Wednesday, January 25, 2017

O.J. Simpson/Donald Trump/The Meme

Here at Ronco memes, we are proud to offer for an unlimited time to our first 2 Billion internet users: the O.J/Trump meme.

Bogged down in facts?  Tired of a narrative story that actually follows a logical coherent plot?  We have your solution if you will just let go of your reason and let our memes penetrate your firewalls.

We offer:

**custom tailored memes that get right to the point based on scientific research that it is not the facts that matter:   Indeed, you can change the facts daily depending on your intended audience.   What is important is what the memes evoke in the intended host.

**rapid propagation of viral messaging.   Ever wonder how a virus can spread so fast?  Our memes find the interstices lacking in traditional public discourse and exploit them mercilessly.

**identification of repressed host subject matter.  Our memes point to what the audience has wanted to say and believe all along, thus circumventing traditional viral defense mechanisms.

**maximum deniability.  Our memes are cryptographically secure.  Indeed, it is not about Trump or O.J--and it likely our memes did not even originate from them--its about what our memes represent in the murky soup of the broken societal narrative filled with unhappy campers.

**ease of assimilation.  We offer the peace of mind that can only come with the knowledge that you no longer have to think for yourself.

**unlimited entertainment potential--as a plausible replacement for representational reality, we offer a limitless omni-directional event that has and always will be happening.

The Trump/OJ meme is an equal opportunity employer.  We are looking to hire amazing developers, UI designers and Engineers to join our ever growing and inclusive staff.   We would love to hear from you.   Coming to France and Germany soon....

Sunday, January 22, 2017

When All Else Fails

A Hypothetical:  it may not be a cosmic thing so much as how your brain processes the experience.

A Question:  Well I thought the brain is part of the cosmic experience?

A Statement:  What you are saying is the truth, but I'm not sure if its a correct fact.   That may require more investigation.

Another Question:  What kind of investigation do you have in mind?

An Idea followed by a Question:  Well, certainly the most thorough of investigation would be appropriate under these circumstances, don't you think?

A Proposition:  A fact may be correct but not true.

A Preposition: Under.

A Prepositional Phrase:  Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree.

Two Prepositional Phrases, Interwoven:  Under the Spending Chestnut tree, we traveled into the Maelstrom.

Another Question, the Answer to Which May Not be Ascertainable by Conventional Means:  The truth value of a proposition can be evaluated whether or not it's a fact worth knowing or dangerous to know.

Conventional Means:  Strictly speaking, there cannot be an illocutionary act unless the means employed are conventional.

Unconventional Means:  Though Socrates was an unconventional man, he never shirked his duties.

Things that are Shirked:  Hamlet, in my mind, was not mad, but he shirked the duties laid out before him.

The Meaning of Life:  Trumped roll-----

c Go, eat your bread* with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works.8At all times let your garments be white, and spare not the perfume for your head.9Enjoy life with the wife you love, all the days of the vain life granted you under the sun. This is your lot in life, for the toil of your labors under the sun.
10Anything you can turn your hand to, do with what power you have; for there will be no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

The Meaning of Life, Randomly Generated by Artificial Intelligence:

The goal of ultrasonic energy is to plant the seeds of complexity rather than bondage. Inspiration requires exploration.

One more Time with the Random Meaning of Life Generator:

Rejuvenation requires exploration. This life is nothing short of an ennobling metamorphosis of technological awareness.

You Thought I was Surely Done, But The Singularity Has Already Occurred:

Reality has always been buzzing with starseeds whose lives are engulfed in health. We are in the midst of a consciousness-expanding unfolding of insight that will clear a path toward the biosphere itself. Our conversations with other adventurers have led to a maturing of hyper-life-affirming consciousness.


Monday, January 16, 2017

How Can You Wake Up When You Were Not Asleep

History is written by the victors.

Well maybe.  The victors at least get to determine some of the ingredients in the smoothies. Maybe all the ingredients but for the "special sauce."  And I'm not talking about G-Love's special sauce.

Mine is the special sauce that it extracted in the nightclub where the Bernie supporters congregate after an exhausting night of protesting Trump's misogyny while grooving to the Calvin Harris tune "Open Wide."  For you have to "open wide" for the special sauce, now don't you?

Yes, friends, now matter how many smoothies and unicorns and rainbows in our milieu, things are not all fun an games.  Or are they?  It was written by Frederic the Great on the steps of the snow covered steppes that fun and games are the harbinger of totalitarianism.

Which makes sense.  Now that internet of information is ubiquitous how could totalitarianism keep a good idea down anymore? With the special sauce of course.  And so many ingredients in the smoothie that you can't tell what is organic, synthetic, and who is the field Marshall and who is the orangutan.

Please please, I can't take it anymore.  Please make it simple for me.  I am not a rational being.  Its much more fun to submit than to face the truth.  Some people even enjoy submission:-).   Some enjoy other things.  Now i'm being a buzz kill.....

Trump won because he had a simple message.  He promised people things.  Hilary just wanted to bring people together.  So we took the easy way out and just opened wide and received the special sauce.

But all is not lost.   There is a solar eclipse coming to your Midwestern U.S. neighborhood later this summer.  During the eclipse, you will see a poem written in the sky which has not been observed since the last Neanderthal had her head cracked open by these new apes that were spreading like rabbits.  Take that poem, think about it, and realize that even thought we may do the right thing for the wrong darker reason, it is still better to do the right thing, than to open wide.



Thursday, January 5, 2017

No More Middlepeople (or jobs)


Business and trade run best when there is trust, certainty, and transparency surrounding  transactions.  When humans traded in hunter gatherer economies or small villages, trust was enforced by social constraints or reputation.   You knew who you were dealing with.  When trade expanded outside of villages and grew more complex,  institutions developed.  These institutions functioned as “neutral authorities”  in which both parties to the transaction had some degree of confidence.  In other words, you may not trust the person you were trading with, but you did trust that if they did not fulfil their obligation, a government, police,  legal system or other “middle-man” might step in and enforce the trade.  Indeed,  the late Nobel laureate economist Douglass C. North wrote that these “institutions” were specifically created “to create order and reduce uncertainty in exchange.”  Now, with the promise of Blockchain technology, we have the potential to enforce trust in business—without the “Middle-man.”

 

What exactly is  a Blockchain?  At its core the Blockchain is a peer-to-peer decentralized database that stores a registry of assets and transactions.   Think of it like “triple entry accounting.”  In traditional double entry accounting, the seller enters a debit in their accounting ledger for cash received, while the buyer books a credit for cash spent for the same transaction.   Each party maintains separate books, but placed side by side, the bookkeeping entries of both parties should line up.   In a Blockchain, rather than the parties generating entries in separate records, the details of transaction get automatically coded into blocks of data that are cryptographically linked together with other transactions and secured over a network.   The linked chain of data blocks form an incorruptible record of all the transactions that can be replicated on every computer that uses the network.   On the blockchain, you can store not only debits and credits of the transaction, but other information such as history of ownership and location, title, contracts, real world objects—and even personal information.

 

Perhaps the most currently used Blockchain technology is the virtual currency Bitcoin.   However, according to a 2016 research report from Credit Suisse, there is an “increasingly consensus view” that it is Blockchain, not Bitcoin, which more has the potential to disrupt institutions  like law, banking, real estate, accounting, media, intellectual property because of its three key properties:  “disintermediation of trust, immutable record, and smart contracts.”

 

“Disintermediation of Trust”—Blockchain technology provides a more efficient and secure transaction not possible before the internet.  Take the example of land title.    Currently, country recorders and title companies are necessary to verify and record property data with brokers, escrow companies, appraisers, notaries and other middlemen involved in verifying a process that can be slow and tedious.   With a block chain protocol in place, instead of paper title, a digital title could be created—a cryptographically secure token than can be transferred as quickly and cheaply as an email.   A unique and cryptographically secure “digital ownership certificate” could be created that would be virtually impossible to replicate or forge, making selling or advertising properties you don’t own almost impossible--and if you think that this is the stuff of the future, think again, because a number of countries  including the Republic of Georgia, Ghana, and Honduras are already experimenting with it. 

 

“Immutable Record”—Going back to our accounting example, because the entries in a blockchain are distributed and cryptographically sealed, falsifying them, destroying them, altering them or concealing them is practically impossible.  Instead you have a detailed audit trail without the need of a third party auditor. 

 

“Smart Contracts”—Blockchains could allow programmers to write code creating binding contracts between individuals that are self-executing without the need of third party enforcement.  The classic example envisioned by Nick Szabo was a leased car, recorded as a smart-contract on a block chain.   If the lease payment were missed, the contract could automatically revoke the digital right to use the car.   Purchase contracts could be programmed to release funds only when the goods are received in a satisfactory condition.  Smart cars could automatically release funds for parking meters, not to mention parking violations.   The possibilities are limitless and depend only on the coder's ability to reify legal principles into self executing algorithms. 

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To my mind, however, the most salient promise of Blockchain technology is the potential to return humanity back to the trust and transparency of transactions based on reputation--not mediated by third parties whose interests may not be congruent with our own.   We purchase products--not the story behind the products.  We buy our clothes from chains where people work in conditions that may be abhorrent to our sensibilities if our purchase was not mediated and kept at a distance by an opaque scheme of "middle-men."     With Blockchain, you can see the whole transaction and supply chain history of how a product came to be.  If you drink a cup of coffee, you can start tracing the farmer who actually harvested the coffee beans to the person who ground it--you can see the fully story behind everything you buy.   And likewise, they may be able to see us.