What if the Global Economy Collapsed

There is not a single ecospherically sustainable economy on Earth so far as I know. Capitalism and communism too were built on expanding and exploiting limited natural resources. One million species presently are in danger of extinction because of human economic practices. I would guess that when the economy crash; really collapses such that it can’t be restarted, a couple of billion human lives will be lost.

I would be happier if there was at least one political party that understood what ecological economics is and tried to gradually transition the U.S. economy to that basis. One would want to keep free enterprise because of the creative leadership of individuals that simply doesn’t arise from bureaucracies or politicians. I have suggested that the House form some kind of permanent committee to study the problem of ecological economic transition nationally- it is much more than global warming remedies that are needed, yet so far no spark of interest has appeared with Democrats where it should.

In my opinion a mad scrambling for survival on a scale never before seen would happen if food supplies globally collapsed. A green new deal won’t transition the nation to ecological economics; it is focused on fixing just atmospheric heating from CO2 and is politically untenable.

With a possible limit to public debt- nearly a trillion annually goes to pay interest on the debt, there is a possibility of a catastrophic transition when investors flee abroad leaving the poor holding the bag on a defaulted economy. The Bubonic plagues of European history killed off 2/3rds of the population of that sub-continent. It is easy to imagine modern biological wars doing much worse after the global economic collapse.

To transition to an ecological economic foundation there would need to be regulations for favoring green synergy leading businesses. Environmental restoration would need public prioritization- perhaps people would need to have different zoning that would build hollow mountain ranges for people to live within while letting the wildlife recover outside. Electronic mass transit designed to go above and below ground. A limit on the amount of capital one could concentrate, a limit on the number of corporations one could invest in (3), a reduction of the term for patent exclusivity to three years with the inventor getting 10% royalties from any using the patent after it becomes public domain; there are innumerable changes required to make capitalism and free enterprise work to restore the world ecosphere so far as possible while advancing the quality of human life at the same time. That would not be easy, yet no party is really trying either.

It is necessary to defend freedom for humanity and individuals against the numerous totalitarian oppressors that will exploit economic or environmental collapse to try to force some kind of dictatorship over the masses-even a dictatorship of the proletariat would be onerous and offensive.

Unfortunately Democrats have taken the time of concern about the ecosphere to divide the people as much as they can. Some believe they would appreciate collapsing just the U.S. Government in order to impose the North American portion of global socialism under a planetary junta of communist-socialist leaders. Those people seem rather extreme.

Humans have Invented the Worst Weapons

I would think that the worst weapons ever created would be those that can destroy the Earth, or end its livability for human life. The present human economic structure would qualify in that regard, and second, maybe daft Democratic Party politicians. Third might be a device I read about in a newspaper a half century ago; the Cobalt Bomb. I have googled it to find a reference to it in the last decade and couldn’t find anything about it. It was said to be the size of a shoe-box and capable of destroying the atmosphere of Earth.

After that it would be using the hydrogen and oxygen of the world’s oceans as an explosive. Big bang with the right primer.

Gene recombinant weapons are very dangerous- a subtle change in the human structure could convert all human life into Democrats or worse if possible, as odd chimeras.

Lastly there would be smart-boulders hurled at the Earth from space- perhaps putting a small rocket or ion engine on an asteroid with an artificial intelligence guidance system directing its (or hundreds) course to impact the Earth at tens of thousands of miles per hour.

Deserving honorable mention are weaponized microwave devices to burn up life with a large water content (such as human) at a megacity scale, chemical weapons, nuclear bombs and television.

Democrats Were the Party of Slavery- Now It's Illegal Aliens

Southern Democrats owned about 4 million slaves when the civil war started. Republicans did not own slaves, the party was formed to combat slavery. That is, it formed in 1854 in opposition to expansion of slavery to western states.

Southern Democrats led the rebel way of succession so they could keep their slaves. Today they must settle for illegal aliens.

Southern Democrats - Wikipedia

After the war during reconstruction southern blacks were Republicans.

Human Business Model to Exterminate a Million Species

A U.N. study warned that one million species are threatened with extinction. That means fishing prospects aren't good in Alaska either.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/extinction-report-1-million-animals-plants-risk-uns-ipebs-says/1115842001/

Wrangell Alaska formerly was the location of the Alaska Pulp Corporation that cut a half billion feet of trees each year. It was a Japanese owned corporation that devastated Alaskan coastal forest old growth. Though it closed about 25 years ago, tourists are just now replacing the income a little with 60 cruise ships scheduled to make port calls this summer.

Humans in such vast numbers today- approaching 8 billion, wreak huge impact on the land and water as well as the atmosphere. It would be possible to have some fishing of quality for sports and subsistence fisherpersons for some time to come if the commercial catch was reduced at least to equal proportions with the other to sectors.

There actually is a fourth estate that wants a share of fish too- animals. Animals need fish to eat and to help keep the ecosphere alive. It is all cut of one cloth. It is just human economic structure virus killing off life instead of multiplying it. The Biblical admonition to be fruitful and multiply is applicable, quite likely, to the biosphere as well as just humans. Just humans in a godless shag carpet screwball empirical experience is more toward the yippee side of things than the responsible, sober and accountable.

Live Electron Rocket Launch, Hamas Rockets Target Civilians, Rockets for Peace and War

There is a video of a live rocket launch by Rocket Lab in about ten minutes...

Rockets are popular devices for lifting payloads. Rockets are useful for peace and war. State terrorism like the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel target civilians indiscriminately. That sort of K-Sam rocket isn't like a shoulder fired anti-tank rocket used by an individual soldier at close range upon enemy armor.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48167234 Hamas rocket barrage on Israel

Ecosphere Decline Report From U.N. Due Tomorrow

A B.B.C. article summarized the grim yet well known findings that the world ecosphere is in serious decline due to Human Economic Structure virus (HES). Bad politics of Democrats and Republicans in the United States including invasive human species of non-citizens contribute to the destruction of wild ecospheric health. Some day that may become really serious, with deleterious consequences for Americans. As it is the destructive effect of 320 million Americans on the ecosphere is substantial.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48169783

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48104037

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/indonesia-sinks-foreign-boats-illegal-fishing-vietnam-malaysia-china-a8899836.html

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Apocalypse Orchestra

Born from the void and still pristine
Tranquil, vast and cold
See the orb of blue and green
When he spake the light shone gold

Brought to life, in the image of god
In this holy place
settled amoung the creatures odd

Eve, dear girl, avert thy gaze

Claims to love them all
his world below
Minding not their fall
a mirthful show

Merriments in the centerpiece
Weird things in galore
Is this the cradle of the disease
that man alone must answer for?

Joy and delight, forever ceased
Sufferings abloom
Eaten alive by the cauldron beast
Let the drones ring to the sound of doom

Songwriters: Mikael Lindstrom / Erik Larsson

Free Yale-Coursera Courses on-Line

Here is a link for twenty five courses at Yale through coursera that are free, on-line. Each requires perhaps 3 or 4 hours a week to complete. Some have interesting stuff for anyone.

Coursera courses at Yale- Free

Does a Human Fetus Have Less Rights than a Dog?

Does a human fetus have less right than a dog to exist? There are laws against cruelty to animals yet a human fetus in most states has not even the right to exist. What kind of morality is that?

Having recently completed a free Yale course offering on everyday morality put on by a professor of moral psychology I wondered about the omission of abortion as a topic. Apparently morality is thought to have some resemblance to positive laws where good laws that have been decided are no longer controversial; that is they are res judicata. That is convenient for the left that would force bad policy into law from on high.

Morality has a Kantian aspect to it consistent with democracy where the categorical imperative of doing onto others as others should do unto you-only support laws that work universally (for everyone). Universal laws are determined electively in a social context. 

Morality is a balance of personal intersocial power abstracted to a Universal level. Moral norms become those that support individual and group continuity or existence. Circles of morality are those where the elective power of morality is recognized. Unenfranchised creatures aren't electors and are morally exploitable.

Slaves, women and children in past times of history had little or no elective power and were socially exploitable. Then they became enfranchised and exploitation decreased. They became part of the general moral circle. Children were brought into more so than the past and were given limited rights; even pets and dogs were accorded some legal protections because they were liked by enfranchised humans. The glaring omission from the circle of morality prevalent in the U.S.A. was human fetuses that continued to be aborted by the millions annually.

Human fetus' have the problem of being incommunicado and unable to vote or participate in circles of morality. One must think that human fetuses have as much intelligence at least as a puppy at some point in their pre-birth existence. If one could poll a fetus on its opinion about existing or not, it would be unlikely to agree that it wanted to perish.

So at some point in the not too distant future technology may make it possible to test the mental capacity of fetuses and determine if they are as smart as puppies, and even if they can be made to communicate opinions, or learn anything while interacting with experimental researchers wired in some way to communicate. Then perhaps, fetuses may be given some right to exist within the human moral circle prevalent in the United States.

Reincarnation-Catch Alternative, Purgatory and Salvation

I wrote this reply to a post in a course I am taking...

 The ideas in your post are interesting and informative. The 'just world theory' does tend to be a post hoc rationalization especially useful to those that are well-off compared to those in more challenging circumstances.

I have often thought that the theory that 'this is the best of all possible worlds' is wrong. I personally could envision innumerable ways that it might be made better. That is, to clarify, from a secular point of view rather than a metaphysical one.

The 'catch alternative' theory was interesting. I am a Christian and don't believe in reincarnation. The theory of 'catch alternative' is comparable though to the Catholic idea of purgatory where souls must labor to improve their character before being deemed worthy to enter heaven. It is a salvation by works paradigm that was deemed unworthy by protestant theologians first and later by catholic theologians too.

Reincarnation is a good paradigm for working off sin and for finding some just way to pay for bad worldly deeds and benefit from good conduct/actions. Christians have a different idea about finding a just world (reincarnation is a kind of metaphysical justice for the world paradigm)- fundamentally they stipulate that everyone has original sin (thermodynamics make humans consume mass to make energy for living and reproducing and that leads to adverse social relations). The world has people who are naturally wrong and cannot save themselves- God alone can save them as so that is why he sent His Son Jesus Christ to intervene. Those that believe Jesus is God and accept His atoning sacrifice will be found acceptable to God in eternal life.

Sin is a human condition. Those that follow Jesus try to be without sin. God sees Jesus' perfect life without sin in those that accept the Lord as their redeemer. God is perfect and those that would be with God for eternity must be perfect too. Only Jesus Christ could accomplish that, and he conveys his sinless nature to those that have faith in His salvation work. God sees the character of Christ for the saved when they die and go to eternity.

The U.S.A. has many atheists. People that are entirely worldly tend to chase after promotion and wealth. They tend to kiss the derriers of the powerful and richest in order to prosper. Politicians tend toward being shallow, superficial and self-serving. Sometimes they can be hired to work for the good of the people materially at least, and that isn't necessarily bad.

The Lord said that the meek shall inherit the Earth and that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. They are things to think about.

Mind-Matter Duality Reconsidered

People have common misunderstandings about mind/matter duality. Mind is different than lifeless matter, unless one was to stipulate with Leibnitz that 1-dimensional monads form the core of subatomic material existence and they are made of spirit.

I wonder if people would argue against the ability of A.I. to generate questions or sub-routines for-itself and to make 'free-will' choices with its new constructs? Free will might be modeled  within an initially  deterministic A.I. paradigm. To controvert Prof Bloom's defense of reason and free will in his article, one might also want to controvert the capacity for A.I. to write its own code and act on its self-written new code. The biomechanics of the A.I. programming might be said to be in the initial program written by a human programmer.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-war-on-reason/357561/

Spirit as the foundation of matter-as if zero-dimensional points and one-dimensional strings of M-Theory, embedded in a meta-field phenomenal existence like decohered virtual particles were criterion problems, is challenging to appreciate. Humans regard mass and energy from the inside as it were; like fish made of water swimming in an ocean of water wondering reflectively if their thoughts are made of something besides water or if thought is a different substance than water. So one might arrive at the questions; can water think for itself without sentient being as fish-for-themselves? Can a knower know without existing (perhaps relying on the sentient ocean to think-for-others and for-oneself?

I believe one might distill the question of how and where sentience exists within or without the water-column and find the answer to be within structure. Structure gives rise to sentience. Form of mass and energy is qualitatively different that the components of elements. That is easy to see at the molecular level in relation to atoms and in the assembly of complex machines from kits with and without instruction pamphlets.

A Nobel prize winner; Robert Laughlin, wrote a good book on materials physics titled Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down https://www.amazon.com/Different-Universe-Reinventing-Physics-Bottom/dp/0465038298 the book relates some of the ideas about qualitative states of matter and form comprising significant differences.

I should point out here to the fallacy regarding God that His existence is contingent being, contingent upon severability of mind from matter. There are numerous problems with that idea not the least of which is ideas about what matter or energy is or are. Besides, a soul in my opinion is the information God has about what a human is; a record of his life, and address of each particle comprising the form of beings etc. God can recreate that soul from dust if He prefers to. The soul might be said to be information. God hasn't data-loss issues.

In my opinion God would have a far more subtle math (actually foreknowing all answers to any equation making calculations superfluous) regarding data mapping a soul than phase space maps of Hilbert Space information. Wiki has an article on phase space- "Expectation values in phase-space quantization are obtained isomorphically to tracing operator observables with the density matrix in Hilbert space: they are obtained by phase-space integrals of observables, with the Wigner quasi-probability distribution effectively serving as a measure." 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_space

Matter is a condition of flux from a primordial field. There is information available about photons as carriers of electro-magnetic field, and how there actually are two kinds of photons; those that do not interact and those that do at short range breaking into virtual particles, electrons etc. Photons are emergent characteristics of a form of energy and the entire field behavior of photons is a metaphor for gravity and gravitons perhaps including dark energy.

Max Tegmark of M.I.T. has described a Universe or Multiverse with a foundation of pure mathematics; literally. The quanta or point has form that becomes the Universe as a context of relations. Yet the entire Multiverse complexity from the shape or form of Multi-dimensional matrices is itself a field perhaps in spirit. Sprit (of God) generating a Universe in some mysterious way was described by a neo-Platonist philosopher named Plotinus in 54 little tractates known as The Enneads.

I wanted to note that healthy minds have free will. Use reductio ad absurdam and contemplate that no one has free will to make choices and getting to work, stopping at Starbucks or not, making decisions concerning work etc and are all done automatically without free will. It gets rather silly to consider. Not all humans are healthy of course; all prisoners or people being put on felony trial should have free Magnetic Resonance brains cans and blood tests (if they aren't harmful) to inform courts of the health of the accused. Impaired free will may allow elements of determinism to enter. It is not an either/or.

 Determinism would occur where a finite, Newtonian mechanical system could account for all of the behavioral conditions of matter within a given environment. Experimentalists as is well known are a meta-factor corrupting the finite experimental condition, yet one may use thought experiments such as with mathematics and do so without corruption; maybe. There are always the problems of uncertainty and experimentalist bias existing even within thought experiments regarding math that influence results. That is easily demonstrated on math exams.

With Bishop Berkeley one might develop a bias toward the opinion that everything is idea and that mind determines matter; even if it is the mind of God, and that mass and energy are made at the smallest level of spirit; a field spirit, that allows relationships and differentiated forms to arise that have the quality of solid being in a steady state field decohered from the realm of quantum uncertainty whereat all possible positions of particles exist simultaneously as if they were in a great spiritual field calculating engine that a spirit-actuator set to utility.