There is no chicken or egg problem. A chicken egg containing a chicken foetus cannot hatch into anything but a chicken. But a chicken can lay an egg with a foetus that is not (purely) chicken.

The egg came first.

If a species that evolved into the first chicken did not reproduce with eggs, then that first chicken isn't chicken because chickens lay eggs.

Unless of course laying eggs was the final adaptation that made a chicken a chicken!

The French and the Chinese

Okay I just found out that French has this weird pronunciation rule for making the "ent" suffix in verbs (and only verbs) silent, and it seems different languages have different prerogatives. Here's what it looks like in my knowledge, how different language express combinations of gender and plurality for the third person.

 

English differentiates between male and female when singular, but not when plural. The plural is just its own pronoun with its own subject-verb agreement rules.

Male Singular : He eats rice

Female Singular : She eats rice

Male Plural  : They eat rice

Female Plural  :They eat rice

To refer to a person in the singular, you are forced to reveal the gender. And in contrast, when referring to persons in the plural, you are forced to hide the group's gender. 

Japanese differentiates between male and female when both singular and plural, but when in the plural the is the option of not differentiating.There are no subject-verb agreement rules in Japanese.

Male Singular : 彼はご飯を食べる

Female Singular : 彼女はご飯を食べる

Male Plural  : 彼らはご飯を食べる

Female Plural  :彼らはご飯を食べる or 彼女らはご飯を食べる

While the pronoun forces you to reveal the third person's gender in the singular, one has the option of using the cultural convention of using the non-gendered honorary suffix "-san" with the surname. When referring to persons in the plural form, one has the option of revealing the group's gender only when it is female since the male plural is the default.

Chinese differentiates between male and female when both singular and plural, but when in the plural the is the option of not differentiating (same as Japanese), except that when spoken, the male and female pronouns sound exactly the same. There are no subject-verb agreement rules in Japanese.

Male Singular : 他吃饭

Female Singular : 她吃饭 (pronounced the same as 他吃饭)

Male Plural  : 他们吃米饭

Female Plural  :他们吃米饭 or 她们吃米饭 (pronounced the same as 他们吃米饭)

In speech you can only differentiate between plurality, not gender - you are forced to hide the party's gender whether singular or plural.

Hebrew differentiates between male and female in the singular and plural, both when spoken and written. Subject verb agreement rules apply for each of the four combinations.

    הוא אוכ  אורז Male Singular

היא אוכלת אורז Female Singular

הם אוכלים אורז Male Plural

הן אוכלת אריז Female Plural

Basically you're forced to reveal both gender and plurality all the time.


French Same as Hebrew, except that when spoken, the singular and plural pronouns and verb conjugations sound exactly the same. Subject verb agreement rules apply for each of the four combinations.

Male Singular : Il mange du riz

Female Singular : Elle mange du riz

Male Plural  : Ils mangent du riz (pronounced the same as Il mange du riz)

Female Plural  :Elles mangent du riz (pronounced the same as Elle mange du riz)

 

In speech you can only differentiate between gender, not plurality, so you are forced to reveal the gender of the party both when singular and plural, but you are forced to hide the number of persons you are referring to!

 

So, when you want to hide a person's gender, speak Chinese. When you want to hide your party's number, speak French!

 

Question: Do you know a language that allows you to hide both gender and plurality?

怪我する時考える事

①どんなトレーニングをしとけば今回の怪我が避けられたのか。

②早く治したいから休もう。

③無理しない範囲で今の体でどんな動きができるのか。

How to fix systems in 5 steps

How to fix systems in 5 steps

If it happens to one person all the time, fix the user

If it happens to some people some of the time, fix the engineering

If it happens to some people all the time, fix the requirements

If it happens to everybody some of the time, fix the management

If it happens to everybody all the time, fix the corruption

一二回あった人の顔次会う時誰なのかわかるのが普通かな？何回もあってないと会ったことあるかどうかすら分からない。軽度の相貌失認かも？

いつも待ち合わせで相手の顔分からないのが心配で、目が合う時にホットする。仕事も名刺交換すべきか以前あったことがあるお客さんか分からず、曖昧な話の流れでごまかしている。以前あったよねと言われる時正直ピンと来ないけど、はい、はい、で笑って流す。

人の真ん中にいたい気持ちがあるのに、これは難題だ、、、髪型ひとつ変えることで誰なのか分からなくなる時もあるし、名前覚えるのが苦手以前に顔が苦手だな

Most UI metaphors are nowadays derived from actions we find physically familiar. But think about the mouse - we can click just about anything in a computer, but we pretty much click nothing else in the physical world - the click is a metaphor unto itself!

What if when you tap on the screen and (yes actually) make the sound "bing" to nudge something to the left it's called binging, and when you do that with the sound "bong" to nudge right it's called bonging, and if you tap and say bing-bong to select it it'scalled bing-bonging? I find "tap and hold" anti-intuitive; what if you bing-bong instead of doing that tap and hold that can accidentally deleted apps from the phone?

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results isn't stupidity; it's passion. Doing the same thing and expecting the same results in a changing world is more difficult than you think!

What if the most important question in AI is not whether AI can replace the creation of value in society (ie jobs), but whether an economy can be built around value created AND consumed by AI? If so, can the human state live off taxes paid by AI? Or will the rich and powerful finally conclude that only use of the poor is functioning as a gene farm?

みんなと同じ空気を吸っていたいけど、焦ったりもするけど、できるのはこの体この感性で作る自分のパルクールしかありません。

What would happen if climate change went into the extreme and all human life is wiped out from the planet? Would all life on earth go "oh ok" and simply move on, or would there be some kind of imbalance in the system?

Love n. The state of dependence on somebody or something when one's identity or perception of reality is modified to depend criticality on that person or thing.

Almost like a glove

I rather like this feeling
Of my weight gently stacked
Over my feet, spread from
The heels to the balls, and to
The toes; I can feel
Every inch of ground
Touching the skin of my feet
Pushing back at me, in a conversation
Between my being and the ground for now I occupy.

My head balanced on my neck,
Over my shoulders sitting
On my chest like a bird perched on a branch, my arms swaying like aerial roots
Effortlessly hanging from a tree;
I rather like this feeling of ease
When I gently rock myself
Between my toes and my heels;
I like the way the knees and the ankles so slightly bend and straighten
While the upper and lower body muscles tighten and relax in continuous dialog; I like the feeling
Breathing into a body
In touch with itself,
Wearing a skin that fits
Almost like a glove.

In one moment, there is no place I'd rather more be
Than inside the reality of my physical being, my most intimate companion till death,
Now embracing me
Painless, and breathing free.

In programming, colons are used like commas, semi-colons are used like periods, periods are used like hyphens, and parenthesis do not contain comments. But the great thing is that there is no such thing as an Oxford comma - it's rather the "and" that is redundant!

Trust is taking a calculated risk, faith is taking an unquantifiable risk, danger is deciding to ignore known risks. 

What if consumer tax for luxury goods were income-adjusted?

What if Uber were a legal requirement - that all car owners must offer at least one ride a month?

パルクールってストリートアートみたいなもんだ。その街のそこらへんでできたものは、そこにあるから素敵。値段をつけた売れるバスキアもあるけど、街をもっと豊かにしてくれるカルチャーは、それ以上の財産だ。

Religious people are living crap. Non religious people are living crap. Everybody is a precious piece of living crap, a bag of potential awesome until we become dead crap.

Every time you walk into a world you've never experienced, struggle with difficulties you've never imagined, and get excited over something that used to seem ordinary, you become young again.

Maybe if we stop treating AI as a slave but rather as a mirror, there is an end game where we become more relevant than ever. 

The truth behind the lies is never a simple negation of falsehoods.

Happiness happens in that space between knowledge and ignorance, when you stand in a world you have mastered and chose to be overwhelmed by that which you haven't. You can't have "a little" happiness - you need to scale yourself to the wonder in front of you and be blown away by it.

Life is more exciting when you stop taking life for granted and take death for granted instead.

10 occupations I think could survive a post-AI world

Technology owners
AI researchers
Capital owners
Politicians
Judges
Comedians
Athletes
Sex workers
Performers
Educationists

if AI were a cliff, we are possible two meters away from peering off the edge.

今年同時にいくつかのテーマで生活しているけど、その中の一つのは、無理をしないことです。特に体の調子をもっと把握して、もっと自然体をつかめたい。んなことで今日体調またおかしくなり、待ちに待った金曜のトレーニングもお休み(T . T)

今日は大人しく早く寝ることにする。早く治してプレシをたくさん練習したい！

IMAGINE: what if life came from outer space

IMAGINE: what if life came from outer space, and it did so because a super advanced species reverse engineered themselves down to the bare minimum needed for evolution to kick start, planted it on asteroids and set it hurling in a precisely calculated trajectory though space until the conditions suitable for life were met?

Then we would have been created by them in their own image, and our departure from innocence would mark the moment everything was falling - not from grace, but - in place for us to run the long course of evolution to be a different version of us, again.

I mean, if there's anything with betting on, wouldn't the most advanced species out there bet on the resilience of life itself, rather than the current version of themselves, or their histories, cultures, and knowledge?

And here we are, broadcasting our version of intelligence into space. Is someone out there reading us and smiling quietly like a zen master? Would we rise up to become gods and do the same in the face of cosmic events greater than the inevitable destruction of our own solar system?

備考 パルクールの競技化について

だって、競技化されたことでパルクールをやってる時間の楽しさに変わりがないし、ルールのないパルクールがパルクールの原点だと思うし、競技化されなくても世間のパルクールじゃなくて自分のパルクールを目指したい。

隣の人間が生で見せてくれることで、自分の可能性を示唆するような何かが伝わってくる。

やりたいことを全部計画すれば、人生の日数が足りない気がする。

Survival drives domination. Domination drives power structures. Power structures drive competition. Competition drives cooperation. Cooperation drives specialization. Specialization drives diversification. Diversification drive change. Change drives conflict. Conflict drives structural change. Structural changes drive resolution.

Why is politics bipolar?

Counterfeits profit from products that are already popular. Selling more originals create more profit for shareholders. Creating counterfeits create jobs in factories. I enjoy buying original, but maybe a world with counterfeits could also work?

Imagine others complexly

Imagine others complexly

And you'll never be jaded; stay engaged

Don't let the intelligence machine categorize the richness around you into mere labels -  

Fight against it, put everything you are on the line

And there will ever be 

Yet another line

You have never put yourself on. 

https://youtu.be/p0McA9BDHEU

パルクール ✖️ エンジンニア

パルクール ✖️ エンジンニア

筋トレしろと言われて半年前から始めたクライムアップの自主トレで、今日ちょっと進捗がありました。

体格が変わった位トレーニングしてきてそろそろできてもおかしくないと思ってきた今頃。しかしやってもやっても肩が壁を越えられず、今朝も自主トレに行った。

登れるか登れないかわからないからいつもセーノ、で腕の弾みを確認してから力を入れて登った。なんと、問題はこのセーノ、だった！

パワー。それは力。でも力は筋力だけではなく、F=maの通りに、荷重は質量と加速度の掛け算。筋力があれば、加速度を高くできるけど、加速度は、所詮、最初の速度と最後の速度の差分なので、最初の速度が高ければ、最後のせっかくの速度が、無駄になる。そう、最初のセーノが、筋力を無駄にした！

なんとキャットを一旦完全に鎮めて、足だけでセーノで行ってみたら…まさかまさか、壁に登れた^_^

それで一人で公園でニヤニヤしてた笑

まだまだ練習が足りないけど、ちょっと嬉しい朝でした。

Automation is cheap where uncertainty is expensive.

Trouble is a situation you don't know how to get out of. Once you do, it's called a procedure.

Ideology affiliations are like underwear brands. When you wear yours on the outside like superman, nobody knows how to tell you it's a little awkward.

今日も観光中の両親に会ってきた。

今日も観光中の両親に会ってきた。

一言で気持ちをまとめると、儚い。

はっきり言えるのは、来日して色々あったけど、今の生活って、幸せです。しっかり生きています。今も、これからも。

うまく言葉にできないからMV入れます笑

https://youtu.be/WPH1BLHKOJE

Nine Precepts

Nine Precepts
#myworld

1. Opportunity
Do what is right. But first do what is urgent. Playing while the sun is out is urgent - it can't be done when the sun goes down. Homework can wait.

2. Happiness
Being happy is like breathing. You don't breathe to live or live to breathe : breathing is biology, so is happiness.

3. Decisions
Is it enjoyable? Is it sustainable? Can you forgive yourself not going for it? Decisions are not that hard.

4. Standing your Ground
Have good posture. Posture is about exercise and muscular conditioning, but feeling at ease literally standing your ground can change the way you interact with your environment.

5. Worry
Be consumed by the present, and you will have no time for worry.

6. Death
Your social participation completes a paradigm. Your absence creates a new paradigm. You may be missed, but paradigms unique and not mutually comparable : the world is neither better not worse without you, it learned to survive despite you, and will survive beyond you. Experience yourself while it lasts.

7. Words
Words overflow from the heart - to be exact, from where insecurities are stored. Listen keenly.

8. Play
Play is the attitude that prepares for change. Your never too old for play - if you're not playing, you should.

9. Reality
Reality is a matter of habit. Our realities are as different as our habits. Learn to move between realities by moving between habits.

"Be yourself" is just another iteration of "know your place". Once your commit to an identity you make yourself behave predictably, and become easier to fit into the increasingly complex machinery of human society.

Excitement and jealousy are both in focusing on differences - one in the reality you consider part of your world; the other in the reality you reject to be so.

#myworld

#myworld
10 things every parent should teach their kids

Physical fitness - Muscular development for good posture

Nutrition - listening to the body

Self Management - happiness as a biological mechanism

Critical thinking - Evidence based problem solving

Human psychology - Lying without getting caught

Strategy planning - Procrastinating and still getting by

Communication as Social Action - saying no, persuasion, ineffective communication strategies

Social integration - Paradigm of Perspectives - part time jobs, foreign languages, religions, and living abroad

Game Theory and Trust - Risk based self defense / urban survival, making money

Identity as a social construct - basis of identity as an extension of one's survival strategy - nationally, race, linguistic skills, religion, profession, specialist skill, disability, gender, income, genealogy, social network, inferiority complex, genetic predisposition, understanding of human psychology, etc

Eleven Questions from Cyril

Eleven Questions from Cyril

#myworld

Disclaimer: everything below is personal opinion. 

1) What are we made of? Particles? Waves? Does it matter? 

Rainbows are made of light but when you split light you get a spectrum, not a rainbow. Rainbows are a transient phenomenon that require light, as much as we are natural phenomenons that require matter in the form of our bodies. Rainbows and "us" are just words we assign to how we perceive these phenomenon. 

Our bodies are made of mostly space, littered with what we currently know as quantum particles bound together by at least four basic forces: the strong nuclear, the weak nuclear, Gravity, and electromagnetism. Biology is a phenomenon just like rainbows that work on top of these basic units. 

It matters as much as a rainbow needs to be a rainbow. But then it's "us" to whom whether a rainbow is a rainbow matters. If we are no longer us, we cannot matter to ourselves. But we are alive and life is by definition self-perpetuating; our biology ensures that it matters to most of us. 

2) What is love? 

Love as a feeling is the disposition our brains are in when it's in a balance pf dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. This disposition opens us to associate the concept of survival with group survival (sometimes taking the form of a "identity") as a solution to personal risks. This does not mean one become selfless but rather more "self-full" - one extends what one thinks of as the self and therefore the range of what one uses and protects to survive. 

3) What will you think about if you were to die in the next five minutes? 

Where can I get meth, quick?

4) Is there a separation between mind and body? 

Yes. The body is made of matter. The mind is made of rainbows. See (1) above. 

5) Are systems of belief arbitrary? 

Yes. But some are useful.  See this library of arbitrary writings: https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?eleven_questions_from_cyril

6) If you believe that the universe couldn’t have happened without “God”, then how did “God” happen? Why does your logic only stop at “universe” and not extend to “God”? 

7) Why did your “God” make gays?  

Because everything is rainbow. 

8) What happens when you stop using language to see and judge yourself and others? 

Assuming that language continues to exist and I surgically opt out of it - everything would be less understandable but more accurate. It'd be like having a base-pi number system with which I can write down the exact value of pi, but nobody would understand me. Words are like digital technology - always  inaccurate by a very accurate amount. 

I would not stop judging, because judging is a fight-or-flight response in my biology. 

9) Is there a place before and after words? 

Yes. When we struggle to express ourselves,  we're trying to leave that place. When we struggle after an awkward pause, we trying to run back to that place. There is no forgiveness in that place because there is no sin. There's also no promises and commitments, no laws that raise our probability of survival. That's why we keep on coming back to this world. 

10) Did you design your thoughts? Do you control your thoughts or do they control you? 

Words are an extension of my fight-or-flight response, just like biology is an extension of physics. My words seem to control me because of love. See (2) above. 

11) Is happiness the only thing that is important?

No. air, food, water, and sleep are too. Happiness is not a result of life; it's a mechanism that statistically ensures most people stay alive.

We watch the Olympics because somewhere deep in our ill informed minds, we think the only reason we're not there winning the golds is because we never decided to train for it. The Paralympics don't get to do that because we are unable to imagine ourselves competing as a disabled person.

Businesses are forced to feature actors and spokesmen from the mainstream because that is the demographic that contributes most to their revenue in order to make their investments worth it.

We grew up conditioned to imagine futures our teachers and parents repeatedly told us. Reality always exceeds our imaginations, and we struggle to pretend that we are above it.

But the way we spend gives us away. Because where our money is, there our hearts will be also.

PS I watched neither the Olympics nor the Paralympics. I enjoy sports, but they're performing at a level too far beyond me for me to really understand.

IMAGINE...

IMAGINE...
Since recent phones have not challenged my imagination, thought I'd try to list what would.

1. Joinable sheet like Extension screens

2. Contactless in-bag charging

3. Spatial location awareness, spatial location services

4. Directional sound

5. 100 meter range non line of sight wireless personal area network

6. Phone-to-phone networking

7. Self standing phone - just place phone edge tilted on any stable surface to stand.

8. Tactile touch screen

9. Built in Projector

10. 360x360 degree zoom able video

習慣付けのためルーチン検討で、目の前の駐車場で軽く練習してきた。立てのバランスとプレシ。

プレシは前と違って、距離の練習ではなく、ギリギリ確信がある距離の練習で、まだ不確実な着地を反芻。そしてその慣れた距離中で、慣れてない地面に着地。駐車場だけだけど、安心のコンクリート、変な形のプラスチック、滑りそうな鉄製の車輪止め、バランス練習で使ってるいい高さがでる柵、素晴らしく揃ってる！

これでしばらく遊べそう。無理と思って諦めた障害物が生きてきた。

寝る前すこし体を動かすつもりだったのに、結局かなりの汗！

言語学とパソコンの交差点そのものソフト開発っていうのは基本的に文字の羅列を操る仕事です。プログラムを書いて25年間、言葉とパソコンの間を交錯する道を行き来して、最近不思議に言葉に変換できない思考が増えてる。

行動したい気持ち。体を稼働させるシミュレーション。移動する空間。リズムの気持ちよさ。筋肉の痛み、体の調子。デジタルな活字もいいものですが、そればかりが知的な表現ではない。もっとも、人間は先天的に能力を子供に授けず、パソコンと同じく後天的に「インストール」されるものですから、体を動かす技能も、動物でありながら人間でいる存在も、知恵と同様人から受け継がれるものです。

親の世代までの当たり前は、受け継がれなきゃ、忘れられる方言みたいなものです。方言が話せないオレにとって、体を動かす楽しさを発見したのは、まさに生き甲斐です！そう、この今を生きるためにプログラムを書いてきたんだって感じ！

口内炎で会話したくない1日ふと思った。

IMAGINE what if all tax money were managed in a digital currency pinned to the national currency, and all payouts as well as the private expenditure of persons in public offices were traceable and public?

You could receive a report that traces which minister spent the dollar you paid in taxes and on what. Don't you deserve to know?

I don't really watch sports, cos I can't wrap my head around the idea that I can share in the glory of any team or person I have not trained with or contributed in any way to their achievement - save for the fact that my watching is part of what creates an industry that allows commercial entities to make sports a viable profession.

I am thankfully inspired by their achievements, that I too can get somewhere in my own training. But I'll always be careful to remember that their success is what they earned with their time, their blood, and their sweat; the celebration is their gift to us, but the glory belongs only to the team that made it happen.

Think about the things you do once a day. These are what it takes to survive being you.

Think about the things you do twice a week. These are the dreams that are going to become reality.

Think of the things you do once a week. These are a complete waste of time.

距離は体で測るもの。
気持ちは動いて確かめるもの。
そう考えてここで生きているのを楽しんでいる今を、
忘れたくない。

2016

2016

#myworld

Clickety Clickety Tock Tick Tock Tock
Who's under your mouse
What's rousing your thoughts
Is your mind your keep is your mound your god
Dreamed up by an Aladdin rubbing his shiny lot
Behind the order behind the peace
Benign or vicious belies the Beast
Beating a rhythm to the rhyme of service
The System that serves is the System that lives

The living know the dead they buried
The System keeps their ghosts alive
In the wombs of brilliant minds conceived
The System that makes rain fall in line
Roses and guns play games of the married
While the Beast feeds on yet another wife
For living its purpose the System gets credit
As its patrons hide its secret life
What the Beast takes the System gives
What the System unites the Beast divides
What the Beast seeks the System completes;
You, are never on its mind

Stand with the shunned, stand with the stars
Stand in the west, stand in the east
Where you stand is now who you are
Around a sun that is now the Beast

Stand in the limelight, stand behind bars
Stand in the battles ignored by the Just
Where you stand is now your crime
Legal is where they draw the line

Stand for the vegans, stand for the gays,
Stand for freedom, stand for equal pay,
Where you stand is now religion
Where you bend is power play.

Stand on the left, stand on the right
Stand for Hilary, stand for Trump
Where you stand is now your fight
For the mighty pen or the mightier gun.

#addYourOwnVerse

Psychedelic punctuation

I'm just a collection. of punctuation,
Loosely tied, together my life looking, like a sentence;
I look, like I'm all words meaning, and imagination
But really, I'm deep in commas in quasi random motion.
Don't look, at the words they are the beginning, of the notion
Don't nod, at my pretentious, enunciation;
Don't look, into the lines like grooves in the sky ,
Go on sink deeper into the ocean of your mind.

Gargle gargle spit, split split shuffle
I'm a cup of commas, I'm a question marking deck
Rumble tumble kiss, skip skip mumble
I'm a train of broken thoughts crashing down the tracks
Come come come come come with me
Let's hold hands and pretend we're the flock and the flack
Run run run run run with me
Let's live in the rim the rom and the ram

Period. Period. Period. Period.
History doesn't lie between cracks men do that.
Period. Period. Exclamation, Period!
The line on the dot oh what's that?

Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.
Full stop.

二足走行は非常に技術が必要な動きです。でも誰もがそれを「危ない」と言わない。練習って、そんなもんです。

One man kissed another
And the herd fell apart

One Instagram shot

One Instagram shot
Captured for me the rawness
That was Hong Kong
The rage the thirst for growth
Uncontainable,
Rough,
Like it was determined
Never to achieve the sleek perfection
That is Japan to me.
Like it knew in its fabric
That when you can tear yourself
Out of the illusion of perfection
The courage to dream
To reach the stars
Becomes a little more real.

The single most privileged group on earth must be the human beings.

They are so powerful the have largely attained immunity in the food web - as much as an aberration it may sound, most humans go through life eating without ever imagining getting eaten. They feel justified to monopolize large areas of land by making it uninhabitable by any species but themselves. They habitually kill other animals and store the meat until it becomes inedible, and then simply burn it all up, without even returning it to the scavengers. And they will continue to amass more and more control over the planet so that no other species may be considered their equal.

If you have never feared getting eaten, if you have never felt guilty of owning a home bigger than what your biological needs require, if you have never needed to risk danger for every meal, if you have never thought the overpopulation by your species has made the earth less abundant, you must be human. Because this is what privilege is like - your brain blocks it from your awareness so that you don't have to struggle with the fact that you have broken your social contract, your promises, to the community that made you.

Isn't the princess dream the worst thing you can give a daughter? It's like making her live your perpetual denial that your dream had failed you the moment you were born.

Random tweets

二人の間の距離を引っ張り合いながら、自分の軌道を絶対譲らない関係が欲しい。

包まれたい。ミートパイのミートのように。

IMAGINE: what would the world be like if, other than unwritten promises, everything had an explicit expiry date : money, cash, tangible and non-tangible assets, employment contracts, marriage contracts, laws, degrees, employment history - everything that makes it possible to create inherited wealth?

There are three pillars that keep traditions alive: its usefulness to the individual, its necessity to perpetuate itself, and its usefulness to people in power. The first is what people speak of, the second is what people do not speak of, and the third is what makes people say it's just the right thing to do.

If forever is the time between the time we're born till the day we die, then, friends, we we all born to live forever.

One of the things that continually bother me, is that I can't find anything that I actually care enough about, to be able to stand the thought of having it permanently tattooed on my skin.

今日思った。単純に楽しんでいたいながら、タンパク質は大地の恵みであれば、人の倍タンパク質を頂いて筋肉を作ってる自分に、be strong to be usefulを実践できる人間になりたい。

Aliens sending battleships to overtake earth would be an absurd waste of resources. All you need is to send an AI unit to become that 1% that controls just about everything around here.

If it's easy to finish, it's not worth starting. If it's easy to start, it's not worth finishing.

Maybe we are so hooked on our digital gadgets is because we don't want to have figure out how to enjoy being alive.

Employers give you comfortable office chairs because it would be awful if the lasso around your neck killed you by accident just because a leg on your chair broke.

Languages are like bridges. They connect you to places across chasms that you cannot otherwise overcome. But that's about it. If you don't move on across the bridge, you ain't getting anywhere.

TNBT : The End of Advertising

TNBT : The End of Advertising

Humans evolve, albeit at a glacial pace compared to technology. But with the density and volume of information coming at us everyday, we are bound to develop our ability to filter out irrelevant information from our senses, and soon we will no longer register advertisements in our minds. We'll have dual screens that we multi task on, should one of them be held up by advertising, making online advertising a black hole for your bucks.

Advertising will change. Advertisers will work more closely with content creators and people they sponsor to ensure their brand appears in an "actionable" manner with each view of any content that is of genuine interest to the audience.

Movies will integrate sponsors' products directly into footage, and psychologists will help edit to ensure the branding is promoted by but not intruding on the story. Rendering technology will allow product branding to be swapped realtime in footage. Tap any branding in movies to order a video catalogue "toilet break" on your other device.

Digital print will not have ugly banners and click baits but have AI- generated product reviews that seek to address issues raised by the text. Read about a refugee crisis and a sponsored floatnote (footnote) linking to a donation page will be linked. Read about a sports event and it links to AI generated profiles of athletes, with live feeds of training sessions at sponsoring gyms and training programs you can sign up for online.

Geolocation sponsored content will be mainstream. Mark on your shopping list you need to pick up shampoo, and your lunch will be partly sponsored by the groceries store across the road, which will send your shopping list a map right down to the shelve with the product, and the time needed to pick it up. Offer any personal information to geolocation ads and get a permanent discount at participating stores.

Ubiquitous omni-search will replace plain spell check. Type a happy-birthday note to someone and use the word "present" and it will suggest a list of products that they can click on a choose to redeem. Enter "lunch at Chinese restaurant" into your calendar and it will suggest suitable locations. Sign the restaurant's recommendation list, and if your friend visits the restaurant, get a discount on your next visit.

The possibilities are endless. Why are we still stuck at competing for that spot on the screen everyone wants to ignore?

Sometimes I feel like I'm just a run-of-the-mill "typical" fella without much imagination, living in a reality 10 years behind where I'm really from.

That's where I'd be

That's where I'd be
Yeah, that's where I let myself be me

Turning thirty eight and didn't make it
Into the league of the rich and their friends who fake it
From Siglap to Sakae to Shinjuku it's not a lot of world
But when it's all up in your face you see the blood behind the jewel

In sharing the treasure in kissing the danger
In living the guilt of the silent reprove
In learning the touch on the back of a stranger
Memories locked away in tattoos
That's where the world labels my sins
That's where I leant that's where I'd be
That's where I stop hating my skin
That's where I let myself be me

Turning my face away from the struggles I was hiding inside hoping no one heard my voice fumble
Pretending to crave what success desires while fighting the thought I was born for defeat
Never asking why the rest have it easy until the dark night of my soul
Embracing myself into a tumble I'm falling free but in control

That's where the world labels my sins
That's where I leant that's where I'd be
That's where I stop hating my skin
That's where I let myself be me

Culture is not open source. It's a proprietary inventory of patents owned by the imperialistic right wing living deep inside your very soul.

Why can't free-thinkers date Non-free thinkers? (A

Why can't free-thinkers date Non-free thinkers? (A satire)

This question has always been on people's minds but seldom voiced. It may sound hate-provoking, intelligence-discriminating, and downright condescending, but trust me, it's not meant to be.

I'm 28 this year, and a free-thinker, and one of the most common things I hear from my religious friends go along the lines of "why do you continue your sinful life? Let me introduce you to my religion and you will be a changed person". While I wholly believe in their well-meant intentions, it's time someone explained the reason behind this "disobedience", lest it be classified as another moral standard the world refuses to live by.

A long time ago, I went out with someone, who, apart from the fact that he wasn't a free-thinker, was more or less perfect to me. Perfect in the sense that, we were exactly complements - he loves cooking and I love cleaning, he loves eating up the food I don't eat, he's always energetic when I'm down, and I'm always cheerful on his sad days. We even support different players in the same curling team. All except for the fact that he wasn't a free-thinker. It didn't matter to me at first, because I was head over heels with his free gifts and amazing sex, but sure enough, one day I found myself not being able to go on anymore - it felt so profoundly "wrong". So I broke up with this perfect guy for being religious. All my friends thought I was nuts. But decisions like this do baffle, and must be clearly explained - I cannot otherwise think of another way to appease my good conscience for hurting a completely innocent guy.

What I want non-free thinkers to understand is that, I'm more concerned with us free-thinkers. Sometimes when dating the what, we forget the who and the why.

I think the biggest example of this - and I'm not going to sugar coat it here - are free-thinkers who extend dating non-free thinkers to "being open to conversion because his religious social circle opens up opportunities to career advancement", or "his status as a religious group leader makes him reliable". The list goes on, but you get what I mean.

So yes back to the question why free thinkers should not date non-free thinkers. There are probably more, but here are four simple ones.

---

1. You have a complex system of things you believe in that cannot be summed up in one convenient word

Religious people subscribe to one prescribed system of belief, and no matter what they say, when faced with two opposing possibilities,
it is necessary that they decide that the one that matches their religion is true, and the other is false.

You on the other hand, are comfortable with half-truths and useful illusions. You absorb and learn when faced with something you cannot comprehend. You are willing to "try" religion as a learning experience, even if it is a ten-year project going through bible school without converting to the religion. Your journey demands thorough investigation and critical thinking, and the discipline and courage to fight what establishments push on you. Just because you live like a religious person and sacrifice like a religious person doesn't mean you need to think like a religious person. This something religious people find hard to understand.

You on the other hand, cannot comprehend why religious people would disobey federal law in the name of religion, and do scandalous things in the dark while forcing their religion of light down your throat. Christians, specifically even discourage themselves from dating you:

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?" - 2 Corinthians 6:14

2. It's never "just marriage"

I should clarify at this point that by dating I don't mean strictly relationships that result in marriage, children, and widowhood.

We know that people in the real world date for all sorts of very real and valid reasons, get married for the same, choose not to have children for the same, and divorce for the same. We knew that people change, learn, and grow through what they live through - and we revise out priorities through every stage of life.

Marriage is usually focused on the specific version of the partner people know - and demand that you stick to. When I get to know you and you decide I'm the one for you, you're almost or guaranteed to find a side of me you never knew. "What!" you say "I'm not ready for that!"

3. It's never just God or no God

Religious people always have ways to justify their belief, and since at some point they need to answer whether or not to believe, are polarized into a binary paradigm that goes along the line of God vs no God, Jesus vs Satan, Enlightenment vs Suffering.

And when religious people use this world view to justify their actions while you psychoanalyze them, only one result will end unhappy disagreement - that you give in. Religious people have limits to what they are willing to accept, and it's nowhere near yours.

4. The joy of being free

And finally, we have to consider not just the pitfalls of dating a religious person, but also the benefits of dating a free thinker.

Religious people are often driven by some kind of zeal, but free thinkers respond to real compassion and show honest desire.

Dating a free thinker means that there are no invisible gates that bar you from challenging their thinking or actions. It means that you together are free to change and grow, and to experience everything the world had to offer, and to survive to tell.

That is not to say that marrying a free thinker makes the marriage perfect. Far from it - rather you enjoy it for all its imperfections, and cherish the fact that love will never be perfect.

---

If you've read this far, you would have realized that not all religious people are as straightforward as what I described above. There are deeply good religious people who do not hide behind the brand of the religion but are sincerely involved in helping people in ways I cannot even imagine to.

There are religious people who go out without questioning your faith, and wholeheartedly want to be part of your community and your life, and help you achieve what you want.

If you are struggling with the whole idea of dating free-thinkers, one thing I've written above remains true: Sometimes when dating the what, we forget the who and the why. Don't look at the label. Look into his eyes.

The fruit of science is power over nature. The fruit of art is power over men. Art has always been about power, and nobody knows this better than oppressive governments around the world.

From a discussion on the possessive noun for inani

"How would you write a book's cover then? Inanimate objects can also possess things. Have a look at that chair's wobbly leg."

True that there isn't a strict consensus on this so I'm wrong to say it's outright wrong.

But it's actually a good rule to teach - considering you can simply say "book cover" which makes "book's cover" sound awkward.

I admit "wobbly leg of the chair" is somewhat cumbersome, but in writing you could phrase it something like "He was worried the chair would not hold up on its wobbly leg" instead of "he was worried the chair's wobbly leg would not hold up". Gramma allows you to make complex sentences - but English writing tends to favor simple sentence structures.

Have a look at that chair's wobbly leg could be rewritten as have a look at that chair with the wobbly leg.

What if religious rituals were imitations of voice and behavioral biometrics used by aliens who visited Earth during prehistoric times? #random

March

March. And naked
Trees look into a blue sky
With raised arms
Praying to be young again.

Teamwork

Teamwork

You're so capable our company needs more people like you dude. Come could you help me with one more favor?

I'm pretty packed.

Look at this chart - it's not adding up when I look at the data. You like challenges like this don't you?

I could look at it but I wouldn't be able to do analysis for another three weeks.

I'd really do it myself but you know I've got family commitment and my wife will kill me if I'm not home early to take care of the older boy.

I've had enough. Get it done yourself. Screw your family. Screw your children. Just because you made the lifestyle choice to have family doesn't give you the moral right to push your work to me. When the ladies have kids they take a pay cut to make time - what makes you think you can get away with keeping your salary and getting someone else to do your job? Don't try to push your supposed "family values" on me I don't buy it.

Calm down man all I'm asking for is a little of your expertise! I understand you're stressed alright I'll take it off your hands and not burden you. Sorry if I pushed you man - can I get you coffee as an apology?

Leave. Me. Alone.

Alright I'll leave I'll leave! Just tell me if there's anything I can do for you -

...

What got into you man. We're such a great team.

Low Hanging Fruit

Low Hanging Fruit

Great master, teach us moral rules so we can be high up in the clouds like you.

My friend, do you know why clouds are so high?

No teacher. Why?

Because they have little substance. You are always the intelligent one do you know what that means?

Teacher are you saying you are so wise because you are foolish? How can someone so high be so low?

Have you seen the tree outside?

Yes teacher. The fruit is delicious!

Did you climb up the tree to pick the fruits high up?

No, teacher I went for the low hanging fruit.

Yes, all living things will find the Way that requires the least effort in the end. What if all the low hanging fruit is gone?

Then I will climb the tree.

Yes. The tree is wise to bear both low and high hanging fruit.

Why would the tree do that it would get eaten!

Getting eaten is why the tree bears fruit at all. Zen is in eating the fruits low down, Zen is in eating the fruits high up, and Zen is in getting all fruits eaten.

So everything is Zen!

Yes. Both the moral and the immoral are Zen. Both the wise and the foolish are Zen. But the moment you are conscious of Zen, Zen is no longer there.

But teacher if that is so how can we ever be wise?

Go on eating the low hanging fruit. When the fruit is gone, the tree will teach you what you need to learn.

What is coding?

What is coding?

Programming languages are fictional universes described by some of the brightest minds of our times. These universes come with their own rules and conventions, cultures and demographics. Just as authors use books to help you interact with their universes, you interact with programming language universes by casting spells that do everything from displaying a picture of a cat on the screen to obtaining classified military information through the Internet. We call these spells code.

Code is the essence of programs just as spells are the essence of magic. Just as magic is the whole process and experience from creating the spell to saving the world, it's hard to pinpoint what a program really is. Is it a program just because cannot or does not perform anything meaningful? Is it a program just because it's written on sand? Is it a program if nobody knows how to cast it anymore? These are questions we don't try to answer. The experience of coding is magical enough.

If you are familiar with casting spells, you will know that actually creating spells is no small feat. Spells work within specific realities, and code allow you to see the world through specific lenses.

Back in the old days these lenses tend to be centered around a computer - which is, for those of you who are old enough to remember, the equivalent of using magic wand gestures back in the days when magic wands were necessary for magic to happen. Nowadays, these lenses really depend on your context. Someone who casts code in the clouds would see the world very differently than someone diving into the mysterious intelligence of the Deep Blue. Pretty much like how young people nowadays cast spells with their toes or by blinking, whichever is currently fashionable. I still don't understand what is so sexy about casting spells with their toes.

How does one code? Same as casting spells. You need to know the basic invocation techniques, the actual words to use, be in the correct mental frame when performing the spell, and understand how spells interact with the other spells your peers or enemies may cast. You need to voice each spell with perfect accuracy - computers, just like magic, have no tolerance for incompetence. Spell casting is a performance art in itself.

Having said that, I'm sure the more experienced wizards are starting to ask, isn't coding, unlike magic, merely a matter of technical competency? That's where it starts getting exciting.

You see, unlike magic, where wizards rarely create new spells, in the coding world, each invocation of a spell is in itself a new spell. And just as it takes decades to learn how to create a good spell, it's the same for code. Good code is like good magic - it hints at you what it was created for and what it is capable of, while at the same time foresees how you may use it in an entirely different situation. It does not judge you, but when you invoke it, you judge yourself through its invocation.

Bad code is like a bad spell - ambiguous what it is supposed to achieve, and falls apart when you try casting it a second time. Certainly there are those who master bad magic so far that it becomes black magic - these are the masters we rarely get to know about.

So how does this code magic actually work? That would be another lesson.

Hi. I've heard much about this education thing. Is it for my child and can it make him successful?

Thank you for calling. Sure it is for your child. Our program ensures that we make as many people as mediocre as possible.

Mediocre? Not successful?

Success is, if you will, like a painting, and mediocrity is a plain canvas. The plainer the canvas, the better we can help your child paint a picture of success.

Success is like a picture? I thought you either are successful or you are not?

Rest assured, sir, we are trained story tellers. We can make anyone think they will be happy by being successful in helping our School remain profitable. Educated people are like dumb machines - they're so much easier to govern!

You WHAT?

I apologize for my rant: let me rephrase, sir. Success is a journey and we help your child get there.

Oh. Okay. Hmmm. So your success thing comes with this happiness thing as well?

Success is a journey, sir. But to be honest we do get weirdos saying they are not happy with our package. Unlike you sir, these people aren't very educated, don't you think?

So you are expert story tellers and you can make anyone happy? I'm not so good today could you tell me a story and make me happy?

I'm afraid that's not how it works, sir. But if you are interested, we have this I Believe I'm Happy program for adults. It will train you in all 10 characteristics common to all happy people.

Uh-huh

Would you like us to send you more information on it?

It's okay I'll think about it. Thanks.

Thank you for calling, sir. We wish you and your child success.

Happiness number 2341 is now available for collect

Happiness number 2341 is now available for collection at the Institution. You may not resell your happiness nor reverse engineer your happiness. The Institution reserves absolute rights over the brand of Happiness rationed to you, and is the sole dispenser of Happiness in your reach. Failing to observe the above mentioned ground rules may result in the removal of all comforts associated with the Happiness you receive. Remember, the Institution's Happiness is what makes your life complete. Understand that we worry for you should you stray from the safety of our Happiness.

Sign below to acknowledge you have received your package.

Every system that survives the test of time despite everything bears witness not to its worthiness but to the success of a mechanism that either aligns or prioritizes its continued existence above its original purpose.
Sometimes people become part of such mechanisms. We call these people Conservatives.

I'm secretly so proud of my peers who have stayed alive, despite parents, despite churches, and despite the "conservative" world around us.

#myworld

#myworld

All movement is beautiful. But beautiful depends on the song you're playing. There is no male movement and female movement, only efficient and inefficient movement, and movement you are in shape to do, and movement that gets you in shape. Stay beautiful. Keep moving.

*1

*1

Words: (
? Are they hardwired into us
? Or are we free [
! To define what we want to mean
! And how they run across the page?
] )

Why do we hold on to them: (
! Like the (*1) remnants of a dear one [*1:
Utterly irreplaceable?
] )

We live in new realities: [
! That break every bone in our fathers' imaginations
! Because in the dark world of brilliant minds, we have redefined: (
? Every familiar word
? Every conceivable innocence
)
! Our children will not share in our analogy of the floppy disk icon
]
We already know that, but we refuse to let go: [
! Neither the construct of marriage, of religion, of race
! Nor the qwertyness of keyboards
]
No, we prefer to hold on, onto the (*1) power
Our fathers have given us, our pecking order
Over weaker minds: [
! We shall teach them to hang on to the memories they never had: [
With the same confidence
They run on their prosthetic legs
]
! We will get them hooked on knowledge: [
like the pure delight, dancing
at the end of a fishing line.
] ]

Obedience is conforming where it doesn't matter; disobedience is rebelling where it does.

We obey because it's unproductive to make a fuss about something that doesn't matter; we disobey to protect what matters to us.

"Cultivating" obedience is pretty much like animal farming - you will never learn what your herd is thinking, your herd doesn't care about you, they start disobeying in things that do not matter, and no matter what you think, you're sending them to the slaughterhouse.

Disobedience is a form of communication. Disobedience is a virtue. Pay attention when it speaks.

We're not done playing God, until our inventions have learnt to play.

If people do not have the empathy to resonate with those they despise, what makes them think they can understand their gods, which aren't even human?

On Healing

If I have learnt one thing last year, it is that treating is not the same as healing. The experience of treatment is comfort; the experience of healing is rejuvenation. The danger of pain is that it redefines one's reality - one's expectations of what one considers to be acceptable. In that altered state, one loses the power of rebellious imagination; one stops being able to grasp what it would be like to be free, to be wild. If I may liken life to a disease we are continuously struggling with, the problem with being alive, arguably in any age, is that we give in to this pain. We stop imagining what it is like to be bubbling with life. We refuse to imagine healing, and come to terms with simply receiving treatment. This is not okay. This is not acceptable. The day we decide it is okay to settle into little worlds we build for ourselves in little holes in the ground - that is the day we transition from the miracle of being alive, into the quiet process of dying. Death is not a single event. And we need to stay alert, that it does not slip into our beds on days we get worn down.

Wearing shoes in the house is like wearing underwear in the shower...

You don't know what you're not washing until you take it off!

TNBT: imagine artificial meat made with nanobots that mimic the texture and taste of food, woven into the fibers of real food. And you can select exactly how many calories you want your meal to contain while having your meal experience stay exactly the same. And the nanobots would be recyclable, cutting the energy requirements to produce "real" food. Yes the idea of recycling what you put in your mouth sounds disgusting, but don't worry by the time we invent this, our values would have moved on.

Realizing that your ears are picking up conversations in a language you understand in a crowd is almost as eerie as quantum entanglement.

Time (aka how we die)

Time (aka how we die)

1. Our experience of time is not proportional to its duration. 2. It is proportional to the number of events our brains flag as significant. 3. An event is by definition a change. 4. Our brains are excellent at noticing patterns, and gets better with age. 5. A change that can be generalized as a pattern stops being significant. 6. Such changes are what we call routine. 7. Adults stop experiencing time because they tend to fall into routine. 8. Adults fall into routine because they have negotiated with powers in society for a lower risk environment in exchange for being submissive to these powers in specific, predictable ways.

9. To experience time again, adults can work around the brain's mechanisms: consciously seek out activities that are new in new ways; construct schedules specifically to break routine, even if they comprise the same activities in different orders; or, find a way to make ends meet in roles that require one to specialize in doing things that nobody has done before.

10. Just because one is "sacrificing" for a "good" cause is not sufficient reason for choosing routine - routine is a choice, often made as one's willpower is gradually eroded by the stress of not acting directly on a perception that one's survival is at risk. 11. But routine can also be a strategic decision, such as to make space for new activities that the brain will find overwhelmingly eventful. 12. Deciding to give certain activities up to routine is therefore sometimes a very brave decision.

13. The brain is optimized for survival. 14. Eventually one has to come to terms with one's total experience of time and how it was or wasn't relevant to one's paradigm of survival. 15. just because it feels like time has stopped doesn't change the fact that the maximum amount of time one can experience is continuously decreasing. 16. But time is not the only dimension we move in. 17. Yet because we cannot steal time, and we cannot make time, it is a unique experience: it is completely free, yet altogether precious.

TNBT - APE

TNBT Imagine religion evolved into something called "Applied Psychology Experience" (APE) where you willingly get psyched into believing in a framework of memes carefully constructed to appeal to the way your brain ticks. And in this framework you will find it easy to make yourself do things you thought were not possible. Even something like spending unimaginable amounts of time to ace an exam or master a skill, or to take up an impossible or dangerous assignment of a lifetime - by allowing APE to draw on your innate survival instincts that worked on you when you were a kid.

The difference between professionals and non-professionals isn't the money or the skill. It's being able to consistently satisfy your clients, no matter who they are or how you feel. The next time you think about sex workers, think about how you measure up to that!

The story of human survival has 3
chapters:

satisfaction and sustainability aka now and forever aka doing and being,

power and submission aka freedom and stability aka addiction and sanity,

sensuousness and rationalizing aka anecdote and statistics aka order and chaos.

Love, bravery, kindness and all that? Just different ways these primal forces play on our perception!

A people without a story

A people without a story
Is a people without dreams
But a people without a past
Is a people without the bondage
Of those in power.

Isn't the terrorist vs civilization dichotomy is simply the good vs evil dichotomy retargeted and repackaged?