The Rubix Cube Part 4: I Never Remember It

What if you simply CAN'T solve the Rubix Cube?  What if no matter how hard you try, no matter how many hours you put into the study and practice of the thing, solving the Rubix Cube remains IMPOSSIBLE.

Are you this person?  Or can you solve the Rubix Cube?

I can't.

Even with the directions right in front of you?  

I can't.                                                                                                

Even with thirteen different videos explaining it step by step? 

I can't.                                                                                                         

Even with a personal tutor who actually shows you each individual move?  

I can't.                                                                                                          

What if I give you a million dollars?

Gimme that fuckin' Cube.                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

HELP!

FUCK.  I still can't solve the Cube.  I just can't, I don't know what's wrong with me.  What does this mean?  Should I keep trying?  I've been working on it for a month now and it seems like I'll never figure it out.  

TIME.  MONEY.  WILL POWER.  NOTHING WORKS I TELL YOU.  NOTHING.  THIS IS COMPLETELY STUPID, I'M A GOOD PERSON, AND THIS CUBE MAKES ME FEEL BAD.  I HATE THIS CUBE.  I HATE IT.  FUCK YOU, FUCK THE RUBIX CUBE.  FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME FEEL INFERIOR.  FUCK YOU FOR EVEN CREATING IT.  I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY.  I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE MAKE ME FEEL THIS WAY EVER AGAIN, AND I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE MAKE MY CHILDREN FEEL THIS WAY.  

I BET THERE NEVER WAS A MILLION DOLLARS TO BEGIN WITH.  YOU'RE A LIAR. 

 I KNOW YOU'RE A LIAR.

If you don't solve the Rubix Cube by the end of the year, I'm going to kill everyone you love, and then I'm going to throw you in Prison.  Do you understand?  DO YOU THINK I'M LYING NOW?

Get back to work.

Where is that Voice coming from?  Hey, who are you?  And who are you to threaten ME?    

The clock is ticking…..

The Rubix Cube Part 3: Always Engrave

Image courtesy of MK Ultrasound

"Let the meme fight for its life in the jungle of competing models of reality...

When I pull back from the specificity and the fact that I invented it that's my biggest problem.  If I hadn't invented this, if I had just heard that somebody invented it, and this is what it was, I think I would find it very interesting.  But since I know the inventor very well, I'm very prone to doubt the thing.  I mean, this is not a guy you would want to put a lot of pressure on so….

I - I don't know.  

I'm puzzled.

Figure 26

And I offer it as an unsolved puzzle."

Terence McKenna

"Chaos is a state where information can exist, but where it does not exist."

Aryeh Kaplan

Our physical body is the extension of a billion year system of order called DNA.  DNA is a communication system intent on impregnating the future with the past through a novelty conserving game of elemental telephone.  One of the most complex products of this game is an organ of matter called brain, a physical computer capable of executing billions of actions every second, each decision intimately related to the scope of an entire physical body.

The human brain, along with that of the dolphin, are two of the most prominent examples of this.  

A specific and recent extension of the human brain is the human neocortex (Latin for "new bark"), a six-layered membrane responsible for language, conscious thought, unconscious thought, dreaming, spatial reasoning, sensory perception, and the generation of motor commands.  Not only is it capable of perception and projection, it is capable of simultaneous perception and projection.  It is the observer as well as the observed, the engraver and the engraved.  It creates as it destroys.

I believe that it is the neocortex that is the sole/soul biological membrane that is in direct contact with Mind/God/TAO/non-locality.  It is through this connection that the silent, seamless, and ordered system of DNA is finally questioned and brought into doubt.

Is the complex reality of physical existence radically dis-ordered?  Or is it ordered by the divine?

Are we drowning in blind chaos?  Or are we swimming amidst perfection?

"From above to below we know.  But from below to above we do not know"

I nominate the six-layered Rubix Cube as an externalized representation of the human neocortex independently removed from its bio-physical firmament.  An externalized model, the Rubix Cube gives us a chance to visualize and interact with the Bridge between brain and Mind, and a chance to understand why some brains seem to be more in contact with Mind than others.  Why some brains remain in contact with Mind.

If the standard brain has a knowledge of the permutations of the Cube, it can gradually develop an understanding of how to arrive at certain specific permutations.   Brain can then begin to develop a stronger connection to Mind.   A deeper connection to Mind.  A connection capable of handling a flood of wisdom, if that flood should happen to occur.

"I preached here earlier that you mustn't seek closure

 and so I don't with this.

If it's a communication, it's a very curious communication.  If it is non-communication, it's even more curious.  If it's a delusion, why is it so mathematically formal?  If I'm pathological, why aren't there attendant sequelae?  Why just this very defined thing?

The whole thing smacks of the impossible.  It's even pushed me towards the idea that maybe this is not actually a reality.   We're trapped, or I'm trapped.  I don't know if you're trapped, but we're in some kind of piece of fiction.  It's like a Philip K. Dick deal, you know, some kind of simulacrum, and the clue to the fact that it's a simulacrum is this impossible idea, and so the point of the idea is not to believe it, but to use it as a wedge to fight our way out of this labyrinth and back to whatever reality we were in before we fell in to this situation.  Something like that.

Anyway I have the feeling that I'm blathering and spinning my wheels…"

Terence McKenna

The Rubix Cube Pt. 2: Back to the Future

Ok, if we can't solve this thing on our own, what's the fucking point?

Time to cheat.  That's right, cheat.  If our ancestors are good for anything, they are good for a few hints and shortcuts.  We can learn from their wisdom.  We must follow the path. 

Using the written directions included, it took me around six hours to solve the Cube for the first time.  It was confusing and frustrating, and I didn't actually believe the directions would work until the final few turns of the cube.  It took me about 45 minutes the second time, and about 30 minutes the third.  

Go and do this.  See how long it takes you.  

What you will realize is that even with the written directions, solving the Cube is still an extremely difficult endeavor, SO difficult that most people can not or simply WILL NOT solve the Cube.  Try to imagine the excuses they make for giving up, even with the solution right in front of them:

"The directions are bullshit, this is stupid, what's the point, it's broken, I'm stupid, it's a waste of time, this is a joke, it's impossible, I'm too tired, only a moron would waste time on this, it's just too difficult, I'm no good at math, I'm not going to let this ruin my day, I give up, I've got more important things to do, the directions are wrong"

Don't judge them, rather, try to recognize situations in your own life where you may have used the same excuses.

After you have solved the Cube, try to solve the Cube again, but in half the time.  Then commit the process to memory, and solve it without the training wheels.  Then with the pressure of an audience.  Challenge yourself to become quicker, faster.

Congratulations!  You can now solve the Rubix Cube. 

When I say You, I mean Robot.  A Robot solved the Cube.

Please, do not kid yourself that you have done anything more than install the Rubix Cube Solution program in your brain.  Or did you forget?

We cheated.  We took the shortcut.  

The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoor-denenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later

on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the

offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan, erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself promptly sends an unquiring one well to the west 

in quest of his tumptytumtoes: and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park

where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since devlinsfirst loved livvy.

James Joyce

Joyce recognized that this is what was happening with language and history.  McLuhan understood Joyce, and recognized that this was happening with literacy and media as well.  Kubrick understood them both, and recognized that this was no accident.

The Rubix Cube: Gone in Ninety Three Seconds

I just bought a Rubix Cube. When I opened up the box it came in,  I marveled at how elegant a simple piece of plastic could be.  Elegant, yet surprisingly loud, as all six colors shouted for individual attention.

And fragile.

The untouched Cube is a very Zen object.  It reflects all six senses, forever entangled, but never as pure as this.  A newborn, a child, a virgin.

I'm 36, and I had one of these Cubes when I was 5 years old.  As I examine this identical Cube three decades later, I try to consider the Cube from the perspective of a child who finds one sitting anonymously on a shelf surrounded by other toys, toys that shout and rattle and beckon for attention.  What could possibly attract the child to the Cube?

Boredom clears a path to this cube.  Boredom destroys this inertia.

"What does it do?  What is it for?  What just happened?"

In less than sixty seconds, the singularity of the Cube will dissolve at the hands of the child, its Zen-like purity hopelessly lost into one of the 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different permutations.  That's "quintillion".

The child will never bring the Cube back to the way it was.  Decades later, the child may never believe that it was ever possible to begin with.

Buy a Rubix Cube today, and see how long it takes before you fuck it up.  Before you are completely and utterly LOST.  Without cheating, without reading a book of directions, and without watching a video on YouTube, try to bring all six sides back to that original star, that one in a quintillion singularity.  Siriusly, find your way back.  To your Home.

But at least you know this time.  You know for certain that somewhere in the endlessly mutating pattern is that solid state six colored cube, that singularity, that newborn that you started with at the beginning.  How could you forget?  You just fucking had it right there, just a god damn minute ago.  Where did it go?

Ask yourself, "Am I up to it?"

 Can you meet the challenge of restoring the Cube?  Because what you have here is a Sword in a Stone.  This, this is the challenge of Isis, and the wound of Amfortas.  This is the mystery of Resurrection.

If you let it, this $8.99 Cube can be a mirror for your mind, and for what the human mind is capable of.  It can be a mirror for the Robot mind, and for what the Robot mind is capable of.  It can be a canvas for the Artist, and an instrument of deception.

What do you see?  What can you see? Who do you see?

What are you going to do?

ADM Men 23: Who is this person writing about?

"Oh, totally. I find him very funny. A bizarre spectacle. Impossible to tell if and when he is serious. The perfect successor of (?) who also managed to maintain a decades long intellectual hoax. Amazing stuff! (If you want a real brilliant WTF, check out (?).

Would I recommend others to read his books? No, probably not. Or maybe, as a kinda mean joke to play on someone deserving. Because before you can find him funny you have to take him seriously for a while. And before you are used to his writing it is mostly unreadable. (Or, at least unreadable to those of us without a background in (?), or similar.)

I will now tell you my dirty secret of how to read his bullshit. (?). All his books should be sold with a small quantity of quality (?), anything else is unnecessarily cruel to the user. Only drug induced hyper-focus allows one to plough right through this stuff while not worrying too much about whether it actually means anything. And then do a repeat reading, this time after (?). Giggle copiously. Under no circumstance approach his work sober!"

by someone on Tue Mar 22nd, 2011 at 12:43:32 PM EST

Is this person writing about:

 Seuss

 Jung

 Zizek

Crowley

ADM Men 2: Children of the Bomb

Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have

 made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind.  To get inside in order 

to manipulate, exploit, control is the object now.  And to generate heat not light is the intention.  

To keep everybody in the helpless state engendered by prolonged mental rutting is the 

effect of many ads and much entertainment alike.

Marshall McLuhan, 1951:

MAD MEN:  Season One, Episode 6  "Babylon"

The next medium, whatever it is - it may be the extension of consciousness - will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual's encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a salable kind.

Marshall McLuhan,  1962

Marshall McLuhan serves as a bridge between the two greatest artistic geniuses of the 20th century, James Joyce and Stanley Kubrick.  And, in my opinion, in order to understand McLuhan, you have to understand all three.  Matthew Weiner clearly understands all three.

Essential to the understanding of Joyce, McLuhan, and Kubrick, one must have an understanding of how the Qabbalistic Tree of Life and the Tarot are related, how this system is related to reality, and how reality is made of language.  Again, Matthew Weiner clearly understands all three.

The above image serves as the basis for Matthew Weiner's production logo.  It is The Sun, the 20th of 22 Trump cards in the Major Arcana of the Rider Waite Tarot, and is one of those loose threads that, when given a gentle tug, can unravel the whole sweater.  

The question is, do you want to know what's under the sweater?

The Sun is associated with the Hebrew letter reish, which is associated with the head.  This head is filled with "ego-consciousness", which feels itself separated from the unity of God.  Only the fear of God can ready this "ego-consciousness" for wisdom.

Interesting pattern in that background, no?

ADM Men: A New Model of Virtual Reality

I was around four years old when I met God.  He reached out and shook my hand, and I'll never forget it.  

I was 18 when I got kicked out of the Garden.  I think Adam and Eve said it best: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

I was 19 when I became a Boddhisattva.  Sometimes I struggle with the decision I made that night, but it's cool.

I went to Hell when I was 31.  Honestly, I did, and the truth is, I might still be there.

I was 35 when I finally figured it out, and this I know:  We still have some work to do.

Master of Donuts

Reasons for eating donuts:


1.  My "hunger" is very bad right now.


2.  To give me energy.


3.  I can't work without donuts.


4.  I can't stay alert without donuts.


5.  I must be at my best to do what I have to do.


6.  I must show I am MASTER of donuts - free to say either YES or NO.  And I must be perfectly sure by saying YES at the moment.  My refusal at the moment shows weakness, therefore I eat donuts.


7.  In spite of the knowledge of the disadvantages of donuts, I am really not sure whether it isn't better than the other life.  After all, I have an extraordinary control over my emotions through donuts.


8.  It is dangerous to stop eating donuts too suddenly.


9.  I'd better take a small donut now rather than put it off till later; because if I do so, it will disturb my sleep.


10.  It is really very bad for the mind to be constantly preoccupied with the question of donuts.  It is better to take a small donut to rid myself of the obsession.


11.  I am worried about donuts because of my not having any.  If I were to eat one, my mind would clear up immediately, and I should be able to think out good plans for stopping it.


12.  The gods may be leading me to some new experience through eating donuts.


13.  It is quite certainly a mistake putting down all little discomforts as the result of eating donuts. Very likely, all of them are illusions, and simply my own illusions of GUILT.  I am simply scaring myself into saying NO.


14.  I must not be a coward and say NO.


15.  There is no evidence at all that the REASONABLE use of donuts shortens life.  In fact it ENRICHES life, and we all know that HAPPY people live longer than DEPRESSED and SAD people.


16.  I take it because donuts are prohibited.  I decline being treated like a silly schoolboy when I'm a responsible man.


17.  My friend likes me to eat donuts with her.


18.  My ability to eat donuts shows my superiority over other people.


19.  I have given up most vices, donuts allow me to still enjoy life, and that isn't a crime.


20.  So-and-so has eaten donuts for years and is all right.


21.  So-and-so has eaten donuts for years, is still eating them, and is the most remarkable man of his century.


22.  I am feeling very, very rotten, and a very, very small donut would make me feel so very, very good.


23.  We can't stop when it is available EVERYWHERE.  The temptation is too strong.  Plus, we can't just throw donuts away.


24.  Suppose I take all the pains to stop using and then I get cancer or something right away, what a FOOL I would be!