JoeGoldfarb.com

Matrix-like virtual worlds “a few years away”

from newscientist:
“Are supercomputers on the verge of creating Matrix-style simulated realities? Michael McGuigan at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, thinks so. He says that virtual worlds realistic enough to be mistaken for the real thing are just a few years away.”
Research available on the arXiv preprint server (pdf)

The increasing power of computer technology capable of rendering life-like virtual reality is coming tantalizingly close.

What is real?

Once immersive virtual worlds are as realistic as this world, boundaries between what is real and what is not will become significantly blurred. Let’s ask ourselves: how do we currently define what is real? By our senses? Do you define a book as real because you can ascertain it’s qualities using all five senses? Then are the words on this webpage less real than the words in a physical book? One can only obtain a web pages qualities via one sense - sight. So does that make this web page any less real than a book? If yes, then I recommend you read Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. If no, then what is the process you go through to determine this website is as real as a physical book when only sense of perception is used? To take this future, how do you know I, the writer am as real as a physical book when you cannot even see me? .. or China? or Christ? What exactly is real? And how exactly do we define what is real?

photo by girlreporter

What this city is built on

The floor beneath us is far from solid. In material reality the floor is not what is appears to be. It consists of mostly empty space, sparsely filled with little atom balls which electrons whirl around at great speeds. Stepping on the floor is like stepping onto a swarm of ants. The solid quality of the surface is relayed from our feet and eyes to our brain via the electricity in the nervous system, of which minute electron particles make up.

A floor in a matrix-style virtual world is far from solid, even though it provides support for our virtual bodies. In reality, that virtual floor is not what is appears. It consists of mostly empty space, where the substance is substantiated by little electrons whirling about at great speeds. The solid quality of the virtual floor is relayed to our brain via electrons, likely emitted from a special helmet that sends electrical waves through our skull.

Is the virtual world an illusion?

A virtual world is made from the same electron particle that makes up this world, this webpage, and even you and I. We perceive and interact with the virtual world in the same manor as we perceive and interact with this world. If the virtual world is an illusion, then this world is also an illusion for both are made of the same substance and perceived via the same senses. The objects which particles build and the reality in which they inhabit are the illusions. The chair is not real. Instead, what is real is the function the chair provides, not the object itself. Similarly, the word “love” is not real. What matters is the connection the word implies.

Personally, I find this subjective viewpoint of reality where form is unreal yet function is real very empowering. This belief must be attached to the knowledge that I am real, as in my consciousness is real for this awareness raising potential of this viewpoint to be realized. This realization allows me to be the active agent in the creation of my own subjective reality. This allows me to decide what is good and bad, what I want in my life and what I don’t, along with the will power to fulfill these choices. I have met many people who had the courage to realize their potential and define their own personal reality for success and empowerment. Maybe this is this is the mental process they followed. Whether they know how the blooming of their mind and life occurred is largely irrelevant. The fact that they “made it” is what’s acknowledged. But I find the path, process and method equally as important.

May you realize your vision and power for action as well.

What I have learned as a Vegan, And What You Can Too.

While I may have been able to learn all of the following by reading, doing so would have kept the ideas in the abstract. Experiencing the ideas, however, results in intimate understanding. Therefore, applying ideas to real life turns them into powerful and real vehicles of transformation.

Summery and Reflections

I have learned more about topics in which I previously new little or nothing about. I have learned about factory farming, free-range farming, sustainable farming, husbandry, protein nutrition, moralism, Jainism and green living.

All life is equal. Plants are equal to animals. All life desires to preserve it’s life; living is what life does.

If you wish to eat cruelty free, then I ask you eat only what Nature freely gives you. Ripping a carrot from the Earth is hardly a giving act. It is taking with force a life from Nature. Instead eat the fruits fallen from trees and the seeds scattered by the wind. Eat what Nature gives you freely, not what it protects with rocks, soils and emotions.

Killing any life, however small, is cruelty in the abstract.

Conceptually, cruelty need not have any physical manifestation for it to be as real as any other thought, like love. We tend to forget that thoughts, lingering in the abstract, are the foundations of reality. All acts are preceded by a thought inasmuch as a hug is with love. To destroy a divine creation for survival is physical necessity, but to do it without love and respect is abhorrent.

Life that sacrifices itself for continuation of your life needs to be respected, regardless of the shape, size and function of that life.

Ten years ago I attended a three-day Reiki training seminar. Of the many things I learned, one was to preform a simple Reiki technique on my food to imbue it with positive energy. At the time, I had no idea why one would need to. The reasoning, which I have largely forgotten was not explained in a manor that I could understood. But now I am beginning to understand that it was a form of respect toward that die for me to live.

Cores Concepts

Veganism is a lifestyle, way of life, and philosophy. Veganism is a social artifact created in response to a culture of consumerism that yields unsustainable ecological practices, poor dietary habits, and lack of conscientious thinking and behavior.

Diet: Veganism, when practiced properly, is likely healthier than the standard American diet. Other diets could be just as healthy, if not, more so. Diet and health are complex to understand containing a massive amount of variables. A diet that works for one does not mean it will work for another. It recommend trying a variety of diets to learn what your body response best to.

Biology: Veganism and vegetarianism as a diet are obviously possible. However, it is a biologically unnatural way of sustaining a human. In fact, extreme diets such as veganism and vegetarianism are extremely rare in the natural world. Nearly all higher-order species consume a mix of plant and animal matter with only a few exceptions.

A vegan and vegetarian lifestyles are diets, social constructs and philosophies created by humans. Misunderstood science is used as a tool to support an otherwise sound social movement and philosophy. This is similar to how Fundamental Christians twist science to give power to support their religious reality.

Humans are dietary adaptable organisms, not niched diet species like the panda or flamingo. We can sustain ourselves on a revolving diet depending on food availability, as has been the case over the last 350 million years with our ancestors.

Spirituality: I made a mistake in believing Vegetarianism leads to Spirituality. I have learned Veganism and Vegetarianism are not spiritual, but are lifestyles that can be practiced by those who are spiritual.

Inspected alone, Veganism fosters and promotes a biasness toward lifeforms which posses either emotions, intelligence and/or consciousness. These qualities, intrinsic but not limited to avians and mammals, are argued as a requirement for the experience of pain and suffering. This drawing of a line separating lifeforms based on mental faculties is a perception as false as separating humans based on skin color and IQ. Emotions and conciseness are manifestations of a physical nature in the same manor as feathers and chlorophyll are. One is not inherently superior to another. Despite this, I believe Vegans, proved by the adoption of the vegan diet, are conscientious people possessing well defined ethical values. However, Veganism and Vegetarianism cannot leads to spiritual awareness when it in itself is blind to life in other forms, naively promoting inequality by falsely believing one physical manifestation is more important than another. It is ironic that Vegans advocating animal rights reveal themselves as disrespectful and ambivalent to the other forms life takes. With a little juggling, Veganism can be auxiliary to a spiritual or religious belief system, but is not spiritual in and of itself. It is a social artifact created to solve a perceived social and cultural problem.

Environment: Currently, of all actions a single person can take to “save” the world (strictly environmental), eliminating meat intake would serve the greatest results. We we soon be facing a resource crunch. Eliminating meat consumption frees up resources.

Philosophy: A Vegan is one who practices a lifestyle that abstains from using animals for any purpose (even riding a horse?). A vegans goal is living cruelty-free. Thus a vegan strongly opposes factory farms and other processes which ignore animal rights.

Intention: Being a dietary vegan has instilled energy in my existence. I feel like I am thinking about something which matters.

Perspective: One can easily lose perspective as a Vegan. The primary goal for a Vegan is to sustain themselves without the use of animals. Abstaining from creature meat, dairy and animal products does a great deal towards supporting that purpose. Abstaining from products and food that contain or made from animal by-products is becoming detailed in fulfilling the goal. Determining whether or not sugar was whiten with bone char even though the sugar itself contains none becomes a questionable use of mental energy. For if one ceases meat consumption, then less bones will be available for secondary industries.

Thus focusing on reducing the primary industries output will have a cascading effect. A passionate and lifelong figure skater, in my opinion, lost focus on the overall goal of veganism when she became upset that the only good, high quality skates are made with leather. She loves to skate and her vegan lifestyle is already doing so much for the environment. Why is she worrying about a small detail? A pair of skates that will last five years. She should do her best as a Vegan while not giving up her love of skating. We all need to keep perspective.