What I'm Reading

no one cares what I'm reading. i'm jusdt typ[ing to get my owntohughts out.

The word Grok is an ancient martian word, m,eaning to drink. It has a transcendent meaning, of taking something in and having it become wholly a part of you. you can understand with grokking, as it is not the same thing.

Zen is described as one moment of pure and exact understanding - Grok is the novel to Zen's short story. Or twitter posting.


platonic Forms are pure ideas that exist in thew abstract - is it these that we grok? for something to be completely understood, one must accept and grok its flaws ans well as its perfections - so platonic forms cannot be grokked - they are one dimension things. therfore platonic forms are not real.

one can grok a dog, all dogs, and one can grok the pattern of neurons that containsw the idea 'dog', and one can grok somethings 'doginess', becasue these tyhings all involve process and systems, as well as ideas.


the world is entirely systems and process - one could grok the whole universe if you could hold it all in your mind.




Carl sagan famously pointed out that "we are all amde of star-stuff." indicating that we are derived of, and intricate creation and part of the univers - he followed that we "are a way for the universe to know itself". 

We are the mind of the universe.

if God exists, he is everything (the universe)

therefore we are the mind of the universe.

and the mind of god.

I am God, and Thou Art God, and all that Groks is God.


The purpose (in the context of use within a natural system) of mankind (a natural phenonenoin) is thought, in a universe symptomatically devoid of it otherwise. We must spread the Mind as far and as fast as we can. the way to do this, Is science. we must quest for the knowledge that will allow us to rise up and take out places as Gods among the universe. WE may be alone, or we may be joining a pantheon of others, but we must do it nonew the less. It is our duty.


Man, I am so High right now.

Some thoughts on conservatism

Political conservatism - Fear of sticking your neck out where the media might notice you
Social conservatism - Fear that someone might stick it to you in a way you don't like
Political liberalism - Lack of common-sense fear of the media (or a wish to be reelected)
Social liberalism - hippies.

This is why im a centrist.

Suprisingly, still more accurate than Texas' version.

On the judicial side of things

Another note on the whole Sonia Sotomayor thing.

The supreme court should be as extremely conservative as possible. while they are responsible for the administration of the law in disputes, those laws should have clear wording that cannot be twisted to any other meaning.

Its it the responsibility of the legislators to ensure that their legislation says what they mean it to say. The judiciary is the filter of the law, since if can be twisted, it has been or soon will be.

A Clarification -
Conservative, as in politically and socially, since the two are often effectively the same thing. The conservative, preservation attitude should serve to temper the liberal force of change.

The relative strength of the wording in laws often reflects the amount of political will behind it. Since this is true, a conservative political view in the interpretation of law serves to stabilize and slow liberalization of the law.

Change in small doses - the key to a stable, forward-looking republic.

Sonia Sotomayor is a racist?

(this turned into a rant on racism in general at some point)

No, she isn't.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

It is an acknowledgment that racism exists, not an endorsement of racist ideas. Criticizing the fact that 106 of the 110 supreme-court judges have been wrinkly white guys isn't racist if its the truth. Seriously, the place of racism in the american consciousness is too prominent for it to go away any time soon. Constantly questioning if things are racists allow the meme that is racism to spread and survive. The only way to kill a meme like this is to stop thinking about it.

If noone ever thinks about the racism aspect of the culture, it becomes a non-issue. Seriously, in many civilized countries people don't even consider the race of a person they are talking to, becuase the concept of race is propagted there any more. Special interest groups that hold the rights of their particular race or screed only promote only the idea that they are different, and thats the whole fucking problem.

There is no such thing as race. In a thousand years, everyone is going to be fucking baje anyways. anyone who preserved their 'racial heritage' past that point is obviously racist, since the only reason to to mix to the pointof homogenity is a beilif that any particualr race is better than another.

To sum up - Anyone who idenifies with a race of proclaims themselves part of a race is a racist.

Animals can tell right from wrong?

Via the Telegraph.

Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans.

Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality.

This, if true, blows the whole "morality comes from god" argument right out of the water. If mice and rats are as moral as us, then perhaps we should start asking them what the One True Religion™ is.

Elephants are intensely sociable and emotional animals. Research by Iain Douglas Hamilton, from the department of zoology at Oxford University, suggests elephants experience compassion and has found evidence of elephants helping injured or ill members of their herd.

In one case, a Matriarch known as Eleanor fell ill and a female in the herd gently tried to help Eleanor back to her feet, staying with her before she died.

In 2003, a herd of 11 elephants rescued antelope who were being held inside an enclosure in KwaZula-Natal, South Africa.

The matriarch unfastened all of the metal latches holding the gates closed and swung the entrance open allowing the antelope to escape.

This is thought to be a rare example of animals showing empathy for members of another species – a trait previously thought to be the exclusive preserve of mankind.

This part of the article in particular caught my interest. What seems to be highly complex actions and moral thought from a decidedly non-primate species? I'd never heard of this before, but if its true it really could be used an argument to persuade on-the-fencers to our side, at least on the morality-independent-from-god issue.

The BBC News

I've finally given up on north-american news networks for accurate, relevant news. I've personally found that the BBC is far better, in terms of a lack of fluff-pieces and news of substance from around the world.

In the last couple days, a few things that the americans haven't really touched:

• The bulldozing of the homes of the child-stars from Slumdog Millionaire
• The Air India crash leaving around 100 people dead
• the end of Civil war in Sri lanka

Makes me angry, so I quit watching networks like cnn, msnbc, fox (ugh) etc.