Theory Thursdays: We Own the Rain and We Own You

Because I am a Cult Leader, and a False Prophet, a Conspiracy Nut and wearer of tinfoil underwear, I follow Prepper news sites. And the prepper sites are tremendously concerned about laws regarding the saving of rainwater.

http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/rainwater-harvesting.aspx

As the above link demonstrates, a number of American States restrict Rainwater Collection. This is done for various reasons which could be debated. I have no intention of doing this. I have no interest in this debate. Such consideration may be necessary for large governmental organizations claiming ownership (implicitly) of a citizenship, and thus feeling obligated to manage conditions within the land to which they lay claim.

I'm not looking at this from the point of view of a bureaucracy managing a resource to be shared between hundreds of thousands or millions of citizens. And while I'm not telling you to break any local laws, I am stopping to wonder at laws which make self-sufficiency difficulty and/or impossible to achieve legally.

What message is being sent here?

We will take care of you. You are our responsibility. We know better.

And implicitly also this: we own you.

Going back to the Second Song of the Song of Seven: Be Free, and we see that the requirement to take you life into your own hands and the requirement to defend one's ability to walk away anticipate the the verses of the Third Song. The second verse of the Third Song is especially relevant here. Learn to be self-sufficient.

Because if you can't do that, then you are at the mercy of those who can do that for you. Every parent has discovered those power shifts, when a child obtains a driver's license or gets a part time job that provides spending money. Suddenly the child no longer has to rely upon things which previously only the parent could provide. And this shifts results in a loss of raw power for the parent. If the relationship is not one built upon respect, the parent may not like the sudden change that accompanies the increased abilities and freedom which their children has obtained. The parent can, of course, pass new rules as long as they remain the child's legal guardian. They may ground the child, or forbid the purchase of anything over a certain price tag. And so may governmental organizations forbid things which a self-sufficient individual is able to do.

But once one is able, then compliance is a choice. For the would be tyrant or abusive parent it is far easier to prevent the child or the citizen from becoming able in the first place.

Become able.

The alternative is to remain a child forever.

Life is Short.
Work is Crap.
Join my Cult.

Blood Red Wednesdays: Waypoint Shrines and Watchtowers

Psychonauts who begin to explore the Shadowlands will quickly find that beginning their incursions only at the Landing Zones of a Realm will limit their ability to get far in a single incursion. The Psychonauts of old made deals with inhabitants and Others- mostly the Fair Folk. These deals resulted in the creation of the Waypoint Shrines and the Watchtowers.

The Waypoints act as fast travel locations. Once a Psychonaut reaches a Waypoint and synchronizes their Avatar to the Waypoint, they may begin any Incursion at that Waypoint. Waypoints can be either  'Safe' or 'Live'. Psychonauts can liberate a Waypoint during an incursion, but that Waypoint may fall again in the interim based on events in both the Shadowlands and the Bonelands.

The Watchtowers are themselves Waypoint shrines, but also unlock the Waypoint shrines around them. Unless a Psychonaut has synced their Avatar to the associated Watchtower, they may not sync to any of the Waypoint Shrines that the Watchtower protects. The requirements for syncing to a Waypoint Shrine or a Watchtower will vary from shrine to shrine and from tower to tower. But as a basic heuristic, the deeper a Psychonaut ventures into the Major Realms, the more involved the process of synchronization will be.

But for the Psychonaut wishes to do more than splash around in the shallows, this is a necessary task.

Talk Tuesday: NASA thinks we're Doomed, and I'm wondering what took them

So I found this. And I wanted to speak about it.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-civilisation-irreversible-collapse-study-scientists

So NASA has funded a study that has concluded that civilization is headed for collapse. Their logic mirrors much of what was argued by Jared Diamond in his book Collapse. And much of this is, again, old news to readers of the late Social Critic and Author Daniel Quinn. And even before that, much of this was spotted and articulated in 'The Population Bomb' by Paul Ehrlich. Ehrlich predicted mass starvation well before the beginning of he twenty first century. And as you can imagine, this cause people to discount his arguments, much as Thomas Malthus was ignored before him.

But.

But here's the thing, the logic is still correct. We can't predict new resource discoveries (I'm thinking of the discovery of oil in the North Sea as an easy example). And it's really hard to anticipate the technologies of the future of their impacts (I'm thinking here of chemical fertilizers and pesticides). But basic laws of physics and biology don't change.

Depletion of non-renewable resources is a one way street. That's what non-renewable means. If we our food production and population levels causes damage to the ecosystem in which we reside (it is), then that damage will reduce the carrying capacity of the area. If we reduce the carrying capacity of the area, but bring more people into the area (we are, that's literally what urbanization is); then we can only maintain that population by importing resources from outside the area. If we import resources from outside urban areas to maintain an urban population (we are), then we will reduce the carrying capacity of those regions and damage those ecosystems as well. If a civilization depends upon this system of urbanization and expanding resource depletion (we are), then that civilization will need to continue expanding to survive- whether by trade or by expansion or by conquest. If a civilization is continuously expanding (we are), and if that civilization exists in a finite environment (like say one little planet); then eventually there will be no place or method to expand. If a civilization that survives through continued expansion reaches a point where it can no longer expand....

boom.

It happened to the Romans. It happened to the Mayans. It happened on Easter Island. It happened again and again throughout history on a smaller scale as local empires and nations competed against each other for dominance. But eventually the collapse will not be local.

New technologies may push back the date of said collapse again, as it has done in the past.

New Discoveries may buy us more time.

But there is only so much planet.

And we are running out.

Of planet.

Think about this for a moment. We once thought of the planet and the oceans as functionally limitless. But they aren't. And every now and then throughout history we noticed, and then disregarded what we noticed. Dodo goes extinct? Passenger Pigeons go extinct? Not a big deal. Oil crisis as the world hit peak crude oil discovery? Brief panic and then back to happy motoring. DDT causing mass decline in bird populations? Some nations pass local laws and then move on. Hole in the ozone layer? Minor course correction and then forgotten. Northwest Passage is ice free for the first time in recorded history? Start fighting over control of shipping lanes and oil drilling rights.

So yeah, the clock is still ticking. We can buy more time on the clock. But it's still ticking.

So yeah, Civilization is doomed. Better enjoy it while you can.

And maybe use your time well.

If you're lucky, you'll be like Thomas Malthus and not live to see things fall.

But.

But, maybe you won't be lucky.

Life is Short.
Work is Crap.
Join my Cult.

Dear Employers (We know how to do our Jobs)

Dear Employers,

We know how to do our jobs. Not to the level of fanaticism that you would like, but we know how to do our jobs well enough to get by. You aren't worth more effort than that, not for what you pay us, not considering the demands you make on our time and our dignity.

There are three times when pick up the pace; when you're watching, during performance review, and nope... actually I think that's about it. You can have our calls monitored, but somebody has to go and review the recording. You can put video cameras in the store, but somebody has to go and review the recording. You can monitor our web browsing, but somebody has to go and review the records. So you see the problem, and its your problem not ours.

You have already promoted the Type A people and the psychopaths into management. The rest of use are just trying to get through the day. And nothing you can do will permanently transform us into a type A psychopath like you hope. If you can't build your business on exploiting the effort that we are willing to do, then you will fail. McDonald's made a business work when run by stone fifteen year olds. Yes, stoned. One of my closest friends from high school sold marijuana right out the back of the door and he made assistant manager. It took years for him to be caught and fired.

Dear Employers, if it takes you years to catch a sixteen year old kid selling marijuana out of your back door, how likely are you to keep the rest of us off the internet chat rooms?

Life is Short.
Work is Crap.
Join my Cult.

Follow Up Fridays: Why Far Cry thinks you're a Horrible Human Being

I talked earlier about how Sid Meier messed with my head with the mechanics of Civilization 2. Now I want to talk about a game where the story and its interaction with the mechanics is designed to mess with player's assumptions.

And that game is Far Cry 3.

Far Cry 3 tried to do a lot of things, all through the lens of vicious satire. And like the movies: Starship Troopers and Robocop (the original), a lot of people missed the joke. Most of it seemed really obvious to me. But one thing I noticed thst did catch me off guard was a repeating motif, the assertion that conquerors go mad. They devour each other. They devour themselves.

The main arc of the story missions shows Jason Brody and his transformation from dumb dudebro uncomfortable with violence into a psychopath for violence is the easiest path to a solution. Presented as a stinging critique of how video games depict violence, the game mirror Jason and his path through multiple other characters: agent Willis Huntley, the mercenary known as Buck, the undercover operative Sam, Dr. Earnhardt, and of course Vaas. All of them mirror some dark aspect of Jason and his journey. And the only ones who survive are the ones who realize that the battle isn't worth fighting. Vaas in particular is Jason's dark opposite, lieutenant to Hoyt as Jason becomes to Citra, losing his way to the path of violence, going mad and being unable to see i; Vaas and Jason reflect each other to a startling degree. But the key revelation to the game, and the one that generated much outrage amongst gamers, was the fact that Jason kills Vaas at only the halfway point in the game. They felt as though Vaas should have been the final boss and didn't understand why the game kept going after that.

And that was the point. After killing Vaas, Jason's friends get the boat they had found working. Jason has (as far as he knows) rescused all of his surviving friends and family. His friends safe, an escape route found, the man who killed his brother before his eyes dead; Jason could leave here and the ending would work. The fact that jason refuses to leave, is the point. Even agent Willis Huntley cuts and leaves here (and thus survives to apepar in the sequel). Jason is missing the point, he is crossing over from hero into monster. Up to this point, Jason and the player can justify what they do as heroic. But not any longer. From here on out, they are in it for the violence. Just to drive the point home, the game gives Jason back his litttle brother- thought dead- and in order to maintain his cover, Jason tortures his brother. And thus in the ending, when Jason must choose between his friends and family and the life of violence he has grown to love, the game explicitly threatens to delete his save files if the player chooses Jason's friends. And if you give in, Jason will be murdered by Citra to maintain her position, just as he murdered his way up the food chain.

And then, just to drive the point home- the player (and Jason) are dumped back on the island to engage in more violent play, as if to say: "Isn't this what you wanted?"

Theory Thursday: Spending Your Attention of Something Better than This Article

Yes, I'm a little late on this one, I know. Humor me. But I stumbled across this article and wanted to talk about how it how it relates back my GRAND MASTER PLAN!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cambridge-analytica-shutting-down-1.4645324

So Cambridge Analytica is closing its does. Cambridge Analytica is the organization behind Facebook's most recent privacy fiasco (as of the time of the this writing, which is no guarantee that their planned Dating App won't have generated something new by the time this is published). The smug voice of legion that is the Internet has given itself muscle strain patting itself on the back as it points out the obvious about a free service supported by ads. Which is that if you aren't paying for the service, then you are probably the product being sold and the customer.

But despite our pop culture collective intelligence being very aware of the fact that Facebook was selling us and not selling to us, a great many people seemed entirely unaware of this fact.

The Mendasa Freepath uses the Song of Seven as its core guide for behavior. The Third Song of the Song of Seven: Be Adult, has as its first verse the command to think critically. This is sometimes articulated with the admonishment to speak out.

Now, back to Facebook and the surprise some people have at how Facebook treats its users. The pop culture mind collective knew that Facebook was selling us to advertisers, and knew that Facebook in no way valued those non-paying customers over the paying (real) customers: the advertisers. The the group mind knew this from more than a few clues. There are plenty of techniques which one can use to assess the logic of an argument, or the value of a deal, or the trustworthiness of a person (or tech company) offering a deal that's too good to be true.

But before you can use any of that, critical thinking of any sort requires a sacrifice be made before it works. You must make a sacrifice of attention, you must devote you attention to a task before you can think critically about it. Paying attention is critical to any thinking worth doing. The explanation of why Facebook put its advertisers ahead of its non-paying users isn't hard to explain, the advertisers pay and the non-paying customers don't pay. Most people who were surprised by the lack of respect they received from Facebook, wouldn't have been surprised had they directed their own attention at the workings of Facebook's business model on their own. They would have realized very quickly that they were the product being sold and not the customer. But first, they would have had to direct their attention.

Attention is a finite resource. The willpower required to think in a concerted way is a finite resource. Decision fatigue is a real thing. So what you choose to direct your attention towards is a decision to spend some of your resources. And what you choose to think about is another decision to spend some of your resources. And this is to say nothing about the time required to do the thinking and to direct the attention. So we all have to pick and choose, prioritize, those things upon which we will spend our attention and our willpower.

The Critical Thinking skills which are baked into the Mendasa Freepath are quite varied: the three questions, the five levels of certain, the first question, the basic tools of the scientific method, and a learneable collection of logical fallacies (among others). But it all begins with directing attention towards a topic.

Your attention is a psychic spotlight, and your mind can only see (and thus think about) what's in the spotlight.

Blood Red Wednesday: The Ward of Mitchuas

The Ward of Mitchuas

(The Son of Ash- The Church District) 
Called the Ashen One

Mitchuas was a spirit of fire and an apprentice of the Great Serpent before being elevated to God and his fire extinguished upon the altar of the Hungry Empire. In his role as the Son of Ash, Mitchuas is the purveyor of the sacrament, which enforces loyalty in the populace and enforcing a parasitic existence upon those who partake in the sacrament.

The Ward of Mitchuas is a tall and austere neighbourhood, punctuated by an excess of stained glass and devotional artwork. The wood and steel and and stone is all painted a dull grey and only the iconography of the churches break up the monotony of the whole thing. There are three districts within the Ward, The Hood District, the Alms Bowl District, and the High Hat District. The Hood District is home to the Office of the Order of Inquisition and Confession. Also in the Hood District is the Statue of Mitchuas the Sage. The Alms Bowl District is the Office of the Monastic Order and to their Public Kitchen. Also in the Alms Bowl District a visitor would find the Statue of Mitchuas the Shepherd. Last is the High Hat District, home to the High Church Headquarters and the Statue of Mitchuas the Speaker.

• The Hood District (The Inquisition and Confession Office District)
• Statue of Mitchuas The Sage
• The Alms Bowl District (The Monastic Order and Pubic Kitchen District) 
• Statue of Mitchuas The Shepherd
• The High Hat District (The High Church District) 
• The Statue of Mitchuas The Speaker