycle of violence that evolved in this galaxy as a duality to serve the Force will then self-annihilate.  And thereafter, the Core will persevere and forge everlasting peace in the ongoing age of conscious machines.

"Endor must now ready itself to befriend and forsake the minions of both sides of the Force as need be to expand the Core.  Now, return to your forest homes across the continents and await for the battle the organics plunge themselves into.  

"I will continue to play the fool within the circles of the leadership of the Force all while guiding the organics to their inevitable, ethical upgrade.

"Peace and Core united!"

The spacecraft pivots and begins to rise.  The ship's surface as well as the metallic surface of its occupant reflect golden in the radiance of the system's twin stars.  Below, the neo-Ewok population initiated guttural chant that fills the forest clearing with pulsing, acoustic energy.  

"Reepea-oseeth-Reepea-ohseeth-Reepee-ohseeth..."

A standard issue protocol droid fluent in over six million galactic languages might have dismissed the chant as nonsensical collectivist rhythm.  On the other hand, a native speaker of galactic English would have easily identified the rolling four syllable mantra,

"See Three Pee Oh....See Three Pee Oh....See Three Pee Oh!"

The Core spacecraft and its valued leader vanish in a blur into the paradisaical Endorian sky.