Thursday, October 18, 2018

Circuit Riding

I'm sure I'm engaged in misprision in my use of the "circuit riding" meme, but lets picture me as this electron that takes a path through a circuit.  My wave-like qualities are less important in this context, but we know I broadcast information when called upon.  I'm on my way to a CPU or GPU someplace, we could surmise, in Google Brain.

In practice, Carol and I both vector about in Portland.  I still use a fossil fuel powered car.  If we're serious about care-taking Peak Oil, we'll acknowledge the fun we had with all that "starter fluid" in our attempts to boot something more sustainable.

I've been listening to an Israeli historian with a big Youtube following.  He speculates our sudden awakening was maybe more shocking and therefore absurd in some ways.  Are we too early to the party?  I don't know his views on ETs, but maybe 13 billion years is way too early for intelligent life and we're a blip on the screen many trillions of years before most planets get woke.

But then some humans are persuaded there's busy commerce with ETs already.  Speculations on the platform of a consensus reality (CR, cite Mindell, A.) are one thing, whereas once you're already left the realm of consensus (about what's so now, about the past), then speculation is closer to ranting in a House of Nonsense, such as we might have in Asylum District.

"Asylum District" does enjoy a somewhat fragile consensus among business owners, historians, those who appreciate the charming Dr. Hawthorne story.  He ran a first mental asylum for Oregonians, when this was a fledgling state, dreaming of infrastructure for itself.

The nearby Ladd's Addition had lots of room.  Housing in the area was still fairly sparse.

Salem, the future capital, replacing Oregon City from Hudson's Bay Company days, allowed Dr. Hawthorne to develop his facility while Oregon worked on a newer one, closer to home.  One day, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest would be filmed there.

I'm teaching 2D and 3D animation these days.  I'm not the expert.  I'm taking a "learning together" approach while I herd cats i.e. 2nd through 5th graders.  The topics are new, but not the work.

That's not all of what I do.  I also get sick sometimes, which is work in itself.  For those of you know know physics, work is whatever you do, whereas if you're a Protestant, it has something to do with "earning a living" even though we know there's no way to earn such a thing (it's a gift).

In talking about "what is work?", we've left consensus reality as far as I'm concerned.

I'll share more about my work in other blog posts.  Right now, it's time to enter said CPU or GPU as some wandering circuit riding electron.  Wish me luck.