Is Yoga Really an Entry Drug to Buddhism?

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Among the strangest things I’ve read lately is how a group of (Christian) parents prevented yoga exercises from being taught at a Swedish school. Among others, the motivation was that the exercises might tamper with their children’s religious beliefs:

http://www.thelocal.se/20160427/swedish-parents-block-gateway-yoga-exercises^

Fairness champion Sweden interdicts religious interference in schools. However, yoga is tied to Buddhism the same way fasting is tied to Christianity or Islam (not at all). Yoga and fasting are disciplines that test the body and mind. Both practices have been proven time and again to be beneficial. And while fasting requires a careful understanding of one’s biorhythms, yoga is a readily available for improving one’s body, balance, physical and mental discipline.

One parent is quoted as saying: “Yoga is used by Buddhists as a form of meditation. We don’t know what it might lead to.” Maybe the person could be informed that it could lead to less violence^. How can anybody have a problem with meditation? Meditation is inherently non-religious and Buddhism itself is not a religion. It could perhaps be considered a religion of no religion. It’s scientific spirituality and encourages experimentation and a personal understanding of spiritual matters.

It’s sad that people aren’t well educated at all when it comes to other cultures. Maybe it’s natural to fear what you don’t know, but these things are actually quite easy to get to know and understand. But then again, the educational system that is used in constructing the foundations of our society has serious issues.

How can we expect to live in a healthy society when most children are put through a schooling system that encourages obedience, conformity and competition? There are no lessons in school about empathy and compassion.

Children are discouraged from challenging the authority of their parents and their leaders. They’re treated as second the class citizens of an adult family so it’s no surprise one of the first things they do in life is to discriminate between themselves and others. In the same time, they’re conditioned to think that being a leader is something reserved to an entirely different class of people.

Nature vs Culture
Nature vs Culture

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Some of Today’s Overpriced Tech Products

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It’s full of overpriced devices out there. Here’s a short list of shame that I’ve compiled during years of reading hardware & technology news.

Lenovo PCs – they’ve took over IBM’s high quality laptop business and proceeded to thoroughly exploit it. Almost all competing brands offer a lower price for identical hardware configurations. Dell, another high quality manufacturer is also among these competitors (and unlike Lenovo, they’re much more upfront with drivers & servicing manuals, both of which are available online). Did I mention that Lenovo was recently involved in a major spyware scandal^?

Razer – oh no, it’s those guys who try to make their devices seem more capable or expensive by adding fancy LED lighting and cool logos. Razer’s gaming laptop is nice but overpriced, so is most of their product catalog. What’s worse is that the company also has lots of quality issues^. Admittedly, Razer has innovated quite a bit in the past decade, so at least they’re putting the money to (some) good use.

Any top CPU or GPU model – unless you’re swimming in money, don’t buy the fastest CPU or GPU. Their price-performance ratios are terrible (around twice the price for just 50% extra bang). Always buy mid-range or mid-to-high-range, unless you urgently and imperatively need everything you can get and are sure you will fully exploit it.

Oculus Rift – despite being cheaper than the competing Vive, the Rift comes with no special VR-designed controllers and lacks room-scale (the ability to track the position of the player’s body). Oculus controllers will only come out in Q4 2016 and the platform will probably continue to lack room-scale. Add to this a rather arrogant approach to cross-platform compatibility and you got a product that definitely needs some additional time to mature.  For those that want to get into VR, I recommend the Vive. This is a completely unbiased recommendation since I do not own either of them, nor do I intend to buy anything just yet.

What about Apple? Their products are indeed over-priced, but this is at least partially justified. The quality of Apple hardware is among the highest I’ve ever seen. The software is highly optimized so that it requires fewer resources. This is especially important when it comes to mobile devices. Apple devices have impressive battery life. The company also deserves credit for currently having the highest standard in terms of privacy and security for its customers. All things considered, with Apple, you get what you pay for. And no, I do not own any single Apple product, being a long-time PC / Android user.

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Flight MH17 Was Indeed Downed By A Russian Rocket

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It took a couple of years, but finally the Dutch have completed their investigation concerning the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The plane crashed in Ukraine during the Russian intervention there a bit over two years ago. There were no survivors:

http://www.businessinsider.com/animation-of-mh17-hit-with-buk-missile-2016-7^

Here’s a video too, by the Dutch Safety Board^.

Surprise! Not…

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These Mobile Homes Are Awesome

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One day, when I grow older, I’d like to roam the cities of Earth and enjoy the diversity and beauty of the 21st century society (hopefully things will be better than they are today). I always thought that a motor-home is a good idea to do this. However, the engine would lie unused for long periods of time and the sewage requires a lot of maintenance. Not to mention that any reasonably priced motor-home is also quite small.

So then how about a detachable apartment?

https://www.facebook.com/CollectiveEvolutionPage/videos/1887653478127712/^

You come, you visit and then you take the daily truck, moving you to wherever you wish. While being transported, you sit in your comfortable home, doing whatever you wish to do.

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Human or Autopilot?

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The self-driving vehicle revolution is upon us and it brings with it some serious challenges. One such conundrum is just how much control will we give over to our vehicles. Recently, we’ve had the first fatality^ resulting from the use of this family of technologies. However, it’s important to note that the car wasn’t really self-driving.

The person died due to the (presumably) improper use of the autopilot feature. Before we rush to blame Tesla, we’ll see why this sort of half-measure is quite dangerous. Let’s take a look at what another industry that has been using autopilot functionalities for decades has learned during time:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinenegroni/2016/07/07/danger-lurks-at-intersection-of-human-and-self-driving-car/#ea309715d68b^

Self-driving cars are an “all or nothing” affair

It becomes apparent that auto piloting features can cause humans to lose some of their skills. What’s even worse is that auto piloting is done in half-measures. This inconsistent state of affairs inevitably affects decision making in the brain. The results can be disastrous.

Pilots undergo extensive training before using auto piloting functions, drivers do not. Expect more such accidents to take place, unless serious changes are made in drivers’ education and training. I believe that such changes are difficult to implement and that the correct way forward is to remove the human from the driver’s seat altogether.

Slowly but surely, a human driving a car on a public street will become like seeing a horse and carriage on the motorway’s fast lane. Of course, this might seem far-fetched now, but check back in 10-20 years.

Ethics

Things are going to get even more complicated when ethics start to play a role in all this. One of the essential features of self-driving cars is that they will be in permanent communication with one another. Through this, they will also gain an increased awareness of the road conditions ahead of them and each other’s occupants.

What if, for example, two self-driving vehicles realize that a collision is inevitable? Should your car kill you to save others? What if drivers start hacking their cars to protect them at all costs? Here’s a very interesting article on this subject:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a21492/the-self-driving-dilemma/^

One day, maybe self-driving cars will be able to make a decision about how to cause fewer fatalities during unavoidable accidents by sacrificing the car with fewer passengers. Taking this discussion further, let us consider that human lives are more than just numbers. Could self-driving cars quantify the potential of a human life? What if the Artificial Intelligence supervising the travel of more cars decides to sacrifice an entire family in order to save a highly skilled doctor?

I believe that at one point, AI will be able to decide between saving a child or a young man who is already sick of terminal cancer. There will be those that will consider such judgements unfair – letting a “machine” decide for your life is scary. But we might have to deal with this situation at one point. Accidents will always happen, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about reducing their impact upon our society.

Putting the drama into perspective

These are very difficult choices. I have little doubt that one day, true Artificial Intelligence might be able to tackle these problems just like we’re able to solve first grade math problems. Until then, however, we’ll be left with some serious ethical and logistical challenges to solve.

I also have little doubt that in the coming years a lot of keystrokes will be spent debating even the smallest mistake made by a self-driving vehicle. But these mistakes will probably pale in comparison with the thousands of people, many of them children, dying at the hands of reckless drivers every year.

It’s a no-brainer that self-driving cars will drastically reduce the number of deaths on our streets. I have to say this bluntly: the sooner we restrict access to our public roads, the better. Not even intelligent animals should be allowed to drive metal bullets at 130 kilometers per hour.

Last but not least, let’s not forget about the security concerns that shall arise when we’ll have a bunch of computers zooming around the motorways at high speeds. I recently wrote an article^ on this subject. I don’t even want to imagine what a terrorist attack would look like if some hacker would start tampering with the software of hundreds of speeding robots weighing a couple of tons (or many more) each.

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World Teeters on the Brink Of…

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Welcome to mid-2016. Science and technology have progressed immensely. We’re continuously maximizing our agricultural output and we’re getting better at renewable energy^. We’ll soon have self-driving vehicles^ and our computers are getting better at understand our speech. We can escape to virtual worlds^ and we’re more connected than ever. At least in the developed world, even the poor have the luxury of running water and electricity. Are we on the brink of a new golden age, or is it all just clever brain-washing^?

Welcome to mid-2016. A scary politician and a clever manipulator are tied^ for ruling one of the world’s superpowers (and owner of the largest nuclear arsenal). In Turkey, a failed coup^ provided an excuse for strongman Erdogan to purge his adversaries and head the country towards Islamic dictatorship^. We’re talking here about the country with the 2nd largest standing army in NATO. This is probably the single scariest event in 2016, at least until the elections in the USA. Topping things off, the UK decided to leave the EU. It also decided to prolong and upgrade its nuclear weapons-bearing submarine program^. And then there’s China^ and Australia^. Are we on the brink of war, or is it just the same old game of measuring who has the bigger gun?

Erdogan - the Lucky Caliph
Erdogan – the Lucky Caliph

Welcome to mid-2016. The idealistic peace-loving project called the European Union seems to slowly unfold under the pressure of fear and terror. The USA and Russia are slowly squeezing the life out of Syria and Iraq, but it’s the EU that has to deal with most of the resulting fallout (sheltering refugees and dealing with a spate of terrorist^ attacks^). Are we going to vote in the next Hitler and give up our privacy, praying for protection from Big Brother? Or are we going to sit down at the same table with our worst enemies and enact sweeping social and political changes?

Disclaimer: yes, both the USA and Russia are to blame for the crisis in Syria. Even though historically the USA has attacked the region most heavily, the superpowers never agreed on how to tackle the social disaster there. This is probably because they both stand to profit (enormously) from the economic and social failure of the EU. Divide et impera is the name of the game.

Disclaimer: if it’s unclear who’s the “scary politician” and who’s the “clever manipulator” I’m referring to in the second paragraph, that’s as it should be. Welcome to 2016 ;).

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To Be or Not to Be an Activist

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Being an activist has never been easy. Even in the 21st century, the death sentence for speaking the wrong words can be delivered unexpectedly by those that happen to disagree for whatever reason. This happens despite millennia of social development, now culminating with a sharp rise in our ability to exercise the right for free speech thanks to the Internet.

Last month, just before UK’s referendum on whether or not they should stay in the European Union, a member of parliament was killed, probably because she was holding peaceful views in a country that is increasingly dominated by hate. Jo Cox was stabbed, shot, and then stabbed again, in a horrifying illustration of how the wrong politics and education have mutilated our society:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jo_Cox^

And, almost four months ago, Berta Cáceres, an activist that was militating for the rights of indigenous people was shot and killed in Honduras.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/03/americas/honduras-activist-berta-caceres-killed/^

No, being an activist has never been easy. Yet, some amazing people have not been deterred by the fatal risks. I am humbled and honored to know that I have lived among such courageous beings. These two women, along with countless others sisters and brothers throughout history, have led us out of savagery and hate.

I dream of a day when any man or woman can express their thoughts without fear of death. Even more, I dream of a day when everybody will care about what these driven individuals have to say. The most important thing that I believe we should all be aware of is that it is within our power to change our society’s course. Don’t let this blood be spilled without a change. Don’t let any more blood be spilled…

Updated 2016-07-20: today the news came out that another “inconvenient” person was murdered, this time in Ukraine. Rest in peace, Pavel Sheremet^.

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This Guy Talked to God

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At long last, finally there’s somebody in our current generation that managed to talk to God! It’s been some time since this last happened, but judging by what this person wrote, he may belong to a new generation of prophets. Or maybe he’s just a good writer. Here, judge for yourself:

http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal^

There’s quite a lot of interesting reading on that philosopher’s website.

And in case his website ever goes down, I’ve saved the PDF and the text. You can find them at the links below:

www.mentatul.com/axup/Harry Stottle – Talking to God.docx^

www.mentatul.com/axup/Harry Stottle – Talking to God.pdf^

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All Your Computers Are Belong to Us

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In recent years, Intel has moved towards integrating some pretty nifty remote administration features into its CPUs. While this may be a good idea for certain enterprises, it may quickly turn into a nightmare as soon as exploits and vulnerabilities are found. And guess what^?

Software has bugs. Hey, it happens, everybody makes mistakes. But in this case, the mistakes can’t be corrected in time (before an attacker exploits them). That’s because, in typical monopolist corporation fashion, Intel is obscuring the process by not allowing the security community to analyze whatever code the company decides to shove into our machines. The same argument stands true regarding any proprietary code, especially Microsoft’s Windows, which after 20 years of fixes is still the most vulnerable mainstream operating system.

The following article describes the problem pretty well:

http://hackaday.com/2016/01/22/the-trouble-with-intels-management-engine/^

It’s probably only a matter of time until a clever attacker will compromise the company’s buggy code. Of course, Intel will eventually patch its security holes, but given that the company’s CPUs are used across the world in some pretty sensitive contexts, there’s no telling how much damage such attacks can cause.

As for us mortals, we are at risk of having our privacy compromised even by petty criminals. This is because there’s a large window of opportunity between the time when a security hole is found and the time that Intel moves to fix it for less prioritized customers.

And don’t even get me started on how governments across the world can (and probably will) force Intel’s hand into giving over political dissidents on a silver platter. Privacy? What privacy?

If you want to learn more, here’s another article on the same topic:

http://boingboing.net/2016/06/15/intel-x86-processors-ship-with.html^

I wrote this hot on the heels of a Dissected News piece about Cyber-Warfare^. There’s additional interesting information to be found there.

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The Overview Effect

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When we become aware of our planet’s fragility and beauty, a cognitive shift in awareness occurs. This short but emotional presentation shows what a few of those that went through the difficult training required to travel away from Earth have to say about The Overview Effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMIfOecrlo^

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