Monday, December 10, 2007

Here's some idly interesting links

mega-preacher scandals and pentecostal meltdown

and Wauism

I used to belong to Bokonon but it turned out to be a scam that wrecked the world.

But this one explains a lot:
“If you fail to read (the Bible) properly, then you begin your just damnation. If you are unresponsive … God will scourge you, and everything will fail you until you are at utter defiance with your flesh,”
The birth of christian fundamentalism came w/ the first printing of the Bible in common english in 1525.


Todays rant:
Awhile back (a year or so?) there was a theory proposed that people have a gene that makes us (them) selfish (discriptively called "the selfish gene"). it's survival benefit stems from putting ones own survival above family & friends during hard times. My arguement against it is that it would have to develop and become widespread within about 5000 years, (which is improbable) the reason being that a low density human population (> 3000 BC) lives in tribal groups where selfishness is actively culled. hoarding food from family members is unthinkable because the group has a better chance of survival than individuals (more hands and eyes to locate food & shelter). In that world, Loners are seen as witches that cause bad luck. A higher density population, like in towns big enough that you don't know everybody, provides a breeding environment for loners from a sense of isolation in the crowd, a lack of identity, & various neurosis and psychosis that "justify" selfishness. (yea witches & vampires there abound).

So yeah, sure there's a lot of selfish people around, but they still lack genetic viability, in fact any survival traits would be associated with the lack of a selfish gene.

the problem with theories & axioms, (etc.) is that they're all in ones head. to whit: there's no actual "conflict" in the real world. Floods, fires, giant meteor impacts, tsunamis, brain eating zombie invasions, species exterminatiions are all threats to the individual, but proof that the world is constantly self regulating.

In "real world" perfection there is a flawless piece of software (somewhere), (32 bit clean! according to the "rules of software"). It's not an independant entity however, because "the perfect software", like programs that compile it and the operating platform it runs on, and all the chips and hardware that usher electrons around to make the screen glow w/ the right pattern, are all based on theoretical models that seem to behave in a predictable way, until it self regulates or a zombie eats the observers brain. In the latter case, the experiment normally ceases because the observation discontinues. However, recent scientific advances (Nonlocality of a Single Particle Demonstrated Without Objections) have proven that a tree falling in the forest will make noise even if no one hears it, or to extrapolate slightly further: Zombie interference with an observation does not nullify the result, or (quite a bit further) "Rock & Roll will never die", or (the rational conclusion) "Convert to Zombiism Before it's Too Late".

OK to be honest here, this is mostly just anti-bullshit bullshit, the point here is that the stuff outside your head works fine on it's own mainly because it's uncontrollable & unknowable, (like God?), except like in abstractions. The problem is what goes on inside, (like drawing universal conclusions from limited data, kin you believe it?). Peoples brains aren't designed to work like computers, because computers don't have amigdulas and a dozen hormonal overrides (like fight or flight, shop or sleep). The most outstanding result is that people alter their environment to make themselves look good to OTHER PEOPLE, with NO regard for what it costs the world. like chain sawing the rain forests, and strip mining mountains, so they can get bling and the most buff sex (w/ a smug sneer). The cost to the world is definitely relative to how people effect people.

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