Category: nature

Sun Worshipper

An old science fiction novel called the sun “lifegiver.” Obviously true, because without the sun (exactly as it is and has been) there would be no life on Earth, never would have been any life on Earth, never you or me. If it went away this afternoon forever none of us would last long .

Science simply confirms what is intuitively obvious. Solar mythology has existed throughout history and surely long before. Sun dictates our lives, better or worse. At sunset it is normal to evaluate the events of the day, at sunrise it is easy to rejoice .

The sun commands an austere respect. Its location and path cannot _ even in the most fevered visions – be changed with prayer or other magic. Asking it for rain is futile – better to beg clouds – even though without solar evaporation there would be no rain ever .

Now we are ” sophisticated.” We create light in darkness. We know the sun is “just” fusion energy. Some of us concentrate on more important things (like the internet) and ignore it except on special occasions .

A lot of the time, the sun helps me concentrate my exaltation in being conscious. I try not to take it – or anything else – for granted. It is a wonderful aspect of the universe on which to center. And it demands nothing more – or less – then that I be enchanted with being .

Lifegiver indeed .

Target Rock

It can be useful to be reminded of both the age and impermanence of the world around us. For those of us aware on Long Island, that is pretty easy. This is a “new” land, formed of sand debris as the last glaciers melted, raised from the ocean when the continent lifted as it was freed of the weight of the ice. Perhaps soon to be submerged by rising seas .

European history here is almost ancient (by European standards). Over 400 years ago – Louis XIV was just building Versailles – the town of Huntington was founded. Before Napoleon, the British defended the island fiercely .

They captured Nathan Hale on the shore line here. They smashed a graveyard to use as a cannon emplacement. And from sandy bluffs, they practiced gunshots at Target Rock, a large erratic boulder lying in Lloyd Inlet .

People and politics come and go. The rock is still there, preserved from use and indignity by its “useless” location. Now the center of a wildlife refuge formed from old Gold Coast estates destroyed by time and taxes .

I love to visit in all seasons, enjoying the trees and birds and wind and shells. Become aware once again of the impermanence of life. Enjoy the connection to “olden times”. Imagine being a native American, a colonist, even a wealthy owner in the gilded age .

But, quite honestly, mostly happy to be exactly like that rock.  Contented where I am .

Tranquility

In our fortunate era, one can do many things, play many roles, in fact be different persons over time. We recognize standard stages of life – childhood, adolescence, young adult, middle-aged, senior, elder – and the various career changes one can make. But our very being can also transmute .

Tranquility is not a revered goal of our culture. It’s more important to be upset, to strive, to be unsatisfied with what is and work to change things for the better. For most of those stages of life, being tranquil is dangerously close to being a lazy good for nothing .

But elders _ well, little is expected at this declining energies and thoughts. Attempts by old folks to do great things is at best comical and at worst annoying and tragic. Tranquility fits those who otherwise get in the way of progress .

I confess to buying into this somewhat. Ever since I read  Innocents Abroad as a boy, I realized that younger people who accept life however awful it may be are more to be pitied than envied. I hardly ever sought tranquility, preferring even painful activity to doing nothing .

But now? I’m afraid I am still not quite tranquil, although I have slowed, appreciate the moments, and try not to regret all the many things I can no longer do. Such acceptance, I suppose, is close to tranquility. Or laziness, of course. 

High Tide

Another “high tide advisory” has been issued. Sea levels are higher. Along the Northeast coast, where I’ve lived most of my life, the wide beaches are being swept away, towns on barrier Islands are facing destruction, coastal flooding is frequent. Although the rise has been incremental so far, melting glaciers could someday cause catastrophe .

Well, it’s one of many things I’ve seen change. Nasty weather patterns. Common insects, birds, animals vanishing. Open land privatized and restricted. Garbage and traffic and . . .  The list is immense. I have no real complaints. I’ve experienced almost all that I could in what was – for me – the best of all possible worlds. And I know each generation must face a different time. I may regret that the younger people will never enjoy what I did, but surely there will be other pleasures.

Some predict a variety of horrible apocalypses. Some predict a geoengineered, AI-directed paradise of long life and sybaritic existence. I reserve judgment. But surely some innocence and freedom has been lost.

Although helpless in the grander scenarios, there are still daily joys. A niche of parks, food, friends. Enveloped frequently by nostalgic memories. For the most part, I can ignore worries about my shortened future. Pay little attention to all the many things that seem to be going wrong. 

Including high tide .

I, Singularity

Computer buzz these days centers around artificial intelligence, and the possible looming “singularity”. Depending on who is talking, that either means when a computer becomes more intelligent than a human, or when that computer achieves consciousness. At that point they say, the universe is rebuilt just as it was at the big bang .

There seem to be two dueling expectations, both driven by greed. Some believe that the machine will then effectively be a kind of god, able to do anything. And controlled by the cybernetic priests who may discover they’ve created the devil instead. Others hope to be able to transmute their flesh into silicon and metal, thereby achieving the age old quest for immortality. Why their consciousness should survive the transition from flesh is never considered, for they like to think of themselves as purely creatures of logic. That is, of course, illogical .

As for the universe – well, there are already multiple universes – one for each person alive and anyone who has ever lived. “The” universe is largely a fantasy. There’s an old SF joke that any superintelligent machine that achieves consciousness would survey “everything” logically, decide it was all irrelevant or futile, and immediately turn itself off .

Each of those people working towards computer omniscience is already a singularity. You are a singularity. And, yes, singularity am I. 

Self Myth

Machines are masters of logic. People, on the other hand, are driven by irrational hormones and myths. The most important conceit for any sane person is that they are important. No matter what cold logic may say.

Each of us encapsulates a unique universe of sensation and being. At the center of that universe – its only reason for existence – is that you are the only important thing, the center of reality. By all “external” logic, of course, that is not true, and is complete irrational madness.

All human mythology derives from that contradiction. People who only care about themselves are insane and often evil. People who do not care at all about themselves are insane and socially helpless. Most of us balance precariously on a tightrope of “stability,” always about to fall off, sometimes (hopefully) only for a moment falling off.

As a social species, we have evolved and learned to adjust so that all this is kept in check. Survival, after all, depends on cooperation, and that requires interaction with others. But sometimes a group of psychopaths can band together (each believing itself to be the most important part of the group) and threaten us all.

Our small scattered tribes could survive that in our pre-technological past. Now – well, I’m not so sure .