In the not-too-distant future, our eyesight is likely to be enhanced cybernetically, either with a scouter like overlay or direct modifications to the eye itself. For security purposes or otherwise, these enhancements could be outfitted with automatic decrypters of visual images. Much like the technology of AR, seccure documents could be encrypted into highly secure images that only ‘eyes’ with the correct decrypter could view. In fact, I suppose this is augmented reality.

My first encounter with them was when I was driving about the Warehouse carpark. Generally in a carpark, pedestrians stay out of the middle of the driving lanes, where cars go, but old people seem to completely disregard this fact, ambling towards me as I cruised about for a park. The normal reaction for a pedestrian to perform when a car is coming towards them is to get out of the way. But this old couple seemed to be completely oblivious towards my car’s presence. Something had grabbed the old dude’s attention of to the left and he was fixated on it, ignoring the fact he was cutting off half of the lane with his aging body.

I figured he was just a stupid old person, the only one I should encounter today. Unfortunately, the carpark was fuller than usual, increasing the proportion of mindless old people. Cursing at him, I parked my car and went into the Warehouse for my supplies.

I should have noticed the number of wrinkled old people entering and exiting the store with me, but it wasn’t until I got into line that my frustration rose. Normally I make a point of avoiding lines in which people are trying to purchase clothing, as they tend to take a while. But I didn’t notice the short elderly lady with some nasty looking shirts in front of me in what I thought was a short and quick line. Something in their withered minds must make them regard time as so much less precious. Perhaps it’s because they’ve seen so much, or perhaps it’s because everything took longer ‘in their day.’ But something about old people and buying clothes causes them to negotiate and haggle over fixed store prices because ‘something’s missing’, or ‘there’s a bright tag on that there tunic.’

This particular old lady was fussed because she had two identical cyan shirts, but one was missing the singlet so she wanted a price reduction. I swear these people purposely search for these sorts of things; missing singlets, broken labels, etc. During the whole ordeal, she briefly turns back to me and utters “sorry.” Fuck you, you hag. You ain’t sorry. You’re happy you’ve managed to keep the poor checkout operator busy for as long as you did. Perhaps the crone craves the interaction, the feeling of power over the store workers, knowing that as the consumer, she’s always right. “I demand respect because I have lived longer!” Well that doesn’t mean you can disrespect everyone else.

Getting through my transaction at a fraction of the time, I zipped away to the other store, thankfully free of anyone. But the next one, a veggie shop was unfortunately quite busy. I grabbed my goods in short order and proceeded to wait in line. But who should upset the sanctity of the line? None other than some granny with a trolley who happened to be finished with her shop and decided that she’ll be next to be served. She did all this while walking past the line, glancing at the befuddled group of Asians at the head of the line who were unsure of what they should do. What’s worse is at the end of her transaction, and she was presented with the total, she almost sounded like she was going to debate the cost. “$18.70?!” Don’t you fucking dare dispute that, or I’ll destroy you. After realising they had been wronged, the Asians moved closer to the counter, ensuring they were next.

As the transactions were processed, more people started to line up. Well, lines up, as there was more tahn one line forming, thanks to other old people starting their own line just behind the Asians. As I was originally behind them, I was right annoyed at these fuckers, but thankfully the checkout server was aware I was next and motioned me over. But the first old person in the impromptu ‘line’ was not happy with this and made a point of standing right next to me as I went through the transaction, fixing me with an evil glare as though she had been wronged.

At the end of all this, I figure this: sure young people can be insolent and rude, but old people are manipulatively rude. They do things which are flat out crimes against social law, but act as though they are above it. Perhaps they simply forget social laws, or perhaps they are envious and want to piss off those who still have full control of their bladder.

This ad makes no sense. I get where they were trying to go with it, but it is just stupid in its execution. Alright, so the little shit kid won’t eat their food. I get it. Kids don’t like asparagus, broccoli or brown bread. I’m sure the kid’s parents aren’t supposed to take no for an answer when dealing with this though. I’m no parent, but if my kid wouldn’t eat their food, I wouldn’t feed them ice cream instead. They can starve, for all I care. Eventually they’ll get hungry enough to eat the ‘asparagus face’ or ‘broccoli plane.’

The logic fails in this ad simply because most kids in general DO like ice cream and yoghurt. So combining the two does nothing for getting a kid to eat. They’ll eat the two separately or together; they don’t give a shit. And neither is very healthy. Sure yoghurt isn’t too bad when natural, but sweetened (which is the stuff a kid eats anyway), it’s too sugary to be good.

So the basic scenario is this: “Eat your veggies/healthy bread, you ingrate!” “NO! I DON’T WANNA!” “Oh ok. Have some yoghurty ice cream.” From a reinforcement learning perspective, this is basically telling the kid that they can have ice cream whenever the hell they want. Goodness in, happiness out indeed. Problem is, this goodness also translates into childhood obesity. Fuck it. Feed your spoiled kids ice cream so they get fat and get bullied at school. Serves you right for sucking at parenting.

• Those dubbed cleaning product advertisements on TV. They were filmed in German or whatever, and a crappy dub is just layered over it.
• Slow people. Not retarded. Just slow moving
• Dishes put in the sink. Even if there is no room on the bench, they shouldn’t be put in the sink. There’s no room to rinse shit when you’re done with it.
• Car ads. Fuck they annoy me. Usually the actual content of the ad has nothing to do with cars, save the placement of the car itself. Especially the Mazda ‘Zoom zoom’ thing and the Holden Berina or whatever ad.
• More to come…

Something some martial artists may be aware of is ‘the unbendable arm,’ which is a demonstration of this relaxed methodology. It is done by putting your arm on your partners (not relationship partner, just training partner or what-have-you), and holding it strong and tensed, like you’ve just punched with all your might. The partner will the try to bend your arm at the elbow. This will likely be quite easy, sue to the structure of the arm. Of course, if you’re much stronger than your partner, they may have trouble even doing this. Then, try again, but this time relax your arm, while still keeping it straight. The analogy is that your arm is like a hose filled with water when relaxed, but a hose filled with set concrete when tensed. Your partner should find it harder to ‘break’ when your arm is relaxed than when tensed.

This is an example of relaxed power. There is a more drastic one that involves lifting your partner which is quite amazing. Anyway, this post is about the limits of the human body. Pretty much everyone wants superpowers – I know I do. But are they within reach? Many athletes are almost superhuman; smashing records every 4 years (Michael Phelps…).

In terms of body control and body training, can we get total control over our minds and fully control our bodies? Our heart beats at a set rate, currently an automatic task that we do not (consciously) control. When we exercise, the brain tells the body to pump blood faster to the muscles that need it, usually heating the body in the process. Can we harness our brain fully to control our heartrate at will? It would certainly be a dangerous thing to do, risking an irregular heartbeat and possible heart attack. But if we could, perhaps we could even control the muscles around our veins and cause the blood to travel faster about certain parts of our body (say, the arm), subsequently heating that part.

If this could be done, you could force all the blood into your striking arm when attacking and create a more momentous force, possibly knocking your opponent back a large distance with but a small movement. The sudden rush of blood would be like a hammer pulse contained within your arm. Be quite impressive.

At a higher level, the body’s electrical pulse could also be utilised for a ‘shocking’ blow. I’m not sure how strong the heart’s electrical current is, but I bet it’d be enough to short circuit small electrical devices. Be a cool pub trick.

This sort of dabbling could be highly detrimental to your body’s inner health and possibly fatal. It’d be an interesting avenue to pursue.

A man was inside my house today. Not that he was let in, he let himself in. And as I stood in the doorway looking at him, it was clear what he was doing. The PS2 was already gone, and he had his hands on my computer, unplugged and all.
So what did I do about it? Well, I came at him, ready to unleash one of my kicks that I have trained so long at. And he barely had time to prepare himself. I could tell he wanted to run, but I wasn’t gonna let him go. Not with an opportunity shining so brightly in front of me.
As I rounded the couch, he realised he would have to fight through me but before he could get into a good stance, my right leg was pressing onto his ribcage, crushing him against the wall. And I drew back and kicked again and again. Oh, how good it felt to give one of these thieves the justice they so well deserved. Before long, the carpet was bloodied, and the would-be thief unconscious.
When my rage had finally settled, and was sure that he wouldn’t be getting up any time soon, I studied my opponent and what he had already taken. Where did he put the stuff he had already taken? And, has he got an accomplice? That thought immediately made me direct my attention to the door, which I had left open. Good thing none of my ethnic neighbours had come past, or been alerted by the scuffle, otherwise they may have assisted their coloured ‘brother’. Looking once more at the unconscious body of the thief, to be sure that he wasn’t moving, I proceeded back to the door and closed it up, making sure to lock it.

So, I now have an excellent opportunity on my hands. A chance to finally release the tension inside of me. But before doing that, I need to be sure that this opportunity won’t escape my hands. Luckily, the spare bedroom has got some old rope in the closet, which should suffice as a restraint. But where to tie him to? And how will I keep him quiet? Heh. My junk collecting habit has proven itself to be useful after all. Some time ago, I ‘discovered’ a chair in the park. Some may call that thievery in itself, but I’m pretty sure it was someone’s junk anyway. There wasn’t really all that much wrong with it either. It just had a cracked base is all. Bah, it’ll do.
Grabbing the thief’s arms, I tried to lift him. But being the race he is, lifting this type of guy is not so easy. I guess I’ll take the chair to him then…

After a bit of heaving and fussing, I was content that he wasn’t going anywhere. I had him tied up in the spare bedroom to the broken-ish chair, and that was secured to the wall. To keep him quiet, I stuffed his mouth with some old socks. Hope he doesn’t suffocate from his bleeding nose, that would be a shame…
Now to figure out what he did with the stuff he stole.
“I’ll be back momentarily,” I said to him, knowing full well he couldn’t hear me. And so I left, being extra sure to lock up the door again.

To be continued… (If I can be bothered)

Let me explain what a thought trace is. From my perspective anyway. I’m assuming others have done this before. When you become ‘self-aware’, so to speak, of a particular thought. It could be anything. Maybe a grandparents’ death, or what a good number of stripes would be on a car, or a particular lyric in a song. Then you realise to yourself: ‘how did I come to this thought?’. You then think back through the chain of thoughts that led to this particular thought, usually ending (or starting, if organising chronologically) with an exterior point of origin or slipping into forgotten thoughts.

I was gonna produce an example, but I’ve forgotten it. The irony…

Why have I wanted immortality? There are many reasons, I suppose.

• For one, Time. Time is nothing to an immortal. You can take all the time you want to do whatever you want. You could accomplish anything you wanted to as you’d never be out of time. Things that relate to time, such as impatience, speed/slowness, etc. If you have a thirst for knowledge (as I do) you could learn all you wanted without fear of wasting time. Even if you had some sort of vampire thing going on (so you can only be active at night) it wouldn’t matter. Half of infinity is infinity.
• Secondly, the physical immunity. This is hazy, as immortality has many definitions. Let’s say you cannot be sick or damaged in any way. Your genetical structure cannot be modified or broken (within bounds). You’re like a slab of steel that cannot be broken, bruised or grazed in any way. This would guarantee the immortal bonus. You could go anywhere without fear of pain. Now, on the other side of the coin, you are still human, but your consciousness can never die. Lets say your ‘soul’ (a hypothetical thing at best) allows you to remain in your human shell. That would be torture. You could still become sick, lose limbs, even appear dead. But behind dead eyes will be your consciousness, clawing to escape.
• The power. Assuming we stick with the first scenario of physical immortality (this is all dreamland stuff anyway), the power you could command would be, well, infinite. No army could stop you. Not much could contain you. If you amassed enough knowledge and strength, you could break free from anything. If not, simply be patient. Time is nothing. World domination could be achieved in what would seem like a blink.

Now, these are all valid reasons for wanting immortality (apart from the everlasting torture one). There are bad sides though.

• Just because time is nothing to you doesn’t mean it’s nothing to those you cherish. Partners would come and go with the passing of the seasons, and the emotional baggage and grief from that would surely mount up. With a fragile psyche, the immortal man would become nothing more than a madman forever in torture. Someone of strong will should be able to jump this hurdle though. ‘Get over it’ would be a nice philosophy to go by.
• As stated before, the conditions of physical immortality (not to mention mental) are shaky. Too many things could go wrong.
• As for the power thing. Sure, the world would hate you if you used immortality for evil, but screw them. They’re but mere mortals. The only problem here is the mental assault you’d be under.

A lot of the world already believes in immortality. It’s actually quite a common human dream. Perhaps a dream borne of fear of mortality. ‘The immortal soul’ as it’s commonly known and the accompanying fantasies of Heaven and Hell or whatever equivalents the other faithful believe in. I reckon that’s why religions are so strong. We are all acutely aware that we are mortals and will die at some point. So we foolishly delude ourselves into thinking there’s more. With no proof or fact whatsoever. We just believe. Perhaps there is more. I don’t know. But the proof points towards rotting in the ground once you’re dead. So that’s my view.

I only entertain the notion of immortality as a fantasy. Something to dream about now and then. Though, if an opportunity arose with enough of a chance to work, I’d go for it. Still, only another dream. However, there is one meaning of immortality which I strive for. To be remembered. Once you are forgotten, you no longer existed. No one even knew you were alive, so you don’t matter anymore. I strive to be remembered by being great at what I do. Even being the best. Though I will eventually be forgotten, it wouldn’t be for a while if I achieve this. But for now, I’m just a tall smudge that will fade like everyone else.

‘You are what your genetic material makes you to be and you are shaped by your experiences. So, theoretically, the future could be foretold by taking a snapshot of the universe and computing forward life and the interactions of it (Ignoring random sub-atomic processes). Such a task would require nearly infinite computing power but could be done, to a degree of accuracy. If random sub-atomic interactions were fully understood and virtually modelled, you could get a near perfect simulation of the future.’

Of course, some things were given when I thought this. All living interactions need to be virtually modelled to a high standard, and the computer needs to compute life faster than life itself. Then there’s the problem of modelling the entire universe, something said to be infinite. You could always just model the galaxy, or even just the Solar System. Hell, you could probably get away with just modelling Earth.

Then you got the spiritual aspects of it, such as ‘the immortal soul’ and ‘God’. But I’m willing to ignore such minimal possibilities.

This sort of thing is unlikely to happen in my lifetime, due to the massive amounts of knowledge and computing power required for it. It’d take several lifetimes just to write.