Ten Seconds of Consciousness

Here's the idea. Me and Erik are in the ASU Computer Commons joint-blogging. The game is simple:
1. Jack starts by typing out a short thought
2. Erik has ten seconds to think and type out a different thought
3. Jack has ten seconds, you get the idea
4. This goes on for two minutes.
5. Enjoy our large brains.

or : Gather, think, repeat.

--

1. Technology is eventually going to outpace our ability to control it.

2. I don't think that if we were going to have the type of technology that would be able to take the control from us, that we would not want them to have it. If I was going to have a robot overlord, I should certainly hope that the overlord would know best. That's the saying right, overlord knows best?

3.I can't help how bored I feel inside most modern buildings. I mean, there's something about all the impersonality of the way we've designed the modern world to look that I get very bored very easily. I think that that's the same way we're going to come at creating the things that are going to imprison us in our gilded, robot-run cages. Are we fucked? Probably not. But we are definitely shaping up to be not an evolutionary endpoint alone, but more like the seed of the greater intelligence we will soon create.

4. I wonder how much shapes really do influence us. I once wrote an article that had to do with the angle at which we see things. Not in the high-school sociology "writing slanted articles" bullshit way, but in the direct mathematical angular measurement way. Like, so you could calculate the cosine at which you were viewing any particular object in life. I guess that all came to me one day when I saw an ad on TV that showed a bald eagle's face looking directly into the camera. After living in America for 20+ years that marked the first time that I had ever seen a bald eagle's face straight on. I think it was decidedly more intimidating than looking at the side of the face. Angles might be more important than I previously thought- I gotta figure out which is my good side.

5. Logarithms tend to make things more beautiful, whether it's natural things like flowers, human faces, or the way that chair armrests look. Marcus Aurelius, who is leaving his Roman fingerprints over pretty much everything I write and think these days, would say that the world is ruled by logos, an overriding logic of the universe that basically ensures everything continues the way it has to. Most people get irrationally pissed about that, because we generally like to assume that we have control, or at least input, into the way our lives look. I think that what we're gradually finding out is that we have less control than we imagine, but that in the end that works out for the best.

6. Sometimes I get irrationally pissed off. Usually it is about nothing more than a simple blow to my most prized possession, my ego. You were expecting me to say my penis, weren't you? That's your most prized possession. My point is that I wish that I could understand better why it is that I get angry over things like that and not over things that are important, like the economy, the homeless, or why it is that I think my penis is one of your possessions. And I just realized I am not entirely sure that is how you spell "possession."

7. I lie, not often, but from time to time. Sometimes it's to cover my ass, but lately I find that I'd rather get caught so I can learn something about why I do. I find myself holding myself to high standards these days; when somebody else is a dick, or does something stupid. When I lie or make a mistake, it's me betraying myself. I read a couple seconds ago a one-liner out of an essay I found really boring: "I lie so I do not have to trust you to believe." Maybe next time don't say something that makes me think you're dumb if you don't want to be lied at.

8. I do think of people as dumb sometimes. But, on the flip-side of that I occasionally meet someone that I think is much smarter than I am. And that is an interesting experience. I start to feel like JD (from Scrubs) in that I spend all day reminiscing about the moment that I had their fleeting approval. I suppose that goes for anyone that I view to be better than me in any category. Whether it is the "good question" approval from my neuroscience teacher, the laughs at my embarrassing story from some newly-non-strangers, or the smile from a girl that is far too cute for me. I don't think I crave acceptance like I did when I was 7, but I definitely still appreciate it when I find it.

9. 22 years old and trying to make somebody laugh makes me feel like I'm 90 centuries old, circling some metaphysical drain. That shit makes me tired, so I usually delegate the laugh-duties to Erik when he's hanging out. I'm on top of a mountain most of the time, riding a Han Shan kind of thing; sometimes people make the trek up to bring me cake and cider, but for the most part they mill around at the gift shop level (right above the base) and I'm content to let them do that. If more people made the hike there wouldn't be enough room for the campfire and cell phones would start going off and at that point, why even be on a mountain--I wish I was rich enough so Al Pacino would fly up (helicopters only) and tell me Jessica Alba's new number. I would make her some cake. Pacino would stick to water.

10. Humor is interesting to me. Often times I get into arguments (in the non-abusive way) over what is "funny." I am one of those people that happens to laugh at a lot of things. I don't think Katt Williams is funny, or Louis Black, or Carrot Top. But I do laugh at them, sometimes. I also don't think it is funny to laugh at racist jokes, or other unpalatable things- but I do that too. I will even give someone the obligatory laugh after a joke/story that I know they take a lot of joy in telling. I do this completely and totally for their benefit. (If you know me, that was a joke too.) Of course I laugh, because laughing is fun. It fun to accept that Katt Williams' jokes about living the ( shortest, ugliest, least believable) pimp life are funny. Fine, so it is actually not funny, but laughing is fun. And enjoyment is fun. And scoffing at a joke for the context is not going to hurt the joke- only you. And man, do I wish Jack had told me he knew Pacino. I just sold my helicopter to Drew Carey, and that guy is a total tool.

11. A fat guy with glasses? Once I heard somebody plinked him with a BB gun from their childhood-style treehouse--although the guy was probably in his 30s, people who shoot BB guns at celebrities are like that--and I laughed, but I didn't think it was that funny. Sometimes I find myself not laughing at things I laugh at, I don't know how to describe it. I would describe it as an internal chuckle, or a feeling that the hairs on the back of my head stand up and give the attempted joke a courteous bow. I can respect the humor or enjoy the cleverness, but it's not all the way there. It's Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. What's the point anyway. If you want funny you should watch Jon Stewart. Get out of that treehouse. In the future, less than twelve months from now, someone's going to get mauled in a zoo for trying to put socks on a tiger. I am almost certain that's true.

12. And I laughed, because I mean come on - a tiger with socks?! That's comedy gold.