Second Lives: Part II

Continuing from last entry, Second Lives: Part I . . .

To say that humankind was destined to develop and incorporate virtual reality as part of our evolution is perhaps a very fair and sound argument. It could be said that it all began happening as early on when the first hominids began to develop and use language to the degree of sophistication where vocabulary, grammar, and syntax could be used to describe things outside of the present tense*. Think about how revolutionary of a leap that was during our course of evolution! It really put us apart from other animal species: to be able to share and communicate ideas about things that weren't actually happening or existing in the here and now**. It ultimately gave us the ability to better develop our memory, to learn and share knowledge from stories (and successes/failures), to speculate and plan on seeking resources and avoiding disasters, and to be creative. It was essentially the development of this "software" that allowed us to create ideas for an abstract "unreal" world which impacted motor behaviours and sensory experience in this one. Slapping that talent together with tool-making hands to make simulations and extensions of things essentially began and fueled our endeavors to create virtual realities. Then along came art and music, to give our senses a pleasant break from being constantly vigilant in a more hostile natural world. Those things were blended with dressing up in distinct costuming and decoration, using psychoactive botanicals, special rituals and ceremonies, and building special monuments, mostly for the purpose of trying to transcend into other places beyond this realm. Thus, the earliest vehicle thence used to search for these other "virtual realities" came when our early ancestors began formulating religion.

Taken in that context, there might be a valid reason to be suspicious of "virtual realities". Throughout thousands of years of inquisitions, witch trials, dogma and dictates of authoritative caste systems, and judgements from theocratic regimes, millions of people suffered when they were suspected of not playing along in the virtual reality of religion properly. They were either enslaved, ostracized, imprisoned, tortured, or executed as infidels, witches, blasphemers, and atheists; or else, for the sake of playing the game properly in some cultures, many were splayed out on some altar and offered as a blood sacrifice, given a bodily mutilation, or even obligated to commit ritual suicide*** to placate some mythological being or force of a "virtual reality". The virtual game of human development I play, Civilization V, is a hell of a lot tamer by comparison than real human development when religion becomes factored in.

It's ridiculous when I see the juxtaposition of those heavily immersed in religion and those over-enthralled with playing around in modern day virtual reality/gaming environments, and then see the sides actually actively arguing and clashing about who is more knowledgeable about reality, because one is no better grounded in actual reality than the other: they are both trying to find improvement by using escapist means to avoid the harsh, oppressive or "sinful" world they see today. It's a funny irony to see that many who are most reactionary and opposed to the development of game based virtual reality also make some claim to being religious. They believe in preaching to people to stop interacting with other in a false world of a game environment and use energy to gather together more often and talk to, and listen to stories related to the existence and will of a great big invisible man in the sky. At the same time, especially in the USA, those same people who associate themselves with a conservative right wing religious "moral majority" who want to further restrict or outright ban simulated game-based violence in MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games), most likely are the ones lobbying for the right to tote around real flippin' guns. Equally though, VR players who are spending most of their waking daily lives in front of a screen, are becoming more disengaged from actual real world interaction, are becoming increasing more socially maladroit nerds and thus have no ground to stand on for sanctimoniously judging others who are opting to bravely engage more with the real world. The VR people are likely to smugly brand the reality-based people as "Luddites", "low-techs", or with some other label that brand those apart from them as technically ignorant and primitive. This all just brings more chicken and egg questions to light that I have no time to explore and answer. All I know is that I don't want to side with, or get involved too deeply, with either camp.

The most deluded and pathetic of all people who are overly-engaged with their little realm of virtual reality don't even have to use computers, or a place of worship. They are the "super-fans" of sports. Jesus Christ, I hate these idiots! The ones who are constantly glued to the games and stats reports on the sports channel on TV, and would stay that way if they could, the one who makes paying for season tickets a priority over paying for food and shelter. I'm talking about the real intense ones. The assholes who are too much emotionally dependant on the success of whatever team they are following, like the entire world is dependant on it. If the team wins, they are on cloud nine, in a weirdly maniacal way; if their team loses, super-fan gives himself (and it's 99.9999% a guy thing) some special license to lash out and be dramatically and dangerously angry: to be a hooligan, to riot and loot, to drink himself stupid and to abuse others or beat his wife and kids****. It's a bloody insult to humanity to channel behaviour like this something that "comes out of passion". The negative outcome of a simple "virtual" game translates to real-life losses from their drastic and thoughtless violent and destructive behaviour in the real world. These are the guys who may jeer and laugh at the nerdy types who play role-playing board and computer games, but some of these same guys will turn around and drop everything at an instant to play fuckin' "fantasy football", or "fantasy draft picks": things which basically equate to being Dungeons and Dragons for dumb jocks. That's even going into whole new level of stupid when put into context of virtual worlds: a virtual reality based on a virtual reality*****.

I mentioned before in my last entry that the list of things in our lives not related to using virtual reality would be shorter than the ones that did. I challenged myself and made my list of things that I enjoy doing that I consider are completely apart from any virtual reality or media. Instead of escaping into the virtual worlds, I believe the brain needs to be pulled away from there and re-booted with good dose of reality. Basically, one has to think of things that don't involve computers, looking at screens or pictures, intoxication, listening to music/recordings, playing games, or creating abstract thoughts from reading, writing, doodling, and making calculations. It really is a short list. The items in it are:

• sleeping
• eating
• drinking various beverages
• cardio vascular exercise (without earphones, that gets me to an actual destination, no treadmills or stationary bikes)
• cooking
• talking face to face with friends and family (and the odd stranger . . . and believe me, I encounter a lot of "odd" strangers)
• scavenging and foraging (not shopping: using money is a grey area to classify, but let's say that for now that it's an abstraction: exchanging currency, or 0's and 1's through card transactions for goods actually counts as a form of virtual reality)
• sitting/meditating in a park, or by calm water
• cleaning and organizing my living space (this mood rarely strikes me, but it happens)
• fishing
• watching wildlife
• tending a garden space
• walking/petting/playing with my dog

I dwelled too much on this topic already. I fixated on in a little more because I just watched some snowflakes fall here in my real world outside, thus comes the season where I'll be tuning in more to the "virtual" realms. These places won't be found in Second Life, nor will they be found through perusing chapters of a holy book or scriptures; they certainly won't be toured through by loyally spectating the progress of any team. They will be toured through anything else that makes me wonder about the peculiarities of the human condition . . . perhaps for the sake of feeling some relief or amazement when I realize I've survived this long in the "reality game" amidst all the stupidity I sometimes witness by being immersed in it.

*- Communication in higher animals is pretty much restricted to stuff happening in the present tense. Signals and gestures from fish to mammals are limited to being prompted by what is happening in the immediate environment they are currently in.
**-[a bit of a digression] This is not just a thing we should just assume happens naturally and automatically in the basic development of any human language. There are some languages that don't have clear cut sets of grammar or syntax for expressing exact conditional or future tenses. Even English itself technically has no concise "future tense", in the sense that the verbs in a future tense don't neatly conjugate into a precise single word, as compared to some other languages. There's "I walked to the store yesterday." but there is no, "I [single word to describe a future action of "to walk"] to the store tomorrow". It has clumsily jumbled in modal auxillary verbs with the infinitives to talk about future things. The modal "will" itself derives from the verb "to want," or "to wish", and the modal "shall" strangely is derived from "to owe". Even as our vocabulary advanced through the ages, the concept of tense and time is abstract enough that we often are limited to describing the dimension with the some of the same adjectives we would use to describe physical space. Even some modern languages don't even have separate words to further differentiate the next day after the current day, and the general early time of day: like Spanish and German, both use same word to mean "tomorrow", and "morning".
***- Rituals like: the Aztecs cutting hearts out of people, circumcision (male and female), scarification in rites of passage in Africa; the suicidal ones like suttee in India, suppuku/hari kiri in Japan; more historically recent, the Jonestown, and Heaven's Gate Cult massacres.
****- When working at another past vocation, being contracted through the provincial Ministry of Justice, I encountered a domestic violence case where woman had most of half of her face beat in by her husband in the presence of their kids. His reported excuse as to why he did it was: "Oh, it's nothing. I just got a little mad because the Flames lost."
*****- All contact and field sports are simulated forms of battling and warfare, therefore an artificial world; if you aren't actually involved with actually playing it, and only spectating it, that only makes it a virtual reality to you, one in which your degree of interactivity is just limited to cheering, screaming and yelling at the field or screen like a moron.

Using Graph Theory, Creepy Tent City

It was just too hot to sleep last night; I slept like crap, and I woke up too late this morning to take advantage of more tolerable conditions for running. It's climbing up to the mid-thirties today temperature-wise: even hotter than yesterday. So, I'm going to relax today and recover from the strain of the gym work and running around I did yesterday. I was a bit too ambitious and overworked my arms. I can barely straighten them now. If I did hit the trails later today, I'd be destined for heatstroke and cramping. I have to smarten up and start healing right.


My scribbled out algorithmic representations
 of this city's trails and bridges.

Since I did my hard work Friday and Saturday, I thought I should do my smart work today. It was one of those good moments when I got the chance to blow the dust off of some obscure knowledge of discrete mathematics and graph theory locked up in my memory somewhere, and making it somehow meaningful. Extreme insomnia is often the cause and reason for jolting me into these deviations into harmless, yet eccentric, numerical explorations. I thought I should apply myself to it before my already too-tired pulpy mush of brain softens up even more from today's heat. I played around with some Hamiltonian circuits and weighted digraphs. I used that stuff to figure out the optimal path between points along my running routes which would constitute the most effective and ideal half-marathon training course for the sake of my own safety and efficiency. I should have been using this analysis ages ago, which could have spared me some agony, but I've been procrastinating. It's stuff I think I'll be using more often in the future to avoid some other negative extremes in training and personal logistics.

Speaking of extremes, the other observation my half-cooked mind is noting is how weird the vibe has switched over in the neighbourhood with the presence of some glaringly conspicuous newly erected monument to piety. The Seventh Day Adventist school across the alley from my building has went through some considerable effort and expense to set up sort of temporary compound of plain white large tents and awnings, all surrounded and visually shielded by a two meter high white tarp-draped fence. The sign outside of it calls it a "tour of the history of the bible"* or some such thing. There is this structure with towering gold-painted columns that especially looks freaky: like fucking Caligula was camping there. It's the noise element that's creeping me out most, or rather the lack of the noise you would expect and associate with entertainment when you see such structures. If you didn't know that this was some attempt by these people to fashion some kind of  'Jesus Circus', you would think it was a refugee camp, or that an emergency battlefield hospital was set up there as if an outbreak of some kind of plague was happening. It's very unsettling. I won't dare enter that place, no matter how curious its presence is making me. The weird setup of the fence makes it look ultra-secretive. The only impression I gather of what religious activity might be going on in there is the kind where cult members have their finally stop to drink their cyanide laced Cool-Aid. It's a disturbingly ominous looking setup, and I'll be glad when this thing gets all knocked down by the end of the month.

What little I know about the Seventh Day Adventists is this: they hold a more literalistic interpretation of the Bible, and more staunchly conservative (puritanical) than most other Protestant Baptist denominations. They abstain from alcohol and tobacco, they don't dance, and don't approve of immodest dress. Like the Jews, they observe Saturday as the Sabbath, and there is following the Kosher dietary laws (no pork, shellfish, etc.). I have no personal qualms with them. When it comes right down to it, I wish more of the dope dealing assholes would move out of the neighbourhood, and more Adventists would move in their stead. What does sicken me though about this setup of this Messiah Mansion, is that this too is proof of just how likely they are, as with any other religious group, to resort to using such a tawdry display as a meme-warfare tactic, despite appearing outwardly more conservative, to attract more followers . . .  of what amounts to be mythology. So many other things could have been done with that money and energy for real charitable work than wasting it on setting up this tacky showpiece; which I must add, has been largely vacant since it arrived here.

On Saturday, I was shamelessly sun tanning on my deck, less-than-modestly attired, in full view of the people running this show, drinking my beer, and snacking on some spare ribs and smoked oysters. In my own way, that's how I've been rebellious and defiant to the presence of this monstrosity.

*-  I highly doubt that this history includes a case for evolution. As kindly and civil as they may appear, when it comes to literalistic followers of scriptures in Abrahamic religions: be it Biblical or Koranic, I have no desire to waste my time with people stupid enough to actively refute the scientific evidence of evolution, and too sanctimonious to even bring it into question.

We Wish You a Nerdy Christmas (or Some Historically Plausible Facsimile Thereof)

Today turned out better than I thought it would be weather-wise: it was warmer than expected. I managed to get a little skiing in. More importantly, I found a very close by source for some well-seasoned birch firewood, which lit up very nicely. All that, plus a lovely beer, made for the most relaxing winter nap I've ever had this year so far. I woke up feeling a lot less Scroogey.

Also, I just finished putting up my Christmas tree tonight. . . Yes, I still call it a CHRISTMAS tree, not a friggin' "holiday tree", not a "winter season arboreal home decorum addition". . . it's a Christmas tree! I'm sure I'd be insulting some Jewish friends during Hanukkah, and looking like some kind of idiot, if I started calling their menorah a "festival candlestick". I'm pretty sure I'd be pissing off more than a few Muslims by constantly referring to the Kaaba in Mecca with some more neutralized term like a "geolithic shrine object". One way we can start showing mutual respect for the respective cultural holiday customs, traditions and practices of everyone else is to call them the names they have been given by that culture; not by whatever other stupidly contrived term that has been assigned for the sake of some ridiculous notion of "political correctness" to placate the whims of the few sanctimonious, ethno-centric, bigoted, idiots out there from some other cultures or religions who actively try to find anything to be offended about. This dumbing down and neutralizing of language only breeds more ignorance and intolerance, and alienates us even more from learning and understanding from each other. If you're so touchy and uncomfortable with the thought of some tradition encroaching on your beliefs, and too ready to affix blame and shame on someone else, it's generally a sign, even while jacked up and pious on your own beloved form of religion, that you aren't very secure somehow within the very core of yourself.

To be honest, I'm quite sure that even if Christmas didn't exist here; if the patterns and forces of colonization had been different both in Europe and this part of North America, and if the social and political history were such that Canada didn't become a primarily Christian cultured country, there most certainly would be some other lengthy celebration, involving some form of sharing, warmth, feasting, cheer, lights, and decoration to counter the depths of the coldness, darkness, and bleakness near or around the winter solstice of the year to make living in this region tolerable.

The Vikings and Norse traders were the first European settlers on the continent of North America. The pre-Christian Norse people had the tradition of Jul (Yule), which fostered a practical tradition of burning huge logs and keeping fires alight for a long time, being close together in fellowship, sharing and gift-giving, and feasting on the abundance of harvested food, and drinking and merry-making to while away the darkest, coldest and harshest part of winter (like Christmas here). Had the Norsemen settled in a more strategically advantageous spot, expanded more, and had their influence remained here long enough to become established, I'm sure that Jul would have been our practice. The pagan Celts and Anglo-Saxons had their own mid-winter celebrations, like Candlemass, and Modraniht (Mothers' night). The aboriginal people here already had their own celebrations for this season before Europeans came. If the Romans managed to totally snuff out Christianity, and had they remained in control over of the majority of Europe, aggressively expanding over the Atlantic, Saturnalia would have been the holiday here for this season, which involved lots of feasting and drinking.

Speaking of gluttony and intoxication, my favourite Christmas related anthropological theory is that of how possibly the legend of Santa's flying reindeer entered into our folklore. I was watching a documentary once about this: it seems that the shamans of the Sami (Saami) tribes, the reindeer-herding, nomadic indigenous people of Lapland, in Northern Scandinavia, had a strange and unique way of communing with their spirit world. While their reindeer herds grazed on lichens and such in the tundra, the odd one would dig up and occasionally consume an Anamita muscaria fungus, better known as the Fly Agaric mushroom. The mushroom itself is quite toxic, but also very psychoactive and hallucinogenic in diluted form. The shamans would collect and drink the urine from these intoxicated reindeer, and would go on some kind of "vision quest" with the wild dreams and sensations that resulted from its use, one of which was a sensation of flying, which was probably intensified as they rode around in their reindeer drawn sleighs with this altered state of consciousness.

Just think of that the next time you are reading T'was the Night Before Christmas to some kids, knowing that some of it is based on a pagan ritual of a piss drinking shroom high.

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday Buddha!

The great menacing freak snowstorm fronts coming from Alberta and the south that we were originally destined to get had dissipated, at least for our area, and luckily there remained a completely snow-free corridor along the stretch of highway that I needed to drive through. Other areas of the province weren’t so lucky. For instance, my brother’s community in the Southeast got nailed hard. They awoke to 30 centimetres of new snow covering everything: more than they had all winter. It was a miracle that we somehow weren’t affected, and that this miserable stuff dodged us. It’s still really cold, but I’m so thankful that I didn’t have to travel through any of that kind of inclemency.

I departed Saskatoon to visit my parents late Saturday afternoon. I took time to sort of attend to my own spiritual affairs in the city before I left to join them for Easter. I attended a dharma lecture presented by a visiting Buddhist monk. He was of the Tibetan school of Buddhism, and he came from Ontario. His name was Gen Kelsang Rabgye. I gleaned so much from his three hour lecture, which included a fabulous lesson on having a quality session of meditation. Since I’ve been studying Buddhism, more specifically Zen, I’ve found that the concepts of no inherent existence and non-self were always hard concepts to grasp. Rabgye provided good examples that brought so much clarity for me.

The Tibetan word for "prayer" translates to "wish path"

Gen Kelsang Rabgye

Today is not only Easter Sunday; it is also Buddha’s birthday. Since this is so, I thought I’d share my thoughts about Buddhism, and why it has become a bigger part of my life in the past few years. I am quite truthful in saying that I don’t currently practice any sort religion.* Generally, religions focus on the subjugation of people for some purpose of ultimately appeasing the supposed super-imposed will of some God figure: commonly represented in the West as some sort of cosmic, law-giving, super-entity that smites or forsakes people who don't accept, nor yield to, nor cower to the power of this almighty being. That’s not what Buddhism is about. Buddhism isn’t so much a religion as it is a more of a spiritual method of psychoanalysis: gaining insight about the truth of nature in an empirical manner, and gaining sounder sense of the world through a tamer, tranquil, and happier mind; extinguishing the hatred, greed, and delusions that ultimately bring about one’s suffering; and being mindful about the nature of the forces of cause and effect (karma). It allows you to deeply and directly cultivate wisdom, happiness, and compassion because it's already innate and natural for you to want to rid yourself of suffering anyway. All happiness/suffering originates in your own mind, and it's ultimately your own choice and responsibility as to which paths you'll take. In such a paradigm, things aren't due to anything else supernatural, like some god's grace/wrath, or whim for your salvation/damnation. You can have any kind of heritage, or believe whatever faith it is you (think you) have, and still practice Buddhism. There is no conflict within me studying Buddhism and celebrating and enjoying "religious" holidays like Christmas and Easter with my family. If one does have such conflict or personal upheaval, I’d say one wasn’t doing their practice right. I like Buddhism because it has nothing to sell me. I like the fact that it invites the disciple to freely explore the world, applying the teachings of the eightfold path and seeing the results, and to not just blindly accept the teachings as they are. It’s non-dogmatic, welcoming you to freely discard it if it all turns out to be bullshit for you: as in not genuinely bringing you happiness (less suffering) in helping out yourself and others. If you don’t like it, you are free to find something else that does the trick. I highly doubt if the big three western Abrahamic faiths, or even some of the newer "cults" are so confident as to state that without some caveat about dire consequences attached.

Zen, or any other form of Buddhism, is not merely an intellectual pursuit. It only works for you if you practice it, and put it into action. I don't claim to be the best at doing this, but I think I prefer Zen, apart from the meditation, for the fact that there is, by the example of some of its own teachers, a little more leeway for using some spontaneity, wildness, humour, and shock value to snap people (including yourself) to their senses. It’s very down to earth in that respect. Some of the best teachers of it (some achieving enlightenment, others not) have varying backgrounds. They include noblemen, beggars, former criminals, artisans, warriors, and even a punk rock bass player (in contemporary writings, of course). Zen’s teachings of compassion fit better to my definition of it more than other schools. I admit, my patience still very taxed sometimes in engaging with some people with more drama-oriented personalities, but with Zen on my side I have gained more courage to confront them and help them as needed, and less inclination of avoiding them altogether. Sometimes they get my humour, other times they get a question that makes them think about their sensibility of their drama/actions or behaviour. Sometimes it comes out with less-than-tactful, colourful, and even profane sounding language, but sometimes I have to lower/raise myself to someone else’s operating level to make them see my point**: if they can’t deal with, or process my first suggestion or response. A little embarrassing laughter may result; sometimes I have to use a little self-effacing humour to keep things from escalating. In either case, it’s better than dealing with the problem with full out anger, from either side, needlessly spinning things into a guilt trip for someone else. The base intention is still the same: to stop such people from edging themselves into a bigger heap of greater suffering. The people I deal with have a big enough trial from day to day; they need not have their problems compounded with extra ignorance. I’m realistic in knowing that I won’t get through to all people, but it is my sincere wish and intent to help make others be at least a little more happy and comfortable; including myself. That’s the true goal in trying to attain enlightenment through Buddhism.

*-I tried and explored theistic religion(s) . . . sorry, but no thank you. I decided to grow up and think for myself instead, and divorce myself from any so-called “loving and peaceful” Abrahamic faith institutions that: do little to quell (and in fact often promote) sectarian violence, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, or sanction “holy wars”; endorse racial/ gender/sexual inequality/segregation and homophobia; forbid the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools; use disinformation about, or threaten harsh consequences for the use of birth control/condoms/STD protection; uphold and support death penalties for things like “blasphemy”; support capital punishment in general; harbour and give sanctuary to criminals of genocide while neglecting the actual victims of it; threaten me or others with reprisals, excommunication, or damnation for questioning or disagreeing with their particular creed or dogma; are actively involved with using guilt and shaming real victims of serious violations and abuse into silence.

** - Or, equally, to allow me to see theirs.

Bless You Steve Jobs... Funeral Protesters...Go To Hell!

It's not a normal habit of mine to actively read over the obituaries of celebrities; in the recent case of Steve Jobs though, I somehow couldn't help but to feel obliged to do so. It's partially due to the fact that I sincerely admire his ingenuity, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that we both shared this experience in developing pancreatic problems. I got lucky and overcame mine. It wasn't so for him, and it progressed to something worse that ended his life. I found myself curious if how he dealt with the news was anything similar to the way I did. I hoped to find out when and where his the funeral services would be, and to perhaps even find an online book of condolences to share my sentiments for this great innovator.

My search through the postings of the death of Steve Jobs was a sobering reminder as to why I have divorced and abandoned myself completely away from the stupidity of religious dogmatism and fundamentalism, and the people who fanatically chose to follow such things. When it comes to spirtuality or religion, there is nothing more disgusting to me than people using their sanctimony, or citing "God's will", to preach hatred, abuse, and violence, no matter which faith it is. Through the news gleaned in my searches, I discovered a reprehensible plan by the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas to intrude, and picket, and protest at the funeral of this wonderful human being who has brought so much benefit to modern society. Their reason, according to a Twitter message from one of it's members, which ironically was sent from an iPhone (which Steve Jobs of course invented), is stated as,"Westboro will picket his funeral. He [Jobs] had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin." Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/312445#ixzz1a6wadcw3*

If I was ever approached by the fool who ever said that to me, and if I was given no choice to avoid engaging with them about the subject, I'd have to point out to them that Steve Jobs wasn't even a Christian, but a Zen Buddhist; and if he indeed lived up to using a Zen perspective, a.) he would have regarded his "platform" not so much as huge, but non-permanent and ever-changing/evolving, and he wisely did not squander it to the will of absolutist thinkers (or thinking), b.) with a Zen mind, it wouldn't have been a concern to him as to whether or not there was even a God to give any glory to, and c.) there is no such doctrine or dogma in Zen Buddhism that recognizes such a concept as "sin" to begin with** therefore he didn't make it some mandate of his to intentionally "teach" sin to others. How Jobs supposedly "taught sin", according to the WBC, was that he somehow made Apple Inc. a very "pro-homosexual" company.

Of course the members of the WBC are too busy bending interpretations of scriptures to make them suit their political agenda, and would seem far too ignorant to bring themselves around to Zen Buddhist thinking like Steve Jobs did: that is, being mindful and noting interdependence of all things in existance, and the interplays of cause and effect. They proved that their organization has no problem or qualms about using computer technology to do their self-righteous gay-bashing; yet they fail to see the irony that without one gay person at a critical time in our history, there might not have been any computers (as we know them), nor even any freedom of speech for this group to enjoy or exploit for expressing their delusional beliefs for that matter. It would help if I used the context of something in real history about another "computer innovator" to shed light on that last point.

During World War II, the British were feverishly trying to develop a machine to decode the cyphers being intercepted from the German U-boat fleets in order to get a leg up on the Battle of the Atlantic. A man with a brilliant mathematical and technical mind, named Alan Turing, was the genius who contributed to this decryption project in Blechley Park in London that ultimately broke the Nazis codes. This in turn helped the British turn the tables to have more allied shipping and supplies safely arrive; saving Britain from starvation and scarcity of other defense resources. This the helped lead to the allies victory in Europe, which ultimately overthrew the stranglehold of fascism and preserved democracy and free speech, at least in Western Europe. Alan Turing's ingenuity also laid out the ground work for the technology for the first digital computers, which were ultimately used to accelerate developments for the Manhatten Project, which finally led to the victory over Japan, thus securing America's victory and democracy. Turing also happened to be a homosexual.

I can't help but to wonder how differently the world could be now, and the alternate consequences that would have unfolded, if a scenario occurred where some ignorant, bigoted, sanctimonious bastard found out about Alan`s lifestyle, and just for sport, used his religiously-inspired prejudice to find Turing and incidentally beat him to death in a gay-bashing frenzy before Turing was ever able to finish the vital work for he was doing for the defense of Britain during that war. Britain may have then lost out to the evils of Nazism had that happened. I would hate and fear being under the boot heel of a totalitarian regime (ie. no right to intellectual freedom, no freedom of expression, no right to assemble, and no right to vote or live democratically, and no right to question authority) far more so than I would ever fear and hate someone who was a homosexual. Living life under the ideology of religious fundamentalists would be very close to, if not exactly like, living under a totalitarian regime.

I've seen the ugly face of this radical WBC group before. They are into the condemnation of any person or celebrity figure whom they regard as being so "sinful" as to respect the rights of gays and lesbians.  This band of brain-washed idiots also protested at the more recent military funerals of the American soldiers who served overseas, citing that it was God's punishment to America for being more tolerant of homosexuality in society.They're more of a cult than a church, being made up of mostly family members under the direction of it's deranged leader*** Fred Phelps. I once saw a YouTube video of Phelps expounding his gratitude that "George Carlin is now in HELL!" soon after Carlin's death in 2008. George Carlin, despite his culture-clashing, satirical style of humour (like the Seven Words You Can't Say on Television routine), did so much to actually pave the way for freedom of speech rights in American media, and examine the semantics of our public (or decent) use of language. So, then Phelps and his troop of ultra-conservative religious loonies exploited those very same rights that Carlin exemplified and even legally fought for, only to then publically broadcast the 'damnation' of George Carlin. George Carlin did all that dirty work for them, only to have them abuse this freedom of speech that they have to announce that he'll be sent to hell for what he did. How ironic can you get!

If indeed the WBC successfully executes its indecent intention to disrupt the service and rites of the funeral of Steve Jobs (or any other people they term as "sinners"), I'll be very saddened and fearful. Protesting at a funeral, in my mind, defies all that is decent. Willfully disrupting an event of commemoration for a person's good works on Earth of finding new innovations that unite humanity with new technology, and then using that same technology to try to rally people together to indignify and defame him is beyond insulting, and exposes a whole new level of deplorable ignorance in religious fanatics. They will only prove to the rest of the world yet another monstrous side of themselves; how arrogant, bigoted, intolerant, hypocritical, and obnoxious religious fundamentalists are, and how willing such people are to trespass and encroach on the events of harmonious commemoration and celebration others are trying to create.


* - I only include the link for an accurate reference, I by no means wish to give this abomination of a christian "church" more attention than it deserves.
**- In Buddhism, there are no sins, but there are differing degrees of skillfulness (or unskillfulness) in conduct (which is relativistic) which then always results into, or is resulting from, karma, which will ultimately determine if or how you will suffer. It's not about terms of satisfying some absolute moral imperative which puts you at the mercy of the favour (or disfavour) of some kind of anthropomorphic divine being, like in Western monotheistic religions.
*** - I use the term "cult leader" instead of "pastor", as he calls himself, because I chose not to insult any Christians of better discretion by endowing him with the latter mentioned title.