Into The Singularity

Saturday, July 31, 2004

So, I am sad. No one will argue over religion with me. Well that is not completely true. But, it would be nice to have a sceptic to talk with over long hours. Maybe I just want some company. Sometimes I kinda feel alone in a world of six billion people. There is no such things as souls.

I have admitted to myself that I am addicted to the God concept and prayer. It is a genetic thing, we almost know this sure. It has a benificial side effect in extreme adversity. I am not going back to YHWH. I know that he appeared to me in a dream, I know that it counts for something. However, I would rather pray or talk to the Wind. The Wind talked to me once, and I was awake.

I still undertake the five precepts of Buddhism. However, I will walk with the wind and explore my relationship with it.

I was thinking about getting a dhamma wheel tattoo today. I dunno where I would put it though, probably on an arm. Then I was like "holy crap!" I am an adult, but then again, maybe it is a surprise because I had a grade 12 knowledge of science in grade six. So, maybe because my brain hasn't really changed, I haven't noticed much.

As they say in the biz, this is more of a fake update.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 22:35 (0) comments

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

I, Robot spoiler warning

I, Robot spoiler warning

I went to see I, Robot. It was a good movie, i.e. only a few errors. There was only one small error and it kept me guessing 'till the end. I thought the CEO did it. Although, I had it figured out before he bit the bullet.

The part that gets to me is that VIKI could not violate the first law. Even if it were to save lives. No human is expendable. But I guess that would mean that there would have been no chance that Smith's character could have died. Pretend danger might not be as good as the real thing?

If they had nanobots, why would they need to give Smith's character a new arm? They could have just built him a new one from his own DNA. This movie was better than most. However, movies could be better.

The movie showed the ultimate conclusion to the three laws of robots... well almost. No one would die in the real version.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 22:22 (0) comments

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Oh praise the wind, I have been busy. Thursday our hot water tank sprung a leak and the phone went dead. So, Friday we had two repair guys. Too bad Thursday sucked so much.

Life has been so crazy. I have been wanting to write a poem about the humble earthworm. I have also been considering a true Billy S style sonnet. I just so happens that Think Geek has a reward up for a haiku. So my OSS haiku goes:

Beware all seekers.
Evil cloakers hide the code,
They wish to own you.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 21:50 (0) comments

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

So there is a problem with blogger not posting with firefox. I am glad I have a copy of mozilla lying around. I fixed the first line intent for the novel chapters. I have no idea when the next one will be out. I have been unable to work for almost a week.

I noticed that the site might not display correctly with a small screen size. I will fix that. Minor problem.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 11:12 (0) comments

So yeah, I can now eat solid food. My mouth was bleeding pretty bad afterward but I figure it can't last long.

I doing a bit of a vision quest last night. Most of what I saw I forgot. However, I do remember a burning fish. How ironic.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 07:05 (0) comments

Saturday, July 17, 2004

// posted by TheSunborn @ 23:24 (1) comments

Friday, July 16, 2004

Yesterday I travelled to Ottawa, the nation's capital. I don't go to
make fun of the government. I didn't go to protest the elections act. I
didn't go to join the army. I went to have my four wisdom teeth out.

God Damn, it hurts. With transhumanism around the corner I am glad this
will be a thing of the past. There are other painful things that need
to be eliminated, the menstrural cycle, giving birth, breasts, the male
gender. However, those are to come. I will put money on it.

In the mean time I probably won't post anything for a while. There is a ten day recovery time. And I slept most of today.

Google might have fixed the problem with the first line indent. But I am not holding my breath.

See you in a while.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 23:36 (0) comments

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Chapter 0: A Time to Live, A Time to Die

Time is a peculiar phenomenon. According to special relativity, it is a fourth dimension, wrapped up in space. To the psyche, time is a variable thing that can fly or stand still. Some argue that time exists only in the mind and all its machinations are due to our inability to comprehend the full extent of time’s arrow.

Having worked with science for over a millennia Paulisaxo Sirocco knows that this last theory is untestable and therefore useless to a reasoned mind. His academic qualifications were only part of the reason he was invited on this mission. Willingness to sit down with clearly belligerent people also played a small role. Dr. Sirocco was also once the foremost military expert on religion and religious groups. That was in a day when information wasn’t free and computation ubiquitous.

All this information stored in the back of his quantum drive was requested and transferred to an attractive female instantaneously as she passed him in a narrow corridor. People never stop and talk these days, he though to himself. He quickly brushed aside the thought of losing humanity to the machines. But nostalgia occasionally griped him away from reality.

It was customary to eat a post-transit meal with the crew. Sirocco balked at unnecessary tradition and no one expected him to attend. He was now on his way back to his quarters near the stern of the ship. Suddenly the thinker experienced a most strange sensation.

White.
Light.
Burning.
Red.
Pain.

Then there was nothing but black.

Chapter 1: Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

The object of the doomed mission was to commence face-to-face talks with the "Knights of the Double Helix". This rogue network had long broken off direct neural contact with the Hive. They had done this 'to preserve the human race as God had made it.' The Knights had polarized all dissenting individuals into one 'Holy Communion of Thought.' The Hive, being accepting of different views by necessity, was willing to let the zealots live peacefully as a separate entity apart from the Hive. However, the fundamentalists decided-consciously or unconsciously-that their way of life could only exists as the dominant ideology. They became militant and started hiding in dark places and using covert technologies. Eventually, they were routed and deported to a newly terraformed world they named "New Babylon".

Delegates on this mission included representatives from all the remaining religions. One of the diplomats was an Amish man and his daughter sponsored by a loose coalition of Amish showing passive resistance to the Hive mind. This maiden was young, she had been around Sol no more than 20 times--that is about 631 megaseconds, for those wondering.

She now sits on a planet on the boarder of Knight space, 200 metres from a steaming pile of composite metals and ceramics. The woman, resembling more of a girl, had been sitting in the same place for more than 7 kiloseconds crying into her handmade dress. The pile would shift and fall periodically. Every time this happened, she would instantly stop sobbing, her head would jerk up, and she would stare at the wreckage. Her stare was akin to that of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming automotive. On all of the previous occasions she would return to crying after 400 seconds or so.

This time was different. This time as she watched a large section of diamond window fell near where she had crawled out of the accident. A person climbed out from under where the window had been. The survivor stared back at the petrified girl. This only made her more frightened. For the other survivor was built like a fullback-with equipment on.

"Are you injured?" yelled the stranger. The girl gave no reply. "Could you lend me some aid?" There was still no reply. "Mary, could you please help me save this man's life?" The girl was surprised. How could anyone know her name? Father must have told the strange person. The man she was trying to save must be her father! Without thinking, she closed the distance between her and the crash in what seemed like only two steps. Mary then hurried up the pile to the survivor, not even noticing the burn she sustained while using a hot deck plate as a handhold.

"This is not my father!" Mary exclaimed as she reached the stranger's position.

"I know it isn't," said the stranger, "but just the same I need your help. I need you to watch him while I go look for a bio-repair kit. He would not like me very much if I revived him post-mortem. You see, he has already died once-in a matter of speaking. I have bandaged his wounds but if his face turns white or blue you must raise his legs… but not too much." The stranger sprinted off saying something about a hive telling the location of something important.

Mary stared at this man. He was completely white, from the colour of his skin to his vestments. They were all white, trimmed with gold. Now tarnished with blood and singed with fire. She wondered how to tell if the man's face turned white. Then she just stared. Three decaseconds passed. To Mary it seemed like no more than a single second had gone by. The huge man leaped over the bank of the depression the girl had been standing in. The survivor then jabbed a long cylinder with a pointed end into the comatose man in white. This was done so quickly that it almost went unseen. Moments later the protruding part of the cylinder melted into the white flesh. Then the big scary man sighed and sat down in the pit beside his charge.

"My apologies, Mary, in the rush I forgot my protocols. My name is Brown Bear, and this is 'Saint Sir Sojun Sunborn'. Have a seat my dear, you seem to be in shock" Mary took a seat on the warm crash. Her dress was ripped and her underwear was clearly visible. She took the remains of her dress and covered her crotch.

"You need not worry about such things here. I have access to the sum total of human knowledge and I myself have a vagina."

"Women shouldn't talk about such things!" Mary yelled angrily.

"I am not a woman--well at least not in your sense of the word. Your religion has shielded you from the universe around you. People are not born anymore, they are created. And besides, I had to get you talking." The Saint opened his eyes.

"Dear merciful Lord, my head hurts." He moaned.

"Well the nanobots are not done then, so don't get up" retorted Brown Bear, "You have died once already."

"Don't hold that against me fair madam." He quipped. "I am afraid we will have to talk until I can realign my entangled radio. What is thy name fair woman?"

"She is not a woman dear sir," Mary voiced " She is an abomination of God. How dare such a person claiming to a saint speak to a perversion with jocularity and not condemnation?" With that, Mary got up and stormed off toward where she was sitting before.

"Maybe she wanted some of those repair bots." Sojun jested.

"No, she just has to come to terms with where she is right now."

"Is that what the Hive thinks or did you come up with that yourself? Most of you are dependant on it."

"We are inter-dependant, I'll have you know. You just like to be different, fight the current."

"Fighting without a cause is silly but fighting for a cause is necessary." Brown Bear stood up, inhaled as deep as she could.

"There is at least one more survivor, start digging there."

Chapter 2: The Wind Speaks

// posted by TheSunborn @ 21:30 (1) comments

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

I was reading this article Ralph sent me. And it hit me, it should be everyone's job to become useless. We should work towards a day when we say "I will do what I want". It is those who have developed the way to have greater control over others. It is called money. They have basically created a system of dependance. If we are dependant on you, you are treated better. Are we dependant on on Shaq? On Will Smith? On Britney Spears? On The Monarchy? On George Bush? No, but the people that try to make us dependant on them need these diversions so we will not kill them and/or find out their worthlessness. It sounds like I am one of those paranoid, tin-foil hat wearing people. However, the corporations and the manufacturers are the ones that figured out the way for best profits comes from disposablity. Cars are only designed to last 3-5 years. If they last longer, we are not getting enough profits. This is insane and not sustainable. I want a fridge that will last me 40 years not one that will last me four. This is not impossible, it was done in the post war days, things were meant to last. Why aren't they now? Because it is not nearly as profitable to. Wall street is concerned about growth. What the world really needs is some real growth, growth toward zero growth.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 23:10 (0) comments

Friday, July 09, 2004

When I left Christianity I was like many atheists--angry and convinced that a god couldn't exist. I have since saw the light, so to speak. God could exist. But not the Christian GOD.

God is limited by the universe he created. This is kinda a spin on the question: "can God create a stone that even he can't pick up?" By creating the Universe he did such a thing.

How is that? We know that there are some things we CANNOT know. We can prove this mathematically. No human, computer or other being can know everything in this universe.

This is not the point that we rule out God. No, he could know everything, for he is the one who is called I AM. He is also considered an all powerful being. Now an all powerful being that knows everything can tell us the things that we cannot know. This is in contravention of everything that makes the universe run. As in "up would become down and black would become white".

Once he told us, according to the formula, there would be something else that we cannot know. We are limited beings. And since God cannot make us know everything, he cannot make us gods. Therefore there is something he CANNOT do. God is limited too. So either God is not all-powerful or God is not all-knowing. I don't know.

Maybe that is the thing we cannot know. :p

// posted by TheSunborn @ 22:50 (1) comments

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Notice the buttons at the top? Yes, I added them new today. The page doesn't truely validate as XHTML because the fine people at google write some naughty code sometimes. However, the part I can control is XHTML valid and therefore validated once. If you would like proof, it can be found here:w3c.org validator.

Well the first chapter is comming along good, I estimate only a few more days before I can post it.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 20:42 (0) comments

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

recent log from #uoit/dclug on irc.freenode.net

(01:00:05) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 145978
(01:00:13) Sunborn: XCLN: Shiva Does Not Always Prompt to Hang Up Connection
(01:00:42) Sunborn: "The diety you have reach is no longer in service, please hang up and try your call again."
(01:00:54) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=145978
(01:01:27) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 178748
(01:01:35) Sunborn: SMS: SATAN Causes High Memory Utilization in WUSER32
(01:02:11) Sunborn: "MS is now turning to spiritualists to revive their software"
(01:02:23) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=178748
(01:09:41) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 133357
(01:09:44) Sunborn: Differences Between Temporary and Permanent Relationships
(01:10:25) Sunborn: "Microsoft now claims to know how to fix your relationship problems, I would just buy her more RAM"
(01:10:37) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=133357
(01:15:57) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 261186
(01:16:12) Sunborn: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music
(01:16:45) Sunborn: "WTF?"
(01:16:52) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=261186
(01:25:57) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 130379
(01:26:06) Sunborn: Repeating ALT+TAB, ALT+ENTER, or ALT+ESC Corrupts Display
(01:26:25) Sunborn: "RESOLUTION: Do not press ALT+TAB, ALT+ENTER, or ALT+ESC repeatedly...."
(01:26:37) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=130379
(01:29:19) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 226971
(01:29:27) Sunborn: OLEXP: Outlook Express Sends Message Repeatedly
(01:30:37) Sunborn: "This issue can occur if your computer has a low amount of free disk space." "wft?"
(01:30:46) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=226971
(01:31:27) Sunborn: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 268262
(01:31:41) Sunborn: Sound Repeats When You Press CTRL+ALT+DEL
(01:32:09) Sunborn: "RESOLUTION: ignore the repeating sound until you can click Cancel."
(01:32:16) Sunborn: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=268262

It turns out it was just me doing the highlights of Microsoft's stupid fixes. Meh.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 00:59 (0) comments

Saturday, July 03, 2004

Yay, comments are now enabled. I just figured out how to do it. So anyone reading, please give a shout out. I would be especially pleased if someone told me how the prelude went over.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 16:54 (1) comments

Friday, July 02, 2004

So here it is, the prelude to my book.

Time is a peculiar phenomenon. According to special relativity, it is a fourth dimension, wrapped up in space. To the psyche, time is a variable thing that can fly or stand still. Some argue that time exists only in the mind and all its machinations are due to our inability to comprehend the full extent of time’s arrow.

Having worked with science for over a millennia Paulisaxo Sirocco knows that this last theory is untestable and therefore useless to a reasoned mind. His academic qualifications were only part of the reason he was invited on this mission. Willingness to sit down with clearly belligerent people also played a small role. Dr. Sirocco was once the foremost military expert on religion and religious groups. However, that day is long past. It was in a day when information wasn’t free and computation ubiquitous.

All this information stored in the back of his quantum drive was requested and transferred to an attractive female instantaneously as she passed him in a narrow corridor. People never stop and talk these days, he though to himself. He quickly brushed aside the thought of losing humanity to the machines. But nostalgia occasionally griped him away from reality.

It was customary to eat a post-transit meal with the crew. Sirocco balked at unnecessary tradition and no one expected him to attend. He was now on his way back to his quarters near the stern of the ship. Suddenly the thinker experienced a most strange sensation.

White.
Light.
Burning.
Red.
Pain.

Then there was nothing but black.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 20:37 (0) comments

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Happy Canada Day! eh?

So that election is making me mad. I am thinking of taking the government to court. I want to take it to the supreme court. The current system--first past the post--is undemocratic and must be changed before another election. It would be a good time to do this 'cause I am only a poor student now, and the government would have to foot the bill in the form of legal aid. I am shocked that no one else has thought of this idea. I guess that I am a little bit dismayed too, because there are far smarter people out there--they must all be liberals. Bastards.

I am not going to the fireworks today. They are silly and a waste of money. I would rather stay home and eat iced cream. Mmmm. Iced cream. I call for a boycott of all fireworks displays. Who is with me? .... anyone? .... c'mon guys .... <crickets chirping>

I am starting the studying bandwagon going again. I am revisiting the stuff I didn't really understand and want to. I am starting with buffered solutions from chemistry class. I would also like to review partial derivatives before school starts.

My tree has moved inside with me, the red pine seems to be doing OK. The concrete pot still needs to dry a bit. I also found that there are at least two--maybe three--snails. I don't know where they came from, but they are going to stay safe in my aqarium. I need something to eat the algae.

I think I might post the first chapter of the book tommorow. I might change my mind though.

// posted by TheSunborn @ 18:10 (0) comments