Everything Under the Sun

For millennia, humans have sought to obtain the coveted Philosopher's Stone. The discovery of such a technology would mean limitless wealth and knowledge. Alchemy touted the Philosopher's Stone as capable of transmuting materials into precious stones like gold and silver, presumably for the monetary benefits it could derive. But the search for the Philosopher's Stone was much deeper than that. It was thought to be capable of creating the Elixir of Life, generating physical and mental rejuvenation. This reveals to us that the ultimate riches are universal, non-tangible commodities - the limitless quantity of time, perpetual youth and beauty, and endless knowledge. Ultimately the Philosopher's Stone grants its owner an object of desire as old as humanity itself - eternal life, divine creation, and the answers to the universe. It would make Man into God.  Man has labored over the search for these omnipotent qualities since the dawn of civilization. For some, that search li...

I recently learned about the Clock of the Long Now, a 10,000 year clock built by the Long Now Foundation and funded by Jeff Bezos Expeditions. Operation began on New Years Eve 1999, to kick off the new millennium, the year 2000, and will keep time until the year 12,000 AD. The idea of a clock like this is to invoke a sense of Deep Time to the observer - the time scale that we use for distinguishing geologic epochs. The clock chimes once a year, a day is equivalent to a minute. In theory, an object such as this should inspire the contemplation of generational impact and the consideration of centuries in decision making, not days and weeks. This resonates with me today as I write another To-A-Year essay. 6 years doesn't seem very long (yet) but since I began writing down my thoughts and experiences, about life and the world, I have found myself considering the impact of that writing on a later version of me, even on my progeny. And 6 years later, the To-A-Year essay remains one of m...

December | Meaning of Life  |   Week 52  | 12/31/2023 What is the meaning of life? Part 5    Recently I discovered Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, which tells of a common male experience: the experience of self loathing, of resentment, disappointment, and envy, catalyzed by an avarice for all that life has to offer. The Sonnet showcases the agony of that all too common situation but details with beautiful literacy, the single, shining antidote - Love. For me, love, truth and wisdom are beacons of light in a dark cosmic background. They form a strong base for meaning in my life, and I feel fortunate to have become satiated in their pursuit.  When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,  I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,  And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, ...

December | Meaning of Life  |   Week 51  | 12/24/2023 What is the meaning of life? Part 4    Of all the arguments I've found most convincing to answer this question, the work of Dr. John Vervaeke on the Meaning Crisis has been the most impactful. Vervaeke talks about 'meaning in life' vs 'meaning of life. His approach follows the learnings we've gained from cognitive science, about what makes people feel as if their life has meaning - therefore yielding meaning in life. One can observe children (or adults) engaging with video games and detaching from society. Why? What does a good video game offer? 4 things, he argues; [1] Purpose, [2] Coherence, [3] Self Transcendence, and [4] Flow State. If regular life was capable of delivering these, then people would rather spend their time in that context than in the video game. Starting with purpose, the obvious purpose of the game is to beat the game, to complete all the quests, collect all the gold, etc. Moving to coher...

December | Meaning of Life  |   Week 50  | 12/17/2023 What is the meaning of life? Part 3 The Buddhists and the Christians both speak of a natural state for man, which maximizes life and gives us meaning. The Michelangelo Principle states that Michelangelo could look at an uncarved block of stone and see David. The Christians agree with this - that we are born an uncarved block of stone and we must discover the inner David, through discipline, adherence to rules, struggle and strife. The Buddhists believe we are David, the flawed being, suffering from the attachments to life, and that we must shed our attachments and return to the natural state - the uncarved stone. With such a difference, the Christians would purport that the meaning of life is the struggle to adhere to truth, to carve away the sin, and to live as God intended us, worshiping him and doing his will. The Buddhists would say that the meaning of life is to rid ourselves of possession and return to the nascen...

December | Meaning of Life  |   Week 49  | 12/10/2023 What is the meaning of life? Part 2  Rummaging through the file cabinets in my cognitive landscape, a panoply of concepts have reference strings to this question. I find the teleology argument compelling - the idea that there is a natural telos, or pattern of meaning in the world that's capable of investigation. This aligns with religious thinking, that natural meaning is ordained and orchestrated by an external source. The idea of scientific exploration builds on this structure arguing that we  can  investigate the natural world and understand it - which in fact is implicitly religious, for there is a "goodness" or virtue to this exploration. The way I understand it, this chain of concepts runs counter to the idea of hedonism, that the meaning of the world is subjective and is to be found in the pursuit of our whims, not the exploration of the natural world, which follows some set of laws. Also contrary...

December | Meaning of Life  |  Week 48  | 12/3/2023 What is the meaning of life? Part 1  Of all the questions one might ask themselves most intently and with the deepest sincerity, there is none more sobering than  "What is the meaning of life?"  This is indeed a beautiful and complicated question. 'Life' can be interpreted as the collective noun or the singular. It can refer to one's own life, or to the conscious experience of life on aggregate. It can reference the purpose of one's own existence or the reason for existence at all. Meaning can be applied to the subjective feeling one gets from an experience or the objective purpose of one's life. These 6 words, punctuated with a question mark, have occupied the minds of billions since the very first mind could be captivated by a question. I feel there is no better way to conclude this introspective journey that I've embarked on over the past year, than to ask myself the deepest, most elusive, most pro...

November | Politics  |   Week 47 | 11/26/2023 2024 Election predictions Over the last year my predictions for the 2024 election have changed numerous times. Depending on my exposure to various media, my portrayal of the candidates' favorability can and will shift. Additionally, my relative cynicism or optimism on any given day will impact my predictions. All things considered, I do feel relatively confident with my current prediction: Trump vs Kamala vs RFK Jr. Kamala wins.   On the Republican side, prior to Trump announcing his candidacy, I would have predicted that DeSantis would run and likely win the nomination. His support by folks like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, his support among Hispanics, and his sweeping victory in Florida, told me that he was likely to capture the same adoration nationally. However, once Trump announced his candidacy, it became unclear. Now, as we narrow in on 11 months until the vote, Trump has been indicted and arrested, appeared at numer...

November | Politics  |   Week 46 | 11/19/2023   My views on the topics of the day We exist in a time where there is an expectation to have an opinion on every topic, regardless of one's level of understanding, research or conviction. Frequently, a CEO, celebrity or laymen is asked to give their thoughts on a complex topic, stretching hundreds or thousands of years and encapsulating a corpus of philosophical and political discourse. For much of human history, the industry men commented on matters of industry, the doctors knew medicine, the politicians discussed politics, the economists debated economics and the scientists opined on science. The occasional polymath, a DiVinci or Jefferson, would comment on multiple subjects with authority.  I am no specialist, with no doctorate degree or tremendous success in a given field. However, as an aspiring polymath, this exercise is my attempt at practicing. I've taken the 5 biggest topics in the 5 biggest areas of modern human...

November | Politics  |   Week 45 | 11/12/2023   Feminism vs Masculinity: History and Political Impact Depending on which intellectual you listen to, you may have been told that the history of males and females is one of unidirectional oppression and unequivocal parasitism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but unfortunately it drives a strange political malignancy - the war between feminism and traditional masculinity.  First, a historical rebuttal. As far back as we can look, in The Old Testament, it is abundantly clear that man is lost and useless without women. In the book of Genesis, Adam is incomplete without Eve, both figuratively and literally (coming from his rib). The Bible goes on to detail this in narrative form in the Book of Exodus. The heroes of the early chapters are almost entirely women. Midwives Shiphrah and Puah, disobey the Pharaoh and save the Hebrew children. Moses's mother, Jochebed, rejects the Pharaoh's authority and saves her child's ...

November | Politics  |   Week 44 | 11/05/2023   Liberalism vs Conservatism: Today and Throughout Time In recent years, much has been written about the differences between conservatism and liberalism in their origins, in their goals and in their outcomes. To briefly summarize the corpus of modern understanding, [1] Liberals tend to be more open to experience/creative while conservatives seem to be more conscientious/orderly, [2] Liberals tend more towards the traditionally feminine while conservatives the traditionally masculine, and [3] age and experience correlate to conservatism while youth and idealism correlate to liberalism, creating a two-sided blade of ossification vs adaptation and order vs chaos. In short, natural disposition and environmental circumstance (nature and nurture) greatly affect one's propensity towards liberalism or conservatism. As the Book of Exodus so aptly describes in the Concept of the Integration of the Fringe, or the Daoist's so aptly abstra...

November | Politics  |   Week 43 | 10/29/2023   Globalism vs Nationalism: The State of Modern Politics If one were asked how to summarize the current political landscape globally, one could point towards perpetual staples of political division: totalitarianism vs democracy, theocracy vs secularism, liberalism vs conservatism. Perhaps they could point towards the novelties of modernity: masculinity vs femininity, technological progress vs technological skepticism, galactic expansion vs terra isolation. In this month exploring politics, I'll touch on many of these dualities, but I want to start the month by speaking on the most relevant binary which I believe underscores the current philosophical and political struggle most accurately: Globalism vs Nationalism.  One might say that the world has been globalized for many centuries now, since the colonies of the early 1700's. I'd argue that definitionally, globalism implies a certain reciprocity, not occupation, and there...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 42 | 10/22/2023   Talk about the place that beauty and expression have in your life When I was 14 I stood at the gates of Buckingham Palace, flipped coins into the Trevi Fountain, and strolled through the Italian countryside among thousand year old grape vines. At 16 I walked the halls of the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, stood atop the great Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland and walked in silent observation at Dachau. I was naïve, unappreciative and mostly emotionless, somewhat to be expected from a child but inexcusable by my modern standards. I didn't have a conception of beauty because I didn't have a conception of life. I didn't understand, truly, deeply understand, the nature of the human experience, the long arc of history, or the struggle and strife of an individual or of our species. I'd memorized facts, aced tests, read books and recited great speeches. But I had no knowledge that was informed by experience. And I had no s...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 41 | 10/15/2023 Literature and Cinema as artistic expressions  As I sit captivated yet again by the detail of Goodfellas, the thought provocation of Interstellar, or the emotional depth of The Dark Knight, I'm reminded of the various virtues represented in literature and cinema: temperance, prudence, justice, fortitude, faith, charity, patience, kindness, humility. I'm reminded of the archetypes: the tainted hero, the misunderstood villain, the damsel in distress, Icarus, Judas, Midas, Jezebel. The running joke today is about the alter ego or persona shift that arises after finishing a great movie, show or book. But it's not so much a joke as a statement of reality. We humans are mimetic and we look to archetypal characters for modules of behavior to integrate. I authored the content of my character starting early with the adventurous spirit of the kids from Magic Treehouse and the courage of the orphans of the Series of Unfortunate Event...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 40 | 10/8/2023 Describe your music affinities  As I have evolved as an individual so to has my propensity to seek out and enjoy music. Propensity lead to discovery. Discovery lead to affinity. Affinity lead to diversity; the archiving of a plethora of music, stratified by the various moods they induce and compliment. Diversity lead to particularity; emergent as music became connected to emotion. Like any artistic appreciation, generality gets wider and specificity gets deeper. I'll make mention to six specific genres/artists/moods and the context with which I appreciate them.  [1] Lifting -> Dopamine+ -> $uicide Boy$ Entrenched in the vigor and intensity of weightlifting, nothing feeds my aggression and fuels my drive like $uicide Boy$. I discovered this band and the genre which has formed around them about a year after I left college, as my focus on weightlifting became an obsession. Regular rap was too boisterous. Metal was ...

October | Music and Art  |   Week 39 | 10/1/2023 Describe your artistic style In the summer of 2021 I finally had the opportunity to obtain a permanent place of my own. I was 25 years old and everywhere I'd lived had been a shared residence or a temporary one. The walls of our college apartment were populated with Game of Thrones posters and my room filled with pictures of my girlfriend - I'd never taken a domicile, empty and available, and furnished it to suit my unique style. So this was the first time I had to introspect on and assess my artistic style. More than just the color scheme of my comforter and pillows, I had to decide what type of furniture I liked, what paintings and posters I wanted on the wall, and what items made my home feel like mine .  I'd always been minimalist and color avoidant. Fond of the 70's vibe which I'd seen in Mad men, I lacked the confidence to commit to it. In the same way with my wardrobe, I always enjoyed and even somewhat envied ...

September | Family and Career  |   Week 38 | 9/24/2023 What are your career goals? It's been a very poignant time recently, as I contemplate the next stage of my career journey and of my life. Where do I want to live, what kind of work do I want to do, how much of it do I want to do, and for whom? For all the unanswered questions, one thing is obvious; the time of a vast landscape of potential is over. I'm not choosing my college major anymore, not choosing between a grad degree or an internship, not even choosing the field where I'll work, I'm choosing from a much smaller set of possibilities, constrained by my own choices and decisions up to this point. But at the same time, paradoxically, I've never felt so much agency and freedom in my future. I have good experience, good degrees, good compensation, good references and good options.  I could contemplate how I arrived here, dwell on or praise my decisions, decry or celebrate my options, and simply live in the pas...