At this point, I feel like this is the only avenue I have of expressing a crucial message pertaining to the effort for world peace.

There seems to be kind of a fever pitch toward war with Iran right now, and it has to stop.  (Today’s NYT article on the matter)

This is the beginning of the end.  We can’t let this happen.  I’ve written an article on how to peacefully end the conflict in Iran tomorrow.  It is easily possible to do this.  It requires the storage of energy, the importance of which I explain in this article.

WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO CHOOSE TO KILL EACH OTHER.

Please, people!  Instead of mobilizing humanity over the past century or ten toward war, violence, killing each other, and in times of peace, the idea that we’re devoting this productivity instead to “commerce,” and whatever the people who run “commerce” want.

WE MUST CHOOSE TO REVERSE OUR DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Perhaps this can be a call to my generation.  War is being forced down our throats by… someone.  This could be total war.  Looking at this, Iran is allied closely with Russia and China, and if we attack Iran, I’m worried that it could be more than enough to set off a chain of uncontrollable events very similar to the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand, which began World War 1.

We are on the verge of democide on a scale we’ve never before seen, and it’s the leading cause of death in the 20th century (I’ve heard).

I WILL NEVER ALLOW WAR.

This poem encapsulates my perspective on the concept of peace.

If there is war, I will protest peacefully until they kill me or until they stop the war.  Please join me.

As controversial as it is to say things like this, I feel like my blog could be shutting down soon.  Just remember my name:

CARL RITTENHOUSE LARSON

It’s as if we’re in an eternal monsoon, but we’re dying of thirst, because we’re holding a thimble out into the deluge, filling it, drinking from it, repeating, and wondering why we’re thirsty.

The concept that our world is an energy-poor place, with limited, scarce resources which beg our competition, is totally wrong, existentially dangerous, and accepted as true by most (if not all of) the leaders of our world.

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Pythagoras and his followers swore oaths on perhaps their most sacred symbol - the Tetractys.

Pythagoras was born  in 560 BC, on the Greek island of Samos, generations before Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, or Alexander the Great.  Pythagoras is the earliest, best-known Greek philosopher, though he never wrote a word (to our knowledge).

All of what we know about him comes from what his students wrote, and from this, we know that Pythagoras was a mathematician, philosopher, speaker, teacher, musician, and religious leader who believed that numbers literally comprise our material world at its most fundamental level.  Beyond atoms, electrons, nucleii, protons, neutrons, up quarks, down quarks, muons, gluons, or even eleven dimensional strings, there are only numbers.  Matter can be broken down ad infintum, but mathematics govern the entire process at every step.

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Transparency is my cause.  Transparency is a necessary element of being collectively human.

We need more transparency in government.  We need to know where and how election fraud happens, and fight it.  We don’t know anything without transparency.

We need more transparency in finance (I’m leading by example on this).

And we need transparency online, in our raw speech.  Currently, this isn’t happening.

For example, Facebook recently censored my poetry.

As a result, I’ve boycotted Facebook and I invite you to do the same.  I’ve challenged Facebook to a duel of words, and because they haven’t replied, I’ve won by default.  I await rebuttal.

Online censorship is real

It happened to me, and thousands of other people who posted the same image.  We can’t let this become a part of our culture.  Censorship is the manifestation of evil and oppression in our world.

More than anything, it surprised me how many other Facebook users were indifferent to the fact that we were censored, and actually encouraging of Facebook’s right to censor.  Not only was I censored, but I was told by my Facebook “friends” that this action is perfectly okay.

We are interdependent, not independent.  We need our connections to be transparent, and information needs to stay free.  Censorship can’t be a part of our reality.  Our internet is an evolution of consciousness, and we must fight to preserve its sanctity.

Lawmakers are crusading to take away our rights

The NDAA (which permits indefinite detention of US citizens) passed in a landslide, and the EEA (which would strip US citizens of their citizenship based only on a state department investigation – no juries) looms in committee.  Not even mentioning SOPA.

Our culture is in jeopardy.  We must struggle for transparency.

Our constitution must reflect that uncensored internet access is a human right.

Let’s make this real in 2012.

“The human brain is the most complex arrangement of matter in the known universe.” – V.S. Ramachandran

A few moments ago, V. S. Ramachandran spoke at the Being Human conference, and he delivered this quote somewhat casually, but I feel that it’s a highly nuanced statement, deserving of much more attention.

I would actually disagree that the human brain is the most complex arrangement of matter in the known universe. Given a more rigid definition of “arrangement of matter,” maybe he’s right, but I’d prefer to define this more loosely.

An arrangement of matter is “arranged” to the extent that the matter behaves as one causal system. Neurons in a skull work well for this definition, but so does the phenomenon of human beings, using the internet.

I’d like to define an “arrangement of matter” as an actual world, connected causally. Just as neurons causally interact and connect, human beings interact and connect. Neurons do this with tiny links, people do it in person, over the phone, and on the largest scale, we do this online.

I’d like to assert that the internet itself is the most complex arrangement of matter in the known universe. But in every way, the internet is an extension of our minds. Because the internet is the collective human consciousness, it must be the most complex arrangement of matter in the known universe.

I define my self causally. I am my actions. When I write online, I am online.

Mind – Universe Duality

A mind = a universe

Our universe is aware. Not in the way that humans are aware, but it is aware (warning, this is not a readily testable assertion). Our universe is a mind. Our minds are universes. They are different manifestations of the same spectrum, like the colors yellow and green, or more precisely, Gamma waves and radio waves.

To me, being human starts and ends, simply, with being.

How machine-like does DNA look to you in this video? What are we humans but our DNA? How is DNA any different than a hyper-complex computer program or algorithm?

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I choose this name because it is a place in history to which I have decided to connect.  I claim nothing beyond a layman’s expertise.  I’m choosing to paint a picture of Pythagoreanism, as a philosophy, in my own mind, with facts, and then live and meditate in that world.

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Question: How many universes of equal or greater complexity than our own is it possible to simulate?  For instance, the film “The Matrix” deals with a simulated universe in which all humans are trapped.  This would be a fictional example of one simulated universe.

How many universes of greater complexity than our own is it possible to simulate using computer technology?

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When I futurize, it’s extremely difficult to discern between what I want to happen and what I think will happen.  I try to be a positive person, because I like to, but also because I think it’s a good survival tactic, and this often leaves me confused in my head about what I honestly think will come to pass, and what I want, and am working towards.

Perhaps this gets to the classic debate between optimism and pessimism.  I usually fall on calculated optimism, and a deep fear that my understanding isn’t sufficient, and a constant drive to learn more, and process new information.

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Listen to the author read this entire article out loud (9:05)

February 27, 2012

So, Facebook reads your text messages, according to the the London Sunday Times in a subscribers-only article, referenced all over the blogosphere today (Fox News, Tech Crunch, and many others).  If you have the Facebook mobile app, then that same mobile app, without asking your permission, has been showing your text messages to Facebook, who makes a profit off of it.

Companies don’t act unless it’s profitable.  Unwritten economic law.

Unsurprising for Zuckerberg, whose name is synonymous with Facebook, and who is its  ultimate boss, the CEO – the final decider.  He who will only eat meat killed by his own hand, has sank his sharp, blood-stained, carniverous teeth even further into the privacy of his user base.  This action, repeated millions of times, comprises the lifeblood of both his company, and his duly ample bank accounts.

Assange: "Villain" today, "terrorist" tomorrow?

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Censored:

If, and only if, justice, then peace.

Why, war, why?

Carl Rittenhouse Larson

February, 2012

For the record, my poetry, shown above, has been censored.  This is a fact.

Most likely, it was censored by an algorithm, but still.  In a way, it was written by an algorithm.

I’m thinking about getting “Censored poet” tattooed on my chest, maybe in Mandarin.

Expanding on the censored poem

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February 22, 2012

All of advertising can be divided up into two categories – relevant information, and spam.  Most of what I see on TV is spam.  It’s funny sometimes, but it’s still spam. Kind of creepy that they know everything about me, but it’s the price we pay for relevancy.

Most of the ads I see on the internet are targeted to me, specifically.  Based on Google’s knowledge of my browsing history, they target ads to me that they know have a high likelihood of being relevant.

Relevant information is good.  Spam is bad.

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February 21, 2012

I recently challenged Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg to a duel of words.  I posted an image to my Facebook wall, along with thousands of other people, who posted the same image to their own walls.  Eventually, that image was taken down, from everyone’s wall, by Facebook.  The image wasn’t lewd, it wasn’t illegal, it wasn’t obscene, it was simply this:

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February 19, 2012

Charlie Dent is a politician from Pennsylvania who has introduced the Enemy Expatriation Act (EEA), which would revoke the citizenship of American citizens suspected of links to terrorism.

The interviewer’s only decent question is whether the EEA would strip convicted terrorists of their citizenship, or just those suspected of terrorism.

Dent responds by alluding to “investigations,” conducted by the state department, not trials conducted in the public eye, in our legal system.  So the answer is “suspected,” not “convicted,” because convictions only happen in court.

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February 18, 2012

There’s no democracy in Maine this year.  Voters from Hancock and Washington counties have been reported (by Fox News, actually) as being “not counted.”  Some polling stations were closed, due to a phantom snowstorm that never materialized.  There’s an easy way around all of this – we just need to do it.

Maine in February of 2012 is a sad example of a large underlying problem, everywhere in America, and all through our history: in-person elections are inherently flawed, and we need to get our elections online.

Sure, there will be challenges, but those hurdles are going to be much easier to overcome than the catastrophic, corruptable, logistics nightmare of holding an in-person election.

I’m from Oregon, where it’s 100% vote by mail.  Maybe that makes me more predisposed to support a system where it evolves even further – vote by internet.  People should have a choice of how they vote.  Right now, few have any choice in how they vote.

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February 20, 2012

Random information is generated by the human mind. From that random information, humans are extremely skilled at unconsciously, unawarely, hacking down 99+% of that randomly generated information, removing data based on their own consciously understood priorities, thereby prioritizing that random information, or (in other words) ranking that random information in relation to the individual’s understood goals.

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February 13, 2012

I recently made a post to my Facebook profile that was promptly un-posted, by Facebook.  Whether it was a human, a flagger, an algorithm, or a silver unicorn with an impaled tiger on its horn, bellowing more loudly than a blue whale, at the Sunrise, from a mountaintop, underwater, in space – it doesn’t matter.  All that matters is the post was deleted.

The only word I got for that is censorship.

It’s been real, Facebook, but I’m done for a while.  I won’t do the account de- and re-activation dance; I’ll just stop commenting.

Facebook, I give you consistently good content, and in return, you spam me with ads for Wal-Mart.  I don’t care if Jim Phillips “liked” Wal Mart.  I’ve never been inside one.  I’ll keep it that way.

Have you heard about Google+?  (Circle me!)  It’s this cool new social network where adults can interact, and talk about things other than Jersey shore.

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Podcast

February 8, 2012

This election year, don’t vote for politics as usual.  Instead, let’s amend the constitution.

Amendment 28: Uncensored internet access is a human right.

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February 6, 2012

Pythagoreanism.com is probably the worst-categorized website online – if you’ve ever wondered what this is all about (for example, why it’s called Pythagoreanism), this video should clear up some of your confusion:

[Direct link to video]

Online Democracy Now!

Real freedom is equality, unity, harmony, growth, and the many singularities of our world that will manifest in 2012.  Collectively, we feel a Jungian energetic counterweight to the many generations of people who in some way thought this year, 2012, this time, was a special time, where singularities were likely to occur.

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[audio src="http://pythagoreanism.com/podcasts/transcending_the_liberty_versus_security_debate.mp3"]

January 26, 2011

Wherever the line between the right to privacy and security is drawn, it should apply equally to governments and citizens.

“The NYPD recently announced that it’s working on a mobile scanner designed to detect concealed weapons on people from up to 75 feet away.”  The obvious, age old question, is where to draw the line between liberty (or the right to privacy) and safety.  Ben Franklin weighed in on the side of liberty when he said,

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

But ultimately, this question is irrelevant, because the naturally occurring and increasingly rapid advance of technology literally outpaces the debate.  Instead of slogging through this murky philosophical swamp, why don’t we just fly right over?

Boxers, briefs, or 9mm?

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