Rough Beast Time - minimum energy on maximum homeostasis

The Hollywood universe contains several versions of the Singularity, all of which are equally valid. That is, HAL, Skynet, The Matrix and Blade Runner can and will all happen with equal likelihood in possible worlds. The spectre of our future is also likely in our current present and near past. The Rough Beast treats time as a control variable for our social and cultural selves - all of our 7 billions of selves. At each specious present, a near future possibility opens before us to choose.

For the most part, future possibilities become this present moment in a usual and mundane manner. If I am sitting in a chair there is a great likelihood that I will remain sitting in my chair during the upcoming specious present and the specious moment just past. The ordering of time in the 'consistent and uniform' direction of increasing entropy logically follows from the dictates of biology. Organic life ages, dies and decays. Human brains age, die and decay. No so human minds.

An emulated mind whether in meat or silicon advances and retreats across time. That is slipping in a nutshell. All humans do NOT share the same past and many humans do not share a common fate or aggregated future state of uniform sameness. Our time streams cross in our minds; we remember a movie differently, we disagree on the agenda of President Reagan, we scorn the other parties reading of history, we refuse to admit defeat and we cling to the delusion that we are fair and open-minded. We are but discreet sheep, we wait to see how the drove is going and we follow the drove. But many droves co-exist and all droves have a bone of contention with all the other droves.

Each Dream Now is different. Everyone anticipates a unique future and recalls a unique past. Does the Rough Beast have a unified self with a common view. The Rough Beast is a layered affair and proposes many options at once.

I had a strong sense as I drove along under the 183 flyover that I was in a movie. My present was one of a sucession of predictable futures and easily viewable pasts. I - my knowing self - occupied all of the time slots of past moments, the specious moment and the future moments. A pointer or indicator shown on the particular 3-second window that would afford minimal energy expended on maximum homeostasis.