If the same percentage of the population of the United States that were killed in the Civil War were compared with today's population, the death toll would be 5,500,000.
The number lost in 911 was around 3000, or 1/20th of 1 percent of the Civil War casualty rate. If we add Iraq and Afghanistan, that's another 6700 (or another 1/10th of 1 percent of the Civil War rate).
So for all three, close to 1/5 of 1% of the Civil War. One fifth of one percent.
And for all that, for those who lost a loved one, it's as bad as it could possibly be for those. How many of us even KNOW a single person who was killed in one of the last wars. Being a former military officer, I do know some of the dead casually, but no close friends during the last couple wars.
If each of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was close to 50 unique people, then that brings the total close friends or relatives that have experienced war loss to 10%. We're more connected that in the civil war, but if each of the dead were close to 20 people in the Civil War, 40% lost someone close to them. 1 in 10 versus 4/10 makes a big difference in the national sentiment.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Monday, June 1, 2015
Uploading Your Consciousness into a Computer: Alt-you
OK, so if it could be done, the problem would be that there would be 2 "yous." The original -- you sitting there with all your memories and thoughts hooked up to some kind of brain-copy machine. And then there would be Alt-you, on the computer. Assuming you could copy but not just cut & paste.
So, as you sit there, the Alt-you could, for all intents and purposes, act and think as you do/would, and if it were then in a robot or somehow then reprogrammed into the Alt-you human brain, two people, you and him.
So, the one made immortal at that point would be the other one, and you'd be sitting here in with your individual unique consciousness, still watching this other person/entity, who may be very much like you, but is not you, because you're still there, in your head. And you'd be seriously jealous, because as you continue to deteriorate and die, he/she'd be out there living their new and continued life! They could even do your job and be the parent of your children and the excellent spouse you are to your life partner! And you'd again, be watching as the outside person. You'd have the peace of mind, I guess, that Alt-you would be the same as you to everyone else in the world, and could continue being you to everybody. But again, it's the other you, and there's no way to get this current you outside your head and into any other consciousness, is there? As intimately as you are connected to your own neurons, those are the ones that make you feel like you with your own memories and consciousness. And you'd still die, just like you would have had you not uploaded yourself into Alt-you.
And the new you that you had thought you would become would be Alt-you's (Alt-yours?). To the world, you could almost be considered to become immortalized, but to you, yourself, sayonara!
But, brain transplant -- taking your brain and putting it into some healthy new body or fully hooked-up, robotic brain-vessel. I suppose that's the better route, right? Because then, it's still be the original you in there. That'd be good. Until you were finally ready to let go and surrender.
So, as you sit there, the Alt-you could, for all intents and purposes, act and think as you do/would, and if it were then in a robot or somehow then reprogrammed into the Alt-you human brain, two people, you and him.
So, the one made immortal at that point would be the other one, and you'd be sitting here in with your individual unique consciousness, still watching this other person/entity, who may be very much like you, but is not you, because you're still there, in your head. And you'd be seriously jealous, because as you continue to deteriorate and die, he/she'd be out there living their new and continued life! They could even do your job and be the parent of your children and the excellent spouse you are to your life partner! And you'd again, be watching as the outside person. You'd have the peace of mind, I guess, that Alt-you would be the same as you to everyone else in the world, and could continue being you to everybody. But again, it's the other you, and there's no way to get this current you outside your head and into any other consciousness, is there? As intimately as you are connected to your own neurons, those are the ones that make you feel like you with your own memories and consciousness. And you'd still die, just like you would have had you not uploaded yourself into Alt-you.
And the new you that you had thought you would become would be Alt-you's (Alt-yours?). To the world, you could almost be considered to become immortalized, but to you, yourself, sayonara!
But, brain transplant -- taking your brain and putting it into some healthy new body or fully hooked-up, robotic brain-vessel. I suppose that's the better route, right? Because then, it's still be the original you in there. That'd be good. Until you were finally ready to let go and surrender.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Police are Human. But Good Humans, please.
Police need to be better (on the average) than the people they're arresting, right? They should, on the average, be a better behaved than normal folks while on the job, exercising the public trust to enforce the law. When off the job, they should be like us, but still not criminal. "Oh, you're doing 75 in a 65? Yeah, well, no problem." But if you're going to wear the badge, you can't be committing felonies, stalking people, abusing your families, going off the deep end. We need emotionally healthy people exercising power over others.
So, if they commit an honest error and maintained their and the perp's dignity, and are like, "My bad," we should be like, "No, I got you, man." But when they are arrogant, scofflaw-ish, thuggish, or negligent, we should be rightfully, "Oh no you didn't!" On duty, they need to be held to higher standards than the civilians.
How does a police officer act to the suspect who doesn't answer questions? Well, of course they're not going to like it because it gets in the way of their doing the job. How should I act to the police officer who does not offer and does not answer when asked why I'm being pulled over or detained? When I heard the tape today of a black man being pulled over and asking why he was being detained over and over again, only to be met with silence, I can no longer be on the side of this officer. I WANT to be on the side of the police! I WANT to believe that the police officer was being a good, honest person like me! A trustworthy and effective law enforcement program make me feel safe and protected from those who would do me harm. Anything that puts that into jeopardy makes me want to prepare to take my protection on myself, get a gun, and makes me skittish if I'm ever pulled over for some minor infraction (like jaywalking or taillight).
So, if they commit an honest error and maintained their and the perp's dignity, and are like, "My bad," we should be like, "No, I got you, man." But when they are arrogant, scofflaw-ish, thuggish, or negligent, we should be rightfully, "Oh no you didn't!" On duty, they need to be held to higher standards than the civilians.
How does a police officer act to the suspect who doesn't answer questions? Well, of course they're not going to like it because it gets in the way of their doing the job. How should I act to the police officer who does not offer and does not answer when asked why I'm being pulled over or detained? When I heard the tape today of a black man being pulled over and asking why he was being detained over and over again, only to be met with silence, I can no longer be on the side of this officer. I WANT to be on the side of the police! I WANT to believe that the police officer was being a good, honest person like me! A trustworthy and effective law enforcement program make me feel safe and protected from those who would do me harm. Anything that puts that into jeopardy makes me want to prepare to take my protection on myself, get a gun, and makes me skittish if I'm ever pulled over for some minor infraction (like jaywalking or taillight).
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Partial Water Solution -- Start from basic rights.
From a residential standpoint, can we start by agreeing on a minimal amount each person needs for basic living? Say, 3 flushes, 5 gallons for shower, 2 gallons for cooking, 5 gallons for cleaning, 5 gallons per week to wash clothes. Whatever it is, for every man, woman, and child in a household, that should be granted for a flat and affordable, administrative fee (the water itself, free). Say $5 a month? $10. For every gallon after that, you pay a higher rate up to double the average usage amount. When you hit triple, you pay a way higher rate. Quadruple, way higher. If you want to use 10 times the amount of water a person needs to live a reasonable, basically hygienic life, you need to pay whatever it takes to provide the additional infrastructure (water, energy to move or process it, additional through-put, administer, etc.)
So if you just can't do without your own swimming pool, fine. But you're going to pay for that luxury. You want a big yard that sucks water? You pay more. You want to provide some of your produce from your garden and fruit from your trees? Fine, you pay more. You want to wash your car at home? Pay for it.
That way, people who are saving absolutely, not compared to some arbitrary "historical usage" or whatever other unit not based on the human right to water, That way, the homeowners are incentivized to conserve or literally pay for the infrastructure to produce more fresh water for luxurious purposes. And the economically struggling are not gouged. The conservative minded can spend their money on other luxuries, like travel, solar panels, etc.
So if you just can't do without your own swimming pool, fine. But you're going to pay for that luxury. You want a big yard that sucks water? You pay more. You want to provide some of your produce from your garden and fruit from your trees? Fine, you pay more. You want to wash your car at home? Pay for it.
That way, people who are saving absolutely, not compared to some arbitrary "historical usage" or whatever other unit not based on the human right to water, That way, the homeowners are incentivized to conserve or literally pay for the infrastructure to produce more fresh water for luxurious purposes. And the economically struggling are not gouged. The conservative minded can spend their money on other luxuries, like travel, solar panels, etc.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Egregious Rush To Judgment
Egregious rush to judgment?
Tell that to the black men killed by police who have immediately judged and killed them on the street. Are you trying to tell me there wasn't enough evidence to bring the officers up on charges?
Please. Who are you trying to convince? "... for something that my simply be negligence?" Please. I can't even hear you when you say that. It fails the reasonable man (person) theory. You are clearly being political.
Tell that to the black men killed by police who have immediately judged and killed them on the street. Are you trying to tell me there wasn't enough evidence to bring the officers up on charges?
Please. Who are you trying to convince? "... for something that my simply be negligence?" Please. I can't even hear you when you say that. It fails the reasonable man (person) theory. You are clearly being political.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Suppression and Its Devastating and Inexorable Effects
When a human experiences a severe trauma while young, it will manifest itself in unpredictable ways, but it will. PTSD is real and almost always negative, frequently severely debilitating. There is no ignoring it. We're still learning how to treat this disorder, but it seems addressing the root cause is critical, as well as managing the symptoms and destructive damaging behaviors.
A country or a people is the same way. When it has undergone serious trauma, like Slavery and the Civil War which sought to end it, the healing is going to be a long-term endeavor, and not directly dealing with the deep wounds requires taking an unflinching look at the lacerations and inflammation is not enough, just as in a physical injury. Risk of infection exists with the potential to deeply harm the nation. I believe inadequate healing is what we are suffering from, and any denial will leave diseased tissue. It requires a solution that, like a general antibiotic that travels throughout the whole organism, it heals the infection nation-wide.
Maybe someone wants to develop a cancer analogy that works. But the unrest in and around the country are, in my view, a natural flare up from a function of our inability to truly look at who we are as a nation, what we've done to wrong ourselves, and do what it really takes to return to full "mental" health as a nation.
We are suffering because we have continued to impose suffering on sectors of our population, and the protests are a natural expression of pain. We know it's there, and it's not going away until we, all of us, bring our full resources to bear.
A country or a people is the same way. When it has undergone serious trauma, like Slavery and the Civil War which sought to end it, the healing is going to be a long-term endeavor, and not directly dealing with the deep wounds requires taking an unflinching look at the lacerations and inflammation is not enough, just as in a physical injury. Risk of infection exists with the potential to deeply harm the nation. I believe inadequate healing is what we are suffering from, and any denial will leave diseased tissue. It requires a solution that, like a general antibiotic that travels throughout the whole organism, it heals the infection nation-wide.
Maybe someone wants to develop a cancer analogy that works. But the unrest in and around the country are, in my view, a natural flare up from a function of our inability to truly look at who we are as a nation, what we've done to wrong ourselves, and do what it really takes to return to full "mental" health as a nation.
We are suffering because we have continued to impose suffering on sectors of our population, and the protests are a natural expression of pain. We know it's there, and it's not going away until we, all of us, bring our full resources to bear.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
I'm an intellectual
In full disclosure, I've always been one and it drives my behavior. I hope I've mostly grown up from the childhood notion that being smart is important because in children, it leads to their need to impress people so they can be the good boy or girl. Now that I think about it, I see it mostly in boys, more rarely in girls, and most often in people who are trying to convince themselves that they are smart because someone (or an undefined everyone) has convinced them that they're supposed to be smart which is interpreted as smart is good. So there are many precocious and pompous little smarties out there, and sometimes they take it into adulthood with them, which is just a little sad.
It's simple, I think. The inherent satisfaction deriving directly from understanding something. The little and big aha moments are intrinsically rewarding and significantly rewarding. Intrinsically in the most direct sense -- not simply because they contribute to edification, but like the click of satisfaction from putting in a puzzle piece or clearing 4 lines of Tetris. That too, but more. That part is nicely self contained and serves its own immediate purposeless purpose. But they add up to another phenomenon -- the broader grokking of broader swaths of the human condition and natural world. As more of the oceanic breadth of what can be understood is filled in, the ability to see the more universal patterns that apply in multiple domains brings on a meta-comprehension of things which transforms the nature of knowing things. It's quasi-spiritual in nature, and can conflate with the actual spiritual in nature.
I like to remind myself of a specific time in my life, in ways a little embarrassing, and but unregrettable phase in my growth where the feelings invoked by this, perhaps because contemporaneous with multiple tectonic shifts in my personal situation (ending of a 10 year marriage and a 10 year career) manifested as a supernatural spiritual event. A year later, my interpretation shifted again to a more grounded interpretation, but that meta-comprehension "puberty" phase is recognizable in others. It is beautiful to behold from the inside and the outside, and you'll consider yourself fortunate, I believe, if you are blessed with the opportunity to experience it. Expect to find yourself at a loss for words trying to share with others what you're going through. Suffice it to say, it left me with an utter appreciation for why people go off the religious deep end -- it feels very much like a religious ecstasy and the vocabulary of the spiritual is the only way I knew to describe the experience. It provided a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the world's wisdom texts, and reading them now resonates in a way it never could. Had I known then what I know now, I'd have been able to interpret my Catholic dogma in a way that would have allowed me to stay in the church with complete integrity.
Speaking of which (the crisis of faith), it's not much of an intellectual journey if you never have one. Breaking away from the simplistic childhood understanding of life demands a break with faith. Without it, one cannot truly "own" one's beliefs. They're borrowed until they've been challenged by the best arguments ones faculties can bring to bear. What emerges from that onslaught intact are the starting point for reinterpreting the world as an independent mind. Using all the tools -- observation, induction and deduction, experience and experiment, and feeding the machine gobs of information to be digested -- enables mature intellectualism and can become a formidable vehicle for playing about around in those rarefied airs of philosophy.
Being an intellectual, I want to know and understand. It begs for time to read and write and discuss, which takes time from other endeavors. When those other endeavors are providing fodder for intellectual exercise, like learning a new job, or even engaging in mindless and healthy activities like digging or washing dishes or aerobic exercise, it can feed the machine. But that middle ground which tasks the brain just enough, like child-rearing or teaching, puts intellectual playtime on hold. Sure, there is mental activity and creative juice flowing a little, and it can keep a mind from backsliding, but once the learning curve from those activities shallows, it hobbles most intellectual growth in areas outside those being conducted. I mean, being a teacher, I could continue to become a better, wiser, more intellectual and effective teacher. And if it were just teaching, I could probably find the time outside of work to enjoy feeding myself from the multitude of intellectual topics and activities upon which I like to suckle. But the parenting thing -- I can feel quite acutely the diminishing effectiveness of my parenting when I'm fully engaged in intellectual pursuits. The perfect example is this little piece of writing at this moment. Writing is an important and unique part of processing and both defines and is a fruit if my intellectualism. While my wife is out with the kids alone today, shepherding them from event to event, which is fine, but I know when I'm along on these normal, routine childhood-defining activities with my kids, there is benefit to them as they have one more person to co-experience it with, another hand to hold, another being to love and hug, another person to push them on the swing, another set of eyes to watch them explore independently so they can go a little further on their own (without coming to lethal harm) before turning their eyes back to make sure they're family is still around. And I also enjoy that role and what it offers my children. The tradeoff is clear, and we do spend a LOT of time together as a family unit, and it's worth it. But. But the opportunity cost is dear.
We all are varied in our values. I value doing right by my children more than feeding my intellectualism. So I can deny it more often than someone who, for whatever formative and (epi-)genetic reasons, has a different balance, tipped more toward something else and away from domestic obligations. And I don't judge them for it. In a way, I envy them but I accept that, for me, I would regret not being involved enough in my children's lives to believe I did my best to support a healthy and salubrious developmental experience. And as part of that, I DO have to give a nod to this intellectual drive, as well, or I'm not honoring who I am and my particular gifts. I want to give the rest of the world a little of the best of myself, too. And I acknowledge that helping my children become the best they can be (whatever that means -- a topic for another day) also serves the world at large, so there's that. Maybe my last word about parenting. Children learn most by watching, and especially the behavior of their parents, and the smart ones learn even more when they reflect (as adults) on their parents when they were children. So as a parent, they will gain most (I believe) from having seen me live an honest life, and do what I can to apply my best talents in service of the world. Setting that example, and talking with them about it when they reach their own age of reason, may, in fact, be the single most formative and beneficial experience possible. Particularly if I've been there enough to form that solid, trusting and indelible bond that everything I know tells me matters.
It's simple, I think. The inherent satisfaction deriving directly from understanding something. The little and big aha moments are intrinsically rewarding and significantly rewarding. Intrinsically in the most direct sense -- not simply because they contribute to edification, but like the click of satisfaction from putting in a puzzle piece or clearing 4 lines of Tetris. That too, but more. That part is nicely self contained and serves its own immediate purposeless purpose. But they add up to another phenomenon -- the broader grokking of broader swaths of the human condition and natural world. As more of the oceanic breadth of what can be understood is filled in, the ability to see the more universal patterns that apply in multiple domains brings on a meta-comprehension of things which transforms the nature of knowing things. It's quasi-spiritual in nature, and can conflate with the actual spiritual in nature.
I like to remind myself of a specific time in my life, in ways a little embarrassing, and but unregrettable phase in my growth where the feelings invoked by this, perhaps because contemporaneous with multiple tectonic shifts in my personal situation (ending of a 10 year marriage and a 10 year career) manifested as a supernatural spiritual event. A year later, my interpretation shifted again to a more grounded interpretation, but that meta-comprehension "puberty" phase is recognizable in others. It is beautiful to behold from the inside and the outside, and you'll consider yourself fortunate, I believe, if you are blessed with the opportunity to experience it. Expect to find yourself at a loss for words trying to share with others what you're going through. Suffice it to say, it left me with an utter appreciation for why people go off the religious deep end -- it feels very much like a religious ecstasy and the vocabulary of the spiritual is the only way I knew to describe the experience. It provided a Rosetta Stone for interpreting the world's wisdom texts, and reading them now resonates in a way it never could. Had I known then what I know now, I'd have been able to interpret my Catholic dogma in a way that would have allowed me to stay in the church with complete integrity.
Speaking of which (the crisis of faith), it's not much of an intellectual journey if you never have one. Breaking away from the simplistic childhood understanding of life demands a break with faith. Without it, one cannot truly "own" one's beliefs. They're borrowed until they've been challenged by the best arguments ones faculties can bring to bear. What emerges from that onslaught intact are the starting point for reinterpreting the world as an independent mind. Using all the tools -- observation, induction and deduction, experience and experiment, and feeding the machine gobs of information to be digested -- enables mature intellectualism and can become a formidable vehicle for playing about around in those rarefied airs of philosophy.
Being an intellectual, I want to know and understand. It begs for time to read and write and discuss, which takes time from other endeavors. When those other endeavors are providing fodder for intellectual exercise, like learning a new job, or even engaging in mindless and healthy activities like digging or washing dishes or aerobic exercise, it can feed the machine. But that middle ground which tasks the brain just enough, like child-rearing or teaching, puts intellectual playtime on hold. Sure, there is mental activity and creative juice flowing a little, and it can keep a mind from backsliding, but once the learning curve from those activities shallows, it hobbles most intellectual growth in areas outside those being conducted. I mean, being a teacher, I could continue to become a better, wiser, more intellectual and effective teacher. And if it were just teaching, I could probably find the time outside of work to enjoy feeding myself from the multitude of intellectual topics and activities upon which I like to suckle. But the parenting thing -- I can feel quite acutely the diminishing effectiveness of my parenting when I'm fully engaged in intellectual pursuits. The perfect example is this little piece of writing at this moment. Writing is an important and unique part of processing and both defines and is a fruit if my intellectualism. While my wife is out with the kids alone today, shepherding them from event to event, which is fine, but I know when I'm along on these normal, routine childhood-defining activities with my kids, there is benefit to them as they have one more person to co-experience it with, another hand to hold, another being to love and hug, another person to push them on the swing, another set of eyes to watch them explore independently so they can go a little further on their own (without coming to lethal harm) before turning their eyes back to make sure they're family is still around. And I also enjoy that role and what it offers my children. The tradeoff is clear, and we do spend a LOT of time together as a family unit, and it's worth it. But. But the opportunity cost is dear.
We all are varied in our values. I value doing right by my children more than feeding my intellectualism. So I can deny it more often than someone who, for whatever formative and (epi-)genetic reasons, has a different balance, tipped more toward something else and away from domestic obligations. And I don't judge them for it. In a way, I envy them but I accept that, for me, I would regret not being involved enough in my children's lives to believe I did my best to support a healthy and salubrious developmental experience. And as part of that, I DO have to give a nod to this intellectual drive, as well, or I'm not honoring who I am and my particular gifts. I want to give the rest of the world a little of the best of myself, too. And I acknowledge that helping my children become the best they can be (whatever that means -- a topic for another day) also serves the world at large, so there's that. Maybe my last word about parenting. Children learn most by watching, and especially the behavior of their parents, and the smart ones learn even more when they reflect (as adults) on their parents when they were children. So as a parent, they will gain most (I believe) from having seen me live an honest life, and do what I can to apply my best talents in service of the world. Setting that example, and talking with them about it when they reach their own age of reason, may, in fact, be the single most formative and beneficial experience possible. Particularly if I've been there enough to form that solid, trusting and indelible bond that everything I know tells me matters.
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