Dealing with loss...

This past moth has been a pretty traumatic one in my family, as my last post indicated. We lost a son, stillborn at 22 weeks into the pregnancy. As you can imagine, dealing with that loss is very difficult. We're coming to terms with what happened now, but it's going to be a long, long process.

Along the way, we've gotten the usual platitudes from friends and family.

"It's for the best"

"It's God's will"

"He's in heaven now"

"God had a plan for him"

Bullshit. We have enough on our plates to deal with at the moment, without having to worry that some half-crazed magical sky fairy is out to get us.

Like it or not, and as emotionally difficult as it is to deal with at times, the rational side of me understands that some pregnancies just don't make it to term. Some are lost early, and some later, but the reason for all these losses is physical, not some spiritual hyper-being deciding it wants one more baby to complete its collection and increase the level of suffering on earth.

Each of us needs to heal in our own way, and I don't begrudge those who seek solace in ancient myth. If it helps to make the process easier, I'm all for it. Just don't sign me up for the plan - and think a little before you say "It was God's plan", because that makes no kind of sense.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the new year, same as the old year (apologies to The Who).

Actually, I hope it'll be significantly better than the old year - as you may have noticed, I've been away for a couple of weeks. We've had a tough couple of weeks as a family, coping with a wrenching bereavement.

Things like this really put into perspective the utter mindlessness of much of today's culture, with people obsessing over every Britney move while ignoring the bigger issues. I haven't been able to even pick up a People (or similar) magazine since. It all seems so shallow. I'll be blogging more on this in the future.

With that said, this year this blog will refocus on what's really important to the world - moving the human race forward (not back into the dark ages of religious intolerance) and where rational thought and discussion win the day.

Happy New Year!

I hope they're not using Windows.

Researchers at Oxford University have concluded, given a couple of reasonable assumptions, that we're all just a simulation. Philosopher Nick Bostrom has worked out the numbers, and it's pretty conclusive.

Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems.

Some computer experts have projected, based on trends in processing power, that we will have such a computer by the middle of this century, but it doesn’t matter for Dr. Bostrom’s argument whether it takes 50 years or 5 million years. If civilization survived long enough to reach that stage, and if the posthumans were to run lots of simulations for research purposes or entertainment, then the number of virtual ancestors they created would be vastly greater than the number of real ancestors.

There would be no way for any of these ancestors to know for sure whether they were virtual or real, because the sights and feelings they’d experience would be indistinguishable. But since there would be so many more virtual ancestors, any individual could figure that the odds made it nearly certain that he or she was living in a virtual world.

So, it turns out that there may be a God - it's just that he's a nerd playing Second Life v20, a thousand years from now. Who knew?

I'd just like to point out that 100% of anything is perfect.

I've been tagged again. This time by Pharyngula. I am to take this test of my personality defects, post the results, and pass it on.

I'm a Robot.

You are 100% Rational, 28% Extroverted, 14% Brutal, and 42% Arrogant.

You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact, this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem human.

For instance, you are very humble and don't bother thinking of your own interests, you are very gentle and lack emotion, and you are also very introverted and introspective. You may have noticed that these traits are just as applicable to your laptop as they are to a human being. You are not like the robots they show in the movies. Movie robots are make-believe, because they always get all personable and likeable after being struck by lightning, or they are cold, cruel killing machines. In all reality, though, you are much more boring than all that. Real robots just sit there, doing their stupid jobs, and doing little else. If you get struck by lightning, you won't develop a winning personality and heart of gold. (Robots don't have hearts, silly, and if they did, they would probably be made of steel, not gold.) You also won't be likely to terrorize humanity by becoming an ultra-violent killing machine sent into the past to kill the mother of a child who will lead a rebellion against machines, because that movie was dumb as hell, and because real robots don't kill--they horribly maim at best, and they don't even do that on purpose. Real robots are boringly kind and all too rarely try to kill people. In all my years, my laptop has only attacked me once, and that was only because my brother threw it at me.

In short, your personality defect is that you don't really HAVE a personality. You are one of those annoying, super-logical people that never gets upset or flustered. Unless, of course, you short circuit. Or if someone throws a pie at you. Pies sure are delicious.

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.
2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.
3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.
4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Class Clown.

Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Hand-Raiser, the Emo Kid, and the Haughty Intellectual.

Sounds about like me.

Here are the unlucky souls who are tagged by me:
Tantalus Prime
Psychodiva

Random Facts.

Oh dear. I got tagged. Twice. Thanks to Psychodiva and Tantalus Prime. OK. Let's do this.
First, the preamble:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Now the fun facts. OK, well, they may not be fun, but they are facts.

1. Fact the first: I'm originally from England - grew up in the Vale of Evesham (Google map here) in Worcestershire. I lived in the UK until I was 21, when I moved Stateside.
2. I came to the US to pursue the love of a good woman, and coincidentally to study Physics at the graduate level at Florida State (go Seminoles!).
3. I studied undergraduate physics at Brunel University in London (now the University of West London). Seems I made a big impression, since they don't offer Physics any more.
4. While at Brunel, we had a reputation (probably apocryphal), that we had the highest intake of beer per capita of any student bar on any campus in the UK. Probably had something to do with the lousy male-to-female ratio at the time.
5. I broke my shoulder cycling through Basel in Switzerland in 1987.
6. My cats have been named for alcoholic beverages. First Whisky, now Bailey. Not sure what's next.
   
7. Let's see.....struggling now. I always wanted to go hiking in Nepal. Not done that yet, but if someone can help finance a trip, or come along with me, then let's do it!
8. What else. Oh, I know....where would I be without the kids! 9 and 12, growing up fast - I need to figure out a way to pay for college. This pretty much precludes #7.

Well, that's it. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but don't make me go through that again. Now all I have to do is find some unsuspecting poor suckers to do this to. Not sure I can find 8 though that haven't been tagged. How about these to start:

• One Fewer God
• One Good Move
• Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

I'll edit more in later as I think of them

First Post

This blog is my first foray into the wide world of posting my thoughts to the world. I've spent many years reading others thoughts, and it's about time to add my voice to the community.

Over the course of my life, I've become interested in many things, but a few have stuck with me - a general interest in science (especially physics, astronomy and evolution), computers (where I make my living) and a skepticism around extraordinary beliefs (extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence).

Increasingly, and what has led me to begin this adventure, I'm becoming more concerned about fundamentalist agendas, especially here in the US, and specifically around the state of science education, and the encroachment of religion into every facet of life here.

I'll be posting on the issues that concern me on a daily basis, and I hope to be able to shed some light into the dark corners of irrational belief. If you'd like to come along for the ride, welcome.