Perspective

I think I've talked about perspective before, but I want to discuss another angle now (hehe). While reading an article today it mentioned something that was not thoroughly studied by western scientists which made me think about that statement for a bit. From where my mind stands western science influences most of my thoughts. What is and isn't possible comes from the science I know, and it seems that I trust science more when it comes from our system, but I'm not sure I should do that. One of the things I try to acknowledge is that the current scientific process is flawed. Seriously flawed in some areas in fact, so why do I trust this system more? I suppose it is the system I know so that's what I look to. I've kind of lost my train of thought because I started playing with some things on my desk, but I think I've said what I wanted to... not really but I'll come back to this idea, that I need to expand how I look at things because otherwise I'll just be shackling my brain with preconceived notions that really may have no basis at all.

Paradox

I've been thinking about time travel. I've been watching a show called Primeval, which has "rifts" in time in which creatures (dinosaurs mainly) are able to travel into our time. It is an interesting idea but would never work because time travel has a fatal flaw (or at least how I understand it). Before I go into this I want to discuss the Fermi Paradox which kind of goes hand in hand with this one. The Fermi paradox is about aliens, and basically states that if there were aliens there would have been alien contact by now, but since there has been no contact there are no aliens. It isn't exactly a paradox in that wording but it basically explains that it is an either or situation. Time travel is much the same way. Our past so effects the future that if there was time travel we would have seen it by now (maybe). So lets say we can effect the past with time travel. You travel back in time and change whatever it was you went back time to fix. When you come back, you no longer need to change the thing you went back in time for, so you would never have left in the first place to change the past, but if you never left to change the past, it wouldn't get changed. That's fucked up. Well lets say that isn't a problem (I don't know how, but we'll go hypothetical). How can we say we are living in the present then, if in the future we build a time travel device, and we travel back in time, then you have an issue that if we could travel back in time we would have all ready seen time travelers, but since we haven't seen time travelers there is no way to time travel. That theory of course depends on how you look at time, because if we truly are the present then that doesn't work, but this is all very confusing and hypothetical. The other issue is Hitler. I only bring this up because of a comic I read recently, in which a guy is guarding Hitler's room, in the first panel he shoots a guy, and then in the next panel he explains he doesn't mind guarding Hitler, but now he is questioning the guy because of the time travelers that are coming to kill him. Okay well I am rambling. I just wanted to put this idea out there because it was in my head. Perhaps I'll post something a little more thought out in the future, or in the past maybe?

The Jackass

Our culture allows for people to be jerks. They can get away with it and so they go ahead and take advantage. Imagine if we didn't (as a culture), put up with people being jackasses. Sure there would still people out there that were, but it would be a far lower number. The most amazing thing about this is that jackasses actually seem to thrive in our culture. I'm not exactly sure why but people like them, for some reason we seek their approval in hopes that they might not be jackasses to us. It is all quiet weird if you ask me, but I don't think their is much we can do about it. I think there is a natural psychological reason for our attraction and need for acceptance, but I imagine it is also trained into us as well.

Jerk

I'm not talking about Steve Martin,
I actually think he is nice,
does magic and stuff.

I'm talking about jerks.
The guys that do as they please,
especially if it hurt someone else.
We let them do it,
sure we may call them a jerk,
or an asshole,
but they know they still have the power,
that they are the ones wearing the proverbial pants.

So I say we rise up,
do as we please,
and make them feel bad about the insecurities they overcome by making fun of other.

In other words,
be jerks.



Copyright 2010 William Curb

Nothing Substantial

I watched some creepy videos with my brother tonight and I must say it has kind of inspired me to do some of my own videography (and creeped me the hell out). I think it would be fun to do some video stuff I could post on here, I have a camera already, I'd just have to figure out how to use it well and do a little video editing (which is surprisingly easier than I thought it would be). We'll see if I ever get around to that.

Creep

I'm not used to this house,
it is dark in all the wrong places
and I wish someone else was here.

The noise could be nothing,
but it really isn't.
Something made that noise and I need to know what,
it could just be the house,
but why is the house making noises.

I can hear it moving outside me door,
softly now
but definitely there.
If I just take a peek maybe,
or only just from underneath the covers.
They need to go away.

all i hear is
tap scratch tap
maybe a board creak
too far away
something moving just
out of sight

I'm all alone in here
and I can't turn off the lights.
I don't know how they are going to help me,
but I just can't turn off the lights.


Copyright 2010 William Curb

Oh Those Amazing Animals

Recently I have been fascinated by some of the quirkier attributes of animals. I wrote about dolphin intelligence not so long ago, but today I was reading about zoopharmacognosy and despite what spell-check tells you it is actually a word (try it in scrabble). Zoopharmacognosy is the way animals use natural medicines to heal themselves. Most of it is innate knowledge that was not passed down to them in anyway we can detect (so perhaps there is an animal conspiracy keeping us from know the truly life saving stuff). Some of the examples that I read about were birds that could pick out antibiotics and chimpanzees who ate certain plants that would make them sick for a time but ultimately heal them. I also recently read about a type of monkey that would search ant hives for a certain type of caterpillar and rub the insect all over their body, and then pass it onto the next monkey, until one of the monkeys would put the caterpillar in its mouth swish it about and then start the rubbing process again. Apparently the bug put off a powerful insect repellent that the monkeys then used, and putting the caterpillar in the mouth was simply to get it to start producing the chemicals again. What really interested one of the researchers is that the caterpillars chemicals produced a truly awful taste, the researcher discovered this firsthand by sticking of the bugs in his own mouth (fun stuff). Anyways, I just have been finding it interesting to learn that a lot of the things that we think are unique to humans really aren't. It will be interesting to see what we know in the future, because I'm sure we'll find out that even though we thought we had a good grasp on things that really we were pretty clueless.

Office

Not an Island

I am not alone here,
and I cannot get away.
For now that is all right for now.
Virginia Woolf would not approve of this space,
it is not adequate for writing (or at least what a woman would need).
For now though it is cluttered
and it is distracting.
This place is not an island,
and I am going to need to change that.


Copyright 2010 William Curb

Non-human Persons

I was recently reading about scientists that want to reclassify dolphins as non-human persons. The reason for this is because recent intelligence tests on dolphins have shown that they are more intelligent than previously thought. This is an interesting idea, not the dolphin's intelligence (although that is also very cool and I want to talk about that later), but that we have non-human persons on this planet. We have always considered ourselves the premier beings on the planet, and although this isn't really going to change that thought it is cool to see that we might have a somewhat equal. If we could have an actual conversation with another being on this planet it would be amazing. I can't imagine what another species would think about the world. Science fiction writers have lots of stories about aliens, but we don't have a lot of stories about life along side our own. I don't think a lot of people can imagine what sharing the planet would be like. Right now we have enough trouble sharing the planet with other humans, so it would be very difficult for us to get along with something that would truly different from us. Perhaps with another species running the planet with us we wouldn't have some of the same problems that we have. I can imagine that if were competing with another species that we wouldn't have so much trouble with how our skin looks or where we were born. I think we would be able to see each other as a single species, which would be a really cool. I also would love to see what other religions come out of another sentient species would come up with. I can imagine how "created in gods image" would become a much more difficult idea to accept.

I can imagine if we could communicate dolphins right now they would probably be pretty upset about how we are treating the environment. But I don't think that is what people would be asking about, well some people would be. A number of writers have suggested the intelligence of dolphins before, such as Douglas Adams, and of course in the Simpsons. One of the calls to actions with naming dolphins non-human persons, would also be to release them from captivity. The idea being that we don't have the right to own them, in the same way we don't have the right to own people. So who knows, perhaps in the future we will have the non-human persons civil rights movement.