Quark Cognition: April 2018

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Update on my life.

There is something different about human society and I can't quite figure it out other than the most obvious explanation, which is, there are simply more of us. Since there are more of us, that presents more opportunities for people to split up into groups that have unusual ideas.

Because of how upset I am with humanity, I spend much of my time alone. I focus on science fiction books, video game music and playing my Nintendo Switch. I don't see how I can help human society, so I've decided to ignore humanity and focus on what I enjoy. I will stop for a moment and mention four examples that make me realize humans can't be helped.

1. Flat Earthers - These are people that genuinely believe the Earth is flat. They have the right to propagate their ideas. Any rational society would now allow their ideas to flourish.

2. Creationists - These are people that believe the Earth is around 6,000 years old. Like the Flat Earthers, they have the right to propagate their ideas and even engage in debates. Any rational society would not allow their ideas to flourish.

3. Third Gender - There are people that believe there are more than two genders and that people should have the right to choose their "pronouns". Like the Flat Earthers and the Creationists, they have the right to propagate their ideas, which are supported by colleges and universities. Any rational society would not allow their ideas to flourish.

4. Racist Organizations - There are people that have beliefs that I can't quite define or understand, and the racist, or "hate" groups, fall into that category. Science has shown that race does not exist and there is just one species of human (we most likely killed the others). Like the Flat Earthers, the Creationists and the people that believe in more than two genders, racists have the right to propagate their ideas. Any rational society would not allow their ideas to flourish.

Take note the ordering of my examples. Each example contains a number of people that exceeds the previous example. The first three examples are purely wackos, highly uneducated, and choose to ignore science. The fourth example is the only one that is really a problem, as it contains the largest number of people.

About Me

I am made of particles, known as quarks and electrons, that are at least 13.72 billion years old. Although my body is very young, the constituents are very old and come and go as they please. It's astonishing that individuality exists when each one of us are made of the same basic parts. It's even more astonishing that self-awareness exists, since even objects as simple as paper clips are made of the same parts as human beings.

My body was here before I was born and it will be here after I die.

So while I am in this brief configuration known as life I try to learn as much as possible, since my personality enjoys it. My first fascination in this short life was dinosaurs; I won a Dinosaur Expert Award in kindergarten. For most of my childhood, I read about the Animal Kingdom. I also read more than 100 Choose Your Own Adventure books and numerous other young adult fiction from my school library. Since age 5, I have been reading at a sometimes voracious pace. I didn't start seriously reading science fiction until age 19, though.

My interest in politics is as great as my interest in professional sports and I drink alcohol as often as I get lung surgery. I am heterosexual, but I rarely date women and prefer to read a tale, rather than chase some tail.

Qool Quotes

"The brain, knowing that a person can't live forever in this world, rationalizes a future, or other-dimensional, world in which immortality is possible. In other words, religion is the earliest form of science fiction."
-Philip Jose Farmer (1977)

"Forget Jesus, the stars died so you could be born."
-Lawrence M. Krauss (2009)

"When you ask what are protons and electrons I ought to answer that this question is not a profitable one to ask and does not really have a meaning. The important thing about electrons and protons is not what they are but how they behave - how they move. I can describe the situation by comparing it to a game of chess. In chess, we have various chessmen, kings, knights, pawns and so on. If you ask what a chessmen is, the answer would be that it is a piece of wood, or a piece of ivory, or perhaps just a sign written on a paper, or anything whatever. It does not matter. Each chessmen has a characteristic way of moving and this is all that matters about it. The whole game of chess follows from this way of moving the various chessmen."
-Paul Dirac, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1933

"You will be astonished when I tell you what this curious play of carbon amounts to. A candle will burn some four, five, six, or seven hours. What, then, must be the daily amount of carbon going up into the air in the way of carbonic acid! What a quantity of carbon must go from each of us in respiration! What a wonderful change of carbon must take place under these circumstances of combustion or respiration! A man in twenty-four hours converts as much as seven ounces of carbon into carbonic acid; a milch cow will convert seventy ounces, and a horse seventy-nine ounces, solely by the act of respiration. That is, the horse in twenty-four hours burns seventy-nine ounces of charcoal, or carbon, in his organs of respiration to supply his natural warmth in this way, by the conversion of carbon, not in a free state, but in a state of combination. And what an extraordinary notion this gives us of the alterations going on in our atmosphere. As much as 5,000,000 pounds, or 548 tons, of carbonic acid is formed by respiration in London alone in twenty-four hours. And where does all this go? Up into the air."
-Michael Faraday (1860)

"In modern war, one individual can cause the destruction of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. He could do so by pushing a button; he may not feel the emotional impact of what he is doing, since he does not see, does not know the people whom he kills; it is almost as if his act of pushing the button and their death had no real connection. The same man would probably be incapable of even slapping, not to speak of killing, a helpless person."
-Eric Fromm (1955)

“Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that people don’t have to experience it."
-Max Frisch

Quark Cognition

I may not seem like it, but I am a human.

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Update on my life.

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