Never should've happened

People's life stories are inspiring.  Sometimes it's a little hard to see what is happening during the hardships life brings, but the bigger picture of a person's life is usually beautiful to see... and inspiring.

I'm thinking of a young mother who was a farmer's wife who got pregnant during a very bad time.  Her country was in civil war, so she lived in fear that one day she would have to choose sides.  But life turned worse than her fears.  After her first trimester of pregnancy, her husband died (but not from the war).  She was alone on the farm.  This stressed her, of course, and she delivered early.  Premature babies didn't normally make it at this time, so she was doubly stressed.

Fortunately, 3 years later, the civil war died down and she was able to find a husband, a rather well-to-do one at that.  But, she left her child with her mother to raise.  In any age, grandmothers raising grandchildren is a struggle at best.  Finally, 9 years later, his grandmother couldn't raise him any longer, so his mother came back into the picture.  She had had 3 children by her second husband by this time, so he joined a family of half brothers who weren't thrilled about his return to their mother.  She immediately enrolled him in school to occupy his time and relieve some of the stress caused in the family by his presence.  But, after a year, she withdrew him in order to make him a farmer and give him a trade.

As it turns out, he was not good at farming, so he failed miserably at this endeavor.  His mother was at wit's end.  Her brother suggested that her son might have a better chance in school, so she enrolled her son again in school.  He graduated and enrolled in Trinity College in Cambridge.  He was only able to this through a work-study program where he cleaned wealthy kids' rooms and waited tables in the cafeteria.  He managed to graduate, but with no distinctions whatever.

Then came the good news/bad news time of his life.  Because of some work he had done outside of the curriculum of school, he was awarded four years of future education.  Unfortuantely, disease on a pandemic scale ravaged his country and town, so the university was shut down.  Looking back, the university was only closed two years, but of course, no one knows that at the time it is happening.  So, he took the next 18 months to sequester himself and study harder than he had ever studied on only the subjects he enjoyed.

One day, while he was deep in thought, sitting outside under a grove of trees in the refreshing air, the wind blew an apple from a branch.  Usually, this is not an exciting, stimulating event.  But, this time...

The boy who was not supposed to survive, who was born in the midst of a civil war, who was taken from school to be a farmer, who graduated undistinguished from college had an epiphany that day the apple fell.  It started his observations about gravity, which turned into a book about infinitesimal calculus, which led to a theory on light and color, which, in turn prompted a book about planetary motion.

Isaac Newton is considered by many, many scientists to be the father of the Scientific Revolution.  I don't know if it was never meant to be, and Newton just had tremendous stamina, or if it was meant to be, and he was the chosen one.  Either way, his story inspires me.

What is around my next corner?  My history mirrors Newton's early life in many ways.  But, an apple hasn't blown off a branch of the tree I have been sitting next to yet.  I am, however, watching the wind dance in the branches and looking forward to whatever the wind blows in.

Ladder to the top

Scientists are getting closer to establishing the many, many facets of DNA and all that is passed on through its rung-like links on a ladder.  So, in another decade, I can write this blog again with much more precision.  But, I know that personality, physical features, sensual capabilities like sight, and latent talent possibilities  get passed on from parent to child.  And, I know one very amazing mom who has a son who will inherit much of what gives her the beauty and skill she possesses.

You're now 11, my handsome young man.  You are climbing a path and finding that it leads to the top of a wonderfully tall mountain.  Your genes have taken you farther than other young men your age.  Many of them will not make it to the top.  But you will; it's a matter of genetic fortune-telling.  Keep up your masterful journey.  You have it in you to conquer each obstacle that arises to impede your progress.

Happy Birthday!  And, congratulations for your great 11 year journey and for the outstanding years ahead containing your accomplishments.

More than a little intrigued

Watching the H2 channel, I came across the series called UFO files.  I watched some of the program before moving on to the NFL channel, but the part of the program I came across was the segment in which a man was interviewed about his experience with aliens.  When he mentioned that he knew how to speak to aliens, the interviewer asked him to speak in the language he communicated with them.  The man obliged, translated the words he spoke, then went on to say he knew 3 alien languages.

Hearing the language was fascinating.  I rewound the program to listen to the speech again.  Well, maybe it was.  I know that many scientists think the universal language is math or binary code.  NASA has sent several probes into space with messages using coded messages in math and computer programming.  NASA has never released a response to their messages if they have received any  The famous show Close Encounters of the Third Kind, depicted communication with aliens in music and color.  And at least one documentary has explored this possibility.

The language the man spoke was similar to Morris Code.  He spoke with short clucking sounds punctuated with voiced d taps.  So I compared the human languages of the Earth to this alien language.  At first blush, I was reminded of the sounds of the South African Bantu languages that have clicks in their speaking.  I also thought of the sounds of Arabic to someone who doesn't speak Arabic. He can  hear the k sound easily in all the words and the dominance of the umlaut u sound.  And although the man in the program didn't use k and u,  he did repeat a luh sound frequently.  In the case of Morris code, it uses long and short sounds or lights to spell letters , but it really doesn't have a grammar all its own.  Many wouldn't call it a language.

The translation of what the man spoke, "Hi, how are you. How have you been doing this afternoon?" has an easy grammar to it.  There is a greeting word, two interrogatives, two forms of BE, a present participle, a determiner and a time of day.  So did the ds and luhs match the forms of words in the translation?  It was certainly possible.  There was a lengthening of the sound at the end for the time of day.  There were extra luhs for the change in the form of BE representing the difference between the present and present perfect ideas. There was a slightly different vocalization before the first luh as if a greeting had a different tonal quality, and a different pattern in the ds and luhs that occurred in the same position as the present participle.

I would love to hear more than the small segment given on the program, and I would love to hear the other languages this man knew for comparison's sake.  Of course, it is always wise to entertain the idea that alien languages won't have developed the same way as human languages.  So, we should compare the language to animal languages and compare it to nothing but its own sounds and syntax.  Chimp and Gorilla language have different tones for the grunts and aspirations, but it has never been determined that there is an order to language, and only in one case has there been an attempt to show tense.  Dolphin and whale language have been scrutinized as well without too much success.  Most accounts of their languages relate to momentary information or emotions.

I don't know what exactly the government has in the way of analysis of alien languages, but I know that they have authorized a protocol for contact with alien species.  It's all very fascinating. It's the stuff of legends and myths, but it's still intriguing to think that others have developed a method to communicate differently, probably, from us.

Charting patterns

Stock and currency market charts have much to teach about life, not just about money.  There is a big picture, and there are trends and anomalies, all three of which can help us as individuals.

Sometimes, I get caught up in the moment and make decisions that are only good for now.  Sometimes the decisions are bad, sometimes good.  Sometimes though, I don't get to make a decision about matters at all.  The forces in the bigger picture make those decisions, and I have to react to them.  I am not always in the right position to react positively to those forces, and I fail miserably.  However, most of the time I am and benefits result.

The beauty of charting is to see what was true a day ago, a month ago, a year, five years, or a decade ago. I can draw some conclusions about the way I trade.  I can change that pattern or pat myself on the back.  I can learn from those charted periods, or I can ignore them, knowing that each trade is unique to current conditions.  Maybe the period I am trading in is like the period in a previous trading period, but then again, it is mostly not.

Stocks and exchanges teach me that I can miss opportunities, that life moves on regardless of my response to it, that I can benefit if I am a good student of it, and that whether the movement is up or down, there is an opportunity to have good things happen.

I have known this from what wise people along the way have told me. But, charts display it so well that it is hard to forget their lessons.  Their images are in my mind's eye for just the right times.

Pockets

Pants pockets hold all kinds of objects.  We put everything from coins to socks, gum to gloves, sun glasses to cell phones in our pockets.  They hold the things that mean a lot to us and things that are trash.  We trust them to hold those things until we're ready to use or discard  the items.

As we go through the days of our lives, we accumulate all sorts of experiences.  Our memories hold our response to those experiences in much the same way as our pockets hold the things we stuff in them.  And we can pull out the memories when we need them.  I can pull out some of my crowning experiences and those that I wish I could really forget.  I can pull out the moments I have learned great lessons and the minutes that brought particular joys.  I can revel in the scenes that helped me achieve and relive pictures of paralysis.

But there is one pocket I go to often because it brings to mind the days from a year of complete, unadulterated, pure, pleasurable, utterly enjoyable happiness, full of vibrant life and laughter, replete with smiles, brimming with the essence of life. It is a very worn pocket, even though only five years old, and I am thankful to have it so stuffed.

Fostering distrust

People have fetishes without a doubt and that usually comes up in a conversation when a conversation lasts more than the obligatory 5 minutes.  For some it is like or dislike for a particular food; for others it is bare feet or big noses.  People will certainly tell you what they think of others.

In fact, the urge to say something about others is so common that if you are with someone and he or she doesn't loosen his or her tongue with a fetish, then we begin to distrust the genuineness of that person.  And people will try to probe you for your fetish if you speak for very long to them.

This is hilarious behavior to me.  Some even consider it destructive, but I simply take note and go on with the conversation.  A lot of people distrust me because I don't give up my fetishes.  I have only told one person on Earth what my fetishes are.  They're safe secrets with that person.  I could spend an eternity with that person and be transparent because everything is safe.

But, normally, people have fetishes without a doubt.

Directionality

When I was young, I remember hearing advice given to me to ground myself in order to have a compass for life built into my head so that I wouldn't lose my direction.  Now, I realize that life doesn't have four main directions.  It has about a million directions (6 billion, really, since the Earth's population is that number).  To make a reference to a compass  in order not to lose my direction in life is such a gross simplification of life that I laugh at the thought today.

And as far as losing direction goes - well, what direction is a person headed at the beginning of his or her life?  There is no way to ever know since there are so many directions to go in the first place.  And even if one could identify the directions, life contains so many changes in it, who's to say that a change of direction is ever considered getting lost, especially since challenging times (even as a result of a bad decision) build character and lead to opportunities that might not otherwise be achieved.

Yeah, a compass for life is the poorest metaphor around as advice for a young person.

Easy turned hard

Sometimes people focus on word connections between two languages that aren't really there.  It's part of the learning curve when one begins learning a language.  For example, realize in English is used most of the time to mean to become aware of something. But occasionally the word means to complete something.  So, when Spanish speakers begin learning English, they use the word realize in sentences when the best word in English is really do, accomplish, or perform. That is because realizar in Spanish means to accomplish something or as a synonym of hacer, meaning to do.

This is a phenomenon so common it has a linguistic name - cognate/false cognate.  It's quite common in related languages, but not common at all in languages that have no common parent language (Chinese and German, for example).  It's an easy fix when it happens.  One just reinforces the new context of the word through practice and a certain number of repetitions in various contexts.  Voila! Easy fix.

But when it happens in religion, matters are complicated because in religion, one adds to his doctrinal or value basis for one's behavior.  Recently, I was privy to a social media entry by someone who was reading Revelation and came across the two instances of the word translated in many versions of the New Testament as sorcery.  The person had done a dictionary study of the word used in Greek and seen the word pharmakeia in an interlinear version of Revelation.

Of course, a person who studies languages knows about cognates and false cognates.  So, when the person made the statement that it was no mistake that the word used in Revelation for sorcery is the root word for pharmacy, the linguist smiles.  But, the problem is also compounded because Roman and Greek culture of the time of the New Testament intertwined the idea of sorcery with people who used various natural drugs, usually in the form of a vapor from gases like sulfur or fumes from plant leaves and vines.  It was also used metaphorically by writers to show how people are taken from cultural traditions (like the children in the story of the Pied Piper). 

Modern Americans live after the scientific revolution in the world that took place between the 1100s and 1700s.  So the idea of sorcery is an idea of mystical arts, black magic, or voodoo.  Certainly the thinking is that sorcery is a black art that has no basis in truth or reality.  There is not really a modern English word in common use for the idea of pharmakeia because American culture is so different from the one of the Roman Greco world.  Scientific thinking has completely replaced the idea of seeking words of wisdom from an oracle, a priestess who gave advice under the influence of vapors or of wanting, or of trying to induce a state of awareness so that one can speak to dead spirits and gods, or of taking a hallucinatory journey to see the future or past. Although drug user, junkie, and terms like that do exist, the cultural connotation is not even close to the idea used in Revelation.  The idea of pharmakeia is not so much, then, related to the semantic domain of drug use as it is for seeking or following a priestess' advice (who is speaking for Apollo or Athena) under the influence of drugs.  It is the semantic domain of following the advice of a god besides the Christian god that is condemned in Revelation, not the drug use.  And the sorcery idea is akin to the trickery (the metaphorical use of pharmakeia) than the black arts idea (which doesn't exist in the minds of most modern Americans).

Pharmacy is the legitimate derivative of pharmakeia.  Sorcery is more related to magic and its word derivatives.  So, now the person who reads sorcery in Revelation is victim to developing a line of thought based on false cognates at best, and at worst is victim to developing a doctrinal or value based idea based on great cultural difference.  I blame the blind loyalty of scholars on translation committees to their religious doctrines for misleading people with their translations.  But I also blame the naivety that exists among zealous religious people.  I trust they will study enough to grow out of this beginning stage of comparing two languages.

A rose by any other name...

The word logic usually doesn't suggest diversity when it is explained or defined.  In fact, logic is usually the antithesis of diversity.  When a person is said to have acted or spoken logically, it is implied that the person acted like most people would in a situation.

One of the questions a person must answer in order to explain logic is why something behaves the way it does.  So, there is a scientific logic, a mathematical logic, a language logic, etc., to explain why certain things happen the way they do.  Of course, there are always anomalies, and it is the anomaly that makes for the interest in trying to explain logic because a good accounting for certain behaviors can account for the anomalies.

But, as I observe people, I see that they act differently from the way I would act.  And, if asked why they did something, their logic behind the action is different from mine.  That leads me to think that logic is not uniform; it doesn't cause people to think the same way.  The theory of relativity, for example, is one way to account for some of the behaviors one sees in space, but string theory is another way of explaining some of the same phenomena.

Some of the greatest debates between parents is about how to raise children.  Many people merely use the method that was used in raising them when a better method works a lot better.  For example, when two parents talk about whether a child should be disciplined for not eating what is cooked for a meal, one parent says he/she will whip the child for not cleaning the plate and honoring the person who cooked the meal because his/her own mother or father whipped him when growing up.  The other parent is aghast at such a response saying that whipping is too harsh a punishment.  The other parent thinks the child should stay at the table as long as it takes to eat the food, even if it is an hour later because that's what his/her parent did.

Neither response is the one I would choose and my response is not the response of others who know what my response is.  What causes this diversity of thinking in response to a simple, predictable behavior by a child?  

At the root of behavior is something genetic.  It's called personality.  Personality causes people to think differently, to have different logics from each other... a beauty in the eyes of the beholder idea.  I always thought that geometry was a simple idea.  It was about shapes and points, angles and areas.  But, there's more than one way to view geometry, I have found out.  There's plane geometry, for sure, but there's also solid geometry, spherical geometry, analytical geometry, enumerative geometry, differential or discrete geometry, inversive or stochastic geometry, and on and on.

Personality needs to be studied by the experts in the field in the worst way. It would certainly explain people's behavior better than anything available now.  Cognitive scientists have helped a great deal already in finding the mechanics of how people think.  Studies in personality would go a long way in explaining why people think the way they do.  Surely  we will begin to see such studies soon.

Enjoying the trail

This is the time of year for renewals, births of new ideas, deaths of old ideas, hopes for things to work out, realizations of new things on the horizon, and, at the very least, the next step in a journey of 1000 miles. And, that's because we can't see what is ahead on the trail.  On this journey, the trail winds in and out of forests, across desert plains, onto occasional mountaintops, and through the valleys below them.  Sometimes it requires all our strength and sometimes it gives us sheer joy and thrills.  Sometimes it seems blase, sometimes it yields excitement at every next step.

I've taken a great number of steps on this journey already and have seen the terrain above.  There is no telling what lies ahead.  But, enjoyment of the journey is the key.  Each moment has a different feel, and not all feels leave a smile on my face.  But, after  a while, the moments have similarities... uniqueness, yes, but similarities too.  Knowing how the path winds and knowing that steps have a finite number that can be taken, I want to enjoy the gifts they bring.  And I would like for the path to loop back around to those 4 most enjoyable moments in my life.  I know that most paths don't contain loops.  But, some do, and I would have unimaginable enjoyment if those 4 were to happen a second time.  And perhaps, the future would then need no more loops in the path.

Populated planets

The company that is planning to go to Mars in the year 2024 has begun its interview process.  They had about 4000 applicants, and they selected a little over a thousand to interview.  They began by choosing their first two, both of them soldiers in the army.  I can't wait.  I want to see who they choose, and I want to follow the story of the trip to Mars every day the journey continues.  It will be quite the adventure.

I am pretty sure I will miss out on an actual trip.  I was born out of sync with the time of traveling to Mars. But I will continue to dream of the Red Planet and what it offers to Earth's inhabitants.  I would love to see if it has been our once and future inhabited neighbor.  I would love to see the first colony, the growth of its population, the language they will eventually speak, and the appearance they will eventually develop.

Wouldn't it be a sight to see two planets in the solar system with life and societies and all the advancements they will bring to humanity.  I would love to see it.  It's pretty fantastic to imagine and anticipate it.

Beautiful illumination

I saw the most beautiful calendar tonight.  It was called Moons.  Each month had a picture of one of Earth's most beautiful spots with the moon in 3D above the horizon.  The moon was not a bright speck in a dark sky, but a brightly lit sphere, the gray outline of the mountainous areas illuminated against the backdrop of its deserts.I was fascinated by the pictures selected for each of the months.  They were the clearest pictures of the moon from the Earth that I have ever seen.

Part of my fascination with the shots of the moon on this calendar was simply from my love for observing objects in space, but part of it was from  the crystal clear clarity of the moon as viewed from Earth.  And that is part of my wish for the year 2014.  That I can see with clarity some of the issues I am used to seeing in the usual, unilluminated ways.  Illumination and clarity would make my year if it were to happen.  Each day I will look for these two realizations in toto or in pieces.  It will be a fascinating year if this wish really happens.

False quality

I stopped at a convenience store today to get something to drink and to use the restroom.  Oh, the restroom... what a room that was.  On the mirror over the sink was a sign saying that if the restroom wasn't clean to contact management because they wanted only quality restrooms.  A quick survery showed stains of coke drips all over the inside of the door.  The floor around the toilet was littered with toilet paper.  The sink had not been cleaned in a while because drink stains were all over it.  Water drips appeared all over the floor, not merely around the toilet.  A cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper was uncurled and half-floated near the bottom of the water in the toilet bowl.  Plaster splotches adorned the walls of the small room.

I'm not sure why management bothered with the sign on the mirror.  But then, part of the work I do is exactly like this scene - figuratively speaking - so I understand the need to keep up an image.  People's rhetoric is one thing, but if one takes a look around the words that are spoken, such as people's actions, or their words in other circumstances, one finds that the pledge to be a decent person is mere talk, empty words.  I try hard to expose people's stories that don't match their rhetoric.  It's not that hard either, and I have found that people whose lives don't match their rhetoric are habitually out of kilter.  If I were to stop at this convenience store again, I am quite certain that nothing will have changed.

It was a good snapshot to remind me, coming into a new year, that people live behind images created by words, their facades, and surveying the environment will bear out the emptiness of the words being used.

Looking ahead from the mist

The night was dark.  Street lights lit the street, but could not be seen easily since the fog hid all but the bright orb around the light.  A light mist lived in the fog, so the next morning's early drivers would have to scrape a light layer of ice from their windshields.  The wind would make the chill in the air 10 degrees lower if anyone were to get out in it.

All the people in the house were sleeping already, resting in order to be ready for the next day's activities that would start in the pre-dawn hours.  So, the night hours yielded a lot of time for the one person who remained awake to review the year's twisting path. In many ways, the path had led by "still waters."  Yet, it had had moments of unpleasantness, and one moment that meandered across the edge of "the valley of the shadow of death."

In two days the year would end.  So, in the late hours of this night, the lone wakeful person tried hard to see where the trail would lead him over the next 365 days.  Of course, there was no way to tell.  But, his greatest hope in life he would keep as his priority.  He wondered where the peaks and valleys would occur, knowing that he would see both.  And, short of death, he knew that next year at this same time, he would have a chance to review the year again.  And, maybe, just maybe, the fog would not be hiding the street lights, the wind wouldn't further chill the freezing air, and mist would give way to dry ground.  It would certainly be a welcome change.

Among those shining stars

Depending on how you look at it, humanity's records of itself have either been kept a long time or they are a recent development of the our race.  Somewhere between 3500 BCE and 2800 BCE records began being kept.  The records of Sumer are the earliest records found (although the Chinese say differently, they are not forthcoming with their earliest records).

These early records record a god named Enki.  He later was more famous under the name Ea, but he was the keeper of life because he was in charge of life-giving water.  Also, in the ancient world, celestial observers tended to let things on Earth become reflected in the skies.  So, in ancient astrology, there is a portion or field of the sky known as a water area.  In this area, Ea's area, there is a faint constellation. Stars in the galaxies of this field of the sky range from 39 to 340 light years from Earth.  It is the second faintest constellation from old, but it is one of the original constellations, one mentioned in the ancient Babylonian astrological records.

Ea had a number of different symbols for himself but two of the most enduring ones were the sign of the fish because it was a sign of water which symbolized life and the other was the sign of life on Earth, fertility. The symbol for this was the goat.  Goats sustained the people and multiplied easily.  The two signs combined to represent him.

The constellation now is represented, after all these years, still by the mountain goat and the fish, the head of the goat, the body of the fish.  It is best seen in the sky from December 22-January 21.  It made its way into the zodiac under the sign name of Capricorn (Latin for goat horn).  The people born under this sign are said to be some of the best, brightest, most surefooted, regal, brilliant, ambitious, discrete, and dependable people on the planet.

So, I look to the skies every single night of this Capricorn cycle, and I see the stars of Capricorn in the sky, think of the ancient meanings and signs, try to see the star that is 340 light years away, and then change my thoughts to one who was brilliant in every way, whom I enjoyed more than anyone else in my life, who was truly regal, dependable, and ambitious.  I say, "Shine brightly" aloud to myself as I stare upward.  And each night among those shining stars, I see face and a person's unforgettable form, I hear a laugh and the sound of a voice, and I bring to mind the happiest scenes of my life.  My next 30 nights give me pleasant, peaceful rest.

I still wish

The year is about to end, and it is at this time that I reflect on the year behind and look at the hopes I have for the next year.  It seems that this year my goals were accomplished at about a 50/50 level, half accomplished, half not.  Disappointed? Not at all.

Life is not a fair playing field.  And, sometimes there are so many factors entering into accomplishment of a goal that it is hard to know which one contributed the most.  And, when a goal hasn't been accomplished, it's not always apparent what happened exactly to cause the goal from being fulfilled.  My number one goal for the 4th straight year was not realized.  I still wish for it to happen.  I am hoping that what will broaden my horizons and make me the happiest man alive will happen this year.  As far as assets go, there was a mixed bag.  50%.  Job related goals and personal health goals were above 50%.

For the hope of next year?  I have two great hopes - one financial, one personal.  We'll see.  I have learned that there are bound to be some twists and turns this next year.  I'm never ready for those.  But for those that I have a hand in, I will work hard to make them come to pass.

So here's to a good year.

Next December I want to write that all my goals have been realized.  There is always hope and faith, and I still am holding out both.

Another year-turner

Every 12/24 starts with a single-minded thought.. happy birthday to a person who achieves the highest of ambitions, both for herself and in what the world has to offer.  When the room is stale or dark, she brightens it.  When people have lynch mob mentality, she quells it.  When people are sad, she consoles them.  And when a situation needs someone to figure out an answer to a difficulty, she produces the solution.

She's an amazing person, worthy of accolades in so many areas of life.  One day her children will find out what a tremendous mother she has been to them.  Everyone else already knows this quality in her.

Nothing but the greatest of birthdays for this, your day!

Breathing good air

It's the eve of the eve before Christmas.  All through the house everything is stirring, even the mouse (I killed one in the garage recently. Who knows but that there might be another one).  My daughter just finished building a 108 piece kitchen for her 2-year-old.  There is a lot of satisfaction in the air tonight.

And maybe that is the best contribution of Christmas each year.  It gives a sense of satisfaction to everyone.  People are in giving moods, pleasant moods.  The air around town is much easier than at other times of the year.  I certainly like sleeping on a night when satisfaction, giving, pleasantness, and ease have filled the air I breathe.  For tonight, my soul rests,

Child's play

"Stanford University:2013"

That was the caption that started the segment on the science channel program Futurescape.  What followed surprised me.  I'm not usually surprised.  I work hard to recognize trends so as not to be surprised in the next moment or two.  The program was called How to be Superhuman.

Yeah, I was expecting that too.  Another program on how bionic replacement of human parts makes humans superhuman.  Oh, but not this program.  The narrator went on to show the research and conduct interviews with the researchers about his statement that followed the caption of the segment.  DNA can be added to because now there is a micro thinking machine (I doubt the word computer will ever be used here) made from bodily membranes that can retrieve and store files from within a  DNA splice.  The genes can now hold any information that can be digitized, which is nearly all information.

That's not bionics.  And, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for how people will look and act in the future because the information is not externally controlled anymore but internally.  Even behavior can be programmed.  One experiment with mice showed that they could have a gene implanted that would make them sensitive only to blue light and not have any sensitivity at all to orange light.  Even though that experiment is simple, the implications are staggering.  As you might imagine, the last part of the program was about the agendas to expect from people and governments in the future.

Genetics no longer is about inheritance, nor is it about merely tampering with portions of the DNA strand.  Now it is a human frontier waiting to be explored, exploited, changed, reformed.   It has been made ready for tremendously great alterations, for tailoring every human being for living on Earth, Mars, or any other planet with specified behavior, appearance, brain function... everything.  Brave New World can now be relegated to the past.  It can definitely be shown to be  pure fiction since what is going to happen in the real future has now supplanted the prediction of Aldous Huxley.  As shocking as it has been for 3 generations since it was written, Brave New World is child's play.

Supplements to each other

The modern world has taken science to new levels because of all the advancements in technology.  Whether you stay here on the Earth or go into outer space, science has advanced in every area.  I'm thankful that I live in this world on the threshold of quantum leaps in science advances.

But, it has set up a battle in the minds of those who decide religion needs to be a priority in their lives.  I try to understand some of the religious viewpoints, but they elude me most of the time.  I don't understand, for example, why people refuse to believe that the history of the world only goes back to around 4500 BCE when it is so clear that humans arrived late on the scene and that many other animals current and extinct preceded them.  I don't get it when people think that stem cell treatment and perfections in medicine and food are "playing God."  I find it hard to comprehend that people say we have never been to the moon (or Mars) and that the vast, immense, unlimited amount of space cannot hold other life.

So, for a person living in the modern world to accept some of the tenets of religion is many times not to consider what is helpful and possible for humanity in the advancement of becoming better as a civilization and, therefore, better as an individual.  Not everything in religion boils down to a bottom-line, but it seems to me that the main force of religion is to live decent, respectable, respectful lives benefiting ourselves and our posterity as a society.

That's a little off the beaten path for the rule keepers among us.  But, I think religion has less to do with keeping rules and more to do with living in harmony with others and in contentment with our own inner peace.  Rules for societies vary and take care of themselves.  So, religion is not needed for that function in the modern world.  But, decency and contentment are always needed .  Part of decency and contentment requires progress to be made in every realm of life.  Science is a really necessary ingredient for that to happen.  What both religion and science yield to humanity are not at cross-aims.  They are supplements to each other.