a centralized government is the last thing the people in control want

aaron moritz, August 26th 2010

If the world is united, even if under some fascist regime, it would give the people something to rebel against. As it stands now, there is no one power for us to overthrow. The IMF? The Fed? The USA government? This is good for the ruling class, to have many branches on their tree, so that if one dies or falls off, the rest can keep going. More importantly, it keeps the public, and even to some extent the participants in the system completely confused and unsure of what the real problem is. If we were under global dictatorship it would be quite clear what the problem is, and there would likely be global revolution.

No, it’s much more convenient for the power elites to keep nations sovereign and fighting. To enhance stereotypes and highlight differences in the media, creating cultures of fear and separation. They’ve even created a fantasy NWO Illuminati for the people smart enough to see past the bullshit to fight against. They’re smart. But we are too. And there’s more of us.

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the impossibility of non-transparency on the internet?

aaron moritz, July 24th 2010

People get very riled up about privacy issues online, and I always have to wonder, who are you hiding from?

You, when you said your Facebook profile to ‘private’, what information are you protecting? And who are you protecting it from?

In a free society, you have nothing to hide from anyone. In a free society, there is no reason to fear for your cell numbers or your bank account… or identity theft.

Hackers have shown time and again that no matter what restrictions are placed on them, they’ll find a way around it. Look at Wikileaks, who gave the keynote speech at HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth). Even the most private, secret information corporations and governments are trying to hide is slipping out….

What does this mean for humanity? Living in a world where transparency is ubiquitous. Seems to be where we’re heading, and it seems to me a step in the right direction.

next day edit:
(thought this was very relevant to what I was trying to say)

Change the world with social networking from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

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so what happens if i don’t live forever? (also how i became an athiest [extremely abridged])

aaron moritz, July 11th 2010

When I was in 7th grade my religion teacher told the class that it was ok to be gay, but that having gay sex was a sin. Tell any 12 year old kid he can’t have sex (well, the kind he wants to have) and you lose ‘em. And Catholicism lost me. But that didn’t mean there was no God, not for sure anyway. I was content, for many years, to think that the church just gets some things wrong, that of course, an ever loving God would never send me to hell for sucking a dick (especially when he’s the one who made me want to do it…)

So I embraced my agnosticism, which by the time I graduated, had turned more into a quasi-spiritual pick and choose belief system when I got into mysticism and spirit guides and healing (note: not heavily into , I was just… browsing), and now my stance is basically… wait and see. But my intuition is that there is no afterlife.

The more ‘atheist’ I became, the more I began to feel free. There was no God watching and judging everything I do. I am the ultimate judge of myself. I am the only person with that power, truly. I once mentioned I was an atheist to a casual acquaintance and he said “…must be lonely sometimes.” I never looked at it that way. The only thing atheism has given me is less guilt, and a feeling of purpose.

I’ve been digging into Transhumanism for a while now, and I’ve become fairly persuaded by the evidence that we are developing technologies that will radically extend our lives (possibly until the end of the universe[or the beginning of the next one]). But lot’s of people like to say that this is nothing more than technologists wishful thinking, their own scientific version of religion, creating heaven on earth, rapture of the nerds some people have called it. And until I see the actual technologies working, on humans, I can’t have 100% confidence that they aren’t wrong. So what happens if I do die?

Well, I was an atheist (well, let’s say… 96% atheist. There’s always a chance the theists are right) before I stumbled upon transhumanism and my stance on death hasn’t changed much. If death is inevitable, then all that means is that this life is more precious. There is no garuntee, or even reason to think, that there is anything after this life. So make each moment count. And don’t worry about dying, because if you do die, you’ll either be starting on some great adventure, or you’ll be nothing, like before you were born.

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RIP – A Remix Manifesto.

aaron moritz, May 21st 2010

I just watched this documentary and it almost moved me to tears. Ok, not tears, because it wasn’t sad, but while this movie is mostly about patents and copyright infringement, even if they don’t know it they summed up why there is going to be a revolution in the next ten, twenty years tops.

The printing press caused a revolution because people could now freely spread ideas with each other. People learned to read for the first time ever, they became literate, the became participants in the discussions of the time. But only a few people can own printing presses, or, as it’s evolved since then into TV networks, newspapers, and  radio stations… all forms of mass communication required a central source.

Except the internet. On the internet, it’s peer to peer. Anyone can be a creator, and we’re finding out that the human race is really fucking creative.

And we do it just like they always have, by building on what came before us. Led Zeppelin took old blues songs and made them rock n roll. DJ’s take old songs and make them new again. You Tube is full of people including myself, who take images, songs, words, phrases (I didn’t come up with Bigger Cages / Longer Chains, it’s the name of a International Noise Conspiracy song) and mash them up together in new and creative ways to spread THEIR message. To get THEIR point across.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the internet has democratized media. The effects are starting to ripple out slowly, but as the old get older and the young get more numerous and more powerful, expect to see huge changes in the ways we run our planet. This revolution is global and I can’t fucking wait.

So go watch this movie, please, you can find it on torrent sites or even on their site http://www.opensourcecinema.org (look for the ‘watch all chapters’ section).

Open source… freedom from copyrights, patents, and intellectual (and in my opinion, all kinds of ) property is the future. Whether the establishment wants it or not.

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and I’m tripping over my joy but I just keep on getting up again

aaron moritz, May 15th 2010

or, why I’m really not that scared about our future.

We’re on a terrible path, I know this, many people know this, many more people are realizing it. And it’s getting worse, and the worse it gets, the more people won’t be able to stand it. Everyone has a limit. Eventually we will reach a tipping point where humanity says ‘no more’ and things start to change, or we all die.

If you look at history, there’s a clear pattern of oppression, and then revolution. If there truly is a nefarious plot to unite the world under one, all pervaisive government, then I only see that as the globally united people’s oppurtunity for the final earthly revolution. Once the people have seized control of the planet, there will be no other ‘countries’ where oppression can grow and be nurtured because the world will be truly connected, both digitally, and through efficient, quick global travel. I don’t buy the nefarious plot angle, but I think the powerful have a tendency to scratch each others backs, and then power consolidation happens, so it’s kind of six of one, half doze on the other.

I guess my point is, every time there is an evil empire, it tumbles. I just hope that this time, globally aware and connected, we can avoid the rubble of our tumbling system, and we can peacefully begin to work with each other, and with out planet.

And if I die I won’t be around to know about it anyways, so who cares, right? I’ll just keep chugging while I’m still chuggin.

“and I’m tripping over my joy. But I just keep on getting up again”
-Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley)

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Making the blind see: Gene therapy restores vision in mice

aaron moritz, April 23rd 2010

link -

For all the horror stories you hear about what genetic engineering could do to our species, there’s still awesome shit like this. Gene therapy curing blindness. This is amazing, this should be celebrated, and it should be tested and applied to humans as quickly as possible.

I wonder how much that is going to cost? I mean, I’m sure that we have the resources, but money, maybe there’s not enough. Not to do it quickly anyway. Seems strange. The ability that some would’ve called magic back in Jesus’ day is in development, but taking its time, cause it might affect profit margins.

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822

aaron moritz, March 22nd 2010

Information is constantly flying in at me and I can’t help but be constantly changed by it. But some people can, they manage to stay the same, or they do their best, anyway. It must take a lot of effort. Let go. See what happens.

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PEANUTS KILL MORE PEOPLE THAN TERRORISTS

aaron moritz, February 21st 2010

look up the numbers… just putting things into perspective.

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economies and infinite growth.

aaron moritz, February 17th 2010

If anyone ever asks you why the use of money, in general, is unsustainable, all you have to point out is that in order for an economy to be ‘healthy’, it has to grow. You hear this all the time, measuring health of the market through how much it grows. This means more houses built, more things produced, more things consumed. And we can’t keep producing more and more things forever. Therefore, this type of economy is going to collapse. End of story. It can’t work. The amount of resources on the planet is not going to continuously grow, so neither can our production.

It’s really that simple. Seems almost too easy and too obvious, but there it is.

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cords and discs

aaron moritz, February 14th 2010

It’s pretty insane that they don’t have a way for me to use WiFi to put songs on my iPhone. They gotta get this shit figured out. I feel like I’m living in the past here with this cord.

Another weird thing I thought about today is that I’m probably never going to buy another CD or DVD in my life. I just don’t see it happening again. Maybe a blu-ray if I get a nice HDTV. Probably not though because I can download HD movies anyway. Discs are shitty and obsolete. I’m not really sad to see them go.

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