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Morning
14:03 Aug 17 2008
Times Read: 675

Morning again. That sickening chill and accompanying sudden sweat as consciousness reminds me of who I am and what lies ahead. The tightness in my gut wrenches sleep away and leaves me punching and kicking at the bedding in my final attempts to avoid total wakefulness. That bedding which is a constant reminder of my fate.

I ruled out a virus. It appears to be more genetic in nature and purely unique. Perhaps just a kind of birth defect, yet to be isolated classified and named. Something which natural selection, left to its own, should have corrected. But the prognosis is no better for the tiny steps taken toward understanding, and waking each day is no less synonymous with anger, pain and that tingling, chilled, sickening sweat and overwhelming fear. It had been enough to be labeled "hideous". But this meant isolation would be total and the fear that others will find out rides my back with every encounter. I don't smile. I depart quickly.

The final brief promise of a cure had slipped by just at the moment when rescue seemed at hand -- inches from my fingertips. Not that I ever could have been normal. But at least it seemed there was some hope. It's still a tough pill to swallow despite having been lost some untold months ago. Now the outcome lies certain. Only the time factor remains tenuous.

So I again abandon my slumber despite resting for less than two hours and I attempt to busy myself by fixing a flat tire and scratching at the keyboard on my computer -- the same computer that seemed to promise a cure and then ripped it away as though quite satisfied and entertained at delivering the final crushing blow; people can't be trusted. It will be many long hours of fighting fatigue before I again subject myself to collapse and the black, jaw-tensing taste of morning.

The bees have infested the bushes at my door. An opportunity to lose myself behind a camera and try to focus on them instead of myself. Hundreds of pictures; mostly crap; one or two worth saving.

...in progress

COMMENTS

The Complexity of Nothing
11:27 Aug 13 2008
Times Read: 692

Beastt wrote:

In asking why, one assumes there is a why. Questions based on assumptions are likely to be met with unsatisfying answers. Why assume there is a why? Would it be any less amazing if nothing existed? Those really seem to be the only two choices; nothing and other than nothing. One will be the case. Why marvel that it is one and not the other?

ollagram88 wrote: haha my my, this is an old topic of mine.

of course i assumed there is a why, and unfortunately, i framed this universe from man's perspective.

Beastt wrote: That's the only perspective you have open to you.

ollagram88 wrote:

if we trace back to my "universe as a computer program" analogy, then yes, i assume it would be less amazing if nothing existed.

Beastt wrote: Computer programs which are other than pure math are likely to take on the perspective of the programmer. Do you know of a programmer who isn't a human?

ollagram88 wrote:

isn't what is more complex, more amazing?

Beastt wrote: What makes you think somethingness is more complex than nothingness? We understand much about matter, energy... the physical (somethingness). The properties of nothing are far more of a puzzle for physicists. It appears to be quite difficult to contemplate or even to grasp. Does nothing include a void in space-time or is space-time itself, something? If so, can it be said that something is really nothing? If it isn't, then we can certainly assert that there is no such thing as nothing anywhere in the known universe. Perhaps it's simply too complex to actually exist under the laws of the universe. Is it just possible that you may be tripping over assumptions again. It certainly seems to me that nothing is far more complex (difficult to grasp), than something. We have lots of examples of something with which to work. Can you point to an example of nothing?

ollagram88 wrote:

amazing is a loose word, but surely if we define amazing as more artistically beautiful or intellectually complex, then something should be better than nothing? i suppose that is a debatable issue...

Beastt wrote: I think when you start dragging aesthetics into any objective issue, you're missing the very point you're attempting to make.

ollagram88 wrote:

however, whether by chance or by some divine guidance, my being here is amazing.

Beastt wrote: Looking around, I would have to suggest that you're being here is quite mundane and common-place. Billions are currently here and billions more have been here before. It's likely far more billions will come after. Why is that so amazing?

ollagram88 wrote:

if consciousness arises from the brain, then what were the chances that all the particles that comprise my body came to create the person that i am now and the consciousness that i experience now?

Beastt wrote: It wasn't by chance that the particles formed you. Certain aspects were by chance but most were in compliance with many known laws and properties. Have you ever heard of two humans mating and producing other than a human offspring?

ollagram88 wrote:

think of all the particles in this universe, and a speck of those particles that comprise me and granted me the experience of consciousness are "mine." to me, that's one of the most amazing things one can possible contemplate. and i can contemplate it because i am conscious, i am conscious because this universe IS... rather than is not.

Beastt wrote: It occurs to me that your use of the word "amazing" may be as misunderstood as the word "complex" when used by most people. When it is proclaimed that something is "complex" it tells us more about the person and their ability to grasp a concept than about the concept itself. To a second-grader, long division might seem intensely complex -- meaning they have trouble grasping the concept. To you and I it's far less complex. And yet it's the same long-division. So you're simply describing your ability to grasp it by calling it "complex" and likely doing the same thing when you label things which are quite common-place, as "amazing". You're telling us about your perspective, not about properties of the concept itself.

COMMENTS

captainglobehead
13:43 Aug 13 2008

I had to read that twice. Mr. Spock could not refute your logic. I can't even keep up with it.

sahahria
15:20 Aug 13 2008

Simplicity in silence

Uncovering the Patterns
11:01 Aug 04 2008
Times Read: 729

This one was based on an assertion by DP that a certain story was actually a hidden message and the message could only be revealed utilizing a mathematical formula, applied to the story.

Beastt wrote: Well, I find this kind of thing interesting so here's what I did. I took your first paragraph;

(DP wrote): "The Biblical Noah's Ark story consists of two separate stories combined. One of them contains "numerical data" which can be mathematically processed to produce a MAP OF A VOYAGE. This voyage (from Egypt to Greece - a refugee movement?) occurred during the Interregnum between the Egyptian Old and New Kingdoms around 2,200 bc or so."

Beastt wrote: I noted that you had capitalized some characters which didn't need to be capitalized and failed to capitalize some that should have been capitalized. So this was my first clue that there was a hidden message.

So I took all of the upper-case letters in the order they appear in the text and I converted each one to its ASCII equivalent. Then I converted the ASCII equivalent to 8-bit binary and listed these numbers out to the right of your upper-case characters. Then I went through and added up all of the 1s in the binary characters horizontally and listed that number.

Here's where it gets a little bit tricky. Since upper-case text characters occupy only 65 - 90 in the ASCII table, I could tell that any total of 5 or greater should be in the 60s and there wasn't anything above 5. So all of those were converted to 65-ASCII or the letter "A".

Then I worked down the totaled 1s and each time I came to a number lower than 5, I added 70, to place it in the next possible ten places of the ASCII table. The next time I would run into the same number, I simply elevated the added number to 80 and then alternated back and forth. That's a bit vague so it works like this. If I came upon a 3, I know that your clue couldn't start with a 6 because ASCII 63 is beyond the range of the alphabetic characters. So I went up from there and place a 7 in front giving me 73. The next three would automatically receive an 8, making it 83. Then I went back to placing a 7 in front of the next 3 and alternated back and forth between 7 and 8 from there on down for all occurrences of 3. I did the same for the numbers 1, 2, and 4. Then I simply numbered the resulting alphabetic characters. Here is the result.

Code:

R-082 - 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 - 3 - 73 I - 1

B-066 - 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 2 - 72 H - 2

N-078 - 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 - 4 - 74 J - 3

A-065 - 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 - 82 R - 4

M-077 - 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 - 4 - 84 T - 5

A-065 - 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 - 72 H - 6

P-080 - 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 2 - 82 R - 7

O-079 - 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 - 5 - 65 A - 8

F-070 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 - 3 - 83 S - 9

A-065 - 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 - 72 H - 10

V-086 - 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 - 4 - 74 J - 11

O-079 - 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 - 5 - 65 A - 12

Y-089 - 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 - 4 - 84 T - 13

A-065 - 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 - 82 R - 14

G-071 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 - 4 - 74 J - 15

E-069 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 - 73 I - 16

T-084 - 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 - 3 - 83 S - 17

E-069 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 - 73 I - 18

G-071 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 - 4 - 84 T - 19

I-073 - 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 3 - 83 S - 20

E-069 - 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 - 73 I - 21

N-078 - 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 - 4 - 74 J - 22

K-075 - 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 - 4 - 84 T - 23

From there I noted that you have 5 letters in your first name (David), and that at the time you posted, it was your 10th post. So I pulled out letters 5 through 10 (going down the right column), and look what I got; "THRASH".

So obviously, the hidden message is that my little exercise THRASHed the whole concept of a hidden mathematical message inside the story.

Patterns are almost anywhere you decide to look for them. This point was made very clear when people claimed they were finding prophetic messages buried within the text of the Bible and further claimed that the odds against these messages being chance-happening were astronomical. It convinced a lot of people. Many people, however, became far less convinced when someone picked up a copy of "Moby Dick" and did exactly the same thing and found a number of seemingly prophetic messages.

COMMENTS

Joli
00:23 Aug 05 2008

what really scares me Is THat you do have hobbIes aNd you still found time to worK this code out just to get to Your point. it's like a cOmedian setting Up A joke foR 20 minutEs just to get tO the punch line.

Being a geek has its adVantages, I suppOse. yoU alSo get to cLaim the trophY, "i make scarlett wet usiNg only my UnsToppable brain power." Scary, man...scary.

DuCroix
01:40 Aug 05 2008

Very true, there are patterns in everything. All you have to do is look and, apparently, you looked :P

Beastt17
09:47 Aug 05 2008

Naw, that isn't nuts. It would be nuts to spend 10-minutes throwing together a quick hack to extract the characters from your message to read the message within the message, but just making a point about patterns isn't nuts.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/Beastt17/FindCase-Decoder.jpg

(This image probably won't show up, huh. I'll pop a copy into my portfolio, just in case.)

"Brain power"? Not! Just an UNhealthy obsession with tickling neurons and trying to hide being a bit on the dumb side. (easily fooled)