What does it mean to be kind?

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Kindness, Probaway's 442 habits

Almost all my life I have been doing little experiments on myself. I say almost because before about the age of thirteen I was just a kid growing up. But, about that time I remember doing things just to find out what would happen.

In the year before I started this blog, that is before January 1, 2008, I published this list of things that I had been doing for several years. When I thought of one I attempted to do each of these things seven independent times that day. The idea was to create the item as a habit. I haven’t looked at this particular list for over a year and yet as I skipped through it I do remember practicing them and still do.

I just glanced down and saw #45 “Observe water and its many, many different appearances.” I still do that automatically, along with other similar things listed nearby. One curious way I manifest the habit these last few months is by taking photos of the water in storm sewers.

#47 “Observe irregularities in street pavement and consider their causes and futures.” I do that a lot when Debbie and I take our daily walks. It creates a problem for her because here in Bend the concrete practically dissolves in a year because of poor enforcement of construction laws and I complain about it. My complaining annoys her, so I am trying to see those things but not to say anything about their failure.

#140 “When you see something good to do, try and do it right away.” That is the key to kindness.

Enjoy reading my working list below and finding things you would like to experiment with.

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Probaway – Habits

Derived from New Year Resolutions – 2005 – 2006 – 2007 – with bonmots and comments.

© 2005, 2006, 2007 by Charles L. Scamahorn, El Cerrito CA

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1. – Create a new good habit every day; make a list of the habits and practice it seven seperate times.
2. – Greet your interlocutors in a direct and friendly way.
3. – Observe the visual pattern of things and their lighting.
4. – Observe the emotional space of people and treat it with respect.
5. – Observe the energy of people’s direction of gaze and why they are looking at that subject.
6. – Look for the fuller meaning and content in what you see and hear.
7. – Observe the meaning as the result of the way things are positioned relative to one another.
8. – Say your name … the way some person you are observing would enunciate it.
9. – Say your true love’s name … frequently the way they should hear it.
10. – Use precise words instead of generalizations as much as possible.
11. – When observing people, name their emotional space and how they are using it.
12. – Observe and state the architectural intent of buildings and say it out loud.
13. – Observe your body’s current health problems and state specific reasons for its present condition.
14. – Say your name with the affect of an observed person’s emotional state.
15. – Place your keys against the doorknob before closing an outside door.
16. – Place a hand on a solid object before sitting down.
17. – Say the observed person’s name with their expressed affect.
18. – Observe the color and translucency of liquids.
19. – Look along a street, as far as can be seen and then scan back.
20. – Grab objects firmly and deliberately.
21. – Rate the health of a person’s skin and their behavior.
22. – Observe the Earth’s center of gravity and yours in relation to it.
23. – Identify the necessary parts to identify a physical object or abstract thing.
24. – Look at the expression on the left side of a person’s face and then the right side.
25. – Observe a group, name a random category, and state the commonalities between them.
26. – Spot lurkers’ hideouts and make mental preparations for coping with them.
27. – When looking at a person look for their symmetry.
28. – At the end of the month read your habits list and correct the statement of your usage of the new habits.
29. – During lulls exercise by raising a leg and push/pulling clasped hands.
30. – When running hold the breast pocket to prevent loss of items.
31. – When bending over grab the breast pocket to prevent loss of items.
32. – Observe the mood of the local groups and the energy flows between them.
33. – When you find yourself humming a song, find and learn the lyrics.
34. – After eating rinse out the mouth three times to clean your teeth.
35. – Look for the center and the periphery of a situation and then the external influences.
36. – When you remember a habit, do it right away, if possible.
37. – Randomly during the day see and name a category and find examples of it.
38. – When getting out of a shower, grab some stable item firmly.
39. – Find and use soft brown paper napkins for ear plugs to limit excessive noise.
40. – Uniquely identify people with two descriptive words.
41. – Observe something and mentally make it symmetrical.
42. – Finish every sentence even when interrupted … especially when interrupted.
43. – Cut desserts in two and only eat half; share the other half.
44. – Wash before eating and keep hands clean when eating by using a utensil.
45. – Observe water and its many, many different appearances.
46. – Observe people and their many, many different appearances.
47. – Observe irregularities in street pavement and consider their causes and futures .
48. – Look at the sky and smile; the sky’s many moods are all wonderful.
49. – At all times be aware of attack and retreat routes.
50. – Mentally rehearse where you want to go and the things you need along the way; feel the pull to your goal.
51. – When driving don’t run into anything and don’t let anything run into you.
52. – Imagine things being much bigger than they normally are.
53. – Look at things and ideas as parts of a larger system, repeat …
54. – Look at things and ideas as expanded parts of a smaller system, repeat …
55. – Put a numbered dimension scale on objects, phenomena, ideas …
56. – Look at a person’s face and then their body.
57. – Observe the icons in a person’s presentation of self.
58. – Note person’s subjects of interest and that subject’s time frame.
59. – Observe “all” of the symbols of an object and its environment.
60. – On walks pick up an unusual item and when home set it in a visible place.
61. – Observe your center and take comfort in it.
62. – Ask questions about important things that can be answered.
63. – Observe phlegm and its manifestations of health.
64. – Listen to background sounds and identify their sources.
65. – What can you observe and how can you observe it differently?
66. – Ask your companion how you might create a good habit.
67. – What pain are you feeling and what caused it?
68. – Choose a name for unnamed entities.
69. – Think through the history of an item.
70. – Think of the goal and then think through the new journey, its junctions and key points to that goal.
71. – With the first step of a journey think of its final step.
72. – Observe the scene and how “it” would observe your place in it.
73. – What can you do to make this task simpler? Can it be parsed into doable pieces?
74. – Observe the human reactions to water.
75. – Observe what creates pleasure and precedes pain.
76. – Look for the extreme stress and what will happen when it breaks its bonds.
77. – What is important to the passing person?
78. – Make a collection of little items and display them together.
79. – Avoid virus transfers by gripping doorknobs in nonstandard ways and washing your hand often.
80. – When in public avoid touching your eyes and mouth as that is when viruses are transfered.
81. – Go to bed at appropriate times and do so consistently.
82. – Respond as accurately as possible to a person’s statements.
83. – Observe how one can do without something and try to do it.
84. – Check your entire skin for imperfections and treat them.
85. – Make a list of people’s names and add to it when you meet someone new.
86. – Keep a list of interesting words and use them.
87. – What are your fears?
88. – Rate people’s perception of: “did they get what they deserved out of life?”
89. – What higher purpose might you be working toward right now?
90. – Look at people and laugh; it puts you into a good humor towards them.
91. – View people as Poser models as it gives you a feeling of what they are feeling in a gross way.
92. – View surroundings as if seen from above and go to Google Earth for developing overall perspective.
93. – Create a situation-specific good habit right now.
94. – At the computer, do five seconds of back exercise by looking back and up at each corner.
95. – How can you improve this object in your hand, to make it work better?
96. – When dieting and coming to the middle of a meal make a statement of dissatisfaction with overeating.
97. – When picking up new household items, state where you will put it and what it will displace.
98. – When you say, “thank you” say specifically what the thanks is for.
99. – Before you go through an outside door, make sure you pee.
100. – Before you go into the house check the mail.
101. – Before you get into the car make sure it is clear front and back.
102. – At the outside door say, “pee, key, see”. Look back and ahead for needs.
103. – Place a note card at eye level at the front door with a list of things to do before you leave.
104. – Carry a notepad and pen in the breast pocket.
105. – When you encounter an unknown word write it down.
106. – When you depart a public seat, look back for dropped items.
107. – When eating a bagel be careful about jam dripping through the hole.
108. – What are you doing now that someone else could be doing for you, and doing it better?
109. – When walking ask, “How well does this architecture function? What to change to make it better?”
110. – What can you do right now to show your appreciation for what the world has given you?
111. – Think for a moment, “How do I learn best, and how do I remember to apply what I have learned?”
112. – Practice doing two-handed tasks with one hand.
113. – Place good web finds on a special HTMLized web page. At present DeLicio.us works well.
114. – After eating anything rinse your teeth and tongue with a swallow of water three times.
115. – When balancing on “one” foot, to put on pants, put just one ounce of weight on the other foot before lifting.
116. – Throw away useless old stuff.
117. – When going to sleep press a smile into your face.
118. – When eating food talk about positive things.
119. – When it is necessary to face difficult things, have some yogurt as it soothes the stomach.
120. – Carry a notepad and pencil and date the edge.
121. – Before giving personal data check for credentials of the recipient.
122. – Taste food before you swallow and when raisin bread has bitter raisins, spit it all out immediately.
123. – Greet people in a way they expect and feel comfortable with.
124. – When eating, set goals and triggering events.
125. – Don’t start eating until your companion is ready to eat.
126. – When little things go wrong don’t fail … but think “I used to get frustrated but now I will try this better alternative.”
127. – When trading stocks consider using limit orders.
128. – Make every activity have a potentially salable product.
129. – Walk up and down the stairs, even when using an escalator.
130. – When you see someone is wrong, you don’t have to correct them.
131. – When you have a useful thing, explore alternate non-intended uses it can be put to.
132. – Recognize a play potential in everything by playing with it.
133. – When entering a new environment, bring good news.
134. – When you look at someone’s eyes consider how you can help them live life more abundantly.
135. – When bending over put a hand on a knee to ease the stress on your back.
136. – Keep moving appropriately to the situation, to burn calories and keep the blood flowing.
137. – Never click on anything in an email unless you are certain it is virus free.
138. – Set the computer’s safety programs to update automatically.
139. – Protect your mind and senses, like hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling from assaults of excess.
140. – When you see something good to do, try to do it right away.
141. – When you see something bad in another’s behavior, stop doing it yourself.
142. – Seek to please women and impress men.
143. – Keep a chart of your monetary wealth.
144. – Notice what works well and apply that to more things.
145. – Plan a specific action to do when arriving at a specific place.
146. – When you go to bed your job is to go to sleep; don’t get distracted.
147. – When putting things in the garbage can, make sure you don’t miss.
148. – On the last day of the month, change the calendar, pay bills and remember appointments.
149. – When you find a good web site save it to your local web site.
150. – Watch for situations where you may cultivate new habits.
151. – Observe the shadows cast by different colored transparent objects.
152. – When taking a shower maintain balance by holding an elbow against a wall.
153. – Observe where the power lies and seek a positive influence.
154. – What are your current options and constraints to action?
155. – Live life abundantly by having an important goal toward which you can make clear daily progress.
156. – At the end of each day have what you have done in a final form.
157. – Finish what you start.
158. – Make what you want to do fit in with the conditions which will prevail when you are done.
159. – Find the critical precursor to an expected event.
160. – Make your life as aesthetic as possible by making your things and behavior a beautiful aspect of yourself.
161. – Observe the aesthetically horizontal banding.
162. – Compare the banding aesthetic of the horizontal and the symmetrical aesthetic of the vertical.
163. – Note seven related items together as an aesthetic group.
164. – When you take out the garbage pick up the local litter.
165. – Seek out people with similar interests; that is, with similar goals.
166. – Think through a list of what your goals and interests are and prioritize a list of the top seven.
167. – Align your thoughts and actions with archetypes of your goals.
168. – Rate passing people on a baby face versus mature face scale.
169. – When at a restaurant thank the waiter specifically for specific thoughtful actions.
170. – When you have four or more items label them with a single name.
171. – When you know you have done something good pause for a moment of pleasure and review the precursors.
172. – When making a presentation leave a space for questions and a closure.
173. – Take note of the bling of others; notice how it was acquired and the type of success it brings its consumer.
174. – Before you get a needle shot slap your hands, face and injection place a couple of times.
175. – When you pick up a favorite magazine get a repulsive one also to broaden your perspectives.
176. – When watching a movie get into the directors mind and their intended effect on you.
177. – In graphical comparisons keep the measurements on the same scale and the same number of dimensions.
178. – When making web pages in HTML keep them in a single folder and use relative links ../../ .
179. – For critical irreversible actions – double check before proceeding.
180. – Be aware of distance relative to apparent size.
181. – Observe the path you are on, its opportunities and limitations.
182. – When you come to a fork in the road take em … mentally.
183. – Seek the convergence point of various non-related activities.
184. – Observe your group’s response or boredom to your conversaton and actions.
185. – When you need to remember something, analyze it abstractly from three points of view while handling it and talking about it.
186. – Find the choice point of a prospect and look all around for accessibility.
187. – Identify the barriers to your actions and their doors and windows.
188. – Think through important decisions in a quiet environment and then a noisy one.
189. – Expect the best from yourself and others and speak to them in that way.
190. – Repeated exposure to anything creates acceptance so to some degree just keep being present.
191. – On the first of the month do a thoughtful triage on your activities.
192. – Speak out a name, a short description even a scaleing number to things and phenomena you encounter.
193. – When you want to make a point lean forward.
194. – Always work within the design limits factor of safety but be prepared for for disruptive breaks.
195. – Work at the normal design optimums most of the time.
196. – Observe the background environment of what you look at.
197. – Keep stuff you use close and stuff you don’t use far away.
198. – Consider once a day what your goals are.
199. – Observe what you want and what you now have that will satisfy it now without further investment of time and energy.
200. – When riding public transportation work on a productive task.
201. – Observe something and then think of the biggest and the smallest.
202. – When leaving something think what will you do when you return.
203. – Always keep a safety net and a safe go back position available.
204. – Describe the success criterion for every goal.
205. – Set several attainable steps and times to achieve the goal.
206. – Go from where you are as the starting point toward your goal.
207. – When verifying data have it presented in a different format.
208. – Search for examples of Google usage leaping the bounds.
209. – When you see an obese person shift your attention to trim one.
210. – When you see a person with a problem try and identify the cause and then at a person without the problem and their behavior.
211. – Group related things into logical geometrical patterns.
212. – Figure out why a person is doing an obviously stupid thing; what is the positive aspect of it for them.
213. – With a random batch of items get some of them into an alignment position as it minimizes the complexity of the remainder.
214. – In a complex environment limit your choices to this or that and be prepared for an instant response.
215. – When waiting, get into a position for a long view and check out things that are distant and compare them to what is close.
216. – Cover your basics on everything and then upgrade the important items first.
217. – When reading or studying something hi-light less than ten percent of material.
218. – Take large messy random stuff and make it into logical packets.
219. – Always carry a week’s supply of essential pills, money and information. (In an eyeglass case or another thing you carry with you all the time.)
220. – Watch carefully for interference problems and correct things back to the essence.
221. – Observe what you enjoy most and adjust things so you can do more of it.
222. – Carefully observe your failures and search for appropriate precursors and plan appropriate responses and rehearse them.
223. – State a clear end-point of a process early on but after the process is well past started and into the progress phase so you can measure the steps to the finish.
224. – You never get something to work really well without iteration and reiteration and more reiteration.
225. – When an idea presents itself run with it to its logical conclusion and a bit beyond, so you know the limits.
226. – Try and observe the moments just before your decisions are made and why they tripped the way they did.
227. – When you have eaten enough food look away and then walk away and start doing something new.
228. – Look at a face as a template from average and then subcatagorize its special features.
229. – Look at the corners of the eyes and the mouth and between the brows.
230. – On your birthday think through your health risks and helps and try and routinize your best responses.
231. – When with friends observe their health risks and frame comments in such a way as will be helpful.
232. – When someone throws you the ball catch it and run with it a bit and then throw it back.
233. – Just because dessert is served doesn’t mean you have to eat it, the same with shit.
234. – Before eating a meal or a snack, drink a glass of water and eat some dietary fiber.
235. – After eating anything but especially after sugared stuff, swish three swallows of water between your teeth.
236. – During and after a meal drink something non-caloric such as coffee, tea or water.
237. – When eating foods with an odor, post lingually exhale and sniff your chewed portions as it gives you more pleasure and makes you more aware of the food you have eaten.
238. – Observe who or what you might mimic with success. You can frequently choose acceptable role models on TV and record them and practice their techniques but avoid pretenders.
239. – Make a list of ten TV role models and make some recordings of them in spontaneous action. Choose people who are responsible for their actions. Presidents of corporations are good.
240. – When you fail at something observe what you are mimicking that brought about your failure. There is an abundance of this type of counter-productive behavior in movies and TV.
241. – Observe human body fat by comparing weight to waist, butt and height. Use the FATS chart for some guidance.
242. – When at a lecture try to sit between the speaker and the center of the audience because this is where their statements will be directed.
243. – At dinner when you feel full drink some tea or walk away.
244. – Observe the modules of the environment and the interactions of those modules.
245. – Monitor your flu symptoms and take hot baths to raise your temperature to 102.0° every eight hours at the very beginning of the symptoms.
246. – List and clean up your obvious physical defects; bad teeth, overweight, flabbiness, blemishes, posture and chemical imbalances.
247. – The journey of the next thousand days always starts right now; while conscious step carefully for the rest is mostly automatic.
248. – Once a goal is set, follow the shortest route to it.
249. – Reward good behavior in others consistently for a while, then occasionally or else you become too trite and predictable to be interesting to them.
250. – Acknowledge your friends’ accomplishments with public praise.
251. – Keep web materials in folders and make an overall directory; make a printout occasionally and post it on your wall.
252. – Design your personal information in such a logical way that nothing is ever lost.
253. – Watch for things to give to friends as free gifts.
254. – When talking with someone, think what gift they might need and use.
255. – When a sane person is nearby talk to them and find their interesting features.
256. – Whenever there is an opportunity to be happy, take it.
257. – When there is an opportunity to avoid being unhappy, take it.
258. – Observe what you are doing occasionally, and justify it to yourself.
259. – Search for the overview and the organizing forces at play in the situation you find yourself in.
260. – Make your work of the moment a perfect example of that type of work.
261. – When entering home wash your hands, face and nostrils.
262. – If something sounds too good to be true, simply smile and nod, and see where things go from there.
263. – Go out into the sunshine naked for a few minutes every day in the winter.
264. – Limit eating to three times day and make sure the food doesn’t have much sugar in it. Evaporated cane juice is sugar.
265. – Try and understand the motivations of observed persons; you know you are getting close when you can predict their next action.
266. – Practice saying, “No! I don’t want that!” in various ways toward things you might want.
267. – When you are stuck, pick an alternate easy task and finish it quickly and then consider returning to the problem task.
268. – Think ahead to where you are going and what you are going to do when you get there.
269. – Search online for exact answers to your specific problems.
270. – Make the current task important, obvious and with easy steps to completion.
271. – If some task isn’t important stop doing it and start doing something that is important.
272. – When someone asks a question answer it exactly in the terms they will understand.
273. – Don’t let anyone join you for dinner after you have finished eating.
274. – When it comes to bodily injury, think ahead and avoid it. Don’t do stupid things for sport!
275. – When going somewhere, choose transportation that is quick, reliable and healthy.
276. – Practice saying, “Yes! I want that” in different tonalities.
277. – Make a working prototype of an idea and then refine it at least three times.
278. – It is time to stop buffing imperfections when others can’t find them but if they can find them keep buffing.
279. – When making something for your true love, make it perfect.
280. – When in a situation, list five good things about it.
281. – In the face of problems try to be quiet, sane and firm.
282. – When you are reading, notice the spelling of words.
283. – Think, speak and act in close alignment to the current situation.
284. – When a friend is injured go quickly to their aid!
285. – Be calm and firm and help them with getting the proper treatments.
286. – When you feel victimized, do a small corrective action, right now.
287. – When you feel deprived, think of three good things you have.
288. – When you see a mistake that can be corrected quickly, do it now.
289. – When you see something you want, think what do you need to do to acquire that.
290. – What is something else that is just as good that you can get more easily?
291. – When turning off the water give it a second push to stop the drips.
292. – When you think you will have to wait, bring a book and always have a project in your pocket.
293. – If you can do it perfectly, do so; if not, know your compromises.
294. – When you forgot your book, think about a book that needs to be written.
295. – When about to meet a friend review in your mind some of your good times.
296. – If it is the type of problem without a solution, don’t look for a solution.
297. – If a problem is solvable, what would be the characteristics of the solution?
298. – If you can only find part of a solution, do that and work out from there as things will tend to clarify themselves when parts are finished.
299. – Try! Not succeeding is forgivable, but not trying is not forgivable.
300. – Watch for manifestations of different kinds of intelligence and perceptions. Every person, animal, even plant has found something that works for them.
301. – Before you make a big effort prepare for the probable effects.
302. – Kill ear worms by twisting them in a unique way at every appearance.
303. – Kill eye spikes from SUVs by timing your trip to put the sun high and to the side.
304. – When upgrading your computer, take the time to write down the specs of your old one. A digital photo works well.
305. – What is that person thinking? Say it to yourself the way they seem to be saying it to themselves.
306. – What will that person’s next action be? Say it to yourself and watch carefully.
307. – Carry a separate note card in your breast pocket with today’s good habit on it.
308. – Store candies, liquors and other calorie temptations out of sight.
309. – Turn on the electric stove before you fill the tea kettle.
310. – Set the tea kettle to heating before getting the tea cup ready.
311. – Make a map of your computer motherboard and the various plugs and leave it inside the case.
312. – Label and tag the various components, wires and plugs of your computers and transformers.
313. – Observe beauty and appreciate it but walk away enriched as you must, as you would from the Mona Lisa.
314. – Observe other people’s and creatures’ success and take pleasure in it.
315. – State a good habit to another person as an unacknowledged part of conversation.
316. – Glance at the sun, moon or star and re-radiate its light with each exhalation.
317. – Make habit reminder cards, with a vocabulary word, some background info on a news item.
318. – When working don’t rest until you need to or have finished what you are doing.
319. – When thinking about habits make a habit of rehearsing doing the right thing at a specific time.
320. – Create your own habits or other unintended ones will be forced upon you by circumstance or by others.
321. – When with others, behave in such a way that you deserve their love and respect.
322. – When meeting people bring happiness and when you leave sadness and hope for your return.
323. – When others talk about their life, support their success and learn from their failures.
324. – When a present problem can’t be faced, face one that can, and work on it.
325. – When you have time think about things you can change because that’s where the fun is.
326. – Be good to others and you cultivate the habit of being good to yourself.
327. – Life is short so cultivate your good habits while you have the chance, so you can take pleasure in them.
328. – In your daily routine, take your medicine but not too much.
329. – Observe that to tell a pleasant lie and you will be loved, but tell an unpleasant truth and you will be hated.
330. – No matter what’s happening around you, or how you are acting, be cheerful inside.
331. – If you absolutely cannot prevent a problem, carefully observe it play out and learn its precursors.
332. – Don’t interrupt someone when they are saying something stupid, or wise as you can learn from both.
333. – People will behave like you treat them so treat them like they are honorable and wise.
334. – Pay attention! When something is obviously more than 10% crap it probably is 99% crap.
335. – When something is less than 10% crap pay close attention but filter out the 10%.
336. – When reading make notes on a 4″ x 6″ card, with date, title, page # of quotes.
337. – When handling delicate equipment place them carefully and avoid theatrical tossing.
338. – When somebody approaches who is clearly infectious exhale slowly and walk away.
339. – Prepare for the extreme month of the bird flu epidemic before it hits.
340. – Ask people that really know something who the people are that really know the subject.
341. – Ask people who have succeeded at something what is essential and make a list.
342. – Show this list to those successful people and ask them to rank them.
343. – Well begun is half done but well finished is all done and gets the reward.
344. – Winning is a habit with a beginning, a middle and an end, a stimulus, a response and a result.
345. – Don’t help someone who should be taking care of themselves.
346. – Remember the most important person in the world is watching your every thought and action.
347. – Remember that what people do is what they really believe; what they say is what their group likes to hear.
348. – Prepare right now for what you will need tomorrow.
349. – Practice right now the skill you will need tomorrow.
350. – Stretch your calf and foot muscles before bedtime and for a few seconds and at night if you get up.
351. – If you have the feeling you are about to do something stupid you’re probably right, so don’t do it.
352. – Creating a new good habit precipitates more pleasure than any other human activity.
353. – When you look at the world and see something, also try and see it from one of the great seers’ point of view.
354. – Be very careful creating your habits; You create your habits and then they create you.
355. – Your world changes and the habits you are using must be changed to cope with the new conditions.
356. – You can form your habits to cope with a future which will be very, very different from what a naive person would expect.
357. – Natural habits form in adaptation to current events but with forethought you can do much better.
358. – Read, and study the world as education is society’s attempt to help you cope with the future.
359. – If you adapt to the present you will always be behind so adapt to some specific future condition which is sure to come.
360. – If you postulate specific future situations, then the habits that will be needed will become obvious.
361. – Thinking is slow so important skills must be habitualized beforehand to become effective.
362. – When you meet a knowledgeable person ask them who they think are the prime movers of society for the next five years. Have your own list ready to show them and reasons why you think your choices are so.
363. – Preparation for unusual events will seem unreasonable but it takes very little effort and may have a very big reward.
364. – Watch carefully for improvements in things and then try and apply the improvement to unrelated things.
365. – With billions of people thinking about stuff and communicating with each other new things are bound to crop up that will have spin offs.  365 is a year’s worth of new habits.
366. – Watch for new tools of observation as this always permits seeing things with a new vision.
367. – Watch for patterns of self organization and its derivatives in everything. Preexisting stressors both internal and external which push apart at some level and pull together at some level seem to be the key factor.
368. – For self orgainzation to flourish there must be an overiding influence perceptible to all, forcing them into orientation and close together so these items must have solid pre-existing boundaries.
369. – When you are stuck on a problem it is a great opportunity to think and grow new coping abilities outside of the solution to the present problem.
370. – You must look at yourself and prepare your habits for what you are capable of becoming.
371. – Go to a wiki site and check out something you are familiar with and make appropriate improvements.
372. – Look at a new object and create three improvements to it and three nonstandard uses to put it to.
373. – Find out who are the prime movers in computers, communications, sales, genetics, nanotech, robots and their combined forms and track their progress.
374. – Make a list of who today will be considered the prime movers ten years from now; print the list and post it on your bathroom mirror; and make an RSS feed.
375. – Don’t drink high calorie beverages; do eat chew able unprocessed solid foods.
376. – When you see a dog and human team, look to see who is the leader; usually it’s the dog who is pack leader.
377. – Watch for critical size reactions in various social as well as physical groupings.
378. – When you see a new idea immediately write down in your notebook that idea and how it may be applied to other situations.
379. – New ideas are easily forgotten because there in no refrent to bring them back to attention, so write it down now!
380. – When at a lecture go up afterwards and participate in the small discussions and watch carefully for the creative people, the place holders and the groupies.
381. – Think things through but don’t waste time on things that can be wikied; After wikiing think through your application of that knowledge to your problem.
382. – Spend some specific event moments on every level of the “Happiness scale” every day.
383. – View your problems from several perspectives: survival, freedom, pleasure, sustainability, aesthetics, well-being, virtue, action, balance, power, truth, vigor, vitality and benefits.
384. – Seek out artificial intelligence systems such as “Google”,   “Free Dictionary” and “Wikipedia”; Become skilled at applying them to your problems.
385. – Make an HTMLized page of your AI systems and meld them and your problems into working systems.
386. – New ideas lack associations and are difficult to remember, so write down your ideas, even as first approximations, later you can buff them into clearer and cleaner statements.
387. – Look at a beautiful thing; then find and observe what is ugly relative to that thing. State the differences.
388. – Calling one thing beautiful generates its opposite to come into existence also but that opposite is created by how the beautiful thing is defined.
389. – Eliminate unnecessary things from an idea. Beauty is in the revelation of an underlying understandability of a previously overly complex whole.
390. – When blocked on anything great or small start working on a way around the blockage.
391. – When you are not observed working toward a goal others will not strive to prevent you from reaching it.
392. – When others can see a goal clearly and a simple step they can take toward that goal they will take it.
393. – Your foremost duty is to live life abundantly; to pay attention to your environment and to participate fully.
394. – Identify threats to your life and its possibilities and create workable solutions to those problems.
395. – Try hard to stay alive because each new year is filled with more potential experience than ever before, it is like your life is being extended.
396. – Opportunities for living more abundantly are expanding so rapidly it is as if your life expectancy is being greatly extended on a daily basis.
397. – When something works, do lots of it right away so it becomes a habit and you have some variations on the theme.
398. – When you are contradicted note the statements and later, carefully inspect your ideas which they consider wrong, for the correctness of your underlying assumptions and facts.
399. – Religions became widespread because they fit the needs of the public at those times and places and the wisdom they provide is best adapted to those circumstances.
400. – Pause to think before applying a good habit to a situation unrelated to its original circumstance of creation.
401. – Create new little habits because the more little habits you have at your command the more accurately and specifically you may respond to new situations.
402. – When confronted with a routine situation, and have some time, explore a new habit for coping.
403. – Think ahead a few years; Our bodies, minds and societies evolved long before wiki-wisdom came into being and you should now be preadapting in the direction things are sure to go.
404. – Some ideas and sensations can be recreated by going down a pre-experienced path, like rereading a book or drinking a Coca Cola but others require creating a unique new path to re-experience them.
405. – Occasionally, observe yourself observing yourself doing what you are doing and then move on and do it with frequent enthusiasm’s.
406. – Do what you do with enthusiasm, like you are inspired by God to accomplish wonderful things.
407. – Observe that humanity evolved and created most of what we see around us because each individual was trying to improve their personal condition.
408. – When you seek your personal goals do so in such a way that it doesn’t ruin the world around you.
409. – Set triggers in your environment such that whenever possible you may take control of your attention and place it where it will do the most good.
410. – When starting a new project spend an hour doing a Wikipedia search on the subject and follow the embedded links.
411. – Much of the future is already here, prepare for the worst of it with specific actions and embrace the best of it with specific actions.
412. – Some things progress slowly, some grow linearly, some grow exponentially and others just the opposite. Try to identify which is which and what needs to be done about the changes.
413. – When scratching at skin blemishes put some antiseptic on them first to prevent the transfer of the blemish cells to the next place you happen to scratch.
414. – On various anniversaries consider what you want your legacy of accomplishment to be on various time and space scales: day, year, millennium- personal, family, group, society.
415. – Be prepared! People think of a severe problem, such as a car wreck as being a catastrophe and buy insurance but they never consider preparing for a DISS-3 or for a DISS-10. These are all personally survivable with some dedicated preparations.
416. – Do something original! Something new and useful! Generally this is most easily accomplished by building and improvement on something which was recently created.
417. – You can predict the weather by checking an almanac printed last year, a newspaper printed last night, your local weather radar movie or by looking out the window.
418. – Observe what need cigarettes, alcohol, gambling and other self limiting activities fulfill in there customers.
419. – Identify small margin inflexible organizations, as major innovations are stressful for everyone but are most stressful to big, and brittle organizations. They will be the first to fail but their fall may be slow because of vast stored reserves.
420. – Watch for people and organizations with self defeating behavior and find out why they insist on doing things which they probably acknowledged to be self defeating.
421. – When observing a person you wish to understand set your whole being into their likeness; make your face, posture, gesture, thoughts and statements identical to theirs.
422. – When starting a project learn the basics with Wikipedia, discover the authorities in the field and find one to be your mentor.
423. – When meeting people greet them with symmetrical presence and wait until they smile before being overtly friendly.
424. – When things are getting difficult say an authoritative word or two and assume a calm relaxed still but attentive posture.
425. – Save paper documents by folding them with the identifying information on the outside, so you can identify them later.
426. – Start sentences by addressing a person, place or thing rather than with a self referent.
427. – When looking back on former problems consider what you were thinking about before the events developed.
428. – When asking a question put yourself in the emotional state of the speaker then move on toward your goal.
429. – When snuziling with celebrities start off with a thank you for a particular thing they have done for you.
430. – When waiting for your turn to speak to them think about specific ways they have contributed to your happiness.
431. – Ask your question in terms that can be answered from their world view.
432. – Start by saying their formal name with title, how much you value a specific thing they did, why it is important to you, and what you want from them.
433. – Observe your stomach a few minutes after eating and ask, “Is this what I hoped for and expected when eating?”.
434. – Look at people and imagine what they will look like in thirty years.
435. – Look at the city and the environment and imagine what it will be like in thirty years with various sceenarios.
436. – With a thought in mind about some action, think … what follows that, three times.
437. – Think through a simple task, like getting a cup of tea, and returning. Then observe as you go how many things you missed.
438. – Do it again tomorrow and try and get more details into your think through. And again observe what you missed.
439. – Search for things in your environment that are scalable from making a small number of them to a large number of them without proportionally increasing the effort.
440. – If you are going to be something or do something you may as well start behaving right now as though it is going to happen and its effects are already being felt.
441. – Assume for a moment that a solution to your problem exists, what would you do then and can you do some of that right now.
442. – Try and think of a tool, physical or mental, which would solve a problem. Refine it three times.

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Enjoy!

A brief encounter with Ray Kurzweil

Tags

Ray Kurzweil, Ray Kurzweil thinks, Robot convention, Using time wisely

“I was in the audience for this symposium, April 1, 2000: Will Spiritual Robots Replace Humanity by 2100? – On YouTube – Ray Kurzweil, Bill Joy, Douglas Hofstadter, John Holland, Hans Moravec, Kevin Kelly, Ralph Merkle, Panel Discussion part 1,  part 2.”

My brief encounter with Ray Kurzweil twenty years ago was during one of several breaks in the conference. Because of his great productivity, I want to help Ray Kurzweil in any way I can and I had a chance to do that.

During the hourly break, I was standing in line for use of a urinal and noticed that Ray was standing behind me in the line. How can I help this man who doesn’t know me? I intentionally stepped out of my line and went over to the sink and washed my hands and face. Then I went to the end of another line, the currently shortest line. I lost a minute before I got to pee but I made available to Ray Kurzweil one more minute to be creative. Here is a recent YouTube video of what Ray Kurzweil has done with his time.

No man has greater respect for another man than to let that other man pee first!

 

Intentional blindness brings disaster

Tags

Creation of food, humanities survival

Apparently, the major players in our international political arena intentionally avoid discussing some of the obvious problems because there is no solution. A key problem underlies the global warming problem, the water problem, the fossil fuel problem, the ocean garbage problem, the tropical forest problem, and many others, but I hope you get the idea.

There are lots of problems created by our ongoing population explosion. That expansion of some six billion people since I was born, going from two billion to eight billion, creates all the problems listed above. We have so many people because we now have the technology and resources to be able to create the food necessary to feed that many people. Actually, if everyone were to go vegetarian we could double that number, and if all humanity were to go all-out vegan we could double that number again.

But those numbers probably would not prove sustainable in the very long run of say a thousand years because there is the need to create the fertilizers to grow the nutrients we need. There may be ways to have plants themselves create nitrogen and other essential things. And there may be ways to create robots as labor to produce human food. The robot “food” to do all of this work is electricity, and that can be created by electricity-generating solar panels.

Yes, there may be technological fixes for food, and perhaps ways of housing ten times the population of humans we now have, but at some point, there must be a stable population. To create a stable population requires some kind of birth control. If we find that to be too repugnant to consider, then nature will step in with natural processes such as famines, wars, and stresses on humans that will bring the total population down to what ever is sustainable at the time.

Without robots and other mechanical ways of creating food, that food might have to be created by human labor. If that comes to pass, the population will drop to lower than the historical levels when food created by human labor because the essential soil will be depleted.

I wrote this grim post in twenty minutes but the analysis seems obvious to me at this moment.

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.

I met the invention challenge, the group didn’t meet.

A month ago I was challenged to invent a new thing every day and present it at the next Monday book club meeting. That, of course, is an impossible task that even Thomas Edison couldn’t keep up with for very long. However, I haven’t been trying to invent the light bulb, or the phonograph or General Electric corporation, just little things. Although even little things might be scaled up for a mass market like the Snowshooo, or …? The last couple of days along came:::

A meal in a bowl divider. That is a device with thin vertical dividers that fit into a bowl shape. A typical embodiment would be thin stiff sheets, fastened to a horizontal bar, placed parallel about an inch apart. The space between each sheet could be filled with different foods and when the device was lifted out they would remain in their original positions. That would make a multi-component meal of separate foods.

A plate divider – The same physical idea, but fitted with a flat bottom that would fit a plate.

A microphone transmission grip – Battery powered microphones commonly used by public speakers often lose radio contact with their pick up monitor because the speaker places their hand over the transmission antenna which is usually at the opposite end of the device from the microphone audio pickup. The improvement is to place an uncomfortable to grip belt around the antenna, and a hand grip shape where the speaker is encouraged to hold their hand.

A zip slide with a Pi scale (3.14) – The zip slide scale described in a previous invention list can be instantly adapted to measuring the diameter of cylindrical objects by pulling it tight around the object. The index marker gives the diameter in inches or mm.

Patterned printing blocks – these can be created in an infinity of pattern forms by varying the composition of the materials, such as mud or paint, and letting them set. Then spraying with colored paint and pressing materials such as paper onto the surface and transferring the pattern.

Make robots with feelings – by giving them internal sensors that are interpreted by their computers as pain and pleasure, and other emotions. As they interact with their environment, give them feedback that affects these internal sensors. The robot learns the kinds of external objects that give it a level of pain associated with that input.

Enable robots to search – Don’t teach them, but allow them to explore their environment and learn. Let them learn by rewarding their behavior in some way, like earning points or money.

These are obvious ideas once stated, and I admit all of them have probably been done by someone unknown to me.

 

Another try at a new invention every day

Tags

4 point pencil, A robot built solar field, An invention every day, Extensions for the Snowshoo, Eyeglass pit, Free slide rule, Robot ready world

Last week I succeeded in living up to a challenge from my Monday afternoon book discussion group. I created a new invention every day. Tomorrow I am supposed to present seven more so here are the ones that I will mention:

4 point pencil – It has two different “leads” placed side by side coming out of each end and only half the length of the pencil. One end could be black and white, and the other end could be red and blue. It depends on how you hold the pencil as to what color will be drawn on the writing surface.

Free slide rule – The slide rule index markings can be printed near the plastic slip-zipper surface of packages, making normal slide rule calculations easily available to everyone because they can be printed for free wherever plastic packaging with slip-zippers are used. Other things like slide calipers for measuring short distances could also be made this way.

Extensions for the Snowshoo – These can be made from PVC pipe readily available in hardware stores. The sizes can slip into larger sizes and thus each extension becomes stiffer and the Snowshoo can be extended to thirty feet with little expense.

Eyeglass pit – Driving glasses can easily be placed in front of the steering wheel on a car with a soft-walled cushion which prevents them from sliding around and falling to the floor.

Robot-ready world – This is something that can be done now and it would make robots much more functional because they could identify objects instantly if they were tagged. RFID would work and other printed code markers could be used. These could be made invisible so as not to detract from the objects’ visual appeal to humans.

A robot-built solar field – A field of solar panels could be designed to be totally built and maintained by robots. Once each of the components had been designed and built they could operate nearly forever and thus it would become very cheap to create electricity.

I’ll have to think of something more for tomorrow to make my seven for the week.

Condensed thoughts 2018

Condensed thoughts January 2018
01 January 2018 – Probaway Person of the Year – Astronomers who discovered gold. – The discovery of the creation of the heavy elements is a major event to every sentient being in the Universe.
02 January 2018 – If you want to be happy choose to be happy. – I sometimes think what I say is profound but usually the conversations just flow and that’s what happened today.
03 January 2018 – Sage tip #136, Live modestly and shun excesses. – Living modestly and shunning excesses makes it easy to treat other people better than you treat yourself.
04 January 2018 – Motorcycles are dangerous! – Motorcycles are dangerous, but if you succeed in not getting killed there are plenty of fun things to do with the rest of your life.
05 January 2018 – Bicycles are dangerous too! – A knowledgeable friend’s interest in one’s projects is the big payoff for creative endeavors.
06 January 2018 – Sage tip #140, Work with what is and what will be. – Meditation is not for converting one’s self into a stone but into a fully functioning being who is fully conscious of the past, present, and future.
07 January 2018 – Spiritual Development Vision Statement – Today’s meeting included some examples of physical behaviors that I will be promoting for effective physical practice.
08 January 2018 – How may I help you? – By being more aware of helping other beings with their needs you become more aware of your own needs and what you need to do.
09 January 2018 – “How may I help you?” Feedback – The whole procedure was divine; we headed home with smiles on our faces and laughter in our voices.
10 January 2018 – Get done! And move on. – Getting things done in physical reality is the only thing that is useful.
11 January 2018 – STOP dithering! – A group needs a unique name, a logo, and a leader who personifies a great idea that the group can be enthusiastic about.
12 January 2018 – My cancer returns. – Well, that tiny object isn’t a wart, so you can’t accuse me of being a worry wart.
13 January 2018 – iPhone closeup photos are astonishing. – If you have trouble finding Honest Abe look carefully in the shadows of the Lincoln Memorial building.
14 January 2018 – A prayer acceptable to atheists, scientists, and the spiritually minded – An Acknowledgment of Our Dependence on Reality
15 January 2018 – An intermittent diet that worked for me. – Our bodies easily adjusted to six hours of eating.
16 January 2018 – Wake up grumpy! What’s next? – Mentally practice how you want to behave in problem situations when you are certain to be in control and certain to succeed. Now! …
17 January 2018 – Sage tip #61, Be content with what you can do. – Be content with what you can do, but do it and get it into a completed format.
18 January 2018 – Alpha and Omega symbols for our group’s brochure – It is a feeling thing more than an intellectual one that is important in some situations.
19 January 2018 – My Alpha symbol for SACC – Anyway, the fun of this Alpha is in the tiny details.
20 January 2018 – An opportunity. – Every moment you live is an opportunity to do kind actions.
21 January 2018 – Sage tip #18, Expect and prepare for the inevitable. – A more practical use of the concept of preparing for the inevitable is to prepare for your own death.
22 January 2018 – Sage tip #29, Expose people to things they can do. – Most of the time life just happens and death too.
23 January 2018 – Helping people isn’t easy. – I see it as a good thing to strive to make the world a better place for our living companions.
24 January 2018 – Sage tip #145, Follow the kindest paths to your goals. – Think ahead and be as kind to others as it is possible to be.
25 January 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #44 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Follow this Tao and you may live a long and contented life.
26 January 2018 – Who will thrive in the future? – Get a future-proof job and stay out of debt to anyone.
27 January 2018 – What is Spiritual Awareness for an Atheist? – Everyone is perfectly sane and logical if you can get into their world view.
28 January 2018 – I asked the labyrinth stones, “What do you need?” – Later I was looking into the faces of humans asking, “What do you need?”
29 January 2018 – Some things I’ve done – As a speaker, I was asked to write a bio for the Spiritual Awareness Community
30 January 2018 – Controlling and creating habits – The instant I do an intentional good deed I smile for two seconds and after a while in the right conditions, the behavior is automatic.
31 January 2018 – How is human worth to be measured? – Might the super-being ask, “How is human worth to be measured?” and choose that as its guiding principle?

Condensed thoughts Probaway February 2018
01 February 2018 – What a wonderful world. – There is an infinity of places, perhaps every place, where one could stand and say with deep feeling, “What a wonderful world.”
02 February 2018 – Judging people by their life choices – We judge people by their expressions of their life choices.
03 February 2018 – Several of my friends want me to teach spirituality. – I can say with deep feeling about our reality, “What a wonderful world. What a wonderful world!”
04 February 2018 – I can say with deep feeling about our reality, “What a wonderful world. What a wonderful world!” – I can say with deep feeling about our reality, “What a wonderful world. What a wonderful world!”
05 February 2018 – I Am That Great and Fiery Force – What we need are personal tasks that energize our lives with purpose.
06 February 2018 – Spiritual Awareness Community of the Cascades – We invite you to become a voting member of SACC and help us to thrive.
07 February 2018 – Spiritual Awareness Community of the Cascades update – The world society needs each person because only they can do what they do at the time that they do it.
08 February 2018 – We kick truth around again. – Our trust must always come back to the filters of our personal experience.
09 February 2018 – SACC – inside cover of the weekly folder. – Being in a group requires some accommodations.
10 February 2018 – How good is good enough? – I think this will be acceptable to everyone and won’t alienate potential members with impossible demands.
11 February 2018 – The new Spiritual Awareness Community is beginning to roll. – Sometimes a short conversation with stones can be humbling.
12 February 2018 – Time is long, life is short – so what to do? – My bath water has stabilized by now so I’m going to bathe for a while.
13 February 2018 – We are eternal! – They are eternal if they choose to believe they are and will never be proven to be wrong by discussion or by a fact only available to my consciousness after their death.
14 February 2018 – Improv therapy for empowering our spirits – We can learn to live our lives better by playing the right games.
15 February 2018 – Let’s look at the beautiful spiritually uplifting places that our Earth offers us to see. – We can do simple things to document special places all over the world.
16 February 2018 – Should we give our time and money to the poor or to everyone? – Look at the world around you and smile and you will feel better. It is easier to do when the place is spiritually charged with beauty.
17 February 2018 – Do what you are going to do and do it promptly. – What could be a better life than journeying from one inspiring place to another inspiring place? “What a wonderful world!”
18 February 2018 – What I thought of as a good idea wasn’t liked. – Only the fear of being voted out of office has any effect on a politician.
19 February 2018 – I violated a law today. – Even if you try really hard to be compliant with laws and you will still get nailed occasionally.
20 February 2018 – We must practice forgiveness to get good at it. – Think now of a person who violated you and close your eyes and forgive them.
21 February 2018 – A wonderful world logo – Everyone can be spiritually elevated when in special places.
22 February 2018 – A new version of the TimeSquared symbol – How the TimeSquared logo came into existence.
23 February 2018 – Moving on – I will soon get over this problem but it is unlikely they will ever recover from theirs. I feel a bit sad about that, but it is their choice and I fully support individual choice.
24 February 2018 – A Dictionary of New Epigrams – Enthusiasm – Without enthusiasm, you will fail; it’s that simple.
25 February 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #45 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The greatest perfection appears imperfect, and
Perfection does not go too far;
26 February 2018 – Intriguing points – The exact points within our world can be intriguing, powerful, energizing, beautiful, fascinating and obsessing. Let’s experience life while we have the opportunity!
27 February 2018 – A fantastic diet needs a name, a logo, a person, and idea. – All that is needed is for me to say, “I’ll do it.”
28 February 2018 – Fasting and Eating for Health – Joel Fuhrman – I’m feeling good, but after cleaning out some junk I’ll probably feel even better.

Condensed thoughts Probaway March 2018

01 March 2018 – What goal can humanity strive toward? – These new beings would consider us as their creators, and WE would become their Gods. Think of that, we would be as Gods for the rest of time itself.
02 March 2018 – A variation on my TimeSquared figure – I continue fussing with my TimeSquared symbol.
03 March 2018 – What shall I ask of these people? – How might humanity self-actualize itself and become all that it is capable of becoming?
04 March 2018 – Enjoying a day of life. – Those conversations were typical of today and there were many more.
05 March 2018 – The Obesity Code – Jason Fung, MD – review – The goal is to make the lessons so vivid and the routines so easy that everyone will remember them forever and practice them automatically until their last supper.
06 March 2018 – I am in the middle of an additional day of fasting. – Weatherwise, it was a mild day and Debbie and I had a couple of pleasant walks with no hunger.
07 March 2018 – I lost weight with my big fast. – Setting a precise goal makes it easy to know what to do next.
08 March 2018 – What is the purpose of humanity? – The grandest human self-actualization has been Buzz Aldrin’s first words spoken on the Moon, “Contact light.”
09 March 2018 – What a Wonderful World is one day closer to reality. – Our wonderful world is about to become even more wonderful.
10 March 2018 – What’s next? – It is impossible for anything to have permanent meanings so I, and we, must choose to be satisfied with the temporary ones.
11 March 2018 – I ask the labyrinth stones about failure. – Can’t I just be as a stone and just be? Unfortunately, NO. I think and therefore I have things I want to do, and therefore I must always be falling short.
12 March 2018 – On the Verge by Rebecca D. Costa – Book review – I recommend On the Verge . It has many good ideas discovered by an experienced and deep-thinking author.
13 March 2018 – What is false was once true. – A speaker must always speak in a way that can be understood by all of the audience or he will soon lose their attention and he will be interrupted.
14 March 2018 – My Life Strategy – Food – My Life Strategy is to see things from a point of view that will make doing healthy things the obvious thing to do.
15 March 2018 – My Life Strategy – My Life Strategy is to find key points and reveal them in a meaningful way.
16 March 2018 – It is about time to go public. – Saving the species of the world, saving humanity, saving people’s health and lives.
17 March 2018 – Samumpsycle smiles gamely at his fate. – Perhaps if I found a hole in Western Australia’s four-billion-year-old rocks and put Samumpsycle in it, he might last quite a while. Not me.
18 March 2018 – Being honest and liberal has its failings. – Am I a fool for being scrupulously honest and fair with other people?
19 March 2018 – Being honest and liberal has its failings. –
20 March 2018 – Our ponderosa friend Moe is now a stump. – I like living in a forest, but sometimes good sense must prevail over a good view.
21 March 2018 – Chocolate just got better! – Sigh! That was then and this is now, and I missed sixty years of great eating … etc.
22 March 2018 – How can we avoid being foolish? – What’s the sense of having laws, social conventions, and polite behavior if everyone violates them?
23 March 2018 – Tips for easy living! – Food – I want to get the handout written up just right and have the key links to the science on the back.
24 March 2018 – What should I do now? – I will give “Tips for Easy Living – Eating” a good effort at a public success, not just a personal one.
25 March 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #46 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Let your contentment be seen; for When your contentment is seen, It brings contentment to others.
26 March 2018 – I can do that! – If you see something as a desirable quest then stating that goal clearly and bringing your attention to that goal makes it a desirable thing to be doing.
27 March 2018 – What can I do now? – I know that it is something that helps, so I do it.
28 March 2018 – Tips for Easy Living – Tips for Easy Living will succeed because it is fun and it works.
29 March 2018 – Some Stoics meet in Oregon – We need a Stoic society here in Bend. It is different from the UU and the Socrates Cafe.
30 March 2018 – Tilling the fields – Even in this modern world sometimes a man must till the fields.
31 March 2018 – My second day as a laborer – Oh yes, every muscle in my body hurts, except for those in my nose; I don’t know why they were spared.
Condensed thoughts Probaway April 2018
01 April 2018 – My third day as a laborer and a talker to stones. – I as a human have these wonderful opportunities that I can choose to do and they as rocks do not.
02 April 2018 – Okay, I’m done with physical labor for a while. – Two other projects are in the offing – The Potent Places of the World, and a show of some of my photos.
03 April 2018 – Today was productive, sort of. – Jesus’ message was infinitely more profound and I suspect that even Theodore Parker, the Unitarian Heretic may have missed its essence.
04 April 2018 – Biopsy time for prostate cancer – I should get the biopsy exam and see how aggressive my particular cancer is going to be.
05 April 2018 – A disappointing evening – A pathetic farce.
06 April 2018 – 1st Friday Art Walk in Bend, Oregon – I know that this needs to be done, I want it to be done, and I am doing it.
07 April 2018 – One year anniversary of a tree falling on my house. – Strangely though all of this struggle our Zillow house price estimate has more than doubled in seven years, which is typical for Bend at the moment.
08 April 2018 – Tips for Easy Living – I can do that !
09 April 2018 – Thinking about a lecture series on weight control – Stay tuned; I will reveal this method online like I dribbled out clues to the identity of Jack the Ripper. Just saying it is boring.
10 April 2018 – A delivery plan for Jeff Bezos – It’s all so easy to do when you have the right technology.
11 April 2018 – My experience on obesity and a new body weight setpoint. – A year-long daily intermittent fast stabilizes at a lower body weight setpoint.
12 April 2018 – I invent a small new diet device – Did I mention that this was a silly idea? And yet it is obvious that it would work.
13 April 2018 – An upgrade to the error-prone BMI body mass measuring system – Just because something is useful doesn’t mean that it will be used.
14 April 2018 – Adult Obesity in the United States – Gentle overnight fasting is the way for most normal people to bring their BMI to a healthy condition.
15 April 2018 – World-sorrow … Weltschmerz – Life goes on. … At least for a little while longer.
16 April 2018 – The marshmallow test and me. – I don’t much like marshmallows so it hasn’t been any suffering for me not to get one.
17 April 2018 – Utopia combined with Dystopia generates Eudystopia – The SF Bay Area and Berkeley was and is a wonderful place to spend one’s life.
18 April 2018 – A day most people would have enjoyed. – Lots more happened but it doesn’t feel like a productive day.
19 April 2018 – When is it time to tidy up one’s affairs? – So, at the moment my time will be devoted to helping ease the obesity epidemic.
20 April 2018 – My Tips for Easy Living get more spunk – I can spend the time and effort need to write a diet plan that people can understand and use successfully.
21 April 2018 – A silly idea that might make money – Enough of this nonsense post about towing-ball decorations. You grab it and run with it.
22 April 2018 – My problem with a lecture – An encounter with a skillful speaker awakens me to a frequently encountered problem.
23 April 2018 – Yes! I can choose to do that! – Do the impossible and make it look easy. Yes! I can do that!
24 April 2018 – Did TIME acknowledge my existence? – It is unlikely that TIME ever will ever come to my view. Why should they?
25 April 2018 – Happiness Is a Choice You Make by John Leland – Book review – You are not alone! This is a life story and it has a beginning a middle and an end.
26 April 2018 – How to protect your 1st Amendment freedom of speech. – If you can’t speak your truth you aren’t alive as a human being.
27 April 2018 – A morning at the Crow’s Feet coffee commons – Is this living? Well, it will do for the time being.
28 April 2018 – Five cubic yards of dirt get dumped on me. – We lived and lived and still nothing much is happening.
29 April 2018 – Super big plans for today and tomorrow. – Now it’s time for my hot bath.
30 April 2018 – I’m now radioactive but I don’t feel like superman. – Even though I am energized with radioactive substances I don’t feel like Spiderman or Superman either, more like the Tick just after his falling encounters with Gravity – a cruel mistress.
Condensed thoughts Probaway May 2018
01 May 2018 – My life has meaning if you value it. – One’s life has value if it is reciprocated by another being. Perhaps a dog will do. Perhaps dog is God.
02 May 2018 – My perfect health goes imperfect at 82 – When in a doubtful situation, avoid being stupid.
03 May 2018 – A strange life-and-death battle on my bathroom floor. – The ant lost this battle but I don’t want a spider living in my bathroom. Humm, what to do?
04 May 2018 – Bend’s First Friday Art Walk – May 5th 2018 – And this is only a tiny part of our evening at the First Friday Art Walk.
05 May 2018 – Experimenting with heart arrhythmias. – I haven’t tried any of the yogic meditations for controlling heart rhythm but this method worked without years of esoteric spiritual training.
06 May 2018 – Is my spider bite a dangerous Brown Recluse? – I don’t have any particular gripe with spiders but I do wish they wouldn’t bite me.
07 May 2018 – My garden is finally in … mostly. – Life is fun when there are interesting things to do.
08 May 2018 – I take some pictures while Debbie talks to Leigh Anne – They are done talking so we all head home.
09 May 2018 – How to reset the important components of your life. – Emotional fasting is the self-directed depriving of one’s self of a desired feeling.
10 May 2018 – Greed – The point of living is to have meaningful human interactions and that requires dealing with near equals but having something of value to offer.
11 May 2018 – My new life begins – That was how my day went and felt.
12 May 2018 – Out of contact with reality. – Of course, I’m the stupid one because if I made money I could have done those things too.
13 May 2018 – Yes! I can choose to do that! – To use these simple tips to become healthier, happier, wiser and wealthier. . . : . : . .
14 May 2018 – Yet another Portland experience. – It was a beautiful day but tiring and now it’s time for a hot bath.
15 May 2018 – A walk to the park. – It was a calm day and we survived intact.
16 May 2018 – Intermittent Feasting – Intermittent Feasting – Yes! I can do that.
17 May 2018 – I am not a poster boy. – I am happy to be alive.
18 May 2018 – Death doesn’t take a holiday. – Life is short but sometimes it’s too short.
19 May 2018 – I want to be a complete human being. – To be a complete human being is to feel a unity with the Universe.
20 May 2018 – A challenging meeting – I had several other meaningful conversations today, but now it’s time for my bath.
21 May 2018 – What should I do now? – Perhaps a crowdsourced funding venture is a way to make this project take off.
22 May 2018 – What’s the difference between starvation and fasting? – I like the idea of calling it intermittent feasting because I eat great food until I am comfortably full.
23 May 2018 – Another day spent thinking about my diet presentation – My so-called deep-thoughts twist my-brain but may help you untwist yours.
24 May 2018 – We humans have transitioned into second-class beings. – Without being aware of it we humans have become second-class citizens of the world, and perhaps that’s better for our species longevity.
25 May 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #48 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The students of knowledge acquire day by day; The students of Tao abandon day by day.
26 May 2018 – Our garden is “alive.” Yippie! Sort of. – Our life isn’t going to be a bowl of cherries because we don’t have a cherry tree, but we have planted twenty other things.
27 May 2018 – Compliance isn’t a dirty word – Compliance is easy when it’s what you want to do.
28 May 2018 – An unusual hair patch on my inner wrist – “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
29 May 2018 – All you need is love, and what is that? – Love is giving your attention to a person who is aware your actions being directed at them, and their actions reciprocated back towards you are what makes humans human.
30 May 2018 – Life is a bowl of cherries, with pits – A wonderful thing about living in Berkeley is that people actually do things they say they are going to do.
31 May 2018 – I have lost twenty-five pounds – “Eat your meals at the table, and don’t snack between meals.”
Condensed thoughts Probaway June 2018
01 June 2018 – Bend First Friday artwalk transportation – The First Friday Art Walk always has something that attracts my attention.
02 June 2018 – How can I help? – And guide me away from seeking what is impossible.
03 June 2018 – What came first the chicken or the egg? – All of this chain of ancestors of today’s chickens were born from eggs, and they weren’t chickens.
04 June 2018 – But what is the Universe’s purpose? – I ponder.
05 June 2018 – I have now achieved my diet goal weight. – I am enjoying being BMI 23.
06 June 2018 – Once again I seek a universally workable diet plan. – When you choose to only eat for six hours per day you naturally choose healthier foods.
07 June 2018 – A big bug pays me a visit. – Metallic Wood-boring Beetle – Dicerca crassicollis
08 June 2018 – I reach my libration low point weight – So, I’m going to lose a couple more pounds and then intentionally replace it with some fresh new fat. How about that for weird reasoning.
09 June 2018 – The unexpected attack of the Subaru – Observe the white tape on the corner of the window.
10 June 2018 – We are responsible for our actions. – “I am not a number, I am a free man.” I am not a prisoner.
11 June 2018 – I speak to the Universe – What should I do the help the Universe to become a more complete representation of its potential?
12 June 2018 – People reject humorous people as out of contact with problems. – Life is just doing things so why not enjoy doing what you’re doing.
13 June 2018 – A beautiful day in Bend, Oregon – It was a day.
14 June 2018 – What should the word god mean today? – I come away from this conversation with a better feeling about being immersed in the natural order of the world.
15 June 2018 – ln the beginning … Creativity by Gordon D. Kaufman – More on the concept of God in the future.
16 June 2018 – Our garden lives and grows too – We live and live and nothing happens.
17 June 2018 – A very old-style god enters a sermon – God speaks to us in mysterious ways, claims Gordon Kaufman.
18 June 2018 – Nothing happened – We lived and lived and nothing happened.
19 June 2018 – Astoria by Peter Stark – book review – These kinds of situations are presented to you throughout this book.
20 June 2018 – My social world is shrinking fast! – My longtime resident friends are wandering away, as tourists and realtors are swarming through our streets seeking easy pleasure and money.
21 June 2018 – Okay … It’s time to be more Stoic! – This is a book that must be read by everyone who hopes to remain sane while attempting to cope with modern nonsense.
22 June 2018 – Some lines and shadows I saw – I have seen many lines in strange places these last few days.
23 June 2018 – What is the Universe’s next emergent step? – “What’s next? What’s available to emerge from where we are at?
24 June 2018 – Big adventure day for us. – Did all the above, the weather was hot, no AC but my old Geo Prizm gets good gas mileage, the driving was very stressful, and I’m really tired.
25 June 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #49 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Sages have no personal self.
The people’s self is their self.
26 June 2018 – My visit to the VA for an injection – I neither fear to be dead nor continuing to live, but I do have some things I can do that may help the Universe thrive.
27 June 2018 – Detroit Dam photos – It was a stressful two days of driving but we made it home in time to water the garden.
28 June 2018 – We are a transition species! – We are the transitional life form to a new kingdom of living organisms.
29 June 2018 – Lines and shadows at Bend, Oregon – Nothing much happened but it was a pleasant day.
30 June 2018 – What’s next when there are no jobs for people? – How will these decisions be made in the not distant future when there is no work and the people have become desperate?
Condensed thoughts Probaway July 2018
01 July 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching rendered by Charles Scamahorn – The way of the sage is to accomplish with attractive acts,
and never to contend.
02 July 2018 – Suddenly there were strawberries! – Gardening is an opportunity to practice various ways of being more mature.
03 July 2018 – An outrageous example of Oregon’s STUPID highways! – Perhaps I should complain to someone about this problem.
04 July 2018 – We haven’t had a city wide fire … yet. – This is the nonsense I came up with. Hooray!?
05 July 2018 – You’re dead now! Sorry. – The computers are becoming more alive every day and we are becoming more mechanistic and dead meat to them. Sorry!
06 July 2018 – Friday art in Bend – Here is the nail, ready for a hanging.
07 July 2018 – We and our Universe need help! – The Universe has brought us into being and our job is to help the Universe bring its brain into being.
08 July 2018 – A school to teach every basic skill – The goal is to develop a simple familiarity with some basic life skills using similar and repetitive physical actions.
09 July 2018 – Allbirds, the best of shoes and the worst of shoes. – I love my Allbirds shoes, but I learned the hard way not to get into dry grassy fields with them on.
10 July 2018 – Do we really want computers that “care” about us? – A Stoicly inclined person would say, “If I can’t influence the actions of a robot I will just go about my own business and not even think about it.”
11 July 2018 – I want to help the Universe self-actualize its beauty. – We are a transitional species moving over into becoming robots and by doing so we can live until the end of the Universe.
12 July 2018 – How can we accelerate our coming robot society? – We are the transitional species to help the Universe manifest its next level of self-awareness and self-actualization.
13 July 2018 – Why should I care if the Universe doesn’t care? – The Universe might then move on from being a huge but random batch of events into an emotional being caring for us living things.
14 July 2018 – I have a duty to the Universe and so do you. – The Universe has been kind to us by creating everything that is needed for us to live, and we can show our gratitude by doing the same for the Universe.
15 July 2018 – I look out of my eyes and see things. – It was a day that Seneca would have approved of, just lived and enjoyed.
16 July 2018 – We must be honest with our new Universe. – At present, the two great tasks facing humanity are to survive and to reproduce itself at the next level of sentience.
17 July 2018 – It’s time for reassessment. – We are living in the best of times and the worst of times, so enjoy the good things and ignore those bad things you can’t do anything about.
18 July 2018 – Humanity must live and it must die. – This Brave New Universe is now possible for us to create.
19 July 2018 – Human life expectancy – We are living incredibly long, healthy and productive lives.
20 July 2018 – What is a man? – Man is a transition species for creating a silicon-based society of robots. … Avoid talking to stones!
21 July 2018 – The Last BLOCKBUSTER – Goodbye to an old friend of many years ago.
22 July 2018 – Four deer enter my garden. – We have plenty of space in our backyard garden so it makes sense to make our front yard more decorative next year and not so utilitarian.
23 July 2018 – Talk without actions versus actions without thoughts. – Now I can add “clean up bird shit” to my behaviors, which I don’t remember ever doing before.
24 July 2018 – Robot society maintenance – We humans are a temporary transition species moving into a robot society. On an individual level it will probably be a lot of fun.
25 July 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #50 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – But how may you produce these effects? By creating attractions for these powers away from yourself, and By not being attractive yourself.
26 July 2018 – My great failing has been lack of enthusiasm! – My enthusiasm is to do what I can to bring a robot society into existence which will endure for billions of years.
27 July 2018 – Human survival with robots and annihilation without robots. – Robots can and will offer us a safe, healthy society versus the threats of annihilation from H-bombs that we now endure.
28 July 2018 – We live in the moment of Universal opportunity! – Prethink and prebuild the basic sustainable infrastructure now, before our technological society is overwhelmed by the lack of cheap energy and food.
29 July 2018 – Happiness minus suffering equals flourishing – Robots can offer us a safe, eudaimonic society if we make them our friends.
30 July 2018 – Amanda MacGurn is helping humanity to thrive. – Amanda MacGurn is the front page spokesperson for the CDC.
31 July 2018 – Some lines and shadows photos – Along with trying to save the human species from extinction, I enjoy taking some nonsense photographs.
Condensed thoughts Probaway August 2018
01 August 2018 – A robot society begins with electric power – There are better things for humans to be doing than the field work seen above.
02 August 2018 – What critical components must we provide for the robot society? – When these processes are functioning smoothly there will be an optimal usage of everything for humans as well as their robots.
03 August 2018 – Too many lines and shadows – Be careful and drink only good coffee to get incredible results like these.
04 August 2018 – How to maximize human pleasure. – We can maximize the human species’ health, longevity, and happiness by making our robot society maximize its potentials.
05 August 2018 – We can save humanity by constructing a functioning robot society. – Our human species can go extinct this year or we can choose to evolve into a species that will survive for billions of years.
06 August 2018 – Some people want to leave a legacy after they are dead. – Hi, George. How’s your farm doing this year? Mine has produced far too many squashes; can you use a few?
07 August 2018 – In the beginning of the conscious Universe there was RFID. – When Thenet is functioning to maximize humanity’s longevity the H-bombs will be retired and humanity can drift into a sustainable lifestyle.
08 August 2018 – The way forward for humanity for 300 years. – In the current political mindset, it would be very difficult to create a robot society quickly and it is impossible to reduce population even a little. So … the future is obvious.
09 August 2018 – A robot society won’t need food for its own use but for us. – It will take a lot of solar cells to power the farm equipment needed to feed coming billions of people so we need to find ways to get them installed now.
10 August 2018 – Let’s help humanity survive and thrive. – For humanity to survive it must have food, and for it to thrive it must have abundant and reliable food and that means solar-dependent energy supplies.
11 August 2018 – It takes energy input to create human food. – Creating robots specifically designed to make solar energy farms would make it possible for energy production to be used for food production.
12 August 2018 – Now is the best of times and we can prepare for the worst. – What to do? Nothing! Just participate and hope for a good day.
13 August 2018 – The time to build Roboville is now! – Little we make will last a hundred years, but the robots we create now could sustain themselves for billions of years.
14 August 2018 – Humanity’s destiny is to help the Universe to actualize its potentials. – ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’—that is all – Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
15 August 2018 – What raw materials will the robot society most need? – Some say, The End is Near! Others say, The Beginning has just begun. Or … The humans say, The End is Near! The robots say this is just the beginning.
16 August 2018 – What should we do before the Universe dies? – What we can do now is to set in motion the evolutionary processes of self-replicating robots.
17 August 2018 – Why be scared of a robot takeover? – Our human society is incredibly complex, but the coming robot society would be designed to be very simple and helpful, so we should help them to help us.
18 August 2018 – Robot Societies in Science and Science Fiction – Radio-tagged with something like RFID so they can quickly be integrated into a worldwide functional system.
19 August 2018 – Do you have free will? – I’m comfortable with the free will which I do have and will use a portion of it to help the Universe transition into its next potential state of being.
20 August 2018 – Am I conscious and self-aware of myself? – How many layers can you go into that kind of play with your reflection and maintain the feeling that you are relating to something that is relating to you?
21 August 2018 – How to become a citizen of the Universe. – Our becoming participating citizens of the Universe can be done by our evolving into what we now call robots.
22 August 2018 – More lines and shadows in Bend – My life isn’t meaningless! But sometimes I see lines and shadows, and I struggle to see some pattern to their being and what their meaning might be.
23 August 2018 – Conversing with artists is fun. – This picture probably breaks most of the rules that art students are taught. So why do my professional artist friends like these boring pictures?
24 August 2018 – I did my annual medical checkup – did you? – Having cancer isn’t expected to be fun, but so far it has been for me.
25 August 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #51 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Tao brings all into existence, but does not own any. It makes them, but does not claim them. It raises them, but does not rule them. It is undetectable; It is the source of all.
26 August 2018 – My garden grows squash – That’s my story, so it’s time to get down off the chimney.
27 August 2018 – How could a one-kilogram craft bring a planet to life? – The grander goal is to help the Universe become a thinking being so that it will know what it is capable of and do it.
28 August 2018 – What is a truth in today’s world? – Many people’s truths are remarkably resistant to being tested against physical reality.
29 August 2018 – Finally my prostate radiation treatments are going. – It is important to me to get this prostate cancer taken care of so I can get on with my projects, like helping the Universe to Self-actualize.
30 August 2018 – Our time is now and it won’t last for a billion years. – The time is now to get started building a robot-based society.
31 August 2018 – How big a job is helping the Universe self-actualize? – It’s a big opportunity when planning to help the Universe become all that it is capable of becoming, but how?
Condensed thoughts Probaway September  2018
01 September 2018 – How can we help the Universe to think? – The first step of Universal thought will be to fill every possible niche with silicon-based life and interconnect it with the whole.
02 September 2018 – It is time to RFID and QR code everything. – We, humans, have often been supplanted by new technologies, but usually its positive aspects make it worthwhile.
03 September 2018 – Trustworthiness of Information and its use. – The end result of quality information is quality actions bringing quality results. That requires forethought and some might say cunning to get those results.
04 September 2018 – How my self-control when dieting was made easy. – I have good self-control as was proven by my long and successful diet, but it was done by setting absolute limits on the time I ate.
05 September 2018 – How important is your life to the Universe? – You and I can help to create a Universe that thinks. It would probably value and appreciate our doing that.
06 September 2018 – What would a self-replicating robot’s early choices be? – But what would be most helpful for a robot and a robot society to self-actualize?
07 September 2018 – Self-replication of robots will permit their evolution – The goal we need to set for humanity to achieve a robot society is to create a self-sustaining robot-controlled factory that can build some of the essential components, like solar-energy collectors.
08 September 2018 – Who cares? – Who cares about something so very remote? I do.
09 September 2018 – We are creating the next emergence of the Universe. – It is our technical society that is now responsible for bringing into reality the next Universe-wide emergence.
10 September 2018 – What would a connected galaxy think about and do? – Humans don’t have the lifespan to contemplate things like the robots we can construct can think about and do.
11 September 2018 – People need meaning for their existence. – We live and all nature lives too, and we haven’t died of despair and therefore god exists and all of our lives are meaningful.
12 September 2018 – Clank – l tired.
13 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? – Being a member of this community I wonder what dangerous false beliefs are leading me astray too.
14 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 2 – They are helping me eliminate my false beliefs.
15 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 3 – I took this picture this morning while talking with M. It’s not a chair. It’s a picture of mundane reality that we have all seen but didn’t see.
16 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 4 – The human interactivity of conversation can be more satisfying than the great sages even if it isn’t as profound.
17 September 2018 – This is not a vanishing chair. – My first-grade school teacher, Millie, said that all questions are good questions, but I wonder if she was right.
18 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 5 – It appears I slipped a little off of my goal of looking for things I want to believe. I’ll write on this subject again.
19 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 6 – Maybe tomorrow I will write another boring post, but tonight there is nothing to say, not even about helping the Universe to self-actualize or observe a sequence of photos of a shadow of a chair disappear.
20 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 7 – I don’t like thinking about this kind of stuff.
21 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 8 – I pursue but don’t claim those humane virtues. However, I do feel a kinship with those who value them and live them.
22 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 9 – My plan is to motivate humanity to create a robot civilization that can influence things billions of years in the future. Humble!
23 September 2018 – A rejection of good deeds. – It was a day!
24 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 10 – . . . — — — . . . I can’t.
25 September 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #52 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – When relating to this thing, always
Interact with it in terms of its original motivation, for, To the very end, that motivation Will be embedded in that thing.
26 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 11 – If you present a good product people will seek it out and pay a realistic price to obtain it.
27 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 12 – 0
28 September 2018 – Now is the time for humanity to become immortal. – We can choose to become immortal or in our present form to be extinct very soon.
29 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 13 – Age brings wisdom. – Now is the time for the Universe to transition into a thinking being and we have the technology to make that happen.
30 September 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 14 – The next new idea will be grand enough to maintain my interest.
Condensed thoughts Probaway October 2018
01 October 2018 – Thank you for my birthday remembrances! – I enjoyed every minute of my life spent with you!
02 October 2018 – Another needed step for self-actualizing the Universe is interstellar seeds. – Humans are capable of thinking about interplanetary seeds and of testing via human thought and computer projections into various conditions, and of recycling potential survivors. Of all creatures, we alone can do it.
03 October 2018 – Another needed step for self-actualizing the Universe is human interest. – We can not live forever but we can create a Universe that can come close to that ideal and if we create a loving Universe it would love us and our gift forever.
04 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 15 – The problem with that method of solving our problems is that it is based on infantile beliefs which had little experience upon which to base responsible adult actions.
05 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 16 – Don’t bury the lead. – I am fond of saying, in a joking way, that “I am a slow learner, but I can learn.” But, now I am beginning to wonder.
06 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 17 – Humanity’s goal must be to grab the Universe by its bootstraps and pull it into a full consciousness of itself so it can self-actualize its potentials. – It’s a big job helping the Universe to self-actualize and we must get started while we can.
07 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 18 – Pareto charts, Scattergrams, Timeboxing, Triage, Reverse triage, SAP value mapping CARVER matrix. – I hope to work with each of these soon as I become more aware of my false beliefs.
08 October 2018 – Tomorrow creeps in – At least we’ll die with harness on our back. – Here I am … waiting! And you, dear reader?
09 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 19 – People will claim a long string of personal virtues, but their past actions are more predictive of their future ones.
10 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 20 – Grabbing other people’s space and property isn’t improving one’s self it is simple greed that will corrupt a person to their core.
11 October 2018 – Another needed step for self-actualizing the Universe is self-assembly. – We are on the cusp of being able to do these things and thus to begin the process of self-actualizing the whole Universe.
12 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 21 – My best option is to do the next indicated right thing and avoid stupid things with negative consequences.
13 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 22 – I am willing to expose myself to new experiences. – Is my effort to Self-Actualize the whole Universe based on a false belief that it is possible?
14 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 23 – People are interested in new views of natural reality – People take new good ideas as a threat and thus a punishment.
15 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 24 – That people are interested in living their lives more successfully. – Only do for others what they will pay you to do for them.
16 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 25 – I can endure difficulties without affecting my personal behavior. – With all of my education, etc., I have all the frailties that are to be expected of someone in my situation.
17 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 26 – My ability to hear what everyone has to say and to filter out the nonsense. – Just quietly walk away from people and situations that will create problems and stress.
18 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 27 – It is the change of my physical actions that make the pursuit of my false beliefs a meaningful quest.
19 October 2018 – The end is near! – I have enjoyed meeting many people in the waiting room where we have a common experience to discuss our lives deeply.
20 October 2018 – What to seek and what to avoid – ACE, PCE, Stability, Honesty, Reliability, Health.- It’s what I physically do with what I’ve got that matters.
21 October 2018 – It’s what I physically do that matters to you. – Life persists here on Earth but its a small thing in my Universe of 1tic23 stars and their planets.
22 October 2018 – People should be interested in helping the Universe to Self-Actualize – I must discover a way to make the Sentient Universe self-actualizing itself into an attractive undertaking.
23 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 28 – Today’s false belief that needs to be discarded is something simple is easy to describe in a few words. The easier something is to understand the harder it is to describe.
24 October 2018 – A big week for me. – “The unlived life isn’t worth examining.”
25 October 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #53 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – If your inner self has even a little bit of this ability,
You may move along the wonderful path of Tao. But
Avoid displaying this special knowledge.
26 October 2018 – Prostate radiation treatment is a challenge to simple endurance – I have done my best to make prostate cancer an interesting and worthwhile adventure. So far it has been like a scenic vacation to a rugged outback.
27 October 2018 – A walk from my car to coffee. – Life is tough here in Bend but I am getting comfortable with it.
28 October 2018 – On the Future by Martin Rees – Book review – On the Future by Martin Rees is readable by everyone, but ultimately the advice is simply—hang on for dear life, the coming ride will be an adventure.
29 October 2018 – I lived and lived today and nothing happened. – We came home and took a hot bath and a second walk, and now Debbie is watching TV and I am writing this diarrhea.
30 October 2018 – Goldilocks Zone and the Three Bears Zone. – The habitable zone for robots is much wider than for carbon-based life and it needs a name like The Three Bears Zone.
31 October 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 29 – How can I eliminate this inane false belief when it makes me feel better?
Condensed thoughts Probaway November 2018
01 November 2018 – I’m tired of radiation treatments. – When it comes to life (the unavoidable things), just do what you have to do, and pay close attention to the pleasures.
02 November 2018 – A ghost cup wows my buddies. – Things are not always what they seem even when they are not seen.
03 November 2018 – How can I identify and eliminate my false beliefs? 30 – That Darwin Award photo was made back in 2008, but I still haven’t discovered how to live.
04 November 2018 – What memory have I created today? – Reminiscing for a few minutes about significant places in one’s life is self-directed and thus really meaningful.
05 November 2018 – I have some half baked ideas that need more baking. – Even with my plethora of false beliefs that need cleaning up, I am enjoying my life of attempting to find solutions to its realities.
06 November 2018 – How to climb the staircase to heaven. – The word “should” challenges you to strive to reach the next level of being.
07 November 2018 – What is the purpose of our life? – I guess the meaning of life must be defined by how much time we sleep and how much money we spend sleeping.
08 November 2018 – How many I’s do I have? – Every instant of my existence I am a unique new I. I am comfortable with that, but it does seem to bother my friends a bit.
09 November 2018 – I drink beer occasionally. – What a high life I live. See the point!?
10 November 2018 – The Fourth Age by Byron Reese – book review – The Fourth Age by Byron Reese is a book that must be read by everyone who aspires to cope with the future.
11 November 2018 – The god concept is unbelievable and not needed for Universal beauty. – It is unnecessary and ultimately unbelievable to insert Christian needs for a god experience to move along the path toward Universal beauty.
12 November 2018 – The 10 Commandments versus the 147 Suggestions – 147. Die with pleasant memories.
13 November 2018 – Truthiness and its companions. – Steven Colbert’s truthiness concept variations as attempts to discover other obscure false realities.
14 November 2018 – My struggle with a stump in my back yard. – When the guys are there with the right equipment, ask them to finish the job.
15 November 2018 – My day and struggles with the ponderosa stump. – It was a typical day for Debbie and me except we didn’t get to our usual evening encounters with the dogs at Hollinshead Park.
16 November 2018 – 40 Megapixels versus 10 – These are huge photo files but I compressed them before posting. Can they be expanded?
17 November 2018 – 7 Greek Sages’ Suggestions #100. Do your best and move on. – Now “do your best and move on” means doing hard dangerous work with nothing but smooth soil to show for it.
18 November 2018 – My numbering system goes to t. – The letter t becomes the indicator for the location of the base of the decimal point in any number.
19 November 2018 – What is it to be kind? – Isn’t the essence of kindness to help other people to live happy, healthy, wise and wealthy lives?
20 November 2018 – A bad habit is being overwritten – Make my life and my friends’ lives more pleasant by not complaining about things which I can’t do anything about.
21 November 2018 – DESIGNA – Technical Secrets of the Traditional Visual Arts – book review – If you have the itch to see your world in a new way and are willing to explore bizarre abstract visual excitement, get it with DESIGNA.
22 November 2018 – My progress on simplifying our numbering system. – Who can remember all of those weird names, yotta through yocto, for daily usage and the values they represent or how to do computations with them?
23 November 2018 – It’s time to search for my person of the year 2018 – If one of those people succeeds in creating life out of basic materials, will they become like gods?
24 November 2018 – An ordinary but unusual day for me – Lots of other stuff happened too. It was a day.
25 November 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #54 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – How may you know how all humanity is influenced?
By the way former peoples were influenced.
26 November 2018 – God is Love – We will be talking about Jesus next week. That is a subject upon which I have some ideas I doubt they have heard before.
27 November 2018 – Another tireless day – The new tires are in the car, not on the car. Bummer!
28 November 2018 – Bishop Spong demonstrates that Christianity is dead. – When you are on a higher step of the Beatitude staircase you are capable of helping all of those below you, including your own self.
29 November 2018 – My hour at the Crows Feet Commons begins with getting there. – Inside, weekdays, you will usually find me conversing with my old buddies from 10am till 11:30.
30 November 2018 – Responding to good and bad habit triggers. – When you do a good deed, either for yourself or for another person, make it a point to smile for two seconds.
Condensed thoughts Probaway December 2018
01 December 2018 – Improving your own bad behavior – When you do a bad deed, either to yourself or to another person, make it a point to intentionally scowl at yourself for two seconds.
02 December 2018 – I stepped forward. – I know that I should treat others better than I treat myself.
03 December 2018 – What good is religion? – Some people may think I am weird, but now I can say, “Of course, I am made up of quarks.”
04 December 2018 – I can’t read DESIGNA without shutting my eyes. – It was a day of repeatedly falling to sleep after looking carefully at images such as this one.
05 December 2018 – Women have been fussing over me. – That’s how in 24 hours I was carefully fussed over by women trying to please me. I am a very happy guy. Thank you all.
06 December 2018 – An evening with the Impressionist painters – I am thankful to John for reawakening my long forgotten love of the Impressionists.
07 December 2018 – Mirror Pond in different lighting conditions. – A little reflection on light can sometimes be enlightening.
08 December 2018 – A possible word game to play at the library. – Tomorrow I will draft a meeting handout. We need a name. How about Funny Words?
09 December 2018 – One of my first Berkeley friends, Julia Vinograd, died yesterday. – Goodbye Julia Vinograd! You were one of the people who made Berkeley into the greatest place on Earth!
10 December 2018 – TIME – Person of the Year review – Elon Musk appears to be the most likely person on this list to be remembered in 500 years for something he did this last year.
11 December 2018 – The Seven Sages of Ancient Greece – line 45 – I seek to help you along your self-chosen path because it will help me find my way along mine.
12 December 2018 – Tyrant – Shakespeare on Politics – Stephen Greenblatt – The goal must become to empower individuals to treat others better than they treat themselves.
13 December 2018 – Numbers stated with a base t for ten –
When presented in this new way, all of those weird names are eliminated from any number you are going to be using.
14 December 2018 – When it is easier to say it, it’s easier to think it. – When it is easier to say it, it’s easier to think it, and thus we can become more fully human.
15 December 2018 – I worked too hard yesterday. – To accomplish all of that I had to work for several hours as a lumberjack instead of a blogger, and I am still physically tired as well as mentally tiring.
16 December 2018 – Numbers stated with a base t for ten – 1 to 0 – With a little practice, the user of this new system will have a better feel for the relative size of everything.
17 December 2018 – Spong and I have a grand quest. – He concludes with helping humanity to be all that we can be, and I progress with my plans for helping the Universe to be all that we can be.
18 December 2018 – Spong is for being all that we can be. Not I. –
19 December 2018 – Spong is for being all that we can be. Not I. – Presently we have more powerful options because we have the technology to transition into a new form of being.
20 December 2018 – What is the best behavior? – I would insist that love is one of a human being’s most precious attributes and it is to be given freely, but it is to be given frugally even to those who are deserving of our love.
21 December 2018 – Shadows on my reality – Shadows are everywhere I look.
22 December 2018 – A typical Saturday … not quite. – It was a hard day, in a way, but it was real-living.
23 December 2018 – Probaway Person of the year? Is it Elon Musk or Palmer Luckey? – Check back in early January 2019 to view my choice.
24 December 2018 – Oculus Go brings waves of nostalgia. – Anyway, waves of nostalgia for me.
25 December 2018 – The Tao Teh Ching – #55 – Revealed by Lao Tzu – Rendered by Charles Scamahorn – Power perceived creates counter-Tao, and
Whatever creates counter-Tao soon ceases.
26 December 2018 – Why You Eat What You Eat – Rachel Herz – There is a moral undertone to this book that is covered beautifully with what feels like underpopulated small scientific studies.
27 December 2018 – I annoy myself with recognizing an unrecognized fault. – Is it a personality fault of mine to be concerned about the majority of people I encounter violating the simplest of public laws?
28 December 2018 – DESIGNA followed by SCIENCIA and QUADRIVIUM – I did do a passable job of reading DESIGNA and have made an acceptable beginning on SCIENCIA but it seems unlikely that I can squeeze QUADRIVIUM into my brain.
29 December 2018 – A word for the decimal point location is needed. – Now is the time to find a name for this numbering system.
30 December 2018 – The Origins of Creativity by Edward O. Wilson – review – The big problems for Wilson and Spong are answered by observing human women and who they choose to mate with.
31 December 2018 – Title –
31 December 2018 – Title –
End of condensed thoughts Probaway 2018.

The Fourth Age by Byron Reese – book review

Tags

Book review, Byron Reese, Conscious Computers, Future of Humanity, Smart Robots, The Fourth Age, The future of the Universe

This was an important read for me. This author, Byron Reese, was formerly unknown to me but he had hit precisely on many of the ideas that I have been posting about in this Probaway blog. He is an excellent writer and explains various ideas much better than I do. However, there is one great distinction between his thoughts and mine. He generalizes about the way that things will develop, and gives cogent arguments for why things will develop in positive ways. For example, war is too expensive for the great nations of the world when the economies are making such wonderful progress. He asserts that is because of stable governments, enough fluid money to support infrastructure, and helping the bottom billion people become increasingly productive. But he places a huge emphasis on the ongoing boom in technology.

Reese usually presents his thoughts about the future in terms of general directions of how society will go, but my posts are more specifically aimed toward specific things that I, and we, as individuals can do to move forward. I suggest specific things we should do right now like make everything robot ready. For example, to make it possible for robots to create solar farms to create electricity, their food, without any human intervention. To RFID everything right now so robots can know immediately what they are working with.  To design all things with an ability to connect with one another. In comparison, on the penultimate page (317) Reese writes,

“I find inherent value in humanity, so my hope is that we do spread out into a universe that sure looks like it is waiting for us to pay it a visit. and I hope that a billion planets each have a billion humans on them, each of whom lives in safety, good health, and prosperity, all empowered to achieve their maximum potential.”

That aspiration sounds great but doesn’t give a path forward. It is very much like my previously published “poster” June 11, 2018, for helping the Universe to self-actualize its potential.

A request to the Universe put into a prayer-like petition.

Reese’s final chapter begins with a problem I coped with independently back on August 31, 2018, where I was trying to make an easily comprehended estimate of how very big the Universe is, to give a feeling for how many potential stars and planets and civilizations there might be in the universe. I chose the Moon for comparison and estimated how many stars there were hidden behind it at any given moment. The answer is fantastically large. Very approximately 200 trillion stars are always behind the Moon as it moves across the sky. Reese wrote a similar estimate but instead of the Moon chose a grain of sand. “Take a single grain of sand and put it on your fingertip. Then extend your arm toward the night sky and try to spot that speck of sand. If you see it, realize that it is blocking your view of thirty thousand galaxies.”

I was saddened by the fact that this fine book had neither source references nor index for the many great ideas and quotations. Fortunately, my hardbound copy of his book does have a signature-style bookbinding so it lies flat when open.

The Fourth Age by Byron Reese is a book that must be read by everyone who aspires to cope with the future.

 

Goldilocks Zone and the Three Bears Zone.

Tags

Extra terrestrial robot zone, Goldilocks zone, Three Bears Zone

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is the source of the astronomical idea of zones of habitation that are just right for carbon-based life forms. That usually boils down to something close to Earth-like planets in orbit around something close to Sun-like stars at just the right distance to maintain liquid water. The just-right zone for life was humorously named the Goldilocks Zone because of a little girl who happened upon a cozy little home inhabited by a pleasant bear family, who happened to be out for a walk, and found some of their accommodations just right for eating, sitting about, and bedding down for a nice snooze.

In my thoughts on how to help the Universe to Self-actualize its potentials, it became obvious that carbon-based life forms were too short-lived and unstable for projects that would take billions of years to complete. Thus it was obvious that more stable forms of long-term actions would be needed and that those could be better accomplished by non-carbon based structures, like computer chips and their larger forms, loosely named robots. These forms of thought and action can be made into identically reproducible machines with identical “thoughts” and could, therefore, be able to carry on with a long-term project and yet could be designed to modify their species’ forms to meet new environments and still maintain a general goal.

A hundred-year goal for humans is almost beyond completing, but a computer-robot-based goal could be maintained for billions of years. People would die if kept in a deep freeze for a hundred years, but a computer-robot could be kept very cold for billions of years and could be revitalized and brought back into action.

Robots could be designed to have an additional ability to function in a much wider range of environments than humans. Carbon-based life forms need an Earth-like Goldilocks zone in order to thrive or even to live for more than a short time. Robots could have a much wider range of functioning zones than humans, and like the three bears who could stand a greater variety of food, living, and sleeping arrangements than Goldilocks, they could thrive better in more varied environments. Too hot, too cold and many other forms of too much this or that. Thus,

The habitable zone for robots is much wider than for carbon-based life and it needs a name like The Three Bears Zone.

Another needed step for self-actualizing the Universe is human interest.

Tags

A Self Actualizing Universe, We can become immortal

So far I haven’t discovered anything about our human quest to help the Universe self-actualize that is physically impossible. Some of the items needed for a robot society may be difficult to make, but if solar-collecting cells can be put in place by robots, and if the solar cells themselves can be made by robot processes, then the electricity for feeding the whole robot society will be available.

Probably all the physical parts needed for that society can be made by robots themselves if we humans go to the effort of setting up the needed equipment. Some of these robot-ready factories may be expensive to make, but they would be far less expensive than manufacturing a human society’s whole technical infrastructure.

The big problem is to find the human motivation to help the universe to advance to its next level of being. That new being would be one that is self-aware enough at the beginning to understand the results of actions it is capable of performing. At its present level of consciousness, everything the Universe does operates by the processes set into motion at the Big Bang, and those have evolved to our present moment where we as thinking and foresightful beings can change the future in local situations. We have free will, even if it is very limited, but the Universe at present has no free will, it just is what it is and does what it does.

But, if we set up a robot society that could exist for the rest of time, it could eventually move throughout the whole and bring into being a state of forethought locally and these local societies could each be in connection with the rest. These processes are very slow by our standards, but the time element is less important to beings with nearly infinite  lifespans.

Humans do have enough consciousness to affect the future, and they do have a consciousness of their ability to affect things in the distant future even after their personal death. Some people accumulate property throughout their lives so they can give it to their children, but they must realize that their children won’t live very long either, and so they hope for their grandchildren to inherit their property. However, after a very few generations, their wealth evaporates into the general chaos of the world. Those who think in longer terms will realize that our whole Earth will in a few billion years be engulfed by our sun and all life will be burned away.

What is being proposed in this series of blog posts is an opportunity for our humanity and us as individuals to create something that will last forever. We are capable of creating a self-sustaining and evolving society that could eventually be vast beyond current belief.

We can not live forever but we can create a Universe that can come close to that ideal and if we create a loving Universe it would love us and our gift forever.