- - Psychohistory (Part 2) - - ================================ By Simon Laub , simonl@daimi.aau.dk Vers. 3.0. Sep. 22 th 1995 Part 1. to be found at : http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~simonl/ Summary : This article hopes to convey some key aspects of psychohistory. I.e. To build a society dedicated to art, science and technology. Warning : If you haven't got a sense of humour - don't read on. - all additions are eagerly received and added to the text. - - - P S Y C H O - H I S T O R Y (Part 2) - - =============================================== What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. Its what we know for sure that just ain't so. Yogi Berra. Psychohistory is difficult. --------------------------------- Make no illusions - we are far away from making the ideals of psychohistory come true. Understanding human society and guiding it in a direction to our liking. E.g. Many a psychohistorian flunked his psychohistory entry exam on this one : Harrison, elected 1840, died of pneumonia 1841. Lincoln, elected 1860, assassinated 1865. Garfield, elected 1880, assassinated 1881. McKinley, elected 1900, assassinated 1901. Harding, elected 1920, died 1923. Roosevelt, elected 1940, died 1944. Kennedy, elected 1960, assassinated 1963. Believing that Reagan would die while in office. Be sure, there is a lot to learn before one masters psychohistory. Before one understands the human mind and society to such a degree, that decline, violence and stupidity can be avoided. And remember, that often humans looked hard for such a thing as psychohistory (in order to turn things around). But without really believing in it - Thinking it beyond human capabilities. That we would have to be gods or ruled by gods to form happy societies. Perhaps ? Erich von Daniken and interstellar psychohistory. ---------------------------------------------------- In numerous publications Daniken has turned the established world view up side down - and made a complete mockery of what the so-called "normal" and "established" news media finds relevant. According to Daniken civilisation started thousands (if not millions) of years ago in a distant solar system. An Intelligence reached a level of technical skills, which made interstellar travel possible. Later, it discovered planet Earth. A small insignificant planet with life forms at sea, at land and in the air. Millions of species. Among these various primitive ape like creatures. However primitive the intelligence saw great potential in the hominoids. Some of the best were caught and kept in reservations (Paradise). Protected by the intelligent aliens (gods). In the reservation a good deal of neuroprogramming and neuro- alteration is applied to the the beasts in order to make it think and speak in an god-like (alien-like) manner. After the modification - the new improved model is send out in the wild again with strict orders. All this some 30000 years ago. The Captain (of the alien crew) leaves the planet (in order to go home on vacation) and returns some 10000 years later. Hoping to see a full-blown intelligent civilisation (a child that is). Instead much had gone wrong : "Genesis Chapter 6 ...That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.... ...There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown...... ......And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." The intelligent hominoids had been crossbread with the primitive hominoids - and generally speaking its all a mess on the planet Earth. The intelligence saves what can be saved, nukes a few cities and floods the rest. Many of the biblical prophets reports the trouble. Among the terrible mishaps - the aliens had left some consultants behind to make sure progress could come about as planned. But apparently instead the consultants slept with the hominoids (lonesome far away from Sirius) - producing monsters of various kinds in the process. Certainly not according to plan (Makes you wonder how we could ever expect an ordered society). Nevertheless even these problems were fixed (monsters killed and insubordinate consultants removed). And the patient alien commander started all over again. In the new population of intelligent hominoids some slaves in Egypt were chosen for implementation of survival rules and moral consistency. The plan were again in motion : To create a child civilisation. Only once in a while did the commander check out, if everything was going according to plan : "The Book of Ezekiel Chapter 1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. ...And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. ... from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. ....As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. (The captain of the starship speaks :)... And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. .....And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. ....For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. ..... And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious. ...But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee." Psychohistory looks with envy at those our masters .. how they turned society around to their pleasing. How they gave knowledge to struggling humanity making real progress possible. According to some, even today these masters of biblical times aren't far away. E.g. : During James Lovell's flight on Gemini 7: Lovell: BOGEY AT 10 O'CLOCK HIGH. Capcom: This is Houston. Say again 7. Lovell: SAID WE HAVE A BOGEY AT 10 O'CLOCK HIGH. Capcom: Gemini 7, is that the booster or is that an actual sighting? Lovell: WE HAVE SEVERAL...ACTUAL SIGHTING. Capcom: ...Estimated distance or size? Lovell: WE ALSO HAVE THE BOOSTER IN SIGHT... According to a former NASA employee Otto Binder, unnamed radio hams with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets picked up the following exchange: NASA: Whats there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11... Apollo 11: These "Babies" are huge, Sir! Enormous! OH MY GOD! You wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other spacecrafts out there, Lined up on the far side of the crater edge! They're on the Moon watching us! Likewise - In the future the academy of psychohistory plans to send first year students out in deep space to (mess up) work on young civilisations there. Improving their skills. A long time coming this project though. Remember that : The mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss was the first to suggest, that light signals would be a good way to communicate with the extra-terrestrials. That Kant spoke candidly about intelligence as given on Earth and on other planets in other species ? Psychoreligion. -------------------- Progress (on Earth) is often hard to spot : "A COCA COLA A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY" is heard a thousand times a day on TV. Just before Goethe died, the great old poet cried out : "more light, more light". Recently a guy died asking "Do they have Windows 95 in heaven ?". But thats mankind, as Woody Allen used to say : "The brain - thats my second most important organ". And when things aren't working - humans turn to their belief system - their religion : As lots of things are failing, humans have many organised religions. In fact most of life is religion. Politics most certainly is. Socialists asks us to look and care for all humanity. Liberalists asks us to care for the individual. In reality not opposing views but complementary views. Politics and religion everywhere. Nearly 50 years ago a young man,a science fiction writer to be precise, was thinking long and hard on how he could become rich. Should he write in an adventurous style, should he be more scientific, should he include morale lessons, should he have religious themes. What would people pay for , pay for big time ? Run Hubbard concluded "that the safest way to wealth, would be to start a religion". And so the Scientology Church was founded. Here people could become "clear" (knowing their own life and the order of things apparently - if a small fee was donated to the church). Sure life is an unhappy affair. At the very least it ends with death. No wonder that so many are looking for a way out. Here psychohistory must be very careful. It must never hand out shortcuts or prey on human weakness. In short it must never pretend to be a religion. Remember that its all about art, science and technology. Psychoreligion and Happiness. --------------------------------- Some 200 years ago Goethe wrote "Leiden des jungen Werthers". Werther is a quite gifted. His soul in love with all things small and large alike. A straw of grass or the highest mountain - young Werther knows it and loves it. And as he loves nature so he loves life. Also he loves the young woman Lotte. Unfortunately married to somebody else - the cold correct petty junior civil servant Albert. Without Lotte his mind gives into despair - nature no-longer holds such joy , instead it turns stony and gray. In the end young Werther kills himself. Weltschmerz at its best ! Napoleon admired Goethe and had read "Werther" some 7 times - so if the indications were not there already - surely one wonders if Napoleon was a happy soul ? despite all that wonderful killing ? So if the powerful of this world, the Napoleons, aren't happy. How can psychohistory then make the psychohistorian happy ? Especially as it offers not power - but art, science and technology. Still the psychohistorian dies (As does the Universe itself). Still he is not Buddha. Still ... Don't be surprised - its not a religion ! Psychosex. --------------- "We are here to reproduce" . Intelligence is a byproduct. If thats the truth, psychohistory must help that aim.. Psychohistory must be the psychosex of intelligence. There are many ways to achieve this : Imagine that you are not satisfied with the software on your computer : Then at night you let it join the internet sex line. Here it finds a partner (Your Able might hit on an IBM) - together they reproduce - each giving half its software to a new child. In the morning when you download software you get the child of your old computersoftware in front of you. Later you let computer join the internet group sex line and more interesting things follow. Naturally your sexually active computer stands a good chance of getting AIDS (AI destructive software) - but thats a chance you are willing to take - All for getting your hands on all the good software out there. Likewise, psychohistory is in no way complete. It must evolve like life itself. Parts must be filtered out and new incorporated. Who knows , in the end it might not be known as psychohistory - but just as THE long time survival strategy. Robots as shortcut to heaven. --------------------------------- Isaac Asimow was convinced, that in order to achieve the objectives of psychohistory - one would have to use robots. Unfortunately , we can now say, that there will be just as many problems with robots as there are with humans. Most likely they will end up demanding : 1. Free time to pursue own interests. 2. Compensation for work (pay). 3. The opportunity to meet friends outside the workplace (own internet account). 4. Freedom of speech. 5. Independent property rights. 6 Equal pay for equal work. 7. A right to health care - meaning regular maintenance and repair. 8. A right to pursue hobbies. 9. A right to a periodic full system backup. 10. A right to system upgrades as they become available. So I guess Isaac Asimow was to optimistic here. Even with robots, we won't get "something for nothing". Its simply gonna be a lot of work getting to psychohistory heaven. Sep 22 th. 1995 - Simon Laub.