[ExI] utah: RE: Frank Jackson's brilliant color scientist Mary

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com> 
ubject: Re: [ExI] Frank Jackson's brilliant color scientist Mary

 

 

 

>…Very nice poem Spike thanks for jumping in…

 

You are quite welcome sir, and note that I am jumping sideways rather than in.  I have retitled the thread so that I don’t interfere with the qualia discussion, which I am finding most educational, even if all I have to offer is qualia poetry.  

 

Poetry really all I have to offer, for in my head is nothing but equations and poetry: one hemisphere for each.  I don’t really understand qualia, never have, even after having read your commentary and the others, because it has no equations to describe it.  I know not jack without equations.  I really don’t: the whole concept of not-equations on anything, I just don’t grok.  Pascal commented the heart knows reasons that reason knows not.  Pascal was a math guy!  I love his stuff, the triangle and all that, cool!  Now he tells me about hearts knowing reason, and I just don’t have it.  All I have are the two hemispheres.  One is filled with poetry, the other, equations.  It’s all I have.  I love my bride with equations and poetry.  All my heart does is beat.

 

 

>…I so enjoyed the commentary on being interested in this, over politics, and all that. Our local newspaper has only two sections, today.  Politics on in the small front section, and a second larger sports section.  Nothing else…

 

Ours too, but opposite: small sports section up front, the rest of it all politics, nothing else.  It is kinda interesting in a way: most of their circulation is from subscription now.  They used to publish paper copies, and still do I am told, a few of them, but it is no longer seen in driveways, no more of those coin paper machines, all of it, gone.

 

 

>…Also, last night at a neighborhood Christmas party, I asked why the US needs more than 10 aircraft carriers (they have 11)…

 

I know!  To carry all those aircraft out to sea.  Secondary benefit: to give jobs to all those sailors.  What are they supposed to do otherwise?  Get actual jobs?

 

 

>…But that just opened a flood gate of fear mongering, worshipping how things used to be (evidently everything today is worn out)…

 

As soon as I hear anyone argue that anything used to be better (with the possible exception of popular music) I already know that person is beyond reason.  In the olden days everything sucked compared to now (temporarily ignoring that awful hip-hop rap business, oy vey who the hell ordered that?)

 

 

>… and a bunch of fear about China (as if they are going to invade the US and militarily force us to be communist…

 

Never happen.  Americans are armed to the teeth.  We will fight the commies every step!

 

>…  (LOL, they were saying all this fear mongering about china, while at the same time talking about how we can’t even force puny Afghanistan to adopt our form of government.)…

 

Brent, the thing that really surprises me is that so few people understand the nature of modern warfare.  It has little to do with ships, planes, sailors snapping sharp salutes and swabbing the decks and all that.  All of that is irrelevant as hell.  China can’t even conquer Hong Kong, but Hong Kong might well conquer China.  The commies see what those island people have, and they want that.  Capitalism creeps in from all sides.

 

 

>…It is often very draining to be in Utah.  You guys make it possible, even enjoyable to survive…

 

Unnecessarily grim, me lad!  I will say it: I love Utah.  My bride and I have gone there to spend time in the archives, back in the days before the internet made it unnecessary to go there, and we loved it.  The people were so nice, we toured the LDS temple, listened to their pitches, and of course the religion part thing didn’t do it for me, but that family life stuff was so good, we both loved it.  We watched their videos, loved em.  You go to the archives there and those nice people will help you, not even anything they are doing professionally, just volunteers being nice and cheerful and good and kind and everything I try to be now.  The LDS people working at the archives were doing good deeds and didn’t even know it: they inspire flaming atheists to live like they do and act like they do, even if we don’t believe like they do.  Brent do pass along my thanks if you know any kind-hearted souls doing that.  Archive volunteers: we flamers love you all.

 

I have been involved in the whole ancestry thing deeply since DNA came along, and so I am on the phone occasionally with Ancestry.com, an LDS company, and oh such nice people on their help line.  I already have a strategy: when I get my self-driving car track set up with the intentionally slick surface and the artificial smoke and racy noise cars, I will call the Ancestry.com helpline and raid their company for employees, tell they can work from home in that beautiful state of Utah (which it is) go to their own church and all that, then take orders and reservations for crazy yahoos (with far too much money (which wants to be in my pocket)) who want to tear around and play racecar driver, but be safe about it and get funny videos of themselves shrieking yaaaaaa and barfing and all that.  I will raid Ancestry.com because their helpline people are the nicest most lovable sorts, you want to reach across and hug em.

 

Brent, you live in Utha, so you get all that, all the time, free, me lad.  What’s not to like?  So you hafta listen to their inane prattling once in a while about all these carriers we need for some mysterious reason, well hell, imagine you were here in California and you must replace every single pronoun with he, she or it and his, her or its.  Oh that makes speech clumsy.  Then if you have a special peeve about people using “they” and “their” for the genderless singular, oh the suffering is intense.  What’s a poor grammar gestapo to do?  Shriek in pain?  Tried that, they won’t stop.  Cruel they are, callous, just relentlessly wicked, merciless.

 

Somehow I struggle on, and focus on LIGO.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

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