Consciousness

I ran across this fascinating article yesterday by Dr. Amir Aczel (mathematics - UC Berkeley) about the origin of human consciousness. Now, I'm not using it to prove or disprove any evolutionary or theological argument. Aczel just states that consciousness is key to the whole discussion about the origin of man.

Link to full article at the bottom.  Aczel writes:

"What do we learn from the fossil record?  We clearly see here an evolution over time that is characterized by increasing size…the improved ability to walk upright, better manufacture and use of stone tools, emergence of the exploitation of fire, and a marked increase in the size of the brain.

And at some point in time - one that we have not identified - we become human. Becoming human entails a mode of symbolic thinking and making art, as evidenced through the cave paintings of early humans. Earlier hominids, while they fashioned stone tools that allowed them to kill and butcher animals, did not create art - at least not much of it.  And this artistic capacity represents our unique ability to think symbolically - something that our nonhuman ancestors probably could not do.

When did consciousness arise?  Where is the invisible boundary in evolution at which an animal-like creature becomes human-like?  We have hardly any answers to these questions.

We don't know how and why and at exactly what point in evolution human consciousness became a reality. The inexplicability of such emergent phenomena is the reason why we cannot disprove the idea of some creative power behind everything we experience around us - at least not at our present state of knowledge.

Evolutionary science cannot indicate to us the location of the point on the continuous evolutionary scale - which Dawkins believes is there - at which human consciousness arises. The question about consciousness is key to everything we are discussing.

Why would evolution alone bring about such developments that appear to have little to do with the survival of an individual or a species?

The problem with consciousness is that we don't really understand what it is. There is a giant leap from the brain of a monkey or a dog to the brain of a human being.

We are face here with one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of science:  at what point in hominid development and evolution does human consciousness appear?  What gives us the powers to create and to think symbolically and to develop language?

These may just as well be described as divine gifts."

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/science_doesnt_disprove_god_where_richard_dawkins_and_new_atheists_go_wrong/

So, what I am suggesting is that all of us - atheists and believers alike - should be developed enough as a species to check our egos, theories and philosophies at the door, and simply admit that we don't know the full answers. We should be big enough and honest enough to admit our lack of knowledge.

Between 3 million years ago, when it's estimated Man took his first upright steps to the oldest known cave paintings, estimated at 40,800 years ago, there's one helluva lot of wiggle room.  Whether human consciousness is a matter of evolution, divine intervention, aliens or all of the above, we just don't know.

What I do know is that as a species, some people act more like bratty toddlers than mature adults. I've seen so many bashing blogs on the internet that it makes me weary.  Like…get a life, eh?

Let me put it this way….as an accomplished musician, I'm much more interested in exploring the wide variety of global music styles than I am in arguing who was the greatest guitarist.  Do you see what I mean?

Helping

This may be a fairly redundant concept for many of us, but looking around in the world, it quickly becomes obvious that many don't get it.

Now, if one were to listen only to men such as Paul Ryan, one might get the idea that the most important thing in life is hard work; to concentrate so hard on monetary gain that one becomes almost totally self-sufficient, with absolutely no need of any kind of assistance, especially any kind of social service or even Social Security. And for some, that's fine. If that's your Life's goal - to make the highest wage possible and squirrel away as much money as possible - I sincerely hope you life long enough to enjoy it.

But what so often seems to go hand-in-hand with this extreme work ethic is a condescending attitude toward those who make considerably less money, who work at jobs other than banker, lawyer, or manager; people who work every bit as hard as anyone else, but who don't have the high end skills to own a $1,000,000 home and a Lexus. 

From whence comes this arrogant, smarmy attitude that people at the bottom of the economic pyramid don't deserve a living wage?  How do you get to the point where you look down on anyone who receives any kind of assistance?

You know, it would be nice if we could all go to college and earn Masters degrees. We'd all make a six-figure salaries and vacation in Saint-Tropez. Except WHO is going to make your latte' at Starbucks?  WHO is going to stock the shelves at Abercrombie or Hollister?  WHO is going to rotate the tires on your Lexus?  WHO is processing your arugula and truffles? WHO is picking the grapes for your $130/bottle Araujo cabernet?

Reality is that our modern, high-tech society is built upon the backs of people who work at McDonalds and Walmart, people who clean the toilets at 11 Wall Street, NY, and perform housekeeping at the Palazzo. These people deserve a wage that will pay the rent or mortgage, feed and clothe their families. 

And then, there are all those other people who are out of work who are trying to find a decent job.  And can't.

With all that in mind, I come to the real point of this blog. What's really important in life is that we reach out in some way to another human being. You don't have to be a carpenter working on a Habitat for Humanity home. It doesn't have to be disaster assistance. It can be something as simple as shoveling someone's sidewalk or mowing their lawn, or maybe just a kind gesture of listening over a cup of coffee.  It's not a matter of size or scope, it's the gesture, the state of mind, the attitude that someone matters besides just ourselves or our loved ones. It's the act of doing something for someone else out of common kindness. It's being part of a larger humanity and acknowledging that we're all in this together.

And yes, there are those who don't pull their weight. There will be people who don't have a decent work ethic, or perhaps not as strong as yours.  That's no justification for adopting an entirely supercilious attitude or slashing assistance to the less fortunate.

Conspiracy Fever

On other blog sites (not so much on Facebook) I'm seeing a lot of conspiracy-based reactions to police departments being outfitted with armored vehicles. OMG! OMG! They're going to use them to suppress the masses! Hey, Goober, settle down and take off the tin foil hat.

Before we go any further, a little disclaimer about data:  it varies depending on who wrote it and what their motives are, and you can't always get data from the same time period.  That said, keep calm and let's begin. 

According to the CATO Institute, in 2010 there were 1,575 reports of excessive force by police officers in the U.S., but only about 57% of them (592) involved actual physical violence (blows, strikes). Contrasted against FBI data from 2012, law enforcement in the U.S. made 521,196 arrests for violent crimes. Now, the following isn't really valid math, but 592 ÷ 521,196 = .1%  In other words, the cops arrested a helluva lot more bad guys than they committed bad acts, themselves. Let's look at a few other everyday scenarios where mistakes can happen.

On average, there are 85,000 medical malpractice suits each year (Galfand Berger - personal injury lawyers). That's a lot more bad incidents than the cops had. By those numbers, you'd think we should start avoiding doctors. But, on average, less than one-half of 1% of America's doctors face serious sanctions. Only 1 in 14 are actually sued annually (medmalfacts.com).

Every year in the U.S., there are 30 million dispensing errors out of 3 billion prescriptions at outpatient pharmacies (CNN).  I'm not about to avoid pharmacists and start self-medicating myself with herbal remedies. 

Banks make accounting errors with our money. Gee, maybe we should start stuffing mattresses or burying our cash in the back yard.

The NRA is one of the largest conspiracy mills. They'd have you believe you're not safe - nor patriotic - unless you buy some serious firepower and carry it with you wherever you go; shopping, movies, school, church, etc.  But overall, an American male's chances of being involved in a violent crime are 15 per 1000 or 1.5 chances in 100 (crimeinamerica.net). I'm not about to start packing heat.

People, the last I checked, we were still recruiting cops, doctors, pharmacists and bank tellers from the human race, and humans tend to make mistakes. Police brutality is not a good thing and yes, there are a few bad cops, but there is also such a thing as a bad situation. Let me explain.

In my home town, there was a municipal park that wasn't heavily used, and it was bordered by rather upscale real estate. It became a place where young hipsters would congregate and indulge in a variety of activities and intoxicants. One day, somebody probably looked out their expensive living room window and saw something, and dialed 911.

The cops showed up to check things out and apparently, one kid was acting fairly bizarre. They approached him and probably gave orders to put his hands on his head or lay down on the ground. But instead of complying, the kid made some kind of gesture, like he was reaching for something. Bang. He was dead. Shit happens. Sometimes you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing.

The cops are the good guys; there to protect you, get you out of harm's way, to save your life and catch the bad guys. If more municipalities are providing their police departments with heavy-duty vehicles, it's a fair guess that part of the reason is there are a lot more rabid gun nuts, and folks like those gun-brandishing Tea Partiers. "We came unarmed…this time."  How cute. How arrogant. Regardless of the 2nd Amendment, how small does your junk have to be that you need to openly carry, much less anything larger than a .38?? These days, there are a lot more people with a lot more guns.  Bigger guns with larger magazines and some of them are packing armor-piercing or hollow point ammo.

Hey, could I interest you in a career in law enforcement? Median salary is $51,266.  Is that enough to persuade you to don body armor and answer a domestic dispute in a shabby neighborhood?  I didn't think so.

So take off the tin foil hats and quit blogging like every cop is out to Mace your ass or suppress your rights. Because when somebody in the neighborhood goes off the deep end - that guy nobody suspected, the quiet one - and starts picking off innocent people from his second floor window with an AR-15, you're going to breathe a sigh of relief when the cops roll up in an MRAP to take care of this nut.

Gardening

According to the National Gardening Assn., as of 2009, roughly 37% of U.S. households participate in home gardening.  Why don't we see more participation?

Reasons why people say they don't garden:

- They don't have the space or opportunity. They might live in apartments or rent where it's not an option. Understandable. Although, at one duplex we rented, the landlord was happy to allow us to garden. Also, there are things like community gardens. Where we presently live, the population is only 2,500 people, but the town provides a very nice area for residents.

- Physical disabilities. They might be overweight or suffer from joint or back problems. Understandable.

- It's work. Here's where excuses wear thin. You could say it's work. It's also good exercise. Both upper and lower body gets a workout. It helps get your circulation going and contributes to flexibility. 

- It's hard work. No, it's not. Small raised bed and container gardens are dead easy to maintain. Someone in a wheelchair can do it. A 10x10 garden isn't any more work to maintain than a living room, depending on your definition of clean, I guess. In the spring, you lay down landscape fabric or (cheaper) use newspaper, which has the advantage of not only keeping weeds down, but helping retain soil moisture. Then, you put grass clippings over the top of that and at the end of the season, you turn the clippings into the soil.

- It takes time. Uh, everything takes time. You got just 5 hours a week you can spare? That's the average time reported by gardeners to the N.G.A.  Not even an hour a day. I realize that some people keep full and hectic schedules. I guess that's their prerogative - how they choose to spend their time. Personally, if I had a busy schedule, I'd enjoy spending a little time in my garden, getting fresh air, smelling all the wonderful aromas, listening to the birds, just de-stressing as I watered and tended.

- It costs money?  Uh, wrong. It actually makes money. According to the N.G.A. data, the average return for gardeners was equivalent to $530 per growing season. That means, if you're a guy like me who got paid $20/hr my skills, I could have opted to spend 26.5 MORE hours each growing season for the pleasure of being at work longer, to make the $530 and buying my produce at the supermarket. Sorry, I'd rather spend those hours in the garden.

Feeding is free or dirt cheap. Many communities have compost sites. Ours is totally free, but other's we've used charged only $20 a trailer/pickup load. That's a bargain. Price that out next time you're at a garden center.

Now, let's look at the reasons people DO garden:

- It's good therapy. One of the best ways to de-stress. Get your hands in the earth. It's aromatherapy, too. Brush against one of these plants and see what happens: basil, chives, mints, lemon balm, fennel, lavender. And it can be a kind of meditation. as when you concentrating on gardening, you're not thinking about a host of other stressful things. You become part of the cyclical process of life. You get to enjoy the visual beauty, color and textures of the plants. And, you can often taste and sample as you work.

- It's healthy. While studies have shown that nutritionally, frozen is not much inferior to fresh, the quality lies in that freshness. There's no comparison to eating fresh produce (raw or cooked) that just came from your garden. Plus, you have the added comfort of knowing HOW those crops were grown (chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers) and that as long as you WASH it, you won't be one of the 48 million people who get food-related illnesses each year. 1 in 5 food illnesses were linked to commercially processed leafy greens.

So, there you have it. We've been happy gardeners for over 40 years. Some plots were small and some were large, be we always got a good return in terms of dollars, flavor and satisfaction. No matter what the physical activity, it's just good sense to keep active. We still get more than enough couch time.

Like That

That's how it feels some days. Not lonely, not depressed, just sort of locked-up mentally, thinking,"So, this is where we're at as a country, as a society. This is where we've evolved. This is the state of Man." 

And thank God, I've got someone in my life to pull me back from the abyss; someone with whom I can share my joys and sorrows. It's good to not be alone. It's comforting to have a partner and a few friends who are a source of truth, who confirm that I'm not crazy, and that being a dreamer is a positive quality.

It's rewarding to have my music; to have the ability to create pleasurable sounds, to be able to express myself in just one more way. Sometimes music can express emotions as strongly as words, and sometimes music itself is a special language. And it's cathartic, too.

You know, Man is a complex creature, but his motives - the concepts that drive his thoughts and actions - are fairly basic. There is a little disagreement amongst professionals as to the definition of those motives (category and number), but there is more common ground than division. Maslow's pyramid is a sufficient explanation of our drives/needs.

At the bottom, we have self-preservation - air, water, food, shelter.
Once those needs are met, we can move up to social ones - friendship, love, sex.
Next, come higher-level concepts like self-esteem, confidence, achievement and respect.
At the top are things like self-actualization, morality, creativity.

So, when I look at people who expend energy (much less money), working against things like access to healthcare, equal pay, equal consideration under the law I attempt to reduce it all to it's basic terms. Instead of seeing people agree on basic concepts, basic shared freedoms, and saying,"Let's try to find the best, the most effective way to make this happen," they're fighting against it!

I'm looking at people in the comfortable position of having a certain thing, a comfort, a security, a freedom, and basically saying no, I don't think others should have this.

From what dark, twisted corner of their soul - assuming that they have one - do they come up with such utterly selfish and arrogant thoughts?

Just a little over 300 miles north of Washington, D.C. is the Canadian border, on the other side of which 35 million people enjoy the comfort, the security of a single-payer healthcare system. If you fall off the curb in Montreal and get hit by a bus, they pick you up, take you to the nearest hospital and fix you up, without asking who your provider is. Every. Single. Person. 

According to air-head Terri Land, women aren't that interested in equal pay.  What? 

And it's things like that which totally confound me. I'm like Robbie the Robot in the movie Forbidden Planet, where his electronic brain has a meltdown, because the incoming data just does not compute.  I think to myself,"No one could be that stupid. That clueless. That…evil. That selfish. That arrogant, to speak for an entire gender and say, no, they don't want that.'"

And again, I'm thankful that I have psychological mooring lines that keep me from just flying off into space, into madness, because it's impossible for me to adopt that attitude of,"Oh…doesn't affect me, so I don't care." 

Most of the time, I'm fairly stable. Safe. Secure. But that Dark Side of arrogance and stupidity is always out there, lurking like some unspeakable evil in a story by H.P. Lovecraft.

Anybody else out there who can relate to that feeling?

Communication

Communication

I'm writing this blog for the people out there who are in a relationship of some kind, whether just living together or married, and for those who are even considering a relationship.

No doubt you've heard or read about the importance of communication. I can't stress that enough. I've been happily married for almost 44 years and we've always communicated pretty well. Truth be told, I could be even better at it than I am. At the very least, I could improve my listening skills. I don't care how old you are, there's always room for improvement.

That said, I want to borrow from a recent article in Psychology Today entitled Awkward Silences - The Dismal State of Sexual Communication. The author presented some fresh  insight to the failure of couples to talk about sexual matters, and proof of the benefits of communication.

"Sex," says Dr. Noam Shpancer,"seems to be everywhere…" except in candid conversations between couples. Sex is used in our culture to attract, to scare and entertain, and to sell products, but most of the actual dialogue concerns gossip and other people - not ourselves. But why do people find open discussion difficult?

He suggests that perhaps the problem lies in discussing large existential problems in general, like death.  We all have sex and we all die, so it's a shared situation, a shared concern. Why can't people go there?

Mostly, he thinks we're just afraid of embarrassment; of being unmasked as foolish, ignorant or depraved. We don't wish to offend and we worry about being rejected. And so, we fail by avoidance. We say nothing, we ask nothing and we are rewarded with ignorance about the other person's desires, fantasies, etc. Wonderful.

But here's some encouraging news. A study involving Latino adolescents at Cal State University found that communication led to delayed first intercourse. 

Two other studies done by the University of Kentucky and North Carolina found that better communication led to more responsible use of condoms and (as expected) poor communication was linked to lower rates of condom use.

Another study by Iowa State University revealed that disclosing sexual information was positively linked to satisfaction and closeness.

I will again remind everyone that other developed countries kick America's ass when it comes to teen pregnancy and abortion. Our teen pregnancy rate is over four times that of the Netherlands. Our teen abortion rate is 50% higher than that of the Netherlands. Our overall HIV incidence is six times higher than Germany's and three times higher than the Netherlands. Those numbers alone should be sufficient to get the attention of any intelligent adult, especially parents and politicians.

But how do they achieve such impressive statistics? It ain't rocket science, folks. Governments support massive, consistent, long-term public education campaigns, through the Internet, television, films, radio, billboards, discos, pharmacies, and health care providers. Youth have convenient access to free or low-cost contraception through national health insurance.  Educators provide accurate and complete information in response to students’ questions. Families have open, honest, consistent discussions with teens about sexuality and support the role of educators and health care providers in making sexual health information and services available to teens.

In these European countries, adolescents have the right to balanced, accurate, and realistic sex education, confidential and affordable health services, and a secure stake in the future.  Society accepts that they have a responsibility to provide young people with the tools they need to safeguard their sexual health and young people.

As things now stand, a young adolescent finds it difficult or impossible to inquire about protection before first intercourse with his partner, a dating couple is afraid to confide in each other about their sexual wishes and worries, and a long married couple is destined to remain unaware of each other’s deepest desires and dislikes. 

Perhaps it’s time we start talking about it.

Now, I was fortunate to have married a woman who is a strong communicator. Don't interpret that as meaning,"she talks a lot."  She talks when she has something to say, and she's usually not afraid to say it. 

Both during our dating period and the first year of our marriage, we were very open about everything. In dating situations, people of every age want to find out about the other person; their likes, their dislikes, their favorite food, color, music, movies, books, etc., etc., because those are all fairly safe and easy topics for discussion. But all too often, people find themselves having sex without ever really talking about sex. 

Let me just ask you this:  wouldn't it be better to risk a relationship failure up front or early on, rather than to find out down the line, years later, that you have some rather significant incompatibilities? 

I would think you'd certainly want to know if you had any serious philosophical or spiritual disparities. Surely, you'd want to know if the other person had any serious health issues - physical or mental - any substance abuse problems or history of violence.  So why wouldn't you want to know about their sexual psyche and identity?  And if you did initiate that conversation and they had serious difficulty with it, wouldn't that be a concern?

Think about it. Talk about it. Share this information.

Gambling and 2016

Gambling and 2016

I don't gamble and I don't understand jack about professional football. I don't play slots or lotteries, but I do understand simple math and odds.

If I go to a Super Bowl party, it's more for the beer and food. I've got enough trouble figuring out who's got the ball much less what they're doing with it. If you don't wanna blow beer out your nose, swallow before you read the following:

I was in Green Bay on business and called my wife from the hotel. She asked where I was and I said I wasn't sure, but that I could see a stadium from my room. Uh-huh. You got it.

In 2011, in spite of the Nevada casinos posting losses, they took in almost $11 billion. The Vegas strip accounted for about $6 billion. Almost 49 million people went to Vegas last year; most of them with dreams of hitting it big.

Now, you'll have to admit, the odds or point spreads on sports games aren't usually that large, so we're talking about a LOT of people laying down a LOT of money on games that could easily go either way.

Football fans laid down a total of  $1.34 billion which was not even half of the total $3.2 billion bet on sports.

On the Super Bowl alone, fans bet a record $98.9 million. 

And face it, people will bet on damn near anything. Fantasy football bets amounted to $1.8 billion last year.

Fast fwd. to 2016 where in some parallel universe, some Republicans - politicians and voters alike - fantasize that they're going to pull off some kind of Hail Mary.

Are you fucking kidding me?

The GOP has effectively pissed-off the three fastest growing demographics - Latinos, women and young people. Even after Gov. Brewer vetoed that religious discrimination bill in AZ, conservatives continue to beat the drum against gays and anyone who doesn't describe themselves as "born again."  They refuse to distance themselves from billionaires like Sheldon Adelson or the Kochs. Guys like Scott Walker pass voting restrictions. Guys like Boehner and Ryan talk shit about blacks, the unemployed and about millions of Americans who have signed up for insurance coverage. What kind of crack are these guys smoking?

If the GOP were an actual corporation, there'd be more layoffs than Google or Ford.

So, just for entertainment purposes, the current Vegas odds for the 2016 election are:

Clinton 6/4

Christie 10/1

Rubio 10/1

Bush 14/1

Ryan 16/1

Paul 16/1

Santorum 50/1

Electoral estimates vary from site to site, but one I saw projected Blue 257, Red 191.

Kinda makes you wish you could get some of those red bozos in a game of Texas holdem…

Can you say rube?  How about faites vos jeux?