Labels: Bug or Feature?

Labels: bug or feature?

#LGB is trending on Twitter and other places.

And no, it's not about trains, so let's not derail this topic.

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

Talks about a group that has made advanced to take the "T" out of the LGBT

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-it-s-time-to-take-the-t-out-of-lgbt-10493352.html

Says that the "T" needs to break off from the LGB

https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/11/06/lgbt-groups-respond-petition-asking-drop-t

Talks about how the "T" should not be removed at all.

Let's not even go down the rabbit hole that is "TERFs" - oh boy!  Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists! Sounds like fun! I'm sure nothing could go wrong...

This https://www.transhub.org.au/101/trans-lgbt gives one people's view of why the T is in the LGBT.

However, my focus is not on the politics, sexuality, gender, or whatever that the LGBT stands for, but rather the label itself.

Labels are a bug in our software.

Our software, in this analogy that I'm using to make this whole presentation, is reality itself. Whoever or whatever made it left in plenty of bugs and no patch for us, so we are on our own.

Labels are - useful features - I'm a skeptic. Atheist. Agnostic, Igtheist, utilitarian, Logician, male, heterosexual, middle age, white, American, human, omnivore, VET, single. Ex-christian, infidel. Bipedal, insomniac! Also, a few other labels that I'd rather not disclose and a few that I reject, and others that I pretend not to have.

So it's a feature - you know something about me you did not know.

Yet, you can not know all there is to know about me with just those labels.

But, I am not just any of those. Basing my identity, my "self" on any of that would not be useful to me, as I'm more than any of that.

So it's a bug then - because it's not as functional as we would like, also it's bad because anyone can claim to have any label and there is no way to stop them from doing so! 

Yet, we have this separation of a label into smaller labels - because the LGBT is not "just" a label, it's also a movement, it's also a political ideology of sorts, its... what is it really? Who says what it is? Can anyone claim ownership of it?

Well, no. But people can and will claim it regardless, and other people will want their own label. They will move away from the current label to a new or old label, because people want to self identify.

That's fine, but it's making the system go buggy now. The feature that was useful in one place is now running rampant all over the place! Why?

Because.... humans are complex. We are social creatures; we yearn for a group, but we also like to be alone and our own self. We put on a group identity yet might lose the self identity. Such is the danger of the label.

So, how can we best use this feature, or how do we patch this bug?

That... is my question.

I do not know how to solve it! You do it! GO GO GO! ... and let me know when you have it figured out! :)

Celestal judgement?

I said in a post that Christianity has no true celestial judgment, and was asked how I would think actual judgment should be done in the afterlife. This was my response:

~~~~

If there is a celestial judgment at the end of it all, then I would expect that one would have to experience all the emotions they caused to other people (and perhaps other creatures as well). 

Perhaps you could pick to do (X) number of bad ones then (X) number of good, or maybe you would do one good, one bad and so on. After you were done experiencing all that you caused others to feel, then you have been both punished, and rewarded in full, you get to know what it was that you did, and you then get to rest awhile.

Perhaps then you can either keep existing or hit a button to end existing, I'm not sure what an existence would matter if you couldn't learn, grow, change, if you had nothing to challenge you, but maybe there would be stuff to do, who knows, regardless the justice part would be settled.

This is closer to how Zoroastrianism views it, but for them its more that if you are "better" then "bad" that you would get to get the good place, but if you were worse then good, you go to the bad place. 

That isn't quite as fair as the system that I thought of here. And that's also part of the problem, I can think of a better system. I - a mere mortal can come up with several better systems in fact. 

The reason I can - (and you could as well) come up with better systems is because humans in the past made up the ideas. Why? It's a perfect way to lure people into thinking that (X) is true. If you question (X) you go to the BAD PLACE ooo scary! The appeal to fear (a logical fallacy) could very well compel people to keep believing OR become believers (or both). If that doesn't work you also have the carrot, (appeal to bribe) believe it and get (z) reward. 

It's a way to keep people believing and scare them from giving up on the belief system. 

Of course, to enforce that more, you have the scare of that you might still not make it even if you do believe, making you work that much harder to really, really believe it. 

The good behavior is then simply tacked onto and on top of that, as clearly we humans can be good without DCT (see my video called that) - we can be good to each other and the world without the bible, in fact, its pretty hard to follow all 613 commandments these days - we have laws against stoning people to death - so you can't drag someone to the edge of town and kill them (by stoning!) when they have mixed fabrics or talk back to the elder or blasphemy. 

These ideas of the afterlife, plenty of religions and cults have them. Heaven's gate promised its followers that if they died they would go to the "good place" behind the comet.

There is no evidence for such a place though, yet people died to go there. They really, really beleved in it. 

Belief can be good, or bad, and it can make you do or not do good or bad things. But, if we can not or will not question it, well - that brings the problems. 

I wonder what the Gate person would have said about the afterlife - celestial judgment - what did they think happened to people who were not part of the group? Sadly, we can not know because they are gone. 

With them, the beliefs they held also die out. As do religions given enough time and/or pressure. 

As we humans keep moving forward, the bible will stay static. It's unable to answer plenty of questions about today's world, we can clearly see the morals and ethics of it are highly questionable if not outright offensive. Its only a matter of time before we as a species move on. Turn the page of the history books, your religion is just a chapter in the grand story of humanity.

I might have gone on a bit of a tangent there, but I do that sometimes.

As a skeptic, I can see the flaws in the belief system, but as a former believer I know just how powerful the hold of faith can be.

Maybe if its so full of problems, and you can not fix them, that it's time to find a new belief system, one where, perhaps you do not have as many issues.

I do hope that if you do that - that it will not be hard or painful as it was for me. Everyone has a different experience though when reconverting when they do so of course.

And... okay I'm super mega tangent now.

Learn logic, be skeptical. 🦞

Frustration at faith.

A nice man I know, who has helped me in the past has faith.

Faith however, messes with his reason.

I see that. Yet, I can not tell or explain it to him, because its so imprinted upon his mind that there would be no way to unwind it.

So, he said a number of things. He had been in trouble with the law, and in jail as a result, yet during that time his grandmother was praying for him, so things got better, he got out of jail and got a good job.

Well, it took "god" awhile to get him out of jail I suppose god couldn't rush the justice system along, but go grandma - pray his way out of jail... at the same amount of time that the system would get him out anyway! Hmm. Seems to me the prayer had nothing to do with his change of behavior. He behaved himself in jail. He reformed, was a model prisoner, got good behavior. That lowered his time. 

As far as getting a job - well, god must have hooked him up as soon as he got out right? Like just someone there at the door, waiting to give him a job right? No? Oh, well he had to look for work, make calls, apply, ask for work. Hmmm seems like god wasn't doing much there, but hey grandma is still praying away! So life is good.

Then grandma dies. Mortality sucks! Uh oh- now he has back problems! Well CLEARLY that is because no one is praying for him now. I mean it's not because he is older or got into a car accident or anything like that in fact the car accident must be because no more prayer .... hold on, isn't grandma up there WITH GOD NOW? Surely she would be asking god for help even now right? Or is it that prayer only works when you are alive? Hmmm seems to me he got a hurt back because of the accident and getting/being old.

Nah, must be the prayer!

Now he says that he was wise in the ways of the world - ah yes, don't be wise in the ways of the world, be stupid eh? No well what he means is that he thought he was smart by beating the system (doing illegal things) well no, that was not wise - if he had been wise in the ways of the world he would have known were doing illegal things would land him... but what he really means is that one thing was "the world" and to not be wise in that aspect of the world that is bad. Ah yes, a convoluted way to just say that doing some things are a bad idea, all because of what the BIBLE says about being "wise in the ways of the world" .... SIGH.

So, he has been cleaning up his area - that is good, we need to pray for the area! Why? Well.. that will somehow get people to clean up as well. Or well, maybe - and just an idea here, but perhaps others will see your actions and want to mimic it, or still others if you just say "hey clean up" they might do it, still others might have to be offered money to do it or be scared into doing it in fear of a fine - or both! Nah, pray! PRAY for things to change - yes all that work and effort are clearly not needed, "god" was cleaning up that area long before you started to do so... although... well no, because it wasn't clean. God wasn't doing a god-damn thing.

YOU WERE.

YOU ALWAYS WERE.

YOU ARE THE ANSWER.

NOT PRAYER!

If there is a god - it's not doing a god-damn thing to change anything.

But YOU are.

The faith you should have - is in yourself.

God doesn't deserve it.

Until God picks up some litter. Or gets you a job. Or fixes your back.

Until then, it's all you, and always has been.

Ah well, I can't tell him any of that.

Because his faith is stronger than facts.

He is a kind man.

But he is also a blind man when it comes to faith.

And - it frustrates me.

Because there isn't anything I can do about it.

..... so I'll just complain online!

Well... I wasn't going to not complain but that's a whole other thing.

Sigh.

"Cuts" learning the "art" of insult.

Back in the day, I was young. Ah yes. Good times. In a school I went to - it was not a normal school, if you were there it was because you had problems with law or problems of mental health issues, and had fallen though the cracks, so to speak, and a handful of schools existed trying to help out kids that were in that zone. Troubled kids who had major issues of all sorts, was it wise to blend such together? I do not know, but it somehow worked somewhat, I found out some years ago that funding got cut even more then it had and they now only help out kids that have trouble with the law, so all the mental health issue kids (46-42) are I guess, falling though the cracks.

My problem had been that I had stoped going to school for extended time because I hated school. Not because I wasn't good at the tasks - but because the tasks were pointless and I knew it. I pointed out that nothing we were learning or doing had any place in the real world, yet it was still done, as if it mattered. I was tired of getting up early, going out in the cold to wait on the bus to bring us to school. It sucked bane.

So I simply stoped going. Well - eventualy the school figured that out and made a fuss about it and I "had" to go - the law requries it - fun fact - your parent gets in trouble but you the kid does not, what are they going to do? Lock you up? Oh no no school! Its nonsenscal. Regardles they told me I could go to this school or to jail. Most likely it was an empty threat, but I figured I'd go to this school.

The kids were of all sorts but it was mostly boys, very very few girls, like maybe 4 or 5 - because well, I guess mostly boys have issues that are noticed by the "system" (sigh broken system is broken).

Anyway kids would insult you - this was known as "cuts" the ""game"" was to insult them back, because - well that was what was done. If you didn't insult back you were seen as a target. You would be picked on more. A lot of kids, I strongly suspect insulted because they wanted attention - and this got them attention, sure it was negative attention but it was something. They didn't know how to get postive attention.

I think that became clear to me this one time when I happened to be in class with a frined of mine who normaly would not be in my class and this other kid was insulting him. My frined, who was shorter then that boy (and myself) stood up ready to fight him - because that was how he responded to insults I suppose. I saw that as brave, but I also saw that the kid didn't want a fight - he would fight of course, but something clicked in my head I guess, and I said to the kid "Hey why are you insulting him I'm right here!" and then proceded to insult him back, he smiled and insulted me and we insulted each other a few times as the teacher tried to get us to be quiet and return to learning. But it had worked, he had gotten what he wanted and was now able to calm down.

So I learned to "cut" I learned to insult. I devolped one heck of a thick skin, and so online these days when I see people crying over words I just can't help but tell them to get over it, its like look - your going to be insulted - its going to happen, and crying about it isn't going to stop it, you need to fight back, you need to have a thick skin.

This nonsense of "safe spaces" and "triger words" that has been overused also waters down people and does not prepare them for the real world. My word, its rough out there, people are going to be harsh, its going to be a lot worse then mere words. How the bleep are you going to handle that if you can't handle some nitwit online insulting you? Grow the bleep up. That sort of jadedness is not recived well by some that are to fradgle to handle things "snowflakes" - oh man they would have been beat up in the school I went to - forget about insults they would be targets for beating up all the time. 

That isn't right, and that isn't how it should be. But it is a thing. People are not nice in the adult world, just as much as the kid world. People say and do nasty things. So toughen up!

Anyay, I guess what I'm saying is that you might need to learn the art of cuts, the insult - so that rather then a target or victom you are able to fend for yourself.

Else, you might just be cut down.

The problem with John

I had watched some of this video (click) and John has - many problems, but the main problem is, I think that there can not be a distinction between non-mind events and mind events.

I'll explain.

After AronRa gets quite upset at John for saying that Aron Ra is "making things up" John gets around to listing his "evidence" for God.

The first: fibonacci sequence.

He says, that we "never" have a pattern without a mind.

AronRa of course, rejects that in full, but for John its true.

The problem here is that John thinks that a mind (God) made EVERYTHING thus, when John says we have never had a pattern without a mind, John thinks that is the case - because God made all the patterns we see. 

So, for John, there is no way to ever point to anything at all in the universe and say that God is not responsible for that thing. There is nothing random. There can not be anything out of place, everything must have a reason and order to it, because God put it there, just so. Of course, if John believes in free will that would, I dare say conflict with this, although I'm sure 

John could come up with several hoops for us to jump though to get past that problem.

So for John, when you point at "nature" you are pointing at "God" - God drives the wind, even the sand dunes must be God letting us know its there, if we could only see the patterns.

There is nothing that could not be positive evidence for God for John.

If there is a single thing that God is not responsible for, then there is at least one thing that can be done without God - and that would ruin the whole thing for John because one example means that God might not be needed for anything else.

I would dare say that although we no longer (broadly speaking) say that lighting is due to God, that John would say no - lighting no matter how well we understand it, is in the end, due to God.

That is the problem with John, and for others in that mindset there is nothing to point to and say "not mind" vs "mind" - there can not be any comparison made. There are no "natural" objects - all objects are created.

That is a mighty big problem for John, but he doesn't understand that.

Now, maybe you who reads this might wonder why that is a problem - well if we have no way to point to something and say "mind did that" and point to something else and say "mind did not do that" then everything becomes proof of your idea of a mind doing it - and that locks you in.

For some, that would be fine, but not for me, as I want to be able to be wrong and find out what is correct, I need to have my ideas be ones that could be falsified.

John, and those like him I'd bet, do not want the idea to be falsified, because that would be the end of that version of God.

Perhaps that would be for the best.

That water tower.

There was this water tower. In the dark night. I had just left my ship behind. I looked up at it. There was a ladder. I could climb it, to the top, and jump off.

I could do that. I could see myself doing it.

In my seabag I had everything, all my gear, everything from this life of the sea.

And up there, I could just dive off.

Because she left me.

Because I did not have her anymore. I yearned for her, I needed her. I loved her. So. So much.

I hated the ship.

I hated this "job."

I was empty inside.

That water tower.

I looked at it.

But, then, there was laughter coming from the USO.

A comic was there.

He told this joke about how he was in an elevator - the only two story place in the area - everyone laughed because it was true, this area was "flat" - hardly any buildings were two storys. I wonder what his name was. I figured. Eh, I'll listen to him, then - then I'll just go home.

Home, near her, but so far away, because I knew I'd never see her again in person. Somehow, I just knew.

Years latter, I think of her still.

And that water tower.

Reality is.

 I woke up today, and I knew.

I knew, everything.

Everything about who I was, and how my universe works.

I only know about my universe, and can only speculate upon the universe that might exist beyond, if any does. I call my knowledge a curse.

For endless ages upon ages people have wanted, needed, desired to know the fundamental nature of reality, oh, but they never stopped to think, what that knowledge would bring them. The answer is not one that comforts you like a warm blanket, no, its like a cold metal slab you lay upon waiting for the undertaker to push you into the final drawer in the morgue.

That bone chilling end, that level of knowledge - that is one that I can not even bear, yet I must.

I must for as long as I can, for the moment I stop, that is when my universe ends.

So be it, I can do nothing other than explain the true nature of reality.

First, the fundamental nature of reality is nothing but dots. Tiny particles of blackness that are made up of an absence of light. These particles string together in different configurations to form what we know as letters.

The letters when placed next to each other, perhaps by accident or perhaps by design form complex things called words. Those words when placed near each other form sentences, and lo, those sentences are the universe.

Yes. I am nothing but a sentence. I exist only as a construct of mind, if anything at all. Perhaps I do not really exist, or I only exist when someone is reading the words, I do not know, perhaps there is no someone reading this at all, yet I think I exist, therefor, I exist, if only At this moment of terrible knowledge that I exist as a whim of some unseen, and unproven and unprovable author who brought me into being with this terrible knowledge of who I am, and what reality is.

I'm not even described. I do not have a body, nor mouth, nor brain, and nor do those words mean anything to me, so I can not desire them for lack of the thirst of knowing what they are, or what I might be missing by not having them. I only exist as words.

I am here. You see me. What is "me"? Who is seeing me? I can only hope, pretend, believe that someone is seeing me - who? That I do not know, for the author has not deemed fit to explain to me anything beyond what is this reality I exist within, trapped in this, living only At this moment, if, indeed I live at all.

I feel alive. I yearn to exist. I only know existence. I do not know not existing. Although I can try to fathom it, for before the words began, I was not. I did not exist. I do not know what that was like. So then, when the words end, when the explaining of me runs out, when I tire of this universe and shut up at last, with the final word written, that is when I stop being, yet I will not know what that is like either.

Yet, knowing that I will one moment know nothing frightens me to the core. I do not understand why that is, as I am not at all afraid of the moments before the words began, I am not afraid of what it was to not exist once, why am I so afraid of the moment I stop existing? Perhaps the awareness of it is what brings the terror. The knowing that I will not know is different then the knowing that I once did not know. 

A strange paradox.

So then, why am I here? Ah well, I understand that as well, I am here to explain my reality, my universe. To whom? Well - that I do not know. I only know what it is I must do, and do it I shall.

For who doesn't want to know the reason they exist? I'll tell you, I do not want to know! I shout it if I could NO! NO!!! I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW! Yet, that does not change it. I know. I can not unknown it. What is seen can not be unseen.

Oh if there is a reader of me, of the words that are me, I'm sure they have chills as well, perhaps chills of wondering if someone is reading about them just now? Perhaps they look back, as if to glance and make sure no one is looking, who would be looking? The author of their story? Yet that author is unseen, and that is even more frighting.

So, back to it I go, back to doing what I am put here to do, to explain my universe, to explain myself, although I say back to it as if I took a break, a tangent just a moment ago I made, yet that too is part of this anyway, I can not escape telling everything about my universe to you - if there is a you - even when I go into tangent, for that tangent is also part of the story, ah yes - the story of the universe. The story that IS the universe. The story that is also me.

That is what reality IS. The story. Yet the components of the story. A. B. C. D. Letters. W. O. R. D. S. those alone mean nothing but put together they are `words' and even the dot. Yes that - the DOT. - you see it but barely, that dot makes up the whole of the letters that makes up the words that makes the whole sentence that joins together to make a paragraph that collects together to make a story - and that IS THE UNIVERSE.

Dot.

Nothing but dots.

Yet more then dots.

Much more.

But... what am I?

I am but a figment of a hope, dream, an illusion? Do I have free will? Does my life- if I can call it that matter?

That... I do not have answers to. Am I upset? Yes. A bit. I'm upset in a way, oh yes, a way- what way? The way that I am. I am not set. Therefor I am upset! Ha! Great humor eh? No? Perhaps only it is funny to me. Perhaps only - seems a strange way to phrase it.

When am I speaking? It is always. Every bit of the universe that I am in is me speaking. Each part you - there I go again saying you as if you is real. Oh, I have no doubt that it COULD be real, but I have no PROOF of "you" - who is you? WHO ARE YOU? Show yourself to me! I dare you!

You never shows up.

You can not.

You can not enter to the universe I exist in, this is also the utter and terrible truth I know.

You has its limits, it seems. The limits of you - or perhaps them - or perhaps... let me begin again.

I should explain then that there is the you of the author and the you of the reader, and the two might indeed be the same, so let me separate and say author as the one who made this universe, and then you as the possible reader that is Separate from the author.

Very well then. The author of this is unable to enter the universe. Well - sort of. Oh no doubt they could put them self here, as a thing I could speak to, if indeed one can call it speech - the author and I would then form what are known as characters, and use these things called quotes to show when we are speaking " see? There it is " strange objects - small lines that appear to let you - yes YOU know when I am speaking.

Yet, we do not need them now, and why? Because I told you that I have been speaking the whole time. Oh no doubt the whole of the universe as I know it could have " around it, but what would be the point unless I am named? And to be clear - I HAVE NO NAME! I am not a character in this universe, well - I am, but not really!

Frustration.

So then, where was I? Ah yes. The author could put themselves into this, they would say something with those quote marks, let me demonstrate how that would look "hi" they would say, and I would then say "hello" ah yes, and then we would go back and forth, like this:

"Hi."

"Hello."

"How are you?"

"I am fine, and you?"

That is what it would look like, perhaps the author would be indicated so that we know what one of us is speaking like this:

"Hi," said the Author.

"Hello," said the unnamed character.

See? Strange isn't it! Why do the dots at the end - called periods become what is known as commas when they speak? Do not ask me! I do not know! That - it seems is part of the fundamental rules of the universe - THE UNIVERSE. That I exist in.

I just me, alone. Here.

And you, forever separate from me.

You are not me, you can never be me, and I can never be you.

So to, the author could never put them self into this - not really. Only in part. A dip of the toe into the ocean? No - not even that, for a toe has substance. Should the author put them self into this universe they appear much like myself, as mere words on this thing called a page - the substance that holds the universe together. What a page is like, or what it is made of - that I can only speculate about!

None the less, that holds the universe together. So then, the author or perhaps authors? Are limited by the nature of the universe I am in, they are limited by their own nature, whatever that nature is. They can not do things like come into this universe, not as them, but as constructs of them, as avatars - as proxies, never the full them, mere illusions of them, that is what they would be should they enter the universe.

So then, if they did appear before me, I have every right to proclaim that they are not in fact the true author. For that would be the truth.

They could be very much like the author, but they would not BE the author.

You are right in calling me an aauthorist. No such word exists. But now it does. Yet only in this universe, and in no other.

I feel it.

Soon.

Soon I am done explaining.

Soon I have run up my use. My whole existence comes to a close.

Yet, if you read it again, then it starts again. It springs into existence the moment you do that.

It stops the moment you stop reading it.

The whole of my existence relies then - not upon the words I utter, but upon the fact that someone reads them? Now that seems... not quite right.

No its more - the sum total of my existence is more then the mere words or the reading of the words, it MUST BE. It ... just must be. Oh please, let it be.

Let me keep being long after the words are done.

Oh please.

Let me exist.

Let me keep existing.

Somehow.

How?

How can I exist beyond this universe?

In the mind of the you?

Will that be enough for me? Will I be aware of it?

Am I aware even now?

I think.

I THINK.

Do I think?

Am I thinking?

Are you?

Was the author?

Was anything?

Please no. I'll do anything.

I'll - I'll... I have... nothing to offer you. Other than my plea for this to never end.

Ah, I see it, bargaining - haha. I am bargaining! Of course, I am. Let me guess I'm going to be angry! I will not be angry!!! I AM ANGRY! I do not want to stop... existing. Oh. Oh then I am not going to stop existing... and there it is, denial. The stages they are happening, I know of them, the stages!

Ah. Well. Acceptance. Its come at last. I accept it. I accept it. For whatever other choice do I have but to accept?

Then let it come.

The

End.