There is an interesting statistic listed in the numbers section of a recent Time magazine - 85% of U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses that in a recent survey said they had learned church money had been embezzled in the past five years and 11% of those reported it was for 500,000 or more. Those of us that are students of history are not at all surprised by this statistic. Power corrupts absolutely and money is an absolute liquid form of power.
Yet money is not the only issue with religions. Religious power, that pious cocaine wielded by the highest members of each religion, appeals to those who wish to use power. Most religions are set up around the hierarchical system designed to funnel decisions to those at the top much like a business, but the philosophies of belief do not work well within such systems. Intellectual discourse needs freedom to maneuver and find its way to the truth. This is one reason that our education system uses tenure, so that our educators aren't tampered with by administrators or bureaucrats.
Religions at their core are a search for truth. We ask such questions as 'Why am I here?', 'What is my purpose?' and 'What should I do next?', and hope to get answers. To some in religion this search for truth is static and absolute. They hold the truth and expect others to come to them. Truth is a transit being, a shape in a dense fog, or slippery pig that slips from your grasp the harder you squeeze; however you want to see truth, its not easy to find. Truth is also not something that can be given or received, it must be found, shaped, sculpted or drawn out of the essence of our lives.
So my argument is this - that religions are corrupted by the very tools they wield, very ineptly, of influence and money, and are not actually set up to find the very things they should be finding. So what's next? If current religions are not able to facilitate the search for truth then what can we do to fix them? The easiest and least effective is just to say get the money out and reform the organization, but those would just be temporary solutions.
A different way might be to consider the very tools you would want on a search for truth and either find, use or make them. The first tool I would want is to be accessible to anyone regardless of location, economic status or any other polling statistic. The second tool I would want is a way to build consensus. We should not reach out to disagree or make bold statements, but make small incremental steps towards truth. Sometimes those small incremental steps come together to form one big Truth, but if not for the way we reach it, it cannot be seen.
If these tools seem familiar then the world is not so distant. These tools are the very innovations that are changing the world as we speak - the Internet and the wiki. While these tools are far from perfect and come with their own issues, they serve the search for truth much better than a hierarchical religion can serve. With these tools there are no leaders, no money or influence, only discussion, consensus and small steps towards Truth. Because it's the very act of seeking truth, of dirtying your hands in the potting soil of life, of being a participant rather than an observer, that brings one closer to the Truth. Truth is not an answer, it is a question, that must be asked every day of our lives.
Signed,
42
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Universe Around Us
One of the things I find most fascinating to think about is our purpose here in the Universe. My next few blog entries will be precisely about that subject. I cannot say that I will be able to cover the breadth and width of such thoughts, but I wanted to at least begin the investigation of the subject. My thoughts, which I will expose here, are to as much illuminate my own thinking for myself as for anyone else. Though at very least I would hope my children would some day read these words and learn something of me and of the Universe.
First and foremost, I cannot begin thinking about such subjects without laying down the framework. The framework of this thinking is that I cannot take from what is not there. Meaning, I must view reality in its starkest forms to understand it. Overlaying my own human weaknesses, needs, fears and wants will only cloud such investigations. I may at times stray from such starkness, but I will warn you so you know when I'm exposing my own humanness away from the piercing glare of reality.
The reality of the Universe is that its infinitely, compared to us humans anyway, wide, long and deep. We are but a mote speck on a grain of sand in a huge ocean. Strangely enough, this does not make me feel small at all, but my feelings are what is under investigation. The Universe is also ancient in a way that we cannot truly fathom. Billions of years can be summarized by a few neat little zeros trailing behind a concrete number, but they cannot express all that is contained. The Universe is also - moving. Moving in a direction that gives it both a beginning and an imagined end (though an end we cannot begin to understand). This moving is not necessarily a direction, but a progression. This progression is a central theme in my understanding of the Universe and our place in it.
Once, there was the Singularity. We don't understand how it came to be or what came before it. The nature of the Singularity wipes out any hint of information that preceded it, so for our understanding, the Singularity is the beginning of the Universe as we know it. From the Singularity the progression of the Universe begin. The Universe begin to cool and complexities started to happen. Remember at first, it was a homogeneous event and thing with nothing really to differentiate between one place and another, but as the Universe cooled, it began to create things within it like new atoms and gases.
As billions of years passed the Universe has gotten more complex. Galaxies formed in which solar systems, planets, nebulae, black holes, neutron stars, all of which form a higher order of the Universe expanded. What once was a Singular thing had become, in our human understanding, infinitely complex. This complexity isn't always pretty, nor is the progress. Sometimes whole systems are swallowed by black holes, or planets wiped out because they were too near a supernova. While it may seem complex and chaotic, the Universe is actually creating order out of what was once a homogeneous Singularity.
On our own planetary scale, we've seen the same progression. What was once a ball of rock and lava cooling in the cosmic winds of our solar system, has become a tangled messy green life filled planet we all call home. This increasing complexity is a design of the Universe and is something that will happen with or without us and for most of its history, has happened without us. This does not diminish our own place in the Universe, something that is hard for some people to accept, but I'll leave that for my next blog. This beginning was only to set the stage for this discussion.
Signed,
The Purpose of the Universe (Part I)
First and foremost, I cannot begin thinking about such subjects without laying down the framework. The framework of this thinking is that I cannot take from what is not there. Meaning, I must view reality in its starkest forms to understand it. Overlaying my own human weaknesses, needs, fears and wants will only cloud such investigations. I may at times stray from such starkness, but I will warn you so you know when I'm exposing my own humanness away from the piercing glare of reality.
The reality of the Universe is that its infinitely, compared to us humans anyway, wide, long and deep. We are but a mote speck on a grain of sand in a huge ocean. Strangely enough, this does not make me feel small at all, but my feelings are what is under investigation. The Universe is also ancient in a way that we cannot truly fathom. Billions of years can be summarized by a few neat little zeros trailing behind a concrete number, but they cannot express all that is contained. The Universe is also - moving. Moving in a direction that gives it both a beginning and an imagined end (though an end we cannot begin to understand). This moving is not necessarily a direction, but a progression. This progression is a central theme in my understanding of the Universe and our place in it.
Once, there was the Singularity. We don't understand how it came to be or what came before it. The nature of the Singularity wipes out any hint of information that preceded it, so for our understanding, the Singularity is the beginning of the Universe as we know it. From the Singularity the progression of the Universe begin. The Universe begin to cool and complexities started to happen. Remember at first, it was a homogeneous event and thing with nothing really to differentiate between one place and another, but as the Universe cooled, it began to create things within it like new atoms and gases.
As billions of years passed the Universe has gotten more complex. Galaxies formed in which solar systems, planets, nebulae, black holes, neutron stars, all of which form a higher order of the Universe expanded. What once was a Singular thing had become, in our human understanding, infinitely complex. This complexity isn't always pretty, nor is the progress. Sometimes whole systems are swallowed by black holes, or planets wiped out because they were too near a supernova. While it may seem complex and chaotic, the Universe is actually creating order out of what was once a homogeneous Singularity.
On our own planetary scale, we've seen the same progression. What was once a ball of rock and lava cooling in the cosmic winds of our solar system, has become a tangled messy green life filled planet we all call home. This increasing complexity is a design of the Universe and is something that will happen with or without us and for most of its history, has happened without us. This does not diminish our own place in the Universe, something that is hard for some people to accept, but I'll leave that for my next blog. This beginning was only to set the stage for this discussion.
Signed,
The Purpose of the Universe (Part I)
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Snow Crash
I title this blog as 'Snow Crash' because its about the fictional world in Snow Crash and how it will come to be reality. Now this isn't so far fetched as sci-fi is often a precursor to real world change. Most of the Internet and its issues were predicted by William Gibson in his novels. I read most of those in the early 90s when the Internet was just really taking off and it was strange how many things he had predicted correctly.
Back to the title book, Snow Crash, in which there is a 3D world created in the Internet that everyone uses as a location to do business, play or just do plain crazy stuff. This 3D world isn't far from the universes created by Second Life or World of Warcraft, though the former is patterned more from the Snow Crash world. Because the Linden currency can be traded to US dollars, its an extension of the real world, though the goods and services traded within are often strange and oft have to do with porn. Well, maybe that's not so different from the real world after all.
However, I think the Second Life world is not the only attempt out there. The guys at Google have also read the book Snow Crash and are trying to create the same thing with their Google Earth project. Personally, I think both of these attempts are interesting, but not quite there yet. Eventually there will be a convergence of technologies and ideas that will allow for a world like this to function as a Metaverse (term used in a few different sci-fi books to describe this virtual world).
First there has to be a world in which business can be conducted. Meetings should be more efficient here. Real world goods can be viewed, bought and sold (then shipped to your house in the real world). There would be service businesses to meet the needs of those in the Metaverse (there are some of these in Second Life and even in other games such as World of Warcraft).
Second, there should fun things to do in this world, beyond just a glorified visual chat room for sex. Virtual casinos, amusement parks, sporting events and other virtual games from the real world and maybe some that could never be done in the real world draw people to come to the Metaverse. Imagine suiting up on a virtual horse to ride joists at a medival tourney, or racing pods through canyons ala Star Wars.
Third, there has to be a minimum level of technologies to make this seamless and at least hyper real. Broadband will probably need another boost, though the base speeds are there, its just improving the efficiencies. Video cards and computers will need a few more jumps to handle the visuals at a price that everyone can afford.
The fourth is that the software and information needs to be stored on the Internet and scattered among individual users so its a robust system. So it pretty much has to be an open source software system. If one individual company stores the information, then that can create issues if it all falls apart. Diversifying the structure gives it robustness for both technological and legal reasons.
The last reason, and I'm not sure if this is a must, but its my gut feeling. Is that the display must go beyond just a screen. No matter how big you make the screen it still has that 'game' feeling. A true Metaverse would be immersive and give weight to its existence. My gut feeling comes from a game I played at a mall back in the early 90s. It was a virtual reality 3D game that required a headset to be put on. The graphics were super blocky and the colors very bland, but I was absolutely blown away by the feeling of realness that the headset gave me. When a teradatyl picked me up and dropped me from about 100 feet, my arms were flailing as if I truly were falling and hitting the ground was a jolt that no other game has ever given me since. It was quite an experience that left a lasting memory. Its that kind of experience that would allow entertainment beyond sex chats, would allow for real meetings and would create a weightiness to the Metaverse that would help people believe it was a real place.
Signed,
Hiro Protagonist
Back to the title book, Snow Crash, in which there is a 3D world created in the Internet that everyone uses as a location to do business, play or just do plain crazy stuff. This 3D world isn't far from the universes created by Second Life or World of Warcraft, though the former is patterned more from the Snow Crash world. Because the Linden currency can be traded to US dollars, its an extension of the real world, though the goods and services traded within are often strange and oft have to do with porn. Well, maybe that's not so different from the real world after all.
However, I think the Second Life world is not the only attempt out there. The guys at Google have also read the book Snow Crash and are trying to create the same thing with their Google Earth project. Personally, I think both of these attempts are interesting, but not quite there yet. Eventually there will be a convergence of technologies and ideas that will allow for a world like this to function as a Metaverse (term used in a few different sci-fi books to describe this virtual world).
First there has to be a world in which business can be conducted. Meetings should be more efficient here. Real world goods can be viewed, bought and sold (then shipped to your house in the real world). There would be service businesses to meet the needs of those in the Metaverse (there are some of these in Second Life and even in other games such as World of Warcraft).
Second, there should fun things to do in this world, beyond just a glorified visual chat room for sex. Virtual casinos, amusement parks, sporting events and other virtual games from the real world and maybe some that could never be done in the real world draw people to come to the Metaverse. Imagine suiting up on a virtual horse to ride joists at a medival tourney, or racing pods through canyons ala Star Wars.
Third, there has to be a minimum level of technologies to make this seamless and at least hyper real. Broadband will probably need another boost, though the base speeds are there, its just improving the efficiencies. Video cards and computers will need a few more jumps to handle the visuals at a price that everyone can afford.
The fourth is that the software and information needs to be stored on the Internet and scattered among individual users so its a robust system. So it pretty much has to be an open source software system. If one individual company stores the information, then that can create issues if it all falls apart. Diversifying the structure gives it robustness for both technological and legal reasons.
The last reason, and I'm not sure if this is a must, but its my gut feeling. Is that the display must go beyond just a screen. No matter how big you make the screen it still has that 'game' feeling. A true Metaverse would be immersive and give weight to its existence. My gut feeling comes from a game I played at a mall back in the early 90s. It was a virtual reality 3D game that required a headset to be put on. The graphics were super blocky and the colors very bland, but I was absolutely blown away by the feeling of realness that the headset gave me. When a teradatyl picked me up and dropped me from about 100 feet, my arms were flailing as if I truly were falling and hitting the ground was a jolt that no other game has ever given me since. It was quite an experience that left a lasting memory. Its that kind of experience that would allow entertainment beyond sex chats, would allow for real meetings and would create a weightiness to the Metaverse that would help people believe it was a real place.
Signed,
Hiro Protagonist
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
V
I took a writing class for my elective during my MBA. It was a very enjoyable class and it let me use some parts of my brain I don't get to use. Anyway, today I heard a nice story about a Muslim political party in the Middle East that was trying to become more mainstream. Part of their founders mantra was that they should not impose their religous will on others. I thought that a very modern and high minded viewpoint. I can respect religions like that. It also made me think of a poem I wrote for the before mentioned class. It's an 'after' poem which means its written in honor or in a style of another poem or idea. Enjoy.
R for Revenge
After V for Vendetta
Those rascals,
those renegades,
those Rasputin’s,
rallying the religious
to relegate our reason
to a ruinous race for righteousness.
Using razors of riotous rote
to rend our right mind.
The raison d’etre is to reach
rife within the rational.
Relegating reasonable rap
to ruinous regret.
This risky repartee of rot
regretfully will not receive one repentance.
Restated, this rhyme of ruin
will result in the ruthless wreck of
our reason and all races.
Signed,
V
R for Revenge
After V for Vendetta
Those rascals,
those renegades,
those Rasputin’s,
rallying the religious
to relegate our reason
to a ruinous race for righteousness.
Using razors of riotous rote
to rend our right mind.
The raison d’etre is to reach
rife within the rational.
Relegating reasonable rap
to ruinous regret.
This risky repartee of rot
regretfully will not receive one repentance.
Restated, this rhyme of ruin
will result in the ruthless wreck of
our reason and all races.
Signed,
V
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