Buying Will Make You Happy

Part Five and Part Six finish up the Engineering of Consent. There's a whole other part of the series available as well, called Happiness Machines (you can find parts 2 through 6 under the related videos section), if you're interested in more about psychology and advertising.

Add An Egg

Part three of the Engineering of Consent discusses advertising, and how to use psychology to sell products. This is something that I think does happen, and often successfully. The example given was interesting though. Is the "add an egg" for cake and brownie mix really only there to relieve the guilty feelings of housewives? Does this still apply? Why am I adding an egg? Is it even necessary? I'm tempted to write a letter. I can't count the number of times I've looked for something to cook for myself, picked up a box of brownie mix and thought "Mmm, this looks good, ah damn, I have no eggs." Ok, it's seven. Seven days of chocolate brownie despair because of an instruction that was only added to sell the product to the woman who felt guilty about not making them from scratch. I feel cheated, you are a cruel mistress Betty Crocker.

Part four is about how psychology can be used during war time, and you should just watch it. I found it very interesting.

Perhaps still on topic, I thought I would relate an experience I had this evening. Visiting with my parents earlier, my mom mentioned that there was a TV show called Mad Men about advertising executives in the sixties that was a cleverly done period piece. I decided to check it out, and I watched the first couple episodes. While watching it I started to feel sort of sick, mildly nauseous but hungry at the same time. After the end of the second episode, I realized what it was. Withdrawal. People in this show light up a cigarette every 10 seconds, and I now feel like I just quit smoking a couple hours ago, instead of three months ago. My psychological addiction, has given me physical withdrawal, which is an unpleasant reminder of the power of the mind. For those of you unfamiliar with what addiction looks like, perhaps this will paint a picture for you:

If I still had an ashtray, with stale dusty ashy cigarette butts from three months ago sitting around, I would pick one up, put it in my mouth, and try to set it on fire so I could inhale the smoke from the tar stained cotton of the filter.

That's not something I'm proud of, but there it is. I don't think I'll be watching Mad Men again anytime soon, but it does seem like a cleverly done period piece, and you should check it out if you're into that sort of thing, and not a nicotine junkie.

The Engineering of Consent

Currently, I'm reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov (which Jason let me borrow), which uses an advanced form of psychology called psycho-history as the plot device. This science cannot predict the behavior of individuals, but it can predict the behavior of large groups of people, and the scientists who understand the science, use it to direct the course of human society into the distant future. Coincidentally, I came across something much less grand is scale, but much more real, the Engineering of Consent (part 1, part 2).

The documentary is about how Freud's psychology was looked at in a post world war two America as a way to prevent the irrational and violent motivations within the general population from rising up and overthrowing democracy. It was believed that what happened in Germany, was a fall to the irrational motivations of otherwise ordinary people. If most of the population is driven by irrational forces, how can democracy work? Why not use Freud's ideas to create a system to change the psyches of Americans to reduce the violent emotions in them, and make them decent, conforming, democratic citizens? The National Mental Health Act was meant to do just that.

Now, trying to cure mental illness isn't a bad thing, but trying to pacify people makes things a little murky. Trying to induce conformity for the sake of mental health is certainly a step up from asylums. Overall I think that even if there was a concerted effort from those in positions in power to pacify people, psychology really wasn't understood well enough for it to be that effective. It does raise the question though, as our understanding of psychology and neurology advance, even if we don't approach the broad power of something like psycho-history, there may be things we'll be capable of doing that sound awfully scary today.

Say we have gained such a great understanding of child development, that a curriculum can be devised that produces happy, intelligent, hard working adults. Would you want those methods used by the public schools? Most people would probably say no, because it's hard to trust the government not to mess up something like that. Let's just remove big brother from the equation, and say that all schools in the future are privately run. Which school do you pick for your kids? Happy brainwashing school, or Columbine? I would imagine that every school shooting would cause a jump in brainwashing school enrollment. And why not? If they've figured out how to keep kids from shooting each other, that's a pretty good sales point. Do you buy the child rearing books written by the psychologists? People do that now, is it only creepy if it works really well?

What about criminal rehabilitation? If we can really rehabilitate someone, should we? A few weeks with the future-psychiatrist and you put up those barriers to the criminal behavior, and send them out the door as a productive member of society. It's certainly been the subject of enough sci-fi. Again, isn't that what we're trying to do now with prisons? Why does it become creepy when it works? That's kind of weird isn't it? Of course, the other side of the argument is "Lobotomies prevent future criminal behavior too, that doesn't mean we should use it as punishment." A lobotomy is obviously overkill, but is conditioning also overkill? What if it was surgical in nature, does that make it overkill?

As we learn more about how the mind functions, we may also learn how to change the mind in very specific ways. I've talked about the moral fear that tends to affect new sciences before, and I'm not sure this is that different, though certainly there are some unique moral aspects to this. The fields of psychology and neurology are in their relative infancy, and we may not need to draw those lines in my lifetime, but the need to draw them may be inevitable.

Hurt

In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the Nine Inch Nails song 'Hurt'. I just stumbled across the video, which is fantastic.


Johnny Cash - Hurt

Horror Film Theme Song

Some of you may have heard Jason refer to my "roommate killing music", which he claims sounds like the theme for a villain in a slasher flick. This is a song I wrote when we were living together, so he got to hear it over and over again for a couple weeks while I was working on it. I've always wanted to add something else to it, but can't figure out what that should be. Unfortunately, this is the only song of mine I seem to still have. Unless I can find an old back up disk somewhere, I think all the really old stuff is gone, which isn't a big loss, it's all pretty amateur stuff anyway, but some of it was kind of amusing.

Chi.mp3

Stumbling Into Myself

I've been asked a couple times recently what kinds of things people are entering on search engines that bring them to my site. For the most part, it's you regular readers searching for "fetal minds" or "joe cerra" and ending up here. Occasionally, someone trying to find something else ends up here, these are a few examples.

"ultimate action" "never ever"
I'm pretty sure they were looking for a song by this band.

and shephards we shall be and teming with souls
It's nice to know that poor spellers looking for the murder prayer end up here.

apocracy method
Judging by the other results, I'm guessing this is a song by Method Man. I seem to be popular for music that isn't here.

fideleus charm
Fideleus - an alias that I addressed a letter to once
Fidelius - a spell from the Harry Potter books
I get the people who mis-spell it. Ha ha, spell, get it?

minds blind spot
Well... why not.

pictabs dance
Apparently I use the word dance a lot. Odd.

terraforming
I couldn't find myself on this search anymore. Which is a shame, I was kind of proud of this one.

thoof
I don't show up on this search anymore either, which is fine, since I forgot about this website.

freezing bondage gear
Hmmm. I'm guessing someone got stuck to some metal undergarments, and really, who hasn't been there before? The real problem here, is metal below the freezing point. If you put your tongue, a sweaty hand, or really anything with moisture against freezing metal, the high thermal conductivity in the metal will conduct heat out of the water in contact with it faster than your body is supplying that water with heat, causing it to freeze. If you are looking for some sub-zero entertainment, something with a lower thermal conductivity such as plastic or rubber may be a better choice for storing in the freezer, though you should be careful as these materials may become brittle once frozen. The other option is to make sure your metal items are above the freezing point before use.

is there such a thing as too much fetal movement
I don't show up on this search until the 5th page, someone obviously was having trouble finding what they were looking for. To answer your question, the answer is Yes. It's called fetal drift, in which a fetus may begin to wander aimlessly. Your fetus is probably drifting if it has learned to play the harmonica, enrolled in community college, or gained employment in the Ren Fair. I think there are pills you can take to fix this.

A Little Catch Up

I think Jason created a website and didn't tell anyone.

Blogger released a neat web app called Blogger Play, which shows you the images that people are uploading to their blogs in a real-time slide show. It's very hypnotic.

The Northwest passage has opened up in the Arctic for the first time since 1998, ahead of predictions.

The Antarctic has set a record in the satellite measurements for the most ice extent since 1979.

Unfortunately, the source for the second story had to issue a correction, and mess the nice min/max thing going on, stating that the southern hemisphere is only "close" to the historic maximum.

11 foods to improve your mood. Number 2 is chocolate. Now it's medical advice.

Google has put their money where my heart is, and got in on the x-prize action. Plus, extra bonus article on why we might want to go back to the moon.

The Greatest Picture

The Most Important Picture Ever Taken

A recent article I read on the Hubble telescope reminded me of the above video.

This Post Brought To You By The Letter Codeine

Just so everyone knows, I plan on taking the past four days off. You may expect posts to resume immediately.

I heard about a website called Kiva, which is designed to help people invest in developing countries. It's an interesting concept, and personally, I think spreading capitalism to developing countries would have a better effect then trying to spread democracy.

Speaking of capitalism, Apple cut the price on their iPhone, and iPhone owners got very whiny. This really isn't new, people have complained about this since trade was invented I'm sure. People seem to be whining much louder now though, or for some reason it's become news worthy. Here's the thing though, shut up. You bought an electronic device during the first three months of it's release. If you are shocked that the price of electronics goes down over time, you quite possibly have brain damage. If it was caused by your iPhone, there is a 85% chance that I would find your suffering amusing. Also sad, sure, but sad in a way that would make me chuckle. The point is, if something costs $600 dollars today, it's your job to decide if that's a fair value. It is your money, and your decision, if you think it is worth that much to you, and you think it is a fair trade, then spend your dough. If the price goes down to $400 dollars 2 minutes after you walk out the doors, you did not get ripped off. No one tricked you into spending $600, you decided that's what it was worth at that time. No one does this with gas. Do you ever see anyone ask for a refund on their recent purchase when gas prices go down? Ok, I had this happen to me when I worked at a gas station. If I remember correctly, my response to the request for a refund was to slightly raise one eyebrow in a condescending manner until they got mad and left, but that person was in a class all her own, most people do not do this with gas prices. I really just don't understand why people look at these things differently. Maybe it's because gas prices change daily, but electronics do not? If I ran a retail electronics store, I would be tempted to change my prices every four hours, just to amuse myself.

This of course is probably why I will never run a retail electronics store. I will probably also never design cars, because if I did, stories like this one about Emily Bazelon would tempt me to remove the ability to recline car seats, and place large stickers where the reclining levers used to be stating "This feature removed for your safety thanks to the good work of Emily Bazelon. You may reach her at this number...." Yes, I'm a people person.

In a previous post, I mentioned that there were allegations that some NASA astronauts were flying drunk. NASA has completed their investigation, and has found no evidence to support that rumor. In addition, the rovers are alive and kicking. I will rest easier at night, knowing those robots are ok. Seriously.

Lastly, her is the letter, from SLW. Click on the pics for larger versions.

Why?

This contribution to my collection of other people writings, comes from one of my aunts. I'm actually not sure if she reads this or not. Guess I'll find out.

She wrote me this poem in a letter she sent me, with the idea that we would be pen pals, and exchange poems. It was a great idea, I wish it was the kind of thing I could have stuck with. I only sent her one response, I got a letter back, and that was the end of it. Even thinking about it I'm tempted to put an add on Craig's List, "Wanted: Someone to exchange hand written letters with. Must spell 'you' with more than one letter." Of course, it's still probably something I wouldn't stick with. I'm not sure why that is.

Unfortunately, I can't find the second letter, which, I'm pretty sure had a second poem. The letter I do have, I'll save for next week, as it pretty much gives away who it is, and I'm curious if my family will know who it is right away or not.

Written: 10/8/1992
One morning, as my alarm breaks the silence of my dreams, I hear rain pounding against the windows and ask... "Why?"
"Why not sunshine or an extra hour of sleep?"

One evening, as I watch the news, I hear about children dying in far away places and ask... "Why?"
"Why not plentiful bounties or peace?"

One day, as I wash my face, I catch the reflection of myself - the complexity, the confusion and ask... "Why?"
"Why am I this way?"

BECAUSE my life has made me this way?
BECAUSE I am destined to serve some special purpose?
BECAUSE I ask "Why?"


Enigma - "Why"

Greatest Mysteries

LiveScience ran a series of articles last month for what they considered the greatest mysteries in science to be. There are fifteen articles, so there is plenty good stuff there. They've basically done my news round up for me, which is nice, as labor day tends to make me lazy, and I haven't done much news gathering this week.

Freedom Lover

I got into a bit of a political discussion this weekend, and thought I'd post my Nolan Chart. The quiz is only 12 questions, but I think the results are decent. I'm not so sure about the commentary however. Ron Paul, really? To be honest, I've completely ignored him, but if I was going to vote for someone that didn't have a chance in hell, I'd just vote libertarian.

I'm not sure why the name of my group was changed, I think "Moderate Libertarian" is more accurate than "Right Leaning Freedom Lover". That sounds like a capitalist hippie. Hmmm, then again...