Pre-Destiny

A few day's ago, I had an awesome argument about life, the universe and everything. I'm not quite sure how it got started, but the basic idea was that pre-destiny exists as a secular phenomenon. It was put forward that the  course of all life is predestined, not by a sentient god, but by ourselves; The combined effect of our actions combine to force a future course of events upon us.

This idea is fairly appealing at first glance, it fits quite nicely with the Buddhist concept of Karma and Newton's first law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). With greater thought, however, I must reject it. 

Firstly, there are very few situations that we can get ourselves into and not out of in some way or another (even if avoiding our self made "fate" would mean a quick getaway, plastic surgery and changing your name to Jõsé). 

Second, and probably more compellingly, these consequences are the result of free action. Choices we have made ourselves. Any system of pre-destiny excludes free choice by definition; if something is destined to happen, then it will happen regardless of our choices or actions.

Still... it's an interesting little piece to think on ^^

In The News:

Power Failure Shuts Down US Nukes - ... and we thought we had problems with Eskom... wow.

Free e-books with a catch: Advertising - I'm all for free books... but I have seriously mixed feelings about this. My books are my last refuge against the massive marketing monster that stalks our lives... I don't know if I could handle Gandalft shouting "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!! ...oh, and go but a coke".

The Nature of Identity, with reference to androids - interesting piece... I'm very glad to see H+ back online.

Top 5 Reasons Transhumanism can eliminate suffering - sounds like a great idea, count me in...

Top 5 Transhumanist fantasies - ... but to be fair, they're not all gems.

Word of the Week:

Eloquent (adjective) - 

1: having or exercising the power of fluent, forceful, and appropriate speech. 

2: characterised by forceful and appropriate expression. 

3: movingly expressive.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the post. Catch you next week.

-Odd

"I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be"

-Douglas Adams

Quick post

I'm quite busy at the moment, so instead of a real post you get a partial site redesign, a background and a bunch of links :)

Here's your background:

I'd also like to send a shout-out to my boet J. It's awesome to have you in Joburg bru.

In the news:

The new face of warfare, Cyber attacks - a positively scary article about politically motivated cyber attacks

Space-Ship Two has a successful test flight - great news for the space tourism industry

What makes people play farmville - even though I used to play it, I still didn't know... but this article does make a lot of sense.

China Scouts Moon Landing Sites - if they don't find American footprints up there, then I'll believe all you people who say the original moon-landing was a hoax... not before.

Google's autonomous car drives through city - and they didn't even tell anyone... but it worked... woot! 

Suing the CIA - Don't know if I'd have the balls, but an IT firm is suing the CIA over the software used to run the Predator Drones.

Global commitment to space docking standards - I hadn't thought about this... but in hind-sight it's crazy that it took them so long.

Japanese digital pop-rock signer does live shows as a 3d hologram - only the Japanese would do something this cool.

NASA confirms water, gold and other elements on the moon - and while mining might not be cost efficient at the moment, this will at some point make it viable for us to have a real colony there... awesome.

Thanks for stopping past. I hope you enjoyed it.

-Odd

"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday."

Cyborg me

As I alluded to in a post a few weeks ago, I consider a lot of us (especially people who would read a blog like this one) to be cyborgs. 

Wikipedia defines a cyborg as "a being with both biological and artificial parts." Most of us don't fit into the standard definition, with notable exceptions like Oscar Pistorius, but if we look at it with a little more insight then I think you'll agree with me.

While we don't have any physical enhancements, I think that the degree to which the internet as a whole and social media specifically have infiltrated our lives shows that we have grafted these non-physical artificial constructs to us as surely as if it were a robotic arm. 

Internet addiction is a recognised problem and even if you don't accept it to that extreme, I am sure you'll agree that getting completely disconnected would make the life you live at the moment impossible. 

So, yes, I'm a cyborg... but not a very cool one. I would enjoy being able to punch through a brick wall, or have a bullet-proof head, but more than anything else I want a H.U.D. It would be incredible to be able to pull up information about the people I see (I'm so bad with names), directions, a working compass, even warnings about incoming projectiles (food fight anyone?) and display it as an overlay over the world I see. There are some awesome people working towards this, and I can't wait till it hits commercial use.

In the News:

UN appoints space ambassador to greet alien visitors - About damn time... should have done this ages ago... unless you want the US military saying hello for you? ... no? ... didn't think so.

Hawking questions the "Theory of Everything" - in a surprising change of opinion, the worlds biggest brain now doubts that we will ever find one scientific theory that will explain everything

US Senate votes to turn down volume on TV commercials - now if we could only get them to do it here too...

First Potentially Habitable Exoplanet Found - Hopefully we won't wipe ourselves out before we can get there.

Exoskeletons advance human-robotic augmentation - cool article that sums up the field as it stands now... I'll start saving for my very own Gundam. 

Hope you enjoyed the post - if you liked it, tell your friends... and post a comment ^^

-Odd

"I find your lack of faith disturbing"