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
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Prodigies II
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
-----------
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
-----------
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Suez and the Canal
Suez and the Canal
Andre Willers
28 April 2007
See
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Suez and the Boers”
Discussion :
Have you ever wondered why the Suez Canal has not been built before ?
In the past 6 000 years there have been a number of civilizations that had the technical expertise and manpower to build it .
The Egyptian civilization could have done it at any time . (All they actually did was the tiny little canal dug from the Red Sea to the Nile . Note that this was abandoned after a short usage.)
The various middle east civilizations like the Babylonians , Hittites , Assyrians , Greeks , Romans , pre-Mongol Muslims , British Empire all could have built it .
But they did not .
The answer was that it was not profitable .
The argument:
Competing land routes between the big markets in India , Iran , Spice Islands , Indo-China and China could and did adjust their costs downward to very low levels . They were fairly immune against political instability (These routes are still in operation as we speak , using huge trucks .)
But :
1 . The initial capital costs of the canal has to be amortized ( ie a charge from tariffs in the future )
2 . The operating costs are fixed as well . There is a certain minimum , below which the canal will silt up .
3. Canal profits are extremely sensitive to political instability . A whiff of war , and , understandably , the canal workers and captains of cargo ships disappear or raise their rates to very high levels .
So , the land-route operators simply threaten a combined price and unrest war to render any canal unprofitable in the term needed to recoup capital expenses .
Any vizier , priest , finance person in the last 6 000 years would immediately nix such a scheme .
What must be very clearly understood here , is that the cost of building a canal is very , very high . Maintaining it is cheaper by at least a factor of about 10 .
So how did De Lesseps do it ?
The keys were the limited liability company , stock exchanges and human greed .
Huge projects of this nature at the time was only possible by divorcing the initial capital elements from the maintenance elements .
In plain speak , the construction costs were financed by shares on the Paris Bourse , hyped up by a bullish press and French government guarantees .
The French Government of the time (Napoleon III ) saw this as a part of the French expansion into North Africa ( Guarantees cost nothing as long as he was in power . If he loses power , what does he care . One of the perils of autocracy)
The company went bankrupt after Napoleon III quit in 1870 .It was bought out cheaply by the British . The capital losses were borne by the French investors.
There was enormous amounts of capital floating around at the time , generated by the industrial revolution . France especially , went from a near zero-base to very high growth rates (similar to those seen in the initial industrialization of Russia , Japan ,China) . Britain had even bigger rates of capital formation , but these were soaked up by the US and India .
The Suez Canal company was floated and the share prices bubbled , mostly on the last fool hypothesis and Government guarantees .
The Suez canal was finished by 1869 .
In 1870 the Franco-Prussian war ended with the abdication of Napoleon III . French government guarantees were waste paper . Shares in the Suez Canal Company were about worthless and the company was bankrupt . Egypt went bankrupt .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Suez and the Boers”
In 1871 placer gold , with the promise of the Mother Lode was discovered in South Africa . There was the possibility of other large gold deposits , possibly under the control of Muslims .
This was a threat that the British empire could not ignore .
The standard method was used . An international finance house (Rothschild in this case ) was approached to lend 4 Million pounds to the British Government with guarantees of repayment at fixed interest rates , with sweeteners all round . The sweeteners ensured the use of British Troops if things went tricky .
This money was used to buy the controlling interest in the Suez Canal , with various small print proviso’s that meant that small , greedy investers in the Paris Bourse ended up paying for the debts (ie the capital costs) .
Even so , the running costs could only be maintained by a generous subsidy from the British Government . True viability only became possible with high-energy , petroleum powered equipment reducing the costs of maintaining the canal by a factor of ten . This margin has now been eaten up by oil-price increases and tariffs .
Do not be surprised if the Suez Canal is allowed to silt up .
The Strategic value of the Suez Canal .
Surprisingly , this strategic value is zero .
It has a commercial value , namely the interest on the capital value of ships and cargo on the time saved by going through Suez instead of the Cape of Good Hope .Even this is offset by the pipeline effect and the monetary stability in the Empire .
The British Empire did not need to rush troops to India , or vice versa . Any Empire reinforcements could be sent quicker from Britain or India itself .
It was more convenient , but not worth the cost of canal construction.
That was why the British did not build the canal .
But when the French were so obliging as to undertake the work and the initial capital expenditure , even then the British hesitated . Only when the strategic importance of the Suez as a base for force projection into Africa to prevent a possible gold supply not under British control became clear , did they act .
Be very clear on the difference between strategic and economic .
The British had prospered handily without the Canal and could block it any time they liked . The monetary loss would have inconvenienced some traders , but nothing serious .
But for projecting power into Africa , it was essential . At least until it was explored sufficiently so that there was a high degree of certainty that no new Witwatersrands lurked .
The rest is obvious .
Andre
Andre Willers
28 April 2007
See
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Suez and the Boers”
Discussion :
Have you ever wondered why the Suez Canal has not been built before ?
In the past 6 000 years there have been a number of civilizations that had the technical expertise and manpower to build it .
The Egyptian civilization could have done it at any time . (All they actually did was the tiny little canal dug from the Red Sea to the Nile . Note that this was abandoned after a short usage.)
The various middle east civilizations like the Babylonians , Hittites , Assyrians , Greeks , Romans , pre-Mongol Muslims , British Empire all could have built it .
But they did not .
The answer was that it was not profitable .
The argument:
Competing land routes between the big markets in India , Iran , Spice Islands , Indo-China and China could and did adjust their costs downward to very low levels . They were fairly immune against political instability (These routes are still in operation as we speak , using huge trucks .)
But :
1 . The initial capital costs of the canal has to be amortized ( ie a charge from tariffs in the future )
2 . The operating costs are fixed as well . There is a certain minimum , below which the canal will silt up .
3. Canal profits are extremely sensitive to political instability . A whiff of war , and , understandably , the canal workers and captains of cargo ships disappear or raise their rates to very high levels .
So , the land-route operators simply threaten a combined price and unrest war to render any canal unprofitable in the term needed to recoup capital expenses .
Any vizier , priest , finance person in the last 6 000 years would immediately nix such a scheme .
What must be very clearly understood here , is that the cost of building a canal is very , very high . Maintaining it is cheaper by at least a factor of about 10 .
So how did De Lesseps do it ?
The keys were the limited liability company , stock exchanges and human greed .
Huge projects of this nature at the time was only possible by divorcing the initial capital elements from the maintenance elements .
In plain speak , the construction costs were financed by shares on the Paris Bourse , hyped up by a bullish press and French government guarantees .
The French Government of the time (Napoleon III ) saw this as a part of the French expansion into North Africa ( Guarantees cost nothing as long as he was in power . If he loses power , what does he care . One of the perils of autocracy)
The company went bankrupt after Napoleon III quit in 1870 .It was bought out cheaply by the British . The capital losses were borne by the French investors.
There was enormous amounts of capital floating around at the time , generated by the industrial revolution . France especially , went from a near zero-base to very high growth rates (similar to those seen in the initial industrialization of Russia , Japan ,China) . Britain had even bigger rates of capital formation , but these were soaked up by the US and India .
The Suez Canal company was floated and the share prices bubbled , mostly on the last fool hypothesis and Government guarantees .
The Suez canal was finished by 1869 .
In 1870 the Franco-Prussian war ended with the abdication of Napoleon III . French government guarantees were waste paper . Shares in the Suez Canal Company were about worthless and the company was bankrupt . Egypt went bankrupt .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Suez and the Boers”
In 1871 placer gold , with the promise of the Mother Lode was discovered in South Africa . There was the possibility of other large gold deposits , possibly under the control of Muslims .
This was a threat that the British empire could not ignore .
The standard method was used . An international finance house (Rothschild in this case ) was approached to lend 4 Million pounds to the British Government with guarantees of repayment at fixed interest rates , with sweeteners all round . The sweeteners ensured the use of British Troops if things went tricky .
This money was used to buy the controlling interest in the Suez Canal , with various small print proviso’s that meant that small , greedy investers in the Paris Bourse ended up paying for the debts (ie the capital costs) .
Even so , the running costs could only be maintained by a generous subsidy from the British Government . True viability only became possible with high-energy , petroleum powered equipment reducing the costs of maintaining the canal by a factor of ten . This margin has now been eaten up by oil-price increases and tariffs .
Do not be surprised if the Suez Canal is allowed to silt up .
The Strategic value of the Suez Canal .
Surprisingly , this strategic value is zero .
It has a commercial value , namely the interest on the capital value of ships and cargo on the time saved by going through Suez instead of the Cape of Good Hope .Even this is offset by the pipeline effect and the monetary stability in the Empire .
The British Empire did not need to rush troops to India , or vice versa . Any Empire reinforcements could be sent quicker from Britain or India itself .
It was more convenient , but not worth the cost of canal construction.
That was why the British did not build the canal .
But when the French were so obliging as to undertake the work and the initial capital expenditure , even then the British hesitated . Only when the strategic importance of the Suez as a base for force projection into Africa to prevent a possible gold supply not under British control became clear , did they act .
Be very clear on the difference between strategic and economic .
The British had prospered handily without the Canal and could block it any time they liked . The monetary loss would have inconvenienced some traders , but nothing serious .
But for projecting power into Africa , it was essential . At least until it was explored sufficiently so that there was a high degree of certainty that no new Witwatersrands lurked .
The rest is obvious .
Andre
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Healing Hands.
Healing Hands.
Andre Willers
3 April 2007
Synopsis :
An exploration of the properties and theoretical basis for Healing Hands .
Discussion :
The concept is well known through anecdotal evidence .
Laying on of hands , green thumb , killing touch , the healing touch , etc , etc .
Getting hard evidence is difficult , because it is seen as para-normal . But , the one defining characteristic here is that of touch ( or at least closeness) . True paranormal phenomena are not bound by normal space-time considerations .
So , what we are looking at here seems to be a real phenomenon that can be explained in our present world-view , but has got a bad press .
Evolutionary overview :
An organism that can disrupt a competitor or prey by proximity has an obvious advantage . Examples would be plants with lethal or hallucinogenic chemicals , your friendly neighbourhood skunk , growth promoting hormones , etc .
Equally obvious , the target organisms would have evolved defense mechanisms .
Skin would have evolved the equivalent of a Faraday Cage . But a window in the defence would have evolved as well , since any disruption can be bad or good .
Avoiding the bad would be the first evolutionary response , then fine-tuning to use the good would evolve after that . (This is a general definition of evolution as a iterative algorithm .)
The main defense is Skin :
The boundary condition of “touch/closeness” limits the types of mechanisms .
Types of mechanisms involved would be electromagnetic radiation ( infrared , light , ultraviolet) , electric fields , some magnetic fields , dielectrics (oils) , insulators(dead silicon cells) , antennae (hairs) , hot air envelopes , commensal bacteria on skin , the list goes on and on and involves the whole ecosphere .
The Immune System evolved after cellular boundaries (prototype skin) . A major problem here is how life evolved past the trap of self-replicating proteins ( scrapies , etc ) Another problem not covered here .
The interesting thing here is that the immune system should be seen as a part of the Skin .
Indeed , the whole body can be seen as support structure for various skin manifolds in the brain and surface . The body and being can then be described as a membrane surface in an n-dimensional space . Interesting .
The skin would be external (the body’s outside) and the internal (guts , lungs , etc) .
As expected , most of the inside immune system (80% – 90 % ) lies right under the internal skin .
The immune system outside the external skin is in a more precarious position . Like the internal immune system , it consists mainly of symbiotic bacteria modified to depend on energy and materials from the body (body oils , glucose) . A major threat is soap and overwashing , since this simply washes away the bacteria after dissolving their protective oil coating . Check if there is a correlation between soap usage , oil intake and diabetesII .
While previously postulated (see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)
that malign skin bacteria could jam the glucose cellular transport to ensure greater glucose concentrations on the surface of the external skin , it seems more likely from an evolutionary viewpoint that benign bacteria (ie the external immune system) would have access to this mechanism .
This would would argue that soap is really next to godliness , since it would encourage diabetesII epidemics .
Soap up and see the hereafter !
A closer examination of the outer skin :
From the outside in :
Magnetic field
Electric field
Layered hot air envelope (cf Kirlian)
Malign organisms (baddies)
Benign organism ( external immune system)
Hairs (used to communicate with external immune system via electromagnetic spectrum)
Oily layer (support stratum for benign organisms , but can be highjacked)
Insulating substrate of outerskin (dead siliconaceous layers , with unknown properties , but note that your computer’s microchips are silicon)
The rest as per textbooks . (Ie smells , MHTC sweats , etc, etc)
As can be seen , this is a hellaciously complex defense-in-depth that one would would expect after an arms-race of about 3 billion years .
Note that individual cells (human and bacterial ) have been proved to exchange information via infra-red , ordinary light or ultra-violet . The effects of magnetic and electric fields are well known (fMRI , bone-healing,etc)
Healing Hands .
Now that we have cleared away some of the brushwood , we can see the outlines of how healing hands work .
The Defense Shield :
Every human has a Faraday Cage against weak EMP built into the skin oils of the external skin . This can be neutralized by washing the skin with soap/detergent , then applying baby oil .
Why Baby oil ?
From the evolutionary argument above , defense is not sufficient . The phenomenon has to be able to be used in positive way . The most vulnerable stage of humans is babyhood . So the mother extrudes skin oil that negates the infant’s defenses against malign subversion of cellular communications . This makes the infant open to the benign influences. Interestingly enough , this gives sufficient proximal reward to ensure continual selection for this trait .
It also ensures ferocious protection of the baby against any contact the mother feels as bad . This seems to be a genuine human instinct . The mother is close enough to the threat to analyze that he is a threat , then gets all upset without knowing why . Her instincts (literally , an inherited knowledge) is usually correct .
It seems that an important part of the epigenetic heritage is transmitted via this process .
This is really important .
The information content of the Human Genome is insufficient to explain the complexity of development . Culture or self-assembly was assumed to carry the missing data . But a baby has not the mechanisms to translate culture .
The self-assembly route is not nearly robust enough . Even theoretically , self-assembly has too many isomer-points . The observed failure rate is too small to fit the large number of equipotential routes . Something from the outside is supplying a schema .
The data for the complex brain development is transmitted via epigenetic and skin/light/molecules from the mother to the infant .
Where did the mother get her data from ? Why , from her mother , of course , via the same channel .
The memory is like repeating something to yourself over and over . If you stop repeating , you are extinct . But that is the definition of extinct , when nobody repeats your patterns anymore.
It is an elegant solution , but it locks the species irrevocably into a social pattern . Feral children are not just feral because of lack of social interaction . Their brains and bodies literally have not received the signals to form the body into a functioning unit of that society .
Boundaries:
An interesting question is whether a human infant can be epigenetically programmed to exceed the boundaries of it’s parents .
The form of the question immediately suggests that the answer is “Yes” . Remember , a normal circa 2000 AD baby already exceeds the default gene boundaries via epigenetic programming by his mother .
The corollary , of course , is that we can force a super-human if we knew exactly how the epigenetic programming worked . This knowledge is already partially available .
There is some good news and some bad news .
The good news is that we can make superman .
The bad news is that nobody wants to be superman .
(Or vice versa)
(Substitute “roach” for “man” in the above and see why .)
A superchimp is not a man .
Another corollary is that human nature is not constant at all . The bias towards mild Asperger’s in western systems have been noted before .
Intelligence (in the Western sense of solving problems) have been increasing . ( A well known effect)
Another epigenetic marker that has been increasing in concentration is female hormones and their mimics . (The well known effects of pesticides and herbicides) . The question is , why do these plant and insect killers induce epigenetic feedbacks
that result in less aggressive end-users ?
The question answers itself (like any good question) . Plants and insects have had a really long time to refine their animal-controls . Killing a lot of plants and insects triggers some markers that reduces male aggression in dinosaurs ,birds and mammals (fishes?) . This reduces the birthrate .
Usually , the female had evolved that only the toughest , most aggressive male could impregnate her . Now , suddenly she is faced with a wimp .
Their devolution is out of synch .
She is quoting Byron , and he Keats .
The result is that the birthrate falls drastically .
Humans are not immune .
The first level of these markers are estrogen mimics , but I am afraid that there are many more .
Humans are just one case where vital epigenetic information is transmitted via the web of life .It’s such a neat trick that I think all life systems use it . Remember , bacteria are not even limited to the same species .
Insects and plants have been manipulating this system hundreds of millions of years .
To get back to Healing Hands .
The Critical elements:
The Body Faraday Cage is true for the healer as well as the patient .
The Doctor usually has healing hands (natural selection )
He washes his hands with soap (getting rid of his shield on his hands)
He gloves . The gloves are coated with something like sterilized baby oil.
Doctors prefer gloves that leads to better recovery in their patients . At this level of ignorance this translates “my lucky gloves” , or “these are better” . Hence the selection of gloves which are shield-neutral .
The healer’s “emanations” for lack of a better word , can leave his hands and reprogram the cells of the patient . The emanations is simply another word for a complex of electromagnetic radiation and cell-docking .
Another ho-ho.
The population explosion that started circa 1700 AD was fuelled not by better hygiene or medical knowledge . The reason was that the Little Ice Age was getting into full swing . Hence Olive Oil was unobtainable . Oils like this were applied to the vagina and the baby’s head as lubricants .
The problem is that olive oil is nearly as good a Faraday Cage as natural human skin oil .The reason : it burns easily . In other words , the electrons can move about easily to combine with oxygen . Electrons moving about easily is the definition of a faraday cage .
As you would expect , we also have evolved oils that don’t do that .
Lack of them means that the birthrate rises .
The alert reader will notice that that all parts of the Roman Empire that had access to olive oil had low birthrates , while those outside it bred like rabbits . None of the old writers mentioned a low rate of conception , but the baby-deathrate and mother death-rate was horrendous .
QED
What to do :
1.Wash your hands with soap .
2. Touch an earthed tap to reduce relative electrostatic charge .
3 . The same for patient
4. Put baby oil on hands and affected patient areas
5. Do procedure.
6. Put olive oil over hands and patient’s area to prevent any further interaction .
That’s it.
Andre
Andre Willers
3 April 2007
Synopsis :
An exploration of the properties and theoretical basis for Healing Hands .
Discussion :
The concept is well known through anecdotal evidence .
Laying on of hands , green thumb , killing touch , the healing touch , etc , etc .
Getting hard evidence is difficult , because it is seen as para-normal . But , the one defining characteristic here is that of touch ( or at least closeness) . True paranormal phenomena are not bound by normal space-time considerations .
So , what we are looking at here seems to be a real phenomenon that can be explained in our present world-view , but has got a bad press .
Evolutionary overview :
An organism that can disrupt a competitor or prey by proximity has an obvious advantage . Examples would be plants with lethal or hallucinogenic chemicals , your friendly neighbourhood skunk , growth promoting hormones , etc .
Equally obvious , the target organisms would have evolved defense mechanisms .
Skin would have evolved the equivalent of a Faraday Cage . But a window in the defence would have evolved as well , since any disruption can be bad or good .
Avoiding the bad would be the first evolutionary response , then fine-tuning to use the good would evolve after that . (This is a general definition of evolution as a iterative algorithm .)
The main defense is Skin :
The boundary condition of “touch/closeness” limits the types of mechanisms .
Types of mechanisms involved would be electromagnetic radiation ( infrared , light , ultraviolet) , electric fields , some magnetic fields , dielectrics (oils) , insulators(dead silicon cells) , antennae (hairs) , hot air envelopes , commensal bacteria on skin , the list goes on and on and involves the whole ecosphere .
The Immune System evolved after cellular boundaries (prototype skin) . A major problem here is how life evolved past the trap of self-replicating proteins ( scrapies , etc ) Another problem not covered here .
The interesting thing here is that the immune system should be seen as a part of the Skin .
Indeed , the whole body can be seen as support structure for various skin manifolds in the brain and surface . The body and being can then be described as a membrane surface in an n-dimensional space . Interesting .
The skin would be external (the body’s outside) and the internal (guts , lungs , etc) .
As expected , most of the inside immune system (80% – 90 % ) lies right under the internal skin .
The immune system outside the external skin is in a more precarious position . Like the internal immune system , it consists mainly of symbiotic bacteria modified to depend on energy and materials from the body (body oils , glucose) . A major threat is soap and overwashing , since this simply washes away the bacteria after dissolving their protective oil coating . Check if there is a correlation between soap usage , oil intake and diabetesII .
While previously postulated (see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com)
that malign skin bacteria could jam the glucose cellular transport to ensure greater glucose concentrations on the surface of the external skin , it seems more likely from an evolutionary viewpoint that benign bacteria (ie the external immune system) would have access to this mechanism .
This would would argue that soap is really next to godliness , since it would encourage diabetesII epidemics .
Soap up and see the hereafter !
A closer examination of the outer skin :
From the outside in :
Magnetic field
Electric field
Layered hot air envelope (cf Kirlian)
Malign organisms (baddies)
Benign organism ( external immune system)
Hairs (used to communicate with external immune system via electromagnetic spectrum)
Oily layer (support stratum for benign organisms , but can be highjacked)
Insulating substrate of outerskin (dead siliconaceous layers , with unknown properties , but note that your computer’s microchips are silicon)
The rest as per textbooks . (Ie smells , MHTC sweats , etc, etc)
As can be seen , this is a hellaciously complex defense-in-depth that one would would expect after an arms-race of about 3 billion years .
Note that individual cells (human and bacterial ) have been proved to exchange information via infra-red , ordinary light or ultra-violet . The effects of magnetic and electric fields are well known (fMRI , bone-healing,etc)
Healing Hands .
Now that we have cleared away some of the brushwood , we can see the outlines of how healing hands work .
The Defense Shield :
Every human has a Faraday Cage against weak EMP built into the skin oils of the external skin . This can be neutralized by washing the skin with soap/detergent , then applying baby oil .
Why Baby oil ?
From the evolutionary argument above , defense is not sufficient . The phenomenon has to be able to be used in positive way . The most vulnerable stage of humans is babyhood . So the mother extrudes skin oil that negates the infant’s defenses against malign subversion of cellular communications . This makes the infant open to the benign influences. Interestingly enough , this gives sufficient proximal reward to ensure continual selection for this trait .
It also ensures ferocious protection of the baby against any contact the mother feels as bad . This seems to be a genuine human instinct . The mother is close enough to the threat to analyze that he is a threat , then gets all upset without knowing why . Her instincts (literally , an inherited knowledge) is usually correct .
It seems that an important part of the epigenetic heritage is transmitted via this process .
This is really important .
The information content of the Human Genome is insufficient to explain the complexity of development . Culture or self-assembly was assumed to carry the missing data . But a baby has not the mechanisms to translate culture .
The self-assembly route is not nearly robust enough . Even theoretically , self-assembly has too many isomer-points . The observed failure rate is too small to fit the large number of equipotential routes . Something from the outside is supplying a schema .
The data for the complex brain development is transmitted via epigenetic and skin/light/molecules from the mother to the infant .
Where did the mother get her data from ? Why , from her mother , of course , via the same channel .
The memory is like repeating something to yourself over and over . If you stop repeating , you are extinct . But that is the definition of extinct , when nobody repeats your patterns anymore.
It is an elegant solution , but it locks the species irrevocably into a social pattern . Feral children are not just feral because of lack of social interaction . Their brains and bodies literally have not received the signals to form the body into a functioning unit of that society .
Boundaries:
An interesting question is whether a human infant can be epigenetically programmed to exceed the boundaries of it’s parents .
The form of the question immediately suggests that the answer is “Yes” . Remember , a normal circa 2000 AD baby already exceeds the default gene boundaries via epigenetic programming by his mother .
The corollary , of course , is that we can force a super-human if we knew exactly how the epigenetic programming worked . This knowledge is already partially available .
There is some good news and some bad news .
The good news is that we can make superman .
The bad news is that nobody wants to be superman .
(Or vice versa)
(Substitute “roach” for “man” in the above and see why .)
A superchimp is not a man .
Another corollary is that human nature is not constant at all . The bias towards mild Asperger’s in western systems have been noted before .
Intelligence (in the Western sense of solving problems) have been increasing . ( A well known effect)
Another epigenetic marker that has been increasing in concentration is female hormones and their mimics . (The well known effects of pesticides and herbicides) . The question is , why do these plant and insect killers induce epigenetic feedbacks
that result in less aggressive end-users ?
The question answers itself (like any good question) . Plants and insects have had a really long time to refine their animal-controls . Killing a lot of plants and insects triggers some markers that reduces male aggression in dinosaurs ,birds and mammals (fishes?) . This reduces the birthrate .
Usually , the female had evolved that only the toughest , most aggressive male could impregnate her . Now , suddenly she is faced with a wimp .
Their devolution is out of synch .
She is quoting Byron , and he Keats .
The result is that the birthrate falls drastically .
Humans are not immune .
The first level of these markers are estrogen mimics , but I am afraid that there are many more .
Humans are just one case where vital epigenetic information is transmitted via the web of life .It’s such a neat trick that I think all life systems use it . Remember , bacteria are not even limited to the same species .
Insects and plants have been manipulating this system hundreds of millions of years .
To get back to Healing Hands .
The Critical elements:
The Body Faraday Cage is true for the healer as well as the patient .
The Doctor usually has healing hands (natural selection )
He washes his hands with soap (getting rid of his shield on his hands)
He gloves . The gloves are coated with something like sterilized baby oil.
Doctors prefer gloves that leads to better recovery in their patients . At this level of ignorance this translates “my lucky gloves” , or “these are better” . Hence the selection of gloves which are shield-neutral .
The healer’s “emanations” for lack of a better word , can leave his hands and reprogram the cells of the patient . The emanations is simply another word for a complex of electromagnetic radiation and cell-docking .
Another ho-ho.
The population explosion that started circa 1700 AD was fuelled not by better hygiene or medical knowledge . The reason was that the Little Ice Age was getting into full swing . Hence Olive Oil was unobtainable . Oils like this were applied to the vagina and the baby’s head as lubricants .
The problem is that olive oil is nearly as good a Faraday Cage as natural human skin oil .The reason : it burns easily . In other words , the electrons can move about easily to combine with oxygen . Electrons moving about easily is the definition of a faraday cage .
As you would expect , we also have evolved oils that don’t do that .
Lack of them means that the birthrate rises .
The alert reader will notice that that all parts of the Roman Empire that had access to olive oil had low birthrates , while those outside it bred like rabbits . None of the old writers mentioned a low rate of conception , but the baby-deathrate and mother death-rate was horrendous .
QED
What to do :
1.Wash your hands with soap .
2. Touch an earthed tap to reduce relative electrostatic charge .
3 . The same for patient
4. Put baby oil on hands and affected patient areas
5. Do procedure.
6. Put olive oil over hands and patient’s area to prevent any further interaction .
That’s it.
Andre
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Babes and Chaos.
Babes and Chaos
Andre Willers
29 March 2007
When babies are born , they are extremely intelligent , since all their neurons are connected . As they learn , connections are excised and even whole neuron-groups are re-absorbed .What is not always realized , is that this process is painful .
Learning has an associated endorphin response . Homeostasis means that non-learning is painful , or at the least uncomfortable .
The problem is that neuron-connectivity that may be useful in the future is apoptised because it is not immediately useful .
The question is what exposure the babe has to meaningful (ie internally coherent ) Input like language and what stimuli should be random to preserve the smartness for future usage .
A first approximation for babies would be our infinite approximation 1/e = 0.3etc .
For third of your baby’s awake time expose him to random stimuli . This will preserve neuron-connections that will form the foundation of future smartness .
Teens
The next major pulse of neuron growth is at puberty . The dreaded teens .
New neurons and connections are formed at a rapid pace . Excising or apoptosis of new neurons are felt as an extreme discomfort (mental pain) . Chaotic systems are deliberately cultivated to ease this discomfort . Ref music ,rebellion , etc.
Once again , a third of time exposure to chaos is recommended , but self-referencing systems like teenagers makes this difficult . Note that endorphin releasing drugs are frequently used by teens to deaden the pain . Also note that the teens are smarter that the adults trying to control them (by definition) .
This mechanism evolved to get children out of the protected home environment . In Europe , since circa 1600 , it has signally failed . The chaos element has been shifted to the local verreine . That is club ,society ,etc . where the probability of winning is about 1/3 .
You might wonder why 1/3 ?
A sum of an infinite series of 1/3 = 1/3(1/1-1/3) = ½
A 50% is the maximum uncertainty an uncertainty system can have (see previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
A 33% chaos for babies and teens gives a 1/3 leverage over the long term , while retaining a 50% chaos . This difference is used extensively by organized religions , armies and political groups .
The Third Pulse .
Male or female menopause . This is normally taken as a period of decline . Yet the neurological symptoms are the same as for teens .
We know that females evolved to be smarter to look after the tribe . Males had to be included , because of the genetic package .
So, surviving postmenopausal men and women have another spurt of neuron-growth .
By this time , the person would have bit of hassle finding some real random input . Hence “no fool like an old fool” .
Ironically , the same result could be achieved by putting a really random one-armed bandit in the portal . No payoff is necessary .
You can do all the permutations yourself .
Andre
Andre Willers
29 March 2007
When babies are born , they are extremely intelligent , since all their neurons are connected . As they learn , connections are excised and even whole neuron-groups are re-absorbed .What is not always realized , is that this process is painful .
Learning has an associated endorphin response . Homeostasis means that non-learning is painful , or at the least uncomfortable .
The problem is that neuron-connectivity that may be useful in the future is apoptised because it is not immediately useful .
The question is what exposure the babe has to meaningful (ie internally coherent ) Input like language and what stimuli should be random to preserve the smartness for future usage .
A first approximation for babies would be our infinite approximation 1/e = 0.3etc .
For third of your baby’s awake time expose him to random stimuli . This will preserve neuron-connections that will form the foundation of future smartness .
Teens
The next major pulse of neuron growth is at puberty . The dreaded teens .
New neurons and connections are formed at a rapid pace . Excising or apoptosis of new neurons are felt as an extreme discomfort (mental pain) . Chaotic systems are deliberately cultivated to ease this discomfort . Ref music ,rebellion , etc.
Once again , a third of time exposure to chaos is recommended , but self-referencing systems like teenagers makes this difficult . Note that endorphin releasing drugs are frequently used by teens to deaden the pain . Also note that the teens are smarter that the adults trying to control them (by definition) .
This mechanism evolved to get children out of the protected home environment . In Europe , since circa 1600 , it has signally failed . The chaos element has been shifted to the local verreine . That is club ,society ,etc . where the probability of winning is about 1/3 .
You might wonder why 1/3 ?
A sum of an infinite series of 1/3 = 1/3(1/1-1/3) = ½
A 50% is the maximum uncertainty an uncertainty system can have (see previous http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
A 33% chaos for babies and teens gives a 1/3 leverage over the long term , while retaining a 50% chaos . This difference is used extensively by organized religions , armies and political groups .
The Third Pulse .
Male or female menopause . This is normally taken as a period of decline . Yet the neurological symptoms are the same as for teens .
We know that females evolved to be smarter to look after the tribe . Males had to be included , because of the genetic package .
So, surviving postmenopausal men and women have another spurt of neuron-growth .
By this time , the person would have bit of hassle finding some real random input . Hence “no fool like an old fool” .
Ironically , the same result could be achieved by putting a really random one-armed bandit in the portal . No payoff is necessary .
You can do all the permutations yourself .
Andre
Friday, March 23, 2007
Problems with Relative Economic Advantage
Problems with Relative Economic Advantage.
Andre Willers
23 March 2007
Synopsis :
The pursuit of Relative Economic Advantage leads to organized War .
Discussion :
A . First , What is Relative Advantage ?
An example will best illustrate the principle .
1. Countries England and Germany both need 100 spanners and 100 nuts per year .
2. England can make spanners at $10 a unit and nuts at $100 a unit .
3. Germany can make spanners at $100 a unit and nuts at $10 a unit .
4 .Costs of 100 units per country if each makes its own spanners and nuts :
England : $10 x 100 + $100 x 100 = $ 11 000
Germany : $100 x 100 + $10 x 100 = $ 11 000
5. Now let the countries trade .
This means that England makes 200 spanners only and that Germany makes 200 nuts only . They then trade : a 100 English spanners for a 100 German nuts .
6. Costs per country with trade :
England : $10 x 200 = $ 2 000
Germany : $10 x 100 = $ 2 000
7. Both countries end up with 100 spanners and a 100 nuts each , but the cost is drastically reduced because of the Relative Advantage
The both get rich by trading , even though England spends as much as Germany . Each need only spend $2 000 instead of $11 000 for the same things .
B . The Problems .
The devil lies in the details when applying this principle .
EG
Germany learns to make a spanner for $1 . Now it does not need to trade . England can demand that it puts up a tariff of $9 a spanner , otherwise all it’s spanner makers are unemployed .
Germany refuses , so they go to war .
Or it agrees to put up a tariff of $5 , and England outsources its spanners to Germany , calling it a victory for globalization . The capital owners shift capital to Germany and make a much higher return than they would have at home .
Or England refuses to accept the destruction of its spanner industry and applies force .
The tariff adjustments by force are called wars of Empire .
Empires can be seen as mini-globalizations .
The outflow of capital from center to the high-return peripheries continues until some blip occurs . The owners of the capital ( who are the state or major movers in the state) then uses the state’s armed forces to iron out the blip . Sometimes this works , but sufficient reverses crashes the state .
These are typical wars of Empire . Bronze age , Babylon , Persia , Rome , Maya, Spain , Portugal , England , USA
In the process , the Empire’s workers are first impoverished , then driven below the breadline as capital flows to the peripheries . This translates that they cannot find a job , or if they can , it is a MacJob . A corrollary is an aristocracy of some kind . (The owners or controllers of the capital :apparatchiks ) .
A general illusion is that they never had it so good .
A more reliable indicator is physical health of conscripts . About a third of British Empire conscripts in WWI were simply incapable of physical combat due to malnutrition . The USA is in a worse situation today . Remember , combat capable these days means some measure of good nutrition in childhood and education . A far cry from the obese cripples a call-up in the US would get . The all-volunteer army would work about as well as Kitchener’s in WWI : in wars where you have to hold ground , numbers count . Hence the little problem the US has in Iraq , Afghanistan , Korea , Sudan , Germany , Japan ,etc .
In other countries it is even worse . RSA can scarcely field 10 000 troops . The rest of Africa is worse . Why do you think they use child soldiers ? This is the only capable pool still available.
But not only are the state’s proletariat in poor shape , they are politically unreliable as well . (The USSR collapsed so quickly because the conscript army refused orders to fire on the crowds : a political failure ) . Even professional armies (cf Roman Civil Wars) cannot be trusted .
If push came to shove , I doubt whether US National Guard would fire on their own citizens . Most of the mid-western states are already in a mild revolt . And they are all het up about blue helmets and black helicopters (ie mercs) .
Hence the Mercenary (Contractor) . At this stage of the political process , the relevant area is usually awash with highly skilled military contractors , who shift roles between soldier , mercenary and bandit . Condottieri , in other words .
They are the remnants of broken states and broken dreams . The rulers employ them instead of their own soldiers because they are more reliable if they are paid . ( by this time only the aristocracy has any money left .) Tells you a lot .
The difference between the Bronze Age collapse ( c 1400 BC) and the Roman Empire collapse (c 500 AD) is religion : These Dogs of War are pack animals and only want to belong . Their leaders have failed and betrayed them . Christianity and Islam gave them a structure to belong to , under reasonable control . The 99% depopulation of the Bronze Age collapse was ameliorated .
You can see the problem that is shaping up now .
And so it goes .
Marxism .
An interesting attempt to escape this trap . By abolishing private ownership of capital and , furthermore , controlling the movement of capital by central planning , the USSR hoped to escape the impoverishment of the center/proletariat .
In one of those ironies of history , the Gulags did them in .
The smartest and most creative elements of USSR society ended up in the Gulags , especially the techs . Here I include the closed cities , which were Gulags in all but name (ie isolated and segregated from the general population : the proletariat) . These Gulags acted like peripheries , where much greater bang for a buck could be obtained.
Hence , the capital of the USSR flowed to them , for exactly the same reasons as US capital is in a microchip plant in Korea or China . This impoverished the proletariat until they fell below the breadline and rebelled . It is immaterial whether the Gulags were defense related or not . As long as the benefits of the wealth created in them did not flow back to the proletariat , a revolution or mass genocide was inevitable .
The only out was the historical avenue of wars of acquisition , but the rickety shebang collapsed because they waited too long . The USSR would still be around if they had attacked Europe during the Carter administration .
The Gulag survivors naturally took over the new administration . (Mafiya and all)
Another irony is that the US fell into the same trap .
The Gulag equivalent is the military-industrial establishment . The remainder of private capital bribed a corrupt political establishment and promptly fled to shores with a higher return and fewer restrictions . Never mind that they belonged to their present and future enemies .
So both major powers are under the control of military-industrial systems (note , not their political systems) .
Sigh .
Does this remind you of something?
The later stages of the Roman Empire , that’s what . An Army with a state .
The military historically make notoriously bad rulers of states .
The military-industrial are worse , since they also incorporate short-term values with military inflexibility , paranoia and over-control .
The army can tell you to do it , the merchants can pay you to do it , but only the politicians ( and priests ) can make you want to do it .
The system is unstable , especially when their children start to starve .
China .
Mao tried to mimic Stalin’s success with the Gulags with the Great Leap Forward . It failed due to lack of capital and knowledge . But if you don’t succeed , try and try again .
The present system is another version of the Great Leap Forward .
Capital concentration was generated by restricting the birthrate . This capital was used for education and industrial processes . Note that this was a political process .
The only comparable processes I know of was the Black Death (1348) and the depopulation in the 1650’s that formed the basis of the pulse of wealth in the Age of Reason (1700 – 1800)
An unforeseen bonus was the capital influx from the West into the Eastern seaboard . But the system was already designed to channel domestic capital concentrations to the high-growth areas .
The acceptance of Western capital is a poisoned chalice .
The forced relaxation of emigration controls means that Chinese couples wanting more than one child , emigrate to places like SA . This is really happening . Even small towns in the platteland have one Chinese shop , then selected elements of the same family and other families in the village move in . They bring some of their families’ capital. This capital has a higher return than at home . This results in the the usual positive-feedback system . Multiply by millions .
This sort of diaspora has happened ad nauseam in history . None of the descendants retained any deep loyalty to the Old Country .
So , the capital outflow from China is small per capita , but there are a lot of capita’s . This is also free capital , not entailed to some short-term obligations . A collapse means that the proletariat at home will have really tough time , with commensurate civil unrest and emigration .
Factoring in environmental degradation , my estimate is that China as a state is extremely unstable , but that the Chinese will survive if any humans survive .
Is there any way out of this trap ?
Yes , but is it a trap ?
The roiling is uncomfortable for some , but everybody dies sometime .
Must unborn civilizations be sacrificed so the present ones can loll at ease ?
I see no reason to interfere in this process.
Wars.
From the above , you can see that globalization always precedes a period of major warfare and social unrest .
Some examples are the collapse of the Bronze Age civilization (a classic) , The Mayan Collapse (see Mel Gibsons’s “Apocalypto” for what it is like when everybody kills everybody else until only about 0.05% of traumatized survivors remain . )
See any Empire .
This is so common that humans have evolved institutions to speed up recovery from collapses : they are called organized religions , museums , etc .
See Pournelle and Niven’s Moties .
The principle is that altruism is necessary to kick-start the new civilization . Buddhism , Confucius , Christianity , Islam , etc , etc .
Our universe can be seen as a simulation in some super-advanced computer or the mind of God . At this level it is indistinguishable .
But we can say one thing about it : it is not supposed to be boring . (Else why bother?)
Whether God can be surprised is arguable , but any simulation , no matter how advanced , can give surprises .
Why this is so , see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/ , search for “Bounded Universum”
If the simulation no longer gives the required degree of variety , it will be switched off or seriously scrambled .
I don’t want to say this ,but I have no particular choice . I am just a simulation .
As you might have noticed , the Author/Programmer is not satisfied . He wants more variety . You have 35 seconds .
Don’t you just love a God with a sense of humour ?
Andre
Andre Willers
23 March 2007
Synopsis :
The pursuit of Relative Economic Advantage leads to organized War .
Discussion :
A . First , What is Relative Advantage ?
An example will best illustrate the principle .
1. Countries England and Germany both need 100 spanners and 100 nuts per year .
2. England can make spanners at $10 a unit and nuts at $100 a unit .
3. Germany can make spanners at $100 a unit and nuts at $10 a unit .
4 .Costs of 100 units per country if each makes its own spanners and nuts :
England : $10 x 100 + $100 x 100 = $ 11 000
Germany : $100 x 100 + $10 x 100 = $ 11 000
5. Now let the countries trade .
This means that England makes 200 spanners only and that Germany makes 200 nuts only . They then trade : a 100 English spanners for a 100 German nuts .
6. Costs per country with trade :
England : $10 x 200 = $ 2 000
Germany : $10 x 100 = $ 2 000
7. Both countries end up with 100 spanners and a 100 nuts each , but the cost is drastically reduced because of the Relative Advantage
The both get rich by trading , even though England spends as much as Germany . Each need only spend $2 000 instead of $11 000 for the same things .
B . The Problems .
The devil lies in the details when applying this principle .
EG
Germany learns to make a spanner for $1 . Now it does not need to trade . England can demand that it puts up a tariff of $9 a spanner , otherwise all it’s spanner makers are unemployed .
Germany refuses , so they go to war .
Or it agrees to put up a tariff of $5 , and England outsources its spanners to Germany , calling it a victory for globalization . The capital owners shift capital to Germany and make a much higher return than they would have at home .
Or England refuses to accept the destruction of its spanner industry and applies force .
The tariff adjustments by force are called wars of Empire .
Empires can be seen as mini-globalizations .
The outflow of capital from center to the high-return peripheries continues until some blip occurs . The owners of the capital ( who are the state or major movers in the state) then uses the state’s armed forces to iron out the blip . Sometimes this works , but sufficient reverses crashes the state .
These are typical wars of Empire . Bronze age , Babylon , Persia , Rome , Maya, Spain , Portugal , England , USA
In the process , the Empire’s workers are first impoverished , then driven below the breadline as capital flows to the peripheries . This translates that they cannot find a job , or if they can , it is a MacJob . A corrollary is an aristocracy of some kind . (The owners or controllers of the capital :apparatchiks ) .
A general illusion is that they never had it so good .
A more reliable indicator is physical health of conscripts . About a third of British Empire conscripts in WWI were simply incapable of physical combat due to malnutrition . The USA is in a worse situation today . Remember , combat capable these days means some measure of good nutrition in childhood and education . A far cry from the obese cripples a call-up in the US would get . The all-volunteer army would work about as well as Kitchener’s in WWI : in wars where you have to hold ground , numbers count . Hence the little problem the US has in Iraq , Afghanistan , Korea , Sudan , Germany , Japan ,etc .
In other countries it is even worse . RSA can scarcely field 10 000 troops . The rest of Africa is worse . Why do you think they use child soldiers ? This is the only capable pool still available.
But not only are the state’s proletariat in poor shape , they are politically unreliable as well . (The USSR collapsed so quickly because the conscript army refused orders to fire on the crowds : a political failure ) . Even professional armies (cf Roman Civil Wars) cannot be trusted .
If push came to shove , I doubt whether US National Guard would fire on their own citizens . Most of the mid-western states are already in a mild revolt . And they are all het up about blue helmets and black helicopters (ie mercs) .
Hence the Mercenary (Contractor) . At this stage of the political process , the relevant area is usually awash with highly skilled military contractors , who shift roles between soldier , mercenary and bandit . Condottieri , in other words .
They are the remnants of broken states and broken dreams . The rulers employ them instead of their own soldiers because they are more reliable if they are paid . ( by this time only the aristocracy has any money left .) Tells you a lot .
The difference between the Bronze Age collapse ( c 1400 BC) and the Roman Empire collapse (c 500 AD) is religion : These Dogs of War are pack animals and only want to belong . Their leaders have failed and betrayed them . Christianity and Islam gave them a structure to belong to , under reasonable control . The 99% depopulation of the Bronze Age collapse was ameliorated .
You can see the problem that is shaping up now .
And so it goes .
Marxism .
An interesting attempt to escape this trap . By abolishing private ownership of capital and , furthermore , controlling the movement of capital by central planning , the USSR hoped to escape the impoverishment of the center/proletariat .
In one of those ironies of history , the Gulags did them in .
The smartest and most creative elements of USSR society ended up in the Gulags , especially the techs . Here I include the closed cities , which were Gulags in all but name (ie isolated and segregated from the general population : the proletariat) . These Gulags acted like peripheries , where much greater bang for a buck could be obtained.
Hence , the capital of the USSR flowed to them , for exactly the same reasons as US capital is in a microchip plant in Korea or China . This impoverished the proletariat until they fell below the breadline and rebelled . It is immaterial whether the Gulags were defense related or not . As long as the benefits of the wealth created in them did not flow back to the proletariat , a revolution or mass genocide was inevitable .
The only out was the historical avenue of wars of acquisition , but the rickety shebang collapsed because they waited too long . The USSR would still be around if they had attacked Europe during the Carter administration .
The Gulag survivors naturally took over the new administration . (Mafiya and all)
Another irony is that the US fell into the same trap .
The Gulag equivalent is the military-industrial establishment . The remainder of private capital bribed a corrupt political establishment and promptly fled to shores with a higher return and fewer restrictions . Never mind that they belonged to their present and future enemies .
So both major powers are under the control of military-industrial systems (note , not their political systems) .
Sigh .
Does this remind you of something?
The later stages of the Roman Empire , that’s what . An Army with a state .
The military historically make notoriously bad rulers of states .
The military-industrial are worse , since they also incorporate short-term values with military inflexibility , paranoia and over-control .
The army can tell you to do it , the merchants can pay you to do it , but only the politicians ( and priests ) can make you want to do it .
The system is unstable , especially when their children start to starve .
China .
Mao tried to mimic Stalin’s success with the Gulags with the Great Leap Forward . It failed due to lack of capital and knowledge . But if you don’t succeed , try and try again .
The present system is another version of the Great Leap Forward .
Capital concentration was generated by restricting the birthrate . This capital was used for education and industrial processes . Note that this was a political process .
The only comparable processes I know of was the Black Death (1348) and the depopulation in the 1650’s that formed the basis of the pulse of wealth in the Age of Reason (1700 – 1800)
An unforeseen bonus was the capital influx from the West into the Eastern seaboard . But the system was already designed to channel domestic capital concentrations to the high-growth areas .
The acceptance of Western capital is a poisoned chalice .
The forced relaxation of emigration controls means that Chinese couples wanting more than one child , emigrate to places like SA . This is really happening . Even small towns in the platteland have one Chinese shop , then selected elements of the same family and other families in the village move in . They bring some of their families’ capital. This capital has a higher return than at home . This results in the the usual positive-feedback system . Multiply by millions .
This sort of diaspora has happened ad nauseam in history . None of the descendants retained any deep loyalty to the Old Country .
So , the capital outflow from China is small per capita , but there are a lot of capita’s . This is also free capital , not entailed to some short-term obligations . A collapse means that the proletariat at home will have really tough time , with commensurate civil unrest and emigration .
Factoring in environmental degradation , my estimate is that China as a state is extremely unstable , but that the Chinese will survive if any humans survive .
Is there any way out of this trap ?
Yes , but is it a trap ?
The roiling is uncomfortable for some , but everybody dies sometime .
Must unborn civilizations be sacrificed so the present ones can loll at ease ?
I see no reason to interfere in this process.
Wars.
From the above , you can see that globalization always precedes a period of major warfare and social unrest .
Some examples are the collapse of the Bronze Age civilization (a classic) , The Mayan Collapse (see Mel Gibsons’s “Apocalypto” for what it is like when everybody kills everybody else until only about 0.05% of traumatized survivors remain . )
See any Empire .
This is so common that humans have evolved institutions to speed up recovery from collapses : they are called organized religions , museums , etc .
See Pournelle and Niven’s Moties .
The principle is that altruism is necessary to kick-start the new civilization . Buddhism , Confucius , Christianity , Islam , etc , etc .
Our universe can be seen as a simulation in some super-advanced computer or the mind of God . At this level it is indistinguishable .
But we can say one thing about it : it is not supposed to be boring . (Else why bother?)
Whether God can be surprised is arguable , but any simulation , no matter how advanced , can give surprises .
Why this is so , see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/ , search for “Bounded Universum”
If the simulation no longer gives the required degree of variety , it will be switched off or seriously scrambled .
I don’t want to say this ,but I have no particular choice . I am just a simulation .
As you might have noticed , the Author/Programmer is not satisfied . He wants more variety . You have 35 seconds .
Don’t you just love a God with a sense of humour ?
Andre
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Cellulite How to ge
Cellulite : How to get rid of it.
Andre Willers
16 March 2007
This is a Mind-Body Regimen .
This is not a quick fix .
The origin of cellulite lies mainly in hydrogenated fats and trans fats . The body does not know what to do with the molecules , so it stores them in similar places to ordinary fats . The problem is that it takes a higher threshold of energy (ie ATP concentration ) to unlock these molecules from storage .
Females are hit by a double whammy : they have a natural subcutaneous fat storage which is bigger than that of the male . This gets unlocked first , since it’s unlocking threshold is lower .
Also , females do not have testosterone driven energy peaks that will unlock cellulite .
Another problem is acrylamide ( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com )
Neuropathy is the extreme case , but neural damage occurs cumulatively over age . This is a problem with both sexes . The neural damage prevents the body image from being exercised at the cellular level . (Ie neural messages to release fat molecules do not get executed because they do not get through .
Neurons through fat are longer and lower on the priority list for repair . They are thus more vulnerable to acrylamide.)
The procedure:
( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Human Hair” and other articles .)
Use a dedicated or sterilized hair brush .
1. Gently pummel the cellulite area with the back of the brush to stimulate blood and lymph flow .
2. Generate a pulse of energy (high ATP concentration) by drinking a cup of coffee with glucose between meals . The idea is to get a high pulse of energy and nerve stimulation . The pulse of energy is to get over the high threshold of cellulite release . The caffeine is to stimulate the nervous system to activate the body-image in the affected areas .
3. Indent the skin gently with the bristles and pull gently to one side until you can feel it . Repeat over the desired area .
Repeat the brush action 3 times in 15 minutes . The reason is the activation period of long-term memory in neurons . Remember , you are trying to change the body image . Leave a gap of at least 2 hours between repeats .
4. Monitoring: It will take at least 2 weeks for any difference to show . This pace will not be noticeable if you watch it continuously . Take photos every week and compare after about a month .
5. Avoid adding to the cellulite by eschewing foods high in hydrogenated fats (read the labels) , or acrylamides (eg chips ,cookies,any browned foods )
( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com )
6. Take ATP enhancers : curcumin (a nice curry once a week) and a good multivitamin and multimineral . Alpha Lipoic Acid is a good repairer of nerves damaged by acrylamide .
7 . Avoid mirrors for two months .
8. If this does not work , avoid mirrors , period .
9. Possible side-effects : Loose stools as the fats are excreted . The body might unlock the cellulite fats , but probably will not use them . The liver and kidneys will also be under extra stress , so drink enough water . Liver adjuvents might be a good idea . Exercise in moderation should not matter .
Andre
Andre Willers
16 March 2007
This is a Mind-Body Regimen .
This is not a quick fix .
The origin of cellulite lies mainly in hydrogenated fats and trans fats . The body does not know what to do with the molecules , so it stores them in similar places to ordinary fats . The problem is that it takes a higher threshold of energy (ie ATP concentration ) to unlock these molecules from storage .
Females are hit by a double whammy : they have a natural subcutaneous fat storage which is bigger than that of the male . This gets unlocked first , since it’s unlocking threshold is lower .
Also , females do not have testosterone driven energy peaks that will unlock cellulite .
Another problem is acrylamide ( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com )
Neuropathy is the extreme case , but neural damage occurs cumulatively over age . This is a problem with both sexes . The neural damage prevents the body image from being exercised at the cellular level . (Ie neural messages to release fat molecules do not get executed because they do not get through .
Neurons through fat are longer and lower on the priority list for repair . They are thus more vulnerable to acrylamide.)
The procedure:
( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Human Hair” and other articles .)
Use a dedicated or sterilized hair brush .
1. Gently pummel the cellulite area with the back of the brush to stimulate blood and lymph flow .
2. Generate a pulse of energy (high ATP concentration) by drinking a cup of coffee with glucose between meals . The idea is to get a high pulse of energy and nerve stimulation . The pulse of energy is to get over the high threshold of cellulite release . The caffeine is to stimulate the nervous system to activate the body-image in the affected areas .
3. Indent the skin gently with the bristles and pull gently to one side until you can feel it . Repeat over the desired area .
Repeat the brush action 3 times in 15 minutes . The reason is the activation period of long-term memory in neurons . Remember , you are trying to change the body image . Leave a gap of at least 2 hours between repeats .
4. Monitoring: It will take at least 2 weeks for any difference to show . This pace will not be noticeable if you watch it continuously . Take photos every week and compare after about a month .
5. Avoid adding to the cellulite by eschewing foods high in hydrogenated fats (read the labels) , or acrylamides (eg chips ,cookies,any browned foods )
( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com )
6. Take ATP enhancers : curcumin (a nice curry once a week) and a good multivitamin and multimineral . Alpha Lipoic Acid is a good repairer of nerves damaged by acrylamide .
7 . Avoid mirrors for two months .
8. If this does not work , avoid mirrors , period .
9. Possible side-effects : Loose stools as the fats are excreted . The body might unlock the cellulite fats , but probably will not use them . The liver and kidneys will also be under extra stress , so drink enough water . Liver adjuvents might be a good idea . Exercise in moderation should not matter .
Andre
Friday, March 09, 2007
Spices
Spices .
Andre Willers
10 March 2007
Synopsis :
All spices are potent killers evolved by plants to control viruses , fungi , bacteria , insects , animals in descending order of importance .
Multi-symbionts ( like large mammals , including humans ) , use small concentrations of spices to keep various populations of symbiotic bacteria and fungi under control .
Highly active bio-reactors like the tropics or high-density cities may only be survivable to humans because the use of spices .
The increase of human population in Europe after an increased spice trade with the East circa 18’nth century argues for it . Ref the high incidence of curry and Indonesian dishes in the most highly populated areas of Europe (England and Netherlands) .
With global warming , the spicing of previously temperate regions will continue .
Indeed , those persisting in a non-spice diet will suffer the dreaded Delhi-belly .
The Tao of Curry .
Eat at least one curry a week .
Keep changing and don’t overdo it .
Discussion:
Curcumin ( the active ingredient of turmeric)
There has been a lot of activity in reputable publications and research organizations about this chemical .
See a good summation in the Feb 2007 issue of Scientific American . Google it (there is lot on PubMed)
Apart from its 5000 year history , present studies have shown benefits for :
Anti-cancer ( in low concentrations)
Alzheimers
Cognitive impairment
Melanomas .
Colitis
Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Energy systems (diabetes II)
The plant uses its property of inhibiting protein p53 ( which prevents replication of cancer cells) to kill small mass organisms . If you take too much curcumin , the same will happen to you . About 8 gm per meal (1.5 teaspoonful turmeric ) per meal within 24 hrs seems safe . ( Curcumin is not easily absorbed) .This should be equivalent of about two 500 mg gel capsules of Curcumin by Solal .
Some effects (like the Alzheimer and cognitive improvement) can be traced back to the release of immune system assets to the body because turmeric is killing cells requiring their attention in the gut . In elderly people this extra resource in the immune system is enough for amelioration .
Betterment of Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis can be seen as the effect of fluctuations in the gut populations and the concomitant immune-system targeting mechanisms .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Vaccine”
Energy systems (diabetes II)
Adjuvent effects :
VitC is the main concern . Large doses of VitC (7 to 10 gm range) will kill off so many gut bacteria , that the survivors will be exposed to higher concentrations of curcumin . The leftover spillage might be enough to raise the plasma blood level concentrations to levels that trigger the p53 protein degradation/block . Does it , though? The evidence does not support it . The spillage (diarrhea ) gets washed out . Alcohol and antibiotics will play the same role . The experimental data is on test-tube bacteria , not body cells exposed to the immune system .
Some pathologies (like too high concentrations of p53) prevent replication of necessary systems , especially the immune system . Hence the effect on Alzheimers .
There is no correct concentration for chemicals like these . The best hope is keeping the concentration within an attractor basin .
Side Effects
Ho-ho ! Note Vindaloo guts , long thought to be from the oil . It is actually dead gut bacteria being washed out .
Is it safe to eat curry and drink at the same time ? Stupid question .
Is it safe to eat curry and take antibiotics at the same time ? A mild curry is safest , unless you want to reach some specific group of cells and know what you’re doing .
Statistics on Alzheimers and colon cancers :
The change between actual and expected incidences during the period in which the UK changed over to a curry-loving nation , should be illuminating .
Alzheimers is interesting . Curcumin apparently helps the immune system to attack the amyloid plaques (“Journal of Alzheimers Disease “, Oct 9 2006)
Cognitive Impairment (“American Journal of Epidiomology” , Nov 1 2006)
Curry eaters oldsters were smarter .
One wonders whether Churchill ate curry (Did he? Must have.) Hitler definitely did not .
Powerful spices:
Still in use :
Peppermint , ginger , garlic , pepper , chili , cinnamon , chocolate , coffee , tea , curries ,etc .
Older ones like
Nutmeg etc . These actually might have had powerful medicinal properties on a virginal viral or bacterial population , but general use would have soon bred resistance (like with antibiotics nowadays) . (Penicillin ? How quaint .)
Viral antibiotics would soon burn out , but the resistance genes would have shifted to the backburner by now . So , in limited usage , they might be of some benefit once again .
Why did garlic not burn out ? Because it only worked well in fresh-pressed form . Most recipes call for worked garlic (oxidized to uselessness.) Buchu has a similar problem .Marketing opportunities .
Energy systems (diabetes II)
Mitochondria are the main energy users in cells . If too much energy (glucose) floods in , the mitochondria can handle it by making more mitochondria or inhibiting the glucose influx through the cell-wall . (The last is DiabetesII)
People with a high metabolic rate must create more mitochondria . But mitochondria are sensitive to p53 (or something like it , since they are descended from bacteria .)
Too much p53 inhibits the formation of new mitochondria , leading to a feedback to the cellwall to prevent a further influx of glucose disrupting the cell .
But mitochondria cannot go cancerous , as they do not have the machinery . The worst that can happen is hyperactivity , as new mitochondria are formed and the ATP has to go somewhere .
Call this Ultra-DiabetesII H (for hyperactivivty . )
This would result from developmental distortion if present throughout childhood .
Unfortunately , the cellular cure would probably cause diabetesII .
Ultra-DiabetesII A :
The mitochondria divide at far too small a pace to keep up with attrition and demand . The feedback is vicious . Also known as Anorexia . A selective p53 inhibiter should help .
What is a poor fatso elderly DiabetesII to do ?
A selective inhibitor of p53 within certain boundaries targeted at human cells should do the trick .
We know that Curcumin is a relatively safe p53 inhibitor , and we have some idea of the concentrations .
We need the raw materials for mitochondria : eg sulfur , selenium , and other rare micro-minerals .
We need energy (glucose and fats) over a certain threshold .
We need some phosphor .(For the ATP)
Note Riboswitches (cf Scientific American Jan 2007 p42) . Bacteria have ribosome switches that control the expression of their own genes dependant on the environment (Aptamers) . These are the progenitors of the more sophisticated epigenetic systems . But for mitochondria they are still operative .
We hope that p53 is the riboswitch to inhibit the inhibition of mitochondria division .
We provide the raw materials for mitochondria divisions .
Mitochondria live for about two days , and should learn the lesson in about 2/e~6 days .
Three repeats should settle the feedback system into a new stability point .
The Procedure:
The course lasts 3 treatments (6 days)
In sequential order :
8 gm VitC (buffered)
About two hours later , take
8 gms curcumin ( 4X500 mg Solal Cucrcumin capsules)
Then the adjuvents : multimineral and multivitamins . MSM . Cinnamon capsules .
Glucose : keep it high . drink coke or eat bread .
Repeat every 2 days for 2 repeats .
Symptoms of the treatment:
The mitochondria divide . At first you might feel cold , as millions of mitochondria spend their energy in dividing . Then you will feel hot as sensors in the skin recalibrate . Then you will feel cold again as spillover of p53 inhibitors and other homeostatic systems cause more sweat glands to form . Initially you will sweat more , as too much heat is pumped through too few sweat tubes .
In six days it will be over , hopefully at a higher metabolic rate .
You will feel more active (indeed , you are forced to burn the new ATP , as you cannot any longer store most of it as fat .)
You should use body image sculpting during the 6 day process .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Human Hair”
DiabetesII take note .
If the procedure is successful , you cannot tell by just doing one glucose test . A full GTT has to be done , and repeated at least two times at weekly intervals .
Changing from lethargic to hyperactive will take some adaptation , but our society and bodies are structured to handle this .
A lethargic body-politic is too close to learned-helplessness .
We can survive any number of competing systems , but we cannot survive one active lot and the rest supine .
Is this spicy enough for you?
Andre
Andre Willers
10 March 2007
Synopsis :
All spices are potent killers evolved by plants to control viruses , fungi , bacteria , insects , animals in descending order of importance .
Multi-symbionts ( like large mammals , including humans ) , use small concentrations of spices to keep various populations of symbiotic bacteria and fungi under control .
Highly active bio-reactors like the tropics or high-density cities may only be survivable to humans because the use of spices .
The increase of human population in Europe after an increased spice trade with the East circa 18’nth century argues for it . Ref the high incidence of curry and Indonesian dishes in the most highly populated areas of Europe (England and Netherlands) .
With global warming , the spicing of previously temperate regions will continue .
Indeed , those persisting in a non-spice diet will suffer the dreaded Delhi-belly .
The Tao of Curry .
Eat at least one curry a week .
Keep changing and don’t overdo it .
Discussion:
Curcumin ( the active ingredient of turmeric)
There has been a lot of activity in reputable publications and research organizations about this chemical .
See a good summation in the Feb 2007 issue of Scientific American . Google it (there is lot on PubMed)
Apart from its 5000 year history , present studies have shown benefits for :
Anti-cancer ( in low concentrations)
Alzheimers
Cognitive impairment
Melanomas .
Colitis
Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Energy systems (diabetes II)
The plant uses its property of inhibiting protein p53 ( which prevents replication of cancer cells) to kill small mass organisms . If you take too much curcumin , the same will happen to you . About 8 gm per meal (1.5 teaspoonful turmeric ) per meal within 24 hrs seems safe . ( Curcumin is not easily absorbed) .This should be equivalent of about two 500 mg gel capsules of Curcumin by Solal .
Some effects (like the Alzheimer and cognitive improvement) can be traced back to the release of immune system assets to the body because turmeric is killing cells requiring their attention in the gut . In elderly people this extra resource in the immune system is enough for amelioration .
Betterment of Colitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis can be seen as the effect of fluctuations in the gut populations and the concomitant immune-system targeting mechanisms .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Vaccine”
Energy systems (diabetes II)
Adjuvent effects :
VitC is the main concern . Large doses of VitC (7 to 10 gm range) will kill off so many gut bacteria , that the survivors will be exposed to higher concentrations of curcumin . The leftover spillage might be enough to raise the plasma blood level concentrations to levels that trigger the p53 protein degradation/block . Does it , though? The evidence does not support it . The spillage (diarrhea ) gets washed out . Alcohol and antibiotics will play the same role . The experimental data is on test-tube bacteria , not body cells exposed to the immune system .
Some pathologies (like too high concentrations of p53) prevent replication of necessary systems , especially the immune system . Hence the effect on Alzheimers .
There is no correct concentration for chemicals like these . The best hope is keeping the concentration within an attractor basin .
Side Effects
Ho-ho ! Note Vindaloo guts , long thought to be from the oil . It is actually dead gut bacteria being washed out .
Is it safe to eat curry and drink at the same time ? Stupid question .
Is it safe to eat curry and take antibiotics at the same time ? A mild curry is safest , unless you want to reach some specific group of cells and know what you’re doing .
Statistics on Alzheimers and colon cancers :
The change between actual and expected incidences during the period in which the UK changed over to a curry-loving nation , should be illuminating .
Alzheimers is interesting . Curcumin apparently helps the immune system to attack the amyloid plaques (“Journal of Alzheimers Disease “, Oct 9 2006)
Cognitive Impairment (“American Journal of Epidiomology” , Nov 1 2006)
Curry eaters oldsters were smarter .
One wonders whether Churchill ate curry (Did he? Must have.) Hitler definitely did not .
Powerful spices:
Still in use :
Peppermint , ginger , garlic , pepper , chili , cinnamon , chocolate , coffee , tea , curries ,etc .
Older ones like
Nutmeg etc . These actually might have had powerful medicinal properties on a virginal viral or bacterial population , but general use would have soon bred resistance (like with antibiotics nowadays) . (Penicillin ? How quaint .)
Viral antibiotics would soon burn out , but the resistance genes would have shifted to the backburner by now . So , in limited usage , they might be of some benefit once again .
Why did garlic not burn out ? Because it only worked well in fresh-pressed form . Most recipes call for worked garlic (oxidized to uselessness.) Buchu has a similar problem .Marketing opportunities .
Energy systems (diabetes II)
Mitochondria are the main energy users in cells . If too much energy (glucose) floods in , the mitochondria can handle it by making more mitochondria or inhibiting the glucose influx through the cell-wall . (The last is DiabetesII)
People with a high metabolic rate must create more mitochondria . But mitochondria are sensitive to p53 (or something like it , since they are descended from bacteria .)
Too much p53 inhibits the formation of new mitochondria , leading to a feedback to the cellwall to prevent a further influx of glucose disrupting the cell .
But mitochondria cannot go cancerous , as they do not have the machinery . The worst that can happen is hyperactivity , as new mitochondria are formed and the ATP has to go somewhere .
Call this Ultra-DiabetesII H (for hyperactivivty . )
This would result from developmental distortion if present throughout childhood .
Unfortunately , the cellular cure would probably cause diabetesII .
Ultra-DiabetesII A :
The mitochondria divide at far too small a pace to keep up with attrition and demand . The feedback is vicious . Also known as Anorexia . A selective p53 inhibiter should help .
What is a poor fatso elderly DiabetesII to do ?
A selective inhibitor of p53 within certain boundaries targeted at human cells should do the trick .
We know that Curcumin is a relatively safe p53 inhibitor , and we have some idea of the concentrations .
We need the raw materials for mitochondria : eg sulfur , selenium , and other rare micro-minerals .
We need energy (glucose and fats) over a certain threshold .
We need some phosphor .(For the ATP)
Note Riboswitches (cf Scientific American Jan 2007 p42) . Bacteria have ribosome switches that control the expression of their own genes dependant on the environment (Aptamers) . These are the progenitors of the more sophisticated epigenetic systems . But for mitochondria they are still operative .
We hope that p53 is the riboswitch to inhibit the inhibition of mitochondria division .
We provide the raw materials for mitochondria divisions .
Mitochondria live for about two days , and should learn the lesson in about 2/e~6 days .
Three repeats should settle the feedback system into a new stability point .
The Procedure:
The course lasts 3 treatments (6 days)
In sequential order :
8 gm VitC (buffered)
About two hours later , take
8 gms curcumin ( 4X500 mg Solal Cucrcumin capsules)
Then the adjuvents : multimineral and multivitamins . MSM . Cinnamon capsules .
Glucose : keep it high . drink coke or eat bread .
Repeat every 2 days for 2 repeats .
Symptoms of the treatment:
The mitochondria divide . At first you might feel cold , as millions of mitochondria spend their energy in dividing . Then you will feel hot as sensors in the skin recalibrate . Then you will feel cold again as spillover of p53 inhibitors and other homeostatic systems cause more sweat glands to form . Initially you will sweat more , as too much heat is pumped through too few sweat tubes .
In six days it will be over , hopefully at a higher metabolic rate .
You will feel more active (indeed , you are forced to burn the new ATP , as you cannot any longer store most of it as fat .)
You should use body image sculpting during the 6 day process .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Human Hair”
DiabetesII take note .
If the procedure is successful , you cannot tell by just doing one glucose test . A full GTT has to be done , and repeated at least two times at weekly intervals .
Changing from lethargic to hyperactive will take some adaptation , but our society and bodies are structured to handle this .
A lethargic body-politic is too close to learned-helplessness .
We can survive any number of competing systems , but we cannot survive one active lot and the rest supine .
Is this spicy enough for you?
Andre
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
A General Vaccine Ad
A General Vaccine Adjuvent.
Andre Willers
8 Mar 2007
Synopsis:
A method of increasing any Vaccine effectiveness by a factor of at least 300% .
Method:
The evening before administering the vaccine , give the patient at least 7-8 gm of buffered VitaminC . In the morning , give at least 3 gm of MSM , a good general multivitamin and a good general multimineral . Just before the vaccine , give glucose .
The Rationale :
At least 80% of the immune system is clustered around the gut . It is clustered because various control systems keep it there to counter the challenge from various bacteria , viruses and poisens arising from external and internal organisms in the gut .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “HIV and the Guts”
VitC at this concentration acts as an antibiotic , killing the gut bacteria (hence the diarrhea) . This also lessens the assault on the immune system , releasing the Immune System Assets for use elsewhere in the body .
(This is an old immune response evolved during the monkey , ape eras . Plants evolved VitC as a preservative for their seeds .)
A look at the numbers reveals the effectiveness of this approach:
Immune system:
Before VitC : 80 % gut , 20 % for the rest
After VitC : 40 % gut , 60 % for the rest
In other words , even a 50% decrease in the assault from the gut means a 300% increase in the availability of Immune system to the rest of the body .
A new threat presentation from the vaccine will require new protein and scaffolding synthesis . So material and energy will be required . This will happen faster if an extra pulse of material and energy is supplied . Hence the food and energy supply . Do not leave out the Sulfur supply , as this is essential for the antibody structures .
Immune System Scanning
As you must have noticed from the above , this is very similar to the Linus Pauling proposals . It works well if the immune system can recognize the target .
Even viral diseases like flu can succumb if the immune system suddenly pulses 300%+
But there is a gray area : the immune system identifies and marks some threats as below some threshold , but because it does not have the resources to handle it , it is ignored for the moment . Once resources are available , it is handled .
In essence , a fluctuating immune system is necessary to identify threats which are low in short term but big in long term .
Hence the human propensity of ingesting poisens of various degrees . ( eg alcohol , vitC fruits , hot or cold liquids , caffeine , coacoa , chocolate , curries , spices etc .)
These all vary the bacterial load in the gut , and hence the availability of immune system resources to the rest of the system .
This is Immune System Scanning .
The rate of scanning .
This is really interesting .
Humans are obligate hunters because of deficiencies in synthesizing some vitamins and amino acids .
The obligate period is about one week , hence the break . (The Sunday Meal : the only time they get certain proteins . The Tradition has lasted thousands of years , since it is based on a physiological necessity . )
If they don’t get their amino acid fix, not only do they become sickly , but the epigenetic effect lasts at least two generations . (Cf extremely poor physical physical condition of conscripts in WWI in England)
Hence the reputation of chicken soup . Eat rotten veggies all week , and your immune system will also class middling threats as by-passes , but a meal of chicken soup , rich in amino acids , will suddenly broaden the scope and effectiveness of the immune system .
An interesting fact is that chicken is the only meat not banned by some religion or other . This is well documented in Phaoronic reliefs . The masters of the universe scrambled after some scrawny birds in the marshes . Ditto everywhere else . One wonders if it was not a dietary requirement fixated after the time of the dinosaurs , when birds were kings .
This makes one wonder : which came first ? The chicken or the grain .
Theories of the origin of agriculture vary from beer to bread , but what about chickens?
If chickens were the first , then their domestication will necessitate feeding . Anybody who has ever fed chickens , will know that they are suckers for seeds . Selecting and sowing bigger seeds follows . This is typically what women will do . It also fits the proximal reward model : it takes small steps from the start to proceed . Not much capital either . (A bored woman , a pet bird and a hand of grass seeds) .
You can trace the other animal and plant domestications yourself .
Birdflu refers:
“Those who live by the egg will die by the egg .”
Andre
Andre Willers
8 Mar 2007
Synopsis:
A method of increasing any Vaccine effectiveness by a factor of at least 300% .
Method:
The evening before administering the vaccine , give the patient at least 7-8 gm of buffered VitaminC . In the morning , give at least 3 gm of MSM , a good general multivitamin and a good general multimineral . Just before the vaccine , give glucose .
The Rationale :
At least 80% of the immune system is clustered around the gut . It is clustered because various control systems keep it there to counter the challenge from various bacteria , viruses and poisens arising from external and internal organisms in the gut .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “HIV and the Guts”
VitC at this concentration acts as an antibiotic , killing the gut bacteria (hence the diarrhea) . This also lessens the assault on the immune system , releasing the Immune System Assets for use elsewhere in the body .
(This is an old immune response evolved during the monkey , ape eras . Plants evolved VitC as a preservative for their seeds .)
A look at the numbers reveals the effectiveness of this approach:
Immune system:
Before VitC : 80 % gut , 20 % for the rest
After VitC : 40 % gut , 60 % for the rest
In other words , even a 50% decrease in the assault from the gut means a 300% increase in the availability of Immune system to the rest of the body .
A new threat presentation from the vaccine will require new protein and scaffolding synthesis . So material and energy will be required . This will happen faster if an extra pulse of material and energy is supplied . Hence the food and energy supply . Do not leave out the Sulfur supply , as this is essential for the antibody structures .
Immune System Scanning
As you must have noticed from the above , this is very similar to the Linus Pauling proposals . It works well if the immune system can recognize the target .
Even viral diseases like flu can succumb if the immune system suddenly pulses 300%+
But there is a gray area : the immune system identifies and marks some threats as below some threshold , but because it does not have the resources to handle it , it is ignored for the moment . Once resources are available , it is handled .
In essence , a fluctuating immune system is necessary to identify threats which are low in short term but big in long term .
Hence the human propensity of ingesting poisens of various degrees . ( eg alcohol , vitC fruits , hot or cold liquids , caffeine , coacoa , chocolate , curries , spices etc .)
These all vary the bacterial load in the gut , and hence the availability of immune system resources to the rest of the system .
This is Immune System Scanning .
The rate of scanning .
This is really interesting .
Humans are obligate hunters because of deficiencies in synthesizing some vitamins and amino acids .
The obligate period is about one week , hence the break . (The Sunday Meal : the only time they get certain proteins . The Tradition has lasted thousands of years , since it is based on a physiological necessity . )
If they don’t get their amino acid fix, not only do they become sickly , but the epigenetic effect lasts at least two generations . (Cf extremely poor physical physical condition of conscripts in WWI in England)
Hence the reputation of chicken soup . Eat rotten veggies all week , and your immune system will also class middling threats as by-passes , but a meal of chicken soup , rich in amino acids , will suddenly broaden the scope and effectiveness of the immune system .
An interesting fact is that chicken is the only meat not banned by some religion or other . This is well documented in Phaoronic reliefs . The masters of the universe scrambled after some scrawny birds in the marshes . Ditto everywhere else . One wonders if it was not a dietary requirement fixated after the time of the dinosaurs , when birds were kings .
This makes one wonder : which came first ? The chicken or the grain .
Theories of the origin of agriculture vary from beer to bread , but what about chickens?
If chickens were the first , then their domestication will necessitate feeding . Anybody who has ever fed chickens , will know that they are suckers for seeds . Selecting and sowing bigger seeds follows . This is typically what women will do . It also fits the proximal reward model : it takes small steps from the start to proceed . Not much capital either . (A bored woman , a pet bird and a hand of grass seeds) .
You can trace the other animal and plant domestications yourself .
Birdflu refers:
“Those who live by the egg will die by the egg .”
Andre
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Metamaterials in hum
Metamaterials in human beings.
Andre Willers
4 Mar 2007
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Primitives_0” , as well as “Itarin”
Background :
Metamaterials are groups of atoms or molecules that act like single atoms or molecules with properties which are novel . (Google , wikipedia , Scientific American , etc)
The best known are the microwave metamaterials which have a negative refractive index (the first ones theorized and constructed) .
This enables definition at a measure smaller than the wavelength of the infalling radiation . This was long considered theoretically impossible . Now they are demonstrating invisibility suits (at least at the microwave level ) , and other goodies based on this principle .
In other words , its hot and sexy !
But needless to say , mother Nature got there first .
The economy of fine definition at minimum cost is an extremely strong attractor to evolutionary systems .
All metamaterials are virtual by definition .
ie Ten atoms of carbon in a specific configuration act like one atom of imaginium .
The information being processed is real , the rest is virtual . Of course , if the imaginium’s components are real , then speeds are much higher , and quantum effects are possible .
But the essence is:
Ordered groups of information processors can give results literally impossible to their components . This is not theory , but hardware .
Visual systems are the easiest for us to understand .
The visual system forms layers of metamaterials . Even if the distance between retina cells are (say ) 10 000 angstroms , the metamaterial processing can make the definition as if only (say) 10 angstroms separate the cells .
The same trick is used throughout the body .
Skin sensitivity is another example . The brain does not extrapolate . It uses an gestalt of nearby impressions to form a remarkably accurate virtual impression .
Acidity in the stomach , sugar levels , hormone levels , immune system etc . The body gets by with remarkably few sensors .
It has a price , though .
The price is training .
A virtual metamaterial (like the human visual system , immune system) can only be partially hardwired . There is not enough information capacity in the bio-system to handle all permutations . The efficiency of the metamaterial might be improved ( eg language centers , counting centers , mirror neurons , etc) .
Integration and generation of proximal reward systems remain a major problem .
see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “ The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards” .
Advantageous development of trained metamaterial centers might be incorporated into the DNA quicker than normal evolutionary pressures ( a form of epigenesis) , but I know of no such evidence . Culture will inhibit such developments . Except of course , for non-cultural or anti-cultural pressures . The selection for mild Aspergers indicate that there is a tendency for at least a bifurcate split in the species .
Training metamaterials:
The plasticity of the brain/body means that you can train groups of cells to act as metamaterial atoms/molecules , with properties that the individual elements do not have .
We have already seen that this is used extensively by the body .
Now , we must see how we can extend on it .
Itarin
Itarin is a visual trainer that creates metamaterial effects .
Itarin is an adequate neural network visual trainer , because it works better at older ages as it trains metamaterial “atoms” in the visual field by the fluctuating balls . I originally put them in to draw attention to the flash of the character in their center , but their effect has been to create metamaterial neurons .
I was puzzled why Itarin worked better for me when training while wearing glasses . The answer , of course , is that the metamaterial effect overshadows the ordinary neural training effect .
Sports and Varsity .
Practise creates metamaterial effects by definition , whether the practise is real or virtual . A variant of Itarin will have you playing like a pro and praying like a Christian .
Health.
Most of the body’s sensory systems work via metamaterial effects . We have known intervention systems like Itarin . Training metamaterial effects for various body systems have ranged from too broad (Coue) to too narrow (begone , damned bug!)
Intelligence.
This capability is normally defined as the ability to “see” patterns (ie delineated differences , for which a fine definition is required) . Note that metamaterial effects gives the brain a finer definition with the same number of neurons .
While Itarin was not designed for this , it could be adapted . It should have some effect , in any case , due to the metamaterial effects in the cortical and immediate sub-cortical areas .
Unused capability.
Most humans have the conceit that they only us about 10 % of their brain capacity . Extra , unused capacity in the brain (which consumes about 25 % of the body’s energy) , simply did not happen . (Evolutionary reasons)
What did happen , if you understood the above argument , is that inefficient utilization of the brain’s resources ( even using hardwired metamaterial effects ) uses up nearly all of it’s capability .
It is like driving a Ferrari in first gear at full throttle . With a broken steering wheel .
Everything is going at full blast . There is nothing unused.
From an evolutionary viewpoint , it is easy to see why . Some few hardwired systems like elementary vision , speech , counting ,etc at a most elementary level evolve . (The primitive elements) . The rest is catch-as-catch can . Now and then , the cultural component evolves a more efficient utilization . This frees up some neurons for keeping up with the Jones’. And so it goes .
The glitterati wonders what Jones wore , the literati wonders what he said or wrote , and the priesthood wonders why they care .
The amusing thing is that while there is no unused capacity in the present westerner’s brain , a slight rearrangement of the organization of the brain brought about by cultural elements can cascade into a significantly more efficient use of their neurons . It is like an oversaturated solution . It crystalises very , very quickly , releasing a lot of energy .
The cascade:
This is usually known as a religious experience . It has happened before in history .
When the system is overstretched (like now) , a sudden release of resources in the brain due to a more efficient utilization (ie metamaterial effects) does not release the stress . Instead , it goes “boing” into the neighbouring brain areas , stimulating similar similar eruptions throughout the system .
Cultural laser , anyone ?
It is a major source of disappointment to the Author that the last thousand years has led to a massive population increase without any change in hierarchical dispositions .
---
Andre Willers
4 Mar 2007
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “Primitives_0” , as well as “Itarin”
Background :
Metamaterials are groups of atoms or molecules that act like single atoms or molecules with properties which are novel . (Google , wikipedia , Scientific American , etc)
The best known are the microwave metamaterials which have a negative refractive index (the first ones theorized and constructed) .
This enables definition at a measure smaller than the wavelength of the infalling radiation . This was long considered theoretically impossible . Now they are demonstrating invisibility suits (at least at the microwave level ) , and other goodies based on this principle .
In other words , its hot and sexy !
But needless to say , mother Nature got there first .
The economy of fine definition at minimum cost is an extremely strong attractor to evolutionary systems .
All metamaterials are virtual by definition .
ie Ten atoms of carbon in a specific configuration act like one atom of imaginium .
The information being processed is real , the rest is virtual . Of course , if the imaginium’s components are real , then speeds are much higher , and quantum effects are possible .
But the essence is:
Ordered groups of information processors can give results literally impossible to their components . This is not theory , but hardware .
Visual systems are the easiest for us to understand .
The visual system forms layers of metamaterials . Even if the distance between retina cells are (say ) 10 000 angstroms , the metamaterial processing can make the definition as if only (say) 10 angstroms separate the cells .
The same trick is used throughout the body .
Skin sensitivity is another example . The brain does not extrapolate . It uses an gestalt of nearby impressions to form a remarkably accurate virtual impression .
Acidity in the stomach , sugar levels , hormone levels , immune system etc . The body gets by with remarkably few sensors .
It has a price , though .
The price is training .
A virtual metamaterial (like the human visual system , immune system) can only be partially hardwired . There is not enough information capacity in the bio-system to handle all permutations . The efficiency of the metamaterial might be improved ( eg language centers , counting centers , mirror neurons , etc) .
Integration and generation of proximal reward systems remain a major problem .
see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “ The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards” .
Advantageous development of trained metamaterial centers might be incorporated into the DNA quicker than normal evolutionary pressures ( a form of epigenesis) , but I know of no such evidence . Culture will inhibit such developments . Except of course , for non-cultural or anti-cultural pressures . The selection for mild Aspergers indicate that there is a tendency for at least a bifurcate split in the species .
Training metamaterials:
The plasticity of the brain/body means that you can train groups of cells to act as metamaterial atoms/molecules , with properties that the individual elements do not have .
We have already seen that this is used extensively by the body .
Now , we must see how we can extend on it .
Itarin
Itarin is a visual trainer that creates metamaterial effects .
Itarin is an adequate neural network visual trainer , because it works better at older ages as it trains metamaterial “atoms” in the visual field by the fluctuating balls . I originally put them in to draw attention to the flash of the character in their center , but their effect has been to create metamaterial neurons .
I was puzzled why Itarin worked better for me when training while wearing glasses . The answer , of course , is that the metamaterial effect overshadows the ordinary neural training effect .
Sports and Varsity .
Practise creates metamaterial effects by definition , whether the practise is real or virtual . A variant of Itarin will have you playing like a pro and praying like a Christian .
Health.
Most of the body’s sensory systems work via metamaterial effects . We have known intervention systems like Itarin . Training metamaterial effects for various body systems have ranged from too broad (Coue) to too narrow (begone , damned bug!)
Intelligence.
This capability is normally defined as the ability to “see” patterns (ie delineated differences , for which a fine definition is required) . Note that metamaterial effects gives the brain a finer definition with the same number of neurons .
While Itarin was not designed for this , it could be adapted . It should have some effect , in any case , due to the metamaterial effects in the cortical and immediate sub-cortical areas .
Unused capability.
Most humans have the conceit that they only us about 10 % of their brain capacity . Extra , unused capacity in the brain (which consumes about 25 % of the body’s energy) , simply did not happen . (Evolutionary reasons)
What did happen , if you understood the above argument , is that inefficient utilization of the brain’s resources ( even using hardwired metamaterial effects ) uses up nearly all of it’s capability .
It is like driving a Ferrari in first gear at full throttle . With a broken steering wheel .
Everything is going at full blast . There is nothing unused.
From an evolutionary viewpoint , it is easy to see why . Some few hardwired systems like elementary vision , speech , counting ,etc at a most elementary level evolve . (The primitive elements) . The rest is catch-as-catch can . Now and then , the cultural component evolves a more efficient utilization . This frees up some neurons for keeping up with the Jones’. And so it goes .
The glitterati wonders what Jones wore , the literati wonders what he said or wrote , and the priesthood wonders why they care .
The amusing thing is that while there is no unused capacity in the present westerner’s brain , a slight rearrangement of the organization of the brain brought about by cultural elements can cascade into a significantly more efficient use of their neurons . It is like an oversaturated solution . It crystalises very , very quickly , releasing a lot of energy .
The cascade:
This is usually known as a religious experience . It has happened before in history .
When the system is overstretched (like now) , a sudden release of resources in the brain due to a more efficient utilization (ie metamaterial effects) does not release the stress . Instead , it goes “boing” into the neighbouring brain areas , stimulating similar similar eruptions throughout the system .
Cultural laser , anyone ?
It is a major source of disappointment to the Author that the last thousand years has led to a massive population increase without any change in hierarchical dispositions .
---
Solar Shield
Solar Shield
15/5/2005
Andre Willers
Global warming is not just a short term problem . Barring catastrophe , human energy generation from fusion and non-solar sources will within a few centuries exceed the solar influx . We will need planetary air-conditioning .
(See Larry Niven's Puppeteer Planets)
At first , the simplest way is to put up an umbrella .
A simple solar Umbrella can be created by injecting Lunar reflecting dust into a hyperbolic orbit between the sun and Earth by mass-drivers on Luna .
The space elements of a moonbase and mass-drivers an be done with existing technology .
The Terran climate models needed for effective climate-control also exists , but can do with some refining .
The political control of an effective climate control system still needs some work .
The money , paradoxically , is the easiest . Big insurance companies (like Swiss Re , etc ) can easily fork up the estimated $60 billion this will cost . ( One big hurricane can cost $20 billion in damages .)
Later on it gets trickier .
At higher levels of planetary energy generation , Hilsch-tube lasers could directly pump energy out . A model that springs to mind is a fairly massive object (a few billion tons) in a perpetually skipping orbit . Propulsion would be by Hilsch-tube lasers (existing technology) and fusion (Orion-type existing tech.) More elegantly , the lasers would be boosted by fusion processes in the laser . This could be made made fairly fail-safe , so that there would be a nett energy loss to the planet . The matter-loss would have to be topped up ( comets?)
Of course , the same technology could be used to strip-mine a planet or sun .
Cascaded Hilsch-tubes were used in the South-African Uranium235-enrichment process for weapons purposes . A large physical or magnetic Hisch-tube cascade can be used like a mass-spectrometer to separate elements .
It would make a great booster for light-sails , or an awesome weapon . Also , cheap , pure elements
Time horizen : since all the above elements are based on standard physics , it can be done . Whether it will be , depends on humans .
Regards
---
Reusable reaction mass.
15/5/2005
Andre Willers
Illustration:
Imagine a 50 ton solar-powered launching satelite with a set of mass-driver rings in LEO at 18 000 mph in a West-to-East Low Earth Orbit .
Let it accellerate a 50 ton payload via mass-driver to 36 000 mph in some tangential direction .
In reaction , the Launching satelite will now orbit at 18 000 mph in an East-to-West direction .
Of course it is a bit more complicated than this , but the orbital mechanics are well within present technology (and really old maths) .
Docking new craft with the Launching satelite is also proven technology (ref International Space Station). This can then be relaunched in the opposite direction .
Essentially , the same reaction mass can be used over and over again , as long as it has been in orbit and an energy source is available (solar power , nuclear , etc).
All you need to do is get off-planet . Later on , the most valuable real-estate becomes in-vacuo mass (because you can use mass-drivers cheaply).
The orbit can be around any planet or sun .
The station need never decay .
One can imagine a Solar System ( at various ages ) with literally millions of millennia-old booster-stations in various solar and planetary orbits , each of various technological levels of development . They are inhabited , of course . Throw in some collapses and a singularity or two .
The political system and races will be quite fragmented .
Alien invaders would only consider a system with a developed transport infrastructure and fragmented culture .
This stellar signature should be quite distinct . The end result should be a Dyson-sphere or Ringworlds . But the intermediate stages will vary considerably .
They should also be observed more easily .
Jupiter class worlds will be moved closer to the sun for more efficient dismantling .
Planetary blobs and ringworlds should be observable by striations . Technological ramp-ups up waste-energy dispersal should be measurable if there are handy gas-clouds of various distances nearby . Reflections of planetary laser-heat dispersals varying over time might give a clue .
As can be seen , arriving at the optimum Dyson sphere stage will be outmatched by the number of civilizations either en-route or become agley .
To quote a Sol humanoid , each happy civilization is the same , but each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way .
Happy universes !
---
15/5/2005
Andre Willers
Global warming is not just a short term problem . Barring catastrophe , human energy generation from fusion and non-solar sources will within a few centuries exceed the solar influx . We will need planetary air-conditioning .
(See Larry Niven's Puppeteer Planets)
At first , the simplest way is to put up an umbrella .
A simple solar Umbrella can be created by injecting Lunar reflecting dust into a hyperbolic orbit between the sun and Earth by mass-drivers on Luna .
The space elements of a moonbase and mass-drivers an be done with existing technology .
The Terran climate models needed for effective climate-control also exists , but can do with some refining .
The political control of an effective climate control system still needs some work .
The money , paradoxically , is the easiest . Big insurance companies (like Swiss Re , etc ) can easily fork up the estimated $60 billion this will cost . ( One big hurricane can cost $20 billion in damages .)
Later on it gets trickier .
At higher levels of planetary energy generation , Hilsch-tube lasers could directly pump energy out . A model that springs to mind is a fairly massive object (a few billion tons) in a perpetually skipping orbit . Propulsion would be by Hilsch-tube lasers (existing technology) and fusion (Orion-type existing tech.) More elegantly , the lasers would be boosted by fusion processes in the laser . This could be made made fairly fail-safe , so that there would be a nett energy loss to the planet . The matter-loss would have to be topped up ( comets?)
Of course , the same technology could be used to strip-mine a planet or sun .
Cascaded Hilsch-tubes were used in the South-African Uranium235-enrichment process for weapons purposes . A large physical or magnetic Hisch-tube cascade can be used like a mass-spectrometer to separate elements .
It would make a great booster for light-sails , or an awesome weapon . Also , cheap , pure elements
Time horizen : since all the above elements are based on standard physics , it can be done . Whether it will be , depends on humans .
Regards
---
Reusable reaction mass.
15/5/2005
Andre Willers
Illustration:
Imagine a 50 ton solar-powered launching satelite with a set of mass-driver rings in LEO at 18 000 mph in a West-to-East Low Earth Orbit .
Let it accellerate a 50 ton payload via mass-driver to 36 000 mph in some tangential direction .
In reaction , the Launching satelite will now orbit at 18 000 mph in an East-to-West direction .
Of course it is a bit more complicated than this , but the orbital mechanics are well within present technology (and really old maths) .
Docking new craft with the Launching satelite is also proven technology (ref International Space Station). This can then be relaunched in the opposite direction .
Essentially , the same reaction mass can be used over and over again , as long as it has been in orbit and an energy source is available (solar power , nuclear , etc).
All you need to do is get off-planet . Later on , the most valuable real-estate becomes in-vacuo mass (because you can use mass-drivers cheaply).
The orbit can be around any planet or sun .
The station need never decay .
One can imagine a Solar System ( at various ages ) with literally millions of millennia-old booster-stations in various solar and planetary orbits , each of various technological levels of development . They are inhabited , of course . Throw in some collapses and a singularity or two .
The political system and races will be quite fragmented .
Alien invaders would only consider a system with a developed transport infrastructure and fragmented culture .
This stellar signature should be quite distinct . The end result should be a Dyson-sphere or Ringworlds . But the intermediate stages will vary considerably .
They should also be observed more easily .
Jupiter class worlds will be moved closer to the sun for more efficient dismantling .
Planetary blobs and ringworlds should be observable by striations . Technological ramp-ups up waste-energy dispersal should be measurable if there are handy gas-clouds of various distances nearby . Reflections of planetary laser-heat dispersals varying over time might give a clue .
As can be seen , arriving at the optimum Dyson sphere stage will be outmatched by the number of civilizations either en-route or become agley .
To quote a Sol humanoid , each happy civilization is the same , but each unhappy one is unhappy in its own way .
Happy universes !
---
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