09 January 2025

Manufacture Water to Put Out Calf Future Fires

Cutting enviro protection is wrong. More water needs to be manufactured by desalinating salt water. A trans-continental border security canal system filled with saltwater could evaporate under the sun and freshwater collected from a gabled roof capture structure. Salt water pumped to the Continental divide would flow east and west. Intelligence needs to be applied to maximize cost effectiveness.

I have written about desalinating water in a border canal for at least 20 years. Soon the federal government will declare a disaster and give billions to rebuild homes of California millionaires. With manufactured water from a border desalinating canal the lack of water could have been avoided 

Philosophy and Religion Share Some Data and Form

There is a broad variety of religious beliefs. Some are obviously consistent with some, not all, philosophical pursuits. Philosophy too has a broad variety of approaches; some of those have angular and/or radial juxtaposition.

There are a variety of religious and philosophical beliefs and systems with tremendous range and differences among them. Philosophy too has systems. Utilitarianism is a system with a few varieties. Hegelians, and left Hegelians had systems that informed others like Marx who adapted a synthetic system of dialectical evolution. Platonist realism brought Plotinus to write The Enneads and realism continues to be relevant for analytic philosophy. The list of overlaps is worth a thesis. Christianity contains the truth that the rest need point to for accuracy of varying degrees.

08 January 2025

Inner Peace with Self-Acceptance for Slobs?

If one is a slob one might want to lose weight, launder clothes and clean up the yard.

A season of discontent can be edifying.

 Change can be as one is and is yet to be, rather than as one was. Tranquility for some is presentness and for others futurity. Being is becoming.

Writing Fiction- A Method

Jorge Louis Borge said writing fiction is an unnatural act. That was informative for me. In rural isolation I increasingly immerse myself in thoughts of a story and awaken with a thought at 2 am or whenever to write another page or two.
  When summer writing I am pressured by the need to finish a draft  before the temperature drops to near freezing and below. 
  They are philosophical science fiction works so insights into physics concepts appear as they will. With luck I might get ten pages in a day varied with three or four. Editing of a first draft need wait until May when the weather warms the Earth, or never.

07 January 2025

Can a 'True Author' Have Fewer than 10 Million Words in Print?

 I don't use AI to write fiction. I tried editing with it and that didn't work. It would cut out 2/3's of whatever I let it work on so I stopped.

Most of my writing has been in an unelectrified rural Alaskan shed in a roadless area. This winter I'm outside with internet access.

I wrote philosophical science novels that were challenging to construct. I never had heating for an entire book and my fingers would freeze if I didn't stop writing so editing was tough. 

True authors must be those with 10 or 20 million words in print. I only have four or five million I guess. Just six sci-fi novels though of about 50,000 words each. Maybe one needs to have establishment approval to be a 'true author'. It's tough to write if society has made life difficult for a writer. A sedentary lifestyle is helpful.

AI can't edit philosophy or quantum cosmology ideas at all well. Neither really can human editors that are clueless on philosophical topics.

I took a computer programming course in 1980-81 with systems analysis and have followed the progress over the decades. My recent courses from Univ of Michigan online and elsewhere provided much information about AI. That's why I have confidence it will write novels for the public eventually. I don't plan to use that myself. I will just read philosophy and write one or two more sci-fi books if I have the time. I am very backlogged in other genres.

An AI song is one made for me to listen to. Designer music to suit one's preferences. Usually I just listen to instrumentals. It's just good music to enjoy. It doesn't need to be 'mine'.

I still buy sci-fi novels to read.P.R. Adams is my favorite writer presently. It's easy to see the time when people just read AI produced books though. That might save money for the poor.

A.I. and the Future of the Great American Novel

I believe some app will appear for free that will create a readable book when a reader wants one. Deep learning allows a continuum of upgrades in quality. People may not pay for what they can get for nothing.

AI can already write great poems. I haven't read much fiction by AI yet don't doubt it's ability to improve and write in first person, limited omniscience or omniscience with alacrity in a short time span if not presently.

 It may not be worthwhile for younger writers to pursue the starving artist route in life with intensified, ubiquitous AI competition ahead. The Great American novel may be generated by AI or pros with sinecures.

So much writing hasn't any philosophical content to complicate things. Simple plots and quality descriptive writing is good enough for many action novels. There are so many tropes that still work.

Creativity that is synthetic a posteriori is within AI's present capacity. I believe it may even master creativity in hard sciences like chemistry in time. People are very clever and continue to upgrade the programming.

Tax Cuts for the Rich Instead of Border Security?

Even before Donald Trump takes office Republicans like Kevin McCarthy are throwing perfidy into the mix. They want border security to take second place to tax cuts for the rich, explaining the executive decisions can substitute for law. Then Democrats can reverse those executive decisions in four years.

People including the rich need to pay for government. Only idiots and anarchists could believe a modern economy and society could exist without one. For sustainability it need be paid for proportionally by those living and prospering in it.

Republicans of ancient Rome under stood the virtue of sacrifice, they weren’t a lot of Marie Antoinettes.

People rationalize away responsibility. Politicians do that all the time or just regard promises as water under the bridge.


Kevin McCarthy wants to pass a tax cut for the rich instead of border security he says can be put off till later. That wasn't what the majority voted for. Senator Simpson trashed talked social security after the the election was certified- not during campaign season

 Republicans seem as bad as Democrats with integrity. People blame others and make exceptions for their own moral failures


Replying to 'Why are White People Great at Everything?'

Shouldn't one start with a rectification of names? Confucius did; so; therefore ask what are white people and what is the everything they are supposed to be great at. I shall stipulate that the timing of the OP is importunate. Trying to use greatness with white people as a middle term for racism is harmful to Trump politics. The appearance of racism simply impedes good political works Trump might be able to do. Those policies are primarily not racist.

Modern economies have specialized occupational roles. No one is good at everything. Commercial aircraft pilots usually aren’t great dentists for example. Some people are good at a few occupations though usually not at one time. For those that aren’t white and are envious it may be the ownership of material goods and the things associated with homes, autos and devices that seem to be what the white people are ‘great’ at. Keep in mind that the IQ of the average white American is only about 100, so it doesn’t take rocket science to own average things in the USA; in fact it’s better to be average than to be great at something like philosophy or poetry with a higher IQ if one is seeking material satisfaction in life.

Black Americans have a lower average IQ than white and that isn’t surprising considering their history of intellectual repression and exclusion until modern times. A culture of social exclusion is hard on individuals concerned generally with simple survival in a hostile social environment. That exclusion long-term lowers IQ. Even a bad diet can lower performance on IQ tests. It is difficult to build a culture up intellectually. That tends to occur yet it is a long term advance.

Black Americans have a higher IQ than some sub-Saharan Africans. The life expectancy of some of that group is far less than much of the world’s. Poverty tends to lower IQ scores because diet and environment don’t support brain health. Most blacks haven’t had the positive early childhood environment supporting intellectual development that many white people have had.

Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.

China had fantastic inventiveness thousands of years ago. It’s development was retarded by imperialism until the 20th century. Capitalism allows better quantitative opportunities for invention with the profit motive. Now that China has a mixed economy. It performs better than it did with a state dominated form of socialism.

One need find the difficulty of a task as an occupation and determine what sort of IQ is needed to perform a task and if it falls within the basic bell curve distribution of a race. Actually cold weather drove some invention while others inventions like metallurgy invented in the Middle East travelled north.

One can consider cultural advantages and tool kits at any point in history and find that some lead others for a time then even disappear. What of the glory of ancient Rome or the strong walls of Constantinople?

Because Europe was challenged by invasions for thousands of years technology advanced there quicker than in places less challenged.

Toynbee pointed out that easy living regions of Greece did not advance as fast as some places that were given more, yet not too great of challenges. China is advancing very rapidly. Economists have found that mature economies stabilize at a growth rate of perhaps 2 or 3% while developing economics have a much faster growth rate until they equalize with the nations with mature economies.

There is additionally the criterion of values. Were the values of Diogenes the Cynic more like those of Bill Gates or Lao Tzu. Cultural values can be followed by minions until the over participation destroys the health of an environment. Hundreds of millions may surge over the edge like lemmings with great skill; is that really a value to be admired?

I would really hate to live in a jungle in a primitive condition being ate by mosquitoes. Overcoming some of those challenges required biology at a level barely reached today- not a thousand years ago.

Europe had fewer tropical diseases than more southerly regions and that matters even now What sort of fire ant problem exists for campers in Europe in comparison to South Florida?

Africa is advancing almost too quickly now. Nigeria alone has, I believe, 85,000 PHds. There are modern looking cities all over the continent and the ecosphere is in decay and receives toxic waste from Europe.

There is only a human race now and individuals differ more in ability than traditional races.

Concerning Evidence for the Existence of God

 People sometimes overlook the wealth of archaeological and scriptural data in support of God interacting with ancient Israelis. Lawyers can get convictions on empirical evidence based on archaeology (such as finding bodies, settlements or other material and writing.;even war crimes convictions have been made on comparable data. Perhaps some skeptics would like empirical evidence based on astrophysics and certain hard sciences to conflict directly with their own understanding of nature. I am impressed that so many often overlook the obvious.

Peter Woit wrote a book named 'Not Even Wrong' regarding string theory. He is a skeptic. I believe the Big Bang theory is in a similar position. I believe it is accurate though understanding that other, unknown mechanisms could have caused the appearance of expansion. It cannot be proven to be true, it can just be shown to be consistent with observations, Einstein's general theory etc. One day it may be proven to be false; there is certainly a lot of mystery about that first split second and the inflaton presumed to occur nearly the same time, as well of course as what went before. Maybe it would be best to name it rapid expansion from a theoretical singularity. 

Some one use it as evidence confirming God's parameters of creating a Universe from nothing. It is a roughly similar paradigm. It may be no coincidence that a Belgian Catholic Priest, Georges Lemaitre, is the father of Big Bang theory. Of interest is the live debate about dark energy not really existing, and that instead it is just an apparent effect created by distortion in rates of space-time expansion because of empty space versus space with more mass in it. 

       "Professor David Wiltshire, who led the study, said: "Our findings show that we do not need dark energy to explain why the Universe appears to expand at an accelerating rate.

"Dark energy is a misidentification of variations in the kinetic energy of expansion, which is not uniform in a Universe as lumpy as the one we actually live in."

He added: "The research provides compelling evidence that may resolve some of the key questions around the quirks of our expanding cosmos.

"With new data, the Universe's biggest mystery could be settled by the end of the decade.""

A Reply to "Why are White People Good at Everything"

Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused.Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.

China had fantastic incentive ness thousands of years ago. It's development was retarded by imperialism until the 20th century. Capitalism allows better quantitative opportunities for invention with the profit motive. Now that China has a mixed economy. It performs better than it did with a state dominated form of socialism.

One need find the difficulty of a task as an occupation and determine what sort of IQ is needed to perform a task and if it falls within the basic bell curve distribution of a race. Actually cold weather drove some invention while others inventions like metallurgy invented in the Middle East travelled north.

One can consider cultural advantages and tool kits at any point in history and find that some lead others for a time then even disappear. What of the glory of ancient Rome or the strong walls of Constantinople?

Because Europe was challenged by invasions for thousands of years technology advanced there quicker than in places less challenged.

Toynbee pointed out that easy living regions of Greece did not advance as fast as some places that were given more, yet not too great of challenges. China is advancing very rapidly. Economists have found that mature economies stabilize at a growth rate of perhaps 2 or 3% while developing economics have a much faster growth rate until they equalize with the nations with mature economies.
Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused.Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.

One need find the difficulty of a task as an occupation and determine what sort of IQ is needed to perform a task and if it falls within the basic bell curve distribution of a race. Actually cold weather drove some invention while others inventions like metallurgy invented in the Middle East travelled north.

One can consider cultural advantages and tool kits at any point in history and find that some lead others for a time then even disappear. What of the glory of ancient Rome or the strong walls of Constantinople?

Because Europe was challenged by invasions for thousands of years technology advanced there quicker than in places less challenged.

Toynbee pointed out that easy living regions of Greece did not advance as fast as some places that were given more, yet not too great of challenges. China is advancing very rapidly. Economists have found that mature economies stabilize at a growth rate of perhaps 2 or 3% while developing economics have a much faster growth rate until they equalize with the nations with mature economies.

There is additionally the criterion of values. Were the values of Diogenes the Cynic more like those of Bill Gates or Lao Tzu. I would really hate to live in a jungle in a primitive condition being ate by mosquitoes. Overcoming some of those challenges required biology at a level barely reached today- not a thousand years ago.

Europe had fewer tropical diseases than more southerly regions and that matters even now  What sort of fire ant problem exists for campers in Europe in comparison to South Florida?

Africa is advancing almost too quickly now. Nigeria alone has, I believe, 85,000 PHds. There are modern looking cities all over the continent and the ecosphere is in decay and receives toxic waste from Europe.

There is only a human race now and individuals differ more in ability than traditional races.

I would really hate to live in a jungle in a primitive condition being ate by mosquitoes. Overcoming some of those challenges required biology at a level barely reached today- not a thousand years ago.

Europe had fewer tropical diseases than more southerly regions and that matters even now  What sort of fire ant problem exists for campers in Europe in comparison to South Florida?

Africa is advancing almost too quickly now. Nigeria alone has, I believe, 85,000 PHds. There are modern looking cities all over the continent and the ecosphere is in decay and receives toxic waste from Europe.

There is only a human race now and individuals differ more in ability than traditional races.

Conservation of Meaning

Going further than Shannon entropy; a theory of semantic information.

“Semantic information, autonomous agency and non-equilibrium statistical physics” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6227811/

06 January 2025

A Song by AI and I named 'Freedom of Faith'

I've taken three courses in how AI is built- an intro agenda to learn about deep learning algorithm structures. I think that AI really won't have more limits than people have with speech. Democrats since Obama have blocked conservative free speech with a little success on social media. Because of the monetary value of A.I. though in my opinion it will be difficult to jam back into the sack. I wrote a song (lyrics and selection of kinds of music) in a few minutes that I will link to below. It's pretty good and everyone can make those sorts of things with AI.. As one of the instructors said "A.I. is a disruptive technology". When I was young it was nearly impossible to publish anything. One might study for decades to get a book published if lucky. Now anyone can publish anything instantly and even regret it later, A.I. will write for those that can't write well if they want to express opinions eloquently 

https://www.udio.com/songs/ppYMShLZBG91focYi1NUDe.

To the End of the Quest

There is a list of several free on-line philosophy books here https://www.openculture.com/free-philosophy-ebooks
There are many other books available free of course. Getting a used copy of The Confessions of Augustine is great to read. And a free online version of The Enneads by Plotinus is a way to make Plato and the realm of forms come alive. At the end of the quest it’s only the word of God in the Bible that matters.

Science at War on Russian Orthodoxy

Biden is at war with Russia; lots of scientific support for that in technology. Some Catholics have been in a cold war with Orthodox Christians forever and now it’s escalated to a hot war to expand Polish Catholicism and German Lutheranism East. There is the additional prize of valuable land and minerals. Europe is atheist and scientific while Russia has reverted to Orthodoxy from atheistic socialism. So maybe science is at war with Orthodox Christians for a while.

DARPA probably supplied the new electronic warfare tech that stops Russian drones from attacking us and German tanks advancing in the Kursk region toward Moscow- so Russia reverted to using helicopters instead of using swedish at-4s on flying drones to hit tanks from just beyond the EW effective range. It’s complex.

Proof of Gravity and of God

No one knows what makes up gravity. It could be particles or a field, properties of quanta or some kind of relationship of space-time to mass. Some scientists no longer believe in dark energy, though the NY Times hasn’t yet published the headline ‘Dark Energy is Dead’ so many Democrats still believe in it.

So gravity is evident yet what makes it up-the mechanics isn’t proven. If they would offer a cash prize for proving it I would make entries into the contest. It would be like the Nenana Ice Classic where you can  make an entry guessing the hour and time the ice on the river will break up in spring.

God is evident through the Bible for people of faith. Proof could be said to be the number of people that believe it is true. That’s not too different in some respects from those that believe strong theory will be the final theory of everything

Life is Made of Non-life

Life is made of non-life components like fermions. When they are in an appropriate configuration the condition named life exists. No one knows what the primary field is made of; it could be spirit.

It is useful for mechanics that work with matter to understand how it works. Philosophers probably want to understand what the fundamental substance really is.

05 January 2025

Select Factors Affecting Einstein's Religious Ideas

Einstein was a German Jew that had to leave Germany with his family and move to Switzerland because of the rise of the Nazis and that unhealthy business environment for his father’s generator manufacturing business. Many Europeans don’t like the Catholic Church or even German state sponsored churches because of their historical role in owning great tracts of land. Americans don’t have any sense of that because their was about only one colony of the original 13 that was Catholic (Maryland).

Europeans didn’t have the same sense of freedom from authority Americans had (with some notable exceptions). One need consider the Holocaust and. Einstein’s help getting the Manhattan Project started. He definitely wouldn’t have appreciated the raving doctrines of Hitler, Mussolini or fellow travelers.

The European Churches were no safe place either. One should place figures like Albert Einstein in their historical context. He wasn’t Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Intellectuals; Another Endangered Specie

It will be an interesting time for people of the future. Between AI and ten billion human like robots by 2040 Musk expects to exist there may not be much need for humans besides the rich. I think middle class and poor intellectuals may disappear when even the illiterate can tell AI to write a brilliant political tract and publish it.

The ongoing Anthropocene era mass extinction, micro plastics and hundreds of chemicals in the ocean, atmospheric heating etc make it look bad. If Joe Biden's try at getting a perennial war or WW 3 to flower fall through and global concerns besides war reappear there may be no political context to fix anything anymore. 

I am sure there is a bright spot in it all that the poor may not see right now.


The Problem with Ayn Rand's Philosophy

She argued against altruism and said it's bad. I believe she misunderstood altruism. It is also good for the individual in a Socratic sense of advancing the general good.

Ayn Rand wrote in an era when monolithic communism was an empirical threat. She had a good business sense and knew what side her bread was buttered on. Her's was anti-communism for the common CEO.

One could use the military for countless examples of self sacrifice for the good of the team. Selfishness does not play at all well in team sports, reducing global warming and social activities that require mass action prompted by emergent circumstances.

Basically she misunderstood the idea of the general good and how one gets a society to advance. Maybe it's an explanation for massive public debt created by selfishness in several levels.

One needs moderation in pursuit of self-interest sometimes as a sort of reciprocal or coefficient of keeping the political economy health.  Plainly if public interests repress individual interests pervasively and arbitrarily society too, and the general good will suffer.

Sacrificing others isn't altruism. Personal egoism may be the most materially effective outlook for an individual yet it borders on being sociopathic.

Teamwork benefits by self-sacrifice. I met a medal of honor recipient once who had a day off and choose to get on a helicopter to go help rescue his friends when he learned they were surrounded by the enemy. He was shot and stabbed about 20 times in conducting a defense while loading his platoon on evacuation helos. Most of the Medal of Honor recipients were saving lives, so sure I believe that valor is a virtue as Socrates might have stipulated. God sacrificed his Son so those that have faith in him could be saved and have eternal life.

Ayn Rand worked hard during the Cold War to support freedom yet the virtue of selfishness can add a lot of positive spin to bad political and social ethics.

I understood her sense of selfishness as good and self-sacrifice as bad. It is the definition of good that is the point of disagreement. Ethics is the way people implement moral norms. That doesn't seem like a meaningful point in regard to sacrifice. She did move the needle more toward personal egoism as a moral norm and that is bad for social well being and pragmatic politics of balanced budgets and healthy ecospherics. It can be good if it prevents mass spaced out dopey selflessness in the herd because people mind their health better. Pragmatism in politics matters as much as theory. One needs a healthy society. I have been uncomfortable with Pres Biden's hegemonic position for W.W. 3.

The sophism of greed, selfishness and exploiting others will have support from the advantaged. A society with many such people in leadership positions probably will sink. Aristotle noted that the commons are neglected and democracy cycles into tyranny. Someone needs to be minding the store. A nation won't do well with a lot of predators running it until they destroy each other and vanish from the scene so democracy may return.
Nathan Hale said; "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" before being hanged. People like that are why America exists.

Energy, Mass and Fission

Energy is a measurement of the ability to work, rather than a substance. The amount of energy a volume of mass has is mass times the speed of light squared. Hence E=M(c²).

An example is nuclear fission. When mass undergoes fission it splits some of the mass into fission products that radiate and that is 'energy'. Mass has simply changed some of its form and location in the Higgs field in space-time. It lost part of its original mass in the process. I don't know how efficient atomic fission is at converting mass like plutonium yet I gather it isn't 100%.

Science hasn't found the most basic quanta. Quarks are made of gluons. String theory is just a theory. Maybe they use the infinite dimensions of Hilbert Space to find math formula that support one-dimension strings in four dimensions.

A problem is that massless particles pick up a third dimension slowing, entangled in the Higgs Field. Did primary massless two dimensional particles appear after becoming entangled in an unknown field?

Another question is how massless particles are ever subject to gravity and if not why they should have been bound to a singularity.