This will be my last post into the future.

Really. Ray Bradbury notwithstanding.

Mainly because, with the new advances in quantum experimentation, everyone will be doing it soon anyway. Or should I say, everyone will have already been doing it.

Co tinuity i nt t e o ly t g we h ve be o e us.

Yes, it is all for laughs but the laughs have become hysterical laughs, very much related to hysteresis, or returning to a state we were almost in, and also to the hyster, the shape of the nemesis of man. It is no small wonder that this strange word finds its way into our vocabulary of illness that is based not on symptoms of the body, but of the mind, itself an abstraction (Is the body an abstraction? Think about it.)

Increasingly, I do not care, I do not like green eggs, Sam. Play it. Say it, don't spray it. Spray it with PAM, Sam, and cook your green eggs and ham.

Continuity isn't the only thing we have to worry about (Part 1)

Before and after is such a simplification of even linear data, that the idea of non-linearity drops on us like a ton of books, we who are conditioned to see things in terms of cause(before) and after(effect).

This is why stock market analysts and meteorologists can hold down jobs. It is so easy to fish data out of the air, that we are just now beginning to understand that linearity is even more of an illusion than continuity.

Indeed the idea of discontinuous everywhere at once space is exactly what makes quantum theory operate. And armed with this science, we are finally doing things our parents only dreamed about, pulling energy from nowhere, creating intelligence from carbon chains, and in essence, creating new life forms.

Where does this leave mankind? Devastatingly behind. We will only be able to keep up by morphing with machinery into something more. The Quantum concept is the Pandora's box of our generation, much as the printing press was to the 15th century and the photograph was to our grandparents'. To survive, we will have to embrace all that we are capable of becoming, because if we don't, someone on this planet will, and they will destroy those weaker than them.

There, now I've passed from confusion to paranoia. How many stages are left?

Continuity isn't the only thing to be concerned about (Part 1)

It is starting to become noticeable. There are periods of time when I seem to be across a continuum. The linear self is beginning to take a backseat to the personhood that is in several places, if only mentally, at one time.

This is not a lot of fun, either. It becomes difficult to keep track of things. The only recourse is to focus in on one thing for as long as I can, at the expense of everything else, because there is just too much else. When I stop and look up, I can see it all around me, the different levels on which things work, the different responsibilities, the different personalities I am capable of wearing.

If all of this seems abstract and hard to visualize, that's because it is. An example: I find that posts I have never made are in my memory on some level as having been made. So I make them. It's sort of the reverse of Alzheimer's. It's as if my short term memory is not functioning on one, but a thousand things at once, and they all get compacted together. What I had for supper last night is lost behind where my keys are and the ten things on my incomplete to do list, and my need to journal my latest observations on continuity:

My latest observations on continuity: It is an illusion. Continuity is an idea that takes infinity and compresses it into every place you look. To assume that finite man could operate on a continuum is gross hubris. We, humans, are painfully discretized beings, only capable of a thin version of continuity. Indeed, we are so impressed with infinity, which is just continuity at the end of things.

We don't think about the mind-numbing case of infinity everywhere and all between. We blank it out. Discrete infinity is child's play next to this, but we get the two confused.

Consider: an infinite lifespan is to us just somewhere out there past our 100+- years, 101 is just as infinite as 1*10exp1000000 if we die at 99.

But continuity implies that every moment is infinite. Yes, it sounds like a trick, but what I'm talking about is the mathematical presence of divisibility completed, throughout one unit and the next. And physically, we are just not capable of that. Even though we work on the nanoscale now, for true continuity, we can just go on breaking things down forever. That is true continuity.It is an asymptote around every corner.

Is this the path that Georg Cantor traveled on his way to madness?

Falling against the sky

Over-sensitized today. This could be good for you. There are several forms of paranoia that work for me today.

1. I am a subject of observation, and the rest of you are in on the secret. A more general variant of Truman Show Syndrome, because I can't really assert who the observers are, I only know that this is all a sham.

2. The various headaches, annoyances, and interruptions that always plague me are particularly bad today, and at this point are a clear sign that the world is either a)meaningless or b)malevolent.

3. The knowledge that tonight or sometime in which I'm not conscious, adjustments will be made to my brain and I'll come out of this funk with a dumb grin and again putty in the hands of whoever is manipulating me.

4. The realization that whether or not 1) or 2) are anything but hallucinations, the outcome expressed in 3)will almost certainly happen, pointing to the fact that something is going on, regardless of how I may feel about it tomorrow.

Of course, I also have several motives for believing such absurdities, in fact could come up with new ones on the spot. It remains, however, that these shifts in perception and significance, whether random chemical imbalances or careful manipulations, have been with me for some time. Of course, Mondays can be particularly bad.

My favorite justification for these paranoic thoughts is that some form of mental illness would lessen my personal blame for all the unbearable tragedy and injustice that I'm seeing in the world more and more these days. Add to this the fact that I'm my own best friend and feel like I have to hide behind a ridiculous pseudonym (actually I have several, for various personalities) and you have some idea of what I'm putting up with.

If you really think that I'm indulging in sympathy, let me remind you that mathematically 0% of blogs are visited by others and therefore I'm mainly typing this here because my computer's hard drive doesn't have room for such drivel.

Syncthink

[This article is a perfect example of syncthink, the ability to take changes and upsets in our worldview and by either massaging them or ignoring them, assimilate them into our wholistic vision of our reality. At the end of this legitimate article, the author blithely returns to orthodoxy in the prediction that this political upset is basically a non-event in the larger political picture. ]

From the Washington post, Sept 15 2010

Marketing consultant Christine O'Donnell upset Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware Senate primaryDelaware Republican Senate primary tonight, handing the tea party movement a major victory and giving Democrats an unexpected chance to hold the First State seat.

O'Donnell, who is making her third run for the Senate in as many elections, relied heavily on national surrogates -- from the Tea Party Express to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- to fuel a shoestring campaign against the iconic Castle who had held elected office in the state for more than four decades.

"The people of Delaware have spoken," said O'Donnell in her victory speech. "No more politics as usual."

(Photos: O'Donnell stuns the GOP)

The O'Donnell victory, which was considered a political impossibility as recently as a month ago, is a major boost for Democratic hopes of holding the seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. New Castle County Executive Chris Coons was unchallenged for the Democratic Senate nomination.

"I'm sad to say the Delaware primary results tonight are straight out of Harry Reid's dream journal," said prominent Republican strategist Mike Murphy of the O'Donnell win.

While the Delaware race was the marquee contest of the night, it was far from the only one on the ledger as seven states and the District of Columbia voted in the final major primaries of the 2010 election.

In New Hampshire, former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte held a narrow lead over attorney Ovide Lamontagne in the battle for the Republican Senate nomination. The winner will take on Rep. Paul Hodes (D) in the race to replace retiring Sen. Judd Gregg (R).

In New York, embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel cruised to victory in a crowded Democratic primary field in the 15th district while Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) easily beat back a primary challenge from businesswoman Reshma Saujani in the 14th.

Also in the Empire State, tea party favorite Carl Paladino crushed former Rep. Rick Lazio in the fight for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Paladino will be a major underdog this fall against state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is heavily favored in the fall.

But, there is little doubt that O'Donnell's victory is what will dominate headlines tomorrow.

In the wake of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R) primary defeat late last month, Castle went harshly negative against O'Donnell in hopes of using his financial advantage to define her in the eyes of likely voters.

But, tonight's result suggests it was too little, too late for Castle whose political career, which began when he was elected to the Delaware state House in 1966, ends in a shocking defeat.

"This shows that conservative energy at the grassroots is at tidal wave levels," said Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and GOP lobbyist. "It may well cost us the Delaware Senate seat, but the same phenomenon will help Republicans, particularly in House races in November."

State and national Republicans have made no secret of the fact that O'Donnell's questionable personal finances and public misstatements -- she once said she carried two out of the state's three counties in her 2008 race against Biden but she didn't -- made her close to unelectable.

"We congratulate Christine O'Donnell for her nomination this evening after a hard-fought primary campaign in Delaware," said National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Rob Jesmer in a terse statement released after the race was called.

The Delaware result is also a major blow to Republicans' hopes of winning back the Senate majority this fall. To do so, the GOP needs a net gain of 10 seats, which, with Delaware now likely to favor Democrats, means that Republicans need to close to a clean sweep in states like California, Wisconsin and Washington. - [emphasis added]

----Syncthink is rampant today, but then it has always been. The internet just allows us to accelerate and emphasize its (mis)use. An antidote would be to often realize that we are NOT sure of future events, that the so called pundits are just as prone to syncthink as ourselves, their perceived authority and expertise notwithstanding.