I play an online game called MafiaWars. Some people take it way to serious and group together in gangs to terrorize other players. Some people group into clans to protect themselves against the bullies. People like me refuse to be intimidated and we just play the game for fun.
Since I have a mafia of 1400 sooner or later I had to run into a gang of bullies and this weekend I did. This group is called [NYC] and they claim to have a set of ethics, which they don't follow. This keeps the rest of the clans off of their back since they only gang up on independents.
MafiaWars is a game, but, these people play it like their lives depend on it and I would bet that for a lot of them it does.
Sad, I know. There will always be bullies in this world and we should identify them and work with them to change their behavior. When that does not work we have prisons and execution in real life. In the game world those things don't exist so people allow their inner feelings to take over and they become the people they would be in real life.
Some people are generous and protective. Some are vindictive and mean. Some people allow themselves to get frustrated and become vindictive and mean, these people get over themselves and come to their senses.
Not [NYC] though. I messaged 7 players and of those 7, 4 were just reasonable people and 3 were vindictive bullies. Any group with that many vindictive bullies is out of control.
Is there anything anyone can do about it? Not really, nor would I want to.
Ever watch Bones?
Many years ago I worked with a group using computers to build psych profile models from social groups. This was before AOL, but, you can bet onLine communities were recognized early for this potential.
I would bet that there are groups that pay money to monitor interactions on websites like Facebook and MySpace specifically to help develop personality profiling. These websites offer tons of objective statistical data on people and by monitoring the behavior of the people who use these games. Plenty of Universities would pay money for that data and since Facebook in particular was developed for university students.......
You get the idea. Having these games in places where behavior can be studied and personality profiles can be developed is useful. Putting too tight a rein on these games would result in more guarded playing and less useful objective data.
Someday our onLine game playing will help behaviorists identify individuals who are ready to go postal and get them help before they do something horrible.
I am glad to be a part of that. My play is boring, but, it helps build the profile that will eventually identify the real nut cases out there, people like those in [NYC].
Anthropological studies for the new millennium.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Changing the face of reality
Over the last several hundred years people have become more and more dependent on the fantasies created by other people than their own fantasies.
For thousands of years people had limited communication and very limited potential to change economic class. Essentially you could be a serf, a soldier or if you were very lucky you could join a religious order.
People attracted to the academic life would be attracted to the priesthood. People attracted to labor became serfs and people attracted to the potential for material success joined military forces.
There were always plenty of ways to combine these various choices, religious military orders for example.
The one constant was that people typically were forced to create their own fantasy lives from their own experiences.
Today we have such a wide variety of international communication systems that we often use to live in fantasy worlds, computer games, books, movies, television, etc, that our imaginations are becoming dependent on the fantasies of others.
Take the time to create your own fantasies. Use your imagination. Do not rely on the imagination of others.
For thousands of years people had limited communication and very limited potential to change economic class. Essentially you could be a serf, a soldier or if you were very lucky you could join a religious order.
People attracted to the academic life would be attracted to the priesthood. People attracted to labor became serfs and people attracted to the potential for material success joined military forces.
There were always plenty of ways to combine these various choices, religious military orders for example.
The one constant was that people typically were forced to create their own fantasy lives from their own experiences.
Today we have such a wide variety of international communication systems that we often use to live in fantasy worlds, computer games, books, movies, television, etc, that our imaginations are becoming dependent on the fantasies of others.
Take the time to create your own fantasies. Use your imagination. Do not rely on the imagination of others.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Censorship, fascism and Microsoft
I would make fascism illegal, which I know is fascist in itself.
More than anything, it was restrictions on the free flow of information that caused the dark ages. Blame it on middle class guilds or blame it on the church, the lack of the exchange of information caused a technological stagnancy that seriously impeded the development of Western Europe forcing millions to live in poverty for centuries.
I have no use for censors, closed source or the deliberate invasion of personal privacy to improve the profitability of a corporation based on some arbitrary concept of "fairness".
There will always be bullies who will force people into their mold or reality. "If you don't play my way I will take my toys away and make you miserable." Spoiled brats with no real concept of "fairness" telling everyone else what their concept of "fairness" is and doing everything they can to force other people into that concept.
Hitler and the NAZI party had their idea of fairness which is why they started WW2.
What people don't know is that WW2 started because France had a different idea of fairness that conflicted with the German idea of fairness which is why Germany started WW2. People focus on the holocaust instead of looking at the underlying economic and political causes of Nazism and WW2.
Rome had the same issues. They imposed their idea of fairness on the western world and not everyone agreed with Rome. As long as Rome had the muscle to impose that concept of fairness they did.
Some people will say that the US war in Afghanistan and Iraq is fought in that same ideology. It isn't. The United States is not trying to censor Islam or force people to pay tribute. The United States just does not want people to come and kill people in the United States. If nations are going to support that idea and make threats to do that, the United States is going to stop them. Then the US will go home, like they always do and wait until the next moron comes along and blows something up.
Truthfully the United States just wants what everyone else wants, a peaceful life with a "good" standard of living. The US does not just want that for themselves the way Rome or NAZI Germany did, the US would like that for everyone.
To get to that point you need to have acceptance and the free exchange of information.
Essentially to have a peaceful, "good" standard of living you need civil rights and freedom of speech. People need to be able to accept each other when they have stupid ideas, as long as those ideas are not imposed on others, and they need to exchange information freely.
It is the acceptability of the free and open exchange of information that makes the world peaceful and improves the standard of living world wide. Period.
Everyone's idea of "good" or "improving a standard of living" is different and that is great.
When corporations like Microsoft impose their ideology of fairness on people, when they invade people's privacy to improve their profitability, the world is being forced into a new "dark ages" where civil rights and the free exchange of information are discouraged.
I would go after Microsoft the same way the US government went after Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the exact same reasons.
More than anything, it was restrictions on the free flow of information that caused the dark ages. Blame it on middle class guilds or blame it on the church, the lack of the exchange of information caused a technological stagnancy that seriously impeded the development of Western Europe forcing millions to live in poverty for centuries.
I have no use for censors, closed source or the deliberate invasion of personal privacy to improve the profitability of a corporation based on some arbitrary concept of "fairness".
There will always be bullies who will force people into their mold or reality. "If you don't play my way I will take my toys away and make you miserable." Spoiled brats with no real concept of "fairness" telling everyone else what their concept of "fairness" is and doing everything they can to force other people into that concept.
Hitler and the NAZI party had their idea of fairness which is why they started WW2.
What people don't know is that WW2 started because France had a different idea of fairness that conflicted with the German idea of fairness which is why Germany started WW2. People focus on the holocaust instead of looking at the underlying economic and political causes of Nazism and WW2.
Rome had the same issues. They imposed their idea of fairness on the western world and not everyone agreed with Rome. As long as Rome had the muscle to impose that concept of fairness they did.
Some people will say that the US war in Afghanistan and Iraq is fought in that same ideology. It isn't. The United States is not trying to censor Islam or force people to pay tribute. The United States just does not want people to come and kill people in the United States. If nations are going to support that idea and make threats to do that, the United States is going to stop them. Then the US will go home, like they always do and wait until the next moron comes along and blows something up.
Truthfully the United States just wants what everyone else wants, a peaceful life with a "good" standard of living. The US does not just want that for themselves the way Rome or NAZI Germany did, the US would like that for everyone.
To get to that point you need to have acceptance and the free exchange of information.
Essentially to have a peaceful, "good" standard of living you need civil rights and freedom of speech. People need to be able to accept each other when they have stupid ideas, as long as those ideas are not imposed on others, and they need to exchange information freely.
It is the acceptability of the free and open exchange of information that makes the world peaceful and improves the standard of living world wide. Period.
Everyone's idea of "good" or "improving a standard of living" is different and that is great.
When corporations like Microsoft impose their ideology of fairness on people, when they invade people's privacy to improve their profitability, the world is being forced into a new "dark ages" where civil rights and the free exchange of information are discouraged.
I would go after Microsoft the same way the US government went after Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the exact same reasons.
Microsoft Violates Customer Privacy
Microsoft has violated customer privacy once again by disconnecting gamers who are using modified systems from Xbox Live.
According to Microsoft a small percentage of people have violated terms of service by modifying their Xbox systems. How does Microsoft know this?
When one computer connects with another computer information is exchanged. In this case Microsoft has used their proprietary closed source technology to access information from customers computer systems without the customer understanding what information they were releasing.
This is a common issue. Most people are not aware of the breadth of information they are agreeing to release when they press the agree button on a a software license. Microsoft will argue that non-programmers/lawyers should fully understand the technical small print.
In the end Microsoft's argument does not matter. The User agreement does not matter. Microsoft used their proprietary, closed source technology to access specific data from users that did not want to share that specific information with Microsoft.
According to Microsoft a small percentage of people have violated terms of service by modifying their Xbox systems. How does Microsoft know this?
When one computer connects with another computer information is exchanged. In this case Microsoft has used their proprietary closed source technology to access information from customers computer systems without the customer understanding what information they were releasing.
This is a common issue. Most people are not aware of the breadth of information they are agreeing to release when they press the agree button on a a software license. Microsoft will argue that non-programmers/lawyers should fully understand the technical small print.
In the end Microsoft's argument does not matter. The User agreement does not matter. Microsoft used their proprietary, closed source technology to access specific data from users that did not want to share that specific information with Microsoft.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Brady Campaign against Guns today came out against arming soldiers
The Brady campaign to disarm US citizens has stepped up it's campaign to eliminate firearms from the hands of all law abiding citizens by attacking the right of the US military to keep and bear arms.
Recently a Muslim Jihadist who was also a Major in the United States Army was sent to an Army Readiness Facility at Fort Hood Texas as part of preparations for being stationed in Afghanistan.
Army Readiness facilities are mental health evaluation centers where soldiers suspected of having personality disorders are sent for evaluation before being stationed in a combat zone.
During his evaluation for mental illness the Jihadist went postal and began shooting other soldiers that were also being evaluated for their mental stability.
"The access to firearms obviously drove this poor, mentally deranged, psychiatrist insane" a crying Brady supporter exclaimed.
The Anti-Constitutional Brady Campaign believes that by disarming soldiers the world will become a much safer place.
"If no one had guns everyone would be happy!" a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Dismantle Constitutional Rights explained.
When asked about people using cars, airplanes, knives, pencils and even toilets as weapons the spokesman told the crowd "We will just have to ban those too!"
Recently a Muslim Jihadist who was also a Major in the United States Army was sent to an Army Readiness Facility at Fort Hood Texas as part of preparations for being stationed in Afghanistan.
Army Readiness facilities are mental health evaluation centers where soldiers suspected of having personality disorders are sent for evaluation before being stationed in a combat zone.
During his evaluation for mental illness the Jihadist went postal and began shooting other soldiers that were also being evaluated for their mental stability.
"The access to firearms obviously drove this poor, mentally deranged, psychiatrist insane" a crying Brady supporter exclaimed.
The Anti-Constitutional Brady Campaign believes that by disarming soldiers the world will become a much safer place.
"If no one had guns everyone would be happy!" a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Dismantle Constitutional Rights explained.
When asked about people using cars, airplanes, knives, pencils and even toilets as weapons the spokesman told the crowd "We will just have to ban those too!"
The International Drug War has been created by greedy fascists
There are some people who just want to force others to live the way they think is right. You know the morons. The people who cut others off on the freeway to make them drive slower. The picketers outside abortion clinics. The people who lynched blacks from street lamps in New York City to protest the emancipation proclamation. They think of themselves as protesters trying to make the world better but they are just greedy fascists shoving their agenda down everyone else's throats.
The United States is doing that on an international scale by forcing recreational usage drug laws down everyone elses throat.
This fascism is creating an international drug war that is very similar to the prohibition violence the United States saw in the late 1920's and Early 1930's.
As a nation we need to quit forcing our values down everyone elses throat.
Legalization, regulation and taxation will destroy these markets that criminalization has caused to thrive.
Create taxable jobs and taxable profits the way casinos have. Yes, some people are going to become alcoholics, nicotine addicts, fast food addicts, gamblers and recreational drug users.
People are already all of these things and these people have been placed in even more danger because the drug trade is unregulated and violent.
Our first responders are being killed policing the unregulated recreational drug trade. Innocent people are being killed. None of this is recoverable. Ever.
We can recover some money from this disaster. We can quit pouring money into a bottomless pit and we can begin extracting money from the drug trade in the form of fees and taxes.
Want to end the deficit? Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drug use.
Want to help more cops stay alive longer? Want to create jobs? Want to pay for a national health care plan? Want to force criminals into poverty?
Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drug use.
The United States is doing that on an international scale by forcing recreational usage drug laws down everyone elses throat.
This fascism is creating an international drug war that is very similar to the prohibition violence the United States saw in the late 1920's and Early 1930's.
As a nation we need to quit forcing our values down everyone elses throat.
Legalization, regulation and taxation will destroy these markets that criminalization has caused to thrive.
Create taxable jobs and taxable profits the way casinos have. Yes, some people are going to become alcoholics, nicotine addicts, fast food addicts, gamblers and recreational drug users.
People are already all of these things and these people have been placed in even more danger because the drug trade is unregulated and violent.
Our first responders are being killed policing the unregulated recreational drug trade. Innocent people are being killed. None of this is recoverable. Ever.
We can recover some money from this disaster. We can quit pouring money into a bottomless pit and we can begin extracting money from the drug trade in the form of fees and taxes.
Want to end the deficit? Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drug use.
Want to help more cops stay alive longer? Want to create jobs? Want to pay for a national health care plan? Want to force criminals into poverty?
Legalize, regulate and tax recreational drug use.
Adultery In the Bible
In Deuteronomy chapter 22 the Bible spells out very clear punishments for adulterers.
There is a problem with that.
Deuteronomy 17:6
You need at least two direct eye witnesses to an event before you can put someone to death.
Typically this means the couple who committed adultery had to do it in front of witnesses before they can be stoned to death.
Some argue that people can confess or witness their own crimes.
This is actually arguable in the Hebrew. Essentially the language states that the witness and the accused are different individuals.
So, unless you and someone else actually catch two people committing adultery and you are both willing to testify against them in front of the congregation there can be no Godly punishment.
There is no other punishment for "perceived" adultery. I have not found a passage that allows punishment of a woman for having a child out of wed lock. The child cannot enter into the Temple in Jerusalem, but, I can't find any other punishment.
There are a lot of "suggestive" ideas in the Bible and a lot of commands.
The most important commands in my opinion are:
You are forgiven as you forgive.
So if you don't forgive people, if you demand they be punished for what you believe they have done wrong then you must be punished for what others believe you have done wrong even if you do not believe you have done anything wrong.
Love others as you love yourself.
Not better than yourself. Not worse than yourself. Treat others the way you treat yourself. Feed them as you feed yourself. Clothe them as you clothe yourself. Love them as you love yourself.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
Don't add your own ideas to the Lord God's commands because when you do your prove that you love yourself more than God.
There is a problem with that.
Deuteronomy 17:6
You need at least two direct eye witnesses to an event before you can put someone to death.
Typically this means the couple who committed adultery had to do it in front of witnesses before they can be stoned to death.
Some argue that people can confess or witness their own crimes.
This is actually arguable in the Hebrew. Essentially the language states that the witness and the accused are different individuals.
So, unless you and someone else actually catch two people committing adultery and you are both willing to testify against them in front of the congregation there can be no Godly punishment.
There is no other punishment for "perceived" adultery. I have not found a passage that allows punishment of a woman for having a child out of wed lock. The child cannot enter into the Temple in Jerusalem, but, I can't find any other punishment.
There are a lot of "suggestive" ideas in the Bible and a lot of commands.
The most important commands in my opinion are:
You are forgiven as you forgive.
So if you don't forgive people, if you demand they be punished for what you believe they have done wrong then you must be punished for what others believe you have done wrong even if you do not believe you have done anything wrong.
Love others as you love yourself.
Not better than yourself. Not worse than yourself. Treat others the way you treat yourself. Feed them as you feed yourself. Clothe them as you clothe yourself. Love them as you love yourself.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart
Don't add your own ideas to the Lord God's commands because when you do your prove that you love yourself more than God.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Health Care, Unemployment, Welfare and Importing Resources
People are an economic resource.
If you do not take care of and use your economic resources your economy cannot expand. Period.
The argument about health care is a lot like the argument about oil drilling in Alaska or other locations.
You either take care of and use your economic resources or you don't.
People, land, oil or money in the bank. These things are only useful if you use them.
If you don't spend any money the money is as useless as if you don't own it. If you invest money, buy a company for example or some stock, you are using the money effectively. If you put money in the bank you give permission for the bank to lend it out to others. The money in the bank is useful because you are using it.
If you bury your money in the ground or shove it in your mattress it becomes useless.
Oil is the same way. In the ground it is useless.
People too, people who are not producing are useless. Worse, people who are not producing are a drain on the system.
We all know there are times when we are busy and times when we are not. Typically we do not manage our resources well during the times we are not busy.
Suppose you had a car that you drove every day for several years. One day you stop driving it and you put in in the garage. If you maintain that car while it is in the garage, charge the battery, etc, the car will work when you need it. If you don't maintain it the car will not work when you need it and you will have to get a new car and incur the costs associated with storing or recycling the old car.
People are the same way. We either maintain them, keep them sheltered, fed, clothed and healthy OR we live them to rot until we need them and when we need them they are not ready to be used so we have to import workers from other nations.
Then those workers get to a point where they are not useful right now so we repeat the cycle.
Essentially management blames the workers for not working when management (government) can't provide anything for them to do.
By importing long term labor to manage short term labor needs we are creating a long term burden on our society.
President Bush tried to address this very issue with a temporary worker visa. The problem is that once people are in the US they will typically stay. The temporary worker visa is a poor attempt at the solution because it ignores the resources currently available.
We need to give people the opportunity to work. The United States is a free nation. You are free to succeed, you should be free to starve. You should also be able to work at community service centers where you are put to work and if you need specific services you can get them, money, food, health care, etc.
The problem then becomes people treating each other like crap, the haves and have nots. If you are working at a community service center you are a have not and some of the bureaucrats will treat you like crap just because they can. It is this kind of "I can treat you like crap" that resulted in laws for civil rights and people still ignore those laws and treat each other like crap.
We have to retrain people to accept that everyone is just as important as everyone else. There are no people who are better than other people.
Today we just leave people to rot in poverty because we can't train people to treat each other decently and we don't want to make community service a condition of receiving social services.
If you do not take care of and use your economic resources your economy cannot expand. Period.
The argument about health care is a lot like the argument about oil drilling in Alaska or other locations.
You either take care of and use your economic resources or you don't.
People, land, oil or money in the bank. These things are only useful if you use them.
If you don't spend any money the money is as useless as if you don't own it. If you invest money, buy a company for example or some stock, you are using the money effectively. If you put money in the bank you give permission for the bank to lend it out to others. The money in the bank is useful because you are using it.
If you bury your money in the ground or shove it in your mattress it becomes useless.
Oil is the same way. In the ground it is useless.
People too, people who are not producing are useless. Worse, people who are not producing are a drain on the system.
We all know there are times when we are busy and times when we are not. Typically we do not manage our resources well during the times we are not busy.
Suppose you had a car that you drove every day for several years. One day you stop driving it and you put in in the garage. If you maintain that car while it is in the garage, charge the battery, etc, the car will work when you need it. If you don't maintain it the car will not work when you need it and you will have to get a new car and incur the costs associated with storing or recycling the old car.
People are the same way. We either maintain them, keep them sheltered, fed, clothed and healthy OR we live them to rot until we need them and when we need them they are not ready to be used so we have to import workers from other nations.
Then those workers get to a point where they are not useful right now so we repeat the cycle.
Essentially management blames the workers for not working when management (government) can't provide anything for them to do.
By importing long term labor to manage short term labor needs we are creating a long term burden on our society.
President Bush tried to address this very issue with a temporary worker visa. The problem is that once people are in the US they will typically stay. The temporary worker visa is a poor attempt at the solution because it ignores the resources currently available.
We need to give people the opportunity to work. The United States is a free nation. You are free to succeed, you should be free to starve. You should also be able to work at community service centers where you are put to work and if you need specific services you can get them, money, food, health care, etc.
The problem then becomes people treating each other like crap, the haves and have nots. If you are working at a community service center you are a have not and some of the bureaucrats will treat you like crap just because they can. It is this kind of "I can treat you like crap" that resulted in laws for civil rights and people still ignore those laws and treat each other like crap.
We have to retrain people to accept that everyone is just as important as everyone else. There are no people who are better than other people.
Today we just leave people to rot in poverty because we can't train people to treat each other decently and we don't want to make community service a condition of receiving social services.
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