My thoughts are surely not original but this topic is dear to me so I am moved to share some semi random thoughts, albeit down the rabbit hole a bit. The concept that happiness is controlled from within is so very critical to living a full life; I frequently remind myself and those dear to me of this fact. The last thing we want to do is surrender our happiness to our environment. With the recent birth of my 4th grandchild (go team Hills) I have been reflecting on the question of our default way of being and the question of being ‘born with inner happiness’ as you say. It seems clear we are born into innocence and peace of mind but I ponder the default (natural) ways we interact with our environment at birth. For example, when an infant is uncomfortable why is it expressed as crying? It sure as hell isn’t a learned behavior. If we are born with inner happiness why don’t infants spend the day giggling? My new grandson will lay alone in his crib and make meditation type noises for hours ….. a general state of bliss, but infants laugh & smile most when they interact with with people who engage them with positive energy. So the BIG question and distinction to me is the degree to which we depend on each other to achieve our happiest state. Maybe we are only teaching infants “how to express” happiness; but I believe we cannot “be” our happiest without the love of others in our lives. It’s an important distinction in light of trends that result in people being less social, more isolated. We need the love of others to be our happiest.
Trajectory. The first in a series.
The downward spiral of humanity is irreversible. Society cannot improve from where we are today. This is the first installment on this theme…..
Without apologies, my view is based on observations of various American trends but argue the United States is generally in much better condition than the the rest of the planet where one third live in poverty, one third under the rule of totalitarianism, and the rest in ‘democracies’ headed towards one-party-rule Marxism or worse. It is intended as broad survey of sociological conditions (not political).
Advances in innovation and information technology continue to accelerate. Artificial intelligence and robotic automation are moving at breakneck speeds and will profoundly impact humanity. It is happening now, today, not in the future. As rapid as the last 70 years of automation has been, we have also seen massive perversions of the technology throughout society; private, corporate, and government. Technology is now the weapon of choice and the costs to defend against its evil impact are enormous. The rapid adoption of these new technologies will displace millions of workers from all walks of life, white and blue collar alike. At the same time those with corrupt intent will exploit those same technologies to increase crime, monitoring, enforcement, and ultimately control over the growing proletariat. In 5 years the concept of individual liberty will be a vague notion of former times known only to the eldest among us. Only a handful of technologists understand the massive extent of illegal monitoring and data collection taking place today. Most people are content to assume AI is about ‘marketing’ and that law enforcement is noble in its use of illegally collected data. There is no place to hide and the data collected can be used to support any claim any time, without cause.
Specifically on the topic of AI; programs such as chat.openai.com are collecting more data than it gives out; the AI is learning from us more than we learn from it and we are learning a LOT. Every human interaction with AI expands its knowledge of how humans think and before the end of 2024 AI will be able to pass the Turing Test. As sentience AI approaches, the true value of AI will become apparent to the ruling elite and people with corrupt intent. The result of this realization will be a lockdown on such technologies. The cost of accessing AI for the common person will skyrocket; but it will be widely available and the tool of choice for the ruling elite, law enforcement, and the corrupt. AI will be a weapon against the proletariat, not a tool for the advancement of humankind. Even George Orwell‘s 1984 dystopian future, as bleak as it was, did not anticipate the added impact of Artificial Intelligence. As AI grows, so will the proletariat.
Similar to AI, the advancement in robotics and automation are also increasing at record speeds. Robots will be walking among us sooner than people think. First as narrowly skilled replacements for blue collar workers but as AI is in increasingly integrated they will replace the endless sea of bureaucrats world wide. 100s of millions with no marketable skills will be displaced by the perfect machine version of themselves. Soulless robots will obediently execute their tasks upon us. As perfect soldiers, robots will will feed the profitable business of war with a fury. There will be no peace. Meanwhile, humans will be relegated to the ‘care and feeding’ of robots. Watch any video on ‘how it’s made’ and you will see manufacturers centered around mammoth mechanical machines literally being fed raw materials by humans. It’s our job to keep up with them not the other way around. Driverless trucking and robotic farming will eliminate work for millions of people. What transferable skills do they have? The proletariat population will continue to grow.
In short AI and robotics will eliminate 100s of millions of jobs; far too many for society to absorb. At the same time, the benefits of these technologies will be priced out of reach for the expanding proletariate. The ruling class will become more powerful.
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As if we needed proof…
So I wrote about my visit to the blood lab but failed to mention an apparently key part of the story….. I complained. In retaliation for my complaint (instead of an apology for the miserable treatment) they sent me a letter threatening to block my medical care if I ever complain again.
This proves my original post, that they do not care. More importantly it shows the power of the bureaucrats and that they always win. If you complain you are black listed (or worse) …. even for medical care!
Supply Chain
The supply chain is consists of millions of adjacent link relationships connected in series for each and every product. When the world went into lockdown I predicted there would be severe supply chain issues because there is no common or defined set of processes for how it operates. The process is organic from the manufacture of component parts, to transportation, to the final consumer. The possible paths for product flow are truly unlimited. These binary (adjacent) commitments are constantly being renegotiated and forecasts for millions of piece parts are being tweaked constantly. Buyers and sellers come and go. But at no time in history has the entire world stopped, which required all adjacent supply chain relationships to be checked or renegotiated at the same time! Millions of agreements up and down the supply chain were reset and because everyone is doing it at the same time there are no reliable anchor points. This is complicated by the fact that most players in the chain think of themselves as the end of the chain and they only have an understanding of the adjacent links. It’s the responsibility of other links to negotiate with their adjacent links. No single person knows the entire chain for their product which makes it impossible to control using traditional hierarchical management models. It becomes impossible to forecast because homeostasis has been lost. Panic hoarding makes makes the forecasting challenge even worse. This massive organic system, dependent on millions of individuals and 100’s of millions of binary agreements, has grown and evolved in micro steps over 100’s of years and it will take many years to restore homeostasis.
the truth of humanity
People seek many things for themselves; quiet, solitude, power, money, truth, science, politics, peace, war, happiness, work, companionship, music, and endless more.
None of these matter. None of them are “central” to the true meaning of life.
The central truth of humanity is that unless we care for each other in our hearts, we are lost. I do not mean doing things to show we care but rather behaving in a way because we care.
Getting bloodwork yesterday I arrived before the lab opened at 630am. Upon my arrival there were already 4 people in front of me; oh well, no problem. Doors opened on time and we all filed in and checked in with the receptionist. The have a brutally annoying form they require be filled out which slows things down; thank you Obamacare and lawyers. There were 5 people in the lab performing various functions, shuffling around as if they had purpose. Only one person was drawing blood. Already a sad commentary on the state of our healthcare system. My name was finally called just before 730am. It took less than 2 minutes for the lab tech to draw my blood and send me on my way. A full hour after my arrival.
I could wax on for hours about defects in the labs processes & lack of supervision or accountability for productivity; time and motion etc; but to do so would miss the central truth….. NOBODY in the lab CARES about people waiting in reception. Should one or more of them truly care in their heart they would be moved to do something. Try anything. Do something. Not allow it to take 15 minutes per person (the average for the 4 people in front of me) for a 2 minute blood draw. It’s literally impossible for them to credibly assert they care. They simply do not care.
Why? I don’t know. How did they become this way? I don’t know. Do they have God in their lives? Doubtful. Do they need God in their lives to care? Not necessarily. Am I too harsh? Do I lack sympathy for the challenges they face? Is my example a simple process problem? Is it a leadership problem? I think not.
I know what your are thinking, that I am being overly critical. In your minds eye, despite that you were not there, you are making excuses for the 5 people in the lab. Perhaps it speaks to your willingness to be understanding and forgiving; I suppose there is some good in that for you. But by rejecting my conclusion you risk being part of the bigger problem. You make it ok for people to not care. This vignette is a glimpse into who we have become as a people. I never said the people in the lab were evil or bad but all it takes is the absence of good for evil and sadness to blossom. This is who we have become, a people unwilling to risk being good…. not just thinking good….. being good….. doing good. Being a people who in our hearts truly care about each other.
Caring for people moves action…. good only happens when people sincerely care about each other. Good is not the absence of bad.
It makes more sense now
Why do the progressives, liberals, woke, globalists, oligarchs and totalitarians say they care about people yet never help them? LGBT, BLM, poor, immigrates, women, global warming, students and so many more have been hurt by their programs not helped. Why?
its because these Shadows on the Cave Wall are a way to identify whos on their team and who is not!
then they can kick you off social media, close your bank accounts, regulate your life, deny your liberty and call the FBI
It is not enough to say 2+2=5.
You must truly believe it!
Biden’s energy plan
The Noble Storyteller
The telling of stories is as old as humankind. It is how we transcend our short existence and pass on to the next generation the things we have learned. It is history curated with an eye towards that which should contain the things key to the evolution of the human soul.
It is not about entertainment but of course remembering a story is easiest when told by an engaging story teller. In fact there ample examples of good story tellers who use their skill to spread evil, contempt, anxiety, etc; not to teach for noble purposes.
Again, it is the noble storyteller who has a lesson to teach that benefits future generations.
But what if nobody is listening? What if everyone is just talking? What if the stories they tell are worthless garbage and not noble? I think it pushes us back to the days of pre-cave paintings.
Today we largely ignore history. We dont listen to the noble storyteller. Its actually hard to find a noble storyteller because so few understand the importance…. there is no “market”
We are in fact increasingly doomed to repeat the errors of the past because so many insist on rewriting history (more on that later), doing everything from scratch, and moving forward based solely on contemporary thinking. This stifles the advancement of humankind, in fact the argument can be made it erodes our future entirely.
Anxiety
I’ve concluded anxiety is a derivate of emotions that are ”bottled up”
Specifically but not limited to, I note ”bottled up” anger and frustration are two of the primary feelings that are the root cause.
The elimination of anxiety then is to solve the “bottled up” behavior and/or eliminate the anger.
To not be ”bottled up” and express ones feelings in a totally unfiltered way can be very destructive to relationships. Expressions of anger does not solve problems other than it may offer a personal venting that lowers anxiety.
Some people ignore anger despite it being justified. This ”let it go” behavior side steps the anxiety but at what cost? The bad behavior of the protagonist is reinforced. The forgiving victim reinforces his/her role as a human doormat.
The modern cure is SSRIs which make you not care therefore you never get anxious thus short circuiting the experience of human truth completely
The art of conversation
I do not know the secret of a good conversation but I know one when I see one. It is much easier to identify a bad conversation.
What do I mean by good vs bad? It mostly has to do with the subject matter and the degree to which the listeners at the time actually want to listen or will extract helpful information from listening. A conversation with nobody listening is not a conversation at all. Its worse than talking in an empty room. You cannot hurt an empty room with mindless babble but other people don’t deserve to have their head filled up with crap they will never use and do not care about
Consider the case of talking with strangers. Are they interested in your family problems? Will it benefit them? How often do we start talking without considering if what we have to say is something of interest to the listener?
Inquiry is one of the best ways to initiate a good conversation, that is, if the question is of authentic importance to the one asking the question. Not drivel such as ”isn’t it hot today?”. Here is a question for consideration …. can talking about a story on TV or a movie ever be a good conversation? Spending ”real life” minutes talking about virtual reality seems like a waste of humanity to me.
People need to spend more time being quiet and listening. Not eager to get a word in edgewise to demonstrate their worth. Conversations where we compare ”mine vs yours” are about self indulgence, not anything ”good”.
Silence can be very good but few people can cope with it and feel compelled to fill the air with their voice.
Imagine a world where people only spoke if they have something important to say…
Imagine a world where all conversations we purposeful…