Your Motives for Reading

You should only read this book if you are the kind of person who searches for truth without care for the unpleasantness of its flavor. This book is not intentionally exclusionary, it is unintentionally exclusionary. Those who cannot afford its ideas will exclude themselves. If you still believe issues like abortion and stem cell research are controversial, you might not want to read on. We will talk about topics that are taboo to talk about. We will consider things that might make you look at yourself differently in the mirror. And once you see "it", you can never go back to not seeing "it". We will question the very foundations of why we do the the things we do. We will question the things we take for granted. We will firmly grip sanity with one hand and flirt with madness with the our other. We will analyze, meta-analyze, meta-meta-analyze, ad infinitum. We will look beyond good and evil, beyond the meaning of life, beyond three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. Instead of looking at evolution in the context of religion, we will examine religion in the context of evolution. We will talk about Bayes' Theorem and apply it shamelessly to racism and sexism. We will strive for correctness and throw away all political correctness. And if you can stomach the darkest machinations of this existence then we can move on to talk about how to find peace and happiness in it.

But we must first move into dangerous territory, so dangerous that the masses can only conclude that anyone who agrees with this lunatic of an author has lost his or her mind as well. Only a small fraction of readers will understand this book in its entirety. In all likelihood, you--yes, you reading this sentence right now--are not ready for this book. People love thinking they are the one exception [Is the author is being hypocritical?]. Over 70% of people think they are above average [I read this somewhere]. People also love to see the fall of the righteous. Are you a naysayer whose purpose in reading this is book is to find a fault with me so that you might take this megalomaniac down a notch? Know that you are being tested as you read through this text. Know that you have already been tested many times. And what if I said that I will intentionally mislead you in my writing for the sake of making a point later in the book? Can you suspend your pride and become a means to my end as I become a means to yours? Can you work diligently at unraveling my cryptic remarks to get to the core of my meaning? And having discovered that meaning, will you be able to see that there was nothing cryptic about it to begin with?

Now you are beginning to see the fuck-all, face-all tone of this book. Have I deterred you from reading this book yet?

My Motives for Writing

I often consider what keeps me from writing more frequently. Many times I've stare at a blank text box ready to transcribe my thoughts into words but end up closing the window, leaving it all unsaid. I often have so much to say (sometimes unpleasant things) about the people I interact with but I am afraid bridges burned are not so easily mended. Sometimes I am too lazy to spend the time to write it all out because I know my thoughts well enough without having to put them on paper. I saw writing as something done for others, not for own benefit. Other times I find myself limited by my vocabulary and writing skill to express the complexities of the thoughts I am having. By changing the purity of thought into the impurity of language, something is lost. So anything I could ever write would never do justice to the thought upon which the writing is derived. It is with these reservations that I write this book.

[In a later section, I will talk about taking caution around poetic language that invokes emotion.] So what then are my motives for writing? I've thought a great deal about the condition of our race. I see a trend of youthful naivete turned resigned complacency. I see people living inconsistent lives that can only lead to mid-life crisis. I see undertones of existential angst in the zombies of nine to five. I see the vast majority of our race dodging the eternal questions, wishfully thinking that answers will come. But answers won't come to the lethargic. And maybe the answer to some of those questions is that there is no answer, that we are fated never to know, but even those realizations can only come through blood, sweat, and tears. In a world with so many mind-numbing distractions, a looming population, and invulnerable capitalist institutions, it is easy to become lost or feel insignificant. It is this ennui that I fight against. But as noble as this motive is, it is only tertiary.

My primary reasons for writing this book are for myself. By writing this book, I will finally be able to share the burden of my thoughts. It is the last step I must take to attain my nirvana. If I should, one day, sell my soul to the corporate devil and forget to buy it back, let these writings serve as a testament to my future self that I was once free and happy, uninhibited by the demands of The System. May this book remind me of the merits of brutal honesty.

Finally, I am writing this book so that others may check my views. Too often, people keep their deepest beliefs guarded even from themselves. They forget to double check their methods and results. Under the shields of pride and fear, unchecked thoughts begin to fester. This sort of mental/spiritual [I have some issues with spirituality that I will discuss later.] cancer can only end in fanaticism or insanity. My statistics professor is mathematically brilliant but he has lost his mind precisely because of this reason. He believes the bible is written in code; his decryption method, complex beyond belief. In two hours of explanation, I can translate only half a page by his method. It is complete nonsense, not because it doesn't make sense because it does. It's nonsense because an infinitude of alternatives makes more sense. It's sad to see a statistics professor make such a basic error in probability. And it is this irony that I wish to avoid.

Overview and Justification for the Structure of this Book

Naturally, for any sort of communication to be established, the motives for communicating ought to be made clear first. However, even communicating about these motives employs the method of communication itself. That is why I choose to lay out the rules for communication first instead (what's demanded of the reader and further groundwork). Motives for communication come next as it justifies the initiation of communication and gives purpose to the work. Here I will also explain why you should read what I have to write. Next, we ought talk about the method of communication, in this case, language through writing through typed text through Facebook. We will examine the scope of this method, as in its limitations. In that section, I will talk heavily about linguistics. Next, It is important to address writer bias and reader bias. Writer bias comes first because it is tied directly to the text and affects all readers the same way (this is not to be confused with reader bias which affects each reader differently). In dealing with writer bias I will talk about my influences and how it shapes my perspective. I will also explain the tests I impose on myself to serve as checks against writer bias. Moving on to reader bias, I will talk extensively about human psychology (and biology and sociology where applicable). The rest of the topics follow smoothly from "simple" to "complex" and from "general" to "specific" in the sense that mathematics comes before physics and physics comes before chemistry.

It makes sense that this overview and justification for structure be placed between rules for communication and motives for communication.

Groundwork for Reading, Writing, and Discussing

1. I will read all comments.
2. I won't respond to most comments. Most things will be more clear after reading all of what I have to write.
3. I will reference authors and texts from which I build my views. If I, without citation, pose an idea that has already been posed, it is because I have never come into contact with that idea. Link me to the original idea and I will add the reference to my writing.
4. I will define terms as I use them.
5. I will justify my arguments with logic unless I specifically note that the argument is an appeal to intuition. This latter type of argument will be rare and I acknowledge that only those who intuitively believe them will accept them. I will also explain why intuition instead of logic should be invoked when dealing with these sorts of arguments.
6. I will only address those counterarguments that I am aware of and only those which have some merit.
7. I will correct any errors I make when I become aware of those errors.
8. The title of Facebook notes related to this book I am trying to write will be preceded by a tilda (~).
9. Meta-analysis on my analysis will be enclosed in braces ({ and }).
10. Notes for the reader unrelated to the topic at hand will be enclosed in brackets ([ and ]).
11. I will try not to waste time, the reader's and my own.
12. All of this is a first draft.
13. Feel free to plagiarize me for any non-commercial purpose.

What I Demand of a Reader

I find my own writing dry, lacking flare. It is because my purpose in writing is not to entertain the reader but to share an idea. I value accuracy within a word even if it means sacrificing simplicity. It falls upon the reader to look up the word if he or she does not understand its meaning. I also value concision. I will not repeat myself nor explain things beyond what I consider sufficient. If these demands on the reader should lose me a greater audience, so be it. Anything tailored to the masses is shit; look to movies and the education system for empirical evidence. I will speak and let those with diligent minds stay; the rest can leave and bleat. Any reader who is not willing to trudge through the desert of my ink does not deserve the majesty of my thoughts.

Introduction

For the longest time, I've held back from saying what I really think of everything. I worried that my writings would come back to haunt me in the future - political suicide, in the workplace, etc. I also felt that much of what I had to write would seriously offend people. And sometimes I question my own conviction in my beliefs.

But I have plenty to say and now I am finally bold enough to say it.

A few people will find my musings obvious and tautological and some others will find them insightful, but most will find them confusing/absurd/naive. It is for these latter two groups that I write. Given enough time, I believe all will eventually come to see my meaning. Alas, time is not infinite. Then, for the latter two groups who do read what's coming, let my writings be a seed which will hopefully, in their lifetimes, bloom into an absolute happiness and a complete peace; if not, at least bring them closer.

I say these things with an air of grandness and a dangerous boldness. For now, I ask that you take me for my word.

Here is a preview of some of the topics I into which I will delve:

What I Demand of the Reader
Why I Write with Reservation
A Groundwork for Discussion
The Scope of Language
My Perspective and Influences
Tests I Impose on Myself
Pride - A Comparison of Modesty and Arrogance
Reinforcement Bias
Knowing from Being

Thought Spaces and Worldviews
Biological Motivations of Life
Life as an Experiment
Natural Selection of Ideas
Positive and Negative Claims

The Ego
Behavioral Conditioning - Animals
Behavioral Conditioning - Children
Behavioral Conditioning - Adults
Social Conditioning - Altruism
Social Conditioning - Mannerisms
Social Conditioning - Taboos
Social Dynamics - Status
Social Dynamics - Assimilation Versus Accommodation
Social Dynamics - Clash
Neuro-linguistic Programming
Facial Expressions and Body Language
Sexual Selection
Eugenics
Rationality
Irrationality
Insanity
Ignorance
Innocence
Morality - Derivations
Morality - Implications on Ethics
Religion - Derivations
Religion - Effects on the Individual
Religion - Effects on the Group
Religion - Truth Value
Education
Liberals
Conservatives
The Old
The Young
Men
Women
Capitalism
Communism
Libertarianism
Fascism
Growth of Technology
Genetics - Heredity
Genetics - Cloning
Genetics - Programming
Mortality
Immortality
Money - Management
Money - Effects of Acquiring and Spending
Time
Happiness
Freedom
Justice
Mathematical Beauty
Human Extinction
The Human Condition
Anthropocentricity
Outer Space - Exploration
Outer Space - Colonization
Outer Space - Extraterrestrial Life
The System - Maintenance
The System - Evolution
Hive Theory - Component Behavior and Intelligence
Hive Theory - Fractal Intelligence
Art - Classic Art
Art - Modern Art
Music - Euphony and Mathematics in Melody and Harmony
Music - Lyrics
Aesthetics

If I do end up finishing all this, I hope I will have enough material for a book.