I've been a fan of role-playing games for a while, most specifically games which feature a leveling system that allows for a variety of character play styles and "builds". Many rpg's(role-playing games) allow you to choose various abilities or upgrades for your character as they gain levels and experience, usually offering choices that impact the strengths and weaknesses of the character. A major reason I look for these features is that when well-executed, they allow me to explore a variety of play-styles, or simply find the one that suits me best.
I've played Fallout since Fallout 3, and have spent quite a few hours between Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas exploring the leveling and character progression offered by the series - and in general I really enjoyed exploring not just the world, but also the many ways I could shape my own character through the skills and perks to create vastly different play-styles. Fallout 4 streamlined the process and dropped skills from the system as well as changing how perks were acquired slightly since skill requirements no longer applied. I didn't play much Fallout 4, but mechanically, I liked the game quite a bit - especially the settlement system.
Fallout 76 changes the leveling and progression a bit more, and I think it's in a really good place for the game and players. It's a bit hard to explain, but rather simple once you grasp the concept, but how high any given S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute is determines how many perks related to that attribute can be equipped at a time. A Strength of 10 would allow 10 Strength perks to be equipped, as long as each perk was only valued at 1 point. Some perks have a greater impact, and have a higher value/cost/weight when being equipped, adding a little more thought as to how you'd like to shape your character.
I like how the perks work with the Special system, yes, but the best feature(in my opinion) to come of this is the ability to equip and change perks at any point, granted you have unlocked the perk card you want to equip and have the points available to do so. You stop gaining Special points after level 50, but you can still select a new perk card each time you level, or if you need to refine your allotment of Special points, you can move a point from one attribute to another. I've seen some complaints that this doesn't allow for you to easily change your character's build entirely, but as far as these and most rpg's go, that requires a new character.
Leveling and progress systems in role-playing games are some of my favorite aspects in video games, due to allowing me to have a larger choice in how I can play the game. For Fallout 76, I like the system as a whole, but I also very much appreciate the ability to make adjustments more freely. After reaching level 50, I started to realize that much of what I had spent my points on didn't make sense, and I spent the next while refining my Special points and gathering different perk cards to make a more cohesive build. I wasn't only able to fix my "mistakes", but since then I've been able to find a few other options and upgrades that I can add through perk cards. Something that I felt more strongly about once I reached higher levels, was that ability to equip different sets of perks for different... adventures?
I spent a lot of my effort when leveling on perks that allowed me to craft items and carry more junk(crafting components), but these perks also took points that could have been spent making me better at fighting enemies, a major aspect of the game. These quality-of-life perks are still useful to me, but if I'm not going on a trip to loot a bunch of places for scrap, I might be better off equipping perks that will help me survive in combat. With system in place, I'm not locked out of combat perks just because I wanted to carry more junk when I was leveling up and getting to know the game. I did spend way more points in Strength than I intended to, but in the end I liked the opportunity to change how I was playing the game and instead leaned into after level 50 and started collecting heavy guns and melee perk cards.
Fallout 76 gets a bad rap, and there are certainly some flaws, can't argue that. For me personally though, the changes they made to the leveling and perk system are good systems in their own right, even if it might be hard to determine if the are an "improvement", and many of the other changes and systems added to create a game that is Fallout but multiplayer were well-done despite challenges of an aging engine and online play.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Monday, August 13, 2018
A Lesson In Humanity I Learned From MLP:FiM
So real quick, I'm a fan of the series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but that's not the point of the post, just part of it. The show is generally targeted towards kids, and includes a lot of messages and explorations of friendship and other interpersonal relationships. There is certainly conflict throughout the series, and most of the conflicts are concluded by means of friendship or understanding, rather than violence or dominance - as you would expect from a show created with children in mind.
I purchased Tales of Equestria, a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the land of Equestria, which also discussed a lot of the ideas about stories and conflicts for those telling the stories. It highlighted the idea that violence or "scuffles" were not a major focus of problem solving, and further reinforced the idea that friendship and understanding should be the main means of conflict resolution. This idea sat around with me for a while, and eventually there was a moment where it clicked for me as I talked to my nephews and niece about the misbehavior of Silas.
"When people are being bad, it is usually because they are sad about something." This was how it came out as I tried to work them towards the idea. Upset is a fair bit more accurate, but I wanted to ensure the three of them understood the idea, not specifically a sentence. There are situations that motivations are generally irrelevant, but it is widely applicable that negative behavior stems from a negative reaction to something. Negative behavior is often symptomatic rather than spontaneous, and can be difficult to resolve by simply confronting the behavior.
Starlight Glimmer wasn't replacing cutie marks and trying to reshape all of society because she thought it would be fun, she was attempting to do so because she felt wronged by how society viewed the role cutie marks and many of the negative results thereof. This motivation didn't justify her actions, but understanding them is what helped Twilight Sparkle resolve the conflict. She couldn't best Starlight through might and magic, but through reshaping Starlight's perception she was able to bring a stop to the villainy.
Today, we want to build a giant wall out of a misplaced fear that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs. We believe that others pursuing life liberty and happiness may encroach on our own, and we work hard to dis-empower "Them". We believe that it is only through might and domination that we will not be dominated ourselves. While I may disagree with these beliefs and opinions, I have little hope of affecting them if I do not address the root of those beliefs.
From a position of privilege, I will make no headway in changing beliefs by attacking the individuals. I think most who know me are aware that I am appalled by the current administration and Trump in particular, but I am aware that if I make personal attacks that I won't change anyone's mind. I work hard to construct better arguments and encourage deeper understanding, much like we are taught by children's media. Thanks in large part to Fred Rogers, messages of kindness and understanding were taught to many children throughout the years - and I often feel like we perceive them as messages only to children that have no place in our adult "real" world.
My daily life is not encroached upon by discrimination and intolerance, and that is a privilege. I disagree with violence and aggressive behavior generally, but this is a stance that is most easily taken from a position of privilege, and I believe it is important that I recognize this. It's why I was able to believe that discrimination was anecdotal, since there are things like OSHA and Equal Opportunity Employment. It's why I used to consider Affirmative Action as a double-standard rather than trying to understand the incredible disparity in the workforce. I've tried to catch my own reactions and examine them, and there are times I've been narrow-minded - and that's not something I want to be. I don't want to be a bigot(because I'd like to think I'm a decent human being), so it's important that I try to consider and understand my beliefs and actions as well.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
I purchased Tales of Equestria, a pen-and-paper roleplaying game set in the land of Equestria, which also discussed a lot of the ideas about stories and conflicts for those telling the stories. It highlighted the idea that violence or "scuffles" were not a major focus of problem solving, and further reinforced the idea that friendship and understanding should be the main means of conflict resolution. This idea sat around with me for a while, and eventually there was a moment where it clicked for me as I talked to my nephews and niece about the misbehavior of Silas.
"When people are being bad, it is usually because they are sad about something." This was how it came out as I tried to work them towards the idea. Upset is a fair bit more accurate, but I wanted to ensure the three of them understood the idea, not specifically a sentence. There are situations that motivations are generally irrelevant, but it is widely applicable that negative behavior stems from a negative reaction to something. Negative behavior is often symptomatic rather than spontaneous, and can be difficult to resolve by simply confronting the behavior.
Starlight Glimmer wasn't replacing cutie marks and trying to reshape all of society because she thought it would be fun, she was attempting to do so because she felt wronged by how society viewed the role cutie marks and many of the negative results thereof. This motivation didn't justify her actions, but understanding them is what helped Twilight Sparkle resolve the conflict. She couldn't best Starlight through might and magic, but through reshaping Starlight's perception she was able to bring a stop to the villainy.
Today, we want to build a giant wall out of a misplaced fear that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs. We believe that others pursuing life liberty and happiness may encroach on our own, and we work hard to dis-empower "Them". We believe that it is only through might and domination that we will not be dominated ourselves. While I may disagree with these beliefs and opinions, I have little hope of affecting them if I do not address the root of those beliefs.
From a position of privilege, I will make no headway in changing beliefs by attacking the individuals. I think most who know me are aware that I am appalled by the current administration and Trump in particular, but I am aware that if I make personal attacks that I won't change anyone's mind. I work hard to construct better arguments and encourage deeper understanding, much like we are taught by children's media. Thanks in large part to Fred Rogers, messages of kindness and understanding were taught to many children throughout the years - and I often feel like we perceive them as messages only to children that have no place in our adult "real" world.
My daily life is not encroached upon by discrimination and intolerance, and that is a privilege. I disagree with violence and aggressive behavior generally, but this is a stance that is most easily taken from a position of privilege, and I believe it is important that I recognize this. It's why I was able to believe that discrimination was anecdotal, since there are things like OSHA and Equal Opportunity Employment. It's why I used to consider Affirmative Action as a double-standard rather than trying to understand the incredible disparity in the workforce. I've tried to catch my own reactions and examine them, and there are times I've been narrow-minded - and that's not something I want to be. I don't want to be a bigot(because I'd like to think I'm a decent human being), so it's important that I try to consider and understand my beliefs and actions as well.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Thoughts on Universal Basic Income and Standard of Living
With the rise of automation and advanced robotics interfacing, manual labor and many common jobs can be replaced with automated staff and equipment, and this has led to questions about the role of jobs as a means of income in the future. One thought which has been proposed as a reaction to this is the idea of Universal Basic Income, an allocation of money or credit to citizens on a regular basis for the purpose of supporting a basic standard of living.
Minimum wage and the existing concept of a "standard of living" wage are similar in some regards to this, as a measure to ensure that someone who is working or productive in some manner is able to support themselves on a basic level. If many jobs, sources of that basic income, become automated it could cause a lot of people to be in incredibly unfortunate circumstances to say the least. And sure, that's not anyone else's problem, the world isn't fair. Business is as business does. I think leaving it at that though leaves us to decide if we're okay with the kind of society and structure which that creates, or perhaps more accurately, has created.
We should all be able to look out for ourselves, and I understand how that mentality is a part of resistance to the idea of a single-payer healthcare system(what does that mean exactly, you got me) - but I honestly think most people would think of a good country as one that affords its citizens a basic standard of living as seen by the existing minimum wage and labor laws, as well as ideas like Welfare and Social Security. Putting a program into place like this is difficult, and arguably that difficulty of execution is what has led to the many shortcomings of Welfare and Social Security. I don't think that means we shouldn't have a goal of better lives for our citizens.
Establishing what a "basic standard of living" is will be a difficult task, but one that is crucial to the ideas behind Universal Basic Income and similar concepts, as UBI is generally intended to provide access to that "basic standard of living". My pitch and reason for posting, is that, what if, we could find a way to directly apply this Universal Basic Income to things like healthcare and housing? What if you could opt to do this, or still go about your life while receiving the money or credit from the UBI? What if there was an insurance provider through the government in addition to the existing options, which you could use your UBI for?
I don't know what would work, but I do know that I believe that as we make progress as a society and a civilization, we've become much more capable of offering better lives for all - and I think actually doing so is something to strive for. In the spirit of Minimum Wage and Universal Basic Income, I think we should figure out the standard of living we expect and strive to meet that, to make that a reality.
Thanks for your time,
Alturiigo
Minimum wage and the existing concept of a "standard of living" wage are similar in some regards to this, as a measure to ensure that someone who is working or productive in some manner is able to support themselves on a basic level. If many jobs, sources of that basic income, become automated it could cause a lot of people to be in incredibly unfortunate circumstances to say the least. And sure, that's not anyone else's problem, the world isn't fair. Business is as business does. I think leaving it at that though leaves us to decide if we're okay with the kind of society and structure which that creates, or perhaps more accurately, has created.
We should all be able to look out for ourselves, and I understand how that mentality is a part of resistance to the idea of a single-payer healthcare system(what does that mean exactly, you got me) - but I honestly think most people would think of a good country as one that affords its citizens a basic standard of living as seen by the existing minimum wage and labor laws, as well as ideas like Welfare and Social Security. Putting a program into place like this is difficult, and arguably that difficulty of execution is what has led to the many shortcomings of Welfare and Social Security. I don't think that means we shouldn't have a goal of better lives for our citizens.
Establishing what a "basic standard of living" is will be a difficult task, but one that is crucial to the ideas behind Universal Basic Income and similar concepts, as UBI is generally intended to provide access to that "basic standard of living". My pitch and reason for posting, is that, what if, we could find a way to directly apply this Universal Basic Income to things like healthcare and housing? What if you could opt to do this, or still go about your life while receiving the money or credit from the UBI? What if there was an insurance provider through the government in addition to the existing options, which you could use your UBI for?
I don't know what would work, but I do know that I believe that as we make progress as a society and a civilization, we've become much more capable of offering better lives for all - and I think actually doing so is something to strive for. In the spirit of Minimum Wage and Universal Basic Income, I think we should figure out the standard of living we expect and strive to meet that, to make that a reality.
Thanks for your time,
Alturiigo
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Thoughts On Management and Accountability
I've worked in restaurants quite a bit, both as just a basic employee and as a shift manager, including the positions between such as a trainer of other employees. I want to share some of my thoughts about being a manager-level employee and how that relates to responsibility.
Managers tend to make more than the employees under them, and often are offered additional benefits such as a free meal, a larger discount, full-time hours, offering insurance, maybe vacation hours. The thing is, these things don't work a simply as just receiving more benefits, in the sense that they are offered as compensation for increased responsibility, or perhaps, accountability. As a manager or shift leader, you are responsible for the business and the employees during your shift. When they mess up, that's on you - and taking responsibility for that isn't just yelling at them - it's understanding why the mistake was made, and taking action to correct and prevent the mistake or error from occurring again. When something goes wrong, it's your responsibility to do your best to correct or improve the situation. As a leader, you are accountable - because you are the leader.
These ideas are really important to my idea of being a leader, that accepting such a role(of leader) means accepting accountability for what you are leading. Even when things go wrong that are out of my control, I am still responsible for whatever action or inaction I take in handling the situation, because I accepted that responsibility when accepted my position. I've thought about this a lot lately as I see many discussions about issues such as families being separated, with many arguments being more focused on responsibility through the lens of blame, rather than responsibility of action.
The actions being taken by members of the government are actions that I thought were not acceptable to our society, and as a member of that society, my primary concern is that it does not continue to happen, and that we take prompt action in correcting these atrocities. My concern lies less with actions taken and establishing blame, but rather with the responsibility of improving and correcting the situation. I don't care if the law that is "being followed" was passed by a previous administration, I care about what we are doing to change things for the better - and that responsibility lies with our leaders as much as ourselves. Being a leader isn't about pointing your finger at others or simply passing the blame - it's about accepting responsibility and being accountable for your actions.
"With great power comes great responsibility" - popularized by Spiderman, I agree with this idea pretty strongly. A concept that many stories in comics touch on, is that a major difference between "heroes" and "villains" is simply how they use(or don't) their power. So for me, a powerful leader who does not hold themselves accountable and refuses accept the responsibility of the role they've accepted, is frightening. I know the world isn't fair, and that nothing works perfectly and that not everyone can be happy - but that doesn't condone or excuse mistreatment of other human beings. It's painfully obvious to look through history and see that what is law is not always what is right - and yeah, we should be always pursuing a better form of governing - and it pains me to think that some of the dehumanizing laws speak more truly our country's beliefs than I thought.
I'd like to believe the good ol' US of A is a country that values human lives, affords everyone the opportunity to be the best selves they can be, and protects the basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I want to take pride in my country and its pursuit of being better, accepting when it is wrong so it can learn to be right, a country that doesn't just say it's the best, but actively tries to make that a reality. And yeah, "being the best" is defined differently to each of us, but I for one can take no pride in knowing that human lives have been abused and destroyed willingly and knowingly by my country. As a citizen, I feel like I am responsible and certainly that is true - so I'm going to end it with this anecdote for comparison.
When several incidents at Starbucks locations occurred involving racism, the company acted with some accountability, acknowledging that they were responsible for the actions of their employees and the culture of their franchise. The individual employees were responsible, but as employers the company was responsible for their staff, and took actions representative of that responsibility, such as enforcing all locations to close for mandatory meeting in an attempt to address the issue. I don't want our president to ignore the responsibility over the actions of the government, whether he specifically was responsible for the situation or not - that is what it means to be a leader, a responsibility that comes with power - but ultimately, a responsibility.
I don't think I can say much more and keep this coherent and maybe I should express more outrage, but this was not for me to make myself feel better. I wanted to express my belief that leaders should be held to a high expectation, as the responsibility demands it. I believe that accepting the role of leadership is accepting the responsibility.
Thanks for your time,
Alturiigo
Managers tend to make more than the employees under them, and often are offered additional benefits such as a free meal, a larger discount, full-time hours, offering insurance, maybe vacation hours. The thing is, these things don't work a simply as just receiving more benefits, in the sense that they are offered as compensation for increased responsibility, or perhaps, accountability. As a manager or shift leader, you are responsible for the business and the employees during your shift. When they mess up, that's on you - and taking responsibility for that isn't just yelling at them - it's understanding why the mistake was made, and taking action to correct and prevent the mistake or error from occurring again. When something goes wrong, it's your responsibility to do your best to correct or improve the situation. As a leader, you are accountable - because you are the leader.
These ideas are really important to my idea of being a leader, that accepting such a role(of leader) means accepting accountability for what you are leading. Even when things go wrong that are out of my control, I am still responsible for whatever action or inaction I take in handling the situation, because I accepted that responsibility when accepted my position. I've thought about this a lot lately as I see many discussions about issues such as families being separated, with many arguments being more focused on responsibility through the lens of blame, rather than responsibility of action.
The actions being taken by members of the government are actions that I thought were not acceptable to our society, and as a member of that society, my primary concern is that it does not continue to happen, and that we take prompt action in correcting these atrocities. My concern lies less with actions taken and establishing blame, but rather with the responsibility of improving and correcting the situation. I don't care if the law that is "being followed" was passed by a previous administration, I care about what we are doing to change things for the better - and that responsibility lies with our leaders as much as ourselves. Being a leader isn't about pointing your finger at others or simply passing the blame - it's about accepting responsibility and being accountable for your actions.
"With great power comes great responsibility" - popularized by Spiderman, I agree with this idea pretty strongly. A concept that many stories in comics touch on, is that a major difference between "heroes" and "villains" is simply how they use(or don't) their power. So for me, a powerful leader who does not hold themselves accountable and refuses accept the responsibility of the role they've accepted, is frightening. I know the world isn't fair, and that nothing works perfectly and that not everyone can be happy - but that doesn't condone or excuse mistreatment of other human beings. It's painfully obvious to look through history and see that what is law is not always what is right - and yeah, we should be always pursuing a better form of governing - and it pains me to think that some of the dehumanizing laws speak more truly our country's beliefs than I thought.
I'd like to believe the good ol' US of A is a country that values human lives, affords everyone the opportunity to be the best selves they can be, and protects the basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I want to take pride in my country and its pursuit of being better, accepting when it is wrong so it can learn to be right, a country that doesn't just say it's the best, but actively tries to make that a reality. And yeah, "being the best" is defined differently to each of us, but I for one can take no pride in knowing that human lives have been abused and destroyed willingly and knowingly by my country. As a citizen, I feel like I am responsible and certainly that is true - so I'm going to end it with this anecdote for comparison.
When several incidents at Starbucks locations occurred involving racism, the company acted with some accountability, acknowledging that they were responsible for the actions of their employees and the culture of their franchise. The individual employees were responsible, but as employers the company was responsible for their staff, and took actions representative of that responsibility, such as enforcing all locations to close for mandatory meeting in an attempt to address the issue. I don't want our president to ignore the responsibility over the actions of the government, whether he specifically was responsible for the situation or not - that is what it means to be a leader, a responsibility that comes with power - but ultimately, a responsibility.
I don't think I can say much more and keep this coherent and maybe I should express more outrage, but this was not for me to make myself feel better. I wanted to express my belief that leaders should be held to a high expectation, as the responsibility demands it. I believe that accepting the role of leadership is accepting the responsibility.
Thanks for your time,
Alturiigo
Monday, July 9, 2018
Thoughts on Community and Living
I wasn't really sure how to title this as a good summary so I'll try to convey a rough idea. What if we established living spaces designed around the concept of a neighborhood, with the goal of affordable standardized housing?
I had seen an old mall getting torn down, and was thinking about the rise of online shopping and greater access to goods from the comfort of your home contributing to a likely decline in demand for such a large shopping center as traditional malls(or else maybe makes them more important as a collection?). I had a thought that maybe old mall structures could be turned into some type of standardized housing such as apartment complexes. Another thought joined this one as I was considering neighborhoods, and how most of my life is contained within a smaller area despite living in part of a much larger city.
While nothing is absolute, a lot of lives are lived mostly within some type of neighborhood or smaller community, even when the entirety of that community is contained within another larger community. What if we kept that in mind when approaching the idea of this concept I'm referring to as "standardized living". Hrm. I should probably try to give some idea about what I mean with that.
So when I say standardized living, I'm trying to reach for an idea of, well, something standard. Similar to the idea of rent-control and community housing I guess, but for me I was trying to think of something closer to basic accommodations that... would be granted to every citizen? Okay so this is where it gets more difficult to think about execution of idea, because building these structures to support populations and provide a means of affordable living spaces is something I think could be positive, there could easily be a lot of ramifications not even just in implementation that would be socially troubling.
This thought/idea has come about for me because the concept of poverty is a troublesome subject everywhere in the world, and while extreme separation of wealth is certainly an issue, I also think that being in poverty does not mean you are less valid as a human being. I live in poverty by the definition as I make little more than $20,000 a year, though I only really have to support myself. I am able to pay my bills and I am not unhappy with myself or my life, but I do get annoyed when I'm made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with not seeking wealth. "Well you should get a better job" is an idea that I find almost infuriating, most specifically due to the idea that money paid directly correlates to value of work being performed and/or the "value" of the person.
Most people are aware that money doesn't exactly buy happiness, but it offers certain amounts of accessibility that most can benefit from, so no, I'm not gonna try to make an argument that poverty is good or wanting to have more money is bad. I am frustrated at not only the way we see poverty as a society, but also the way we view those with little monetary wealth. I don't know how to change that, but maybe we could find ways to reduce the negative impacts by rethinking some of the basic ways we live our lives. One possible approach that is being "tested" is the idea of basic universal income - What if everyone got a certain amount of money each month? Similar in someways to the idea of welfare, I see this a generalizing/simplifying that idea further. It's easy to think of how this idea would be "abused" when thinking about the Welfare system, though I think the sentiment of abuse is greatly tied to the fact that there are requirements to receive welfare.
You could just spend the money on your bills, but what if you could opt to put that money towards state-sponsored healthcare, or state-sponsored housing? This is where the idea to turn large structures like malls into communities came from. There are a lot of difficulties and almost unforeseeable problems that lie in such an idea, but we also have no certainty or much reason to believe that we are going about things in the best way possible as it is. Our communities are often arranged the way they are due to history, not just the events but the fact that things are always building and growing. Some of the troubles with things like public transit and poor layouts are linked strongly to this, and designing a new space with current "life" in mind could yield positive results in those areas.
Here's the thing - this is an idea about making lives better, and that's something I would like to be important to us as a society, a civilization. I mean yeah it kind of already is, but I think we could try to take another look at how we are trying to make basic life better, and one of the greatest ways I think we could do this is to approach accessibility to basic needs as a serious goal. The idea of universal healthcare is part of this, and is an issue in large part due to the inflated costs of healthcare, most especially here in the US. Ultimately though, the argument for universal healthcare is not an argument about wealth, but an argument about accessibility to basic human needs and quality of life.
I went off a little on a tangent there because I didn't feel right mentioning healthcare without addressing current issues of poor access to healthcare, but ultimately it still ties to the root of this housing idea - can we offer greater accessibility to basic needs to provide a better life for humans? I honestly think we have the ability to do this, but as a society we need to make a stronger commitment to improve the future, we need to believe we can do better and honestly try to get there. I would like to believe that the US is a good country because I want to believe that its people are(especially as I am American), and I believe that we can do better as a country in offering a basic quality of life to those who live here.
Thank you for your time,
Alturiigo
ps Originally this was going to be me talking about and exploring the idea of neighborhood in a single structure, so even though no one reads my blog if you leave a comment maybe I'll come back to explore that idea more specifically
I had seen an old mall getting torn down, and was thinking about the rise of online shopping and greater access to goods from the comfort of your home contributing to a likely decline in demand for such a large shopping center as traditional malls(or else maybe makes them more important as a collection?). I had a thought that maybe old mall structures could be turned into some type of standardized housing such as apartment complexes. Another thought joined this one as I was considering neighborhoods, and how most of my life is contained within a smaller area despite living in part of a much larger city.
While nothing is absolute, a lot of lives are lived mostly within some type of neighborhood or smaller community, even when the entirety of that community is contained within another larger community. What if we kept that in mind when approaching the idea of this concept I'm referring to as "standardized living". Hrm. I should probably try to give some idea about what I mean with that.
So when I say standardized living, I'm trying to reach for an idea of, well, something standard. Similar to the idea of rent-control and community housing I guess, but for me I was trying to think of something closer to basic accommodations that... would be granted to every citizen? Okay so this is where it gets more difficult to think about execution of idea, because building these structures to support populations and provide a means of affordable living spaces is something I think could be positive, there could easily be a lot of ramifications not even just in implementation that would be socially troubling.
This thought/idea has come about for me because the concept of poverty is a troublesome subject everywhere in the world, and while extreme separation of wealth is certainly an issue, I also think that being in poverty does not mean you are less valid as a human being. I live in poverty by the definition as I make little more than $20,000 a year, though I only really have to support myself. I am able to pay my bills and I am not unhappy with myself or my life, but I do get annoyed when I'm made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with not seeking wealth. "Well you should get a better job" is an idea that I find almost infuriating, most specifically due to the idea that money paid directly correlates to value of work being performed and/or the "value" of the person.
Most people are aware that money doesn't exactly buy happiness, but it offers certain amounts of accessibility that most can benefit from, so no, I'm not gonna try to make an argument that poverty is good or wanting to have more money is bad. I am frustrated at not only the way we see poverty as a society, but also the way we view those with little monetary wealth. I don't know how to change that, but maybe we could find ways to reduce the negative impacts by rethinking some of the basic ways we live our lives. One possible approach that is being "tested" is the idea of basic universal income - What if everyone got a certain amount of money each month? Similar in someways to the idea of welfare, I see this a generalizing/simplifying that idea further. It's easy to think of how this idea would be "abused" when thinking about the Welfare system, though I think the sentiment of abuse is greatly tied to the fact that there are requirements to receive welfare.
You could just spend the money on your bills, but what if you could opt to put that money towards state-sponsored healthcare, or state-sponsored housing? This is where the idea to turn large structures like malls into communities came from. There are a lot of difficulties and almost unforeseeable problems that lie in such an idea, but we also have no certainty or much reason to believe that we are going about things in the best way possible as it is. Our communities are often arranged the way they are due to history, not just the events but the fact that things are always building and growing. Some of the troubles with things like public transit and poor layouts are linked strongly to this, and designing a new space with current "life" in mind could yield positive results in those areas.
Here's the thing - this is an idea about making lives better, and that's something I would like to be important to us as a society, a civilization. I mean yeah it kind of already is, but I think we could try to take another look at how we are trying to make basic life better, and one of the greatest ways I think we could do this is to approach accessibility to basic needs as a serious goal. The idea of universal healthcare is part of this, and is an issue in large part due to the inflated costs of healthcare, most especially here in the US. Ultimately though, the argument for universal healthcare is not an argument about wealth, but an argument about accessibility to basic human needs and quality of life.
I went off a little on a tangent there because I didn't feel right mentioning healthcare without addressing current issues of poor access to healthcare, but ultimately it still ties to the root of this housing idea - can we offer greater accessibility to basic needs to provide a better life for humans? I honestly think we have the ability to do this, but as a society we need to make a stronger commitment to improve the future, we need to believe we can do better and honestly try to get there. I would like to believe that the US is a good country because I want to believe that its people are(especially as I am American), and I believe that we can do better as a country in offering a basic quality of life to those who live here.
Thank you for your time,
Alturiigo
ps Originally this was going to be me talking about and exploring the idea of neighborhood in a single structure, so even though no one reads my blog if you leave a comment maybe I'll come back to explore that idea more specifically
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Thoughts and Questions: Attention and Currency
Hey hey, Alturiigo here- and this is something I've been thinking about for some time, so let me just pretend for a few minutes like I have something thoughtful to say. One of the most valuable things you have to offer is your attention.
The importance of attention on both an individual and massive scale is something that I think can be easily forgotten about in daily life, in part because it's difficult not to be paying attention to something, even if it is just something in your head. The rise of social media has changed a lot of how people interact with each other, but also how we interact with the world - and how it interacts with us. Fake or skewed news is nothing recent, and advertising has been rather important building into our current day, but these things have had major impacts in recent years, things that accentuate the importance and value of attention.
Facebook, Google, think about Superbowl Ads, these things are likely to make you think of immense amounts of money - and that money is for the attention paid to them. Facebook and Google are also what they are because of data, but interestingly enough, the extensive use of their services is what generates the data. The troubling bit for me is that the amount of data is beyond a scope that we can really grasp. Each minute, something like five minutes of video is uploaded to YouTube, and I tried to be conservative with that estimate - that's nuts. You couldn't really finish watching it as a single person. The data is being collected for sure, but there aren't enough people to sort through it all and make sense of every bit, and that's where algorithms come in.
Algorithms determine the ads you see on Facebook, Google and YouTube, as well as many other instances, and when you watch videos on YouTube, the recommended videos are determined by algorithms, which try to offer videos that you are likely to watch. The same idea applies to Facebook and its endless scroll, attempting to maintain your engagement with posts that you are likely to interact with - better or worse. The troubling bit is that while we determined the algorithms and their intent, a few iterations later and how it actually makes the choices it does is beyond our comprehension. Sadly, I feel often upset that I can't offer any thought towards a "solution", as anything valuable such as attention or money(value itself) has many symptoms that seem, seem, to be unavoidable. They say money is the root of all evil, but money is just a way we tend to understand value.
What I can offer as something I believe to be helpful is the reminder that you can choose what you give your attention to, and the kind of attention that you give. Another symptom of the value of attention is "fake news" and click-bait, headlines and articles designed to draw attention. While some may simply be to attract attention this can be harmful, in addition to times that the intent is more maligned. Your attention is still the goal, making it one of the more powerful tools you have today. The viral videos, click-bait, fake news, all of these things have had major negative impacts in digital societies, and it is not an easy task to sort through everything that is thrown at us today.
Remember that you choose what you pay attention to, and now as much as ever, this is one of the most valuable things you can offer. Speak up and speak out as you know you should - you are never too small to matter.
Trot on Everypony,
Alturiigo
The importance of attention on both an individual and massive scale is something that I think can be easily forgotten about in daily life, in part because it's difficult not to be paying attention to something, even if it is just something in your head. The rise of social media has changed a lot of how people interact with each other, but also how we interact with the world - and how it interacts with us. Fake or skewed news is nothing recent, and advertising has been rather important building into our current day, but these things have had major impacts in recent years, things that accentuate the importance and value of attention.
Facebook, Google, think about Superbowl Ads, these things are likely to make you think of immense amounts of money - and that money is for the attention paid to them. Facebook and Google are also what they are because of data, but interestingly enough, the extensive use of their services is what generates the data. The troubling bit for me is that the amount of data is beyond a scope that we can really grasp. Each minute, something like five minutes of video is uploaded to YouTube, and I tried to be conservative with that estimate - that's nuts. You couldn't really finish watching it as a single person. The data is being collected for sure, but there aren't enough people to sort through it all and make sense of every bit, and that's where algorithms come in.
Algorithms determine the ads you see on Facebook, Google and YouTube, as well as many other instances, and when you watch videos on YouTube, the recommended videos are determined by algorithms, which try to offer videos that you are likely to watch. The same idea applies to Facebook and its endless scroll, attempting to maintain your engagement with posts that you are likely to interact with - better or worse. The troubling bit is that while we determined the algorithms and their intent, a few iterations later and how it actually makes the choices it does is beyond our comprehension. Sadly, I feel often upset that I can't offer any thought towards a "solution", as anything valuable such as attention or money(value itself) has many symptoms that seem, seem, to be unavoidable. They say money is the root of all evil, but money is just a way we tend to understand value.
What I can offer as something I believe to be helpful is the reminder that you can choose what you give your attention to, and the kind of attention that you give. Another symptom of the value of attention is "fake news" and click-bait, headlines and articles designed to draw attention. While some may simply be to attract attention this can be harmful, in addition to times that the intent is more maligned. Your attention is still the goal, making it one of the more powerful tools you have today. The viral videos, click-bait, fake news, all of these things have had major negative impacts in digital societies, and it is not an easy task to sort through everything that is thrown at us today.
Remember that you choose what you pay attention to, and now as much as ever, this is one of the most valuable things you can offer. Speak up and speak out as you know you should - you are never too small to matter.
Trot on Everypony,
Alturiigo
Friday, November 10, 2017
Science-Fiction and Imaginary "Real" Things
A project that I've been slowly and casually working on over the last decade almost a science-fiction setting for a tabletop role-playing game - like Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowrun. I wasn't really aware of the distinction between Science-Fiction and Science-Fantasy, or perhaps more accurately I wasn't familiar with the term Science-Fantasy. I bring this up because it has been a big part of trying to create the setting of the Visceroth Cluster, a group of star systems that are near each other, at least in astronomical terms.
My main concern for FTL(faster-than-light) travel at first was simply a name that sounds... like it might do that? I don't believe I had seen Cowboy Bebop by the time I had started to imagine them, but upon seeing its solution to interstellar travel with hubs/gates - wait no I'm pretty sure I'd played Mass Effect by the time I started this and they are also akin to the Relays, at least to say they are large structures which are necessary to travel great distances - because science and it seems like it would take a LOT of energy to do. So I came up with Warpshot Hubs, and the most basic mechanic of them as a gate to pass through into a special travel state - a ring to fly into that is all warpy in the middle.
I've recently been revisiting the project, and besides work on a story for some players I've also recently been thinking about some of the brief impulses that led to my choice in the name Warpshot, one of which was ideas about "propulsion" through warping space-time more than something like super-powered engines. I know it isn't a new concept again, and space-time on a theoretical and mathematical level is crazy and I'm not gona say I know a ton about. Oof, all in all I just keep slowing this down to make clear I'm gonna do some fake science for this, and here let me give it a try then-
Instead of moving the object, the idea is to move the space-time that it occupies, perhaps a small buffer around it I would assume and maybe hope. So my stretch takes us from gravity is the warping of space-time, gravitational waves are a thing(that I know little about), waves - sound has waves and pressure, and things that use lift are "moved" by differences in pressure and the reactions caused by that. So, the large structure is used to generate not only a very specific gravitational wave, but whatever process essentially encapsulates the ship in its own space-time.
Observations of a recent neutron star collision also came with gravitational waves, and if the gravitational waves were indeed from the same event, it suggests to me that the effect of the waves transfers at the speed of light, since they seemed to be observed together. I suppose it still isn't perfect and I don't think I should expect it to be, but I will keep developing it. But there you go - a hopefully science-fiction lore for my interstellar travel in a game setting.
Sorry for reading through that mess, but if you did, thanks! You're super, and maybe you're interested in sci-fi and rpg's, if so look forward to eventually see more of the Visceroth Cluster, as it gets another pass of polish and development.
-Alturiigo
Below is something I did to create a list of part names of what might break, and maybe how, why, and what the effects might be - but mostly just so I had something engine-soundy to tell them has broken and they now need to repair. This is unrelated to warpshot stuff, but I had it accessible and I like how it came out for how simply I approached the concept.
My main concern for FTL(faster-than-light) travel at first was simply a name that sounds... like it might do that? I don't believe I had seen Cowboy Bebop by the time I had started to imagine them, but upon seeing its solution to interstellar travel with hubs/gates - wait no I'm pretty sure I'd played Mass Effect by the time I started this and they are also akin to the Relays, at least to say they are large structures which are necessary to travel great distances - because science and it seems like it would take a LOT of energy to do. So I came up with Warpshot Hubs, and the most basic mechanic of them as a gate to pass through into a special travel state - a ring to fly into that is all warpy in the middle.
I've recently been revisiting the project, and besides work on a story for some players I've also recently been thinking about some of the brief impulses that led to my choice in the name Warpshot, one of which was ideas about "propulsion" through warping space-time more than something like super-powered engines. I know it isn't a new concept again, and space-time on a theoretical and mathematical level is crazy and I'm not gona say I know a ton about. Oof, all in all I just keep slowing this down to make clear I'm gonna do some fake science for this, and here let me give it a try then-
Instead of moving the object, the idea is to move the space-time that it occupies, perhaps a small buffer around it I would assume and maybe hope. So my stretch takes us from gravity is the warping of space-time, gravitational waves are a thing(that I know little about), waves - sound has waves and pressure, and things that use lift are "moved" by differences in pressure and the reactions caused by that. So, the large structure is used to generate not only a very specific gravitational wave, but whatever process essentially encapsulates the ship in its own space-time.
Observations of a recent neutron star collision also came with gravitational waves, and if the gravitational waves were indeed from the same event, it suggests to me that the effect of the waves transfers at the speed of light, since they seemed to be observed together. I suppose it still isn't perfect and I don't think I should expect it to be, but I will keep developing it. But there you go - a hopefully science-fiction lore for my interstellar travel in a game setting.
Sorry for reading through that mess, but if you did, thanks! You're super, and maybe you're interested in sci-fi and rpg's, if so look forward to eventually see more of the Visceroth Cluster, as it gets another pass of polish and development.
-Alturiigo
Below is something I did to create a list of part names of what might break, and maybe how, why, and what the effects might be - but mostly just so I had something engine-soundy to tell them has broken and they now need to repair. This is unrelated to warpshot stuff, but I had it accessible and I like how it came out for how simply I approached the concept.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Personal Icons and Celebrities
There's likely a few figures who have been highly influential or important to you throughout your life, I can certainly say that there has been for me. It's something I find interesting to think about, and lately I've been thinking about not only some of the people I'd love to meet, but thoughts on why and how it came to be those people.
Growing up I watched a lot of Bill Nye the Science Guy and several shows with the Kratt Brothers, who had educational shows about wildlife, so I started watching informational and educational entertainment from a young age. Bill Nye has been someone that for most of my life I've described as someone I would love the opportunity to meet. Broadcast television wasn't a strong source of entertainment for me, and in 2006, a major change started with YouTube.
I mostly ignored the phenomenon of YouTube for quite some time, mostly reducing it to stupid videos of little importance - which was more of a short-sighted comment on its use, rather than the tool itself. Some six or seven years later, I found myself visiting YouTube more frequently, as I had discovered a myriad of content that was not only informative, but educational as well. This EduTube, the "educational" side of YouTube, contains most of the other people I find a personal desire to meet.
Why is that though? Like, why do I want to meet them? I think there's a lot of things at work, one of which I think ties to the idea that they are of personal influence to me, possibly being a desire to have a direct personal experience/interaction with said influence. Shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy helped my love of learning as a youth grow, and shows like It's Okay to Be Smart and SciShow help me stay curious when my daily life has shifted away from schooling and education. I've thanked my parents and friends for the work they did in helping me become the person I am, and I'd love the opportunity to personally thank some of the other people who helped shape that journey.
I believe another reason I'd like to meet these people is that I imagine they would be fascinating to talk to, and while I can't say there's any reason to think they'd enjoy meeting me, I'd like to imagine that the conversations would be amazing. I don't think I'm alone in a desire to meet personal icons or celebrities, and each person's list ends up being not only different, but an interesting look into who they are and what's important to them.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
My List of People I'd Like to Meet:
John Green
Bill Nye
Mike Rugnetta
Joe Hanson
The VSauce Squad(Micheal Stevens, Kevin Lieber, and Jake Roper)
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Lindsey Doe
Have your own list? Leave it in the comments!
Growing up I watched a lot of Bill Nye the Science Guy and several shows with the Kratt Brothers, who had educational shows about wildlife, so I started watching informational and educational entertainment from a young age. Bill Nye has been someone that for most of my life I've described as someone I would love the opportunity to meet. Broadcast television wasn't a strong source of entertainment for me, and in 2006, a major change started with YouTube.
I mostly ignored the phenomenon of YouTube for quite some time, mostly reducing it to stupid videos of little importance - which was more of a short-sighted comment on its use, rather than the tool itself. Some six or seven years later, I found myself visiting YouTube more frequently, as I had discovered a myriad of content that was not only informative, but educational as well. This EduTube, the "educational" side of YouTube, contains most of the other people I find a personal desire to meet.
Why is that though? Like, why do I want to meet them? I think there's a lot of things at work, one of which I think ties to the idea that they are of personal influence to me, possibly being a desire to have a direct personal experience/interaction with said influence. Shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy helped my love of learning as a youth grow, and shows like It's Okay to Be Smart and SciShow help me stay curious when my daily life has shifted away from schooling and education. I've thanked my parents and friends for the work they did in helping me become the person I am, and I'd love the opportunity to personally thank some of the other people who helped shape that journey.
I believe another reason I'd like to meet these people is that I imagine they would be fascinating to talk to, and while I can't say there's any reason to think they'd enjoy meeting me, I'd like to imagine that the conversations would be amazing. I don't think I'm alone in a desire to meet personal icons or celebrities, and each person's list ends up being not only different, but an interesting look into who they are and what's important to them.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
My List of People I'd Like to Meet:
John Green
Bill Nye
Mike Rugnetta
Joe Hanson
The VSauce Squad(Micheal Stevens, Kevin Lieber, and Jake Roper)
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Lindsey Doe
Have your own list? Leave it in the comments!
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
On Friendship and Responsibility
I'll start by trying to frame what I mean by friendship and responsibility - the responsibility one may or may not feel towards keeping or maintaining a standing relationship. I've been thinking about this a fair bit since the 2016 US Presidential Campaign, in relation to posts about whether politics is something to lose a friendship over. A note here, I'm not interested in swaying you either way on this subject, as all things in life, you feel how you feel and it is simply up to you to understand your own feelings and your relationship to said feelings.
I've met a lot of people that I feel as though I like, or at least want to like as people, and often enough I will encounter something that's rather important to me which they have a conflicting opinion upon. It happens enough that sometimes I feel conflicted about how I should "see" them. I may generally get along with someone and eventually find myself in a conversation wherein defending my beliefs starts to encroach attacking their beliefs. I think this is an important point for me to look at, because it appears a bit like a threshold or clashing point between the importance/responsibility of friendship, against the importance/responsibility of my own beliefs.
I am also thus admittedly highly privileged, because I am much more able to pick and choose what battles I fight - generally nothing about who I am challenges the status quo as a straight white male. I'd like to have a separate more complex discussion of privilege and expectation, but I felt it was important and pertinent to mention it here.
Back to the subject at hand, I will take the time now to say that I believe you do not inherently have a responsibility to any friendship or relationship, because you need to evaluate said relationship. You have a responsibility to your own life, and the relationships you keep - or don't - fall into that responsibility. If you find yourself at a point with a friend where you don't want to think of them as a friend - listen to that, find out why, and decide if you truly want that relationship to be a part of your life. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own actions and choices, and the relationships you keep are one aspect of that responsibility.
Always know though, being able to pick your battles is a privilege, one of the greatest privileges to have.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
I've met a lot of people that I feel as though I like, or at least want to like as people, and often enough I will encounter something that's rather important to me which they have a conflicting opinion upon. It happens enough that sometimes I feel conflicted about how I should "see" them. I may generally get along with someone and eventually find myself in a conversation wherein defending my beliefs starts to encroach attacking their beliefs. I think this is an important point for me to look at, because it appears a bit like a threshold or clashing point between the importance/responsibility of friendship, against the importance/responsibility of my own beliefs.
I am also thus admittedly highly privileged, because I am much more able to pick and choose what battles I fight - generally nothing about who I am challenges the status quo as a straight white male. I'd like to have a separate more complex discussion of privilege and expectation, but I felt it was important and pertinent to mention it here.
Back to the subject at hand, I will take the time now to say that I believe you do not inherently have a responsibility to any friendship or relationship, because you need to evaluate said relationship. You have a responsibility to your own life, and the relationships you keep - or don't - fall into that responsibility. If you find yourself at a point with a friend where you don't want to think of them as a friend - listen to that, find out why, and decide if you truly want that relationship to be a part of your life. Ultimately, you are responsible for your own actions and choices, and the relationships you keep are one aspect of that responsibility.
Always know though, being able to pick your battles is a privilege, one of the greatest privileges to have.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Monday, April 17, 2017
Being Wrong
I've been wrong a lot in my life, and I've certainly made more than my fair share of mistakes(that's an interesting concept, a fair share of mistakes). I was always credited with being smart, and I know that for a lot of growing up I liked to know the right answer, and show that I knew it. One of the effects of this was an eagerness to let others know when they were wrong, and another effect was a reluctance to accept when I was wrong.
I always seemed to let myself feel attacked by the idea of not being right, whether it was right about some data/information/knowledge, or when my understanding of something was challenged, even when I was honestly in the wrong. I don't think it's hard to understand the urge to defend or excuse oneself, I have that same feeling.
I've hurt people unintentionally before, and because I wasn't trying to, my reflex is to excuse or defend myself. While defending yourself when attacked is a natural instinct, that doesn't always make it "right" or "correct" - I put those in quotes because they are admittedly subjective - and that's what I'd like to actually talk about, not defending yourself or making excuses.
I know it sounds holier-than-thou, which is a poor way to convey almost anything meaningful in my opinion, but in the same way I feel like on principle it's more like the opposite. I'm not saying that I always am right or that I do the right thing, far from it - but I've grown a lot more willing to try to understand the ways in which I am incorrect, or how I might be misunderstanding something. I want to think of myself as someone who sees the world complexly, and that makes it hard to accept the idea that maybe, I'm as narrow-minded and as much of a bigot as anyone else.
Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but I'm always trying to be better, and I know that slowly learning to accept when I wrong without simply excusing myself has helped me to learn a lot. One of the biggest things that's helped though is a lot of friends whom I cared deeply about, taking the time to help me understand things from beyond my limited perspective and experiences. Because I trusted them and their opinion, it helped me to accept it a little easier.
It's hard to accept when I'm not the person I'd like to think I am, but it is also the only way I can ever hope become that person. The more that I've accepted I could be wrong, the closer I can bring myself to being right. Well, that's the idea anyway.
Trot On Everypony
Alturiigo
I always seemed to let myself feel attacked by the idea of not being right, whether it was right about some data/information/knowledge, or when my understanding of something was challenged, even when I was honestly in the wrong. I don't think it's hard to understand the urge to defend or excuse oneself, I have that same feeling.
I've hurt people unintentionally before, and because I wasn't trying to, my reflex is to excuse or defend myself. While defending yourself when attacked is a natural instinct, that doesn't always make it "right" or "correct" - I put those in quotes because they are admittedly subjective - and that's what I'd like to actually talk about, not defending yourself or making excuses.
I know it sounds holier-than-thou, which is a poor way to convey almost anything meaningful in my opinion, but in the same way I feel like on principle it's more like the opposite. I'm not saying that I always am right or that I do the right thing, far from it - but I've grown a lot more willing to try to understand the ways in which I am incorrect, or how I might be misunderstanding something. I want to think of myself as someone who sees the world complexly, and that makes it hard to accept the idea that maybe, I'm as narrow-minded and as much of a bigot as anyone else.
Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but I'm always trying to be better, and I know that slowly learning to accept when I wrong without simply excusing myself has helped me to learn a lot. One of the biggest things that's helped though is a lot of friends whom I cared deeply about, taking the time to help me understand things from beyond my limited perspective and experiences. Because I trusted them and their opinion, it helped me to accept it a little easier.
It's hard to accept when I'm not the person I'd like to think I am, but it is also the only way I can ever hope become that person. The more that I've accepted I could be wrong, the closer I can bring myself to being right. Well, that's the idea anyway.
Trot On Everypony
Alturiigo
Monday, April 3, 2017
What's The Point? Thoughts On Life
What is the meaning of life? - A question that often feels high-minded and silly to discuss, I've always found it an interesting question. What IS the meaning of life? Firstly, I think the question itself is flawed and vague - but I still like to explore it. There are myriad of perspectives or scopes to think about, and since everyone has their own concept of what their life is and means, there is a different answer for every person. That being said, here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
I like to think about it in different ways, one of which is to think about it as a goal - what is the goal of life? I suppose from there it goes into personal goals, or perhaps goal of existence - as in what are we meant to accomplish? This one feels super tricky, probably because it's easy to see that there is no one clear-cut answer. One issue with this is agency - does the ability to do something confer right or responsibility? Sometimes I think about how much humanity seems to shape its environment to fit its needs, rather than working harder to find a balance or shape itself differently in many cases. I'm not sure I could argue that humans should be living as hunter-gatherers in small communities either though, and the things we have accomplished as a species/civilization is astounding- in both a positive and negative way. It seems pretty safe to argue that humanity has made a lot of progress in our time on Earth, but that can really depend on what you call progress. I find this highlighted when thinking about genetic engineering, which is not too far in the future. There are many things that can be improved or "fixed" by our standards, but should that necessarily be called progress? When we discovered the ability to use atomic reactions to create incredible energy and then made a bomb with it, was that progress? Due to the nature of "progress" as a concept, it really boils down to the person using it to describe something. Maybe thinking about the goal of human life is a bad thought-cloud, so let's hop to the personal goals cloud.
What is the goal of life? Is it a goal like a target or finish line, or maybe more like a checklist? Is it in the journey, or the destination? What would you call success? Power? Wealth? Happiness? Is life a means, or an end? I think these are important questions to consider, and even these small questions are open to a lot of personal interpretation. For me, I find myself most drawn to the feeling that it is more in the journey, that finding what makes you happy is one of the most important things, and being true to yourself. I also think that the journey is one of self-discovery, and the being true to yourself involves a lot of trying to figure out how you really feel, and being honest with yourself. I have all these thoughts about the person I am and want to be, I think it's best to sum up by saying - I hope that I can be the person I want to be, and that that person is a good human being, whatever that truly means.
One last way I'd like to talk about the idea of life and existence having a meaning, and that's in thoughts about consciousness and self. Something that's always been interesting to me is the idea of quantifying consciousness, a quest for something tangible and scientific which we can call our "self" as individuals. When you think about anatomy and physiology, it kind of boils down into electrical signals and a big fleshy machine partially ran by bacteria and a big ol' mess of neurons, so what in, about or around that is us. I mean, I know that I am me, at least, I'm pretty sure, and you probably feel rather confident that you are you. Our ideas about self have grown past just your irl self I think, and I don't think that it's a trend new to humanity.
In our quest to explain how we are different than animals, which we are by general definition, I think we start to see some of our ideas about consciousness and identity. As a species, we are pretty good at identifying and recognizing things, looking for patterns and structure, and determining differences. Our search to better understand what makes us different than "animals" is an expression of that trait in humans, at least in my opinion. Our ability to recognize faces has only recently been able to be matched by computers, and mostly in specific conditions, and the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is your own is actually something much more human. We hear and see things and are able to recognize things, like the sound of a band or style of a painter. These are patterns that we create though, but we do try to find patterns in life through science as well. As far as a point, I'm not sure there is one - except the one that we create. We've created the patterns that we see in the world in our quest to understand and explain life, and so the only point is to continue to create patterns and structures to understand it.
It's not a question with a singular answer, or really any "answer", because the question of "What is the meaning of life?" is flawed, both by being too vague and hinging upon a highly subjective concept. The best that I can boil down my thoughts on that matter would be to say - The meaning of life is to be experienced, to feel, to try, to fail, to succeed - Life is to be lived, it is a means to its own end, a journey which is the destination, and endless stream of metaphors and comparisons....
I'll just let myself out, til next time-
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
I like to think about it in different ways, one of which is to think about it as a goal - what is the goal of life? I suppose from there it goes into personal goals, or perhaps goal of existence - as in what are we meant to accomplish? This one feels super tricky, probably because it's easy to see that there is no one clear-cut answer. One issue with this is agency - does the ability to do something confer right or responsibility? Sometimes I think about how much humanity seems to shape its environment to fit its needs, rather than working harder to find a balance or shape itself differently in many cases. I'm not sure I could argue that humans should be living as hunter-gatherers in small communities either though, and the things we have accomplished as a species/civilization is astounding- in both a positive and negative way. It seems pretty safe to argue that humanity has made a lot of progress in our time on Earth, but that can really depend on what you call progress. I find this highlighted when thinking about genetic engineering, which is not too far in the future. There are many things that can be improved or "fixed" by our standards, but should that necessarily be called progress? When we discovered the ability to use atomic reactions to create incredible energy and then made a bomb with it, was that progress? Due to the nature of "progress" as a concept, it really boils down to the person using it to describe something. Maybe thinking about the goal of human life is a bad thought-cloud, so let's hop to the personal goals cloud.
What is the goal of life? Is it a goal like a target or finish line, or maybe more like a checklist? Is it in the journey, or the destination? What would you call success? Power? Wealth? Happiness? Is life a means, or an end? I think these are important questions to consider, and even these small questions are open to a lot of personal interpretation. For me, I find myself most drawn to the feeling that it is more in the journey, that finding what makes you happy is one of the most important things, and being true to yourself. I also think that the journey is one of self-discovery, and the being true to yourself involves a lot of trying to figure out how you really feel, and being honest with yourself. I have all these thoughts about the person I am and want to be, I think it's best to sum up by saying - I hope that I can be the person I want to be, and that that person is a good human being, whatever that truly means.
One last way I'd like to talk about the idea of life and existence having a meaning, and that's in thoughts about consciousness and self. Something that's always been interesting to me is the idea of quantifying consciousness, a quest for something tangible and scientific which we can call our "self" as individuals. When you think about anatomy and physiology, it kind of boils down into electrical signals and a big fleshy machine partially ran by bacteria and a big ol' mess of neurons, so what in, about or around that is us. I mean, I know that I am me, at least, I'm pretty sure, and you probably feel rather confident that you are you. Our ideas about self have grown past just your irl self I think, and I don't think that it's a trend new to humanity.
In our quest to explain how we are different than animals, which we are by general definition, I think we start to see some of our ideas about consciousness and identity. As a species, we are pretty good at identifying and recognizing things, looking for patterns and structure, and determining differences. Our search to better understand what makes us different than "animals" is an expression of that trait in humans, at least in my opinion. Our ability to recognize faces has only recently been able to be matched by computers, and mostly in specific conditions, and the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is your own is actually something much more human. We hear and see things and are able to recognize things, like the sound of a band or style of a painter. These are patterns that we create though, but we do try to find patterns in life through science as well. As far as a point, I'm not sure there is one - except the one that we create. We've created the patterns that we see in the world in our quest to understand and explain life, and so the only point is to continue to create patterns and structures to understand it.
It's not a question with a singular answer, or really any "answer", because the question of "What is the meaning of life?" is flawed, both by being too vague and hinging upon a highly subjective concept. The best that I can boil down my thoughts on that matter would be to say - The meaning of life is to be experienced, to feel, to try, to fail, to succeed - Life is to be lived, it is a means to its own end, a journey which is the destination, and endless stream of metaphors and comparisons....
I'll just let myself out, til next time-
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Friday, March 3, 2017
Thoughts On Writing, Stories, and Echoes(My Story)
I was just sitting and thinking about Echoes, and I guess you could say writing the story a bit, but how is what I'd actually like to talk about.
I've had the story of Kelly and Gus bouncing in my head for a little over eight years, and it has slowly grown and evolved over time, with more of the story being created piece by piece. I have this... vision perhaps, of the whole story in a way, ideas about the overall experience and events that make up Echoes. That being said, it can be difficult to look in closer at individual parts in some ways, trying to imagine given moments and more precisely how they transpire. I feel inclined to describe it as trying to experience the story, to be witness to the story as it floats in my imagination.
That's not to say I don't feel the direct and conscious writing of the characters, but it almost feels a little apart of myself, as though the characters and story exists without me. I'm aware that it only exists in my imagination, but in that way, I feel like it exists through me. I might have ideas about how the story goes and who the characters are, but trying to write and imagine each piece of the story feels a lot like more like discovery than creation.
This is also true in a lot of the other things I create, most so with the various worlds and settings I've dreamed up over the years. I might have some ideas about the world- its name, some of the terrain, maybe a few rules or details that help shape the world as guidelines - but I have to explore the world more closely to find the details that make it whole.
I'm sure the experience of writing and imagination is different for everyone in their own way, I just wanted to share some thoughts on what it feels like to me. Thanks for letting me share! :)
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
I've had the story of Kelly and Gus bouncing in my head for a little over eight years, and it has slowly grown and evolved over time, with more of the story being created piece by piece. I have this... vision perhaps, of the whole story in a way, ideas about the overall experience and events that make up Echoes. That being said, it can be difficult to look in closer at individual parts in some ways, trying to imagine given moments and more precisely how they transpire. I feel inclined to describe it as trying to experience the story, to be witness to the story as it floats in my imagination.
That's not to say I don't feel the direct and conscious writing of the characters, but it almost feels a little apart of myself, as though the characters and story exists without me. I'm aware that it only exists in my imagination, but in that way, I feel like it exists through me. I might have ideas about how the story goes and who the characters are, but trying to write and imagine each piece of the story feels a lot like more like discovery than creation.
This is also true in a lot of the other things I create, most so with the various worlds and settings I've dreamed up over the years. I might have some ideas about the world- its name, some of the terrain, maybe a few rules or details that help shape the world as guidelines - but I have to explore the world more closely to find the details that make it whole.
I'm sure the experience of writing and imagination is different for everyone in their own way, I just wanted to share some thoughts on what it feels like to me. Thanks for letting me share! :)
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Trying: Practice and Progress
One of the biggest privileges I've had is the fact that no one besides myself has really ever told me I couldn't do something. That being said, I'm aware that there are many things which I will never be able to do. There are even more things that I am capable of doing, which I simply tell myself that I can't.
Many things which I would like to do often fall into this category, much like telling the story of the Echoes saga, or in fact, a complex drawing even. I've even been bold enough to attempt some, which have at least been lessons in ways I could do better. I know my creations will never be "perfect", but I've also learned that what I'm capable of is not only more than I give myself credit for, but also, a more valid target than "perfect".
This is a picture I'm working on, and far exceeds what I thought I could do, or was even going to do.
Many things which I would like to do often fall into this category, much like telling the story of the Echoes saga, or in fact, a complex drawing even. I've even been bold enough to attempt some, which have at least been lessons in ways I could do better. I know my creations will never be "perfect", but I've also learned that what I'm capable of is not only more than I give myself credit for, but also, a more valid target than "perfect".
This is a picture I'm working on, and far exceeds what I thought I could do, or was even going to do.
Whether I can finish the picture and achieve my goal is yet to be seen, but even at this point I have already surpassed what I thought I could put together in a drawing.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
On A New Year And Time
As we roll into the year 12017 of the Holocene Era(Age?), I thought a little about some of the humbug thoughts such as "time is just a construct", "units of time are arbitrary", and in certain arguments those may have their merits, though the biggest question I can't answer is how to pick a certain day. Here are some of my thoughts, mostly about "re-validating" the concept of time. I hope this makes sense.
While "units" of time could be arbitrary, so could any construct of communication. The goal is common understanding. That's cool and good about it, but something else we use for time(roughly now) is how our star system operates. Before we were using atomic vibrations and a strongly defined "second", days were rotations of the Earth, not 24 hours, months are an expression of the concept of using moons to track the passage of time, and years were markers of the seasonal cycles. So cool, but what is time anyways?
This is a great reference to think about time - a short series of videos about Time and Entropy from MinutePhysics on YouTube.
So time is something we experience, even if defining that can be a difficult task, which is not my ultimate goal here. I'd rather try to argue that it's almost just as important that it is so hard to define. I cannot imagine what time feels like to a dog, or to a house fly, nor can I currently(or possibly ever) travel "backwards" through time. The future is a mystery, and even the notion of what I call the present is delayed by my ability to experience it. Despite all of this, humanity all seems to feel time and its pull through varied expressions, and we are able to talk about something so integral to our idea of existence yet difficult to define.
The New Year is a widely shared concept, somewhere between a solar cycle and 365 days(24 hours,etc). Due to the fore mentioned utility of common understanding, the idea that the Year is 2017 is almost a shared human concept. We've done a lot and came a long ways, and our ideas of time and its keeping predate our "Year 0", and while I understand how and why that came to be, I also feel as though we sell ourselves short. As something that we use to help coordinate efforts and lives around the globes, the numerical value of our current Year is important, because it is almost "universally" recognized. What if the number we used was a closer representation of the time humans have spent coordinating, cooperating?
We've been working together in some fashion as a species for around 12000 years, which also makes for an easy calendar change to 12017, as proposed by the YouTube Channel Kurzgesagt. While "time" may be something that is hard to define, it is also something that we share as humans in a "shared perception" of it. I suppose in some ways this may be an argument of faith- that the New Year is a celebration in our belief of time as a shared construct, driving us forward on a road it paves itself.
Holy hay it's getting rather late and I'm tired, but I hope you all have a bright solar cycle ahead of you in the 12017th year of Humanity.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
While "units" of time could be arbitrary, so could any construct of communication. The goal is common understanding. That's cool and good about it, but something else we use for time(roughly now) is how our star system operates. Before we were using atomic vibrations and a strongly defined "second", days were rotations of the Earth, not 24 hours, months are an expression of the concept of using moons to track the passage of time, and years were markers of the seasonal cycles. So cool, but what is time anyways?
This is a great reference to think about time - a short series of videos about Time and Entropy from MinutePhysics on YouTube.
So time is something we experience, even if defining that can be a difficult task, which is not my ultimate goal here. I'd rather try to argue that it's almost just as important that it is so hard to define. I cannot imagine what time feels like to a dog, or to a house fly, nor can I currently(or possibly ever) travel "backwards" through time. The future is a mystery, and even the notion of what I call the present is delayed by my ability to experience it. Despite all of this, humanity all seems to feel time and its pull through varied expressions, and we are able to talk about something so integral to our idea of existence yet difficult to define.
The New Year is a widely shared concept, somewhere between a solar cycle and 365 days(24 hours,etc). Due to the fore mentioned utility of common understanding, the idea that the Year is 2017 is almost a shared human concept. We've done a lot and came a long ways, and our ideas of time and its keeping predate our "Year 0", and while I understand how and why that came to be, I also feel as though we sell ourselves short. As something that we use to help coordinate efforts and lives around the globes, the numerical value of our current Year is important, because it is almost "universally" recognized. What if the number we used was a closer representation of the time humans have spent coordinating, cooperating?
We've been working together in some fashion as a species for around 12000 years, which also makes for an easy calendar change to 12017, as proposed by the YouTube Channel Kurzgesagt. While "time" may be something that is hard to define, it is also something that we share as humans in a "shared perception" of it. I suppose in some ways this may be an argument of faith- that the New Year is a celebration in our belief of time as a shared construct, driving us forward on a road it paves itself.
Holy hay it's getting rather late and I'm tired, but I hope you all have a bright solar cycle ahead of you in the 12017th year of Humanity.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Personal Investment
My last post talked about what I'd like to do, creating stuff, and as I sit here thinking about stuff I'd like to do and working things out in my head, I'm also thinking about the things I could and should be doing as well. On some level I can force myself to work, but on another, I can't exactly force my creative intent to unfurl before and within me. My muse can be elusive, or perhaps hard to communicate with at times.
Something I've been rather conscious of lately is spending time drawing/creating. I try to spend at least a few hours every evening drawing(usually), or at least working on something or toward something. Even if all I end up doing is a sketch, at least I'm working towards something, practicing, doing. Sometimes I can be a little afraid to even start because I know that the final result will fall short of what I hoped it could be. It's not that my goals themselves are entirely unrealistic, but I often lack certain tools and skills which make them realistically attainable.
Just because I can't make something that's perfect, doesn't mean I shouldn't try.
This is somewhat important for me to remind myself of, because it's only through all of my attempts and "failures" that I've come to understand how I can improve and practice doing so. I'm not an amazing artist, despite the fact that I've had a lot of time to develop, but it's also been a slow and half-hearted development for the majority of that time, because I was A) afraid to even try, and B) couldn't believe that I could truly reach a point that I wasn't pathetic. This second part makes both parts into a self-fulfilling belief, or however you want to think of that concept.
I suppose I can't feel too bad about not doing a ton of "work" on Christmas, and I also did draw stuff for the last week or so pretty consistently, perhaps I'm being somewhat hard on myself. I've already learned that if I make too many excuses for myself then I won't accomplish what I hope to, but I've also learned that setting realistic goals and respecting yourself and your own needs are important things to keep in mind.
So as my holiday message and a thought as we close out a calendar year- I encourage you to respect yourself and your needs, discover the person you want to be, and make realistic goals which guide you to that person.
Happy Holidays Everypony,
Alturiigo
Something I've been rather conscious of lately is spending time drawing/creating. I try to spend at least a few hours every evening drawing(usually), or at least working on something or toward something. Even if all I end up doing is a sketch, at least I'm working towards something, practicing, doing. Sometimes I can be a little afraid to even start because I know that the final result will fall short of what I hoped it could be. It's not that my goals themselves are entirely unrealistic, but I often lack certain tools and skills which make them realistically attainable.
Just because I can't make something that's perfect, doesn't mean I shouldn't try.
This is somewhat important for me to remind myself of, because it's only through all of my attempts and "failures" that I've come to understand how I can improve and practice doing so. I'm not an amazing artist, despite the fact that I've had a lot of time to develop, but it's also been a slow and half-hearted development for the majority of that time, because I was A) afraid to even try, and B) couldn't believe that I could truly reach a point that I wasn't pathetic. This second part makes both parts into a self-fulfilling belief, or however you want to think of that concept.
I suppose I can't feel too bad about not doing a ton of "work" on Christmas, and I also did draw stuff for the last week or so pretty consistently, perhaps I'm being somewhat hard on myself. I've already learned that if I make too many excuses for myself then I won't accomplish what I hope to, but I've also learned that setting realistic goals and respecting yourself and your own needs are important things to keep in mind.
So as my holiday message and a thought as we close out a calendar year- I encourage you to respect yourself and your needs, discover the person you want to be, and make realistic goals which guide you to that person.
Happy Holidays Everypony,
Alturiigo
Thursday, December 22, 2016
On My Personal "Dream Job"
From videos to blog posts, all derived from late nights and endless thought, I've shared about my thoughts on what I want to do, who I am, what I want to be. I've thought about "where I see myself in x years", and asked myself, "What do I do when I just do what I want?", and that's helped me look at it in a several different ways. I'd like to share a little now that I've had more time to shape the understandings about myself that I have gained.
Making a living is kind of important, and while arguably there are many ways to "live", participating in general society pretty much requires finances. That's more or less the extent of my drive for personal wealth- I mean sure having plenty of money would be great, but I have no desire to collect or hoard it. I care about trying to be a good person, and for me, caring about how I work and what it says about me is a part of that, more so than how much money I make.
I love to create, to draw, to produce, to share. I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff, and through talking to others I've learned that I really enjoy helping others to reach for their own goals and see both the world and themselves a little more complexly. Through creating, drawing, and sharing, I've found ways that I can try to encourage others while doing something that I love myself. There's a living to be made for this, though it's not exactly easy and can require some luck for the circumstances to create a financial income. This would be my dream though.
I would love to be able to spend my time producing content, so that I may not only share the things that I love and the things that I've learned, but to also create a greater means to be able to encourage others to be the best versions of themselves that they can. I'd need to make a living through this to be able to give it all of my attention, but past the cost of living and career expense(art supplies, etc), I feel confident in saying that I would like to redirect gains towards helping others. There are countless charities and programs that could use support all over the world, and even in my own small way, I would indeed like to help the idea of the world.
It's still hard to try to say this and take myself fully seriously, because while I respect artists, vloggers, bloggers, journalists- I also ended up feeling like those weren't "realistic jobs" when I was trying to originally think about my life goals. Here we are now, many years later, and it's only that much harder to take myself seriously, despite all the hard work I've put towards this "dream job" - one that is not so far in the dream realm any more. In some ways, this post is also about trying to take myself seriously by pronouncing it- by giving it shape and direction as well as breaking it from being limited to an internalized thought.
It's frightening to face the possibility of reaching for your dream, and I can only imagine it would be much much more so for people whose very identity and existence goes against "expectation" and acceptance.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Making a living is kind of important, and while arguably there are many ways to "live", participating in general society pretty much requires finances. That's more or less the extent of my drive for personal wealth- I mean sure having plenty of money would be great, but I have no desire to collect or hoard it. I care about trying to be a good person, and for me, caring about how I work and what it says about me is a part of that, more so than how much money I make.
I love to create, to draw, to produce, to share. I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff, and through talking to others I've learned that I really enjoy helping others to reach for their own goals and see both the world and themselves a little more complexly. Through creating, drawing, and sharing, I've found ways that I can try to encourage others while doing something that I love myself. There's a living to be made for this, though it's not exactly easy and can require some luck for the circumstances to create a financial income. This would be my dream though.
I would love to be able to spend my time producing content, so that I may not only share the things that I love and the things that I've learned, but to also create a greater means to be able to encourage others to be the best versions of themselves that they can. I'd need to make a living through this to be able to give it all of my attention, but past the cost of living and career expense(art supplies, etc), I feel confident in saying that I would like to redirect gains towards helping others. There are countless charities and programs that could use support all over the world, and even in my own small way, I would indeed like to help the idea of the world.
It's still hard to try to say this and take myself fully seriously, because while I respect artists, vloggers, bloggers, journalists- I also ended up feeling like those weren't "realistic jobs" when I was trying to originally think about my life goals. Here we are now, many years later, and it's only that much harder to take myself seriously, despite all the hard work I've put towards this "dream job" - one that is not so far in the dream realm any more. In some ways, this post is also about trying to take myself seriously by pronouncing it- by giving it shape and direction as well as breaking it from being limited to an internalized thought.
It's frightening to face the possibility of reaching for your dream, and I can only imagine it would be much much more so for people whose very identity and existence goes against "expectation" and acceptance.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
The Beautiful Imagining of Life
The beauty of life is in the horizon, where the journey becomes the destination, at the end of a rainbow, feeling without knowing, happy tears, dreams of tomorrow- the never-ending realization that the only thing we have is now, and it’s already gone; a reality we cannot touch, but only imagine.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Monday, December 19, 2016
Pledges and Resolutions
I was in 4-H for a little over 8 years, and I've recited the pledge quite a few times. I don't know that I would say that I didn't believe what I was saying, but recently it really kinda struck me.
I pledge my Head to clearer thinking,
My Heart to greater loyalty,
My Hands to larger service,
And my Health to greater living,
For my club, my community, my country, and my world.
As far as pledges go, I feel like this one keeps it simple and positive. I like that. I was making a pledge to think critically, be true to what I believe in, try to help others, and use my strengths and self to help those around me. Sure that's a re-wording, but that's also how I felt and feel about it, and those are ideas that are important to me.
I bring this up because the approach of the year's end is often a time to think about the next year, the future. Many people make resolutions for the new year, quite similar in concept to a pledge. It had actually been a few days prior to this thought on pledges that I was thinking about making some pledges for the upcoming year. Here's what I have on my white-board right now-
- Take Myself Seriously
- Deadlines, Responsibilities, Agency/Capabilities
- Spend My Attention Productively
- Focus On Things Important To Me
- Be Aware Of How I Spend My Time
- Actively Encourage Others
- Help Others See Themselves Positively
- Encourage Positive Perspectives
- Be The Version Of Myself I'd Like To Be
- Create, Post, Draw, Create, Create
- Share More, Share Better
- SPEAK UP!
Remember this: Take yourself seriously, believe that you can be the person you want to be.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Sunday, December 11, 2016
This and That
A variety of blog/vlog post titles, including many of my own, use This and That; I'd like to share some of my thoughts about that briefly.
Context is something that is unavoidable, and is also unique to every individual, at every given moment. You are continually gaining more context for things, and also shaping your existing context. Without being able to assume a universal context for something, it can be difficult to talk accurately about it. This is where having a comparison or lens to approach the subject becomes a little more useful.
Using another something to compare or contrast with your original subject provides a few parameters to "frame" your subject, and hopefully give direction and "effective limitations" to the context of the argument or discussion. The world is complex, and I feel as though providing a boundary for the conversation helps enforce the idea that there is much more that can be discussed and considered valid- in other words, by saying "let's look at it this way", it arguably supports a notion that you could "look at it that way".
Note: This touches on an invalid argument that "good begets evil, right demands wrong", which does not accurately convey the complexity of human experience, our reality.
I think I have to cut that train short, because it becomes a difficult argument about open-discussion/free-speech against "empowerment by acknowledgement" and "agency by validity", which are difficult concepts but not wholly wrong by any means. The world is complex, and any discussion can be difficult to navigate, and I think that brings me back nicely to the topic of the post, the usefulness of parameters for discussion.
Having a lens or frame for a discussion allows you to discuss something complex in a simpler way, but by nature presents itself as a limited view of the subject(s). This is also useful because it takes a large, complex machine of context and gives you a potential sight into how that machine might work. We do this all the time as we learn about the world around us - we use what we know to figure out what we don't, we compare, contrast, we observe and we create.
Just remember, you can never see the whole of something through any one lens.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Context is something that is unavoidable, and is also unique to every individual, at every given moment. You are continually gaining more context for things, and also shaping your existing context. Without being able to assume a universal context for something, it can be difficult to talk accurately about it. This is where having a comparison or lens to approach the subject becomes a little more useful.
Using another something to compare or contrast with your original subject provides a few parameters to "frame" your subject, and hopefully give direction and "effective limitations" to the context of the argument or discussion. The world is complex, and I feel as though providing a boundary for the conversation helps enforce the idea that there is much more that can be discussed and considered valid- in other words, by saying "let's look at it this way", it arguably supports a notion that you could "look at it that way".
Note: This touches on an invalid argument that "good begets evil, right demands wrong", which does not accurately convey the complexity of human experience, our reality.
I think I have to cut that train short, because it becomes a difficult argument about open-discussion/free-speech against "empowerment by acknowledgement" and "agency by validity", which are difficult concepts but not wholly wrong by any means. The world is complex, and any discussion can be difficult to navigate, and I think that brings me back nicely to the topic of the post, the usefulness of parameters for discussion.
Having a lens or frame for a discussion allows you to discuss something complex in a simpler way, but by nature presents itself as a limited view of the subject(s). This is also useful because it takes a large, complex machine of context and gives you a potential sight into how that machine might work. We do this all the time as we learn about the world around us - we use what we know to figure out what we don't, we compare, contrast, we observe and we create.
Just remember, you can never see the whole of something through any one lens.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
Humanity and Public Welfare
Note- I use quotes around words and phrases to distance them, I don't seek to be as literal as possible, but rather evoke the sense of the word.
First off, this is not necessarily a thorough examination of broad "political" concepts, but intended to be a thought-share about the relationship these have through intent, aside from additional effects and ideas they carry. This may be broad at times(as intended) and is obviously based on my understanding and experience, so with that in mind, let's go forth.
Among all the other things, I believe there is a common intent that helped shape the concepts of Socialism and Communism, and that's what I'd like to explore. Here's the thought - the intent to encourage a society in which the good of the whole is an acknowledged and supported concept. One of the biggest aspects of both of these systems that is a symptom of this, is the attempts to redistribute wealth. While Communism and Socialism are in many ways very different, they both include mechanics which effectively redistribute wealth in more... "authoritarian" ways, perhaps.
Here's where my thoughts continue; when discussing things that pertain to public welfare and social programs as aspects of "government", this tends to cause subjects of the conversation to become "Communist" or "Socialist". When discussing the idea of the government taking a larger role in public healthcare, the conversation has a difficult time avoiding the label of Socialism, and this is not just limited to healthcare, but rather is limited to the aspect of "government".
I believe the idea of government came about to help enforce and shape societal tendencies and "rules", in some occasions with the hopes of the broadest sense of good. Socialism and Communism approach their intent by using government as a means to shape and enforce, through laws and/or taxes, a society which focuses on the "good of the whole" - which I won't get into but has a ton of ugly arguments as a concept, so it's not a blanket "good" argument. Again, there are many many differences here between Socialism and Communism, but that is it's own discussion as well. There are many ideas of what is "good" and "right", and while government is arguably a symptom of "cooperative intelligence", I feel it fails to address range effectively by focusing more heavily on average, and thereby fails to accurately address the needs and will of the governed.
What gets lost is the intent, the wish, the hopefulness - where it came from, a positive place, even if it's "naive". If our culture as humans was to think about humans and humanity as a whole, and to invest in our species as a whole, these ideas would seem arguably unnecessary. We are becoming more and more of a global entity as humans, and our image of humanity and identity as a species is becoming more important now than ever. Our success as humans may very well rest on our ability to work together as a species and overcome our greatest obstacle - ourselves.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
First off, this is not necessarily a thorough examination of broad "political" concepts, but intended to be a thought-share about the relationship these have through intent, aside from additional effects and ideas they carry. This may be broad at times(as intended) and is obviously based on my understanding and experience, so with that in mind, let's go forth.
Among all the other things, I believe there is a common intent that helped shape the concepts of Socialism and Communism, and that's what I'd like to explore. Here's the thought - the intent to encourage a society in which the good of the whole is an acknowledged and supported concept. One of the biggest aspects of both of these systems that is a symptom of this, is the attempts to redistribute wealth. While Communism and Socialism are in many ways very different, they both include mechanics which effectively redistribute wealth in more... "authoritarian" ways, perhaps.
Here's where my thoughts continue; when discussing things that pertain to public welfare and social programs as aspects of "government", this tends to cause subjects of the conversation to become "Communist" or "Socialist". When discussing the idea of the government taking a larger role in public healthcare, the conversation has a difficult time avoiding the label of Socialism, and this is not just limited to healthcare, but rather is limited to the aspect of "government".
I believe the idea of government came about to help enforce and shape societal tendencies and "rules", in some occasions with the hopes of the broadest sense of good. Socialism and Communism approach their intent by using government as a means to shape and enforce, through laws and/or taxes, a society which focuses on the "good of the whole" - which I won't get into but has a ton of ugly arguments as a concept, so it's not a blanket "good" argument. Again, there are many many differences here between Socialism and Communism, but that is it's own discussion as well. There are many ideas of what is "good" and "right", and while government is arguably a symptom of "cooperative intelligence", I feel it fails to address range effectively by focusing more heavily on average, and thereby fails to accurately address the needs and will of the governed.
What gets lost is the intent, the wish, the hopefulness - where it came from, a positive place, even if it's "naive". If our culture as humans was to think about humans and humanity as a whole, and to invest in our species as a whole, these ideas would seem arguably unnecessary. We are becoming more and more of a global entity as humans, and our image of humanity and identity as a species is becoming more important now than ever. Our success as humans may very well rest on our ability to work together as a species and overcome our greatest obstacle - ourselves.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
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