Microstory 2176: And Young

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The thing about the way that I’ve developed my website is that I can sometimes get trapped in my own format. When I started out, I wanted to do really short stories on weekdays, and my permanent story on one day of the weekend. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the other day of the weekend, and I didn’t know how canonical I was going to get with the whole thing. It’s the numbers that make the decisions for me. The numbers dictate all. Once I started doing continuous microfiction stories, I decided that I liked to block them out in batches of 100, but there are roughly 260 weekdays every year, and I don’t like to cross the December 31 border, so I can’t always do the 100 installment thing. I end up with remainders, and the value of each remainder often determines what that shorter series is all about. The reason I wrote exactly fourteen sonnets in 2022 is because I had a remainder of fifteen, and could use one of them for an intro. If the remainder had instead been, say, nineteen, I doubt I would have ever thought to do them. I actually decided to change everything up this year by shifting to a regular blog format, hoping that I would have an interesting enough life for that to make sense. As 2024 approached, and I realized that it wasn’t the right call, I had to alter the plan into a fake blog format. That’s what we’ve been doing every weekday since January 1. And like all series here, I don’t get much of a chance to do something different when the situation arises. But it does sometimes arise, and I occasionally have to briefly put my ideas on hold in order to detour to something else. Something important.

I was running a series in 2020 set in another universe. Each installment was told from the perspective of a different fictional character. But then my grandfather died in real life, and I wanted to say something about him. I wanted to get real with my site, so I hit pause on Reactions, and shared my true thoughts. I’m spending a lot of time explaining myself, but I think it’s important for you to understand what a big deal it is for me to deviate from the structure that I’ve limited myself to. The last time I did it was when I lost a dear loved one. Yeah, I do it during introductions too, but those are strongly dependent upon the forthcoming series. These are true shifts, and come from the real me, rather than the fictional version of me. Though, it was fitting back then, since Reactions was about death, and fitting now for other reasons. Last month, my alternate self was pressured into eating meat, even though he was a vegetarian. I was the one who gave him that diet in the first place, even though I hadn’t mentioned it before when he was first introduced, and that’s because I had become a vegetarian myself since then. I’ve struggled with the idea of harming the environment, and killing animals since I was a child. I just didn’t think that I could get all of my nutrition if I cut out meat, and as it turned out, I was spot on. I’ve struggled with my health and weight since college. I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted, and still be quite thin, because I was unwittingly super active. And young. As I’ve aged, it’s become harder and harder to match my calorie intake with activity, and if anyone told me that that would happen, I didn’t listen to them. One thing I didn’t think that much about was that most junk food is vegetarian. Sure, I can have an entire pizza, just don’t put pepperoni or sausage on it. Ice cream? Of course! Pastries, chocolate, all the cheese in the world? No problem. Just don’t give me any meat, because animals died to make it, and I don’t like that. In addition to how much you can eat as a vegetarian before you feel full, you have to eat so much to get the comparable protein. So it was really easy to justify the binging regardless of what the food actually was. I have come to the profoundly difficult decision to press pause on my vegetarian diet recently. I’m going to focus on lowering my caloric intake, and erasing my reliance on comfort food that doesn’t do anything for me except make me feel full, and add fat to my belly. It won’t be forever. I just have to get down to my goal, then I know I can start maintaining. I was so close before, I’m certain that I can get there and stay as long as I stop resorting to garbage. Then I’ll go back to where I want to be, for the environment, and for the animals. I just hope this months-long detour doesn’t end up giving me some terminal disease, or something. That would be ironic, wouldn’t it? Oh wait, careful...spoilers. That’s it for me. Nick Fisherman IV will be back tomorrow.

Microstory 1073: George Highfill

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I’m taking a quick break from this series to talk about a man I once knew. My grandfather, George Benham Highfill, pictured here, died yesterday. He was 26 days from turning 94. I know his birthday well, because I share it with him. He is survived by a wife of 69 years, four children, and several grandchildren, including my sister. He took ill last week after battling a multitude of health issues for the last few years, and it started looking like he wasn’t going to last very long. I went by his apartment nearly every day since to visit, but he wasn’t always lucid. In his mind, he was either a superintendent in central Kansas, or a sailor in the Second Great War. If you’ve read any of my salmonverse stories, where it’s fairly obvious I’ve written myself into the narrative, now you know why I chose to call myself The Superintendent. It’s perfect, because while it may sound like a king, or some other kind of leader, that’s not really what it means. Superintendents are there to help, and fix problems. They are a singular voice of order in a chaotic microcosm of differing points of view, and contradictory agendas. They make sure everyone is heard, and has everything they need. Superintendents protect. In this way, they’re very much like Viola Woods, and what she stood for. My grandfather was an actual superintendent of schools, and as you can imagine, this kept him quite busy. So when it was time for him to go, because he was in so much pain, it was difficult for him to let go, because he thought he had too much work yet to complete. Yesterday evening, I drove to his apartment, where I found him asleep, and unable to wake up. I gave him a hug, whispered a goodbye, and that was the last time I saw him alive. A few hours later, I got the call, and I returned to help make arrangements with my family. Services will not be held until July, specifically so that my sister will be able to attend. He was very clear on his wishes, which makes sense, because the most important thing to him was his family. I’m going to miss you, Gandaddy.

Microstory 400: 42 Stories (Introduction)

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I’m not sure that you can appreciate the amount of effort that went into the last 100 microstories. For those of you just joining us, each installment contained a count of one more word than the installment before. Microstory 309, for example, had exactly 309 words, while Microstory 353 had 353. What made this endeavor even more difficult was that I tasked myself with expanding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs from around one, or maybe two, dozen individual parts to a full 97 (some were written across two installments). Furthermore, I didn’t really know what the hell I was talking about most of the time. I’ve always wanted to be famous, and a part of me is scared about fans uncovering that series and criticizing me for it, but another part is just excited about the possibility of being studied by others to such an intense degree. It’s important that you understand what I went through for four months because of what’s going to happen from here until the end of the year. I’m starting a new series in two parts. I’ve not yet worked out the details of how I’m going to handle it, but one thing I do know is that there are 42 Stories to be told. And once those are all done, 42 More Stories will need to be told so that you can learn how things turned out with each of the first ones. I first came up with this concept many years ago, and had intended on it being an experimental film. I still think it would be an interesting thing to watch, and hope one day for an adaptation. Like this past series, I’m going to be delving into concepts that I do not understand to a comfortable level. Give me dimensional physics, terraforming machines, and time travel; and I’ll give you a thoughtful and intricate story. Give me a company that operates out of a single obnoxious tower with a giant atrium that runs up the whole thing and you may very well find yourself disappointed with what I return. I’ve worked for many companies, so I have some idea how they work, but I need more data. In my “free time” I’m studying systems thinking, so hopefully that will help. I’m glad to be done with the restrictive word count requirements, but just to be safe, this one has 400 words. Cool?

Microstory 399: World Peace

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Transcendence

There are two reasons why you should want world peace. Number one is that it would make life safer and generally better. I guess there’s really just one reason, but is that not enough for you? The planet is composed of many parts. These parts are consistently moving and interacting with each other, perpetually towards a particular goal. All we need to do is keep repairing, rearranging, and reworking this system so that it accomplishes a goal that we actually want. The first step to getting this done is determining some sort of optimum condition, and driving humanity to align with the desire for that condition. This is no easy feat. Not everyone wants the same thing, which is why we must also strip the fat, so to speak. We must remove these roadblocks so that everyone can see a clear path to happiness. This does not mean to kill everyone who disagrees with us, nor does it mean to simply wait them out until generational turnover. No, the only moral option is to constantly work towards convincing these dissenting voices of what is best for everyone, and assuring them that the word everyone includes them. Many shorter-term goals can be accomplished in the meantime that can potentially facilitate ushering us into the Happiness Era. Forms of basic income that all citizens receive is a decent first step in diminishing economic inequality and unemployment figures. We’ll probably need to do something like this before we can eliminate monetary value altogether, and I believe entirely that a moneyless society would be superior. Stem cell research, nanotechnology, diagnosis and treatment directed by artificially intelligent automation, and other medical advances will also lower inequality. Artificial intelligence could solve our global distribution problem so that everyone in the world has access to the food and medical resources needed to thrive. In fact, artificial intelligence, that which is capable of surpassing human neurological limitations, is likely to be the most important factor in creating a world without inequality or war. Yes, it could do more harm than good, which is why we need to focus on long-term payoff, rather than short-term, easily observable, satisfaction. Take it slow. You could write a book on world peace, and I’m sure people have. I have run out of room. Thanks for reading this series. I hope it leads to further exploration, rather than indifference or blind agreement.

Microstory 398: Transcendence

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Transhumanism II

I’m not against religious people. What I am against are religions. I’m unable to provide you, with certainty, the proper attribution to what may be my favorite quote of all time. There was once a science fiction television program called Alcatraz. It was, not surprisingly, about a fictional set of inmates at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. One of these prisoners says “spirituality is for those seeking understanding. Religion is for those seeking reward.” That line really resonates with me, and I wish I could find out who actually first wrote it. I think that religions hold us back, not because they deny science—many of them actually do no such thing—but because they advocate for a level of acceptance that I cannot... well, accept. They claim to have all, or sufficiently enough, answers for life’s greatest mysteries. Any question they’re not capable of answering is dismissed with a convenient contingency claim that we lowly humans are simply unworthy, or not yet ready, to understand. I cannot abide by anyone who presumes to know the answer to something without rigorous exploration. It’s the complacency with religious institutions, and people’s trust in their truth despite evidence, that really gets me. I believe in God, and I always will, and I do so through faith. What you have is not faith. What you have is a blind acceptance of a fundamentally flawed set of proofs. You telling me that the bible, or the Qur’an, proves that something is true is meaningless to me, because you have failed to prove the validity of the book itself. I don’t believe in my God because someone told me to. I just do. I have neither reason nor explanation, nor do I feel the need to provide such things. That, kids, is true faith. Transcendence, for the purposes of this text, is an alternative to transhumanism. Many religions and spiritual paths purport to know, or seek to know, the nature of some kind of afterlife. I’m scared to death that they’re wrong, and that it does not exist, because my faith in a God entity does not preclude that possibility. For me, I would rather live forever than worry about whether it exists, or what it looks like. If, however, you choose to trust in death, and what comes next, I hope it works out for you, I really do. Whatever your path, take it in peace.

World Peace

Microstory 397: Transhumanism II

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Transhumanism I

I know you love food, and don't want to be transhuman, but you’d get used to not having to crap once or twice a day. Everything you love about being a human is actually what’s limiting you. You have to sleep a third of the day away, which means you can’t be productive during that time. You have to eat tons of calories just to have the energy to keep breathing. You have to breathe, for that matter, which is already restrictive. You can’t spend significant amount of time underwater without wearing all this bulky equipment. You can’t take a walk in space without an even more involved process. There is so much you could do if you could enhance your experience as a human. Ocular implants would allow you to look up in the sky and watch exoplanets revolve around their respective host stars. You could watch molecules floating around. You could record memories for others to see. In the future, you might be able to integrate your senses with virtual worlds, mashing them up with the real world in what we call mixed reality. You could communicate across great distances instantly, and as if you were in the same room together. The world would be less dangerous for you since your body is tougher, heartier, and capable of repairing itself fast enough to keep up with any damage. Supplemented by artificial parts, your organs would last you indefinitely by being capable of self-rejuvenation. Nanites would flow through your bloodstream, monitoring medical issues and acting upon them, probably without you even knowing. Even further in the future, some of us will no longer be organic at all. Our consciousness will exist in an entirely new neural lattice. We’ll be able to travel lightyears away at relativistic speeds, knowing that we won’t starve to death, or get too old to enjoy what awaits us on the other side. When you no longer worry so much about death, you’ll start to be able to focus on long-term goals. Rather than just trying to get through the next few decades, our culture will try spread out to the stars, going boldly where no one has gone before. Transhumanism does not mean that you’re no longer human. That’s why we sometimes call it Humanity+. They say that the future is now, but it’s not; we have more work to do.

Transcendence

Microstory 396: Transhumanism I

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Self-actualization

I have a good reason for putting these last few after self-actualization, rather than before, where you might have expected them. The next two are so far beyond what we understand about the world that we can’t truly know how they’ll work in the end. The one after that isn’t really something I personally believe in, but it’s a theoretical step. The last one is something no human has ever witnessed, or really even accurately imagined, in the history of time. I keep bringing up transhumanism because it’s a very important subject to me. I want to discuss it in more depth, and I want to be able to use 793 words to do it. Transhumanism is all about living forever. Some say that this is not true immortality, and that it’s best described as the longevity escape velocity, but no. I have a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, and I’m here to tell you that immortality is a perfectly acceptable word to use in this scenario. Most words have more than one meaning, so stop being so narrow-minded and ignorant just because you’re trying to be trendy. Whew, that wasn’t directed at you, more at my futurist community. The fact of the matter is that there is no real reason for death, or most of the other restrictions we have so far experienced in this world. We don’t know what the mind is, or how to create or move it, but we will. One day, long after artificial intelligence has been created, you will be able to transfer your consciousness to a new substrate. Now, people don’t like this, and they think it goes against God’s will. That’s all well and good, but remember that I don’t worship your God, or any God, so don’t stop me from living as I choose. From my perspective, anyone who chooses a life that ends in death might as well be choosing to kill themselves. Remaining a standard human when more efficient, healthy, and lasting options are available is tantamount to suicide. I mean, you don’t reject antibiotics when you’re sick do you? That would be insane. I wouldn’t respect anyone who does that. I’ve also heard people worry that immortality would render life meaningless, but it won’t. Death does not give life meaning, what you do in life is what gives it meaning. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Transhumanism II

Microstory 395: Self-actualization

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Enthusiasm

No one has come up to me and asked what self-actualization is, but I’m going to tell you anyway. Rather, I’m going to do my best at interpreting this Wikipedia article on the subject I have pulled up here in this other tab. It would seem that self-actualization, which is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is less a goal that it is a state. Self-actualization is the culmination of everything good that makes you who you are. To reach this state, you have to understand what kind of person you are, and how others see you. You have to know what you like, and what you don’t like, and how you should change or adapt. You have to let go of your hangups and biases and presumptions and hatred and pessimism and selfishness and greed and, most importantly, your ego. You have to be comfortable with where you are in life, you have to care for others, you have to be honest and reliable, and you have to always give it your best effort. You have to be clear, accepting, understanding, loving, loyal, brave, and compassionate. You have to be self-reliant but helpful to others, intelligent but respectful, thoughtful but spontaneous, prepared by flexible, confident but interested. You have to have a sense of wonder. You have to be able to accept that not everything is in your control, and that not everything will go according to plan. You have to be good. It’s important to recognize that self-actualization is not an end. When you reach enlightenment, and ascend to a higher plane of existence, that’s your end...that is, assuming your spiritual beliefs do not preclude such a thing. It’s very possible to reach a state of self-actualization, but then drop from it, whether by your own hand, or unavoidable complications. This is, not completely, but mostly, another way of describing life itself, except that it must be morally good. You’re always going to have to work at life, and it will always disappoint you. Some psychologists even say that we reach certain peaks of self-actualization all the time. It’s all just a crazy mix of circumstance (read: luck), effort, attitude, introspection, and critical observation. There’s a difference between being self-actualized, and just operating on the notion that you’re pretty swell. This step is not the last. It’s more of a beginning.

Transhumanism I

Microstory 394: Enthusiasm

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Honor

Enthusiasm. Wow, I bet you never thought I would be one to support the idea of enthusiasm. Unless you don’t know me, in which case you’re now like, “what is he goin’ on about?” Well, I’m very quiet. I only speak when I got something to say. Unfortunately, since I don’t have as much practice as others, I often say the wrong thing. I don’t have a filter, I just have a mute button. Be careful turning my volume up, because you may not like what you hear. Anyway. Enthusiasm. This is really just the word I chose as a kind of catch-all term for loving life. You can appreciate your work, and you can even have hobbies that you love, but that doesn’t mean you “love life”. The opposite of loving life, mind you, is not being suicidal. That’s a whole different situation there that I won’t get into. Though, I suppose at some point, if I didn’t already, I should have said that you shouldn’t be suicidal. Don’t kill yourself, get help. Loving life is a sort of feeling you have pretty much all the time. Of course you’ll still have problems and challenges, but if you’ve reached this point, it’s going to be a lot harder for people to get you down than it was before, or than it is for others. I would say that I’m an optimistic person, despite what facial expression you see me with (it’s called bitchy resting face, that’s just what I look like). As a futurist, I know both how bad the world is, and how bad it could become, but I also know how great we can be. Man’s fourth greatest day in history was when he looked down and saw clouds. His third greatest day was when he looked down and saw the Earth. His second greatest day was when he looked at a screen and saw the Universe. I’ve heard people lament that we were all born too late to explore the planet, and too soon to explore the stars, but this is not true. This is an exciting time. This is when it all changes. The internet, nanotechnology, longevity, and the intelligence singularity are all going to propel progress at a rate never achieved before. Man’s greatest day has been happening all along; as he looks forward and sees endless possibilities.

Self-actualization

Microstory 393: Honor

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Approval

Honor is not something I would personally enjoy, but for many, it’s important. Years ago, I saw an episode of The Boondocks that was set in an alternate reality. It describes a history where Martin Luther King, Jr. was never assassinated. In present day, his ideas are often dismissed, and his acceptance in constant flux. The writers were making the suggestion that he was only able to make things better on a grand scale by his own death. This is a terrible and scary thought, but it is true in many ways. It’s a lot easier to point out the changemakers once they’ve gone, whether they were taken before their time, or not. How many artists were successful during their lifetime compared to those who weren’t? They did exist, and some even lost their fame following their deaths, so don’t think I’m claiming an answer of zero. I’m just saying that it’s safer to respect and honor a notable figure in history, rather than someone of today, because they no longer have a chance to screw it up. We all loved Lance Armstrong until we found out that he had been using performance enhancing pharmaceuticals. Can you imagine if we had immediately put his face on money, or something crazy like that? Honor itself is not a big problem, but I do take issue with idolizing certain figures, and I’m not referring to those who were not as great as we were always taught (I’m looking at you, Christopher Columbus). By honoring particular individuals, or rather by the way we honor them, we often neglect their teachings. Students are assigned projects during Black History Month to teach them why it exists, but these feel like regular assignments, and the lesson can be so easily lost. Instead of merely honoring this one person, maybe we should just think about how they felt. Let’s talk less about what MLK did during his lifetime, and what he went through, and focus more on his words. It’s his words that he wanted you to hear, because his circumstances were out of his control. We do still need to hear about it, so we can understand the kind of world he was living in; I’m just saying we should try to treat him like a teacher. This goes for any other honored individual, including those you know personally.

Enthusiasm

Microstory 392: Approval

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Validation

Just because people are listening to what you have to say, and are even agreeing with you, doesn’t mean you’ve been approved. Lots of speakers have seen people nod their heads at their words, but it’s gone no further than that. Many have had great ideas, but these ideas are all but meaningless if they’re not capable of effecting real change. Of course, you only hear about the successful people, because few stay long enough to make a lasting impression. That’s the point. There are exceptions, however. Am I talking about Donald Trump again, you ask? Yes...yes I am. Trump has a lot of voters; a scary amount of them, actually, but he’s only gotten this far on the strength of his own image. People like when famous people try to become famous for something else. Why is this? What is the psychology behind this phenomenon? I don’t know, I don’t have a psychology degree, and that’s not what this blog is about. Trump has no clue what he’s doing. The news relatively recently reported on him asking experts multiple times essentially why the U.S. can’t just go ahead and bomb our enemies. Sounds like a reasonable request if you’re literally a supervillain. He’s not fit to lead our government, and most people recognize this, I really believe that. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean he’s going to go away. Because even those who have no intention of voting for him still validate his voice on the regular. Every time you read an article about his latest shenanigans, or every time you write one, you’re giving him the fuel he needs to persist. Hell, even these entries that I’m writing have the potential to keep him in the global conversation. He’s loud and he’s in your face and he just won’t quit, but very few people approve of him. We’re all paying attention to him, whether we like it or not. This is not a healthy practice, and we should be able to recognize it when it happens. Since most don’t know the difference between validation and approval, the truth behind what’s going on becomes distorted and misunderstood. Eventually, this could lead to actual approval, without us even realizing it. That’s how Hitler rose to power, and I don’t mean that jokingly. That’s really how it happened. Trump is campaigning exactly like Adolf Hitler.

Honor

Microstory 391: Validation

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Attention

You’re almost there. I promise that you don’t have too many steps to take care of. So people not only know that you exist, but they’re listening to what you have to say. What do you think you need next? Well, if you’re not an idiot, then you can just read my title and tell straight up. If not, then that’s what. Now you don’t just want to be heard, but you want people to agree with you, or at least be ready to engage you in a conversation. If it’s that first one, then great, you’re done for now. If it’s the second one, then don’t fret. Dialogs are positively not bad things. Bouncing ideas off of other people, gathering more knowledge, and gaining insight can only help make you a better person. That’s the problem with the voting population, at least here and in the U.K. Immediately after the latter’s vote to leave the European Union, Google pointed out a skyrocket in the number of people asking their search engine what the EU even was. That’s right, despite the fact that this vote was in the news for the weeks on my side of the Atlantic, and I knew about it without being generally well-informed, people who were actually going to be deciding this didn’t know. These are people whose opinions you should not listen to, and who do not deserve your validation. That vote was obviously a sham, not to mention the fact that it was a ludicrous proposition in the first place. It’s completely backwards, we should be moving towards tighter unity, not greater nationalism. I digress. As I’ve tried to get you to understand before, do not be afraid to be wrong. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Isaac Asimov. He said, “people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” This is obviously a joke, but it’s also on point. What’s worse than being wrong is being wrong but knowing “for sure” that you’re right. If you’re in a position where people are listening to your ideas, then you have an obligation to make those ideas informed and well thought out. Learn from mistakes, change your mind, admit your ignorance and lack of education. It’ll be worse for you when people find out anyway.

Approval

Microstory 390: Attention

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Acknowledgement

Here you are. You’ve gotten people’s attention. They notice that you exist. Maybe you’re in the middle of a group of friends, or you’ve been all alone in the big city. Maybe you finally have a job where people value other people’s opinions, or maybe you have some new platform for getting your point across. People are paying attention to you, so you better not mess it up. What’s so much worse than people not agreeing with you is failing to make yourself understood clearly and concisely. This is your chance, don’t blow it. Mom’s spaghetti, as my local radio station personality would say. Are you doing okay? See, this is why this is such a late step. Everything you’ve been doing to this point in your life has happened to either help you live long enough to be here, or to prepare yourself. You have to know who you are before you can expect anyone else to get you. Donald Trump is a nobody. No, I’ve talked about how intelligent he is, and also how insane he is, but I also want to make it clear that he’s not a real person. He has no opinions of his own, or rather any opinions he does happen to have are irrelevant to the global conversation. Everything he says has been but one calculated and insidious ingredient in a recipe for success. You see, he knows how stupid you people are. He knows that even if he contradicts himself, his target demographic won’t believe it, won’t recognize it at all, or simply doesn’t care. If he says that abortion is wrong, enough pro-life people will decide to vote for him. If next week he says that fetuses are tasty, he’ll gain cannibal voters, but somehow not lose the pro-lifers, because that would require far too much thought on the voters’ part. Rudy Giuliani, the man known for being the mayor of New York during 9/11, just claimed that the first terrorist attack in the U.S. happened after 2008. Yet people will still love him, and they’ll conveniently forget about all those other attacks, because they already adore him. So before you open your mouth, don’t just think about what you’re going to say, think about how you’re going to say it, and question your position. Be better than Giuliani and Trump.

Validation

Microstory 389: Acknowledgement

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Station

As I’ve said about a million times here, I have autism. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to mention it here. Actually, no, the thought didn’t even cross my mind. I had no intention of bringing myself into this site except in the usual “write what you know” kind of thing. I was diagnosed as an adult, but even before I knew, I knew. In fact, I can go back to a journal entry I wrote in either middle school or very early high school where I admit this to myself. Basically the deal with autism is that, whatever other kind of psychological problems you have going on, they’ll really just be part of that. Because autism is not a disease. It’s an array of conditions found, to a certain degree, in a quantifiable fraction of the population. Ultimately, I have a neuroatypical brain, and you have a neurotypical brain, but they’re both just human brains. This is the way I am, it’s integral to my identity, and though I do want to become a better person, I don’t want to get rid of it. That would be lobotomy, and no one wants that. Before I understood all this about myself, and even since then, I’ve been “the quiet one”. Those who don’t know me can be confused by this. People have actually been pissed off that I don’t engage them in a stupid goddamn conversation about the meaning of the temperature today being one degree different than yesterday. Man, stop talking about the weather. I really need you to let it go. Anyway, here’s the kicker. Those who do know me know that I prefer to be quiet, so they let that happen. They go about their conversations and leave me out of it, because I usually don’t want to contribute. But sometimes I do, and how am I supposed to get their attention? This is a very literal example of what I’m saying here, and I can confirm and not deny that I told this story so I could stretch out the next few entries. The first step to being an accepted and respected member of a group or society is acknowledgement. People have to first realize you’re even there, and only then can you possibly get them to hear what you have to say.

Attention

Microstory 388: Station

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Gourmet Eating

Does he mean, like a train station? Or a bus station, maybe? No, of course not, that would be stupid, self. Just like the one about extravagance, I guess I put this in here so that I could discuss it, but not so that I could be a proponent for it. I’ve always completely hated the idea of a class system. I think most people disagree with classes they hear about in “dem foreign countries”, but most don’t think all that much about the ones at home. We each live at a particular station. The only difference between now and the dark ages is that anyone can theoretically move up in rank and make their life better. The problem with this, and capitalism in general, is that there always has to be people at the bottom. In order for the rich to exist, and live in such extravagance, there have to be those living below them. In fact, the number of people living below them must necessarily be greater. This is where the 99% movement came from. It’s funny, those protests began not long after I heard independently that statistic about the top 1% controlling about 40% of the world’s wealth. I even designed an entire television series around that concept. It’s set in another galaxy where a parallel race of humans have mastered genetic engineering to the point of generating trillions of slaves using the DNA of human precursors (not neanderthals). The main characters are from...well, they’re closer to Earth, but not all of them are from here. Their main objective is to end slavery altogether and created a more balanced economy for all residents. They’re met with backlash from even the poorest in the galaxy because this is the only system they understand, and not even they consider the slaves worth protecting. They’re literally sub-human, after all. But to me, it doesn’t matter. As someone with a soul, I’m pretty good at detecting other people with souls, and every soul deserves freedom. But I’ll even take it further than that and make the claim that no one should be without. Every single individual has a right to everything they want.  This includes food, shelter, clothes, brownies, and even spaceships. Screw your station. I’m not better than you, and you’re not better than me. We’re just different.

Acknowledgement

Microstory 387: Gourmet Eating

Click here for a list of every step.
Extravagance

I don’t get what the big deal is about food. When I tell people that I have a binge-eating disorder, but that I also hate food, they look like they’re about to call the mental institution. Food to me is a chore, especially the preparation of it. Cooking and eating feel so unproductive to me. I look at it this way, my hunger and weakness is a problem, and food solves that problem. Meanwhile, my writing and other work are not solutions to problems. Not having money is a problem, that’s true, but it’s much more nuanced than that, and the expectation of work is so ingrained in our society, that not doing it seems strange. Again, this is my personal perspective, but if I were given the chance to take one pill every day that would give me the energy and nutrients I need, then...well, I would first call the FDA and USDA, but once the necessary safety precautions were cleared, I would so do it. But that’s just me, it really is. Other transhumanists feel similarly, but they still appreciate the taste of a proverbial fine wine, while I don’t. For the rest of you, however, food is just...it’s amazing. You talk about it, and you look into new restaurants, and you try new foods, and you smile. Oh man, that face you get when you eat something you didn’t know you’d love, it’s priceless. I wish I could take a picture of that. Here are two interesting facts about food; not a single civilization has not eventually discovered ways of cooking food, and not a single civilization has not eaten socially. Eating in groups started out as an evolutionarily trait. Not only are tribes safer because of the safety in numbers principle, but it also fosters camaraderie and teamwork. This gives associates an opportunity to study, empathize, and learn from each other so when danger strikes, no words need be spoken. We never got over that, and though I would love nothing more than to not have to eat, I don’t think you should get over it. I don’t think you should stop eating, and I don’t think you should stop enjoying your meals. Just remember that tiny inefficient portions are but a superficial sign of gourmet cooking. True gourmet still contains positive calories.

Station

Microstory 386: Extravagance

Click here for a list of every step.
Legacy

This is not a step. I repeat...this is not a step. This is not something you should be striving for. This is superfluous, wasteful, and another synonym for excessive behavior. I only put this in here because it is a possible way to live your life, and I know some people are interested in it, and it deserves academic attention. One of my favorite rap artists, Conner 4 Real dropped a hot bonus track called “Should I Move?”. It’s a fascinating satirical song about the human condition, society’s demands for what kind of goals people should have, and the imprudence of materialism. In it, Conner tells an obviously fabricated story about the so-called “hardest day of [his] life” where he struggled with whether to buy a larger second home even though his current home is plenty large. Spoiler alert, at the end of the fictional version of Conner’s tale, he does end up buying the house, and keeping “the old one for [his] dogs”. It’s a ridiculous situation, having two houses that are so close together. I applaud Conner for writing such a serious musical piece that’s unlike any of the other poppy music he normally puts out. Quality of living is a spectrum. The most impoverished of us live in terrible conditions with no food, no shelter, and no help. The richest live so extravagantly that the only work they do is designed to make them more money, rather than contribute to society. The Purge franchise of movies is about a dystopian future where the wage gap has grown so large that politicians have annually legalized all crime in order to cull the poor. They do this on the belief that the poor are draining the nation’s economy. In reality, it’s the opposite. Sure, rich people who own businesses are supporting the economy by employing the less fortunate and continuing to cycle money. But so much of what they, and other rich people, do is only about their own purses. This doesn’t help the economy. Yes, in the short-term, you’re supporting the yacht industry by buying ten yachts, but this will lead to diminishing returns, and only help a select few in the population. Your goal in life should be to become as successful as possible, but beware the moment success transforms into unfulfilling overconsumption.

Gourmet Eating

Microstory 385: Legacy

Click here for a list of every step.
Accomplishment

In the previous installment, I went over accomplishments. These are results that you can see and keep track of while they’re happening, and immediately afterwards. What I tried to explain was that they might be subtle and hard for you to believe in, but they are definitely there. We have all accomplished something. Legacy, on the other hand, is much hard to attain. This has traditionally been used to refer to what people remember of you when you’re gone. I hear a lot of characters in movies tell a depressed person that they matter, and that they’ll live on forever as long as someone remembers them. This is usually followed by a personal claim that the one in question is important to the speaker personally. Writers write these speeches thinking that they’re being clever and original, when in fact, I call it a cliché. It’s not about whether any given individual remembers you, but whether you had an impact on the world. Now of course I’m not just talking about heads of state and popular musicians. Your legacy may be rather small, but the idea is that the choices you made ripple through time beyond any human’s ability to calculate the ramifications. A few family members with a few anecdotes will eventually die off too, and we’ll end up with diminishing returns, rendering the memories themselves meaningless. It’s what you do, and what effect you have on society, that really counts. These impacts can range from saving a culture from genocide to letting a stranger merge into the lane in front of you. With death in the equation, all memories fade away. A few people are lucky enough to have their stories written down, but for the rest of us, our social outreach will be the only thing that keeps us alive. I don’t ever plan on dying, as I’ve said, but the process is the same either way. The easiest way to create a legacy is to take it literally and raise a child of your own, but there are other ways. Being out there and effecting change in your community; letting your voice be heard, especially by the next generation, is going to give you that edge. You don’t matter just by being alive and knowing people. You have to make an effort.

Extravagance

Microstory 384: Accomplishment

Click here for a list of every step.
Self-assurance

Sometimes accomplishment is small, and sometimes it’s quite impactful. Sometimes it’s so subtle that you don’t even notice it. People focus much on short-term and long-term goals that they fail to see their accomplishments as a whole. Your life is more than merely the sum of its parts. You are not but a collection of memories from your past, and aspirations for the future. You are this incredible, insane, perfectly imperfect ensouled creature who holds value to the universe. Everyone alive, except for sociopaths, has something to contribute to the world around them. I have a hard time accepting where I am in life. I spent years looking for a “real” job. I always had permanent, but not salary, and no benefits; really good money, but no job security; great position, but just temporary. I finally for the first time have a permanent job that comes with benefits, but it still doesn’t pay as much as I honestly deserve based on my education and experience. Maybe I shouldn’t be talking about my job in public, but I’m here to be honest with you, and with myself. I have no plans to leave this job, and it’s been great for me, but there are many other variables in my life that have led to an undesirable condition. My original publishing date was somewhere near the end of 2009, and it still hasn’t happened. I work so bloody hard on this website, you don’t even know; I have it planned more or less through the year 2066. But I’m not getting as much hits as I need to develop a following. It’s possible only my mother ever reads these stories, so...there’s that. Every writer sort of finds their own place; what kind of stories they tell. I’m not talking about genre or demographics. This goes deeper, into what message they’re trying to convey. I’ve decided that mine is perspective. I like to show the possible motivations between characters, often those who oppose each other, or are opposed by you. My goal in this endeavor is to get readers to question how they feel about things, and gain insight into their opposing forces in real life. I’m not a published author, but I’ve gained my own perspective through my work, and I would call that an accomplishment.

Legacy

Microstory 383: Self-assurance

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Self-awareness

I previously discussed this topic to some degree in another step, but that was limited in scope, so I think there’s room for more. I’m just going to expand on what I’ve already said about self-confidence, maybe this time talking about myself a little less. What I never went into before is what happens when self-assurance goes wrong, which would also be continuing the subject of self-awareness. Some people are pretty sure of themselves, and are incapable of recognizing how other people see them. Not every celebrity on the cover of a tabloid is a bad person, but there clearly are those out there who have no real talent. In order to maintain their relevance, they regularly do something ridiculous so people pay attention to them. On the surface, this does sound like a kind of talent, but really, how many of those “celebrities” you think come up with those tricks themselves? Self-assurance too easily leads to self-aggrandizement. If not put in check, someone with too much confidence in themselves can start to lose vital perspective. How many times have you heard someone, celebrity or not, make a stupid remark about the way things are. Donald Trump’s primary voting population is known for having a warped idea of how things work. Libertarians build their whole socio-political belief system upon their own ignorance of how people different than them live and view the world. I’m in this weird spot where I see better ways of doing things, but I also get hopelessly confused by the simple things. This I must work on by nurturing my curiosity, and ignoring my presumptions. Always be able to question if you truly understanding something, or if you’re missing important information. Every problem the world has ever encountered can be traced to either selfishness or a lack of data. Find and commit to something that makes you happy, but also keep yourself challenged. Imagine greatness and be ambitious, but don’t hurt people on your way to success. Recognize and appreciate your faults. They make you who you are, but you don’t have to be defined by them. Train to shed yourself of weaknesses, but never believe them to be gone entirely. Know yourself, trust your past, and keep improving. Rest assured, you can’t lose if you never stop trying.

Accomplishment