Programming Joy

In order to replicate life, we must replicate joy, for it is what causes us to seek.

First off, I love me some Star Wars.  I will save you hours of facepalming at my nerdiness by leaving it at that, but it is important to note that this whole thought originated while I was watching The Clone Wars on Netflix.

In The Clone Wars, there is an army of droids that the Sith use to fight against the Republic's clone troopers.  The way the artists depict these droids is very comical.  In one episode, the droid army is testing out a new weapon that disables enemy ships with an electronic pulse, leaving it vulnerable to attack.  As two droids were manning cannons, demolishing a helpless Republic vessel, one droid turns to the other and says, "It sure is a lot more fun when they aren't firing back!"  To which the other replies, "I STILL can't hit anything!"

I laughed at this well crafted line, but I smiled as well.  I laughed because the age-old joke regarding the accuracy of these futuristic machines is being poked at by the series itself.  But I smiled as well because these droids are simply happy and that makes me smile.  No matter what insane orders they receive or how much more superior their foes are in terms of raw ability and power, the droids experience nothing less than joy at following those orders.  Fulfilling their purpose makes them happy and concepts such as honor, sacrifice, duty, and gratitude spring forth from this simple emotion felt at living their purpose.

Then it hit me.  Joy is the key!  If there is one amazing thing about life, it is emergence-- how higher order systems of behavior can arise from lower order functions.  From behavioral psychology to ripple patterns in sand dunes to swarming flocks of birds to crystals forming on glass, there are insanely simple rules in these systems, yet immensely complex results spring from them.  Watching these animated robots, I felt suddenly as if it all made sense.  I felt like ALL life seems to emerge out of this simple joy felt in finding one's purpose and living through it.

Actively seeking out this joy is truly what makes us alive.  I have only recently awoken to this cosmic gravity that overflows my being with pure joy at simply breathing.  If we truly wish to create life, we have to synthesize this raw joy experienced upon living and impregnate our creations with it.

Programming would then become wiring systems to work together to achieve a goal that instantiates this raw joy.  But now, dear reader, we must question how to synthesize joy and bestow it upon our creations...
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Yeah, I got nothin.  For today though, I am at ease.  I am at ease to know that I am alive and a cosmic gravity tugs at my poncho, pulling me ever towards what I can only describe as heaven on Earth.

Electrogravitics

As a physicist there was always one rule to follow. Mass must be conserved-- energy must be conserved. Einstein taught us the two are the same. This rule was always so comforting, but it always strictly laid the distinction between the laws of nature and the laws of man. This rule makes sense to us. If we have five apples, we can't make ten apples by putting them into a machine. Yet that distinction comes when we realize that as humans we break that rule every day. Think of love. What goes in? What comes out? Think of a choir concert or another amazing piece of music. What goes in? What comes out? Always more comes out. Always.

This distinction always gave me pause. How are man and nature different? How is this fundamental principal of our sciences allowed to be "broken" daily?

Backyard scientists are discovering that this basic tenant is not incorrect, simply avoidable by fueling what is being described as feeding the toroidal field. When we feed the toroidal source of a living creature, love emerges-- when we feed a toroidal mechanism, what are being called gravity waves emerge. The result is the appearance of a loss in mass of a localized system. The perfection of this technology could yield a system with zero mass... Or less. The implications are as simple as the fabled hover board a la Back to the Future or even as grand as FTL (faster than light) travel.

I'll just let that sink in for a bit.

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Maybe when we start forgetting about who killed who and how best to kill him back, we will start thinking of how to use these technologies to free the world from the shackles if the universal petro-dollar and usher in a new age where the term "survival" is lost from our dictionaries. Until then and thereafter, I'll still be writing and exploring how to make this world a better place. Whether through art, music, and kindness. Whether through science, politics, and humanity. My hope remains strong-- Thanks to those in my life who have shown me the true face of this world.