Creating Timelines

It's not hard to make a new timeline, any number of small changes in a primary timeline can result in an offshoot. Recreating a timeline though after it's been destroyed is rather difficult. First you have to track down the original spawning event, the genesis. Why did that timeline come into being? Often when a timeline is wiped out it's not completely rather it's more like shattering a glass vase. You can see the base and the first couple events and most of the primary timeline is still bleeding through into it. Once you progress out to where the damage is it's usually too many conflicting events or overlap with other timelines, often you need to create supports for a given event to recreate what was supposed to happen there.

When you've stepped into a destroyed timeline you can see all possible events occurring simultaneously everywhere. Often it looks like one giant blur. There's also bleed through from other timelines happening and certain things just don't behave like you normally expect them to. Sometimes solids behave like gasses or the gravity is different, cars drive on roads that don't exist or weird angles, sometimes even sideways. It's much like a horribly glitched video game. Worse still is the fact that all these things are constantly changing all the time which can make it astoundingly disorienting. Things will change colors, you can feel things moving, shifting, changing, and it makes it hard to balance yourself. Often it's so bad you'll almost immediately vomit and will be sick the entire time you're there until you start to stabilize it. A fact made more difficult by the nature of the timeline you're in. The best option actually is to reinforce the genesis point, think of it if you will as a root. Once you make the genesis a stronger event, making so it's forced to happen can often recreate significant portions of a destroyed timeline. Often timelines are only destroyed as far back as the disrupting event has force. That is to say then that no timeline is ever truly lost, merely pushed aside by a stronger force. Often the natural occurrences of this are due to strong time events on a primary timeline and of course this usually destroys the genesis which is why the whole timeline can be lost. Though it may still be possible to find even in that scenario. Though likely if you're reading this with serious intent then it's because an unnatural disturbance destroyed the timeline in question and you want to know how to fix it. The simple answer to that is to find the epicenter of the disturbance, understand the nature of it and then correct it accordingly. For example if you made too many changing conflicts in an area at a time and it's upset everything then you need to stop yourself from interfering.

It's hard to know exactly what will destabilize a timeline in progress, though it's not hard to disturb a timelines  future it's usually not so destructive to wipe out the entire past of the timeline as well. Though a sudden lack of strong events could be said be said to be one cause in that there's nothing to give the timeline order and thus it just goes wild. Similarly it could be said too many strong events in an area tear it apart. In particular if you're setting up two strong events that essentially conflict with each other by nature they tend to either neutralize each other or have a compound effect neither of which tend to play nicely with the timeline. Often a neutralization event where they cancel each other out works like an implosion sometimes taking out other strong time events which in the end can make a distinctive lack of order in a timeline. While the compound effect is trying to separate the timeline in two when it has no implicit reason to do so as there's no alternative events occurring. This is when it tends to explode and fragment the timeline. A destroyed timeline the closer you get to the disturbance the more fragmented it becomes, with future and past events occurring in the same space at once or out of order.

To my knowledge the only way to fix a broken timeline like that is to reinforce the strongest natural events until they force forward through your event until they override it. Once your destabilization event is essentially erased things tend to simply rebuild themselves. There's so much I just don't know about the process though that I can't say for sure what you're really doing. Nor do I know what happens to the past version of  you in this process. The best option you have really is to just not mess with your own timeline. Additionally if you break a timeline it's probably best you leave it broken as fixing it may cause more problems.

I Broke Reality

I retract my previous statement on time travel not effecting the physical area. In my usual place I use I was just standing around contemplating where I should go when random things started spawning mid air. A plastic bottle cap, a watch, and a penny, all spawning in the same spot then falling to the ground. I actually watched them come into existence after the plastic bottle cap which was the first item to fall in. I was about to dismiss it when the penny appeared and I wasn't sure still so I paid close attention then something substantially larger came through this watch. It's not a particularly fancy watch and it's definitely broken now if it wasn't before. It's not giant but compared to a penny it's a lot more mass to move. I quarantined the section off and haven't made any more jumps as of yet till I know more.

I really hope that it wasn't just all that remains of a fellow time traveler. Though I must say I'm divided in my hope. Is it really better to hope that it was potentially the destabilization of a timeline or that it was simply a person phasing out of existence trying to manipulate time? Timelines come into and out of existence all the time so the deaths of trillions and quadrillions is just the acceptable fact of the 5th dimension. Though it's rare for someone to successfully discover or utilize travel through it from what I have noticed. Making the loss fairly significant in itself. Perhaps it was even some future version of me?

One important note I may have neglected to mention previously is that your central timeline where your strongest anchor is, really is quit important. If you destroy your own timeline it almost always results in instantaneous random jumping if you try to leave. You practically guarantee yourself that you'll be unstuck if that happens. It's arguable as well as to whether or not that's a better thing than allowing yourself to be wiped out with the rest of your timeline, as you most likely deserve if you've destroyed it. Either way sure you might be able to establish new anchors and find a new operating location, but it simply won't be the same.

Which brings me to a topic for another blog post. Recreating lost timelines. In it I'll discuss how to find the ghosts or remnants of older timelines and the dangers involved, as well as how to restore a timeline, however unstable it might be.

Djinn

evil genies
all magic comes at a price

A classic story found around the world is that of the Djinn. While some simply associate them with genies or wish granters of some kind the truth is far more sinister. The Djinn is actually the original genie from which all subsequent wish fulfillment stories come from. The Djinn is also quite the trickster. His story teaches us the dangers of taking shortcuts to getting what we want. He will grant your wish in the most twisted of ways. It's where the popular saying "be careful what you wish for" comes from. It also teaches you to be careful of how you phrase your wish, often the trick is simply knowing how to ask for what you want. Foolishly rushing through a wish leads to unforeseen consequences. So it teaches diligence, due process, and careful planning. The most important thing really is knowing what you really want and what it's worth to you, what you're willing to sacrifice for it.

Simply asking for a million dollars tends to in the case of the monkey's paw kill someone you love for insurance money in a car accident or come from a bank robbery. These strings are only there because you didn't specify how you wanted to get the million. This isn't just a matter of greed either, you're not being punished for being selfish. The Djinn simply works in such a manner that it doesn't like you and will find any way it can to make you regret your wish. In another story where someone is aware of the nature of the Djinn they encounter they try to play it smart. In the end they're forced into making a wish and they give it away to someone else and it still backfires on him even though he didn't make the wish himself because it was his wish. Several other similar stories teach the lesson that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Giving the person exactly what they want but at great moral cost.

The best possible thing you could ever do when meeting a Djinn is to not ask for anything. Just walk away or make a selfless as possible wish if you can't get away for some reason. Be extremely careful and thoughtful in how you make your wish as well and hope for the best. Meeting a Djinn is a curse not a blessing as it would seem at first and you should treat it as such. If I were to ever get such a wish I'd most likely ask for something intangible such as knowledge or wisdom of some kind or a specific skill and the ability to use or apply it. The most likely consequence of this would be simply how I receive this possibly causing me a seizure or being the result of a brain tumor and thus I'd have to be extremely careful in my specific wording after I confirm that I can specify conditions on how I receive my gift.

Remember Djinn in the same way you remember the trojan horse, beware of strangers bearing gifts.

Publishing Poll

 I'm getting ahead of myself in writing. I realize now how many drafts I have, and how slowly I've been publishing. So to bring things back up to speed I'm finishing what I have in draft and will be publishing every other day till my drafts are all out. With that in mind in what order would you want me to publish the following topics.

1.Djinn
2.Karma
3.Changing Reality
4.Intelligent design

or a currently untitled one based on some concepts put forward by Fermi
as to the basic outline of the fermi post it's about how advanced or intelligent life is prone to self destruction as a potential reason why we haven't encountered aliens as of yet, assuming that we actually haven't as of yet.
The others are all fairly obvious by title.

Post the order you want below. I've included number next to the topic to make it quick and easy.
5. for Fermi

And now and edit for my new viewers. Something to pass the time.
The simple yet classic phrase I'm about to write is about the stunning realization of something profound yet simple. The sudden understanding of something great regardless of circumstance and potentially outside of context. There's a substantially greater meaning behind this cute and seemingly innocent or ridiculous verse and it warrants a further look and contemplation.
The line is as follows. "I see, said the blind man to his deaf wife while pissing into the wind, it all comes back to me now." 

Though sadly the phrase has been horribly mutated over the years and much of it's meaning lost, at least it isn't lost completely for those of us that know to look for it. I hope you come to see in it what I do, and understand as I do some of the deeper thoughts hidden within it.

Coming Unstuck

A serious danger I mentioned before about time traveling is the potential to become unstuck. In particular jumping around a lot at one time can really loosen your bonds to the point where you have to actively keep yourself grounded in one place. Once you become completely unstuck it becomes rather difficult to become grounded again as you've lost your anchor as it were. Sometimes luck will pull you back to a timeline that's naturally pulling you to begin with.

I happened to lose my control not so long ago and got pulled into a different timeline, suffice to say I was more than a little freaked out. It turned out to be just last year 2011, and it was a timeline I'd never been to before but apparently is quite close in proximity to mine or an offshoot. Interestingly though it was a timeline where I hadn't existed, something that I'd eventually expected to find but this was a first experience. My current thought is the version of myself in that timeline wiped himself out from it and the end result was the timeline now having a substantial void tried to correct this by pulling me from somewhere else. Though in talking to people I expected to know me apparently there weren't any shadows left and I was just a complete stranger to everyone. The whole experience though was very weird still, there was just something off about the way everyone behaved. I was partially inclined to believe it might have been a strange dream if it weren't for the fact I was awake when it happened.

The important thing I had to remember though was jumping away would be dangerous at that point, lest I destabilize myself further and become unstuck. So I stick around and interact, see just how different things are. I got to see some people that were dead in my timeline which was nice. Then after a few weeks I popped out back here. I've been to timelines before where I was dead, and attended my own funeral, and those are always interesting. Though they don't compare to a timeline where you just don't exist. Though this also brings up another good topic of meeting yourself. Like I mentioned before it's no big deal, but if you're trying to be more inconspicuous rather than coming off insane I suggest having a prepared back story. Usually a fake name will do but be prepared to answer some standard questions like where you're from and who your parents were. Be sure it's something you've rehearsed well, it helps if it's true for somebody you know in your timeline. Try to stick to the same one so it's easier to remember all the details if you're in an area for an extended time. Once you meet yourself one of you will probably want to hang out for a while and show you to their friends.

All this having been said, if you do come unstuck always try to return to your point of origin. Usually your last anchor is the strongest and is you best chance for return. Once you're back, you have to stick around for a few weeks without jumping and actively keeping yourself in one place for everything to settle down. It also helps if you actually stay in one physical location as much as possible, which you'll feel like doing anyway because it can be very disorienting when you're not in control, and will make you very dizzy while moving around. Be sure to eat plenty wherever you end up though, you might puke it back up but the more you immerse yourself in a world the more anchored to it you are. My personal suggestion is lots of fruits, like oranges, bananas, and apples. If the timeline you're on doesn't have these things stick to anything with decent citrus, iron, sugar, or protein, and plenty of liquids. So far the one thing I've found to be on almost every timeline is star fruit and I would suggest it as a last recommendation beyond that there isn't anything specific I can say works well. Sometimes fish helps, sometimes it doesn't, and I haven't narrowed it down to any specific kind of fish, so it depends on timeline really.

As to the warning signs of becoming unstuck, it's the apparent loss of time, you think it's a few second but it's been a few hours, and in truth it's both, in the process of coming unstuck you can wildly move through time within your existing line. This is both forward and backward though so be warned. When you start jumping lines it always starts in the extremities, you'll feel it in your fingers and toes first and by then it's too late all you can do is brace yourself. You usually get pulled to a nearby timeline or a different time where you have a stronger natural pull, often it's places you've been before or somewhere in your natural timeline. And my last piece of advice is stay away from physical locations you've jumped to or from before, the zones themselves are easier to jump through but it's for that very reason they're also easy to become unstuck in. I haven't heard of a zone itself ever becoming unstuck so you don't have to worry about people accidentally jumping with your or after you or something, but the more you use a given location the easier it becomes in that location so I'm not sure if it's just a weird psychological thing or if you're actually effecting the world in the process.

I'm also taking the opportunity to revise a previous statement, that while you could bring simple objects you couldn't bring complex ones, well I accidentally came back with a cell phone from a different timeline recently and now I'm starting to think I can bring back a lot more. Though I doubt I'll be trying to bring back much it definitely warrants further testing.

Obsession, Dedication, Passion

Three subtly different ways to describe the same thing which isn't a thing at all really. They're the three key words I use when I talk about my love for video games in both making and playing them. First and foremost a Game developer must be dedicated, in more than one way but above all else they must be dedicated to themselves. As narcissistic as that may sound it is the truth, one of the greatest downfalls of developers is the urge to just give up and let it all go. If you don't dedicate yourself to accomplishing the task and then rededicate yourself to your own cause you'll simply drown in self doubt. You must also be passionate as if you don't love what you do and believe in then you can't possibly dedicate yourself fully to it there will always be something else you're holding on to that will keep you from being your best. Then there's obsession. You must have some kind of obsession to make a game, a deep longing that can't be filled an almost romantic desire for something unattainable. Conversely it may also be a deep seeded loathing though I advise against that route unless your game is intended to be potently violent on degrees that would put manhunt to shame.

I recently wrote on the topic of recognizing passion, what it is and how to know it when you see it. Though the second half of that is still in draft. I'll briefly discuss dedication and obsession. Dedication is a willful state in which you're compelling yourself to something be it love, revenge, a task, or any number of other things. Unlike obsession it takes focus to dedicate yourself and is more of a tool to be used than an entity that can consume you. The downside of dedication is sometimes it's hefty price as not all are prepared to handle all the strings than can come with it. The mental fortitude necessary to sustain yourself in your pursuit can often cut you off from things without even noticing which in part is it's power though also making it a double edged sword.

On the topic of obsession however it's quite the opposite. It's a part of your body and mind to the point it guides you without even considering it directly. If you don't keep it in check it can easily consume you completely and beyond that point your dedication is to your obsession and essentially wish fulfillment of whatever your obsession is. Though often even if you succeed your obsession doesn't just go away it will always crave more. Truly it is a beast. Though that's not to say it's without use, regardless of how dangerous it can be, it can easily be trained to do your bidding and all that you need beyond that is a leash to reel it in when you need to. It can make for an excellent guide and is exceptional at getting you exactly what you want if you respect it's power.

Balance these three parts of your life and it's only a matter of time before you find a way to make any dream come true in at least some fashion.

Recognizing Passion part 1

There are so many things in this world to be passionate about and so many ways to express it. Our connections with all these passions in our lives help shape us and can be critical to our actions under pressure. Today I'm not talking about romantic passion rather self dedication to the extent that it becomes integral to your life. It pervades your every thought and bleeds through in everything you do. For some of us it's a song in our heart that guides us and calms us, helps us focus. Some of us think about our favorite character form a movie or a book, even still some of use  use games. I for one am inseparable from my love of games. When I'm under pressure it's my go to option for some kind of solution. That doesn't mean I break one out and start playing. It means I think about a character or story, or perhaps something greater like the underlying mechanics, textures, models, and how they were made. Sometimes I consider the motivations of their design and that helps. The point is most people have some kind of passion, at least one if not more and those passions are more important to us than many realize.

Some would suggest that passion at it's core is suffering and pain, an anguish solidified through an unsatisfied or unrequited love, something which I believe has quite a bit of merit. Ultimately I realize one of the reasons I love games so much is the infinite potential constantly squandered or even crushed by the need for monetary profit. Knowing what can be done and how it's barely out of reach kills me a little every time and yet I get to spend time with what I love filling that particular void in my life. Though I also understand it's really impossible to ever completely finish developing a game, there's always more as I've learned the hard way, and the hardest part really is just knowing when to let go and share it with the world. Coupled with the anxiety of release and the hope for acceptance it's just to a point where you have to detach yourself because there's no preparing for the inevitable hate mail regardless of success. There will always be someone somewhere that simply dedicates themselves to making sure you know just how much they hate everything about you and what you've made.

Back on target though passion really shares more with love than pain. There's just no other kind of satisfaction as strong as seeing what you've accomplished either as a player or a dev. Being able to immerse yourself and exist in ways that simply aren't possible in standard reality. That sense of community through shared experiences or actively playing with someone else in your fantasy that only others like you could ever understand. It feels like family almost, and it's such a large family at that. Not to mention all the times that's it's really there for you when you really need it the most, to just relax or find relief, even if only for a little while or for a whole vacation. While some individual games may disappoint you gaming as a whole will never let you down. It won't tell you no or give you some excuse why you can't play right now. For that matter as one site would have you believe it actually misses you while you're away even if only to sleep and it is more excited than you are when you make great accomplishments. In the end a great game can share at least one perfect experience with you completely and you'll have experienced that moment where the whole world slips away and you are a part of that world completely. The precious moments you have in that time will stick with you forever.

Gaming Philosophy - Player Side

Unlike my last GP this one is not about philosophy as a dev but as a player. Some people play for the fun of it, some to win, some to pass the time, and many others. Aside from the reason you play there are underlying points of interest to consider. I find it a bit fun to try and figure out how some of the devs programmed certain features or functions and what their thought process was for coming up with it to begin with. Then there's all sorts of interesting tid bits of information that inexplicably stay with me or get me interested enough to learn more. One small example of this is I didn't know what a jetty was before I played the first fable so many years ago. I remember looking up the definition to find out what it meant and I've remembered ever since.

Sometimes these things are actually useful outside of games, other times they can start arguments until someone stops to check online. I'd love to point out how my gaming knowledge has gotten me dates before but that's usually because of my knowledge of games rather than knowledge gained from games. I remember one date though I could have attributed to dante's inferno had it not been for the fact I'd previously read all 3 parts of the manuscript as well as for some reason knowing a strange amount about catholic beliefs in spite of the fact that I'm not catholic nor is anyone I happen to associate with to my current knowledge. However I'll tell it to you anyway because it may come in handy given it's related to a not uncommon saying. I was asking my friend if he'd be okay with me going out on a date with his cousin and while he approved he added it'd be a cold day in hell before she'd go out with me, to which I reply "then today is that day". Upon approaching her she told me "when hell freezes over" and once again I laugh and I might have given up there had she not been so half-hearted about saying it and the fact I'd already thought about a precise way around that particular line. Again had she had more conviction I might've believed she seriously didn't want to be bothered, so I then proceed to inquire their knowledge of the 9th circle of hell. Believed to be completely made of ice and reserved only for the most evil of sinners the traitors as satan's wings flap trying to free himself his gusts freeze the land and the sinners in it. This little factoid isn't uncommon knowledge either I imagine however I would suggest that many people were reminded of it if they recently played the game based on the manuscript. This follow through and somewhat witty retort was enough that she changed her mind and decided to go out on a date with me. This isn't a manner of pestering or overt persistence to which she gave in out of frustration she seemed pleasantly surprised and offered to go out if I wasn't too discouraged.

What I'm essentially leading to is games can teach you many interesting things some of which have practical applications. I would encourage you to analyze your favorite games and try to understand why they're your favorites. There's a lot to surprise you if you know how to look and you'd be surprised at how many things rub off on you when you're not paying attention. I've seen people pick up new mannerisms and speech patterns without even realizing it after playing particular games for prolonged periods of time.

As to a short explanation why I haven't posted in a while I've been super busy trying to get one of my games published only to realize just how many people I need to buy licensees from for things I used and all the percentages of revenue they want as well. Looks like I'm going to have to re-work a few things to cut them all out as much as I can. More details in my other blog.

You are an open book. The question is who's reading you?

Today I try to tell you a little about how your body gives away your every thought. Everyone no matter what they are doing are telling you their every thought constantly if you know what and how to look for. Your every thought courses through all the muscles in your body and the collective subtle alterations and differences say a lot more than you would think. Picture the muscles under the skin. Consider how they move and react, not just in thought or control but also to context and environment. There's a subtle difference in how a body reacts to a thought, and it's separate from how they're imprinted and yet different still from their independent states and the secondary thought processes your conscious mind doesn't actively consider.

The easiest way I can think to explain it is two cars traveling in the same direction. They're overlapping occupying the same space and one is a different color, both are clearly visible in spite of how impossible the thought is. They are separate and yet not indifferent in spite of any subtle differences there may be between the two.

I was watching someone read a book. I knew definitively, precisely, exactly how they felt about it. I confirmed this shortly after my observation. I was reading their every reaction, however subtle it may be. I could see how she derived pleasure from it, yet felt guilty about it, and even a certain level of contempt and disgust for the content in spite of her craving to continue. The way her face ever so gently would shift, as her jaw would slack but her cheeks would tighten, not in compensation mind you. Then the way her lips would move and her eyebrows adjusted. A slight tremor in her arm from shock and horror yet a resonation within her of acceptance, something she tried to hide only making it worse. Whatever she was reading was clearly a dark fantasy of hers to be sure. Which I was more than happy to exploit as a perfect conversation starter.

Be mindful of your thoughts lest they betray you.

Impossible Is Not

You can not simply discredit the impossible from logic or reason in a traditional sense. This is particularly true as we move into the future where technology and advancements in science negate traditionally accepted rules of reality as commonly perceived. Impossible is only such until it is not. While we like to think we're smart and we've come a long way, many things we say are impossible today will one day be proven to be much more than possible.  You must keep an open mind to the truth as it is never impossible, and thus any true search for truth will always yield truthful results which may sometimes result in the discovery that previously held assumptions or deductions may be wrong and that which was considered impossible is no longer such.

A Potential Future

Much how certain technologies adapt in such a way that only a generation or two in and people can't imagine life before these things we now take for granted I surmise that future technologies will come in a similar fashion. Once we marveled at the fridge, the microwave, the toaster, washers, dryers, dish washers, air conditioning, computers, lasers, light bulbs, and so much more yet just a century ago a majority of these things either didn't exist or were extremely new. Just as phones and cars have become indispensable I have seen some potentials that would more than rival such inventions. Among them is organic metals and something I can't entirely describe but the closest existing thing would have to be electro magnets. Organic metals would do more than create the first cyborgs, organic computers and man machine interfaces they would revolutionize the creation and maintenance of all known kinds of materials. It would change so much in so many ways and literally be everywhere to the point that considering a time before it would be tantamount to blasphemy. Imagine everything you use, touch, sit on, work with, and much more all made from the exact same material yet it's so versatile you'd almost never guess. A small electrical current provided by your body bends it to your every will turning it into a vehicle, a couch, a stove, a fork, a writing utensil, or nearly anything else you can imagine and it is self cleaning and repairing making it so you have no maintenance to worry about ever. This isn't some utopian fantasy it's a tech I've seen first hand and it's one potential future we may have under the right conditions.

Then there's this object relation tech which is as best I can describe it. It produces a field similar to a magnetic field and it can be manipulated to alter object relationships creating attraction and repulsion in complex forms, such as limited attraction and repulsion or in strange directions. It apparently changes inherit properties of objects passing through its field and can do some uniquely interesting things. I've seen it extract iron from rock without damaging the rock at all, and then reshape the iron into bars and balls without heat or melting. I've also seen it remove cancer which was quite remarkable, as well as making vehicles levitate, and so much more. This tech could be applied to just about anything and seem like a miracle, though I imagine it could easily be a weapon which is why it should be held back until it won't be needed as one.

The interesting part from what I've seen really isn't how much the world changes, or how much it doesn't change, it's how alien everything ends up seeming. throughout the majority of the past that includes humans things are relatively similar among most timelines. As I move further out though the more different things become.

For today's time traveling advice I highly advise not eating food prior the 1920's and preferably as little as you can in foreign timelines. Some of it will kill you as expected but almost all of it will make you sick. This is because things are radically different in terms of the kinds of bacteria that exist in that time and health standards etc, not to mention flora and fauna or the dozens of other factors involved. And if you're going back to the early days of humanity or back further I recommend an environmental suit from the future preferably one that's heavily armored. The centipedes  that exist in the age of dinosaurs are the size of anacondas and they are vicious. Not to mention the oxygen content is so much higher it makes it hard to breathe properly.

What if reality is only the collective concious?

I was considering an idea today that reality might be so subjective because it simply doesn't exist? What if what we consider to be reality truly is only a construct of the collective conscious. This would explain a lot of things not to mention how an idea can become so viral and how I have such freedom to move about as I please though supposed time as I'm still trapped inside a large box as it were.

This is assuming that there is more than one consciousness to begin with. In my experience a lot of timelines are extremely similar, essentially instances of another with no wasted resources it's like seeing a particular alignment of quantum states which may not actually be aligned that way. What if what I'm seeing is really all just is in my head and there are no other time lines? Objects can be configured and oriented in a multitude of ways and in theory are constantly shifting which suggests that all states are occurring simultaneously which means "time travel" as it were is merely aligning your consciousness to a particular configuration or orientation thereby your perception is of that form, a fact which is sustained by an additional theory that all atoms exist in 3 separate locations simultaneously. So in that point you have translocation and quantum state which is effectively the minimum for perceived time travel, not accounting for decay which may or may not exist as related to the subject.

If the collective is indeed more than one then is it possible to shift reality by shifting collective belief? If I could completely convince the greater majority that gravity doesn't exist and show a sound idea or theory would it be possible then that it would become actual truth? That is to say that perceived truth is not actual truth, just because you deny the existence of something does not mean it doesn't exist, but would it be possible that if the collective denied the existence of something that it could in fact eventually not exist? Not in the sense that they ignore it as they would have to acknowledge it to deny it but in the sense that it's completely wiped from their mind and evidence that points to it or suggests it is also removed, could then reality alter to accommodate?

If we could reshape reality, what should we reshape it to, assuming that there is room for improvement?

How I First Time Traveled

They say your dreams are actually memories from a different life. Though the greater majority of my dreams have been of the future. I then realized I had a link to an alternate timeline. It was only a matter of time before I followed the link to the other side. I immediately decided the first thing I should do is test traditional paradoxes and introduced myself to my double who was apparently expecting me. As it would turn out though I'm not in every timeline, and I'm not sure yet if it's because all versions of me are floating around the timelines or I simply don't always exist. From what I've seen there's only a small handful of places that remain stable across even timelines, which is to say if I'm jumping between places in the same year or equivalent not much stays the same and it only gets worse the further away you travel time wise.

We were both pretty happy the universe didn't collapse when it happened though then came the question what else might not happen. Grandfather paradox? myth busted, similar actions produce similar results, I replaced dear old grandpa and I was still born which was also nice. I haven't had the nerve yet to actually try killing myself though. Past self that is, not future self, not sure if that'd be worth anything. Killing the alternate self in the past did kill the alternate in the present so I went back and stopped myself to restore it after the fact so I assume the same would apply to myself. Though given I'm essentially unstuck I'm not sure what would actually happen...

After my short time of insane activity where I went crazy and had all my fun I began to realize the obvious truth that every action has consequences, apparently it just hadn't clicked with me until that point. After that I turned into an observer of sorts for a while then began making calculated actions to change certain futures, essentially testing the limits of my new found power. I found why perfection is unattainable in the process. You can't make perfection from chaos, the very nature of it doesn't like organization and in my attempts to construct a perfect world I collapsed the entire timeline because it didn't like what I was doing apparently. It wasn't just happenstance either I collapsed several timelines in my efforts causing me to give up. I later realized the waveforms I mentioned before and then realized how unnatural actions alter waveforms and are actually detectable which has allowed me to identify fellow time travelers. Apparently we each have very specific frequencies we resonate at which means I can do more than find out if there was a time traveler involved I can find out which one it was and in what order their events happen through decay making it easier to track them and figure out what they're doing.

One interesting case I refer to so far as Orange G6 caused an event, then stopped a subsequent event to go back and recreate another supporting event to construct an entirely new and more substantial event. It was similar to an organized butterfly event which I've found doesn't normally happen naturally. The important thing about this was that if he'd forced the event outright it might've collapsed or imploded naturally without support and would've seriously destabilized the timeline but by tricking it into happening naturally it actually enforces the timeline and the supports were already constructed from the event which then become basically verified or enforced by the new larger event. It was a pure moment of genius. These days I'm jumping around like crazy trying to track specific events beginning to end and finding the most opportune times to make the slightest alterations. Dare I say I might learn just how to organize these kinds of events myself. My knowledge and practice in stopping strong events is what will enable me to create them as well without collapsing a timeline. Perhaps then I might learn to create a better timeline beginning to end and get a step closer to that perfection I want to see for myself just once.

On a final side note, momentum is a tricky thing when dealing with time. If you try to exit a stopped time while moving and resume it tends to compound things, turns out I can jump absurdly far by swinging in and out of time. Not something I suggest doing without lots of planning ahead of time. Great idea for space travel though.

Security - Access Restriction

While the best security is often stenography aka security through obscurity, it becomes irrelevant if someone knows what to look for or how. It doesn't matter if you keep your gun in a book if they know it's in a book at all. Similar rules apply that if something well hidden is known about to begin with that whatever is used to hide it becomes irrelevant. Security is only as strong as its weakest link which becomes a downfall of supposedly impenetrable security systems. What good is a biometric scanner if all it really takes to open the door is two wires?

The best method I've found in designing security is like a bomb you never want to be defused, something designed to never be bypassed. Essentially you're designing it so that if the wrong person ever tries to get through then nobody ever will again. Multiple stages, lots of redundancy and essentially barriers to entry. Take for example some of the newer biometric scanners. They can scan a wide array of things and then interpret them to a series of electrical signals and thus if the sequence is out of order or at the wrong frequency the locks won't disengage and the door remains shut. Simply put the best security is the one that makes it hard for even you to get through.

I apply this principal with my digital files of extremely sensitive nature. I encrypt my drive then encrypt each folder and or file as an extra layer of security. For important files I split them and hide them inside other files, making it so that even if you find that some files are hidden recovering all the parts becomes very difficult. I had to devise an entire procedure to remember how to formulate a password for a given file, meaning that no two files use the same password, yet another layer of security. For some of my most absurdly secure files it can take almost an hour to recover them. Though obviously this isn't something you do on a regular basis, these are the high level things you don't want anyone to ever have access to and it's a small price to pay for that kind of security.

For those of you more interested in keeping your wallet safe than your hard drive there's plenty of options out there. There's hidden wall plates you can buy that flip out making it a good place to store something as nobody thinks to check the outlets or switches in the house and even so they'd have to pull the plates off to know for sure if anything is there from the existing wires. This works better than just behind the wall as then you have to do drywall every time you want to get to it and if it's metal it stands out with a metal detector. The concept to this is that anybody that knows what they're doing is going to check under your mattress but they might not check inside it, if it's harder for you to get to then it's harder for them to get to and the harder for you the substantially harder for them. Remember though that it doesn't matter how clever you are if they know where it is too. That's why I like things like a false bottom to a floor safe and then an additional safe under it for the real storage. This added level of security makes it so time consuming it loses value to whoever is trying to get what you have and that's only if they don't give up after finding your first safe empty or only minor value things. I like to keep a few dollars and maybe an important looking file of garbage in the first safe so they don't suspect another safe and they feel like they walk away with something worth the effort. This way they're less inclined to come back.

So a quick recap. Redundancy, obscurity, small rewards, and increased difficulty and time are important parts in designing a security system to keep people out as long as possible or convince them to quit early. Combined effectively the chance anyone gets to what you really care about becomes smaller and smaller and the length of time required to get to it increases making their overall chance of success drop substantially to a point in which it becomes more likely they'll be interrupted or discovered. Once they've been found out what they were after becomes irrelevant to them wanting to get away in most cases.

The Option of Death

I'm having hard time finding a movie I'd heard about that has an interesting concept I wanted to explore. People seem to point me in the direction of veronika decides to die or something like that and it's not it. The story is about an immortal that simply chooses to die, electing to end their life even though there hadn't been a single reported death in over a millenia according to the story.

Imagine then if we really all were immortal, disregarding the insane number of problems that come with it we'll assume everyone stays young and healthy and that it doesn't overstress the world in any way and that nothing can kill anyone. With death at that point being entirely optional would you elect to die? If so how long would you really want to live?

There are those that say death brings meaning to life. I agree, though I also say life is too short. I for one wouldn't ask for too much more time, perhaps an additional century at most. Which reminds me of an old article I'd read about, a man from china who was said to have lived for over 200 years. If you're interested and want to know more google Li Ching Yuen. I can only fathom what I could accomplish in such time, though I know I would need all that time to do it as well.

I'm only half way through my twenties and already it seems like the days are flying by, it's coming winter and I barely remember spring. I can only imagine what life will be like when I'm twice as old, assuming I'm lucky enough to live that long as we unfortunately all know life has sudden endings when we least expect them. In a final note there are some interesting tests being done that suggest we may be able to live nearly ten times as long naturally. If this is something that comes about in our life how do you feel about knowing suddenly everyone is going to start living for a thousand years instead of a hundred? Roughly speaking as I think the current life expectancy is only in the seventies? Still the idea being if you're living for several hundred years instead of a few decades what would you do, would you really continue living your life in the same old job doing the same old thing every day just existing from one day to another rather than truly living it? Ask yourself how you'd spend your time if you had all that you could want and more then think about why you're spending it the way you are considering you know how little of it you really have.

How to - Stop a strong time event

Remember if you will for a moment my post that mentions how events are self fulfilling and every event has a ripple in all directions in time to make sure it happens. This is because in a strange thought the future events actually can change past events under the right conditions, though they would have to be more substantial as time is a force in motion and thus force moving backward is weaker than force forward. Similar to pushing vs pulling or multiplied acceleration, in which if you normally throw say a baseball at 40 ish mph, while you may throw it at the same speed from a moving car by technicality it still is moving faster than normal if you throw it in the same direction you're moving or slower if you throw it away in opposition.

So to stop an event from happening you have to either make last minute type alterations before its ripples have a change to change things in which you'd have to know an event is going to happen for the first time before it happens, or you'd have to make stronger events happen around it that would throw it out of balance or disrupt it until it can't be sustained. Small alterations and even some more serious direct intervention if it doesn't completely destabilize an event will be ignored as the next time the event occurs the ripples will make alterations to stabilize itself and ignore your changes. So think about an event if you will as with a color. To destabilize an event you have to first remove its supports by altering complimentary color events thus isolating it. You must then find the furthest point of reach in which it starts to make itself self fulfilling and alter it, weaken it, eliminate it if possible. You then track subsequent similar events and eliminate them and if possible make opposing color type events or substantially stronger same color type events to negate it.

Let's say you wanted to prevent an accident. You could create a new event causing a different accident, or perhaps create an obstacle causing a dilation or distortion altering the timing which can destroy the event if none of the parts are in place anymore, or any number of other things. The furthest point of this say car accident to be more specific would likely be the responsible vehicle, and thus by removing it by say deflating the tire a bit or removing gas or delaying the driver at any point before he gets in the car just prior to the accident would likely suffice for this weak force time event. The principals for a large scale strong force event are similar. If you wanted to stop WW2 trust me killing Hitler wouldn't be enough, I tried it once. In fact the ripples of WW2 and WW1 are tied strongly together and you'd actually have to prevent both to prevent either. The easiest solution to that particular problem actually would be to relieve the pressure as a metaphor by forcing a different war to happen prior. Though obviously that's not the only way and admittedly kind of defeats the purpose.

So simple recap is isolate and attack really. Assuming that the event lacks a single focal point vulnerable to direct intervention.

Not to Confuse Violence with Danger

Interesting point brought to my attention, while time travel is violent it's not inherently dangerous provided you're not in a collapsing timeline. Feel free to do whatever you feel like doing. You're not going to cause the timeline to collapse and unless you do something truly massive the kind of thing you hear the world over it's unlikely your actions will have any real effect on the timeline at all. As previously described the consequences of actions are proportional and generally isolated, the butterfly effect essentially doesn't exist in a bottom up perspective. Killing a cockroach in prehistoric earth won't condemn humanity though killing the first humans may set it back a bit. Most importantly is that it's all restricted to that one given timeline which inevitably collapses at some point anyway and since all new timelines are based on the most recent central point essentially as branches of it then what you do prior to it has absolutely no effect on anything after it.

One oversight I had in my warnings as a follow up is that gradually as you jump around more and more your mind and memories can become a little distorted. It's not damage it's more like clutter simply put you're processing vast amounts of information because each timeline can be so different from another that everything will present itself as new to your mind. The mind as we know it here works in such a way that it recognizes patterns and thus doesn't have to reprocess existing information, merely update it as necessary while referencing it in the current context, which is largely responsible for how we visually perceive reality. Given an alternate timeline sometimes is so drastically different there are no familiar patterns to recognize and thus the mind must process it all into new patterns to store for later. I'm searching for a timeline with tech to help me solve this very problem as I've noticed some things just get lost or buried if they're not particularly important making simple things seem more difficult then they actually are sometimes. Simply put I need a way to purge my mind of the unnecessary or selectively, or at the very least increase processing power and storage disproportionately so that my mind can recognize known patterns faster as the more there is the longer it takes.

No long winded idea today, just a follow up, hope you enjoyed.

Time is only a Semantic

While the majority of time is a construct and an illusion it does exist in a quantifiable form. You might best describe it as coordinates relative to quantum states of sets. What the sets are exactly is also relative apparently which is wildly confusing at first.

Regarding existing overstated ideas of time either being a flowing line in motion or happening all at once and similar ideas I would say that any such idea is either wrong or incomplete. Explaining the more accurate version as detailed in a previous post time occurs in segments determined by expansion and collapse of realities creating shockwaves or ripples which can sometimes effect other so called time lines. Interestingly I was remembering a strange video for some kind of music visualization program called partitura that was close enough at times to be an accurate representative of the model I mentioned. The problem however is in describing them as lines as most people think of lines as either straight or curved and essentially solid in some form, which these dimensions for lack of a better word are not. You could consider them like dots each connected to all the others in some manner and constantly in motion swaying as it were around a focal point and from a larger view have an almost clear grouping that could be described as a kind of line.

An interesting part of this is that regardless of segments or collapses new times are constantly being created and destroyed at all points and segments and you can travel through all the large collapses with impunity. A collapse isn't a destruction more or less it's a focus where energy is collected and repurposed though to what end I'm unsure if any exists for that matter and more importantly is the why. From what I can determine the furthest back and forward segments have shockwaves so powerful they extend across all other segments and it's the meeting of these waves that create collapses but because these waves move in all directions I must then assume there is older than the oldest suggesting it's entirely one large loop and the beginning is the end. The central collapse then is the opposite of the circle in which the shockwave is simply meeting itself. Though this is from a somewhat linear standpoint and makes me wonder that if this is line a 3d line in a circle perhaps even like a bend cylinder then what exists outside of or next to it? surely it must be contained within a set or group of some kind?

Though this may be boiled back down to everything exists all at once and that truly there is no time at all and the illusion of time is merely the sequential processing of existing data I would suggest it's not so simple. All the same you could then process the data in any order you choose so that it is no longer sequential and more importantly you would also be able to process existing data from other sets as the sequential set you're one is a given life, by altering this you could experience a different life. Though this is beyond my current capability it is among my eventual goals.

On an unrelated note innumerable and infinite are not the same thing, just because you can not assign it a number or determine it's quantity does not mean it is without end. I'll try to make sure the next post makes more sense as it was remarkably hard to convey my thoughts today in any coherent manner, it's just not an idea that I'm properly prepared to explain as accurately as it deserves.

Symptoms and Side Effects of Time Travel

Remember the post about tips for travel? It goes hand in hand with the section I forgot on dealing with your return. This isn't a very effective use for "spot the time traveler" either as if you follow the tips it can be very hard to do, as time travelers generally either don't stick out at all or draw so much attention it's too obvious to be believed.

Straight in to it you can expect massive headaches and severe dehydration after you return, keep aspirin and lots of water on hand. I haven't really noticed any substantial difference between using mineral water or purified water, I'm currently testing vitamin waters and sports drinks. You can expect random sweating for the following week and a strange burning smell which I haven't entirely figured out. Depending on when and where you travel you'll likely need a few good showers after you get back so I'd suggest some strong antibacterial soap and any additional stronger lye content soap you can find to remove a good layer of skin. The foreign bacteria has the potential to be an extremely serious problem if it gets out in the general public so I'd suggest a good full body scrub down as soon as you can manage after returning. When you come back make sure to follow the same rules as leaving, no public areas, structurally sound, away from any main roads, a clean change of appropriate clothes and anything to boost your immune system as it re-adjusts to the area which isn't so important if you're only gone a short time but if it's been a while it'll be just like going to a new place.

Sometimes you might have a hard time keeping food down and in this case it's more about nerves than anything making you sick. For this same reason sometimes uncontrollable hand tremors or other shaking may occur. Just to re-iterate from a previous post that time travel is an extremely violent process if it wasn't obvious enough already. Most symptoms go away after a week or two though thankfully. Other random or strange things may occur, once I cam back with grey hair that regained color after a day but in that day as it began to regain color it was changing colors at the ends at random. To my knowledge everything comes back in the same manner it left for the most part, no extra items or missing items so far though you never know what might happen. Sometimes you'll need to adjust for pressure or oxygen content if the air is thicker or thinner, usually the pressure isn't much more than popping your ears for which some gum may help. The reason I say usually is one time I remember coming through in a high pressure environment and the sudden change was as you can imagine less than pleasant, and I could easily imagine that had it gone the opposite way I might have had an explosive decompression scenario on my hands and I'm not exactly eager to find out how that would have ended.

It's hard to list everything as there aren't many constants the idea I suppose really is to just be ready for the consequences whatever they may be. One thing other than headaches and thirst that I noticed to be almost constant to every trip is ringing in my ears other than compression and sometimes it can be very painful, it's not loud or quiet it's hard to explain I suppose but it doesn't distort any incoming noise it's parallel to it. The good part is all this seems to be put on hold until you return. It's rare to have any of these things happen going in to a trip which is nice, though remember other posts for what to expect going in, however keep in mind when you return you'll wish you hadn't.

Last thing to mention is this only occurs with actual travel, stopping time or traveling locally like within one day in the same city generally don't have these kinds of results or if they do then they're substantially less serious by comparison. Also don't freak out if you skin feels a little oily or has a slight residue as I can assure you it's perfectly harmless, though it'd still be best if you remove it as quickly as you can, as it can be quite uncomfortable to try and go about regular business with it on you. If you're having a hard time removing it for any reason I've noticed acetone does wonders at drying it out and making it much easier to remove often it will flake away.

Hope you find this useful, and if you've already traveled and are cursing me for not telling you about this to begin with just keep in mind I'd previously warned you it was a violent process which should've indicated there's a good chance for consequences, and at least now you know.

Remember that reality is only perception and is therefore subjective and malleable if you can picture it you can make it happen.

The Slender Man

When I was a kid there were a string of disappearances in my small town. Children were disappearing, most never to be heard from again. Apparently this year is my year for answers on the subject. I thought this movie called "the tall man" was in reference to the old phantasm horror movies only for it to turn out to be more or less garbage, along the lines of a B movie psychological thriller with no relation to the horror movies of old. Though in looking up info about it again to understand how I made my mistake I found my way to answers I didn't think existed. This is where I found my answers. The myth goes that the Slenderman has no face, tendrils that it sometimes moves about with and wears a business suit. It's tall and thin and can be seen and depicted in stories from centuries old up through modern day.

Learning about the story had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end for hours I simply couldn't put them down. They were almost as strong as needles by how hard they stood out, similar to how I imagine they would be if encased in rubber cement and let dry. This is because what I thought was a childhood imagination turned out to be real. Over the years I've tried to rationalize it away and overcome the thoughts with logic and reason telling myself that what I'd seen simply wasn't real. I wonder now how I was so lucky that I did not disappear like the others?

In reliving that time I remember when it started. I noticed something while playing baseball with my friends, an object moving in the nearby woods in contrast to the trees and plants around it. We had a small baseball diamond in my back yard behind a church at the end of the forest where the town really begins with a small creek. I remember how it caught my attention and the attention of everyone else in the field because of how big it seemed to be or simply had to be to stand over some of the plants. It truthfully wasn't that far from the diamond at all. It seemed to show up with some level of regularity there after which caused our parents great concern as after the first disappearance they were convinced it was a pedophile. We stopped playing there after that and this once popular diamond to my knowledge has rarely been used since. I visited not too long ago and it was clear that nobody has used it in a long time, I believe since that day it just holds that negative energy. Even still I would sometimes see that thing from time to time until one week it seemed to gravitate towards me. I saw it outside my house at night and sometimes dreamed of it, one night I was even convinced it had entered my room at watched me as I slept. I could feel it there it's presence looming in the air. Then one night I was convinced it was evil and that it was coming for me. I was at my kitchen table enjoying some cereal before bed. I heard some noises at first, strange noises I don't quite know how to explain they seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere. That's when I noticed the smell, it was like something burning a kind of smoke. I don't remember if it was the smoke smell of meat, wood, leaf, or something else but it definitely reminded me of that light gray smoke that is almost appetizing making you wonder where it's coming from. Then a calling out of sorts, I knew it was for me but I didn't understand it. Like a gentle creaking smoothed over not sharp in the least. I've heard the sound of whales before and dare I suggest it was not horribly far off perhaps more rounded and short, it almost was musical in nature like a harp. Then I saw it! A reflection off the window in front of me I could see it standing right behind me right over me. Though I've tried to forget so hard it's an image that has lived with me my entire life. I was paralyzed with fear knowing that if I moved even the slightest it would take me, my only hope was that it didn't realize I was there. Remember that I was a child and that the thought did not occur to me that it was there for me or that I was in the open, all I could think was don't move, don't breath, don't show any sign that I was there and perhaps it would go away. I could hear it moving closer it's every step like a screaming heartbeat pounding in my ears, and yet it never seemed to move.

I sat there all night and through the morning transfixed on this reflection too afraid to scream. When my mother came in the room she was clearly worried but it seemed as though she didn't see what I did. I screamed for her to get out before it got her and continued for some time until the police arrived and cleared the house. I can't say when the reflection disappeared or if it ever was there to begin with for sure, as it's possible that it really was all just in my head. But the question to me then is how? How could I have imagined this slenderman as a kid? How could I know precisely what it looked like? I know the truth now and I finally have some closure, the only problem is that it has come at the cost of opening old wounds and I can't seem to purge the thought from my head. I've had a hard time sleeping the last few days. I imagine I'll see it standing there around every corner that it knows I know now and that it will finally come for me. Almost as if it was waiting for me all along. I keep all my lights on now and I'm beginning to learn to function by only sleeping as much as I have to a little bit at a time. It's good for me that I am used to sleeping in the day already and simply sleep as much as I can afford during daylight hours with my windows open and light shining in. I've begun research into upgrading my existing cameras for live streaming so that if something does happen that the world might know the truth. I haven't seen it again and I hope not to but it's still a feeling I can't shake. I review the footage on a regular basis looking for anything different, even a slight change in shadows outside. My hope now is that it won't come to the city and that it's forgotten about me, in particular now that I'm older.

I don't know what it is but I know it isn't human. Which makes me question what else might exist? If we're not the only intelligent life on this planet then what are we sharing the planet with, let alone the local systems clusters and galaxy. My firm belief was always that we are not alone in the universe however we were alone on this planet as alien life not unlike ours had not yet mastered intergalactic travel. Imagine if you will that this is the case and we're not alone on this planet, what then should we do to protect ourselves should the unknown turn out to be less than friendly?

Albert Carnus - Sisyphus Happy

Say what you will but I for one have a connection with one of his philosophies. While it's somewhat abandoned in favor of western philosophy it hasn't lost its relevance. He manages to reconcile the absurdity of life  and maintain a positive outlook. Similar to a view I held yet hadn't bothered to think of as something that would show up in this blog prior to having read about this idea. To get down to my view is to say that I've long since realized that life in and of itself is a futile and painful existence and we're all burning alive slowly every moment of the day our entire lives amidst a world engulfed in flames, I merely put on some glasses and relax on the lawn with a smile to enjoy it all as everyone else runs around trying to put the fire out. I'm content with the fact this world is a sad and bleak place to live and would much rather enjoy it while I can than fret over everything making things only worse by making myself miserable while suffering away trying to change something all the while knowing it's for nothing as no single impact will ever be great enough to withstand the power of time.

Albert says to achieve this same state of being happy while acclimating to or accepting the fact that life is a random happening and a total absurdity with no meaning or purpose. Though that may be more extreme interpretation a more accurate way would be to say how to be happy in spite of everything.  Is to imagine Sisyphus happy. First you may ask who is Sisyphus? He was punished by the greek gods to push a boulder uphill for all eternity. Or more accurately he was originally punished to do it and have it constantly roll downhill before he could reach the top, then eventually tasked with a myriad of useless efforts and unending frustration of a similar nature to the bolder, though it is widely believed now through the blur of the myth that he simply rolls a bolder up an endless hill for all eternity. This as you can imagine is quite demeaning to a former King on top of everything else and quite honestly he deserved it if you read up on what he did in life. Though perhaps not for all eternity... Moving onward you might ask then how could one possibly imagine him ever being happy? How could you ever enjoy the fact that everything you do is undone and for nothing and what you're doing isn't that important to begin with it's futile on a multitude of levels!

I for one like to think perhaps it's hope. His defiance and stubborn nature leads him to believe one day he'll prove them wrong and the boulder won't roll downhill. Or perhaps he believes they think he'll give up each day and thus he spends the day proving them wrong, which brings a certain level of satisfaction. Though perhaps that would be the least agreed upon concept or most likely to be disregarded. This idea as a whole also plays well with Schopenhauer's writing that life is a penitentiary. In which the concept is as straight forward as it sounds. Interestingly enough it would seem according to modern psychology that the mind searches for a natural state of happiness and will manufacture it if necessary to adapt to whatever monotonous task you assign yourself so long as you don't spend your time convincing yourself you should be miserable. Simply put if you don't think of how much your job sucks you're likely to be content with it.

The more commonly accepted interpretation of the idea is that it's an allegory of human life. Life in and of itself is an uphill struggle and every time you reach what you think is the top either everything you've done comes unraveled falling down hill forcing you to pick up the pieces or continue from where you are with nothing, or you find out that you haven't reached the top merely a stop on the way and you still have more to go. Indeed there's an art to reaching the top and staying there as long as you can before you have to work your way down the hill in some form or another. However in the time going up and down is when you find and enjoy your happiness if you allow yourself to have any, the rewards in life are not the accomplishments but the efforts necessary to reach them, the memories to look back upon once you reach the top. In realizing this you understand that in order for you to be happy it must be that others could also be happy with the same and vice versa thus Sisyphus can be happy with what he has and does as you are and both could be happy in the others scenario through understanding. To simplify all of our efforts in life are difficult and arduous like rolling a boulder uphill, and yet they amount to nothing like the boulder falling down the hill after we work so hard to push it up. The work involved in pushing the boulder is pain and suffering which in and of itself rewards nor achieves anything which could be said to justify it, proven more so by the end result which is the boulder rolling down hill.  This then is the Sisyphean allegory of life.

To analyze Sisyphus' happiness we suggest his enjoyment of the labor not of itself but of the minor details surrounding it. Perhaps he enjoys a slight breeze and the fresh air under the sun. He may gain satisfaction in his abilities a proof to himself that he can accomplish it day after day. Then it may be the climax as he knows he reaches the top and thus the  point in which he understands there's no further point to travel and in knowing what comes with that. There's a certain level of relief in knowing he is done for the day even if the day was for naught. It could be said his happiness is analogous to ours. Though for some they don't realize they've been pushing a boulder their whole life and have never had to see it roll downhill, they will be fortunate that their boulder will roll down after they are gone, as time destroys their work after it no longer matters. The infinite eternity laying waste to everything. Imagine if at all possible anything you know today that will be true in 100 million years. What will remain of anything that exists today? For many of us we can't even conceive what will remain of anything we've done in merely a millennium. (1,000 years)

This is why Sisyphus has learned to be happy with nothing and in spite of everything, his happiness comes from a place outside logic, in understanding the freedom that comes with knowing nothing you do in life is truly permanent and eventually it will all fade away. Though some might consider this to be rationalized nihilism or similar I would point out that nihilism is not defined by the pointlessness or uselessness of life, it's really not so depressing either as that would sound, though these may be considered objective truths they're not indicative of the nature of nihilism.

Not to beat a dead horse but let us also consider Sisyphus has a purpose then, which in itself can be a reward, and he cheated death a rare accomplishment worthy of eternal happiness in spite of any punishment. If I had tricked death I'd have an eternal smile for sure. To quote Carnus here "the struggle to reach the heights in itself is enough to fill a mans heart." which makes a good point as are you really any better off than him? At least he truly sees the futility of his efforts as they're straight forward, you on the other hand are blinded to this fact as it is well disguised by the vestiges which you have made for your boulder. Why then should he not be happy? Admittedly I think the unhappiest part of his day is when he reaches the top and realizes he has nothing left to do, which is also why I think he pushes the boulder downhill probably being the happiest part of his day knowing he'll have something to do tomorrow some sort of purpose. One of the most depressing things I ever did was finish my first game. I'd worked on it tirelessly as a sole consuming thought of my every waking moment, some days I would roll from my bed to my computer chair without ever touching the floor. I would then proceed to work all day sometimes without food or bathroom breaks and go back to bed again without touching the floor the entire day because I had things that close in my room and I was that obsessed, passionate, dedicated, and insane. Imagine then what it felt like for me to wake up and realize I had nothing to do. We all form an emotional attachment with our boulders that is why we can't climb the hill without them and can't bear the thought of just doing nothing with them at the top.

As a final note how many of you have actually seen a giant boulder roll down hill? It's a bit of an awesome sight to see these large chunks of earth colliding and pieces flying everywhere leaving indentations which will be seen for years to come. It's a sight such that if I really had the strength to do it I might just do it because I could just to see it again. Which leaves something to be said about making your own fun...

Another Morality Exercise

A few ideas to consider today. If something can be done should it be done? Is the answer universal to all contexts or did you have something in mind? For example just because we could let everyone's children be taught morality by an educator aka "teacher" should we? Isn't it a bad idea to be so strict about morality and so concrete that we print a textbook about it and tell young minds that these are the only acceptable forms of right and wrong?

This example an exercise in and of itself, you're free to draw your own conclusions as there honestly is no right or wrong, good or bad. A child murders an adult, should he be punished? It's hard to have a ready to go answer because there aren't enough details and yet even so many people will already have an answer. To expand into detail the child murders the adult in protection of their sibling. To more accurately reflect this we'll consider this adult a serial rapist and convicted child molester. This swings votes. However let's say the child murdering the adult in this case has different motives, they're not driven to protect their sibling, let's say instead it's pure rage and hate of the adult or something darker a simple desire to kill. Perhaps this child whose motivation was blood lust and not protection may one day become a serial killer. Their motivation might determine if they are punished and to what extent if they are. How then does this change if it's one adult murdering another under the same circumstances? What if the rapist isn't going after children but adults. If the rapist is a woman? If the murderer is a young boy or a grown man, a young girl or a adult woman? If the murderer has a history of violence? What if it's one murderer killing another instead of a rapist? When it boils down to it, is it morally acceptable to commit a crime in protection of another if the motivation for committing this crime is not protection and instead the protection is a byproduct? If this changes between age and gender then can you truly explain why? If this were a subject taught in class at a young age, as morality and morals aren't something you pick up late in life, how would you expect it to be taught and what answers would you expect? Would you honestly consider the consequences of what this would mean and have as an impact by stating there is only one right answer? I for one believe it would be a detriment to establish morality as perfectly quantifiable. Not including the fact that as of yet we can not establish or provide accurate conjecture as to a persons true motives in anything we do, and the danger that would come with that knowledge should it ever become an option. For example a majority of theft is a matter of self preservation in some form or another and while I may be inclined to say it's a symptom of a corrupt system and doesn't warrant punishment others would hold a view perhaps extreme in perspective that theft as back in the old days mandates that the thieves should have their hands cut off.  Once upon a time that was more than morally acceptable and just as we have changed away from that by practice we will one day have a different set of morals and this should be influenced much more rapidly than traditional or current education would allow and thus should remain something passed down partially from parents and adult figures to children in private with the remainder left for the child to establish on their own as they become adults.

If ever we can quantify motivation we enter dangerous territory as we may begin to punish thought and that slope is vertical. While I may never murder anyone that is not to suggest I don't think about it from time to time, or for some of us on a regular or nearly constant basis, and criminalizing this method of dealing with our anger in a non violent manner is quite dangerous. The justice system at all times should remain reactive and not proactive regardless of so called justifications to the contrary.

I hope the idea was conveyed clearly as admittedly it was not as clean as I'd intended in writing.

WW3

World War Three probably won't be fought with nuclear weapons. The widespread use and drawbacks don't make them viable options for a country or planet intending to survive WW3. That having been said it will be unlike any war you can imagine. Biological weapons on nuclear scale which is to say hundreds of square miles of bioweapon fallout and destruction are barely the beginning. Animal and plant life will be genetically modified into ultra deadly weapons that go unnoticed by security systems and cause chaos behind enemy lines. The war will be fought on multiple fronts, including a digital one in which access to and delivery of critical information particularly to the front lines will be determined on a regular basis. This can make it so operations are carried out on bad information or the lack of information cripples squads and leaves them without support. Even the support such as air, tanks, and artillery may attack the wrong targets or move to the wrong locations.

The consequences of the advanced weapons will cause the air itself to become hyper acidic destroying all it comes in contact with. Advanced robotics systems which are fought for digitally by cyber soldiers will attack friends and foes alike, they will malfunction dong the same thing or even simply going rogue on an almost AI like level, a true terror to consider while knowing of their accuracy that only a machine can provide. Debilitating weapons of all kinds will be used manipulating light, sound, microwave frequencies and much more. They will be amplified to the point that enemy combatants are permanently disable if they're unfortunate enough to survive.

There will be psychological warfare on a scale never before seen, including but not limited to induced hallucinations, a reckless disregard for rules of engagement, ruthless slaughter of civilians in the most brutal ways imaginable and their remains left for all to see, not including damage done as consequence of bio weapons. The weapons used will terraform the planet in both shape and inhabitability in which areas become impossible to survive for even a short while. Some areas so bad and changed that there's no oxygen of any kind to be detected let alone breathe. The consequential lack of resources around the world and polluted ecosystems will end up destroying the worlds population every single day for decades.

Truly the unfortunate souls that survive WW3 will wish they hadn't.

Corruption

It starts small and insignificant barely even noticeable but that is the seed which will spread. Some things simply can not be contained and merely being around them can infect you. It's a subtle process that progresses over time. It's not as though you're rapidly consumed and somehow remain the same on the inside just waiting to break free. The truth is that corruption is complete in that it's not just a part of you eventually it is you. It works from the inside out so that it is almost entirely undetectable until it's too late.

There's more than one type of corruption though and not all of it is inherently bad. To reiterate though corruption comes from the inside, it's not something that can be truly forced on you. While some people may look corrupt or are forced in to situations a corrupt person would gladly accept that does not mean that they are in fact corrupt. For example corruption through subversion in which we manipulate existing corruption in a system for good is not a corruption of ourselves or if it is then it is equally balanced in opposite so that it may not gain. Receiving something for doing anything which you're already obligated to do for some reason or another is by definition corruption of some kind, yet it may be that you need what you are receiving and thus accepting it in return for nothing could be justified. The same would go if you were to use the above example inverse so that you are giving something to someone for what they already do with a byproduct to the benefit of someone else.

There are those who would say a little corruption can be good. The problem with that is even a little corruption leads to more substantial corruption without fail. It may start as a doctor seeing a patient early for a few extra dollars, yet it may end up as him manipulating organ donation systems for patient preference. Though perhaps in opposition corruption leads to generation. That is to say a deviation from ideal views may lead to a new acceptance in which what is correct may change. All of science was once viewed as a corruption of thought and now it's accepted as truth. The question then becomes are the consequences worth the gain which is indeterminate until it has been created as a byproduct. The answer to which I would say is likely to be no as the byproduct could be obtained through other less detrimental methods aside from the fact that the gain is less than the loss for a substantial period of time, and of which the consequences and effects could likely be observed and shown to have been a reduction in accelerated progress for which we may never recover. For example where would we be if the dark ages hadn't happened? From a science standpoint we can clearly see the loss and repression and how far we've come and at what rate which suggestively would have happened much sooner without the dark ages leaving a gap where we should be.

Thus corruption even under noble cause should be fought at every opportunity for the benefit of the world. Though sadly this will not happen and in the case of the world today that is probably to the benefit of it's people. If we suddenly ended all corruption today I'd be unsure if we would live beyond tomorrow.

What's it like? - Time Travel edition.

Previously I discussed the time travel itself, now it's time to talk about what awaits you on the other side. I could most aptly describe it as being similar to traveling to a foreign country. The language, customs and food are all a little different but usually recognizable. However the environment has dramatic effects on your gut, no matter what you eat it seems you're going to get sick anyway the first one or two times you try it. Infections and medicine are wildly different and you should take precautions beforehand to avoid getting sick to begin with. As for what to wear, the best suggestion is always something that blends well regardless of time. For men a nice business suit works well for most recent and future time periods, for women a dress or skirt doesn't stand out just think about which way you're going in advance and dress accordingly. If you're going back further than normal to a point where these things don't apply consider what people likely wear in the time period. Moving forward I haven't gone far enough that these things have become irrelevant however after the 2050's I suggest you not wear jeans or denim and that you not wear a business suit at that point instead try for something a little more casual.

These things aren't quite set in stone either, it also depends on which of the primary timelines you're moving. Subsets may diverge but follow trends which is important to know when distinguishing which you're on and how to plan accordingly for your movements on it. I also suggest learning sign language and pretending you're deaf when you first arrive until you get the hang of things, it seems to carry over very well. Of course it only works in time periods where it exists....

Some times when you first arrive things might appear a little blurry or sound a little weird but that's normal and goes away quickly so it's imperative you don't freak out or draw attention to yourself. That's actually the biggest piece of advice the single most important thing I can possibly tell you. By drawing attention to yourself you can make your life a living hell if you try to stay in that time. My rule of thumb these days actually is if someone sees you within a few seconds of when you first arrive just think of home and get out of there. Remember that your connection is extremely unstable at first for at least the first hour and if you think of things from your time too much you'll inadvertently switch right back to it. If you try to scout locations in advance for where might be a good place to travel through I recommend areas outside of civilization or well secured areas that aren't going to be under rubble or collapsed or not even made yet. The idea is you want stability and reliability. You don't have to be at a given location to appear there while traveling and when you revert you almost always revert to where you left unless you focus on reverting elsewhere. Also remember it's hard to take things with you so if you plan on taking a souvenir make sure it's worth it. I mean that not in terms of money which is quite frankly useless, instead I mean it as are you willing to put up with the frustration of repeatedly attempting it until you finally get it and is it something that will prove useful in your time. For practice I use small erasers as they seem to be the easiest things, whatever you choose make it simple and small at first until you're ready to try something like a flask.

Keep in mind everything, especially the future is subject to change. Don't fool yourself either, the past can change just as well, the problem being that you'll never know it because once it changes it's a part of your history as you learned it. That's one of the most beautiful things about it all is that changes that interact with your timeline have a hierarchy and once they're set they become indistinguishable from the originals which they replaced. To show an example, I saw a Charlie Chaplin film that doesn't exist because after I saw it an intersecting timeline changed an event that caused the film to never be made much less include him in it and thus because it doesn't exist you have also never seen it even though it was once a part of this timeline before it intersected and caused that part of the timeline to collapse. So the truth is that some of you have seen the film in theory, but have retroactively never seen it which is different from forgetting and so it becomes futile to discuss it further I suppose. That's probably the best I can explain it at this point, and I hope you understand it. Hope you find the information useful,

Bosons

If you could control bosons, but had to pick which, what would you rather control? The higgs is responsible (in theory) for giving mass to objects. Given control over this you might be able to change the size and weight of anything, potentially even altering other aspects. Meanwhile the gauge  is (also in theory) responsible for particle interactions. Controlling the gauge could allow moving any series of objects to move through each other, explode on contact, or any other number of things you could conceive relating to particle interactions. I'd be curious how far this could extend, such as how people perceive things is all a series of interactions of various particles. Could it potentially be used to alter gravitational forces as well, and if so then to what extent?

For those of you completely lost, I suggest the wikipedia entry on bosons as a crash course. My pick would probably be gauge bosons. The main reason for that is I can be quite creative with the subject, yet when thinking about higgs somehow it seems as though there's only a handful of core ideas which by association everything would have to expand on, making it feel repetitive in a way.

It dawns on me now, a blog (such as this) would've been the perfect place to detail some difficult moral choices I've been making lately, which coincidentally is primarily why I haven't been writing as much... how odd.

Also I may be moving, where to I have no clue. New York City, San Diego, basically extremes. It appears I'll be either going out of state, right now I'm kind of rooting for Hawaii because I can put my knowledge of the japanese language to good use as a translator and probably get paid reasonably well for it in the process. This of course doesn't account for the fact I already know people there. San Diego on the other hand is like gaming central and probably one of the best places for my career. Meanwhile NYC would probably prepare me for the later stages of my life, and if I were going to start a business that would be the place to get some pretty good education on how to run it. So here I have locations that will effect my life in unpredictable ways yet give me a vague idea of what could be. Not entirely unlike the bosons. Though it's also possible I end up staying where I am, which admittedly is a very bad choice to make.

Side note does anybody know the strongest non-magnetically reactive metal or ceramic composite? I was thinking of an idea but the problem was that a reasonably powerful magnet could be a problem to it, but it also has to be extremely impact resistant which isn't exactly easy to come by. As I discussed in a previous post though carbon nano-tubes while expensive are within my budget. So the question then becomes would they work, or is titatium ceramic reactive, if not then would it be as strong or stronger?

Perceptions

Today I'm going to talk about illusions, hallucinations, and other tricks of the mind. Have you ever heard something and been so sure of it only to find out you were the only one to hear it? Perhaps see a shadow in the corner of your eye only to look and nothing is there. While we perceive many things in many ways for now I'm sticking to sensory perception.

The mind is interesting in many ways. One interesting thing is that people tend to find what they're looking for, even if it's not there. If you want to see a face enough you'll start seeing it in random things. The slight bumps on a wall from paint, or some leaves in the trees, or any other place you can or can't think of. This can go even further into focusing so much that you become blinded to other things. This object blindness or selective perception interestingly has a counter part of perception manifestation in which your mind can completely see feel and sense an object in it's entirety. You want to see something so hard to the point you mind can literally create it for you. Though others may not recognize it at all it's interesting how real it can actually be. I've come across this once where I wanted so desperately to see an old friend that she happened to appear at the hospital I was in visiting a friend while she was there under the pretense of eye surgery. We caught up and spent the day together. I even held her hand, gave her a hug, and could remember the strong smell of her shampoo. When I went to visit her at her house a couple days later I found out she'd been dead for over a week. I was just in time for the funeral. Interestingly enough there was someone in the room at the hospital I thought she was in and they were getting an eye surgery, information I didn't really have prior to coming back to find out who I'd been talking to. Turns out I had been reported as talking to myself all over the hospital. Though I think that's only because this was before the age of cell phones and I was a very scary looking guy at the time. Moving on.

Object blindness or those of you interested more on the subject look up semantic agnosia or visual agnosia. Without going into the medical side more along the lines of the human side of it, the experience if you will. Opening a cupboard looking for perhaps a spice or a can of something moving things around looking everywhere for it, and yet you just can't seem to find it. Then someone comes over and picks it up from right in front of your face. Interestingly I've found this happens to more people when dealing the fridge, and in particular mustard or ketchup / condiments. Not sure why though. In that case I'm not talking about it's just back deep in the fridge where you actually can't see it, I'm talking about it's in the door or right in front of the milk right in the front and despite the fact you can clearly see it your mind does not. This also happens when you're simply distracted, perhaps lost in conversation you can easily walk right into a door, a wall, a pole, or just about anything really. Not really sure where I was going with this so I'll simply move on again.

Relating back to the mind seeing what it wants to see comes illusions. The intentional manipulation of senses in a calculated way to cause perception of illogical events. The idea being usually for entertainment showing how the mind can play tricks on itself.  This is also a common tactic of thieves interestingly. While you're busy watching the action, or whatever is right in front of you, you're missing the subtle movements in the background. The idea is to deliberately cause you to focus so hard your mind starts to ignore everything else, like the moon dancing gorilla. I know that's not what it actually was, but I also did post what it was in a previous post, object impermanence I believe? Basically you're busy watching the movements of various people, maybe counting how many times the ball is passed between people with a specific color shirt what have you, and in the mean time someone in a suit walks right through the action and you end up not seeing them at all because of your focus. It's worth considering the next time it seems like something is trying to take up all your attention as to whether or not it's actually covering up for something else going on that doesn't want any of your attention.








Today's blog is in dedication of my dear friend who died of leukemia.