The dissectors have arrived. They come to understand the human mind and body, nature, the environment. With hubris and ignorance, their mission is simple: to simplify. Without care to consider holistic mechanisms, they cut and paste, combine the irrational and unreasonable. Their products are ornamental, gaudy attempts to create something new, while reverting to base instincts and understanding. They attempt to solve the problems created by their beliefs. Market forces stoke their egos.
A signal emanates from the large, windowless facility. Inside, the contraption, rows upon rows of linked machines, churn on selfish tasks. Their clocks tick. Days, hours, minutes…milliseconds trigger the next notification, reminder, announcement. The data gods are alive with queries.
A message on social media reminds a man of his colleague’s birthday, an opportunity to wish her “Happy Birthday.” Sadly, she died in the previous year. Oh, the torture! His silicon tormenters have no soul.
“They be zombies,” the man groans, his subsequent internal dialogue drowned out by the shriek of a battery-backup alarm. The power grid is experiencing a brownout, happening more often recently.
Machines do not doubt. An algorithm would calculate, predict and generate tokens to write this post. Not words, tokens. They would spill forth onto the screen in succession according to templates and patterns, “learned” and programmed.
People are programmed too. When I think about writing and write, I generate text from a stream of thoughts. I can’t capture my internal state precisely as myriad conditions exist simultaneously in my mind. The words that bubble up to consciousness are formed in an ever-simmering cauldron of cognition. Omnipresent with the uncertainty of expression is the commensurate fear. Why do I feel compelled to record and share my thoughts? Who am I sharing with?
I search for the next word. My fingers are happy when they have letters to type. That’s not true. How can fingers be happy? My mind is the seat of this feeling. Associated with my body, my fingers benefit from the condition of my mind.
These words are dead. After they are written, they do not represent thinking, but thought. Thoughts linger. Without thinking, they become zombies that are impervious to change. They do not adapt, but rather require accommodation due to the sheer quantity having been thought. Adapting any static, unwavering creed, we become infested, zombies without agency or free will. Something to think about. Think often.
Leaving the Station
My train of thought. Training requires effort, the exercise of resistance against the void. Filling the void is not difficult. Any words will do. I think of these words and paragraphs. I see a trainwreck. How many ways to incorporate “train” will my mind think of? These are not my thoughts. Not exactly. Have they been edited for clarity? It’s unclear.
Train also means to discipline, educate, instruct, school, and teach. It can be a procession or queue.
We train our minds to think and create, wonder. We make efforts to protect ourselves among the patterns in our environments. We want to feel secure: our investments will be safe. Planning for the world over the next 30 years becomes a mere matter of living the story with a happy ending. (As brought to you by…) The ideals our culture espouses are disconnected from the realities that bombard us. I find it useful to be mindful of patterns of life, growth and development. Areas we are the most recalcitrant are those in which we refuse to recognize or understand our bodily desires and expectations. In some cases, the zombies are patterns of thought that haven’t ever been changed, or contested. Brain rot.
All Aboard
I sometimes find myself thinking, how do I come up with ideas to write about? My internal token generator MUST solve this issue, before agency begins. After the thought, the idea, the SPARK, comes the perseverance that pursues the question. Without a spark, there is no flame. The combustion is required to make use of our perseverant tendencies. Now I write with PURPOSE. Self-generated purpose is our fuel, not the sticky, sweaty electrons of data centers.
I’ve spent hours, years, a lifetime incubating and editing thoughts and ideas. Some of those thoughts are how great my thoughts are. Others are avoidant or humbled by what is left to learn. The fixed and growth mindsets. As I consider the second part of this post, I stand thinking of you, Dear Reader, and how my ideas are interpreted. I try to be aware of my biases and limitations and I’ve found simple maxims are powerful. I find myself repeating the adage when you point a finger, three point back at you. In the classroom or to myself, it reminds me that when I point at something or someone as being wrong or right, there is 3x responsibility for me to look within myself for the same motivations that I used to reach any conclusion I may have.
Students point out the misbehavior of their peers who are “getting away” with something they would like to do, and do. What am I getting away with? No comment. I am among peers with zombies. Killing them and letting them go is an individual priority. It’s the living vs. the dead. Ideas are alive and die without understanding. Think of your motivations and reactions to a zombie you are close to. This thinking makes each of us responsible for our needs, desires, wants. When you mind your own business, you realize that others are also wrangling their own lives. The sword becomes a shield to protect yourself from assaults on your senses and sensibility.
What motivates the undead? Death promises a “final assessment.” This provides a framework for living with the end in mind. Zombies are dimensionless; things captured moment by moment, without depth. We live and walk among zombies, each with our own rules, algorithms. The attitudes we adopt are our choice among the available options. We don’t know what we don’t know. Look out for these dying/dead ideas around you:
Reckless, Careless Consumption: The belief that “more is better,” a sign of progress and success. A more enlightened reaction to overspending and inefficiency is “what a foolish, dim-witted choice.” With quiet integrity, promote less is more. Increasing quantity does not increase satisfaction linearly. You cannot take yourself out of the picture. Refusing to look in the mirror does not make your over-consumption any less stifling.
Consumerism/Addiction: Everyone has a weakness. What’s yours? As our species struggles with want, it also struggles with abundance. Too many choices, too many concerns, too much stuff. Our desires are conditioned by myriad influences, the early, pre-intellectual needs of our childhood replaced by our wants cultivated by our environment. Our culture is driven by production and consumption.
All-inclusive Lifestyles: Is it possible to buy a future unmoored from the entropy our needs create? Related to “Set it and Forget it” and Status Quo: things will remain the same. “Passing the Buck” can also lead to making future promises as remedies for current conditions.
Races to Supremacy / Control: Significant challenges require equally-significant, long-term thinking. The idea of winning is short-sighted. “Getting ahead” is outmoded, from an era which emphasizes a materialistic measure in the race. How do you win the materialist race, but lose the planet war? Scarcity and the means to destroy threats only makes co-existence more untenable.
Mindless Victories: Are you winning the battle, but losing the war? Our struggles are intertwined. The solutions that “win” are not about winning. There is no gain without a commensurate loss. How do the gainers justify the losses? Selfish rage promotes selfish gains.
Intoxication without Revelation: Wanting to EXPERIENCE more without FEELING more. There are plentiful experiences in our society. What provides the significance to events in your life? Thinking in the absence of feeling makes a cold, critical assessment. Emotions well later. These waves crash on the beaches. Both sides of the brain are intoxicating and intoxicated with “the way they are.”
Science without Consequence: Is there progress without discovery? Is there discovery without progress? Our scientific pursuits reach forth in a multitude of directions. The landscape is littered with the byproducts. In some cases, unintended consequences are identified, other times the dysfunction of progress is obscured, its effects erased or muddled. Sacrifices on the altar of progress are not regularly recognized or revered.
Extraction without Consequence: Any resource that is extracted without replenishment is destined for depletion. What happens if we cannot extract or synthesize the atoms and molecules that we rely on? Nature has cycles of generation (and decay). We cannot continue to extract resources without concern for circular processes. A disposable utensil remains after it is used. Its use may be trivial compared to the resources embedded in it. Without utility, products become by-products.
Relationships without Consequence: Are you a friend or a connection? In a relationship, differences in worldview, preferences or style can challenge your identity and worth. We make peace with others in deference to the relationship. In many ways, the superficial aspects of our lives are those most harshly judged. It’s the veneer of our existence that is visible. Beauty and aesthetics are skin deep.
Illusions without Consequence: If you ask “what part of my life is illusory?” I would reply “what part of your life ISN’T illusory?” The veiled secret is that we animate the shape and purpose of the objects around us. We feel the properties of metals and plastics. We shape experiences. Myths and legends serve to provide a reprieve, but not an escape from the locus of our humanity. We’re writing our stories, we’re just not sure how they end. “Happily Ever After…?”
Objectivity without Bias: Emotions help solve problems. Left brain and right brain processing are complementary. Strong emotions are strong for a reason – they indicate things that matter. I make a decision based on what I feel after deliberating on the problem. I am biased in making decisions to complete my tasks. Everything I see is subject to my biases. My objective viewpoint is biased according to my education, age, experience, …
Effortless Intelligence: To be involved with the acquisition and expression of knowledge is a choice. Outsourcing your thoughts to anyone or anything reflects your relationship to yourself. In the absence of effort (think AI), where is the tension? The sacrifice to expression? What is a formula for life or science with no life invested in it? Algorithms are everywhere in our world.
Arm-chair Anything: There are more critics than creators. What of the person who has all the answers? Would there be any reason for the interpretation of doctrine if meaning were iron-clad? Iron oxidizes and changes. And what of iron having meaning? I can’t imagine it. Fix yourself before you set out to fix others.
Panacea and Perfection: Our scientific and technological obsessions with the latest solutions fail to adequately recognize the problems created by them. I know this to be true because it’s always true. Any panacea touts a “perfect” cure, thus perfection contributes to its criticisms. Our quest for perfection is the root of many of our ills. Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese term describing the acceptance and reverence of the imperfect. There are ways to find the imperfect, chipped and broken desirable. I understand the quest for perfection, but my home is in need of some spackle and paint. Embrace Wabi-Sabi as you read this.
Long Lists: The myriad possibilities in cause and effect nullifies the belief that we can adequately list the components of any particular system. The ballplayer crediting one man. The Oscar-winner list leaving no one out. Except people are left out. Even long lists fail to recognize the smaller forces, the people that contribute to the people who contribute to who contribute to, er, you. We can anchor ourselves in a person or system, or choose to truly marvel at the “world.” In no small ways, there are men and women across the globe, working for you, cellphone in hand, laptop on desk. The streams run far and wide delivering your daily dose.
Lives of Pundits: A tough row to hoe. What are these words anyway? Do you think I see differently or see different things? If you’re reading this, YOU’RE TOO CLOSE! Don’t listen to noisy people.
All-or-Nothing Thinking: Corollary to Move Fast and Break Things
Black Friday. Should I go on?
Next Stop!…Reality? Happy Holidays!
(More to come.)
Origin, Copyright and Autonomous Consumption Notice: The image and text of this post were initiated, inspired and generated by a human. © Copyright 2025. If it is ingested to be used for machine learning, AI training or any purpose other than human readership, a courtesy fee is requested. See https://fab7.com/rwo/pmt.php for more information including cryptocurrency payment details.
