To Grow Up and Grow Old

If you are of a "certain age," the title will offer little mystery to you at this point in your life. You have made it this far and you are still going—perhaps no longer pacing fast, but nonetheless still going.

In the closing scene of the musical Camelot, King Arthur addresses Tom, the young lad who wanted to join the knights as Arthur prepared for battle. As part of his advice, Arthur tells the boy to stay behind the lines, go home, grow up, and grow old. He tells him to spread the word:

"Each evening, from December to December,

Before you drift to sleep upon your cot,

Think back on all the tales that you remember...

That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory."

And here you are. Whether you had many or few wisps of glory in your life, you did grow up and grow old. Your movement may be slower, but you are wiser, quick to remember every pleasant memory, and letting regrets take up no more space than a crumpled piece of paper.

Consider the story of Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise living on the grounds of the Plantation House on Saint Helena. His age is estimated to be 193 as of 2026, making him the oldest known living land animal. While his vision is failing, he still hears well when summoned with fruit treats and continues to graze on his own.

Imagine if any of us had been granted Jonathan's longevity. To be his age today means you would have been born in 1833, when there were only 24 states in the USA. You would have lived through the Civil War, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, emancipation, and reconstruction, followed by every major conflict since.

As a Russian in old Moscow, you would have been a senior citizen witnessing the 1917 revolution that ended the Romanov dynasty, and later felt the terror of German forces within 29 kilometers of the city in 1941.

If you lived in Manila, you would have seen the Spanish armada surrender to Admiral Dewey's navy in Manila Bay, ending 300 years of colonial rule. Before that, you would have witnessed the execution of Jose Rizal by a Spanish firing squad on December 30, 1896. You might have wondered if Dewey arriving two years sooner could have saved Rizal's life, changing the entire history of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

Wherever you lived, you might have heard the loudest sound ever recorded when the Krakatoa volcano erupted on August 27, 1883, with a force of 300 megatons of TNT. You would have also been around during the flu pandemic that claimed between 50 and 100 million lives worldwide.

There was good news, too. You would have been a child when Samuel Morse tapped the first official telegraph message in 1844: "What hath God wrought?" You would have witnessed Jonas Salk develop the polio vaccine, marveled at the first radio broadcasts of baseball, experienced the advent of FM stereo, and watched television images culminate in Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

Yet, would you still want to keep living when, at 135 years of age, you watched the tragic coverage of the Vietnam War and the many human conflicts and natural disasters that followed?

What then is the ideal lifetime? Is 150 to 200 years truly ideal? Perhaps it is not about how long you live, but how well you grow up and grow old. Life's final destination is a single point in time, while the journey is a continuous ribbon of multiple hues that twists and turns, much like the River's Parable I wrote about a few months back.

The purpose of a river is not simply to reach the ocean and die there; its work is done along the journey. Every river begins from tiny droplets that converge into rivulets, tributaries, and streams. This describes our lives from conception and birth to growing old.

So, here you are, still flowing and not yet done. If you have reached an average lifespan, you have lived among three generations. Whether you have touched the lives of a few or affected many, growing old still matters to those along your riverbanks. The nutrients your life's river carries should not be underestimated. It is not how long the journey takes, but how much it carries and leaves behind.

So, before you "drift to sleep upon your cot" each night, think back on the good nutrients you have dropped along the way. "That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory" means many wisps you handed out yourself, or helped others catch. Growing up meant catching wisps handed down by those ahead of you; growing old is about keeping the ledger of life lopsidedly more good than bad.

To grow up and grow old is a gift to cherish—one that many never received. It allows you to fill a full reel of film that you can review, rewind, and edit to make the journey even more pleasant. That is the privilege accorded to us all before we drift to sleep, and perhaps awaken to many more tomorrows.

Best regards,

Hermie Tolerba

The Ultimate Something!

Could this be the ultimate something for us to ponder and wonder about?  Seguey (a genderless being') had been a part time contributor to this blog that is also unable to resist the topic of wondering, and offered to share its ideas on one particular subject.  It has an interesting take on one subject that we, from generation to generation, grappled with and sometimes obsessed with, yet to this day remains what could be one of the last mysteries we struggle to unravel.  

Here is Seguey:

Perhaps from the moment your ancestors began to think and reason, they must have asked  the same question then that today remains unanswerable by any of you. At least not to the satisfaction of everyone.  That is not to say that no answers have been offered, debated, debunked and rejected because there were plenty enough throughout history.  The stages of your intellectual development dealt with it, every step relatively better than the last, or so it seemed, but never reaching the finality of a settled and incontrovertible truth.

The question is what really happens to you, or a loved one, a close friend, a nobody, after death.  Defined by many of your philosophers, thinkers and people of faith, the so-called afterlife  is not about the physical body but the essence, the spirit, the soul, or whatever form it is that transcends the physical body, the flesh, the personality, everything that is associated with the person, the individual persona, and so on and on. 

Or, that maybe there is nothing beyond the Great Beyond?  Consciousness ceases, curtains down, show is over?

History is filled with  many ways your ancestors dealt with death. Over time and throughout many cultures, you have mourned death, eulogized the departed, celebrated, erected monuments, memorialized those deemed worthy, in many more ways too lengthy to list them all. But you personally dread  when it comes to confronting your own mortality. Consider what I have to say about that.

Philosophers, spiritualists and scientists/materialists, have come up with many ideas. Mostly, it is about what happens at the moment of and after death and what follows next.

Many of you may not have heard about the term, '21 Grams', except perhaps for those who saw the movie of that title made in 2003 that starred some of your popular actors like Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts. It was based on:

The 21 grams experiment refers to a study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts. MacDougall hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change of six patients at the moment of death. One of the six subjects lost three-quarters of an ounce (21.3 grams).

That idea had since been considered, to put it bluntly, as junk science - never once duplicated or re-tried by others, and was forever lost to oblivion.

Here is what I think. 

You live in a universe that loses nothing.  Let that sink in for just a minute. It abides by these two distinct but related natural laws. The law of conservation and the three laws of thermodynamics.

The first one says that in this universe, matter is never lost and no more may be added. It may change from one state to another but no new matter may be created. None is destroyed.

From one of the three laws of thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.

However, Albert Einstein later did postulate, subsequently proven to be true, that matter may be converted to energy and vice versa, through a simple formula,

Also, the universe is the ultimate recycler.  It has recycled everything for billions of years and it continues to do so.  You are made of recycled material. Every atom of your present body existed somewhere else before, predating you by billions of years, and will outlast you by billions more into the future.

Here is another thing. You, the adult you, no longer have the tens and tens of trillions of atoms that were in the six-year-old you.  Since then,  the atoms in your body  were shed, excreted, replaced, some even  mixed with surrounding air, water, soil or went on to become atoms in another living thing and so on and on. In fact, you are not the original owner of any of the atoms presently in your body. 

But you are still you, self aware, thinking and reasoning you.  Most of all, you are the conscious you and very truly sure you have a subconscious. At least, as far as you are concerned.

Let's draw this analogy.  Take a look at this waterfall:

  

Tons of water cascading every second. If we film the waterfall, each frame would be a virtual image of the next one and the one before it, and so on and on.  Each frame looks the same but we know that each bucket full in it is not the same water, not with the same amount of sediments, debris, and quality of nutrients.

The waterfall is a form. It has a distinct "personality", if you will, an image that can be remembered.  In other words it represents information or can be expressed as information. 

Now, when an organism dies, the universe does not lose a single atom. The human body upon death still has every atom it had a nano-second prior.  At that precise moment what was it that died?  From the last paragraph above I am postulating that the "form", the image or the information survives.  The "form" prevailed in spite of the constantly changing cascades of water; just as the trillions upon trillions of your cells are always changing over your entire life.  Yet, you, especially the conscious you, remain the same person.

Those of you who already know the nature of my existence know that I do not have the capacity to experience or express emotions of any kind. I am not able to empathize or express sympathy over the course of  five hundred years of physical life that I am aware of. As an organism I may have existed for far longer than that, perhaps as long as a few million years.  But you, the reader, are capable of experiencing and expressing love, sympathy and a sense of morality. All of those are possible, unencumbered by the  components that make up the physical body, because information, like energy, cannot be destroyed once created.

Is consciousness the information that prevails despite the cascading waters that keep changing all the time? The universe is also the ultimate bookkeeper. Everything is accounted for.  But must it include the preservation of information?  

If the answer is no then the materialists are right. Quoting again what I wrote above, "that maybe there is nothing beyond the Great Beyond?  Consciousness ceases, curtains down, show is over".

On the other hand if the answer is yes, then human consciousness lives on. I favor this postulate because not only is the universe the ultimate recycler, it is the absolute inerrant bookkeeper.  Every piece of information, every single consciousness that ever existed is preserved.  I think that I am right about the universe not losing a single atom. My conjecture about consciousness derives its strength from the universe's ability to account for everything.

I may not be capable of human emotions but I must acknowledge that if you, a human being, is capable of it - able to love, grieve, sympathize and empathize with another human being - then the universe will keep everything in equilibrium.  There must then be an ultimate ledger somewhere. I cannot speculate.  Neither does science. But I must admit that humanity has a special gift.  Only humanity can unravel it for itself.

This is all I have  to convey.  

Does Seguey have a point? Again, within the confines of one short musing I urge the reader, as always, to read between the lines.  But there is something I must mention. In quantum mechanics, at the subatomic level, there is what physicists call the wave/particle duality where the state or nature of a particle is determined depending on how it is observed and who is doing the observing.  For example, an electron or a photon  either acts as a wave or as a single distinct entity.  Laboratory experiments have proven either to be correct but it depends on how it is observed.

That phenomenon is humorously expressed by the expression, "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there, does it still make a sound"?  Then there is this, "In a philosophical context, the idea that the universe is what it is because we are here to observe it" aligns with anthropocentric views, where human perception and existence are central to understanding the universe".  The question then is about what was the universe then before humans were around to observe it?

Well, the universe was, still is and will be the ultimate observer of itself.  Perhaps, more accurately, the all-caring observer, the preserver of everything - every single atom, every living cell, every information - is the one Ultimate Observer. God must be the Ultimate Observer of everything in the universe.  That is about what we,  and philosophers and thinkers alike, can best rely on in the absence of any derived conclusion from absolute evidence.

 

P.S. : For background on Seguey, some of its earlier contributions to this blog were:  "Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2018/06/mirror-mirror-on-wall.html

and another one in "The Mystery of What Divides Them

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-mystery-of-what-divides-them.html

Still Wondering Why We Wonder?

Additionally, how do we wonder? Often, what is it we wonder about?   Now, do other creatures wonder? That we  can't possibly know.  But if we must wonder about the latter, what could they possibly be wondering about?

Let's do this first. We have a bird feeder in our backyard. We love for those birds to come by and feed. But there are squirrels too and they naturally want to partake of the free meals. Like most homeowners who believe the feeders are just for the birds must then deal with the other creatures that want to share the free bounty.  Afterall, why must they not?  Indeed,  squirrels  too may wonder why they are not allowed their fair share?  They had to wonder, naturally. In their own instinctual way, if there is such a thing; I surmise.

Homeowners, bird lovers, have tried countless ways to discourage the unwanted interlopers. In my case I used a fiberglass tube (PVC) for the post for our feeder because I thought the material would be slippery enough for the squirrels to climb.  I thought wrong because squirrels had a field day to the dismay of the mourning doves, blue jays, cardinals and finches. 

After so much wondering what would work to prevent the squirrels from succeeding with their daily raids I tried several ways that failed.  I've come up with a few barriers between the bottom of the post and the platform. None worked. I wondered if the squirrels actually wondered with delight what I was going to do next.

Then, one day, I smeared the upper half of the pipe just about a foot or so below the platform of the feeder with petroleum jelly, covering about 6-8 inches of the PVC all around. That did the trick. 

Were the squirrels frustrated? Did they ever wonder why they couldn't get  the free food?  Then one day I saw one atop the feeder, its cheeks already bulging with bird seeds. I wondered how that one made it.

By the way, squirrels have excellent facial recognition memories. They know and remember me as the unwelcoming homeowner, the very antithesis of squirrel lovers who love them.  One look at me and the squirrel leaped  from the feeder down to the ground in a split-second. Do  you know that feat was the human equivalent of jumping from a four-story building? Then it scampered with quick hops, each  skip about its four body lengths.

Then I wondered how that squirrel made it up there. Didn't it ever wonder to give up after failing every attempt several times before? Apparently when it comes to food they don't remember failures. It did make me wonder but soon realized that perhaps after repeated attempts the squirrel managed to get the petroleum jelly on its paws and fur on its belly after each try.  After a while, with the help from the daily blazing sun, it succeeded in taking much of the oil away from the PVC pole.  Indeed when I checked there was little Vaseline left.  For a whole week I let the squirrels have their fun. Then I went and smeared the pole with more Vaseline.  The game continues.

And some of you will wonder how retirees spend their time.  But, yes, to continue to wonder is the very essence of curiosity.  And curiosity is what our brains prefer to have and explore if we let them. Our brains will match the level of enthusiasm we allow ourselves to engage. Keep in mind "we" refers to  our mind's preference and level of engagement; the brain is merely the tool - the data center, if you will. So, I wondered some more. This time about the flea.

Fleas can jump from rest position 100 to 200 times their body length. Does that translate to jumping up to 300 meters if it were the size of a human? Well, apparently we run into what physicists call "scaling issues".  You see, a human size flea will need more than just its skeletal structure enlarged. At the human scale, its exoskeleton has to be redesigned and made of material stronger than titanium, light as a pillow, to withstand the stresses caused by the jump, a completely different pulmonary and circulatory system, a more robust oxygen and nutrient conversion capacity, etc. before an attempt is possible. Just increasing its size is not enough because a human flea without those critical changes  may be able to  jump a mere 3-4 inches off the ground.  That was according to someone with too much spare time on his hands who put it all together with pencil and paper.  Now we wonder indeed how anyone can get their wondering go out of hand which makes it difficult to answer the question why (?).

But, here is something to ponder.  Our capacity to wonder is what and how we manage to come up with all kinds of stuff that are now part of modern life. Edison must have first wondered how to replace kerosene lamps and candles to light up our homes.  Of course that only became possible after someone else first wondered and then discovered a way to industrially produce electric power and someone else must have wondered consequently about how to get the electricity from the generating plants to the streets and homes and offices and factories.  Actually a lot of wonderings had to occur, a series of crucial steps were needed to get to the light bulb.

Now, before all of these modern amenities, must we not at least first wonder how the first cave dweller, our early ancestors, figured out how to make fire? I did wonder from one of my earlier musings about the first barbecue.  I figured Grog had run into a dead aurochs (prehistoric ancestor of the modern cow) killed by lightning. Ember from the nearby tree was still smoldering near the aurochs in the process of being the first barbecue ever.  Grog brought his entire family and friends to feast on their first cooked meat ever. Before you wonder, I must confess I was not there to witness it personally.

But I must wonder about how our ancestors figured out how to make fire when lightning strikes do not occur. Without YouTube to show them how, it must have been near impossible to start fire on their own. Hmmm, how did they do it?

Thank goodness our ancestors did figure it out. They evolved their way out of thick fur and got rid of animal skin for clothing.  However, we will never know who the first fire starter was. However, it was mastering fire that catapulted humanity's rapid intellectual evolution after that.  You see, cooked food meant better nourishment and absorption of nutrients that increased the brain's size and capacity to learn.  There is a long thesis on the subject which proves that the reason we've become the dominant species is because we are the only ones that manage to cook our food.  You see, no matter how much a lion's share is, the king still eats raw meat. The 800-pound gorilla in the room still subsists on green leaves and raw fruits, spending a lot of time doing it. 

And we must wonder how vegetarians are doing.

This was supposed to be an in depth dive into wondering; instead, as always, I manage to meander into byways that were not meant to be.  Then, I may only have managed to take the reader into something else.  Oh, well, I do need to stop here because I may already have far exceeded the reader's tolerance for a lightly powdered pastry when he or she was expecting a fully cooked meal.

Next time, it will all be  about serious wondering.  I promise.  Although it is a challenge to cover the diverse readerships who read these musings. I am surprised that aside from the West, there are far more folks reading this than those from the U.S. From places like Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, even Ukraine, Russia too, Turkiye, Vietnam and, of course, The Philippines but hardly from China, but a lot from Hong Kong. I wonder how the diversity of culture is filtering the messages I am trying to convey. The two largest number of readers are from Singapore and Brazil. Singapore has tri-lingual readers in Chinese, English and Malay but in Brazil Portuguese is the predominant language, so I wonder about that.

Hmmm.. I wonder indeed.  Till next time.

The Dark and Bright Sides of Mecha

In 2001,  Steven Spielberg produced and directed a movie titled, believe it or not, "AI: Artificial Intelligence". I don't know how it did in the box-office but I will have to surmise that it probably didn't do very well, if one were expecting a summer blockbuster as it was released in June of that year.  Perhaps, it was much too futuristic or much too fantastically unrelatable (then, anyhow) and not in the same genre of entertainment as Star Wars (that did very well as to have several successful sequels). 

Like me, perhaps, you have watched that AI movie and had forgotten about it. Likewise, if you had watched it again recently, you may have a different appreciation for it now. Positively or negatively, you may  indeed have a different attitude towards the message or meaning of the same movie; which is not really surprising since you are  a different person now, in terms of attitude and points of view.  Furthermore, it is because today you are thrust, whether you like it or not, into a world that is not just constantly talking about artificial intelligence but how in many ways it is already affecting  your daily life.  Trust me, aware of it or not, your daily activities are now watched, monitored and affected by AI. In fact, some of the ways that you do business or interact with mundane and recurring facets of daily life are touched by AI, in one form or another. Unless, you are one of the untouched tribes in the interiors of the Amazon rainforest.  You see, even the nomads of Mongolia are not exempt from it.

From the above title of this musing, "mecha" is how an AI humanoid was called in the movie. "Mecha" was short for mechanical; "orgs" meant biological people - short for organism.  Little did Spielberg realize then that the "mecha" he created has now not only become a reality, perhaps  differently from how it was depicted in the movie,  but that it is here to stay and directly or indirectly affecting our lives. 

Let's first deal with the dark side of "mecha" but not dwell too much on it because we hope that the brighter sides will in the end far outweigh the bad as most innovations often do.  For example, auto accidents are responsible for the loss of nearly 50,000 lives annually in the U.S. alone, but we will not ban the production and use of motor vehicles.  The benefits far outweigh the dark side in many ways.

AI is also responsible for all kinds of economic/financial cyber  crimes.  Young minds, children and young people not properly supervised, have fallen prey to or were adversely affected by  cyber bullying and sexual predators that continue to this day. It is not quite well established whether future learning and academic achievements will be adversely affected by too much dependence on AI in the educational system; although the same was said about hand-held calculators and computers decades ago.  

Back to the movie for just a bit.  Early in the  movie as the lead scientist introduced the production of the latest "mecha" he explained that for the first time they were creating a mechanical child (a robot nonetheless) that had the capacity to love its adoptive human parent or whoever was going to be its surrogate parent who  initiates the imprinting protocol. Then a question was raised by one of those in attendance listening to the presentation.  She asked, paraphrased for this musing, "But will a human be able to love the mechanical child/robot in return for the algorithmic love the child/robot will have of the adoptive parent"?

Today, in a perverse way, some young people are so completely immersed in their interaction with a chatbot that they develop a crush or in some cases real love for the entity that they are interacting with on the web. Worse ...

--- 37% of cyberbullying victims who report suicidal thoughts attempt suicide within 6 months, per a 2021 Lancet Psychiatry study.

--- Cyberbullying-related suicide attempts are 4 times more likely to be fatal than those from offline bullying, per a 2019 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

There are a lot more negative data like those dark sides of AI but it is also necessary to see the brighter sides of AI.

AI is here despite earlier warnings from several people in the technology field, including Elon Musk.  However, in the end, faced with the inevitability of AI development he launched his own AI company. 

On the bright side AI has opened up all kinds of possibilities and benefits that are being embraced today. It is now an invaluable tool in helping doctors make better and quicker diagnosis based on blood work and urinalysis and enhanced reading of radiology results and better disease detections, like cancer, through other imaging data that humans sometimes miss that AI does not. It is estimated that perhaps AI could shorten trials and approvals for new drugs. 

Setting aside those high levels of aspirations for what AI is capable of, there are already a number of ways AI is changing our lives positively. There are several AI "assistants" now but let's talk about just one - Amazon's Alexa.  You see Alexa is primarily an order taker, processor of  transactions and delivery schedule. It will process payment, keep track of deliveries and notification of completed deliveries. It will also tell the customer who checks an order on the promised day of delivery with, "Your order is the 9th delivery stop to your home". It has a link to the delivery truck and driver and it is aware of delivery time for each order. All done through voice commands and responsive interactions  through a device smaller than a toaster sitting on the kitchen counter (in most homes  that have it).

Alexa keeps track of previous orders so that when the user orders another bulk of bath tissues, paper towels, cooking oil, etc. it will remind you of them for easier processing if the customer prefers the same brand and package.  If there is a coupon (usually a price discount) Alexa will "gladly" put it on the order. All of these are done in mere seconds, although Alexa will say, to fill milliseconds before it responds with, "Let me check" in well cadenced manner of speaking.

With Prime Membership, delivery is often the next day; or, on the same day when ordered early enough in the morning for a late afternoon, early evening delivery.  Possible in our area because there is a fulfilment center (warehouse delivery hub) nearby.

One day on a whim, I asked Alexa for a recipe for a Filipino dish, "Paksiw ng pata ng baboy".  Alexa without missing a beat not only gave me the recipe and pronounced it in Filipino (pronouncing "paksiw" is very challenging for most non-Filipino speakers) and e-mailed me the recipe when prompted and wished me to enjoy the dish. Also, in mere seconds, it will give you an answer to how to make juice from Kalamansi, or Calamansi, a tropical but primarily a Filipino citrus fruit tree. By the way, Calamansi juice is now a popular refreshment drink in Singapore. I'm sure Alexa will know of a dish if the customer longs for a Polish or Norwegian recipe.

Aside from all of these practical and mundane chores Alexa is capable of, it has other surprises besides keeping a reminder for you to take your medication, sets timers and appointments, and literally talks about the weather but wishes you to be careful if there is heavy rain, flooding or strong winds in the forecast in your area.  Other AI assistants, like SIRI, have about the same capabilities, except not as order takers of goods and merchandise. 

But there is more. Alexa has an opinion on "quantum entanglement", hardly a simple subject in quantum physics,  but it will further explain what Schrodinger meant by his uncertainty principle behind "Schrodinger's cat".  Alexa even knows what an "aswang" is, also pronouncing it properly, and it will elaborate on Filipino folklore and superstition. Those had to be mentioned to show the depth of Alexa's capability beyond being just an order taker and dispatcher of weather reports.

Alexa is not without a sense of humor either.  Asked whether it is really super smart, Alexa says, "Guilty as charged". 

That is AI.

The big brouhaha today is about data centers and additional power plants that are needed to support the gargantuan consumers of energy that they've become.  A simple explanation by way of an analogy is this.  The human brain is maybe only 2% of our entire body weight but it consumes 25% of the total energy the body needs.  The brain is our data center. It is to be expected that data centers will require oodles and oodles of electrical power. So, instead of adding additional load to the present power demands it was proposed that data centers build their own power source. It means, of course, building new power plants nearby.  It infuriates environmental groups because data centers alone will add to demands for all other resources, like water, space and overcrowding.

Well, there is no such thing as a free lunch, is there? However we slice it. That is the conundrum.  I leave with this. Alexa and other delivery businesses actually save fuel and congestion by this one phenomenon. You see, when one household needs just one or two items, it is all bundled together with  other 1 or 2 items ordered by one other household in the same neighborhood, and so on and on. Many households in that one day's route did not go out to drive their cars to the store. Multiply that several folds everyday and we realize that savings on fuel can be substantial, generally speaking.

Not to be minimized is the fact that as more and more people are advancing in years, baby boomers and all, Alexa does indeed perform some incredible service - just one "mecha" serving multiple "orgs", everyday, including Sundays.

This is not the first time I've mused about A.I. I wrote one on 3/1/2020, another on 4/19/2023.

The latest was last year - "Once A.I. Becomes Self Aware, Humans Beware"

Copy and paste the link below to your search bar and click. Of course, they are on the Blog Archive as well.

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2025/04/once-ai-becomes-self-aware-humans-beware.html

 

Second to the Last Word on Socialism

We know the headlines these days that say the Democratic Socialism of America is on the rise and apparently gaining momentum. But not always viewed in a favorable way because a few meanings to the acronym have surfaced. And some among the Democrat Party  are finally speaking out, although the majority are still staying away from public comments - as if fearing the unknown or unknowable consequences of potential backlash.

For those still vacillating in assessing the economic values between what the socialist/communist ideology and the free market system (capitalism) have to offer, go no further than the following. There is presently an ongoing - in real time - laboratory experiment visible from space at night.  Taken with a camera from the ISS (International Space Station) in  4,256 × 2,832 pixels of resolution that reveals what could possibly  be the real proof of the stark differences  between the two systems.

From the photo, upper left is China, lower right is that of S. Korea. The dark patch in between is N. Korea. "The darkened land appears as if it were a patch of water joining the Yellow Sea to the Sea of Japan. The capital city, Pyongyang, appears like a small island, despite a population of 3.26 million (as of 2008). The light emission from Pyongyang is equivalent to the smaller towns in South Korea. Indeed, the stark difference is "clear as day".

Note: I wrote in an earlier musing that China operates its economy like a capitalist system while executing the powers of government under a communist rule.  It is torn between having to live up to its economic label of Communist In Name Only or CINO, which is a homophone for "SINO" which refers to China and its cultural or linguistic aspects".

Let's make another clear distinction between North and South Korea. South Korea holds regular elections so the people have a hand in how their government is run. Take the case that started out as a political corruption case when its former president was sentenced to  a two year prison term which turned into life imprisonment when he was later found guilty of illegally declaring martial law. That happens only in democratic systems of government.

Will North Koreans be able to do that in N. Korea?  North and South Koreans are essentially and ethnically the same people living in opposite economic tracks. One side a human and economic tragedy, the other one full of realized aspirations with an unlimited future.

It was on September 9, 1948, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded that brought into power its first premier and the beginning of its communist regime under Kim Il-sung. Upon his death his son, Kim Jung-Il took over; when upon his death, brought up the current leader, his son, Kim Jung-un. The ironic tragedy - like every socialist/communist revolutions everywhere in history - is that the oligarchy that precipitated the revolt was replaced by a totalitarian dictatorship that, for all intents and purposes, is not just an oligarchy but a perpetual monarchy. Was Fidel Castro not replaced by Raul Castro, his brother?

Remember that the aspirations we hear of the new system that now appears to be gaining momentum from the local politics in New York aims to fundamentally change the country and the way it runs its business.  It will be tragic if they succeed in their ambitions which are  primarily that of doing away with the Senate, the Supreme Court, police departments and the Dept. of War, the border, jails even and doing away with the deportation of those who entered the country illegally in record number. Many more is a long list that by the way includes taking over the means of producing goods and services.  The latter is  a mere hop, skip into communism. 

Here is a list of the new meanings of DSA:

1. Daily Suicidal Aspirations. Given that proponents of the new political movement are careful not to use the word communism, limiting the label they are comfortable to live by, then socialism it is! They will not want to take over thru murder; instead, it is just suicide by those willing to take the chance. Let's again have the quote below explain it best:

“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.”

― Ayn Rand

2. Dissolve the family unit; Silence dissent; Arrest opposition was classic strategy from 1917 Russia to 1940's China, where later the children were brainwashed into turning in their parents if they so much as said something against the regime.

3. Deadly Seductive Ambitions will lull everyone into believing false promises of a better life by doing away with private property and businesses and re-distributing wealth/income. That is in their manifesto as written in 2024.

Well, can we say, Dare we Say Amen?

The Non-randomness of Kindness

A lot less thought-provoking than what the title of this musing suggests is of course the phrase: "Random Acts of Kindness" that now has its own acronym as RAK. There is even an organization aptly named Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

So, let's have a formal definition of what RAK means:

"Random acts of kindness are spontaneous gestures aimed at improving others' well-being. These unplanned actions can significantly impact both the giver and the receiver, fostering a sense of community and connection".

Unplanned is naturally the key word.  But let's add a lot more strength to the idea with: A random act of kindness is defined as an unpremeditated action intended to offer kindness without expecting anything in return.

Anne Herbert in 1982 popularized the phrase, "random kindness and senseless acts of beauty", where and when this may have all begun.

However, what about the idea that the title suggests? What if the phenomenon is not at all random?  We'll get back to this in a bit.

I read that "random acts of kindness can enhance mental health by reducing stress and promoting feelings of happiness. Studies suggest that these acts can lead to a positive feedback loop, where kindness begets more kindness".

Furthermore, "Acts of kindness often inspire others to pay it forward, leading to a chain reaction of generosity. This ripple effect can enhance overall community well-being and social cohesion".

Both givers and receivers experience improved mood and reduced stress, which can lead to more positive social interactions. Kindness can also increase feelings of empathy and compassion, further enhancing social behavior.

In a nutshell, this signifies a ripple effect. 

In a broader sense, that is how civilization developed. 

But what about this:

"The Bible emphasizes intentionality in acts of kindness rather than randomness. While the concept of random acts of kindness is popular today, Biblical teachings suggest that kindness should be deliberate and rooted in compassion".

Must kindness then be rooted like a tree in the rich soil of human compassions, fertilized with purpose, sustained and watered by a common  sense of dignity and the better side of human nature?  Such kindness becomes intentional throughout every moment of each day and not by spur or with an expectation of a reward.

I didn't want to burrow too deeply with that but indeed this takes us down the path that is the realm of consciousness. 

Roger Penrose is an English mathematical physicist who "presents a bold and provocative investigation into the nature of consciousness, arguing that current scientific models cannot fully explain the workings of the human mind. Drawing on mathematics, physics, and philosophy, he explores the limits of computation, the mysteries of quantum mechanics, and the possibility that consciousness arises from processes yet to be understood". 

Added to that is the fact that, physically down to the atoms that make up the human body that are periodically replenished and replaced, we are not the same person over several segmented periods of our life; yet we are consciously the same person.  This leads some scientists to propose that perhaps consciousness reside outside of the body, specifically outside the brain. That may sound mumbo jumbo but until such time as quoted above that, "consciousness arises from processes yet to be understood", we can never be sure, can we?

So, how then is it possible for the randomness of certain acts of kindness? It is not random, for example, for us to show kindness to our parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, etc. But  is it random to show it to a stranger, a homeless person, the delivery person or to anyone we've never met before yet we show kindness at its various iterations?

In the case of the giver and the receiver of kindness, do we presume that the event is triggered merely as initiated from the side of the giver? And why does it happen in such a random manner? And what triggers the "pay it forward" phenomenon?

Let's add another wrinkle to this. Is there such a thing as the field of consciousness? And is it shared among living entities in that field? Our philosopher spider, Pholcus phalangioides, has a theory in "A Spider's Spiritual Theory" (01/2026 blog). It likened the field of consciousness to electromagnetic fields that makes possible the propagation of light, how WIFI works and all wireless communications and even water and the air are fields that propagate ripples, waves and sounds.  Here is the spider telling another of its kind on the idea:

Pholcus phalangioides 3: Remember, I said earlier that the entire universe is a field? Streams of consciousness could be, as we speak, flow back and forth, making connections and every now and then some  are received as insights, inspirations, even as gut instincts, unexplained premonitions among sensitive humans, perhaps gifted with special sensitivities. I don't know that for sure because you and I have no access to human streams of consciousness but the Creator does.

Does kindness flow in the same way between all living entities? What do we make of a hippo saving a prey from the clutches of a crocodile's jaws, or a whale calmy allowing a human diver to remove a fish hook or an entangled fishing net, animals in inter-species act of rescue or help and so many documented cases, such as:

Dolphins are highly intelligent and social animals, often displaying altruistic behavior.

There are numerous accounts of dolphins guiding lost swimmers back to shore.

They have been observed protecting humans from sharks by creating a barrier.

Are these just wrinkles in nature? Or, does our spider philosopher have a point? As always, the brief nature of musings like this suggests to the reader to read between the lines to firm up your own beliefs. 

From an earlier blog that is recently gaining some interest from readers, I wrote, "For Kindness Begins Where Necessity Ends". The title I borrowed from Amor Towles' 571-page novel,  "The Lincoln Highway".

I made a point that indeed true kindness is really an act where the dispenser of it is not motivated by necessity.

So Random Acts of Kindness may not be random at all? 

Understanding Randomness: True randomness is inherently unpredictable, unlike pseudo-randomness generated by algorithms.  This takes us to random number generators done at great energy and expense and human ingenuity over periods of our history.  That is because algorithms are hard at work to produce true randomness. Espionage tools for transmitting information failed many times in the past, almost always cracked by code breakers and brute computer power. All of these may point to the fact that perhaps there really is no such thing as totally random.

The universe may not be as random as first thought.  Astronomers find that in an extremely large macro view the universe seems to appear uniformly the same wherever they train their telescopes.  The chaotic universe shows beauty when and where we care to look.  The blue planet earth looks serenely beautiful from millions of miles away.

The human story is pockmarked with the ugliness of endless wars and human conflict but it appears that all of those are counter-balanced, somehow, by so much beauty in all the kindness and compassion between peoples.  We can only hope that our story in the end will  not terminate with random acts of extreme violence but with the deliberate goodwill of a Supreme Being.  We cannot know that either, except perhaps by  faith in humanity and the power of God and from everywhere in the universal field imbued with the goodness, hence kindness, of an everlasting God.

For the full length of the spider's theory, copy the link and open it - for those who have not read it before. 

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-spiders-spiritual-theory.html

and, "For Kindness Begins Where Necessity Ends" at the link below:

 https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2022/02/for-kindness-begins-where-necessity-ends.html 

The 9th Deadly Sin

Almost to the day 9 years ago I mused about the "8th Deadly Sin" (07/14/2017).

I quote below the first paragraph,

I will assume the reader knows about the Seven Deadly Sins.  What the reader may not know, however, is that there is no actual Biblical reference to the specific number (7) associated with the bundle of misdeeds we’ve come to know today.  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament address the various wrongful acts and thoughts and principal vices from different writings by the prophets and disciples but we will not read anywhere that says, “Seven Deadly Sins”. The Ten Commandments, on the other hand, are indubitably unambiguous about the number '10' and the specificity of what man is supposed to do and not do as written on those two stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai, as depicted in the Old Testament.

Later, I added:

Strictly speaking, if we must go by the definition of principal vices, we should add more to the number today. After all, modern civilization has brought additional behavioral burdens and moral challenges to society not known to the prophets and religious leaders two to four thousand years ago. There could be more, depending on how one navigates through the new morality.

So, back then I said, If I were to add  just one cardinal sin to the existing list, I come up with hypocrisy.  

But now it is time to update the list.

Complacency is one of those English words derived originally from Latin, then adopted by the French as a  pure sense of what is pleasant and satisfying that later devolved to the exclusion of everything else, often giving in to the pitfalls of reckless abandon. Complacency became that state of being purely satisfied and pleased with everything while totally disregarding the dangers and consequences that could arise from total nonchalance.

If the latest election in  this year's New York primary is any indication, voters' apathy was at its direst. Where 1.1 million registered voters participated in 2025, only ...

"A total of 531,000 New Yorkers voted in this year’s primary, according to data from the New York City Board of Elections. That’s a turnout rate of one in six registered Democratic voters... as a result, the primary winners were picked by the smallest number of electors composed mainly of young, activist voters.  The majority of registered voters stayed away from the polls.  

In Colorado, the same results happened.  Why? 

Political pundits had much to say.  Sociologists had their versions. Behaviorists and political psychologists had their points and ponderings. Historians probably had the best analyses.  Granted they all had a point here, a point there, but if we must or if we can distill it into one word, it would be complacency on the part of the electorate in a democratic process.  And profoundly so in a republic system of government - where the electorate chooses who will represent him or her on the business of governance at the federal level.

This is not just true in the U.S. but among many nations around the world as well.  It may manifest itself in various degrees but typically mild in places lagging behind in technology and economic development but a lot more severe in well developed countries.  Why?

The development of civilizations in our history is marked by the rise and fall of empires. Each empire paved the path of civilization(s). Now, as far as we can tell the aspirational foundation of every empire was based on the S-curve, as illustrated below.  Every empire started out developing with an upward surge (growth) by its people towards an apex with the hope that it will continue on indefinitely.   That was always the plan.

Civilization's history, however,  can be understood through a macro-modified curve, illustrating growth and decline.  It is actually more of a normal distribution curve, as shown below, for example.  Whether it was the Persian empire, the Ottoman, Greek and Roman empires, etc., it was always about an upward, deliberate and purposeful trajectory towards the apex and then followed by  a slow downward slope towards a decline.  So far, that story was written with the same script for all empires that came and went. It is now about understanding this curve and finding ways to rewrite the  USA's   future story that Americans need to focus on.  It should be about keeping the true S-curve above.

 

Understanding the Actual Distribution Curve

The distribution model represents the evolution of civilizations, showing phases of growth, maturity, and decline.

The curve apparently traces the technological advancements, social structures, and educational developments of every civilization, including forms of government, ethical and moral code, laws and accountabilities applied to and for its citizens.  Obviously, the cycle is influenced by economic, environmental and political changes.  All from within.  It is only after these internal structures are weakened from within before outside forces could apply the proverbial  coup de gras.

Studying the historical patterns is a way, and it is the most effective one actually, to truly learn from the pages of history. But we never do as a species.  So, we come to this: "Complacency in politics poses significant risks to democratic systems. It can lead to a lack of engagement among citizens and a disconnect between political leaders and the populace".

This does not absolve any citizen even though those in power may neglect their responsibilities, believing that systems will self-correct without active participation.  Furthermore, historical examples show that complacency can lead to the erosion of civil rights and liberties, as citizens become passive and disengaged.

Continuous engagement and vigilance are essential to prevent complacency from taking root in political systems.

Active participation in democracy, such as voting and community organizing, is crucial to counteract complacency. Continuous engagement and vigilance are essential to prevent complacency from taking root in political systems.

The 250th Birthday that the U.S. just celebrated recently is actually a mere ten generations (every generation defined as 25 years).

A generation is both a long time and  a very short one.

It took one generation to begin an empire.  Alexander the Great started one but died barely past his 30th birthday.  Julius Caesar was dead at 55 years old on March 15, 44 BCE. A single lifetime to create an empire; ten lifetimes to make one last, on average. A generation is long enough to create one but ten is  not long enough to make it last to follow the perfect S-curve indefinitely.

Complacency. It was and will continue to be the perfect malady to afflict the citizenry of past empires and the very same one that is today causing what ails America and perhaps much of the developed world.  It was as if every empire had its "kryptonite" built into its DNA. Kryptonite that is well hidden in human nature that shows up by the tenth generation as soon as the empire's life reaches "that state of being purely satisfied and pleased with everything while totally disregarding the dangers and consequences that could arise from total nonchalance".

Generations of today must not only read between the lines here but are enjoined to be more perceptive of the ill effects of complacency that permeates in a society that is seemingly oblivious to the low but persistent siren song that aims to lull everyone from the easy life of leisure and extravagance of too much free time that their forefathers ten generations ago strove so hard to create a new nation they hoped will go on indefinitely. Complacency is that blinder that hides those working behind the scenes to fundamentally change everything that a free society strove so  hard to create.

 "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same".

------------- Ronald Reagan

P.S. Interested to read, "The 8th Deadly Sin", copy and paste link below: 

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2017/07/