[date Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 11:58 AM]
PN:
Sunday – the day of reflexion.
All is not lost.
From my perspective the glass isn’t half full OR half empty. THE GLASS IS ALWAYS FULL! Half liquid, half gas, 100% fluid. Even in “space”.
The correct expression from the Droverian perspective is “All is not found!” (discovered).
Look at this video, and see the future, John Connor!:
[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=-KxjVlaLBmk&feature=player_embedded]
If you aren’t familiar with human levels of reaction / response, know that this robot hand reacts more than 30 X faster than a human can register!!!! i.e. before a human can understand what it has seen, the robot hand can react more than 30 times…… some background on human reaction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_chronometry
As you can see, humans can’t do so fast. But their technical offspring certainly outperform the “Old Man” in the physical world. What can it mean? Who cares? Et cetera….
Of the many questions these thoughts beg, one is “so how fast can ya think?” Sorry. Once again the technical offspring leaves us in the dust….. except for…… that nebulous, niggling, gnawing, fleeting thought….. sorta like this portion of lyric from the song “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd –
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
Quick summary: humans can’t do and can’t figger fastest. Haven’t said zero about the animal kingdom (outside our sorry selves). Fer instance, just try and catch a fly with your hand on a hot summer day…. (Insert many additional examples here)
So……….. what have we got the others have not? Why aren’t badgers “dancing with the stars” and manatees building skyscrapers in the sea? Will they ever? Does “the Machine” dream of becoming the Machine?
I say nay nay! (ref. John Pinette here – [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=Daj_mijJMCI] – humor without extreme vulgarity. How quaint!). The difference is:
What we got,
The others have not,
Is very plain to see.
One look in our eyes,
We can’t disguise,
Our sentient-ality!
Sung to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island” – [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=yfSLuEj99d0]
My sentient exercise this fine (cool, cloudy, September-like) morning lead to Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville and a few of his observations on America specifically, and politics (human nature) generally:
– The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
– There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
– Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
– Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
– It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
What is it that makes these statements valid today, over 150 years after they were pronounced? You can of course substitute the word “Kanuckistan” for America in the above (and “Parliament” for Congress, et cetera), and experience the same light bulb moment (100 watt incandescent minimum).
After a bracing flurry of A de T quotes, my nimble fingers led me to one of my literary heroes of yore, Rudyard Kipling. My personal thoughts on “the British Empire” are mostly positive. There are many “countries” that benefited from the experience, and more that would have been better off had they remained colonies. Run Martha! He’s a Colonialist! Here’s some Kipling in lieu of a Dutch breakfast of smokey fish. Call it “Kipling Snacks”:
– I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.
– San Francisco is a mad city – inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty.
– I have struck a city – a real city – and they call it Chicago… I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.
– The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.
– We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.
– Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
– Everyone is more or less mad on one point.
The purpose of quoting these quotes (especially about Chicago, San Francisco) is the old adage “nothing new under the sun”. Hundreds of billions of people have come and gone, but “human nature” remains human nature. The only question to ask is best expressed by paraphrasing Dirty Harry:
I know what you’re thinking. Is he two standard deviations from the norm, or three? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But, being as sentience is the most powerful force in life, and would blow your mind completely away, you’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel conscious? Well, do ya, punk?
The constant pressure applied to the citizens of Western culture to feel guilty about ourselves for living in the greatest societal construct yet seen on earth is starting to bear fruit, but not the fruit that was demanded. It is akin to stuffing carbon rods into a reactor pile to “control” the rate of reaction. The reaction can be affected this way, but not controlled. It is a Yoda moment, and another paraphrase opportunity:
Do Fission, or do not…… there is no try.
In summary, this entire rant today can be distilled into the ultimate Yoda / Tocqueville / Kippling mashquote:
Have the faith to live a moral life, or do not…… there is no try…… there is no excuse.
I spy with my little eye,
a great yellow ball in the sky!
Time for the Great Out Doors Event® – melanoma here I come!
Joe (Day ‘O Rest) Mekanic
p.s. The Carl Sagan quote about religion affected me deeply. This Sunday, I am worshiping in the Church of Ramirez:
