Tonight I spent a long while posting on another blog about an intelligent and semi selfless change in thinking. Not only did I in one fell swoop come to grips with my own true atheistic tenancies, I realized that I do not have to enforce them on others, including my children. That said, this blog, is after all for all the things that bounce around in my head that I just cant say in mixed company right?
Long story short, I watched Julia Sweeney's monologue entitled "Letting Go of God." I recommend it. It dawned on me that I had as I had finally set up a twitter account this week (more for following than to be followed) I was mainly following... well... atheists.
Penn Jillette, Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins among others... and of Course Julia Sweeney when I get around to it.
This is really a fluff post. There is no substance to it other than to recognize the irony of the fact that as I loosen my grip on my proprietary beliefs, I wonder at how others can continue to follow a self contradictory cult with no discernible historic value invented wholly by man and cobbled together with pieces of almost every other religion around...
Oh yeah. Then I remembered. Most people pay no attention... at... all. They just do what they are told.
"Man-made DNA has booted up a cell for the first time.
In a feat that is the culmination of two and a half years of tests and adjustments, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute inserted artificial genetic material — chemically printed, synthesized and assembled — into cells that were then able to grow naturally."
This is one of those things that in my opinion will eventually make it to the nightly news, be talked about for a few weeks, commented on by everyone and then well... forgotten quicker than Pons and Fleischmann. Why bother writing about it? Because this is huge.
You see, purveyors of Hard Science Fiction like myself are not often surprised when life imitates art. We've been there, seen that and frankly, wondered what took the boffins so long. So here we are. We have fake life. What's the big deal? Well, in my opinion if you can make bacteria, you can make anything given the patience and a steady nano-hand and electron microscope. So what should we make?
Part of me feels like a kid with a giant box ofLegos. The sky is the limit. Do we work on our own code? Do we uplift a few of the smarter non human species? Do we make something new? I mean come on, the Singularity is staring us down the throat and we are trying to desperately figure out how to retrofit the old chassis to be able to upload and carry new add ons... Why not just create a new rig? We can keep the old operating system... Oh... that's right, we don't know how the software works.
Let's face it... we have no damn idea. We are, as we speak reliving the crusades with laser guided bombs, arguing over the legality of sexual preference and whether or not we should be allowed to burn a naturally occurring substance [Political Preference Checkpoint: If you thought of Oil, click here, If Marijuana, click here).
I say go for it. But do it with a couple of rules in mind...
1. No slaves.Planet of the Apes was made in the 70's and still holds true.
2. No Quick Fixes.I don't care how much oil pumps into the Gulf. Don't kludge a bug to eat it. You don't know what it will do when the entree is gone.
3. Don't aim for smarter.Show me one genius who was not flawed at best or insane at the worst... we just don't get la cabeza yet, leave the Flowers to the fictional Algernon and let the rest of us do the hard math.
We do not have a damn clue. At least not at the decision making levels where enough money flows to make anything happen. So, it's all academic; good pub talk. Blog Fodder? Ooooh... that's a good name for a blog. Maybe You, the reader will steal it and give Me something to read?
Enjoy... And remember, Irony tastes like bacon... Mmmmm... yummy meme!
Which along with Endymion by Keats are required reading in my opinion...
In short it continues the story of an agnostic science fiction writer who finds himself in Hell following his death. Hell seems to be exactly as Dante described it. Giving any details beyond that would be taking the fun away. I dont want to tell you about it... I'll just say, you should read it.
But it got me to thinking about my beliefs. Anyone who knows me just a tad can tell you that I am not much of an aficionado for organized religion... If I had one thing to say it would be that religion has done a bit more harm than good in my book, but hey, if you want to get together once a week play pretend, who am I to stop you?
"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson; 1787 letter to his nephew
Anyway, I wanted to point you to two very interesting articles... And in doing so realized that on my good days I am a hopeful Agnostic Deist.
Before this starts, please go here. It wont hurt a bit, or cost you a nickle... What the hell, right? It's worth a try!...
I've had so much pinging around my brain lately that my thoughts have had a hard time coalescing into any really coherent or at least long lived product. I was going through a drawer the other day and came across a manuscript of mine for a novel of which I had written around a hundred pages and stalled out. It, like two other cobwebbed novels of mine both (vaguely) revolved around interstellar war and intrigue; anchored by the concept of "Heim-Droescher" space. I wont bore you with any physics but suffice to say that this has been the best bet (that show's its math and does not require magical tech) for FTL that I have seen in my long sci-fi-amateur-physics career. Enough so that I was finally compelled to write some Space Navy stories... albeit unfinished ones.
So with that in mind I began a tangential web-goose chase. To bring the context of this search into focus I have to take you back to the wee infancy of the internet. Granted I am a web geek in disguise (I know what a baud is and I helped a friend meet a girl from a BBS on a computer with a 5 and 1/4 floppy drive; yeah, I'm old.) In the early days of the internet, circa 1997, I was living in Guam while serving in the military. I was standing sentry at the entrance to the Submarine Base where I was stationed and listening to Coast to Coast AM With Art Bell on a little 9v radio. The topic was Bob Lazar and Area 51. Earlier that night I had been down at the Lagoon at Polaris Point writing and listening to the new "Escape from L.A." soundtrack that I had bought (alternative music was hard to come by in those days on Guam, you took what you could get.). I had been hooked on a song called "Escape from the Prison Planet" by Clutch for about a week. I had never heard anything quite like it. It was hardcore and yet it was really rap but add to that it was about aliens, ufo's etc and well... this geek was hooked.
Now the thing about it was, I had no idea who Bob Lazar was. As the program went on I had one of those pre-internet moments where someone realized "Hey! I've heard of that! It's that thing!" An actual connection between memory and reality without instant gratification. I didn't sleep that night. I hung out by the beach after my watch and listened to the rest of the show. Around dawn I took a shower, changed and finished the rest of my work day. I had made a couple of notes in my journal and went home via the store, picking up a couple of bottles of Merlot (I was a wine whore even then, but then the word was not vintage or vintner, but "kind"). I got back to my barracks room, put on tool, took out my easel and began to paint. Swigging from the bottle, smoking reds and trying to find that place... that place where genius occasionally visited...
And Murphy walked in the room... I had not closed the door all the way. Murphy told me that he had "The Internet" and since I knew more about computers than he did, would I help him?
In that I night I realized that all those people like me who had questions, who had theories, wonders and a plethora of "What ifs" had learned HTML. I quickly followed suit. I wrote my first code that night. I did my first web search. I ended up having a key made to his room and paying the bill for the dial up internet connection he had. I used it more than he. I would spend my time between the WBS Goth Cathedral (Where I eventually re-met my best friend and best man) and all of the counter-culture conspiracy theorist websites that cropped up faster than porn.
In the end, I opened a wound that has never closed. It is three-fold;
1. I need to know.
2. I need to know now.
3. I need to know everything...
Tonight's minor exercise in typing has not lead anywhere where I may have promised in the beginning. It was free form and slightly chaotic. I don't care. If you clicked a couple links then who knows where you ended up tonight. I ended up smiling and listening to good music and reliving fond memories...
"The universe is hostile
So impersonal
Devour to survive
So it is, so it's always been ... "
I will return to this thread... it is a story after all...
The second post on a blog like this is pivotal. This is where I have to hook the early reader and make them believe I know what I'm talking about. Here goes...
Civilization is cyclical.
I firmly believe that we are not experiencing our first iteration of enlightenment. We've been at this level of technology or better before. One might say "Where is the evidence?". Well, here is where I show my cards a bit and say... all around. Where to start? Let's keep in mind that this is a blog, not a book, not a thesis and I am certainly not an expert. That said, I've spent the better part of 25 years reading and thinking about this. I believe that prior to recorded history that there was at least a global maritime civilization that shared a common language and technology via trade. I believe that our oldest recorded myths (The Epic of Gilgamesh) spoke of a true event. To quote Wikipedia;
"The earliest written literature dates from about 2600 BC..."
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem written in cuneiform originating in ancient Sumeria (Modern day Iraq) and later transcribed in Akkadian. The best way to describe Gilgamesh's tale is again, to quote the Wiki;
"The story revolves around a relationship between Gilgamesh, who has become distracted and disheartened by his rule, and his close companion, Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the citizens of Uruk. Together they undertake dangerous quests that incur the displeasure of the gods. Firstly, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven that the goddess Ishtar has sent to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances..."
That is merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Whereas the earliest portions of the Hebrew Bible date only from the 10th century BC, Gilgamesh is older by at least 1,700 years. Not only is it older, it is nearly the definitive origin of the the Tale of Noah as described in the portion devoted to Utnapishtim.
The slightest bit of research should inspire some pretty serious head scratching for the uninitiated. Once that has set in, allow me to point you to the general Deluge Myths.
One must admit that at some point, whether by the wrath of God, cometary or asteroidal impact or via a physical and not just magnetic polar shift (see this link and pay special attention to the validity lent to it by Charles Hapgood and his communications with Albert Einstein). A global cataclysm occurred that forever changed the face the Human Culture. It was important enough that it was written down, repeated as oral tradition and kept safe so that it survived (in my opinion) the ten thousand years since it's occurrence.
Noah: A Side Note.
Unless you are firmly set in the Judeo-Christian mindset, Noah is a moot point. Noah is a vague disambiguation of the older more salient truth made into myth and set into the stone of dogma. Noah was the elite priesthood's way to attach beginning to their mindset, a mindset that would enslave the world for eons, a truth which everyone in the Post-Deluvian world knew. To this day we still argue whether or not the "Ark" could have sailed. It certainly could not have been engineered by one man and his immediate family unless Yahweh gave Noah the Plans at birth and he worked tirelessly in his "free time" (for ancient man had plenty of free time not having to worry about silly things like hunting, gathering and foraging)... I digress. There was no one "Ark" or any incredibly impossible taxonomic gathering of animals.
(I will say that if this myth is a remembrance of a rescue on a much higher technological scale i.e. actual gathering of DNA and taking it off planet, well, that too is beyond the realm of possibility without help of "Gods" or Visitors.)
End Side Note
Let us agree to put it this way; Everyone remembered "The Flood". As I said early, whether it was a celestial event, massive shift of Terra Firma or an expedited melting of the polar caps there is no easily decoded written explanation... Why? Simple...
Where does civilization gather today? Ports. Port Cities. Of The Top Five Cities in the World today all are Port Cities. Think of America... San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, all port cities. Civilization gathers around ports. It is where culture is traded, languages and culinary skills are melded and genetic diversity begins. The World grew, learned and began in the port cities. Ports required agriculture, settling and an abandonment of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of our fore bearers. Chances are if you could read, and write, you lived in a port city.
But where is the evidence?
Easy. Want evidence? Go to the beach, point yourself to the water and walk our about a mile (on average) and start hunting around under 10,000 years of erosion and find your ruins... they already are in the Mediterranean (sorry no link) and off the coast of India and Japan.
If there was a global deluge, the port cities were destroyed. The survivors sought refuge with their less "civilized" brethren in the hills. Those who could not read. Those who saw the survivors as gods. Viracocha, Quetzacoatl, Ra, etc, etc, ad infinitum... Atlantis? A memory of a time when all was wine and roses... not a lost continent.
That is all for now. If you really want to dig deeper allow me to offer you a few jumping off points...
I realized while writing my other blog that I had so much more to say than just anecdotal soliloquy on my domestic life. While my day to day existence is quite enough to keep me busy as well as entertained, I suffer from a serious inability to shut my mind off. It is hard for me to go to sleep. It is hard for me to stop thinking. Therefore after noticing while writing on my other blog that I was starting to bleed over from the domestic into the theoretical, metaphysical or at least alternative, I did what I could to steer a course back on topic. I wrote the following;
'The title of the blog after all is “A Husband and Father” and not “Bored Dude Drinking Wine and spelling Dog backwards”.'
I was fond of the second title, for in a way, it was what I was doing since I began writing that night in search of a topic (and was utilizing the help of some outstanding aged grape juice). A family member who is a purveyor of the aforementioned blog mentioned that they were tickled by the above quote... In that moment, this blog was born.
There is a quote from a favorite author of mine (Either Heinlein, Niven or Card... I think) that can be summed up as;
"If you can imagine a time when you don't need to write, don't quit your day job..."
I must write. Thank dog I enjoy it. So... This place is my scratch paper per se. It's the place where my daily mental overload goes for time-out. I assume that I will discuss things that I have come across that I find interesting, perplexing or just down right intriguing. I warn you ahead of time that I have an insatiable need for news pertaining to advancements in science. I am a purveyor of most things paranormal. I'm essentially an agnostic who finds organized religion to be ancient political pap. I'm not afraid to say the f-word. I have a prolific vocabulary and will use it... because the words that come out on this page are coming straight from Mi Cabeza. If you enjoy it, all the better. If you hate it, that may be even more fun... But whatever you do, please comment. I love to argue.
Please feel free to suggest discussion material or share links to interesting information. Misery loves company...
I'll leave you with this thought and video. Do you trust what you read? How about what you see with your own eyes?
The author is a late thirty something father and husband who's just trying to be a little better tomorrow than he was yesterday. Yes, he knows he thinks too much.
