BROKEN KEY

June 25th, 2019

We’ve all been faced with that forgetful situation when we try key after key, trying to find the right one for the lock.

Each one is a plausible solution, and some of them even seem to fit the lock but don’t turn.

It’s those that actually seem to fit the lock that we return to, trying them again, turning with more and more force each time.

Until we break the damn key.

Notice how quaint and perfect this image is.  A key that is deceptively similar to the one we want ends up preventing the lock from being opened.

How many times have we been so certain about a solution to a problem that we try to brute force the problem with our chosen solution only to make the problem even more difficult?

Very few locks actually require a huge amount of force to open with the correct key.  Damage or mere idiosyncrasy to lock or key might require something strange like ‘putting the key all the way in and then pulling it out just a tiny bit and then turning’, but the reason this is brought up is that when the solution is found, often a fairly smooth and superficial labor is all that’s required to finish the job.

In the case of a key that seems to fit the lock that doesn’t turn, there are two forces in conflict here.  The fact that we found a key that actually goes into the lock primes our addictive sense of progress and makes us feel as though it’s now time for the next step.  The momentum of this feeling can lead to a snapped key and a totally screwed situation.

When our next move does not come as easily as it was intuitive, we need to pause and contemplate any components that might be counter-intuitive. 

A lock and key that requires a certain finesse is rare and therefore not intuitive. 

Then again, so is a key that fits but definitely isn’t made for the lock.

It’s in this later situation that we need to be extra careful.

We can spend years trying to apply the wrong solution to a problem wherein we think it’s supposed to work.

FLEXIBILITY

June 24th, 2019

What is brittle breaks.  Like a stone column that stands perfect against a growing amount of force but then suddenly cracks, there is no warning, no indication of impending failure.  It just happens.

Brittle defines this lack of wiggle-room between the strength that something exhibits and the point at which it fails.

Flexibility, on the other hand, is perhaps at the other end of the spectrum.  Not on a spectrum of strength or weakness, but on a spectrum with a growing distance between failure and an indication that failure is imminent.

Both the flexible structure and the brittle structure can handle stress within their limits, but only the flexible structure indicates that those limits of stress are nearing. 

Flexibility then in this sense, is a way to see the future.  The flexible expression of any given thing indicates changes in the the forces of the environment, both of magnitude and speed. 

For example, when a big storm is tossing up a big wind, we can watch a tree bend and sway to the force of the wind.  How far it bends is an indication of the magnitude of the wind’s force, and how quickly it bends is an indication of the speed.  This can’t be seen with a stone tower that suddenly and simply falls over.

Predicting the future in this sense of flexibility, is all about reading the present accurately and precisely.

By understanding exactly what is going on in the moment, the possibilities for the next moment narrow.

Think about how this is not possible with the stone tower.  By simply looking at the brittle structure we have no indication of changes in the wind nor the absolute magnitude of the wind at any given point.  We are totally blind to whether the stone tower will fall or stand in the next moment.

Whereas with the tree, it’s far more likely we’ll be able to predict if it’ll fall in the next moment or not.  If it suddenly bends farther than we’ve seen it previously, then the possibility that it falls is suddenly much higher.  If it survives such a bend then we have a greater range of understanding.  None of that is possible with the brittle stone tower.

Charles Darwin’s ideas were once rephrased with: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but rather, that which is most adaptable to change.”

From a human standpoint, a huge amount of this adaptability simply boils down to awareness. 

This is obvious with a simple question:

How can we adapt to something that we are oblivious to?

Flexibility, in terms of perspective might at first seem to indicate something wishy-washy, like a person who is overly-empathetic with anything that is said.  But within the framework here, flexibility of perspective is more about being aware of the all forces present in a situation.

A brittle perspective lacks awareness of forces that might be key to making productive strides.

Flexibility is not about compromising one’s goals or aims but having a malleable perspective separate from those goals and aims that ultimately serves such goals and aims.

Not only does this have the ability to lift the personal from many situations and illuminate the underlying forces that motivate people, but

At the very least, to be flexible

is to never get bent out of shape.

A LUCILIUS PARABLE: THE STRAGGLER

June 23rd, 2019

Lucilius sat, leaning back.  A squeak pinched the air as he rocked in a chair designed for simpler postures.  He was chewing gum, watching his thoughts wander with a practiced and unknown eye, waiting for his computer to finish calculating.

“Lucilius?” beeped the computer.

“Yea?”

“I think I’m finished.”

Lucilius tilted his head, looking at his computer. 

“You think you’re finished?”

The computer projected a hologram before him showing a woman blushing.

“Oh come on, it’s fun to play around and talk like you guys.”

“Really?”  Lucilius said.  “You guys?  You’re just as real as me thank you very much.”

The hologram of the blushing woman vanished and was replaced by three two-dimensional pixelated dots.

“Fair enough.” The computer said.  “Still, it provokes a better response from people if they feel like they’re talking to a person.”

“Oh whatever,” Lucilius said.  “What even is a person?”

The hologram flashed and a display of the Wikipedia page for the word ‘Person’ appeared and slowly began to scroll.

Lucilius rolled his eyes and sighed.  “As long as we’re both experiencing something, right?”

The Wikipedia page vanished.

“I supposed that’s fair,” the computer said.

“Alright, now tell me the goods.”

“Two seconds.”

“I thought you said you were done?”

“I said I think I’m done.”

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?”  Lucilius asked.

“Well, when I said I think I’m done, I wasn’t actually done yet.  Had about half a minute left and I knew the comment would provoke about half a minute of conversation with you, so in that respect, it was accurate.  There’s also the fact that I can’t predict with 100% accuracy if my calculations will complete until they are in fact complete, so if I’d run into a glitch that would have required some sorting out and recalculating, then I wouldn’t have actually finished.”

“So you weren’t just treating me like a human then?”

“No, I was being situationally poetic.  Since, it was also a respectable indication of probabilities.  A hopeful indication at that.”

“So you finished now?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, scroll me some stats.”

A 3D carousel of information materialized in front of Lucilius.  He leaned in, swiping through the information, moving bits to different spaces around him, as though he were literally digging.  He had politely asked his computer to run a simulation.  In accordance with the international Science laws regarding simulated experience of humans, he’d given his computer a few million copies of people that represented a wide range of personalities, histories, inclinations and temperaments.  These copies were of course part of the public domain.  Each one contained as much information as possible regarding a deceased person from the genome up, along with their full life stories and complete neural maps.  These copies were also equipped with a special encryption in full accordance with Universal Privacy laws.  A few years earlier with the creation of such information copies an AI had generated a clever method of encryption that allowed privacy borders to generate spontaneously based on the unique information of each copy of each person.  The real brilliance of such encryption allowed for simulations like the one Lucilius was running.  It allowed decisions about privacy to remain in tact for people’s copies, even when their information was used in a simulation that presented situations that would be impossible for the real person to know what their own preferences would be.  The real genius of the AI that invented the encryption method came with the realization that these preferences would arise naturally in any simulation that was robust enough, and from that point it was just a matter of querying information copies of each person during the simulation, which was done by running a second simulation that always had the same premise: namely, each copy watched the actions of the other copy on a delay, fully aware of each simulation and completely capable of blocking the recording capabilities of the simulation it was encrypting.  It was for this reason that there was always a small subset of copies that opted out of the simulations entirely, and simultaneously made such simulations a legal possibility in accordance to Humane Treatment laws.  If someone designed a simulation that was truly awful, the ability for each encryption copy to reflect on the nature of the simulation made it possible for the encryption layer to shut down the simulation before it even started, based on the premise.

“You had a remarkably high participation rate.” The computer remarked.

Lucilius looked at a percentage as the computer highlighted it. 

“Oh wow,  that’s pretty good for such a long one. . .  How long did this one go anyway?”

“243 Million years.”

Lucilius’ eyes went wide.  “Whoah.  How’d that happen?”

“The last one to finish was a bit of a straggler.”

Lucilius rolled his eyes. “Well ,duh.”  But then he paused.  He leaned back in his chair.  “Wait, no” he said.  “That doesn’t make sense.  What were they doing that whole time?  What were they working on?”

“Nothing,” the computer said. 

“Nothing?  What do you mean?  You’re telling me it took one of these people 243 million odd years to finally figure out something interesting?”

The simulation that Lucilius had run was based on the simple idea that it takes some people a little longer to figure out something they find meaningful to work on.  The way things were currently set up for humans, made it likely that if a person didn’t get lucky enough to find something meaningful to work on during the beginning decades of life, they often got stuck doing something they didn’t like and would stop trying in many respects, and most importantly people stopped actively looking.  And eventually, death ended any possibility that this stagnation would give way.  Lucilius had been curious what would happen if the stagnation was allowed to continue.  So as part of the premise for his simulation, he made everyone effectively immortal and suspended the development of corrosive health processes that compound with time.

The computer hesitated.  “Uh.  yea, I guess.”

“Talk about procrastination,” Lucilius said.  “What other highlights do we have?”

The glistening array of information sparkling around Lucilius rearranged some of itself into categories.

“Well,” the computer said, “twenty-three participants eventually found definitive cures for ninety-eight types of cancer, and I’ve already taken the liberty to share those discoveries with the International Medical Matrix. 

Several new types of propulsion were developed, two of which I took the liberty of putting on the market and are currently being auctioned off to aerospace industries.  We’ll get our commission for IP initiation, of course. 

Oh, also, one of these propulsive developments even enabled a copy to travel to the edge of the simulation at which point the encryption layer blocked recording and presumably pulled participation. 

There were at least thirty-two thousand individuals who reached levels of cognitive control through meditative practice that far exceed currently available metrics for live humans, and at least two who achieved neural activity that has no parallel in neurological literature.

Of course the large majority were geared socially, starting families and such.  But without the declines in health, they often moved on to curiosities that had roots in childhood.  Many turned to artistic pursuits: painting, music, film, and the like. 

1.7 million movies were made, and about 26,000 of them are definitely worth watching.  There’s also 48 trillion hours of new music, although it’s fairly repetitive after a while.

One of the painters was actually able to hack her part of the simulation and created a new medium that she deemed ‘chronopaint’, though it took her quite a few years to convince the public in her simulation that her works even existed, since they required so much time to realize.”

Lucilius nodded, impressed by all that the people had gone on to do after death.  “Not a bad haul,” Lucilius said.

“Yea, not bad at all,” the computer said.  “Many of the encryption copies even sent us ‘thank you’ notes.”

“Really?” Lucilius said.  “I’ve never heard of that happening,” he paused.  “Exactly how many notes from the encryption layer did we get?”

“73,034,234.”

Lucilius leaned back, cranking a metal whine out from the poor chair.  He laced his fingers behind his head, nodding, quite pleased with the turn out.

“Oh,” he said, suddenly leaning in again.  “What did the straggler end up doing?”

“Ha,” the computer beeped.  “Now wouldn’t you like to know.”

SECOND WISE, YEAR FOOLISH

June 22nd, 2019

We’ve all heard the phrase Penny wise, pound Foolish.  We make a decision regarding a small sum of money that is wise, while wasting large sums…  Perhaps we can think of someone who spends time cutting out coupons but then squanders hundreds of dollars while at the bar with friends.

There’s an even more important distinction to be made here, and it’s often one missed in the pursuit of aims.

That distinction is time.  We can flip the actions of this wise fool on it’s head and ask: what’s a better use of time?  Sitting around cutting coupons, or spending time with friends?  Perhaps the monetary cost seems justified in this frame, or perhaps not.

Money aside, we can investigate this use of time with even more scrutiny.

How exactly are we spending our seconds and our years?

Are they passing us by unnoticed?  Or are we wasting years waiting for the occasional second when it feels like the movements of life take our breath away?

So many sleep walk through time bouncing from one distraction to the next, waiting for some monotony to end, chasing some pleasure, and all of this might seem justified for the rare second when life feels alive, but all the time between these few and far between moments add up to the majority of our lives. 

We waste years for seconds when we think things are finally good.

This is inevitably a waste of years, and subsequently a waste of most seconds that make up such years.

When it comes to our most valuable resource.  Our non-renewable time, how we spend it is our greatest and most important decision in any given moment.

We do ourselves the greatest service by seeking to be a master of how to spend a single second.

If in any given moment, no matter the circumstance, we can call upon a full and mindful presence of our attention, then fewer seconds and fewer years will be lost.

So many of us are waiting for something amazing to grab our full attention.

We need only learn how to give our full attention in order to experience how amazing any given moment can be.

THE PROS & CONS OF PROS & CONS

June 21st, 2019

How to decide?

One thing we’re apt to do is create a list of pros and cons for any given decision. 

But how exactly does this work? 

We do not ascribe some kind of weight or numerical metric to each thing that we write in the pro and con columns in order to arrive at some kind of mathematically satisfying result.  In fact, sometimes the list works out lopsided but we end up making the counter-intuitive decision against what our list seems to indicate is the better choice.

And yet such an exercise often allows our decision to come about with more confidence.

The exercise rarely functions to evince what the actual better decision might be, but it merely works as a labelling exercise.

Each factor that we might write down in the pro and con columns has associated with it an emotion that is pushing us for or against some decision.  The sum of these emotions creates a vague mess of feelings that is confusing and unclear to navigate.

The exercise of a pro and con list merely gives all of these small intricate emotions appropriate labels.

This is often referred to as affect labelling.

To be clear, affect labelling doesn’t invoke some sort of clarity about what is actually a better decision.  It merely helps to resolve any troubling emotions by giving them attention.

Emotions and even thoughts that seem to plague us in repeated and often annoying ways can be dispelled simply be recognizing them consciously. 

We can think of a child tapping our arm to get our attention while we concentrate on some task.  Eventually we have a moment to give the child attention and it turns out the kid doesn’t really have anything to say.  They just wanted attention. 

Many of our thoughts and emotions operate with much the same mechanics, and many have commented that the practice of meditation is, in the beginning, just the process of giving each and every thought and emotion the attention it’s been waiting for.  We can imagine a long line of these thoughts and emotions, all just waiting to be noticed, and once noticed, they vanish.

Many of us walk around, hounded by these neglected thoughts and emotions.  Constantly distracted from the present moment without ever dealing with the distraction properly.

It’s only when we come to some pivotal decision that our un-meditated mind gathers enough focus to put pen to paper and write a list of pros and cons.

In some sense, this pro & con exercise is a small instance and aspect of what meditation is for people who practice on a daily basis, and the equanimity that one can enjoy after creating a thorough pro and con list can be a tiny glimpse into what’s it’s like to have a mind well oiled by the benefits of daily, long-term meditation. 

This is perhaps the greatest advantage of making a list of pros and cons.

on the other hand,

the disadvantage of a pros and cons list is that it probably doesn’t help us make a wiser decision: most likely, it just makes us feel more at peace with whatever decision we make, however unwise our decision may be.