Cogito ergo Cogito

A Christian once asked me what my fundamental source for ultimate truth was. The answer might be unsatisfying, but it should be there with a little explanation. In logic, truth is defined as that which can be proven not false in every case. This applies well enough in mathematics and computer programming, but how about for reality? The problem with truth is that every case can never be accounted for. Quantum physics specifically denies it.

Consider a particle in your body, and all the aspects of it. It has among other properties energy and location. Upon measuring this particle's location, accuracy is lost in measuring its energy. This is the uncertainty principle, and it is an observable phenomenon that Einstein could not disprove. For some reason, this lack of truth is built into the very nature of the universe. I could measure the energy of that same particle, but if I wanted to know the location, I would again lose accuracy. If I wanted to know both the momentum and the location of a particle the best I'd be able to do is estimate. I would still be left with a version of the truth based on two separate measurements that have a mutually exclusive precision. So I'm left with a measurable amount of precision, but not the truth.

So, am I saying that truth doesn't exist? This is aesthetically painful to the human mind, but it is the strongest possibility. Surely a particle has a location, and a certain momentum, but I won't be able to figure that out because of an aspect of the universe that is not currently understood. So what is my foundation of ultimate truth, if I cannot know the truth of a solitary particle?

This is a universe of measurable precision. When the human mind decides to believe in truth, there's an amount of error that cannot be escaped. Truth absolutely must exist, and it may be glimpsed by humanity, but it is impossible to see from all sides without distortion.

Fractal Universe

On a quantum and universal scale, one can make an argument for a single observable pattern of force and matter. There are forces that steer galaxies and ones that bind quarks. Matter has shaped itself to form black holes, spirals of billions of stars, and even sentient beings. Our understanding and extrapolation of these forces has led to more questions than it has answers.

The question of existence is also approached philosophically. Like a logical proof, one can use a combination of easily proven truths to arrive at a higher understanding. The nature of this approach is limited entirely to the mind of a human being, and that which is experienced.

Consider this: All human experience is constrained narrowly. Electromagnetic radiation engulfs us. The visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is tiny. Human eyes are built only to see the light of their own star.

Our experiences have widened completely in the last one-hundred years.
And now it may be wide enough to give birth.

The Large Hadron Collider may be able to re-create and examine conditions approaching the beginning of creation.

If creation becomes a part of human experience, what is the new definition for godliness? If one fully understood the mechanics of the universe, omnipotence and omniscience may be computerized and mechanized.

The universe does not appear to resemble a fractal outwardly. Galaxies and molecules have little similarity. Could life be the way the universe exhibits self-similarity? Our collective existence through time becomes more and more in tune with the actual universe around us, and perhaps a new creation may spring forth from brains, computers, or any combination thereof. This would be the meaning of life, and an event horizon for all life on Earth. Universal reincarnation in the image of its maker.

A land called the Soviet Union

I started with "jerk off into a cup" - a natural launching point.

Holy dicks, what fucking day is it? Is it time for another? Yes it is.

I spent the day dealing with some very friendly people about a very unfriendly bill that has been sent to collections by way of some unpaid tuition at my money-grubbing University. Those bastards think they're going to get $2,000 out of me, well they've got another thing coming. I'll give them at least $12,000 more by the time I'm done with them! Those bastards will be swimming so deep in my hard-earned cash they won't know what hit 'em. They'll drown in US currency. They'll have to buy up some more ghetto just to make room for the new cash I want to give them for a degree next year.

That's where I'm at now - it's time to buy my degree. I've worked at papers and written and photographed and traveled and interviewed and even kissed Jane Fonda's ass, as every reporter does at some time, or must do on their deathbed, lest they enter the gates of Heaven unscathed by a tired old clash of grandfatherly ideals. So now I'm paying for it, because you see it's not your experience the industry wants; it's not your carisma, or your talent or your motivation or even your childish enthusiasm they're after. No, they want to know that you, too, shelled out an amount of dough greater than or equal to the worth of their own degrees before they'll even open a god damn portfolio. So be it. I'll buy the fucking thing and I'll do it the honest way: by taking money for my sperm downtown.

Sure, I can jerk off into a cup. Have I ever done it before? Not in a cup, no. In a receptacle, maybe, and into a cup indirectly, but never "squirt in the cup, put a lid on it, enjoy your James ma'am." Five, ten, fifteen years down the road, there could be me: child to a lesbian couple, or perhaps a hardline feminist with filed-down teeth and big gums who wears heavy red flannel and treks out to middle-school-age little league games where she is a stranger. That's what I want for myself, right now. That's my goal.

Really, it'd be nice to get all doped up and go to the dentist. My teeth are holier than the bulletproof Pope-mobile. I'm more sensitive to them, too. You can't see the Pope in his little squad-wagon anymore. They don't show him. I wish they would. As a child I used to love witnessing the Pope-mobile. It was hilarious. That was before I knew how to jerk off, much less into a cup. And that brings me back to it. Would the pope jerk off into a cup (assuming he had the capacity to engage in a sexually taxing activity like physical masturbation) to save a dying woman's legacy? How about his own?

I hear we are winning in Iraq so now we're moving to Afghanistan. Hopefully we will see the same success over there and we can even replicate it in Iran. The UN Chief would like to see that. Sooner or later we're going to have to go dick against balls with Russia and it's going to be gritty and you will not see a fear more sinister, more urgent than that which will be pumped out of live television, radio and telegraph broadcasts in our lifetimes on that fateful day when Russian bombers imposing over our inland suburbs like chicken-hawks. The pilots have to use the bathroom, too. "Is that frozen piss-sleet hitting the roof, honey, or is that napalm? I'll check it this time, you went out last time..."

More on this, as events unfold.