Weekly Musings: August 20, 2017

Hello, and welcome to the first of a new weekly column I hope to keep, to be published each Sunday, where I note some of the more stimulating thoughts that have occurred to me over the past seven days. This is mostly an outlet for me to sharpen my thinking, writing, and vulnerability. I hope you enjoy my weekly musings, and encourage you to participate by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

An oft expressed aphorism is that the attainment of wealth will never lead to lasting satisfaction or true happiness. However not having enough money can be a source of stress. It is well known that at the physiological level, stress, especially long term stress (as opposed to the natural, beneficial, 'fight or flight' response to an imminent threat of danger) leads to a rise in the body's level of the hormone cortisol, which in turn leads to various adverse impacts upon the health of the brain and its proper functioning, which in turn impacts the body, in a vicious feedback loop. If the alleviation of the burden of financial stress could reduce one's overall level of physiological stress, lessen the impacts of cortisol, and thereby help restore the integrity of the brain, then it could be said that more money can lead to more happiness, at least in some sense. On the flip side, to combat such stress one could also choose to lower their ambitions and expectations, and make do with less, but, few genuinely want that, (myself included). In all likelihood, a combination of the two, meeting somewhere in middle, is the right recipe. Be happy for what you have now, however little, while working toward greater financial independence.

The longer I think about something, the more I am prone to experiencing some form of combinatorial explosion. As an aside, this makes it very difficult for me to ever finish a piece of writing! I used to see this entirely as a benefit, the ability to see things from a great multitude of different angles and perspectives, but am no longer certain about that, as it's possible there is no upper limit to the number of angles the mind is capable of slicing the world into, just as in set theory there is always an infinite number of points to be divided within the space between any two such points regardless of distance. This may just as easily detract from intelligence, which I believe when appropriately applied has more to do with affecting the mind's ability to unify differing perspectives into a seamless whole rather than creating indefinite subdivisions. As another aside, the issue of combinatorial explosion was at one time considered a big hurdle for artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking of artificial intelligence, The Matrix had as much to do with virtual reality (VR) as it did with AI.

Pause for a moment and consider the question of how government's will conduct intelligence operations or “fight” “terrorism” inside of VR environments. It is known that western intelligence agencies have formerly paid operatives to lurk about undercover inside of simulated games like World of Warcraft and Second Life, under the theory that “terrorists would disguise themselves as gamers in order to secretly communicate”. Of course these agencies will be liable to treat VR no differently. For that matter, why would you believe that the CIA or NSA do not already have back door access built into VR hardware? As much seems to have been the case with operating systems of every other kind (Microsoft, Apple, et al.) At the very least, there can be no doubt that architects of the deep state or their cronies have already approached heads of top VR companies such as Oculus to discuss such deals (where 'deal' is taken to mean, our way or the highway). On the other hand, perhaps the collaboration goes much further, as in, say, what is known of Google's early ties to the military industrial complex. The potential future intersection of VR, brain computer interface (BCI), synthetic biology, AI, and deep state shenanigans, is truly frightening to consider.

Continuing on the theme of technology, I find myself forever surrounded by mechanical hums. At this moment there is the hum of my refrigerator to the right of me; the hum of an HVAC system from outside the window to my left; the hum of automobile traffic from the county road behind me; and if those hums were not so loud there would surely be the audible hum of my laptop in front of me. From above I can hear the occasional hum of an airplane or helicopter. I speculate the cumulative effect of the sound of all of this machinery induces us into becoming more mechanistic ourselves. Binaural beats – combinations of various frequencies played into both ears simultaneously – are known to help induce certain brainwave patterns, so why should the ceaseless and repetitive background hum of machines, that music of the technosphere, be any different? Perhaps the constant hum of machinery has put us all into a hypnotic, somnambulistic trance state. In fact, on the Wikipedia entry for binaural beats, under the discussion of brainwave entrainment, the term 'auditory driving' is noted, and "refers to the hypothesized ability for repetitive rhythmic auditory stimuli to 'drive' neural electric activity to entrain with it." Reminds me of the term 'psychic driving' found in MKUltra literature. Perhaps it is not so strange I have long considered the words 'infernal contraption' to be a tautology, but more on that another time.

Finally: Magga > MAGA