I recently found this video being shared on social media outlets and it really helped me articulate and put into words what I have been feeling for…decades.
Like Bishop Spong, I do not believe in the traditional Christian version of a hell.
However, a hell on earth – now that is quickly becoming a measurable, visible, living, breathing, reality that we humans are quickly making for ourselves and all living things on terra firma…
Deforestation.
Habitat destruction.
Overconsumption of the planet’s resources.
The illegal wildlife trade for bushmeat, traditional “medicine, “pets,” and stock for wildlife parks.
Fossil fuel emissions creating a warming planet.
Nuclear weapons poised to launch.
Garbage/plastic and toxic chemical/biological/radioactive/pharmaceutical wastes/residues poisoning the soil, the waters, the air we breathe, and the foods we eat.
Wildlife species going extinct at a greatly accelerated rate.
An exponentially growing human and livestock population methodically eating the planet’s resources faster than they can recover.
Diseases jumping from wildlife to humans.
Then we have the lunatic-fringe humans. Those misguided, conspiracy “theory” driven, doubt, fear, and hate-spouting religious/political/hate-focused cult-like groups creating all kinds of crazy and supporting crooked mega-rich con-artist politicians/religious leaders/influencers out only for personal power, wealth, and control – all while building walls between each other and reality. Some of these radicalized extremists are even going so far as to recruit innocent others from obscure echo-chamber internet “social media” sites (such as the late Parler) with the apparent goal being to build armies of fearful, untrusting, often hateful, violent, and racist, followers and – if the events of January 6th, 2020 were any indication of their intent – are working to try and break down the foundations of our own democratic government and society in the misguided attempt to bring about their idea of a perfect world…and even in some extremely bizarre cases their bizarre idea of the “end times” – whatever that is. (It is really strange how fascinated and motivated many of these people are with death, and endings while at the same time their ancient belief systems keep them tied to the past, keeping them from accepting facts, evidence, reality, and therefore, keeping them from moving forward and truly living.)
It seems obvious to me that we humans are working very hard to create a living version of a hell – and there is no evidence of a god or devil pulling any strings to make any of this happen…it is only us. We are the hateful, selfish, and evil, demons, and devils and we are building a toxic hell in which to spend the rest of our days.
As Giordano Bruno stated before he was burned at the stake for believing other suns and other worlds existed and for thinking and sharing his knowledge with others –
“Your god is too small.”
IMHO as a lone human observer on the outside who once was on the inside – I feel that many religions are so very limiting of their god…whatever a god is. Is god a living (as we understand what it means to be alive) being…or is it living on a totally different level…so incredibly different and/or more advanced in its evolution than us that we are unable to recognize, communicate, or understand it with our limited intelligence and biology? Maybe it is a “force,” a Lucas-esque energy field existing outside our frame of reference…mabye it is a deeply intricate interwoven web of interconnections of mycelium-like structures sharing energy and knowledge between all living things – on a level we do not yet and may never begin to understand…or is it something to do with quantum entanglement, or dark/matter energy…mabye it exists on/in another dimension…or as an understanding/consciousness/awareness – something as far above/beyond our understanding/consciousness/awareness as we exist far above/beyond the understanding/consciousness/awareness possessed by the Chimpanzee, ants, or bacteria…I am open to the possibility that it may somehow, somewhere exist…and whatever “it” is, if it does in fact exist – and in all probability, it may not – but if it does, it may exist, resonate, as something we have not been or may never be able to “see”, measure, experience, or even postulate about….
…it is very possible that we, in all our superiority and hubris, are as the bacterium living upon the inner wall of the intestine of a random human being living upon a pale blue dot of a planet floating in the unfathomably vast ocean of space – a mere mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Like that single-celled creature living its entire short life on the gut lining of you, or me – that creature cannot imagine or even dream about the thoughts, feelings, wants, needs, and desires – or even the very existence of the human being that it lives inside, the earth that human lives upon, the vast cosmos that blue marble floats within…but without all of these things working together that bacteria would not be able to exist. Therefore, we cannot and we should not try to describe “god” or “gods” without any concrete evidence to guide us in our attempt to describe and understand such things so far outside of our realm of understanding.
To think that we – a species so young in the history of the planet and the cosmos – with so much deep time behind us – to think that we puny, naked, multi-colored, bipedal, thinking apes can actually believe we have the intellectual ability to explain it all out by making up a few thousand evidence-lacking stories and creator beings and then calling those beings and stories the one and only ultimate truth and that, if you do not follow those stories exactly to the letter and constantly pay your homage, your time, and your hard-earned money to your chosen deity – that, if you do not do these things exactly as dictated in the ancient texts – that your “soul” will burn forever in agony in an imaginary lake of molten lava/fire/brimstone overseen by a grinning red warlock with a forked tongue, pointed tail, dragon-like wings, and a really bad attitude…all that, all of it is the ultimate form of hubris. It is also a complete and total cover-up, a camouflage, for the perfect business model designed long ago with the prime goal being to control gullible frightened people who were ignorant of the facts of how nature works in order to keep them in line and under control – and then take their money for the emperor/lord/king/headman/politician/pontiff gets richer and everyone else gets poorer. It was and still is; a business run by charlatans, hucksters, and snake oil salesmen out to get rich off the fears and doubts of the common people.
Sadly, so many good people are intentionally kept entirely ignorant of the amazing wonders of nature by the very design of the narrow-minded religions (and political institutions) they blindly and unquestionably follow – religions and institutions that suppress and censor real facts and knowledge as if it is somehow an unpardonable sin to know how nature really works. They then substitute their own manufactured fear, uncertainty, and doubt – their own version of the “facts,” – feeding them to their ignorant, bleating, chanting, followers…and the money keeps flowing into the hidden coffers of the rich elites running the show at the top.
However, once a person learns, understands, and accepts facts, evidence, and knowledge – that knowledge is powerful and it soon conquers their old fears and they wake up from their stupor, cast off their past, and are no longer a “sheeple” blindly following along in lockstep with the “flock.” They have become an enlightened, critically-thinking, awake, concerned for others, nature, and the future, person who can think with an open mind and open heart, and explore the amazing wonders of nature, life, the universe, and everything without the controlling, fearful, constricting, stifling, filter of a knowledge-limiting religion or political system making their decisions for them. They have become a truly free human being. A great example of this is what happened to the woman in the following video.
If you find yourself stuck in a dangerous cultish “religion” or toxic political following…
– please –
get out and get help.
But then, all my commentary is just my humble opinion based upon my ongoing observations of the world and the other humans around me and their actions toward one another and nature. There are 7.5 billion other “me’s” on planet earth – and they all have their own observations and opinions so it is not my place to try to force them to change their opinions or beliefs. I will, however, share my observations and my story and hope it gets some of my readers thinking about what this thing called life is, what it may be all about, and where we are all going.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” -J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Fellowship of the Ring”
Shifting gears a bit, some of you may think of volcanoes as hellish, destructive landscapes but it is most interesting to note that – after a fire, smoke, and lava-spewing hell-on-earth volcano erupts in the ocean it creates new land we humans call islands. This new land is later colonized by plants, animals, and people. This is nothing but a good thing – a gift from the god(s) if you will.
If a volcano erupts on land it may, for a time, lay waste to the surrounding countryside and the life therein – but soon – the countryside recovers and then, due to the nutrients brought fourth from deep within mother earth, it soon becomes one of the most fertile, life-producing places known.
So, “hellish” volcanoes bring future life and prosperity through the destruction of the past and the creation of the future and, if you are smart enough to get out of their way when you observe and understand their warning signs, then you. your species, and your society will benefit from the aftermath of their “hellish” nature.
Mother nature always knows best.
If mother nature were a corporeal being, in my minds eye – she would look something like this.
Maybe the “hell” we are going through on planet earth right now is only the death throes of a dying animal – the ending of an old, outdated, toxic way of thinking, governing, believing and living. Maybe, hopefully, after all the strife, craziness, and sickness has passed – a new type of human condition will, like the mythical phoenix, arise from the ashes of the fires of the ending of its hellish past and usher in a new era of enlightenment and freedom guided only by reality, evidence, logic, understanding, acceptance, and love.
I am frustrated at the apparent willful ignorance of so many people – people I thought were smart – acting like it is all a hoax, ignoring the science, promoting and sharing lame-ass conspiracy theories that have the potential to harm – or end – those who choose to believe, follow, and promote them.
In recent weeks the infection numbers have been rapidly growing and are higher than ever before. Yet – in many areas the restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, bleachers, beaches, party venues, churches, and streets are packed with people – many maskless and in very close proximity.
In the USA the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are fast approaching as is winter. I have a great concern that many will ignore the recommendations of the experts and will chose to gather inside with family and friends to celebrate these traditional holidays. I fear that if this happens the infection rate will climb even higher and many more innocent people will suffer and die all because people chose to put their own wants over the needs of everyone around them. They will chose to willfully and deliberately ignore the recommendations of science as if they actually believe they will somehow be magically protected by their deity of choice.
Life does not work that way no matter how much you want it to.
Nature does not care about you.
You must care about yourself and those around you.
In grocery and hardware stores I have seen everyone from toxicically masculine macho men to young parents with their kids – all unmasked – closely mingling with others and acting as if nothing is wrong.
I have spoken to mask-wearing front-line workers in these stores and asked them how they deal with these maskless bandits stealing the health and lives of others. They say at first they were told by their superiors to enforce the mask mandate – but then, after extreme push backs and verbal attacks from these maskless partons – they were told to just let them in the door and stop enforcing the rule. Why? Are the store owners afraid of losing profits? Are they afraid of confrontation or litigation? Whatever the reason it just boggles the mind that a store owner would choose possible contagion over doing what is right – tossing the whining, tantrum-throwing, maskless bandits out on the street and telling them to not come back in their store until they are following the rules set by the store owner, the authorities, and by science.
When I visit any store/shop I always wear a mask. In fact, as I have an elderly mother and other family members who are more at risk, and as I am a school teacher – I must limit my chance of bringing an unwanted hitchhiking virus back to my students/coworkers and loved ones. So, when I enter places where I have noted low mask use – such as WalMart and Hardware stores – I opt to wear a 3M N100 full face mask custom fitted with an exhale filter. Yes, I get many odd looks from the maskless bandits but I do not care.
They look at me as if I’m some kind of fearful nutjob.
The reality is that I am not living in fear – I am living with facts.
I look back wondering what is the matter with them – are they really so blind to facts, do they really have no care in their hearts for themselves or their fellow human beings, could they be some of the blind followers of any number of the anti-science, bible waving, greedy ego-maniacs in politics, religion, and on the internet who think it is all a hoax and/or a way for the government to impart control on the population and/or are just using the pandemic as a way to profit off the fear and uncertainty of their followers? Are they all getting some kind of mental fix from this game of Russian roulette they are playing with their lives and with the lives of countless others?
I do not know the answers. What I do know is that I have given up trying to educate those people because no amount of knowledge I share will make them change their minds and listen to reason. It is almost as if they are part of a dangerous anti-science, masochistic, pseudo-religious, cult of toxic self-centeredness.
Sadly sometimes, we thinking types just have to toss up our hands and walk away.
We must continue to protect ourselves by staying as far away as possible from the maskeless bandits.
We must not give up or give in and we must continue to follow the knowledge and recommendations of the science from the experts.
We must do all these things as well as just curl up in the safety of our caves and just sit back and let natural selection run its course.
You have a lust for adventure (whether internally, externally, or both)
You’re willing to go beyond your comfort zone
You accept instability and a lack of security as a way of life
You’re independent-minded
You can be volatile and capricious
You don’t tolerate needy, clingy, judgemental or controlling people
You tend to be an unconventional thinker
You have a unique personal style
You’re a “rule breaker”
You’re artistic
You thirst for truth
You’re an innovative dreamer
And yes, despite a few differences, the descriptions on that list mostly sum up who I am. I am a unique kind of person who marches to the beat of a different drum.
I have also been called names – from geek, nerd, wimp, and loser, to bastard and all the other childish “knuckle-dragging” “lowbrow” profanities, and more recently snowflake, greenie, leftie, leftist, activist, and even “hippie hair” as I choose to wear my hair longer than other males of my species within the culture in which I live. Obviously, many of these insults were sent in my direction by my peers when I was younger and in school, however, the latter more divisive and politically oriented verbal attacks were far more recently.
So, my big question to all those who have called me different, those who have called me profanities and other names, those who have labeled or called me a “free spirit” (which, by the way, I am proud to be called), and those that have targeted and bullied me with fear, venom, and hatred is this; why would you, and why would anyone choose to target and attack others with hate and fear without first: 1. Getting to know the person you are targeting before you choose to attack them. 2. Investigating those ideals and hatreds you have chosen to support for the justification of their actions. Why would anyone willfully, blindly, and without evidence, logic, and without considerate calculation consciously choose to target others they do not know with hateful, hurtful, and harmful, words and actions?
Maybe one of the answers is connected to what E.O. Wilson said: “…we are a dysfunctional species. and why? because, we have paleolithic emotions, we have medieval institutions, and on top of all that, we’ve developed god-like technology and that’s a dangerous mix.”
I do not have the answers. Nor do I know if anyone truly knows the answers to these complex questions.
What I do know is as my mother said: “If you can not say anything nice, then just do not say anything at all.”
This I also know – I will always support anyone labeled “different” “other” or “free spirit” by society.
In fact, I most often prefer the individuals that carry these labels as these are the people who most often have the most interesting and beautiful hearts, minds, and souls.
Why? Because I am one of them and I am proud of my uniqueness.
To begin with: Yes. I am a nerd.
I am a wild nature, wildlife, technology, and science loving nerd.
I would rather spend time in the woods than in the shopping mall.
I would rather read a book* than go to a party.
*Just in case you are wondering my favorites include but are not limited to: encyclopedias and reference books, nature field guides, science journals, technical manuals, DIY and other informational books, science fiction, and graphic novels (aka comic books) etc.
I would rather sit around a campfire with a few good friends than hang out at a loud crowded bar or nightclub (especially in today’s world).
I would rather go fishing, hiking, or biking alone or with a close friend, than attend a sporting event or a concert. (especially in today’s world).
I would rather work with my car/computer/cameras/audio-visual/technology and energy projects rather than socialize with others.
I would rather watch Star Trek than any kind of sports.
Team sports do absolutely nothing for me.
Religion is not my thing.
Conspiracy “theories” are a maddeningly huge waste of time.
Politics is insane.
My heroes are probably not your heroes. For example, from the superhero/movie/TV/movie/fantasy world I most identify with Peter Parker aka: Spiderman, Doc Brown from Back to the Future, Han Solo from Star Wars, Jackie Chan, Radagast the Brown – a wizard in Tolkien’s epic story, and MacGyver. I wholeheartedly agree with and understand where Mr. Spock is coming from on so many levels and feel a kinship with Geordie LaForge from Star Trek the Next Generation.
From the real world my heroes/inspirations and mentors include: Stephen Hawking, Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Nikola Tesla, Elon Musk, Clare Patterson, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Jacques Cousteau, David Attenborough, Hayao Miyazaki, the Dalai Lama, Chris Hadfield, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Colllins, Mike Massimino, Les Stroud, Greta Thunburg, both my adoptive and biological mothers and fathers, Ernie Kadel, Joe Woodard, Jim Hardy, and Bob Harris.
I believe it is crystal clear – I am what many would call a square, a dweeb, a nerd, or a geek and I am good with that.
I am a person who trusts, supports, and respects the logic and reason of the scientific method.
I am a person that trusts, applies, does, and communicates science.
I am a person that gets his vaccinations to help himself and others around him.
I am a person who knows the earth is round and exists within the solar system – the small collection of rocky/wet/dry and gaseous planets/moons and random chunks of ancient rock, ice, dust, and other cosmic flotsam and jetsam orbiting a rather insignificant yellow star in a somewhat remote corner of the milky way galaxy which is just one galaxy in billions that all had their start with a big bang some 13.8 billion years ago.
I am a living being who is a product of evolution. As this being who understands and supports the evidence and the facts supporting the theory of evolution by natural selection, I therefore understand that all living things on this watery space rock we call earth are related – closely and distantly – to each other through their DNA.
I am a person who understands and supports the evidence and the facts supporting that we humans are causing climate change by burning fossil fuels for the energy we need to heat and cool our habitats, produce our food and materials, and move our vehicles around the planet – with the natural consequences of these fuel choices adversely altering our planet’s climate and living ecosystems by burning up too many of these ancient dead things at too fast a rate for nature to be able to mitigate effectively.
I am a person who supports caring for nature – our only environmental life support system – above all other self-centered short term concerns.
I am a person who helps injured wildlife and picks up live serpents, (for rescue, rehabilitation, conservation, and education purposes only – and not in any way for any of the macho, toxically masculine, and/or bizarre, dangerous, and cruel, rattlesnake roundups or pseudo-religious snake-handling traditions.
Snakes are my friends
As this nerdy, free spirited person of nature, science, logic, and reason I believe that is is safe to say that had I been born in the middle ages I would most certainly have been labeled a heretic, a witch, possibly even possessed by “demons” and therefore deemed a threat to society by the narrow-minded fear-driven people of the day. More than likely I would have been held captive in a filthy rodent infested and rot infected hole or dank dungeon, repeatedly tortured, tried by a totalitarian judge, then finally – publicly burned alive as one of my heroes was. Giordano Bruno was tortured and later publicly burned at the stake for being a free spirit – he was horribly killed because he believed in the possibility of other planets orbiting other worlds and the possibility of life existing upon those worlds.
I’m sure had I lived in those narrow minded days I would have surely met the same fate. Like Bruno’s it would have been a gruesome fear-driven political-religious-control-focused jeering bully filled spectacle designed to use those individuals labeled as “different” as examples to keep the rest of the people living in fear, marching in line, and locked in blind servitude to the master-blaster-bully in charge – be they a power mad control seeking king/queen/bishop and/or ancient misinterpreted metaphorical words in a dusty old – and highly edited to fit their politics and profit margin – “religious” book(s).
So, with all that being said, I believe I can understand and relate in many ways how today’s nerds, geeks, dweebs, squares, free spirits, deep thinkers, people of color, people with physical and mental challenges, those on the autism spectrum, and those in the LGBTQ+ community, …and anyone else society labels as “different” than the “norm” whatever the frack the “norm” is… must feel when they interact with the all crazy-mean finger pointing hate-filled, xenophobic, anti-science, myth and superstition following, bully promoting world we have created for ourselves today.
This is why I will always support and stand with anyone labeled “different” or “free spirit” by society.
The good thing for us “different” folk is that in today’s world, those in power do not usually burn alive, hang by the neck until dead, feed to lions or other hungry beasts, leave us in the wilderness to die, or toss us into dungeons to rot – but sometimes, these things do still happen.
Sadly, however, the bullies of today, those individuals who – for some strange reason – feel somehow threatened by our differences such as our looks, our skin color, our genetics/heritage, our place of birth, our dialect, our actions, our choices, our knowledge, or or by any verifiable facts and scientific evidence we may offer up freely to everyone – these insecure knowledge-lacking (and sometimes knowledge-doubting) bullies still feel the need to attack those of us they have chosen to label us as “different” and/or to distrust and deny anything we science and nature nerds discover and/or reveal that has the potential to threaten the ancient and/or modern real and/or /imaginary thrones of power, control, and influence they wish to continue to sit upon.
Strangely, even with mountains of evidence to the contrary staring them in the face, these bullies will often choose to attack with hate and fear-filled, words, fists, and feet…and sometimes, in today’s bizarre world – stones, knives, ropes, fire, bullets, bombs, armies, and even the misguided movements of massive mountains of money and/or gigabytes of data full of manufactured hate, fear, doubt, distrust, and distaste.
These kinds of fear and emotion driven attacks are just so childish, so tribal, so illogical, so…primitive.
“When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper; They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.” – Chris Colfer
The hard part is coming up with a way to educate those who do not want to be educated. How do we teach the bullies and haters that the answers they are seeking are not to be found in their fists and venom-spitting fear of anything different than what they think they know? How do we enlighten them that there is a better road than the terrible dead end road they have been on for so long? How?
Sometimes it does come down to fighting back – but a true warrior fights back not with fists and fury, but with with calculated knowledge, evidence, compassion, and love.
If you are ever forced to attack an enemy bully in self defense, the best defense from that enemy is knowledge. Know your enemy. Know the bully. If you know your enemy, then your attack will be swift, accurate, educational, and will hopefully, it will never need to be executed again and the bully will have grown to become a better person.
Part Two.
Today I am totally comfortable and happy with being who I am…but many years ago I was not. I so desperately wanted to be included and be part of the “in” crowd. The pain of it all was often just too much to bear. There were times when I thought about ending it all but when this would happen I would play with my dog, just go for a walk in the forest, or go fishing. Nature was my healer. It always put me at peace. The trees, the wildlife, the flowing waters, the sun and wind on my face – all these things were my escape from the toxic little red-faced bullies in school.
I am also so very grateful for all the gentle and wise elders who – then and now – have taught me and are still teaching me how to see, how to hear, how to care for others, for nature, and for myself – I am grateful for them because they taught me the true meaning of life.
Clayton and Catherine were my adoptive father and mother who brought me into their home and raised me as their own child. They gave me a deep curiosity for why things are the way they are, in how things work, and they gave me compassion for others. The most important thing my adoptive parents imparted to me was this: be your own person, make your own decisions, find your own path, find your passion. Be whatever you want to be in life as long as it does good for you, for others, and for the future, it will be a good choice. I have carried this with me throughout my life and have made it my motto:
Do good things. Do good things for yourself. Do good things for others. Do good things for nature. Do good things for the future.
If it is not a good thing, if it harms you, others, nature, or the future – delete it. Extinct it.
Do only good things.
There was my friend and mentor, Ernie Kadel, an older German immigrant who fled his home country when the notorious bully Adolph Hitler came to power. Ernie lived his retirement years in the neighboring house to the south of my home. He was a wonderful person who taught me so much about how things work. He took me sailing in his Folbot folding kayak/sailboat. We played billiards in his basement. We worked on projects in his shop. We ate traditional German confections his wife Heidi made. Ernie taught me to care about people because no matter where they are from they all have a story and lesson to share.
Then there was May and Joe Woodard. They were Cherokee. They were wonderful people whose Native American ancestors had been greatly harmed by the choices of my European ancestors. They did not hold a grudge. They just shared their lives, their stories and music from their elders. They shared the value and importance of keeping nature close and working with nature instead of against it. I listened and have kept their lessons close to my heart to this day.
Then there were the neighbors to the north of me. I do not remember their names but I do remember their fights, their arguments, the bitter hatred of the red-haired wife and the meek quietness of the skinny husband. All they ever seemed to do is yell and fight with the wife doing most of the yelling and fighting – the bullying. One day I noticed the man limping in his driveway – he had a arm and leg in a cast. Their cars were undamaged so I could not help but wonder if she, in a fit of flaming fiery rage, had pushed him down the stairs. What I learned from them was that I never wanted to be like them. I was so glad when they moved away but I sometimes worry about that quiet little broken man and if he is OK.
There were the two American dads and their wives. These two men and their wives were the fathers of two of my childhood friends. Both of these dads worked in the same factory, had two kids, had nice wives and tried to give their families the best lives they could. I admired them for working so hard to give their families so much. What I did not admire was that one of them drank openly in his home, even building a bar and having get-to-gethers with friends while his young children looked on and learned that free-flowing alcohol is OK. Some may not see a problem here but I do because my adoptive father was an alcoholic and his vise led to his death at an early age. For one of my friends dads, his open acceptance of drinking led to the abuse of alcohol by one of his sons who was my best friend for most of my childhood. From these two families I learned some great lessons what was a good work ethic, how good parents treat their children, and probably more importantly, good lessons on what not to do.
In high school there was my my home room and shop teacher “Sarge.” Sarge was a wonderful country gentleman who taught his students with calm strength and calculated educational words of wisdom and guidance that, if you were really listening, would reveal loads of meaning. Sarge taught me how to listen.
My parents and my childhood mentors really helped me sort out the conflicting feelings I had been having in trying to deal with the bullies. They helped me see that the problems I was facing were not in me, they were in the bullies. While I did understood this, it did not help me take the rapid-fire bullying I was assaulted with on a daily basis.
A true story.
Way back in the early 1980’s when I was in junior high school I found myself sitting in history class when the teacher had to leave the room for a few moments. While he was out of the room I, and the other students, witnessed an overly muscled testosterone-soaked toxically violent bully beat a non-threatening autistic boy bloody in his classroom seat just because the autistic boy was “different” and would not speak to the bully. The autistic child did not move or fight back. He never fought back when the bullies attacked. He felt that fighting would put him on the sub-human, fear, and animal instinct-driven level of the bully. He was right.
He just unwaveringly took the blows of the fearful little bully’s clenched fists and the hateful words hurling from his venom spitting mouth and he later walked away, bloody and bruised – but on the right side of history.
The bully was expelled on this occasion and on many more for similar infractions.
The bully continued on through the next few years of junior and high school and then the next couple of decades verbally and physically attacking people (including me) for trivial reasons. He finally met an early end on the other end of a knife from someone he pushed just a bit too far.
The autistic boy the bully attacked – he grew into a man and is a “different” but productive member of society.
“People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” ― Dan Pearce
Part Three.
Moving on through the rest of middle and high school I continued to be the target of many profanity spouting, hair-pulling, ear-flicking, red-faced little schoolyard, locker room, and back of the bus sitting bullies and no, at no time did my increased intake of spinach ever help me overcome their foul mouths and fat little clenched fists.
Why, because I was small in stature, “geeky,” “nerdy,” or “square” acting and looking, I sat in the front row in class because I was in school to learn – and the bullies always seemed to sat in the back row as far from the teacher – as far from the knowledge – as possible. I hung out with the nerdy/geeky/square/smart kids, I liked nature, wildlife, and science and engineering and working on bikes. lawn mower engines, and cars far more than sports and partying. I was also extremely introverted and not at all popular and then and now I did not and do not care about popularity nor do I want to be popular – I have far better things to do than to worry or care about what others think about me – that is their problem, not mine.
“I think the sooner that all of us in society stop accepting any type of bullying or harassment from other people – in spite of people’s social standing or net worth or whatever it is – the sooner it will stop.” – Jason Priestley
In school, and in life, I have always tried my best to fly low and maintain a low profile to avoid the bullies – but this tactic did not work for long because in my experience bullies always seemed to seek out the quiet ones, they targeted the those who fly under the radar – or perhaps I just did not fly low enough. Either I just wasn’t savvy enough to avoid them, or I was just unlucky because the bullies would always find me, and then do all they could do to attack and humiliate me for any superficial trumped-up “reason” they could find and then use to get a laugh from their friends (and sometimes even from those bully teachers and school administrators who are probably just grown-up bullies), and to somehow prop them up and make them feel stronger, popular, or somehow important (more like impotent) among their peers. At the time, when I was being bullied, all I wanted to do was to trounce them vigorously and viciously (like that kid in that old Christmas movie did) – but I never acted upon that urge because I am not a violent person and I also knew the bullies were very insecure, probably had horrible home lives, and many other problems. I knew the bullies were most likely hurting inside far more than I was hurting outside so I did my best to ignore them, I would stay quiet, not respond to their verbal attacks, and walk away when possible – I did not want to feed their attacks – feeding the fires of a bully only makes it grow into an inferno of rage.
“I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.” ― Abraham Lincoln
On two separate occasions I did confront my bullies, this is how those instances played out.
One day in middle school my peers and I were queued up and filing into the kitchen to get our lunch. I knew one of my bullies was right behind me but I just ignored him. I could feel his eyes on the back of my head. I could hear his snickering with his other little bully friend. I heard them talking shit about me trying to get me to respond. I used my Jedi powers to ignore them.
We then entered the kitchen where there was a buffet type set up where, as the students filed through, they would tell the “lunchroom ladies” which food items they wanted which would then be deposited upon our plates. As I moved along the line and my food items were placed upon my plate the bully to my right leaned over and said in a whisper “your father is an alcoholic and you will be too.”
This was it. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I stopped. Frozen in my tracks. The bully stopped. The entire line stopped. I was like a stone. My fists clenched my lunch tray. I thought about smashing the bully over the head with it but I do not like disruption or confrontation so I placed logic over emotion and I regained my composure. I slowly turned to face the red-faced bully – who was now grinning from ear to ear reveling in his toxic comment. I looked him in the eyes and said calmly “My father died last week. If you ever again disrespect his name and if you ever speak to me again – I will destroy you.” The blood drained from the drooling little bully’s face. His greedy grin dropped to a fearful frown. He froze. Then he broke eye contact with me and looked down. I did not give him any time to comment and I turned and moved on down the line.
It worked because the little rat-fink never spoke to me again.
“A bully hides his fears with fake bravado. That is the opposite of self-assertiveness.” ― Nathaniel Branden
In the second instance it was a female bully I had to deal with.
I was in high school and had been instructed by the band director to load several folding chairs onto my truck and take them to a band concert and a nearby school. I and some friends were working to load my pick up truck and a hot headed bully girl came over and started yelling at me calling me names and saying the band director had told her that she could take the chairs. Yes, really – she was bullying me over the right to tote chairs. I stood there in the back of my truck getting screamed at for offering to help the band move chairs. Very strange indeed. I stood there and took it for about a minute and when it looked like the foul mouthed insults from the girl were never going to end I just said – “You want to tote the chairs, sure, you can tote the chairs -” and I picked up about 6 folded lightweight plastic chairs and tossed them on top of the girl and her friends. They all fell down in a pile of chairs, flailing arms and legs, yelling and crying and then got up and ran away yelling insults and saying they were going to tell the principle. Whatever. Later I was called to the office along with the band director. He backed me up and supported my story and the principle dismissed the incident saying they had often had trouble out of the bully girl and that she would be dealt with. She must have been because she never spoke to me again.
After graduation, my schoolyard bullying problems mostly ended and I never saw most of the bullies again and for that, I was grateful.
“Getting bullied in school taught me how to be strong, getting judged taught me to be better, failure taught me to be resilient and being made fun of taught me humility.” ― Mehak Bhalla
Part Four.
In many ways, today’s childhood bullying tactics are far more damaging than the face to face bullying of yesteryear. Today’s bullies often use the before mentioned tactics and then add in social media, email, and other online platforms to horribly and repeatedly attack their chosen targets any time they wish with deep cutting insults, humiliating lies, and harsh and hurtful sarcasm and even threats to life and limb.
“If you’re insulting people on the internet, you must be ugly on the inside.” ― Phil Lester
Sadly, childhood bullying is often ignored by school officials and some parents saying things like “kids will be kids” or that old “sticks and stones” thing that is true only in the physical sense – words can and do cut deeply and words cannot be unsaid.
Please be very careful and calculated with your words.
“Cyberbullying is Bullying. Hiding behind a pretty screen, doesn’t make it less hateful, written words have power.” – Anon
Bullying, verbal or physical, is a form of assault – it is a direct and harmful attack on another person. Sticks and stones may, in fact, break bones but words and actions have the potential to cut deep, lasting, emotional scars in sensitive people as they have done to me.
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.” – Harvey S. Firestone
Harmful childhood bullying needs to be stopped. Do not stand by and let a bully get their way. If you do this you are telling them it is ok to be a bully. If you witness an injustice happen and do nothing, you then become part of the problem. Intervene.
Damaged children need professional help. If childhood bullies do not have help sorting out and processing their insecurities, pain and problems when young, they may very well grow into emotionally unstable adults who verbally, emotionally, and sometimes even physically (secretly and publically) attack anyone who threatens their position – whatever they believe their position to be.
When childhood bullies grow up to be professional bullies that resort to toxic tactics in the attempt to win or gain some perceived high ground, it shows how deeply damaged and insecure they really are. This happens more often than we know, from the workplace to the homeplace and even in churches and most definitely in the toxic world of professional bullying: business and politics.
If a young bully does not get help early on, it is very possible they may at “best” grow up to become members of the upper echelons of the workforce where they may fit in best as controlling, micromanaging bosses who continue to harm and bully others daily with their toxic tactics – all while calling it “business” – as if that somehow justifies their horrible treatment of others – it does not. It is possible these boss bullies may reach a “tipping point” where they will be unable to be helped and may then become a detriment to society…what then…maybe they become a member of the ever-growing prison population or, in rare cases, maybe even fearful, venomous, hateful, racist, xenophobic, nationalistic, self-absorbed, power-seeking politicians putting control and profit over people and planet…or in rare cases they may even become terribly destructive fear-driven, power-mad dictators such as Adolf Hitler…
“Bullying happens because weak people need to prop up their ego by beating up or humiliating others.” ― Bruce Dickinson
Part Five.
In many of my part-time, seasonal, and professional jobs over the years, I have been verbally attacked and insulted by workplace bullies – usually for the same infantile reasons why I was attacked as a child and young adult. These so-called “adult” people who bullied me were most often white males in positions of authority and occasional females as well. For me the adult bullying was more subtle, it didn’t come in a physical form but manifested itself in stabbing veral personal attacks and/or painful targeted harsh sarcasm.
“Freedom of Speech doesn’t justify online bullying. Words have power, be careful how you use them.” ― Germany Kent
In one instance a “boss bully” manager of mine would not give me a raise when the time came because I worked my job “by the book” – as he instructed me to do during the two-week training class I attended at the beginning of my position with the company. At a staff meeting where this regional manager was rewarding workers with raises for “a job well done,” he informed me that I was not receiving a raise because I was “slow, and needed to work harder and to cut corners in my work to increase my speed and therefore: increase company profits.” When I calmly said “respectfully sir, people’s lives are at stake so I will work as YOU and your company trained me – “by the book” – and therefore, I will not cut corners that would in turn, jeopardize people’s safety and lives just to increase the companies, your, or even my profits.” – he then jumped all over me yelling, making a scene, and slinging insults and cuss words at me telling me I was “fu***** slow, couldn’t keep up with “the rest of the guys”, would never get a raise, and had no place in the company and if I could not perform and that I should just stay home and play with my turtles.” All his other hand-picked brown nosing butt kissing corner cutting toady employees laughed at me with him and mocked me from then on. Shortly after this incident, I left the company. The bully was later fired for his bullying tactics. Karma, maybe…or perhaps it was a certain well-written report outlining all the on the job infractions this boss-bully had committed that was sent to his superiors – we may never know.
“The meanest people are the weakest people, for they do not even have the strength to believe in goodness. Do not let this be your life’s curse.” ― Sean Patrick Brennan
Over the years I have experienced many other instances of workplace bullying on the professional level and my response would usually be to remove myself from the situation and leave the company…leaving a full and detailed report of what led up to my resignation. It was revenge of the nerds pure and simple.
“If they don’t like you for being yourself, be yourself even more.” ― Taylor Swift
For others, it is not that easy. Many adults suffer daily bullying and harassment in their workplaces and it is not just us skinny nerds, science geeks, and goofy squares who are attacked – it is also women, people of color and other ethnicities, religious groups, those in mixed marriages, LGBQT+, “country” folk, “city” folk, physically and mentally challenged people, and people who are on the Autism spectrum. It often seems that anyone who is labeled as “different” by society are quick and easy targets for the small-minded, toxically masculine, overly macho, knuckle-dragging, status quo seeking type bully.
”Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Then there is familial bullying – bullying among siblings, spouses and other family members. Often familial bullying is verbal and in the form of inflamed tempers, raised voices, personal insults, and/or harmful harsh sarcasm. This type of bullying may be fueled by money/job insecurities, alcohol, and substance abuse, and domestic disputes with one family member taking out their frustrations on another – oddly enough, with the aggressor often saying things like “I only do it because I love you” – riiiiight. This kind of verbal and emotional abuse may even lead to physical and sexual abuse.
You may not think this familial bullying is a big issue but you would be very wrong. Many people suffer familial bullying and abuse and never do anything about it, they just take it, day in day out – hoping the situation will get better or go away. Some of these people get wise and get out of the toxic situation by leaving the family, divorcing the bully, or calling the authorities, or even defending themself with force – but some do not and sadly, some, who cannot see a way out resort to committing suicide.
Yes, bullying can be that bad.
“People try to say suicide is the most cowardly act a man could ever commit. I don’t think that’s true at all. What’s cowardly is treating a man so badly that he wants to commit suicide.” ― Tommy Tran
If you find yourself in a similar situation – ask yourself, am I being bullied or am I being the bully? If you answer yes to either of these questions – seek professional help now.
“Bullying is killing our kids. Being different is killing our kids and the kids who are bullying are dying inside. We have to save our kids whether they are bullied or they are bullying. They are all in pain.” – Cat Cora
Part Six.
Sadly, and bizarrely, it also seems that in some places, those of us who work to support a better future for humanity and choose to unite behind the findings of science with the adoption of clean, renewable energy, ethical foods, coexisting among all “races,” respect of others choices of who they choose to love, and alternative transportation technology choices as well as supporting policies and regulations that protect air, water, nature, and wildlife – in other words, protectors of nature and life – we and our works are often horribly and endlessly verbally bullied online and even in public by those individuals that do not want, or are afraid to change – or that have large sums of money tied up in dirty, highly consumptive, often addictive, outdated toxic technologies such as fossil fuels or tobacco. There are even highly paid “think tanks” and other organizations designed to manufacture and cast about FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) on the facts and the science and to bully and harass the scientists who choose to share their findings and evidence with the world – findings, and evidence that, by their very nature, challenge the status quo. These scientists only want the best for the future of our species and yet they are attacked, ridiculed, harassed and bullied – just because they want to help society. Examples include: Clare Patterson (lead in gasoline), James Hansen (climate change), Rachael Carson (DDT), Robert Mark Bilott (PFAS) – and there are many more.
Hundreds of nature and wildlife protectors are attacked and die each year at the hands of hired thugs (grown-up bullies who are paid to be professional bullies) working to help huge corporations gain access to natural resources such as protected and endangered wildlife, forests, fossil fuel and mineral mining, land rights for expansion of humanity, and factory farms, etc. This is corporate greed sanctioned bullying and it often hits the indigenous and the poor the hardest – but it impacts us all.
“What if the kid you bullied at school, grew up, and turned out to be the only surgeon who could save your life?” ― Lynette Mather
I hope you see my point.
Do not be a bully. Do not support a bully. Do not vote for a bully.
Bullies are never working for you, they are only working for themselves.
If you are a bully, apologize to those you have harmed and seek professional help.
If you have a young bully in your classroom or home, or if you know an adult or a professional bully – please, help them get professional help for their sake and for the sake of all the other people they will wrongly attack throughout their lives if their bullying is allowed to continue.
Believe in good. Do good things. Be the change.
—————————————–
“No one heals himself by wounding another.” ― St. Ambrose
Being “different” in a world full of control freak bullies is a huge challenge, but it is who you are.
Do not be a bully, but be yourself and do your own thing even if it ruffles the feathers of those who would rather stay a sheep, conform, and fit in.
Who out there with an ounce of grey matter would actually decide to change who they vote for/support because they saw a name/slogan on a sign on the side of the road, on a bumper sticker, on a flag or banner, watched a mudslinging TV spot/interview attempting to harm a challenger, believed someone else’s gossip or manufactured drama, or put on an article of clothing with their insignia/motto stamped upon it?
Who with an ounce of grey matter would actually give their own money to these people so they can litter the planet with even more of their propaganda? The majority of these people have far more money than any of us will ever be able to even imagine and yet, somehow, they have conned good people to give them even more money. The insanity of it all boggles the brain.
I see all this me me madness as a pathetic and wasteful attempt to prop up all these insecure humans in perceived high places who seem to have a great need for attention, for competition – it is a truly weak attempt to satisfy a pathological need, an unhealthy all-consuming lust to win – at any cost.
What is this bizarre preoccupation some humans have to win, to be in control, to feel powerful, to be important, to be worshipped? I believe it is an evolutionary hold over from our – eat or be eaten us vs. them tribal days.
It is an illusion.
It is not working for us any longer.
It is time to stop the madness.
It is time to evolve out of the vestigial evolutionary tools of the past that have become dangerous delusions of the present that now work to control our minds.
It is time to grow up out of our tribal us vs. them childish evolutionary mindset.
If all these flag, banner and sign waving politicians and pontiffs would just stop trying to prop themselves and their followers up with hollow promises and just stop and think for a moment and use the brain they often boast that they have – maybe they would then realize how much time, energy, and money they have spent on all the ridiculous boasts, lies, signs, flags, banners, ads, commercials, and other single-use litter that serves no real purpose.
What if they actually decided to stop the endless competition, put their heads, hearts, knowledge, maths, and monies together, and started to work together to solve the big problems we have as a species?
What kind of amazing things could be accomplished if we could only stop competing with each other and start working together?
Sadly it seems that many of us are stuck fast in a deep rut. We are taught from an early age that we must compete with “the other” to get anywhere in life. We are taught that our side is “good” and the other side is “bad” and we are fed this illusion from all “sides” – at home with controlling parents, at school with grades, bullies, and competitive sports, at work with bosses and subordinates and climbing ladders, in religion with fathers, kings, gods and devils, good and evil, in politics and the military with the us vs. them mentality – until we are programed and conditioned to believe it is all true. We then blindly distrust those from the other “side” or the “middle” who show us any evidence to the contrary, we blindly ignore their facts, we choose to ignore common sense, we quickly toss out the science, we stop trusting and loving friends and family who do not fit into or follow our limited world view, we put our politics and religion above observable facts, love, and humanity – this is when we have become nothing more than mindless automatons controlled by the matrix that we ourselves created.
It is time to destroy the matrix.
It is time to wake up out of the bizarre mindset that politics and religion are the only way to exist as human animals.
There is more to life than this madness.
John Lennon famously asked us to Imagine.
Now is the time to Imagine what we could become if we could only step out of this destructive toxic box we have locked ourselves within.
Many of our most popular science fiction books, comics, graphic novels, TV shows, and movies, often portray cyborgs as humans and other fictional species, and sometimes even animals, that have been modified with various forms of mechanical and electrical components, engineering, bionic, and other body and ability-enhancing/augmenting technologies that are often, but not always, visible on the surface.
…then there is Peter Parker aka Spiderman who, while not technologically a cyborg, after the bite of a radioactive spider he genetically and physically mutated to possess spider-like powers. He later implemented several hacks to his clothing including his “web slingers” that came together with his mutations to give him his suite of “Spidey” superpowers.
Some may argue that Dr. Bruce Banner (aka The Hulk), while not technically a cybernetically enhanced being, was in fact accidentally “bio-hacked” due to his exposure to Gamma Rays while saving an innocent man.
Scarlett Johansson as The Major from the live action 2017 Ghost in the Shell
The Star Wars saga portrays multiple cyberneticly enhanced species with unique implants and powers such as Darth Vader , General Grievous , Luke Skywalker and many more.
My personal favorite marvelously and malevolently malignant cyborg creation would have to be the Borg from Star Trek The Next Generation.
A Borg drone assimilates an unlucky crewman (why isn’t the crewman wearing a red shirt?)
While many fictional cyborg creations are helpful and fight injustice, it seems that more often than not cyborgs are depicted as frightening, destructive, emotionless, malevolent beings made up of a combination of futuristic technology fused with their existing, often previously damaged or modified biology.
Many of these cybernetic beings are often depicted as wanting to assimilate and enslave the human species into their own species or to destroy us entirely to either take our technology or our flesh for selfish and/or nefarious purposes. From my point of view, I believe all this negativity toward cybernetically enhanced beings is just unfair. In reality, most people with currently available cybernetic enhancements are often indistinguishable from other members of society. Some want their enhancements noticed often going to great lengths to do so, and many may be may bordering on transhuman – modified to the point where they are noticeably different from other “natural” humans such as Neil Harbisson… even to the point of being considered a posthuman…but, there is no reason to believe or suggest they would be malevolent.
It is far more likely they would be someone just like you.
Neil Harbisson Cyborg
What cyborgs from popular culture and from reality all have in common is this: their biological in origin bodies are in some way interfacing with non-biological technology, engineering, and chemistry – their flesh and blood body has non-biological components such as hardware, machine, and electronic parts either replacing lost or damaged original parts, or they have intentionally added ability-enhancing appearance-augmenting parts and chemicals they were not born with or naturally produce.
In other words – they have been bio-hacked.
But what does this really mean?
First some definitions
BIO:
From Biology: the science of life or living matter in all its forms and phenomena, especially with reference to origin, growth, reproduction, structure, and behavior. Source: Dictionary.com – a more indepth dive into Biology can be found on Wikipedia.
HACK:
1: a usually creatively improvised solution to a computer hardware or programming problem or limitation
2: an act or instance of gaining or attempting to gain illegal access to a computer or computer system
3: a clever tip or technique for doing or improving something
For our purposes, definitions one and three are the best fits for the “hack” in Biohacking.
“Biohacking” is defined by Merriam-Webster as: biological experimentation (as by gene editing or the use of drugs or implants) done to improve the qualities or capabilities of living organisms especially by individuals and groups working outside a traditional medical or scientific research environment.
or, as Techopedia puts it: “Biohacking can include body modifications, in which groups of people known as “grinders” experiment with implants and other methods of applying technologies to their bodies, such as wearable computing. Other types of biohacking may involve self-medical hacks, such as home DNA or genetic testing.”
As one Biohacker put it: “We biohackers, we think the human body is a good start but there is certainly room for improvement.”
The human body is an amazing creation designed and constantly refined by trial and error over millions of years of evolution by natural selection. However, due to that long term slowly adaptive process, driven by the nuances of the engine that is natural selection, it carries with it many flaws and fails that evolution could have crafted a wee bit better – if given more time. Here are a few of them…
If given more time and technology, maybe we naked, multi-colored, bipedal, thinking apes, will evolve these evolutionary fails out of our genome to become the best that we can be. But for now, those of us that are alive and kicking and reading these words – even with all our evolutionary flaws and imperfections – we are good enough. We are the ones who were fit enough to have survived the evolutionary weeding out process of deep time, and therefore, we are all privileged to live at this moment in time. We are all we have to work with, for now.
However, if we play our cards right and survive the next 10,000, one million years, or one billion years – who knows what kind of awesome we might be capable of – but until that time we have biohacking.
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome, Evolve.
Coming back down to the reality of today, I am gratefully thankful for modern medical science, engineering, and chemistry that, although still early in its evolution and nowhere near perfect, is at a place where it offers us the amazing ability to use the methods and tools of science to repair, augment, enhance, and upgrade – to “biohack” – our bodies with technological and chemical repairs, enhancements, and adaptations when even the most dramatic moments in life befall us…or if we just want to voluntarily change or modify something about ourselves to better suit our needs, interests, and desires. Some more common examples of biohacking include but are not limited to:
…insulin pumps and one day the artificial pancreas will be a reality…or maybe CRISPR or a similar technology will edit diabetes (and many other diseases, syndromes, and conditions) out of the human genome once and for all…
…to the many forms of plastic surgery which involve body augmentation/modification using skin manipulation and implants/injections for lips breast, buttocks, chin, and nose, and more…
“Mammogram X-ray of a silicone breast implant, used for cosmetic surgery to alter the size and shape of the female breast. The implant is the rounded white structure at centre; it has been implanted beneath the glandular tissue of the breast (sub-glandular implant). Curved bones of the rib cage can be seen at left. Synthetic silicone is widely used as implants in cosmetic surgery because they are resistant to body fluids, permeable to oxygen, and are not rejected by the body. Apart from their use to increase breast size (augmentation mammo-plasty), a silicone implant can restore breast shape after breast tissue removal for cancer.” Source: https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/279681/view
…vasectomies and penile implants (to correct damage and/or ED or to augment and enhance), and full/partial joint replacements…
…IUD’s, implantable contraceptives, and other implantable medications…
“IUD contraceptive. X-ray of the pelvis of a woman, showing a fitted intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD, lower centre), or coil. It comprises a T-shaped piece of plastic or metal that is inserted through the cervix into the womb to prevent pregnancy. It is thought to work by inhibiting the implantation of a fertilised egg. Some IUDs contain a progesterone drug that suppresses ovulation. IUDs are not as effective as the pill but do not have the mental and physical side-effects associated with taking hormone drugs. The pale regions at bottom left and right are the bones of the pelvis.” Source: https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/295731/view
Some have combined many of the more common, with what some might call rather extreme biohacks in order to completely alter and augment their appearance to fit their fantasies such as Valaria “Valeryevna” Lukyanova – the human Barbie doll.
From my point of view, I would define all of these body modification technologies, techniques, and practices as forms of “biohacking” the human-animal. But just when and when and where did this human fascination with altering the nature of things begin?
Our ancient ancestors who picked up the first rocks, sticks, stones, and bones and used them, like our primate cousins do today, as tools to smash nuts to get at the nutmeat, and later crunch bones to get the marrow, kill animals for food, defense from animals trying to eat them, and later – with some slight and major modifications – to fell trees, till the land, and alter the landscape to meet their growing energy needs – the great biohack of tool use started us on a path to becoming what we are today – modern humans. It took us several million years of research and development but we have succeeded in turning those sharp rocks and sticks into bulldozers and chainsaws, catapults and computers, razorblades and railroads, helicopters and Hyundai’s, Rubik’s cubes and rocket ships, laser beams and ice cream – all with the goal to make our lives better, faster, stronger, more productive with less work from our own natural biology – thereby giving our species a massive evolutionary survival advantage over all other creatures. Tool use was our species’ first major biohack.
The Hot Biohack That Made Us Human
Fire. That’s right – fire. I consider fire the ultimate biohack. Obviously, fire is not attached to the surface of, inserted or implanted into the human body…well, unless you are a “fire eater” or possibly a “fire walker“…but the discovery, control, and mastery of fire is possibly the most important tool discovery early members of our species ever made. Biological anthropologist Dr. Richard Wrangham, in his book Catching Fire, outlines how the taming of fire served to help make our food easier to acquire, more sanitary, easier process (chew) and easier to digest. Therefore, this pre-processed cooked food freed up more nutrition from the food items for our bodies and brain which then allowed our brain, and therefore our intelligence, to grow to a level surpassing that of our extinct earlier hominid ancestors and our living primate cousins the Chimpanzee, Bonobo, Gorilla, and Orangutan. The latter, and many monkey species, still use rocks and sticks as tools to this day – but none have “discovered” “tamed” and made use of fire as our species has done. Cooking also served, over time, to make our bodies more efficient by downsizing our internal organs, muscles, bones, mandible, and teeth while increasing the size of our most important internal organ – the brain – all of these things served to transform us, via the miraculous sculptor of evolutionby natural selection, from another interesting animal into the complex tool using modern humans of today.
So yes, it seems we exist in our present form due in part to tool development and use, and the ultimate tool discovery, development, and mastery of fire in all its forms – from the timeless campfire crackling within a circle of rocks, to the mighty rocket ship standing on a pillar of flame as it ascends into the timeless void of space.
To me, fire was the capstone tool that allowed us to become much more than just another interesting animal among all the other animals – fire was the ultimate biohack.
But some may say that biohacks are only technologies devices and engineering implanted into the body?
From my point of view, biohacks are any and all devices, attachments, treatment procedures, chemicals, techniques, and technologies the receiver was not born with. They are added/learned/acquired after birth with the receiver’s natural biology being “hacked” with the acquired/add-on/add-in upgraded technology and/or process or procedure. Just like you might upgrade your new car with whatever aftermarket paint, add-ons, and customizations you choose to fit your needs and desires – biohacking is “aftermarket” adaptations, upgrades, personalizations, add-ons, add-ins, and customizations to your personal vehicle – your body.
Biohacks help you make your life better.
The Biohacking Spectrum
Biohacking is just like any other spectrum and to that end, I offer up to you my Biohacking Spectrum.
(I am probably leaving out something important so please correct me where needed so we can work together to make this information more robust.)
The “lower-end” of the Biohacking Spectrum.
On the lower end, we find the non-invasive, outside the body, or surface mounted adaptations and modifications such as:
Tool use and control of fire.
“I made fire! I, I made fire!” Tom Hanks from the movie Cast Away.
Clothes of all kinds are also a masterful biohack.
Michael Richards as Kramer from the TV show Seinfeld.
Would you go without your shoes/boots?
Temporary augmentative/adaptive attachments such as corrective and protective lenses (glasses, sunglasses, contacts, monocles, and other Personal Protective Equipment)…
Climbing on up the spectrum a little bit we find externally attachable to temporarily internally insertable, but of longer duration and, depending on the application, a closer to the body attachment with a deeper connection to or penetration into the body via the skin and/or existing natural openings. These devices would include but are not limited to; contact lenses, hair implants, dental dentures and bridges, TENS devices, sexual aids, human vital monitoring and life-support devices and equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators, defibrillators, and extended use yet still removable prosthetic limbs.
Next is a great example of how far removable prosthetic limbs have come since the pirate and his “peg leg.”
Moving up another step we find more semi-permanent to permanent body modifications which are external but moving to internal such as Lasic surgery, insulin pumps, piercings, plugs, and tattoos.
Random internet photo.
In the middle of the scale, we find far more permanent more internally applied body modifications and alterations that change the permanent appearance and/or function of the user’s body such as but not limited to; dental braces, adjustments, and extractions, facelifts, liposuction, rhinoplasty, moving to implantable devices such as breast, buttock, lip, face, and other mostly cosmetic or augmentative body implants and injections. Within this section, we also find more active technologies such as RFID “microchips,” IUD’s, and other contraceptives, etc.
All of the biohacks within this part of the spectrum involve modifications to the skin, are located under the skin, inside the body cavity, in or near an internal organ but not necessarily attached to an organ or structural members such as connective tissue or bone.
RFID “microchips”
At the far opposite end of the biohacking scale, we find the most extreme modifications such as devices and/or technologies that are sewn, screwed, bolted, clamped, or “wired” directly into or onto the users’ organs, bones, muscles, nerves, and one day even our CPU – the brain. Examples include dental implants, ports, plates/screws, replacement joints, heart valves, pacemakers, vasectomies, penile implants, and prosthetic limbs fused directly to living bone, etc.
At the most extreme top end of the scale, we find biohacks that repair, augment, and/or alter the operation of the body’s own biology to fit the needs or desires of the body’s “owner” such as those that adapt, change, or augment physical performance, repair of congenital deformities or emergency malfunctions/loss, fight infection or disease, repair/replace faulty limbs, organs and tissues in the form of bioprinting, and sexual/gender reassignment surgery.
This extreme top-end of the spectrum also includes biochemistry-based technologies that have their own spectrum. Some examples include but are not limited to: over the counter vitamins, supplements, and drugs, prescription medications and antibiotics, allergy immunotherapy, cancer treatments, vaccines, and finally gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR.
Source: Internet
Again, I am sure I am leaving something out of this spectrum or may have misplaced something within the biohacking spectrum due to my own lack of knowledge and the rapidly changing field of biohacking. If you see something missing or out of place, or that needs adapting (hacking) please, feel free to drop me a note – but, if you do, please include the sources for your information.
The goal of any biohacking technology or technique is to repair, extend, enhance, augment, adapt, modify, and enhance this thing we call life.
Time smoothes out the rough edges
The majority of the biohacks accepted by society today are seen by many as everyday repairs, augmentations, and upgrades to the continued healthy functioning, best performance, and best or preferred appearance of our bodies. Many, if not most of these biohacks were – early on in their developmental process – experimental technologies on the bleeding edge of reality bordering on science fiction and fantasy. Many people at the time must have thought these new biohacks were pushing the interface between the human world and the technological world just a wee bit too close for comfort. Those not on the receiving end of the biohacks may have cried out things like “invasion of privacy,” “unethical,” “infringing upon my freedoms,” and possibly even “against all that is sacred,” or “unholy.”
It is interesting to note that even something as important and as widely accepted today as the biohack we now call handwashing – was once mistrusted and ridiculed by medical experts of the time.
Ignaz Semmelweis, the scientist and doctor who suggested handwashing may prevent disease, was ridiculed and bullied by his peers for even suggesting the “crazy idea” of handwashing. He was later committed to an asylum where he was beaten and died. His “crazy idea” was later proven correct and hand washing became widely accepted and practiced “after Louis Pasteur – who confirmed germ theory, and Joseph Lister, acting on the French microbiologist’s research, practiced and operated using hygienic methods, with great success.”
Just like the now well-known – and proven by science – handwashing and other healthy hygiene hacks that serve to remove potentially dangerous germs from our hands/bodies/teeth/surgical tools/dishes/clothes etc – the acceptance of almost any new idea, technology, procedure – any new lifehack, or biohack – takes some time. Remember how long it took seat belts to become a “thing”…or for people to accept the peer-reviewed fact that smoking causes cancer and other nasty illnesses…that brushing your teeth regularly is a good idea…that umbrellas are a good way to keep the rain off…that condoms stop the spread of STD’s and unplanned pregnancies…or that wearing cloth filter masks when you have a cold – or during a global pandemic – keeps your germs away from me and my germs away from you and in doing so they reduce sickness and even save lives. For early adopters, these things were easily acceptable life hacks, for others these things will take time.
Wear your mask – yes, it is a biohack. Photo source: internet
While still shocking to some – the technological biohacks we see today have become commonplace and almost universally accepted by modern medical science and by society, and in most “free” “western” populations they are widely accepted and are here to stay.
From my point of view, unless you have never taken any medicine, never had an operation, never been to the doctor, or you live under a rock – we modern humans have all been biohacked to some degree.
Over time, the devices, tools, and techniques of biohacking will surely evolve to become far more sophisticated to the point where they will be entirely undetectable to the user or to the observer – unless of course, they are designed to be seen by others. The future of biohacking will serve to even more blur the line between human and machine.
One day we will all be cyborgs.
To me, all that is perfectly fine – whatever technology we humans create to improve upon evolution in our quest to update our biology and make us better, faster, stronger, healthier, better looking – it is nothing unnatural, it is all just part of our own human evolution.
Backyard Biohacking
As for the DIY “biohackers” who attempt to achieve their “MacGyver” style body-hacking upgrade projects at home – I really do not see this as a good idea for the reasons of personal safety, hygiene, and limiting the spread of communicable diseases. At the moment I am writing this, I would support that any major biohack – other than simple external or specific low impact temporary internal biohacking techniques or devices – should be installed/conducted only by qualified and trained professionals.
Examples
Just like you would have only a qualified tattoo artist apply your tattoo…
It is my opinion that any bodily invasive biohack that has the potential to harm the receiver’s biology and/or introduce dangerous pathogens into the receiver’s body – should only be performed by educated, qualified, specially trained, and licensed experienced professionals in the field.
However, that may change in the future with better DIY biohacking and improved sanitation technologies and techniques (in other words: new biohacks) – only time will tell.
That being said I am not in any way against biohacking for personal body repair, personalization, alteration, augmentation, or modification. Whatever you do to your body is your personal choice – it is your body and I do not have any say in your decisions nor do I want to impose any of my decisions upon you. Therefore, I will not lose any sleep over your choices. Similarly, I would not expect you to lose any sleep over my choices. However, I feel that a line should be drawn when it comes to the safety of innocent people and the survival of the species as a whole. This is why I believe there needs to be very specific health-science supported safety/hygiene biohacking standards to protect everyone from each other while still allowing everyone the personal freedom to choose to biohack.
To reiterate and clarify: If someone wants to paint, pierce, insert, inject, implant, screw, bolt, or glue on, attach, ingest, or install, – if they want to modify their own personal body in any way – if it repairs environmental/physical damage or replaces failing “parts,” and/or if it makes them better, happier, stronger, faster, and/or gives them increased pleasure or higher self-esteem – then so be it. It is their choice and their choice alone (as long as they are an adult). I have no say over what someone else does to their body just like I have no say over what another person reads, watches on TV, their choice in music, the foods they eat, the liquids they drink, the car they drive, or the people they choose to love – those things are all their choice and their choice alone as long as their biohacking choices do not have the potential to;
Harm their own body such as with a dangerous addiction to drugs/chemicals.
Harm friends or loved ones in their biohacking process.
Harm the rest of the human and/or wildlife population with their biohacking process.
Harm our shared natural life support system – nature – with their biohacking process.
Then it is their choice to biohack so I say let them hack away to their heart’s content so: bring on the biohackers.
While many biohacks are now seen as “everyday” useful cosmetic and functionality upgrades to the human anatomy and the human condition, others, in my opinion, are just a wee bit over the top….
The “Lizard man” and the “Cat man”
Or this unique pincushion of a human…ouch!
I am all for some life-hacking useful, functional, and augmentative upgrades but those are just a wee bit too high maintenance and far outside of my comfort zone…but to each his own.
My Biohacks
Yes, I have/use and benefit from a few biohacks that I could not live without and I would bet you probably have a few as well.
Dental care. The science of dentistry/dental hygiene gives me the knowledge and tools to keep my teeth clean and, when needed, apply fillings/repairs to my teeth that fix the damage that comes with age – and our species’ overly rich foods. These dental biohacks allow me to chew and process my food without pain.
Cooking. I really prefer to eat much of my food cooked. While cooking is an external action not connected directly to the body, it does pre-condition and pre-processes our foods in key ways that change the nature of those foods with these changes having a direct and positive impact upon our biology- in other words: cooking is a biohack. The ancient biohack of cooking gave my ancestors the energy they needed to live and pass their genes onward throughout time which eventually lead up to me typing these words on this tool of knowledge (and sometimes total inferno of a dumpster fire) we call the internet. Cooking has also served to protect my ancestors and me from nasty germs and parasites and it has made many of my foods easier to chew, digest, and even better tasting. Cooking has also given me far more time to do the cool stuff I like to do since I do not need to spend as much time chewing (pre-processing) raw food like all of my raw food eating living primate cousins and extinct early (pre-fire) ancestors needed to do just to survive.
Clothes. I really like my clothes – they keep my mostly hairless, pasty white, modern primate body comfortable and protected no matter the season. My hat keeps the sun off my balding head and my boots allow me to move over all manner of terrain.
Corrective lenses. (aka glasses, spectacles) allow me to clearly see the world around me, see the distant mountains and read distant words, not fall into holes or off cliffs, or be eaten by a predator as I journey about. They also allow me to see and appreciate the many wonderful augmentations, upgrades, adaptations, and advantages to the art of biohacking.
Internal upgrades: The staples in my intestines where my appendix used to reside keep the contents of my guts from spilling out into my body cavity (at least until the incision healed up – but the staples remain).
Infection. I have had several bacterial infections including Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Clostridium difficile, multiple episodes of sinusitis, and luckily only one episode of appendicitis, just to name a few. In every case, antibiotics and pain killers came to the rescue and pulled me back from the brink of existence, made me a bit more comfortable while I recovered – and here I am today writing these words.
Vaccines. I have and will continue to receive all the expert-recommended vaccines. Vaccines and immunotherapy are ways science has found to biohack and upgrade the human immune system in order to give us super-human resistance to biological microscopic invaders wanting to use our warm, wet, incubator-like bodies as factories for more of their kind.
About to get my yearly influenza vaccine.
Vaccines introduce a weakened or killed infectious biological agent into the body allowing the body’s immune “army” to recognize and remember it’s “mugshot,” and then develop a defensive strategy to deal with that invader if it ever detects it trying to invade the body’s environment in the future.
Speaking of infectious invaders I was once possibly exposed to the rabies virus while helping an animal that had been attacked by an unknown predator. Rabies is almost always deadly so I preventatively received the rabies vaccine. Was I actually exposed? I will never know. But what I do know is I that am still alive and healthy. What I also know is if I had chosen to not receive the vaccine as a preventative measure against the viral agents that I may or may not have been exposed to – I may have developed rabies and died. I was not willing to even consider taking that chance – so I opted for the logical choice: I received the vaccination and whatever the case may be – I live.
I was once cut by a jagged piece of rusty, dirty metal. Because Tetanus is a nasty disease that can easily be prevented by a Tetanus vaccine – I immediately received a Tetanus booster vaccine and guess what – no Tetanus. Maybe the filthy piece of metal did not have any Tetanus organisms on it, maybe it did – I was not willing to take the chance – so I opted to err on the side of caution and get the vaccine.
So yes – from my point of view, and the point of view of all the world’s experts – vaccines are a wonderful and very helpful form of biohacking that many of us alive today would not be alive without.
Getting my influenza vaccine
I was once accidentally envenomated by a wild Timber rattlesnake. I was rushed to the emergency room, received anti-venin, (anti-venom), spent 3.5 days recovering in the hospital, and I fully recovered. The snake 🐍 is still alive and well in his forest – it was not his fault, it was entirely mine.
Photo by Steve Atkins
Personal Protective Equipment. I wear my Personal Protective Equipment when needed. My PPE keeps me safe from environmental conditions, situations, contaminants, and pathogens which may harm my human biology. Most recently I have needed to use my PPE far more often than not due to the virus known as SARS CoV-2 which causes the illness known as COVID-19 aka Coronavirus.
Wearing a filter mask while a pulse oximeter reports my blood 02 level.
The future: As I age, I may need to make use of even more biohacks and I will be more than happy to receive them as long as they support, improve, and/or augment my health, quality of life, and/or my safety and performance as all the others have done. From my point of view – biohacking our bodies with science, technology, engineering, and chemistry is a great way to heal, repair, augment, and extend our lives and to provide a protective shield of science and technology around and within our fragile primate bodies.
In the very near future, biohacking technology will give the human-animal even more amazing and unbelievable cyborg superpowers.
Two existing biohacks undergoing continuous research and development that have recently piqued my interest are the already in use in some applications Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) “microchips” and, the as yet to be fully developed and implemented human-machine interface technology Nuralink and others are working on as I write these words.
Let’s examine these two technologies in more detail.
RFID
My research and the resulting findings suggest that having a RFID enabled “microchip” implant might be a wonderful way to streamline your life and increase your efficiency and productivity. Below I have outlined a few ways RFID and other implantable cybernetic technologies could, and eventually will, greatly benefit those of us who choose to accept the fact that these technologies are just another fascinating and useful part of our species’ own evolution.
Daily life chores.
Imagine never needing to carry all those outdated plastic cards and archaic heavy metal keys and bulbous key fobs in your pockets/purse/wallets.
Source: Internet search.
Access security and safety.
Imagine opening doors to gain access to restricted/members-only areas such as offices, classrooms, labs, health clubs, manufacturing facilities, military, and government buildings. You could auto-unlock and/or auto-open home or car’s door when your hands are full and you are within range of the car/home’s sensors. Power on or precondition your home or vehicle from a distance using a specific hand gesture, skin tap, or eye blink code, or spoken codeword(s), or time of day parameters set in the user’s connected smart device. You could unlock your smartphone, or computer with just the swipe of a hand or touch of a finger. When holding a smartphone or other “smart” devices it would auto-sense the user’s ID and auto-unlock. Put down the device and it would instantly auto-lock – no secret codes or passwords to remember.
Random internet photo
Theft Issues. Unlike cash, credit card, smartphone or PC, any data stored on a RFID device would be safely and securely hidden within the user at all times so it would be very hard to steal.
Shopping. It would be so much easier, faster and hassle-free and it might go something like this – imagine walking into the grocery/department store and simply picking up the items you want to buy and walking out of the store. If you needed more than a few items you could simply pick them up and load them into your bag, box, or cart, and just walk out of the store and get back to business. A possible way this could work: As you shop, your implanted RFID device, coupled with the RFID technology in each item you have selected, would keep track of all the items in your possession. Your purchase would be confirmed as you exit the store where you would pass through an exit scanning “automatic cashier/gatekeeper” unit that would log all the purchases in your possession and automatically charge your bank account for all the items – at the speed of light. No long lines, no germ-infested paper/coin-based money, and no germy hackable card reader machines needed, and, if you are like me and often only need one or two items, no potentially germ-covered shopping cart is needed – just a far faster, smoother, hassle-free experience. Unfortunately, this new technology would also mean far fewer cashiers will be needed – but then I suppose that is just progress in our modern world of technology.
Source: Internet search.
Elderly security. Imagine having the option, especially when you are older, of having your health monitored constantly via your RFID implant unit. If a life-threatening condition developed or a vital sign goes out of line you would receive a text alert from the “Tricorder” app on your smart device. If you had a “smart” device you would be prompted to acknowledge the incident as real or a false alarm. If you responded “real” or did not respond at all and/or if you did not have a smart device and if the condition was acute enough, far enough out of line, or for a long enough duration – such as a during a fall, diabetic emergency, heart attack, aneurysm, or stroke – then the system would alert you as normal but it would also immediately dispatch paramedics to your location as pinpointed via the GPS in your connected smart device. In the future, the external smart device will not be needed as RFID devices will have built-in GPS which will allow instant tracking of the victim’s location so in the event of an emergency where the user is unable to respond – help will be dispatched even faster to the user’s exact location. Implantable RFID devices with GPS technology do not exist today but they most certainly will in the not so distant future.
This technology would be very beneficial to the elderly, diabetics, physically and mentally challenged individuals, and people with a history of other acute conditions and seizure disorders, as well as people working in high-risk environments, etc.
Imagine the day when you are elderly and or/the worst-case scenario happens and you have a heart attack, seizure, blood sugar emergency, or you fall and hit your head and are unable to grab your phone or life-aleart button to hit 911 – yet within minutes, the ambulance arrives like magic and you receive the help you need and therefore – you survive.
RFID implants would also negate the use of “Life Alert” style necklace pendants and similar devices that are worn on the wrist and either activated by the user at the push of a button when in distress and/or self-activate when they sense a fall.
Implanted RFID units would be a wonderful upgrade to those amazing technologies as they would be under the skin and non-removable. This would be beneficial because as we all know, one of the major problems of Life Alert style devices is simply getting the elderly to wear them and then to remember to push the button when they have an emergency.
Tracking. implantable RFID devices with GPS tracking technology-enabled. (Currently, at the writing of this post, this is not possible due to limitations of the technology…even though some people seem to think so). Active RFID/GPS tracking could be used to keep track of the children, the elderly, and potentially dangerous criminals who have been released back into society. They could be programmable to alert the authorities when the person with the RFID unit exits a predetermined zone of restriction. In the event, the user left the zone of restriction they could easily be tracked down by the authorities.
This would be especially useful with elderly folks who often have memory issues or are just simply stubborn and forgetful and often leave their life alert device resting on a nearby table or in their home when they go out – and as we know that is about as helpful as not using your seatbelt in a speeding car.
Prison Reform
RFID tracking technology also has the potential to change the prison system as we see it today. For those individuals incarcerated for non-violent crimes that do not require being locked away in a physical high-security prison – they could be confined at home to serve out their time. During this time they could participate as functioning members of society in that they could work beneficial jobs either from home or from places of employment. As long as they did not deviate from predetermined zone of restriction locations as set forth in their court-appointed sentence, they would have much more freedom to be active members of society, feel useful, and not be contributing to the drain on society that is our current prison system.
Disease mitigation. The future of RFID and other implantable “microchip” technologies will undoubtedly include bio-sensing and remote programmability which would also be very useful in stopping epidemics and pandemics before they start. As outlined earlier – RFID devices could be designed to sense vital signs of the user and detect the presence of dangerous pathogens/antibodies/chemicals within the body. If the user’s vital signs fit the parameters of a certain infection, the user would receive a text/email from the RFID devices companion application on their “smart” device/mobile device/personal computer along with directions on what they may be infected with, how to handle the situation, how soon they should see a physician, what procedures and medications might help the situation, and if they should self-isolate. The RFID device would also more easily enable contact tracing options, it would more easily allow contact tracing applications and organizations to alert the RFID user to who their last contacts were and who may have been exposed – or may have exposed them – to the infectious agent etc. Having a system like this in place would also allow constant contact tracing/monitoring of sick individuals thereby protecting the entire population from future infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics.
All these things and more would be possible with implantable RFID microchip technologies. This kind of biohacking has massive potential to streamline our lives, give millions of people the comfort, convenience, and safety they need, and save the lives of countless people.
Proven by science.
RFID implants are a proven technology that has been used successfully for decades in animals for identification and to open automatic doors – so there is no good reason why it should not be used in humans.
A radiograph (X-Ray) of a cat with a RFID “microchip” identification implant.
Firearm safety.
Coupled with a special trigger lock on older firearms and a built-in “smart gun” lock on new ones – this technology would let me and only me be the only person who could operate my personal firearms. *This would also reduce gun accidents and theft since each gun would be custom RFID key-coded to its user. If a firearm with this technology was found by a child or stolen it would be useless to them.
Fitness and health.
A RFID implant could instantly relay everyday fitness and health status to a companion app. It could alert the user of serious health conditions and situations such as when the user was entering into a potentially life-endangering activity. The RFID unit, coupled to an external smart device equipped with environmental sensors, could detect life-threatening parameters such as sudden acceleration/deceleration/heart rate, temperature, pressure, toxic gasses, etc. it would instantly alert the user via their connected smart device and, if there was no if-this-then-that directive response from the user, the system would automatically call a 911 dispatcher/medical professionals via the built-in “life alert” style device I mentioned earlier. If the user was rendered unconscious by an action, environmental parameter, or a serious health condition that was out of the nominal range, the RFID device would allow the en-route ENT’s instant access to the user’s medical history, current medications, conditions, and, bio-sign history from the last few days. This knowledge would allow them to know not only the user’s location but also what possible health or environment-related circumstances may have lead up to the user’s current predicament and therefore they would be better prepared to treat the user’s condition upon arrival on the scene.
Payment. Being able to pay for goods/services without needing to pull out a card/cash or go through a check out/teller line and punch filthy germ covered buttons on the card reader at check out/fuel stations etc.
GPS navigation capabilities. After setting my desired location on my smart device app, my RFID device would direct me to that location using a gentle vibration and/or under-skin light. If I deviated from my course by more than a preset parameter – it would let me know. It would keep me on track and upon arrival at the destination coordinates, it would vibrate or flash my preset arrival sequence letting me know I had a arrived. It could also be set to detect the direction of north, home, or any other preset location that I set on the companion application. The smart device would need to be within range for GPS connectivity or to change the RFID device’s settings – at least until the technology is developed to entirely replace handheld smart devices.
Privacy. Yes, there are obviously some important security and privacy issues, just like there are important security and privacy issues with mobile devices, credit cards, internet access, email, online banking, etc… I feel certain these issues can and will be worked out because the benefits far outweigh the dangers.
I know all this sounds like science fiction – but so did the smartphone a few decades ago.
Having an implantable RFID enabled device would streamline, speed up, and help so many things and so many people and personally, I would be more than happy to receive an implanted RFID microchip biohack if it would give me some of these superhuman abilities.
But haven’t you heard about all the RFID conspiracy theories?
No, just no. I’m not at all worried about all the conspiracy theories stating (without credible evidence) that Google, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or “the government” is working to track us with RFID chips injected into us via vaccines. Believe that if you like and I respect your choice however before we continue on, maybe you should read my previous blog post on that very subject. Back to reality. The simple fact is that companies have been tracking us for decades through our SSN, online purchases, “rewards” cards, on our personal computers, smart devices, and even via our cars for many years. If I were a criminal I would be very worried, but as I am a law-abiding citizen – I really just do not care if “they” know where I am or what kind of things I am buying. I have better things to do than worry about marketing. I have self-control. I only buy something when I need it or want it, not because some company has tailored its marketing ploy in my general direction – well, except maybe for chocolate and good stout.
Then I hear people say “But I heard that “biohacking” and RFID microchips were predicted by some pulpit pounding preacher, soothsayer, internet “influencer,” or ancient prophet – or maybe by Nostradamus himself – to be indicators of the “End times,” or the “number or mark of the beast.”
Here’s the thing: from the perspective of the evidence, most of those predictions and prophets (maybe I should call them profits) including Nostradamus – start to look like fear-mongering manufactured drama stooges using fear as a way to sell an idea, a book they wrote, their merchandise, or they may just simply be asking for your money outright to, in return, somehow miraculously “save,” protect, or shield you from “demons”, “devils,” from “burning in hell,” and/or from some imaginary malevolent “beast.” More and more, all of these individuals are looking like the mouth-breathing, self-righteous, religious book thumping, tabloid writers of their times pushing out fear, drama, and narrow-minded ways of thinking all in the name of attention and profit. Their ways of thinking have no verifiable evidence to support any of their way out lunatic fringe claims. These so-called beasts and “end times” have been predicted several times since the beginning of…um…time…and…um…well – where are they?
The real beast here is manufactured fear and the god many are choosing to worship is the almighty dollar.
Yes, this is an end time. This very moment in time is the end time of the very last moment in time. From a cosmic perspective, time itself is endless. We human animals – our species – yes, we will have an ending at some point when our species ceases to exist due to either to a natural disaster rendering the planet unlivable such as an asteroid/cometary impact, a massive volcanic eruption, or by his own hand with man overpopulating and overheating the planet and forcing anthropogenic climate change by his overuse of fossil fuels or, the release of a natural or man-made highly infectious pathogen that wipes out our species (no, not COVID-19, it is child’s play compared to what I am talking about). Or we will overpopulate the planet and be forced to move out into space leaving our trashed planet behind thereby ending our time upon it.
Our species own “End Times” will be positive or negative or somewhere in between and it will be brought about by our own actions or by the action of nature – not by invisible gods/demons or some tiny bit of harmless high technology inserted under our skins.
Please, before you choose to believe and share questionable, fear-focused stories, please use your big monkey brains and ignore all the fear-driven conspiracy theories focused on hogwash and hocus pocus – and just focus on just the facts and the evidence.
The facts and the evidence support that “biohacking” body repairs, upgrades, augmentations, and modification technologies are just part of our human evolution.
?Human = Machine or Machine = Human?
The future will hold an even greater evolution of “biohacking” to include custom electronics and mechanical devices with all of the above-listed features and far more we cannot even imagine today as well as machine-brain interfaces such as what Elon Musk’s Nuralink is working on which will allow mind-to-machine and mind-to-mind direct communication, therefore, giving people who have lost the use of their hands/feet and even their voice – the ability to interface with machines and then communicate with others again.
It will also give us the ability to not only create and benefit from almost exact replicas of lost appendages (think Luke Skywalker’s arm and the Luke Arm) and internal organs – ask any diabetic and I am sure they would gladly accept a biohacked pancreas – other organ modifications and adaptations such as personalized sexual performance systems and a smorgasbord of cosmetic modifications and augmentations, and more thorough and effective Sexual Reassignment Surgery. These more advanced biohacks will allow the paralyzed to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the sighted to see even more of the electromagnetic spectrum (such as with Geordi LaForge’s “VISOR” in Star Trek The Next Generation),
…and they may one day even allow us to breathe underwater.
The evolution of biohacking is as inevitable as our biological evolution and, because our technology is a product of our evolution, the two are as intricately and intimately connected as we are intricately and intimately connected to and reliant upon nature.
It is in our nature to evolve, therefore, it is in our nature to biohack.
The internet is a wealth of amazing knowledge and honest evidence and science-supported peer-reviewed answers on anything you have a question about, educational outlets, DIY tutorials on just about anything you can imagine, wonderful art, photography, music, culture, shopping, and hilarious cat videos. However, if you look in the wrong dark corner – it is also a putrid cesspool of filth filled, lunatic fringe, manufactured misinformation, disinformation, and targeted doubt, fueled by basement-dwelling, troglodytic trolls sharing selling their own brand of fear-focused snake-oil “medicine” cures for anything that ails you, with all of it leading down twisted paths to dead ends of great gory heaps of rancid hogwash. The hard part is knowing how to sort out the good from the bad and not get lost in the quagmire of insanity that is the fetid, festering underbelly of the World Wide Web.
Usually, the extreme fringe dwelling claims of internet know-it-all hawkers preaching their versions of their “truth” and their “reality” on websites, social media, and streaming video channels, these are very easily debunked with common knowledge and common sense. Other times, when it is hard to see through the words of all the charlatans – there are wonderful fact-checking websites (snopes.com, factcheck.org, politifact.com, and many more), that will help us sort the wheat from the chaff – and there is a lot of chaff.
Sometimes, however, common sense, knowledge, and actual facts are not enough to convince the dangerously skeptical among us. Many will often cry that the evidence and facts are being manufactured and/or manipulated, strings are being pulled behind the scenes, and that “it” – whatever “it” is – is all a hoax or a conspiracy, etc.
When this happens I feel that it could only be helpful if regular people like me take a serious look at the situation, analyze it with a scientifically skeptical mind, and then share our findings. In doing this, maybe some of the overly skeptical/fearful folks will see that the results of a friend show exactly what the experts are saying – on whatever the subject may be. Then, maybe, hopefully, these doubting individuals will be enlightened to the facts found by a friend instead of some nameless white coat and mask-wearing scientist in a lab somewhere, or a talking head on TV. Maybe once they see that someone they know has come to the same conclusion as the highly educated and peer-reviewed experts – then maybe, hopefully, they will choose to put aside all the crazy internet-sourced, often dangerous to their health and the health of their friends and family bad ideas, and they will decide to choose wisely on this, and whatever the next topic may be.
Maybe with my example as an inspiration, they might choose to do their own research and answer their own questions over just believing anything they read/see/hear/share online.
Obviously, it is dangerous and not in any way helpful for anyone to just believe blindly and without question all the randomly shared stories/comments/claims/cures seen online. Personally, I try to think critically when anyone makes any claim targeting the learned, evidence-supported, peer-reviewed recommendations of the experts in any given field of study. When I have questions, and I have a lot of them, I choose to do the research and answer the questions with real results and real evidence – with real science. However, if you do not trust and/or believe me in my quest for the evidence, and for knowledge – then please, try it out for yourself and share your results with your peers and see if they come to the same conclusions. If they do, then whatever the outcome, and if you did your science correctly – it must be true.
Today’s Internet Claim: Wearing masks reduces or depletes your blood oxygen levels and therefore is not a good idea.
This claim instantly sounded like a good one to test due to its common sense and evidence lacking spin – so let’s get into it.
Demonstration #1: I used a super cool homemade two-ply cloth filter mask my other sister made for me.
My job as a teacher requires a lot of speaking, walking around the classroom and grounds – so, yes, I exert myself enough to need good air/oxygen flow.
I wore this mask all day at work while teaching and working inside and outside the classroom.
I only took it off during lunch when no one was in the building – so I could eat.
In total, I wore the mask for 6.5 hours during my class sessions – as I have done every day in class since late March.
Baseline: At the start of the day and before putting on the mask, my SpO2 was: 97% (This is an average of three readings taken a few seconds apart. Each time I take my SpO2 level I follow this same protocol – three consecutive readings, averaged together.)
During the workday.
My highest SpO2: 98% (mask on – teaching, moving around the room)
My lowest SpO2: 95% (mask off – sitting during lunch)
My average SpO2: 96.2%
Demonstration #2: I purchased a mass-manufactured Halo Mask (https://halolife.io/ ) – this is a three-layer mask including a replaceable microfiber filter.
My job as a teacher requires a lot of speaking, walking around the classroom and grounds – so, yes, I exert myself enough to need good air/oxygen flow.
I wore this mask all day at work while teaching and working inside and outside the classroom.
I only took it off only during lunch when no one was in the building – so I could eat.
In total, I wore the mask for 6.5 hours during my class sessions.
During this time I used a pulse oximeter to measure my blood oxygen level (SpO2) at 10 random times throughout the day during all activities.
Wearing the Halomask
The results:
Baseline: At the start of the day and before putting on the mask, my SpO2 was: 96.7% (This is an average of three readings taken a few seconds apart. Each time I take my SpO2 level I follow this same protocol – three consecutive readings, averaged together.)
During the workday:
My highest SpO2: 95% (mask on – teaching, moving around the room)
I wore it for a supply run trip into a local hardware store. I also wore it when I was cleaning my classroom three times during the day. During each instance of wearing the respirator mask I had it on for an average duration of 26 minutes. During each instance I was actively working – shopping and cleaning – in other words, these are things that require some physical exertion and therefore good air/oxygen flow.
In total, I wore the mask for a total duration of 106 minutes.
My average time wearing the mask was 26.5 minutes.
During each of these instances I used a pulse oximeter to measure my blood oxygen level (SpO2) at the completion of each session wearing the GVS mask.
Wearing the professional respirator mask.
The results:
Baseline: At the start of the day and before putting on the mask, my SpO2 was: 96.7% (This is an average of three readings taken a few seconds apart. Each time I take my SpO2 level I follow this same protocol – three consecutive readings, averaged together.)
During the demonstration:
My highest SpO2: 98.3% (shopping)
My lowest SpO2: 94.3% (cleaning)
My average SpO2: 95.90%
Comparing the three demonstrations we see the following:
Demo #1 Homemade Cloth Mask: Average SpO2: 96.20%
Demo #2 Three layer microfiber filter mask: Average SpO2: 95.03%
Demo #3: Professional respirator mask: Average SpO2: 95.90%
Average SpO2 w/o a mask: 95.81%
Average SpO2 with all types of mask tested: 95.71%
Notes:
At sea level, a healthy human has an SpO2 between 95 – 100%.
My SpO2 tends to trend on the low side if “normal” probably due to my age (52), having mild exercise-induced asthma, and having had Mycoplasma pneumonia twice when I was younger…and possibly because I live/work between 2,500 – 3100′ (762 – 945 m) – above sea level (elevation gain lowers SpO2 “normal range” readings – but this last variable is probably negligible).
Then there is the error factor of ~2% for this type of pulse oximeter to factor in as well so my SpO2 level could have fallen anywhere between 92 – 100% during this test.
To all the anti-mask naysayers, doubters, and conspiracy theorists who say wearing masks will reduce your oxygen levels, my findings during this simple demonstration suggest the opposite.
My results suggest the following: Wearing a mask – be it a homemade cloth mask, a mass market multi-layer microfiber mask, or a professional respirator mask does not alter, impair, or reduce the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere into the mask-wearers lungs/bloodstream.
However, what wearing a mask does alter, impair, and reduce is the outward flow of the mask-wearers exhaled liquid respiratory droplets, and therefore, their fungal, bacterial, and viral contents (their nasty germs) contained within their exhaled liquid droplets. In other words: it greatly reduces (depending upon the type of mask worn) the mask wearers germs, from getting out of them and/or into your body and infecting you or others with something you or they do not want – be it a common cold or COVID-19.
Wearing a mask is caring for others.
Note #1: If you wear the same mask for several days and let it become saturated with moisture, bacteria, viruses, fungal spores, etc. – deposits of moisture, dust, pollen, and possibly, mold, and bacterial colonies could accumulate/grow on the mask clogging up the pores in the fabric/filter thereby reducing airflow – and that in turn could potentially reduce the flow of oxygen. This is not the recommended or the smart way to use a mask – and it is just totally gross. To keep this possible outcome from happening – wash your mask with soap and water at the end of each day. If your mask has filters, change them at the manufacturers recommended intervals.
Note #2: I am fully aware some people are not able to wear masks due to health conditions. This demonstration is not meant for those people. This demonstration is for the heathy people who do not have conditions that negate wearing a mask. This demonstration is for people who are otherwise healthy but for personal reasons are searching for “evidence” that supports their personal decision to not wear a mask. Heath conditions that negate wearing a mask aside, choosing to not wear a mask for personal reasons is just incredibly self-centered, uncaring, and selfish. If you are one of these people, if you are choosing to ignore the evidence and the facts, then please – do not be part of the problem and just stay home until all this is over.
Note#3: Oxygen atoms are far smaller than the weave of a homemade cloth mask, an N95, an N100, or even the very best medical or particulate/chemical protective respirator mask. If, in fact, properly fitted, and correctly used masks did block oxygen molecules as some are trying to claim – then all the mask-wearing doctors, veterinarians, dentists, health care workers, manufacturing plant workers, scientists, people painting cars/houses, sanding wood, firefighters, servicemen, police, and regular everyday people choosing to wear a mask to protect themselves and to protect you from them – would be passing out and dropping dead all over the place from lack of oxygen. Those that survived their ordeal would quickly sling rapid-fire lawsuits at all the mask companies which would then fold.
But this is not happening – why? Because oxygen atoms are far too small to be stopped by the fibers of any approved professional personal protective equipment mask, homemade cloth mask, bandana, scarf, or old t-shirt wrapped around your face.
Some good mask information from PBS Studios.
Unmasking mask myths.
Uncle Rob using fire and common sense to show how masks work.
How small are oxygen atoms?
Size comparison – remember a water molecule is made of both hydrogen and oxygen atoms – so oxygen atoms are very, very, very small.
Still confused on the sizes/scale of things – check this out.
Mask Update 2021: This is all still true to this day and I am still here and breathing just fine despite wearing masks in public places for over a year. I have also been vaccinated for COVID-19 and all the other expert-recommended vaccinations as well as Rabies.
Mask Update 2022: Again – I am still here and breathing just fine despite religiously wearing masks in all public places I have visited during this pandemic (when and where recommended by the CDC and common sense) – yet, despite the masks I still contracted COVID-19 in the spring of this year. However, it was not because the masks did not work. The source of my infection was traced back to my wife’s place of business where the virus hitchhiked in/on her and then jumped to me. Cross-contamination is a real bummer.
Lucky for us our cases were relatively mild thanks to our vaccinations – Yay Science!
Remember-
There is not democratic science.
There is not republican science.
There is only science.
Science does not take sides – please stop trying to make science political.
People take sides.
Science only seeks to reveal the how of things- it seeks only to find the evidence of what is true and then help us make better decisions on how to adapt to this thing called life.
Science will not dictate your path, it will only offer evidence and then suggest the best path you should take – it is then up to you to logically decide – based on the evidence at hand – which path to take.
Please choose wisely to support science over greed, control, and fear-focused politics and ancient dogma.
Support the findings and suggestions of science for a healthy, safe, and prosperous future.
Fact-checking websites Snopes, Politifact, and Factcheck have already debunked this one but I would like to offer my own unique perspective on this bizarre topic.
Some background: earlier this year I came across this article and this article being shared around social media. My internal fact-checking software instantly threw up the red flag. It looked to be yet another conspiracy “theory” and I have absolutely no idea why people choose to believe these things over facts and evidence. So in an attempt to try to explain to myself why people would want to think (and share) such radical, disruptive, stories, I conducted a simple internet search for more information on the subject which directed me to this article and then this one and more recently this one completely debunking the previous as well as this WHO page debunking many of the myths.
Who is correct?
My rational, scientific mind had an idea but it needed more evidence to confirm or deny my hypothesis.
At the same time, I witnessed several bizarre posts on the subject being widely shared on various social media platforms – including a number of videos popping up on YouTube – that appear to be intentionally manufactured to spread misinformation, disinformation, uncertainty, and fear (as if there is not already enough of all that) around the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) global pandemic health crisis. These stories, posts, and videos also include links to homemade videos, news clips taken out of context, and even what looks like professionally produced “documentaries” that agree with, support, and seem to be only working to spread widely these before-mentioned, and many other conspiracy “theories” around COVID-19, centered on its origins, actions, impacts, and even its “purpose.” An example of this is the recent Plandemic movie – a documentary-style video that was debunked by several sources (including this one, this one, this one and this one just to name a few) and it was later taken down by social media platforms due to its wealth of inaccuracy and outright promotion of misinformation and bizarre attempts to connect various conspiracy “theories.”
A badly photo-shopped photo of Bill Gates over an image of the COVID-19 viral particle that I found online
None of the conspiracy “theories” focused on COVID-19 and Bill Gates have anything at all to do with reality, logic, or common sense.
Why are some people so caught up in all this conspiratorial madness?
In my opinion, these conspiracy “theories” seem to be just barking mad attempts to instigate and spread uncertainty in science, outright fear, and to “stir the pot.”
A quick internet search revealed evidence supporting that some proprietors of these “theories” may be using them to sell stuff and even more products – they are simply using the fear around COVID-19 to increase their incomes. Like the war-time profiteers before them, they are “fear-time” profiteers preying on and profiting off of the gullible. Some even seem to be promoting, and manufacturing these theories by creating fear-focused manufactured need campaigns seemingly designed only to take advantage of unsuspecting individuals with nefarious “snake-oil” tactics claiming to heal, cure, prevent, or block COVID-19 with their only obvious goals being greed-driven profit.
Greed andprofit are obvious but why…just, why?
Other than snake oil salesmen and swindlers wanting to make a quick buck off of the fearful and gullible, I have no idea as to any other why, reason, or to what end some people would want to create these erroneous unscientific “theories,” and then share and spread them far and wide via the internet and word of mouth. I will not attempt to speculate further on the why of this matter because I have no evidence to support any claims that I may have. Without any verifiable evidence to support my claims, I would be entering into the realm of belief – and belief is not my area of expertise, focus, or concern – my concern is only evidence-supported peer-reviewed data and facts and I will let the data, evidence, and the facts speak for themselves.
What does Bill say?
Bill Gates was asked about how he felt about these bizarre allegations and he stated “In a way, it’s so bizarre, you almost want to view it as something humorous, but I guess it’s really not a humorous thing. I’ve never been involved in any sort of microchip-type thing,” he said, according to the New York Post. “It’s almost hard to deny this stuff because it’s so stupid or strange that to even repeat it almost seems to give it credibility.”
In reality, the facts show that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated upwards of 50 billion dollars to organizations working to fight Malaria, COVID-19, and other diseases with new vaccines and other health care advancements – so, therefore, Bill and Melinda and their Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are working very hard to make our world a better place.
On top of all that awesome goodness, there is a very good chance the computer or mobile device you are using right now is either running a Windows operating system or has technology that is derived from, spun off from, or benefited from competition with Microsoft – a multi-national computing company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975.
Microsoft played a huge role in the personal/office computer revolution which has led up to a large percentage of the planet’s population having the ability to own or to have access to a personal computer to streamline their lives, increase creativity and productivity, and – after the invention of the internet – have a voice like never before in history. While all this is mostly a good thing, it also gives conspiracy theorists, science and technology deniers, hate and fear mongers, a massive platform via social media to influence others – and that is not in any way a good thing for the rest of us trying to make sense of it all.
So here we are at today
It looks like the conspiracy theorists have tried their very best to put a little bit of thought into this one and from what I can gather it looks like their train of thought may go something like this:
“If Bill Gates and friends started one of the planet’s largest computing/software companies, then he and his nerdy friends must have the technological knowledge and skill to create vaccines and microscopic transmitters they could then inject into us for the purposes of tracking our movements and maybe even controlling our minds.”
I can see their logic here – even though it is a train wreck of faulty logic.
Sadly, it looks like Carl Sagan may have been right when he perfectly stated…
How then have I come to the conclusion that the claims of the conspiracy theorists focused on Bill Gates, vaccines, COVID-19, and “vaccine-delivered tracking and mind control” devices etcetera, are nothing more than outlandish and ridiculous hogwash?
The answer is simple:
Experience. Facts. Evidence. Common sense.
Let us look at each of these in more detail.
(Prepare to go down the rabbit hole.)
On the jobexperience
For many years I worked as a veterinary assistant. I often assisted the doctors with the application of RFID/PIT pet identification tags (PIT = Passive Integrated Transponder or Pet Identification Tag) aka “microchips” such as the PIT tag seen in the radiograph (x-ray) of a housecat below.
I have seen first hand the size of the “needle” applicator device used to insert PIT tags into pets, livestock, and wildlife. This device is far more massive than almost any hypodermic needle used on animals or humans for almost any reason, and it is by far much larger than any needle used to administer any vaccination. In fact, you could fit several vaccine-sized needles inside it!
A RFID/PIT applicator needle.
For your reference: below is a standard vaccine syringe and hypodermic needle.
Stock photo
Vaccines are delivered using very small needles varying in size from 22-25 gauge. The longer needles pictured below are larger in diameter than those typically used for vaccines but they are still not large enough to pass any of the currently available RFID and micro-scale tracking devices through their needles and into the vaccine receivers body.
For more information on needle sizes used with vaccines seethe CDC and for an explanation of hypodermic needle thickness please reference the Birmingham Gauge.
All commonly used RFID “microchips” are physically far larger than any of the needles used for vaccines – therefore, these devices are not physically able to pass through any of the needles used for vaccines.
The photo below shows a RFID/PIT tag “microchip” and its associated applicator device – this thing is scary big!
My point here is this: you would know – without a doubt – if a medical professional, Bill Gates, or anyone else, was injecting this thing into your body.
MoreEvidence
RFID microchips are nothing new. For decades people have been implanting RFID “microchips” in their pets and livestock for identification, and more recently, to give their pets the ability to open automatic pet doors and therefore, keep out unwanted wild creatures or the neighbor’s cat.
More recently, people have been implanting RFID tags into themselves for their own purposes and, like their pets – to allow keyless entry into their homes – and for others, access into high-security settings. There are also those users such as this person who implanted RFID devices into his hands to store his cold Bitcoin wallet.
Read more and watch a video of Amie DD’s journey to implant a RFID chip in her arm to allow access to her car.
The crew at Dangerous Things specialize in the production and sale of all manner of implantable RFID and NFC microchips – but none of them are small enough to be injected/installed/implanted into a human being via a “vaccine-sized” needle.
Below are some examples and size comparisons between Dangerous Things “microchips” and some coins.
Over the last 30 years, I have been trained by and worked with the experts in, and conducted several of my own, radio-telemetry based habitat use and movement tracking studies with three species of wild reptiles using both external and implantable radio tracking devices.
Me and one of my tracking subjects – “Apollo” the Eastern Rat snake (AKA Black rat snake or Blacksnake)
These radio tracking devices are indeed small but, to my knowledge, (and do correct me if I am wrong but please provide reputable links to the sources for any information you share), the human species has yet to develop an active, long-range, long life, radio/GPS or cellular-based tracking device small enough to be passed through a RFID applicator and then be actively tracked using radio/cellular/GPS based tracking technology.
Small transmitters do exist.
There are, in fact, several companies that manufacture very small radio transmitters such as those pictured below.
As I write this, the smallest commercially available relatively long-range, radio-tracking device I could find – the Holohil LB-2x – is designed for use with small animals such as bats, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, etc. But I say again – it is much too large to pass through a PIT tag applicator or any hypodermic needle.
While these radio tracking devices are in fact incredibly small, they are still much too large to be injected or implanted into the animals with which they are used. Therefore they must be glued, strapped, or somehow affixed to the skin/fur/exoskeleton of the animal. They are usually not injected or implanted into the animal for fear of harming the creature since their size relative to the animal being tracked is just too great. Along with this fact, the tracking device’s battery life is far too short to warrant the complex procedure of transmitter implantation surgery such as the surgery being conducted on the snake in the below photo.
My veterinarian implanting a micro-radio transmitter into a Timber rattlesnake I radio-tracked in the wild for four years. This transmitter is about the size of a AAA battery and allows the researcher to keep track of the animal for up to two years before the unit needs to be replaced with a new device with a fresh battery – which requires yet another surgery.
This is a radiograph (X-Ray) of the same snake with the transmitter in place – note the hair-like antenna under the animals skin. Obviously, this type of radio tracking device is far too large to be injected into you via any hypodermic needle.
While the batteries in the transmitters I have used with wild reptiles had a lifespan of up to two years, the tiny batteries in the smallest radio and cellular tracking transmitters only allows them to function for less than a month. In the case of the smallest available unit I could find, the Holohil LB-2x, it will only transmit for 8-22 days – therefore the short battery life of these units would not permit long term tracking of an animal…or a human as some want to erroneously suggest.
“Catherine” an Eastern box turtle that I tracked for 8 years. Note the transmitter glued to her carapace (top shell). This transmitter is a Holohil RI-2B and is about the size of three US quarters stacked atop each other.
In my research for this post, I was able to find one reference to an active tracking device for use in fish that is, like a RFID/PIT tag, injected into the animal using a very large “needle-like” applicator.
However, this JSATS tracking system is for fish and other aquatic species that live in water and, along with the PIT tag transmitter implanted into the fish, it requires several other pieces of external hardware to operate. So, unless you are an aquatic creature such as a fish, amphibian, Aquaman, a mermaid, or the Creature from the Black Lagoon – then you have nothing to be concerned about when it comes to this type of transmitter.
Along with that fact, the needles used to inject this and other similar acoustic transmitter units are 6-12 Gauge needles – those are huge needles!
Just to be clear: Most needles used for vaccines are 22 – 25 gauge – so in other words – they are very small and not able to pass any of the currently available radio or acoustic tracking devices through their delivery canals. Below is a gauge/mm comparison for your reference.
In other words: if Bill Gates or anyone else was actually implanting you with RFID/PIT tag “microchips” or any other kind of “tracking devices” that would be able to function longer than a few weeks: you would know it due to the enormous sizes of the “needles.”
Yet even more evidence
Unlike passive, non-transmitting RFID/NFC/PIT “microchip” tags, radio telemetry tracking devices are active. In other words, they use a built-in battery and sometimes even an attached micro-solar module (panel) to provide power to a tiny radio. Their trackable radio signal is then broadcast via an attached coil, rigid, wire-like, or flexible whip antenna allowing their specific identifying frequency, and thereby their location, to be tracked by a researcher using a hand-held receiver with an attached directional antenna like the one I am holding in the below photo…
…or even larger, longer-range directional antennas.
In other words: even if you had been secretly implanted with a tiny radio-tracking device that you were not aware of – you would know something was up when someone nearby was following you around and frequently pointing one of these rather large antennas in your general direction.
Therefore, if someone was tracking you using the currently available radio-based methods of tracking, even if they were able to make an actively transmitting, long battery life, long transmission range, RFID “microchip” type of device small enough to be implanted into your body without your knowledge – they would also need a radio signal receiving unit (aka receiver) and a directional antenna set – and they would need to be relatively near you to locate your radio transmitter’s signal. If you noticed that someone was following you and pointing an antenna in your general direction, all you would need to do to quickly evade them would be to jump on a bicycle, an airplane, or a car, and speed away from them. You would then easily outdistance them and they would quickly lose your radio signal and thereby your location. (If they were really crafty they could then track your location via the built-in GPS tracking device in your car – but that is another story.)
Tracking an unpredictable human animal with relatively short-range radio telemetry technology would be very challenging, to say the least.
However, when tracking slow-moving wildlife such as most reptiles -they are often predictable and do not move very far outside their home range. But if you are tracking a migratory bird, Monarch butterfly, whale, bear, sea turtle, shark, or other animals that have much larger continent and ocean-spanning home ranges – then you need a long-range GPS enabled tracking device such as the one pictured below attached to the carapace of a Loggerhead sea turtle. These units can be tracked from the comfort of the researcher’s home – but again, they are far too large to be injected or implanted into the living organism being tracked. Therefore, GPS transmitters such as these are effectively ruled out as ways to covertly track a human being.
Caroline the Loggerhead sea turtle wearing her GPS tracking device mounted to her shell. Follow Caroline and all the other turtles at the Sea Turtle Conservancy.
So…what is a good way to track a human?
As I stated earlier – the evidence and current technology supports that it is possible to track large, far-ranging wildlife with GPS tracking devices attached to the outside of their bodies – such as the before mentioned sea turtle, or sharks, whales, Crocodiles, and/or using GPS tracking collars with animals like bears, lions, and elephants, etc. But again, these are often large units that are not in any way suitable for implantation into the body of a living organism.
It makes sense that using a GPS enabled tracking device would be a good way to keep track of a far-ranging human. However, I do not suggest doing so by using a covertly implanted GPS device because, as far as I know, that option is not an option due to the fact that it is technologically impossible using the currently available GPS tracking systems. This is simply due to the fact that the size of today’s GPS hardware is just too large to be implanted into a human body without a lengthy, invasive, and questionable surgical procedure.
For tracking humans I would suggest an active personal GPS/Cellular connected tracking device such as the Angel Sense for use with children, those with special needs, and the elderly. Another similar device – the SCRAM bracelet (see below photo) is essentially a radio/GPS enabled tracking device similar to those used with wildlife – only it has been designed to fit the human animal.
Obviously, all of these devices are rather large, externally wearable, radio/cellular, and GPS-based active tracking technologies that would be known/noticed by the wearer. However, currently available implantable RFID/PIT tag “microchip” technology is nothing like these and/or any of the previously discussed radio/cellular/GPS-based tracking technologies in these key ways:
-It is passive and read-only therefore it does not transmit an actively trackable radio signal.
-It does not contain an active power source/batteries.
-It will only transmit a signal when it is energized by the hand-held RFID “microchip” reader.
-Its antenna is tiny and internal therefore its transmission range is limited often only to millimeters.
Due to all of these facts – implantable RFID/PIT tag “microchip” technology is passive and short-range use only, allowing identification of the “microchip” if and only if you have the chip scanner/reader in your hand and if and only if you then pass the reader over the PIT tag’s location in the implanted user’s body as seen in the below photograph.
Another example of the limited range of RFID “microchip” technology comes from people (and animals) with implanted “door key” RFID “microchips” in which the user must place the part of their body that contains the RFID tag in very close proximity to the RFID reader to allow the tag to be read and therefore actuate the mechanism that unlocks the door as in the below graphic.
Therefore, it is technically and physically impossible to read an implanted passive RFID/PIT tag “microchip” device from more than a few feet away from the individual with the implanted RFID/PIT “microchip” tag.
Therefore, RFID “microchips” are simply just not trackable in real-time.
Therefore, it is just not possible for Bill Gates or anyone else to be tracking you (or your pets) from their personal computer terminal in their living room…or their secret mad science volcano-cave lair using covertly installed “vaccine-delivered” RFID “microchip” technology.
…Oh wait, but maybe Bill Gates has invented an invisibility cloak and is standing right next to you using his RFID reader to scan your body at this very moment or while you were sleeping last night – omg! OMG!! OMG!!!
Even if any of this Hogwarts hocus-pocus was even possible, the only information the great and powerful wizard Gates (or anyone else) would be able to gather – would be your PIT tag’s unique ID number and/or any other data you choose to encode it with. Therefore, to track you 24-7-365, Bill and his “henchmen” would need to somehow silently follow you around all the time, closely scanning the exact location on your body where the chip is implanted, and then plot your current location on their devious little tracking map.
But if Bill was following you around to read your “microchip” tag – why then would he even need the “microchip” tag – would he not already know your location?
You know as well as I do that all this is just totally ridiculous….but just to cover all the bases, what say we go even deeper down this rabbit hole of conspiratorial madness?
What about the cellular networks etc…
What about the cellular networks, and Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi – they can send and receive data between all manner of devices – so maybe Gates and his cronies are using some or all of these advanced wireless communication technologies married to microscopic RFID/NFC “microchip” technologies so you can be tracked when you are in the presence of Wi-Fi/Bluetooth and/or the cellular networks – you know, the 5G*/vaccine/RFID tracking conspiracy connection? (Oops…did I leave out chemtrails…does that one somehow figure in here as well..?)
It’sTangent Time
*Before I continue I would like to share that my research suggests the following:
5G is harmless and chemtrails do not exist.*
Part One: 5G is a harmless radio wave emitting/receiving technology. The 5G radio signal is made up of radio energy only. This energy is part of the electromagnetic spectrum – not the physical world of matter where we Human animals exist. It is just not possible for 5G (or 4G, 3G, 2G, 1G, or even 0G) to carry, transmit, or “activate” a virus, a bacteria, or any other biological organism, nor will it “weaken your immune system” allowing COVID-19 to infect you.
What 5G does do, and what it can only do, is speed up your wireless devices, your internet, and your streaming services, etc. – and who doesn’t want that?
A cellular antenna system with RFID microchip for comparison. Please let me know if you can see the RFID microchip – because I cannot. Scale is approximate.
End Tangent Time
Back to theAnswer
Current cellular/Bluetooth/Wifi technology is massive in size when compared to the size of RFID microchips. It also requires extensive support hardware/software/infrastructure and a dedicated power source to operate – think: your smartphone and its cellular network, home WiFi router, your Bluetooth Mp3 player/iPod/iPad/Smartphone, wireless earbuds, your car’s key fob. All these things require comparatively large components and constant grid power and/or intermittent power from a relatively large built-in battery to function. All of this technology is just far too large to inject/implant/insert into your body with or without your knowledge or consent. Therefore, cellular/Bluetooth/WiFi systems are now effectively ruled out of the evidence-lacking hazy picture floating around in the heads of the conspiracy-minded.
What about Quantum Dot tattoos?
In the battle to end disease, medical professionals need to be able to keep track of who has been administered which medications and vaccinations, and who has not. In western cultures, we have many ways of keeping records connecting our identity with our medical history records. However, in many highly populated, poor, and/or indigenous cultures lacking the infrastructure, health care, and vaccination programs we are so lucky to have in the western world, it can be very hard to know who has received the latest vaccinations. This is where science may have an answer in the quantum dot tattoo.
At the moment, Quantum Dot tattoos are only an idea and are not in use at the time of the writing of this document. Along with that fact is the fact that they are not trackable via radio telemetry, GPS, Cellular, or the internet. To read them you must pass a scanning device over the area of the tattoo and, like RFID/PIT “microchip” tags, therefore, they are read-only at a very close range.
While quantum dot tattoos could one day allow keeping track of individuals without health records and identification systems, they do not allow “mind control” or long-distance tracking/surveillance of the individual with the tattoo as some have tried to suggest.
More details on the Quantum Dot tattoo may be found here.
What about “smartdust”!!
The MU Chip and the U-Chip? Aren’t these RFID “microchips” even smaller to the point some have coined the term
Yes, Hitachi has in fact invented an incredibly small RFID “microchip” device as stated in this article “Hitachi holds the record for the smallest RFID chip, at 0.05 mm × 0.05 mm. This is 1/64th the size of the previous record-holder, the mu-chip. Manufacture is enabled by using the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process. These dust-sized chips can store 38-digit numbers using 128-bit Read Only Memory (ROM). A major challenge is the attachment of antennas, thus limiting read range to only millimeters.”
As this microchip is read-only it does not actively transmit a trackable signal – therefore, it is not trackable in real-time nor is it detectable unless passed under a read device that must be held only millimeters away. It is basically just a smaller version of a RFID/PIT tag style “microchip” – but even without its antenna it is still far too large to pass through a vaccine-sized needle.
Practical Applications
There is, however, one place RFID microchips will be used in conjunction with vaccines – as an identification system on vaccine containers/applicators like the unit shown below resting on a smartphone.
The RFID “microchip” is the rectangular device adjacent to the vaccine containing “blister.” The RFID “microchip” and vaccine are in separate parts of the applicator device and at no time do they come in contact with each other. In fact, as you can see, the RFID “microchip” is again, far too large to be injected through the hypodermic needle used to inject the vaccine into the vaccine receiving individual. The RFID “microchip” is not contained within the actual vaccine as some have tried to insinuate.
The company Apiject is working with the RAPID Consortium to manufacture a new mass-produced applicator system that will speed up the manufacture and distribution of the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines/therapeutic medications in order to get them to the people who need them the most. This identification system will allow medical professionals the ability to keep track of vaccine distribution, stock, quality control, and the RFID’s specific code which can be linked with the receiver’s digital health record so medical professionals know who has had which vaccinations and/or medications. As stated on the Apiject website: “Whether health officials are running a scheduled vaccination program or an urgent pandemic response campaign, they can make better decisions if they know when and where each injection occurs. With an optional RFID/NFC tag under the label on each BFS prefilled syringe, ApiJect will make this possible. Before giving an injection, the healthcare worker will be able to launch a free mobile app and “tap” the NFC tag on the prefilled syringe label to their phone. The app will capture the tag’s unique dose-level, serial number, GPS location, and date/time, then upload the data to a government database. Aggregated injection data provides health administrators an evolving real-time “injection map.”
In my opinion, which I also share with medical professionals and scientists who are working to end disease, all of the above are very good things – especially when dealing with getting life saving drugs and vaccinations out to over 7 billion people during a global pandemic such as COVID-19.
An introduction to RAPID.
History repeating itself
Interestingly enough, all the evidence-lacking, fear-based, hype around RFID “microchip” technology reminds me of a time not that long ago when small numbers of people thought the new data identification technology we know as barcodes were somehow an intrusive surveillance technology, a violation of privacy, and/or the “stamp of the Antichrist” or the “number or mark of the beast” or “as Television host Phil Donahue described barcodes: a “corporate plot against consumers.”
In reality, barcodes, and now RFID systems are just new ways to streamline a technology-based society with an ever-growing population of humans, machines, foods, goods, services, diseases, and medicines.
Sadly, like microwave ovens , barcodes, telephones, televisions, radios, automobiles, seat belts, and airbags before them, when it comes to RFID devices we are going through yet another similar wave of distrust in science and misplaced fears spread by modern-day Luddites and technophobes that, without looking at any concrete evidence to the contrary, are choosing to fear almost anything new as dangerous and not to be trusted.
Fear and mistrust of “the other” is locked deep within our genetic memory banks
This distrust and fear of unknown things may be evolutionary in origin. The ancient fight or flight response hidden deep within our genes and deeply seated within our “reptilian brains” often serves to have us fear the unknown as a built-in self-protection device.
Far in the ancient past, our early human ancestors were frequently faced with the unknown in the form of dangerous creatures lurking in the jungle, the tall grass, the waters, or even in the face of a person from another tribe who incidentally, was facing the same threats as your ancestor.
The nature of these threats was often dangerous and harmful to these naked early humans such as; venomous animals whose bites stings would sicken or kill you, “other” peoples from outside your troop, clan, or tribe that, during times of hardship and loss, might see their best and only chance of survival being to drive you off or kill you for access to your hunting and foraging grounds, your choice cave, or even your mate.
Then there was the other great outside danger to our early survival: hungry predators – so many predatory animals such as lions, tigers, bears (Oh, MY!), leopards, and crocodiles had no issue about eating you and your entire family for lunch – you were easy prey lacking no big teeth, sharp claws, or natural body armor – our early ancestors were often just a quick and easy meal.
These genetically rooted tribal tendencies may have served to protect us from harm in the distant past, but today, in our high technology, science modified and dependant world, we have very little to fear other than ourselves – and obviously, fear itself.
With all our technological advancements – our high technology survival tools – and all our amassed knowledge, shouldn’t we now be able to put logic and reason above our ancient evolutionarily anchored protection systems that do not fit well into the technological evolution of our species? For some, this is easy, for others it is very difficult. Therefore, it seems we continue to have many humans who are choosing to let themselves be ruled, driven, and guided by irrational fears of the unknown…and the new.
“Bad” events need a villian
Outside of our genetic predisposition to fear new and “different” things, it often seems that when disruptive and unfortunate – what some may call “bad” things – happen, it is part of our human nature to try to find the causal element and then, pin the “bad” circumstances and our misfortunes on this bad guy, this villain – someone to blame. Sometimes the evidence reveals a legitimate villain such as a burglar, a murderer, a corrupt politician, or in extreme situations, such as the horrible events in Nazi Germany during WW2 with Adolf Hitler – who, in my opinion, was the perfect example of a real-life supervillain.
However, with the virion known as SARS CoV2 – the virus that causes the disease known as COVID-19/coronavirus – there is no villain, no single person upon which to rest the blame. This disease is caused by a microscopic infectious agent which is almost impossible to see and deal with unless you have advanced technology – which the majority of people do not have or have access to. The fact that we are unable to identify the villain and give it a human form and human name and then pin the blame upon it – this must really bother some people.
Natural andHistorical Ponderings
We humans seem to have a great need to attach blame for terrible calamities and malicious or random natural happenings to someone else because it takes the blame off of ourselves which, as we well know, are often the cause of most, if not all of our problems. In ancient times past, if we could not find the actual perpetrator of a bad deed, drought, flood, storm, fire, volcano, earthquake, or a deadly pestilence, etc., we humans would place blame upon whichever reclusive and/or visibly different animal, human or supernatural deity we had invented and labeled as “bad” or “evil” in our mythology.
Random internet photo.
Despite the fact that many animals help us just by simply living their lives, many species of animals including reptiles, amphibians, birds, arachnids, and some mammals have been vilified, targeted, harassed, and killed by peoples from many different cultures around the globe for the simple fact their species is either visibly very different than our species or, they possess venoms and toxins that may harm or kill us. For example and culturally depending: snakes, lizards, spiders, bats, vultures, sharks, predators of almost any kind, etc. – these are just a few animals that are vilified, targeted, and killed simply due to their outward appearance, feeding, and living habits.
Similarly, many brilliant and hermitlike men who postulated ideas such as; the earth was not the center of the universe and the possibility of the existence of other suns like our own and other worlds orbiting those suns with life upon them – these great thinkers were labeled heretics, held in house arrest, like Galileo Galilei, and like Giordano Bruno who was laughed at, imprisoned, tortured, driven out of town, and later murdered in cold blood by the “thought police” and the establishment – just because they had ideas different than everyone else and wanted to share those ideas.
Likewise, tens of thousands of innocent women and men in Europe and the young USA were labeled witches and tortured, imprisoned, and even publicly drowned, beheaded, strangled, burned at the stake, and even crushed to death.
Many young virgins/children/livestock (and even material things and money) were sacrificed under the knife, tossed into volcanoes, and/or thrown into cenotes, etc. in the hopes of a bountiful harvest or hunt – and all the while many the fatted boar, antlered stag, feathered pheasant, and floundering fish accompanied by tankards of ale, flagons of mead, and jewel-encrusted chalices of sacred wine and other fermented beverages were quaffed by those doing the sacrificing. All this to satiate early people’s desires to locate, target, and remove the “villain” who was the single causal element, the epicenter of all their fear, pain, suffering, drought, fire, pestilence, hunger, and loss.
When no human villain(s) – with supporting or manufactured evidence – could be found on which to lay the blame, countless mythological supernatural malignant gods, demons, devils, and other entities – with all manner of origin stories, dangerous, and destructive powers – were dreamed up by ancient people to serve as scapegoats for all of their losses, blames, fears, pains, and random misfortunes.
As an answer and antidote to the “evil” gods, devils, demons, etc. – ancient humans dreamed up omnipotent “fixer” gods to counter the bad with the good. These “good” gods came complete with their own accompanying origin stories, life adventures and exploits, and even superpowers to give early peoples education, direction, meaning, and to help keep them out of trouble. The reality is simply that our troubles – then and now – are brought upon us not by good or evil or gods, demons, or devils, but by the unpredictability of nature and our own Human nature which contains many millions of years of animalistic tendencies, desires, uncertainty, doubts, and built-in evolutionary fears. But try telling all that to the people of the past – and many people of today. They would simply not understand the logic.
Zeus – source: internet.
The truly strange thing is this: the only way many of these good gods would protect, guide, and deliver us from “evil” is if we followed their commands, walked a straight and narrow line, and constantly paid homage to them with prayers, offerings (taxes), and so on. Very strange indeed.
Source: Internet
This pandemic is no different than problems faced by our ancestors in the ancient past in that there is no one person, no god, devil, or villain to blame for the problems we now find ourselves deep within. Therefore, it seems that for all these reasons and more, many people seem to be searching for someone, anyone, to pin the blame upon, and maybe this is why some have opted to target people such as Bill Gates.
The fact is that the blame for the Covid-19 global pandemic does not lie in Bill Gates or in any one individual. In reality, the blame lies in all of us. Our mistreatment and destruction of nature in the name of profit, food water, energy, resource acquisition, traditional “medicine” practices with traditional Chinese “medicine” and African “medicine” being good examples, and the ever-growing expansion and encroachment of our own species into the wilderness have caused a spillover of zoonotic diseases from wild animals into our species. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, MERS, EBOLA aka now SARS-CoV-2 aka COVID-19/Coronavirus originated in animals, mutated, then jumped to humans.
Sadly, this moment in time was inevitable due to our ever-growing population’s need for resources and our exponentially increasing destruction of wildlife and nature.
Many thinkers saw this moment on the horizon including David Quammen when he wrote the book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic and Bill Gates when he gave this Ted Talk several years ago. Sadly, David and Bill’s thoughtful reasoned, and accurate analysis of this situation is totally accurate, but it has in a way backfires on them by giving the conspiracy-minded even more fuel for their fiction-fed fires. This is unfortunate because in reality, Bill Gates may be one of the people whose actions help our species find a cure and/or treatment for SARS CoV2 and I fear that if that is the case, many of those who erroneously fear Bill Gates and vaccines will opt to not receive the vaccine/treatment and therefore they may suffer the horrible consequences brought upon themselves, and upon our species by this terrible virus.
Religiously Linked Postulations
Along with our genetically driven fears of new things, small numbers of people have chosen to throw into the mix all sorts of misinterpretations and evidence-lacking speculative reasonings focused around ancient religious texts such as the passage I have outlined below from the Christianbible. It appears this passage may have been interpreted by some to be speaking of RFID “microchips” Quantum Dots, vaccines, and so on. A good example of this is from this article in Saved Magazine from which I pulled the below quote:
“While we cannot predict “the day or the hour” when you put all these components together, it’s starting to look a lot like the beginnings of the end. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17).“
I found several earlier versions of the bible with slightly different wording of this verse as seen below:
From the NIV: “16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Source: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+13%3A16-17&version=NIV
From one of the oldest versions of the bible I could find – the Codex Sinaiticus.
“16 And he causes all, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead,
I find it most interesting that only the most recent version of the Bible – the 21st Century King James version – has wording that seems to suggest the exact placement of this mark as follows:
“…in their right hand, or in their foreheads…”
Of the several other versions I surveyed on Biblegateway.com – and I did not survey all of them – all of those I surveyed stated:
“…a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead…”
Fascinating.
Speculation: Could it be possible that whoever edited the 21st Century King James version may have, for some bizarre reason, chosen to take some liberties with its wording – possibly to fit their own modern-day interpretations of the original wording? If so, why would the editors change the wording of a revered ancient text? What would be their motives for doing this?
Again, I have an opinion as to the why of this matter – but as I am not religious, I am not a religious scholar, and I do not have any evidence to support my claim – I will keep my thoughts to myself and let you hypothesize that one for yourself.
Just to be clear – edits to religious texts are nothing new. Below is a short video from Business Insider outlining some of the known edits to the Christian bible over the last two millennia.
This link to the Business Insider article connected to the above video outlines in more detail many of the changes to the bible over the last two millennia and most importantly – cites the sources of their information for both the article and the above video.
From the research I did for this part of this story I have gathered that the evidence seems to suggest the following: the ancient words of the bible and other religious texts may have at first been stories passed down by word of mouth – since most people during that time were illiterate. These stories were then later written down and then copied, modified, amended, and adjusted by later peoples in places of power and influence to fit their specific needs, desires, and politics of the day. So in reality, it is hard to know exactly what message the ancient agrarian peoples who penned these educational texts were really trying to impart.
That being said, and in my own opinion – it seems likely the bible, and possibly many other religious texts, may have been the everyday textbooks of the ancients. They may have been written as an educational “heroes journey” stories about how to live in and keep order in the environment, society, and culture of the times in which they were written. They may have been meant to be educational metaphors, teaching, and comfort tools that fit the needs of the peoples doing the writing. If this is the case – then these amazing historical works are just not applicable as primary textbooks for life in the world of today which include; huge cities full of diverse ethnicities, knowledge of our intricate connections to all living things via our DNA, faster than sound world and space travel, modern medicine, science, complex education systems, international travel and cooperation, modern computers/technology, robots, artificial intelligence, ice cream, anime, heavy metal, hot rods, hot dogs, helicopters, bikinis, bell bottoms, and comic books – in other words: society as we know it but not as they knew it.
In my opinion, taking the bible and other ancient religious texts literally, in today’s technology-driven and dependant world, is probably not at all what the authors of these stories had in mind and therefore probably not a very good idea.
There is no way these early peoples could have had any foreknowledge of anything existing in our technology-saturated world, so there is no reason why people of today should try to find any hidden connections, meanings, or revelations, in anything happening today – from texts that were written several thousand years ago by middle eastern agrarian farmers and shepherds.
To do so would be akin to believing in magic.
Please do not get me wrong here, I am not attacking any religions. I would never do that. Everyone should have the freedom to choose what religion, gods, or deities, or lack thereof, to follow or to not follow. Religion, if used appropriately, comforts, and helps people cope with the realities of life and death, and it can offer helpful organizations and assistance to individuals in great need.
However, just like any tool or any drug – religions may become dangerous when used inappropriately. When religion or religious practices stop helping and start to cause addiction to the cause, physical or emotional pain and suffering, and even death – either by direct action or by indirect consequences – then I believe that specific religion/practice has outlived its usefulness and should go extinct. Similarly, when people see religion as only a business opportunity – that opens up an entirely new can of infectious little germ-covered worms.
This unethical practice seems to be rather common on the lunatic fringe where we find people like Jim Bakker and his Jim Bakker Show and store, Alex Jones with his Infowars and Store, and the website Now The End Begins that have taken it even further by trying to connect all kinds of way out fringe-focused conspiratorial ideas connecting misinterpreted passages from the bible to Bill Gates and other prominent people, 5G, RFID, vaccinations, COVID-19, BLM, democrats, republicans, liberals, NWO, CERN, aliens, ancient Egypt, etc. Throughout all their rhetoric, these hucksters are almost always asking for donations to support the spreading of their bizarre ideas and they almost always have storefronts where they hawk their “snake-oil medicine” products and “cures.”
I have no issues with people following their chosen politics, religions, or lack thereof.
I have no issue with people trying to make a living.
But what I do have a huge issue with is people who play on the fear and uncertainty of others by using religion for profit and as a way to instigate and spread fear of facts, reality, science, and modern-day technology and medicines that have saved countless lives and have the potential to save millions or even billions more – by attempting to connect it to their own misinterpretation of ancient educational texts written by agrarian farmers and shepherds with absolutely no possible knowledge of today’s world.
Opinion: The proprietors and authors of these self-righteous websites, books, videos, and products are nothing more than snake-oil selling charlatans who are doing much more harm than good all while waving their books, bibles, and fists in the air spouting harmful half-truths and conspiracy theories while selling health and life “protection” products that have zero and/or manufactured evidence to support their lunatic fringe claims.
These crooks do not care about you.
They just want your money.
My advice to anyone reading this is to ignore all the lunatic fringe fear-focused conspiracy theory spouting madness. Follow the science and the peer-reviewed evidence wherever it leads, and critically question everything.
As Neil DeGrasse Tyson once said:
In conclusion
Current technology, evidence, my own experience in the field of veterinary medicine, extensive experience with wildlife conservation/research using radio-telemetry (tracking) technologies and techniques, and a huge shot of critical thinking skills, science knowledge, and good old home-grown common sense – have all come together to tell me this: there is a physical and functional limit to the size and functionality of RFID implants, Quantum Dot tattoos, tracking devices, batteries, and GPS/WiFi/Bluetooth technologies. Therefore, it is just not possible that Bill Gates or anyone else has or is planning to inject/insert/install or implant microscopic devices into our bodies using vaccines or any other nefarious means for the purpose of tracking our movements, controlling our minds, or allowing us to buy and sell goods and services.
Even if Mr. Gates or anyone else did secretly have the technology to make RFID/radio/GPS/cellular/WiFi/Bluetooth transmitter, battery, and antenna technology microscopic and then roll it into a tracking device small enough to pass through a vaccine sized (or any other) hypodermic needle/applicator device and then inject it into my or into your body hidden within a dose of a “vaccine” or any other injection of antibiotics, medicines, fluids* – what purpose would that really serve?
*Oh no OH NO!!…maybe they are in cahoots with the doctors and dentists and they are implanting things into you while you are under anesthesia for surgeries or dental work…or maybe it is location tracking nanobots in the vitamins you have been taking since you were a child…or maybe it is all being orchestrated by the reptilian aliens who live in the hollow…or wait, was it a flat earth …or maybe it is flat AND hollow at the same time???!!!…
In all seriousness folks, what real and functional purpose would it serve to have yet another way to track you or me and why would “they” do it in secret when “they” are already openly and with our consent tracking us through our smart devices, personal computers, via mobile device tracking such as following cellular telephone pings/sensor data. What about the ability to track our purchases and therefore the restaurants/businesses/locations we frequent, oh, and let us not forget our internet browsing activity. Why on earth would “they” need yet another way to track us and to what end? As I have said before and I will say it again:
Outside the obvious goal of profit – what other functional purpose would that serve?
I can see and hear “them” now, clustered together, hunched over their quantum-gigabrain-magma-powered supercomputers in their secret volcano-cave lair sequestered away on some remote unnamed south-Pacific tropical island;
” Oh, look, guys, Steve is at work. Now he is at home. Now he is at work. Now he is at home. Now he is at the store – and the barcode scanner reports he just bought vegan ice cream – oh my! Now he is at a friend’s house, sitting around a campfire with friends. Now he is at the store again – look, he bought some BEER – mmm and it’s chocolate porter! Now he is at the bank – he just deposited $200 – Mr. Moneybags! Now he is walking in the forest. Now he is back at work and he is 20 min. early today. Now he is at home watching TV. Now, finally, he is sleeping…listen, everyone: get ready to initiate the mega-micro-mind-control chip so we can use Steve to take over the world!!! Mwuhahahahahahahha!!!”
In, my opinion: if “they” – be they Bill Gates, Bill Nye, Dr. No, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Moreau, or Dr. Evil – really want to go to all the unbelievably complex, technologically impossible, and monumentally expensive trouble to design, manufacture, and implement a microscopic tracking device small enough to be injected via a vaccine needle AND with a battery/power source small enough, yet somehow energy-dense enough, to last more than three weeks, AND with an antenna small enough and undetectable enough to pass through a “vaccine-sized” needle – yet be functional enough to allow it to generate some scientifically usable location data at a distance…then so be it. If they can do all these things then I would love to see this amazing piece of cutting edge technology in the flesh…or in MY flesh!
That’s right, if this technology was or ever does become a reality, I would gladly and voluntarily sign up to be one of their test subjects for this amazing new location tracking technology that would revolutionize the science of micro-scale tracking devices ushering in a new era of tracking technology awesome that would revolutionize the field of wildlife telemetry tracking, species conservation, and study, and well – everything and anything one could dream up to track – including humans – so bring it on.
Honestly, I just do not care if “they” know where I am.
“They” already do.
As I have stated before “they” have been tracking us for years through our computers, phones, and purchases – why would “they” need another way to track us and even so…
I just do not care.
If “they” want to waste their time coming up with ways to track me, so be it. I have far more important things to worry about today – like ice cream.
From my point of view, I am just another one of the 7.5 billion humans on this third rock from the sun and I am in no way important or strategic enough for anyone in high places to want or need to waste any time designing microscopic tracking devices to follow me around my mundane, uneventful little life. And I hate to break it to you but most of you out there reading this are most likely just like me – we are not in any way strategic or worthy enough to warrant a microscopic vaccine-injected tracking device (if there ever was, is, or ever will be, such a thing).
Oh, now I hear you saying it “Your freedoms have been violated, man! – Fight for your rights and your god* given freedoms!” (I do not capitalize god because there are thousands of recognized gods. Out of respect for all other religions and cultures – I choose not to capitalize.)
To that I say – really, you are going there as well?
This has nothing to do with your or my perceived freedoms and everything to do with a highly virulent viral organism that just does not care about me, you, Bill Gates, or anyone. All it wants to do is use your body as an incubator – a viral factory to make many more of its kind with its “goal” being to infect and infest as many people as possible to make even more of its own kind. To what end, I have no idea and I will not speculate. Viruses are a part of nature and nature does not have a purpose or an agenda – it just is. Nature will go on with or without us. If you want to be a part of nature then you will need to start putting your beliefs, ideologies, and desires aside and start listening to the science that is telling us to follow the evidence wherever it leads and then make our life choices based on that evidence and that reality.
We receive all of our life necessities from nature – food, water, air, shelter, space.
Yet, nature does not care one bit about you, me – anyone.
It is a well-known scientific fact that parasites and predators want to feed upon your body – no matter who you are and be you alive or be you dead. Viruses and other harmful microorganisms want only to use your flesh as an incubator for their multitudinous offspring – all without asking your consent. These creatures and organisms are not “bad” or “evil” they just exist as parts of nature and they are proof that nature does not “care” about any of us and that we are just another animal, another cog in the wheel, another strand in the web of life – we are bound together with, interconnected to, and a lifelong part of nature. You cannot change this fact no matter how hard you try, wish, pray, pontificate, or profess.
Nature does not need us.
We need nature.
This is why it is up to you and you alone to care for yourself, for your loved ones, and for all the other human beings you share this planet and this thing called life with.
Furthermore, it is not like the MIB’s and friends abducted me while I was sleeping, strapped me to a cold metal operating table, lasered me open, shoved a futuristic nanotech tracking “implant” (taken from the aliens preserved at Area 51 – LOL) under my liver, sewed me up, plopped me back in my bed, then flashed me with a neuralizer – that one was last year (ROTFLOL).
Feel free to believe all the pseudo-scientific, anti-scientific, and outright nonsense around this topic if you wish, but if you do choose that route, then I fear you have had too much downtime during this pandemic and may have been reading and believing way too many conspiracy-focused blogs, podcasts, and posts on social media and watching way too many negatively focused fear-mongering TV programs, movies, and YouTube videos.
It is your choice
It is your choice to not trust science, your choice to not get yourself or your children vaccinated, your choice to destroy 5G infrastructure, it is your choice to wear tinfoil hats, it is your choice to put your trust and belief behind the mouth-breathing snake oil salesman, charlatans, and drama, hate, and fear-mongering doomsday predicting soothsayers.
Your choices of what to believe and what stories to share may, in fact, feed all your conspiracy theories – but if these choices are not sound, reasoned choices based in evidence and reality, then these evidence-lacking choices may very well endanger the health and lives of you, your loved ones, your friends as well as your social and personal connections.
Please, make your choices wisely.
Oh no, I hear you saying it, and you really went there: “Aren’t you worried about getting autism from the chemicals in the vaccines!?!”
No. Again, just no.
Everything is made of chemicals and toxicity comes from the level of concentration. Water is toxic if you ingest too much.
I once mistrusted vaccinations. Why – because I listened to those who were fearful, those who chose to not trust the evidence. I finally decided to stop living my life in fear and do my own research. I looked at all the reports from the fearful factions and from the peer-reviewed science. I gave both “sides” a chance to explain the “why” of their positions, I followed the evidence and the evidence fell in the favor of science. This evidence did not need propping up by anything other than the data and the facts. This evidence was not attempting to “convert” me over to its side as all the conspiracy theorists seemed to be doing with all manner of first-hand stories, accounts, videos, movies, “documentaries” podcast interviews, memes, etc. The evidence for the power of vaccinations stood alone and rock solid. This is why I choose the “side” of science and this is why I always will.
The facts and the evidence support the following: the only thing vaccines “give” those that choose to receive them – is immunity to nasty diseases such as Polio, Rabies, Smallpox, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Varicella, Zoster(Shingles), Influenza, and many others…and soon COVID-19…oh and gray hair (you get to live a long life free of disease.)
However, since vaccines – like all medicines – are designed to work with the majority of humans, and since all human beings are not all exactly the same – therefore, we all react differently to medications – including vaccines. Just like there are some people who exhibit sensitivities, allergies, and side effects to certain pain killers/NSAIDs, antibiotics, cold/allergy medicines, etc. – There are also some people that may exhibit vaccine side effects and vaccine sensitivity issues. Others may have pre-existing conditions that could possibly cause rare and possibly dangerous reactions, problems, and syndromes if they receive vaccines and/or other medications. If this is your case then please consult with your doctor and other immunology experts on the direction you should go to protect yourself from the higher chances of infection you might face due to your sensitivity and/or incompatibility with vaccines.
In the future, the personalized medicine approach will custom-fit medicine and treatments to each individual’s genome, and then, hopefully, medications and vaccines will be customized for each individual’s specific needs thereby limiting any sensitivity issues, reactions, or dangerous syndromes.
For now, however, and for the majority of people, vaccines are safe and the small chance of having a few side effects when compared to having a life-threatening/life-altering disease is by far the better choice. Like any medical treatment, vaccines are not perfect, but they are most often the most appropriate choice to protect you and your loved ones from the harm caused by the microscopic organisms out to use your body as an incubator for more of their kind.
Oh, and just so we are clear on this topic: vaccines do not contain nefarious microscopic tracking devices.
We need to collectively stop looking everywhere for fear focused, manufactured “conspiracy theories” surrounding COVID-19 (and so many other things) and try to focus more on facts, evidence, logic, reason, and reality.
If your doctor and lifestyle suggest vaccinations are the best and safest option for you and your family – then please, do the right thing and get vaccinated for whatever nasty bugs are the greatest danger in your part of the world.
We receive all of life’s necessities from nature – food, water, air, shelter, space.
Yet, nature does not care one bit about you, me – anyone.
It is a well-known scientific fact that parasites and predators want to feed upon your body – no matter who you are and be you alive or be you dead. Viruses and other harmful microorganisms want only to use your flesh as an incubator for their multitudinous offspring – all without asking your consent. All these things are proof nature does not “care” about any of us and that we are just another animal, another cog in the wheel, another strand in the web of life – we are bound together with, interconnected to, and a lifelong part of nature. You cannot change this fact no matter how hard you try, wish, pray, pontificate, or profess.
Nature does not need us. We need nature.
This is why it is up to you and you alone to care for yourself, for your loved ones, and for all the other human beings you share this thing called life with.
SARS CoV2 (COVID-19/Coronavirus), and all microorganisms for that matter, do not “care” about you, your politics, your beliefs, your thoughts, wants, needs, or desires, nor do “they” “care” about your life, your health, or the health or lives of your loved ones. “They” only “want” to use your body as an incubator to grow more of their kind with the only “goal” being to propagate their species. Therefore, if you do not take any precautions to limit the spread of deadly viruses (and bacteria), they will gladly walk in the “front door,” pay you a visit, and use your body to infect more innocent people. In other words, if you do not take the well known Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) precautions recommended by infectious disease experts that greatly limit the spread of germs – it will not be the government that has control over you as some may believe – it will be the armies of uncaring microscopic germs.
Just like opening the windows without the barrier of a window screen will let in all manner of flies, gnats, mosquitoes, etc – leaving the “front door” of your mouth and nose open by not wearing a mask is essentially rolling out the red carpet to microscopic invaders.
If you choose to throw down the welcome mat and give germs the easy “front door” access of unwashed hands and an unprotected, uncovered mouth and nose, they will eventually make their way inside, set up camp, hijack your body, and use it as a “germ factory” to make more of their kind – simply because you choose to ignore the recommendations of the experts and have openly invited them in the “front door.” Had you chosen the relatively simple actions of keeping yourself clean and wearing a mask when in public as barriers to their entrance, it would have effectively closed and locked the front door thereby stopping their easy and unobstructed entrance into your body.
Thought Experiment: If local authorities put out a warning over media outlets that a dangerous and potentially deadly burglar had been seen prowling the neighborhood breaking into easily accessible homes – would you then invite the armed burglar into your home by leaving the front door open?
No, of course not. You would close and lock the door, increase your security measures, bolster your defenses, be vigilant and on the lookout for odd activity, and hopefully, the burglar would ignore your shielded home and pass you by in his search for a more unprotected, open, and inviting home to mount his attack.
Then why are some people freely choosing to lower their defenses and invite armies of microscopic armed “health burglars” into their bodies to steal their health and for some, their lives…it makes no sense at all.
Do the right thing – close and lock your body’s front door by choosing to wear a mask in public places and by washing your hands frequently.
But please be aware: even if you are wearing a mask, stay a safe distance away from those not wearing masks in public places, and be vigilant.
The actions of some of those who choose to not wear masks in public suggest to me that a percentage of the individuals who are anti-mask may also be anti-common sense and anti-science. These unmasked people are increasing their odds and your odds of contracting or spreading the virus and are therefore they are potentially harming themselves, their loved ones, and other innocent people by blatantly ignoring the reasoned and knowledgeable recommendations of the planet’s infectious disease experts.
A small percentage of those choosing to ignore the facts aren’t just anti-mask, anti-science, and anti-common sense – they are careless, heartless, hateful, self-centered, very dangerous individuals who are just plain mean. These lunatic fringe dwelling bullies have been observed sneezing, coughing, and spitting on those who choose to wear masks and even taunting mask wearers with hateful words and even COVID-19 “chants” – WTF is the matter with these people? It seems some humans have truly fallen off the cliffs of insanity and are on the way to the jagged rocks of viral infection waiting at the bottom. Sadly for those individuals who have chosen poorly, it seems that time and natural selection may be the only things that sort this out for them – but that is their choice I suppose.
It seems that for some people, no matter how many facts and no matter how much evidence we present to them, they will choose to ignore it, label it a conspiracy, a political tool, or a personal attack on themselves or their freedoms, and they will continue to say and do what they please. These are potentially very dangerous people, dangerous to themselves, their family members, and to the rest of us.
Many also seem to be trying to make this a political/personal freedom/control issue, which it is not. This is a health science issue pure and simple.
Yet, some seem to be ignoring, and maybe even substituting the actual facts of the situation with their own erroneous “facts,” beliefs, and “theories” – possibly so they then have an excuse as to why they do not need to take the common-sense recommended by science precautions like the rest of the population.
Some individuals are even trying to profit off of the misfortune of others by marketing unproven and even fake “snake oil” coronavirus cures, protections, medicines, and “immune system boosters” to their followers. This profit-focused quackery is unethical, selfish, and despicable. Do not be or support these misguided people.
For the rest of us who are following the recommendations of the experts such as; wearing masks when in public, social/physical distancing, washing our hands frequently, staying home as much as possible, etc. – at least we have the odds far more in our favor and hopefully, this will give us a greater fitness for survival and we will then only need to wait for time and science to catch up to us with a treatment, and a vaccine – and then and only then will we hopefully be able to go back to some sort of “normal.”
Please wear a mask, it is not that hard to do and it is the responsible choice.
If you choose to not wear a mask in public places, please respect the wishes of others who do and just stop it with the hateful, disrespectful, dangerous words and actions.
If you are wearing a mask and someone coughs, sneezes, or spits at or on you – this is a personal attack, it is an assault that should not be tolerated. Get a description and/or photo of the perpetrator, their license plate number if possible, etc. and immediately report them to the authorities. They must be stopped before they spread their madness and their germs – SARS CoV2 infected or not – to other reasonable, thinking, caring, people.
Please, be a good human and follow these common-sense science-supported guidelines during this pandemic:
Stay home as much as possible. Stay away from large gatherings of people. If you must go out for supplies, please social/physical distance and obviously – wear a mask and wash your hands frequently.
If you choose to not wear a mask in public places – please, just stay home until all this is over/under control and choose to have the supplies you need delivered to your house. That is the safest thing for you, your loved ones, and for the rest of us.
The only way we are going to stop this monster virus is to listen to, and follow the recommendations of, the infectious disease experts and wait for a better treatment and eventually, a “cure.”
Until that time comes, please be smart about this.
Do good things.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people, including my sister Jaelyn Crews Steverson, and my friends Christina A. Ramsey and Kathy Wright Hardy, and all the others out there who have been designing, making, and distributing masks to those who need them the most – you are all true heroes and undoubtedly you have saved people’s lives by your selfless actions. Thank you all for your much-needed service to our communities and to our species.
A few years ago I decided to do an experiment. I was tired of all the conspiracy theories and manufactured drama on TV, and online – so I decided to join in on the fun and make one myself. My purpose was a simple attempt to determine just how gullible people really are – and to have some good and harmless fun. So, I made a YouTube mini-series about “bigfoot” tracking.
Photo by Steve Atkins
My video series perfectly illustrates how so many people so eagerly and easily choose to absorb and believe the manufactured drama, pseudo-scientific, and even blatantly unscientific emotion and often fear-driven, non-peer reviewed videos, comments, out of context video clips, and even produced “documentaries” they find all over YouTube – as factual evidence only because it supports whatever utter nonsensical conspiracy “theory” they desperately want to believe as reality. These mostly well meaning people have a bad case of confirmation bias dictating their beliefs in so many unbelievable and often dangerous conspiracy theories, myths, and even total hogwash.
As an example of this madness, I offer up Episode Seven of my Sasquatch Tracks YouTube series that temporarily went “viral” on YouTube – even though it literally has written in the credits: For educational and entertainment purposes only…yet there were those who actually believed it as reality.
Some individuals actually believed my amatuer film making to the point of even thinking my disclaimer was a cover-up, a conspiracy to hide the truth. Others contacted me and asked me to do interviews on their programs/podcasts about my “discovery” and still others even asked me to take them into the woods to search for the “sasquatch.” It was truly and disturbingly unbelievable how fast my totally made-up and admittedly fake story about tracking a “sasquatch” went viral – with hits, countless comments, and even emails and phone calls from all over the planet – yet my hundreds of REAL videos following my REAL research tracking REAL reptiles – box turtles, Rat snakes, and rattlesnakes – and my REAL video documentation about my work with these REAL animals and me doing REAL science – have hardly ever even been noticed.
I guess this just goes to show how so many people are so disturbingly and dangerously gullible and do not care one bit about the evidence and the facts as described and supported by science. They would rather wallow in myth, legend, conspiracy, fear, drama, and gossip – than to have anything to do with the actual facts…or maybe it is just evolution having its way with us.
If a simple naturalist and teacher, with a couple of GoPros, trail cameras, a low cost “sasquatch” suit, and a bit of editing knowledge, and creativity, can so easily convince so many people he has discovered a massive mythical monkey man lurking in the nearby forest, – then just imagine what a professional TV producer with all the right tools, money, and talent can do for a person wanting to sell their manufactured drama, books, ideals, beliefs, myths and conspiracy theories to you the viewer.
It is up to you to use your common sense and critical thinking skills to identify and not be swindled by the charlatans who want nothing more than for you to believe their fakery (and convert you over to their way of thinking so they can later take your money) about whatever the manufactured myth or conspiracy may be – be it sasquatch/bigfoot/the Chupacabra, aliens, COVID-19, the government, Bill Gates, vaccines, Elon Musk, the shape of the earth, the climate, the origins of life the universe and everything, whomever and whatever.
Please, find it within yourself to ignore the conspiracy theories and manufactured drama and those spreading it by not sharing it and thereby feeding their temporary dose of crazy and hopefully, maybe one day they will come back to reality.
Trust the science and the peer-reviewed evidence and toss in a big helping of common sense and critical thinking to balance it all out and let it guide your decision-making process.
Do your research.
Fact check everything.
Knowledge conquers fear.
If you would like to view the Sasquatch Tracks YouTube series in its entirety please visit the playlist and join in the fun.
Anyone who has ever kept or worked with animals or livestock knows this rule: when an animal gets sick you pull it from the herd, quarantine it alone, in its cage, stall, paddock, in its home – away from the other members of the family/herd. You do this as directed and often as required by law, by the animal health and disease experts so as not to put your, and other, healthy animals at risk. You then treat the sick animal, as directed by the experts, with medicines, fluids, special diets, vaccinations, and isolation until it recovers.
If a neighboring population of animals is stricken with a disease, you quarantine the entire sick population in one location, in their cages, stalls, paddocks, in their homes.
You also quarantine the healthy populations in another location away from the sick population for a time period as set by the animal health and disease experts so as not to put your healthy animal populations at risk of cross-contamination from the sick.
No matter how much barking, braying, bleating, noise, and other raucous vocalizations, and displays of self-centered malcontent some of the quarantined animals may make in their request to rejoin the rest of the herd/pack/family/population…
…you do not under any circumstances give in and mix the sick with the healthy because your experience and common sense and the recommendations from the experts tell you doing so will cause even more sickness, death, and loss.
Once the animals have recovered you then have an expert in animal health that we call a veterinarian (who is a doctor) give the animal(s) a health check and if all checks out, the recovered animal(s) can then be released back into the herd to go on with their business.
We are animals.
We are the herd.
We must listen to the experts.
No matter how uncomfortable and inconvenient it may be.
…you do not under any circumstances give in and mix the sick with the healthy because your experience and common sense and the recommendations from the experts tell you doing so will cause even more sickness, death, and loss.
Stevo's Personal Blog 
