Janitor

 I am a janitor. I clean up the code, but try to make as little mess as possible in the process. It can't cause any problems, but I'm so tired of disposable software! Fucking fix it please. Really, please. Don't pay for consultants if you wrote the original. Regular expressions exist, so if you built things along a pattern, then the person coming behind you can use the meat of what you were trying to express, and leverage what has been learned in the interim.

I'm slow, I know, and I accept that. I enjoy what I do, and I do what is asked and try and tidy up on the way out. Assumption: what is asked is non-exploitative in nature

Six Passive Circuit Elements

 I was watching a video from 7 years ago about memory resistors (memristors), and about using them to create synapse like circuits (Alex Nugent, Knowm). That got me thinking about memristors and how they are the 4th passive circuit element. 

I found the name, Leon Chua, (googled, and google gave me me a pdf of the article: Memristor: The Fourth Fundamental Passive Circuit Element)

So, my thought was that we don't really have a final four, we have six, but in pairs: memory resistor (memristor), memory capacitor(memcapir?), and memory inducer(memducer?).  I don't know how to type the nomenclature.. I know there is MathML and other syntax markers, and if I revisit this I'll mark it all up. So resistor R would have an equivalent memory based component, Rm. 

So the six elements would be R Rm, C Cm, I Im. The R value of the resistor and memrister at initial state would have the same R, measured in ohms. The Rm would probably need to have a known Min and Max (thinking of the analogies with resistors and their color coding. The resistor has known and marked physical properties, and thinking about what extra properties would want to be known for that component, and how they would be marked, I digress).

So we have a way of denoting a complex component with as a single symbol for abstraction. The more concrete example I've been thinking as I try to understand how it would works is ionic flow. Let's say we have a pipe, 4 cells in the pipe, high sodium concentration in water on one side (ratio of ionic concentration external, number 1(Rx1)), and high chloride concentration on the other (Rx2). Each of the cells in the pipe have eight ion channels (four input, four output(which is which would depend on the direction of the current)).

Anyway, the cell would only be able to take in four ions per time it takes for the ion to clear the channel, and it would only be able to hold on to a certain number of ions. Those internal ions are the memory, or buffer in the cell. If you had all + ions in memory (in the cell), and the inputs were all + , and the concentration on the outside of my outputs was -, then I would pass all four + ions and pick up another 4, and usually not take in any - ions. It's easier to imagine the polarity reversing making a difference if we had four cells in the pipe. All four cells have + ions. If the polarity reversed, and I had all + ions, that there would be a period of time where the ions mingled, so the resistance would go up sharply for the amount of time it took for the ions to revers direction. This would illustrate the memory (the ions inside the cell), has an effect of its resistance to the flow of ions from input to output. 

There's also some curve that shows a figure eight when measuring the capacitance and resistance when switching polarity. the figure eight, that crossing point, shows that there is a period of total resistance (no flow) when changing polarity.  

I don't know how the others would work well enough because I don't fully understand them. The memcapir would behave something like an electrical synapse where the capacitance and timing would be effected by the stored memory (its internal ions). The memducer would be an ion generator and/or distributor; it would hold a concentration of a particular ion, and so its flow would be dependent on its memory.

Cell:

Starting ions (4Na+)

Ion capacity (4 ions)

Number of input chanels

Number of output channels

Code

To those who are truly neutral. Choose to fight against oppression. Choose to be a samurai, but your master is the person next to you, and you are theirs. We are all equal partners in this. If you see yourself as a person, move forward, love life, and choose to do the best that you can without exploiting others or the environment. Be a net positive. If you find out that something you are doing is harmful, stop and find another way. Love yourself and everyone around you. Even the assholes. Assholes can’t thrive if you ignore them and actively resist if they try to oppress you. Choose defiance over slavery. Fuck the master.

The Meat Grinder

Make conditions as bad as possible to ensure that every participant has to exert themselves at or near maximum effort to stay alive. Survival of the fittest. Most of the time it is a by-product of a random or semi-random set of circumstances. Sometimes, as in the case of the US Army training and other like programs, it can be a directed outcome.

I want to live in the opposite of the meat grinder. Give everyone all that they want, and provide the tools to advance. We have to want to do more than smoke pot and browse the internet, and I think most of us do. It would be tempting to have people disappear into hedonism, but that feels much more humane than oppressing the people that depend on you.

The meat maker? The meat grower? Neither sound good
It's like unschooling for everyone. 

We have a house, or housing. We have enough to eat and we are safe. We have video games for those who need outlets for behavior that is abhorrent to the mean sensitivities of the group. We have counseling available (and mandatory if needed).

We have tools available, and automation to take care of repetitive tasks. The Cohen brothers would disagree with this notion, that any form of utopia would be rejected. That we need struggle to give ourselves meaning. We have the internal struggle! Anyone who has what they need and the ability to get what they want has this struggle. We want meaning. It /is/ the question(s) that drives us, and it's an evolving conversation: what is enough? what can I create? what can I commit to, to truly throw myself into. I need the question, the problem to solve.

I also like to dig holes, and I'd be happy to help dig a ditch, or help the neighbor fix a broken piece of furniture.

It probably isn't utopia, though it isn't a place. We just build what we can and take solace that we can fall back into soft arms when we fail, so commitment isn't as scary.

The cat died, people.

 biological computing but with a digital read. We can get more variability than silicon, less transitions between states. The image I was seeing was a slice of brain with a camera pointed at it. That's more a late night graphic accompanying the joke about how silly this idea is. I like the idea of the curves being smooth. Maybe that's the simpleton's guide to a quantum computer (I'm including myself in the simpleton category, and maybe it's a club of 1). It smooths out the rough edges every time you need to stop everything and get a value. Maybe that's why the cat dies. It wrecks everything to stop and get a measurement. Although, I'm a firm believer that the cat /is/ alive or dead; we just have a shitty clock.

Trust yet verify

It is very easy to have the wrong idea. It is easy to make bad decisions, especially if there is a lot of emotion involved. 

I've made it a rule (but it is hard to really quantify) that if I have to make a more than 2nd level jump in intuition, I want external verification. Basically, it's dangerous to make an assumption based on an assumption. That sounds obvious on the face of it, but we do it all the time! Let's say a brand makes something you really like and it is good quality. I assume that other products or services by that brand will be good , and you will assume that the thing will arrive in good working order. You may argue that something arriving in good working order is not really an assumption if we know that it may not. The assumption is that this thing will happen within a probability range we are comfortable with. As an example, try and imagine a 5 year plan, or even what your life is going to look like in a year.

This requires a really solid understanding of your current state. What do my finances look like? (That's easy, unstable) What are my true weaknesses? Addictions, desires, I can't think of the term, but the tendency to explode like a toddler or small child. It's action without thought (as described), (new items now) our compulsions. ability to communicate, physical abilities. So many other things. The reason you need to know your base self, is that any future planning already assumes you can do it. 

To know yourself, to know myself, we need to accept the things that we've done, and the needs that we have. You don't have to share it outside if it isn't comfortable, yet we need to be honest with ourselves and at the very least acknowledge those failings, super powers, and everything in between.

All next steps are another assumption.

Block Voting

 Since corporations are people, we should look at citizenship. A corporation could act as a 'proxy" for citizens. With a basic income allowance, it would effectively privatize citizenship There would be competition to increase individual subsidies. I'm not sure how it would fit, but it seems like the government should be able to get a lot of public works. As a proxy corporations could block vote on candidates and issues. Not sure what sort of public trust could be brokered to throttle back short-sighted greed.