From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2015 11:44:15 +0000 (+0200) Subject: posts: 034, 035 X-Git-Tag: v0.4~4 X-Git-Url: https://git.mogosanu.ro/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=76e3dbf6ca5bd23adf658919a16945f53a36a444;p=thetarpit.git posts: 034, 035 --- diff --git a/posts/y01/034-the-transition-back-into-religiousness.markdown b/posts/y01/034-the-transition-back-into-religiousness.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37ee2a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/034-the-transition-back-into-religiousness.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +--- +postid: 034 +title: The inevitable transition back into religiousness +date: February 7, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: asphalt +--- + +The phenomenon we know today as "religion" can be accurately described as a set +of sets of teachings which comprise both ideology and philosophy (and maybe +more?), boiling down to the assumption that some form of God exists. Many [have +challenged][closed-world] this core principle and, more importantly, many have +in the end found it irrelevant to the existence of humankind, as the more +pragmatic ones have found it more useful to use experiment, and in the end +science and its own set of principles, instead of deducting arguments from God. +This is undeniably a starting point for ongoing evolution and also that from +which the rather useless[^1] "science versus religion" debate had sprung. + +So science not being in any *real* antithesis with religion, it hasn't and +shall never replace it. People are not becoming less religious and more +scientous, but they have become less religious in the past century, a century +in which they have replaced religiousness-as-worship with [something +else][post-religion]. This isn't in any way "good", nor is it in any way "bad", +especially if we relate these two notions to Christian morals; religiousness +simply happens, or it doesn't, and we, or rather I believe it's important to +observe this. + +Religion-as-worship is however inextricably linked to religion-as-superstition. +Now, superstition is a very peculiar phenomenon related to the inductive +(feedback) learning mechanisms that brains are supposedly implementing: if a +given event is repeated enough times in a given context, then we +(unconsciously!) learn to link the event and the context even when no real +relationship exists between the two. Religion can therefore be easily explained +in a given framework: "I want to live (conservation instinct), therefore God", +reasons the primitive mind. Of course, in comparison to the systematic and +arduous approach proposed by science, which can take centuries, as every +complex evolutionary process does, this has the advantage of providing fast +results, but also the major disadvantage of being half-baked at best. I will +let the reader draw further conclusions on this. + +And now is finally the right time to delve into the actual context: after +transitioning from religion to [post-religion][post-religion] in only two +generations or so, humanity will go, or rather is presently going through some +rough times. Not because of "pollution", "global warming", "animal cruelty", +"[not enough girls in IT][political-correctness]" and other such possibly false +problems[^2]. No, there are other issues which are more important, of which I +shall remind only one: + +Global food scarcity. The idea here is that we're seven billion souls and +growing in a fixed period of time $\delta t$, while the quantity of food is +growing at a smaller pace in the same $\delta t$. Of course, westerners like to +think that we're "the master race" and that our industrialized processes are so +streamlined that this will never fail (note: for the western world), that is, +until this will blow up straight in our faces. No doubt, this is one of the +main underlying causes of war today and nothing will impede some lunatic from +commiting genocide in order to "balance the odds". That can only mean that +rough times, or rather "dark ages" are coming, and in these dark times people +will be more and more susceptible to irrational arguments. + +And this is when, as I, the prophet, envision that the world, or at least the +western world, will fall back again into sheer religiousness. This has happened +before and can, and I say that it will happen again, although that might be +some time after I drop dead. It's just the cyclic nature of history. + +I find it hard to believe that Christianity will have any success this time, +though. In those dark times, someone will have to come up with a more +"enlightened" religion in order to appeal to the irrational, but more rational +than two thousand years ago mind. And again, this might be some time after my +children drop dead. + +Of course, this is an unscientifical claim, since I can't verify it. If you're +from the future and reading this, you will however know whether I was right or +not. + +[^1]: One can believe in God and be a good scientist; also, one can refuse to +believe in God and be a lousy human being in general. Setting up an "us versus +them" environment isn't in any way constructive, unless we deliberately intend +to cause a war... which might be constructive from a point of view, namely that +in which by "constructive" we mean "destructive". Which isn't to say that +destruction is not necessary at times. + +[^2]: Or maybe the fact that we create such false problems is precisely one of +the things that have led us to this sad state of affairs. No, it's not +"ironical", it's simply dumb, because it's detracted us from the real problems +of humanity, as cognitive dissonance usually does. + +[closed-world]: /posts/y00/008-religion-and-the-closed-world-assumption.html +[post-religion]: /posts/y00/018-on-post-religion.html +[political-correctness]: /posts/y01/02e-on-the-inherent-harmfulness-of-political-correctness.html diff --git a/posts/y01/035-with-our-balls-clean.markdown b/posts/y01/035-with-our-balls-clean.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b73aecf --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/035-with-our-balls-clean.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +--- +postid: 035 +title: With our balls clean +excerpt: Or how Homo sapiens survived in the dark ages of the first personal computers. +date: February 14, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: asphalt, tech +--- + +The following is a loose translation of a short story published about four +years ago on the [old blog][bricks]. The title is a pun on a famous Romanian +communist movie called "[Cu mâinile curate][imdb]", which doesn't seem to have +an English translation, so I'll ask you to take it with a pinch of salt. The +translation of the text itself is also not without its flaws, but I believe it +has some historical value, which is how this writing has found its place here. + +I'm not sure how many people have pondered this, but life was [not at +all][daimonz] impossible before Google, the Internets and all that other +balderdash most of us enjoy nowadays during morning coffee and as a replacement +for evening reading... not to mention all the stuff happening in between the +two, some of them outright outrageous. + +Given that I quite vaguely remember those olden times[^1], but also because I +haven't had the chance to put on paper the story of how I've ended up here and +now, I feel compelled to extend the post on [Trilema][trilema] as much as I +can. Allow me to unwind the tape to the times before personal computers were a +thing, when the guys at UPB were designing, and the guys at ICE Felix were +producing so-called "[home computers][hc]"[^2]. + + +It was about 1992 when I had one of those at home, specifically a HC90. Well, +said computers aren't much different from a simple keyboard, which actually had +embedded the whole hardware except the display and storage. Their trademark was +their shell, no more and no less than a BASIC interpreter, while saving and +loading data was done using magnetic tape, so that loading a game took quite +some time, as I couldn't do much else given my age and the thing's performance +-- especially the former. I was just beginning to learn reading then, so one of +my first readings comprised two green BASIC volumes[^3], which taught simple +problems such as drawing primitive shapes on the screen and performing various +computations. So that's how I spent my first computing years, mostly in front +of a black and white tube-based Snagov TV. + +PCs appeared in my life relatively early, some time around the year 1995. My +folks' workplaces already had 80486s with turbo buttons which set the frequency +from 33 to 66MHz. That was also the first time I saw how 5-and-a-quarter inch +floppy disks looked, and a bit later I got to play Prehistorik and Lotus III -- +quite a while after playing the first Lotus Esprit on the HC -- in front of a +monitor with a radiation filter, on the computers we had at school. + + +Then in 1997 my folks bought me my first grinder[^4], and only I know how much +I stood cleaning those mouse balls that were of dubious origin to say the +least, and of course, the dust from the CPU cooler. I clearly remember how 16MB +of RAM weren't enough for Carmageddon, so I bugged my dad to buy another 16. +Then desktop PCs evolved pretty fast in the following years, so I got a Pentium +with MMX[^5] and then a Pentium II, III and IV in six years or so. My last +Pentium desktop was a Pentium D that I only changed this year with a Haswell, +although I've been through a few laptops, most notably the Sandy Bridge i5 +ThinkPad X220[^6]. Finally, as far as servers go, I've always kept the Bricks +as well as The Tar Pit on a home server, currently an older 45nm Xeon on an HP +board that does its job well enough for my needs[^7]. + +I don't have that much to tell about peripherals. I went through a shitload of +Winmodems, one worse than the other, while I cursed most of the old graphics +boards from Intel for not allowing me to admire Lara Croft in the wholeness of +her nudity, at least until I got my first Riva TNT2, which sadly burned during +an intense Quake 3 match; nowadays it often smells of burning while I play The +Witcher 2 on a GTX 760, but the card holds its horses pretty well. Other than +that, I've had the privilege of wearing out a HP LaserJet 4 and then a 5 that +actually talked PostScript, which you usually see in an office running as a +standalone server. I don't see anything of the sorts nowadays, but maybe I'm +just nostalgic. + +Of course, I could spend days chattering about this whole tech yadda: my first +overclocking was a step away from frying a CPU; back in the days when CRTs +were still the best monitors I had a 17-inch EIZO that was perfect for any type +of graphics processing, from photo editing to modelling, and so on and so +forth. I managed to get my hands on some of the lowest-end hardware and a only +a few pieces that were simply awesome at their time. And that's how I got past +Y2K with my balls clean, same as I'll go past Y2038[^8] and whatever's gonna +come next. + +[^1]: That is, about twenty years ago, give or take a few. + +[^2]: In all fairness, the computers in question were Amstrad ZX Spectrum +ripoffs in almost every respect, from the CPU to the actual motherboard design. +Heck, [they say][roms] that even the operating system was illegally copied, +'cause no one gave, or gives, a damn about copyright in communist countries. + +[^3]: L. Dumitrașcu, *Învățăm microelectronica interactivă*, translated as +*Learning interactive microelectronics*, or better yet, *Learning +microelectronics interactively*. Some [bookstores][dumitrascu] still claim to +sell it, although I doubt they're in stock anymore; I'll probably donate my +copies to a museum at some point. + +[^4]: It certainly sounded like one, to be honest... + +[^5]: What they call SSE nowadays. + +[^6]: In terms of quality, that's nowhere near the ThinkPads IBM used to make. +Also, X220 was probably the last sane build of its series, given that now they +tend to make it more and more like an "ultrabook". No thanks, if I wanted a +MacBook I'd get one of those, not a more expensive knock-off. + +[^7]: Amusingly enough, at the time when I wrote the initial article I was +boasting the IBM Pentium III server that meanwhile went dead and buried after +about ten years of variable workloads. Also meanwhile, Intel started making +processors that you can safely run without cooking scrambled eggs on them; oh +well, that's history for you. + +[^8]: I doubt there'll be many 32-bit systems running ten years from now, let +alone in 2038. + +[bricks]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/bricks/cu-bilele-curate/ +[imdb]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068431/ +[daimonz]: https://twitter.com/daimonz/status/37150108445310976 +[trilema]: http://trilema.com/2011/vechituri-sau-viata-dinainte-de-y2k/ +[hc]: http://www.interface1.net/zx/clones/hc85.html +[roms]: http://www.shadowmagic.org.uk/spectrum/roms.html +[dumitrascu]: http://www.librarie.net/p/38941/Invatam-microelectronica-interactiva-Totul-despre-Basic-conversatii-sinteze-Liviu-Dumitrascu diff --git a/uploads/2015/02/basic-book-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2015/02/basic-book-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4198c91 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/02/basic-book-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/02/basic-book.jpg b/uploads/2015/02/basic-book.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a429284 Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/02/basic-book.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/02/hc-85-thumb.jpg b/uploads/2015/02/hc-85-thumb.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6e695c Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/02/hc-85-thumb.jpg differ diff --git a/uploads/2015/02/hc-85.jpg b/uploads/2015/02/hc-85.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31e0ddb Binary files /dev/null and b/uploads/2015/02/hc-85.jpg differ