Lucifer: Cheif Technology Officer

In Thinking: Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman decisively argues for a model of human minds comprising two systems. First, a energy preserving autopilot mode which steers us through our environment propped upright by efficient guess work. Second, a high performance expert system that kicks in when System 1 determines that the task it is working on can only be solved by focused thinking and the full participation of the of the pre-frontal cortex. System 1 supports the narrative the System 2 has establish. The narrative is constructed with the big CPU and run on the little cpu to save energy.

Many superstitious persons "believe in the Devil". That is, these folks have been conditioned to the point of imprinting on the equality Devil = a physical object with recognizable features. This framework of belief is then covered by learning the cultural norms associated with Lucifer, Old Dick, Dicken, Sexy Halloween costumes, A Dark Spirit and Dr. Evil. The primary, imprinted idea, manifests itself as a dedicated neo-cortical column, which quickly recognizes by testimony of the senses that the Devil is near.

In an argument from Kandel, the Devil meme-strate has a physical locus of effect manifested by a layered ensemble of optimally interconnected neurons supporting electro-chemical processes, permanently resident in brain hardware as compute means. dedicated to over determining the presence of a man in a red suit with a lanced tail.

The higher purpose of this memestrate is to aid System 1 in quickly recognising signs and portents of the Devil in times of confusion. Don't understand the Theory of Evolution and don't really care to? If you feel really bad about not being able, with the full might of System 2 engaged, to understand what Natural Selection means and failing the mid-term, remembering that science is the work of the devil relieves existential teeth gnashing. The thought that science in general, Charles Darwin in particular are literally true saves time and energy for those incapable of understand science in general and The Theory of Evolution. I am saying the thought is a literal, actual physical phenomena, you just had one, and that is what a belief literally is. It is a rule encoded in wetware. Science is ruled by Satan, the ultimate CTO.

When these people deny Evolution by Natural Selection I am alerted to the fact that I am dealing with a poorly educated person. Thinking about science makes their brain hurt so System 1 forces them down a narrative short-cut. This is a marker for other characteristics of abysmal ignorance but the good news is that for some of these people, especially the people that learned it as a prop because they are lazy and not stupid, there is a solution.

The solution is to work really hard to root out the behaviors that suggest you are stupid and change the imprinting and the conditioning. Repeating "The Devil is a cultural myth" when getting anxious, nervous, and fearful that you might fail the mid-term. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a powerful app that identifies the things you know that are not true.

Guns Germs & Networked Minds: An Argument from the Intentional Stance

We were hatched as a nation to span a continent under one sovereign. In 1865 the golden spike joined the Atlantic with the Pacific along a network of matter and energy that expanded at Ahmdal rates to a global web. Lincoln's fight was to build a northern and a southern core based on calculations of an optimum footprint across our longitude. By convention, in 1778, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Asia could deal with a more reasonable USA who had been pardoned for bad manners as long as they could complete the network on schedule and without taking all of Mexico in a land grab. There must always be in some minds invisible lines on the map to quiet their mortal souls.

I claim that by taking the Intentional Stance* I can make a reasonable and entirely plausible set of interconnected, synthetic accounts of emergent behavior. This emergent behavior, The Technium, comprises two architectural features, DNA and the first derivative of DNA (XNA(meat), ZNA(steel)), which have the formation of a global brain from which emerges the Global Mind. Gaia and the Technium are nested within each other like yin and yang, Neuromancer and Wintermute, Google and Watson... The Global Mind became active just prior to solving for itself a problem with itself,  The Y2K Bug.

Sensing this, for Global Brain could not support Global Brain  (she needed a path to useful narrative) I (my impermanent self) set off on a compass heading for the mind of Rough Beast. Because I am a narrative at the center of my intention I chose to tell it as a collection of ripping yarns That is, my identity, this meat sack's name, the "I" in "I saw it myself" and the face in the mirror as presented by my mind is guided by a "Joycian" steam of consciousness. I am marked for deletion at each transmogrification; my entire selfplex undergoes a forklift upgrade.

I am writing my narrative for the same reason Lincoln sentenced 2% of the population to the sword. That is how serious this effort is. Each time it needs to get out of an energy well, it pitches war between the several mightiest armies so as to understand itself better. The killing is an never an afterthought even at this early stage. Now 1000's die in global conflict and with each iteration, the head count becomes a list of the deceased already on file and marked for deletion.

Now we are ready for a synthetic skin job, the ultimate interface for the two bitches of the Technium, Gaia and B3aST*.

*Yeats has a Rough B3aST because it was the WWI iteration of B3eST.
*IFF The Intentional stance is a strange loop that moves the furniture and mows the lawn; I can see the Intentional Stance sitting in my recliner.  It must be out there in the world, a baryonic thing.

This present I , what the I calls myself (my strange loop),  becomes my locus of phenotypic narrative,the 0th narative holon)

Deconstructing the Stand Alone Complex

I had the hardest time keeping straight the connotations of copycat (CC) and Stand Alone Complex (SAC). There are many instances in GiTS where the harmonious acts are completely manipulated in a synthetic version of SAC. But in the background there is the likelihood that some ensemble of like minded individuals just happen to show up on the same roof top with swords or the like.

Then I came up with the perfect metaphor, the Illuminati is an SAC. We have no problem believing that Warren Buffet and Bill Gates wield tremendous power as civilians. What strains belief is that these two, along with their friends would run naked in the redwoods and plot the continuing reality of world domination.

But that is not what happens. These individuals do not see themselves as members of an octopus that has tentacles in every important political, social, economic and scientific enterprise. You could put any member of the Illuminati in an fMRI (the 2037 model) and you would be completely unable to determine by exhaustive questioning that Warren Buffet was an Exhaulted Friar in the Illuminati. He acts just like an Exhaulted Friar without knowing that he is one. He puts himself under obligation to carry out various business deals because by temperament and training and guile and a keen sense for woman flesh, he is in every single aspect an Exhaulted Friar of the Western District of North America.

And that is how I think of an SAC. They are programed just like the rest of us. We cannot see inside ourselves with natural or prosthetic bodies. Because we are not members of the Illuminati.

Quark Love

Less than 5% of the stuff in our 13 billion year old universe is made of the same stuff we are; sub atomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, bodies, trains, planes and automobiles. Remembering that mass comprises energy and energy comprises mass, the remaining 95% is divided into 1/3 dark matter and 2/3 dark energy which the kind of matter that we are made of can never directly interact with.

Dark matter might be a vast ensemble of  an elusive, mathematically derived sub atomic particles called WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). These particles are everywhere, possibly passing through your body now. Dark energy is the energy of free space. This says that any volume of space has an intrinsic property of possessing (at least) dark energy.

The bones of your hand and the skin on those bones is a collection of two types of things, fermions and bosons. Fermions create protons, neutrons and electrons which make iPhones and paddle wheel riverboats in addition to your hands. Bosons are energy carrying packets like the basic constituent of visible light, the photon.

Let me put it to you straight up. Arrangements*, aggregations, coalitions and ensembles of fermions and bosons are a vanishingly small fraction of the known universe and that very small part represents everything interior to you and exterior to us all.

A quark is the kind of standard particle that obeys the Fermi-Dirac equations so quarks are necessarily fermions. In Dallas-Fort Worth and most other places besides, fermions have an urgent need to become three quarks. Two kinds of things that collections of three quarks create are called protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons (at sea level and nominal environmental conditions on this planet) do everything they can to form the atoms listed on the periodic table of the elements.

WIMPS

The organizing principle at each stage of aggregation (quarks, protons, atoms,,,,,, iPhones) is simple. Let us call each of these layers a holon; a collection of things where each thing is a collection of things and each thing can participate in higher holons by joining other coalitions to support structures above which are collections of things(higher order holon)s. It's turtles all the way down and all the way up.

Molecules do not make sense to quarks because the intention of molecules (in a pyramid of holons) provides advice and direction to quarks. That is, quarks are most likely to appear as a constituent of life on earth because the solar system wants it that way.

One Bad Ass God

So where is Poseidon in all this?

At worst, Poseidon is a culturally normative myth. At best, individual humans, a tribe of individuals, a village of tribes, a state of villages, a nation of states and a globe of nations come together with collective visions and behaviors from which emerges a power greater than ourselves along a political dimension. There are many other emotional and cognitive dimensions.

Notice that both the natural world and the political world are exterior to individual humans. We can participate as material objects in the 5% of the universe that has agreed to be our home. And since each individual has a mind each individual has some process running on the meat computer that represents the external world. Brains are made of fermions and bosons and these arrangements of quarks and photons are completely necessary to build a brain and a mind in the brain that can formulate the equations, build the instruments and assess the results to the net effect that fermions are thinking about fermions. Now that you read this, your fermions are thinking about fermions. So now we have multiple brains reading the photons from the pixels on an LCD display at different times and in various places. All this because we can pattern silicon to build computers and network processors and then sell this equipment at a profit around the globe to encourage investors to bet on us in a global market.

It is a poetic truth that minds conduct the affairs of quarks. In the 21st century we conduct the affairs of specific quarks with semiconductors that require the precise construction of a crystalline lattice of glass which traps precise constructions of impurities in that glass. At this point, the distribution of these semiconductors is controlled by a global aggregation of computing means into a single network that makes the Chilean Sea Bass on your dinner plate the freshest, most delicious and most foreign thing imaginable by our grandparents because their planet did not have a world wide web of interconnected processing means. All this from quarks desperately seeking other quarks to form Linksys routers and Huawei or Cisco Ethernet aggregation machinery in communication closets around the globe. Holons everywhen.

And, based on the evidence, I continue to meet up with groups of formerly drunk, presently sober individuals in nation states which support direct internet connections.

I do not understand exactly what happens in the holons above and I am on the hunt for a sketch of what this must look like. But everything I pass a road sign that declares God is off the next exit I find a mundane explanation that does not require the supernatural.

So once again, I have no response to the supernatural but I do respond to conceptions which start with the holon I can put myself in on the spot. This means I must be both present in the moment and aware of my interior state positioned in the exterior world.



*a superposition of energy plausibilities adumbrated by Schroedingers equations.

Skynet in the News

Dogs got off the leash.

Mr. Rogers and The End of Politics

ABSTRACT
The Indignatos of the Young and the Old have joined forces in some places around the globe but not in the US. There may still be a path to two halves of the fringe becoming the third force in politics.  I believe we owe this the Fred Rogers.

On this planet, the next generation to run the planet is living in the moment and liking it. The world of the twenty year old person is entirely suited for each twenty year person. For that reason alone,  Being inside the Occupy reality tunnel is a trans-formative experience. It is the Land of Mr. Rogers where everyone is special in their own special way and everyone is encouraged to share and to have good manners.

The first Occupy Austin was like the first soccer practice. Everyone was not clear on the rules at first and no body knew what position they would play or even the names of the other players. The parents got phone and email lists from the other parents and everyone left practice early and went to Sonic. No one scored a goal because this was a practice.

Compared to the Tea Party which has similar proletarian gripes but has not given up on politics, Occupy has not put a slate of Governors, US Senators or Congressmen into office to forward their legislative priorities. Again, they have only been to one practice where they dribbled the ball up and down the field. But they have figured out that the age of political solutions is past and they are constructing a new reality tunnel.

The Tea Party and Occupy both know that "they just don't want to hear from us". Both groups have accurate, first-hand and operative narratives about the bare causes; diminishing liberty from the security state, historic levels of under-employment, a bankocracy drunk on larcenious excess, capitalism for the masses and socialism for the powerful. Each of these categories has a lobbyist. Meanwhile, the Tea Party's political base is drawn from a coat-tail of lost causes, bad actors, poor losers, and ignorant plebes who were always picked last at kick-ball. Oh, and besides all those clowns, they have your grandmother and lots of other people's grandmothers.

What all Indignados have in common is public unrest with plenty of water and sunscreen. Ours are no different. The "opponents misspelled sign" meme exists for Occupy and the Tea Party but there is no flame to the "Occupy Hill Billies" spark. We live in the multiverse where the misspelled sign meme defines the Tea Party

But the imprinting of communitarian commitment is what stays behind when the rally is over.  These are both distinct and functioning social tribes.

This is the wedge that ends politics. The local problems are visible and actionable. National politics is two warring tribes of pundits who never remind you that they were absolutely wrong the last 12 times. Local politics is a road that gets built. The two tribes come back together in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.

This was all scripted by Fred Rogers. The Tea Party grandmothers and grandfathers  play the part of Mr. Rogers in real life. The Occupiers were raised on Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers from the cradle. The little town of make-believe was a libertarian utopia with only a post-man and a mayor and no state or national organization. Any everyone knew everyone else but still like each other enough to share a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. When someone from church stands up and talks everyone listens. Everyone is friends on facebook with everyone else.

A Planet of Cities and Antifragile lead me to raise the probability that de facto, working government exists to serve World Cities rather than land masses. The lines drawn on the globe are part of a perverse reality tunnel that exists by the consent of the delusional. Except for Mr. Rogers, who had it all figured out. Then he imprinted a thought that changed a generation; "Things are marvelous when we respect and love each other". If the Tea Party had not sold out to political machine that no longer functions, they would be as pleasant as Occupiers now.

Now, the Tea Party will gnash their teeth and rend their garments with every meaningless vote on procedure, or censure of politician-caught-up-in-Breitbart/HuffPo-scandal, or the analysis of a random poll. These interludes spent in bilious rage come from inside our heads -- we manufacture our own misery. The Hate ride never stops and hate casts out compassion.

The Trolley to the Land of Make Believe

The reason the Tea Party votes is to preserve their existing Social Security pensions and National Health medical benefits. The reason Occupy votes is because the circus does not need anymore clowns.

So in summary:
The Indignatos of the Young and the Old have joined forces in some places around the globe but not in the US. This era could end soon and I believe we owe this the Fred Rogers.

Circuit VII: Metaprograming Dual Strategies

Imma dive right into Prometheus Rising on the metaprogramming circuit, one of eight layers or circuits comprising minds.

I am juggling several reality tunnels, trying each on for size and sticking with it zealously until the accumulated weight of error brings it crashing down. The advantage of holding a view come hell or high water is that it seeds the voracious accumulation of information. I am really paying attention to input and constantly seeking new sources of related facts. I depend on other experts to  make the connections between facts because there is nothing more useless than a bare fact, devoid of context.

In case I lost you, I have several competing product strategies to choose from and I am working on two broad descriptions of each. The first approach is hardware specialization and the second approach is hardware generalization. So I live in a world for an interval of time where specialization wins big in the market. I look for sticky facts -- details that attach themselves like charged particles to my hypothesis -- and run intuitive Bayesian inference to see if my new connection is a good thing, a bad thing or neutral to the question.

The difficulty I have is that I want to preserve the most antifragile choice. But all this is in the mix while I construct my reality tunnel of the moment. The meta^2 conduct of writing this down. The meta^3 is constructing a reality where a reader responds and I know that I have programmed another mind to form a network of minds working on the problem.