In regards to religion, being a theist or an atheist needs to be choice driven. Justification of the afterlife system depends on choosing religion. People who choose god go to heaven, people who don't choose god go to hell. Thats the basic premise of it. You can justify punishing someone for making a bad decision. You decided to steal a cookie, i'm justified in smacking your hand. This is the same argument against homosexuality, is that its a choice, which is currently under debate in the boxing ring of reason.
But do people actually choose to be heterosexual? Do people weigh the options given to them and then choose to be religious or nonreligious?
I'm not so sure that people work like that. We're talking about something thats ingrained into a society, that turning your back on the norm is despised and disgraced. Nobody wants to be weird, nobody wants to be an outcast. Who would choose that?
I'm not sure that we can reason our way out of this one, I am under the impression that there is need for more research into the brain mechanisms, concerning outlier groups. How do these things differ from person to person? Which system or combination of systems function in certain ways to produce outlier behavior? Are these things even relevant to each other? How are homosexuality, atheism, and other outlier patterns similar and different from a neuropsychological standpoint? How about from a statistical standpoint?
There are problems in studying this kind of behavior. I think in studying this relationship, you would have to use humans, primates or other creatures that exhibit tribe-like behavior, and you would have to use fairly large sample sizes, which is difficult because we're trying to capture something that is statistically rare.
Still the main questions we're trying to find the answer to differentiation of conscious choice and nonchoices, there are probably different scales inbetween the two; examples: unconscious decision (what cereal to eat for breakfast), mechanical choices (putting one foot in front of the other), Semi controllable decisions (lowering heart rate, breathing), Nonchoices (digestion), heredity (genetic expression).
Which process makes these decisions for us when we're determining -- assuming that there is such a process -- things like sexuality, love, religion, and artistic expression?
I'm not sure that there is a simple answer to any of this, but before we spout out that we 'know the answer' to anything, i think more research must be done.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Marketing, Eating and America.
Marketing in america is out of control, it has been since the 60s. If i can open my fridge and find my milk to be 'ultrapasturized' and the guy who sold it to me can't tell me what it means, maybe I can.
It means Fuckall. Its trying to convince you that the food that your taking in is 'generally good for me... right? .. Right?'
The truth is that Eating in america is bad for you. Its generally frowned upon. Gorging yourself is a federally unregulated sin and national passtime which takes more years on your life than smoking and replaced baseball when we realized -- baseball is boring as fuck.
Every morning we're injecting whole grain glucose into our bodies, trying to get enough of that sweet stuff before running of to have more people tell us what we should and shouldn't have. Every evening we gather around the table and eat huge meals from boxes and cans -- feeding our sugar addiction.
Nothing is good for you anymore. The peaches from the tree are genetically altered to make you want to buy more peaches. Everything is a marketing ploy, and when the market is out of control, there is no free market -- there is rioting in the streets. The better product doesn't win out, the better spin does.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
I've been working on getting things together for a while, finally i found some software that lets me do what I want as far as creating webs. I'm still at a loss for other kinds of diagrams, but its a nice little start. The software is called Freemind by the way.
Anyway, As you can see from this nice little graphic, all of my world ideas are cleanly layed out with focuses on four aspects of the wastes: Technology, Music and reality distortion (magic), Remnants of Civilization and Energy
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Robots in the Wastes
The Wastes
----------
People wander the wastes looking for something, looking for permanence, looking for the life bringers. The land formally known as the Americas, now referred to unanimously as 'the wastes'. People drift together, and then apart, a single person, a child, a group, a tribe being tossed about like debris amongst waves on the shore. Great nations fell a long time ago.
Lifestyle
---------
People have found ways to travel across the wastes, stay one step ahead of disaster. Plenty of caravans cross between the shore townships. Nothing is perminant. Families are born and survive on the road.
Set Pieces
----------
The Antelope - They sprint across the wastes looking for parts so they can build more antelope. Most have manipulators in their undercarriages, lasers in their heads. They're pack animals -- er, machines.
The Spire - An old radio tower converted into a center of power, lashed together by sheets of steel from fences, buildings and road signs. Storms converge around the tower.
The Tunnels - Once long abandoned, scraps of humanity now inhabit them, spreading the message like a cancer across the desert lands. Most of them are barely human anymore, made 'better' by hacked together machine parts.
Techno - Sun-deprived skin and an attitude to match, she stands on top of the world, pumping out jams, building her collective army, preparing to overtake the west coast.
The Foreigners - A Set of caravan riders, lead by an engineer, Mick Jones. They pieced together a fairly large family and look for a place to call their own. Collectively, they have an engineer, several musical types, resources enough for themselves but not the party.
West Coast - The Last Stand, a city of light propped up on the dead body of LA. It stands alone as a safe haven, towering as an unwavering pinnacle of human accomplishment, and if it weren’t for its broad light ejecting into the night sky, you'd barely even notice it. Born within the confines of West Coast, you would never know the world outside its walls, and born outside, you would never know of its contents. West Coast is Schrodinger’s box.
Player party - You're to help the foreigners find a home. Some of you are remnants, some engineers, some gunners, and all of you are compelled to find a place for your people.
Remnants - Automatons or conversions who've adopted true intelligence. Many emulate human expression to make up for what they feel they've lost.
----------
People wander the wastes looking for something, looking for permanence, looking for the life bringers. The land formally known as the Americas, now referred to unanimously as 'the wastes'. People drift together, and then apart, a single person, a child, a group, a tribe being tossed about like debris amongst waves on the shore. Great nations fell a long time ago.
Lifestyle
---------
People have found ways to travel across the wastes, stay one step ahead of disaster. Plenty of caravans cross between the shore townships. Nothing is perminant. Families are born and survive on the road.
Set Pieces
----------
The Antelope - They sprint across the wastes looking for parts so they can build more antelope. Most have manipulators in their undercarriages, lasers in their heads. They're pack animals -- er, machines.
The Spire - An old radio tower converted into a center of power, lashed together by sheets of steel from fences, buildings and road signs. Storms converge around the tower.
The Tunnels - Once long abandoned, scraps of humanity now inhabit them, spreading the message like a cancer across the desert lands. Most of them are barely human anymore, made 'better' by hacked together machine parts.
Techno - Sun-deprived skin and an attitude to match, she stands on top of the world, pumping out jams, building her collective army, preparing to overtake the west coast.
The Foreigners - A Set of caravan riders, lead by an engineer, Mick Jones. They pieced together a fairly large family and look for a place to call their own. Collectively, they have an engineer, several musical types, resources enough for themselves but not the party.
West Coast - The Last Stand, a city of light propped up on the dead body of LA. It stands alone as a safe haven, towering as an unwavering pinnacle of human accomplishment, and if it weren’t for its broad light ejecting into the night sky, you'd barely even notice it. Born within the confines of West Coast, you would never know the world outside its walls, and born outside, you would never know of its contents. West Coast is Schrodinger’s box.
Player party - You're to help the foreigners find a home. Some of you are remnants, some engineers, some gunners, and all of you are compelled to find a place for your people.
Remnants - Automatons or conversions who've adopted true intelligence. Many emulate human expression to make up for what they feel they've lost.
Setting
A Swirling cloud cracking and sparking taps the tower its surrounding with electric light. A Deep thundering bass sends ripplets out from far below the debris. Tickets and leaflets brush by on the ground.
"Techno: Experience the girl who changed the way we trance"
The stranger tipped up his hat with one barrel. "Looks like this is the place."
"Techno: Experience the girl who changed the way we trance"
The stranger tipped up his hat with one barrel. "Looks like this is the place."
Sunday, March 13, 2011
There is a Ninja on the Train
The good inspector pulls the pistol from his holster and holds it up in wait. The scroll case dangles from a leather cord under his long gray jacket. The train clacks along the breaks in the track. He moves to holster his pistol when a crash rings out from the booth next to his. The car fills with a thick black choking smoke, the inspector falls to one knee, coughing. He feels for the scroll case -- Its gone. "Damn. Double Damn, The Captain will have my head on a platter. Louseau! Louseau you damn Frenchman, where have you got to!"
The smoke billows up from the ball in the next car, he picks it up, burning hot as it is, and chucks it back out the broken window. Ahead of him, he makes out a faint figure climbing up the side of the train. The inspector open fires. Shrieks of passengers crying out in shock. The mustachioed Frenchman appears at his side. "No time for a drink; Get the luggage!" The Good inspector sprints out the door, climbing to the roof of the train where a foot greets his face in a most unpleasant, down-right dastardly manner. His right arm hooks around the ladder rung and his left whips forward with his pistol, firing blindly upwards. The wind rushes and swirls in the gap between cars, he swings freely, feeling sick before he pulls himself up.
The boiler, he's heading for the engine! Sure enough, the masked figure was making its way toward the lumber car, and the boiler. He'd blow it up! "Down Right Unacceptable!" He got his wits about him and fired off two more, long, narrowly missing "Damn this wind". The ninja shot forth, sparks flying at the inspector, catching his left hand, sending the service pistol flying.
The smoke billows up from the ball in the next car, he picks it up, burning hot as it is, and chucks it back out the broken window. Ahead of him, he makes out a faint figure climbing up the side of the train. The inspector open fires. Shrieks of passengers crying out in shock. The mustachioed Frenchman appears at his side. "No time for a drink; Get the luggage!" The Good inspector sprints out the door, climbing to the roof of the train where a foot greets his face in a most unpleasant, down-right dastardly manner. His right arm hooks around the ladder rung and his left whips forward with his pistol, firing blindly upwards. The wind rushes and swirls in the gap between cars, he swings freely, feeling sick before he pulls himself up.
The boiler, he's heading for the engine! Sure enough, the masked figure was making its way toward the lumber car, and the boiler. He'd blow it up! "Down Right Unacceptable!" He got his wits about him and fired off two more, long, narrowly missing "Damn this wind". The ninja shot forth, sparks flying at the inspector, catching his left hand, sending the service pistol flying.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sizing up an enemy in 4th Edition
There are three ways to aproach an enemy
Intelectually, Charismatically, or Head and Wall aproach
Knowing is Half the battle - In this case, A skill challenge would lower the to-hit dc on the enemy. The more you know about the enemy, the easier it is to take them down.
Cast Doubt - Taunting and engaging the enemy prior to combat can lower attack mods and their confidence (if they have some kind of willpower defense), but every hit they inflict restores their confidence -- and their attack mods.
Head and Wall - Engage the enemy before it has a chance to make preparations, attack the problem head on. Attacks can make the enemy lose their weapons, become more vulnerable to disarm, more likely to surrender, enemies tend to be more spread apart.
Intelectually, Charismatically, or Head and Wall aproach
Knowing is Half the battle - In this case, A skill challenge would lower the to-hit dc on the enemy. The more you know about the enemy, the easier it is to take them down.
Cast Doubt - Taunting and engaging the enemy prior to combat can lower attack mods and their confidence (if they have some kind of willpower defense), but every hit they inflict restores their confidence -- and their attack mods.
Head and Wall - Engage the enemy before it has a chance to make preparations, attack the problem head on. Attacks can make the enemy lose their weapons, become more vulnerable to disarm, more likely to surrender, enemies tend to be more spread apart.
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