Thanks Cityview for printing my article

http://www.dmcityview.com/guest-commentary/2014/11/26/des-moines-37-years-of-change/

- end

Links in a chain of scribery

Some book links:

Experimental Tales www.createspace.com/4973862

The Osmotics www.createspace.com/4661301

Mirror Worlds www.createspace.com/3633147

A Strange Enterprise www.createspace.com/4281639

Future Property www.createspace.com/3859469

Shadow Intersection www.createspace.com/4113022

   - end

 

 

Race Divide by Zero

The blacks riot in the streets and scream at

a sea of grim faces behind riot helmets.

Whites pontificate and speculate,

wring hands and bemoan realities.

The Asians who were once virtual slaves

to build railroads and industries are not complaining.

No marches or cries for justice or burn baby burn.

They quietly work and build new foundations –

Homes, businesses and industries. China makes

most everything in our households, but we still

blame each other and delude ourselves.

The Asians will own us all, and laugh their

way to their shiny new banks, while we

squabble and fight over scraps. A few

of us might be able to afford to visit their

casinos on the Moon, but most will just

try to get a job there, to make ends meet.

- end

Things to be thankful for

I have a nice home to live in, and a job,

a car and a cat – many things to be thankful for.

Good to count our blessings as well as shortcomings.

Others are all too willing to count the failures -

I will count blessings and benchmarks and achievements.

There is also this tech revolution I'm privileged to watch:

The ability to select and watch so many programs,

stop, record, save and repeat them on diverse platforms.

The ability to call up information on almost any subject,

save it, record it, print it, and forward it.

Libraries are being rendered obsolete,

and other technologies once stand-alone

are absorbed by this enormous presence called the WWW.

Applications are moving over to cellphones.

Smartphone owners now hold a ticket to the world

in their overworked fingers. Ever-changing reality.

Time to catch the breath, and marvel at the wonders;

taste the goodness our collective table delivers.

Thanksgiving day we can pause, sit and enjoy

good food and company, maybe even put away handheld toys.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Transhumanism

I recently became acquainted with it.  Seems optimistic, hopeful, and worthwhile.  See the below table.  Definitely food for thought.
----------------------------------------------

TABLE OF TRANSHUMANIST VALUES

Core Value

•         Having the opportunity to explore the transhuman and posthuman realms

Basic Conditions

•        Global security
•        Technological progress
•        Wide access

Derivative Values

•         Nothing wrong about “tampering with nature”; the idea of hubris rejected
•         Individual choice in use of enhancement technologies; morphological freedom
•         Peace, international cooperation, anti-proliferation of WMDs
•         Improving understanding (encouraging research and public debate; critical thinking; open-mindedness, scientific inquiry; open discussion of the future)
•         Getting smarter (individually; collectively; and develop machine intelligence)
•         Philosophical fallibilism; willingness to reexamine assumptions as we go along
•         Pragmatism; engineering- and entrepreneur-spirit; science
•         Diversity (species, races, religious creeds, sexual orientations, life styles, etc.)
•         Caring about the well-being of all sentience
•         Saving lives (life-extension, anti-aging research, and cryonic 
•                                               - end

Epiphany at work

It just occurred to me while going through my usual routine today.   There will always be folks making critical or catty remarks, humorous or not.  But real history is always made by those who kept doing things, making things happen.  Like Henry Ford, T. Edison, N. Tesla, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and so on.  The critics and rock-throwers are not remembered for trying to stop the doers.  The Doers are remembered for persisting, and changing our world. 

Poem like a Comet

We landed on a comet the other day,

after a billion-plus mile journey;

The little guy is named Philae,

set down on the surface with “no worries.”

Another step outward for humanity,

Billion-mile destination achieved

after a long convoluted trajectory,

Accomplishment hardly to be believed.

Someday people will walk on these worlds,

Digging samples and snapping pictures.

“Asteroid for sale” signs will be unfurled,

New homes for many, no longer obscure.

What excuse will we come up with for war now?

“Lebensraum” no longer a reason to start a row.

- end

marking history

     Today the human race sent a spacecraft to orbit a comet traveling towards the Sun.  It detached a small lander, which successfully landed on the surface.    The orbiter is called Rosetta, the lander Philae.  Both are names taken from another historic time, the finding of the Rosetta stone in the early 1800's.  This helped us decode ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
     A historic time we live in, taking these first small steps.   The Dawn probe visited a minor planet in the Asteroid belt, and is on its way to another.  Other probes have visited every planet out to Neptune, and now New Horizons is speeding on towards Pluto and the Kuiper belt  (due to arrive in 2015).   Heady times.   Perhaps future occupants of a greater Solar System presence will celebrate our historic first steps - or at least make schoolchildren remember the dates.
     A hearty congratulations goes out to the ESA for their accomplishment.  Eagerly awaiting first photographs from the surface of the comet.   
     - end

Winters blast

     As I struggle to insulate my house against the coming onslaught of winter, it is difficult to keep it all in perspective.   The surface of the comet that the Rosetta space probe will be sending a lander to is much colder.  Perhaps as cold as 300 degrees below zero.  The surface of Pluto is minus 350 degrees.  In some regions of space it goes down to minus 400-some.  Compared to that, our overnight low of 35 degrees seems positively balmy.  
     Just counting my (chilled) blessings here in the Midwestern US. 

     On another note, I read that DARPA is supposedly working on computer programmer code that would autocomplete, much as word processors and smartphones do now.  In my humble opinion, we have gone far enough.  I can't type anything anymore without some stupid program thinking I am stupid and trying to suggest what word it thinks I want to type.  It is wrong most of the time, and just makes me angry and frustrated.  So much of the 'autocomplete' technology just makes a lot of people angirer and more frustrated.  Why do this to people?  It is just not right.

     Next thing you know, our cars will be loaded with auto-drive.    You will drive to the store, and a few other places.  Then, when you try to go to work, the wheel will spin left instead of right or whatever, and take you to the grocery store, auto-completing for you, assuming you are not smart enough to drive your own vehicle.  F*** autocomplete and autocorrect - I loathe both of them.  Thanks for reading.

Post-election reminder

Republican winners:  From the early 1930's up until the early 1970's, the US economy underwent the largest expansion ever. Our standard of living increased greatly, our life expectancy increased, and our sens of well-being increased. I can remember my dad saying that back in the 1930's, Nobody had any money. Nobody. We were all poor. By the early 1970's many people had a comfortable standard of living. Sure, we had poor, but we also had a thriving middle class, with good union-scale wages.

Interestingly enough, there was also a large expansion of social programs. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food stamps. Other assistance to the poor.

Compassion and taking care of the least of us paid off pretty well, it would seem. Try not to cut the throat of the workers who will bear the brunt of our economy – you may be cutting your own throats as a result.  Thanks for reading.