The perfect alarm clock

I read somewhere that we get a better night's sleep if we wake up at the correct point in a sleep cycle. I assume that cycles take a approximately fixed amount of time, so we could go to bed at exactly the right time in order to wake up the right point. This is neither convenient or, given that going to bed doesn't mean going to sleep, practical. So how else to get the perfect night's sleep?

A device that monitors your brain waves and wakes you up at the correct point in a sleep cycle before a predetermined time. Some mornings you'd get more time, some less, but you'd set the predetermined time to get you to work before your boss got mad! I know that it's possible to monitor brain waves by wearing a silly hat with wires in it, but is it possible to measure brain activity remotely? e.g. a sensor at the head of the bed. This would make the device more suitable because I don't want to go to sleep in a hat (it make you bald).

USB spy chopper

I'm writing this post, because this is what I want for Christmas (read Winterval). The only problem is, it's not been invented. Yet.

The idea comes from the picooz, a mini remote controlled helicopter, which looks like a fun present. The only problem is, once you're flown it once, it looks like it'll be a little boring. What I want is a picooz with some function. Enter choppercam. The only problem is that this is a little expensive.

So what I want is a picooz with built-in wireless webcam. The picooz is flown via software on your computer (laptop for ease of transport) and charged via a usb base station (with transmitter/receiver) - possibly through induction so no connector (usb charged means no ridiculous number of AA batteries!). Rather than looking at the chopper while it's flying, you fly based on what you see via the webcam on your computer screen.

I would suggest two flight modes, one gives free control. Under the other, the chopper hovers until it receives an instruction from the following list:

• ascend/decend Xcm
• advance/retreat Xcm
• turn Xo clockwise/anticlockwise

This would allow for greater control while taking covert footage. Obviously, the video feed would be saved to the hard disk for upload to utube (or equivalent). Some movement control of the camera would also be advantageous in this mode.

The flying software would have a battery level indicator allowing the pilot to return from the covert mission before falling out of the air.

Of course the usb-RC concept could be extended to:

• infra-red/foam dart battling copters
• RC cars, tanks (infra-rad/foam dart), boats, robots, planes, submarines etc
• some kind of plane with a bomb-bay door that would allow dropping eggs!

Here's a picture to help communicate the concept:

Synthesiser vs robot musicians

Toyota have created a robot that plays violin. This robot is roughly human shaped and plays the instrument in the same fashion humans play it. If I were to design a robot to play instruments I would not design it human-shaped and playing the instrument the way a human plays it.

The robot can have more fingers than we have, one for each string/fret combination on the guitar, one for each hole on the flute. The robot guitarist would also have one plectrum for every string. This would allow the robot to play the instrument faster than humans can. Doing what a synthesiser does, but with real sound.

Communication with people you don't know

My previous post "How's my driving?" made me think of the difficulty we have in communicating with people we don't know. A website might just be the way to solve that. People could post messages based on a group they make up e.g.

• To people who catch the N35 bus
• To people who vote republican
• To people who like chocolate

Preset groups could be made and the types of preset groups would be expanded upon based upon the desires of the site's users. Groups could be based on organisations, streets, parks, trains, hobbies, TV shows.

So how would you find what posts to look at? You would enter your details (confidentially) to the site (e.g. address, company, interests) and using categories, the most relevant posts to you would flag up when you log in (or digest via email). e.g. if you entered a New York address, all posts that were "To: The inhabitants of New York" would flag on your account.

Of course, this site would allow anonymous posting so people would not be afraid of posting controversial questions.

How's my driving?

I would (if I had the money, time, motivation and ability) set up a website called how's my driving. This website would allow anyone to post comments about the driving of a particular registration number. Each post would require the poster to note the time, date and what the driver did wrong.

Whilst this site is likely to upset some people who repeatedly get negative comments about their driving, it would provide a non-violent outlet for road-rage and might even encourage people to improve their driving.

The site would be ad-funded with the most common clients including motoring organisations (AA or RAC) and car insurance.

The site would allow anonymous posting so people were not afraid of retaliation when making a post.

Database design

I will confess to knowing next to nothing about database design, but the concept interested me. Whenever I have to make a telephone call or send an email to my bank or mobile phone company I wonder what information they hold.

If I were to design the system, I would break the information down as follows:

Standing info e.g. name, address, date of birth

Event data (for each phone call/email) e.g. person it relates to, staff member, date, time, what standing info changed [automatic], notes, files e.g. recording of telephone calls, copies of emails, scanned in correspondence

Actions e.g. instructions of what to do, status

I also wonder how many government databases are there? How many times is my name and address recorded. Is it possible to consolidate this information? Would it be possible to have different functional departments with access to different information? e.g. doctors can't find out about points of driving licence, tax inspectors can't find out about education record, but both can see home address.

Citizen entrapment

As I understand it, people who break the law cannot be prosecuted if the police set up the situation in which they break the law. Is the same true if the general public rather than the police set up the situation? What if, a group of citizens leave a briefcase in the back on an unlocked car, but hide video cameras and put a tracker in the briefcase. Once someone steals the briefcase, it is reported to the police and the tapes and tracker handed over. Is this allowed? Is it acceptable?

Online banking

Online banking would be greatly improved if the organisations that you spend money with send the information on what you have bought to the bank. For example, if you shopped at a supermarket, the supermarket sends the receipt information to the bank. On the bank statement, people could click on the payment to get more detail on what they have bought. This would make it easy for people to manage their money, identify mistakes and fraud, and, with consistent item description/code would enable me to easily identify how much I spend on chocolate per year!

Truism of the day

Before you can write, you must read.

Oral/Computer RPG

Although I've not played Dungeons and Dragons since the age of 15, I have always been fond of the idea of people creating their own fantasy escapism. The advantage over computer RPG is of course the flexibility of having the world's creator (i.e. the DM) at hand to respond to the player. But how to bring computer games' advantages (graphics, computational complexity) to the tabletop player?

A hybrid system would use computers to model aspects of the games, but not the entire world.
Ideally this would use a laptop with accessory screen/projector allowing the DM to switch of the main screen to edit the world and see character stats.

For example, the DM narates the story of the characters travelling. He then clicks a button on the computer (a random encounter test). If the party meets the encounter, the DM loads the encounter with pre-designed scenery and monsters. The players can then see what they're fighting and the environment they're fighting in.

Another advantage of this system is that stats could be modelled as numbers without the player knowing the exact number. Each stat would have description brackets so the DM can communicate with the PCs without letting them know the numbers. e.g. Strength 1-5 => pitifully low.

Are we learning as a society?

It seems to be that there is so much information out there, too much for us to process. As a result we tend to base out decisions on anecdotal experience rather than rational/scientific method. There are no firms answers to the most significant questions:

What is more efficient, private sector or public sector, centralised or decentralised?
What is better, the carrot or the stick?

Society swings from one side to another: after witnessing the inefficiencies of public sector bureaucracy it cries out for competition. Then, after experiencing the corruption of the private sector it remembers the fond old days of the honest civil servant.

Perhaps it is appropriate to swing: change is good. But is change not inefficient?

Nepotism and corruption

People in power (Members of Parliament, Senior Civil Service, Boards of Companies, etc) should be forced to disclose who they are close friends with and who they meet on official business and significant social events.

The solution to small phone screen size

I want to be able to do everything I do on my laptop on my phone. But the screen's too small and, although this is a more temporary feature, it doesn't have the processing power, memory or storage. Whilst the latter features are getting better all the time, screen size is limited by the size of my pocket.

The solutions to this are either a folding screen (not sure how feasible this is) or video glasses. My preference would be for the latter. I was reading the other day about video glasses that can be seen through, but have a small screen near the eye. The article suggested that this was equivalent to looking at a 42" screen. Sounds good to me.

My video glasses would be part of a bluetooth two-ear headset that allowed the glasses to pivot up onto the head for when you just want to listen to music through your headphones. The phone would still have a screen for normal functions, but would largely live in my pocket.

The question is, how do you control the computer when you can't see your hands (without extensive eye refocusing) and you don't want to carry around a keyboard and mouse?

Mouse function: I think a ball with motion and pressure sensors would do the trick. You rotate the ball in your had and this results in mouse motion on the screen. You squeeze the ball and you get a click.

Keyboard function: Perhaps some motions sensing gloves that would allow you to type in mid-air by showing you your fingers relative to a keyboard on the screen.

Handwriting recognition: The phone would be a palm-sized pad that corresponds to the dimensions of the screen in the glasses. The position sensing of the stylus relative to the pad moves the cursor on the screen. Touching the stylus to the pad is equivalent to a mouse click. Doing the same whilst pressing a button on the pad (or stylus) is equivalent to a left mouse click. Writing on the pad translates to text on the screen.

Is it possible to make every activity constructive?

Perhaps, if we document our observations, thoughts, feelings and, of course, what we are doing. For example, I was reading recently about new ways of using digital cameras. Documenting these findings links them together for other people to find out the same information.

The cameras were:
The Triops
The chopper cam
The crow cam
And some fibre optic camera that allowed you to look through small holes (I've lost the link though!)

An alternative to google's motto

Don't be lazy.

Tags vs folders

Folders provide hierarchy, tags faciliate finding things more easily and having a complete list of items that belong to this tag. How can the two be merged? Nested tags, i.e. tags that are a sub-tag of another tag combined with a dynamic folder that includes all items of the particular tag. Whilst this will result in some items occuring in the folder structure twice, it does not result in duplication as it is generate dynamically from the underlying tab-based database.

This works best with the kind of mouse-over menu that opens the folder beneath when the mouse is hovered over. For example, the site wikipedia.org would be tagged in my bookmarks both as "reading" (i.e. something to do when bored!) and "reference". When I hover over the "reading" tag it displays a list with wikipedia in it, and also when I hover over the "reference" tag. Wikipedia would also be tagged as a "wiki" a sub-tab with my tag "website design" (because I might want examples of wikis as inspiration for my website design). When I hover over "website design" it gives me a list of sub-tags and links in that tag. I then move the mouse over to hover over the sub-tag "wikis" and there again is wikipedia.

Invention first helps the oppressor, then helps the oppressed

The way to fight back against the big brother of the state is the big brother of the people. We must turn the tools of the oppressors against them. We must:

Record/document
-install CCTV in our homes
-carry cameras to photograph anything we see
-keep copies of all our correspondence

Make ourselves informed
-be aware of who the most powerful people are

Maintain channels of communication
-we must have anonymous means of reporting abuses of power to the rest of the public, both through new media and old

Effects of violence course

How can we prevent kids getting into violent crime? Perhaps the most vunerable kids, or those already exhibiting violent behaviour, could be sent on a course to show them the effects of violence. They could be taken to a morgue to see death first hand; they could be shown photographs and hear stories of the effects; they could meet the parents of those who have died and experience the grief first hand.

Would it work? I don't know, I'm not a psycologist. But I think perhaps it could shock some of those kids out of the path they might otherwise follow.

The geek shall inherit

The scientists, engineers and programmers of this world and, to an extent, other academics, give me faith in humanity. It is their intelligence, their belief that we can make a better world and a better life, that makes existence in this god-forsaken universe bearable.

Virtual shopping

Not being much of a fan of shopping, but being quite a fan of the internet I would appreciate an online mapping (similar to google maps) that shows all the shops in a town with their respective logos. Clicking on each shop would give you more info, e.g. the ranges held at that particular shop and the opening hours. The service would also feature a optimum route function based on selected shops and a starting/finishing location, and, of course, the opportunity of printing the map.

Madness

I want to go mad because only a mandman would be content to live in a world this shit.

Selective memory

If we didn't have selective memory that focused on the enjoyable parts of life and ignored the pain, I am sure the suicide rate would be significantly higher.

Of chickens, eggs and god

What came first: human suffering or religion? (What came first: the religion or the problem? Religion: symptom or cause?)

Debt to your children

The only people you really owe anything to in life is your children – everyone else had a choice in interacting with you.

Heterogeneity through choice

People should choose what makes them different not inherit it from their parents. Why should Spanish people like flamenco more than Taiwanese?

Happiness

Whilst this may only be a renaming or reclassification of what many have thought before, it seems that there are two types of activity: those that make you happy for doing; and those that make you happy whilst doing. The rarity are those that are both. For me, eating chocolate makes me happy whilst doing, whilst cleaning my room makes me happy for doing.

After life

If there is an afterlife, what form will we (hopefully including me although my relationship with God has been a little rocky) be present in?

If we maintain our physical form, is that the form we have at death, do we age or change further? Or is it our physical form at peak physical condition? Will it be warts and all?

If it is only the mental/spiritual, will we not be very different to our mental/spiritual side in real life that is so much influenced by the physical?

Perhaps we should strive in life to isolate that which is the spiritual/mental side from the physical side and its influences.

Commuter trains

London has a larger number of terminus commuter train stations (e.g. London Bridge, Victoria, Waterloo). This is largely the result of different train companies at the time of the first railways, but I'm sure its limitations are not confined to London.

Whilst all rail stations are connected by the tube, a cross London journey requires changing on the tube and perhaps changing the tube line once or twice, probably not the optimum solution. So what would we design if we were tasked with designing a city transport infrastructure today?

I think I would have all trains coming into one fairly inner ring and going round most if not all of the ring. Or other services that come into the city, round half of the ring and out of the other side. Obviously the ring would need to be several tracks wide to accomodate all the trains, but there would be no need for a dedicated ring service, as so many trains would be traveling the ring.

I have produced a rather basic diagram below to illustrate the point (on the left is a terminus system, on the right is a ring system):

The mobile internet revolution

Whilst Vodafone may be advertising that the web it now mobile and we can all save time, the mobile internet revolution will not happen until we have low-cost flat-rate broadband-speed internet on a phone with a screen big/good enough to use it.

Savings accounts, current accounts and moving money

It frustrates me moving money between bank accounts to get better interest. I understand the reason i.e. you're being paid for the illiquidity of your cash in the savings account, but I'd prefer not to have the hassle.

I suggest having all your money in one account, but being able to "lock" a certain portion of it for a certain length of time (i.e. unable to use without a fee). The interest rate you get is proportional to the amount you have "locked". This way banks get their cash to play with, and I get my interest.

Obviously, this would only really work well with online accounts where it's easy to log in an "lock" your money. The bank site could have a bar chart showing each portion that is locked, what date it is locked to, and the interest rate it is getting.

Pub names

I do appreciate a good pub name, both the traditional, modern and funny. I'd like to see a pub named competent, so that all those people shouting down their phones when they're meeting their mates would be saying "I'm in Competent".

Team loyalty (the new nationalism)

Whilst I am of the opinion that nationalism is bad, its replacement, football-teamism is hardly better. How can this be eliminated without eliminating competitive sport?

Perhaps the obvious answer is to deprofessionalise it and relocalise it. Have teams made up of people who live and work near the stadium and fans that know the players.

Whilst this is unlikely to happen another possibility is to have hybrid teams in particular competitions where the hybrid is the best possible team of several teams that are drawn out of the hat. For example, imagine there are teams named A through I. In the normal season all of these teams playing in a league. In the hybrid season, team ABC may play DEF etc. And the next random season, BGI may play CDF etc. As people will always be cheering on people from other teams, the opportunity to create grudges and bigotry is reduced.

Whites of the eye

Are the whites of the eye an example of sexual selection? Humans seem to have much more white than other species and it would be reasonable to assume the bright colour is a selection disadvantage in camoflage terms. That the whites are less white when one is ill is another factor that would suggest sexual selection, as is the attractiveness of large white eyes.

Another interesting aspect of the whites of the eye is that they make it easier to see where the eye is pointing; to make eye contact. It is harder to make eye contact with other animals as it harder to tell where they are actually looking. Perhaps the advantage of eye contact is communication and hence it evolved through group selection.

Train phone mode

It would be convenient to have a phone mode where both parties remain connected to the call unless either presses the hang-up button. The actual connection may break, but is automatically reestablished. This would be particularly useful when on the train and going through tunnels.

Why I'm writing a blog

There is no sense in writing down information if you don't take steps to preserve it.

Is religion a symptom or cause?

Whilst at face value, religion seems to be the cause of much suffering and ignorance in the world, if we think about it more deeply, it is the symptom of inequality of power, lack of education and unhappiness. Perhaps most significantly, it is a symptom of the lack of purpose to our existence.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

This idiom (ok, as the meaning can be determined from the definitions of the words it is not really an idiom, but it is not necessarily a cliché as this implies overuse. It is perhaps a stock phrase; it could be considered a truism. It is like an old wives tale, something people say in confidence that it is true, without ever considering its truth. I think perhaps I'll refer to them as expressions to cast the net as wide as possible) has two possible interpretations: that having absolute power will corrupt absolutely; or that the quest to obtain absolute power will corrupt absolutely. I see truth in the second interpretation, but not the first. If one day you woke up with absolute power, the power to create anything, or destroy every atom in the universe one by one, perhaps even the power to change the laws of physics (why limit our definition of absolute power) would you feel the need to abuse it? Sure, you'd make your life easier, you'd create doughnuts rather than walking to the shop for them. You could force everyone you met to be nice to you. But would you hurt or abuse other people? Why bother? I think the point is, the most efficient way of obtaining power is to hurt and abuse other people, hence why it is the quest for absolute power, not the fact of owning it, that corrupts.

All good things come to an end

Well, if you accept the occilating theory of the universe (expanding/contracting, bang/crunch) then, with the exception of the universe, all things come to an end. Even, a refreshing thought it is to have, religion.

How to be completely honest

Don't ever lie, just time the truth to perfection

Net worth

How much of people's net assets is payment for their effort compared with inheritance and gifts, and return on investments?

Hate

I should not hate people, because there is always a reason they are the way they are; but I can hate life, because there is no reason at all

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows

Being the model of escapist fiction, it ignores the mundane, and counterbalances woe with a sense of purpose and acheivement. The only bad thing was leaving it to return to reality.

Serenity

Doing everything in a calm and measured way can instill calmness in the soul. I just wish I could remember to do it in the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Being special

Don't let your wonder at your own existence lead you into thinking that you are special.

Solar power

I have read that solar cells are fairly inefficient at converting the sun's rays to electricity. I am aware of solar power stations that focus the sun's rays using mirrors to heat water and hence turn turbines like a normal power station. I am wondering whether a lo-tech mechanical method of using the sun's rays is possible. Picture an airtight box with water inside. One half of the box is transparent with black matting on the floor, heating up the water, causing evaporation. The other end of the box is sheltered from the sun and has a surface that seeds condensation. The water condensing here drops down a small hole turning a turbine, generating electricity. Possible? I expect so. Energy efficient? Haven't got a clue.

Keeping on a short leash

It occurs to me that the combination of three technologies may solve the problem of dogs that go walkabout. The technologies: Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile phones and ultrasound; the idea: put a GPS reader, mobile phone and ultrasound emitter into a dog collar. The collar is then programmed (remotely of course) to emit the ultrasound, which is uncomfortable to dogs, when the dog moves outside the range of a certain GPS coordinate. The ultrasound would be emitted at increasing volume as the dog moved further from the coordinate, encouraging it to stay within the perimeter. The GPS coordinate can be either a fixed one, such as your house, or a mobile one, i.e. your GPS/Mobile dog tracking device that you take walking with you. The walker-held device would having a direction/distance meter to help find the wandering dog. As GPS is being implemented in many mobile phones, the walker-end device could just be software that utilises the mobile and GPS technology on the phone.

Freedom of speach and the preservation of data

We may have, with certain limitations introduced by the Terrorism Act etc, a degree of freedom of speach at the moment. I am free to write what I want on this blog without fear of persecution. But what of the future? What if we turn into the facist christian fundamentalist state that some claim the USA in becoming? Then I may be persecuted for that which I have said in the past (i.e. now). Whilst I believe in freedom of speach and all that, I don't think I'm the type to suffer for a cause, so I'd best stop this tongue from wagging.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It having been a while since I read the book, I was able to approach this film with a less clouded mind and judge it on it own merits. I enjoy the rebellious spirit of Harry and friends, but I didn't feel as though this film was the prerequisite amount darker that its predecessor. Yes, Harry suffers deep emotional crises, but his enemies are still two dimensional and evil. The underlying theme I read into this film is of Harry struggling with his own anger. At the end he is indicated to have overcome this with him thinking happy thoughts and telling Voldemort that he pities him. And yet there is scorn in his voice when he does so, not pity. It seems to be that the message is that evil people are those who have succumbed to their anger whilst the good keep theirs in check.

I suffer from the illusion that life is more complex than this; some do what many consider wrong in a clear state of mind not clouded by anger. Perhaps the biggest evil is the level headed judgement of cause and effect, profit and loss, greatest good for the greatest number.

Suffering

I cannot conceive of what it must be like for one man to die in battle; one woman to find out that that man has died. How I am to comprehend a history that includes the suffering of so many millions?


[N.B. please excuse the sexual stereotyping, I merely relay the image in my mind]

Distinguishing parties

In modern centerist government, distinguishing parties relies on two factors:

• efficiency
• priorities

Stewardship of possessions

I feel we should use everything we own; if we are not using it, we should not own it. I feel burdened and unclean by owning too much stuff. I want to be minimalist and pure. We should only buy what we intend to get good use out of.

Rot at the top

Suggestion: recruit heads of business to the head of the Civil Service with the incentive that they will receive one year's worth of any cost-to-taxpayer efficiency saving they make (the taxpayer gets it going forward).

Alternatively, the incentive could be having lots and lots of power to make sweeping changes, this way the businessman gains prestige invaluable to his/her future career.

Using your powers

Great pleasure can be obtained by using skills and knowledge outside the context in which they were learnt.

The Leaky Website

I think the world would benefit from a website that links investigative journalists with the would-be leakers in the organisations they are interested in. Journalists would write what information they were interested in and disclose methods of contacting the journalist.

Although the Freedom of Information Act is good, journalists need to know what to FOI. The other side of this website would be people who work in government suggesting what to FOI.

All requests and suggestions would be tagged with themes and organisation names, making the site searchable, and allowing automated email to people interested. People could submit the organisation the work for, for example, and receive an update on all journalist requests for information.

The website should also provide guidance on how to leak (e.g. remailers, web anonymisers, etc) and the risks (e.g. info in the Official Secrets Act).

Some of these ideas are being implemented at Wikileaks.

Five pillars of government

Government policy should include as central tennets:

• transparency
• adversion to knee-jerk decisions
• simplification
• consultation of the front line
• less is more (i.e. stop meddling in the civil service)

The requirements of success

To succeed in life one must be both able and ambitious, but I lack the confidence in my ability to warrant investment in my ambition.

Dictionary.xls

If I could get a download in excel of every word in the dictionary, I could do all sorts of data extraction of the letters in words e.g. all the words containing the letters, a-d-r-e-m.

Paradox of self-perception

Is there a name for the phenomenon where someone thinks something about themselves that is not true? Perhaps linked to the placebo effect, it is an interference of the concious/subconcious with an assessment of the attributes of the subconcious or body. For example: I've been for one jog; I feel thinner.

In my head

Thoughts seem so profound in my head, but so trivial on paper (screen). Is this just a symptom of delusions of grandeur?

Compromise

Assuming that we can clearly distinguish between our beliefs and desires, then it seems to me morally acceptable to make compromise between our different desires, but never to compromise our desires for our beliefs.

Further thoughts on my issue with religion

I have considered whether my issue with religion was jealousy of having something to believe in. I wonder if perhaps an alternative reason is that I feel that religious people think they are better than me.

Look after your life and it will look after you

There is a saying that goes "look after your kit and it will look after you". I think this concept can be applied to other aspects of life: if you look after your body, you will suffer less from ill health. If you put the effort in to make your physical environment cleaner and more organised you will benefit from a more enjoyable environment to live in. If you are polite to the people you meet, friendly to your acquaintances, and supportive to your friends, you will enjoy better relationships. This concept is really the same as the sayings "what goes around comes around" and "what you reap is what you sow", and is similar to the concept of karma.

Offensiveness versus self expression

How much should I constrain my self expression to avoid offending others? Should I really think about everything before I say it, risking never saying what I want to say? Should I always say the first thing that comes into my head an endure the unpleasant consequences?

Religion and me

I think it is not the fact that religion is a lie, or that many have suffered and are suffering in its name, that I have a problem with it. It is because I am jealous of the people who have something to believe in, whilst I drift through life grasping for a purpose that doesn’t exist. My opinions reflect more on me than on religions and their followers.

Emotional cause and effect

Sometimes when you feel sad, you think that life is pointless. And, thinking that life is pointless, you are further saddened. More often than not, however, it is not the pointlessness of life that has made you sad; thinking it is an effect and not a cause. The causes tend to be more basic things like food, sleep, human interactions and stress.

The front line

The front line staff provide the services to the people: police, doctors, nurses, teachers. The civil service must provide services to these frontliners: training, organisation, remuneration, facilities and equipment.

All things

You can't be all things to all me, but that doen't stop me trying.

Altruism and nihilism

The absence of altruism seems to me ultimate proof of the lack of purpose to existence: we are not working to make the world a better place, but toiling for our memes and genes.

Nihilism and me

Is nihilism a logical intellectual endpoint or an escapist exercise of those feeling inadequate ("It doesn't matter that I'm crap because life has not purpose")?