Quantum Mechanical Time Machines!
January 13, 2010
Today I’ve been reading a book written by UCLA physicist Fred Alan Wolf called “Parallel Universes: The Search For Other Worlds”. I just started on Part V and, after reading the first few pages, I think my mind is about to explode. Yes, I’m busy scraping my brains off my desk as it exploded all over my desk just a moment ago. You know what? I’m just going to type out these last few pages and let you all see for yourself just how crazy this stuff is.
“What did the early universe, the universe that existed before there were any observers, look like? Since there were no observers at the time of the big bang and since quantum rules run the show, there must, and I emphasize the word must, have been parallel universes occurring then, because all possible scenarios for the big bang must have occurred according to the rules of quantum physics.
Even the conservative Copenhagenists should agree. The world we see, according to the Copenhagen physicists — who believe that an act of observation rules out alternatives — appears when an observation takes place. Even they would agree that before the first observation, all we can really say is that the universe was in some superposition of quantum possibilities.
Take, for example, the radius of the early universe. Did it even have one? How could it, because according to a quantum picture it wouldn’t have had any radius until that radius was measured? Who measured it? When was that measurement accomplished? Several physicists have addressed these questions and have come to a startling conclusion — one that is nevertheless consistent with the theme of this book: It is our observations now that are determining the past.Do Thoughts and Wishes Time Travel?
Thus an observation of an event now somehow sends a message backward in time and “causes” events in the past. If this is true, then what is really the past? It would seem that there is no absolute past, because there is always the possibility at any time that some present event will alter it.
A way out of this paradox is found in the parallel universe theory. Accordingly, there is no fixed past. The past we believe is the past is what a community of communicating intelligent beings choose to be the past. Other pasts are out there waiting to be discovered. In other words, there are parallel pasts — an infinite number of them. The past that is altered by the present is just one of the many.
Since, according to relativity theory, there is no such thing as an absolute present, then what is present for someone could be the past or the future for another. Consequently, it would seem that the future also communicates with the present. But which future? The future that we believe will be the future is again that which is chosen by a community of intelligent communicating persons. According to the quantum rules governing parallel worlds there are an indefinite number of futures. So how can a future that is not fixed communicate with the present? Which future sends messages back to us?
The only consistent view possible is that all possible futures act on the present. Viewing the whole scenario of an infinite number of parallel universes as one big continuum stretching from the infinite pasts (actually not so infinite — only about 15 billion years ago) to the infinite futures, the effects of observations propagate in both directions through time — to the pasts and to the futures. What is future or what is past is purely a personal viewpoint, like being on one of many roads in a gigantic city leading from somewhere to somewhere.
And here comes a surprise. If the future communicates with the present, and by the same line of reasoning, the present communicates with the past, then it must follow that time is not fixed. We are not stuck in it like so many flies in a jar full of jelly. If we are not stuck in time, can we, like the unsuspecting hero of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, become unglued in time? Is a time machine, a device that can send one backward or forward in time, possible?
With parallel universes appearing as a result of space-time distortion induced by gravity, new effects appear. For example, assuming that travel to a parallel universe is possible, it is impossible to go to it without traveling in time. In other words, time travel as described by multitudes of science-fiction writers now turns out to be possible. Just get near a whopping space-time warp and you have found one of nature’s time machines.
Now the existence of parallel universes is troublesome enough. Why bring in time machines? Again the answer is consistency. As strange as it appears at first glance, time machines — devices that enable a conscious being to travel in time backward or foward — must be constructable if parallel worlds exist.
These are the sort of consequences you run into when you try to fuse quantum mechanics with Einstein’s general relativity. According to Wolf, every possible existence already “exists” and has always existed. Atoms, or at least our models of them, are these clouds of potential which can take on any possible existence. The quantum wave function outlines how all the parallel realities tie together. It’s a sort of bridge between the parallel universes. It’s kind of like a navigation tool. Each decision a sentient being takes “splits” the universe and their consciousness travels to a parallel world.
These sorts of books really make you think, but aren’t necessarily useful. At least, not yet.
If it’s true that I’m splitting the universe with my every “decision”, whatever a “decision” may be, this still doesn’t tell me how to live my life or help me at all. To use a computer analogy, it’s kind of like a vendor selling me a new computer yet it has no software loaded on it. All they give me is a text editor where I can write my own software code. Then they say, “Look! You could program this computer to literally do anything!”
I would then tell the salesmen that he’s offering me little to nothing at all. To give someone everything is the same thing as giving them nothing at all. People don’t want the ability to do anything. That’s something you learn in business. People become perplexed when they’re given too many choices, and they even pay consultants to make decisions for them when things get difficult. In fact being an individual, and being alive is really the business of making decisions, and choosing your life.
If all parallel universes all exist side by side, and somehow we’re navigating them, then “truth” and learning the story of the “universe”, its past, and its ultimate fate, aren’t really the key issues. Imagination and deciding where you want to go are the primary factors.
But freedom is useless if you don’t know how to utilize it. In fact, you don’t even realize that you are “free.” We all have absolute freedom, in a sense, and that’s why we find this life so miserable.
It’s like being given a brand new car and your parents tell you, “Here you go son! Take a road trip and see the world!” Then they don’t teach you how to drive it and when you go to leave the drive-way you slam into the garage door, puncturing the tire. Then you slam into reverse, tail-spin into a tree, and then roll into the ditch. So much for the road-trip. Yeah, you were given the chance but, driving is difficult. You don’t just give a young child the steering wheel on the interstate, driving at 70 mph, in stormy weather, surrounded by semi-trucks.
People already know that life is insanely complicated and that their every decision influences where they end up in life. We’ve always known this. What perplexes us is that it seems there’s so many decisions which take us in directions we don’t want to go. We don’t know the consequences of our decisions. That’s the problem.
In a way, thinking about what’s in this book is painful. I start thinking that there’s a parallel world where all my decisions went how I wanted them to. I’m sitting in my chair, writing on my cherry desk, working on my physics and other studies. I have all the books and materials I need for my theoretical research. I’m free from all toilsome labor, am never bothered with “projects’ and “work”, and am able to research everything I’m wondering about. I’m married to my beautiful dream girl, my business endeavors all went beautifully, I live in a home which was designed to my every specification, I’m adored by everyone… Yeah, I suppose I can imagine such a world, and according to Wolf, it actually exists in some parallel potential universe, and if I would’ve made all the proper decisions I would be experiencing that world right now.
But to be fair, this stuff he’s talking about is backed by real science and is deeper than that. It’s not something to be dismissed as mere vapid speculation, and just because it’s not useful right now doesn’t mean it won’t be one day when we learn more. When the Greeks were researching conic sections they didn’t have any idea what they could be used for. They ended up providing a mathematical framework to chart the heavens, plot trajectories of all sorts in physics, and became extremely useful in all sorts of engineering problems later on. Who would’ve known. Who could’ve? This stuff may be the same.
I think we’re just now starting to realize the mechanical structure running the universe. It’s mind-blowing when we begin to realize that nature’s “constraints” aren’t really constraints at all.
Makes me think of John Mayer’s song Gravity. “Gravity, is working against me. And gravity, wants to bring me down.” Einstein and many other physicists don’t believe this at all. Gravity is a warping of space-time due to matter, and this warping is not only how time itself takes place, but is probably the key to how we’ll be able to navigate between parallel universes.
Gravity is like the car example I gave earlier. We don’t understand it, therefore we crash in the driveway. But later, when we learn to “drive” gravity, we’ll probably be able to travel to any time, any place, and possibly live any life we can imagine. When we come to understand it more, I think we’ll fall in love with it.
Gravity is not some force that’s hell bent on pinning us down to Earth. It’s actually a time warp. Time slows down under the influence of gravity. Science experiments have been done, placing clocks both in the basement of a building, and on top of of high towers. The clocks in the basements actually run slower than the clocks way above the ground. In areas of high gravitational concentration, such black holes, time and space do weird things. They rip the space-time fabric open, and provide doorways to parallel worlds. A spinning black hole is actually a doorway to infinite parallel universes!
And yes, they’re building small black holes in labs today! I don’t think people realize it but humanity is on the verge of an explosion of progress. Things people have never dreamed possible. Time travel. Immersion in parallel worlds which are nothing but vast amusement parks. Genetically modifying our bodies. Materializing food out of raw energy, like seen in Star Trek. It’s getting closer day by day. It’ll probably all happen too.
If this stuff is all true, and my research keeps telling me it is, death is an illusion. I’ll always exist. You’ll always exist. The parallel universe where I exist, and you exist, and every possible way we could’ve interacted will always exist. It’ll also always be there for us to experience, together. Like energy, it can never be destroyed. The world only changes because we navigate between the worlds by our decisions. I also see no reason why my “consciousness” is confined to this body, or why yours is confined to yours. I may end up living life as you, and you as me. Maybe “I” already have. That’s what’s strange about all this. Identity is also an illusion. It seems this physics is telling us we’re all one – literally. Or it’s all confused thinking. We’ll see.
I will say this though. Ever since I started seeing the world this way, it has made me far more happy. I no longer fear death. There’s no cruel God waiting to throw me in hell. I’ll never be separated from any of my loved ones. I’ll always have a chance to meet you, and you, me. And even if I make a mistake, it’s ok. It’s no big deal. The main goal is to skillfully navigate these parallel worlds, and be happy. We’re immersed in a game of all games, infinite in both complexity and simplicity, with every imaginable difficulty setting to enjoy, or endure, to your heart’s content. We’re here to let the world awe us with all the different things there are to experience – and somehow, together with friends, overcome the trials of this world and celebrate together.
On the other side of the spectrum, this philosophy doesn’t help me endure problems well. I find myself asking, “If I could literally be in any possible parallel universe, why am I here? Why am I working some stupid job? What does this do for the universe? For me? For anybody?” I see no point in doing anything we don’t enjoy. It also, strangely, brings both suicidal and joyful thoughts, at the same time. I find myself screaming, “I want out of here. Off to something more exciting. More fulfilling. Away from idiots. Away from politicians. Away from religion. Away from toil, sickness, starvation, and disease.”
I think it’s a valid question to ask why reality is so messed up, especially if from a quantum perspective we’re “choosing” this reality. Who chose this world, of all things? Who would choose dieing painfully of cancer? Who would choose starvation? Who would choose dysentery? That’s what I need to figure out. There’s more to this reality than meets the eye. It’ll take quite the detective to figure out how it’s all working, and I love that role.
*Puts pipe in mouth and takes a puff*
Wait a minute? Did I just answer my own question?
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God Lives In Our Head!
January 6, 2010
Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke recently confirmed something I’d been guessing for quite some time – that religion is all in our head.
In their study they took religious and non-religious people alike and asked them to think about religious topics while hooked up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. They asked the subjects to think about God as a savior, a forgiver, and a moral guide.
This is where things get interesting. They noticed the same neural pathways opening in the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of our brain responsible for empathy and thoughts that others have thoughts and feelings too.
So basically when people think about God, its goodness, its mercy, its love, divine morals, and those sorts of things, the same area of the brain is being used as when you imagine the feelings of your lover, your neighbor, your children, or anyone else. We can’t feel someone else’s feelings directly but we imagine them using a particular area of our brains. We use our prefrontal cortex, which is the most recently evolved region of the human brain.
We use our own cognitive processes and try to relate those to other objects we see. We try to relate to them. Unfortunately the more different the being in question is, the less effective this method is going to be.
It’s like seeing a small child holding a butterfly in its hands and saying, “You poor thing. Do you have any friends? Do you ever get lonely?” Besides being completely incapable of understanding your speech, even it could, the words would mean nothing as emotions as we know them only exist in mammals.
We assume all things to be like ourselves until we learn otherwise. God is no different.
Thing is, we’re humans, and always will be humans. We think like humans. Act like humans. Behave like humans. We’re always human. And no matter how hard you try, your thoughts will always be that of a human.
I think it’s futile to try to imagine the thoughts of a “supernatural” all powerful being. If God does exist in some timeless, omnipotent, omniscient state, it’s so beyond human understanding it’s futile to even attempt it. And as history shows, those who try it cause us all misery with their “revelations.” They stifle all progress and innovation, burn you at the stake if you differ in opinion, and we all end up with witch hunts and crusades instead of Paradise.
The weirdest part of this study is thinking on the idea that how I feel, and how I think others may feel, both about me, and the world, may not be on the same page at all. I can only guess, and hope my abilities to imagine are powerful enough to emulate the true feelings resonating inside of them.
But it’s so easy to get out of step with the world. But as humans, most of our society’s solidarity is based on our ability to empathize with our fellow citizens. That very limited prefrontal cortex is all we’ve got.
I think the news is particularly harmful in this regard because they pound us with violence and horror stories. The net effect of this is to turn off our prefrontal cortex, where we’re unable to empathize with others anymore. We’ve seen so many people blown up, murdered, raped, and pillaged, it’s so painful to think about it all that we stop altogether — and hence, we as a society fall out of step with one another.
Our minds move into defense mode. We surround ourselves in barriers and try to keep the world out. We no longer extend our hands to help, like a good neighbor.
We have to be careful not to overload our minds with everything that’s wrong. Oftentimes the best advice is “be thankful,” which really means to take time to notice the good things around you. I don’t do that near enough.
I think part of what it means to be brave is to not cave under that fear society tries to instill in us. Sometimes we have to suck up those fears and do the right thing, even when that’s a little scary.
A prime example of this happened to me the other day. I was out for a walk and it was freezing cold outside. A university professor, who lives way down the street, who doesn’t know me at all, stopped and asked if I needed a ride. Now I didn’t need a ride but that actually made my day! I thought, “A nice person! Oh my God! Someone who doesn’t think I’m a rapist, pedophile, child molester, and has nothing to gain from this, yet still offers to help me.”
It’s impossible to be a good person if you lack this courage. There’s a risk to everything we do in this life. There’s even a risk to being good. You have to love the idea of living in a good society, where everyone is helpful and believes in one another, more than even your own life. If you can love goodness more than you fear death, you’ll be capable of being a good citizen who can help others.
Our society now is giving in to fear more than loving one another. We’ll subject one another to humiliating nude scans at the airport because there’s a minor chance that a terrorist may attempt a bombing. That one-millionth of a percent chance outweighs our love for one another. We’re terrified of death, and because of that our freedoms are being ripped away from us.
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Can You Trust Your Memory?
January 3, 2010
I just learned about some recent advances in scientific studies related to memory. Apparently memory does not work how I always thought it did. I had learned, from reading slightly dated neuroscience texts, that memories were “burned” into the brain, similar to how data is burned to a CD or DVD. They were immutable, and absent brain damage, memories were memories. That was how scientists thought it worked until just a few years ago.
They’ve come to learn that every time a memory is accessed, it is modified. In fact, each time a memory is accessed, it is subsequently destroyed, then rewritten, making it a sort of Phoenix.
This research, which is being done by Karim Nader of McGill University, is absolutely fascinating to me. I had always wondered why Sigmund Freud’s “talking cure” worked. Freud’s discovery had always been a mystery to me. Somehow, just by remembering a painful event, you could cure yourself of the emotional anxiety it was bringing to you unconsciously.
For example, say you’re a war veteran and you and your wife visit a pawn shop and you see guns on the wall. All of the sudden you feel anxious and nervous. No memories surface to your mind, but you just all of the sudden feel an uneasiness and discomfort. You might start to sweat, your heart rate increases, and you may begin to feel nervous. That’s your mind calling up the memory unconsciously, bringing up those old fears from your war days, but because it’s so painful the memory is repressed and is unable to surface.
What happens during the talking cure is that when you remember the painful events, your brain destroys the old memory and rewrites a new one in its place, and thus rewires things in your brain. That’s why it cures you of the anxiety. This is also why it helps you to talk to others about your problems instead of holding them in. You’ll still remember that the events happened, but it just won’t bother you as much. That emotional charge will be relieved, and they’ll become like any other memory.
But there’s even more to this than that! Memories are rewritten each time they’re accessed, meaning that a memory is more accurate the less times it’s been accessed. So if you find yourself telling a story over and over, it tends to change over time. You end up forgetting what really happened, and your memories are replaced with your own “story” of the event.
So if you’re like me, and sometimes lie awake in bed and think about events that happened, and analyze them, the more times you replay the story, the more you’ve corrupted that memory.
The implications of this are immense. Your memories of what happened to you in the past may not be accurate at all. You may recall it. You may swear by it. You may even be able to bring the events directly to mind and picture it as you believe it happened. Unfortunately, that event as you’re remembering it may have never happened – at least not exactly as you’re recalling it.
The imagination can add and remove things from the memory each time it’s accessed.
Quoting from Discover magazine:
“Brunet’s experiment emerges from one of the most exciting and controversial recent findings in neuroscience: that we alter our memories just by remembering them. Karim Nader of McGill — the scientist who made this discovery — hopes it means that people with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] can cure themselves by editing their memories. Altering remembered thoughts might also liberate people imprisoned by anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, even addiction. “There is no such thing as a pharmacological cure in psychiatry,” Brunet says. “But we may be on the verge of changing that.”
These recent insights into memory are part of a large about-face in neuroscience research. until recently, long-term memories were thought to be physically etched into our brain, permanent and unchanging. Now it is becoming clear that memories are surprisingly vulnerable and highly dynamic. In the lab they can be flicked on or dimmed with a simple dose of drugs. “For a hundred years, people thought that memory was wired into the brain,” Nader says. “Instead, we find it can be rewired — you can add false information to it, make it stronger, make it weaker, and possibly even make it disappear.” Nader and Brunet are not the only ones to make this observation. Other scientists probing different parts of the brain’s memory machinery are similarly finding that memory is inherently flexible.”
After studying the chemical methods by which our brain stores and accesses memories, Nader performed a very simple experiment. He took some rats and programmed them to fear a sound. He’d play them a sound then shock them on the foot using an electrical device. Over time the rats began to fear the noise. Each time they’d hear it they’d freeze in fear.
Next he injected them with a protein-synthesis inhibitor which prevents new memories from forming by prohibiting the alteration of the synapses. If memory worked how people thought it did, then this should have only affected new memories from forming, but should not affect the old ones. However, the rats ended up forgetting their associations with the buzzer entirely.
Upon hearing the buzzer the rats brains recalled the event. However, upon recalling the event they “opened up” the memory but were unable to rewrite it back to the brain due to the drug they’d been injected with. They ended up forgetting about the shocks and the buzzer entirely.
In effect Nader had shown that reactivating a memory destabilizes it, putting it back into a flexible, vulnerable state.
Scientists now are struggling to find out just how malleable our memories really are. They’ve found out that they can be modified, now they need to find out how much memories change over time.
The main goal of this research, at least in its present stage, is to help cure people struggling with PTSD. They have a drug now called propranolol which blocks the action of adrenaline.
During psychoanalytical treatment, Freud always dealt with patients getting tense and anxious while recalling the painful memories. It was hard on the patient and it was his job to sit over the patient and push and encouraging them to keep going until they finally recalled the event in its entirety, no matter how painful. Using propranolol you can disable that discomfort yet still recall the memories. Going through the talking cure with these new drugs is a lot easier.
It’s amazing how things get better everyday. At the same time, I just watched Total Recall a few days ago. It’s a bit scary to think that it doesn’t seem very long before that’ll be possible. Maybe 100 years from now it’ll be possible. But I think that’s a good thing. School will become a thing of the past, and learning will become like what we saw in the Matrix movies. You plug in and download whatever you’re interested in learning. Your focus will be on discovering new truths and advancing humanity instead of relearning the same things others have already labored to discover.
That’s really the process evolution has been on. One of the advantages we as humans developed was our vocal chords, allowing us to produce a wide variety of sounds and talk to one another. Now we’ve come to a point where reading, writing, and talking are too slow. There’s too much information out there and we can’t possibly keep up. Inventions will be created which allow us to communicate with one another more quickly, transmitting large amounts of information quickly and easily. I think we’ll communicate “telepathically”, but I’m guessing early inventions will work just like wireless computer equipment works today – probably over electromagnetic waves. We’ll have a computer chip embedded in our brains which will decode the waves and will then store the information in our brains.
It may well come to a point where we’ll just be sitting in our chairs at home or at work and new information will flow into our brains. Some sort of global broadcast which uploads the new information to us. New science. New discoveries. New data. We’ll always be up to date.
I think with time our brains will be swapped out by something faster and more efficient. Probably a sort of quantum computer which can mimic the same operations, but do it way faster and store a lot more information.
I was lying in bed yesterday and thought about what I’d do if a super advanced alien came down to Earth and started talking to me. I was thinking what it’d be like if I asked it, “Tell me about the universe.” Communication through speech would be so slow it’d be unbearable to the being. I bet aliens at that level don’t even communicate with humans because it’d take a thousand years just to tell us something complicated. They’d have to be able to interface with our computers, because our brains are way too slow and weak to communicate with.
“Could you give us a star chart of the positions of all galaxies and individual stars, planets, comets, and other size-able bodies floating in space?” They couldn’t do that. They’d need to communicate with our computers. And what about all their past positions, and how the galaxies developed over time? Good God! Our brains couldn’t even handle the present instant, much less billions of years worth of data. And what if there’s multiple dimensions? It becomes even more futile talking to us. Not to mention that what we call matter only constitutes a tiny fraction of all the “stuff” that exists out there. Most matter is “dark matter”. Humans are too primitive. I doubt they bother us. We’re like lowly animals to them, like a small critter we see in a cage in the zoo. They fly by and wave at us, and quickly observe, then fly off. And knowing us, the Department of Defense probably shoots a laser beam at them, or fires a nuclear warhead at their vessel. Fear of the unknown and anything that’s different — that’s humanity’s motto.
A few thousand years from now, I don’t think humans will be humans. They’ll be something else entirely — if we don’t annihilate ourselves before that.
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Power And Corruption
December 31, 2009
Just today I received a comment from Yamin, related to my post on whether engineers should rule the world or not. I thought the conversation was worthy of its own post, and wanted to share it:
Yamin commented:
No, engineers should not rule the world.
This is just another variation on Plato’s philosopher kings…Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The only reason people think engineers should rule the world is because engineers have no power today… and thus appear the most honest and capable.
Women used to say if they ruled the world, there would be no war… Until of course they get power. They behave the same as men. Just today Kelly from AIG wants to quit because of government pay limits on her bailed out company. So much for ‘better morality’.
No ‘group’ of people is inherently better at running society, because power will corrupt them all, or the positions of power will only attract the worst of them Priests, bureaucrats, scientists, bankers, engineers, nurses, teachers… none of them.
As a matter of fact, if you want to keep science and engineering factual and honest, make sure they reject every attempt at political power.
Hint… the first sign of the demise of science is the scientific community’s involvement in global warming politics and increasingly in education. The money, power to make laws, influence politics will corrupt science. I’d say it already has.
Here was my response to his comment:
I agree with you yamin. A great comment. Thanks for sharing. I would only make one small qualification. I wouldn’t always say that the power itself always corrupts them, though there’s no doubt with power comes corruption. I think inside of each one of us is an inner dissatisfaction with the world and how things are being run. We can’t do anything about it so that “nasty” side of us rarely comes out for others to see. We keep our mouths shut, and go along with the flow, mainly because we don’t want to cause trouble for ourselves, and get into unnecessary conflicts. Because of this, our inner “corruption” never has a chance to manifest itself. I think it’s always been there, and lies dormant in all of us.
I think this same principle applies when people get rich. When you don’t have money you’re forced to conform to various social systems, such as treating your annoying boss with respect, silently enduring opinions of co-workers, and things like that. But once you come into money, you’re no longer dependent on them, so you begin to speak your mind. That nastiness wasn’t caused by the money. It was there the whole time, but earning a livelihood was more important to the person than speaking their mind, so they stayed silent.
I frequently find myself wondering what people are truly like on the inside, but then again, it’s probably better that I don’t know. I don’t think I’d like what I found.
I think the reason for the corruption is because there’s no limit to how much men hate the world they find themselves in. People hate hard work, and toiling to survive. They hate living in dingy homes, and not being comfortable. I frequently wonder why men have evolved the way they have, considering they hate the world they find themselves in so much, to their own detriment I might add. In our own struggle to escape the natural conditions of this world, we end up destroying ourselves and others along with us.
We wish to live in a mansion, because we hate the outdoors as we find it. We wish to build an artificial environment to live in. We hate food as we find it naturally, so we want it prepared and cooked just right, with all the spices and added flavors. We hate sickness and disease, and want access to the best medical care available to keep our bodies functioning. We even hide our nude bodies, and cover it in clothing. This hatred of this world… this continual attempt at escaping the world as we find it, is I think the real meaning behind “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Some refer to it as the uncontrollable human passions. When I look at this world, I just see evolution creating beings who are just incompatible with the world, and society in general. Life is just cruel.
And even when we do get power to change the world, we don’t understand ourselves well enough to know what to do with it. Our social institutions are growing in complexity every day, and educating ourselves in the big picture is getting harder and harder. I’ve recently been reading history books, and economic history books. The economic books cover all the major economic thought over time. After studying it all, I see clearly that we don’t understand money, or banking, or free markets. We don’t understand the economy. It’s too complicated.
When I see liberals and conservatives arguing various approaches, I see that in many ways they’re both right. I can see things from the angle of letting the invisible hand run things because no man can really wrap his head around the whole system in order to properly plan it all. In many ways its more efficient, because it tends to let more people contribute. It’s chaotic, but it sort of models how life has evolved on this planet. The economy becomes similar to life in a jungle. It’s a struggle to survive, but what does survive tends to be fit — at least, sometimes. But even so, nobody can deny that the massive corporations sprung up and began taking over everything, and are exploiting the workers and not sharing in the profits. The invisible hand led to a small handful running the show, and they’re not necessarily even the most fit. The comparison of free markets with natural biological evolution really isn’t a good parallel. The people at the top tend to think themselves the greatest, but that’s only because they’re too stupid to see themselves for what they are. From what I see, most are too stupid to even see the reasons behind their success. Many powerful politicians and CEOs have mindsets which aren’t much different than young beautiful teens, who get record deals when they’re 15 years old, and make millions before they’re even of legal age. They’re interviewed and talk about “chasing your dreams,” and “you can do anything you set your mind to. Just stick with it,” not realizing that all of their own success is due to being artificially being propped up. And many businessmen who are now wealthy seem to credit themselves with all their success, when really that magical opportunity which made it all happen, which opened the door to all their success, isn’t available to everyone. There’s a large degree of luck to it. It’s always annoying to hear successful people tell those who are struggling that, “It’s all your fault. You’re completely responsible for where you’ve currently found yourself in this life.”
All in all, no system we’ve devised creates a world we find enjoyable, and allows us the freedom we desire. But what do you do? Centralize through government and plan? With more centralization more power tends to go into fewer hands, which as you said, brings corruption. There hasn’t really been a real solution to the problems. It comes to human nature, and stupidity. A self-serving, greedy nature, combined with a mind that isn’t powerful enough to even run its own life, much less everyone else’s. Only by working together can we have the strength to do anything worthwhile, but what is our common goal? How do we work together? What does that entail? Nobody can agree on that one.
Society will have to advance in baby steps because it’s just too much for any one person to handle. Life’s really something else.
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Some Wisdom From Voltaire
December 28, 2009
I haven’t posted in a while, but I wanted to leave something on here before the year ends. Here’s three of my favorite quotes from the French philosopher Voltaire:
“It is forbidden to kill, therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
“The less superstition, the less fanatitcism; and the less fanaticism, the less misery.”
“I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Most all people would acknowledge the first quote as true, but seem to forget about it once the propaganda starts up. In our modern day, just a small propaganda campaign can make it look like the other country is the aggressor, and then it’s ok to invade their country, drop bombs on them, and kill hundreds of thousands of their civilians.
Religious fanaticism is less potent than it was a couple hundred years ago, but it’s still a problem. As for the last quote, it’s basically the most fundamental tenant of civil liberties. It’s hard to think of a world where you can’t say what’s on your mind, but that right is very modern, and historically not many men have had the luxury. Voltaire himself was kicked out of France for years after insulting a pompous French noble. I can hardly imagine living in such a world, but that’s how it was in the past, and if we don’t fight for our civil liberties, they’ll soon be gone.
It looks like Obama is trying to capitalize on this recent plane bombing attempt to steal even more of our civil liberties. More surveillance. More monitoring of our every move. I hate this shit. Go to the airport and we have “behavioral specialists” watching every little expression on our faces. Make one wrong little grin and BAM, they’re pulling you out of line, frisking you, interrogating you for an hour, and digging through your bags. How did all this happen within 10 years? When I was in high school the world was nothing like this. Under Bill Clinton, the budgets were balanced. We were running surpluses. Clinton had plans to pay off the entire national debt within a couple years. But George Bush, in 8 years totally demolished America. Ran it literally into the ground. And Obama, he’s not helping either.
I have no idea how much longer the United States will be a free country. Healthcare costs are exploding, and millions of Americans are losing their health insurance. We have an inept Congress which passes bills like the Patriot Act without even thinking, bails out Wall Street for trillions of dollars, and finds trillions of dollars for worthless wars in the Middle East, but can’t find the money for healthcare for millions of uninsured citizens.
College costs are shooting through the roof, but they do nothing. Banks are running wild, and they do nothing. No regulations have been passed. Banks are gambling away our retirements in credit default schemes, and all other sorts of nonsense, for short term profits, and … Congress does nothing.
I’m not 100% myself convinced of global warming, but then again I haven’t studied Climatology texts in depth yet. I plan to within the next couple years, but I’m too busy with cosmology, general relativity, nuclear, and quantum physics at the moment. It seems the vast majority of scientists in climatology and astrophysics acknowledge man-made global warming, so it seems the rational action is to pass strict carbon emission laws, considering we’re going to destroy the very inhabitability of our planet…and what happens in Copenhagen…. nothing.
They’re all useless. They can’t do anything. The United States right now is driving right off a cliff at full speed, and nobody will hit the brakes. We have exploding deficits. We can’t even borrow money anymore, so the Fed’s printing presses are going full boar. Our currency is about to take a wild tailspin and plummet down to the bottom. They’re printing trillions and trillions of dollars. It’s insane. They’re not cutting any spending programs, trying to eliminate waste. They’re not regulating the banks, who are still scheming. And they’re printing vast sums of money to continue operating day to day, while state governments are already so broke they too are needing printed money to operate.
Jobs are outsourcing overseas to India, Mexico, and other countries, all because of corporate greed. Any way to increase their bottom line. Things like unions, laws regulating proper working conditions, minimum wages, and all of that, are cumbersome. But they can find cheap work to exploit overseas. But will anyone address NAFTA, or even securing the borders? Nah.
Self-destruct mode, activated. How much longer do we have… I don’t know. Before long nobody but the richest of the rich will have healthcare. We already have a society where 95% percent of the wealth is controlled by 1% of the population. 15 years from now, what’ll it be? 99% controlled by 0.5%? How is this not slavery? And to make it worse, the people earning the huge profits are the worst scum of the Earth – the Goldman Sachs types, who earned billions in creating schemes to implode our entire economy for short term gains. These guys are like the mafia, and they have Congress held hostage.
But even with these financial problems, Obama is creating yet another war with Pakistan. He sends more troops to Afghanistan for God knows what reason. American dominance agenda? Banks wanting to bury us further and further in debt? Defense contractor corporate welfare? Probably all of those. But Obama hasn’t got us out of Iraq yet. And from what I can tell, the good old boys in Washington are turning the propaganda presses toward Iran, preparing to invade there, to expand the elite’s empire. Though the wars cost trillions, they don’t care. They’re too busy manufacturing fear. Just like Iraq, they’re claiming Iran has “Weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of mass destruction. Weapons of mass destruction.” Big red alarm goes off, and flashing red-text on the bottom of the Fox News screen, “Iran has nukes! Iran has nukes!” They could send every child to college with that money, but no. Another reckless quagmire coming up.
I just read an article yesterday that this Christmas 65% of Americans bought their family gifts that they needed, not fun luxuries. At my family Christmas I looked around and nearly everyone was in poverty. Hardly any gifts were given out to anybody. Some of my relatives are on the verge of bankruptcy and could lose their home any day. Cars are being repo’d. Others in my family are so buried in student loan bills they can’t even live. They continue to go to school only so they don’t have to start making payments on their huge student loan bills.
When I was in high school, Christmas was filled with Nintendo 64s, video games, new techie gadgets, computers, and other neat gifts. Now everyone’s handing each other cards and trinkets. “It’s the thought that counts this Christmas.” I’m sitting in my chair gritting my teeth – not because I barely got anything worthwhile, But because of what’s going on in Washington and how it’s affecting those I love.
Paul Krugman recently came out and said its reasonable that we’ll have another economic recession next year. I myself think it’s going to get much much worse. I don’t know if it’ll all hit next year, of in several years, but it’s coming up. There’s 600 or 700 trillion (can’t remember the exact number) dollars worth of gambles on credit default swaps and other schemes, which is over 10 times the entire GDP of the entire world. The banks were about to go under, we stuffed them with trillions and now they are paying back the money to the government by profits made in short term gambles, in these schemes. Nothing’s been fixed. In fact, it’s worse. Too big to fail has become even more bigger and impossible to fail. Big banks have bought up other banks for pennies on the dollar. There’s going to be a massive implosion before long, and there’s no way in hell the government is going to be able to print money to fix that. I don’t know exactly when all this is going to blow, but the pressure is on. It’ll all cave. It’ll wipe out everyone with it as well. And Congress seems to keep upping the maximum federal debt limits.
I saw an article on the Huffington Post where a guy calling investors to come into Detroit and buy up the real estate. A bunch of fucking vultures. Feeding on others misery. That’s not real investing. That’s investing for losers. For guys who can’t create value, so have to destroy in order to get ahead. The Fed extended too much credit, leading to a car boom, but once the cheap credit faucets ran out, uh oh, car manufacturing revenue tanked, because nobody could borrow money to buy a new car. Car makers went under. Then we print money to buy up the crippled GM. No more money to borrow against already overpriced, and overinflated homes. Now half of Detroit is homeless and living in relatives basements.
*Goes on back porch and screams*
I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. I’ve read too many economics texts, and they’re not following the advice of any of them. Keynes warned that the bankers would create a casino and destroy everything. He also warned how the government loves to cover up all its problems by printing money, which is a hidden way to rob the public without them knowing it. Austrian economists are screaming their heads off, telling us that the Fed is socking it to us and destroying the economy with overly cheap credit, handing out money likes its water, bringing about inflation. And who’s voted Time magazine’s man of the year? Ben Bernake! My God! He implodes the economy. Fails to see the housing bubble, which even a relative amateur such as myself clearly saw. How could you not see it? Just look at the charts! Housing prices go up in a straight line… Uh, that’s not normal Ben! When the slope of the statistical average trend drastically changes out of nowhere… Hey, something’s PROBABLY UP. How about looking into that? I wonder if you all can notice it?
Let’s see here. How to analyze this chart. Well, in the beginning prices are falling, as any good economic system should. New construction techniques, and more efficient methods make it easier to build, and hence housing is cheaper. Thinks are going along nicely. Then World War II, the troops are coming home and starting families. We get a spike. Things are looking ok. Everything’s account for.
From 1945 to the late 1990s, it pretty much stays the same with some minor spikes. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then… What is this? 1997 and on the line goes… Straight up? Housing prices … Double? What reason? There’s no troops coming home starting new families… There’s no good reason for this at all. But wait, aren’t you guys are all making a minimum of 700k a year? You study charts and numbers all day long, but you don’t notice this? I thought you guys were the best and the brightest? Or possibly the most nefarious? Why would something like that happen out of nowhere? Hmmmmm. It doesn’t Ben. It doesn’t. You guys at the Fed did that… Didn’t you Ben? That’s you and Greenspan’s lil housing-bubble-baby. You loaded us up with cheap credit, and debt grew much faster than the economy… Yep, that’s what happened. Just admit Ben. You fail. You’re no hero.
I feel like I’m surrounded by lies. Everywhere. Barack Obama wins the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE as he expands on our wars. This is seriously some George Orwell 1984. “WAR IS PEACE.” I mean, seriously. What the hell. They have some lame excuse. The Nobel committee based their decision on Obama’s campaign promises. Are they idiots? Giving out the Nobel peace prize to a politician based on his campaign promises? They hardly ever keep their campaign promises. I just don’t buy it. The Nobel committee is not that stupid. If I recall correctly, even George Bush campaigned on the promise to keep us out of wars and entanglements.
All the criminals are being lifted up as heroes. Old Bernake saved the day! The supposed Great Depression expert, printed money to save the day. Woohoo. Go Ben! I’m impressed. Obama, the man of peace!
Just look at that man! He’s my hero! I love the international banking cartel, fractional reserve banking, and printing money! That man is amazing! The way he stuffed the pockets of his banking buddies with trillions of dollars, and the way he failed to regulate anything, or see any problem coming. The way he printed money and is helping our deficits explode in a mushroom cloud. The way he lies, telling us that if we put the currency under Congressional control, instead of his private banking cartel’s control, it’d certainly be nightmare. And I love how he resists any audits, and does all his operations in secret. And how he gives 500 billion to European central bankers, yet we can’t find money for the uninsured.
I love you Ben! I’m rushing out to the store to buy my copy of Time magazine right now! I have to hear the details of how you did it, and saved the day! You’re just misunderstood. I’m glad the guys at Time lent their mouthpiece to tell us the truth, and your real role in saving the day in this time of crisis.
*Vomits*
Just so everyone knows – I hate our politicians. They’re worthless, murdering, thieving scumbags.
Well, that’s my end of the year rant. Back to Voltaire. Here’s an excerpt from a history book of mine, talking about Voltaire’s work Candide, which is a great book:
“Although Voltaire exerted the greatest effect on his age as a propagandist for the basically optimistic Enlightenment principle that by “crushing infamy” [note: infamy being all forms of repression, fanaticism, and bigotry] humanity could take enormous strides forward, the only one of his works still widely read today, the satirical story Candide (1759), is atypically subdued. Writing not long after the disastrous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, in which over 20,000 lives were lost for no apparent reason, Voltaire drew back in this work from some of his earlier faith that mankind by its own actions could limitlessly improve itself. Lulled into a false security concerning what life has in store for him by the fatuous optimism of his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, the hero of the story, Candide, journeys through the world only to experience on outrageous misfortune after another. Storms and earthquakes are bad enough, but worse still are wars and rapcity caused by uncontrollable human passions. Only in the golden never-never land of “Eldorado” (clearly a spoof of the perfect world most philosophes seen on the horizon), where there are no priests, law courts, or prisons, but unlimited wealth and a “palace of sciences . . . filled with instruments of mathematics and physics,” does Candide find temporary respite from disaster. Being a naturally restless mortal, however, he quickly becomes bored with Eldorado’s placid perfection and leaves for the renewed buffetings of the real world. After many more lessons in the “school of hard knocks,” he finally learns one basic truth by the end of the story: settling down on a modest farm with his once-beautiful but now hideously disfigured wife, he shrugs when Dr. Pangloss repeats for the hundredth time that “this is the best of all possible worlds,” and replies: “that’s as may be, but we must cultivate our garden.” In other words, according to Voltaire, life is not perfect and probably never will be, but humans will succeed best if they ignore vapid theorizing and buckle down to unglamorous but productive hard work.”
I agree with Voltaire completely. I have a lot of faith that science can cure many of our world’s problems, but I think a lot of the work which will get us to that point is unglamorous, and very much unappreciated. The scientists working late hours in the labs making all the advances live, for the most part, uneventful lives, crunching away at numbers and statistics, meticulously arranging experiments and collecting data, and often give up many of the other joys life has to offer. But I honestly think they’re the greatest men and women living on the planet. If each generation continues to work, discovering new principles and inventions, slowly but surely, life 1000 years from now, for future generations, will not have near the suffering we today experience.
Slowly but surely, all the details in how our cellular biology works will be discovered, and aging will be slowed down, then eventually eradicated. Sickness and diseases will be cured. Knowledge as to why our economic systems fail us, what went wrong, and how to fix those problems will be solved. Hopefully “economic recessions” will be a thing of the past. Proper regulations, economic systems with proper incentives, and more, will bring and end to it, and hopefully bring about a world with a more equitable distribution of what that society produces. New methods of transportation will make it easier to get from point A to B. And slowly but surely, scientists will bring about progress, one day at a time.
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