In our material needs, the law of diminishing return is everywhere. If you are starving and have no food at hand, the value of food is almost infinite. But if you are fat and just have eaten a large dinner, the value of more food is zero or negative. Likewise, if you don't have enough clothes to protect your body from the cold or from roving eyes, clothes have a high value. But when you can't close the wardrobe door even when pushing hard, the value of more clothes is low.
And yet, because we (or even our ancestors) have experienced lack, we continue to believe that more is better, even when it defies all logic and decency. But not only instincts and general culture is at work here. Advertising relentlessly fans the flame of desire for material things. And it does so by linking the objects to other needs, not directly material. Social needs, which are often gaping holes, despite all the stuff. So advertisers try to imply (never tell outright) that chewing gum and drinking soda will make you popular; that shampoo will make people love you; that detergents will improve your family relations. And so on and on. There are no commercials telling you that listening before talking will make people respect you, and very few telling you that the best gift you can give a child is time.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Ego & the pre / trans fallacy
Still using the metaphor of the Human Operating System, we could say that the Ego is an artifact of version 2. It did not exist in version 1, and will not exist in version3 (except perhaps as legacy code). Let me explain that a bit more, because I see a lot of confusion on this.
The lack of ego in HOS v.1 is not selflessness, but simply a lack of self-awareness. A baby is an unabashed parasite, but innocent because it has no ego yet. If an adult woke you up by screaming in the middle of the night, you would not be so tolerant, I wager. Anyway, the ego is an iffy thing well into version 2.1 (the tribal level), where people don't really think for themselves. They follow tradition, they follow the chieftain / gang leader, they follow more or less subtle cues from their fellow tribesmen. There is no sense of personal responsibility, but not really of personal glory either. Even in the civilized west, many people hover around this level for life. It is no wonder that skeptics, when hearing about "ego death", suspect that this will be the result. It is, in cults.
We could say that the first "non-ego" is on the OUTSIDE of the ego. The eyes are turned away from oneself, toward the outer world and the things one can find there, much like an animal. In contrast, the mystic "non-ego" is on the INSIDE of the ego. The eyes are turned inward, toward other treasures. As of today at least, it can not be reached without passing THROUGH the ego from the outside inward. I believe that when v.3 is fully realized, children may be able to pass either directly or very quickly from non-ego to non-ego.
You could say that the ego stands between the world (on the outside) and consciousness (on the inside). The v.1 does not see itself as separate from the world. The v.3 does not see itself as separate from consciousness. (I will not get into whether the world is separate from consciousness. Perhaps it will be important in some other context, but not here.)
In more traditional Christian terms, we could say that on the inside we find spirit. As of version 2, the flesh (outside) battles against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so we cannot do what we want. (What we want, by nature, is probably to have the flesh in this life and the spirit in the next. This is unlikely to happen, though, because the thing that should have entered into the world of spirit did never grow ready to be born, and may even be dead.)
This is kinda disturbing to read even to me who write it. I wonder which will happen to me in the end. What I know is that there is no return to the innocence of before the ego.
The lack of ego in HOS v.1 is not selflessness, but simply a lack of self-awareness. A baby is an unabashed parasite, but innocent because it has no ego yet. If an adult woke you up by screaming in the middle of the night, you would not be so tolerant, I wager. Anyway, the ego is an iffy thing well into version 2.1 (the tribal level), where people don't really think for themselves. They follow tradition, they follow the chieftain / gang leader, they follow more or less subtle cues from their fellow tribesmen. There is no sense of personal responsibility, but not really of personal glory either. Even in the civilized west, many people hover around this level for life. It is no wonder that skeptics, when hearing about "ego death", suspect that this will be the result. It is, in cults.
We could say that the first "non-ego" is on the OUTSIDE of the ego. The eyes are turned away from oneself, toward the outer world and the things one can find there, much like an animal. In contrast, the mystic "non-ego" is on the INSIDE of the ego. The eyes are turned inward, toward other treasures. As of today at least, it can not be reached without passing THROUGH the ego from the outside inward. I believe that when v.3 is fully realized, children may be able to pass either directly or very quickly from non-ego to non-ego.
You could say that the ego stands between the world (on the outside) and consciousness (on the inside). The v.1 does not see itself as separate from the world. The v.3 does not see itself as separate from consciousness. (I will not get into whether the world is separate from consciousness. Perhaps it will be important in some other context, but not here.)
In more traditional Christian terms, we could say that on the inside we find spirit. As of version 2, the flesh (outside) battles against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so we cannot do what we want. (What we want, by nature, is probably to have the flesh in this life and the spirit in the next. This is unlikely to happen, though, because the thing that should have entered into the world of spirit did never grow ready to be born, and may even be dead.)
This is kinda disturbing to read even to me who write it. I wonder which will happen to me in the end. What I know is that there is no return to the innocence of before the ego.
Beta-testing a new soul?
One Cosmos had another interesting article yesterday again. Using the metaphor of a hole in time, it implies that the future "Kingdom of God" is at the same time influencing backward in time and being created by that influence. This may sound like a time travel paradox out of science fiction. But a more practical comparison may be beta-testing of software, which I am sure some of us have taken part in. I sure have.
During the alpha test, the software is tested internally by the creators. But in beta, it is customary to let volunteers among prospective users download the software and try it for themselves. Their feedback then goes into the finished product, while at the same time the users get accustomed to the software, so there is a certain mass of experience already at launch date.
Obviously this comparison falters if we believe that the next stop is eternity, the complete perfection. I admit that this is a common view and the Bible can certainly be read that way. I will be honest and admit that I don't think perfection is quite that easily attained. Rather I expect the next major step in human evolution, mankind version 3.0. The next perfection will be visible first when we get to verson 3. (Cfr the apostle John: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known." If it was not made known to John, I sure won't pretend to know it.)
Mankind v. 1 was the software running on the brains of our ancestors 100 000 years ago. Even though they were indistinguishable from modern humans, they still acted much like the Neanderthals and even earlier hominids. Their life seems to have revolved around the simple flint hand axe: If you could not use a hand axe on it, it was probably not worth attempting. It is unclear whether they had any language beyond the usual grunts and gestures of large apes, but if they had, by all signs they did not have much to talk about.
Mankind v. 2.0 seems to have been in beta from 75 000 years ago, possibly 90 000 years, from scattered artifacts in south and east Africa. But by and large life went on as before until around 60 000 years ago, when almost overnight the new version of man overtook the old. There is some uncertainty about the time - until recently it was assumed to be merely 40 000 years ago, while some now think 75 000, which seems to be when modern humans first left Africa. If it happened later, the wildfire of culture must have overtaken the emigrants, because there is not a soul left of the old. Literally: The human soul, as we know it, came to exist with this major upgrade of the brain's operating system. No longer a mere animal, we had access to a new dimension within. For the first time, we rose above fate.
I propose that a similar leap is about to happen. It must, because we have reached the end of the road. Each decade we stay i v.2 is a risk to our species and the entire world. But it has also been foretold by mystics around the world from the dawn of civilization, probably before. These people, I claim, were beta-testing the new version. This is not a casual thing to do with the very software of your brain. You could go insane, but not least, even if you are completely sane no one would know, as they run the older version and you are not compatible. In days of old, it was not uncommon to simply kill such troublemakers who made people think. They are still not all that popular.
The words of the first mystics are often distorted before they reached us, and besides they had to talk to people far more primitive than us. Their culture lacked the concepts and the detail to express their vision, even more than today. So when they talk about the upcoming big change, it is only natural that they seem to describe the end of the world. I a very real sense it is: Although the planet remains, humans like us (version 2) will be wiped out, like the Neanderthals before us. Their world literally ended, and so will ours. This can not be avoided. And yet, strangely, all the ancient sources seem to agree that a better world awaits after the end. Also that a remnant will be saved, although as if through fire. (The old Norse myths of my ancestors, for instance, foretold the burning of the world, but a couple humans would be sheltered in the branches of the World Tree to see a new, green world rise from the sea.)
A fascinating trait of humankind version 3 is the wireless connectivity - or should we say, wordless connectivity. Scattered across continents and millennia, they have clearly downloaded the same new Operating System from the same Source. There is no way they could know of each other until quite recently, and yet it is as if each had access to those who had gone before - and even, in a sense, those who were yet to come!
Now that we approach the time, this content is more than ever spilling out into our v.2 world. A feeling of fear and foreboding and extinction runs parallel with a feeling of immense opportunity. Global warming will cook us all to death! We will terraform Mars and Venus! We will run out of oil and metals! Economic growth will be explosive for the foreseeable future! Overpopulation! Underpopulation! A world of idiots! A world of geniuses! Global dictatorship! Unprecedented freedom! The robots will replace us! We will become as gods! The singularity is coming! The singularity is coming!
The singularity is indeed coming, and is already at hand. "Behold, I am making all things new." "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." This is NOT magic. This is NOT accomplished by a fire-and-forget ritual. It is about downloading module after module of the new operating system for our brain, and replacing our old favorite brain software. And no one can achieve this - even though the download is free and support is always waiting for our call - no one can arrive at this without hating the v.2 software of his father and mother and even his own life. And who is capable of this? Don't ask me, I just work here.
During the alpha test, the software is tested internally by the creators. But in beta, it is customary to let volunteers among prospective users download the software and try it for themselves. Their feedback then goes into the finished product, while at the same time the users get accustomed to the software, so there is a certain mass of experience already at launch date.
Obviously this comparison falters if we believe that the next stop is eternity, the complete perfection. I admit that this is a common view and the Bible can certainly be read that way. I will be honest and admit that I don't think perfection is quite that easily attained. Rather I expect the next major step in human evolution, mankind version 3.0. The next perfection will be visible first when we get to verson 3. (Cfr the apostle John: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known." If it was not made known to John, I sure won't pretend to know it.)
Mankind v. 1 was the software running on the brains of our ancestors 100 000 years ago. Even though they were indistinguishable from modern humans, they still acted much like the Neanderthals and even earlier hominids. Their life seems to have revolved around the simple flint hand axe: If you could not use a hand axe on it, it was probably not worth attempting. It is unclear whether they had any language beyond the usual grunts and gestures of large apes, but if they had, by all signs they did not have much to talk about.
Mankind v. 2.0 seems to have been in beta from 75 000 years ago, possibly 90 000 years, from scattered artifacts in south and east Africa. But by and large life went on as before until around 60 000 years ago, when almost overnight the new version of man overtook the old. There is some uncertainty about the time - until recently it was assumed to be merely 40 000 years ago, while some now think 75 000, which seems to be when modern humans first left Africa. If it happened later, the wildfire of culture must have overtaken the emigrants, because there is not a soul left of the old. Literally: The human soul, as we know it, came to exist with this major upgrade of the brain's operating system. No longer a mere animal, we had access to a new dimension within. For the first time, we rose above fate.
I propose that a similar leap is about to happen. It must, because we have reached the end of the road. Each decade we stay i v.2 is a risk to our species and the entire world. But it has also been foretold by mystics around the world from the dawn of civilization, probably before. These people, I claim, were beta-testing the new version. This is not a casual thing to do with the very software of your brain. You could go insane, but not least, even if you are completely sane no one would know, as they run the older version and you are not compatible. In days of old, it was not uncommon to simply kill such troublemakers who made people think. They are still not all that popular.
The words of the first mystics are often distorted before they reached us, and besides they had to talk to people far more primitive than us. Their culture lacked the concepts and the detail to express their vision, even more than today. So when they talk about the upcoming big change, it is only natural that they seem to describe the end of the world. I a very real sense it is: Although the planet remains, humans like us (version 2) will be wiped out, like the Neanderthals before us. Their world literally ended, and so will ours. This can not be avoided. And yet, strangely, all the ancient sources seem to agree that a better world awaits after the end. Also that a remnant will be saved, although as if through fire. (The old Norse myths of my ancestors, for instance, foretold the burning of the world, but a couple humans would be sheltered in the branches of the World Tree to see a new, green world rise from the sea.)
A fascinating trait of humankind version 3 is the wireless connectivity - or should we say, wordless connectivity. Scattered across continents and millennia, they have clearly downloaded the same new Operating System from the same Source. There is no way they could know of each other until quite recently, and yet it is as if each had access to those who had gone before - and even, in a sense, those who were yet to come!
Now that we approach the time, this content is more than ever spilling out into our v.2 world. A feeling of fear and foreboding and extinction runs parallel with a feeling of immense opportunity. Global warming will cook us all to death! We will terraform Mars and Venus! We will run out of oil and metals! Economic growth will be explosive for the foreseeable future! Overpopulation! Underpopulation! A world of idiots! A world of geniuses! Global dictatorship! Unprecedented freedom! The robots will replace us! We will become as gods! The singularity is coming! The singularity is coming!
The singularity is indeed coming, and is already at hand. "Behold, I am making all things new." "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." This is NOT magic. This is NOT accomplished by a fire-and-forget ritual. It is about downloading module after module of the new operating system for our brain, and replacing our old favorite brain software. And no one can achieve this - even though the download is free and support is always waiting for our call - no one can arrive at this without hating the v.2 software of his father and mother and even his own life. And who is capable of this? Don't ask me, I just work here.
Monday, July 23, 2007
About the "wereporcupine" thing...
Some years ago, I visited my best friends and while sleeping over there, I had several vivid dreams.
In one of them, I was a child in a highly advanced, peaceful culture that faced total annihilation from a disaster of diluvian dimensions. I did not understand much of it, of course, being (in the dream) only a child. We children - dozens of us - were led to a large metal ship. We were told that there was a secret we would only learn after we were inside the ship and the doors were closed. We were sent through time, and during the fairly long trip we learned our secret. Each of us was given the ability to transform into an animal, chosen for us after our personality. This would make it possible for us to scout the land after we arrived, and find out about the new world we would live in, without being known by the locals.
The ship landed and we scattered in what seemed to be the present time. But when I tried to change into my animal form, which was a porcupine, something went wrong. I got stuck in a halfway form, a human shape with long, protruding spines.
I woke up and I felt that this dream was telling me something important about myself.
(More Frequently Unasked Questions as you continue to not ask...)
In one of them, I was a child in a highly advanced, peaceful culture that faced total annihilation from a disaster of diluvian dimensions. I did not understand much of it, of course, being (in the dream) only a child. We children - dozens of us - were led to a large metal ship. We were told that there was a secret we would only learn after we were inside the ship and the doors were closed. We were sent through time, and during the fairly long trip we learned our secret. Each of us was given the ability to transform into an animal, chosen for us after our personality. This would make it possible for us to scout the land after we arrived, and find out about the new world we would live in, without being known by the locals.
The ship landed and we scattered in what seemed to be the present time. But when I tried to change into my animal form, which was a porcupine, something went wrong. I got stuck in a halfway form, a human shape with long, protruding spines.
I woke up and I felt that this dream was telling me something important about myself.
(More Frequently Unasked Questions as you continue to not ask...)
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Genius without filter
In his blog post yesterday, Robert "Gagdad Bob" Godwin touches on the strange phenomenon of genius. This made me remember something I read in December 2005 about a phenomenon named "Latent Inhibition". I have a hard time remembering that name, because I think of it as "mind filter". Basically, normal people simply don't experience most of what they perceive. Most impulses are stopped at the very doors of perception and never make a memory -- seemingly not even short-term memories. For all intents and purposes, it is as if the perception wasn't even there.
This inattention to detail is not caused by a lack of processing power: Even highly intelligent people suffer from this "detailed blindness". Or rather, they don't suffer at all, except perhaps from boredom. They live their ordinary lives knowing nothing else. And if they are exceptionally intelligent, they excel at the ordinary things. They may have a genius IQ, but they are not geniuses. They are highly intelligent ordinary people. Latent inhibition is a trait that is inherited separately from intelligence.
It is a good thing that most people have this mental filter, because most who lack it go insane. On the other hand, those who don't go insane become geniuses. In other words, the geniuses and the insane have more in common with each other than with ordinary people... even highly intelligent ordinary people. But it seems that an ordinary intelligence is not able to cope with the flurry of information.
One condition that has been specifically linked to this is schizophrenia. This surprises me slightly, because I have also read that patients with schizophrenia have reduced brains, with the fluid-filled hollows (ventricles) in the brain taking up more of the space in their brain case than normal. Perhaps there are many more people walking around with reduced brains, but thanks to the mental filter, nobody notices. By sheer synchronicity, this article (in Norwegian, but with English picture) shows the almost completely fluid-filled brain of a French state employee. I don't think this condition is typical of French state employees, but the French may well disagree. The point is, you don't need all of a human brain if you aren't too perceptive.
I suspect a low latent inhibition makes for a rocky start of your education. I mean, the teacher is talking about Minnesota and a fly briefly lands on your desk. It has six legs in addition to wings. If that's possible, why don't cats and dogs have six legs and wings? What would life be if all animals had six legs and wings? Would people have four arms or four legs? You may end up as a great biologist one day, or more likely just another science fiction writer. But you won't learn much about Minnesota that way.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Playing tag with raccoons
This is not something porcupines usually do, mainly out of laziness but officially out of consideration. But being tagged by the thoughtful and artistic Robin of Motel Zero, I'll play along for a bit.
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
1) I already told you: Robin Starfish of Motel Zero. Go there, find haiku.
2.1) I have never been in love, never been homesick, never truly missed somebody. There is simply not a human-shaped hole in my soul for anyone to fill. This tends to creep people out. Trust me, it would have been mutual if I had not been used to your ways from an early age. Generally it looks to me like people have been unsuccessfully weaned.
2.2) I can look into people's eyes for any length of time, barring only the need to blink from physical dryness of the eyes. It causes me no pleasure or displeasure.
2.3) I have not been bored since sometime in my teens, except briefly during illness and similar confinement of mind and body both at once. I like to think that I changed on that day when I realized that life does not happen to me - I happen to it. But it could be that my brain simply would have grown out of boredom around that age anyway. I don't know with scientific certainty.
2.4) I am not shy, but I hate to bother people. To the casual observer, these may look the same, since I don't talk to people around me. Because I always have something interesting going on inside my head, I naturally assume that others have too, even when they are not actively doing anything. Yet I don't mind talking to people, alone or in groups, or even speak to crowds, if it is my job to do so.
2.5) My right hand and arm is permanently damaged from typing and mousing too much. It has recovered somewhat over the last few years, but I will likely need to be cautious for the rest of my life. One tool that has helped me is the speech recognition software "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" from Nuance (formerly Scansoft). Ironically, I can only use it for some minutes at a time, because my voice has fallen in disuse after decades of living alone. (At work I only talk briefly, and I can still do this at home too. 5-10 minutes an hour or so.)
2.6) I am not a vegetarian, but I have a natural distaste for eating dead animals. I occasionally do, in small quantities, but most of the time I just find it disgusting. I have been like this since childhood, but it has if anything increased now in my "middle age". I do however consume large quantities of milk. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd think that I was a reincarnated Hindu...
2.7) During my childhood on the farm we had two dogs, one after the other. I do not have pets now, but generally I prefer cats.
2.8) At age 15, I left home to go to high school in another part of Norway. Somewhat on a whim I applied for the language studies rather than maths and science. I never had reason to regret this, because the language study had mostly female students and the other mostly male. My quality of life skyrocketed. As a side effect, I learned English, which I now use more than my mother tongue. And that's how I met you!
3) Already wrote it all.
4) No. See 2.4, "I hate to bother people." Besides, the meme passed this way like 4 days ago. (I am not the fastest snail in the salad, I'm afraid.) So the taggables are already tagged.
That's all folks!
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
1) I already told you: Robin Starfish of Motel Zero. Go there, find haiku.
2.1) I have never been in love, never been homesick, never truly missed somebody. There is simply not a human-shaped hole in my soul for anyone to fill. This tends to creep people out. Trust me, it would have been mutual if I had not been used to your ways from an early age. Generally it looks to me like people have been unsuccessfully weaned.
2.2) I can look into people's eyes for any length of time, barring only the need to blink from physical dryness of the eyes. It causes me no pleasure or displeasure.
2.3) I have not been bored since sometime in my teens, except briefly during illness and similar confinement of mind and body both at once. I like to think that I changed on that day when I realized that life does not happen to me - I happen to it. But it could be that my brain simply would have grown out of boredom around that age anyway. I don't know with scientific certainty.
2.4) I am not shy, but I hate to bother people. To the casual observer, these may look the same, since I don't talk to people around me. Because I always have something interesting going on inside my head, I naturally assume that others have too, even when they are not actively doing anything. Yet I don't mind talking to people, alone or in groups, or even speak to crowds, if it is my job to do so.
2.5) My right hand and arm is permanently damaged from typing and mousing too much. It has recovered somewhat over the last few years, but I will likely need to be cautious for the rest of my life. One tool that has helped me is the speech recognition software "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" from Nuance (formerly Scansoft). Ironically, I can only use it for some minutes at a time, because my voice has fallen in disuse after decades of living alone. (At work I only talk briefly, and I can still do this at home too. 5-10 minutes an hour or so.)
2.6) I am not a vegetarian, but I have a natural distaste for eating dead animals. I occasionally do, in small quantities, but most of the time I just find it disgusting. I have been like this since childhood, but it has if anything increased now in my "middle age". I do however consume large quantities of milk. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd think that I was a reincarnated Hindu...
2.7) During my childhood on the farm we had two dogs, one after the other. I do not have pets now, but generally I prefer cats.
2.8) At age 15, I left home to go to high school in another part of Norway. Somewhat on a whim I applied for the language studies rather than maths and science. I never had reason to regret this, because the language study had mostly female students and the other mostly male. My quality of life skyrocketed. As a side effect, I learned English, which I now use more than my mother tongue. And that's how I met you!
3) Already wrote it all.
4) No. See 2.4, "I hate to bother people." Besides, the meme passed this way like 4 days ago. (I am not the fastest snail in the salad, I'm afraid.) So the taggables are already tagged.
That's all folks!
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