What a challenge, these blues!

For those of you who enjoy film, jazz, folklore, animation, culture, and tales that transcend time and space -even if the one's telling it can't exactly get all the elements straight- I urge you to check out the charming animated feature, Sita Sings the Blues (by Nina Paley), if you have not already.

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfS2p1vFics

Self;Aware

Do you remember when you became self aware?

I understand most people ask this question with, "What is your earliest memory?"

Perhaps they're different questions.

Laplace's Demon

Sometimes when I make a purchase I’ll try to follow the event backward, figure out what lead up to it, what advertisements I was I exposed to, when did I first hear about the product, what sparked my initial interest?
Advertising agencies know a great deal about us, which is what makes it so bloody amusing whenever someone will boldly state how, “Advertising has no effect on me.”
Well, they have a demographic for you too.
Humans are hard wired to respond to various stimuli, all of which these agencies know, know you might know, and know you know they know you might know and might resist.
They study it all and they know that an ad crafted for the demographic of Special K, Yogurt, and Advanced Therapy Lotions is not supposed to work on the demographic for Energy Drinks, Maxim Magazine and 4 Fast 4 Furious.
However, if it somehow does they’ll just adapt whatever worked from that model and move on.

Is this control, or is it providing you with information you would agree with anyways?

Beverly Hills Chihuahua Worldwide Gross: $140,601,977
4 Fast 4 Furious Current Worldwide Gross: $106,801,524
The ten most commonly entered responses to this site are, in order: "me", "sex", "you", "water", "dog", "down", "man", "cat", "good", "love."

Notice anything?

Ghost in the Earth

What would happen if each member of the world was asked to simulate the action of one neuron in the brain, using the Internet to simulate the axons and dendrites that connect neurons. Would this arrangement have a mind or consciousness in the same way that brains do?

Could this hypothetical being already exist?
Could we have created this brain without realising it?

Say this being does exist, how could we know for sure?
What tests could we run?

What is it thinking?

Alas, there is no cure for old

Sometimes I forget I have body parts. Mostly this happens when I'm not announcing the various ways these parts are decaying within me. Other than that, unless you are studying for a biology exam, there isn't much of a need to remember these parts exist, so long as they are in working order.

This morning when I looked into the dark abyss of my coffee cup I was reminded that I cannot undo the mixture of coffee and water, I cannot feed the water back into the tap, and I cannot reassemble the coffee grains into beans.

Why would I?

This past month I observed the effects of a small body as its parts began to fail, and the other day I was reminded again how death is an indisputable and frequently experienced part of existence. Like my decaying organs, the cup of coffee, or our living on the surface of a gigantic rock hurtling through space, I knew it was happening and I knew there was little I could do about it.

Today everyone in my life seems more precious.