- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1328
It's generally understood that we are the first "civilization" on earth, but I had a friend once propose that what if we weren't? Would anything have survived deep time and the churning of the continental plates to prove that we weren't? Now I dismissed this as preposterous, when later I examined the evidence and gave it a little more thought I realized my dismissal was preposterous, that, from an evidentiary point of view there was nothing to justify my presupposition that humans alone had developed civilization. "Absence of Evidence...." and so forth.
Considering that the fossil record is supposed to preserve only the tiniest fraction of a percentage of the life that has existed on earth, think of what might yet to be discovered? And what would we have to discover to convince us that there were civilizations that preceded us? What extraordinary conditions would be required for these artifacts to survive deep time? Food for thought.
Links:
- https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/267855-silurian-hypothesis-what-if-humans-arent-the-first-civilization-on-earth
- https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-an-industrial-prehuman-civilization-have-existed-on-earth-before-ours/
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1328
Considering, (not surprising, given my reading), the evolution mankind has undergone in terms of his thinking. (I use the terms "his", "him", "man" etc. in a gender-indifferent fashion, please don't waste my time with any politically correct gender-fascism.)
First - there is language. "In the beginning was the word...". Nothing we have done before or since has come close. Language both defines ourselves, our world and our place within it. This beginning with the word, common not just to Christianity and Judaism but a thousand different creation myths across as many cultures - this is not an accident.
Think - there are tribes (some still in existence) - that cannot distinguish between green and blue, and have to be taught the difference gradually with colored cards, have to be taught that there is a difference and then to discriminate between them.
There are arguments that even as recently as a few thousand years ago humans didn't "see blue", or not certainly as we see it today. And think of how language has evolved - across different cultures, to reflect our current epoch. The evolution of language since the invention of the World Wide Web, even, a relatively short span, how many new phrases have come into vogue? First - uncommonly to describe things that were imagined, yet not in existence, and then again commonly to describe them when they had been brought into existence.
And there are other languages, of which most of us know nothing - the language of musicians, notes, keys, clefs, of painters, whose language must naturally encompass a richer vocabulary for hue and texture, whose eye must discriminate, the jargon of a thousand unrelated professions from Priest through doctor, computer programmer, lawyer, each with a common tongue, but each as well with his own unintelligible vocabulary that allows him communion with his peers.
Language - note - not written language - but oral traditions, folklore, is what defines us, changes us, Christianity an excellent example of a myth destroyed by writing it down, in it's innumerable translations having lost almost all of it's symbolism and meanings, lost - through history, distance, through a general inability of the written word to convey over time the breadth, magnitude and symbolism of living experience.
Math, which I had considered separately but reconsidered - it's own language - but language as well, Math, the invention of (was math discovered? Or invented?) which facilitated architecture - the building of the pyramids, of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, of spaceflight and - if we should as a species live to see it - interstellar travel. And each addition to Math's language - for example the 0, Pi, then negative numbers, prime numbers, and a thousand other concepts beyond the scope of this post - each led on to countless new discoveries and achievements. And - marvel then, that each discovery or invention follows almost as a matter of necessity from the one before it.
"In the beginning was the word...", and if you are to believe it, this makes us Gods.
How, then, can we make it better? What changes in language will improve our lot?
Now, this is a good jumping off place, considering the different cultures across the world, and how their language shapes them, defines experiences that you can't have or recognize unless you speak their language, think of what is lost when a language goes extinct, and think of what we can add to ours to make the future a more interesting place...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1731
I came across this a long time ago when reading up on Tibetan Mysticism, and had need of the word a few weeks ago but couldn't remember or find it. But - no sooner do you put the question out there than the internet reflects the answer back to you...
Tulpas:
Any doubts I had were allayed by the fact they have their own website. And the "For Science" slogan in the upper left. Uh-huh. In any event you can't broach a topic like this without incurring a fair bit of "woo-woo", so you have to sift the "evidence" and "testimonials" with more than a grain of salt.
But seriously, this has some curious ideas embedded within it - as in, this voluntary creation of another personality in a way resembles multiple-personality disorder, only the one is the willful creation of someone the creator wishes (and presumably can get along with), the other is the involuntary creation of a personality that often isn't liked by the principal conscious inhabitant. And the idea of projecting it into the wider world around us, that it can assume it's own corporeal shape and grow independent of the creator, well, there's some serious food for thought.
Note: We do this otherwise, with people, children, technology, etc - but there is always the intermediary step of physical creation, with Tulpas there is not.
Related: Golem, Frankenstein's Monster, Shamanism, Spirit Guides, Psychopomps, Alexandra David-Neel oh, once you begin this one you can be led down a great many rabbit holes...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1468
The internet has begun to become a rather homogeneous place, pretty much every website resembling each other, and given that 90% of them are run by 10% of the population, this isn't surprising.
But, searching as I do for peculiar things in extraordinary detail I noticed that I was reaching the end of results often quicker than I expected. I mean, my interests are obscure, but the internet is a big place...
So I Googled Dog.
WONDERFUL! Over 7 and a half BILLION results! Boy oh boy I'm gonna learn some fun things about dogs.
I quickly go past the first couple of dozen pages - first page results seldom interest me, I'm looking for the obscure, remember, and the curious.
Wait a minute - Page 23 - now only 23 pages of results? WTF happened? And, no, I don't believe there's just 230 results. Nice try guys.
Scroll to the bottom of the page:
Notice how Google is censoring me - it makes it an option to search with omitted results included, but really, I should trust it. All the other missing results will be much like the results I've already flipped through.
What is rather droll here is that there are a lot of concerned people worried about Google's compliance with Chinese censorship, and aren't paying any mind to the fact that Google is fully censoring any searches done here. And - 23 pages of results - how many were paid placements for dogfood - petstores - etc, etc. So basically I search for "Dog" and I'm left with the impression the entire World Wide Web is roughly the size of ... I dunno - Drumheller?
I'm being shown 0.0000030383091149273452% of the internet's results on dogs. It's like Google has decided the remaining 99.999999+% of the web is dark. "Nothing to see here folks, move along."
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1456
Still obsessing about the 1950 disappearance of the C-54D.
Looking at Satellite maps, reading the original articles. And it comes to my attention - duh - that there are an awful lot of red herrings. Like the mention of the children spotting a plane near Vilna. Nope, there's no hiding a plane that big in the wilds of Vilna.
Then there's the report of the ranger near Minot, Y.T., who reported seeing the plane and then hearing a dull thud or boom. First of all, there's no Minot Y.T.. There's a Minto, which is a ways out of what should have been it's flight path. And - if the plane had exploded in mid-air, somebody would have by now found something. A plane flying at 6,000 feet is going to leave a large trail of debris.
Soon you realize that every report essentially contradicts every other report. So, work out a map, a logical workflow of what might have happened.
2 Possibilities, that break down into a number of others.
#1) - The plane flew off course and into the side of a mountain. It's a big country, it's safe, though, I think, to say it must have been off course because it's a well traveled air corridor. Someone in the intervening 70 years would have spotted something - even flying into the side of a mountain creates a debris field. And while the winter snows would have shortly covered it in the spring pilots would have been looking. If this is what occurred then all of the reported distress calls are red herrings. The plane was to have reported by radio at Aishihik Lake - the fact that it didn't report suggests the accident happened before there.
There is another theory - one that takes the plane as far south as Cranbrook - which you can read up on here: https://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/post/missing-yukon-c54d-4272469-2043123?&trail=45. To summarize the poster suggests that the problem with the engine wasn't fixed, causing the electrics in the plane to be shut down for the flight. If you accept this then the pilots could have made the judgement call to continue flying with radio silence in hopes of reaching their destination, only to get hung up high in the mountains above Jaffray or Waterton. Again - these areas see a lot more traffic than the Yukon - I would imagine - by now - something should have been found. That said if his theory about radio silence is true the plane could be down anywhere between Watson Lake and Cranbrook - which is a big territory, and would lend credibility to some of the other sightings.
#2) - This - I believe - is the most probable. That the plane after suffering some engine trouble set down upon a lake. There may have been survivors - there may not have been. Best guesses for lakes would be Wellesley or Sekulmun Lake. Maybe Tincup or Kluane. If it was further than Aishihik lake I would have expected they would have made radio contact or been sighted. That leaves Wellesley or Sekulmun Lake. This still leaves the problem of the distress signals (presuming survivors) - One would expect that someone would have triangulated the signal to the lake - it's not so far off course (at all), but the searchers note that you would have to be "on top" of the plane to get a clear signal. The snow and subsequent weather conditions covered the plane wreck over. Come spring it sank to the bottom.
And while poring over the satellite maps I listen to Coast to Coast, the callers are always the best part, congratulating George Noory on being an "adequate" replacement for Art Bell, one describing the details of the Intergalactic treaty we signed in 1996, another talking about a spaceship filled with dark skinned African American type aliens, 6'4" tall, BIG weapons, threatening Ronald Reagan, he was there, that's how he knows, and the underlying psychology and symbolism makes you laugh out loud. More podcasts and paranormal radio in a similar vein, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pculNLpBcAI, there's David Paulides, whose books on "inexplicable disappearances" are, with the help of Google (I have to find another default search engine...or maybe a Private VPN?) - frequently very explicable and often mundane, less "disappearances" than "the body has yet to be recovered", his "I'm not saying it was Bigfoot or Aliens, you have to make up your own mind...", is leading the listener to paranoid springs. The host - Jeffrey Gonzales, is absolutely perfect, plugging all natural soap to 'squatchers, the reason they're not bringing in the bounty is doubtless because of that scented artificial city soap, ...
These shows, perfect companions for late nights when you should be in bed, late nights out driving, or looking perplexedly at satellite maps, they're a sort of contemporary mysticism built upon fear, unease, paranoia, that there's more out there than we know (but the government does), it's easier to be afraid than contemplate any larger worldviews, mystical or otherwise, these mysterious vanishings, they're cautionary tales to stay with the herd, run with the group, don't go out alone, Paulides, he talks about the disappearance of "Scholars or Academic Types" - it's own category, as if that makes them better woodsmen, or less likely to struggle with mental illness or depression ...
In the end coming back to George Noory, and I realize that when he's your comforting voice of reason you've got problems...
Obituary from the C-54D Crash: https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181700/http://ns2.iagenweb.org/boards/sioux/obituaries/index.cgi?read=300545
Better Maps: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
Archived Edmonton Journal: (Note not all editions are available): https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gYAb_yFic6IC&dat=19500203&b_mode=2&hl=en - Note how much better written and how much more cosmopolitan the worldview is - in 1950 - than it is today.