alex

i have a twitter account now

2 new songs that i finally got around to posting

People are like ants, in that the world we create reflects our collective psychology. We create cities and structures like ants create hives. Millions and millions organisms working together to live and to create. Except we have it much worse than the ant, because we're totally aware of our utterly insignificant roles in the process. Even the most important of tycoons are totally replaceable and insignificant when viewed in terms of the hive.

Maybe that's why we created myths and religions around singular people- Jesus, God, Allah, Prophets, Saints. All of these myths surround a singular entity creating or saving or protecting. We are born into a culture that values individuality and enterprise, yet are forced to slowly realize that we're only one ant, ferrying bits of dirt one load at a time to build the colony.

I predict: technology will shift our culture, values, and myths into something more like ant-mentality than human-mentality, and that this will be seen as much a Good Thing as being entrepreneurial and individualistic is nowadays.  But the process will be painful and depressing for those of us raised to think that we're special.

impromptu march

street party on telegraph

street party on shattuck

i was just on shattuck giving high fives to cars.  party in the streets.

too bad about prop 8 though.  tragic.

2 really good novas that contain a lot of topics in the philosophy of science:

fractals: hunting the hidden dimension

intelligent design on trial

the nerd handbook

sometimes i feel like these guys look

It bothers me that people criticize the MPAA for rating sexual content as more offensive than violence, but then at the same time condemn attempts to limit the distribution of violent video games. The argument against sexual censorship applies to censorship of violence as well. A culture infused with violence is either harmless or harmful, but it can't be both. If you believe that a filmmaker should be able to present sexuality as a means of expression, then you also need to accept that violence is just as capable of conveying a meaningful artistic message. I just don't think that exposure to violent media does any more harm to society than sexuality does.

i just finished the last episode of battlestar galactica. what a payoff! totally and awesomely gratifying.

Solaris comes close to being my new favorite book of all time.  WHY did they try to make a movie out of it?

never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you're innocent

My sister Amy is in a Sac bee video about bike polo.  Looks like I won't be the only one in the family with a fractured wrist.

now i have a real cast.  i will have it for at least 6 weeks.

i watched the alien quadrilogy over the past 2 days.  alien is the best, alien 2 is good (except the marines are stupid characters), alien 3 was kinda bad (the setting seemed like a stretch), and alien: resurrection was dogshit.  were we supposed to take the premise seriously?  ripley gets cloned 8 times and still has her memory?  and why didn't she do anything crazy cool with her alien powers except play basketball?  and what the hell was with that monster at the end, and why didn't it do anything cool besides smash some dudes head?

i biffed on my bike, fractured my wrist, got a cast, and now its hard to use a mouse.

Bill Stone at TED

wow. best talk I have ever. seen. space!

Neal Stephenson lecture on literary genres, geeking out, and entertainment.

Sad

SPACE. WE MUST LIVE THERE.

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