Still working on getting neThing updated. Had decided to wait to finish it up when c#.net 8 released. Since it has I will get the project updated to that so that when it's finished and published it has a longer term of support.

Archive of a post that was here: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/7/14/182345/984

By Shimmer Fri Jul 16th, 2004 at 01:08:17 AM EST Science

July 02004

I believe that the folks over at the Long Now project are onto something, although they don't seem to quite realize it. They point out that civilization has a "pathologically short attention span" and are addressing this problem by building a 10,000 year clock that "ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium". They have a charming way of prepending a zero onto the date (so that 2004, for example, becomes 02004) to emphasize this point of view.

Their goal is an admirable one - to focus humanity's attention on timescales that extend beyond a single life, but they don't seem to have thought very deeply about the underlying philosophy. I propose that the Long Now has profound implications for our species - implications that range from the mundane to the practical to the spiritual. What better way to organize and direct such implications than to form a new religion?

All rational thinkers, hear me: Welcome to the Church of the Long Now.

To the best of our current knowledge, the universe is about 14,000,000,000 years old. The solar system is about 4,500,000,000 years old. Life on Earth is about 3,500,000,000 years old. Intelligent life on Earth is about 100,000 years old. The age of the individual readers of this article varies from about 10 to about 100 years old. Are there possibly any dates that are more important to us than these? They teach us that we are very young, the world is very old, and that the future is immense.

Each such date leads to a "Why?" question. Each such question is a pillar in the Church of the Long Now (CLN):

The First Pillar: Why is there something rather than nothing? The Second Pillar: Why does the Earth exist? The Third Pillar: Why does life exist? The Fourth Pillar: Why does intelligence exist? The Fifth Pillar: Why do I exist? Contemplating these questions is the fundamental purpose of the CLN. Even a few moments of thought tells us that what happens tomorrow is probably not so important in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps we should concentrate instead on making sure that we can continue to address these questions in the future. Not just tomorrow, but 10 years from now, 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years, 100,000 years, 1,000,000 years. What are the obstacles we must overcome in order to be here in a million years, still contemplating these questions?

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Science and religion share a common motivation: the search for truth. This is, in fact, the primary goal of science, but in existing religions it competes with other goals. When the teachings of religion are in conflict with the evidence of science, religious people are surprisingly unconcerned. For example, there is no evidence that God exists, or that there is life after death, but religious people consider these to be matters of faith rather than of knowledge.

How does a rational religious person reconcile these contradictions? The answer is that the fundamental purpose of religion is to provide comfort, rather than truth. At times of great ceremony or stress (such as the death of a loved one), the comfort of religion is much more important than the cold facts of science. In this way, most religion is based on wishful thinking. Where children have Santa Claus, adults have God.

For this reason, it is tempting for an atheist to disparage and dismiss religion, but this would be short-sighted. Religion is not a mistake or an accident - it exists in every human culture throughout history. Because religion serves to organize and nurture its members, it has a high survival value. Thus, I suggest that evolution hard-wired religion into the human brain. Our non-believing ancestors tended to have fewer children than the believers did. This is why atheists are a rarity today. People have an in-born, biological need for religion, especially in times of stress. It would be foolish for rational thinkers to ignore this need.

Why is there no religion based on science rather than on faith? Science provides a vision of the universe that is far larger, more complex, and awe-inspiring than that of any religion. While science may be cold and its facts sometimes uncomfortable, it does not turn away from the truth. And what we know of the truth of the universe so far is stunningly, mind-blowingly, staggeringly beautiful. This is why I consider science to be far more spiritual than any existing religion. We are at the beginning of a great journey. Moreover, we currently occupy the central role in the journey, since we are the only intelligent creatures that we know of in the universe. What better story on which to found a religion than this?

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The First Pillar: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Martin Gardner called this the "superultimate question", and it is indeed potent. The question is so difficult that it is almost incomprehensible. We know almost nothing about the answer, and yet there is little denying the fact that the universe came into being billions of years ago and has been getting larger ever since. Why? It certainly seems simpler to have nothing instead, but that is not the way things went.

This is the coldest, most inhuman pillar of the CLN. It humbles anyone with the courage to face it and reminds us that we are all tiny specks in a nearly infinite ocean. The universe is more immense than we can possibly imagine, and yet we cannot explain why even a tiny bit of it exists. It is so absurd as to make one laugh or come unhinged.

Will humanity, or something like it, survive to witness (or perhaps prevent) the end of the universe? Not if we are wiped out first.

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The Second Pillar: Why does the Earth exist?

The Earth is a tiny satellite of an average star called Sol. While stars like Sol are utterly commonplace, the conditions on Earth (which allow the formation of large bodies of liquid water) may be much more unusual. Still, there is every reason to suspect that the universe (and perhaps even our own galaxy) is large enough to continue many similar planets.

Following the Big Bang, matter coalesced out of the fundamental building blocks into hydrogen and helium atoms. Gravity pulled these atoms together into stars. There was essentially no other kind of matter in the universe - no carbon, nitrogen, or oxygen, no iron, copper, or gold. These stars lived, and when the largest of them died, they exploded in supernovas which were powerful enough to fuse heavy elements out of lighter ones. Eventually, the material ejected by these explosions coalesced into new solar systems, which in turn lived and died. Eventually, our beloved Sol and Earth were formed from the debris of this cycle. The solid matter that forms every object in the world was created in violent nuclear reactions during supernova explosions. Our flesh, bones, and blood are literally stardust.

While this pillar still places no value on human life, it begins to connect us to the universe at large. It shows that we are of the universe, not alienated from it. Every event that occurs follows natural law.

Will humanity, or something like it, survive to witness (or perhaps prevent) the end of the Earth? Not if we are wiped out first. Nothing protects the Earth from destruction by collision with another body. Perhaps we should begin to consider the survival value of colonizing other planets, even other solar systems? How much time do we have to work with?

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The Third Pillar: Why does life exist?

After the basic laws of physics and chemistry, replication and evolution by natural selection may be the most fundamental forces in the universe.

Solar radiation pours over the surface of the Earth and nuclear reactions heat it from the inside. These forces mix and stir the planet's material. No intelligence directs this course of events, but some time after the formation of the Earth - perhaps a billion years, perhaps much less - the mixing resulted in a chemical that catalyzed its own production. In other words, a single molecule of this chemical, placed in a solution of ingredients, automatically assembles a copy of itself from the ingredients. Each of these copies then replicates itself similarly. A chain reaction occurs, rapidly converting the solution into a large collection of replicators, assembling and probably disassembling in equilibrium.

Unlikely? Perhaps, but many unlikely events occur in the course of a billion years. In fact, the original replicator may have originated elsewhere and fallen to Earth, but the basic story remains the same. In any case, there is no known alternative explanation that stands up to rational scrutiny.

This simple chemical replication sometimes failed to work correctly. Usually the resulting "mutant" molecule could not itself replicate. But some mistakes resulted in replicators that were slightly more efficient than the original molecule. These replicators quickly spread through the entire system, displacing the original replicator. In this way, the evolution of life began. Every living organism today, from humans to bacteria, is a direct descendent of the initial replicator.

This pillar is perhaps the most miraculous of all because its scope is small enough for us to understand it, yet mysterious enough to baffle us. Today's science can tell us very little about how the original replicator actually arose. We do not know what it was composed of, nor where it originated. All traces of its creation were probably wiped out by its own progeny. We most likely have the technology we need to create our own version of the original replicator from basic organic chemicals, and yet we have no idea how to do so. This is a puzzle that can and should be solved within our lifetimes.

Will humanity survive to witness the further evolution of life on Earth or its discovery elsewhere? Not if we are wiped out first. All known life is concentrated in a single, vulnerable ecosystem. A collision with even a relatively small object (like an asteroid) could disrupt or destroy all known life. Such a collision could be mere centuries or decades away and we would not know it. We are certainly not yet prepared to cope with such a possibility. Perhaps we should start soon?

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The Fourth Pillar: Why does intelligence exist?

It is a common misconception that evolution naturally "progresses", producing higher and more complex life forms. In fact, evolution simply produces creatures that are well-adapted to their environments. It is not entirely clear, in fact, why anything more complex than bacteria ever evolved. The gift of intelligence is a precious one, because it was far from inevitable.

Nonetheless, one evolutionary path did indeed lead to intelligent humans and so here we are, in a position to ponder questions like why we exist in the first place. Having evolved from non-intelligent ancestors, we are now the first creatures to have escaped from the influence of evolution. With some luck, the future of humanity will not be determined by natural selection, but by rational thought and decisions. Survival of the fittest no longer applies to people.

This pillar serves as the basis for all thinking about humans as a group, be it at the level of species, cultures, or societies. No man is an island, because we all share a common heritage and biology. It is almost impossible to think of a person without considering the effect of other people around him.

Will human accomplishment end with our own accidental self-destruction? If so, perhaps the story would still end fittingly because such a species was not worthy of existence in the first place. But even the most pessimistic person among us must recognize the potential of humanity to tell a much longer and more beautiful story. We may well be the most important and precious result to date in the history of the universe.

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The Fifth Pillar: Why do I exist?

At long last, we come to the individual. The vast scope of the universe finally reduces to something comfortable and familiar - me, my thoughts, my life. It has been said that great minds think about ideas, average minds think about events, and weak minds think about people. Perhaps more of us should strive towards greatness, but the fact remains that we are mainly concerned with the events and people in our own lives. Any world-view that fails to take this into account is doomed to fail.

Each of us the product of a long line of successful predecessors, each of whom lived long enough to reproduce. By this standard, there is quite a bit of historical momentum embodied in each one of us. And yet, we are all intuitively aware of our accidental nature, and so lucky to be alive. If my father did not happen to return that phone call to my mother in 1962, then I would never have been born. We are each truly unique, and thus precious, never to be repeated.

This pillar and the previous are the warmest and most comforting in the CLN. There is much that a church can do to bolster and nurture the lives of its members, without pandering to them or feeding them lies.

What can I do to keep myself alive long enough to accomplish what I want to do? What will happen to humanity after I die? In terms of the Long Now, I am but a single frame in a very long movie - virtually imperceptible. Time rushes on, not just the years, but the centuries and the millennia. In geological terms, I will leave no trace, and yet what I do can matter a great deal.

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The Church of the Long Now is sorely needed. Were it to exist, it would combine science with the best of existing religions. Its ceremonies would fill a basic human need without indulging in wishful thinking or other falsehoods. Even as it humbles us, the church would provide comfort by reminding us of our place in universal history. Using rational thought based on scientific knowledge, the church would focus us on the Long Now, identifying the tasks necessary to ensure that our descendents survive to hear many, many chimes of the 10,000 year clock.

As it turns out ChatGPT has quite a few problems. So for the time being I am only using it for things I already have skills to which to verify the veracity of what it outputs. That puts the ChatGPT And Me series of posts on indefinite hold. I am still playing around with ChatGPT for programming uses, however the progress is slow as I decided to restructure the Learning a new Programming Language with ChatGPT more than once and thus did not spend the little time I have outside of work on rewrite of the site.

So for the three new projects I 'launched' in February of last year one on hold, two I'm still working on. News years resolution: post progress reports in some timely manner.

I am focused on relaunching the site as the priority before I work on any other personal projects. So for now that is my focus.

As I have mentioned before I have been working, albeit slowly, on finally finishing the conversion of the site from ColdFusion to C#.NET. By and by recently chatGPT has roared onto the internet with a bang, might even say a BING, and although code assist AI, with github, has been in a sort of beta state for the last several months (or even year?) I have thought that a way to revitalize my enthusiasm for working on this site is the start to mess around with it.

As such I have decided to do multiple things. One is to try to use chatGPT while I work in the C# code for this site and document the journey in so doing. Two, since programming and philosophy are some of the main focuses of the site, I will create a series called ChatGPT And Me (initially called Chatting With ChatGPT) where I will post various chats that I have with chatGPT on a wide range of subjects. Three, I will revive the Learning a new Programming Language series with chatGPT at the helm with critiques from me.

I'm hoping this will be fun and interesting for both me and any audience there might be.

Saw an interesting article come up while reading: Pluralistic: Tiktok's enshittification.

I have neTodo working again, with some updates (changelog). That's about all I have to say.

Welp. It's been over 10 years since I last posted here. 8 years since I last did any work on this site. Many things have happened.

First it was just being lazy and not having the drive to post anything while I was working on redoing the backend of the site. Then the work slowed down to a crawl and eventually to a stop. I don't know if there is a link between my lack of drive and the health issues that started to show up in 2015, but by the end of 2016 I was in the hospital fighting for my life. A few hiccups and then Covid-19 we finally reach today.

I am still Alive

The site is not dead and neither am I. The forced change of the backend host for this site has spurred me to try again to get going with this. To bring some order in the chaos where the mind dwells.

The new host has given me some issues, half of which are currently resolved. The main thing that is working right now is the coldfusion version of neThing (v0.8) has been brought back up to full working status so I can post this.

Working

• Me
• neThing (v0.8)
• Sparce
• neSpeeches

Not Working

• neTodo
• neFeedeater (probably gonna kill it)

For a list of project (incomplete, but I will update) you can go here: Projects

So here I go working again.