Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Partial Solutions

Back when I was a pup, I took several (understatement) courses in partial differential equations as part of an engineering program. For those who do not recall, differentials are the slope of the line, section, or plane orthogonal to one axis. Partials differential have three or more axis, hence have two or more slopes parallel to axis. This can be visualized in 3D space, but beyond that, we just do the maths, or in with thermodynamic surfaces, all other parameters are just held fixed, and the relationship is studied. We do similar with soils, but some of the changes are variable to just unknown. What fun. Oh will, I am retired now. 

We humans have similar with emotions, beliefs, values, knowledge, desires, moods, temperament, motivations, behaviors, all of which varies over time.

Our emotions are neither good nor bad, as long as we identify them, accept them, evaluate them rationally before acting or not. Much of the time there is no rational response, so we can accept our emotions, do something or not. Often there is no escape of the situation when we are children, and often as adults, the most rational response is to stay the course, even when it is far less than ideal. Most situations are just beyond our control, even beyond human control. Many are the result of masses of humans, each independently making their own decisions, and we need to survive in the resulting chaos. It is beyond our control, rushed, pressured, and the result of human driven chaos. Many of us cannot deal with the speed and volume of modern life. Oh well, in the end we just die anyway.

Beliefs and values create a man made hell for some us. We are in control of our own beliefs, and one deadly flaw of the human mind is attachment to our beliefs. This becomes apparent when we realize that our previous beliefs were wrong. We need to treat our beliefs as we do science, and ratchet to better and better. Yet there is a great resistance to this, even institutions (religions) who's purpose is to resist and promote wrong concepts. Until we realize this, we are just being manipulated by the dead. Fear of the unknown is being used against us, and effort is made to keep us in ignorance of these fairly simple but likely true concepts.

There is no supernatural, just luck and forces of nature. We can modify some through time and effort, but our effort may be wasted, or may yield prophets and/or profits. Who can know?

Emotions, moods, and temperament overlie our genetic predisposition, and are a matter of time scale and consistence. These can be modified by our beliefs and/or chemicals. Even spices can cause sleeping hallucination. Knowledge is just learned from those who went before, and each new generation needs to test them out to be sure if they apply to them, and for truth.

Desires set our direction in life, and motivations drive us. Behavior is what happens of the possible range that can occur in our environment. We can only do what is available within the range of possible activities, given all the external and internal constraints and motivations, within the skills, knowledge, motivations and drives of the individual. The outcomes are left largely at the individual's chance. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

So we put together a life, moving a bit or a lot one way and then a bit or a lot the other direction. Sometime we over correct, sometimes a bit short. We move through life, events occur, and if we take enough time to examine, we find it is all just adjustment, sometime the system adjusts to us, sometimes we adjust to the system, and some times we just break apart or fail. Life will go on until it does not.               

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