"Guns, Germs, and Steel" - An Introduction

This book is about history.  And it is also fact, not fiction.  I guess that that makes it a bit of a deviation for me, seeing as I rather prefer to read science fiction.

Without further ado, I'd like to introduce my study of "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond.  Now I am only part of the way through, and I need to break this whole thing up into any number of parts, so I will begin with the questions, not the answers, that Mr. Diamond poses.

History has proceeded very differently for all human cultures since the end of the last ice age 13,000 years ago.  Jared Diamond explains that these disparities exist solely because of differences in the environments of these cultures.

"Guns, Germs and Steel" takes us back to the very dawn of human evolution, from human's divergence from apes to the present day.  His focus though is on the past 13 millenniums since the last ice age, the time in which humans began to form civilization.

Diamond brings his excellent observations on the development of food production, the spread of ideas such as writing and agriculture, the evolution of germs and diseases, and the ability of some societies to support inventors or politicians to bear on this question.

We shall see how the issue fares.

"Miracle" Short Story - Part II

(Continued from the last post: "Miracle Short Story - Part I)

“I am an old man, I have nothing to fear,” replied Anatoly, now crouching over the block.  It reached up to his shoulders, rough edges, rough sides, a smooth round hole opening into it.  He traced hole's edges, feeling the thing’s heat through his glove.

Hastily, he withdrew his hand a second later. Some creature’s whiskered nose was timidly emerging.  With mounting surprise (and no small amount of disbelief) he watched as a grey head and white-fur-socked paws came into view.  A cat! An extremely tiny, white-grey kitten.

Padding weakly over his lead smock, into Anatoly’s lap, it stared up at him.  Green eyes, flecked with gold.

“How is it possible?” one of the engineers behind him cried out.

“Nothing can live in this,” another said, a doctor this time.  “Nothing at all, its, its …” he broke off.  Quietly this time, “Look at its ears.”

Anatoly, still caught by the cat’s gaze, didn’t respond.  With a now-ungloved, trembling hand, he traced the fur between its two left ears.  One pair was smaller, set in front slightly of the other.

He whispered, “Chudoturnyi”: miracle.  Surrounded by so much death, red sick trees, burnt houses, scattered concrete; still he stared into the cat’s eyes.  “Miracle” he whispered again.

"Miracle" Short Story - Part I

They were the first to enter the hot zone.  A team of doctors, physicists, and a technician from the reactor who had left just before the meltdown.  A small team of American’s was also part of the team, but so far, they had kept to themselves.  This was fine with Anatoly.  Not getting to know them meant saved time.  And any time saved meant less time taking 30 rads per second.

Unconsciously he smoothed the heavy lead smock pulled over his shoulders.  Though it slowed him down and let sweat pool under his arms, the weight was comforting, safe, secure.  To have something thick and dense between him and the radiation.  As a nuclear physicist, indeed as one of the top nuclear physicists, he had seen first hand the damage that invisible “radiatsiy” could do.  Men had come away from some of the first breakthrough tests looking sunburned.  Loss of fertility and leukemia were also common. They had been so careless in those early days.  Things were supposed to be different these days, precautions were taken, people were careful.

Not careful enough it seemed.

He was retired in the name of God! He’d thought he had left it all behind, but then a knock at the door… “There has been an accident.”

The harsh crackle of a geiger counter up ahead snapped him back to the present.  A slightly metallic grey block lay slightly askew a few meters in front of the group.  The youngest in their group, a doctor, Arkady, approached it, holding the now fully-awakened Geiger counter before him.  The constant crackling sound, a bit like endlessly tumbling gravel, rose into a flat tone.

“The meter has maxed out,” said Arkady, fear in his voice.
“It’s a piece of the control rod housing,” said one of the American engineers, “probably graphite,” he added.

Grunting, Anatoly nodded his assent.  Once again smoothing his leaden smock, he approached the object.

“You’ll kill yourself,” the American again.  The alarm in his voice was slightly muffled by his heavy mask.

Part II to follow soon.

Little Minds

Babies are fun to watch. You can almost see the gears of their brains whirring at a mile a minute as they gape at some novel situation parents put them in. But modern psychology has shown us that they are not doing much actual thinking at this point. In fact, until about age two, most of the brains development goes to physical coordination. This means that the cognitive function is limited in scope until age two. This creates some strange cognitive effects. For example, an infant's realm of existance extends only as far as their senses go. In other words, if they can't see, hear, or smell you, you dont exist.

How many of you have ever worried or been anxious about anything? If you didn't raise your hand, you are a lier and can go sit in the corner. Stressing about things has become a central component of modern existance. But if you don't know about anything beyond your immediate surroundings, do you stress? For example, if I told you there was a nuclear halocaust occuring on a planet on the edges of the galaxy, would you be concerned? No, the threat didn't exist for you. So, if a baby's world is only as large as the room its in, does that means that this is the only time in the baby's whole life that will be free from stress. If you are over the age of 8 months, you will never be truly carefree again. Sorry.

But once physical development is achieved, the brain begins to form a shape we would recognize. But again, the process takes time, and until then, the brain continues to pull tricks. The ability to sympathize is gained around age 3. Until then, children assume that everyone else thinks like they do. Everyone is an automaton, except for them. And the minute they realize that other people can think and feel, that's when children begin to tease each other. That's right. As soon as you realize that others can feel pain, you do your darndest to inflict as much pain as possible. If there was ever evidence of humans being fundamentally evil, there it is.

Ahem.

Interested Converse

The best thing about listening is, of course, listening.  The best things about asking are the answers.  And the best things about talking are the opinions.

I had a very intriguing conversation the other day with someone about god, spirituality, and generally the creation of the universe.  Now the only downside to a conversation like this is that both sides will in all likelihood not completely change their faith (or lack of) based on this alone.  In fact the opinions on this subject we have at this age are likely what we will believe for the rest of our lives.

Onwards.  The outlook I expressed was pretty much that of a hard-core atheist.  Now I say "pretty much" because I tend not to be too forceful with my lack of beliefs on this subject like some atheists can be.  I am not a "humanist", I don't think there is some spiritually-greater being out there (however cozy this might make the universe feel).  I take the empirical scientist's viewpoint.

Well perhaps it is not completely fair to say that.  Science is not the opposite of religion.  Parallel Pursuits, if I may alliterate.  Therefore, evidence that science is true does not mean that religion loses some of its substantiality.  Whew, pretty close call eh?  'Cause its rather obvious that science works.  Just ask the nice people on the telly.  So it can be argued (and this seems to be the new "genre" of religious proof) that there is scientific evidence for religion.  This is not (necessarily) a contradiction.

This was the tack that my fellow conversant took.  He evidently supported the idea of god (specifically the Christian god).  Its nice to discuss something like this civilly without reverting to some of the savage religious debates that we see way too often on the youtube.

We both made some telling points (I'm not going into specifics, go find your own conversation), and both left as we began.

But as I said earlier, its that there are opinions in the first place that matters.  Not their Relative Rightness or Wrathful Wrongness (hehe).

So, thanks for your time.

The Wherewithal

Best of luck and all.  We'll see, looking forward at what we can never see while ignoring behind us what is always clear.  Better not to dwell to much on that though.
And Autumn is proving uniquely chilling, in a glorious red-yellow way.  Apple cider, cocoa, Nog is flowing.  Oh happy day; happy season.  

And while courage is not lacking, it certainly requires some grace in execution.  But that is trivial, seems trivial, should be trivial, may be trivial to what is smushed in perspective down the converging road, perhaps.
Minds are blown, Prime'd and set off.  Halloween and the littlest slivers of the anarchist inside begin to show.  Appeasement again probably.
Just glad to be here, there is a grandeur in beginning the end of something.  However uncertain the 'next' may be.  Merry meet and merry part again.

Oh Canada

A Vancouver Sun headline recently caught my eye:

Climate Change Could make Canada a Major World Power

[click here for original article]

My first thought: sweeeet.  The article goes on to explain how increased warming will lead (and already has to some extent) to ice in the Arctic receding.  As we technically have sovereignty in a large portion of the Arctic (along with Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Alaska), this would enable us to get at some of its nice, juicy resources.  Before the environmentalists cry foul, remember: this is after climate change, there isn't much worth preserving now.  Anyways, just like Japan, China, and a host of smaller countries in the Pacific Rim have emerged in recent decades as industry hot spots.

With the coming resource boom will also come many, many jobs.  And as the northern regions of the NORC's (Northern Rim Countries) are all rather unpopulated, there will be a rush of immigration and population growth.  Our unmatched fresh water supplies will help too.

So what should we all expect?

What kind of timeframe are these changes on?

As much of this development depends on climate change, lets look at that.  Its my guess that CO2 emissions will continue to increase a little over the next decade and a half, perhaps two decades.  By that time, oil supplies should be low enough and technology will have advanced enough for us to stop the slow increase, and start the long trek towards pre-industrial age levels.  Of course, the planet's temperature has a lot of "inertia".  Even if we stopped pumping out CO2 tomorrow, it would keep on getting warmer.  So Arctic melting is close to inevitable.

The article estimates that the development and population rush in the Arctic will occur within 40 years.  This is pretty conservative, I think we will start seeing big things happening up north within 20.

Any-who, time to wrap this up.  I'd like to get your opinion on the issue.  Are you looking Canadian, Russian, Scandinavian, or Alaskan and are looking forward to industrial might?  Do you feel that this is only stepping on Nature's face after melting her poles?  What's YOUR take?

Thanks for the read.

Oh I know "WHY"

Why now were those memories surfacing?  What relevance did they have? Ah well the relevance was obvious to that inner smug self that takes infinite care to remind me of what I really thinking.  But self-delusion... so good, so satisfying, so easy.
My inner small wish to be a mentat, a parser.  Receiving each new moment and world separately, openly.  Each as its own new place.
But this is nothing extraordinary.  For hell's sake, its just THOUGHT.  It represents a LOT of ideals to me.  I never surprise myself by what is done.

Attention is given where interest is smitten.

It works both ways right?  It IS both ways?  But True Me knows better.  The raw bit though, the Why, is now bland.  THAT little nugget of fun has been visited much; and now I know myself that the Why is no absolute.  Its fluid, changeable.

And that small Why for It is joined by the rest of the masses.  Every face, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, word, and pixel.  Forming a big ball of BEING.  Throw this together with a time limit, a sense that this is a race.  Boil for 9 months give or take and I arrive at my meaning of life.

That though, just becomes another Why.

Progress

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  Cold wars are good for science.

(I'd recommend you watch it in fullscreen; and watch the whole thing too, almost sounds like music once the tests really get going)

The arms race between the USA and the USSR (with a few notable discoveries in Britain, France and Canada) gave humanity a lot of good stuff.

- Nuclear reactors (So what if they have a bad rap, they are the way of the future)
- A man on the moon (Nothing like the good ol' red menace to ignite public opinion)
- Nuclear physics (exotic atoms, big machines make things we can't see go really fast)
- Science fiction (VERY important, imagine if Asimov never got around to making up "robotics")
- Rockets (also fun, thanks von Braun)
- MAD (ensures that no nukes will ever be used in war again)
- A very good demonstration that communism doesn't work

Now, haters gonna hate, go ahead and list off some of the downsides.  There was some loss of life, mainly in the Korean war.  And all those spies, but hey, they never existed and were never here.  Right?

"I'll trade ya 10 red spies for your 4 star-spangled spies."

"You have a deal, now we just need a long bridge covered in mist somewhere."

"That's too dramatic, lets just put them on planes and have them fly to the other country."

"Fine."

I've been watching the whole spy boondoggle in the USA pretty closely.  Mostly just because I can't believe Tom Clancy had some of it right, but also because I am hoping for more Cold-war-style tension.

And perhaps some more breakthroughs.

*Blink*