Lost in Observation

Happy Holidays

2011-12-22T12:01:00.000+03:00

This is a brief post.
I just want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and a fulfilled, conscious and purposeful life (not just 2012).

Just a thought: Don't limit Happy Holidays to one season of the year. Make it a 24/7 thing.

P.S. I won't be posting new articles for a while. I'm taking a hiatus of self discovery.

Until next time,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Earth, Home

2011-12-19T16:26:00.000+03:00

Take a long, good look,

It is one,

It is for all of us to share,

It is bigger than each and every one of us,

It is home to millions of species,

Homo sapiens is just one of them

It is beautiful,

It is the only place we can call home in this universe,

It is worth fighting for

Earth, Home

[click to enlarge the images]

Earth, Home

Earthrise - The Earth as seen from the Moon

Earthrise

"We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth"

—William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut

Pale Blue Dot - Reflections by Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot

The Earth as seen from a record distance of 6 billion kilometers appears as a tiny dot within the darkness of deep space

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

—Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, p. 6

I am Home, I am on Earth,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Thank You!

2011-12-16T08:52:00.000+03:00

I want to dedicate this post to YOU, the reader of this blog. You could have been doing anything else in the world with your time but yet you set aside 5 or 10 minutes to read my articles. I want to take this time out to say that I am deeply humbled and honored to have your audience. I express my gratitude. Thank You!

I am thankful to you because you help me fulfill part of my life purpose, which is to connect with as many human beings as possible and to make them see the world in a different light; one at a higher level of reasoning and intelligence. Without you this blog needn’t exist, I might as well find some other boring, non-productive, crappy job to waste my life on. But fortunately, that’s not the case coz I have you!

Focus on Value

My focus in writing for this blog is to provide maximum value to you. My perception of value is basically going out of my way to deliver more than what would normally be expected. I always strive to observe life and write in the most inviting and intriguing way that I can master. I rack my brain in search of truth and meaning of my observations to make sure that what I present is worth your time. I don’t care what it takes; I’ll turn my observations upside down just to get to the bottom of truth and meaning. That’s what I live for. I’m not here to simply waste your time and insult your intellect with shallow nonsense.

I believe that we can all achieve much more if we focus on creating and delivering genuine value to others in whatever we do. This becomes much easier when you do something that you love; something that you are passionate about. For me, writing articles on this blog is my passion. I want to make a positive contribution and provide a worthy service to humanity and by extension, to all life. Why?

Well, at some point I did a little interesting research into what it takes to sustain the life of a human being. I found out that the average human being breathes about 300 million liters of air in a lifetime. The average human being also consumes approximately 75,000 pounds of food and drinks about 50,000 liters of water in a lifetime. There are currently over 7 billion human beings alive on this planet. Wow! This got me seriously thinking, if the Earth generously provides me with all these basic needs to sustain my life, the least I can do is give back. I needed to show my appreciation for all these abundant blessings. What does Mother Earth get back for all her kindness? Does she get Pollution? Deforestation? Wildlife habitat loss? Anthropogenic Climate Change? What does the Earth get back in return for its providence?

Life is a Gift

It occurred to me that life is not a right; it is a gift to be shared with others. The constitutions of many countries have a Bill of Rights, of which the Right to Life is one of them. I like to think of life as a gift for which we should all be grateful and respectful. Therefore, I realized that I needed to be grateful for my own life. I couldn’t waste this precious gift serving my own selfish interests. If I did that, I figured the Earth might as well say to me, “Every man for himself, No more free oxygen for you. I shall only look after my own interests as well. If you want my air, cough up the dough! Show me the $$money$$!” Imagine if the Earth started charging us for oxygen because it only cares about its self-interest and profit! Most folks would probably die as a result of this narrow minded view of life.

Giving Back

The best way I believe I can show gratitude for my life is by giving back to humanity and by extension, to the Earth itself. I usually blog about why it is important to set aside our petty differences and focus on sustainability. This is because I have realized that we need to protect and conserve the Earth since we owe our lives to it. Without the Earth, we cannot exist. The Earth is us! This is the point I was bringing out in the article titled Fundamental Truths: The Earth vs. Us. If I can use this blog to get more people to adopt this sustainable viewpoint, then I consider myself as having given back to my life support system (the Earth) in a small albeit significant way. I have to give before I can receive.

This is what runs through my mind whenever I sit down to write for YOU, the reader. This is how I make my positive contribution. I truly believe in you. I also know that you are an incredibly amazing human being, regardless of what anyone else might tell you. I have no doubt that you are capable of changing our world into something quite beautiful for all life to experience and enjoy. The Earth will thank you for it. All life shall thank you for it. I shall surely thank you for it.

My unconditional love and heartfelt appreciation goes out to you.

Thank You!

P.S. Just in case you feel that you want to start contributing positively and passionately, but you don’t know where to begin, I came across an excellent article on Fast Company by Po Bronson that might help you out. It’s titled ‘What Should I Do With My Life?’ I highly recommend you check it out.

For You,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

True Civilization

2011-12-14T08:18:00.000+03:00

A world beyond politics, man-made law, crime, prisons, government, war, national borders, insecurity, discrimination, violence, poverty, inequality, divisive religion, monetary systems, growth economies, social ills, environmental degradation, waste, and preventable disease.

A world where humans have total freedom. They are not restrained by repressive laws and unnecessary national borders. In a true civilization, everyone is a citizen of one nation, the Earth! Due to efficient and innovative use of resources, there is no scarcity. As a result, conflict, crime, prisons, war, poverty and deprivation are absent. Unsustainable, infinitely growing economies on a finite planet are replaced by sustainable resource-based economies. Divisive religion is replaced by unifying philosophies that promote fundamental universal truths. There are no monetary systems to enslave humans with abstract notions such as debt or fiscal policies. Security is unnecessary because it simply has no place in this reality. Universal learning and health are advanced by state-of-the-art technology to levels never known before by man. Advanced engineering improves global infrastructure and transportation through speed and safety. All human socio-economic activities are carried out in a manner that ensures the preservation of Earth’s fragile ecology, while engineering technologies reverse the previous damages. A world such as this has no need for government because an inherent moral understanding pervades all of humanity. Equality of all life forms is understood and highly respected. Provisions are made to ensure the highest standard of living and quality of life for all life forms, not just humankind. In this world, humans are not enslaved by boring, repetitive jobs. Advanced technology frees humans from this misery thereby enabling them to focus on far more productive endeavors such as further exploration of our universe, personal growth and other avenues of self-actualization. A world empty of fear and greed but filled with unconditional love, truth and the courage to act for the highest good of all. A world of consciousness.

Now snap back to reality!

If one of your colleagues preached the gospel of this so-called ‘true civilization’, how would you react? Would you tell them that it’s time to lay down the crack pipe and go to rehab? How would mainstream media cover this type of story on the news? Would they refer to the thinker as some wacko living in a utopian fantasy, wasting time dreaming the impossible?

The Mind creates its own Reality

It is true that what we believe, we achieve. The human mind is a powerful entity that works in complex ways, some of which we are yet to discover and understand. But one thing is certain, the realm of possibilities is defined and limited only by the human mind. If your mind truly believes something to be impossible, then so it shall be! On the other hand, if your mind believes something to be achievable, then a different reality full of possibilities is created in the physical world. We basically create our own realities by thinking about them, whether consciously or subconsciously.

For example, there are uncontacted peoples living today in extremely remote areas of the world untouched by globalized civilization such as in the dense forests of the Amazon or New Guinea. If you had a conversation with one such person and told them that man can fly in the air or land on the moon, they would swear it was impossible and that you were absolutely bonkers! Their mind cannot even begin to conceive such a reality. It is simply beyond their scope of thought and imagination. And yet, man flies the skies every day and landed on the moon over 40 years ago.

Just a thought: Imagine you were born and brought up on a small, remote island in the middle of the ocean, and you believed that it was the entire world. What would happen to your belief system when foreigners came by your island on ships? This is a real life scenario. The native Hawaiians probably never knew a world existed beyond their Islands until Captain Cook arrived on one of his explorations.

History has a treasure trove of lessons for us in this regard. A few centuries ago, most people believed the earth was flat. Today, we have satellite pictures of our beautiful, blue globe as seen from space. When Christopher Columbus set sail off the Spanish coast in 1492, his target was the East coast of Japan. Many scholars at the time rightly believed his effort would be futile, stating that European ships at the time could not carry enough supplies to sail that far West across open seas. He was saved by the unknown existence of the Americas precisely at the point he thought he would reach Japan. Today, the Americas are largely inhabited by human populations migrant from the old world. The same can be said of Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine designs (far ahead of his time) that are represented in today’s reality by all manner of operational aircrafts. These are examples of individuals whose minds created possibilities and realities that defied conventional human understanding of the world.

When theories are challenged, they are replaced with new ones. How we view the world is changed by the world around us. As the world changes, so does our view of it. In the last century, modern technology has introduced massive changes that have affected all our views. We cannot separate ourselves from this connection; the world changes, so we change, and the world with us.

If we chose to believe in the possibility of a true civilization for mankind, we shall definitely create it. However if we remain skeptical, with closed minds, then we shall never realize it in our lifetime. Future human generations of open mind may likely manifest it to their great benefit. These future generations may look back at our reality today and wonder how we could have been so crude and primitive in our way of life amidst so much knowledge and technological advantage for achieving true civilization.

Heaven on Earth

Most formal religions today preach about a heaven in the skies. People are taught to believe that it is okay to suffer a miserable existence here on Earth (to the benefit of a privileged few) with the hope of going to an eternal paradise after death. These teachings have even led to destructive suicide bombings in the name of God, just to get a place in the heavenly kingdoms. The ultimate question we should be asking ourselves is, “Just how sensible are these teachings?”

Should we screw ourselves up here on Earth and wait to ascend into a promised heaven, or should we strive to create the heaven that we so desire right here on Earth, for all to experience and enjoy? We have the choice to open our minds to a whole new realm of possibilities or close it and be doomed to a miserable existence of perpetual self-destruction, possibly leading to the extinction of several of Earth’s species and ultimately our own.

The committee of experts, from around the world, stated it quite aptly while outlining the Grand Challenges for Engineering that we face in this century. They stated:

“In sum, governmental and institutional, political and economic, and personal and social barriers will repeatedly arise to impede the pursuit of solutions to problems.”

They further added:

“So in pursuing the century’s great challenges, engineers must frame their work with the ultimate goal of universal accessibility in mind. Just as Abraham Lincoln noted that a house divided against itself cannot stand, a world divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and hunger, cannot long remain a stable place for civilization to thrive.”

The path to a true civilization faces formidable obstacles. Entrenched groups benefitting from old systems wield political, religious and economic power that blocks this path. True civilization has no place for such people. In its wake, they shall fade into oblivion. That’s why they are so afraid of it.

In truth, true civilization lies within our reach. It begins with the individual and their mind. The question is, “Do we want it?”

I have committed my life to fully support and pursue the conscious evolution of mankind into a sustainable existence of true civilization. This is why I am here. In my mind, there is not a doubt that it is possible to achieve this magnanimous goal. I intend to open more minds to this truth. Yours may just be one of them.

Do YOU want a True Civilization?
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

What is Technology?

2011-12-13T08:28:00.001+03:00

Technology is that which we take for granted, while it makes life convenient for us. Technology is the true measure of mankind’s advancement; not politics, economics, law or religion. Technology predates both science and engineering. Technology forms or changes culture. It is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known.

Technology is the fire you use to cook your food. It is the electricity that lights up your home and powers your electronics. Technology grows your food and delivers it to you. Technology transports you from one point to another over great distances. Technology puts satellites into space. Technology allows you to communicate with other people all around the world. Technology is the Internet.

Technology is the very reason you are able to read this article about technology. Technology provides you with glasses to correct your vision. Technology keeps you warm and safe on the coldest of winter nights. Technology enables you to enjoy music and art. Technology keeps you informed in this information age. Technology transforms solar energy into electrical power for human use. Technology captures raw wind power and transforms it into a form suitable for powering man’s industries.

Technology predicts weather patterns to keep humanity one step ahead of Mother Nature. Technology lets us know that we are experiencing anthropogenic climate change. Technology lets us know that we are interfering with the Nitrogen Cycle in a dangerous manner.

Technology is a double edged sword, it cuts both ways. Technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Technology develops weapons whose destructive power has progressed throughout history. Technology has the potential to annihilate its inventors.

Technology is beyond humans’ traditional weaknesses of discrimination and bias. Technology achieves efficiency and effectiveness in providing value to humanity. Technology does not know male or female, white or black, Muslim or Christian, gay or straight, democrat or republican, tree hugger or gun nut, capitalist or communist, heaven or hell, rock star or homeless man. It simply does its job.

Considering a more generic perspective, technology is not restricted to man. Other species such as beavers and their dams, ants and their anthills or bees and their honeycombs use technology. Technology skeptics also use technology. The very language they use to communicate their skepticism is technology. The clothes they wear to present themselves in public and air their techno-skeptic views is technology. They bitch about technology and then go home and cook their food with it. Technology doesn’t care if you love it or hate it; it lets you use it for your convenience.

Technology is the reason my ideas are not trapped inside my head. Technology landed man on the moon. Technology lets us explore the universe and discover new planets. Technology has pushed medical science to a new level, improving the quality of life.

What would happen if we switched off all technology right now, starting this very moment? The entire world would grind to a halt. We simply can’t function without technology. So, next time you reach out for that kitchen knife, thank technology. When you get into your car to drive off, thank technology. When you watch your favorite shows on TV, thank technology. When you take a crap and flush the toilet, thank technology. When you put on your glasses to read, thank technology. When you turn on your lights at night, thank technology. When you switch on your computer or your cellphone, thank technology. When you go for an MRI Scan or an X-ray scan at the hospital, thank technology. When you open your mouth to communicate in whichever language other people understand, thank technology. Oh, you have an executive office on the zillionth floor of a city center skyscraper? Thank technology. You are a violence junkie who thinks that war is the pinnacle of man’s prowess and superiority over all else? Thank destructive technology!

What is technology? Technology is humankind’s best hope in the face of today’s seemingly insurmountable challenges. Technology is also humankind’s deadliest invention, capable of causing man’s extinction in the face of today’s seemingly insurmountable challenges.

What shall be the ultimate outcome? YOU decide!

Technology enables me to Observe, and Record
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

A Life Simplified

2011-12-13T08:17:00.000+03:00

The lifestyles of the majority of people today seem like a never-ending rat race. Most people work at a 9-5 job for several hours per week. But do we ever step back and evaluate the meaning of the activities we spend our lives doing? Do you feel that you are spending the bulk of your time on what really matters to you at the end of the day? Have you ever felt like you just need to take a break from it all? Escape to a place of freedom and serenity, with no care in the world? This escape might be found in a life simplified.

If you look at your life, what are things that you spend most of your time doing? Are these the most important things in your life in terms of true fulfillment and value priority? Chasing money could be one of the things that we give a lot of priority and time. It might get so addictive that we lose ourselves in the process. We end up pursuing more money for the sheer thrill of it, even when it has already taken care of our basic needs.

Simplicity and Reconnection

So how do we reconnect with our lost selves? Well, I can’t really speak for everyone but there are a few experiences that I feel rejuvenate me and free my mind of all the clutter in my head resulting from a hectic lifestyle. These are the simplest, freeing experiences that give me that much needed break from the world. I have also found that they help to refocus my mind on what‘s really important to me in life.

A walk in the woods – Whenever I take a lone, quiet walk in the forest, I always stand in awe of the tall, majestic trees reaching out to the sunlight. I hail these bold, silent Kings of the Forest. I draw in their air and it feels so pure and fresh, engulfing my mind with a sense of clarity and conscience. The birds and the animals are quite a sight to behold in their natural arena. I notice that they don’t waste time, lost in worry or past regrets. They simply live and they live simply! To be at one with nature is a truly freeing experience.

Watching the rising sun – When was the last time you woke up early to catch the rising sun? Do you wake up at midday, your head spinning, hangover from the previous night’s wild partying? For me, no amount of partying or substance abuse can beat the experience of watching the rising sun. Especially at the beach, it is simply breathtaking to see the sun coming up over the ocean. The sight simply moves me.

Watching the setting sun – The above can be said for the setting sun as well; an evanescent experience beyond words. As the sun sets below the horizon, its fading light kissing the Earth goodbye, a sight to behold is permanently imprinted in my mind.

Staring at the ocean – Sitting at the beach, listening to the tidal waves gently rising and falling, and staring at the ocean; total clarity and peace of mind. I cannot think of a price to put on this experience; neither can words truly describe it.

Gazing at the moon and the stars – On a night when the sky is clear, I go out and gaze at the moon and the stars and I realize how small we are, in a vast universe. There is so much out there we are yet to discover. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves. When looked at from this scale, our self-inflated egos and problems seem so trivial.

Watching birds fly – Whenever I watch birds flying in the sky, I always get this sensation of freedom and lightness. I imagine what it must feel like to be a flying bird; conquering the open sky, the wind rushing past you, living for the moment (unless of course you’re on the flight path of an airliner).

The wind on your face – Whenever there is a gentle breeze, I always enjoy the feeling of the wind on my face. If I’m outdoors, I also get to enjoy the sight of the trees swaying gently in the wind. It has a calming effect on me.

The sun on your face – Similarly, I enjoy the pleasant warmth of the sun on my face. Sorry, if you live in the North Pole or Antarctica. On the other hand, this might be hard to appreciate if you live in a desert or a place where global warming is already taking its toll.

[No smiley face here, this is a serious matter]

Art and Music – Every once in a while, I come across a piece of art that speaks to me; sometimes, I see a wonderful painting that sees right through me. I also take time out to enjoy good music. I absolutely love a good flute, guitar or violin performance. The instruments come to life and tell their stories.

Spending quality time with other people – It’s also relaxing to spend quality time with not just your loved ones but people in general. It helps deepen love and trust in relationships. It also emphasizes the appreciation and tolerance we should have for each other as human beings.

All of these are mentally freeing experiences that may greatly help to simplify our lives and refocus our attention on what’s really important in life. Our physical senses may help us to reconnect with our true selves. Most people find that experiences give them more satisfaction than material objects. It has also been said that the best things in life are free. There could be some truth to this.

Should we as humans start to simplify our lives rather than complicate it with the endless pursuit of money, financial investments, infinite economic growth on a finite planet, filing of tax returns, filing law suits against each other, and material or emotional insecurities amongst other complexities of modern existence? Should we borrow from nature’s simplicity and simply live free?

If you went broke, bankrupt, and homeless today, losing all your material wealth, everything you have except the clothes on your back, what would you really value in your life at that point? When all the clutter has been removed and the veil has been lifted, what shall you be left with? Shall you fall to pieces, losing yourself together with your material possessions or shall you remain intact ready to continue with a purposeful life?

When we have too much clutter in our lives, we may find that we don’t have space for ourselves anymore. We may find that more is ultimately less, and less is ultimately more.

Live Simple, Live Free,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Sustainability: The Overpopulation Question

2011-12-09T10:47:00.007+03:00

The question of sustainability is at the core of addressing humanity's present challenges. A sustainable society has been defined as one that balances the environment, other life forms, and human interactions over an indefinite time period. The greatest challenges we face today are: provision of clean energy, clean water, food production, overpopulation, health, climate change, environmental protection, and economic stability among others.

The current generation of humans faces the greatest ecological crisis the world has ever known. Scientists believe that we are entering the 6th Mass Extinction caused by man. It is estimated that at least half of all plants and animal species are likely to disappear in the wild within the next 30-40 years, including many of the most familiar and beloved large mammals: elephants, polar bears, chimpanzees, gorillas and all the great apes, all the big cats, and many, many others. The last major extinction occurred 65 million years ago ending the reign of the dinosaurs. Paleontologists believe that it was triggered by an asteroid impact or a period of unusual volcanic activity. The documentary film Call of Life: Facing Mass Extinction (2010), investigates the scope, the causes and the predicted effects of our current unprecedented loss of life.

Researchers have identified the primary cause of these present challenges to be human overpopulation. It is the factor that magnifies all the other drivers. At the current global population slightly above 7 billion, we overshot the earth's ecological carrying capacity long ago. We are basically existing on borrowed time and overstretched resources. The reason for this population surge has been the growth of agriculture. Agriculture has been the driver of human civilization. But in the face of overpopulation, it appears that agriculture itself is unsustainable. Environmental writer John Feeney wrote an article on this subject titled Agriculture: Ending the world as we know it. Jared Diamond has also described agriculture as the worst mistake in the history of the human race.

According to Feeney and other supporters of primitivism, civilization is inherently unsustainable because it's founded on agriculture. He states that agriculture circumvents the natural processes which regulated human population numbers prior to its inception. It is therefore the basic ecological factor which has caused our numbers to overshoot carrying capacity so enormously. It destroys topsoil and ecosystems, tearing down the web of life, our global life support system.

His solution? Hunting and gathering is the only human way of living proven sustainable because we had been living that way for millions of years before agriculture was adopted just 10,000 years ago. Therefore, we should rewild the earth, abandon civilization and embrace a more primitive form of existence in harmony with the earth. Whoa! Time Out! We need to take a break!

[Take a deep breath and clear your mind. Objectivity is Key.]

And, we're back. Do you believe that human civilization is ultimately unsustainable and will therefore come to an end whether we like it or not? Do you believe that a resistance movement aimed at hastening civilization's fall might therefore preserve more biodiversity and life? In the documentary film 2210: The Collapse? Jared Diamond alludes to some form of global collapse catalyzed by our present challenges such as overpopulation and resource scarcity.

My Perspective

First, I do agree that human overpopulation is a fundamental issue today. It is true that overpopulation is at the core of our present ecological crisis. The documentary film Mother: Caring for 7 billion (2011) has hit the nail squarely on the head. We cannot continue to ignore this aspect. I also agree that our present form of agriculture is unsustainable in the face of an exponentially growing human population.

But would YOU be willing to abandon modern civilization with all its advancement and embrace hunting and gathering as a way of life simply because it's a proven insurance policy against human extinction? The way I see it, a return to primitivism is in itself unsustainable! Why? Because it goes against the uncontrollable process of evolution. Hunting and gathering worked for our early ancestors because they were still in the early stages of evolution. As the human brain developed into a sophisticated entity capable of highly abstract and philosophical thinking, so did human society change to embrace civilization. We cannot devolve our minds back into a primitive state. The change is irreversible! Even if you succeed at getting humans to adopt primitivism, it's only a matter of time before they yearn to grow and develop into advanced societies. It's the natural thing for humans to do! No one can control the evolutionary process.

This is precisely why I prefer Jacque Fresco's futuristic approach to our challenges. To me, it seems practical and sustainable. The emphasis should be on using science and advanced technology to solve our ecological crisis. We need to use global communication technologies such as the Internet, Satellite TV and Radio to make people aware of the need to gradually reduce our population from the billions into the millions. If we do not begin to do this immediately, in a humane and voluntary manner, nature might do it for us in an abrupt, violent and forceful way. For agriculture, we need to explore alternative forms of growing plants that are in harmony with the earth. For instance, hydroponics is a technology that can be used to grow food without soil, efficiently enough for a much smaller human population.

Whatever way we choose to achieve sustainability and conquer our present challenges, we need to look forward not backward. Evolution never moves backward, it faces ever forward and so should we! That's why we should aim for a true civilization, one beyond the challenges of modern civilization.

Forward Sustainability is True Sustainability,

~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Blogging for Truth

2011-12-08T08:02:00.001+03:00

If you've been following my blog for a while now, you may begin to realize a subtle or significant shift in yourself and your perception of reality. A lot of the things that made perfect sense to you before may suddenly become hazy and questionable. Your whole environment may seem to have changed overnight, as if your entire life had been a dream and you suddenly awakened to something else.

Do you find yourself becoming gradually addicted to the content in this blog? Do you keenly look out for blog updates and immediately read new articles? If yes, you might have discovered something your subconscious mind has been searching for in a long time. The Truth. This blog is about alignment with the most fundamental truths in life. Why we are here and what life is really about. Few dare to ask these questions.

The content I generate on this blog is designed to try and answer these great questions of existence as objectively as possible. It is high impact and dense in form and substance. As a result, if you digest large volumes of this content, your mindset and perspective of reality will begin to change. You may feel as if you have fallen off the face of the earth into another dimension that most people never experience in their entire lifetime.

As this mental shift happens, you may feel frustrated and out of touch with other people’s reality. You may also lose all motivation to do anything at all because everything that made perfect sense to you before has fallen around you in pieces. The job or career that seemed so fulfilling may now feel like a cage that keeps you from something else; but you‘re not sure exactly what. Your belief system may appear shaky and inconsistent. Don’t despair my friend, you’re onto something!

You may lose interest in some of the hobbies that you enjoyed so much before. Some of these could be your favorite TV shows, video games, phone games, online sites, fancy gadgets, sports and other pastimes. Other blogs that you follow may appear to be superficial and meaningless when compared to this one. In fact, a lot of other stuff might seem somewhat shallow when you look at it in this new light.

The relationships you have with most people around you may also change. You may begin to feel disconnected from your friends, colleagues or even family members because you don’t see things the same way anymore. You’re on different wavelengths. That’s most likely because the other people are still caught up in a matrix they don’t even know exists! You reason at a deeper level; they don’t even know there is a deeper level. You are closer to truth; they think the matrix is the truth.

All this is perfectly acceptable and is to be expected. What might be happening to you is the realignment with your consciousness. You may be finally getting in touch with the real you that had been buried underneath hollow superficiality for so long. Once this realization starts to occur, you begin to consciously or subconsciously search for your true life purpose; the very reason for your existence. This blog tries to give you the direction. It can only show you the door but you are the one that has to walk through it. This is precisely the reason you may experience a compulsive addiction to this blog’s content. The undeniable desire to find true meaning and fulfillment.

Follow your inner voice. Let it guide you to that place you are searching for. Once you get there you shall intuitively know. There is no mistaking it. It is a place of absolute clarity and understanding. Right now you are trying to find the path to this place. You can’t make sense of it all as you try to peer through the dense fog of social conditioning and hollow existence dominant in your world. But if you keep searching in earnest, you shall definitely find it. In my experience, the search is a short-lived transition process after which you relax into serenity, sit back, and look at life through an entirely different lens. A lens which most people try in vain to find in temporary external experiences such as drugs, questionable religion, unfulfilling careers or relationships, material stuff, great wealth and all the other impermanent pleasures fleeting in time.

As you find your truth in these words,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

The Million Kwteyui Question

2011-12-07T09:07:00.004+03:00

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed."

– Mahatma Gandhi

At the end of the second article on The State of the World, the impartial extra-terrestrial observer wondered as to whether there might be a common fundamental root cause of modern man’s challenges. This article picks up where that train of thought left off and tries to piece together the puzzle.

When you look at how the world operates today, it might become evident to you that it is fuelled by competition, domination and the lust for growth and expansion, more often than not, at the expense of a huge section of humanity. Nobody seems to value the human connection anymore. Human beings have been reduced to kwteyui (for the meaning of this word, refer to the mentioned previous post) signs walking around; suckers to be exploited and scammed on the first whiff of opportunity.

Welcome to the world of Human Greed

– But why is this the case? What could make human beings turn against their fellow men in pursuit of secondary fixations?
– Human Greed
– Pardon me, what was that again?
– Human Greed
– Just to be ultra-clear, did I hear you say Human Need?
– No, Human Greed not Human Need!

The state of the world today has a root cause. That underlying cause is unrestrained human greed. You may prefer to call it different names such as corporatocracy, empire, capitalism, colonization, neo-colonization, foreign policy, dictatorship, autocracy, aristocracy, corruption, conglomeration, materialistic over-consumerism, business, self-interest or Wall Street, but ultimately it is human greed.

Think about this for a moment. What drives business? Competition? Profit growth? Why do most people work hard to get a promotion at a job that probably isn’t fulfilling? Why are kids told to work hard at school? Why is it so important for you to get a ‘good’ job after school? Why are so many people pursuing postgraduate degrees even as they work and raise families? Why is career progression so important? What makes the world go round?

The answers to these questions lie in the dominant value system of our society today. Materialism, Consumerism, Money, Individualism, GREED. Go to school and work very hard. Why? To land yourself a job in a top-notch career. Why? To make a decent income that is above average. Why? To live the best (materialistic) life possible. Why? Well, that’s the whole point of life. You are here to make a lot of money (pieces of paper), spend it on shallow material objects, and then die. End of story!

According to a huge section of society today, the life purpose of a human being is to chase as much money as possible. There is always a bigger house to buy, a more expensive car to drive, newer designer clothes to wear, multiple orgies to indulge in, a private jet to fly, a penthouse suite to live in, a yacht to cruise, narcotics to abuse, cooler techno-gadgets to buy etc. Genuine human warmth and affection, truth, integrity, ethics, kindness, love, spirituality, consciousness and intelligence have all taken a back seat as human greed grabs the steering wheel and steps on the gas full speed ahead towards the bottomless abyss of self-destruction. That’s our reality today.

But where did Human Greed come from?

The way I see it, human greed first arose as an evolutionary survival instinct in early man. In that ancient time, man’s knowledge and technology was very primitive. As a result, there was a perceived scarcity of natural resources in man’s environment. It was tough to hunt big game and it took time to gather edible wild fruits or herbs. The communities living at the time had to be very possessive of what they acquired in order to ensure their own survival. It also meant actively going out to seek more resources even when there was enough, mainly because of the uncertainties of finding more in the future. This certainly led to conflict between different communities as populations grew and was probably the origin of war between men. Over thousands of years, this greed instinct was passed down through generations of mankind thereby becoming sharper and more powerful.

Manifestation of Human Greed

Economy: The ongoing global economic recession is the best example of human greed in action. It is an example of man’s insatiable rapacity in its finest, purest form. The award-winning documentary film Inside Job (2010) listed on my Watchlist on the sidebar to the right is very informative on this matter. Wall Street investment bankers are a true reflection of us. It’s like looking in a mirror. The Occupy Wall Street campaign has noble intentions but it’s gravely mistaken in its target. It should be changed from Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Human Greed! The real problem isn’t Wall Street; it’s our value system today. Wall Street is just a symptom of the real problem. When someone falls ill, the doctor doesn’t prescribe medication for the symptoms, he/she targets the pathogens that are the root cause of the illness.

Politics: American ‘democracy’ is choking under the tight control of wealthy and powerful multi-nation corporations which fund presidential campaigns and lobby congress to have their greedy vested interests met. These interests usually have negative impacts such as environmental degradation and may as well contribute to abhorrent issues such as child labor and economic oppression around the world.

War: War is great business! Consider companies that sell weapons. Where would they be without the wars the put them in business? Also think of construction companies that are awarded fat contracts to rebuild the infrastructure of a war-torn country afterwards. It is a classic case of the lion killing the prey and the vulture swooping in on the catch later on. The military is basically an army of mindless human robots called up to serve someone else’s greedy business interests usually involving highly desired natural resources. This is true of every major war fought in recent history.

Financial ‘Aid’: Dictatorial, corrupt political officials in Africa receive donor funding from first world countries and proceed to loot their treasuries of this money. The personalized loot is then deposited into foreign bank accounts (sometimes back in the donor country). International donor institutions look the other way in the face of this brazen misappropriation of funding because keeping poor countries enslaved in debt is of great advantage to them. Besides, if the money is taken back to the donor countries, it circulates within their economies. This is excellent business! It keeps the poor countries enslaved in debt with no alternative but to meet the greedy demands of more powerful nations. This usually results in the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources, increased poverty, sub-human standards of living and the general lack of development. There is usually no noble intention in the awarding of this kind of ‘aid’.

Africa’s Resource Curse: Foreign economic interests usually arm rebel militia groups in African countries rich with mineral resources such as oil, diamonds, gold or coltan. The aim is to destabilize government and create a vacuum for the fleecing of these resources through the rebel groups. This is the cause of perpetual conflicts in regions such as Eastern Congo and Sierra Leone. The results are usually devastating loss of life and unimaginable economic hardships.

Invasions/Occupations: Powerful nations invade other countries in the name of freedom and democracy while in truth it’s about the avaricious appetite for robbing other countries of their natural resources. This causes conflict, instability and retrogression in human society. Iraq, Afghanistan and more recently Libya are cases in point. Libya was a well off African country, with among the highest standards of living on the continent. Now it has been reduced to utter chaos and desolateness, the perfect environment for the grim reapers of resources to do their bidding. Surprised? Don’t sweat it; it’s just another day in the world of human greed!

Transcending above Human Greed

Mankind needs to realize that his greed is a self-defeating attribute today. It is an instinct which served a necessary purpose for our early ancestors, considering their primitive context. However, it is not necessary in our modern context given the vast database of human knowledge and technological advancement we have to our advantage. Human greed today is terribly misplaced and passed by time, with absolutely no place in a sustainable existence of true civilization.

To transcend above human greed, we need to redesign our entire value system. We need to throw the current superficial money-worshipping culture out through the window and replace it with one that brings us closer to true civilization by affording a more fulfilling human experience in this universe.

What we need now more than ever, are creative and innovative solutions to the world’s challenges. We need to use intelligence and technology to address present realities such as overpopulation, resource depletion and climate change. For instance, instead of fighting over limited natural resources, we could begin searching for alternative resources or new planets that can sustain human life. The news yesterday had an interesting story about NASA’s discovery of an Earth-like planet. It’s called Kepler-22b.

We should use our strengths to focus foremost on human needs. Beyond human needs the focus should shift to global sustainability rather than individualism and waste. Maybe, we might want to consider a resource-based economy for sustainable management of the global resources required to sustain all life on our planet.

I’ve mentioned several times in previous articles that man has conquered everything else around him BUT himself. What I mean by this statement is that man has been unable to conquer his own greed, that shadow that is forever stalking him and threatens to overpower and control his destiny thereby leading to his possible extinction from the face of the universe.

I challenge you to Conquer Yourself, and Rise above your Greed.

As we add the Greedy Piece to the Puzzle of Life,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Detachment

2011-12-05T15:13:00.003+03:00

In this blog entry, I would like to mention the importance of objectivity and detachment concerning the ideas that you come across in your life, from other people. It is very important to learn to separate ideas and the people who spawn them if you intend to achieve maximum benefit from the ideas. Always remember that ideas are independent entities from the people who brought them forth. They have an entire life of their own.

The Human Being is the Vessel

Human beings have a very short lifespan. Ideas on the other hand are eternal. They can last forever. With this in mind, it might be useful to consider a human being as the vessel that carries the idea and brings it forth into the physical world. All ideas ultimately belong to the Universe, not to any individual human being. All the human being does is to step in and facilitate the transition of the idea from the universe into an accessible state within the physical world. Think of human beings as conduits of universal ideas, who receive and deliver them safely to their intended destination.

The universe intends for all of its constructive ideas to be shared freely among mankind for the betterment of all life in the universe. It is therefore rather silly and retrogressive for us to try and patent or copyright ideas that never belonged to us in the first place; ideas that we just delivered to the world on behalf of the universe.

Ideas themselves have no physical form. They exist purely in the minds of human beings who have the capacity to create a physical manifestation of them. Ideas can move from one human mind to another, changing their complexity and sophistication as they float along. This is why it is so important to share ideas as widely as possible. It is not just the best way for ideas to become refined and sharper; it is indeed the ONLY way. This is because every human mind has a unique signature defined by its thought pattern. When an idea moves into a mind with a different thought pattern signature, it has the potential to grow and become much more powerful. This is the case regardless of whether the idea is a noble one or an utterly destructive one.

Detachment

When you come across an idea that you resonate with very deeply because it has a profound meaning to you, then embrace it and let it dance around in your mind with total acceptance. What about the person who made the idea accessible to you? Well, to be honest, that person doesn’t really matter that much. The idea itself is what matters the most. This sounds contrary to what many people might think but it is indeed the truth. The person who delivered the idea shall surely be dead in a matter of years while the idea lives on and continues to float from mind to mind all around the universe as long as there are minds to accommodate it. Consider the great ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Their ideas were spawned thousands of years ago yet they are still alive today in human minds, long after the philosophers bade the universe farewell!

When you attach yourself too much to the human being who spawned a great idea, you risk losing sight of the importance of the idea itself. Human beings are vessels that carry all manner of ideas without discrimination. A human mind that once spawned a great idea might turn around and spawn several other ideas that are destructive, senseless or unproductive to the world.

Therefore, when the human being who spawned great ideas that you liked a lot produces content that contradicts what you have come to expect of them, you are likely to shun all the ideas from that person in strong objection; including the previous great ideas which are still very useful and valid regardless of the change in the human being!

For instance, if you have been following my blog for a while and you really like the ideas that I put forth and then suddenly, I turn around and start spewing shallow materialistic drivel, or I put out an article that you strongly disagree with, you shouldn’t disregard the earlier ideas I delivered that gave you profound insight and meaning. This is for the simple reason that the ideas are still valid to you regardless of my seeming loss of integrity. Hey, I’m just a vessel, remember! Please, don’t shoot the messenger!

The same principle applies to all other great people that you look up to and consider to be your mentors. They are not infallible. That’s why they are human, far from flawless perfection. They are bound to trip and fall every once in a while. But this doesn’t mean that you turn your back on all the positive stuff you gained from them. You still get to keep those ideas because the universe would like you to refine them and spread them far and wide for the benefit of all life on the universe.

Detach yourself from the human being and attach yourself to the ideas. Attach yourself to the Universe!

P.S. I promise not to turn into a buffoon who spews shallow materialistic drivel on this blog; not as long as I can help myself anyway!

Detach yourself from The Lost Observer,
~ Attach Yourself to the Observations, and Observe! ~

My Life Purpose: Breaking it Down

2011-12-05T12:52:00.001+03:00

This article is a continuation of the previous article titled My Life Purpose: The Background. Just as a reminder, I shall begin by stating my life purpose before proceeding to explore it in detail.

The Statement of Purpose

To fully support and pursue the conscious evolution of mankind towards a sustainable existence of true civilization, free of present challenges and instead filled with relentless progress for the good of all life in our world and beyond.

Taking it Apart

If you look closely at the purpose statement, you shall notice the key phrases I have highlighted in bold. These are the cornerstones of my life purpose. Let me define of each of them briefly from my point of view:

Conscious Evolution – The constant process of deliberate, positive human growth and development in all spheres of life.
Sustainable Existence – A state of symbiotic and harmonious co-existence with all other forms of life on our planet and beyond, through the intelligent use of universal resources.
True Civilization – A highly conscious and aware state of existence defined by intelligence, sustainability and the relentless progress of mankind.
Present Challenges – The retrogressive elements that plague modern human societies and prevent us from achieving true civilization. Some of these could be war, waste, poverty, disease, ethnic discrimination, religious and political differences, dysfunctional economic and legal systems, social ills, environmental degradation among others.
Relentless Progress – The persistent, unyielding, determined force of forward thinking, problem solving and constant improvement of human life to consistently higher states and standards.

You can sense how these key terms have a lot of synergy. They are all interlinked in such a manner as to describe the concerted interaction needed among human beings to realize a world far better than we have ever known.

Worth a Thousand Words

To make these concepts clearer to you, I shall illustrate them using the info-graphic below:

[Click on the image to enlarge]

Life Purpose info-graphic

The above info-graphic has been inspired by the Finite State Automata model of computation used to define languages in the field of Computer Science (Really Geeky Stuff).

a) The States of Existence

The first thing to notice is that there are two states of existence represented by the oval shapes:

The first one to the left represents our current state rife with present challenges. The reality of this state manifests itself through several retrogressive elements some of which have been listed in the text box below it.

The second state of existence to the right represents a different reality yet to be experienced by mankind. It is defined by a sustainable existence of true civilization. It manifests itself through several constructive elements some of which have been listed in the text box below it.

If you are keen, you shall notice that the oval shape for the second state is bigger than that of the first. This is because the second state presents far more opportunities for human advancement, universal exploration and infinite growth.

b) The Transition

Between the two states, there is the transition represented by an arrow pointing from one state to the other. This is a process marked by the conscious evolution of mankind. My intention to fully support and pursue this transition manifests itself in two main ways:

Intelligence – To get a better understanding of my perception of intelligence, you can read my previous article titled The Most Intelligent Species.
Use of Technology – Although there is great variety in human technology, my focus is on computer-based technology for the simple reason that I happen to have a background in that geeky field.

Another transition in the info-graphic is represented by the arrow looping on the second state of existence. This transition is marked by the relentless progress of mankind.

Connecting the Dots

Now that we have taken apart my life purpose, it’s time to re-build it into an integrated whole and see how all the pieces fit together into a grand design that defines the existence of one human being. Me.

To begin with, we have the two states of existence. Our current state is not an optimal one because our present reality is filled with so much primitivity and retrogression. We therefore need to move to a higher state of existence. This is what the second state represents. A reality defined by sustainability and true civilization that is within man’s reach if he so desires it and sets his mind to it. It would be in our best interests to move into this higher state where our present challenges become history thereby clearing the path for greater human advancement and exploration. We haven’t begun truly living yet. A whole universe is out there waiting for us to embrace it with exploration and discovery. Precious time is wasting! We need to quickly transcend above our petty earthly squabbles and realize that we are so small in a Universe so vast and ever-expanding, that the magnitude of human challenges and egos don’t even register on Universal scales. If you don’t believe me, go to the moon (or into space) and try to look at one human being’s problems from there. That will certainly put things into perspective!

The transition to this higher reality filled with opportunities is marked by the conscious evolution of mankind. This is the crux of the matter. This is what really defines my life purpose; where the rubber hits the road. I intend to fully support and pursue this transition for my entire life! It is a constant never-ending process guided by the vision of an ever-higher reality. No matter how good you get, there is always room for transcending into an even higher state. I intend to support and pursue this transition through intelligence and the use of technology.

Intelligence and Blogging

If you look at the info-graphic, you shall see that I have put blogging next to intelligence. My use of the term intelligence here basically means raising the level of consciousness and awareness of as many human beings as possible to a higher state above traditional human smartness. I intend to shift the collective mindset and perspective of humanity away from our present shortcomings towards the realization of this higher state of existence. To show that it is not a utopian dream but something achievable and practical. Blogging is ideally suited to this purpose because with Internet technology, my ideas can reach billions of human beings worldwide. And that my friend, is why YOU are reading this blog article! That is how YOU fit into my life purpose; to get you to reason at the higher level of intelligence. It doesn’t matter if you agree with my views or not. As long as you digest these ideas, they will sink in and cause some kind of change in you. The change may be seemingly absent, subtle or intense but it is definitely there. Even when you think the ideas have no impact on you, they have already registered in your subconscious mind and may manifest in ways you are not consciously aware of. The neurons in your brain have already formed new connections. I’m afraid it’s too late for you, buddy.

Technology’s higher Purpose

Technology is the one human invention that has solved practical, real-world challenges and enabled the effective achievement of far greater advancement and progress of mankind since ancient civilization to date. Technology is the very reason you are able to read this right now. Every single day, each and every human being on this planet uses technology in one form or another for convenience. Even the New Guineans living deep in the forests of New Guinea use tools to cut down or climb trees in search of food or raw materials. That is all technology. Name one human you can think of who doesn’t use technology. Remember, even human language is technology for communicating!

I happen to have coincidentally studied computer science at the university. As a result, I am well versed with computer-based technology. I mentioned in the first part of this article that I didn’t study it by choice. Now I am really glad I did because I understand the potential it has to manifest the higher state of existence I pursue and the significant role it can play in the fulfillment of my life purpose. I intend to use this strength to actualize this higher reality. If you look at the constructive elements in the text box below the second state of existence, you may begin to see that most of them can be practically achieved through the use of advanced human technology. For example, a resource-based economy that eliminates crime, waste, deprivation and conflict in the world can be powered by a computer-based global resource management system. What a powerful idea! Similarly, environmentally-protective research into the sustainability of clean, alternative energy sources can be driven by analytical software applications. The possibilities and opportunities for the application of computer-based technology towards a sustainable existence of true civilization for mankind are endless! (I’ve never felt happier to be a computer geek)

Ever Forward

Once the transition has started and gathered steam, the journey does not stop there because it has no end. We can never really say that we have reached the second state of existence because it is simply unreachable. The best way to look at it is to consider it as a vision that guides our conscious evolution towards an ever higher state of existence. What we can actually achieve is the improvement over our present reality. The move further away from our present challenges is the measurable component of the journey towards the higher state of existence.

This is exactly why we have the loop of relentless progress over the second state. It symbolizes the continuous pursuit of the awesome vision. We don’t reach a final state and rest there; we continuously seek a higher state of existence by progressing ever forward to greater heights!

I sincerely thank you for taking this long and hopefully enlightening journey into my life purpose with me. I hope that it has broadened your perspective of life or provoked sharp critical reactions and maybe even challenged you to look within yourself and determine what your own true life purpose is. Why are YOU here?

Share these ideas as widely as possible and let’s turn them into a higher, more fulfilling reality for mankind and all life in our world and beyond.

All the best, my friend

With a Clear Purpose,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

My Life Purpose: The Background

2011-12-02T16:32:00.005+03:00

Towards the end of my previous post titled Living a Lie, I mentioned the need for people to discover their true life purpose in order to avoid being an unwitting, lifelong pawn in someone else’s chess game. In this two-part article, I’ m going to share my life purpose with you so that you can get a better idea of who I am and why I started this blog. Journey with me…

Ignorance is Bliss

Before discovering my true purpose in life, I was just your average sleep-walker living in a modern Western society governed by a so called ‘democracy’, sustained by a capitalistic economic system and inhabited by a predominantly Christian population. My life never really had any true meaning to me. I just floated through life wasting my time following the crowd and living like nothing ever mattered. I was told our religion was the right religion, our God was the true God, our democracy was the light in a world full of dictatorships, and our peace amongst a world of savage wars was a sign of our true civilization. I went through decent schooling and performed very well all the way to higher education while being a good democratic, capitalistic Christian. But deep down, I constantly had this hollow emptiness I just couldn’t ignore, no matter how hard I tried. At the back of my mind, I felt that something huge was missing in my life but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure it out. This missing piece of the puzzle couldn’t be satisfied by anything. Not food, not material stuff, not sex, not money, not Jesus Christ, not fame, not drugs, NOTHING.

At the University, I studied Computer Science not by conscious choice but because colleagues advised me that it was a good deal. At the time I figured, “Life doesn’t have any point, so I might as well study this computer science stuff and see where it takes me.” I excelled and graduated with top honors. Soon after, I got my first job developing database systems for an organization. I must admit I enjoyed solving hard technical challenges using computer technology.

Crashing into Reality

By this time, I had started becoming increasingly aware about the state of our world. I became more sensitive to the situation of humanity. I watched the news more often and started realizing that the world beyond my little backyard was not perfect at all. Far from it! Now, wherever I looked there were all these signs of deliberate retrogression of human society that I had never noticed before. From obscene disparities in wealth, to unnecessary wars, to millions of children dying annually of easily preventable diseases, to environmental degradation, to shallow materialism, to over-consumerism and waste, to deprivation in the third world (and now in the first world as well), to archaic and disabling legal systems in many countries, to genocidal dictatorships propped up by benefitting wealthy countries, to Western ‘democratic’ politics funded by wealthy corporations with vested interests, to catholic priests incessantly abusing innocent kids, to externally fuelled conflicts in Africa over its natural resources, and many, many, many more issues.

I immediately realized how horribly wrong and twisted this whole mess was. I wondered why people, especially in the society that I lived in, proceeded with their normal lives as though the world was okay. IT WASN’T! It was in need of serious, urgent repair. Of course there were selfless individuals and organizations that were bravely trying to alleviate the situation, especially in the third world. They inspired me. But at the same time, I felt frustrated that more wasn’t being done to change the whole world for the better in a permanent way. Governments weren’t doing enough. Corporations weren’t doing enough. Religion certainly wasn’t helping!

The Missing Pieces

So, what was the problem? Didn’t people care enough? Was this man-eat-man reality that I was getting so worked up about, the unchangeable core of our nature, honed to its purest form over millions of years of survival for the fittest evolution? Well, it was easy to fall into the trap of believing that I was chasing the ghosts of utopian idealism that define what a perfect human world should be. However, what kept me from sliding into this complacent mindset was our other side. The Light Side of the Force (credits to Star Wars).

I had gotten first-hand experience in studying how advanced human science and technology was. As I studied computer science at the university, I was simply amazed by how powerful computer technology had become over the years. I also realized how much potential it had to change human life for the better. There was also advanced technology in several other fields such as engineering and medicine that truly made us the masters of the world. Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to be masters of ourselves!

The human spirit was indeed a very intriguing phenomenon. We were capable of so much social retrogression yet so much charity and empathy at the same time. I was aware of Live Aid, the first global charity concert of 1984 organized by Sir Bob Geldof in response to a news story about Africa’s epidemic famine. Live Aid raised £150 million in one day! This was one example of proof that human beings had a conscience; we just needed the right motivations to discover and embrace it. We had the capacity to feel for other human beings and unite towards something truly noble, something bigger than ourselves, the recognition of all humanity. We were capable of realizing the truth that we were all one and the same. We needed to support each other and cooperate, not fight amongst ourselves. That seed of human progress was there, it just needed to be nourished into a giant tree capable of recursively replicating its seeds throughout the world.

Finding the Path

After understanding these fascinating yet contradictory aspects of human existence, I felt the urgent need to commit myself to working for the Light side of the force, as a true Jedi warrior (Star Wars, again) for humanity. It felt like a calling. It was something I could gladly commit my entire life towards because it overwhelmingly filled that hollow emptiness that had been inside me for so long. Whenever I thought about serving humanity to improve its general condition and steer it towards a sustainable future of true civilization, I immediately lightened up and become positively charged with emotion, desire and the energy to act upon the thought. In these moments of great epiphany, life suddenly acquired meaning! There was something to live and die for, after all!

Finding this path of purpose and fulfillment was aided by a lot of online research I did into the work that other selfless people were doing to change the course of humanity towards true sustainability. It is in this process of knowledge seeking that I came across the life works of individuals such as Jacque Fresco of the Venus Project, Professor Jared Diamond of UCLA, and Personal Development blogger Steve Pavlina among many others. Their positive work had a profound impact on me. It fuelled my drive to consciously define my life purpose and begin living in accordance with it.

At the end of this intensive process of soul searching, I came up with the following statement as my purpose in life:

To fully support and pursue the conscious evolution of mankind towards a sustainable existence of true civilization, free of present challenges and instead filled with relentless progress for the good of all life in our world and beyond.

Whenever I read between the lines of this statement, I am moved almost to tears. I connect with it on a very deep level because it comes from deep within my consciousness. It shakes my very core and defines the reason for my existence. I wouldn’t trade it for the entire Universe! Every day when I wake up, there is something to look forward to. That something is defined by my life purpose. I don’t get caught up in shallow materialism, fear, greed, politics, religious or ethnic differences because my mission here is beyond such trivialities. My ship can withstand the crushing waves of this stormy sea we call life. I can see the world for what it truly is, from a place of total consciousness.

When I think about human beings, I realize that we have so much power and potential. It’s ridiculous what we are capable of achieving. Yet, so many people go through life without ever realizing how much they can change the world through simple acts of consciousness.

If you’re looking for true fulfillment in this life, do not look to the external world, instead look within yourself. Find that thing which you resonate with deeply. Find that which you are willing to live and die for. Find your true life purpose. You might be surprised at just how powerful a being you are!

In the second part of this article titled My Life Purpose: Breaking it Down, I shall take my life purpose apart and then re-build it into an integrated whole, just to give you the complete picture of how everything falls into place in my grand design.

With a Clear Purpose,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Living a Lie

2011-11-28T09:57:00.006+03:00

If I met you walking down the street and asked you who you were, how would you respond? Most people would likely respond this way, “I am John Doe of Palo Alto, California. I work with Google as a software engineer.”

But are you your name? Are you your place of residence? Are you your job/career? Your name is just a label given to identify you after birth. You did not come into the world with it the same way you came with your eyes or your internal organs. You can decide to move from your current place of residence for any number of reasons such as a job transfer or if a natural disaster occurred in your area. You can change your career and pursue a different path if you so desire. So none of these attributes are the real you. You know, the real you that remains constant regardless of any external changes. So, who is the real you?

Most people go through their entire lives without knowing who they really are. They flow with the current and get tossed from side to side without direction, very much like a ship caught in a raging storm at sea. This happens until they come crashing down in a state of depression due to meaningless addictions, mid-life crises or any other end product of a shallow existence. Because of the lack of a definite life purpose, these people are always searching for the next temporary high to satisfy the hollow emptiness that eats them inside.

Where art thou, Oh Consciousness?

The real you is your consciousness. Your consciousness can manifest itself in various ways such as: your inner voice, your gut feeling or your conscience. Your consciousness exists at a level beneath your conscious, rational mind. It has access to the vast database of memories and experiences stored by your subconscious mind. For this reason, it can make accurate decisions that are true to you. Your consciousness therefore is the real you that exists quietly below the superficiality of your rational mind. That’s the simple truth, deal with it!

A lot of people are not aware of their consciousness. Some of them may have felt it tugging at them but they blocked it out, drowned it or silenced it after a great internal struggle. These people believe that the real them is whatever their rational mind believes (usually the ego). The rational mind is highly influenced by external stimuli received from its environment. Therefore, a person’s rational mind will tell that person that the real them is defined by their external environment.

The Place of No Consciousness

When someone tells you that you have a big ego, it usually means that you have very little or no consciousness. Because so many people think that their ego is the real them, they become very susceptible to influences from their external environment. Why do you think that advertising is so damn successful today? Someone makes a crappy product that people don’t even need in the first place yet the product sells wildly. What is the secret?

If you live around a large city, you must be familiar with the larger-than-life billboards. Huge displays targeting people of no consciousness. Corporations display these hyper-designed, smooth, suave graphic symbols of perfection and true happiness with tag lines such as: Be Somebody, Discover the Secret, The Ultimate Product, Beyond Perfection, Beauty Unmatched etc. Oh, the pretty faces, the perfect bodies, the seemingly genuine smiles, the starry eyes, the gleaming lights. Heaven, basically. But if you are a conscious person you will quickly see through the blatant lies that are concocted to get you to buy more stuff, whet your materialistic appetite, while simultaneously boosting corporate profits for other non-conscious greedy folks. The song Everybody’s Fool by the alternative rock band Evanescence captures this scenario perfectly. I’d highly recommend you check out the video to get a better idea of our situation here.

This web of lies and shallowness is by no means restricted to billboards. You shall easily see it everywhere today if you look close enough. Advertising is also done on other media such as TV, radio, newspapers and the Internet. Everyone wants you to just keep buying stuff. If you are not in touch with your consciousness, you shall quickly succumb to these pressures in the pursuit of self-fulfillment and meaning. Ideally, the empty hole inside of you that you have filled with material stuff is essentially where you consciousness is supposed to be. You are officially caught up in the Matrix. Sweet dreams!

If you look at the cosmetics industry, it has been booming business for a long time. Plastic surgery is the in thing right now. Why? Because people of no consciousness are easily made to believe that their natural self is ugly and has inherent defects which can only be fixed by artificial chemical substances. As a result, you have an entire race of human beings walking around with make-up, fancy hairstyles, fake body parts, nips-and-tucks, anti-aging solutions etc. Just a thought: When was the last time you saw a woman of African descent with natural hair? Some of the cosmetic products sold today turn out to have disastrous effects on an individual’s health or well-being. With regards to plastic surgery, I’d hate to have asked the late Michael Jackson our introductory question of who he was. People of no consciousness from certain races spend a fortune trying to make themselves look more like people of another glorified race. Talk about living a lie and unimaginable scales of brainwashing!

Fashion is another culprit. You are told you are nothing until you wear Gucci, Chanel, D&G, Prada etc. Similarly, you are nobody unless you drive a Ferrari, a Lamborghini or a May Bach! These are the things that define you. Your ego would easily fall for these illusions but NOT your consciousness. If somebody went on a date with you and fell for you because of the car you drive, the clothes you wear, a particular hairstyle, or because of your boob job (think Pamela Anderson), then you definitely know you have a relationship built on a solid lie. It won’t stand the test of time!

Being true to yourself

Do you love your job/career? Do you enjoy satisfying relationships in your life? Did you consciously choose you career because it is what you love doing or did someone else push you into it? Did you consciously choose the relationship you’re in right now? Does it feel just right for you? How about your spirituality? These are some of the questions you might want to ask yourself to determine whether you are living a lie.

Being true to yourself means being constantly connected to your consciousness. You do the things you really want, not the things your friends, your family or your society tell you that you should want. The best place to start on the path to true freedom from the lies of the modern world is the discovery of your life purpose. Steve Pavlina has a few great articles on this subject. You can begin with this one which explains why discovering your life purpose is important.

If you look at the About this Site Page on this website, you shall find that I have stated my life purpose as: To fully support and pursue the conscious evolution of mankind towards a sustainable existence of true civilization, free of present challenges and instead filled with relentless progress for the good of all life in our world and beyond. Now, this is something that I truly believe in. It comes from my consciousness. I’m even prepared to lay down my life for it, if need be. A famous quote I resonate with deeply says that, "We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it". What do you live for?

Again, if you look at the top of the left sidebar of this website, you shall see the Welcome Message. It states: Wake up and take a conscious journey through Life. What this basically means is that you should stop living a lie and re-connect with the real you, your consciousness. I say re-connect here because you were once connected with your consciousness when you were a child. Life was fun but then you grew up and got serious. But life can still be fun. Trust me, there is nothing more deeply fulfilling than living consciously. Drugs, sex and other materialistic pleasures don’t even come close. And they also don’t last as long either! Being conscious is a permanent high. As a conscious person, you see the world in a new light for what it truly is. No lies in this place!

Stop living a lie, wake up (from the Matrix), discover your true life purpose and take a conscious journey through life today!

From the Place of Consciousness,

~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Love and Oneness

2011-11-28T09:27:00.006+03:00

How deeply do you care for your loved ones? How much would you be willing to sacrifice for the good of your family members and those close to you? Do you extend these same feelings of compassion and love towards complete strangers? If not, why not? We are coming upon the festive season, that time of the year when all is filled with hope and cheer. But why is hope, cheer and goodwill to all mankind restricted to one season of the year and with material gifts attached? Are we trying to buy other people’s warmth and affection? Shouldn’t sharing in love and joy be a 24/7 experience given and received freely?

We usually see ourselves as distinct individuals separate from others. That makes a lot of sense when you look at it from the narrow, zoomed in perspective of individuality and ego. But if you take the time out to look at the bigger picture, we are all part of the same whole. We are all part of the larger body of humanity. Steve Pavlina’s article on oneness that views people as individual cells within the larger body of humanity captures the essence of what I am trying to say here quite adequately.

The concept of oneness views all people as being interconnected in one way or another. The actions of one human being have impacts on others whether directly or indirectly. If we become aware of the powerful fact that we are all one and the same, our attitudes towards other people changes. You stop thinking largely about yourself and start thinking about all of us. When you destroy someone else’s life, you basically destroy your own. When you swindle someone else, you swindle yourself. That’s why obscenely wealthy folks seem to be surrounded by insecurity and insomnia rather than love and contentment.

The oneness perspective stems from a place of greater awareness and consciousness. If you adopt the oneness mindset, it is easy and sensible for you to be compassionate to a total stranger as you would be towards your own family because you are essentially both part of the larger family of humanity. You do not need to be visited by the three ghosts of Christmas like Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to realize this simple truth. The moral state of our world today would be much better and conducive to real progress if more people embraced the concept of oneness. For instance, Israel and Palestine wouldn’t need to continue their hostilities if they considered themselves one people. Fighting each other would be akin to one person fighting himself/herself.

Unfortunately, a lot of man’s modern challenges are rooted in fear, the scarcity mindset, reinforced separateness and over-inflated egos. If you observe our societies today, you will quickly note that we jump at the first opportunity to divide ourselves. Here are some of the major fault lines of division that we support today:

Religion

Many people around the world today profess different faiths in which a higher power is acknowledged. Each major religion strongly believes that its God is the true God. So you basically have a scenario in the world where we have several true gods, one for each religion. But ultimately, which among these several true gods is the truly true God? It becomes very complicated at this point and this is precisely the reason many conflicts today are based on religious differences. We fail to see eye to eye when the religion we strongly believe in is criticized by someone else. Therefore, we feel as if it is a personal attack on us rather than a criticism of a belief system which is an entirely independent entity from us. Today, a Christian might look at a Muslim and say, “He is not saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, he is condemned to eternity in hell!” without ever really knowing what kind of a person that Muslim is. A Buddhist might just as easily hold similar views towards Hindus or Scientologists and vice versa. Have you ever heard a Jewish person being called a Christ Killer? Apparently that Jewish person is alive today but also existed 2,000 years ago during Christ’s time! An atheist might believe that everyone else is a naïve religious idiot. Based on these few examples, it’s easy to see why formal religion pushes us away from oneness and true unconditional love into further disconnectedness and hatred. I shall reserve deeper observations and thoughts on religion as a specific subject of focus for a future post. Look out for that one!

Race and Ethnicity

Racial and ethnic based prejudices are rampant in the world today. We have neo-Nazi factions, skinheads, white supremacists, the English Defense League, Arab extremist groups, the Bloods and the Crips, the KKK (Ku Klux Klan), and deadly ethnic-based conflicts throughout Africa (usually over common natural resources). It’s always on the news. For instance, a Norwegian gunman called Anders Behring Breivik, killed 69 people on an island near Oslo earlier this year because of racial and ethnic differences. According to his detailed manifesto, he preferred to see a racially-pure Europe free of ethnic and cultural diversity. So did Adolf Hitler 70 years ago. In Africa, the new nation of South Sudan, mainly populated with black Africans, gained its independence in July from the Arabic North. Global patterns indicate a general racial hierarchy with some races considered to be genetically inferior and primitive as compared to others higher up in the hierarchy. Jared Diamond’s book Guns, Germs, and Steel might shed more light on the origins of the racial-economic differences we see today. It’s also very interesting that scientists tell us that race is a social construct. It is not rooted in science at all! You cannot for instance extract the Caucasian, Mongoloid or Negro gene from a person’s genetic makeup. As far as science is concerned, there is only one race, the Human race. (Facebook status update: Science likes oneness).

Politics and Ideologies

Are you a capitalist, a socialist, or a communist? Are you left wing or right wing? Are you a democrat or a republican? Are you a conservative or a liberal? Are you pro-choice or pro-life? Are you a tree hugger or a gun fanatic? From the oneness perspective, none of these ideologies matter regardless of how deeply you align yourself with them. The cold war has cost the U.S. and Russia a lot of money to sustain, Germany and the world were divided for almost half a century before the Berlin Wall (iron curtain) came down in 1990. As late as last year, Russian spies in America were exposed in the media. As a result, an exchange operation happened between U.S and Russia at good old Vienna. Today, the western world is very edgy about Communist China’s economic growth and the inroads it is making into Africa’s resource-rich heartland, formerly the preserve of the Capitalist West.

Culture

The world’s cultures are as diverse as the world’s species. From Western democracy to Middle Eastern Islamic Sharia law. In some cultures, cats and dogs are pets while in others they are a good dinner. Significant populations of the New Guinea people continue to live as hunters and gatherers today. China has been gradually wiping out the Tibetan culture. The North American pilgrims have reduced the Native American culture to an endangered state by exterminating over 20 million of its people over the centuries of settlement. The Spanish conquistadors largely decimated the native South American Cultures during their exploration and conquests of the 16th century. In some cultures today, homosexuality or bisexuality are tolerated while in others, they are considered offenses and the ‘Justice System’ provides for their punishment by imprisonment or death.

Others

There are several other bases for discrimination and division today such as gender, socio-economic class, education level and academic qualifications among many others.

What about Oneness?

To be honest, oneness doesn’t really care about your religious background, your ethnicity, your ideologies, your culture, you academic papers or your gender. It recognizes the fundamental truths that you are a human being; You breathe air, NOT Negro or Caucasian air; You eat food, NOT capitalist or communist food; You need love, NOT Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist love, You depend on technology for convenience, NOT gay or straight technology. Today’s global challenges are NOT Negro or Jewish or capitalist or gay or female challenges. They are human challenges. Isn’t it time we acknowledged that we are one and the same? All other illusions of separateness are just that, ILLUSIONS. We need to rise above our superficial differences and embrace the undeniable truth that we are all ONE.

Unconditional love is a very powerful thing. It can easily conquer fear and hate. It can focus and achieve much more because it is light and doesn’t carry any heavy baggage. Oneness on the other hand, is a very powerful perspective. It can change the entire Universe if it is given a chance to prove itself. I encourage you to take up the sword of oneness and the shield of unconditional love and arise as a brave warrior in today’s noble quest to eliminate fear, greed, scarcity, war, waste, deprivation, and environmental degradation and help humanity shift towards true civilization and progress for the good of all mankind and all life in our world and beyond.

This festive season consider spending less money on your immediate family and friends as you traditionally do; instead share true, unconditional love and joy with your larger family, All of Humanity.

P.S. This article was partly inspired by the song If Everyone Cared by the rock band Nickelback. You can check it out here and be inspired as well!

We are One,

~ When I Observe, You Observe! ~

Security in Depth

2011-11-26T15:49:00.007+03:00

Before you sit down to read this article, check to make sure that your keys are safe (preferably in your pocket). Is your computer anti-virus running and updated? (Linux users can ignore that one) Where is your cell phone / tablet? Have you activated its security codes? Before you left the house today, did you remember to set the alarm? You did? How smart of you to be safe than sorry. Did you double check that your car doors were locked after you parked? Did you remember to sign out of all your online accounts? How securely do you keep your credit / ATM card? Wouldn’t want that account getting stripped bare, now would we? If you took the public transit system today, did you consciously choose the safest place to sit and did you hold your valuables close to you with an iron grip while praying (if you’re profess some form of faith) for a safe ride? Oh, you did? Good boy (or girl, or other), you’ve learnt your tricks Very Well. Here, have a new set of locks as your early Christmas gift.

Security is an integral part of our lives today but did you ever stop and think, “Wait a minute, where did this concept of security come from? Why do I spend so much money on security while I could have put it to more productive or important use? Why does no one else question this security business?” When you take a closer look at our security needs today, be they physical or emotional security needs, it is quite evident that they stem from a mindset of fear and scarcity. The real question is, “Where does the need for security come from?”

If you have something that someone else doesn’t have and you’re terribly afraid of losing it to them, you instinctively want to secure it. But why do you really have all these things that other people want as well, but don’t have? When you die, do you take these things with you wherever it is that you go afterward? Was this stuff even yours to begin with? I’ll leave you to ponder about that for a bit.

What lies beneath the Secure illusion?

The world today spends billions of dollars every year in all forms of security investments. For example, banks have security guards, biometric scanners, huge vaults and safes, underground tunnels, CCTV cameras, motion detectors and so on. You name it, they’ve probably got it. Now that’s just one institution. Consider military installations, your house, vehicles, computers, the Internet and other software systems, global GPS tracking systems, corporations, art galleries, high end jewelry shops, cargo ships, airports, your apartment building, personal bodyguards for public figures (e.g. politicians and even the Pope!) etc. I can’t exhaust the list but you catch my drift.

Isn’t it insane that security nowadays seems more valuable than that which it protects? It’s like a means to an end that has become the end itself. When we are governed by a legal and economic system that strongly dictates the ownership of common worldly resources at the individual level and often at the expense of others, then we end up with today’s security nightmare. When our governmental foreign policies focus on our differences with other human beings by highlighting their supposed inferiority or savagery based on culture, ethnicity, religion or other modern value systems, then trust and openness fade away while border patrols and airport security strip searches gladly take their place (think National Security).

When you think about a whole adult human being whose life is reduced to protecting material stuff as a security guard, do you feel repulsed by the very thought or do you feel that it is a perfectly acceptable career path? Does that sound like the life purpose of a human being to you? The security guard stands all day long at the gates of a building or in front of some door. At night, the security guard endures the biting cold at the risk of respiratory illnesses to protect material stuff. WOW, rewind that please! An adult human being with a highly developed brain that has evolved over millions of years, capable of very sophisticated cognitive functions, spends their time standing at a designated spot to ensure that material stuff (which is not even alive by the way) doesn’t get stolen by other human beings who have high cognitive functions as well.

But in the 21^st century, do we still need to reason at the cave man level by dropping into personal survival mode and letting the rules of the jungle dictate who wins and who loses by acquiring more stuff than we need individually, and then spending it all on securing it? Is it just me or isn’t that the King of self-defeating purposes? Do we still need to operate from a place of fear and scarcity with all our knowledge and technological advancement today?

The Simple Truth

Let’s take a moment and think about all the material stuff that you go to great financial lengths to secure. Let’s even name a few: Money, clothing, motor vehicles, houses, electronics, furniture, food, investments, land, people, jewelry, art and so on. Where do all this things that we have mentioned come from? Aren’t they all either products of the earth itself or human constructs meant to serve our needs? Strange as it seems, even people are products of the earth. Check this previous post for more insights.

Yet, we cling to ‘our’ stuff with total attachment. If we lose it, we are reduced to nothing. ‘Our’ stuff has total control and power over us. We are in total submission. Basically, we are slaves of ‘our’ stuff. But are these the things which really matter in life? Are they the things truly worth securing and sacrificing our lives for? What is more important to you, the physical representation of your loved ones or the intimate intangible relationships, bonds and connections that you have with them? Is your car more important than your health? Try driving your 10 Ferraris while you’re in a coma induced by failing internal organs.

Does it appear to us that the things which we should value most in life are actually priceless? What is the price of your biological heart? How much would you secure it for? Could you develop a sophisticated cryptographic algorithm to secure it? Isn’t it obvious that the stuff that really matters cannot be secured because it is simply senseless and an exercise in futility to try and do so?

An alternative Unsecured Reality

The alternative would be to live in a world in which security has no meaning. This would be a world in which everyone recognizes that stuff doesn’t belong to any individual, it’s all from the earth’s resources and we are here to share it collectively for brief periods of time. So if you need something, you take it and use it. When you’re done with it, you release it back to the world and let someone else use it. This recursive process of re-use of resources freely by all is not only an efficient, waste-free system but it’s actually a practical and sustainable way in which an intelligent, civilized society can exist in harmony without fear of scarcity or loss and meaningless attachment to earthly resources we didn’t create in the first place.

Afterthought

What would happen if we transcended above the place of fear and scarcity that has enslaved us today and proceeded to eliminate the need for security permanently? What if we channeled the billions of dollars we waste on security today towards improving universal health, education and Internet access, honestly eliminating poverty and deprivation in the world, building critical infrastructure that supports transportation and guarantees better safety in our world, developing technologies that better address our modern challenges, cleaning up the environment, investing in clean, renewable energy? Consider the possibilities for a moment. It is not a utopian fantasy. We really do spend that much money on security today!

When we realize that all this material stuff is ultimately just stuff, securing it loses all meaning. These are natural resources of the earth. They were never ours to begin with. They existed long before we came along and they shall continue to exist long after we are gone. You are essentially just borrowing them for a brief period of time after which they shall go to somebody else or back to the earth, whether you like it or not (unless of course you are immortal).

Just a thought: If you’re emotionally insecure and you can’t sleep at night because you’re worried that you’ll lose someone you care about, then you’ve probably already lost that someone. Why? Because you’re wasting your time and energy worrying about emotional security instead of simply sharing your love with that someone.

Even in times of great insecurity,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

The Most Intelligent Species

2011-11-25T09:06:00.007+03:00

I had a vivid dream recently in which I was sitting on a bench in the park on a clear, warm afternoon reading my favorite book. Several families had come out to the park to enjoy this particularly wonderful day outdoors. Kids ran around enjoying much fun and laughter without a care in the world. I was deeply engrossed in my book when a little girl about six years old came up to me and stood directly in front of me. She looked up at me with an earnest look of curiosity in her large green eyes. And then she asked, “Could you please tell me which is the most intelligent species on our planet?”

I quickly replied to her without thinking, “Honey, we are! Human beings are the most intelligent species on this planet.” This was surely a no-brainer. A few days later after having this strange dream, it came to my recollection. I found myself paying closer attention to its detail. Dreams come from our subconscious mind which is capable of far better storage of our memories and experiences than the conscious rational mind can ever be. What was my subconscious mind trying to communicate to me? I needed to open my eyes and observe.

Intelligence

I thought about this question and realized that in my haste to answer it, I had overlooked a basic fact. To answer this question, one must first define intelligence. What therefore is intelligence? Let’s use some scenarios to help put things in perspective:

Scenario 1: If you were the president of your country and you were briefed by members of your government that a vital natural resource such as oil would be exhausted worldwide in a few years and that your nation is powerful enough to take the remaining reserves from weaker, defenseless countries, would you agree that you go ahead and take it? “Screw the weak ones, survival for the fittest is the smartest move!” Or would you say “Oil will be exhausted anyway, whether we like it or not, let’s call in our (most intelligent?) scientists and have them figure out a cost effective way of exploiting sustainable alternative sources of energy”.

Scenario 2: You are asked to vote in a poll where you need to choose between two economic systems. The first one is based on our current capitalist system in which any individual may accumulate as much resources as they want regardless of the consequences to other human beings, other forms of life, or the environment, through waste and unchecked greed. Competition and capital wealth is the sole determinant of success in this model. The second model is a resource-based economy in which all the world’s resources and all the world’s life is taken into account. A system of efficient resource utilization is then set up to minimize waste and degradation through effective recycling and re-use. Which would you choose?

Nature

When I think about intelligence, I am forced to look beyond mankind and study nature. If you look at nature, it has an uncanny way of balancing itself. It’s almost as though it has been finely programmed with surgical precision. Each action is countered by an equal and self-adjusting reaction. It’s simply elegant. This is quite amazing considering that nature does not share the higher cognitive processes of man. It does not have a highly developed cerebral cortex capable of logical reasoning and moral distinctions. We know that animals function on instinct.

Case in point: For instance, if the gazelle population in the African savannah rises too high, then the lions have more food to eat. They devour more gazelles and reduce the gazelle population while simultaneously increasing their own. When the lions have hunted in excess, there is less food for their now bloated population. Their population starts to decline while the gazelles are given room to flourish again. The same equilibrium can be observed in relation to the gazelles and the grasslands they feed on. (Just a thought: What would happen to this delicate balance if modern man came into the picture?)

Nature essentially takes only that which it needs for its survival. You never meet a tree in the rainforest reasoning to itself, “Let me take as much sunshine, water, and soil nutrients as I can get my branches and roots around. In fact, let me hoard the excess stuff deep underground so that no other plant can get access to it. It’s all meant to be mine, mine!” Imagine how silly it would be if a polar bear tried to grab all the fish in the arctic seas and took the loot down to Antarctica, safe from other less deserving, second class polar bears. The penguins down south would probably have an early Christmas, if the loot actually survived intact the trip across tropical climates.

Intelligence vs. Smartness

Yet funny and ridiculous as these nature analogies may seem, this is exactly the world that man has created for himself today. Man has accomplished many great feats in the domains of medicine, science, technology, engineering and so on. But do these accomplishments symbolize intelligence or smartness? Is man smart or intelligent? If you are able to use your highly developed brain to solve practical, technical, real-world challenges that sometimes threaten your very existence, are you intelligent or smart? Does it appear that humans are very smart but are yet to achieve the higher state of intelligence?

We commonly refer to people of high intellect as being intelligent. Albert Einstein is considered to have been a very intelligent man and a brilliant physicist. On the eve of World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin similar research; this eventually led to what would become the Manhattan Project (he later denounced using the new discovery of nuclear fission as a weapon in the war). We also speak of advanced technology and the organizations that implement it as intelligence. Examples would be: the U.S. military intelligence, FBI intelligence, CIA intelligence, Extra-terrestrial intelligence (the Roswell aliens)? etc.

Consider our world today in which regardless of so much advancement in science and technology, majority of the population lives in deprivation while a tiny elite control vast, obscene proportions of the existing wealth. Yet it is not impossible to find a way to harness modern technology and the extensive database of knowledge we have today to elevate the standards of human life far beyond the current primitive state and by extension improve the conditions for other forms of life on our planet.

Examine our current economic system that measures its growth based on the rate of consumption of products derived from the earth’s natural resources. All countries in the world aim for higher economic growth, which means more unnecessary consumption and waste of natural resources (whose finite supply is decreasing constantly) in order to justify and boast of higher figures on charts and graphs in corporate boardrooms. In the meanwhile, the earth’s fragile ecology on which our very survival depends is choking under the weight of pollution and environmental retardation. Add the increasing human population to the equation and you can see the bigger picture with crystal clarity. If the resources become scarce and threaten a country's economy, it could always choose to go to war and satisfy the deficit through military power.

Has man conquered everything else around him but himself? Has man become enslaved by his appetite for personal greed and lust to the point where he can no longer see the dangers of this path right in front of him? Could nature have a whole treasure trove of lessons to teach us? Do we just need to humble ourselves and pay attention?

For the first time in the history of the earth, man is consciously altering the climate of this planet through his actions. Scientists warn that this may have disastrous, irreversible consequences for not only other species but ultimately for us as well. We are at a point in time where we have the choice to either begin acting intelligently or continue acting smartly as we have always done. The decision is entirely up to us. History shall certainly judge us for it. We might not have the luxury of time to decide. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock…

How would you have answered the little girl’s question before reading this article? How would you answer the question now that you have read it? If your two answers would be different, why would this be so? What has changed? Is it something inside of you or is it an externality such as your definition of the term intelligence?

Before the time runs out,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Caught Up in the Matrix

2011-11-24T09:01:00.008+03:00

When I observe the state of the world today, I cannot help but notice the similarities to the original 1999 film ‘The Matrix’ (the sequels somehow just lost the plot). This also happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time.

For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t watched the movie, it is basically about a world in which machines have taken over. They have developed a computer generated world known as ‘The Matrix’ which is modeled on the real world that human beings know. Its match to reality is so close that you couldn’t easily tell whether you were living in the matrix or the real world. It is sort of like a very lucid dream-scape. In the real world, human beings are grown for use as energy sources by the machines while their minds are plugged into the matrix to blind them into thinking they are actually living in the real world. Sounds twisted, right? The movie follows the awakening of one human being and his battle against the machines controlling the matrix with the objective of freeing the human race that has been hopelessly enslaved.

Okay, let’s get off the hard stuff and come back down to planet earth.

Could our modern world really resemble this twisted fantasy I have just described? If yes, how is this so? Maybe we should start by asking ourselves how awesome the world is today. Could you describe it as the Garden of Eden or do you feel it has been relentlessly getting off course and turning into a hell hole. Well, if the current state of affairs is anything to go by, it’s certainly not Nirvana. For instance, the U.S. has experienced the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the early 1930s with unemployment rates rising sharply. You can sense the tension when folks start an Occupy Wall Street movement. The European Union has been threatening to collapse as a result of escalating debt in some countries within the Euro Zone. This has been mainly evidenced in the Greek unrest over austerity cuts. I shouldn’t even mention this year’s Arab Spring.

The challenges of the modern world seem to stem from an intentional effort to create invisible enemies that exploit and reap from peoples’ baseless fears. For instance, the global war on terror that curtails fundamental human freedoms while yielding more power and wealth to the authorities could be a likely candidate of this nature.

You ask, assuming all of this is even remotely true, how is it in any way related to the matrix? Well, look around you. Look at the society that you live in. What are the social values that are highly regarded by most people? What do most people consider important to them? What does the media put a lot of focus on? Consider how the entertainment industry has exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry. Hollywood releases tell you what the perfect social life should be like; the mainstream music industry shows you our real value system today. Observe what your favorite TV shows feed your mind with.

Be a Rock Star, Buy more Stuff, Cool Dude!

The world can’t manage its debt? Don’t worry about it. Just log into Facebook or Twitter and chat with your buddies about the latest gossip and tonight’s meet-up at the hottest club in town. Another environmental mishap caused by some greedy corporate idiots? Don’t sweat it, cool guy, buy this awesome iPad and install Angry Birds on it. Play away, it’s not the end of the world! A couple million Africans starving to death in the Horn of Africa region? Those silly Somali pirates had it coming. Good riddance! Now I can get back to watching the Family Guy series in peace.

If you analyzed the world today, it would seem as though the majority of people are living this seemingly shallow existence where superficiality and the quest for greater individual profit and pleasure is glorified. We are encouraged to drown ourselves in consumerism to satisfy our heightened materialistic urges convinced that they shall give us the sense of self-fulfillment we seek. Does this feel natural to you? That life should be about getting more and more stuff of purely entertainment value while your mind is kept off the things that should really matter to you, such as political responsibility, equality and basic freedoms, sustainable economies, a sustainable future for humanity and other forms of life on earth, environmental protection, ethical systems, and generally a decent standard of living and quality of life for all?

What’s even more amazing is that so many people seem to be caught up in this illusion created for our society today. Just like in the movie, the people caught up in the matrix of our modern world would not like to be awoken from it. They might even fight for its protection and continued existence. That’s how powerful it is. How often do the political leaders (did I just use the word leaders to describe politicians?) inform you that the wars being fought today on foreign soil are for the good of national or homeland security? It is portrayed as an us-versus-them gig. But who is them? Aliens from outer space or fellow human beings? Throw religion into the works and this stuff goes BANANAS.

Our modern world matrix prefers that we us focus on our individuality, our family, our tribe, our ethnicity, our nation. Our this, Our that, My this, My that! Notice the trend? We are never really told to reason in terms of the human race, as one people with similar challenges and a shared resource base. If you transcend above the haze of social conditioning and reason at a more conscious level of awareness, the matrix will fight you and try to drown you. Run, Neo, Run!

Our modern day matrix isn’t personified by a mechanical takeover as in the movie; it is evidenced by the hollow and empty reality that most people willingly or unknowingly propagate. The matrix existing today is mainly a creation of human fear and greed fueled by reasoning at the ego level as opposed to a higher level of universal consciousness. The similarity though is the false sense of reality and the general lack of awareness and understanding of the truth.

In spite of all this, the good thing is that more and more people are awakening to the realization of the undeniable truth that there is something greater than them out there. The walls of the matrix are slowly but steadily crumbling. It’s just a matter of time before enough people awaken and embrace the real world that the matrix has kept hidden from them for so long. This transformation is beyond expression in its beauty, persistence and determination.

Do you feel as though you're caught up in the matrix? Do you feel disconnected from reality in a warped, hollow existence with no definite purpose or direction? Are you just contributing to someone else's idea of how the world should be like or is it exactly the way you would prefer it to be? If your answer to these questions is yes, it might be time to take the red pill and wake up, Neo!

In my introductory post, I wrote about the awakening. In many ways, my experience was similar to the awakening from the matrix of the modern world that many people are caught up inside. It felt too superficial to be the real deal. I had inadvertently discovered some loopholes and bugs in the matrix software that I just had to exploit and examine at a deeper level with a clear conscience. I had to make sense of it all.

And that is why,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

P.S. Neo is the main character in The Matrix movie.

Fundamental Truths: The Earth vs. Us

2011-11-23T14:51:00.013+03:00

Take a moment from what you are doing right now and just look around you. Notice yourself and your environment. Take it all in.

Inhale deeply and then exhale. Inhale deeply and exhale again. You are alive. Congratulations! Whenever you breathe (which is practically all the time) you inhale about 1 liter of air from the Earth's atmosphere. You also breathe out a large volume of CO2 into the atmosphere. So you basically consume and give back part of the Earth's atmosphere constantly, even as you sleep.

Take a look at the clothes you are wearing. They are probably made of cotton (which was grown in the Earth) or wool (which was sheared from sheep that fed on the Earth's vegetation) or silk (which was processed from the larvae of silk worms that mostly eat white mulberry leaves that grows in the Earth) or polyester, nylon and other synthetic fibers (which are synthesized from naturally occurring chemicals in the Earth).

Next take a look at the furniture around you. It is probably made of wood, metal or plastic materials, all derived from the Earth. Similarly, this applies to the curtains, window panes, doors, ceiling, walls, floors and the entire building.

Look outside your window (unless you're sitting in a prison cell) and notice the trees, the wind, the grass and other forms of vegetation, the birds, the animals and the people. Notice how they all exist in a defined space, the Earth!

Look back at the computer, smartphone or tablet you're using to read this. It's also made of Earthly materials. Right? Focus on the screen and notice how you are able to read these words. You are able to read this blog article because light travels from the sun (about 149.6 million kilometers away) through the Earth's atmosphere and into your eye's pupils from where your eyes convert it into electro-chemical impulses for transmission into your brain. Fascinating science, right? Notice how the light has to travel through the Earth's atmosphere, the very same one that we are constantly consuming with our lungs?

Even our sources of energy comply with this Earthly Law. Crude oil for instance, powers our industries and transportation systems, it manufactures plastics, fertilizers (to grow our food) and pesticides, and it also acts as a major source of fuel. It is the very lifeblood of several economies. The Black Gold. But where does this magic substance come from? Crude oil is naturally found in geological formations beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists tell us that oil is a fossil fuel believed to be the transformed remains of long dead organisms. The majority of it is thought to come from the fossils of plants and tiny marine organisms. Larger animals (e.g. long dead dinosaurs) might contribute to the mix as well. In short, the source is, you guessed it, the Earth! The same applies to natural gas, wind power, and Geo-thermal energy. The exception here might be solar energy which comes from the sun but ultimately reaches us through the Earth's atmosphere.

It is a well-known fact in science that a significant fraction of the human body is water. This could be as high as 75% of the body weight in a new born infant. What a coincidence that water also happens to cover about 71% of the Earth's surface, and is vital for all known forms of life.

Consider your nutrition. If it is plant-based, it comes directly from the Earth. If it is animal-based, it still comes from the Earth although indirectly because herbivorous animal feed on the Earth's vegetation. Carnivorous animals feed on herbivorous animals which feed directly from the Earth. The same is true for animal by-products (think eggs and milk) and of course fresh water.

So as a quick recap, we can confidently say that we breathe the Earth, we wear the Earth, we shelter in the Earth, we exist in the Earth's physical space, our technology is the Earth, our internal biology (mostly water) is the Earth, the Earth powers our industries and transports us, and we feed on the Earth! If this then is the case, the ultimately question becomes: Are we the Earth? Or are we independent beings separate from the Earth? What is the Earth? What is the Earth in relation to us human beings?

In the society that you live in, how would you say most people relate to the Earth? Do they consider it to be an external phenomenon separate from themselves? If we decide to take the view that We ARE the Earth based on our little observations above, we can look at our daily decisions and actions from an entirely new light (by the way, thank you Earth for the concept of light).

Take the case of pollution. When we litter the ground especially with non-biodegradable materials, what are we doing? Are we polluting the land or are we polluting ourselves (it might help here to remember that the land holds the nutrients our food needs to grow and the litter only blocks access to these nutrients). When we spill oil in the ocean or dump toxic waste in water bodies, are we screwing the Earth or screwing ourselves?

Consider a powerful man-made weapon such as a nuclear missile (ironically made of Earthly materials) that can flatten and destroy EVERYTHING within a 5 mile radius by blast, fire or radiation. Does this weapon destroy the Earth or does it destroy us? Shall the DNA of the Earth be damaged by the radiation? Shall the Earth's lungs consume the toxic particles in the atmosphere?

Just a thought: Shall climate change, global warming and increased UV radiation harm the Earth and cause it to succumb to heat waves or skin cancer?

Should we as human beings then re-define our understanding of the Earth to depict that we are ONE with the Earth because we ARE the Earth? When we stop and re-evaluate our definition of the Earth, it becomes clear that our perspective on everything changes. The way we view our world in this new perspective seems to be quite powerful and fundamental at the same time.

Take this Earth perspective and apply it to all the interactions and experiences in your life and see how that works out for ya!

P.S. Isn't it an incredible thought that a dinosaur which died 65 million years ago could be powering your SUV (dino-mobile)? Next time you drive into a gas station, you might as well tell the attendant that you're low on dino blood.

Until next time,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

The State of the World: Part II

2011-11-23T08:18:00.016+03:00

During my previous post, I tried to imagine what the state of our world today would appear like to an impartial observer who in this case happens to be an alien creature visiting from a different planet far away from ours. Here, the alien’s intriguing discoveries continue….

After my last trip to earth, I was compelled to visit again and uncover what lies beneath the paradox of so much human advancement coupled with so much instability and dysfunction. This time around, I began by studying the history of the human race, of their evolution through time from cave men into modern civilization. Their progress seemed remarkable albeit dotted with frequent violent episodes and periods from ancient civilization, to the Roman rule, to the rise of Christianity, to the early ages, to the middle ages, to the Viking raids, to the age of discoveries and exploration and conquests, to industrialization and its social ills, to the world wars and colonization, to the cold war of ideologies and the race into space, and finally into the modern world of computer technology, the Internet and smartphones, war on terror, ideological and religious extremism, nuclear missiles, economic depressions, third world deprivation, climate change and about 7 billion human beings.

It was evident that this evolution had been marked with a lot of bloodshed and violence. Competition amongst human groups seemed to appear in one way or another. This was competition for the acquisition of various utilities such as natural resources, glory, wealth, pleasure, population expansion or simply as a cultural way of existence. Could it then be possible that violence and destruction are at the core of man’s nature? Is the human race a self-destructive entity waiting to explode at any given moment, without notice? I decided to take a closer look at the state of the modern world to figure out the answer to this question.

In the modern global economy, I was able to find out that the distribution of this planet’s wealth was far from being equal. In fact, it appeared to be quite skewed. According to their Internet, about 40% of the world’s wealth was owned by about 1% of the population. It also indicated that a few billion people lived on less than a dollar a day as wages. Moreover, the global economy was still struggling to recover after a collapse a few years ago. This global economic recession had been caused by the huge risky investments in bad loans made by various seemingly respectable institutions. It had caused millions of humans to lose their sources of income and their homes.

My first reaction was to wonder whether the Earth planet had enough resources to take care of its 7 billion inhabitants and other forms of life satisfactorily. If yes, was distribution the problem? If no, was overpopulation the problem? The questions never ended. The behavior of human beings also seemed contradictory to the state of their world. In spite of the depression and astronomical debt (another seemingly self-defeating human construct!!), nations still invaded and went to war with each other. If you are in serious debt and war is expensive, you wouldn’t want it, right? Not on Earth, it seems.

Another contradiction seemed to be the addiction to a source of energy that was polluting the planet’s atmosphere extensively. It is known as oil. It had powered industry for over a century; it had been cheap and easily available, but not anymore. Now that it was threatening to disappear, more wells had to be drilled even if it meant offshore where oil spills could damage marine ecosystems. This was in spite of the existence of several abundant sources of free, clean, renewable energy (I am familiar with the one from the stars; their star here is called the sun). I thought it made sense to harness these alternative sources of energy. I then wondered whether oil was preferred because it was simply profitable to corporations?!! No, humans were too enlightened to reason like that, or were they?

I sought out the region most affected by poverty and deprivation and shifted my attention towards it. I figured that if I examined why this region is so poor, I might find a clue as to why the State of their World is the way it is. This region happens to go by the name of Africa (also colloquially called the Dark Continent). On examining it, I unintentionally discovered a correlation between race and economic well-being. It appeared that humanity had divided itself into racial identities based on physical traits. Certain races were better of collectively than other races. The dominant race in Africa seemed to be the worst off of all the races. It was quite surprising that Africa was probably the most resource rich continent on the planet: valuable minerals, natural resources, a surging, youthful human capital, plentiful solar energy, few climatic extremities and hazards to destabilize productivity etc. Yet deprivation was acute here. Human beings were literally starving to death! Yet war, ethnic conflict, corrupt dictatorial political systems, huge debt, external interference in governance, and foreign economically exploitative presence were all in excess. The glass in my alien mind shattered into a thousand pieces.

The human race had certainly come a long way in time and development, yet it seemed oddly enough that it had gone full circle back to its cave man ways. Regardless of how I looked at it, I couldn’t understand why with so much modern advancement especially in philosophy, medicine, science and technology, a huge undeniable section of humanity was living in social, political and economic conditions that earlier human civilizations would have sneered at and objected vehemently. Could there be a common fundamental root cause for the modern State of their World.

This certainly seems like The Million kwteyui Question (by the way, just in case you were wondering, kwteyui would be the name of the currency in my home planet, if we actually had one!)

As always,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

The State of the World: Part I

2011-11-22T14:46:00.013+03:00

As I continue on this journey of observation and discovery, I am compelled to observe the state of the world today. I imagine myself as an alien visitor from outer space touring the planet earth (forgive me for trying to be impartial). What would I see? What first impressions would I get?

So let's assume I have only 10 minutes to tour the earth and I ask a nice friendly earthling what would be the fastest way to gather info about this planet. The earthling responds with a lot of pride that they have a powerful technology for storing the entire world's information in digital form. It's called the Internet. A huge database of humanity's info is only one click away (It's probably how you're reading this as well, unless you have developed mind-reading capabilities).

I quickly master this Internet and I am amazed by how advanced this race truly is. Their technological capabilities are outstanding. Their global communication is efficient. Everyone carries a fancy device they call a cell phone, iPhone or in some cases iPad. I then decide to check the latest news online to find out what is happening on this planet right now. Surely they must be doing something even more amazing given their level of advancement.

Okay, here we go. I log into the top news sites and the headlines hit me. Apparently there are new clashes in Egypt ahead of mass demonstrations (Is that the country with the human wonder of ancient civilization they call the pyramid?), the U.S Committee has failed to reach a debt deal (Wait a minute, isn't that the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth?), 15 Pakistani troops have been killed in clashes, Brazil fines Chevron $28 million for oil spill, War crimes court in Libya visit, Suspect in White House shooting makes court appearance etc... I could go on and on but the point is probably driven home. My time is up. I board my space ship and begin my journey back to my home planet billions of light years away. On my way back I have sufficient time to ponder about what I have gathered from the earth planet.

The people of Earth seem to be very intelligent, organized and advanced. But at the same time, there seem to be a myriad of economic, political and social challenges that plague them. I am puzzled. Is this the State of their World?

How can it be that a race of people capable of so much advancement have so many issues they are grappling with. My trip was very short so I didn't have enough time to explore in depth. I plan to make another trip later on to discover even more about this strange paradox.

After all,
~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~

Intro: The Awakening

2011-11-22T09:07:00.007+03:00

I awaken to the sudden realization of how hollow and pointless my life actually is. I find myself asking the big questions in life. Why am I here? What is my purpose? What greater force determined my existence in the first place? What is life really about?

Think about it for a second: You are born, You go through education of some form, You get a job or set up an income generating system, You raise a family or not, You immerse yourself in your career or job or business, You grow old, You pass on. Where do you pass on to? Does it end with your physical demise or is there some afterlife that extends your being? Is life a transitory phase between other phases?

Whoa! As these thoughts race through my mind, my head spins out of control. I try to shut them out and tell myself that life is what it is but No Way, do they give up. I quickly lose all motivation to do anything. I feel completely confused. Nothing makes sense anymore. Enthusiasm for everything fades into nothingness. Who is in charge here? Who can I see to get my life back, please?

So, I decide to do the inevitable. I embrace the thoughts about life and open up my mind to them. This leads me down the path of seeking the answers to life's greatest puzzles. I realize that the answers can never be objective because I am existing inside the very phenomenon (life) I am trying to question and understand.

Okay, now I am awake. I am looking around me full of wonder about everything. Like a blind man with the brand new gift of sight. Wow! My mind and senses are almost overwhelmed by the self-realization that I have just discovered. How do I do this? How do I make sense of everything? Then out of nowhere, it occurs to me. OBSERVE. It makes sense to me (at least for the time being) to try and detach myself from the experience and just observe it curiously and study the observations in depth. Maybe this will answer my never ending questions about life.

I embark on this journey of discovery with the objective of losing myself in observation of the world and the way in which it operates. I also feel the urge to immortalize in words the discoveries that I make.

~ Have Observation, Will Observe! ~