WHY ARE WE HERE? PART THREE

Here today to wish family and friends "Happy Thanksgiving" 2010!

Here today to express my relief I don't have to go to work for the next 4 days.

Here today to enjoy our own home-bred turkey. (No Picture, sorry). Although I regret we have to kill it to eat it! But that's our livestock. We eat meat, yet we become attached to our live-stock, and that is life.

In the future maybe that will change. But for now that's the way it is. At least I know our turkey was treated very well, and had a good life. Plenty to eat. I will miss it's gobbling while I try and start my car in the mornings. Certain sounds entice a turkey to gobble. It's pretty cool.

I'm here to remind you, that despite all that's cool about our existence, there is much that sucks - sorry to remind you of that.

Our recent "Great Recession" has crippled hundreds of thousands of average people, myself included.Our banking system is now more dangerous than ever. Politics is more insane than it's ever been,  but there is still hope.

Some may argue success is in one's mind, attainable simply by shear belief in oneself. I'm accepting the new reality,  that with unemployment rates of 5% gone, as has been the standard in past generations, those rates will remain high for quite awhile. Both a world market and advancements in technology have fueled the reality.

That means, the employer has the advantage. If you're over 50, it's best to stay put. And for me that means a 150 mile commute, M-F. Burning a lot of gas, driving. Although I could move, my home is my home - and it means a lot to me.

Part Four will bring you back to the beginning ...

It begins with a book which I just added to my media list. A book I had forgotten about, but that was vital to who I am today.

Wiki Link: Fifth Business is a 1970 novel by Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor Robertson Davies. It is the first installment of the Deptford Trilogy and is a story of the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay. It is Davies' best-known novel, and considered his finest.


There are "leaders, followers, and fifth business..."


I am the latter.


Happy Holidays!


BobKat

WHY ARE WE HERE? PART TWO

Part One is HERE

I ended Part One as a "Black Hole". Literally. That's what happens to some stars when they burn out, go nova.

The thing I'm curious about is,  what causes some stars to become black holes, and others to become red dwarfs. My science here may not be exact, but hope you get my point.

I ended Part One ahead of myself. I'm still here... not the black hole quite yet. Not the thousand year old mummy, buried with pounds of cannabis in what was once known as the state of NH, in the once great country - the USA.

Sure, time WILL change things. Already has and is... the rate of change is exponentially multiplying at a rate that only machine will be able to understand. Humans will simply guide and relate to machines. The machines will build themselves, with the help of humans. We will become symbiants. It's already happened.

I heard tonight on my way home from work, on the radio, the technology is here to "PRINT" 3-D objects. 30,000 such printers already exist and they'll "print" actual objects. 3-D functional objects. In the future, there will be no US Mail, no UPS or Fed-Ex... no stores, malls, or work-places. You'll download and print what you want, be it clothes, be it subsistence, be it a house. The tech is here, now. And as a techie, I assure you, the technology we will witness, in the coming years will blow your socks off! It is going to go way beyond anything humankind ever imagined or dreamed about.

The new reality will not only include sophisticated printers, but a new reality - a Global Web. It will include robotic dolls, that men or women can buy as mates. No more need to date, play games and risk STD's. They exist already, rather expensive though, and not particularly bright just yet with the latest AI. But that'll change real soon. Too bad I don't feel optimistic about seeing it... living long enough to enjoy the possibilities.

WHY ARE WE HERE? PART ONE

Until a few days ago this question - "Why are we here?" would have been a topic I wouldn't have been able to post. I tried asking that question of friends, but every time they looked at me like I was crazy. One friend said, "we're here because we are - it's simple biology". Another said - "it's not something I think about".

But when a MD asks the same question, and publishes an article on the subject, I figure that rather changes things. Robert Lanza, M.D. posted the following article: "Why Are We Here - A New Theory May Hold The Missing Piece".

A better title might be: "What Is The Meaning of Life?" Something I know from the 1970's was a common question.

Even Dr. Lanza's article leaves much to be desired.I quote from his article the following as an introduction:

"Why do you happen to be alive on this lush little planet with its warm sun and coconut trees? And at just the right time in the history of the universe? The surface of the molten earth has cooled, but it's not too cold. And it's not too hot; the sun hasn't expanded enough to melt the Earth's surface with its searing gas yet. Even setting aside the issue of being here and now, the probability of random physical laws and events leading to this point is less than 1 out of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, equivalent to winning every lottery there ever was."

Well, I have a further twist to this question, one that has been an obsession to me for years. 


Why now? 


On the cosmic clock I'm here and gone for approximately one micro-nano second... when considering the age of the universe.  Already billions of light-years have passed since "the Big Bang", when the universe was created. And yet here I am, now, cognizant of my existence; aware of my existence. Why???

 I believe, to be aware of my existence at this moment in time means there is something about me that exists beyond my past and present. How else would I be aware of my being here now? When essentially, I'm already dead and buried. Perhaps someday to be dug up by archeologists and examined. My life speculated about.

And what would they find?

My teeth would tell them I was brought up and raised in the NE of America. That I was well nourished and ate a variety of foods. It would tell them I was of European descent, most likely born in what was called the USA in the 20th century. That for several years after turning twenty I did manual labor, and then oddly, that changed around age 45 when I seem to have become sedentary.  It appears my diet changed. My lifestyle changed. That by age 55 I was suffering from several as yet unknown medical conditions. Chemical analysis might find evidence of alcohol and tobacco use,  and past use of cannabis. Of the three it might be curious why I appeared to favor the first two drugs... and why cannabis, which would have been far safer and more therapeutic was less used.

I might become the great debate as to what the norm was for people living during the 19th and 20th century. A thousand years from now, they might speculate that the addictive nature of alcohol and tobacco trumped the use of cannabis, and they would wonder why. A determination would be made that I had grown up well nourished, but succumbed to addiction to alcohol and tobacco. They would wonder why. They would wonder what happened to me after age 45 that I was sedentary.   That perhaps I was imprisoned. 

I doubt they could draw any conclusive evidence of life in my years that would make sense. And I concur. 

My blogs would be long gone. Most virtual online data would be long gone, and much written material would be scarce. My world would have ended in a mysterious explosion; a nuclear Armageddon perhaps.

What haunts me now, and will haunt me until the day I die is why am I aware of my existence presently? Why am I stuck in this time and place? Why are some of the most poignant changes and threats humankind has ever had to deal with occurring now? Have others in the past felt the same? Does every generation have those who wonder why? Why now? Why am I here?

Why are we aware of our existence - how is that possible, and will it simply end one day, for us, for what we think is a long and often painful existence? How can we know what we know now, unless something spiritual continues beyond our death? On the cosmic clock I am already born and deceased. I am an anomaly.  

If there is a Part Two I hope to further explore my existence. But I have to wonder if it's worth my time. My time which seems to be owned and controlled by others. 

There was a time it wasn't that way... or so it seemed at the time. That time was when I was in my 20's...  a time that seems so unreal now, so out of place. A time i keep going back to, time and again. A time that haunts me... a time where I had what's called "personal power", which for many years I've been without.

I can't help but consider friends who took their own life: suicide, it's called. And friends that died tragic deaths. I can't help but think of the madness that seems to encompass me, especially political madness, prejudice and slavery.

Of senseless murders, wars, persecutions.

I am you could say paralyzed to move on. Locked within myself. Able to look out and wonder why?

I also know, my reality is subjective. That my belief in a past, present and future is just one form of reality. I know this because in my "media list" is a book by Benjamin Whorf: about the Hopi Indians and their view of reality. The Hopi believed "there is that which was, and that which is in the process of becoming". The present and future is one. 

If that would have been the reality I was raised to believe I would not be stuck now. I would believe there is that which I experiences, and that which I now have within my power to live and change. But I don't feel that. I feel stuck, in my present. I feel enslaved by a society that has a fixed believe in what reality is. 

What those archeologists may not know is that what legal choices I had in life.  What the penalties were for those who didn't do as they were told. That a 40 hour plus work week was required, unless one was lucky enough to be born to wealth or stardom.

They would also not know that once I was a star.  A bright star. 

Now, or then, all they may see is a black hole. A quantum anomaly.

A mystery.

CAFFEINATED ALCOHOL - BANNED BY THE FDA - ILLEGAL IN NH

Updated/Edited: Nov. 19, 2010: 8PM

College students called it "Black-out"! An alcoholic beverage sold under various brand names has now been banned by the FDA, and is allegedly illegal in the state of NH.

According to latest news, the NH Liquor Commission has ordered all alcoholic beverages containing both alcohol and caffeine to be pulled from the shelves of retailers. Several companies which produce these "manufactured beverages" have been ordered to cease production. The names of these products is not relevant to this topic, the decision to do so is.

Several studies have, in my opinion correctly concluded that these beverages are potentially dangerous - in that use of these beverages "mask the level of intoxication" by users; particularly women and thin people with little resistance to the effects of alcohol. The facts conclude that the mixture of alcohol and caffeine into a marketable drink is dangerous. The user(s) may become intoxicated without the cognitive ability to recognize the danger they are exposed to, nor the risk to society; especially when driving a motor vehicle, or in situations involving interpersonal relationships.

These conclusions I have no doubt are legitimate. However the ban by the FDA and criminal penalties by states that have made them illegal are complex. Not only the impact to companies that make these products, but in addition, potential infringement on personal freedom. The laws are vague, and also quite sudden.

The essential facts are this.

Manufactured alcoholic beverages containing both alcohol and caffeine are potentially dangerous. Thus the ban and the alleged laws prohibiting such beverages.

The problem:

Alcohol is a manufactured product. It has to be processed from organic compounds and fermented/distilled. Manufactured beverages combining the two products, alcohol and caffeine are bottled, and packaged in a way that makes them appealing, along with similarly appealing advertising.

Recent regulations target this marketing practice are, in good faith. However, no distinction can be made between these beverages, and similar combinations involving alcohol and caffeinated soft-drinks, alcohol and coffee or the combination of alcohol and caffeinated over the counter substances.

This means, potentially, if you consume or possess any of the above you are, potentially, violating the law. You are technically subject to arrest. Also, it further entices youth, for whom experimenting with "drugs" is common, an open invitation to experiment with combinations of alcohol and caffeine (tablets) to mix them for the "black-out buzz".

The recent and sudden ban on such products is alarming. It is an advertisement as big as any bill-board can be.  A recipe for yet another dangerous fringe drug combination/mixture based on individually legal products.

The fact that such a ban and alleged laws were imposed with such rapidity suggests a failure of regulators to understand the consequences of their actions. Why were such bans/laws put in place so quickly? If in fact such a combination are dangerous as described, considerable thought and legislative action should have been pursued first. The manufacturers may have been quietly contacted and urged to cease production.

It is my opinion, the FDA, the NH Liquor Commission, acted irresponcibly  in invoking these regulations. They have created a dangerous situation!

Typical... and I hope, a opportunity to for people to question the minds of those who make the rules and laws in this country.