Friday, June 15, 2007

Editors and Brands .

Editors and Brands .
Andre Willers
15 June 2007

See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” I to V , “Dehydration” , Itarin2” , “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards “etc , etc .

Discussion

Editors create Brands .

A Brand is a single label that encapsulates a very specific set of characteristics .

One very important characteristic is the level of trust in the editor . This is encoded in the brand , but since it is a meta-characteristic (ie describing the brand) , it usually decays much slower . The brand itself is dependant on the product , but the perception of the reliability of the Brand is spread over the end-users , which change very slowly.

Hence , a brand can be established quickly , but take a long time to die .

This is also why magazine editors are not the stars . They might create the Brand , but their role is always underemphasized . Old age instead of euthanasia .

Attention is drawn to brands like mitochondria , hippocampus , cortex , immune system , old age , religions , Readers digest , Encyclopaedia Brittanica , Ford , Microsoft , etc .

An Editor takes an overwhelming flood of information and channels it .
The destination of the information can be of three forms:
Null (ie wastebasket)
End-user (ie fits a Brand category)
Feedback (input needs some further work .) Circular feedback creates “clumps” of processing : ie Brands . For instance , some of the most effective advertising does not target the end-user , but this feedback process .

Examples of Brands :
Genes (DNA editors generate genes : ie clumps of DNA)
Chromosomes (phenotypes and cancers can be seen as chromosome editors)
Personalities ( John smith is the brand of a complex set of data and body)
Families (eg Hapsburg)
Societal memes (eg religions , science)
Companies (eg Ford)

As expected , the basic underlying neurological structure of humans plus the strictures of information-handling form a fractal landscape . Since apoptosis is essential and humans are mortal , it is also an iterative-cascade landscape .

The structure of a human neuron (with it’s many dendritic connections ) favours this on a hardware level .

A person or a face can be seen as a Brand .
It has been experimentally proved (via fMRI) that even a single neuron can recognise fairly complex Brands like faces ( honey bees can recognise human faces on a single neuron level) .

The corrollaries are obvious .

If fMRI shows that your brand (eg Coke , Napoleon , “Bridge over troubled waters” , etc ), fires up only one neuron , you have arrived .

The advantages are that an individual can navigate through quite complex information spaces using brands and the concommittant trust in the editor that he will be omitting and/or emphasizing only relevant data .

This process has been seriously abused by politicians in the 20th century . “Trust me . I’m the Fuhrer.”

But the flood of information has intensified since then . Complexification increases factorially with the number of input sources (ie population) .

People define themselves by societal and commercial brands .
“Prada meets Fiat” , “Pepsi Maserati” , “Gucci VW” makes sense to you , you poor thing . (Trust me , in a hundred year’s time you might as well be talking about the bee’s knees.)

Paradigm shift :
The trust in an editor becomes very important because there are so many authors . The risk of losing something original decreases , unless the author is many sigmas removed(ie very exceptional) .

A case study : Readers Digest .
---------------------------------------
The original editors were the founders (Wallace) . In the 1930’s people were faced with enormous changes: going from farmers to city-dwellers , flight , cars , cheap clothes , washing machines . As usual , there was the get-rich-artists , the doom-and-gloom merchants , crime , threats from foreign countries they never heard of before ,a major recession , politicians , etc . Each pumping out its own version of the truth .

The readers Digest brand is an Editors brand . In our terms , a moderated forum with a positive bias . All then available in cheap pocket-sized volume . Read what you like , disregard the rest .

But the facts were trustworthy and the bias known .

The Brand is very strong . People trust Readers Digest .

Department store is an analogue . A single management .
Fast forward to the present .
Cheap glossy specialist magazines (that you see on every stand) have sucked the readership away .

A Mall is the analogue .

In this process , the essence of the Brand got lost .

Can the Brand be salvaged?

Yes .

The competition for attention is enormous . “Readers Digest” still commands a cortical pause in visual scanning .

Unbundle the magazine into separate magazines with the brand of “Readers Digest”
Enhance the Editor (obviously an expert and fan in this particular aspect) .
(Refer to how Campbell did it with Astounding) .

In a really high intensity information flow , the editor becomes creative as well .
This is how your brain does it .

Andre

Friday, June 08, 2007

Nuts , Berries , Dinosaurs and Counting .

Nuts , Berries , Dinosaurs and Counting .
Andre Willers
9 June 2007

Discussion:
Have you ever wondered why plant seeds have a kernel and a surrounding layer of nutrient flesh (think peach) ?

In an extremely competitive environment , where the plants and predators have co-evolved , the plants do not have to worry about spreading seeds , as every plant-predator has evolved to get at the nutrients locked inside the seed-shell .
There is an arms-race between animals and the kernel .

Seed-eating organisms with beak-and-gizzard (like birds) , outperform teeth nutcrackers . The reason is teeth can only process one seed at a time , while a beak can pick up a lot of seeds and process them simultaneously in the gizzard .
This means a lot of extra calories in the same time .

The gizzard is simply a muscular pouch that grinds stones together . The stones macerate the seeds . Cracking open the protective shells of a lot of seeds is more efficient than teeth . Hence , birds and chickens have no teeth .

What has this to do with counting ?
The gizzard has a finite size . Also , the stones used get worn . Those too round to serve as efficient macerators (worn teeth) , get regurgitated . A competitive animal learns to keep track of the number of stones it swallows , as well as the number of stones it regurgitates .

This leads to Fibonacci type of counting . A chicken counts very differently from a monkey .

Why doesn’t mammals use gizzards ?

Now imagine a massive depopulation of species . (KT ) The successful plant survivors will be the plants that bait-make food accessible non-specialized animals . This is a sweetener around the previous shell . The surviving plants will be ones who made extra nutrients available after the previous nut-crackers became extinct . There is no need to re-evolve a gizzard . (The re-evolution of a gizzard in mammals is dicey.)

Counting :
Eat a nutty fruit like an olive and notice how your teeth handle the pip . There is a primitive-handling mechanism at teeth and jaw level preventing teeth damage . It is a true hardwired instinct to eat soft-fruits with hard kernels .

Now notice how much better you are at throwing the pip into the wastepaper basket after eating the olive . (Try it)

The reason is that monkeys do not eat one fruit at a time . They cram them into their cheeks (an obvious evolutionary adaptation) . They then chew the flesh from around the kernels away (using some extremely sophisticated algorithms to avoid teeth damage) . They spit out the pits . But they cannot really macerate the resultant flesh unless they know that all the pips are gone . This mechanism is counting .

What does this mean to you ?
The relation between primitive counting nerve complexes and trajectory computation has been discussed before .
Chewing something will enhance trajectory computation (cf baseball)

Want to play better golf?
Chew a clove-ball .

Ho-ho-ho!
The Roman empire’s military prowess was built on the humble olive pit .
All the others can be shown to have this component .
Put ball-bearings in your food and enhance your mathematical prowess .

Andre

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Small Gravitational Antennae .

Small Gravitational Antennae .
Andre Willers
6 June 2007

Synopsis:

Small (down to nanoscale , but above quantum level) gravitational wave meters are possible using non-linear feedback systems , meta-materials and stochastic resonance.

Discussion :

The problem is that gravitational waves are very long and weak .

The receptor has a finite length , usually very much shorter than the wave-length of the gravitational wave .

A coiled spiral , with precisely calculated feedback springs between the coils (ie a meta-material) can give non-linear feedback to a very specific frequency . (ie like the in-spiralling neutron stars . But even here , the frequency spike will be very sharp , rendering it of limited usefulness .)

But adding precisely defined noise ( stochastic resonance ) , will enable standard statistics packages to change this into a broader receptor .

How to this :
A coiled spiral , with precisely calculated feedback springs between the coils (ie a meta-material) can be evolved using evolutionary computer algorithms . The processes are well-known . The trick is to use these as seed populations for the stochastic resonance resultant populations .

Biological evolution .
The gentle reader will have noticed that spiral springs with multiple feedbacks (ie folds) is simply another way of describing DNA . The stochastic resonance part is supplied by the temperature and magnetic differentials inside the cell .

But why is this so important ?
Certain heavy metals are essential to a cell’s growth . But how is it to find them ?
Certainly , if a population is close to a dense concentration of these metals , they will prosper . But organisms far from this locus will have a distinct advantage if they can sense where they are , and then locomote there , or seize them .

This would require a very , very sensitive ways of sensing mass .

How does a flagellate in the ocean find that single molecule it needs ?

Fast forward this to the descendants in body-cells .


We can manipulate the process in two ways :
Bring heavy metals in close proximity to the body (eg copper in copper bracelets has some biological utility) . Gold and silver has not . But they will increase the variability in stochastic resonance . In a middling-nourished individual this will decrease the probability of disease , as disease organisms are hampered in scavenging for necessary heavy metal trace elements by the uncertainty introduced by nearby heavy metals . Really well-nourished individuals (ie taking supplements) , will not have this protection .

In other words , wearing gold and silver jewelry will make you healthier if you do not take too many supplements .

Directly increase the variability in stochastic resonance.

Induce an electrical or magnetic weak effect in the body at a frequency not higher than 0.5 Herz . This leads to interesting things like the rapid bone-healing (competition in the body for calcium ions is decreased) . This will work at every level of nourishment , as the body always has priority unless bacterial systems have achieved quorum and switched on lethality genes . But notice that this can be significantly delayed by increasing the variability in stochastic resonance .
Trauma necrosis can be significantly delayed by application of a simple variable charge/voltage .

The best is some electronic apparatus .

But metals of different electro-motive capacity on different arms and ankles will be better than nothing . Amber (or something similar that generates a charge via friction) will help . Silk and nylon is healthy . Static electricity is healthy .

Note that NASA has established that varying electro-magnetic fields are essential to astronauts’ health .

As a rule of thumb , wear different metals on different limbs . Do not wear amber next to metal .

Andre

Prodigies I to V

Prodigies , Primitives and Cancers.
Andre Willers
9 May 2007

Synopsis :
Prodigies do things we can all do (like calculations , languages , music ) with little seeming effort or tuition , but only much better , faster and at an earlier age .It is often confused with intelligence .

Discussion :

Sources :
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Primitives” , “Primitives_1” , “Origins of War” and others.
www.vermonthistory.org/community/pages/projects/cabot for Zerah Colburn
General sources on prodigies and mind-body interactions .

Dedicated Brain Centers
Two dedicated hardwired neuron complexes are known from experimental evidence :
The language center (usually above the left ear ) and the counting complex . A music complex is very strongly suspected .

Various other emotional centers (amygdala) and memory centers are known . Many others are suspected . (Like eye-body co-ordination )

Please take note of the Neuronal Mirror argument .
These complexes above evolved from primal neuronal mirror set-ups .

A prodigy happens when a hardwired primitive neuronal complex replicates into the neuronal mirror arrangements . Because only non-simple encoding is used , this means a degradation of the functions usually done by these usurped mirror-neurons . This is at the cost of things like modeling other people (ie social skills) . Hence the prevalence of the lower end of the autistic spectrum in prodigies . ( Idiots savant )

As to be expected , there is a link between prodigies in arithmetic , language and music .

Prodigies (like William Hamilton of mathematics fame , or Zerah Colburn )were good at arithmetic and languages . The link between music and arithmetic is well known . Mozart’s linguistic skills are overshadowed by other events .

The problem is that well-known prodigies are the ones that were pushed by their parent(s) into notoriety . The smarter ones like Gauss , Macauly ,Young , etc learned to blend in .

Present day prodigies .
Where are they ?
Why , at the top end of most human endeavours . Top-class tennis players , golfers , chess-players , etc would qualify in earlier times as prodigies . Today they have to train hard 8 hours a day from early youth to be able to compete with the other prodigies . “Ordinary” people do not even get a look in .

Raw Talent .
A lightning calculator , if he survived the school system , might be lucky to get a job as a bookie’s runner or a croupier .

So you learned Greek , Latin , Finnish , Serbo-Croat and Basque at the age of five ? You have an interesting future as an interpreter at the UN .

You have a better chance in music . There are numerous schools for musical prodigies.

Fractal Identity Crises.
The hardwired primitive neuronal complex has an internal coding that is not simple .

It has to compensate for a temporal identity problem .

The complex assembles information very quickly ( some researchers say quantum effects are used , in which case it is instantaneous or from different time-sources ) .

Regardless , this information has to be presented to the rest of the brain in an usable fashion , with sequential markers .

For example , Mozart could comprehend an entire symphony in his overgrown musical complex . This had to be passed to the normal brain with sequential markers , so that he could scribble like mad from his simple memory to get a shadow of it in reproducible form .

Another example is a native speaker of a complicated language like Latin or Finnish . The complicated grammar arrives as an entirety , not worked out piecemeal .

This non-simple coding is very important , since it holds the key to identity markers , not only temporally but over other parameters as well .

As all my gentle readers will know , identity defineability is the key on how we know we are us , how the immune system recognizes our cells , how chromosome clusters are self-recognised , and all those other fractal identity crises .

This begs the question :
If we have identity resolution paradigms good enough to resolve an ID interface between a very fast (or multitemporal) complex , and the normal brain , why is it not used in the immune system ?

The answer is that it is used in this way , but sometimes the controls slip , or is programmed to slip .

The brain evolved from these systems , but we would expect some feedback .

Cancer Cells .
We refer to these bio-hazard labs as cancer cells . It is where evolution is put into fast-forward . ( See Scientific American of May 2007 p35 “ Chromosomal Chaos and Cancer”)

Have you ever wondered how complex organisms can even exist , when there are trillions of tons of bacteria , fungi , viruses ,etc in the world . By sheer numbers and breeding rate , they must outperform any organism’s defence system .

The Trick :
Any centurion will tell you this trick : discipline .

Aneuploidy is the main mechanism . This is a fancy name for shuffling chromosomes (ie the tried and trusted sexual mixer .) Only this mechanism is on steroids .

An unknown molecule is encountered.
The body does not know how it will affect the organism .
There are two ways to test it :
Live through it (potentially disasterous)
Test it in a fast-forward evolutionary biolab .

The body induces aneuploid cancer in a test cell .
This cell is nurtured by the body , deliberately bypassing all the evolutionary pressures of the environment or the immune system .
The test cell and its daughters have very rapid and semi-random chromosome shuffling . (This is also where all those null codons come into play.)
This cluster of cells forms a bio-hazard lab .

If they find a solution , it is communicated to the immune system and the lab is liquidated by apoptosis using the identity markers .

Can you see how this is more advantageous than living through it ?

If they do not , the cancer expands , resulting in the non-viability of the organism due to resource constraints .

But surely , an off-switch would have evolved ? If it could not find a solution to an unknown after n tries , it stops . Yes , but if the immune system had not recognised it the molecules will keep on arriving , triggering new explorations .

To recognize an “END” codon to a particular try to resolve a “new” molecule previously tried would require a memory of this molecule . Yet this is exactly what the immune system does not have , since it passed this molecule on to the cancer test lab . There does not seem to be a memory of previous cancer-lab experiments (understandably , since the resource requirements would overwhelm any finite system with simple coding .)

Is there a general “END” codon ?
The answer must be yes , since it appears in more evolved brain mechanisms . See also the languages of bacteria . (There is an Ur language , and various dialects .)

The particular information is stored epigenetically . The presence of the problem molecules in the mother’s womb gets tagged with a methylization complex , marking it as solved . Each new generation must resolve it anew .

What a horrible trap . Old age must be programmed in , since only by setting the “END” codon in the mothers womb can rubbishy molecules be prevented from triggering cancers . Mothers get partially reset , which is why they live longer .

Well , it helps to know that there is a single switch that will apoptise some cancer labs . It must be something simple , like the methylization of a geneplex that backpropagates .

Classical music:
Most people who listen to classical music live longer and look younger . This is because of the very recognizable “END” sequence to any symphony . The sequence entrains a neural process in the brain , which generates chemicals which signal “END ALL” sequences to the internal cancer labs .

This is one of the much threatened feedback from more developed parts of the being .
The storm of feedback from the brain creates a non-linear feedback system , with all that it implies .

The Q Trick

For example , Turing ( from Godel’s work ) proved way back in the 1930’s that a linear logic(computing) process cannot know when to stop if it looks only at internal logic . This is exactly what we said above . However , by using quantum processes , the system can know when to slam down an “END” .

This has to be communicated to the cell-complexes concerned . It is not sufficient to have a blanket “END” all the time , since the cancer-labs are vital to the health of the organism . Once a week seems sufficient , judging from the religious observances .

So what does this have to do with prodigies ?

Prodigies are the cancers of the body human .

They pretest which behaviours and talents will be acceptable .

Spiderman , Batman , Superman , etc
The same tired old lot :Hercules , Zeus , all the saints . I can’t remember all their names , or want to .

Bah . Do any of them even straddle the space-time crack ?
Ride t’em ,cowboy !

Andre

Prodigies II
Andre Willers
11 May 2007

Please reread “Prodigies,Primitives and Cancer” , “Primitives_0”, “Primitives_1”
and “The Origins of War and Peace “ in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com before continuing .

Synopsis:
Powerful analogies and tools are available to analyze human brains .

Discussion :
The discussion in “Prodigies” left us with a model of a brain-body with very fast processors embedded in a network of slow , low-bandwidth communications .

Sounds familiar?
We can form a very good and fruitful analogue here of a LAN or the Internet .

The Primitives (neural complexes like Counting ) are the Pentiums/Parallel chips/Quantum processors . The Neural and Hormonal system is the cabling .

Addressing :
This is vital . From an evolutionary viewpoint and in development order
Dedicated lines . The brain is seen as like a telephone exchange .
Domain addresses . Hormones are a good example . (As Nelson said to Emma Hamilton : “England expects every gland to do its duty .” )
Brain waves . The above processes are asynchronous , but certain assemblies of information (like vision) are dependant on synchronization with previously carried-out processes . This co-ordination is analogeous to clock-speed processes . But beware , as the brain can carry on different processes at different frequencies . This is a method of reducing the redundancy overload in the information packages . Remember that the brain is not designed , but evolved for speed .
Anticipation : eventually some parts of the brain learn to anticipate what other parts will do . This is analogeous to caching and forward-caching . Different sheafs of mirror-neurons have pre- prepared positions . (Cf Socratic internal dialogues) This enables the organism to react very rapidly .This is the origin of the phenomenon of fMRI detecting action decisions before the consciousness is aware of this decision (about 0.5 seconds) . Consciousness can be seen as a mirror-neuron network monitoring the other networks . The degree of feedback is not sufficient to change the decision from the top down (ie the decision is a simple vector summation of forces.) . But information constraints prevents this monitoring network from mirroring every datum . Thus excluding of some data is necessary . This is the definition of concentration .
Concentration : the feedback from the monitoring network(ie consciousness) channels resources into whatever is chosen to be important . Sadly , super-consciousness is not possible , since exclusion (concentration) is the fundamental basis of the system . (See below)
Self-consciousness : eventually the system learns to do the same thing to the consciousness as in para 4 above . The system loops .
Self-consciousness is the termination of this process , since the concentration exclusion process means that only one self-consciousness at a time can exist . Being conscious of being conscious of being conscious etc will just loop you back to para 4 . Note that in Multiple Personalities Disorders there can be many consciousnesses , but they are constrained (ie are subsets) and there is only one in “control” .

Self-consciousness also inhibits optimum resource allocation : an effect well known to anybody on stage or athletes . Hence the unending yak of mystics about letting go of the self .

Yet self-consciousness can override the simple voting system of the conscious systems . This is the basis of human morality . You can always say no , and damn the consequences . Free will does exist .

The End Codon.
From previous arguments we already know that the standard ending of classical symphonies has an actual physiological effect . It tends to force an “All End” on the internal cancer labs in the body . The small ones (responsible for a lot of the ageing processes ) are affected in a major way .

A way to enhance this effect is to engage as many primitives as possible . Music , Mathematics , Language ,Visual , Dancing , etc .

Remember , the ending has to be entrained , but inherent (no fake crashes.) . (The mathematical talent is monitoring .)

I can recommend a sexy soprano singing the 1929 shareprice index , while watching a screen with the graph and doing freeform dancing .

Not more than once a week .

An unlikely bestseller , but try it .


Is there any way out of this Superconsciousness impasse?
We have to go back to the primary nodes (also called primitives) . As noted , the coding for these cannot be simple . They are twisted , quantal and non-local .

Twisted : screw-shaped electromagnetc waves resonates at specific points on another helical molecule (like , surprise,surprise ,DNA) . Limited to lightspeed , but enormous bandwidth .

Quantal : very close molecules transfers information very rapidly via quantum tunneling .

Non-Local : the joker . Since the whole organism evolved out of a few molecules , and every new molecule incorporated had to be in close proximity of these , it is theoretically possible that they are all entangled . But , as Nelson said to Emma Hamilton , “Some are more entangled than others .”

Can you transcend this way ?
Of course .
But do you really want to?
Flip a mental coin , and when you can hear it ringing on the pavement , then decide .

Ho-Ho-Ho !
Homeopathy.
I can’t resist this .
The attentive reader will have noticed from the above that water can retain a memory and an influence in at least three different ways .
Yet they discard amniotic fluid .
Typically human .

They throw the water away and keep the baby .

Andre

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Prodigies III
Andre Willers
26 May 2007

See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” , “Dehydration” , Itarin2” , “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards “etc .

Hierarchies and Fame .

Synopsis:
Hierarchies self-assemble out of scale-free networks .
Scale-free networks imply resource constraints , which imply a network-deconstructor (apoptosis) . This implies non-smooth switching between optimization sub-systems .

Discussion :
The discussion in previous “Prodigies” left us with a model of a brain-body with very fast processors embedded in a network of slow , low-bandwidth communications and mirror neuron layers .

The important point is that these elements are not connected in every possible way . Local elements have a large number of local connections . Distant elements have a few , but they exist . This gives a Scale-Free network (cf Wikkipedia) .

The brain does not have the resources to maintain every possible linkage , so apoptosis removes linkages which are not used . This is a well-documented mechanism .

This means that the communication between Fast Processors , Mirror Layers , the Body , etc , is not unlimited . In other words , they develop degrees of autonomy , especially in the Mirror Layers with feedback mechanisms to give anticipation . (Ie local optimization sub-systems : mini-personalities ).

Mini-Personalities .
This gives rise competing ways of viewing “What must be done” .
This is equivalent to partial personalities .(Mini-personalities)
But survival of the whole organism requires a single response . Hence there are various mechanisms for resolving disputes between mini-personalities .

Regardless of the mechanism used , a certain mini-personality and it’s coterie of close support structures gets control . The Consciousness mirrors this after the fact .
Self-consciousness may be able to modify this .

Sleep and Apoptosis .
You can see the problem if a certain mini-personality is in control for too long . It is simply a connected cluster of mirror-neurons . The mirror-layers not being used for a certain time get marked and apoptised . This impoverishes the total personality .

Connections between mini-personalities get apoptised , leading to psychological problems (ref repression , amygdale programming , PTSD , etc)
Not to mention sleep-deprivation schizophrenia .

Sleep is the protocol for removing the mini-personality in charge .

Note that this is not only a function of complexity , but also of resources . This means that sleep will be necessary for even organisms with relatively few neurons .

Caution :
Drugs are now available that seems to do away with sleep with few short term effects . The long term effects will get you , unless they can inhibit the apoptosis . Which will cause a new form of schizophrenia .


Continuity : (Putting a new mini-personality in charge)
So your consciousness and dependant self-consciousness vanishes when you go to sleep . The various (thousands , literally uncountable for quantally super-posed mini-personalities ) jockey for top-post .

We would expect a mechanism for continuity in this succession struggle to have evolved , and so it has . The so-called God-center .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot,com “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards”

This is normally operative in the waking stage (ie when consciousness is self-assembling from the winner of the mini-personalities ) , but experimental evidence indicates that strong magnetic fields focussed on the relevant brain locus can force switches between mini-personalities even in an awake system . (It is the same mechanism)

Internal Fame .

At last ! Fame !

All the above arguments sound suspiciously like human politics . And with good reason .
The basic model is of a brain-body with very fast processors embedded in a network of slow , low-bandwidth communications and mirror neuron layers is just as applicable to humans in a society . Allowances can be made for some cellular and quantal processes .

A powerful analog can be made for various processes:
Going to sleep : voting or removing the ruler from power .
Waking up : establishing a new ruler .
Note that these are two separate processes .

Internal Fame : being known often . This translates to intensity of traffic of signals between various mini-personalities . A simple repeat mechanism , which ties in with the basic neural mechanism of frequency-firing.

This differs from the societal analog in a very important way : Internal Fame can be under the complete control of the self-consciousness . Simply repeating certain thoughts and actions (like Mass in Roman Catholicism , or Muslim Prayer) biases the succession of mini-personalities .

But of course , by equal measure , we can create unbounded equivalents (all the time hoping that we know what we are doing) . The system will process it , regardless .

Dominant societies have evolved two mechanisms :
1.The mini-personalities are correlated with the individual’s value to society (ie a fractal system ) .
2. Resource allocation is done on this basis . This used to be no big problem if there is a big surplus , but human civilizations have evolved a nasty method of allocating negative surpluses . (Ie even if there is more than enough to go around , some groups still starve . ) Hence Communism , Marxism and all the -ism’s to come .

Negative surplus allocation is a pathology .
The analog in human space is sleeplessness . Not enough resources are allocated to mirror networks (ie humans) , so apoptosis happens . Artists , scientists , etc don’t happen .

Do not confuse this with simple allocation of not-enough existing positive resources (ie middle ages) .

Negative surplus allocation is a pathology that targets specific layers in communication networks . This drastically lowers the capability of the system to meet new shocks .

It always ends in tears . It used to end in total destruction of the system , but this has happened so often that ameliorating mechanisms have evolved (mainly organized religions). The equivalent of time-distant communication links .

The question is : why does this pathology recur ?
The sad truth is that it has to do with relative rates of change .
The new generation allocates resources in a different way . The older generation tries to keep it the old way . The relative distortion appears as too much resources to the old way , and too little to the new way . Ie a negative surplus allocation .

Some remedies:
For individuals :
Rapid mini-personality switches . Ie frequent sleeps .
Catnaps . Note that this has been the mechanism used by high-information throughput individuals like Napoleon , Stalin , Churchill , Hitler , business leaders ,etc .
They tailored their personality to the exigencies of the job .

For Societies :
More frequent elections for the top job . Once a year seems ok . This will force a decrease in election cost , as well as greater participation by the Civil Service .

Oops : the Romans tried this , and ended up with emperors . But the problem was the power change .

To switch the analogue back , individuals who are uncomfortable with their personal extinction and successor personalities , would not get much benefit from catnaps .
If you have problems with this , remember how it works : simply an increase in the frequency of nerve-pulses between mirror layers .

Imagine the different states of what you desire as images in mirror layers . (Do not do small time differences.You need quantal changes , not small creeps . )
Regarding them forces an increased signal traffic between the layers . An Interrupt (like 1,2,3,…,10, 10.5 ) will then force a quietus .

See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Dehydration and Intelligence: Amygdala Interrupt .”

Andre
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Prodigies IV : Interrupts .
Andre Willers
30 May 2007

See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” , “Dehydration” , Itarin2” , “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards “etc .

Discussion :
The discussion in previous “Prodigies” left us with a model of a brain-body with very fast processors embedded in a network of slow , low-bandwidth communications and mirror neuron layers .

Resultant mini-personalities compete for dominance . Dominance competes better .

The fast-processors evolved out of positive feedback mechanisms .

See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “ Prodigies , Primitives and Cancers.”

Positive feedback mechanisms .
A simple Positive feedback mechanism (say A) increases without limit . It can only be kept in check by another positive feedback system (say B) . The various systems interact at various levels . The very nature of non-linear feedback systems means that certain nodes in the interaction between A and B are more important than others .

A node like this has a large amplification factor (it is essentially an amplifier in the collision of A and B ) . With the large number of factors , sooner or later a Fourier series with sharp boundaries happens . (Cf radar waveforms) . This forms a node with delineated characteristics . In other words , an Interrupt .

What does an Interrupt do ?

As it prevents runaway positive feedback systems , it makes all of what we describe as life possible .

Indeed , the Human species can be seen as a specific Interrupt in Gaia .

Speciation is a form of Interrupt formation . ( When Species A can only breed with species A , an interrupt is formed . )

Bacteria do not worry about speciation , and consider it déclassé .

Yet the Interrupts keep forming ( courtesy of Fourier) , leading to multicellular organisms and other monstrosities . A bacterium views the body like you view the Civil Service .

Interrupt Formation .
As can be seen from the above , all Interrupts are formed from dynamic systems .
Either from inherited systems (genetics) , epigenetics or culture .
This also means that you can change it .

Let us give some examples :
Amygdala Interrupt .
Count aloud or subliminally 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 10.5
The sequence 1- 10 entrains the calculating nexus . The next term 10.5 forces the nexus to use more of the mirror-neurons to do inverse calculations . This causes an interrupt (a discontinuity ) . You can feel it . Just count .

Why can the counting mechanism have interrupts into the amygdala , which is the mechanism for assigning threat/promise to the organism ?

Because any threat assessment involves counting .
One wolf , two wolves , etc . One bad molecule , two etc .

At the start of the counting process a marker molecule (probably sulfur derived – see sulfur hibernation) puts the amygdala into an inactive state . It cannot form an opinion until all the counting data is in . It needs an End Codon . End Codons are perceived as the end of sequences . Start Codons likewise . At least three terms of sequences for each are needed .

There are two fundamentally different ways of counting .
1. Sequential independent of the term before last (ie 1,2.3,4., etc)
2. Sequential dependant on the last two terms (Fibonacci) (1,1,2,3,5,8,13 , etc)
3. Counting in more than the sum of two terms can be written as a two term Fibonacci series (ie a Fibonacci series is sufficient . (Ref Arith I and Arith II))

This sequence incorporates both .
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 , 10.5, 20.5 , 31.0, 51.5 , 82.5
Sequence Fibonacci

This forces your brain to do all sorts of fancy tricks .

Andre
Prodigies V : Speed and Paradoxes .
Andre Willers
31 May 2007

See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” I to IV , “Dehydration” , Itarin2” , “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards “etc .

Discussion :
The discussion in previous “Prodigies” left us with a model of a brain-body with very fast processors embedded in a network of slow , low-bandwidth communications and mirror neuron layers .

Resultant mini-personalities compete for dominance . Dominance competes better .

The fast-processors evolved out of positive feedback mechanisms .

Interrupt mechanisms evolved to keep positive feedback mechanisms under control .

Speed .

“Ask anything of me except time” Napoleon .

Why is speed so important ? The obvious answer is that it is important to physical survival .

Yet humans are faster than a striking mamba .
Thousands of humans routinely catch striking snakes by the neck for a few rupees . Scientific measurements of trained martial arts experts give their response times as between 3 to 5 as fast as snakes or crocodiles .

There is a perception that martial arts training only enables the human mind to tap into the reptilian brain reflexes .

But if the human (or weasel) responses are better by a significant margin , this argument does not hold . How can they be faster than the basal reptilian reflexes ?

Why has this speed evolved ?

Answer:
Fast processor-nodes send information via scale-free neural-networks to close mirror-networks , as well as to distant fast-processor complexes .

The speed of the transmission of signals in the scale-free network is much , much lower than transmission speeds inside the fast processors .

Thus , a later processing result in a nearby mirror-network ( or inside the fast processor) can be sent via the long-neuron of the scale-free network and arrive at the target before the initial signal from the nearby-mirror network .

This appears as an inversion of cause-effect to the target .

This appears as a Paradox .
(The alert leader will notice the analogue with light-speed and non-locality)

There is a mechanism to resolve the paradox .
It surfaces as a sense of humour . But is very old and basic . All organisms with more than one neuron will have such a mechanism (ie a sense of humour) . (Given the complexity of neurons , even one might be sufficient.)

Obviously the simplest way simply is that the latest signal is it . The time-marker must then correspond to 1/ (the alpha-wave frequency) ~ 0.1 to 0.05 of a second . The observed normal mammalian reaction . Yet faster reactions are observed.
A faster way is phase differences between various brain waves .
Another way of seeing it is that one entangled particle (or system of particles) is isolated by a glove of proteins and water , while the other is non-local . Something like the immune system . Note that a lot of quantum computation can take place inside such an enclosure .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “ Prodigies , Primitives and Cancers.”
It is amusing to note that a quantum life-form will see immune systems and the effects of nervous systems as the major life-forms on the planet . They will have to deduce the existence of the creature from second and third order effects .

In other words , life is essentially the immune system and paradox resolution in the brain-body .


The essential point is that assembling a meaningful output from many different inputs with different time-sources requires non-simple coding .
This coding exists , but needs some work to understand or use .

Existing coding structures can be used .

Language . The language center assembles sentences faster than can be processed by the slower centers . Hence Puns or grammar .

Reading a book of puns should boost your immune system . Any humour as well . This is at basic quantum and physiological level , not just psychological .

If reading a book of grammar generates risibility , you are indeed an advanced lifeform .

Music : Ending Codons have been discussed .

Counting:
Most basic . The easiest .
Ho-ho-ho!
Mathematics cannot be described unless language is used !



Ho-ho-ho again !
The two most basic elements of any mathematical system is that
Something is delineated (ie an entity apart from anything else)
Repetition (ie some operator)

Yet even the definition of number (the set of all sets that is similar to the given set) requires a language , that is meta to the underlying concepts . This surfaces as quantum systems in the real world . The observer is part of the system , in other words.

Primitive counting has been discussed , even the iterative cascade . An iterative cascade must generate the concept of number , but the interface between the fast computation complex and the rest of the personality evolves .

If you can look at a graph of a Fourier series showing a square waveform , and feel a risibility impulse , then you are getting there .

In other words , why are not all our brains super?
Why do we have slower mirror-networks , and scale-free-neural networks ?

Answer :
It will end that way . The teensy , weensy problem is any evolutionary system has to grow . Present human brains are on the cusp of expanding into totally fast-processors .
The greatest number of humans will exist just before the system enfolds into a few hyper-personalities .

Can this be done without hardware rewiring ?
Yes . There is a complex feedback system between simple and non-simple coding . Mirror neurons can be converted to fast processors (there is evolutionary predecessors) . Stem cells are available . Only the coding is needed .

Ho-ho-ho!
The End is Nigh!

Andre

Second Life .

Second Life .
Andre Willers .
4 June 2007

See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” I to V , “Dehydration” , Itarin2” , “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards “etc .

Synopsis :
Second Life is an intuitive , three-dimensional environment where mini-personalities can be expressed . This enables the exploration of personality paths that literally cannot be done in First Life .

It is literally a New Frontier for all those suppressed potentialities that could not be expressed in the Old Country .

Note the analogue with America in the 1700 – 1900 ‘s .

A further advantage is that you can remain at home and emigrate as many avatars as you can handle .

Discussion :

Second Life is at the start of an exponential expansion . Whether it will be a short-term bubble (ie short time axis) or a much longer term bubble , or an unending inflation only time will tell .

What is sure , is that early users in the expansion phase cannot help but make money .

There has been a lot of talk of Second Life on the SA talk-radio shows
(like Radio 567 , 702 ) . Once it gets to this level , we are in the start of an inflation bubble .

This is driven by the new availability of affordable broadband in SA needed for the connection .

The Main Driver :

You can make profits , convertible to real-world money .

Why ?
Internal characteristics of Second Life .
Ownership rights are secured as well as in real life .
Property rights in Second Life have already made at least one woman a US $millionaire . Why would people be willing to pay a premium to a purely intellectual landscape which is potentially infinite ? Take a drive outside a city and contemplate the prairie or the karoo .
Getting in on the ground floor of the coming property boom would be almost like buying New York ground in 1780 .
Intellectual rights are the same as in the host country . But the developmental cost of commercial artists like couturiers , architects , landscapers , etc is a fraction of the real one . Indeed , having fifty different layouts cannot be done in Real Life , but is much cheaper in Second Life .
Tax . Ahem . Is a Second Life dollar taxfree ? There are numerous law firms in Second Life to advise you (at a fee , of course) . You know Second Life is serious when these arrive . When there is enough money around to pay for specialists that reduce costs . (This is true even at biological level : enzymes .)
Legitimacy : In Human societies this can be huge stumbling block . Taiwan , for instance , has literally $billions in surplus , yet it has no legitimacy . Vuanatu , which is about to disappear under the rising seas , is a legitimate nation . Go figure .

However , Second Life already has this legitimacy , as at least two countries (Sweden is one) have registered full Embassies .Many others are getting on the bandwagon as it is starting to roll . Second Life Passports will not be far off . Many Corporates already have full agencies .

Inverse Legitimacy : Avatars in Second Life become more famous , wealthier , etc than their real-life originators . This has already happened to a degree with celebrities like rock-stars .

Ho-ho-ho!
A new state of existential anxiety .
If a part of you is more successful than you , what does it say about you or your society ?

Convertibility of Currency . The true test . Linde dollars are convertible at variable rate to US dollars (a true currency) .
Independance . At the present moment , Second Life is becoming a separate country under the control of Linden Laboratories . As they become more successful , pressure will grow to create a representative government . This will be interesting ! How will they allocate votes to a potentially infinity of avatars ? Remember , the system has a qualified franchise : nobody can get on unless they have access to broadband and is minimally computerate . Note that this problem has already been solved in the brain during waking stage , when one of the mini-personalities has to become aware .
See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Prodigies” I to V

Unions will be next , as well as the whole panoply of social systems characterizing human society .
Ho-Ho-Ho and another Ho !
Life Insurance . How do you insure an Avatar ?
This is a serious question . An insurable interest can exist , since the property vested in an avatar can be convertible to a real currency .
Calculating the qx(ie the probability of extinction within a time period) of somebody like Avatar 251 of Elvis Presley will be an interesting exercise , but possible . Hence , it will be done .

Insurance companies are faced with steadily decreasing profit margins because of medical knowledge . They can slice up the statistical population in increasing risk groups , but are not allowed use the knowledge . The politicians will force a subsidy from the low-risk group to the high-risk group , because of humanitarism .

But , this does not apply to avatars . The Insurance Company can charge what the market will bear . Very profitable . But , they will have to nimble and know what they are doing (ie competent ) . Like they were when they started .

Continuity :
One of the main functions of insurance is to smooth money-flow across discontinuities (like death) . It reassures creditors that they will be paid . A customer buying something on credit or with a long-term guarantee likes to have an earnest that the vendor Avatar is not going to disappear . A large policy on the Avatar (with a publicized equivalent) premium and policy will do this . Of course , Credit Card companies will take the lower-risk end of the market .

But there is an obscene amount of money to be made in the higher risk , individually tailored risk-environments .

An added advantage , is that everybody will treat it like Monopoly money at the start ,ie they will take higher risks than they would with “real” money . But convertibility means it is real money .



Asset Inflation .
See previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com ”Wealth , Riches and Money .”

Surplus money (not wealth) has found an outlet from real assets like property , to virtual assets like Second Life property . The destruction of money in a virtual environment has the major benefit that only avatars are affected .

No widows and orphans are evicted . (Until avatars are defined as sentient)

This is a better steady-state system than the stock-market .

The short term effects (0-5 years) are that Second Life property values will get wildly inflated , then crash .

Andre.

Dehydration and Intelligence.

Dehydration and Intelligence.
Andre Willers
23 May 2007

Synopsis:
Decreasing the normal number of water molecules in synaptic spaces increases the concentration of neurotransmitters . This increases the number of hits on receptors .

Discussion:

The increased number of hits on receptor sites means that the neurons fire more rapidly .
This means that thresholds are effectively lowered . Correlations are easier made . Smartness increases from norm .

Neurotransmitters like serotonin , whose basal concentration determines states like depression , also are more concentrated .
Hence the aha effect of alcohol and caffeine . Any diuretic that crosses the brain barrier will have the same effect .

While the brain is buffered against ordinary dehydration from lack of water , this will eventually also have an effect . Hence fasting in religions .

Note the term “Normal” above . This means that homeostatic mechanisms are in operation . Continual usage of such a diuretic agent will simply mean that the organism adjusts to the new level . Hence the habituation of the smartness effect to alcohol and caffeine .

The Pulse Effect :
To prevent homeostatic effects , usage of these drugs evolved into daily pulses of caffeine (at low concentrations) and higher concentrations of alcohol at longer periods.

Intermittent usage (every second day , for instance) will work . Note that the breakdown rates for diuretics (natural and artificial) seems to be similar at known fixed rates . This is to be expected if they are used because of ancillary effects .

The obverse : hydration .
Too high a rate of water intake (especially water with ions that speed up absorption) will dumb you down and make you depressive .

What a vicious feedback loop : drinking eight extra glasses of water a day(as is recommended) is addictive. You will then need the endorphin boost of extra exercise to boost serotonin concentrations in the synaptic spaces to feel normal . The combination of extra water and exercise is addictive in the clinical sense .

Tap-water : this is loaded with salts , which speed up the absorption of water .Hence the popularity of purer water . It makes people feel better by having a slower absorption rate .

People prone to low serotonin levels (ie with one or both short forms of the serotonin re-uptake gene ) should use caffeine (coffee , coke , tea ) or alcohol every second day .This can be kept up indefinitely , while preventing habituation ..

Social consequences .
Ho-ho-ho !
Societies that use alcohol and caffeine outperform ones that don’t .

Alcohol addiction does have the tendency to weed out the crazies out of societies .

But while it can explain fewer crazies , it cannot explain the other side : the smarts .

We do not mean the generally smarter . That distribution is probably the same . It is the pulses of smartness . The bright idea that strikes while in a state of dehydration and acted on the next day . Summed over a whole population and hundreds of years this is a significant advantage .

Stress :
A stressed organism has a larger than normal concentration of neurotransmitters in it’s synaptial spaces ( by definition ) . A short term solution is to decrease the concentration by extra intake of water . Lots of ionized fluids ( watered orange juice , water with a dash of salt , etc)

Long-term stress can only be solved by resetting the homeostatic mechanism to a higher level that can be varied . This is much more difficult . Amygdala programming becomes a problem . Stress-level handling protocols were set at amniotic level (ie epigenetic) .

The ideal is to have a stress level response that varies according to the stress applied .
This sounds impossible , except that there are individuals like that (astronauts , test- pilots, etc) . So it can be done . Given the uniformity of human genetic systems , this sounds like an epigenetic system . In other words , it can be learned , even at cellular level .

The Amygdala Interrupt .
There is a feedback process involving the same stress-hormones in the brain and stress-hormones in the body . The amygdala cannot distinguish between the two on a chemical basis , but it can on a timing and pulse basis . This response can be learned (ie reprogrammed)

The Cortical Interrupt.
Take one step backward and review the situation . See “Self-Consciousness” in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
The old “Count to ten“ method.

The Sub-Cortical Interrupt .
Then take two steps backward and review the situation .(The sequence is important.)
Beloved by A.E van Vogt .
Count to 10.5 .
These two steps cause the Amygdala Interrupt .
The timing and pulses of neurons and neurochemicals enables the amygdala to identify the source of the impulses . This stops panic attacks in its tracks .
Count 1 to 10 aloud , then 10.5 .

Just repeat it a number of times .

It will work for any epigenetically programmed bio-system .

If you imagine your problem (like fear of heights , panic when faced with a number of important choices , fear in general) , count from 1 to 10 , then 10.5

Why does this work ? . Activating the calculating complex of cells overrides later amygdala inputs . Counting is an older system than emotions .There is then a pause while this information is processed first . (The Cortical Interrupt) .

Saying 10.5 activates different levels in the calculating complex of brain cells . Inverse type of cells are activated (ie 10.5=21/2) More cells are needed and others are put on standby . Ie a sub-cortical interrupt .

The Recipe :
Count aloud from one to ten , then 10.5
.

Andre

Wealth , Riches and Money .

Wealth , Riches and Money .
Andre Willers
20 May 2007
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com

Synopsis :
By use of brutal reductionist arguments , we find the underlying relationships between Wealth , Riches and Money . Only Homo Sapiens (not Ants , etc) economies are considered .

Discussion :

Wealth :
The end-users define wealth .
The entities that create the definition of wealth are Homo Sapiens . As biological beings they have an irreducible rate of using Air , Water and Food . (Ref Maslow) .
This is the brutal reductionist part , since we only consider these three factors .

For the species to remain in existence , they need to be sustained at minimum levels at least for a term equal to the time it takes for children to start having children of their own . (Say 15 + 15 =30 years .) .

Most human societies have evolved another term (the Grandmother effect) , and optimizes on the grandchildren ( ie 45 years of good nutrition is needed .)

The crucial points :

Wealth is a process , not a state .
A Monetary system that does not destroy money to mirror the underlying wealth fluctuation , locks the society into a limited number of states , and , even worse , a fixed sequence of these states .
Systems which are non-linear will hunt for stability (ie if the control system is monetary , it will attempt to bring the monetary system into a one-to-one correlation with the wealth system .)
If Humans are in the loop , the system is non-linear .
The System will try to destroy Money to keep it in synchronization with Wealth .

A human is wealthy if the rate of income is bigger or equal than the rate of expenditure . The difference is stored if the society has the mechanism for storing wealth (ie air , water , food equivalents) .

Stored wealth is defined as riches .

A hunter-gatherer is wealthy if his food intake exceeds his body’s rate of usage .

Later on , when surpluses could be stored , the concept of riches = saved surplus evolved . Eg Egyptian or Mesopotamian food surpluses .
This is Capital by classical definition .

A surplus means trade . This led to Money .

Money is an analogue counter of Saved surplus wealth (Capital) , not of Economic Activity . The Free Market is then the most efficient way of apportioning surpluses . But it breaks down (ie liquidity vanishes) when there are no surpluses . Then central planning is more efficient to ensure the survival of what is deemed essential .

Hence the well known mechanisms of war-time and famine rationing . Marxism evolved out of the famine-type conditions caused by the Bust part of Boom-Bust monetary based economies . These cycles developed partly because the monetary systems could not mirror the economic activity , as money was not being destroyed .

Humans also optimized on making money instead of creating wealth , under the impression that the two are synonomous . But they are not . They can only be interchanged if there is a large surplus of wealth (eg food) . Note that the Free Market locks up into illiquidity long before the surplus is zero . This is well known from famines in India and China . (The rich merchants lock up their warehouses once they know that no new supplies are coming in . Even if a lot rots , they could still make more money by selling the remainder at hugely inflated prices .
The State , Mandarins , Empire etc has to step in .)

Once again , Wealth is a process , not a state .

This was how it developed right from the start . For instance , taxation in the late Roman Empire and Medieval periods worked quite well on kind , without money .

This confusion had an unfortunate side-effect : Wealth is used up day-by-day by human metabolic processes . Money has no equivalent destruction process (since it originally evolved to count only surpluses) .

Original coins or paper notes tied to the gold-standard ( ie British pounds circa 19 th century) had a physical life-time , but modern electronic money lasts forever until it is deliberately destroyed .

The politicians could not bring themselves to do this .

Hence the present (2007) system where a Central Bank creates money , and lends it out at the repo rate , but does not actively destroy it . This causes severe distortions when money is tried to be used as an economic activity indicator .

This argument has to be seen over a number of transactions:


A very simplified Example will clarify this :

The Central Bank lends $10 trillion to distribution banks at 3% pa (the repo rate) for 1 year . They lend it out in turn at 10% for 1 year .

New higher repo rate :
(Say from 3% to 5%)
After one year , the distribution banks repay the $10 trillion plus 3% , then promptly borrow only $8 trillion (less than the previous amount because of the higher repo rate) at 5% (the new higher repo rate) . The profit (7% = 10%-3%) accumulates in their capital account .

There is thus an effective destruction of $2 trillion due to free market forces caused by the increase in the repo rate . This destruction of money is not offset against any accounting item , and is a singularity point in the accounting system . But note that the capital growth in the Distribution Banks’ Capital Accounts remain .

New lower or same repo rate :
The same argument as above , except that there is now no destruction of money .
But the concentration of capital in the hands of the distributing banks continues .

Note that in all three scenarios above , capital increases in the hands of the distributing banks , but in only one is money destroyed . This leads to asset inflation .

Inflation strategy :
The present recipe is to aggressively increase repo rates , which does destroy some money in circulation . Then it falls (the whole aim) . But it concentrates capital , mainly in the hands of the distributing banks and other “haves” . This gets worse when rates have to rise again (the system is never stable) . The result is asset inflation.

The results can now be seen planetwide (due to globalization) .
Wealth per global capita (ie food , water ,air) is increasing planetwise , mostly because of decreasing population growth in North America , Europe , Russias or China . Other areas like South America , Africa , India , Indonesia are becoming more impoverished in real wealth terms . In the mean time , money (ie the number of units of dollars , yen ,yuan ,etc) are increasing . This causes a major asset inflation mostly in the hands of the distributing banks and other “haves” . Property and share prices shoot up into unrealistic levels , where no rental that has to be paid from non-shareholding income can compete .

Eventually this spills over into the price of food-producing areas , which stimulates inflation in food prices (Cf the price of wine). Ie wealth decreases per capita for a non-shareholder . Social unrest increases and Fundamentalist Religions (which arose out of exactly similar conditions at the fall of the Roman Empire , Christian as well as Muslim) resurges .

The system has very cleverly recreated an aristocracy and a starving proletariat .
Does this sound familiar ?


This system limps along as long as there are no severe shocks .

Capital accumulates with Credit .

A basic principle .
This is equivalent to statement that large cross-subsidising concerns can weather temporary downturns that wipe out smaller individuals .

Ho-Ho-Ho !
Many companies have followed the pernicious advice emanating from the US economic gurus to create profit centers . Once they have conveniently disentangled their affairs , the predators , in old times called corporate raiders , but now usually in-house management , do a leveraged buy-out . The finance is done on debt from credit companies (banks) on collateral from the accumulated capital as described above .
Also known as private equity . The planet is awash with capital (ie large numbers of currency units , which should have been destroyed , but were not .)

The other factor .

Why did limited liability companies evolve ?
These are after all the defining characteristic of Western Civilization .
The humble company is the generator of the Western world’s riches .
And the Stock Exchange is it’s handmaiden .


Answer :
It is cheaper to finance expansion into an envisaged increasing market via a Stock Exchange than borrowing or issuing bonds , since buyers of the shares think that the increase in the capital value of the share due to increased market share will make up for the smaller dividend .

This has been generally true since Jethro Tull invented the seed-drill in 1701 . There has been a sea-change in this attitude .

The Market is increasingly beginning to think that the present growth rates cannot be maintained . More money can be made by moving out of equities into bonds and promises to pay by companies and governments , hoping that they will survive the coming upheavals .

A side effect of this is that there is a large surplus of capital sloshing around . These are huge systems , which do not turn on a dime . One of the symptoms of this that the capital available for Private Equity buy-outs increases.

Another way of looking at it , is that the low birthrate in Europe and US means that the capital growth component of shareholding is worthless and everyone is scrambling for income . This is exactly what Private Equity is doing .

The social consequences are devastating .
The middle class are excluded from mobilizing capital . Exeunt middle class . Back to the aristo’s and serfs . Social mobility between classes decreases to nearly zero .

The small man can only invest his little surplus in an enterprise where the most lucrative returns already belong to a small group . He can only be mercilessly exploited by the whole system , which has ground to halt in terms of wealth .

Sounds familiar ?
This happened towards the last two centuries of the Roman Empire

Remember Credit concentrates Capital .
Hence the violent Christian and Muslim abreaction to interest rates .
Their original founder members had all been screwed by the Roman banking system into penury .


The History of the Humble Company.

How to destroy money without beggaring the shareholders .

The price fluctuations in the stock market made certain periods of unrealistic pricing possible . The shares were overpriced .These made money destruction possible , thereby making the system more realistic as far as using a monetary system to control an economic system . See below

Note , that if Company builds a widget and pays cash , the number dollars (the money) does not decrease . Money is not destroyed . However , if it uses credit (like an inflated share price based on unrealistic future income) , then if it crashes , the number of monetary units in circulation does decrease . Money is destroyed .

In accounting terms , the debt must be offset against capital . Capital being the saved surplus of wealth . Wealth eventually being based on something like food . Do you see how it worked ?

It made it possible that an exuberant stock market can exist . That the same individual can risk small amounts on say twenty different stocks , win on two and lose on eighteen and still survive and maybe come out ahead . Hence the extremely exuberant stock markets of the 19th century .

Money was destroyed in unsuccessful enterprises , since most of these involved building something physical , using credit based on the stock price (cf Suez Canal)

An intriguing speculation is that the 19th and 20th century propensity for very large ,very expensive science projects with little return is based on the attempt to destroy money . As any real scientist could have told them , Blue Sky projects have an even higher return rate than venture capital enterprises .

Hence the old standbys : weapons and war . The more useless and expensive , the better . The system is not creating a lot of new wealth (ie food , etc) , but it certainly is creating a lot of extra monetary units . They have to be destroyed , but the politicians do not have the courage to simply decreate them the same way they created them , so we have the Battleships , the Maginot Line , the ICBM’s , the Pentagon , etc , etc .

Most wars are financed by credit , so this is an easy way of destroying money .

Are we condemned to repeat this cycle ?
Do not make a mistake , persuading highly competitive , effective individuals to destroy their money ( the result of their hard work ) for some putative future reward has worked before (Christianity) in the building and gilding of Cathedrals . The only problem is that they must be convinced to sink into something with no conceivable return .

More seriously , for themselves , no . Their children , maybe . Their grandchildren , probably .

After all , it has been done before .


Ho-Ho-Ho !
Money in those medieval days could only be destroyed by locking up gold or silver in religious objects . It locked up (destroyed) money in untouchable holy relics . Even today it will be a brave burglar who thinks he can get away with stealing religious relics .
The Muslims gilded whole buildings .
The Egyptians buried it .

But look at the effect . The destruction of all this money stimulated intense searches for new sources of silver , gold or other wealth . The other wealth usually proved more enduring and important .

The building of cathedrals in Europe had a direct effect on technological development in Europe .

Creating money is easy .
Creating wealth is not much more difficult .
Creating lasting wealth is worthy of marks : Mark one century , Mark two centuries ,
Mark three centuries , etc .

What benefit can it have to the major shareholders ?
None . The religious trick will not work twice ,

Survival of the gene-line . The children .

A Modest Proposal :
That the inherited wealth is shotgunned into limited liability companies , with a bias to benefit the son . But not enough to give decisive advantage .. He will have to pull finger .
This does not sound like much , but you have to see it over a spectrum of about a million individuals .

Fat chance . To enforce this a world government will be needed .
Humans simply will not relinquish their perceived game-playing advantages , even if it means the demise of them and their line .

Actual Monetary Destruction in history :
The German Mark 1923 , Reichsmark 1947 , Franc 1950’s , Lire 1950’s , Ruble 1990’s etc , etc .
Notice that each economy rebounded , especially the German one after the destruction of the Reichsmark in 1947 . Most of the others were an ostensible conversion between the old unit and the new one , with the actual destruction of money hidden in the fine-print for political reasons . The Americans could dispense with this nicety in 1947 , yet the effect was stimulative , not destructive .

To get back to the Limited Liability Company :
It originated in the Netherlands . It was a method of mobilizing small groups of capital , without incurring crippling losses . (Limited liability companies were illegal under Roman Law ) .

It must be noted that the Netherlands and surrounding lowlands , never suffered catastrophic depopulation in the aftermath of the Roman Empire’s collapse . This means that they were not looted , and taking the times into account , means that they more likely charged the looters (eg the Angles and Saxons on their way to England ) a hefty fee . Invaders like Attila , the Vandals , etc also bypassed them . Presumably a combination of diplomacy and a hard nut .

Brittany and Normandy are pointers as well . What do they have in common ? They are not in the Netherlands , the easiest reachable and fertile area .

Yet these toughest SOB’s around never settled in the easiest target . The AngloSaxons did not settle in the Netherlands , neither did the RomanoBritons or the Vikings . William the Conqueror thought it more politic to marry Matthilde (from Belgium) .

The Dutch saw off the Spanish , on level ground .(Like facing the Wehrmacht Panzers on their best day .)
They also saw off the English in the Spicy East and New York . But the long heritage of survival shows in the merger with England (See Niall Ferguson) . They were simply too small and exposed to land-warfare from the continent . Yet today Brussels is the capital of Europe . Looking at Medieval Fair maps and trade routes of old Europe . It always was the capital .

They fight to win if facing annihilation (Phillip II) , but otherwise seek accommodation and survive .

Hence the history of useful traitors in old Dutch colonies like SA . The memes are there from Roman times .

As Sun Tzu would say : “The Belgian reeds bend with the wind , but shelters the skugtere fish .”

So let us hope that they face the threat of rising sea levels due to global warming with the same resolution . A Solar Umbrella is well within their technical and financial reach .

Homo Sapiens has free will , and does not have to repeat these patterns .

Andre.

Compile 1

Itarin 2
Andre Willers
14 May 2007

Synopsis :
Very large amounts of pre-processing is done in the retina by neural networks . These networks are trainable .

See:
“Scientific American” p55 “The Movies in our eyes”.
“Parallel processing in Retina Ganglion Cells” by B. Roska et al. in Journal of Neurophysiology , vol95 p3810-3822 2006
Cellular Neural Network (artificial retina chip) , L Chua , UCAL
www.sciam.com/ontheweb
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Itarin” etc

Discussion:
To those who sneered at Itarin , I take great pleasure in saying :
“I told you so. So wheh !”

Some familiarity with neural networks is assumed .

The Retinal Network consists of :

Rod or Cones to capture light (in a 2 dimensional square )
Two types of dopsins (chemicals sensitive to certain frequencies of light.)

The Neural Network :
Input . Bipolar cellbodies of ( at least 10 types ) . Excitatory .
Intermediate .Amacrine cell bodies ( at least 27 types , in 10 layers (the plexiform layer) . Inhibitory .
Output : Ganglion cell (12 types) to brain .

The output forms a streaming video of each of the 12 pictures (ie contrasts , edges , shadows , highlights,becoming brighter , becoming darker,etc.

This is assembled in the brain .
Data missing or fuzzy in the retina stage cannot be compensated for in the brain (except for context guessing or dithering) .

But , the retinal network can be retrained .

The retinal network is ridiculously overpowered for only rod and/or cone input . Evolutionary , insects , dinosaurs and very early mammals had another dopsin than was receptive to ultra-violet . This was lost by mammals . Birds and insects live in another dimension of colour that enhances their experience of their environment by an order of magnitude . We cannot imagine what it is to see like an insect or bird , as little as a colour-blind person can imagine blue , green or the whole colour spectrum .

During mammal babyhood , as sight is trained , the neural connexions in the retinal neural network (and especially the plexiform layer) are pared away to a very simplified form . But the complex number of neural network analysis layers are retained . The UV analysis can be excised , but to reduce the number of neuronal network layers would necessitate re-evolution of the whole business . This was simply too complex an endeavour for modest gains . So the layers remained .

However , the retina and iris still retain a large number of stem cells .

Retraining the plexiform layer that already has a memory of the shape of a letter would then be a simple matter of shifting “weights” in an already existing neuronal configuration . Itarin can easily compensate for this . ( Distortion due to myopia ,etc)

If the original pattern was distorted by something like astygmatism , then new neuron connexions would have to formed . (There is no original pattern.) This will take longer .

How much longer ?
The visual system has top priority in body . Hence the few cancers in a system loaded with stem cells . Daily for 3 months should do the trick (trimester) .
Top up as needed . The learned system is dual , so alternate with glasses/without glasses .


Metamaterial :
The 10 x 27 plexiform layer is more than sufficient to enable metamaterial and stochastic resonance effects .

Example : Hold the page at an angle to a single-point light . The micron-small elevations of the print will cause slight shadows and highlights , which your eye can recognize as patterns . The reason : the metamaterial effect enables you to see little bumps smaller than the wavelength of the light .
Waving the page slightly will cause stochastic resonance , which biological systems are really good at interpreting . (Look it up.)

This is not trivial , since it means that certain fonts are easier to read than others .
And a book is always better .

An optimal font has not yet been constructed . It would involve shadings and highlights in the letters themselves . A single letter (by inkjet , for example) would be constructed of a bold , delineated left half , a middling half and shaded right half for left-to-right readers .

As it is , you will be able to read better if your reading light is to the left of the page at about a 45 degree angle (If you read left to right)

This is also why reading from the screen or palm-books never took off .

There is no shadow .

And only the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men .

Andre .

The Origins of War and Peace
Andre Willers
20 April 2007
( see previous discussions in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)

Synopsis :
War is when a society sanctions other humans as prey .
If the other humans belong to another society , it is Classical War . If not , it is a Police Action .
Endless fun is had by playing around with the definitions of “human” (Nazis) , “society” (religions , political movements , criminals , etc) .

Discussion:
Humans have a hard-wired brain center that classifies something as “prey” . Once this switch has tripped and the fixation has taken place , it is extremely difficult to change.

Evolutionary , it derived from pack-behaviour .
Pack hunters need to identify the chosen prey which the pack-leader has designated . The pointers derive from the leader’s social behaviour like pointing , eye-fixation , words etc .
Then they need to fixate on this prey to exclusion . (The nuts-and-bolts neuronal arrangement can be traced back to infant-imprinting.)

Successful packs are those that can focus the full pack on a particular prey , even if individual members of the pack might suffer injury or death .

A subsidiary hard-wired complex developed monitoring fellow-pack members . Any attack has to have some co-ordination . Call this Social-feeling .

Counting :
An iterative counting brain center that could count to three evolved .
(This center’s precise location has been identified (via fMRI). Rendering it inoperative (via magnetic focused pulse) led to a normally very rare inability to gut-feel numbers . Like reading by consulting a child’s primer every step .) Called anacalculus .

Us , Them ,Prey .
Each system is iteratively further broken down into threes , etc .

Three is necessary , since Us and Them is insufficient .
The Prey has to be identified , leading to Them being broken up into Them and Prey .

An intriguing corollary is that while the sets Us and Them may comprise many diverse elements , the Prey has to be constrained to one easily identified element . This explains why hate merchants like Hitler , the schoolyard bully , etc pick on specifics . Why neighbours who know each other kill neighbours in Uganda . Why the wife/husband is the most frequent unsanctioned homicidal victim .

There can only be One Prey .
(Apologies to the Highlander.)
Certain elements in martyr religions can be more easily understood this way .


Packs .
Packs are innate in any organism that cares for it’s young .
Parent(s) + kids = pack .
Iterative congeries across time of genetic relationships leads to complicated social relationships ( see inheritance of dominance in monkeys ,etc)

Human ancestors underwent a prolonged period of being cursorial raptors , developing pack behaviour on a genetic and social level to a high degree . This was convergent evolution with dogs . It is no wonder then that dogs and humans understand each other at such a deep , non-verbal level .

Parts of humans are the same as dogs .

Query : Why the insult of calling somebody a dog , a cur , a son-of-a-bitch etc ?
Answer : The insult is to the human being addressed , expressing dominance , not to dogs . In many cases , the only cultural referent understood by both human parties were doggish loyalty , which translated as slavishness between enemies . Indeed , many humans expressed their loyalty as being dogs of their ruler .

The dogs of war :
An interesting bit of propaganda by the Condottierri to put a spin on their faithless conduct .

Cannibalism .
Let’s face it , our ancestors ate each other until about 72 000 years ago .
The population density was low , making disease like kourou unlikely .
A large number of hominid evolutionary steps were driven by genetic deficiencies , necessitating obligate hunting . ( see previous discussions in http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)

Prey was everybody else except Us . This is the default Homonid setting .

MkI Homo Sapiens .

They evolved around 150 000 to 200 000 years ago .
The body was small by our standards , with little sexual dimorphism . The males were not much bigger , stronger or more aggressive than the females .
Great strength was not needed when hunting with weapons , snares and nets .
Indeed , big mass was selected against because of the significant higher energy needs that made starving to death much more likely during down-turns like droughts . Remember , there was little surplus and no way to store it .

Language was the main purview of the females . Gossiping and politics . The females were the central point of each group , together with the children . The males formed a cloud around this group . But arrangements were very loose and easy , as the living was easy .

Numbers were small , game was plentiful and other hominids made nice little packages of essential nutrients for these obligate hunters .

There is no culture as we even vaguely understand the term .

This was the end-line of development of pre-cultural homonins .

The default was that all not-Us were prey . ( Not War , not Peace , but anarchy)

MkII Homo Sapiens .

The Invention of Peace .

Then Toba happened . (72 000 BC )
The supervolcano in Indonesia caused the equivalent of a nuclear winter across the globe . Snow fell in equatorial regions and there was mass die-off of plants and their dependant animals .

The cold and hunger caused a concentration of numbers around some volcanic hotspots in the highlands of East Africa ( Remember , it snowed on the equator) . It did not happen all at once , so refugees fluxed into the survivable spots . In this crucible , human culture was invented . The numbers were small enough that certain existing epigenetic centers in the brain/body were forced evolved .

Remember , it took centuries for the land to recover .
From the genetic bottle-neck evidence , human numbers fell to between 3 000 and 10 000 . These are extinction levels
Cannibalistic diseases and inbreeding are particularly vicious in small , poorly nourished communities like these .

Co-operation and expansion of the gene-pool was essential .

The surviving communities were the ones where females took control and forced co-operation by designating non-prey .

In other words , the females ( probably led by some redoubtable dowager ) , invented Peace , and what’s more , enforced it .

This was Humanity’s greatest invention . The woman who did it deserves a Nobel prize for each year her Peace lasted .

Population was rigorously kept to sustainable levels by Matriarchal control of breeding lines and birthrates .

They did it so well that the Peace lasted about 60 000 years .
Note that the American and Australian continents where massive and quick animal extinctions took place , were populated from areas probably outside matriarchal control . Note also that the continent with the most extant animal megafauna (Africa) was where the matriarchy originated . Not too shabby ,eh?

One effect was thus the extreme taboo against cannibalism . This is an epigenetic inheritance ( ie data transmitted by mother to offspring , not in the DNA , but not cultural either .)

Inherent in this is that the Prey designation mechanism (now also epigenetic) came under social control . Elaborate rite-of-passage ceremonies evolved to certify an organism as human . (Failures were killed or expelled)

High on the list was Prey designation : hence the emphasis on starving candidates . The original rites featured humans as prey , and the candidate who could not control himself , failed .

This became putting off present gratification for future reward , what we think of as defining feature of cultural humans .

This also means the invention of religion , since the reward can be put off into the hereafter .

They also invented clothing , many uses of fire , hairdressing , makeup , jewelry , beads , gourmet cooking and the other things that make life worthwhile

Co-operating instead of hunting each other made trade and diversication of labour possible . Tools increased in sophistication from about 70 000 BC .

There was a significant human mutation in genes controlling brain growth . This has been very roughly dated as occurring about 40 000 – 50 000 years ago . The significance is not known , but it is speculated that it has to do with the growth of human culture .

The culture was explosively radiative . The advantages of a better and richer life through the material benefits sucked in even non-human homonins ( hence the gene mixing) . Anti-social elements were designated Prey and declared outlaw (this is what it means . The ultimate sanction then and now . Declared non-human , their only options were to die or to flee . )

When these MkII Humans exploded out of Africa , they did not kill the Neanderthals and Sinienses found in Europe and Asia . Their prey instincts were under social control .

Hence the interbreeding results now being found in the fossil record or the genetic evidence of the human flea .
( Some skeletons found indicate a mixture of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens . Doubtlessly , more will be certain once the Neanderthal genome has been sequenced in about three years . More certain seems recent evidence of Siniens interbreeding , especially the genetic evidence that some species of human lice seemed to have crossed over back to Homo Sapiens from Siniens(Erectus) . The main-line Homo Sapiens fleas evolved into head and body lice after the invention of clothing after Toba .)


The other Sexes of Man
(see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “The Sexes of Man”)
An intriguing speculation is that various null-sexes and homosexes got an evolutionary push from the reduced fertility in crossbreeding between MkII Homo and other various cousins that were subsumed into the Homo gene-cultural pool . This would have had a major effect on the evolution of the meme of property and inheritance .

MkII Humans .
What did they look like ?

The closest survivors we have are the Bushmen .

The female is the basic unit . There is little sexual dimorphism . The male is slightly larger than the female , but not significantly better muscled or more aggressive . Weapons and intelligence are more important in hunting than strength .
Females are the cultural guardians and control the group , both epigenetically and culturally .

Their Culture:
In fertile regions , the females and children form a nucleus with a floating cloud of males . Females select males to have children , either from personal taste or by direction of the Matriarchy . As expected , about 90% of males do not have children , as the females all select the alpha-males . This creates tension .

A Matriarchy .

Overpopulation was kept under check by infanticide of weaklings (bushmen , greeks , romans) . The limits of population were precisely known after literally tens of thousands of years of hunter-gatherer interactions .

An extremely stable form of government .

MkIII Homo Sapiens .
As can be seen from the above , the matriarchs naturally thought in terms of selective breeding . Hence their invention of agriculture and domesticated animals . (The were the finest genetic engineers the planet has yet seen , including the present poseurs.)

Yet the invention of both held the seeds of their destruction .

Domestication of animals and agriculture (circa 10 000 years ago) went hand-in-hand . Even today , most agricultural produce go to feed animals .

The net effect was a population explosion .

The old methods of estimating the carrying capacity of the land did not work with this new-fangled agriculture . The large groups of feral males expelled into the borderlands during the last 60 000 years now also increased in numbers due to end of the Ice-Age . They could be hired by surplus agricultural produce and promise of breeding women .

The matriarchs now had physical locations they had to defend against marauding clouds of feral males or males from other villages . Down-turns ( drought , winters , etc) made it worse . The inexorable logic of evolution means that no matter how many times you succeed , only one failure is enough to destroy you .

Increasing populations had led to population centers (cities) , that traded . Trade on this scale unleashed what we would call globalization . Cheaper produce and manufactures from the peripheries destroyed the livelihood of local farmers and artisans . The resulting social unrest necessitated breeding warriors from the outside stock to keep control for the oligarchy of matriarchs and priestesses .

This happened over a period of about 6 000 years . ( A Matriarchy is a really , really stable form of government .)

The result was an arms-race . The matriarchs either deliberately , or as a desperation measure , bred males for aggression and strength . This was easy in a culture that already practiced infanticide and death-by-neglect . Nubile females were directed only to mate with the jocks . Breeding stock was imported or required as tribute from the Outlands ( cf remnants like Theseus , etc)

The social structure (what we would call the Bronze Age) slowly broke down .
The Matriarchs also designated the competing groups as prey to their warrior clouds . War had arrived ..

MkIII Homo Sapiens was the result .
There is marked sexual dimorphism . The male is significantly bigger , but also grossly overpowered . Sinews and bones break continually from the overbred power .

The biggest difference is in aggression and Social-feeling . (see above)
There is a positive feedback between Aggression and Fellow-feeling . A large group focusing on a prey is more successful if the elements of the group share values more intensely . All we need to add is that large numbers of combatants are more successful than small numbers (generally true for low-energy weapons) , and you have an Army and War .

Social-Feeling:
The increase in social-feeling leads to large hysterical-type religions , and (not too put too fine a point on it ) large mobs .

The other whammy :
Horses .
Villages on the edges of the Ukrainian Steppes domesticated horses . Over hundreds of years , young men drifted into the steppes . Matriarchs could not follow them , since a pregnant woman cannot ride . The result was the formation of the Sky Gods religions . The horsemen turned around and made the originating villages their fiefs . From this basis they exploited every weakness of the Matriarchs .
Patriarchal religion arises .


The big Crack.

The collapse of the Late Bronze Age civilization (see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)

This was not an overnight affair , but the later stages makes “Apocalypto” look like a picnic .

It was a combination of factors :
The breakdown of the social systems led to continual internecine warfare between city-states (ie groups of Matriarchs) . The males were being force-bred to be bigger and more aggressive . Then a climate shift caused a series of prolonged droughts from about 6 000 to 4 000 BC , seriously increasing unrest . The destruction of Minoan sea-power due to tsunamis and the inability to rebuild their fleet because they had denuded all readily accessible timber was the last straw . It took about 200 years , but the resultant spasm of war , destruction and cannibalism destroyed the matriarchies around the Middle-East and the Mediterranean .

The horse patriarchs swept over the remains and stamped patriarchal memes very firmly on the twitching remains .

Some Matriarchal memes remained in the far-west (Britain) . Hence the Druids .
Egypt and some surviving cities in the middle-east retained underground matriarchal cults ( Isis , Cybele , Earth Mother , etc , etc)

The Romans destroyed the corrupted Druid remnants .

The Roman Catholic Church later incorporated the main elements of the surviving matriarchy in the Roman Empire in the female saints and the Virgin Mary . The rest were ruthlessly exterminated . (Literally)

The only remnants of the Matriarchy that had ruled for nearly 70 000 years were some nunneries . Even here they were meme controlled ( Brides of Christ : ie connected to a male .)

Islam did the same . Note that the nun’s habit is identical with the chador .

It makes one wonder : why did the Council of Nicea decide on such a radical step ?
After all , the Roman Empire toward the end had little sex-discrimination . Constantinople had many empresses .

Why did the West suppress matriarchies ?

The suspicion arises that they did it because they felt threatened .

A meme structure like the Matriarchy that thinks in terms of 70 000 thousands of years and selective breeding of generations does not let a temporary hiatus of 5 000 years stop them . Indeed , elementary consideration would show that this could not have been the first or only reverse . Thus , they would have evolved mechanisms to survive what they consider temporary setbacks , together with some aggressive bounce-back mechanisms .

They probably tried to take over control of the Roman Catholic Church and the Western Empire . The Church destroyed most evidence , but there is Constantine’s mother , a taverners daughter who came up with some serious money to hire troops .

The killer , though , was probably the shenanigans with Attila . The Western Court at the time was even a bigger nest of snakes than usual . This was also the last time women played a significant role . If Aetius had not stopped Attila , the West would probably be a matriarchy now .

The Patriarchal meme-set seems to be long-lasting , but scared .
Some examples :
The refusal to aid Constantinople in 1453 . Indeed , the whole split . The West feels more comfortable with a patriarchal Islam than a matriarchy . Even so , Turkey seems to have been hit by a double whammy from the women : Naksh , and the enfolding and vanishment of the Circassians circa 1820 .

For those not up to speed :
Naksh (the Beautiful ) was a cousin of Josephine Bonaparte . They both came from Martinique and both became Empresses . Naksh was captured by Barbary pirates , and given as a virgin present to the Sultan . She must have been something exceptional , since he made her his principal and only wife , and more importantly , allowed her to educate her son the heir . This guy broke (well ,exterminated) the Janisseries (no mean feat) . He embarked the Ottoman Empire on the route that led to Turkey of today being a secular Islamic state (the only one) .

The Circassians were a tribe in the Caucasian mountains that reputedly for thousands of years bred their women for beauty and then sold them . This is like saying Elizabeth Taylor or Madonna is a slave . As you can imagine , even if it was not a matriarchal scheme to start off with , it would not be soon before the women ran the scheme . Reputedly , their beauty approached super-image quality , to such an extent that they had to be veiled so as not to drive men mad with visions of unattainability .

Of course the other side of the coin is more likely . For 60 000 years the matriarchy had bred and perfected women that could freeze men’s souls with their beauty and pheromones (cf Sirens , Circe , Gorgons , etc) . Brainy too . So the Circassians were breeding the beauty out , not in , to fit with modern society .

By 1820 they had to move , as the entire Caucasus mountains became very unsafe due to the Russian Empire expanding . Bullets or cannons do not care about beauty . The entire tribe moved to Constantinople and was not heard of again (of course) .

An interesting note here is that they probably had a copy of the Library of Constantinople . Very probably many of the originals . One of those ironies of history is that the Library everyone is looking for (including most of the Library of Alexandria) is right back where it started . A further ironic note is that Templars got obliterated mainly for having a copy . Contaminated by the Matriarchy . Fallout was the Albigensians and the Spanish Inquisition .

The question is : what on earth did the matriarchy do to provoke such an extreme response , one that has reverberated for thousands of years ? Even the memory of the deeds are gone (except maybe in some dusty archive) , but the emotions evoked still seem to be alive .

The only thing I can think of is a monstrous betrayal and perversion of the very bedrock of the Matriarchy’s social contract : when things got bad , they designated their people they considered useless as Prey and ate them .

This is like the Pope cutting out some nice fat American tourists on St Peter’s square and having a braai , with them as the guests of honour on the spit , all the while intoning that they should be honoured to serve .

Worse . Christianity has ritual cannibalism . No wonder this has reverberated down the ages . And it must have gone on for at least 200 years .

Shit . And I thought the high death rate in the Late Bronze age collapse was due to the quick conquest by the Sea Peoples . Instead , for hundreds of years the matriarchy and attendant nobles ate their people . The logic from their point is that the plebs should be honoured to feed their betters who know better and would be able to pull things together once the drought ends . And even when the drought ended , they could not stop . They were caught in the vested interests and , besides , it would take years before trade picked up and their shares paid a decent dividend .

The Sea Peoples were what we would call Liberators and Freedom Fighters . The capital letters are justified . Not even the Nazis or the Soviets ate the inmates of the camps , never mind put them in camps just for this purpose .

I always wondered how Rameses III could trust the Sea Peoples after the battle of the Nile to withdraw to southern Palestine . How could they exist if the area was so drought stricken ? But it wasn’t . It could support a lesser number , but not the overpopulated cities before . He had to promise to cleanse his country as well .Something he was not averse to .

But besides that , the Sea Peoples were fighting to cleanse the world of a great evil . The last holdout was in Egypt . They would have kept coming . All of them had family that was eaten .

This monumental blunder took place after the invention of agriculture , when overpopulation got out of control . I presume the present Matriarchy is determined not to make the same mistake . Overpopulation is once again out of control .


A note to the Matriarchy :
Kindly do not attempt to dispose of the surplus biomass through your stomach . It did not work too well 5 000 years ago . This time you will get crispies all round . The contract of 72 000 years ago is that either all pull through , or none do . Got it ?

The crucial Patriarchal meme:
No woman shall be without a connection with some male .

It does not matter if the male is a father , brother , husband ,son ,etc .
The intention is to prevent the build-up of a purely female powerbase . (ie a Matriarchy)

It worked for about 5 000 years .

Why it broke down :
The hidden assumption:
A high death rate due to high female death rate in childbirth .
This assumption steadily diverged from reality since about 1850 , as asepsis and birth procedures progressed .

The result was that woman outlived men by about 7 years on average . Rich woman in the US inheriting all their husband’s assets is a bigger percentage since the 1920’s . The US is a matriarchy by now .

Some symptoms:
Some 66% of US families have only one parent , namely the mother .
Crime rates have increased . This is because clouds of males are forming ,without matriarchal systems to keep them in control . At the levels of aggression and
testosterone the females have bred into them , only one thing will work :

UltraMama
A discreet word with Marvel Comics or some games designer might be appropriate .
And please , not SuperMama . Every Mama is a SuperMama .

MkIV Homo Sapiens .

Around 1800 the New Model Homo Saps was rolled out .
The new model is emotionally cool and is inclined to compulsive behaviour .
It welcomes uberbabes , but vehemently rejects a role as appetizer or even main course .

Aggression is not impulsive , but compulsive .
This is epigenetic .

This means that he can only be reasoned with . Emotional pressure points like fear , hate , love will play no role in behaviour .

Once an aggressive course is determined , nothing will stop it except superior force or logic .

The development of industrial technology required people that can concentrate for hours at a time on technical things like lathes , mathematics , etc , etc . The Fellow-feeling center in the brain suddenly became the cannon-fodder center .

A previous pathology ( Autism spectrum ) was dusted off and selection pressures are busily selecting and modifying . Aspergers (which did not exist before , suddenly is a desirable condition . The rough edges are being filed off .

It also means that the political control both Patriarchies and Matriarchies had is evaporating . The levers are turning to mush under their fingers .

Both have failed . They think the solution is in killing off their constituents when things get tough . This is no longer a viable solution from their viewpoint , as they have already lost control of the technical aspects . They are the most likely ones to do the tumbrel dance when things go ape .

Andre

MAD and preparations for War.

Andre Willers
14 April 2007

Synopsis :
The probability of war in the Far East , Pakistan North-India region has increased from about 40% to 80%+ . Limited nuclear strikes in Iran , North Korea , Taiwan , Japan and Chinese regions close to Taiwan are in orders of 70%-90% .
Stay away .

Discussion:

MAD .
Mutual Assured Destruction .
A games theory which had the hidden assumption that there is an end to the game (ie a point where one could tot up the gains and losses to ascertain the winner.) .

This formed the basis of Cold-War strategy between the US and the USSR . The mutual assured destruction part comes from the assumption that at end of the game , the opponent might have more assets . These must then be destroyed as well if you have the capability . This cascades down to the destruction of all assets .

This nice little scenario had two major flaws:
In real life there is no end except extinction . Present decisions had to made on very putative future guesswork . The wrong guess is not extinction , but endless misery .
The threshold of initial MAD response is dependant on future estimations . This ties in with the above . (At what stage do you bet your civilization , your wife and children , and yourself? )

The only person who could actually have enforced a world-wide hegemony of this nature was Harry Truman , when the US had the monopoly of nuclear weapons .

There is a RAND study (circa 1947) about the consequences of the US nuking Moscow and other USSR centers and occupying the country .

The study concluded that while democratizing Germany and Japan was possible with minimal occupation , the same would not be true of the USSR . It would be an enemy occupation , and the democratization of Europe (which had very strong Communist leanings (close to 50%) ) , would necessitate the militarization of the US . The US would not be able to sustain an occupation of both Europe and Asia , unless they were willing to practice genocide .

Truman decided against it .

Once there are two players with large destructive capacity , the game of MAD is possible .

What we have now , is the US and Russia with true MAD capability , and numerous small entities with 1-10 nuclear weapons . Remember that destructive energy delivery of nuclear proportions were routinely used in WWII . ( I define such an event as one that generates a firestorm . Hamburg , Dresden , Tokyo qualify) .

Like Big MAD , Mini-MAD is played by stretching the threshold levels and the ends .
North-Korea and Iran make threatening noises and moves (thresholds) and posit “what-if” scenarios in international forums for the ends .

Spasm
The nightmare .
Ironically , the world is now safer from a NuclearBiologicalChemical spasm after a proliferation of nuclear weapons . The US or Russia is not going to go into a MAD exchange if a nuclear explosion takes place in Pakistan , Korea , Japan , China ,India or Taiwan . They will cheer from the sidelines .

Mini-MAD Wars
Wars between countries with limited NBC destructive capability .
Taiwan vs China , North-Korea vs Japan , etc , etc .
There are nine(9) nuclear armed nations around the China Sea , each with an independant nuclear command system . The number of ways they can gang up on each other is 2^9-1 = 511 ways . This is extremely unstable .

For instance , Japan finds the threat to Tokyo from North-Korean nukes intolerable .
China finds the independence of Taiwan intolerable .
Taiwan finds the threat of China intolerable .
And so forth , and so forth , until nothing is left excepting fishes .

Bioweapons :
How threatening are they really ?
We have virgin field comparisons from history :
The Americas (smallpox,measles,whooping cough) contagious by touch or air and the Black Death in Europe , ditto) . The relative death rates were 95% and 35% . The difference is explained by quarantine . A social phenomenon , not a biological one , since neither of the populations had any resistance . The trick is to prevent any exposure .

Primers:
A primer is a previous infection that renders the organism more susceptible to later variants . A sleeper with sudden death as the payoff .

I know of one primer in history : the Aug-Nov 1918 flu had a primer in March 1918 . The major epidemic burned out for no known reason . (Some people think that a Global Wishing Machine was used .)

Early syphilis and HIV are primers . So are all the bacteria in humans without their lethal genes switched on .

This begs the question : which diseases can be defined by the body’s defence lethal genes being switched off ? And why should this happen ?

The Flicker Response .
Organisms that flicker lethal genes on and off utilizes the body’s learning ability to extend the immune system’s lower threshold .
The immune system is not switched off , just sort of stretched .

An example:
Autoimmune and HIV:
The culprit would seem to be one or two chemical compounds from the palm tree (palm trees have a vested interest in keeping human populations low) plus a rare trace mineral (unknown , but most likely something like iridium for evolutionary reasons . To keep numbers down after the KT boundary.)

The vector is soap .

The HIV primer was first transmitted via the LA bathhouses . The truckroutes through Africa was characterized by soap dispensers in the toilets .

Oversensitization of the immune system can be seen in asthma , also correlated with a specific soap usage since the early 1800’s .

Ho-ho-ho!
The Revenge of the Palm . Those veggies will be the death of you yet .

But those humans will probably get you first .

Preparations for War .
The single most important chokepoint in modern war is not oil .

It is Chrome .

It is absolutely essential for high-temperature , high-strength steel . This means the turbine-blades for jet-engines . There is no substitute at the moment . The lack of chrome has already played a major role in history . The german Me262 jet fighter production was scaled down 1941 because the lack of chrome .

Turbine engines for tanks , ships and aircraft need at least 20% chrome in the blade-steel (ie thousands of tons) . So does armour , though that can be worked around .

This year (2007) south Africa announced that it would cease export of chrome to China . SA has about 70% of the world reserves , and 100% of available ores (the rest is in Russia , and they are not selling to anybody.)

The ostensible reason given was that SA needs all the chrome for domestic consumption . This is an outright lie . SA cannot use even a fraction of the production . the only conclusion is that the US leaned on the SA government to sell only to US stockpiles .

The conclusion from this (since chrome is needed for many items exported from China to the US) is that a near and lengthy war is being planned for .

Oil and Biofuel .
The US has quietly built up a huge biofuel capability . At least half of it’s maize stocks are being used for fuel .
The interesting thing here is that the US seems to have written off supplies of oil from the middle-east . Indeed , some think that the entire Iraq war and focusing of interest on middle-east oil supplies is a misdirection , masking the immense US efforts in biofuels while this transition is taking place .

It is a matter of premiums and future values .
The cost of a barrel of Saudi-Arabian light crude at the well-head is about $5 . Transport is about $4 per barrel . The present spot price is about $68 a barrel . That difference of about $60 a barrel represents the present value of future estimated scarcity . OPEC reckons that it can use the premium to pay for the food the grossly overpopulated areas of the middle-east needs . The US reckons that it can survive even a total cut-off of middle east oil . It might be a pinch , but hundreds of millions of tonnes of maize is being converted to fuel (industrial fuel , the important bit) (about 60% of US agricultural output is now being converted to fuel . Didn’t know that crucial little bit , did you? Who do you think ate that millions of tons of food before it was blown out of an exhaust ?

The US is probably going to turn isolationist . Nuke Iran and withdraw completely from the middle-east . Pick up the top-up oil cheap from the spot market . Africa and the middle east will starve .

Everybody expects a China-US war .

In this scenario , China will be left alone against hordes of starving refugees from the middle east . Russia will be hard pressed to defend Siberia . The US will renege on the letters of credit (treasury bonds) , slap on heavy tariffs and tell everybody to f***off . (It is already extremely difficult even for a tourist to get into the US .) The country is turning isolationist regardless of it’s political leadership .

All the local bullies will come out to play . The whole of far east and middle east will dissolve in a welter of war , with about 20% survival rate .

Andre


Nazca lines and Seismic Prediction .

Andre Willers
11 April 2007

Synopsis :
Megalithic figures are most probably meant to be seen from underneath , not from the top.

Discussion :

The Nazca makers were right on the edge of a highly active seismic region . Their lives and fortunes were greatly affected by earthquakes and volcanic events . It is thus likely that they ascribed them to subterranean gods ( Cf Greek Poseiden) .

The figures were an attempt to communicate with these gods . Naturally they would form them in a way to appear normal from underneath .

The gist would be “ Hey there are people up here . Please be more careful.”
“Help here” . “ Zap there” .

In other words , the usual human panoply of threats , promises , bargains and pleas

Watch the way the monkey’s tail curves !

Ley Lines and Megalithic Buildings .

Seeing what these look like from underneath is really interesting . Especially what a pyramid does to p-waves and s-waves from an earthquake . The siting of the Gizeh pyramids are then no accident , as they would ameleriorate liquefaction of the great canyon underlying the Nile delta . This was formed during the periodic drying-up of the Mediterranean , when the Nile carved kilometer deep canyons .

A little prediction :
The remains of a similar pyramidal structure(s) should be found near the mouth of the old Rhone . It has the same canyons .
(Use side scan- and ground penetrating radar . The regular density layers should be a signature , or at least pointer if there was a catastrophic canyon-collapse .)

Lesser structures (like Carnac) on both sides of the English channel are known .
Similar structures should be detectable on the English side .

How could the ancients have known ?
Water Dowsing .
This is a well known method and reliable as far as water is concerned .
Water dowsing is not paranormal . It is too repetitively reliable . It should be classified under “Unknown science” .

The earth has continual small tremors . Land-fills on old riverbeds , fractures and faults amplify these by micro-liquifaction as refractions from different density layers concentrate small tremors at random along a long length . The dowser picks this up , but it is a relative measurement . He has to move to get a broader picture .

Earthquake dowsing .
Most big earthquakes would have an increase in these micro-liquifactions as precursors . Therefore , monitoring the intensity of these over time over established weakness lines gives an indication of the probability of a major breach . Most likely , there would be a specific pattern as precursor .

Still , false alarms would be a problem , especially in a non-scientific culture ( heck , it is problem in a scientific culture , as witness the 0.25 million corpses of the 2004 tsunami , when warning was available , but not heeded) .

High casualty , low-probability events are normally handled by religion in humans .

The establishment and maintenance of seismic warning networks would be a religious duty . Temples would be established on the lines of maximum weakness (ley lines) . During the end of the last ice age (12 000 – 4 000 BC ), seismic and tsunami activity was much higher , as the continents rose after the ice-melt . Huge tsunamis thundered across low-lying areas as ice-dams broke or glacier moraines collapsed . Undersea moraine collapses would be particularly treacherous . Most habitations would be on high-lying areas (like in Britain in this period) .

Maintaining an early-warning network was vital . Most megalithic buildings were probably just amplification sensors . The pyramids seems to be an attempt at amelioration .

The joker is , as the crust and the oceans stabilized , the number of threats decreased and the old religion lost it’s power . The lowlands became populated and human numbers exploded . The Bronze age civilization followed , and it’s subsequent collapse . The knowledge was lost ( no longer applicable , cost/benefit analysis shows that it is cheaper to tolerate a few major earthquakes in the few populated areas , than maintain a very expensive early-warning system that is no longer needed .)

Some hints as to megalithic earthquake predictors .
Stonehenge does measure star-angles . But it is to measure the flex of the underlying crust . Hence its position on the most stable piece of real-estate in Britain . What was needed was large (massive , to cancel small effects) inelastic pylons to measure small shifts in the underlying crust . Note that no theory of plate-mechanics is needed , as a purely experimental mapping of Britain using dowsing would have given an equivalent result .

In areas where short-term effects would be more important (eg on the channel like Carnac) , the meters are smaller and more frequent . Whether the small divergencies from starlight measurements will be measurable after all this time at Carnac is a good question .

A more promising site is Malta .

The center of this civilization seems to be the Mediterranean . This sea is particularly vulnerable to tsunamis and seiches , because it is so small . The question is then , why wasn’t civilization wiped out by the more frequent seismic events as the ice-age wound down ?We have flourishing bronze-age civilization with lots of trading going on since at least 8 000 BC . (Cf the revised dates of some megalithic structures.) .

We can theorize that during this unstable geological period , sensitive early warning systems centered around Egypt , Malta , Old Marseilles , Stone Henge and to a lesser degree Carnac , Greece and Turkey ensured that populations in vulnerable areas could evacuate .
These events are easily survivable if there is warning .
An example is the opening of the Dardanelles about 7 000 years ago , due mostly to rising sea levels . There was no depopulation in the Meditteranean basin due to the seiches sloshing back and forth (and the waves must have been hundreds of feet high in the Adriatic ).

So why the catastrophe of Santorini ?
Partly because of the breakdown of the early-warning system (immortalized in Cassandra ) as well as the breakdown of the entire society due to drought and globalization effects . ( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)

So what does this mean to us?
The good news :
A workable seismic warning system is possible , because it has been done .
We can reuse some parts of the old systems (pyramids , megaliths) because the have precisely known large masses , elasticities and positions . Note that pyramids occur in all continents . The largest ones are in China .)
Just park some sensitive GPS units on top of all the churches , temples , pyramids and megalithic monuments in the world .


The bad news :
The Earth is entering a period of renewed seismic instability , mainly due to the shifting of water masses due to melting of ice . The present human system of politics and science is insufficient to maintain a sufficiently high level of alert . A few really large disasters (like Cape Verde tsunami) will unleash a Gaia-type religious response . Nothing makes for true-believers like a billion drowned corpses and another two billion starved .

Be happy in your humanity

Andre