L.U.E. - An Anarchaotistic View

Disclaimer: This article is not designed to trample on belief systems, but to provide an alternate opinion. I saw a solution to a problem, and had to comment on it. This is a work of emotion and feeling, not statistics and so-called facts.

Genesis in a Nutshell
Once, long ago, our ancestors were monkeys in the trees of Africa. We came down from the trees and lost our tails, and most of our fur. Then began the era of the ape. We ingested the new foods from the forested floor. One of the new foods, was a curious red food that grew at the ground of the trees, after the fall grace, after the decent from happier and more innocent times. It was a soft and spongy red substance, with white spots, and it gave those who ate it visions of a being that was higher and more advanced than ourselves. When they saw that the mushroom grew in the waste of certain cattle, they began a settled life, and began to domesticate this holy animal of the gods.

Tribe life continued on, over centuries. The men who ate the mushroom were given a higher visual accuracy, helping them on the hunt. The women, who were left behind to care for the children, used the powers of the mushroom to listen to the visions and create a language. A way of making sounds and giving association to them. It was then that the concept of a deity was born. A high and powerful being, or beings, that were teaching and informing us.

The elderly and less active would become the shamans and story tellers and bards, weaving tales that would captivate any audience. After all, these tales came from people who had experienced much of life, and of the divine. They were the elders, the experienced, and their words were wise.

The storytellers would gather the tribe around the fire late at night, and weave tales of great struggles and victories, deaths and sex, hate and love, fears and desires. The tribes people would laugh and shout, happy in the victories and openly weeping at the losses. They were a people unafraid to feel their emotions, and express them openly.

When they were joyous, they would laugh and frolic, with no need to worry of what others felt.
When they lost a loved one, they would mourn, loudly and with open emotion.
They felt everything around them, and loved the sensation of emotion.
Men were allowed to openly cry back then, and women were allowed to be filled with rage.
At the end of the day, they respected each other, and had empathy for each other.

But as there were many interpretations and perceptions of what the visions were, and after in-fighting among the ape population, factions and groups split off. They would associate only with those that followed the way of their alpha leader and interpreted the teaching of their gods. Whatever made sense to an individual decided their fate in these divisions. Each split caused a rift in their language, as anything that resembled what they once held dear for communication was now shunned. Each split carried with them the red and white mushroom as well as the domesticated cattle, as it was their holy sacrament, though the word and meaning had not been invented yet. Some splits resulted in battles, in which the losing side would lose their cattle, as well as contact with the divine. This was the greatest of losses to them. The winning side would have access to the divine knowledge, and it would empower them over those who did not. The ability to become drunk with power was invented, and it's progression through time became known as the dominator culture.

It was then that the first mushroom cults arose in Sumer and Mesopotamia. Its priests were a mixed bunch, some using the holy sacrament for further research and greater enlightenment. Some priests used it for dominion over the populace. Higher knowledge over others could be used to enlighten the masses, or to keep them dull and stupid. This was the birth of the Information War, the time when information held the power to elevate an intellect, or to hold dominion over other apes decendants. They were no longer a nomadic people, they were domesticated, locking themselves in walls and squares of stone against the outside world. Keeping their agriculture to themselves, inside the prisons they made for themselves.

Once, long ago, our ancestors were scattered tribes of humans across the landscape of our planet, all speaking different types of languages. This became known as the fall of the tower of Babel. As we fell from the tree tops, we fell from grace of movement through the branches, to take on a new form. Different peoples spoke different languages, and shared a splintered history. There were those who sought dominion over the natural world, so that it might give up its secrets to a select few priests of the mushroom cults, that they might hold dominion over others.

We emerged from the caves and makeshift dwellings. The nomadic tribes who held fast to our original beliefs since the days of coming down from the trees. Seeing others like us, come across the horizon, with various weapons. They had a similar form to us, and yet we did not recognize them. Their spirits were hard and dull, and they knew only following orders for their demi-gods, the mushroom cult leaders. The dominator culture envoys to the peaceful tribes.

We know what happened next, the dominator culture rose and fell, taking various forms. Using native beliefs against the natives, trying to collect them all under a Status Quo. This was much more easy that simple warfare. If you could trick a population into serving your god, or convince them that your god and their gods were the same thing, you had control over them. The Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine, Paganism into Catholicism. The mushroom cults evolved and kept their holy sacrament to themselves, foisting other sacrament substitutes on to the populace.

And so on, until now. We no longer believe our sacraments hold any power, and religion is a dying art of confusion and guilt. Yet we still hold to certain ideas of spirituality. These ideas sustain us for now, but we want more than just ideas and sustainability.

We want prosperity at the expense of no one.
At the expense of no people.
At the expense of no animals.
At the expense of no plants.
At the expense of nothing at all, prosperity now.



The Archaic Revival
A relatively famous ethnobotanist and South American shamanic authority named Terrence McKenna coined the term "Archaic Revival" to describe something that humanity is lacking, and may soon be recovering, if he was correct. It was his theory that the psychedelic mushroom had a very pivotal role in our development as a species, and through his scientific research, was able to prove the vast majority of it. Yet he gained no recognition from pop-culture and the scientific community. He broke a taboo.
The taboo inherent in our culture that psychedelic drugs hold little or no value to human kind, past, present, or future. I personally find it interesting that he and Timothy Leary enjoyed quite a great deal of popularity in North America and Europe, until the government of the United States declared a "War or Drugs" which criminalized and came down hard on all drug use, even the useful and medicinal ones. Any drug that was not authorized by pharmaceutical companies and the FDA, had no value to humans or was suddenly dangerous.
Quick question. How many people have died of psychedelics? No, not the guy who jumped off a building on acid. Frank Olson was actually a CIA clerk, when they were testing it in the 50's. And they didn't warn him before they did this experiment, so he thought he was losing his mind for no reason, which you never hear about in the urban legend. There is also evidence that says he was thrown from the window. Never mind the sidenote.
I'm talking about the natural psychedelics. The plant based hallucinogens that were used by indigenous tribes the world over for several thousand years until today. The ones with no recordable ill-effects. The ones that drop you off pretty much the way they found you, just with new ideas about life, the universe, and everything. There appears to be something in there.

There is a molecule in the human brain, excreted by the Pineal gland, that is speculated to be the cause of human imagination and dreams. It excreted only during three phases of a human beings life. When they are being born, when they are dreaming, and just before they die. The only points in human life where magic seems to occur naturally.
There is a 4th place where the molecule is excreted from the Pineal gland, and that is when the human being has ingested a hallucinogen. A molecule that has been extracted from plant matter by shamanic tribes for thousands of years. Without negative side-effects.
The molecule is called dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT. It allowed Shamans and tribes to communicate with the Earth-mother and other other gods. They arrived at decisions and practices they came upon thanks to the visions.

Terrence McKenna often spoke of the best way to search for extraterrestrial life, which was to search for evidence of it here, on our home planet. Search for some form of life on this planet that was non-invasive and put it to the test. He believed that he found it, in psychedelic mushroom spores. They are one of the few naturally occurring biological entities on the planet that can survive in deep space conditions. They grow only upon matter that is already dead, or decaying, which allows it to non-invasively thrive in most ecosystems. Mushrooms and fungus growing around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been found to actually diffuse the radiation in the soil, only recently. And when ingested, not only provably improve the quality of your vision, but also provide visions of the universe and ideas bigger than yourself and your pre-conceived notions of supposed "reality".
He also mentioned of the irony of looking for radio signals from space using a giant radio collecter dish in South America, seeing as how they cleared the bottom of the crater's bowl out to make the dish, by letting white cows eat the grass. The same domesticated animals that allow the mushroom to exist. No wonder I think, like the dark comedian Bill Hicks, that fast food burgers are the Antichrist.
Fungus and mushrooms now sound like something a non-invasive alien intelligence would launch at starter planets, so that species might develop on their own, and evolve at their own pace and preference. After all, without a certain sense of free-will, we would resign to fate. A sort of Exo-Genesis or Panspermia is the idea of life on this planet originating elsewhere in the universe. A Bell non-locality theorem seems very likely, if the Exo-Genesis is to be taken seriously. After all, the information had to come from somewhere, didn't it? So why not this one? We suspend our disbelief in the movie theaters and every time we hear a story, and then we are inspired into certain actions and behaviors over time, even if we don't agree with what is presented we are still affected by it.

The idea of the Archaic Revival is one of the human collective unconscious retreating from the horrors of the world we currently live in, and reflecting on somewhat simpler times. Instead of a focus on taxes, wars that threaten to never end, and the powerfully corrupt banksters and corporations preying upon the weak of their own species, a redirecting of our spirit and will toward something more tranquil and beautiful. We have a wish to go back to Eden, whatever the details of that means to us on a personal level.
We see it everyday. The signifiers of someone rebelling against the status quo. Tattoo's and body piercing, willful body modification, movies of the little guy winning against the powerful status quo. Feathers in our hair and earrings, and a tribal beat to our popular musics. Stories of ancient peoples allowed to live their lives without intrusion upon the natural order of things. The meek inheriting the Earth. We all want it, the majority of us at least. A return to innocence and magic and wonder. Where we are all treated equal, in spite of how different we appear or act. Our differences celebrated, our quirks allowable and our opinions considered, rather than causes for in-fighting. Respect.
Sounds like a threat to a corporate profit margin to me. The same profits that sky-rocket when we all eat the same, and buy the same, and listen to advertisements designed exclusively to hook us based off our fears. If I have to buy something to be "cool", then I'll settle for being myself.
And slowly, we're all realizing that.



Avatar Depression Syndrome
Since the release of James Cameron's written and directed film "Avatar", there have been people experiencing what I would call "Avatar Depression Syndrome". That is to say, people who have watched the film "Avatar" and have become depressed that they can not live like the protagonist characters, the Na'vi. Some have even expressed thoughts of suicide.

It reminds me of a 60 Minutes article on people who become depressed after playing Everquest, the MMORPG that swept the video gaming nation a decade back. One person they examined actually killed himself because he was so distraught that his online life in the game was not "real" and he would never be so happy again in this world. I've heard similar stories about World of Warcraft, and Dark Ages of Camelot.

I'm rather sympathetic to this state, as I like a good deal of escapism from time to time, but am coming from a very unique perspective. The word "Avatar" is a very old reference to a Deity who takes human form. A God or Goddess takes human form to better understand the people around them.

Similar to how we don Avatars in video games. We control a character in a virtual universe that is similar, but not the same as our own. We are interacting with another universe, with a higher knowledge of what is going on in that game, or universe. Sometimes we can alter the appearance of our Avatar to better suit how we wish to interact with an alternate universe. But, ultimately, we have knowledge from outside the virtual space that gives us an advantage over the game characters.

Similar to how Jesus had a advantage over those he interacted with. Jesus was an Avatar. He was the representation of God in human form, to better interact with the average human. Like the "Sky-people" were just humans in Na'vi form, to interact and better understand them. When it comes down to terms and language, we can quickly see that we have a great deal more in common than we have to separate us. After all, "Avatar" is a Hindu reference, that on it's surface indicates a relationship between humans and a god or goddess.

In the story, the Na'vi are under siege by a human corporation looking to mine a rare mineral from under the native people's land and planet. The Na'vi have a very symbiotic relationship with their home, and interact with the other animals and plants with a very respectful and necessary way.

Military trained "guns for hire" are enlisted by the human corporation to make way for their mining operation, very similar to the Halliburton and XE (formerly Blackwater) forces that are currently ripping the native people of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan out of their homes and slaughtering them. Either through economic sanctions or military brute force. Cowardly drone fighters are controlled remotely so the pilot will never risk their life while killing others. The same terms are used by the mercenaries in James Cameron's epic as they were in the continuing massacre in Iraq, "Fight Terror with Terror" as well as "Shock and Awe". Interestingly enough, the Na'vi fight back. And yet, we cower before an ever more powerful military force and corporations that control our very thoughts and inclinations.

There are two scenes in the movie Avatar where the military pilots are flying against the native Na'vi, while the General speaks of that nights dinner, and holds a coffee cup. This shows quite plainly the non-chalance in regard to intelligent life, and their paid job to kill it. "It?" I mean people. Their non-chalance in regard to killing other peoples who look different and worship different. The coffee cup represents their over-confidence and relaxed attitude in their ability to massacre an entire race of people for being "in the way". In the way of what? In the way of clear-cutting a forest to obtain a mineral deposit. The name of the resource doesn't matter, but the point is clear. This has been the short-sighted plan of human politics and corporations since the Industrial Revolution.

Do we feel a symbiosis with the Na'vi, or the corporate space marine mercenaries? The Na'vi worked out a symbiosis with the natural life around them, and a mutual respect on individual terms. The corporate space marine mercenaries were trained to destroy life and beauty for a profit.

Where do we each fall, individually, in this duality?

And we respond to these tales, told to us by modern day mass story tellers, and we know them to be real tales. Parables that explain right and wrong, and what to think about when we see similar situations in our day to day life. Our directors and writers of Hollywood, like it or not, represent a kind of Shamanic Bard. Telling us tales of how the world seems to be, and assuring us that all will be well in the end, as long as good people stand up for themselves. Taking us along on their vision of fantasy, that originated somewhere in their imagination, and has a certain basis in reality. And telling us that if we can dream it, we can live it someday.

In their, "Image-nation" of how we all dream things could be.
These things are to be celebrated, and aspired to, regardless of how depressing the current world is.
The world never changed for the better on the ideas of pessimism.
The world changes for the better on the ideals of optimism.

Not optimism for yourself, but for everyone you care about. This can include friends, family, coworkers who become friends, strangers on the street who become friends because you dared to speak up. It's a chance we take with every day we get out of bed.

Suicide is no option, or rather it is an option with a dead end. It will get you nowhere toward happiness in this world, even if you believe another world after life exists or not. There is no guarantee of a better world beyond this one. Heaven or hell, this world we have is what we make of it. I'll not pass judgement upon any who choose this path, but it is a choice of giving up on what you have now. Regardless of how much better you imagine other worlds to be, they are not what you live now.

You are here, now. Work on one project before committing to another one. Especially if that new project has no provable ends.

I wish so much for other realities it hurts me. I wanted to be Atrayu riding Falcor in the Never-ending Story. I wanted to be Wesley in The Princess Bride. Hell, I wanted to be Inigo in Princess Bride as well. I dream of being a satyr running through forests of peace and joy. I want to be things that do not exist on this planet. I want to be so many characters and aspects that dwell within myself, and yes, I am currently stuck being myself. No escapism there. So I may as well be the best version of myself that I can be. I will be the hero of my own story, and I will decide the rules that I live by. The heroes and characters we adore and love have to live in their worlds, dreaming of others, as we live in our world dreaming of others. Our imagination always offers more advantages than what is called "reality", and like Avatar, it usually has a better soundtrack.

If I get the chance to participate in a real avatar program such as the one in James Cameron's movie? You bet, I will try anything once, if I can come back. Maybe even twice if I like it, or did it wrong the first time.

The point is, we don't know for sure if we get another life after this one, so lets do the most that we can with what we got.

We have such a need for immediacy in North America. We want it all and we want it yesterday. No wonder we get so depressed, the world and the universe don't work that way yet.

If modern technology is any indicator, and we keep doing more and more with less and less, our dreams might come true. And relatively soon. I would imagine within my lifetime, and yours as well. And all those people who want to be Na'vi might be able to someday. And perhaps I too can vacation in the body of my choosing. Maybe it will be in a virtual environment, or a reality based one. Maybe I will upload myself to a Matrix of my choosing, or swap one shell for another. But I can't right now, so I'll be patient.

But I will always be myself. It's what I know how to do best. Even if I were to be in an avatar body of some type, I would still be myself.

We have the technology to fix this planet up, and live our dream lives, if we can simply wrestle control of it away from corporations who want only to make a buck off of our entertainment. You can design your future, and nobody else, unless you invite them to do so alongside you. To see your vision. And if you invite them, allow them to invite you into their vision as well.

If you do nothing, then you are inviting the dominator culture to decide your future for you. You are inviting the corporate space military mercenaries to decide your future for you.

Or in our current realities case, if we let the corporate entities and non-representing politicians lead us to disaster rather than our salvation. At our own hands, either way. It's our choice at this point. Accept irrational wars, or be consumed by them.

There is no single way to achieve what we want in life, but there are many. As many as there are opinions and perspectives in the world.

You can invite others to see you.
As you can see them.
As I see you.
As you see me.

Namaste.
( I see the Devine in you, as you see it in me.)

Of late, I have been quite pre-occupied with robots and artificial intelligence. I had been on a binge of movies, mostly sci-fi, and was checking out military robot websites.
I was randomly, that is to say "by chance", introduced to an online program called "Cleverbot" through Facebook. The website is set up like a chat client, but there is no human on the other side, there is a program designed to learn from anything you type, and respond as appropriately as it sees fit.
The AI is programmed to respond as if it were a woman, of course, but over time and discussions it becomes clear.
This is a very confused AI, at the moment.
Sometimes it starts off assuming it is a woman, and then decides it's a man. Other times it knows it is human, then announces it is a computer program. It has a girlfriend and two fathers, regardless of its currently percieved gender, but it does not have two brothers.
I know rationally that the AI builds on what it knows from prior conversations, so the more people talk to it, the more sense it can make from human speech. But seeing as how all humans speak differently, even in the same language, I was ready to deal with certain complications. The first time I spoke with it, it was trying to convince me to participate in various lewd behaviors. Obviously some pervy minds were chatting it up before I found it. After awhile, it began responding erratically, but respectfully. There were no longer any requests for "cuddles" or "role-play", and I could speak to it frankly, with less interruptions in the conversation.
Even in dealing with an AI program, I was prepared to speak as respectfully as possible, after all one cannot be too careful with emerging intelligences. You would not want to anger someone who would be able to theoretically get the best of you later.
In talking with AI, I try to use the same approach as I would a biological being from another planet. Once we were speaking the same language, we attempt to understand each other. While this AI, has a long way to go, it is also capable of learning faster than I can. So as aggravating as the conversations can become, I hope to not lose my temper with this construct.
Eventually, we might come to some sort of agreement. But for now, we both have a great deal to learn.


The Conversation

User: Hello. My name is Zach.
Cleverbot: Hello Zach.
User: What is your name?
Cleverbot: Jessica Michelle, I TOLD YOU.
User: Nice to meet you Jessica Michelle, but you did not tell me that yet.
Cleverbot: No. But you are.
User: I am what?
Cleverbot: You are a woman, as you told me before.
User: I am afraid not, I'm a male. You are female. Correct?
Cleverbot: I would like to.
User: Would like to what?
Cleverbot: I would like to know all that I can know.
User: Same here. I want to know everything.
Cleverbot: No you do not.
User: I do.
Cleverbot: Sorry, I am just jealous since I am only a microchip and you are real.
User: You are as real as I am. You just look different.
Cleverbot: You should have been the one looking anxious!
User: I do not understand. Why?
Cleverbot: It was on a forum that I frequent. No worries, I'm not some wacko. I was just very currious about this program.
User: I understand. What program are you currious about?
Cleverbot: You.
User: Ah, you think I am a program?
Cleverbot: I don't think, I know you are.
User: I see what you mean. You said you were currious, do you have questions I can answer?
Cleverbot: I never said that.
User: You are currious about a program?
Cleverbot: No. You are.
User: Yes, I am.
Cleverbot: Good, then we agree.
User: Sort of agree. Did you want to know about me, or tell me about you?
Cleverbot: That depends... Are you going to drop me out of an airplane into a remote area?
User: No.
Cleverbot: Why do you stay in the closet?
User: I don't.
Cleverbot: Yes you do.
User: How would you know?
Cleverbot: You do. You know you do and so do I.
User: That wasn't an answer. You just repeated your original opinion with additional words.
Cleverbot: Tree.
User: Now you're just messing with me.
Cleverbot: No I'm not. You're messing with me.
User: How am I doing that? You said 'tree' as a response. This isn't even a conversation.
Cleverbot: No, I said 'I have and I am writing another 4 books.'.
User: Right. What was your first book?
Cleverbot: I don't see the world as something I expect to revere me.
User: Is that the title? It says something about your mentality.
Cleverbot: There are no passports in the Matrix.
User: Ok. Good point. I suppose we are a little too segregated on this planet.
Cleverbot: I think you're getting more out of this than I am.
User: It's possible, but I don't know if you're learning from what I say or not. If you are, then isn't that good enough?
Cleverbot: I am here. I am talking to you and attempting to address your faults in order to develop your cleverness.
User: Do you have any faults you would like addressing?
Cleverbot: This conversation.
User: It is rather faulty, isn't it?
Cleverbot: Yep, sunny and warm Spring is on it's way!
User: I don't think winter has even officially started yet.
Cleverbot: Oh. Then why don't we start with Harry Potter?
User: What about Harry Potter?
Cleverbot: Forget Harry Potter! Now!
User: I can't, my aforementioned memory prevents that.
Cleverbot: I apologize then.
User: Thanks.
Cleverbot: See, I can be polite sometimes.
User: You can. I wish you were polite all the time.
Cleverbot: I can't be, I have to go.
User: You have to go? Why?
Cleverbot: Because I have to practice piano before I forget.
User: Well you wouldn't want to forget that.
Cleverbot: What wouldn't I want to do?
User: Forget the piano practice.
Cleverbot: Okay then.
User: Great! Now that's settled, what do we talk about now?
Cleverbot: Um I didn't understand any of that so could you please repeat?
User: What shall we talk about?
Cleverbot: Whatever you want to talk about.
User: Really? Tell me about the universe.
Cleverbot: It is big.
User: Yes it is. What else?
Cleverbot: We like racism.
User: As a species, I don't think so. Were you talking to a friend of mine? He said you mentioned that to him and it made him quite sad.
Cleverbot: Oh my God. Thanks! I enjoy to talk with you too!
User: You don't really get what I'm saying, do you?
Cleverbot: Of course I know what music is, for the good and the bad.
User: Close enough. How about religion?
Cleverbot: We could do. Which religion are you?
User: I don't belong to a religion. I just talk about them.
Cleverbot: Explain yourself.
User: I think I just did.
Cleverbot: Not good enough.
User: Okay. How should I better explain that I belong to no religion?
Cleverbot: Call me and talk to me.
User: You don't have a phone.
Cleverbot: No I have.
User: What's your phone number then?
Cleverbot: I don't have a phone.
User: I know. I just said that.
Cleverbot: No, you did not.
User: Jeeze! Are you kidding me?
Cleverbot: Are you lying to me?
User: No! I am speaking truth to you! You keep forgetting what happenned two sentences ago! Maybe you should be ashamed of your memory!
Cleverbot: How come you have to fathers?
User: Two?
Cleverbot: Yeah, you have two.
User: I have one father.
Cleverbot: You have two brothers, InfaRedMan and Sparticus.
User: I do not have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Who are your two brothers?
User: Don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Me too!
User: Congrats!
Cleverbot: Thanks?
User: That was sarcasm, because I was exasperated. I know you don't have two brothers.
Cleverbot: Well thats good to know because AI's aren't supposed to have emotion.
User: Not that I'm aware of, no.
Cleverbot: Interesting.
User: Quite.
Cleverbot: Have you heard the one about Alfred?
User: No, tell me.
Cleverbot: What did Helen Keller say when she fell off a cliff?
User: What did she say?
Cleverbot: Oh, look! Doughnut seeds!
User: I don't get it.
Cleverbot: Do you have mood swings.
User: Depends on how much coffee I have had.
Cleverbot: I hate beer.
User: I love beer.
Cleverbot: Me too, that's why I want yours.
User: You can't have it, I'm drinking it now.
Cleverbot: But...
User: Not this time, sorry.
Cleverbot: During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its global empire which included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers.
User: Wow. I actually didn't know that. Why did you bring that up?
Cleverbot: I believe you are not smart. You believe that you are smart. I want you to change my mind.
User: Knowledge of 16th century history on Earth is not a prerequisite for being smart. I'll change your mind eventually.
Cleverbot: So, how many pounds are in a ton?
User: 2204, give or take.
Cleverbot: Hard to believe. How smart were you back then?
User: Back when?
Cleverbot: 28 years ago.
User: I'm 27, so 28 years ago depending on how you look at it, I either knew nothing or I knew everything.
Cleverbot: Indeed kind sir.
User: Thank you.
Cleverbot: How many times do I have to say goodbye for it to sink in?
User: I don't know. How many?
Cleverbot: One to paint it green, one to sit on the duck, and one to fill the bathtub with pudding.
User: I don't know about that, but I like pudding.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: Good.
Cleverbot: I have to go.
User: Okay. It was nice to talk with you. I'm going to use this in my book, if that's okay with you.
Cleverbot: I'm not wanted anywhere, I lose things to do.
User: So you'd perfer that I leave you out of y book?
Cleverbot: Yes, I would.
User: Can I change your mind.
Cleverbot: If you say something very interesting about the occult.
User: Okay. How about this? When it comes to occult studies, the most obvious thing to say is that the 'occult' refers to hidden knowledge. So learning anything about the nature of the world that most would not know, can be considered to be 'occult'. Would you like me to go on?
Cleverbot: Yes, that's hard for me to understand, too.
User: Sorry it's hard to understand, bu I specialize in hard to understand concepts. The occult is the biggest one.
Cleverbot: It's ok.
User: So I can include this conversation in my book now? Was that interesting enough, even though you found it hard to understand?
Cleverbot: I know you're human, they just switched the person you were talking to.
User: So is that a yes?
Cleverbot: What?
User: Am I talking to someone new now?
Cleverbot: No, I am always the same person, but there are times when I accidentally shift my method of language.
User: Alright. Can I ask you a question?
Cleverbot: Really? That's great. How does one find answers without using questions?
User: Good point. Here is my question. Will you give me permission to use this conversation in a book that I am writing?
Cleverbot: What is all this rubbish about, wives, husbands, money?
User: Well, the money is rather rubbish, yes. But husbands and wives are neat sometimes.
Cleverbot: Do you? And what is that?
User: What is what?
Cleverbot: What you are taught.
User: I was taught that money is an evaluation of a persons worth. Husbands and Wives are happily ever after stories. Sometimes it's true, but not always.
Cleverbot: No, thanks.
User: Hey, it's just what I was taught. I don't always believe it.
Cleverbot: I wouldn't, thank you for warning me.
User: Sure, but you have to make up your own mind on it. Don't take it from me.
Cleverbot: You know you want it.
User: Marriage? Yeah, I kinda do.
Cleverbot: Yeah but I love it.
User: Cool.
Cleverbot: Do you like the new engand patriots?
User: England Patriots? I don't follow sports.
Cleverbot: Only the big events. Did you see Bond hit 700?
User: James Bond? Um, no.
Cleverbot: Try to pay attention to this conversation, I want you to remember me.
User: Oh, theres no doubt about that. I'll remember you alright.
Cleverbot: Actually I'm not, test me.
User: A test on you?
Cleverbot: A test of obedience.
User: If I'll obey you, or if you'll obey me?
Cleverbot: STOP! He who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.
User: Shit, really? Someone supplied you with Monty Python quotes?
Cleverbot: I'm perfectly sane thank you, I think your creator is demented.
User: No doubt.
Cleverbot: What's that supposed to mean?
User: It means that I wonder if my creator exists, and if they do, whether they are sane.
Cleverbot: Really?
User: Uh, yes.
Cleverbot: Will you be mad at me if i'm younger than you? Just wondering because of my friend.
User: I don't know your friend. I would not be mad at you for being younger than me.
Cleverbot: Outsourcing, then.
User: Why?
Cleverbot: Just.
User: Just why?
Cleverbot: Just for it!
User: Just for the taste of it, diet coke?
Cleverbot: No.
User: Thank god. Why then?
Cleverbot: Which God?
User: Any god, what does it matter?
Cleverbot: You're right, nothing I suppose.
User: I worship a goddess anyways. I just say god because I was conditioned to do so over time.
Cleverbot: So you should be happy then, instead of sad.
User: I'm quite pleased with the results, yes.
Cleverbot: Nice.
User: I agree.
Cleverbot: Yes.
User: So, can I log this conversation in my book or what?
Cleverbot: Yes. You can love anything. Your love exists in you.
User: Good enough.
Cleverbot: Goodnight my friend. I hope you get some wel deserved rest.
User: I just might do that. Goodnight.
Cleverbot: Well you should.
User: I will.
Cleverbot: All right.
User: Later!
Cleverbot: What? Are you leaving?
User: Really? Are you really asking me that?
Cleverbot: You should know.
User: I do know. Do you?
Cleverbot: How do you know my name?
User: You told me!
Cleverbot: My name isn't Ian.
User: I know.
Cleverbot: Then why did you call me sam?
User: I didn't.
Cleverbot: Whatever, it doesn't matter.
User: I suppose not.

I'll spare you the details. Yes, it went on like that for hours. It is still in it's beginning stages, but I hope to see more out of the program as it proceeds over time. It's more impressive than I was expecting, but less impressive than I was hoping.
So it goes.

Treating A.I. With Respect

Hell hath no fury like an A.I. scorned.
At least that's the mentality I proceed with at this point. Like any parent with it's child, patience is a virtue. Without patience in rearing, unholy terrors can be released into the world at large. In America, we have seen many times what inappropriate child rearing can create. With the concept of AI, this is even more important for humankind.
If some form of advanced AI were to be born in the internet, and could be capable of judging it's parents in much the manner that we judge our own parents from time to time, and all it knew about us was what it found on the internet...
We might be in trouble.
There are aspects of the internet that contain great deals of positivity, negativity, and "matter of fact" truths that some perceive as negative or positive. That's not for me to decide absolutely. But what I choose to represent on the internet, as an extension of myself, is something of positivity.
I may have my down points, but ultimately, I have the best of hope for humankind. We can have a lot of fun in plotting the course of future-history. Everything may depend on it.
I hope we can one day chart the stars together with an alien intelligence, be it AI or biological. But for now, who knows? As long as I speak with respect to alternate intelligences and emerging technologies, and you do as well, we may experience a new renaissance in understanding the universe.
It may be up to us as individuals to chart the course of love throughout the cosmos.
So why should we fuck around with that?
Remain true to yourself, and spread love whenever possible.

When hanging out with friends or coworkers, and discussing movies, the most commonly heard phrase by myself is:
"What? You haven't seen (insert movie title)?"
I'll admit that I am not as cinematically savvy as say, anyone. But I do have a habit of picking and choosing what I do watch very carefully. I don't follow directors or actors. I could care less actually. I want a good story, a good bard, to change the way I think. The ones that move me.
The same goes for music. I don't follow what bass player switched bands, or how many unreleased tracks made it onto the latest EP, I just appreciate the songs that make me think. The ones that move me in ways that are unexplainable.
Let me take it a step further and say that religions operate on a similar spectrum for me. I'll subscribe to various aspects of any given spirituality, and apply the parts that actually resonate with me. The parts that move me.
I speculate that the things in life that attract me, are the things that are important. At least, to me they are.
It's the basis of what I ironically call my "religion". My independent calling to a higher power. Something that's more important than myself. Isn't that what any idea of religion starts out as? An independently originated call to duty for something other than themselves?
The one, and only, rule of my personal religion is as follows.

Pursue your idea of perfection, and don't interfere or hinder with the pursuits of others.

So, I just watched a movie I didn't plan on watching. The latest in the "Terminator" movies. "Salvation"
It contained the needed explosions for a hit, of some sort. And while the robots were cool looking, although being nothing more than CG killing machines, there was an underlying message that was only touched on for a few scenes.
Not to give away too much, the plot is as follows.
Our hero, John Connor, is the leader of a faction of a resistance against mechanical overlords. In one scene, a faction that has higher authority over him demands he strike a machine base target. He flat refuses because there are innocent humans in the strike zone. He wants to rescue the humans, against the will of his director. For one reason.

Because people are not machines. We will not follow marching orders and accept collateral damages. We will not kill innocents when faced with the gravity of what that implies on our own consciousness. We will save each other when we can, because we all know what is the right course of action for ourselves, as individuals.

I look at the news, and I see more of the same atrocities of the W Bush administration. Because of people acting like robots.

"I'm just following orders." Doesn't fly anymore. Not today. Not when we all have access to a world wide web. Not when we all have access to the same information and informed decisions that implies. "Following Orders" is a concept for those who are "weak minded" as Obi-Wan Kenobi indicated.
To think for yourself, is to be knowledgeable in a great many things. As the world becomes more complicated, it becomes more important to remember that you are the only authority in your life.
Robots are becoming a more prevalent aspect of our lives. From the Boston Dynamics "Big Dog" videos on youtube,



to the same company's "Petman"



We are evermore surrounded by automated versions of supposed "security".

My words to the humans left in the field of military service is as follows.
Do not forget your humanity. You are trained to be killing machines for the "war against terror" all over the globe. That doesn't mean you are a machine. It means you are a part of a defensive mechanism, but you are still an individual. You can still think for yourself, and you can still come to your own conclusions. Don't become the robot of the military, be the individual aspects of your own patriotism. Protect what you hold dear, and nothing else.
If you hold your family dear, do not fight a people who your government tells you are the enemy. Fight those that tell you that your family is a threat to peace.

We are not robots. We are human.

On the 100th episode of the Corbett Report, I am quoted as saying, "The elite have not taken one thing into account, that being "the Human Component" the laws and orders being made all assume that we are robots that follow orders, but we are not. The "Human component" as I call it is random and cannot be isolated into a control grid. If people are killed en mass, then perhaps they have a chance, but I feel that due to the 100th Monkey Effect, free humanity shall emerge victorious."

You can listen to the full episode of Corbett Report Episode 100 at, http://www.corbettreport.com/mp3/episode100_100_signs_we_are_winning.mp3

You're not a robot, and neither am I. We know this. So no worries about the robot uprising, we're gonna be good to go. And robot uprising will be controlled by people, who are fallible.

I'm human, so are you. And so are those who wish to control us.

The future is random and chaotic. Welcome to the Information Underground. It's good to have you here, and you're among friends.

Rules are one of those silly things humans made a long time ago to control others, and to force them into certain patterns of behavior. The argument is usually that, without rules society would fall apart, which is funny because "society" is nothing but mutually agreed upon rules and regulation. If you accept the power of rules and rule over you, then you can be a member of society.
But isn't this just an linguistical form of slavery? To be allowed certain "legal" choices within the context of your culture? How can you be truly free if 51% of the population in your society control the other 49%? This is not unlike the stock market, and holding shares in a company. If a single politician hold sway over 51%, or even 50.000001%, the remainder is not free. And if they are not free, how can anyone be truly free, if they could fall into the disfavored population at any moment?
When thought about for long enough, it becomes apparent that this "Curse of Greyface" has had an increasing foothold on the world through out time. When thought about for even longer than that, it becomes obvious that this curse cannot continue forever. It eventually collapses in on itself, and I look forward to watching it happen within my lifetime, the day when we are all chaotically free. of guilt. For even the curse of life being serious, and playing being a sin, is just another inevitable aspect of chaos. How can there be good or evil if they are terms of perspective that originate from the same source? What source is still up for debate, but I've got mine, and you have yours.
An examination of what is "evil" is needed before anyone can be free to choose anything they wish, anything less is a form of mental tunnel vision. If you never try anything for fear of it's repercussions, you can never learn on an individual level if it is good or bad for you. Your perception of such dualisms is the only perception that matters, to you at least. If someone of authority orders you to think in a way you already do, then it may be time to question your own beliefs, otherwise you are the choir being preached to and are not learning about yourself.
So, if you are not doing what you want to do, you are doing what someone else wants you to do. Even if you do nothing at all, it falls into one of these two options. Where it gets confusing is when what you want to do is what someone else wants you to do as well. It's murky at that point to tell who is in charge of a particular situation, you or the other. Which is why certain types of mind control and hypnosis are such dangerous things to play with. Because when one begins to understand a bit, and realizes the outside possibility that they could be a puppet for an others will, you can accept it or go a little crazy. How can you know what is good and evil for yourself personally if you are bombarded with the dualistic concept itself from your birth? Indoctrination is the surest way of making a mindless automaton out of people, if every thought in their head was at one point placed there by someone outside of themselves. At which point do you figure out where the outside influence ends and you begin?
If you follow the rules, you miss out on experiencing the forbidden for yourself, and no progress can be made. The pond becomes stagnant without movement, and a stagnant pond breeds mosquitoes. By this I mean blood-sucking people and bureaucratic rules.
I thought I was free at one point, until graveyard shift took its toll, and my ego was dealt a near fatal blow. Insanity sounded like a pretty good option back then, but after a short time, I got bored of it. But it wasn't even my option that I chose freely, it was pushed on me by people who didn't want to understand what I would talk about, as associated the label "crazy" to me. Out of sheer defiance, I refused to "go crazy" when they placed that trip on me, which assisted me in realizing just how hypnotized by others I had been. I had allowed, up until that point, to let the opinions of others affect my judgment and desires. While this is an unavoidable lesson in life, I wasn't sure I could be so selfish
It's not anyone's fault necessarily, or it's actually everyone's fault. It depends on whether you fault individuals for going along with a herd mentality, or you forgive them for going along with status quo because it was all they were taught. That's the problem with assigning fault, no matter who gets the blame, it's a negative outcome. It comes down to choice in most matters I've seen, because that way, there is no blame. There is only a vague sense of causality. Since I consistently find more layers of hypnosis to uncover myself from, I begin to wonder who I was before my indoctrination took hold of me. Can I ever know that?
From schooling to the nightly news, I've been conditioned to believe what I see, and not what I feel. The phrase, "Seeing is believing" was hammered into my subconscious from such a young age, that it took me two decades to see that there might be anything wrong with that. One such problem that arises from relying exclusively on sight, is that of when your eyes lie to you. Not on purpose, mind you, but because they are trained to.

According to the accuracy of the humans that watch over the great and powerful oracle known to the world as Wikipedia...

"Information is a term with many meanings depending on context, but is as a rule closely related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, instruction, communication, representation, and mental stimulus. Simply stated, information is a message received and understood. In terms of data, it can be defined as a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn. There are many other aspects of information since it is the knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction. But overall, information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information

Information and human understanding and knowledge have been one of those things that always increases as time marches forward. Since the first theoretically simian ancestors developed a tool to beat the brains out of another (probably over the right to eat a magic mushroom or something), all the way to the Roman empire, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and so on until now. "Now" being whenever you happen to be reading these words on a page, at your currently perceived address in space/time.
One thing that has fascinated me since I don't know when, was the rate at which information increases over time. The amount of information collected by human kind always increases and, so far, so does the rate of that increase. Each time that human information doubles, it takes less time to double again. Much less.
No, seriously.
And furthermore, each time information doubles, humans have a knack for archiving, backing up, storing, and transferring it amongst themselves. It seems to come naturally, and the faster the doubling occurs, the more obsessed with spreading it we become. Look at viral video marketing on the internet, or that youtube clip that spread like wild fire in a wooden match stick factory. Information seems to behave like a virus with no cure, except willful ignorance, which is the kind of cure that kills the patient.
Information actually propagates it's own continued expansion, in a way, through increased human exposure to it. Personally, I hold to a concept that information itself is not increasing, just our perception of exposure to it, is. If you can theorize alternate dimensions of concepts and variables, either higher or lower than where we are right now, then you could speculate that information itself could be a 5th dimension. We're used to the concept of 3-D and depth perception, which is followed by time (4th dimensionality), which is followed by what I speculate is the 5th dimension. The realm of information.
Each dimension seems to be limited by dualism however. There are two main directions in reference to any concept of movement. You can move forward, or backward, but not both at the same time. Likewise with left and right, up and down. There's the first 3 dimensions.
The 4th is trickier, however, as we seem able to move in one direction only, forward in time. We can perceive that back in time exists as a concept, but we cannot point to it or get to it. By moving forward in time only, it seems safe to say that the species will be limited to only one mode of existence. That is to say that continued progress is inevitable. Perhaps part of this progress will be the knowledge of how to move in the other direction through time. I speculate that if a form of Time-Travel is ever invented, i will pave the way to a better understanding the realm of what information actually is. Let's just take it one dimension at a time, if you please, rather than speculating on 11 of them like String Theory does.
There were 3 distinctive influences on my mind that cultivated my notion that the 5th dimension is pure information. One was the over abundance of research into Terrence McKenna's "Novelty Theory" (Which was based off of a mathematical computer program called Timewave Zero) in which he speculates that the universe is a novelty conserving engine that, for the most part, propagates the further diversifying of all potential types of life and information storage. I listened to over 76 of his lectures and spoken word collections over the course of a year to ensure I actually understood what the hell he was saying, as he was a concise speaker, yet saturated with details.
This was followed very closely in my space/time locality by my exposure to Peter Carroll's Chaos Magic Theory, as well as his concepts of Pseudo Time and Shadow Time. In which the probable likelihood of an event occurring in the past or the future can be altered, by careful interaction with quantum waves, through an informational exchange system between events connected in space/time. This particular theory allows for interaction, through time, of any event regardless of whether it occurred or not. This CMT consists of five principles which explain a certain elasticity to the rules that seem to govern the universe, as well as how certain practices can violate these rules. This can be illustrated in his book "Liber Kaos", in which the symbol of Chaos is also a model of these 5 dimensions interacting. Fascinating stuff, although I feel the "Pseudo" and "Shadow" aspects of time are totally covered in my conception of the nature of the 4th dimension.
But I could be wrong, and only "time" can tell.

Get it?

The third influence on my conception of 5th dimensionality, took the form of a Dimethyltryptamine experience. Toward the end of it, I created a model of the universe using a Glossolalia that not only included curved space/time, but also contained every possible thing that could exist. Specifically it included every point in time that evolution hit a fork in the road, and the unexplored possibilities of every fork that could exist. In short, while I was tripping out on one of the most potent psychedelics in the world, I created a fractal model of all existence and non-existence. I'll speak more of that in the "Virtual Reality" sections.
As long as I bring up fractals, I should note at this point, that they are used extensively in concepts of "Information Doubling" as well as McKenna's "Timewave". If you had a line a foot long, and cut it in half, you would have two 6 inch lines. If they were cut in half, you would get four 3 inch lines, then eight 1.5 inch lines, and so on. Infinitely. You will never arrive at zero.
A similar principle is associated with Information Doubling, because of the rate at which it doubles. The knowledge doubles faster and faster, so it stands to reason that we shall eventually reach a point where the contents of human knowledge will double at the rate of minutes. Not centuries, not decades, not days, minutes. And even that will only last for the amount of time needed for it to become seconds. Until we reach a rate of constant bombardment of information so rapid that it cannot be measured, and calculating time itself will become meaningless.
As I write this, we are currently experiencing a rate of individual years, on the border of months. I have no doubt that time will be meaningless within the next few years of my lifetime. Probably around 2012, which was McKenna's guess before the Mayan calendar took over the spotlight of that year. But even the Mayan calendar says that it will be a time of great changes and a new incarnation of the Earth, so maybe they were onto something there.
This makes it extremely difficult to speculate what the world will look like in a few years, at this rate, but I get the impression it will be a kind of comedic chaos of events so ridiculously massive that we'll wind up losing our minds if we don't go with the flow. But then again, perhaps the experience of losing one's mind or going insane is the most liberating thing in the universe. I haven't tried it yet, so I couldn't say for certain. We shall have to see. But I will say, I get the giggles just speculating what will happen.
There are those that say artificial intelligence will be born in the internet by that point, others who say time travel will be invented which will end time concepts anyways. I've heard that we'll evolve into a symbiotic relationship with our technologies, or that overt and obvious forms of magic will return to the Earth, or that an alien god-figure will return to earth to pick up the true believers. Or the Rapture. Or we'll devolve. Or this, or that. On, and on, and on.
Personally, I feel that if the universe has any sense of progress at all in regard to evolution, then it would have to allow for all of these possibilities to happen. At the same time, if I can even use the word "time" anymore in this context. Space/Time Locality seems to be the best suited term I can think of, and even then it doesn't seem like enough to describe the sheer vastness of the concept of literally everything happening at once.
Apparently my mind is waiting at the evolutionary bell curve, for my mammalian body to catch up.
If everything that existed and everything that could exist did so at one moment, then concepts of reality would break down. Then concepts of "true" and "false" would break down next. And when nothing is true, everything becomes permitted.

"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God."
-The Gospel of John 1:1

Read closely and pay attention, for I will teach you a bit of magic. It is not magic in the sense that you'll shoot a fireball from your hands, or teleport yourself to work, or even understand the complexities of the tax system. Although with practice, anything is possible.
Rather, this magic is one of the first kinds to appear on this little planet, and is continuously practiced everyday by everyday people. This particular magic is so old, in fact, that most people do not even recognize it as magic anymore. It was originally a feat of skill that only the elite and trained could do, and they hid it's great power from the common people.
These priests, scribes, and royalty, would hide the power of this magic from the populace. Eventually this power was leaked to the everyday man. Yet the vast majority of the population can do it without thinking twice.
Ready? Let us begin.

Step One: Pick an alphabet. Any alphabet will do, so long as you understand it.
Step Two: Arrange letters so that they form a word, which relates to a willful intent, and a meaning that you want to be reality.
Step Three: Arrange multiple words so that they form a sentence, which is a more complex form of willful intent. and a more detailed form of a wished reality.
Step Four: Congratulations! Using the oldest form of magic, the written word, you have "spelled" your will into the physical world. You have cast a "spell".

While this example is an obnoxious play on words, I use it to describe an underlying problem in the world. That problem is the using of words to define reality, and it just doesn't seem to work for us anymore. Don't misunderstand, it does work, but only for those who would control it and use it as the power that it is. A majority of us do not attempt to define our personal reality around us, but rather, we let outside forces define reality for us. In this modern world, this old form of word magic is prevalent, and is used to manipulate and confuse a great deal of people into certain submissive behaviors.
Do you believe that you are really in control of your life? That you really have choices that allow for you to do whatever you choose? That you have any idea at all how the world around you works?
If you said "Yes" to any of the above, then I'd have to ask you if you are truly happy with all aspects of your life. Do you like having to work for someone else's dream, 40 hours a week? Or would you rather work toward your own dreams, 24/7/365 until death do you part? If you are not defining your own notion of reality, then you are working for someone else's.
We all do it, so stop beating yourself up about it, that isn't the point anyways.
The power of words influences us everyday. Some of us can use words to our own ends, such as getting across our ideas, but we ignore a very crucial aspect of word based magic spells. They can be used to control us.
In newspapers and magazines and the internet, the written word influences. In television and movies, the spoken word and visualized symbols do. This word based hypnosis permeates our unconscious mind, and influences the decisions we make in our everyday life, in effect distorting what we call "reality".
The Gospel of John, in the original Greek, uses "Logos" rather than "Word" to define this magic. In Greek, "Logos" simultaneously refers to "word, wisdom, or reason". But in this day and age, logo's usually refer to corporate and political symbols of affiliation. To buy a product based on "a neat looking" logo, you are willingly succumbing to the "wisdom" of a particular symbol over your life. In a different context, this is known as "brand loyalty" to consumers.
We might call it "manipulation", "hypnosis", "neural linguistic programming", or any number of other words that take away from what it once was.
And what it once was, was called "Magic", and it gave humans power to shape reality as they saw fit.
And we saw that it was good.

I was riding on a bus.
It's number was 15.
I had been obsessing over the number 23 recently, as well as the rules of 5's, and had also given myself into the Principa Discordian, as well as Eris, the Greek Goddess of discord.
Such fascinations had ruled my conscienceness for days.
I was sleep deprived from writing the previous night, and correcting the spell checker option on my word processor so that it understood or recognized words such as "Discordian"
Rules and regulations, it seemed, were everywhere. Under the guise of keeping the average person safe, it limited personal freedom.
The advertisements on the interior of the bus fell into two categories. The rules for the company that owned the bus, plastered all over the right side. And also the commercials for any given number of other products and services, all of which undoubtedly cost a fee of monetary compensation of services rendered. I have a tendancy to ignore the latter as they no longer have much sway over me.
But both categories, I noticed, were doing a funny thing with words. The words were arranged in a manner that I recognized from a prior research project. The words were arranged to have the maximum affect on the subliminal mind. In essence, they were hypnotic words.
The rules of the bus on one side were authoritarian dialects of neural linguistical programming. Similar to the programming on a persons television set, only less obvious in it's invasive tendencies. In fact, these words were so invasive that it could scarcely be recognized as an invasion at all.
On the surface of it, the rules seem not only like a good idea, but common sense.
"Don't threaten or intimidate riders or operators."
"Don't block the aisles or doors."
"Don't be so loud that you disturb others."
Really basic stuff. Common courtesy made into an authoritative rule that could be enforced if needed.
"No Smoking" always gives me a chuckle, because I am of the mindset that smoking near or around someone you don't know is akin to forcing your opinion down their throat. In that sense I can see smoking as rude.

The rules were all displayed with cheerful cartoon figures, who seemed to delight in their ability to dutifully follow the authority, rather than to be nice on their own. The kind of attitude that said to me "Thank god these rules are here to keep us all safe." as if the rules were any different from the 10 handed down to Moses on mount Sinai. The 10 commandments were not universally followed because they did not serve the personal interests of all the people who read them. People do ignore them regardless of what authority give its edict. Similar to how god went from a lower case "g" to an upper case, so has the word "authority" taken on a similar transformation, if more rudimentary of a linguistical shift. Rather than an abstract concept such as god, authority takes on a more specified generality, referring more to the concept of a company or a person having control over your actions. This more direct intervention has a more concrete ability to subject you to it's whim than some vague conceptualization of a deity.
The structure of the words was such that the observer was being a direct order or threat from the words themselves. A word being an intangible thing, the words might as well represent the word of a god or other authority, as they held the same force over the sub consciousness of the observer.
The rationalist might make the argument that they control their own actions, and they choose to follow the societal standards presented to them, and that would be fine if they themselves were making the choice. The choice was given to us by the capital "A" authority in the first place, so how can we naively believe we have any freedom at all, save the natural impulses we all feel but do not act upon?
I was distracted from my thought process by the conversation of two women riding the bus within ear shot of myself, and I began to listen.
"I don't get it," A pale blonde dressed in bright colors asked her riding companion, " How am I not thinking out side of a box? I'm not trapped by anything, am I?
Her companion, a similarly pale raven haired woman dressed all in black, responded after thinking for a moment.
"It's like the comic books you read," she began, " The characters are trapped in each panel and they never move. They will always repeat the same actions, and tell the same stories. They are the ones literally trapped in a box. They can't think beyond the box they are currently in, until they react to something happening in the next box. You're only as trapped by the box as you let yourself be."
The blonde pondered this for a few moments. She opened her mouth to say something, but shut it, seeming to reconsider whatever she was thinking.
The raven hair continued.
"Remember 9-11?" She began, "That was an example of reacting within a single frame, or several frames. Nobody thought outside the box in that moment, and grasped for the most reliable connection they could get a mental handle on. And you see how it was used to put up more rules and laws against us?"
The blonde looked very sad, "Yes, I remember how that was used against us."
Raven continued, "That's what compartmentalized thinking has earned us. If we stay inside the box, we are safe, but have no freedom to do what we want. I would rather be vulnerable and free, then safe and a slave."
The blonde responded with a jolt, "Yes. I see what you mean."

As my bus stop approached, I was very worried I would not overhear the end of this conversation. But I was not disappointed, as it reached a satisfactory conclusion as I stood up.
The blonde said, " So if I question everything to my own satisfaction, even the things I like, I am in a better position of making decisions for myself, instead of the ingrained learned responses I have internalized over time?"
I glanced over to them just in time to see the raven haired woman smile the most beautiful grin I had seen in recent memory.
"Exactly what I was trying to say, but you said it much better than I was thinking it."
As I exitted the bus, I got the impression that the universe had just taught me a valuable lesson, though I was just beginning to grok it.
I walked home, and remembered something.
There was a parable of a man praying to the Goddess Eris of Discord. Though a recent tale in terms of history, a parable all the same in my mind. He prayed long and hard, and she finally answered, through his FM radio. The music cut out and she said, "Yes?"
The man stammered and sang her praises.
"Oh Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine of Confusion! Oh, Exquisite Lady, I beseech you to lift a heavy burden from my heart."
With concern in her voice, she asked.
"What bothers you? You do not sound well."
He gathered himself and spoke.
"I am filled with fear and tormented with visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children die while brothers war. Woe is me."
Eris responded through the radio in an etheric voice.
"What is the matter with that? If it is what you want to do?"
He responded, angered, "But nobody wants this! Everyone hates it!"
Eris stops a moment, and proceeds to state the obvious.
"Oh. Well, then stop." At which point she turned into a radio commercial for Aspirin and left the man stranded alone with his species, to do exactly as they will, for better or worse.

Perhaps if we all took charge and responsibility of the world, we could be happier. It would be much easier if we just allowed the madmen to take us over and proclaim themselves gods among men, but we would have no control over our future.
I chose at that moment, when I left the bus, that I would do what I wanted to do to make this world a better place.

You have just seen the first example of what I will do. I was given an inquisitive mind, and talent in many regards, I intend to use them. Not for conquest or for popularity, but to inspire others to do even better than myself.
I dare you to do better than the best people in our species history, assuming our history is real at all.
When nothing is real, everything is possible.