Proposal to Consider: Reduce Reproduction Rates

Ok, so by now everyone is totally offended and the child-hater and witch accusations will be in full force.  This proposal is just something I hope people may think about before deciding to bring any more people into the world.

No Vacancy:  The world is full.  This is not really a joke.  There are over 7 billion people in the world.  If we do not have plans for relocation, our humanity family will and has outgrown our shack.  Human overpopulation has devastated the planet and consumed its resources.

The world is suffering: war, poverty, lack of food, lack of fresh water, lack of energy, lack of space, lack of jobs, etc.  Have you ever gotten in a crowded buffet line, and by the time you got to the front, all of the salad dressing and croutons are gone, and nothing left but a big fat fly?  The human race has become that buffet line and they ran out of croutons two weeks ago.  Maybe consider instead of bringing your village to Pizza Hut, maybe next time, just bring your best friend.  He was the only one you were talking to anyway!

The argument is simple: quality over quantity.  That is the quality of humanity's population should be the goal, not to reproduce and reproduce and consume and consume as a nightmarish virus would.  Consume and consume until we have nothing less but each other to consume.

I AM NOT saying there should be couple child limits or that children are not wonderful, or anything of that sort! I am concerned and proposing this because I do care deeply for the children, humanity, and this little marble that has been our home.

I choose to remain childless so that I will not add to the exhaustion of Earth's resources.  If the world's people made the logical decision to significantly slow reproduction rates, it would give our world the vital relief it needs to recover from our overwhelming presence and our ancestors will not have to fight to the death over the ever continuing dwindling natural resources.  Climate change could also improve, with the less people, less emissions and pollution, could allow recovery time and minimize the devastating damage we have already done.  Less people means more to go around and a the probability of a higher quality of life for all people.

The world may do everything it can to rid itself of the infection, known as human beings.  Super bugs, disease, violent weather, and that comet from the Oort Cloud, a super-volcano, famines, soil erosion, etc, etc, etc.

If we do not make these changes ourselves, there may come an unfortunate day when the decision may be forced upon us.  I really hope this can be avoided.  The worst-case scenarios I do not even dare to type, but they are very dark scenarios and would be a tragic end to our beautiful little dream turned nightmare.

So that pretty much sums it up.  Too many people means less for all and even less for future generations, should they survive to see it.

Time analyzed as a dimension

When most of us think of space and time we are speaking as if the two were unrelated topics.  What is time?  Is time real?  Time is a dimension, one of the four we can perceive in our everyday existence.

One may argue that you can look out into space, but you can't see out into time or back, for that matter.  We recognize time's existence by measuring changes we perceive in out space.

However it is not so that you can not look out into time.  Actually, every time you open your eyes, you are looking out into space and back in time.  Say what?  It is completely true.  Everything we see is back in time.  Nothing we perceive is happening at our particular location in time.  Case in point, the stars, of course.  You look at the stars and you are looking back in time.  No matter where you look, it takes "time"  for you to see that object, due to the limits of light speed.

What would be truly interesting is if we could see through time into the future.  I am convinced that this is a possibility as well.  Why should we be able to move through space in different speeds and directions, but not through time.  Of course, we cannot know whether what we perceive as the passage of time is the same as other persons, animals, or plants, for instant.  But, anyway, why should we be so limited to be allowed to move only forward, and to see only back?  This simple question needs to addressed and we must learn to manipulate our time travel as we manipulate our space travel.  I am convinced that as our species has succeeded in comprehending the workings of the universe, that we are capable of time travel.  I also think that it is a requirement that we achieve this  feat to ensure the continued success of our existence.

Using Robots to Optimize Learning (An idea for development)

Recently, Kirobo, a Japanese robot was launched into space in order to accompany the humans on their missions aboard the International Space Station.  Kirobo is the latest in advanced "thinking" robots.  He gathers and analyzes questions or comments made to him and replies with an appropriate response.  One example, in an interview, he was asked what he would ask Santa for Christmas.  He responded that he was hoping for a toy rocket.  Not only is this adorable in my opinion, but also very important.

How can systems using language skills such as Kirobo's serve our human society?  One very simple and practical application would be developing robots or even programs which act as tutors for individualized learning.  What an immense tool for education this could be!  Imagine a program or robot companion for every child or even adult student which could accompany the student on his or her learning journey.  The robot could even serve as a study buddy.  If a question were to come up while a student is doing his or her homework, the tutor is right there to assist.  This sort of relationship can only be achieved with advanced language skills where the robot or program can recognize the question and form a rational and correct response.  The programs  could be specialized to cover certain course material, but could additionally be connected to some sort of database or even the internet.  The program would need to perform a rapid search and differentiate between "good" information and "incorrect or irrelevant" material.

Now this program would be extremely difficult to manage and create with current levels of technology, but I am certain that robot tutors and companions will soon be common place and that these tutors/programs/companions will contribute immensely to our world's education.

A Dark Matter Proposal

I was up late, not sleeping.  I had an idea about what dark matter may be, so to speak.  I need to try to sleep so I will try to make this concise.  Basically, the Big Bang was an event that took place in a larger "space".  Just as any event starts as a point in time and then grows larger, infinitely larger so that it covers more and more space over time, which is another dimension in our perceivable Universe.

Now, Einstein's famous equation, shows that space and time are linked by the speed of light which only applies to our universe.  Our universe, is an event that is spreading out through the "outside space".  Because we are spreading out through this "space", out perceivable matter is also spreading out, so that at the beginning of the Universe, we were not really affected by the outside matter, but because we are expanding, the outside matter is affecting the matter, we can perceive, shaping and causing our universe to form as  it has, and it would make sense that the more "time" goes by, the more dense the outside matter would become relative to the density of the expanding event, or the Big Bang.

So, if anyone is still following, the Universe is like a solute in a solvent, which could mean that the dark matter's influence could eventually cause the destruction  of our perceived universe, through its overwhelming gravitational influences.  This could further explain some of the behaviors observed, such as black holes.  Anyway, I need to sleep, but I wanted to write this down first, so hopefully some may find this interesting.

The Stars

I beg, turn this dark night into a sunrise.
But I know in my heart I am not owed any such thing,
The night spirits have spoken.
They have staked their claim.

The sunrise stands only to accuse
the heart so dark,
the soul born to lose
Seek not the sun but embrace the dark

One star does not shine for you
There is an entire sky full of lights.
This seems more worthy
than reaching for a star destined to die.

You may reach out to them
long after the days men try to count
I am a stranger in this world
And a stranger still when the sun burns out.

Becoming the Monster

Once I walked in the light.
The morning sun was a welcomed friend.
Now, I only seek the night,
Creeping from shadow to shadow.

I used to greet my fellow man,
But these meetings are no more.
I find no warmth in an open hand,
Only a distant memory of a lost life.

When I am forced to tread among humanity,
I fain that I somehow belong,
Just another soul consumed by greed and vanity,
Always dreading my true form will be discovered.

All that I used to be is gone,
An empty shell is what remains.
Friend, do not linger here for long.
The girl has become a monster.

Infinite Paradoxes at the Hilton Hotel

Within the past year, I have been introduced to some of the ideas and concepts surrounding infinity.  I was most intrigued by the work of Cantor and Hilbert.  Cantor worried about the paradoxes when you start trying to work problems using infinity as if it were an integer, ie using "I" as infinity (I + I=2I??)  How does that work?

One intriguing visualization from Hilbert is his infinite hotel or "Hilbert's Hotel".  The hotel has infinite rooms and they are all occupied.  Say, you show up, or you and all your friends, or you and an additional infinite friends show up and need a room.  Hilbert would shift the guests so as to accommodate the new guests.  This proposal of different kinds of infinity does not really make sense at least not to a finite creature as myself.

Now the way I have imagined it is that there is really the "single" infinity (whatever that means) and the infinite other infinities imagined in the Hilbert hotel are just part of that true infinity.  One way to think of it might be a shape shifting object that is always changing into new forms of infinity but is really still the same object.

Now if that confuses you, if confuses me, too, but really if infinite buses showed up to the Hilbert Hotel with infinite passengers on each and the guests are moved to accommodate these new arrivals, really those guests were already there.  I don't know how to explain this more clearly.  It is kind of like travelling around a circle.  No matter how far you travel around the circle, you end up in the same position.  This makes sense to me but I may not be the best at explaining this concept.  Let me just state one more time the continuing properties that Bob arriving at the hotel, can go to his room, but he himself has left that room to accommodate himself.  Ok well, that may be even worse, so I will give it a rest for now and come back to it later.  This is just one idea, and by no means my final thought on infinity.

I hope this gives you something to think about even if you feel that my train of thought is flawed.