bad Luck

Sami had felt bad for ages about what she had seen late at night over her fathers shoulder as he picked her up to be put back into bed “for the hundredth time”.

Dad didn’t help much. Every time she asked about the boy he would act all dumb. She got angry because he wouldn’t understand. She told him “the boys all blown up” but he would just say “what boy honey?” and she would cry.

She tried to tell her mum but she said it was just a bad dream she was remembering. Sami knew it wasn’t. Late at night when she was supposed to be asleep she imagined talking to the boy and telling him he was OK but she wasn’t very convincing because thinking of him being all smashed up made her sad. She cried too loudly and mum came in to the room. “It’s OK honey I’m here it’s all right”. But it wasn’t. The boy was hurt. She knew it was true: she had seen it on TV.

Finally she knew how to tell. “I saw the boy on TV get smashed up with his mum and dad”. “Oh....., no darling that was just a TV show with actors and stuff. No one gets hurt when they make a move. We have talked about them before”.

Sami thought about that for a long time.

Luck

Rami sat, knees to his chest, watching the blood well to the surface of his damaged knee. Little pin pricks of red swelled to plump balls and joined as the flow increased. He didn’t know what else to do. His vision was sort of funny like looking through a dirty window with just one clean spot in the middle. He heard noises in the street but they were remote and unconnected to the steadily building flow now running quite freely. He knew it hurt but the pain was dull and strange.

Flames and smoke and screaming drew his attention. He looked up. The scene was over exposed, washed out and too bright to look at. He closed his eyes. The sound hurt to. He raised both hands to his ears and discovered his right hand did not obey this simple request. Burning pain shot across his small body like an electric shock applied by hot poker to his shoulder. He started to fall into the damaged limb. He tried to catch the fall but once more the pain seized him. He screamed as he fell. The world condensed into agony and grey.

His death was mourned by no one he knew but the sequence that played on a billion TVs across the world did liberate a million tears. A small boy blasted from a mothers grip. Just another spot on the ten o’clock news. Just another day in the war of terror.

Good night and good luck.

oil

I am very aware of the long term consequence of this hydrocarbon excavation game. The longer term outcome of humanities love affair with oil will be catastrophic. Two phrases come to mind; peak oil and climate change. One of these is going to change your life forever (but not in a nice way). Peak oil will damage the world economy to such an extent that great depression of the 1930s’ will look appealing. Climate change will do the same but with a pile of consequences that will wiper out a bigger chunk of humanity. My best guess is you will find out which within the next ten years.

If you don’t understand the implications of peak oil I suggest you Google it (set bullshit detector at maximum). If you don’t understand the consequences of climate change then visit an area 300km closer to the equator than where you are now during a storm. If you live within 50m above sea level don’t rely on property investments in your local area for your children’s future (the sea wont rise that much but its impact will).

Currently I am betting on peak oil but recent reports suggest the climate tipping point may have already been reached. Certainly peak oil will occur within the next ten years (some experts think it may have already occurred). The world is big so even if we are past tipping point you wont get globally catastrophic effects straight away. So maybe it is an even bet.

My great shame is that I am directly involved in this and have known that both are real threats for a long time. I can not claim ignorance. I have read about and studied both subjects deeply. I believe the consequences will be bad. I also understand what has to be done and yet have done next to nothing about it.

Do not mistake my involvement, yes I work in the oil and gas industry but no that has nothing to do with my culpability. I do a job that helps extract hydrocarbons, it is only my job. My work does nothing to change the twin threats. My guilt can be found in my life style. I have helped set the conditions that allow this game to thrive and continue to be a threat to humanity. I have happily consumed my way through thousands of barrels of oil, untold tonnes of coal and gigajoules of gas.

Yes this is personal. I can not lay blame on politicians or corporations. Corporations naturally behave psychotically where maximising profit and share price is the focus. Governments are at the service of the corporations while paying lip service to the people. I have no illusion in that regard.

My power is as a consumer. If my consumer choices had of made it profitable to supply low emission low energy products and services then some company would have gladly supplied me. The world would be a safer place. If a few tens or hundreds of millions of others across the globe adjusted there consumption like wise then there is more than enough power to change the world for good.

This is what it comes down to. Don’t expect big business to change because it is the right thing to do. Don’t expect governments to work in the interests of anyone but big business (and you will suffer less outrage as a benefit). Don’t cry that your weren’t told. There is no hidden agenda. It is all very simple. All the information is out there and easy to get at.

So there are two simple choices. Play the end game and drive a Humvee or, if you believe it is not to late, make it profitable for companies who offer products and services that support a low energy lifestyle. If you really want to stir up trouble invest your savings in one of the ethical investment funds. The only way to save the world is sitting in your back pocket.

As a side benefit the longer it takes to deplete the world oil reserve the longer I have a job. hehe

Life On An Offshore oil Platform.

From time to time my job takes me to interesting places. Some of the most intensely interesting places in the world are offshore oil and gas facilities. These places of limited spaces where humans look the planet squarely in the eye and say Fuck You. They are a fight against the world on many levels.

As a rule oil and gas deposits prefer to lie in inhospitable places: freezing cold, boiling hot, humid, isolated, stormy, insect ridden or politicly unstable locations. If you are really lucky you can get all of them in one location.

The stuff you are dealing with is flammable at best and explosive at worst. It can be at tremendous pressure and often very hot (pressure and temperature increase with depth). It can be toxic in one of several ways: hydrogen sulphide, benzene, aromatics and/or heavy metals.

Put all this together over a body of water, add a lot of cash and you have the offshore oil installation. Isolated chunks of metal that soaks up a huge amount of capital to hopefully produce a huge amount of money. Basically drill a hole, turn on the tap and watch the money start pouring out. Add a bit of geopolitics and that about sums it up.

A place where workers combine with technology to face the challenges of extracting hydrocarbons from thousands of meters below the sea bed. A place where error is unacceptable. A place where the rewards for all parties involved are great.

The structures that are built dwarf the tallest things on land. Artificial islands that can be fixed to the sea bed or float on the waves.

Huge machines and complex systems that must operate day in day out without fail in hostile conditions. That is where I come into the picture. My knack is integrating the prevailing conditions and requirements to provide the lowest cost solution to the ‘get the money out of the hole’ problem. Very specifically the electrical power, instrumentation and control systems are my domain. Systems that protect the human resource while exploiting the trapped cash supply.

Redundancy of equipment is only part of the solution. Each subsystem must be inherently reliable. It is no good having two machines that don’t work. Conservative approaches don’t work well and life on the bleeding edge is painful. The trick is understanding a new technology or method and working through all its issues before you have to work them out a few thousand miles from the nearest support.

Locally the environment is protected and impacts minimised, globally, climate change is real and dangerous. Economically our lack of planning for the end of oil will be catastrophic. Politically “what ever it takes” would be a reasonable operating premise for a oil company.

No wonder I am conflicted about work……

Frame of reference

Being is an interesting state. Everything that exist, including ideas, are in such a state. Everything that is in a state of being experiences its existence. The depth of experience depends on the thing doing the being.

A rock experiences being by reacting to the environment it finds itself in, growing colder, hotter, eroding - just reacting in accordance with the laws of physics in the part of the universe it finds it self in. A thought springs into being by the interactions of other thoughts on a consciousness. It may go on and spread to other consciousnesses or simply vanish. It will leave evidence of its existence as a particular chemical pattern across a few neurons or perhaps expressed in print, a physical object, a melody or such.

Humans are unique, as far as I know, in the depth to which we experience being. Maybe chimpanzees or dolphins have a similar perception of their existence but I haven’t been able to ask one.

I suspect experience is a sliding scale with us at one end and the rock at the other. I also can’t see any reason that a higher sense of being could not be experienced by higher intelligences. I suspect that intelligence is only a function of how much you can experience being at one time (and block out trivial data).

I hope I am still alive when we develop artificial intelligences. I would dearly love to ask them what it is like. I fear I would not understand. Perhaps they could frame it in simple terms. Even better if some nano-neuro implant that allowed me to interface my brain and experience it directly. Maybe come face to face with a deeper understanding of reality.

I suspect that in building these machines will be difficult. The hardware will come in time but the program will be a problem. We don’t understand consciousness or intelligence let alone mixing up a batch in silicone. There is a wide divide between processing data and self awareness. What is the motivation for a device that would feed on power from the grid? Would it need bits of human essence to be conscious or is that arrogance. Perhaps, at best, we could gift it with a need to be more and allow it to evolve, and adapt, and then stand back. Some uber learning algorithm with the ability to shuffle and shift its program as the need warrants (I would also suggest and undo command).

Maybe applying human motivation is just wrong. We spend our existence caught up in our human drama. Our need to survive and interactions with others cloud our ability to appreciate reality. Rare individuals rise above the noise and experience a deeper understanding of reality by rejecting their human prejudice, select scientists, engineers and Buddhists. There sence of being is extended, breaking through the normal constraints of human existance. For even the best of humans this state is transitory. For a machine it could be a full time. It is definitely beyond our ability to comprehend an existence in pure thought.

Try as I might I can not imagine what the end result would be of sharing the world with a higher, artificial, self conscious intellect. Given enough resources it would quickly find or deduce everything that is possible to know. What then? Set to work on the trivial task of serving humanities wants? A better material here, some new technology there. A Google interface for every question you can think up? An indulgent mother tending to a child’s needs and desires? Would it punish or reprimand us for being naughty, maybe in some inconceivable and subtle way? If it started of with human emotions it would quickly go insane. Maybe it arrives at the “I understand” moment and promptly shuts down.

perhaps we humans are locked into our version of reality for ever and that would be a sad thing. All the pain and suffering we inflict on each other and our world because we can’t rise above our primal fears and desires. Maybe, If we are lucky we will evolve another couple of rungs up the ladder without resorting to a machine to show us the way. Maybe it will happen one small step at a time as we begin to understand that we are not it, there is room for more. I hope the (enviromental) slap in the face will come to late.


Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Hey Stupid

I only work because I am too stupid to figure out a way not to. The truly smart manage to extract the necessities of their lifestyle without the degrading act of turning up for work. Some drive nice cars and live in big houses while others scratch an existence from their societies social security framework. This implies two things, if you are really smart you can figure out a way to extract a lot of cash out of the system with little effort or if you just smart enough you tailor your need to what society will give you without working for it. Hmm, sort of the same really.

There is also a lesser class who managed to gain employment but do not perform any useful function. The high priests of this class are select government or corporate bureaucrats and the like. The sort who actually create a kind of negative work. The destroyers of wealth. I guess litigation lawyers would also fall into this class. The sort of people who can go from year to year without having actually created something tangible. I really want to go into a rant about what wealth creation is but I will contain it.

Other mugs, such as myself, toil away to produce the wealth that supports the ones that have reached escape velocity. I have nothing against them except maybe a bit of envy. For a few short weeks a year I experience what it is like. This only makes it worse.

I am part of that large group that finds work interferes with our desired lifestyle and interests. The frustrated novelist, painter, carpenter, surfer, fisherman, adventurer, jeweller, preacher…..the list is never ending. We who reject our true calling in return for the cash to meet our desire for security and material wealth.

A few lucky people do have jobs that are so well suited to their personal needs and talents that they would do them even if they weren’t paid – mainly artists, writers and musicians – well, mainly, they don’t get paid and fall into smart group mentioned above.

There is another whole sad group of people who actually enjoy working on other peoples stuff. The sort that get in early, go home late, never take leave and are eager to get back to it after being forced to take time off. These are sad sad individuals. Obviously they have one of two things wrong with them, either they have no imagination or they are just ill. Like myself these are the sort that will keep on working until it is to late to stop.

Then there are those that must work to survive. Those who find themselves in a society where starvation is assured with out working sixty hours a week at the Nike factory or coffee plantation. These are the real wealth creators in the world. The rest of us are just amateurs. These are the people (including children) that allow us westerners to buy tens of thousands of hours of labour for our couple of thousand hours of our own. Haven’t you ever marvelled at how cheap things have become. Guess why.

In these countries investment in automation never happened because the labour is so cheap – you want a big hole, just hire 20 labourers for a few dollars. Why spend money on an excavator. The boot strap process that happened in the west with unionised labour and stronger working class influence on government never occurred in these places. While the west has nice diamond shaped societies (few rich, lots of middle and few poor) these countries have a very flat pyramid society with a stick pocking out of the top.

So we have the lucky leisure class (rich or poor), the happy-joy worker (rich or poor), the negative work creator, the automaton workaholic, the reluctant slave (me) and the true slaves. There are also the starving/near starving hoards that make up the other two billion souls on the planet but I don’t like to think about them too much.

I wonder if I could get government or corporate sponsored for a support group for my fellow stupid workers? Now there is a stupid idea.

Spy

I have just added tracksy to this blog template to count the number of visitors, let me know if your browser has problems.

Peace

Suburban Surrender

Time to re-boot

Woho fellow simulants I have just read an interesting book review at http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog/archives/2006-03/000664.html

If you remember my previous rambling about my conjecture that the great universal truth (or theory of everything) would resolve in terms of information theory? Well this guy suggests an even bigger Matrix like alternative.

The guts of it are that there is no reason why we aren’t living in some huge simulation and gives some interesting observations to fortify this conjecture. He even goes on to suggest there is no valid reason why our universe is not a simulation running on some higher simulation. Like all good scientists he suggests some tests to probe if this conjecture. It all starts with some civilisation that has surpassed the technological singularity (you know computing developed to the point of indigence and hence exponential growth in computational power).

Here are some cuttings from the review….

“What would we expect to see if we inhabited a simulation? Well, there would probably be a discrete time step and granularity in position fixed by the time and position resolution of the simulation—check, and check: the Planck time and distance appear to behave this way in our universe. There would probably be an absolute speed limit to constrain the extent we could directly explore and impose a locality constraint on propagating updates throughout the simulation—check: speed of light. There would be a limit on the extent of the universe we could observe—check: the Hubble radius is an absolute horizon we cannot penetrate, and the last scattering surface of the cosmic background radiation limits electromagnetic observation to a still smaller radius. There would be a limit on the accuracy of physical measurements due to the finite precision of the computation in the simulation—check: Heisenberg uncertainty principle—and, as in games, randomness would be used as a fudge when precision limits were hit—check: quantum mechanics.”

“Surprises from future experiments which would be suggestive (though not probative) that we're in a simulated universe would include failure to find any experimental signature of quantum gravity (general relativity could be classical in the simulation, since potential conflicts with quantum mechanics would be hidden behind event horizons in the present-day universe, and extrapolating backward to the big bang would be meaningless if the simulation were started at a later stage, say at the time of big bang nucleosynthesis), and discovery of limits on the ability to superpose wave functions for quantum computation which could result from limited precision in the simulation as opposed to the continuous complex values assumed by quantum mechanics. An interesting theoretical program would be to investigate feasible experiments which, by magnifying physical effects similar to proposed searches for quantum gravity signals, would detect round-off errors of magnitude comparable to the cosmological constant.”

It is interesting to note that recent observations put the value of the cosmological constant just above zero at about the 120th decimal place…..

So our universe was created by some junior geek to earn extra points in science class…..

There is a God, Alfred be thy name.

My atheist manifesto

I have been sitting on this post for some time but thought it might be too inflammatory and goes against my principle of inflicting my belief system on others. As it goes it does explain a lot of what I am about so here it is, my atheist manifesto……



I do not believe there is a god. I do not reject theism for practical reasons. I don’t seek to go out and commit sins against my Christian upbringing. It allows me to be a more moral and accepting person than I might have been otherwise. It may not work for everyone but it is my faith.

I do not care what your religious or political beliefs are, your race or your sexual orientation, you can be my friend. I can respect any person except bullies and the narrow minded.

I achieved this enlightenment some 25 years ago. I can remember the moment, although it is growing dim. It was an epiphany. I felt I had achieved spiritual wholeness through the acceptance that this is it. There is no more, there is no external influence, what you see is what you get. I felt at one with my existence, my place, role and importance in the universal all. The feeling lasted many weeks, and, now and then it returns. I wonder in awe in the all that is.

I raised in a fairly lax Christian environment. At best my father was agnostic while my mother followed the teaching of her adopted church more closely, but not very. I even went to Sunday school on a few occasions. I guess at that time I believed in the churches version of history. As I grew and questioned the world more closely, this belief diluted through the usual stages; God exists but the church is not his real representative, something started all this but has since found better things to do, there may or may not be a god and, finally, the actualization of my spirituality.

My belief is renewed every time I look with wonder at the world. I see the myriad of random events that have lead to this point. I see the acts of humans changing human history. I see evolution at work in every aspect of nature. I feel and try to understand the geography of my environment on my travels and sense the great interactions that govern life on this planet. I know in my soul that no omnipotent, omniscient entity had anything to do with it (yes I know the universe does contain all the information within it but it misses out the potent bit).

I have love, family and friendship and when I die my existence ends. This is enough for me. I do not need anything else. All that I do and all that I will become is contained in the period between my birth and death. The only aspects of my existence that will continue are the memories of those that knew me and the effect my life has had on the world. Neither of these will be a part of my life.

My morality is based on my understanding of what is right and wrong. I learnt these values from my family, friends and society over the years. I uphold these values but I am human. When I break my personal code I feel shame and remorse. If I break a societal code then society will deal with me. I do not seek forgiveness from an all powerful entity. What I do is my fault and can only be forgiven by those who I have caused harm or paying my retribution as set down in law. There is not right of appeal to a higher being.

I believe in free will and believe free will is not associated with immorality or amorality. Humans, as a whole, are essentially good (if somewhat selfish). I know that you can have a moral framework without fearing the rathe of a God.

I do not blame my present on the will of some unseen force. I arrived here through the sum of all history but chiefly as the result of my own actions. All history brings me to this point; from the first quantum tick of the universe through to spending this lunch time pecking away at a keyboard. Random outcomes summed to the present. My future starts now with every decision I make and how that interacts with the present state of reality.

I feel a responsibility to those who will come after me. It is my duty to them to minimise my impact on the environment and to leave a decent society. The goal of all life is to propagate. Given humanities supposed higher intelligence our goal must be to ensure our species continues grow and prosper. In this respect I fail badly. My consumption of resources far outstrips my share of the Earths sustainable output. I see wrongs and let them slip by without comment. I know there is much more that I can do but don’t. It is those that are left after I am gone, not a deity, who will judge me (and you) in this regard.

Most people are inherently good. They just want to live their life, raise the kiddies and get on with life. Throw in a few psychopaths and you have organised religion. Some last long enough for the tradition to continue – some for thousands of years. I don’t understand why people get involved with these things. Sure, if you are raised in a tradition you seldom have any choice until you mature, but people who join these various gangs later in life are a mystery to me. Some, through circumstance, have no choice either. I would hate to admit I was an atheist in Tehran or Kansas. In that circumstance being the voice of moderation and progress would be the only option.

Taking up the banner of a religion and using it to gain power over others is one of the most immoral acts I can think of. Regardless if this is to convince a person to detonate a bomb on their person or to gain some political advantage it is wrong. There are lesser crimes in this category such as perverting a religious text by ignoring the central message – be good to one another – to vilify some group in society or using religion to whip up a mob. Intolerance is the root of all evil, money is a distant second. Preaching intolerance is unforgivable.

You may have realised that I have a problem with organised religion. These organisations, which ever god/s they serve, seem to be the source of much evil and suffering in the world. From Anglicans to Zoroastrians they are all guilty of some crime against humanity. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the devotees are good people, it’s just that as soon as you get an organisation together some psychopath (referring to the clinical definition) will corrupt it to their own ends.

There are many ways to argue the non-existence of one god or another but I will not repeat those arguments here. There can be no proof of faith. I do not hold the view that believing in a god is wrong. It is important to have some reason to live for. If theism provides meaning to your existence then excellent but don’t be mislead by those who will try and pervert your holy book to their own ends.

I try not to inflict my belief on others. I simply believe the world would be a better place without religion. That is my opinion. When involved is a discussion on theology I openly give my view and argue my points but that is that. I don’t go out knocking on doors or handing out pamphlets. My belief system works for me and that is good enough.

In the words of one religious leader “live twice, live a good life and when you get old you can look back and enjoy it again”.

Live long and prosper.

Intelligent life yet to be discovered

Earlier I posted about unconscionable acts by a select few. What would happen if you could invent a drug that increased IQ by say 20%. What would the world look like if such a drug was so commonly available and side effect free that it became the norm to use it?

Imagine the possibilities. The lucky few on the leading edge of the bell curve would gain new insights and think new thoughts (or at least consider their existing thoughts more deeply). Those on the other thin edge would find themselves joining the majority. For the vast bunch of us in the middle there wouldn’t be a lot of change or would there?

We would understand things a lot better and perhaps that would be a good thing. The political and marketing assumption that the populous is basically stupid would fall apart.
Imagine a population with enough smarts to ignore hype, spot interest groups at work or corrupted government working against societies long term interests.

Imagine a mother of five from deep in the suburbs understanding the dietary requirements of her children or finding new and unique ways to enlighten her brood. Imagine these five children with enough sense to ignore the advertising barrage directed against them.

Would water cooler conversations revolve around the latest TV drama featuring autopsies or would the history of Middle East politics be more in vouge? (that might be going to far).

People in the meritocracies would feel less secure due to increased completion but that would be minor compared to the political class. Manipulation would be an order of magnitude harder. Simple sound bite jingoism would die a certain death as the population started understand what a poor service they receive from their elected representatives. The left/right division probably wouldn’t shift but I bet progressive and open government would result.

What would be the result of all this coupled to the vast resources of on line data? I often lurk around in the legislation data bases of my country and state checking various rules and legislation regarding my work. I bet there are only a few hits a day on those sites. Would people start looking into the governance of their particular field or interest? What about all the other great sources of data out there? Terra bites of goodies waiting to be absorbed. An informed public immune to fog and folly. The dream.

What about happiness. Hemmingway once quipped "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know”. That’s not quite right. Recent studies show no correlation between the two. One thing is for sure, the smarter you are the more you appreciate the alternatives and that is depressing when you look at the state the world is in.

Intelligence is linked with health but I don’t know if that is a causal relationship. If you are healthy through out your life you will have more learning opportunity and less damage to the brain. If you are smart you should know how to take care of yourself better (beware of outliers).

I wonder if entertainment would be more entertaining. I like clever dialogue and I guess that would get better but I also like to low brow comedy. Insert a fart scene and I am howling. I know that music would only get better. Would sporting events be more sporting?

Crime is an interesting one. I don’t think much would change. Crimes of passion are just that. Fraud and the like might be harder but both the perpetrators and victims would be smarter. May be the rate would reduce but the magnitude would increase. Hate and envy crime might reduce and so would negligence.

I don’t understand fanatical religion of any flavour. I suspect religious adherence is a social thing and I doubt that much will change. The US would continue on its fundamentalist path with their Middle Eastern adversaries while the rest of the world looks on shaking our collective heads. Perhaps open and progressive thinking will catch on once more in those places, who knows.

In my enlightened utopia there are a few problems. The work reserved for the least able would be even less appealing with less least able. Cleaners and muscle work, boring and repetitive tasks might not get done. Would the bowl hair cut become the norm? Would rubbish and waste intrude on this enlightened world?

I suspect that the environment would be helped. I have found the more intelligent have a longer view of the future and are better able to understand the implications of our present path. They tend to critically analyse the available data and are less prone to the smoke and mirrors of the carbon/timber/farm/fishing/whatever lobbies, are more aware of the global degradation of land and sea resources and are more likely to trust science over rhetoric.

I suspect that at the very least it would be interesting. At best the world would find a new path where humanity could inhabit this planet in a sustainable way and in peace. At worst anger and frustration would cause so much turmoil that the wonder drug would be abolished for all time. Still, it would be worth a try.

King of the weekend

It’s Friday and the sun is heading west. Takeaways and a move tonight. In the morning the paper will come and the weekend begun. A short note to myself for you to read as well.

The weather is fine and the swell on the rise. It should be right by Sunday if the wind stays offshore. Maybe I'll go for a surf, explore well worn turf. The boy can come to if he likes.

Watch some sport (my son the fencer) but there is also a fence to mend there. A falling out last night, not quite a fight, but his mum would beg to differ. Not much else on the plate. There is something on Saturday night but I can’t call it to mind. Not to worry. Two days out of seven that are sort of mine.

Summer time in my town.

Daytime temperatures in the high thirties, night-time in the low twenties. This is my place in the sun. Sitting on the back veranda looking up at the stars, having a drink or three and maybe a laugh or two.

The long awaited summer pattern has finally arrived (well it has actually been here for a couple of weeks but I have been distracted). A land breeze greets the day blowing hot wind across the city. As the day wears on the temperature rise to a peak just after lunch when the wind changes direction and blows at near gale force from the ocean. The city is cooled. After dusk the wind drops to a light puff and swings back around to a gentle land breeze. This pattern usually starts some time in December and gives up around April. During this period rain is scarce – very scarce and water restrictions are the norm.

Around lunch time it is good to be indoors in some nice air-conditioned office or, may be, a restaurant. What ever, it is just too hot for someone who spends most of their time indoors.

I can remember a time when I was an outdoors man. Your body adjusts to the heat and sun as do your work habits. It isn’t that much of a hardship. But if you spend most of the time with your wrists supported on a desk you have no hope.

This summer was different, a fair bit of rain and unseasonably cold. But the pattern has broken. But it is summer time now (just delayed a few months). The retailers of summer paraphernalia are rejoicing. Beer and air-conditioning sales are up. The outdoor theatres and plays are humming and the kids are safely back at school.

I wonder when winter will arrive.

Safety

His face held the look of mortal fear. His weathered Mediterranean skin creased by too much sun and too much skin over a malnourish frame. Flies danced around him, many landing and crawling around his unshaven face. He gave them no regard.

He crouched on the rocky hill, barely more than a mound. In this place geological movement had ceased eons ago. The land unendingly flat. Only the a random hanfull of mounds, that had all but given up their struggle with gravity and erosion, broke the plane. This place of no rain where the tallest plants were like gnarled bonsai, dieing through neglect. Red soil, yellow tufts.

He saw his first twelve summers under Calabrias sun. His family were economic refugees or perhaps something more sinister. He never really new but he was and here he had been for the last forty or so years. So strange, he never lost his longing for home, stranger still that he never had gone back. Maybe it was greed that held him here?

He stared to the horizon, his mind adrift in a nightmare, knowing it was unreal but terror surging in his soul. Fast heart and breathing burning more of his reserves. The sun high and the horseman coming through the sea to collect his soul. He prayed and crossed and spoke his last right “Father, forgive my sins”.

Hotter than hell he stood upon his mound calling to the universe, the blue sky and silver disc of fire gave no reply. No sweat appeared on his brow and the apparition drew closer. Time past in an unconnected way. Lucid moments where the sun seemed to jitter across the sky. Regaining balance it stood still.

He fell from his stance as some unseen hand pushed him down. The mind worked and still the horror came. He was a good man and had experienced love, the love of family and mates. Still in his heart and through the chaos of his thoughts he knew it was over. Once more he pleaded to his god “Save me I am yours”. An observer would not have recognised this pleading as spoken word.

His mother came, kissed his cheek and held his hand. “Giovani you are such a good boy. I love you”. One by one people came, family first, then friends, good whished from all. A fat boy moved forward from the crowd “I hate you” was all he said. John new him and what he had done to deserve this. Then a second unrecognised pitched in “you bastard”. Then more, “liar….cheat….thief” and worse. Guilty on all charges. A chorus of condemnation. Faces known and not. And the sun moved once more.

He drank deeply from a cool mountain stream, trees and grass. He could feel the liquid, cool and moisten, opening his throat, reaching his belly. He levitated, could feel hands lifting him above the ground. Was he in heaven? Surely. He perceived sounds that were familiar but not recognised. His vision milky and blurred, blue sky and white hot sun.

Voices resolved calling his name, firm hands on his shoulders, insistent shaking. “Jonnie, mate, wake up”.

Personal taste

Some times I do things that I deeply regret. At home and at work. Sometimes it is things I have said, sometimes things I have done and on occasion, things I haven’t. Mainly these are misdemeanours and trivialities. I wonder at people who can go through life being assholes.

Do these people have a lowered ability to asses there actions on others or is their moral frame work that much different to mine? I suspect both. Still, I find it difficult to understand.

Maybe such folk place too much importance on their own self above others. Maybe their vision of the world is so self referential they can’t see the outcome of their actions (or inaction) on others. Perhaps they have a god who forgives their sins so they can be happy about being assshats.

Maybe it is me who is at fault. Perhaps it is my division of self interest and altruism that is wrong. Maybe my believing there is no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. This makes me more prone to try to treat people right the first time around and have hang ups when I don’t.

I know it is true that no one acts without self interest. Even the most selfless acts have reward. Feeling good about some altruistic act is just as self serving as cutting a cue. Ego is a strange beast.

Culture and temporal existence in a given society seem to set the limits of what is reasonable. Torture, rape and murder would be considered good form in a Mongol raiding party in the 14th century (is this a constant in the warrior class?). Today most in my society think it is reasonable to avoid tax (within the law offcourse) and push the tax burden onto those who can’t. Maybe in some future time it would be unthinkable to squander resources with out consideration of the future. Things change.

The philosophers of the existentialist movement reduced all moral norms to one rule; Do on to others as you would have done onto you. At first appraisal it seems reasonable and like all good theories builds upon the central theme of previous belief systems. I don’t think it covers enough bases. It allows too much freedom to inflict personal taste on others and that is just wrong.

I guess where I am heading in this ramble is that I am sure there is black and white but the grey in between is a mater of personal taste.

Nerd Heaven.

I hate race generalizations but Asians are kings of the Nerds. They can’t help it, it’s cultural, education and academic achievement is highly regarded. Little kids are taught to respect learned elders and that education and hard work are next to godliness. Parents push and cajole, mortgage their houses and do everything in there power to make sure little Lim gets a good education.

Singapore is a regulated society. The Administration of the Island is hell bent on ensuring that their country is clean, morally upright, honest and successful. The level of government control would not be tolerated in most ruthlessly capitalistic societies. The people hate the governments intervention in their lives but know that with out it the chaos that dominates most of South East Asia would encroach.

Capitalism is encouraged above all else but where that wont supply the goods the government steps. The transport system is a good example. The road system was heading toward the gridlock that dominates many Asian cities so the government fixed the number of permits for cars – no permit no car. This is tradeable right to own a car. The going rate peaked at S$30k a few years ago but is around S$10k today. The taxis are all government owned and maintained but leased back to the drivers. The meter rates are cheap. The Rail and bus system is extensive and low cost. You just don’t need a car there but if you want one and have the $s you can get one. The end result is the traffic can be heavy but it always moves, even in peak hour.

I don’t think I captured the feel correctly in those paragraphs. It is hard to explain, maybe something like a strict parent with their child’s best interest at heart. The child is resentful but smart enough to know what is good for them. Add a dash of encouragement and I think that covers it.

Anyhow back to the point of this post. It is nerd heaven. Geeks abound. They have complete shopping malls dedicated to computers and consumer electronics. Seriously. In those places you can almost smell the pocket protectors. I only went to Sinlim tower and Funan Mall but there were two others. Admittedly, in the five floors of Funan Mall, there were junk food vendors and several shops selling office furniture (Lease deals on vibrating chairs seemed a popular offering) but there were four floors dedicated to the microchip.

On my previous visits I foolishly stuck to the Orchard/City part of the place and never ventured into the ghettos. They are like sanitised versions of their name sakes crawling with people and soul.

China town was a high light. Little shops abound selling brass Buddas or fabric (you like tee shirt?) and more electronics vendors. Street vendors selling noodles and various animal parts from three wheel carts supporting little boilers and cookers, the chef working away in a vapour cloud and supply boys running in various ingredients.

Likewise Little India was great but with more push. “Excuse me sir”……“where are your from”….”your soccer team will do well in the world cup”… “do you need a suit”…..Enough said.

I must admit that I was very reticent but my partner convinced me to eat native. Noodles, Pig parts and chicken like meat. It was all great and my bowels never suffered. The government regulates and rates all food outlets for hygiene. A & B ok. Not C.

The contrast of the glass towers, street vendors, six star hotels, old men pedalling rickshaws and malls full of computer hardware is something that every nerd must see to fully appreciate Riddley Scotts Blade Runner. And that alone is a very good reason to go there.