moneymoneymoney

So I'z gonna explain something thats totally obvious to me but apparently nobody else. Dan's economics lesson 101.

Money does not exist. Yes there are pieces of pretty paper in people's wallets and when you have some, you can trade it for stuff. But thats not what I'm talking about. I mean the Idea that Money is value. That when you have money, you have wealth. That earning money means accomplishing something. Nope. Total bullshit. Anybody who thinks that earning money is accomplishing something is just a bit disconnected with reality. And that is almost everybody.

There are only two things in the entire universe that have value. Real, hard, physical value. Natural Resources and Man Hours. If you have money, you can trade it for these things. But if you don't have any Natural Resources, and there are no Men to work Hours, then JUST FREAKIN TRY to use your money for ANYTHING. It won't work.

Having money means that other humans TRUST YOU. If you pay somebody to do something, it means they TRUST that what you are telling them to do is worthwhile, that it will somehow benefit humanity, and thus benefit them individually. If you can take money and turn it into more money, it means that people TRUST that you are doing something right.

But guess what, some people just broke that trust. They took money and turned it into more money, but it turns out it was just a big scam. Nothing of any value happened. They even convinced a bunch of people to spend time and resources building houses where nobody wants to live, and it was just a big waste. They have used money to betray our trust, and humanity did not benefit in any way. But I digress...

I want people to shift their understanding of money and wealth. I want them to start to understand, that money is just an abstract tool for trading time and goods. I want people to realize, that the most valuable thing they have is their time and that all resources at our disposal are gifts from the earth of limited quantity, to be treated with respect and rationed carefully. And I want some people who have have money to realize that humanity made a big freakin mistake by giving them money. Bastards.

Probablility of life on earth, calculated

So I wanted to estimate the probability of life on earth, VERY VERY roughly, just to see if it seems at all likely, within any reasonable order of magnitude, that life could have just by chance popped into existence on the Earth. I'm going to ignore the laws of chemistry for now, which would increase the likelihood significantly, and just see how likely would be for all the right atoms to randomly fall into all the right places to accidentally form a bacteria.

So i started with an average single celled organism, which has about (200x10^10) atoms. Individual pieces of elements. Atoms, not molecules, Atoms. And the number of different types of elements necessary for life, about 10. So some math, giving us the statistical likelihood of all the right atoms falling into all the right places by chance...10^(200x10^10) or 10^20,000,000,000,000.

Thats a one with twenty trillion zeros, the number of shakes it would statistically take to accidentally construct one specific living bacteria, atom by atom, by putting some primordial soup in a glass jar and shakin'.

Really we can stop right there, cuz aint nothin gonna touch that number. But we'll continue, just to see what happens.

We still need to divide that figure by all possible bacterias. At any one time, there are 5x10^30 bacterias alive on the earth. With an average lifespan of 50 minutes, thats 3,650,000 lifespans per year times 4 billion years is about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 lifespans, times 5x10^30 bacterias giving us 5x10^50 different possible bacterias, cuz yknow, every one is just a little different. So we can nix 50 of those twenty trillion zeros.

So then I took an average size bacteria, 1000nm, which gives us enough space in 1 cubic meter of primordial ooze for 10^27 bacterias. Or, in our case, attempts at bacteria. And multiply that over 1/10 of the earths surface (5x10^10 meters) and we get ...(5x10^10)x(10^27)= (5x10^37) spaces for attempts at bacteria... assuming the primordial ooze us just 1 meter thick.

Then if we say that the primordial ooze gets mixed up 10x per second, that gives us (3x10^8) mixes per year, and with (5x10^37) spaces we get (15x10^48) chances at accidentally creating a bacteria per year. I figure primordial ooze was probably around for about 1 billion years, giving us a total of...(15x10^57) chances for life to form spontaneously. So we can nix another 60 zeros from our twenty trillion.

That leaves us with a 10^-19,999,999,999,89% chance of life just randomly happening to fall into place, atom by atom.

Dang, we should feel lucky!

This calculation is, of course, complete nonsense. But it shows, with some simple math, that even EXTREMELY unlikely things are still possible.

what the hell is GOD?

I'd like to say something about God and Nature,

theres a lot of argument about whether or not "God" exists, where life came from, who or what created the earth. Proving or disproving the existence of God. Evolution and Creationism...

First off, I was not exposed to religion in almost any way during my childhood. I did not go to church or any other religious institution. My parents are not religious. I was never read to out of any religious book. My most religious teaching came from Richard Bach's book Illusions, and all I remember from that book is that they ate the dudes finger in the end and I thought, "whoah, wtf..."

So when people start talking religion and start trying to prove or disprove stuff, they immediately start using words and terms that, to me, have no definition. Even at the most basic level, when people say, "do you believe in God", I have to respond, "what do you MEAN when you say GOD?" I have no idea what the word GOD is supposed to mean.

He is the messiah. the creator. Jesus is Lord. Amen.
Ok, theres a bunch of other words I don't understand.

I think it has something to do with spontaneous belief. When you decide to believe something abstract without being able to anchor it to anything that you have seen or experienced. Something that exists only in abstract concepts communicated to you by other humans. You don't know what it is, what it is supposed to be, or how it relates to anything. But you've heard it said so many times that it begins to have meaning. A meaning that you cannot explain to anyone without invoking in them the same spontaneous belief that you also have.

And I bet this has some evolutionary advantage. The human mind can process complex things and come up with an abstract conclusion which leads to the human acting physically in an advantageous way. And when large groups of people can be convinced of the same abstract thing, then their subconscious must have processed the same info in the same way. All in a way which our conscious mind is unable to explain. And I bet there is a lot of truth to the things they come up with.

For example, (and I'm grossly generalizing, so forgive me...) Ancient religions would personify natural events into man-like characters. Like the rain god. This makes sense, as Humans are finely tuned to interact with other humans, so why not interact with rain AS IF it were also a human? And then all other things have their own gods, so the god of love, the god of wine, the god of war. We are taking abstract concepts and personifying them. Thats simple.

But then somebody comes along and says, hey, what if all these "gods" are bullhooky, and theres really just ONE god that controls everything? So suddenly, we are personifying everything into one character. EVERYTHING. the man-like character of everything. And then, whaddayaknow, 3200 years later people get the idea that ALL THINGS in the physical world are governed by a single set of physical laws, which can be used to describe the character of everything. And suddenly, rain can be explained by the character of water vapor. Wine can be explained by the character of alchohol. Love and War can be explained by the character of our brains, built in the image of our genome, which follow the same chemical laws as water vapor and alchohol. That makes sense!

So to me, its no coincidence that people have this abstract idea of a unified everything, 3,000 years before the concept gets microscopic. Its a testament to the intuitive power of the human mind.

So what about these arguments, does God exist? Evolution or intelligent design? To me, there is no argument. Science is the act of making conclusions based on repeatable, irrefutable experiments. EVERYTHING we know about nature, through the act of science, is repeatable and irrefutable. There are lots of THEORIES, about evolution, for example, which extrapolate in a logical way on that which is proven and irrefutable. I trust this process!!! and think most of these extrapolations are nearing on the truth, and thats believable enough for me.

So does god exist? did he create life? I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL GOD IS. So, depending on how you define God, why not? Experiments show that the laws of nature are irrefutable, but who created the laws of nature? Experiments actually prove, irrefutably, evolution in microbes, and its not such a stretch to extrapolate that into multicelled organisms. And its all based on the laws of nature, but where did the laws of nature come from? Abiogenesis theorizes that the building blocks of life began to combine together through the laws of nature (note, not random) and from there more and more complex organisms began to form. Where did these building blocks get the ability to do this?

So to me, the acts of evolution and abiogenesis, MAKE SENSE and I believe them, but they are so spectacular that I have to ask, HOW did nature get the ability to do this? How can these simple elements combine to form MY consciousness, thoughts, emotions? Who came up with this stuff? AMAZING! And that leaves room for the wonders of Religion, not within the framework of science, but on the EDGE of science, explaining intuitively the things science has yet to describe accurately.

Put differently, if you don't believe that life can form "spontaneously" from nature, then you are clearly underestimating nature. Obviously, the design for all of life is contained within the laws of nature.

And this does not disprove God.

But then some people cling to a quote from an old (but impressive) book saying that the world was formed 6,000 years ago. Cmon, people, that can be irrefutably disproven. Its just a book. The people who wrote it just got the timeline wrong.

Sex, Love, and Muammar Gadaffi

Dear public,
whoever you are. Its still very mysterious to me, who reads my blog. So it should be just that much more ironic, for me to share some very personal stories with you.

I recently hurt a girl who I care very much about. We had been not-together for about a year. She wanted me to commit to a "real" relationship, but I wouldn't do it. I felt that would be lying. So I would just tell her, YES I like being around you and spending time with you. YES you turn me on and I enjoy the naughty naughty. no, the feelings just arent there for me to promise anything. I told her that I considered myself single, and would act that way as well, I HAD to do that because thats what I felt was being honest with myself, and honest with her, and we agreed on several occasions to stop seeing eachother, for her own protection. Then she would invite me out, or over, and I could see no reason to say no. Thats how things went for quite some time, and it was one of those situations where you think to yourself, why DON'T I fall in love with her? Whats the problem here? Yet it just doesn't happen.

Anyway, she convinced herself that we were in love and that I just couldn't admit that to myself. Then my roomate accidentally commented about how I hadn't been sleeping at home much lately (he assumed I was at her place) and so she asked me, "are you sleeping with other people?" and I said "yes". I don't think she's going to invite me over again for a while.

I should be the Asshole now and not care. But I do care, and I don't want her to be hurt or sad. Unfortunately the only thing I could do to make her feel better would be to Lie. Will the truth prevail, and let her be comforted? Will the fact that I have been honest with her the entire time help her come to peace with the situation? I hope so.

In the meantime, I've had a wonderful love affair. Not the one that caused my roomates confusion, but a brand new one which started the same evening of the morning when I had to admit to my permiscuity. Two years ago I met a Hummingbird, and she mused me into a mudpuddle by being everything I love and cannot stand. Since then I facebookstalked her a couple times a year and otherwise we haven't had any contact. That happens, right? She had a boyfriend. I can deal.

Then, she appeared again out of nowhere. My neighbors brought her back from singapore and as I was standing there, talking to a friend about my mornings tragedy, she came like a beam of light to twist my mind around and throw my heart up into the air. Literally, just as my friend had begun to tell about HIS recent breakup, she walked up to me out of nowhere and said, Hi Dan! and gave me a hug. I had no idea who she was because it was so dark I couln't see her face. In a brief hallway embrace just a few minutes later we both admitted our secret desire for the other and made getaway plans to be alone for the rest of the evening. We spent the next 12 hours together. And another 10 hours the next evening.

Totally unfair, right?

My friend just broke up with his girlfriend, and didn't even get the chance to finish telling me about it. I just broke a girls heart. Another friend of mine came by with something heavy on his mind, but I had epoxy hardening and needed to keep working. My roomate just got arrested for stealing a paddleboat. Muammar Gadaffi's dreams of a united anything have been dashed. And here I am knootching around with my muse as if pain and suffering have gone out of style. Hm.

3 unabhängige Dinge

I think there should be a word for the pain of learning. Like sting. or ache. or throb. The way your brain hurts when you try to put new things into it. Sometimes it just pukes them back out again. Goddamn you, brain!

I like how you can use sauce to stick small things onto bread when making a sandwich, so they don't fall out when you are eating it.

I was crossing the street today. Three police cars and an ambulance with sirens blaring whizzed past me to the right. On the other side, going the opposite direction, another police car drove normally along with traffic. I got to the drivers face. He looked really bitter and disappointed.

The art of not knowing

HOW ANGRY we can get when we want to know something but can't!!! Waiting around for a result. Hoping somebody calls you back. Trying to find the right information.

And then theres people who sit around and talk about all the stuff they know. They tell stories and try to impress eachother with their knowledge. I am one of these people.

A lot of people like learning as well. Going from a state of not-knowing to a state of knowing.

Whats so good about KNOWING? why can't we enjoy NOT KNOWING? We can enjoy bitter instead of sweet. We can enjoy crying instead of laughing. We can enjoy being tired instead of being bright-eyed. Why can't we enjoy being clueless instead of being well informed?

When somebody comes up to you on the street and says, "hey, do you know where the post office is?" and you can tell them, "yea, its right around that corner!" thats a cool feeling. You just helped somebody with your knowledge.

But imagine... somebody asks you, "hey, do you know how to get downtown?" and you answer "No, I have no Idea where downtown is. You're welcome!" and you said "you're welcome" because you thoroughly enjoyed NOT knowing where downtown is, and NOT being able to tell them. Then for the next 45 seconds you are filled with a warm feeling because of how nice it is to have NO IDEA where downtown is, and you think of all the OTHER things you ALSO wish you didn't know, and look forward to the opportunity to forget some of those things. And how wonderful it will be to know LESS than you do right now.

Imagine having NO KNOWLEDGE whatsoever. You would not know that you do not know anything. You would not know that anybody expects you to know anything. You would not know that knowing anything is possible. Imagine being merely a brain, in a glass of amniotic fluid, being supported for life by a flow of nutrients through a hose stuck through the rubber stopper in your glass. You are not connected to any sensory nerves. You have no sight, no feeling, no way to percieve anything. Imagine how wonderful that would be.

ok, maybe that would suck. and its kinda freaky to think about it.

So anyway, I just took two exams. I have NO IDEA how well I did. I want to know if I passed them or not. I have to wait for my professors to correct them to find out. I keep impulsively opening up google and staring at the promt line, trying to figure out what I have to type in to find out. It doesn't work. I just have to wait.

The mind game

Your belly is full. your mind is empty. Let me speak the words of those who know the way.

All around the world there is joy, love, hate, life, death. With every motion we cause all of these, they feed on eachother and balance eachother.

Everywhere is where you want to be, and everything is the way it should be. Even those thoughts, which tell you that things are not OK, are as well, the way they should be.

It is expertise. It is commercialized antiquity. It is memorabelia. It is the way it should be.

Take off your pants now, and let your heart flow through your taint. This will cleanse your mind, and allow new thoughts to enter.

Alone, we are together.

So how many of you read some deep meaning in the blabber above? I like writing stuff like that and reading it again later to see if I can decipher some meaning from it. The key is to AVOID knowing which phrase will come next, just write random shit and make sure not to have a thought process. I also like this game you can play with other people, where each person has to say at random any word. Each word has to be completely disconnected from the other words. Any time somebody has a thought process, or says a word that relates to the last ones in some way, they lose. Its also really easy to tell when that happens. Like this...

asparagus
respiration
synchronize
broccoli (lose!)
telepathy
cursive
condensate
turmultuous
constantinople
xenon
fair play
internal organ
exacerbate
istambul (lose!)
jig
platypus
jumping