Intelligence Weekly: Music

The philosopher in me likes to ruminate on programming as a form of art. I love to see bits of code--something that looks like nothing to the uninitiated eye--shaped into a thing that looks nothing like the parts of its sum and something that we can all, understanding or no, benefit from. I find comfort in relating programming paradigms to axioms of life and consciousness. I rest in the order of such mathematical languages and their intrinsic beauty.

So often in social situations, I feel sensations of grief at the inadequacy of words. I wish that I could tell you something like

for(x = 0; x < infinity; ++x)

     System.out.println(x);

and you would know with unquestionable certainty not only the meaning, but also you would feel what was contained therein. And there would be nothing unspoken between us. But then again, I would probably lament that too, somehow. We run such complex applications.

Music, like programming, provides the succor that I seek in what otherwise feels akin to chaos. I'm pleased that technology has made it possible for us to make it, to make it more than it was before, and to share it as we do. It's our endless struggle to nail down a feeling and to express what may always be tacit and unutterable.

I think I'll always try, in my simple way, to say what I know can't actually be said. The cost of being here is the insurmountable obstacle of being separate with the inherent desire to connect. It's terribly painful, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

The Old Republic

Plus a couple of beta tests, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic quite a bit since mid-December. I'm not that into MMORPG's since they never quite end unless someone turns off the servers, but after an on-again off-again relationship with Star Wars Galaxies a few years back, I've eagerly awaited the release of this title. I proceeded with a fair amount of caution--you'd temper your emotions too if you'd spent any length of time with the extreme disappointment that was Star Trek Online--but now that I've reached level 25 and experienced, in part, the caliber of the story arcs for both a Republic Smuggler and a Sith Officer, I will officially announce that I'm not disappointed at all! I'm very please with Bioware for taking such great care to craft an exceptional Star Wars experience.

There are so many things about this game that make it wonderful, but that's not exactly what I wanted to talk about in this post. You can read reviews like this one for that. What I wanted to touch on was my perspective as someone who writes code. The sheer magnitude of this project as a coded structure is unbelievable, and the quickness with which we have been able to arrive at this level of depth from our more binary days is breathtaking for me. I tend to think of technology as an evolving organism that we have made. We started with circuits and transistors and really managed to develop the concept of "on" and "off" into a workable paradigm. From there, we've added layer upon layer of new knowledge to improve our technological bones, and now we're walking upright. This level is something one man cannot achieve alone. Each adds his own efforts and collectively we've written more and more advanced coding languages without which we as individuals a) could not know the things that we know, and b) could not build the things that we build.

I with my crude language and my little blog am hard-pressed to really be able to express the breadth and impressiveness of the concepts I'm pondering--there's an ineffable, tacit quality to these things--but I can say we're a far cry from Pong and in such a short amount of time. Imagine what will be when the same amount of time has passed again.

 Also, the music. Just... wow.

Intelligence Weekly: IMAlive

Image by f-l-e-x via Flickr

When I was a child, I would sometimes lie in bed at night and speak the mantra "I am alive" to myself over and over until I was able to conceive the strange sensation of my mortality. I still do this practice from time to time, and I think it helps me to remember that whatever might be happening at that moment in my life is impermanent.

IMAlive is a website dedicated to being present for people in moments of crisis. Certified volunteers are available for immediate chat with anyone who is seeking someone to reach out to for help. Thanks to the beautiful internet, and a thousand willing strangers, a half-hour chat can be a life-affirming beacon for a person who has lost hope.

Tech of the Future: Biofeedback

Every one of us craves sleep, endures the pangs of hunger, quells the hunger with muchos tacos, gets ill (hopefully not from the tacos), feels his dispositions wax and wane, and some of us even shed our endometrial linings on a regular basis. If you're anything like me--which is equal parts likely and unlikely--you've noticed that in addition to these obvious recurring events, your body has many subtle cycles and rhythms. And so it is with all living organisms.

As discussed in my prior post, feedback loops are a very useful tool in understanding and changing behavioral patterns. Biofeedback, one day, will provide opportunities for this feedback on the physical scale. I don't pretend to know how the technology would be integrated with our bodies, but here is a list of possibilities that I anticipate and desire:


Sleep, Exercise, and Caloric Metrics
Because who doesn't need a little more guilt about consuming those beers and hot wings late into the night? Or more of a reason to take that bike ride or seek a good night's sleep?

Menstruation Tracker
I only have my perspective here... but I think this form of biofeedback could be super useful for men too! I see a few possibilities: 23rd century rhythm method and fertility notification, early pregnancy detection with gestational feedback throughout pregnancy, PMS prediction, no more yearly women's wellness visits or self breast exams.

Medical Assist
Imagine a world without blood screens or diagnostic procedures; where cancer is highly treatable due to early detection; physician notification when your levels are out of balance; immediate detection of allergic reaction before Anaphylaxis occurs; emergency services alerted in the event of an elderly fall; minor illnesses  diagnosed without a trip to the doctor's office; and perhaps the eradication of hypochondria.

Mental Health Awareness
Science still has a lot of progress to make in the understanding of mental illness. Biofeedback would offer annals of patterns related to mood and stress, as well as an opportunity for patients to opt to provide researchers with data that can aid in deeper knowledge of brain function.

Although I'm certain this kind of intimate biological perspective would not appeal to some, I see the future of this technology as highly customized to an individual's desires, useful for the advancement of science, affordable for all who would seek it, and able to integrate into the field of medicine. I would certainly be one who would want to use this technology to realize my own biorhythms and to aid in improving my lifestyle for the sake of joyful longevity.

Fear Loop

As an observer, I'm always interested in noting the patterns and cycles that occur in the apparent chaos of life. Learning a programming language and studying the paradigms of  coding has offered me a new and interesting lens with which to view this circuity. One of the concepts that has been prevalent in my thoughts lately is the loop. In programming, a loop is a series of code that continually repeats until a specified value is reached, until a specified iteration of loops is complete, until the loop is ended with a stop statement, or never--in the case that the loop is intended to be infinite or lacks the necessary programming to interrupt the circuit.

Starting out on such lofty plan as becoming a developer is frightening. My family is not college educated. I'm 29, which feels like a late age to begin to code. I'm a female in a field that is almost completely dominated by males. I live in a small city that doesn't seem to have much industry for programming. I didn't pursue advanced mathematics in high school. I didn't have exposure to the concept of programming as a career choice at an early age. I might not be very good. Perhaps I'm not intelligent enough, or capable of understanding the levels of abstraction. I'm not sure I can keep up with the ever-increasing amount of knowledge required to keep an edge in the field. I don't know any local developers personally.

Now read the prior paragraph over and over. This is my fear loop.

We all have repeating thought loops, whether we are consciously aware of them or not. We internalize ideas from things that we have heard people say, things we have felt, experiences we have had, and we form them into a series of code that we bury deep in our internal programming. One day, for one reason or another, that portion of the program runs, and the loop begins. My supposition is that this is a form of protection that has evolved, and that at one point or another has served to keep us safe and to prolong our lives. In this case, though, I don't feel that I'm benefiting from this loop, and now I'm writing new code to interrupt the circuit. I'm not out in the wild grabbing tigers by the tails, or anything. I just want to do what I enjoy without fear and without feeling like it's something that I cannot or should not do... when that's just not true.

Intelligence Weekly: New Ways of Working

In keeping with my strong tradition of lists, here are some things that make the large corporate office working environment sucky:

• You have to travel to get there
• There are people who steal food out of the fridge and lotion bottles from atop desks
• There always seems to be a droning noise in a room filled with cubicles
• The lighting is generally atrocious
• There are lots of, let's say, personalities to deal with
• For some reason, it's hot or cold as hell
• You feel like Big Brother is constantly watching you
• It is difficult to maintain focus on work with so many distractions
• Bathroom: poo and booger smears (What is up with that?!)
• Equipment shared by hundreds of people tends to break frequently
• You must be extremely mindful of conversation topics, the width of your tank-top straps, what your T-shirt says, whether your shoes could be classified as flip-flops, and whether the minutia of your actions might be abusing the company in some way or offending someone who sits a few feet away from you

Although I tend to fare well in a large office environment, it's definitely not my most preferred working situation. Sometimes it can feel a bit as if you're being herded like cattle. Thanks to technology, the limitations of where and how work can occur are gradually diminishing, and the nature and structure of work are changing in ways that people like me will be able to utilize in order to flourish.

Thanks to technology, small business is booming. New ideas are cropping up, and offices are able to keep staff streamlined and to create well-honed teams of people who work well together. I can assure you that as a developer, I will be looking for privacy and quiet in order to produce at my very best. Check out Fog Creek Software for a fine example of a company who is taking this idea to heart.

Teleworking is becoming increasingly common and can save a company quite a bit of money, as well as improve the quality of life for employees who would otherwise need to commute. Not to mention the potential for being able to work in one's pajamas. I submit that this would significantly enhance the quality and productivity of my work. Wink.

I also recently discovered the concept of Co-working, which is a situation in which a group of independent contractors share a work space. Although the concept isn't exactly new, this community method of working is newly available to many people in the tech field. I love this concept, and I hope to do some freelance developing in such a community someday. 

Check out New Work City for a New York based example of how co-working happens.

Salutations

Image via WikipediaLet me take this opportunity to update you three on my life!

The Fall 2011 semester of school is raging, and by that I mean the professors of my two online classes posted the entire course-load during the very first week of the semester. School is a great deal more manageable than I remember from prior college experiences, but I think I can attribute that to my actual genuine and goal-oriented interest in the subject matter, coupled with my newly--in the last 3 years, perhaps--cultivated grown-uppiness.

I've taken to keeping up a routine, which works very well for me. I am fortunate (and unfortunate) to have only myself to care for, and so I don't have many unexpected events to interrupt my schedule.

In light of my decision to start off in a new educational direction, I've also worked in some other fine goals and habits, some with relative success. I have the time to experiment with new ways of living, so I'm working on some of the things that I always, on some level, felt I wanted to do. Boring things like regular meditation, etc.

Do you know what has recently been the biggest boon to my quality of life? Cutting back on mindless television! I've set some limits, and now I spend my extra time doing the following:

• School work and other learning endeavors and edutainments
• Cleaning real things and computer things
• Fixing electronics and/or tutoring my family in how to use their smartphones
• Playing guitar and other artist endeavors
• Reading something
• Thinking about technology and spirituality
• Exercising
• Going out into the world and looking at other people's faces while words come out of our mouths, and touching them where our arms go around each other
• Financial planning
• Cooking
• Brainstorming lists like this one
• Thinking about and occasionally writing blog posts
• Listening to entertaining and life-affirming podcasts
• Playing with my dog

I like using technology in ways that improve my quality of life, while avoiding it in ways that it makes me feel not good. Im'ma love you, im'ma miss you.

Macie