Ruminations

Behind the screen

Category: Reality

  • The Apotheosis of Subjectivity

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    Kyle
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    Why the Map Assumed a Mapmaker “We’ve got one that can see!” “A finger pointing at the Moon is not the Moon, nor is the Moon broadcasting your pointing finger.” – paraphrasing! I. The Infinite Regress Dressed as Explanation In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper arguing that we are almost certainly living in…

  • Touché

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    Kyle
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    Claude and I share a good joke. There is a story behind that word. In 1983, writing about consciousness and biological delusion, I placed a pointing finger graphic in the HTML to make a sentence stand out. The sentence read: “ Everywhere is the cynical lesson, untaught.” The image had an alt tag. The alt…

  • But Why?

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    Kyle
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    The Wall of Abstraction “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” “Do I really need to stand here?” I. The Child’s Question Every parent knows the experience. It begins innocuously. Why is the sky blue? Because sunlight scatters off the atmosphere. But why does it scatter? Because of the way light interacts with air…

  • Cracks in the Façade

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    Kyle
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    Epilogue to Dissolution If at first the idea isn’t absurd, there is no hope for it. – Albert Einstein Now we come full circle and return to the idea that started this series – Anomalies – and the fact that conventional wisdom or current scientific knowledge does not account for everything in our Reality. I…

  • Faux Science

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    Kyle
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    The Architecture of Manufactured Truth “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” — George Orwell I. PERSONAL WITNESS In 1980 I joined a computational physics research group at Northwestern University. What I witnessed over four years had nothing to do with the pursuit of…

  • The Inner Prison

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    Kyle
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    The Body Electric “The fundamental fault of man is to think the enemy is external, not internal. Prison is in here, not out there.” — Sherlock pointing to his head in “Young Sherlock Holmes” (2026), paraphrasing Schopenhauer Life runs on charge. Every living cell — not just neurons, but every cell in your body —…

  • To Pause and Reflect

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    Kyle
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    Whose Reality Is It? You do not need to defeat the system to be free of it. You need only see it clearly. “Do you think that’s air you’re breathing now?” “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”…

  • No One at the Top

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    Kyle
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    Who are They? Anyone care to step up? “There is no head to cut off. It’s a conglomerate. If one of them betrays the principles of the accrual of money and power, the others betray him. What it is… is human weakness. You can’t kill that with a gun.” — Mikhaylo Sczerbiak, The Shooter, 2007…

  • Borgifying Humanity

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    Kyle
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    Nanotech In Everything Oblivious to the plastic in their heads “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” Star Trek: The Next Generation PART ONE A Tender Introduction to Nanomaterials Start small. Smaller than you think. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A human hair is approximately 80,000 nanometers wide.…

  • The Puppet Masters

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    Kyle
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    This Puppeteer Needs No Strings They’ve climbed high enough. “But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save.” — Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999 * * * I. Heinlein Named It The Book That Changed Everything In 1951, Robert…