Opinionated

Evolution of Humanity

senshikaze — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:53:07 +0000

Ask yourself this: why are all humans the same? We don’t have different breeds, we don’t have strange mutants. Each human can be replaced by any other. None of us have created mutations other than skin color and slight alterations in structure over the entire history of the human race. The most primitive humans have the same physical build and same cognitive abilities as any other. Why is that?
I personally think that it is fairly good proof that humans didn’t not all evolve randomly all over the world. It shows that, going back far enough, you can end up with one tribe. All humans are basically the same. As far as I have found, there are no major mutations (tails, claws, etc) in any human ever discovered. We all are very alike. It shows that, for one, we all have some kind of common ancestor. All of us. It also shows that humans as we are know, are not that old. We haven’t had time to adapt like many animals have to our habitat. We learned very quickly that our larger brains means we are at the top of the food chain. We never had to adapt, we only conquered. Even the natives of deep South America have the ability to make tools. Yes, i know, many apes make tool too. But I have yet to see a chimp make a sharp stick, or sharpen a rock and lash it to a long stick. Almost all human societies have the spear in a hallowed position in the evolution of warfare. Meaning all humans have the same abilities of the mind. No other species I can think of have that. Everywhere humans are, we dominate. Even the fairly well integrated tribes are still the top of the local food chain. Amazing if you think about it, we have little fur, no claws, are fairly weak, but we have dominated this planet. Says a lot about how important the mind is.
I don’t know the origin of the species. I don’t know if God* did it, or some random amoeba. I know that it is doubtful that we all randomly evolved all over the planet at much the same time. Too many constants for something as random as evolution to happen that regularly. Of course that brings up a great topic: how the hell did our ancestors get around? I mean, the planet isn’t that small, and that is a lot of land, and, more amazingly, water to cross. It would be an interesting study in why there was such a mass exodus from, what I presume is, the cradle of life (Africa or Mesopotamia) to span the entire globe. (As far as I know every continent that we have been too 9excluding Antarctica) already had humans when the western explorers discovered them.

*I don’t know one way or the other, let your own beliefs guide you.

Of Open Sources

senshikaze — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:32:34 +0000

Open source, free software, and free/libre software are all the same thing to me. I use them all interchangedly. To me the idea, this openess, or freedom, is all the same. I want the freedom to modify the programs I use everyday. I want to be able to review code changes. I want to know what my black box is doing. Noone in their right mind should want a car that they can’t open the hood and see the engine and change, upgrade, modify it. but a computer? well that them there box is full of magic. Fuck that. My computer is mine. I hand selected every part in it. Why the hell would I choose a closed OS to grace my beautiful hardware with? I know the normal arguments. Linux is too hard. Linux makes me use the command line. Linux makes me think. I don’t want to think. I want to be a stupid sheep suckling at the teat of corporations. I understand. Normal people are stupid. I got it. But techs/geeks? You aren’t a tech or geek if you can’t get around in Linux. Period. You are nothing more than a really smart sheep. You are still a sheep.
I know “geeks” that have never not known the warm embrace of Windows their entire computing life, and won’t even boot a (free!) virtual machine to even try to learn at least a smidgen of Linux for their own good. Nope. They are offended at the thought of having to venture out and actually learn something. Why learn anything when big Microsoft will fix it in 17 years? Yea. great job. I would hire a deaf, mute and blind guy for tech support before I hired anyone like that.
And CIO’s. What the hell? At what point did it become kosher for utter idiots to decide the path of multi-billion dollar IT enterprises? Oh you use Microsoft because that is what your cuban cigar smoking, seven figure making, asshole CIO friends use? Well, nice to know you weighed all the goddamned options. Wouldn’t want that. Might get in the way of kickbacks.
And hardware manufactuers. Fuck all of you. Every last one*. Dell, you need to stop this retarded we only have Linux on a select few machines and actually put your profits where your FUD is. Hp? Well… They just need to concentrate on printers. Lord knows that all they have done for the past decade.
Anyway. The one reason I use Open Source, and I mean the only reason, is that I want my computer to be mine. Not owned by some multi-national conglomerate with only their profits in mind.

*except system76. I like those guys.(hint, hint )

Apples and Oranges

senshikaze — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:37:10 +0000

My opinions on the role of religion on women’s suffrage. It all starts with a man, a woman, and an apple*.

If you are not familar with the story of Adam and Eve, the basic premise is this:

[God] created the world from nothing over six days. On the sixth, he made man(Adam) and rested on the seventh. After a while [God] created woman(Eve) from one of Adam’s ribs so Adam could have a mate and a helper. The story goes that these two had free reign over the Garden of Eden except for one tree, the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Eating the fruit of the Tree would cause the one who ate it to be able to tell the difference between Good and Evil, and therefore know Sin.

So [God] allowed for the Tree, the temptation, to be prominant in the Garden. Of course, as all these stories goes, an Evil One, tempts, tricks, and conives Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree. She shares the fruit with Adam. When Adam eats the fruit, he introduces Sin into the human races and ultimatly is forced out of the Garden with his wife to live many years in hardship and woe. That basically sets up the last six millinia of Judaism.

The catch in this story, to me at least, is that Sin did not enter humans until Adam ate the fruit. This shows two prevailing “wisdoms” of humanity:

Man is easily tempted by Woman
Woman is not to be trusted

So what is the reasons for this? Well, it could be that the second “wisdom” is true, but I seriously doubt it. Women have shown time and again to be more level headed and to actually think their actions through. I would say it has a lot to do with the fact that only they can give birth and, for the good of the species, her actions must be thought out completely. Men on the other hand see the survival of the Tribe as all important, to hell with the domestic stuff.

Why have a myth that Woman is weak and must have Man there to guide her? That has a lot to do with the way religions work.

Religions, generally, are governments; just look at the modern day Catholic Church for evidence of this. Religions have one very import role: Keep the Religion going. Religion has to keep followers following, and, more to the point, alive. Many “sins” against [God] in many religions, especially ones created in harsh conditions (deserts, tundra), are actually sins against the tribe. Religions don’t want men to covet their neighbor’s wife because that will cause strife and possible bloodshed. Religions need all the able bodied men possible to survive. Religions want children to obey their parents, because then they will obey [God]. Sins are laws at the most base level.

What does this have to do with the myth of Adam and Eve? Babies. Children are worth more than gold to a civilization that has a high death rate. The problem you can have is that, because Women are people too, to keep them under control. You control the Women, you control the children. Men liked having control. They liked knowing they ruled with an iron first. It was for the Woman’s own good, of course. She is too weak to stand up to temptation.

Not all cultures have this mythos. Many Roman/Greek cults were centered around women. But even there, women had very few roles outside the home and outside a bed. The barbarians of the north and west Europe of the same time period treated woman as little more than pretty cattle. They were good for nothing except cooking and breeding. The use of religion to control women might have been the best thing that ever happened to women as a whole since it brought barbarians out of their mud huts and into a reasonable attitude toward women(There are some theologians and historians who think that woman were the reason for Christianity taking over Europe).

It is all a little crazy. I don’t know why anyone would care this much about controlling everybody, but I guess you can’t predict the actions of cowards. To me a civilization would have the most chance of survival if everyone has a say in the course they are going to take. Maybe another person may see a problem with your plan. Of couse that may also be why women have been put down over the years. Men aren’t known to listen very well(see: Tree of Good and Evil). And we generally get grouchy when issues with our craftily(see: haphazardly) laid plans are brought up.

I personally am very gender agnostic, I couldn’t care less. Personally the whole male vs female argument is retarded. We are all humans. How about we started acting like it?

*It wasn’t an apple. We just really like apples. It wasn’t really until the Renaissance that we started to associated apples with it.

**Replace [God/Him/He] with your deity and sex of choice.

First P0st!!1!

senk — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:43:48 +0000

Working on a new blog idea. Hold tight.