Exodus: Naturellement...

Our immediate decision to acquire shares of the wave's power came from our dissatisfaction with the primacy of nature.  She, as nature is commonly thought of, had been our surrogate mother.  She had wired us genetically, like all of her children, to take care of our needs.  We were able to change our clothing if necessary, though it was through quite a slow wardrobe change, taking millions of years.  We were able to find provision for our basic needs, given she had made the supplies available.  The biggest bummer was that she had given us life, only to kill us off in the end.  We saw her as the chief force of guaranteeing that the existence of life was only a minor blip in the history of the chaotic universe.  This was a troublesome realization. 

As far as we could tell (we did not have microscopes), there had never been any guarantee that she was there to protect us in any way.  So we did the only thing we could do.  We decided to make our own wardrobe decisions.  We decided to try and provide for ourselves.  We took power away from her, and while she still holds a great deal of that power, we still intend to take more.  We are, after all, still dying.  Our wager in this is that some way, somehow we will escape predetermined death.  Over the millions of years since we declared our independence, we have occasionally looked back into nature, and wondered if we made the right choice all along.

Consider the example of this investment banker:  A resident of Cincinnati, he has a high paying job, lives in a nice home that backs up to a nature preserve, and can afford to shop at Whole Foods.  Yet he's not happy.  He's sitting in his breakfast nook, drinking his fair trade coffee and looking out the window into the preserve thinking, "Gosh, what I wouldn't give just to be free from all of this.  Gosh, the Bengals are going to blow this year.  My son is turning out to be a real asshole, and I just don't want any of this anymore.  I wish I was a park ranger..." 

We all wish we were park rangers by the time we fully mature.  Every single one of us.  Yet how many of us actually return?  From ancient cave paintings depicting a longing to be reunited with nature, to the experiences of our contemporary authors and artists, the remorse regarding our disconnect with nature and our inability to return is evident.  H.D. Thoreau who depicts this longing quite well, wanted to reconnect with nature so badly he abandoned all shame to play "camp out" in his friend's back yard.  Thoreau's book, "camp out" is a thoughtful read, until you realize he was in the back yard procuring free dinners throughout his experience, thus proving my point.  We continue to walk away from its demand to govern us, yet all the while we walk with our heads looking backward, with tears in our eyes. 

Do you remember that investment banker I brought up?  He died of ass cancer one year after retiring from his job, and his son bought a strip club with his inheritance.  How appropriate.  Now waiting around forever for a wardrobe change doesn't look so bad, does it?  So go the many costs of championing the wave.  Until next time... I'm going to go make myself a sandwich.

"As we degenerate, the contrast between us and our house is more evident.  We are as much strangers in nature, as we are aliens from God.  We do not understand the notes of birds.  The fox and the deer run away from us.  We do not know the uses of more than a few plants, as corn and the apple, the potato and the vine.  Is not the landscape, every glimpse of which hath a grandeur, a face of him?  Yet this may show us what discord is between man and nature, for you cannot freely admire a noble landscape, if laborers are digging in the field hard by.  The poet finds something ridiculous in his delight, until he is out of the sight of men." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leonard Cohen (reciting his poetry) and Philip Glass (playing the score), two guys you should definitely get to know while your still on the mortal coil, put our stakes into perspective quite well:

Genesis: In the Beginning...

*It's been over a month, I know.  What is my excuse?  Well, you wouldn't believe the maintenance this thing takes to keep it running.  It started out being that I just had to install a new part to give us all a smoother ride.  Alas, my lack of sense caught up with me when I tried using the Chinese side of the installation instructions.  Pipes burst, alarms went off...  It was wet, really wet down here.  And I don't like being wet.  Its like eating pancakes.  Five minutes into what you thought was a great idea, you realize you'd rather not have done it in the first place.  Everyone would rather be dry than wet, except for Michael Phelps and dogs; also sea creatures.  But I've finally fixed everything back here in the bowels of the blog.  The Wizard of Oz can now get back to his shamming.  Hmmm hmm hmm, ohhhh Dorothy!!!*

In the beginning of the wave humanity did not exist.  Simple as that.  There you have it.  Well, go on...

All we know is that at some point on the ride from big bangs to sabre-toothed fangs, *check, check* humans emerged.  Like everything surrounding us we were a product of motion in the wave; nature and nurture, if you need more tangible concepts.  But unlike the other wave byproducts, we accomplished the unthinkable.  We hijacked the wave itself.

Consider the instance in which humans gained the ability to determine the progression of the great wave:  Our ancestor, the beast-human, sits in a field over a foreign pile of bones.  It wonders what it has found and where it came from.  It picks up a bone to examine, and a curious notion enters its brain.  It uses the force of the bone to break the others into shards, forming many sharp objects for further examination and use.  The first drop of blood has been added to the wave.

What gave our ancestor this notion?  That, I think, is a most fascinating question.  If the beast had known that a mere action of curiosity would ignite a chain of such incredible events, would the revelation have blown its mind out the back of its skull?  In our present state, we as a species know that the wave is still far from our complete control, but we can plainly see that the velocity of our progress will continue to shorten the gap between the possible and impossible of our abilities.  What a queer existence to behold: That we would have the capacities and the keys to ride and guide the wave of all existence.

On planet Earth at least, the wave is now blood red.  There are many things outside of our control that would render this little trend non-existent in a second.  And while the wave would surely continue without us just fine, it is wise for us to consider the inherent chaos of the wave, and if our presence in it provides a unique opportunity for all life.  We have the ability to give life a chance in the deluge of the wave.  We have snorkels.  This is the foundation for our case in the right to determine its path:  As far as we know, it is ourselves and not mother nature that have the only ability to sustain permanence of existence.  We alone have proven capable of bending the wave on this planet to such a trend.  Our ancestor, the beast with the bone in hand, must have been so weary of the chaos surrounding it.  It had cried out to God for solace in its misery, and had only heard the faint mysteries of the wind.  Control was the only solace it found that day, and it alone is the great experiment our species has been tasked to carry out.

"Out upon nature, in upon himself, back through the mists that shroud the past, forward into the darkness that overhangs the future...  Beneath things, he seeks the law; he would know how the globe was forged and the stars were hung, and trace to their origins the springs of life. And, then, as the man develops his nobler nature, there arises the desire higher yet—the passion of passions, the hope of hopes—the desire that he, even he, may somehow aid in making life better and brighter, in destroying want and sin, sorrow and shame... Into higher, grander spheres desire mounts and beckons...  Lo! the pulses of the man throb with the yearnings of the god—he would aid in the process of the suns!" - Henry George

While this is our path in life, it must be remembered that humanity has done all that it can to ruin any chance for established equilibrium.  This should not be so striking, if one understands that we are children of the wave.  Yet some believe the wave itself as a child of a higher power, one that favors equilibrium, and that is what divides right from wrong in our small minds.  Without God, everything is lawful, just as our mother wave has taught us.  But, if we are in fact disinclined to this conclusion on the premise of whatever belief or argument, then it is our responsibility as wave changers to understand what has gone before us in the form of change, lest we repeat mishaps of the past.  The more power we have, the higher the stakes.  This time around, we may lose our snorkels.

Before we continue, it would be good to put things into perspective, for though we have great mastery over the wave, we are eons away from being in any form of full control.  We are even further away from being able to afford any irresponsibility of its use.  Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Carl Sagan!:

Après Moi, 2.0

Flanners and I have been having some talks, and I think I am ready to begin part two of this adventure.  I have spent two weeks trying to best organize a "kick off" piece for what will likely become a very long, long winded series of my writings.  The subject at hand will likely continue to be analyzed for the duration of this blog, depending on when I finally get sick of it and want to start my second subject blog, "Staffordshire Terriers and You".  But what is the subject at hand?  Well, that's what I have been trying to answer for two weeks now.  Lets see if I can pull it off.

Moore's Law states that when.....  dammit.

Alright.  How about a focus on some imagery.  We, and I am using the royal "We", are standing on the precipice of great changes to our human race (Platitude, platitude, sit tight, it gets better, maybe).   Picture a group of human beings standing on some geographical vantage point.  Amongst others I consider myself, as well as you, the reader, in this group of people.  Presented before us is a sloping plane of water rapidly rising and heading our way.  It isn't a lethal threat so much as it is an omen that nothing in our world will remain the same; a realization that we fight tirelessly in our daily lives to ignore.

It is true that we have always lived in the presence of this great wave of change, and likewise the flood that accompanies it.  But never before in our existence have we experienced or been faced with the rapidity and voracity of the changes before us.  Furthermore, we who stand here are all being afforded an opportunity that has never been available to such a large group of individuals.  We, like all of humanity, have taken part in creating this flood of change.  But never before have so many people been given a chance to actually see it coming, to pick and guess at its body, and to prophecy what is to come.  The builders of the pyramids could not see the effects they would have on the world, much like the butterfly whose wings flutter into existence the birth-winds of a hurricane.

These writings will be a small piece of that picking, guessing, and prophesying.  Prophesying is a word that makes people feel a little weird.  An encounter with this word leaves one with simultaneous feelings of excitement and distrust, likened to feelings when one hears a religious perspective.  To this, I say that all this future talk IS a religious perspective of sorts.  Look at the chaos in our universe!  There is no way to be certain that any of this will exist tomorrow.  Likewise, there is no surety in the continuity of the wave of change in its direction, speed, or existence.  It would be nice if it all stopped; I could finally feel slightly optimistic about my 401k.  But there is no sign as of yet that it will or even can be stopped.  So until something halts this flood, I will prophecy about this religion of what is to come.  You will play the part of the crowd, and I will be stinky ol' John the Baptist. hmmm.... I wonder....

I bet John the Baptist was gettin' all fresh in the woods with heavy odor, and when he was speaking to a group of people, someone was all like "ew, John the Baptist.  You smell like hell.  Take a bath once in a while!"  And then John the Baptist is all like "eureka!!!".

Ahem, where was I?

It is important to note the impending change as being comprised of both a wave and a flood.  The curvature of the wave signifies the exponential growth of the changes we are experiencing.  Technological advancement follows this curvature of change and is best explained by Moore's Law, which I attempted to mention earlier. While social and cultural changes don't follow Moore's law to a tee, we can look back and realize that the change in these arenas that has occurred over the last 100 years has incredibly dwarfed progress in the 1000 years before that.  Social and cultural change is as well increasing exponentially.  One could call this all progress, but I would say that depends on whether you prefer being wet or not.  The flood shows us that change itself is likely to be permanent.  Water, unless frozen does not stand still.  Unless evaporated, water remains.  As long as humans exist, and we neither freeze to death or nuke the entire planet, the change stays.  Revolutions are eternal, if you will.  The relationship between the two signifies that the height and curvature of the wave combined with the force of the flood variably determine our future of change.  With the outlook of things as they are now, the rate of change is likely to reach the speed of a fired bullet sooner than we may expect.  Here is a good illustration: http://picasaweb.google.com/107875569835796136230/ApresMoiLeDeluge#5495872831598686898  (it's actually a terrible illustration, but I like it.  Notice I'm throwing up in the picture?  Hah, yeah that's great!)

With this outlook you can expect to see in the future missives on everything you can imagine in our human world, as long as it is changing.  This rules out charleston chew, which has never changed its recipe, nor does it have the capacity to undergo physical or chemical changes.  See for yourself, it's scary.  I think you get the picture, and I will be delighted to see you return for a peek or two.  Just don't bring charleston chew.