Inventing things is sort of fun … but ….

Tags

Evolution of ideas, Evolution of things, Inventing things, My personal shortcomings

Yesterday’s post was labeled My weekly invention challenge – week #6. It should have been labeled #7. That’s a minor problem, but a far bigger one is me. It isn’t procrastination that keeps me from following up on ideas, it’s the disinterest in putting together a team of people capable of doing the things I have no interest in doing.
A team consists of a cooperating group of individuals with different talents and different lifestyles. These people normally do not socialize together. Lawyers hang out with lawyers, accountants with accountants, advertising types with their kind, salesmen with others of the talkative ilk and inventors with most anybody but not in a kind of leadership role. Even a good invention needs a dedicated leader with a team type of personality to get a product successfully to market.
I like to do things, actual physical things, but not the types of things listed. I have had friends in all the categories listed above, but they were always individuals, and never part of an organized team. I like discovering things, physical things and intellectual things, and showing them to people, but I dislike telling people what to do. No! It’s more like an aversion.
These are important things for me at the moment because of the challenge, which I accepted, of inventing something new every day. Most of these things are trivial, even if they are new and useful, but my challenge wasn’t to create the equivalent of the wheel every day, just something, anything. Most of these things I’ve presented to those guys are just feeble patches of existing things that have some flaw that makes using the objects more difficult than they need to be.
But some of these things probably do have economic potential. That is, some people would value these items enough to pay real money for them. If that is true then I am depriving people of things they want, and they just don’t know it yet. Am I being cruel by not giving these people things they would want if they knew these things existed for a price they would be willing to pay? The pain is nonexistent, or is it?

My weekly invention challenge – week #6

Tags

A week of inventions, An invention every day, Evolution of inventions, Obvious inventions, Week #6 of inventions every day

Here are some more inventions that should have been decades ago; perhaps they were, but I haven’t seen them.

Adhesive learning tapes – There are many opportunities to put labels on things to remind you of something and thus Postit was created and it works well if you write the message. But, how about things like learning a language where the names of common items could be stuck onto the appropriate items. Another learning application would be to place the adhesive tape on an item with a reminder word for what that item is named and your action that is necessary to obtain the desired result. There are lots more uses based on that simple principle.

Walk on water – Today I was watching people standing on paddle boards and moving gracefully along Drake Pond and it would appear that one person was friendly with geese as he moved along.

Easy peal adhesive tape – After the adhesive tape is applied and it needs to be moved a little or removed completely, it is sometimes difficult to get it started. Usually, a fingernail is used, but sometimes that doesn’t work and a blade is needed to get under the tape to lift it a little to get it started. I oftentimes place a fold at the edge of the adhesive tape so it folds back on itself, where it sticks to its folded self, and forms a finger grip. This concept could be built into rolls of the adhesive tape to form a preexisting easy to grip edge.

Handle extensions – Some grip handles for pulling open chest of drawers, drawers lie too flat against the vertical face and are difficult to grip. That is especially difficult in dark rooms

Light switch extensions – Electric light switches sometimes need to be found that are located in dark places. That problem could be alleviated by putting a soft extension built into the lever. A home alternative is to cut some duct tape to fit the switch toggle and extend out for easy grip.

Crippled hands switch – An electric wall switch could be made for people with limited mobility hands, body, or feet, by making the switch that defaults to the up position after being used. That kind of switch could easily have various type of attachments for different needs. A long string to the floor could be dangled, from the wall switch toggle, with large built-in loops or large grips.

Nonslip fingernail clipper – Crome fingernail clippers are very slippery and frequently slip and fall to the floor when they are being used as designed. That problem is easily fixed by gluing fine sandpaper to where the fingers are gripping the clipper.

Those inventions are all obvious once you see them.

 

What’s wrong with my version 16

Tags

My philosophy is too kind, Problems with evil powers

Version #16

We find hope and give kindness by:

1. —discovering the orderly nature of our Universe, so we can help ourselves and others benefit from all that is possible.
2. —creating an ideally balanced human society, so you and I and everyone else can have a meaningful life in a sustainable world.
3. —dedicating our wisdom to the great tradition of alleviating the suffering of all living beings.
4. —helping one another use our abilities for our own and others’ well-being.
5. —appreciating that we as a fellowship of people expressing diverse views are discovering wonderful new ways of living.
6. —making a habit of clearly acknowledging other people and their need to love one another and our Universe.

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Today, when reading my version #16 above, I recognized a horrible problem. This method of living with the Universe and with other human beings doesn’t address the problems of Natural Selection. This version attempts to create a wonderful Universe to live within. It is intended and designed to help everyone and everything live together in peace and love.

That’s great … except … it violates the whole system of interactions created by nature’s form of Natural Selection. I stated it that way because our human theories are always words, and can never be more than words, attempting to describe in general terms the infinite complexity of what is actually happening in the natural world. The real world of the things that actually happened and are happening is infinitely more complex.

What my principles attempt to do is to put a kind and loving system of human behavior around that infinity of possibilities, and that totally encloses everything, including the totally non-caring parts of natural reality. That is an overly ambitious goal that was dealt with by the Stoics two thousand years ago under the general topic of things outside of a person’s control. Their response to those kinds of dilemmas is not to confront them, because a person can’t win, but to accept that reality and adapt to its natural demands.

There are many things that are impossible to control, but which are easily adapted to and peacefully lived with. That is stated in principle #1 as – discovering the orderly nature of our Universe, so we can help ourselves and others benefit from all that is possible. However, some parts of our orderly Universe, like mosquitoes, literally hope to eat us for dinner. We can’t control many predators’ natural behavior, human predators included, but we can make adaptations of our own behavior that will serve our interests to preserve ourselves and not theirs to preserve themselves.

These kinds of problems have been dealt with by the classic folks and I will get to that in the future … possibly.

Lived and lived and nothing happened!

Tags

Finding meaning in life, Photos of knots, Photos of nothing, Photos of storm sewers, What is the meaning of life?

A knot in a fence board #1

A knot in a board #2. If you have seen one not you haven’t seen all nots.

Sometimes a not knot isn’t a not at all.

I’m tired of no knots so I looked in a sewer.

I look in yet another sewer and still don’t find meaning in life.

This sewer has a bigger escape hole

Oh well, I said nothing happened, but I lived through it all.

 

 

Then what? Who to blame?

Tags

Who to blame?, Who's to blame.

So often conversations are a litany of grievances aimed at the obvious problems of our world in which the blame is then put on the speaker’s favorite villain. Topping the list is usually the greedy rich people, then corporations, perhaps another social group, or some other party’s politicians, occasionally a person will blame themselves … I googled “blame list” but didn’t find a generalized list like I started above. There are many synonyms like hold responsible, accuse, denounce, indict, impeach, incriminate, impute, recriminate, but that’s not a list of people or groups or natural events that we can blame. Blame needs to be concrete! Preferably it’s people who are to blame.

Blame it on the weather is often the excuse on the TV weather channel, but that always seems a weak excuse because natural things like the weather always have some degree of predictability. Even if you are in a tornado zone like the American Midwest, it makes sense to have a tornado cellar, and if you don’t then you are exposed to injury. Who is to blame? The natural phenomenon like the weather, or the human who didn’t have enough forethought to prepare for an occasional weather event?

thefreedictionary.com gave as its first definition for blame “To consider responsible for a misdeed, failure, or undesirable outcome,” and I guess that would always be attached to a given problem that has arisen in a specific situation. But in the tornado situation above, the blame could be placed on someone who wasted their money building a storm shelter when there isn’t a tornado and their children haven’t been cared for because of money shortage and are stunted. Who’s to blame?

Perhaps we must take the Stoic perspective and simply accept the things we can’t control and do what we can to control the things we can control.

My goal – Version #16

Tags

Evolution of beauty, Evolution of behavior, Evolution of belief, Evolution of enthusiasm, Evolution of friendliness, Evolution of goals, Evolution of happiness, Evolution of helpfulness, Evolution of ideas, Evolution of liberty, Evolution of life, Evolution of opportunity, Evolution of policy, Evolution of trust

It is necessary to change the following list of aspirations because it has changed so much from the stated UU goals that it no longer aligns well with their present world views. Not that it is contradictory in any way, it’s just that I believe that it isn’t fair to them for me to be making proclamations about what I think they believe or projecting what I believe onto what I think that they should believe. That’s prolix and the whole statement of this belief is intended to be brief.

Today I read version #15 to a small group of writers in search of some criticism. They listened carefully and we discussed #6 at length, and we as a group thought #6—making a habit of doing kind things that help us love one another and our Universe. would be better stated as 6—making a habit of clearly acknowledging other people and their needs to love one another and our Universe.

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Version #16

We find hope and give kindness by:

1. —discovering the orderly nature of our Universe, so we can help ourselves and others benefit from all that is possible.
2. —creating an ideally balanced human society, so you and I and everyone else can have a meaningful life in a sustainable world.
3. —dedicating our wisdom to the great tradition of alleviating the suffering of all living beings.
4. —helping one another use our abilities for our own and others’ well-being.
5. —appreciating that we as a fellowship of people expressing diverse views are discovering wonderful new ways of living.
6. —making a habit of clearly acknowledging other people and their need to love one another and our Universe.

Is being a Humanist a good life strategy?

Tags

Goal of life

This evening I was talking for a couple of hours to some people who are interested in Humanism. The definition of that term is ambiguous, but basically it means favoring humans as a worthwhile species and supporting their endeavors to survive. Strangely enough, there was an undertone of doubt that our species is worthwhile. We discussed the meaning of life, and I brought up the idea that there needed to be an external thinking, speaking, socially oriented being for there to have been any ultimate purpose at the beginning of the Universe, and it didn’t appear that a large mass of hydrogen atoms that existed near the beginning of it all served that goal. It appears that humans must create their own purpose for being and that has ended up with a lot of squabbling and nothing that could be called an ultimate purpose other than what the individual fashions out of the present moment of existence.

Voltaire’s doctor Pangloss ended up cultivating his garden as his purpose, and that is what I’ve been doing lately too.

My daily invention challenge – week #6

Tags

A slipping helmet, A velcro lapel button, Belly button cleaning system, Micro RFID's in liquids, Notched toilet paper, Seven more inventions, Velcroed cell phones, Velcroed night reflectors

I presented just the first two of this week’s inventions to my Monday book club challenge.

A slipping helmet – Head and neck injuries are a serious problem in sports, but many of these could be prevented by making the helmets slippery so there would be less shock transmitted to the brain from most impacts.

Notched toilet paper – Standard toilet paper rolls are cut into squares with perforations which permit easy tearing into separate pieces for use. These perforations are slightly resistant to beginning to tear. Generally, the hanging paper can be reliably jerked quickly to the side.

A velcro lapel button – Many politicians are seen on TV wearing lapel buttons, and they must change them often to appeal to different audiences that they will be meeting. The current lapel button has a pinpointing out the back which penetrates through the wearer’s clothing and is attached to an appropriate clip. I have some of these types of lapel buttons and sometimes have difficulty in getting them inserted and adjusted. That problem could be eliminated by having a fixed velcro patch on the suit, perhaps built into the usual metal pin going thru the clothing, which would present the appropriate orientation velcro to an appropriate style button. These buttons could be changed in a second, which might be necessary sometimes for politicians.

Belly button cleaning system – Human belly buttons sometimes get crud into them which is difficult to get out. A standard Waterpik used for cleaning teeth is okay for this task, but it tends to have too pointy a jet and it points straight forward. This invention consists of simply having an angled deflector at the tip of the spray head which would cleanse the skin to the side as well as the bottom of the belly button pit.

Velcroed cell phones – A patch of velcro attached to the back of a cell phone would permit it being attached to various places with appropriate velcro, where it could be stationed and easily found. For example on the side of one’s computer monitor, or on the inside of a jacket instead of in a pocket, or “heaven forfend!” attached to one’s body or arm with a harness.

Velcroed night reflectors – There is a need for removable night reflectors that could be easily attached and removed from clothing, shoes, hats, bikes, trees, driveways, etc.

Micro RFIDs in liquids – It is difficult to know what a liquid is and difficult to attach a label to the liquid. Sometimes the label on a container isn’t what is in the container, but if during manufacture micro RFIDs could be part of the solution then cellphone apps could be designed to identify liquids.

My first two inventions were challenged as being unworkable. I responded that I am challenged to create inventions, not good inventions.

 

World population, wars, famines, and atrocities

Tags

Atrocities, Famines, human survival, Long term human survival, Wars, World population explosion

I am not attracted to these issues, but they are important to consider when the subject of human beings and their long-term behavior and survival is considered.

World Population history estimates from 70,000 years ago until 2025.

A history of major war deaths shown on a logarithmic chart.

World famine 1860 to 2016 from ourworldindata.org

The greatest modern famine was occurring in China in 1959-61, under Mao’s rule, right when I was transitioning from being a US Air Force pilot into being a grad student and prospective Unitarian minister in Berkeley, California. Both of those careers fizzled out while a deadly event of nearly the magnitude of the recent World Wars and of the 1918-19 flu epidemic was occurring. I knew of this event but it was a tiny portion of the public consciousness at that time and all but unknown now. So much of that loss of life from famine was because of economic/political/war events. Thus, the 24 million of the 3rd chart is part of the 40 million of the second chart, – #3.

The premise of yesterday’s post postulated by C G Darwin was that in normal times, that is approximately ninety percent of the time, there is a semi-starving subsistence group of humanity. That condition of constant famine always lurking he maintained hasn’t been the case since the beginning of the industrial revolution, because people discovered how to convert the energy of coal and gas buried for millions of years into food energy for humans.

The two top logarithmic charts, which go back to 3000 BCE and 400 BCE, show that growth spurt which is starting to accelerate about 1600 CE and reaching its current growth rate about 1750. The third chart only goes back to 1860, which is well after the industrial revolution was underway and it doesn’t show the thousands of years when daily near-famine was nearly ubiquitous. The difference between the many millennia of natural near-famine and the modern hundreds of years of a condition of rare famine is illustrated in the slope of the curves. When food is plentiful, as it is now, then the population grows rapidly and the line is steep, but when food is in a natural balance with a population the line would be horizontal. The fact that the human population was doubling every thousand years meant that humans were slowly developing new ways to create more food for themselves. They were discovering ways to put formerly inedible things theretofore unused as foods onto the dinner table by new methods of preparation. Such things as various ways of cooking otherwise indigestible foods, and of course the development of agriculture and livestock domestication and improvements. But all of that took lots of human effort to till the soil, etc., until the discovery of coal and oil and the development of tools to use these newly available forms of energy. 

We are living in a Golden Age of superabundance based on one-time use of limited fossil fuels. Enjoy!

 

The next hundred years as C G Darwin might see it.

In the book The Next Million Years, Charles Galton Darwin explores the basic drivers of the species we know as Homo sapiens … us. On page 151 there are three principles listed: 1. Our species obeys the laws of natural selection and thus we will change slowly in a million years. 2. We are not domesticated animals but obey the laws of wild animals. 3. We do not inherit the wisdom of our forefathers but must learn our own wisdom. In 1952 there wasn’t any directed genetic manipulation but now we have GMO (genetically modified organisms). Thus, #1 is no longer applicable even in the short run. And regarding #2, as the human DNA becomes manipulated, the possibility and long term likelihood is that our species will become as domesticated as our tame animals have been. #3, We may not inherit our ancestors’ wisdom, but because of high tech information transfer, it becomes possible to have deep wisdom much more easily if we choose to that. We already live in the early stages of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and once that is stabilized for a few decades people will love it. Well, not people as we know them, but people who have been genetically perfected.

However, before basic drivers become operable, there are changes in our current human world that in many ways will revert to earlier conditions. A primary change will be in our access to physical energy. We presently get almost all the energy supplies that make our way of life possible directly, or indirectly, from coal and oil. Human population has grown from about half a billion people in 1625 to about eight billion in 2025. That is sixteen times more people alive today than when public buildings like the Vatican in Rome were already a hundred years old. When humans learned how to gather energy from natural sources like wind, then coal, and then oil, falling water, and uranium, it became possible to grow more food. A large proportion of all those forms of energy ends up being transformed into the energy in our food. That is fine and works quite well for us, but it is being consumed, there is a limited supply of it, and when it runs out it is gone forever. We will have vast amounts of energy from wind farms and solar panels, but not nearly as much as we now get in a usable form from coal and oil. We can create energy to run cars, airplanes, and tractors, and create fertilizers, but it will cost a lot more money and human effort. Much of that will be supplied by artificial means such as robots; all the same, we humans will continue to need food.

C G Darwin maintains that ultimately human population will expand to the limits of its food supply. When that limit is reached there will be a starving margin of people who because of excess reproduction will consist of a class of people who are just barely surviving when society is thriving but who actually starve to death when there is some kind of problem. When there is bad weather creating a bad harvest, or a war, or a popular new creedal system coming into being, the marginal people will starve to death. That is the natural state of all species in the long run, but in the short run that applies nearly all the time, these people will get by living at a subsistence level.

Notice in the population chart below that the world population usually took a thousand years to double, even though the total number of people was quite small. However, the massive world population present today is doubling in fifty years because we have learned to exploit the one-time-use fossil fuels. Because the land has been so overused, when the fossil energy runs out, the population may quickly drop back to 1CE levels.

World Population history estimates from 70,000 years ago until 2025.

The world population took off when the stored power of the earth became available for creating food but that fossil energy is almost gone.