The holy cycle

The universe is strange place, and as science progresses, our understanding of how it works changes year by year. It seems like whenever we have a solid foundation of scientific knowledge about ur world, another theory or finding destroys what we thought we knew. For example, when I was in school, my psychics teacher would tell us that a ‘quark‘ was the smallest fundamental particle in the universe. However, for anyone with an interest in science and the confusing world of quantum physics, you’ll know that this this could very well not be the case. Thanks a lot string theory!

It’s a current belief that as we go smaller and smaller into the particles that make up this reality, we find that on a subatomic level, every piece of matter is made up of vibrational waves of energy. As physics clearly tells us, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. So if everything in the universe is made up of energy, then what does this tell us about the nature of our existence?

Well, if energy can’t be created or destroyed, then that means nothing in our observable universe can be created or destroyed, even ourselves. But how can that be possible? Nothing is eternal, humans die and physical objects eventually decay. When we die, we are gone, we longer exist, however the basic laws of physics go against this. With this in mind, I hypothesise that everything that exists within our universe, has always been here, and nothing new is ever added to it. Neither, is anything removed from it.

Think about it, all life is energy. When we die, our bodies decay and rot, we are eaten by other animals to keep them alive and reproducing. When them animals die, their bodies decay and the cycle goes on. Nothing ever ceases to exist, it is simply impossible. Rather, like physics tells us, everything that matter makes up, is just transferred into another form. Birth, growth and decay, it’s the cycle of life. This is the bigger picture we are all a part of, everything is one and connected, just in different, transferring and interchangeable forms.

This bigger picture, or cycle, is what I like to think most, if not all religions were getting at when they spoke of a ‘God.’ This ultimate truth of everything being one part of a larger picture, is God. The very essence of everything in our existence, not some almighty creator. I believe that many of the holy scriptures, such as bible, were using metaphors to describe this truth of oneness. However, humans misconstrued this stories and took them too literally, envisioning a creator or all seeing deity.

In an early Christian scripture, it was said that ‘Jesus’ quoted this, as an explanation of where God is…

“I am the light which is over all things”

“I am all”

“From me came forth, and to me all attained”

“Split a piece of wood, I am there”

“Lift up the stone, and I am there”

If one was to take this quote literally, you would bring forth the assumption that our creator ‘God,’ is everywhere at once. However, I feel that the word God itself has grown shallow and meaningless throughout time. As stated, if you dismiss all preconceptions of the word God, and take it as this cycle, or bigger picture I’m speaking of, the quote resonates with this theory. It tells us of an overall essence of all life and things, that is everything and everywhere at once. Not a concious being, rather a unity of everything.

It’s worth saying now, that thinking for yourself is one of the most valuable skills you can have. You can take what you’ve read here however you want, but please don;t form your opinions based on a single book, belief system or blog post. Look at every side of the coin from every perspective, and form your own truth. Because most of the time, you’ll find a deeper truth, hidden within what you once thought was the ultimate truth.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The information generation

I grew up in a society were I’ve lived to see the computer become as common a household item as a telephone. When you’ve had access to the web from such a young age, It is a strange, and often unnerving concept to think that once upon a time, we lived in a world without the wonders of the world wide web.

Back in the day, information was channelled primarily through newspapers, televisions and books. The library was of cause our internet, before it evolved into he digital realms. The problem is, it’s neon impossible to keep books up to date on a daily basis, so up to date information was left in the hands of television producers and news corporations.

The masses, even now, have grown quite passive of this fact, and often don’t stop to think about who controls the flow of information, and the power this responsibility encompasses. The media (controllers of information) have a huge impact on how the population of a country thinks and holds it’s values. The way to control a nation perceptions, is to control the information in which they consume.

Now this is a very dangerous game we are playing. Especially when you consider that every person has there own belief systems and ideologies. These grouped with the responsibility of controlling what the masses are exposed to, often breed agendas. These agendas are especially questionable when you take into consideration that the ones controlling the information, are high up in society with an innate drive to maintain wealth and stature. Therefore, with our only mainstream sources of understanding the world around us having questionable intentions, another generation was doomed to idly perceive the world, the way that the powers that be want them to.

In comes the internet.

Now we have a wealth of endless information from a range of varied sources at out fingertips. No longer are we bound by the pre-conceptualized opinions of the mainstream media. It’s un-regulated and uncensored, anyone from a fascist to a patriot can publish there spin on the happenings of society to the entire world. This is a beautiful era we live in, were the people control the information in which they consume.

Sadly… It’s clear that the powers that be are growing increasingly nervous, as they lose there steely grips on the control of information. We are seeing more and more desperate efforts to infiltrate the unregulated nature of the web, with the likes of NET NEUTRALITY and other methods of blatant censorship.

Of cause… we could have seen this coming, after all history repeats itself. Any movement that breeds a generation of free-thinkers, is often stamped out. Look at the counter-culture of the 60’s. Thousands of citizens take this strange new hallucinogenic drug and decide they don’t want a war in Vietnam. Instead, they want love and peace. It’s the same now, except our mind-altering substance is the internet rather than LSD, and the war were fighting? The information war. The final  decision of who controls our perceptions. The people, or the government.

The problem with past counter-cultures, is that they remained as the ‘counter’ of cultures. The media controlled the way we saw these groups people. The internet on the other hand, regulates itself, by the entire worlds varied perceptions of society. With the decentralized nature of the network, we stand a very good chance of winning this battle, and with groups like anonymous popping up it is clear that the people can have the power.

Of cause, it’s not all good times, like with any great power there is responsibilities, and negative consequences if we do not fulfil these responsibilities.

Like anything, there’s a dark side.

With society and technology getting more and more fast paced, the demand for more condensed and precise information is growing. Were starting to live in a world of instant gratification. High speed porn, encyclopaedia of encyclopaedia of information, flying at us at an unfathomable amount of terabyte’s a second. Again and again were beginning to skip straight to the reward.

The way motivation works is that a human being is rewarded for his hard work by feel good chemicals blasting around the rewards centre of the brain. With the the way the internet’s heading, we are increasingly bypassing straight to the reward as a society. The need for hard work is unnecessary.

Yes, consuming more information at once can be good, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed and as humans we will eventually grow comfortable with skipping straight to the gratification. This could land us in an even bigger trap of never progressing, and having our attention cnsumed by companies with agenda’s such as Facebook. Thus making the internet, nothing more than a method of advertisement consumption. We need to be very careful how we approach this new influx of information, or we might find our selves in an even more darker system of perception control, flawed by it’s own design.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Cruel enlightenment

I was 15 and it was the usual Friday night. A group of middle-class white kids hanging around the local park basking in the essence of the foggy night. Nobody had any worries or dreams, it was all about what was happening right now. We didn’t care about current affairs, school or even our future. The main agenda was just to blow our parents money on as many mind-altering substances as we possibly could. Simple days but fun times if I’m honest. Tonight was nothing special, it was actually pretty standard and ‘usual’ for us. Nothing out of the ordinary, just excessive cannabis consumption and the usual bland teenage stoner talk.

The night dragged on and the conversations grew tiresome. Every sentence muttered brought on anticipation, then plummeted into disappointment when you realized the other person was too stoned to realise what they were even talking about. I had the usual high. Body relaxed, heightened awareness and general slowness. However, after smoking our last joint something changed. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was odd. It was like someone had came and changed the very essence of the atmosphere. It was then I realised my perception had twisted dramatically. I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t move, I just watched everybody. I watched and I began seeing the most fascinating but disturbing truths. They all talked and talked but I didn’t. I just observed.

I saw everyone for who they were. It was as if everyone was wearing this metaphorical mask, to hide their true selves. There insecurities, their doubts and their flaws. Even the drug dealer that was with us, the ‘gangster.’ I even saw his mask. Everyone had a façade of confidence or ‘front’ to hide what they truly are. I watched and saw every single lie these people told to prevent the barrier from being broken. I realise now, this is the ego, but back then this shit freaked me out. It felt as if I was seeing the world for how it truly is and I’ve not been the same since. This simple shift in perception has completely shaken and changed me from the core.

When I walk through the street everyone just looks like a robot. I feel like I’m the only person that knows what’s going on. Greed, control, jjudgementand corruption it just doesn’t make sense to me. People worship shallow celebrities who are idolised in the media. The only reason they are their is to make you work harder and contribute to the corporate mechanism, in the flimsy hope that one day you might end up like them.

People are fake and manipulative. They don’t listen. They wait for their turn to speak and do everything for their own mental gain. People are stupid and don’t have the faintest clue what’s going on. When you try to tell them their living a lie they resist. They tell you your being silly. Your crazy man, them drugs are fucking you up. Quite the contrary. There making me realise how fucked up the world is.

I can see through the bullshit now and it’s driving me insane. Contemplating reality and frequent psychedelic use has shown me the raw and unadulterated version of reality, and at times I wish I could go back. I’ve opened a door that can’t be shut and now living life is like watching a movie were you can see the set and all the cameras. I look at an advertisement and I don’t see a new potential product. All I see is consume, obey and conform. Live the lie and become the lie or you can’t survive.

The open door within my mind messed me up for a good few years until I started to learn to accept it. People who haven’t had this “awakening” or whatever you want to call it won’t understand. For people who have, they will know exactly what I mean. I’ve been to the darkest reaches of the human mind and it’s left me with new eyes to see the world with. These new eyes can consume you if you dwell on them. You think of how you can ever live in this world again, after seeing the true nature of it. Well… It’s hard but there’s nothing you can do about it, other than use it for your advantage. Keep the perception, but don’t live it’s seclude none societal lifestyle. Use these new eyes to see through societies lies and rise to the top, otherwise you’ll just end up another acid-burnout sat at home watching documentaries about the Illuminati.

Maybe all this means something to somebody… Or maybe years of drug use have fried my brain. Either way, I’ve grown accustomed to my version of reality, and to be perfectly honest with you… I like it.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The Silk Road Ideology: A simulation of a free market economy

In February 2011, Ross Ulbricht opened a black market website known as the Silk Road. Little did he know, it would soon facilitate the selling of $8million worth of narcotics each month. With high quality drugs being shipped around the world 24/7, this multi-million dollar enterprise sent shock waves through the media. It thrived and it’s customer base got larger, along with it’s huge middle finger pointed at drug regulation and law enforcement.

Better known under his pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ross was seen by many as a hero, constantly preaching his libertarian values to his loyal users.

“Silk Road was founded on libertarian principles and continues to be operated on them. It is a great idea and a great practical system…It is not a utopia. It is regulated by market forces, not a central power (even I am subject to market forces by my competition. No one is forced to be here). The same principles that have allowed Silk Road to flourish can and do work anywhere human beings come together. The only difference is that the State is unable to get its thieving murderous mitts on it.” –  Dread Pirate Roberts

The way I see it, Ulbricht was trying to change the perception of how we see our government and economics system. He created virtual space were a simulation of a free market economy can flourish. The effects this had on the black market, used as evidence for how a free market economy could benefit society.

“Ross Ulbricht’s Linked-in bio”

What a better way to put this simulation into practice than the drug trade. An unregulated market with HUGE demand. As long as there is a demand for drugs there will ALWAYS be a supplier, regardless of how much the government try to intervene. If there is no way of stopping drug supply, then why not allow the supply of it to be safe and regulated? After all, the drug trade will never cease… People like taking drugs. As it stands, the drug trade is a risky and un-regulated business. Mindless violence caused by criminal gangs for the sake of untaxed revenue.

The silk road bypassed all of this and allowed the consumer to be safe. Away from the dangerous streets, we the people acted as it’s self regulator through the use of the sites feedback system. This forced vendors to sell un-adulterated they could get sales. As if they weren’t up to scratch it would be reported by the consumer.

These are the basic concepts of a free market economy. A decentralised economic system (Bitcoin) were the consumer acts as the products regulator. Ross Ulbricht and many people using and regulating the site believed in this libertarian philosophy. What better way to show people that it works, than creating a free market economy for people to use in a huge public sphere such as the internet.  With the amount of users and lack of violent crimes through the use of these sites, it’s clear that it did work.

It took them two years from the sites creation, but the FBI finally managed to shut it down. Now that’s a story in itself. I remember vigilantly watching various forums as the drama un-folded. Feeling some what part of a collective revolution as the people tried fighting back against the government. Here’s the kicker. We won. Just a mere month after it’s closure, a Silk Road 2.0 launched, lead by and equally as self-righteous “Defcon.”

The middle finger to law enforcement only got bigger and bigger as more sites started spawning from no where, all offering the same black market services. The problem was that the FBI shot themselves in the foot. By seizing the Silk Road it only added more media attention to these sites, bringing in more customers and more demand. It also gave people the incentive to fight back against the government in a sort of digital “V for Vendatta.”

It took another year, but just yesterday the second silk road was taken down, along with a few other darknet sites. ALREADY, just hours later, a Silk Road 3.0 has spawned. You only need to look at this list, to see the sheer amount of black market websites being created regularly.

So was Ross Ulbricht a hero? What about Defcon? If you believe in libertarian philosophies then Ross Ulbricht is definitely a pioneer in getting the message of a free market economy out there. Regardless of how many sites they take down, the message is still there. The ideas left behind by Ross are still ingrained into the people who supported the cause. A domino effect has started. Maybe one day we will live in a free market economy and we’ll look back at these times fondly as the start of a revolution.

Here is a video made by Ross Ulbricht’s mother during the Silk Road case in 2013.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The social machine

The world is a strange place. We spend our lives learning how to contribute to a system we are trapped in by it’s own design. Obviously, you need an incentive to slave day in and day out at a job you hate, so we created money, just for that purpose. What do we pay for these flimsy pieces of paper and shards of metal? Our time and our energy. Probably the two most valuable things we have. Without time, we cease to exist and without energy, we cease to make use of our time. The jobs we so desperately sought over strip us of our time and energy. It begins to make you think… Is it really worth it?

Sadly, many people believe it is. And while some work may be fulfilling, when you becoming an anonymous cog in a social machine, that’s when they’ve won.

Who is they, you may ask? Is it the evil bankers? The corrupt politicians? Maybe secret societies? No. When people discuss the ills of society they often try to envision a set of people or beings, consciously calling the shots. What people fail to realise is that many wrongs in our world are not brought upon us by independent thought. Rather, they are created by systems, set in place through our own ignorance and the never-ending thirst for power by all humans.

Near enough everything set in place in our modern times, is consequently designed as means to make us contribute to the economic machine and feeding the beast that never be full.

We work almost like autonomous robots, slaving all our lives as one single entity in separate sectors to keep this machine we call society going. Children in third-world countries are used as the building blocks. Their paid minuscule amounts by the rich elite, to create products for us to consume. We work as cogs keeping the machine together. Then there is money as it’s lubricant. The thing that keeps it’s going on a consistent cycle.

The terrible truth is when we earn this money for our labour we feed it back into the machine, and it goes round full cycle again. Consumerism exists, but it is not an option, we are force-fed it.

You sit at home and gaze solemnly your television screen, bombarded by celebrities and people that are happier than you. It makes you feel more miserable about your own life, so we consume. We buy that overpriced smart phone or fancy car because material items are the only perception of success and happiness we are presented with. We feed the money back into a system that fails us again and again. The system gets stronger, reinforces itself and we become conditioned to believe everything is okay.

Our society breeds unhappiness by it’s own design. It’s okay though we’ve got pills for that. Take these and you’ll be fine. Straight back to work. We don’t need any of them human emotions showing and causing cracks in our system. There’s a lot of money invested in this system. Numb them with drugs before they start catching on.

Every machine need all of it’s parts to work properly. One dysfunctional cog and the system starts very slowly falling to pieces. But it’s okay. We kill them people.

 

Maybe you are one of these dysfunctional cogs. Maybe I am. Then again, that’s too much thinking for one day. I think it’s about time you got back to work reader. The machine isn’t going to feed itself.

Technology as a weapon

There have been many predictions of the future all throughout history. Many ridiculous, others terrifyingly accurate. What I don’t think anybody could have predicted, is the alarming rate in which technology has progressed in the past decade or so.

If you told somebody in the 1920’s that you can connect to somebody on the other side of the planet, through an imaginary space called the internet, they’d probably lock you away. Damn, if you told them that mental illness was real and people weren’t locked away for it, they’d probably think you were crazy.

Technology is a catalyst in an ever-changing world were we are evolving and seeing large amounts of worldwide, economic and societal change. However, the sheer speed this technology has progressed has left us all dumbfounded, with not enough time to face the potential and unknown repercussions of these changes

George Orwell predicted a world were this seamless connectivity backfired on us and created a hellish reality of corrupt aristocracy and constant government surveillance.

This is frightening when you think about recent controversy with the NSA. A huge government agency using technology as a weapon for relentless surveillance.

Oh but it’s okay “You shouldn’t worry if you have nothing to hide.” Like the slogan in Orwell’s novel for Big Brother…

Ignorance is surrender. When you ignore the fact that we are heading towards a dystopian society where we are simply cogs in the ever turning economic machine, you can rest easy. You can just ignore the fact that our freedom of expression is being taken from us by the likes of net neutrality and censorship.

The technology which initially was meant to benefit our society is slowly being contaminated by a dogmatic government who use it negatively, to reap the benefits in our very primitive economic system.

Any use of this technology that takes you away from government control and helps you be free is often attempted to be destroyed. Bitcoin, Tor even the internet in general. The powers above don’t like it when they don’t have control over what we do with these powerful new digital aids.

Technology has pierced through the very seams of our society at a speed we couldn’t even fathom. We had no time to understand the potential dangers. It can be used for good. Or it can be used for evil. It can level cities to a pile of dust and update twitter, all at the same time.

What we do with this technology is up to us. It is time NOW for discussion. We need to work out exactly how we can use it  beneficially, and what adverse affects it can cause when in the wrong hands. Otherwise, we may end up living in a world were privacy, freedom and happiness are just fictional concepts, on your watered down and censored television set.

How close are we to reaching George Orwell or Aldous Huxley’s brave new world?

Well, the FBI have recently finished their facial recognition system. A system holding a database of at least 52 million faces, making it even more easy to infringe privacy and find the identity of every human on the planet. How far away from dystopia are we? This happened last week So I’ll let you be the judge.

If we stand up against the powers above, like Orwell, I predict we will be looking at astronomic social change. The abandonment of  hierarchical government, a better thought out economic system and the evolution and disembodiment of the mind, body and soul.

–THE LONELY WEST–

What is god? Consciousness and the observer effect

I’m an atheist. As an atheist there is nothing worse than a Christian who relentlessly tries to force their beliefs upon you. As someone who prides himself in (hopefully) not being an asshole, there’s nothing worse than an atheist doing the same thing.

It’s easy to discredit someone beliefs just because they seem ludicrous to you. But, you’ll never learn anything if you stay stuck in the mental prison of your own stubborn ideology. Truth be told, I used to be one of those atheist who preached about the narrow-mindedness of religious types which ironically makes you more narrow minded. This is because, like I said, you get trapped in your own beliefs and don’t accept any other opinions. Well, I’ve been given this some thought and although I remain an atheist you really can’t blame people for believing in a higher power.

I mean the universe makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. Back in the day, we didn’t have science. A higher being or deity seemed the only logical explanation for the reality in which we perceive. Of cause, as we evolved we began finding patterns. That’s all science is. The study of regularly occurring patterns. Humans like patterns because they help us make sense of seemingly chaotic events beyond our control. We like control. It eats away at us when we can’t categorise, analyse and neatly label things in the world. This is what science is for. Science found that our universe is governed by certain laws. These laws neatly fit into various equations and calculations which when worked out again and again always give the same result. Gravity, velocity or density it can all be calculated. It’s almost like a computer program with physics equations as it’s code.

With all this seamlessly perfect data we can extract from our universe, it becomes apparent that it is very possible there could well be a creator. Our world is intelligently designed as if someone meant it all to fit together and consistently work again and again. It’s insane when you think that, every small calculation of these laws is so neatly perfect that out universe just works. I mean, take one piece of the code away and it all just falls apart. So, if there is a creator or what us humans refer to as “God” what is it. What is god?

Well, when people think of god I personally think that they are going about the completely wrong way. When you envision God you will normally picture some almighty deity in the sky that must be worshipped. In my opinion, this approach is lazy and disregards science. A way of simply filling in the gaps we don’t understand. The idea that we have to worship this creator also seems silly. A fallacy I personally think has been carried through the ages. A way of invoking fear in large populations so they don’t “Sin.” So what is the other way of looking at God? Well first lets take away the label of God as that already puts an image of a deity in peoples mind. The belief that we have a creator dictates that something is consciously aware of the universe in which it creates. The idea that our reality was created by conscious thought rather than pure randomness.

The Double Slit Experiment

This is where it gets mind-bendingly difficult to fully comprehend, so I will try and break it down into it’s simplest and most relevant form. In a nutshell, the double slit experiment was a study conducted in which scientist fired electrons through two tiny slits. Quantum physics dictates that the particle should act as… Well, a particle and when they collide with the wall, land as two bands in correspondence with the slits. The issue was, this did not happen. As you can see above the particles did not create two bands, rather they acted as a wave would. Completely unlike how we know particles to work, which obviously completely BAFFLED scientists. To get a better idea of what was happening they decided to use a small device to examine exactly which slits the electrons went through. Keep in mind this is on a quantum level, so up until this point nobody was observing the electrons. Rather, they were just seeing the end result. When they actually observed these particles. Well… this is when things got really strange. When scientists observed the particles, they began acting like particles again and produced two bands based of their collision with the wall. They tried again and again, observing and not observing, each time producing the same results. What does this mean? Well, it basically means the particles may be aware that they were being watched. As if they acted as we expect them too when we actually observed them. This is crazy when you think that our whole universe is made up of matter. Various particles that make up EVERYTHING we perceive, those of which their number we couldn’t even fathom. So if the variables of particles change based on our observations… Could this mean we are architects of our own reality?

When the electrons were unaware of observation they acted as a wave. Does this not dictate that the model of a wave could be their true form? If you begin reading about string theory, you will start to realise it is becoming apparent that the fundamental form of matter in our universe is countless amounts of vibrational waves.

It’s getting pretty deep now but hear me out.

Every thought you create produces a wave. That’s why they are called brain waves. Observation is formed by thought. You perceive something and your mind acknowledges it’s existence. If this is the case, than could it not be possible that we are creating our own reality whilst we live it. Our collective perception is dictating how the universe plays out and how the laws are set. Darting back to the initial question, what is God ?

Well… Maybe WE are God.

I’ll let you all collect your blown minds and you can be on your way.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Addicted to distraction

The internet is a wonderful thing isn’t it? I mean seriously. It is a WONDERFUL thing. It’s a lot like many other inventions created in the past few decades. You lived fine without it before, but now it exists you could not possibly imagine a life without. How on earth could you survive without millions of cute kitten pictures at you disposal. How could you EVER think that you could live on oxygen, food and water alone without seeing that fat kid fall over for the 50th time this shift. We are never far away from a virtual world were you can get consumed. Then left wondering were in the hell the night went and why on earth am I watching videos on how to build a greenhouse (“Related” YouTube video binge anyone ?) With all of this new technology available 24/7 and in such a short amount of time, are we really ready for it ? Is it possible that we may just all be obsessed ? Addicted. To distraction.

“How did I get here ?”

I grew up in the age of the internet and the explosion of computers. By the time I was thirteen every room in my school had a computer and internet connection. A mere one year later near enough every household in the UK could access porn. I mean the internet. Well the internet practically IS just a gigantic porn database but lets not get into that. A few more years passed and technology progressed to a point were you could access and endless sea of information simply by pressing a few buttons on a small black box you kept in your pocket. That’s pretty crazy isn’t it ? No. It’s FUCKING INSANE. Near enough every development in human history was a progressive one. Our bodies and mind had time to adjust to the changes happening around us. But I can’t help thinking the smart phone and internet era happened far too rapid. We all jumped in blindly like a pack of wild dogs, draining our last sheds of dopamine in front of an LCD screen.

“A  useful diagram I made to illustrate the ratio of information on the world wide web”

As I have stated I grew up in the internet age. I remember spending hours in front of my parents state of the art COMPUTER (Probably worth about 50 pence now.) Sitting there on Newgrounds, Youtube, getting traumatized by 4chan all from such a young tender age. We don’t know if excessive internet usage is damaging because it is so new and fresh in our minds. There is no control group. All you reading who grew up on the internet. You are the experiment. You are the guinea pigs. For all we know the radiation from computer screens could make gigantic horse penis’s grow out of your armpits. We won’t know if it’s damaging until our generation gets older and becomes some sort of mutated creature who can do nothing but read emails and live on a steady diet of pixels and Facebook likes for sustenance.

“Don’t  check your Facebook too much kids !”

These topics nether would have crossed my mind until the unspeakable happened last week. A pain no man should ever undergo. My smart-phone broke. It had become so natural for me; The second I get in to rush upstairs, load up my dopamine receptors and mindlessly browse for a few hours. I was unusually distraught by the fact it had broken. I had a perfectly good laptop to use and the Ipod had seen its days. However, it was more the fact that I could access the internet QUICKER on my Phone than the laptop which resulted in INSTANT gratification. This is the issue I think. There is no need for working toward or achieving anything now as we can swiftly satisfy ourselves with something digital. Google truly is turning us into idiots. Can’t remember something ? Google it. FUCK LEARNING. Don’t have a partner ? Watch some of the sickest pornography you can find and overload you mind with happy chemicals until there’s no need for anybody else other than you. Just you and your FUCKING CANDY CRUSH (Sorry I just don’t get the hype.) Don’t get me wrong. The internet is a beautiful and great part of our society. It is completely decentralised so anyone in the world can read other people’s opinions away from censorship and the mind warping machine that is the media. You can connect with people around the globe simultaneously. Isn’t that what we want ? To be connected too every other human on the planet. Maybe so. At the end of the day, There is no getting away from this digital revolution. Whether you like it or not the internet is hear to stay. Thanks for reading and remember. Browse responsibly. –THE LONELY WEST–

Prepare for the future or be left behind

Still being of a young age, I grew up in the glorious era that the internet rose to power. When I was a kid, many had home computers but it wasn’t uncommon not to own one. Nowadays, if you tell someone you don’t own a computer or use the internet, they’ll look at you as if you just walked out of a burning orphanage bearing a swastika across your face. It wasn’t until I got to year six that things started to really kick off and computers became a normal part of every school in the country. We learnt all the basics. Which, let’s be honest… is just Microsoft office and bypassing the schools pathetic firewalls so you can play flash games.

“Come on we all did it”

I absolutely loved toying around with computers and tried to learn everything from Flash to Dreamweaver. Being so young, it was incredibly difficult to do without any guidance and I ended up giving up on my endeavours. Year 9 of secondary school came and I chose I.T as a subject in the hope of learning something a little more in-depth. Boy was I wrong. I had whole Thursday of I.C.T every week. Or as I used to call it back then… “Sitting on Microsoft Powerpoint baked out of my mind for six hours, while the obviously hungover teacher murmurs at you too get some work done every now and again.” Don’t get me wrong it was damn fun. All of my best friends took that course. I passed with flying colours. Not because I am a computer whizz. But because I know how to use Google. I had an acquired skill of wording together nonsensical ramblings until they look remotely like something in the curriculum. The cold truth is guys. I.C.T sucks. You don’t learn anything of value or in-depth. You’d be better of choosing art. Either that or just eating your own shit. At least with that, you might actually learn something (like not to eat your own shit.)

“More productive than any I.C.T lesson”

Technology is briskly moving at such a rapid rate that we can’t keep up with it. Times are changing and employers don’t care how well you can use Microsoft office anymore. Everyone and their mother can shit out a Powerpoint presentation. This constant changing technology may sound bad. It may sound like it’s leaving huge gaping holes in an already bleak looking job market. Don’t threat though. A whole new world has opened up. You just need the right skills.

C++. JavaScript. Java. Python HTML and CSS. Just to name a few of the many programming languages that now make up the majority of the world we live in. From the car you drove to work in, to the machine you got your coffee from in the afternoon. Coding is everywhere. In this day in age, whether you like it or not… Coding makes up the very framework of our society, and it’s here to stay. Employers won’t want word jockeys anymore. Stuff like that these days is just an expected standard in the average human being. It’s a basic requirement like reading and writing. Soon, it will be the same with coding and if you don’t get learning it now you could be left behind.

A recent article by the BBC stated that they’re going to start the big push towards children learning coding. Soon countless children’s T.V shows will be teaching  and bringing awareness to kids about programming. With a business as huge and influential as the BBC, this is bound to spread like an infection throughout every school in the country. This generation will grow up learning how to create software and machines. Skills that will be needed in the modern digital world. A world which we are slowly beginning to find ourselves living in. All the ones of our generation who never learnt code? They’ll be just as useless as someone who can’t use Microsoft office in 2014.

“Just some generic stock photography for you”

It’s easy to ignore and try to deny this fact, but it will happen. So if you want to prepare for the future and not be left behind I highly recommend you get some coding knowledge under your belt. It is a highly valued skill and you’d be surprised how useful it is. Or… you could just not bother. I mean, eventually we’ll build robots that can program themselves. Then they’ll be no need for humans at all.

–THE LONELY WEST–

 

 

Websites

Code academy – A great little interactive site for learning coding

Code school – Offers courses for coding

Udacity – A website by Stanford University that offers a range of courses

What is going on… Seriously

What is the meaning of life? An often cliche’ question that has boggled the minds of philosophers and scientists alike. Many people across the ages have yearned to know the answer this. Well, to be fair you can’t blame them. All this talk about politics, the weather and all the other pointless shit, nobodies looking at the big picture. Look at it this way. We’re on this gigantic rock of dirt. Hurdling through space. Next to a gigantic ball of fire. If you just think about that for a moment, it really begs the question… WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!”

Right now you are a fleshy blood vessel made up of microscopic cells and even smaller particles. Among your other millions of fleshy vessels you are held down by a force called gravity. A force that cannot been seen smelled or even touched. Every single variable and possibility ever so suspiciously perfect and seemingly thought out.

Within this vessel we call our bodies we have a brain. An organ that uses chemicals and electrical signals to help us perceive reality. As you sit here reading this article your brain is interpreting these series of pixels which make up the English language. Set out on a black box with a screen made up of small LED lights and circuitry. Your black box networked to millions of others, seamlessly connecting through a series of 1’s and 0’s flying across a virtual world within our own.

Maybe, after you read this you’ll decide to call a friend and go round theirs (tell them about how good my blog is.) You will pick up a box and the vibrations of your vocal chords will be received into this box. This information will oscillate in a wave  to your friend miles away into his little box. If this isn’t strange enough, next you’ll get into a box with wheels attached to it. With this you will fly across time and space and reach your friend who lives in an even bigger box made of bricks

Don’t tell me you know what is going on because in the grand scheme of things… reality is bat shit insane. We have just grown accustomed to it and well… we just accept it for what it is. I mean, if somebody looked at our universe from a completely unbiased standpoint it would blow their mind. Imagine being outside of our reality and just observing the way we live. Millions of tiny mammals running around. Completing medial tasks for other people in order to get pieces of paper  that can be used to acquire items and services. Life is just the most insane drug trip conceivable.

“Whoa Trippy man”

How can we expect to find meaning in all of this when we don’t even have the faintest clue of whats going on. We don’t even know if this world is real or how the universe even keeps itself together so neatly and perfectly. In my opinion, there is no meaning to life. Meaning itself is a concept created by humans. A way of trying to understanding this crazy nonsensical existence. You can attach whatever human concepts you like to reality to make you feel better and less alone. But… At the end of the day, meaning is a man made concept. I’m sure the real truth is something impossible for us to even comprehend.

Overall, I find it truly fascinating how the universe is so precisely and put together. It really is beautiful. The way we can put together mathematical equations and everything just seems to add up. However… It doesn’t always add up. Everything is not what it seems and I think our reality is much more complex than we could ever conceive. No amount of science or technology is going to explain everything, So just enjoy what you are presented with. There’s nothing else you can do. Take a step back  from the drudgery of the rat race. Just for a moment. Breath in the oxygen, and appreciate the true beauty of the chaotic and random world we find ourselves living in. Because when you look at it the right way. Even chaos can be beautiful.

“Just to remind you how insignificant you really are.”

–THE LONELY CROWDED WEST–