Certainty
The one thing I can be certain of about my future is that it will be vastly different from what I imagine it to be today. Still, I enjoy speculating about the future. I might still yet surprise my current/past self and be completely on point in my predictions. However, with that being said, even today as I write this is a day when I have discovered something new about the possibilities for my future that will change everything.
Neuron On A Chip
The past two days I have been walking through the research labs of my college's new Biomedical Engineering department. As I learned about the facilities that are available I was inspired by a prospect of building specialized tests in the form of what are known as microfluidic devices. We can essentially design a specialized self-contained tiny petri dish and have it 3D printed with just about anything we as scientists can imagine for a test. A major concept being built from this technology is called "organs on a chip" where the goal is to make this new specialized testing device our primary resource for testing different cultures of cells from a human body.
This gave me the inspiration to create a neuron or nerves on a chip as a research project. I imagined that I could build a microfluidic device that would test for input and output information from nervous tissue. Little did I know that a google search of this concept would show me that I'm already late to that party.
Steve M. Potter, PhD, has been studying neurons with microchips for well over a decade. The methods he uses incorporate a specialized plate which can attract neurons with food to the positions of small electrodes, which can cause each neuron to fire as well as sense when neurons are firing.
By comparison to my colleges microfluidic devices, the specialized neurons-on-a-chip dishes that he uses seem crude to me. There may be an opportunity for me to both perfect the design as well as move toward my real dream of discovering just how intuitively we can adapt to directly controllable machinery through our thoughts (aka neurons).
While I am not yet clear on exactly what I can do for a project, my head is spinning at the thought of what it could be. The loftiest goal on my mind right now is to surgically implant a wireless device into a rat and train the rat to control a robotic arm to get food.
The Future Is Now
Any of you with a well developed imagination must realize that I am already crossing into ethically difficult terrain. The ultimate motivation of what I want for the future is my own eternal survival (minus any severe suffering) and to optimize that I plan to do what is in the best interests of everyone, including myself.
If I didn't rely so much on the shoulders of giants to obtain this technological knowledge, I would prefer to keep my studies all to myself, allowing me to have an edge in society by virtue of some personal upgrades over time. But the fact is that I can't make as much progress without the help of the rest of the human race, so I have to go with a mutually beneficial program. I have to help shape and abide by ethical policies that establish and enforce humane rights.
Privacy
I think the most immediate right being lost by technology today is privacy. As much as it is an important right, I'm afraid that for the most part, our privacy is permanently doomed. Nanorobotic devices are already being built. Control software and AI are among our strongest limitations when it comes to drones, second only to energy. While we are not yet spying on each other with tiny almost invisible drones, life has no problem infiltrating our homes with roaches and bed bugs that escape our notice with ease.
I'm not going to lie, I want the power to spy on others freely. There is a nature to me that I would prefer to keep in check, to not use such an ability for the purpose of obsessive control over my loved ones or to get a good look at a hot individual taking a shower, but such mistakes might still be inevitable. If I can control myself enough to stay focused on the more strategic uses of spybots I would find an ethical and more purposeful use for them by monitoring backroom deals made by political officials and judges so they can be exposed to the public for the corrupt idiots that they are. Another obvious use would be to uncover crime as it happens and report it to police.
Of course, this leaves open a few other possibilities that I would want to avoid doing, yet would forsee that could be done with spybot technology. The only difference between a spybot and an assassinbot is attaching a syringe of poison. Assassination is a very particular ethical dilemma. Some people, if dead, would leave the world a better place for it.
While there are more ethical approaches to stopping such individuals from their undesired behaviors, assassination is most effective if one can ensure that they would be able to get away with it. There's no question in my mind that small assassin drones would be fully capable of just that. Ever imagine what the world would be like if we could all kill each other with our thoughts? I suspect we will soon learn this first hand.
The hope would therefore be that we could cut off the potential for such use of spybots by making video exposure of crimes and legalized bribes effective enough to stop people from commiting crimes altogether. The risk of being punished for murder could be reasoned to would-be-assassins as less attractive than the risk of being seen as a journalistic hero to the public.
There are many possible strategies in between as well, which I hope would-be-assassins would consider as better options than murder. Spybots could be built to temporarily knock out or disable a target. They could even permanently disable a target if you think death is too good for them.
Do you notice that I am not speaking much about the ethics of the use of such things? The reason for this is that personal ethics are not a major concern for everyone that could get their hands on this technology. In order to stop the misuse of technology I think we need to operate as if we were unconcerned with personal ethics but still wanted to protect the society that we live in from danger. In other words, it doesn't take shame to stop someone from committing murder. It takes a rational alternative that will help them achieve the same goal at a lesser risk to them.
Ours is a society of reaction when it comes to justice. I don't think we will be prepared at all when spybots are perfected, because our politicians who should be preparing in advance are more concerned with making a quick payout from their corporate donors. Hopefully, the most foolish among them in this way will be the first and last to be victim to this inevitable reality. Only then will we have the smarter among them react swiftly and effectively to actually defend against the dangers of that technology.
Immortality
The aging process beyond our maturity at 25 is known to be caused by the degradation of telomeres, a repeating genetic pattern at the ends of every chromosome. These are thought to protect our cells from mutations that inevitably happen, such as cancer. As some mutations are more likely than others to occur, it makes sense that small changes in the elastic strength of fibrous proteins in our bodies as well as losing the ability to maintain myelin sheaths along the axons of our neurons would occur with time.
There are some beneficial changes with age, but they don't amount to much more than triggering chatty behavior that helps pass valuable information to the next generation. I've always loved teaching, so I doubt I'll miss out on much if I were to remain forever young.
In case you believe that immortality will not be possible, you should note that there is one part of the human life cycle that does reinforce telomeres somehow. It occurs to form our gametes (eggs and sperm) for the development of the next generation. At the very least, a treatment for aging will be sought after and found just to help cure the rare individual children who lack that reinforcement and are born with the symptoms of old age.
One of my best friends who will likely read this has a position that this portion of human life is too sacred for anyone to mess with. She believes that we are meant to die past a certain age and would plan to push for laws that would enforce death. For this possibility, I will not go quietly. Some people protect their right to guns until someone pulls them from their cold dead hands. I protect my right to life.
Defense
As technology gets smaller and the potential use and danger from tiny machines increases, an individual's body will become a battlefield. Our bodies are already battlefields of disease, which we currently fail to keep under control, but this new technology will add a new front of easily designed machines. While the process will be slow, I expect to find that we will reach a point where those who do not want to die, be controlled, or taken hostage through what you might think of as biohacking, would need to adapt bodily upgrades for themselves.
Perhaps an added layer of protective artificial skin? Or maybe you prefer gas filters inserted into your nasal cavity? An exoskeleton with the ability to double as a solar panel? I hope that before the danger is great enough to affect me that I will adapt all of these things. Ideally, I would want to optimize my physical dexterity and micro security in a self-contained system of a body which is capable of surviving off of light energy or easily sanitized sugars.
I have no limits that I wouldn't cross in terms of types of technology to adapt towards this end. I would not harm others for the sake of upgrading my body, but I hold no individual part of myself to be too sacred to mess with. I am no longer constructed of the same materials that were once me as a child. I, therefore, do not mind a progressive transfer of my self from today to be completely made up of different parts and materials in the future. That which is me, myself, and I is a process that exists as a function of time, not merely a physical object.
AI and Androids
While I will grant any conscious entity human rights, it is my current intention to never create an artificial intelligence that could be conscious. I won't live in denial if consciousness is far more simple and arbitrary than we make it out to be today, but I do plan on ultimately being consistent with what I want for myself to be granted to any being that resembles my state of self-hood. AI and robots should be built as tools, with the few that are built as companions being matters of exploration into the nature of consciousness. Those AI should have complete human rights as far as I'm concerned.
As mindless tools, I have tinkered with one somewhat terroristic thought of what I might wish to one day do as prank using AI. In parts of the world where the closed minded harass innocent people for violating their cultural norms by using their right to free speech and bodily autonomy, I would like to challenge such individuals to regret and fear such harassment. Keep in mind that these are just playful thoughts for now and that I would rethink them and hold myself responsible for any unwarranted damages that would be incurred by these pranks.
I would possibly have a non-conscious android walk the streets of an Islamic theocracy resembling an unveiled woman with a shirt that translates "Atheist" and watch the crowd of aggressive fools and/or police group around her, only to be spanked with a painful gas and made to run in circles chasing after her.
Or in another case have an army of drones and androids "attack" a North Korean Army demonstration with a slick substance on the ground and the smell of some relaxing recreational drug in the air. Amid the chaos, weapons would be disarmed and leaders would be kidnapped.
Still yet another case, I might have androids walking the streets of American ghettos wearing blue and red shirts, resembling minorities. I would find ways to spank both the gangs and the police who react aggressively to mere appearances so lightly.
And of course, with the recent political events in the US, I just might send androids into Neonazi hate groups to cause derision by questioning the "pureness" of every individual's race.
See, the point is that war is really bad, but if done in jest it can actually be effective enough to just waste the energy of fools until they give up by realizing that they are wasting their energy by trying to enforce their ideologies.
Parasitic Surgery
Parasites have epic ways of getting inside us and avoiding our immune systems. While they are not always naturally selected to cover up their path to avoid letting other invaders compete with them, it's my understanding that many of them manage to do so anyway. Just as we use retrovirus technology in the lab to study and affect our genetics, I expect that something along the lines of a robotic non-reproducing nematode will be the ideal means of getting into and affecting the body.
I have a weight problem as well as a heel spur in my foot that would greatly benefit from such technology. If perfected, I could do the surgery on myself with little to no risk, and I wouldn't even have to be put to sleep during it.
Full disclosure, while I did think about parasites being used to this effect beforehand, the specific use of nematodes was inspired by the novel Hyperion, by Dan Simmons.
Human Battery
Another alternative to solving my weight issue might be to incorporate the devices we use with technology that's adaptable to our biology. Why exercise when I could just as easily work it off by charging my with a USB cable plugged into my armpit? While the real thing will be far less crude, that's essentially what it will amount to.
As much as I love a runner's high from exploring the world, I just don't always have the time. Nor do I have the strength of will to stop overeating at the moment. This way, I can cram and spend countless hours doing research with a runner's high and a bit of panting because of the ATP delivering a charge to my phone.
Expanding The Mind
This area, while not too sacred to me, is a tricky one. I may discover that the "self" of my brain holds some value that may as well be too sacred for me to change. Something I've considered about the process of upgrading my mind would be a need for each change to be quickly reversible. I would want to connect a wireless artificial lobe to myself, for example, with a limitation of 10 minutes to 24 hours at time while testing it. A change in my personality can only be proven as preferable or advantageous after I have reverted back to my original self and have reviewed my notes and behaviors during the changed state.
As for my current project idea, since it's not the same as connecting another lobe, I'm willing to be more risky with the idea of extending my motor neuron control of wireless devices. Though, I suppose just in case I get a sensory overload from someone hacking the wireless device, I should incorporate a manual off switch for it once it's ready to attach to myself. If I'm right, this technology will only be limited by my ever extending attention span.
First, I'll manage to change the channel on a tv. Then, I'll be able to wirelessly control any personal device. An interesting way that I imagine we will be able to hold on to some sense of privacy will eventually be through connecting to the earlier mentioned spybots. A spybot swarm with an encrypted semi-AI supported wireless control system would allow me to do a lot of awesome.
Honestly, I just might manage to become a bit of a superhero-like vigilante with that technology. A fight might best be broken up with an anonymous micro pepper spray to the eyes. That, or maybe a spybot getting in someone's ear and making a lot of noise would freak them out enough to stop what they are doing. To someone pulling a gun for a non-defensive purpose, I might attempt to blind them with a laser or flash at the risk of possible permanent damage if necessary... Can you tell I fight dirty?
Cyber Drugs
There's no doubt in my mind that I and many others investigating the human brain will encounter what amounts to their own pleasure button. I'll push this button, fire off a few of my neurons, and feel an interesting tingle. Then I might fire again and feel bit high. Possibly even without losing any sense of good judgement or clear thought. Like scratching an itch that I could never reach before, I could find myself in a state of ecstasy and orgasm, unable to stop.
This is a state of mind that I dread. If I don't have a fail safe of some sort that acts like a grounding wire when working on a computer, I could die of drought or starvation from being stuck and unable to stop. You should all be very afraid of the next generation of drugs for this reason. Even if you take recreational drugs and feel fine with it, the worst is yet to come.
Presently there are individuals who die of a simpler version of such addiction. People actually die from playing video games until they are overly dehydrated or starve. They simply forget to eat or drink to take care of themselves. Our pleasure systems give us the motivation we need to move forward and progress in every way, but when altering our minds, we should aim for complete control over what exactly floats our boats as it were.
Healing The Mentally Ill
There's a poem I wrote a while back. I made a post of it here after I posted this one. The poem was a reflection on a homeless woman who was mentally damaged and who happened to spit on my business shoes as I was riding my bicycle past her. I asked her why and she just said, "I didn't do nuffin' mutta fukka!"
Needless to say, talking to her was pointless. But, that doesn't mean I shouldn't care to help someone like her. This area of thought is the most ethically questionable in my own mind, but I have to consider, could I one day fix someone like her? A set of microscopic nanobots could one day make analysis of her brain dysfunctions a swift possibility. But how much can I reasonably "fix" her and allow for her to still be her own person making her own conscious choice of upgrades to her mind?
This is especially difficult with individuals who are suffering from narcissism. They would never be capable of accepting that they have a fault without first showing them what it's like to not have to defend their ego for a moment. The process, as long as it attempts to be ethical, can even be ridiculous.
Subject: "Oh, my. This is much better. Thank you."
Doctor: "Ok. But just to be sure we have your full consent to make this permanent, we have to revert the changes and get your unaltered permission. [types an 'off' command]."
Subject: "What the hell did you just do to me mutta fucka!?!? Don't touch me!"
Hacking A Coma
Another prospect for my future, if my desired research is successful, might result in me being one of the first in a specialty that I predict will arise, neuro-network healers. If a patient in a vegetative state has brain damage, an expert such as this could connect with them to help track down exactly where the damage is and start treatments such as stem cell therapy. However, there might also be some comas which can be cured by helping to assist in the information processing of the patient by a doctor using a neural net connection.
If such is the reality, then this will be the most busy period of my life. I would not stop at anything to help such victims regain their freedom from what amounts to my worst nightmare. I would even volunteer myself wherever necessary, because this is exactly what I would hope someone else could do for me if I were ever trapped in a vegetative state.
This gets to another insight of what I forsee about the future of neuroscience. While theories must continue to be verified by experimental data, I believe the the best hypotheses worth testing will require inspiration from human intuition. In the field of psychology, this is already the case. With this new technology, the behaviorist view will finally be able to merge with the cognitive view as we encompass and determine the entire reality of consciousness.
Connecting With The Ones I Love
While I'm not willing to yet become full-on-borg and join the collective, I don't want to be completely detached. I think the first experiments I would want to attempt with neural-net connections to other brains will be to my pets. I'd like to finally have complete communication with my cat, for example. I don't want to deny her the choice to disconnect, but I do want there to be a chance that we could both see what it's like to be of the same mind.
I expect that she will be frightened, but that I will be able to calm her when it happens. She may still only be interested in food and sleep, despite my brain being able to verify that there are better plans to be had. I wonder how well she can remember our past experiences. I also wonder if she would be encouraged enough by the connection to wish for more upgrades for herself. I wonder if she would she ever want to stand upright or have opposable thumbs.
One option is to also consider mind reading before mind connecting. It might be feasible to connect another's brain firings to my own mirror neurons, allowing me to literally empathize with them 100%. Like anyone else, I DO have secrets I'd prefer not to share and this might help to avoid having to so while connecting with others.
There's also the prospect of at least partially connecting with my future kids or my lover. Would we as a family make a better team as a collective, or will it develop more problems? Any step in this direction should be met with the same care as the prospect of expanding my brain with an artificial lobe, since being of one merged mind is definitely a personality changer.
Clones
Quite possibly, the greatest strength of life is reproduction. There is no better means of ensuring future existence than becoming more than one thing to exist. I confess, in terms of reliving my life, I have something personal to prove by the prospect of raising a genetic twin of myself. Yes, that is my ego talking, and yes, I realize that it can be a limitation, but doing such a thing also just because I can is adequate reason for me to one day follow through.
I'd like to see a version of me that isn't manipulated and/or abandoned by his father. A version of me that is taught science well and from an early age rather than getting bullshit lessons that the moon has no gravity in a 3rd grade textbook. A version of me who could one day give a perspective that I don't currently have. One with no emotional traumas or defensive reflexes causing me to randomly feel afraid, angry, and inadequate for nothing.
Another form of cloning that interests me even more is that of the old Star Trek molecular transporter a la TNG. I'm ok with teleportation, but not the kind that destroys one of me and creates another. I don't necessarily see it as no longer existing, but I also don't see the necessity of the first step. What's more, unless I discover people who naturally think exactly like myself, I think it would be useful to go as far as to build at least a space crew size number of Steves eventually. Each would be a complete individual with their own rights, and they will share a significant amount of memories with me.
Space
Versions of me will likely enjoy colonizing space at various stages of development of the human race. There will likely always be at least one staying on Earth until some form of energy and space-time manipulation allows for space to be a natural habitat as far as we are concerned. I suspect that we will eventually manage to harness dark energy, though I do understand why many are doubtful and worried of an entropy driven heat death. As dark energy accelerates galaxies outward, I'll hope that we can at least find a permanent source of life fuel from that source.
I imagine that my clones will want to be optimized as individual cyborgs and that we perhaps might form a space crew. Such a way of life would not be refusing collaboration with other non-Steves but it's really tough to know that you can trust someone more than yourself... when you aren't a psychopath, narcissist, or sociopath anyway. Consider this speculation as assuming my own self-reliance to a strong degree. My future children, grand children, and best friends will likely be comrades in my purpose to live and enjoy living for the sake of it eternally.
-Time
If altering space-time, and thus gravity and differences in relative speeds of time becomes a possibility, I have an idea of how I could optimize my own safety in space. Diffraction occurs as light goes through substances that change its speed. Going from slow to fast at an angle bends the ray outward. I think of it like the slow side causing the light to stick to it a little, so it's like if you hold on to an object a little longer before releasing it as you throw it. It directs the object more outward.
Similarly, I would think a great means of orienting a ship to avoid being hit with a bullet or missile as well as avoid colliding with another ship or space debris would be to create fields of slower space-time outward from the ship. This would cause the individuals within to be moving at relatively fast speeds while causing anything other than light to be shifted away from the ship as it approaches. Only a near impossible perfect trajectory or radiation will be able to actually reach the ship. Various lasers as well as the ability to see the ship could also manage to be thrown off if a set of layered liquids and gases could be held in place by these fields to alter the course of things that don't slow down with time.
Life After Heat Death
In the case where entropy is inevitably going to end with a heat death of the universe, such a future might quickly turn overcrowded at some point. If this is the case, then a project to collect an optimum amount of energy into the form of sugar and water would be ideal, as well as to find optimal ways to still live yet minimize energy expenditure for each conscious entity.
My last wish will be to float as an entity that would not degrade with time and would be capable of resurrecting should the slightest form of energy present itself, be it radiation, kinetic impact, or some other being managing to discover my remains and deciding to say, "Hi," by injecting me with a necessary sugar.
This post is my entry into the first Deep Think Challenge. Please go to the challenge page and upvote my entry comment if you enjoyed my thoughts about the future!
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With neural manipulation using micro, or even nano, chips, human society can achieve infinite possibilities. One world government, the dread of so many, can easily become reality by simple memory manipulation and thought control. Subtle manipulation of neural connections can weaken such concerns for "privacy" or "individual rights" and strengthen the concepts for state security and harmony.
With neural implants, education is no longer necessary, as data and information can be directly downloaded into someone's thought matrix. Lenin once boasted that he only requires first 10 years of a child to indoctrinate communism into a society; what child's play! The new paradigm can disseminate any social concept in nanosecond downloads. Global issues of climate change, water conservation, pollution, poverty can all be tackled by thought-editing human society into prioritizing these problems over selfish, tribal concerns.
When memory and even thoughts can be edited, is "consent" a necessity? Would "privacy" be of concern, when one's very motivations can be manipulated? Would men care for individual intimacy, when the state can provide direct pleasure emotions via the neural control mechanisms? With cloning technology, the state no longer has to tolerate pregnancies, births, and parental leaves; such inefficient reproductive methods can easily be replaced with cloning vats. Also, the new generation of clones can be directly grown with the nano-robots that assist in thought manipulation.
Who though will rule over us as the uebermench?
The funny thing about your concern is that control takes work. Every problem that you mentioned exists now but on a lesser technological scale. People are brainwashed often to the point of wanting to be further brainwashed. The real trouble is considering how much quality of work and protection that you can get out of a thinking device without losing control.
It is my belief that individuals with free minds and the position that minds are better off being free of oppression will always have a greater ability to subvert and topple any moral atrocity that attempts to control more than it legitimately can. All we need are more options to work with than we currently have.
One man's oppression is another's paradise. If I can edit another's thoughts to have him accept my rule as being benevolent and ultimately to his benefit, is that "oppression"? If I can edit out the chaotic tendency of modern men's desire for "freedom," "individuality," "ownership," wouldn't humanity coalesce under unquestioned rule by one man or group? Would not the harmony and cooperation produced by such union worth jetisoning the aforementioned chaotic ideas?
Good questions. I think however that the answer stands in the light of real integrity. An addict goes back to their addiction until it kills them, but if someone is willing to help them reflect mindfully of their condition, would they really keep it?
I think the evidence will have to come from either reading the minds of opposing ideologues or connecting our minds with said ideologues. I hope and hypothesize that such individuals will give up their obsessive nonsense when they see that you have really pointed out their contradictions without deceit.
Does logic and reasoning cure addiction?
I believe 'addiction' is simply attempting to meet a need through a false substitute. Since this substitute never meets the need, an addiction is created as the need is never satiated. The key to overcoming any addiction is to find out what the need underlying that addiction is, and take action to meet it. To focus any energy on 'stopping' the addiction is wasted energy because the need is still unmet, which will continue to drive the addiction, it's an endless battle we see every addict losing.
This is the same with all the technocratic control methods expressed above as more 'fixes' of our technocratically addicted society. We're unfulfilled, unhealthy, bored, overworked, etc. And our material sciences promises to cure or improve these ailments (a promise it has been making for 100's of years). Yet, as a sober human we can look at the facts of the matter. We work longer, we're sicker, more depressed, our natural world is literally killing us as we can't drink the water and can scarcely breathe the air in many places, etc, etc. We're decaying, and instead of attempting a new strategy to meet our true needs, we go for another technological hit, a bigger and better invention, a stronger and stronger dose! As each dose, we continue to pollute ourselves and our earth. I can sit here and reason with you and employ logic. But, maybe you won't see what I'm saying. Which goes back to my first question.
Does logic and reasoning cure addiction?
The thing is, every one of your impulses comes with a goal of receiving a positive feedback. Accomplish goal, get serotonin or dopamine. Body tells you to have sex, it doesn't matter if your judgement suggests otherwise, you're going to have sex or the next generation will be made of children from hornier parents. Everything works this way. The danger of cyber drug technology is that we will have the power to cut out the middle step. Just get the positive reward of orgasm and skip the sex. Take full control... except for the control to not need the serotonin and dopamine.
I think that it is my rationality, which I give full authority to in my mind, that counters this effect. Rational problem solving circuits of my brain get a reward for solving puzzles and connecting dots. They have a positive feedback loop to keep doing more but they also get the positive feedback just for working honestly. I get a headache and emotional withdraw if I find myself lying, even to others. I hate liars, and to lie myself means I would hate myself.
Therefore, I think if one part of my rational neurons got a positive feedback that didn't mesh with consistency, the others would figure it out and say "No! We do not lie!" It's of course more complex than that and there are some exceptions like playing pretend or doing so to prevent others from harm... ok, yes, also to save face at times, but we hate ourselves for that. :(
I'm not saying this is the case. However, just in the spirit of 'deep-thinking' could it be possible that the technocratic allure of ultimate freedom and happiness (when I believe it is quite the opposite), is perhaps causing a sort of manipulation that would cause more people to want to travel down this path, even though it has consistently, since it's inception, failed to meet the qualitative benefits it has promised humanity?
I'm also not saying it's not the case ;)
Technological allure to the point of our demise? Quite possibly. Already happened to some gaming addicts.
As for not fulfilling the promised quality of life... Umm, you know there's a lot less suffering due to medicine, right? I mean the most painful lives to live in the world are where economics denies people these advantages. The economists are really dumb too, because if they pushed single payer universal healthcare for the world, they'd profit AND stop getting the flu every year. Even their hookers would be less likely to get STDs to spread to them.
A hooker is a natural remedy, right?
Hookers and poverty and most of our 'suffering' requiring modern 'medicine' is the result of the technocratic program. Any suffering that has been decreased was only caused by this program. I believe much of our history has been fabricated and skewed to support the theory of our superiority. I mean, why not, it wouldn't be fun to admit that we are actually declining. But the observable facts suggest otherwise.
Look at the Kong! A pretty boring example of a people living much better than our culture typically does. In one of the harshest climates on the planet. They have no mechanical technology, yet, there they are, living long, hardly any diseases to speak of, plenty of leisure time. I'm not saying I would trade them places because I will create better, and in a much more hospitable environment... But, this is simply a stark example that pokes a lot of holes in the illusions of mechanical sciences 'benefits'.
Even when you speak of economists and single-payer health care. Those are all possibly remedies and outcomes for problems created by our technocratic sciences and the resulting philosophies that gave rise to our exceptionally faulty models of governance.
I don't see what I understand as history as being favorable to give humankind or even westerners in general much of a legacy to be proud of. However, if there's facts regarding history that we aren't in clear agreement on then the conversation should focus on the specifics of these facts which we both have a different understanding of. I took a course on the history of science once. I thought that was pretty good with most westerners dragging their feet rather than getting with the program of the scientific revolution.
As for the Kong, do you mean Viet Kong, or Hong Kong or something else? I am very skeptical of the idea that any culture has proven to have better health by comparison to a culture with adequate (scientifically determined) healthcare. By all means, please show me what evidence has convinced you that such is the case and I'll look at it. But as you do so, please try to consider the answer to one question as you collect such evidence: what sort of evidence might convince you that it's actually a myth that the people of this healthcare-less culture are either without good healthcare or are living healthier than a culture that does? I ask this because with such conflicts of reality you and I must realize that at some point, someone (probably not one of us, but one of our sources) is just making stuff up.
Ask @rieki to draw you a diet plan! :P
Tried burpees? Not time-consuming at all.
My comments are very in-depth, I know. It's just I find it hard to find something to comment on when I don't expressly disagree with anything!
Ahhhh, I could have known you two were working together :)
Seriously though, I want to change up my strategy with you two. I'm still operating from old programs of competition. So, I tend to find ways that I disagree and drive a wedge there. However, I would rather find ways that we agree and come together :) Makes for a better party me thinks!
Real talk, I can't draw you a diet plan. I'm sorry. I, a year or so ago, was arrogant enough to think that I did know what was best for people to eat for their health. Now, I can only offer advice as to what I did. I believe I said I would offer you a outline. Since I haven't done a post (I fully intended to) I will delay no further and give the most important aspects now.
First, this is fundamental to all my philosophies on life. It goes to say that nature (whether it is because we co-evolved or it was designed) provides exactly what we need to eat where we are and when we need to eat it. This is defined by seasons of food ripening. So, first advice. Eat food in season, it's literally the best thing for you, for a multitude of reasons I could get into. I touched on all of these topics briefly in one of my first posts on Steemit (it got curied, so someone must have thought it worthwhile ;) ) Here it is
Second, eat what makes you feel good! If you don't enjoy eating it. DON'T EAT IT! Seriously, I have nothing but terrible things to say about diets that promote 'going without and sacrifice'. Further I have terrible things to say about 'diets', period. Though, they do have their role for people looking for immediate results. You're into the material science approach, so you may love the ketogenic diet. ;) Essentially low carb to get the body into ketosis so that it burns fat as energy. If you say you have a weight problem, this may help. I say may because it doesn't always work for people who are also full of pollutants and toxins. If the body is overloaded with toxins to process it stores toxins in fat to process at a later date. This one reason why some people have diet from losing weight to quickly from excessive dieting as the body was overloaded with newly released toxins stored from long ago. So, this brings me to point 3.
Third, fasting! I can elaborate more on this one. But, we evolved (or were designed) to go periods without food, this helped our bodies clean themselves, rest the intestinal tract, give some organs a break, let the liver and other detoxifying systems get caught up (or do some house-cleaning). Further, it has the benefit of a wolf with bison. It gets rid of the weaker, slower, less effective ones :) As you 'cannibalize' yourself (autophagy), the body is smart enough to start with the damaged cells. This helps us get towards optimal efficacy as well. As fasting was once something that may have happened unintentionally and unwillingly to our nomadic ancestors, it is something that has to occur intentionally today with our culture of constantly available food. It's important to note that the worse you feel during a fast the better you feel when it's over (could be relative ;) ).
But, fasting can be unpleasant. So, if you pair fasting with ketosis it's a smooth transition (if you have plenty of fat stores) that many people seeking to lose weight remark that they hardly notice they have gone so long without eating... So, something that could help with weight loss. Also, fasting saves money and time as you don't have to purchase food or take the time to prepare or eat :) More time for science and such :)
Fourth! I LOVE sweet food, this used to be a problem when I ate sweets filled with high-fructose corn syrup, or processed cane sugar not to mention all the other things found in said sweets. So, for a long time when I started getting into health I "sacrificed sweets as they were bad, and health was good". Blah, Blah, Blah, I ate food that I didn't care for I reasoned that I ate for health not for enjoyment. A common phrase I once said. Now, I eat like a fat kid (aside from routine fasting), I eat what I want, when I want, often cakes, pies (i'm eating chocolate pie right now), cookies, etc. So, long opening short. Fourth is simply replace artificial and processed with natural/whole. I make things sweet with (low glycemic) fruit, honey, palm nectar, dates. These wholefood sweets, not only taste better (in my opinion) than their nearly cocaine counterparts (processed sugar, all varieties even the 'organic' flavour), but they don't have the same effect on insulin that promotes weight gain. So, I eat like a fat kid, don't work out nearly as much as I believe I should (Something I will get back into ;) ) and I still maintain a 6 pack and around 6-8% bodyweight. I can tell you it's not some genetic benefit as most of my family members (5/9 siblings, both parents, and nearly all my extended family) are heavily overweight. The only family members who aren't follow similar eating habits I discuss.
So, that's all. Eat what you love, take a break from food time to time, eat what's local and in season (which also happens to be cheaper ;), eat whole foods and think happy thoughts about food (which is easy if you enjoy it)!! Soooooooo, this comment got out of hand. Just started writing and for some reason didn't stop.... So, I'm going to go ahead and end it now.
Thanks for all the advice. The real issue isn't choosing what to eat, it's having the control to choose. I have a little will power, but when my fiance always wants to go out to eat and no menus are delicious AND low cal, it sucks. I also don't have time to cook for myself. Also, the food I get on campus is exoensive AND either high cal but filling or low cal and tiny portions. No inbetween.
Beer makes me feel reeeeeeeeeeeal gooooooood.
I think we'll soon have to go online to find out what's in season! With all these foods being available year-round, I forgot when their season is! Like, do cucumbers have a season? Aren't oranges always in season - my grocery shop seems to think so. Avocados aren't at all local - do I never eat them? Tomatoes originally came from America, as well as chocolate. Do I never eat them? .. So, not as easy as it sounds!
What? Simple solution my friend. Grow your own food (goto farmers markets) create a community model (Our NeighbourGood) in order to produce all required food. Then you don't have to think about it. You simply eat what is available...
I wish I could grow my own food!
Farmers' markets aren't as developed a concept here as in America, oddly enough. But our produce isn't as "artificial" either, I guess.
But the more incisive question is: tomatoes aren't local here. Nor in Italy where most pizzas and pasta dishes depend on tomato sauces. Nor can I imagine a Greek salad without tomatoes. So, should be abide by the "eat local" injunction and stop eating tomatoes?!
So, from a certain aspect, this injunction is ridiculous. If it is, then what's wrong with eating avocados year-round?
However, it's not a completely ridiculous injunction. In Russia they eat lots of milk products. And I mean lots. In Greece and Cyprus, we basically only got yogurt, which even lactose intolerant (or should I say sensitive) people can tolerate pretty fine (maybe cos the yogurt is so strained). The genes of Mediterranean people are more prone to issues with lactose. Milk spoils easily in warm weather, you see, whereas in the cold climates of Russia it lasts longer, giving rise to all sorts of intermediate products from completely liquid to completely strained: kefir, ryajenka, smetana, slivka, pahta, tvorok - they got stuff we don't have words for, which is why we often just take the world wholesale. So, since milk spoiled easily, people in warm climates didn't need the enzymes to break it down in adulthood.
I'm one of those people who can't drink milk. If I drink more than, say, half a cup a day, I will have gas and much turbulence down there. However, I can eat (strained Greek) yogurt to satiation. But I typically eat about 360 g a day. I occasionally drink some milk, usually via recipes that require it. My dad didn't drink it at all, said he didn't like it, which I always found strange, cos I love milk! And he ate tons of yogurt! I guess his instincts were more aligned to nature, having grown up in a different era, like you were saying! But I often wonder whether I could tolerate milk just fine if it were natural, containing all the enzymes (lactase) needed to break it (lactose) down. Anecdotal evidence says this often happens: people who couldn't drink mass produced milk, drank organic milk just fine. Do you have any experience with this? I tried drinking milk to which the enzymes were added back in, and this only led to diarrhea after a few days! I guess this confirms the picture you have of science: they break apart the natural, reassemble it, and cause side-effects as a result!
There is plenty of clever ways to get a hold of some land to grow food on! I was involved with a start-up idea a number of years ago called 'garden-space' , essentially it was like air-bnb for gardeners and land-owners. But the key here is to find someone with land, that isn't being used (towns and cities are often accepting to this idea as well) and present them with a simple proposal for growing food on it. Often this is massively popular, it increases land value as it becomes more fertile and more beautiful, also it provides food (which you can offer in exchange for use of the land, so you don't have to pay money). I have found (when researching for the start-up) that nearly everyone I talked to about lending some of thier land to have someone else grow food, in exchange for a part of the food grown, they were all in favour of it! Who would want a basket of fresh food right from thier own land every week or so?! That way you get use of land, it's not as ideal as owning your own land, but it works! Also, there are a few large scale market gardeners using this exact model, turned it into a full time job using lots of peoples land and is turning over 6 figures profit annually (in canada). It's highly lucrative as it cuts out many farmers biggest expense (owning land). Which, could be a great idea for you if you say farmers markets aren't that big there (it's a trend growing globally) you could lead it.
So, if you wish you could do it, there is a way you could not just 'do it' but get all your food grown (reducing your expenses) and grow valuable food. It wouldn't be a far stretch to say you could make a reasonably profitable living doing it! Just an idea :)
I also don't drink milk, I was addicted to it (seriously, like half gallon a day for 20 years), but I cut it out and never looked back. The few times I have tried to re-introduce it I have become immediately sick (might be a bit mental as well, but it also occurs when I didn't know milk existed in the meal, pre-sickness). So, I haven't tested the 'organic' theory. Though for me, I believe it would have to be raw to contain the proper enzymes for digestion, I would only do this if I lived in a climate (like russia) opposed to the tropics as I do.
When I say eat local, this is in reference to what 'can' and 'does' grow locally during specific local season. Not necessarily what evolved in your local area of the course of millenia. If something can and does grow locally, when it ripes in your local climate and season is when I believe it is best. For a 'scientific' approach to this it's understood that we evolved along food eating it when it was ripe and when it was available. We didn't need to know why certain foods ripened in certain seasons, what effects those certain foods combinations had at that time or any of it. We simply ate what was there to eat. So, if something grows in your climate (regardless of where it was originally from) when it ripens in that climate. Eat it.
Also, there is a whole host of other benefits of eating food grown in your environment. One example, in new zealand the ozone layer has been damaged and more radiation goes in. Many people in new zealand are sensitive to burning because of this. However, what is also noted is that many plants grown in New Zealand have been shown to have a higher antioxidant count than the same plants grown in other environments. Long story short, this is attributed to the plants creating defenses themselves for the UV radiation and when we eat those plants we get a higher amount of antioxidants to help us in that environment cope with the higher radiation as well.
Yes that's what I meant, raw milk.
Interesting ideas! I'll keep them in mind! I know someone who owns land who doesn't use it. There's olive trees there, and he just lets them go to waste. Don't know if there's room for anything more, but at least one could get some free olive oil!
Thanks for taking the time to write these replies!
Excellent article!! I'd be super stoked to see all of this take place (If it were able to happen without continuing the current devastation our culture is creating on our planet).
I don't want to take part in it, but it's super fascinating to hear how excited you are about it!! It will be fun to see where the future diversity of our world comes to, there once were many more homo-species. I believe this will once again be the case as new species are essentially engineered homo-mechanicus?! Homo-psuedo-spiritualist, Homo-aryan, Homo-sapian? Huh...
Fascinating read!
I love that!