I honestly don’t think some humans care at all how others view them when they are in public…and maybe they do not even realize they are in public.
What follows is some of my over half a century of observational evidence of this bizarre and problematic phenomenon:
“Adults” who are loud talkers insulting/bullying/demeaning the person(s) they are with in some bizarre attempt to draw attention to their target(s) with the goal to make some lame point or expose/humiliate, when in reality they are making themself look supremely infantile. Here’s an idea: grow the frak up you 12 year old little brat!
People talking loudly into their mobile communication device as if increasing the volume of their voice will make the person on the other end of the “line” hear them/understand them better. Here’s an idea – noone anywhere wants to hear your incoherent, chimplike hooting, no matter how important you believe you are…and your device has a super sensitive microphone that can detect a whisper, AND the ape on the other end has a volume control and will turn you down when you get annoying. Be respectful you filthy, matted, hairball.
People watching videos/things on their mobile devices at max volume (or any audible volume) in a resturant, waiting room, bus, train, plane, ship, etc…this is happening 20′ from me as i type these words. Here’s an idea – be respectful of others and get some earphones/buds you obnoxious drooling troglodyte!
Parents/people loudly yelling hate/ obscenities/absurdities at their unfortunate offspring. Here’s an idea – don’t have offspring if you cant control yourself and treat them with the respect they deserve. Are you purposefully trying to lead by your awfully hateful example and make them a carbon copy of your disgusting hateful self?!
People talking loudly at each other across a span of space occupied by other humans (ex. train, plane, bus, waiting room, resturant etc.). Here’s an idea: walk closer to each other and converse at a reasonable voice being respective of the others in the room. Whatever it is, it is not all about you, you miserable stinking troll.
People who crowd up to the elevator door as if upon arrival it will be magically empty and is there only for them. Here’s an idea: push the call button and stand back you impatient wank walker.
People who blow their nose in a crowded public place such as a resturant – even with a napkin or handkerchief, this is just disgusting and nasty. Here’s an idea – have some respect for others around you, step into the bathroom or outside and blow your festering air hole all you like you putrid steaming snotnozzle.
Impatient bully types who just have to be first in every line, que, or intersection. Here’s an idea you greedy tantrum tossing tool – have some respect for others and wait your damn turn.
People who disrespect our only planet by littering, defacing nature with graffiti, poachers, and those who exploit nature for personal gain without any consideration for future generations…
…and so many more. If you have encountered similar lack of respect from the seething masses of humanity then feel free to add your own examples in the comments.
To create a life is rather easy, people do it all the time.
To create good people, that is possibly the most difficult thing we will ever do.
We have all heard about the nature vs nurture debate, and from where I stand as an observer of nature, I see many deep connections between all living things everywhere I look – connections that run like fungal mycelium throughout the deep-time tapestry of life.
These ancient genetic connections are incredibly apparent to me because I see them in myself. I was adopted as a newborn and spent the next several decades with wonderful, loving parents who nurtured and cared for me, giving me a comfortable home, an education, and most of all, the ability to think for myself. They let me choose my own path – they did not force on me any specific religion, politics, or any other worldviews – they let me choose for myself who I was to become. They were the nurture side of the coin that I received in this coin toss called life.
On the nature side of the coin: From a very young age, my curiosity about the natural world around me was incredibly strong. I have always had a deep empathetic nature and a deep connection to animals, nature, wildlife, and the silent teachers that exists in the forest, an endlessly flowing river, the rolling ocean waves, and the deeptime knowledge that exists in every rock, tree, mountain, water drop, and in our own DNA – these are teachers that only some of us can hear. Due to these deep connections to the natural world I always wondered if I had inherited this intense love and focus on nature from my biological family.
Then, in 2018, I used the tools of science to find my genetic family and my suspicions were confirmed – my love of nature was indeed genetic – my father and all my family members were great lovers of nature and all things wild and wonderful. My father and I shared so many things in common – even down to things like favorite foods, TV shows, music, vehicles, wildlife, it is really astounding how many deep connections we share.
So for me specifically, the nature vs nurture argument is no longer a debate – i am a product of both of these things.
From my point of view, and from my lived experience – I believe that at birth we carry within our genetic code, a singular sequence specifically written by the experiences of our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and far far back into deeptime, to a time before we gave ourselves names, before we harnessed fire, before we were even human. This ancient code sequence is the nature side of the coin. It is a hard written instinct stamped into our DNA by the experiences of all our ancestors. This ancient code is expressed, like it or not, by our consciousness. But what the heck is consciousness anyway?
In an attempt to answer this age old question we need to flip the coin back over to the nurture side again and ask – what about our consciousness? Where does it come from? What is it that allows us to look in the mirror and say “Hello me, i recognize that i exist…i think therefore i am.”
Where does the consciousness originate? Some say it is all in the mind…and maybe this is so. However, I sometimes wonder if it comes from outside the body…another realm of existence that we have yet to identify. Maybe we and all life on earth are part of this unique and massive energy field…this Singularity…and we are greatly limiting ourselves when we think that we are separate, apart, alone individuals. But in reality…a reality we have not discovered yet because we are not yet ready, not evolved enough to experience that reality and understand it…maybe we are all connected deeper than we could ever imagine. Maybe when our body exhausts itself and ceases to exist, maybe our unique consciousness – our soul – retreats back into this unknown realm, this undiscovered country, to rejoin with the rest of the whole where it then shares its lifetime of experiences with its “peers” afterwhich it is reset, and then born again as another lifeform on earth…or another planet in the vast cosmos – and the cycle continues.
I do not believe in omnipotent beings – a god or gods – and therefore i do not believe a devine creator being gives us each a unique consciousness – at soul – at birth. I have this hypothesis that at birth, our consciousness is a blank clean slate…like a new computer waiting to have is blank but eager to learn storage drives filled up with all our unique photos, music, stories, history – the unique things we save close to our hearts and minds – the things that make us, us.
Maybe we are all born with this same basic, “blank slate” consciousness. Maybe this blank slate consciousness is exactly the same for everyone – it is a carbon copy of whatever the first one was, whatever the first human being was. Then, as we live and grow and are exposed to our family, friends, society, the media, religion, politics, science, culture, war, love, hate, bullies, hippies, laughter, passion, sickness, trauma, etc – maybe it is only after this exposure to all these unique outside experiences and influences, coupled with the genetic expression of our instinctual nature knowledge passed down from our unique evolutionary lineages, does our unique consciousness truly becomes ours, and only ours. It becomes unique to each human due to the unique experiences each of us has experienced as well as the deep genetic connections we brought forward in time from our unique ancestrial DNA.
Maybe the “me” and “you” parts of our thinking brains are exactly the same until they experience life, the universe, and everything around us during our first few years of life – and then we become the unique individuals that we are – we become the you and the me that we see in the mirror.
If all this is so, then to guide an innocent young human into adulthood as a parent, teacher, or mentor, is possibly the greatest responsibility one could ever hold.
If a highly advanced, long-lived, extraterrestrial species from another galaxy landed on Earth today and told us we were all part of a long-term planetary biology/evolution “lab” experiment designed and implemented several million years ago in the attempt to discern the direction biological evolution would take under the unique environmental conditions offered by this planet and its star…
…and/or…
If Jesus (or any other religious prophet) returned and/or appeared – and he was a dark skinned, barefoot, long haired, “herb” smoking, robe wearing, bisexual, “hippie” “dude” whose pronown was “whatever man” and he was asking all of us to destroy our walls, weapons, governments, religions, superficial labels and divisions, and all coexist and live in harmony…
Recent events suggest that many people who call themselves religious would probably deny the flesh and blood evidence standing in front of them, and cry “demon,” “witch,” ” infidel,” “imposter,” – and then try to crucify and/or dissect them.
Sadly, the fearful, preconceived notions of what many believe their god and/or extraterrestrial visitors should be are far too limiting and microscopically small, to allow them to see the grandeur of the cosmos as it actually exists, and all the amazing possibilities it may hold.
The more I learn about archeology and anthropology, the more I discover that primates and violence seem to go hand in hand.
Sadly, this fact, encoded in our DNA, and in the DNA of every human walking the earth today going all the way back to our humble beginnings on the African savanna – is a deepset part our our own evolutionary history.
It may be that our unique primate opposable thumb+big “thinking” brain combination – while an incredible engineering and survival tool kit – has a great and fatal flaw. That great flaw often leads us to believe things and then do things, not because they are true and supported by evidence, but because we want them to be true, we need them to be true, possibly to satisfy some ancient need, or qwell a fear that exists only in the past. Sadly, it seems that for many Modern humans, believing something is true is easier than working to find out if it really is true.
This great and fatal flaw may in fact be the undoing of our species, leaving us as just another fossilized animal deposit in the rock strata of deep time.
Honestly, I hope I am wrong on this, but the evidence from the last few hundred decades suggests otherwise. Looking at the fossil record of our family tree we see that every single one, every one – every early human save for us, only exists, no longer in the flesh, but as ancient fossil remains recorded in the rocks. May it be that these ancestors of ours are extinct by their own hand? Maybe the fatal flaw was their downfall? Maybe the fatal flaw will render us extinct as it may have done for them? I hope not. We have so much potential.
Or maybe it was their strong, evolutionary survival instinct that lead to a hyper-selfish focus on surviving which, over time, selected for early humans with a lack of empathy – with only a drive and focus to acquire that which it needed to survive while pushing its own kind out of the way. Millions of years ago it was competition for food and brute strength that kept the bullies alive.
Today, it’s not food, it’s money and power thry need. The vestigial fatal flaw is directing the uncaring bullies to compete. In their minds, they are still fighting to survive – it is all their DNA will allow them to do. Instead of adapting to adopt an empathetic sharing nature that would benefit all members of their family, and species – they chose self over society.
Empathy, is one of the most important aspects of what it means to be human. Without empathy for others of your kind, you are just another smart, strong, competitive predator. Maybe it is empathy that is the answer, maybe it is the genetic key that unlocks the next level in our own evolution.
Will we level up…or will we damn dirty apes choose to fearfully continue to bar our teeth and bash each other’s skulls in just as so many countless human primates stretching back millions of years into the past have done before?
A personal history lesson that may inspire others to get some much-needed mental and spiritual health help.
Please keep in mind if you choose to read this: I did not write it as an attack on anyone’s personal beliefs/politics etc., your beliefs and political choices are yours and yours alone.
What follows are only my own personal experiences, observations, and opinions on these establishments, as well as a deep self-analysis and critique of myself and of the system we humans are born into and are often told we must just accept as “This is just the way things are.” – without ever questioning any part of it…or else!
It would have been far easier on me if I did not choose to question any of it, but thats just not me. I have always asked the questions many fear to ask.
Therefore…
I have chosen to share this with you in the hopes that my story, my observations, my informed choices based on the answers (and lack thereof) that I have uncovered and discovered, may serve to offer you some insight into your own decision making process.
If my choices, thoughts, and words, upset, offend, or anger, you, I apologize, that was not my intent.
However, your offense or anger at my thoughts, observations, and personal opinions may in fact suggest that there could be some truths in what I have observed, truths that only you must confront in order to grow as a concious, thinking, human being.
Let us begin.
When I was growing up, my developing, impressionable young mind, and later my young adult mind, was frequently subjected to what I now see as intentionally targeted religious and political trauma. To use some of the now common derogatory catchphrases being passed around by those seeking to mold and control the minds and actions of others;
I was conditioned, brainwashed, force-fed, and even indoctrinated into all of it by many well-meaning, yet unknowingly (or maybe knowingly) previously “indoctrinated” people all around me.
So many adults, often calmly, and nicely – but in all likelihood unknowingly – threatened me with, what, to me at the time, were deeply and intentionally terrifying words and imagery, from bizarre ancient stories and fables often used as scare tactics to try to persuade me to act a certain way, behave, and maybe even actually believe their unusual old stories as actual fact-supported reality – even though they could provide absolutely zero fact-based evidence to any of the characters and happenings in these old fables.
Yes, many of the ancient fables had good lessons, lessons that are important for all of us to live by today. However, some of the stories were bizarre, twisted, and even bloody.
When I would ask my elders if the stories and the people in them were real (and later, why there was no evidence) they would almost always say “you just have to have faith my son, and just believe.” I would reply – “do you mean like believing in the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, bigfoot, or the Loch Ness monster?” They would always reply, no – this is different. When I asked how it was different they would answer with; “it just is.” or “Just trust me on this.” So no…no real answers, only many failed attempts to deflect and delete my genuine curiosity in the why and how of these wierd stories, and this thing we call life.
Don’t even get me started on the absolute physical/biological/hydrologic/meteorological/geographic and temporal impossibilities of the Noah, Jonah, and the parting of the Red sea stories…and so much more. Case in point – the Sloth and Noah’s ark – how did sloths get from what is now central and south America…to the middle east? What about penguins…and Tasmanian devils, Banana slugs, the flightless Kiwi birds of New Zealand…enough said.
None of it made any sense to my curious, logic-seeking young mind.
I did not understand the purpose of any of it.
I eventually concluded the following; due to the huge lack of evidence – most of the adults must be living in a make believe collective fantasy world that exists only inside their own heads…and if this was not terrifying enough, the simple yet utterly terrifying fact is this; they were attempting to assimilate me and countless others into their imaginary, elite world of gods, devils, ghost* people with bird wings (if you are the ghost of a dead person then why do you need wings, don’t ghosts have the enchanted ability to defy gravity?), talking snakes, heaven and hell, bible, cross…and now, gun and flag-waving creepy racist and hateful religiopolitical, book banning, clubs and cults. *yet another bizarre evidence-lacking construct the adults share with their children…why?
It was as if you could not even exist as a human being in this society…in this tangible world of reality, without being a member of one of their imaginary worlds of make believe – and be a part of their flock, fold, party, club, organization, congregation, or cult.
I aksed them why a person could not exist without being a member of their cultish, seperatist, religious and political clubs – yet no one could answer this question…it was as if they had never even considered it…or maybe they were conditioned to be afraid to even consider it.
They would often say those individuals following other types of religions/political systems were full of, and led by, nonbelievers – and all of them were lost souls – doomed to rot and burn in the festering fires of hell for eternity.
Even more unusual; periodically they would mass together and chant bizarrely worded and phrased sayings and songs and then symbolically ingest the “body” and “blood” of one of their long-dead – but not dead – savior beings…then say things like “those who do not choose to follow our loving, living (yet dead but not dead…WTAF) savior will burn in the fires of hell for eternity” and that if I did not join their specific fold, flock, team, or congregation – so would I. What wierd and sadistic ways to love your flock and your children.
It was all so freakin bizarre and such a horribly traumatizing thing to subject young children to – yet from my point of view, everyone I knew was, in one way or another, in one cult or another.
Later, while reading the dictionary and encyclopedia (yes, i read them often for fun), I discovered the word cult and concluded, based on the definition and my own observations, that this is what almost everyone I knew was a part of – these widely accepted, even called “normal” by the masses – these cults of religion and politics.
Websters definition of cult:
-A religion* regarded as unorthodox or spurious.
-Great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work.
*Religion: -A personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
-the service and worship of God or the supernatural
-commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
-the state of being religious
-A cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
Scrupulous conformity
I have chosen to share my story with you in the hopes that my observations and choices may offer you some insight and awareness that may serve to help you in some way.
Synonyms of religion: creedo, creed, faith, persuasion, cult.
As I input more knowledge into my young brain, I began to connect many dangerously toxic dots, dots that seemed so blatantly obvious to me, but for some odd reason we’re invisible to everyone else around me. None of any of it made any sense.
I also frequently overheard seemingly good people, and the smaller numbers of fanatical, cultish believers often gossiping and saying mean and nasty things behind the backs of others – some who were even their friends and family – such as; “they are going to forever burn in the fires of hades because they don’t live as we do, love as we do, and believe as we do and worship our god, the one true and only god,” and/or, “What a communist democrat” or “damn greedy republicans, all they care about is themselves.” and “they are all a clear and present danger to our way of life and if you don’t worship HIM , and/or vote for HIM or HER, then your soul and this country is done for.”
Yikes! Why can’t these people actually think for themselves?!?!?!
Why can they not see the obvious facts before them – that these religious and political systems we believe to be so solid, lasting, and permanent…they are yet more examples of experiments in small numbers of weathy, powerful people, controlling large numbers of less fortunate “common” people. That is all this is, nothing more – it is yet more examples of humans experimenting…and like the thousands of dead religions and failed societal governing systems – these to shall eventually pass into the history books alongside all the others. I know this to be reality now, but way back then…I believed in them, and believing did far more harm to me and absolutely no good came of it.
What about that thing that so many of them so often preached about – you know, not judging others…? I guess that one only applied to them on Sundays – and I watched as so many of them said one thing on Sunday, then did another all the other days of the week. This fact truly irritated me deeply because it was evidence that the believers didnt really believe and it was all an act, a stunt, a way to seem to be conforming to societal norms.
With all the confusion in my head, I would often ask my elders: why would a loving, all powerful, creator being toss its own creations – it’s children that it claimed to love and cherish – into a lake of boiling hot lava and fire – after they had already died, as if death was not bad enough – and then leave them there to suffer the fire, lava, scary, ill tempered red devils and such for eternity* (so strange right?) – if they said a “bad” word…or didn’t spend their entire short life showering them with love by paying homage to them all the time and give them their finite money and time on Sunday and Wendsday, and through the mail…why would an omnipotent god-being that could do anything it wanted – including make money, riches, things, and entire planets, stars, galaxies, etc…from nothing…why would it need ephemeral human money…why all the endless butt kissing and showering of its massive ego…why would it need to send one of its creations that it had a disagreement with to the magma-filled mantle of the planet (why THIS planet, why not one of the trillions of other planets out there in the Milky Way galaxy…or any of the countless other galaxies??) to endlessly torment thise who were on the naughty list? How did this “devil” not instantly incinerate?…oh right…it is super natural…riiiiight. *Oh and by the way, I was under the impression that once a creature is dead, it cannot feel anything – including pain – any longer. What gives here?
If my choices, thoughts, and words, offend, anger, or upset you, I apologize, that was not my intent. However, your offense at my thoughts and observations may suggest that there could be some truth in what I have observed, truth that only you must confront in order to grow as a human being.
I would also often ask;
What about the bizarre, yet bizarrely accepted practice in some religions of allowing newborn babies to have their genitals mutilated under the knife (or even the mouth!!) in the name of their parent’s chosen religion – myself included – what kind of loving god so brainwashes its believers that they freely choose to commit this barbaric act!!!??? What right did they and do they still have to commit such a heinous, destructive, and traumatic act in the first fragile moments of the life of a brand new human!!!??? It is a truly despicable and disgusting blood-soaked ritual that must be abolished. It was not yours to chop or bite off in the name of your imaginary god!!! I want my foreskin back!!! Yes, I went there.
Then, not that long ago, twisted lunatic fringe dwelling religious fanatics killed even more people by hijacking and flying passenger airplanes full of innocent people into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, thousands died, more blood flowed, believers offered thoughts and prayers as if that was going to bring back the dead.
Evidence supports that in the wrong hands, the cults of religion and politics destroy life, progress, and prosperity.
So many innocent human beings have been brutally murdered in cold blood in schools, in churches, on the streets – by religiopolitical flag, religious book, political parchment, and weapon waving fanatics. Where are all the god or gods during all this bloody madness? If the god refuses to stop the cold blooded murder of HIS innocent children in a school, or worshpers in one of HIS own churchs – then it is my opinion that the god simply does not in fact exist. o
Why would an all-powerful creator god father being create evil?
Again, my own findings, experiences, observations, and the evidence all around me suggest that this, this reali~-~ted, and my energy will move on into another life form or natural process and I am 100% OK with and ready for th ‘ x
In the meantime, I have so much to do and not enough time to do it. Ther
If it was in fact so all-knowing and all-powerful, and such a good god… couldn’t he/she/they/them/it just choose to just NOT create bad things such as evil, hate, devils, demons, disease, pain, war, death, childhood cancer, viral infections, brain and body eating parasites, ticks, chiggers, fleas, malaria, bot flies, botulism, brainworms, and such? Couldn’t it just snap its fingers (like Thanos or Q*) and delete all these horrible things from existence and create only peace, love, health, prosperity, puppies, and happiness instead?
*BTW, I fully understand that these are fictional characters created by humans to tell a story and teach a lesson to the viewer/reader…just like Santa Claus, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy, Zeus, and all the thousands of other gods and goddesses made up by humans…but what i fail to understand is how a person of today can still choose to believe in the non-existence of all those ancient gods and modern myths, yet believe in their “one true god”…whichever one it is they have been taught is “real”…even though it has zero evidence supporting its reality…
Why are innocent little children and good, hard working, caring adults dying of cancer, disease, starvation, massive storms, floods, fires, disasters, alcoholism, war, disgusting parasites and disease, automobile, aircraft, and other accidents, ALS, AIDS, Malaria… why were people suffering from learning and developmental disorders, born deformed, or with debilitating autoimmune disorders, heart disease, etc,…why were and are slavery, prejudice, hatred, bullies, meanness, and war, – all just allowed to happen to innocent people everywhere by this so-called loving good god? It either does not love us, does not care about us, made many mistakes in the recipe, is not all powerful, did not create us, or simply it just does not actually exist.
Why were we taught to fear those labeled by some god-cult believers as witches, but not those lopping off their heads, hanging them, eviscerating, or burning them to death in greusome public spectacles?!?!?!?!
If killing is evil, why then is it OK and accepted by some believers to kill in the name of gods and religion like was done to the “witches” (women) and those with brown skin, or of indigenous heritage – and is also done so often in the Bible and other dusty old religious books? WHY!
Tangent time: why do some organisms have to kill, eat, infect and infest* other animals – and people to exist? (to me, this is yet even more irefutable peer reviewed evidence that we human beings are also animals) – *predators, parasites, scavengers, bacteria, viruses, etc.
If I were all powerful and wanted to create a life form, I would not design it to brutally kill or scavenge and then ingest my other creations to gain the energy it needs to survive – that is just bad engineering, it is messy, and it creates a breeding ground for germs. I would also not intentionally design and release microscopic – worms, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, lice – and microscopic viral and bacterial (covid, plague, malaria, ebola, lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, tetanus, hookworm, leeches, ) and so many other parasites and pathogens that use the bodies of others of my creations as food sources and/or incubators for more of their own kind while making my creations sick, in pain, dead, and/or vectors of said diseases/parasites to my other creations that I supposedly love – all that would be highly illogical, most counterproductive, and just twisted, sadistic, and morbidly sick.
What I would do is design an organism to be powered by endlessly renewable, clean, solar energy from the nearest star. This design would also eliminate the need to eat, bad teeth and cavities would not exist, we would not need to sloppily suck and slurp nutritional secretions from the breasts of our mothers, we would not need to eliminate (defacate and urinate)…the lack of all that would streamline the design even more by eliminating the entire digestive system…in other words, I would create plants. Maybe plants are the perfect organisms. Maybe, if there is a god being out there somewhere, maybe we meat munching, hairy, teat sucking, drooling, dripping, pooping, infected, mammals are a failed experiment that he/she/they/them/it couldn’t turn off due to our propensity to breed like…um, humans…hmmm.
Any engineer designing any machine would make it as simple and as low maintenance as possible, not the highly complex, chemically, physically, and spiritually needy, always breaking down, weak, mostly hairless, bipedal, apelike bodies our fragile meat-computer minds are stuck inside.
For more on this subject take a look at this from my friend Joe:
Enough said.
Plants.
Yes plants.
Yes, an omnipotent being would design plants, not people. It is common sense really.
There are over 300,000 species of plants…and only one species of human. Therefore, It seems clear to me that if there is an all powerful creator being somewhere out there, they are really happy with plants and kept churning out more and more species while ignoring the singular bipedal ape with the oversized brain that thinks it is so important.
End Tangent.
Continuing onward, what did the snake do to deserve all the hate? I have known many snakes and none of them ever talked to me or tried to get me to do “bad” things to others – they just tried to get away from the big scary mostly hairless cultish apes who are always killing and harming far more snakes, than snakes will ever kill or harm people…and sadly, they do so most often in the name of made up gods and fearful seperatist death worshiping cultish religions.
Why do so many people pray to an imaginary god/father figure to help/heal/save them when they are in danger, suffer natural disasters, are sick and/injured in the hospital – when it is the doctors, nurses, firefighters, EMT’s, police, military, SAR teams, engineering, and science teams who are the ones doing the saving, curing, protecting, healing? If their god was real and if he/she/it/them/they, truly existed and/or truly cared…wouldn’t it just choose to not put its creations in danger/pain/suffering in the first place? Why would it conjure up all these bad things to torment, harm, and even kill, its children? Wouldn’t it be like the shepherd/farmer who works very hard to keep his sheep and other livestock safe, healthy, happy, and away from the wolf (only to kill and ingest them later)? I guess not.
It also seems to me that this god fellow, and all the devils, heavens and hells, Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and Sasquatch are the same – we are told by our elders they actually exist…somewhere…somehow…yet we never see any real evidence of any of them.
Funny thing, none of my elders could ever answer any of my probing questions. They would often even act afraid of my questions and then say things like “Dont ask such questions!” or “Pray to (their) god and it would reveal the answers you seek.” So I did, I prayed, because at the time I believed, so I was afraid…no, I was terrified of the angry, vengeful god, the pitchfork wielding grinning devils, and all the eternal fire and damnation the adults had repeatedly downloaded into my head since I was an innocent little baby with a brand new brain.
The years of fearful conditioning was getting to me. Yes, this was the world of my youth.
This is the cold reality of religious trauma, and to me, it could possibly even be considered a form of child abuse – but that is just my humble opinion.
They would also often say that god knows your thoughts. Really, if this is so, then why did/do we need to pray, couldn’t the all knowing god being just read our minds and know what we were thinking before we thought it?? They had no answers for me.
But no…no voices, no answers or insight came, and nothing at all ever changed.
Kids and adults still died from horrible diseases (a friend died suddenly in middle school from encephalitis), accidents (another friend died in a terrible car accident), and so many innocent did not know died horrible deaths at the hands of deranged lunatics with guns, knives, sticks, rocks, fire, poison, and sometimes they even took their own lives (my mother’s best friend offed herself with a rope and a good friend’s brother used his service pistol…and the list goes on and on.
As i am fond of saying – We are our own most limiting factor.
Fires, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, floods, still destroyed property, forests, nature, animals and people. People who worshiped a god, gods, or none at all – they all died equally. I suppose their gods did not care and I know for a fact that nature does not care one bit about any of us, so we must take care of ourselves and each other.
Huge oil, timber, and development companies and war machines destroyed and continue to rape vast tracts of pristine nature and indigenous civilization in the name of ephemeral profit, oil, coal, gas, gods, religion, and lame politics…and their gods just sit back and watch and let them destroy its creations…even innocent little children…why did the gods let them get away with it! I thought these gods were the ultimate shepherds presiding over their beloved flocks…where are the gods when their flocks needs them? What a terrible shepherd, obviously the gods that are stuck in so many people’s heads simply do not exist.
My childhood best friend had diabetes, I watched him suffer with it for decades. I also watched as the miracles of medical science saved him and keep him alive with insulin…not a god, not prayer – but medical science and engineering. Science works miracles every day – science is the god, and doctors, nurses, medicine and engineering are the angels and the miracles.
Yet, even with the medical marvels working miracles for many, the “demon” that is cancer still stalked and killed good people including three of my friends – two of them prayed to a god daily…but their god still killed them at a young age with horrible pain, suffering, and anguish.
AIDS killed countless humans until science slowed the killing. Science, not gods.
Another good friend of mine and her infant child were brutally killed by a drunk driver who fell asleep at the wheel – their car was torn in half – WHILE THEY WERE ON THE WAY TO CHURCH to pray to their almighty loving “good” god!! Their god is total bullshit. Their god is not real. If it was real it would have saved them!!! The drunk driver that killed them lived and is still out there driving around. WTF!
My wonderful adoptive dad suffered for years and died broken and alone from a prolonged, painful, toxic death from depression, alcohol and tobacco addiction. Where was his god when he needed him?
My beloved adoptive mother recently died at the hands of the mind eating “demon” that is dementia – it destroyed her beautiful mind and her body soon followed. She was a 2nd grade elementary school teacher and a devout Christian her entire life, she gave so much of her time and money to her students and to the church she co-founded with dad in the 1960’s, she helped so many people and was loved by so many, even though she never had much – yet her god chose to destroy her mind and kill her body slowly and painfully. What an ungrateful, hateful, sick and twistedly evil god it must be. Her death was the last straw that broke any remaining connections i had to that twisted cultish manufactured religious world. Her god killed my mother with torture, and I then killed her god with that evidence. Her god, the god of my youth is stone cold dead to me.
My biological father, a great protector of wildlife, nature, and the law, and a generous member of the community…lived for many months in great discomfort with kidney failure and horrible pain. The “miracles” of modern medical science and engineering kept him alive through dialysis and pain stopping surgery – but he suffered so much in his weak and failing body and in the last months of his life he was bedridden and unable to go home to be with those he loved. It tore my heart out to see him that way. It was a great releaf from the rigid wasteing darkness when he finally passed away. We all miss him greatly, but his pain and suffering is finally over.
What burns me deeply, like a white hot fire poker pushed slowly into my eye, is the knowledge that he spent his entire life protecting his god’s creation and its wonderful wild creatures from greedy, uncaring people, he preserved thousands of acres of wild lands (you know, that old creation thing), he protected good people from bad people…and yet, despite all the good he did for nature, his family, others, and for the world – where was his god when he needed it the most?!! Why WHY did he have to go through all that debilitating misery? His god did not help him, therefore, his god is dead to me.
A few years before his final fight, he and my siblings had to watch in heart ripping pain as their mother/his wonderful wife, an accomplished nurse who expertly cared for the sick and her family, was also attacked by the brain eating vampire that is dementia and swiftly succumbed to its voracious appetite for the minds of its victims. Where was their creator when all this was happening? Why didn’t it intervene? It is obvious to me that it either is powerless, does not care about its creations, or it simply does not exist. Her god is dead to me.
Two armed thugs broke into my cousin’s rural home in the middle of the night and brutally shot my elderly cousins. They wounded Danny and murdered Judy in cold blood – for what – money?!?! These were wonderful, helpful, well loved members of the small community in which they lived, they weren’t rich, they weren’t threatening, they were just good people… and yet they were brutally attacked and one died… why WHY!?!? Where was their god damn god?!?! Why didn’t it protect them from the demented greedy thugs?!?! WHY!!! BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST – THATS WHY!!!
The damn predatory thugs escaped and are still out there, probably still thieving and killing. The uncaring god of my cousin is dead to me.
In early 2025, a favorite YouTube creator of mine – The Desert Drifter – was in a horrible automotive accident and he later passed away. Why! His videos were so well done, so educational, so beautiful in how they shared a love and respect for the land and for ancient cultures – and in his videos he and his wife spoke of how they were Christians and loved God. Yet, their god brutally killed him – so his god is dead to me.
Steve Irwin, aka The Crocodile Hunter – worked hard to educate people on the value of wildlife and nature. He protected vast tracts of land from development, he did so much good…but he was killed by one of the wild creatures he loved. Why!!! Why didnt his god protect him?!? His god is dead to me.
Why are so many innocent kids still dying, starving, suffering?
Why do so many of us endlessly suffer from physical and mental health issues when we could be productive members of society?
Why are innocent people still kidnapped, enslaved, trafficked, addicted to drugs?
Why are war and hate still rampant?
Why are despicable heartless people like adolph hitler and donald trump allowed to spread fear, incite hate, rape, rule, murder, and destroy?
Why did hundreds of thousands die in that big tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, hurricane, flood, wildfire, war, plane crash, plague, pandemic?
What did all those human beings ever do to this so called loving, all powerful god that gave he/she/it/them/they the right to “punish”, harm, and brutally kill all those innocent people, all those mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, and little babies???
None of that is love, it is indifference, it is outright hate. It is as if he/she/they/them/it (god) is a cat tormenting, mauling, and then viciously killing all the mice (us) for its own sick and twisted enjoyment…or, as evidence suggests – it is far more likely that, like Santa, Zeus, Sasquatch, and Nessie – it simply does not actually exist and was invented by ancient people to explain the how and why of things happening around them.
Over all the years, all my genuinely thoughtful, probing questions never have been successfully answered. The believers would just say deflecting, reason, curiosity, and thought cancelling things such as “our father works in mysterious ways” or “its in gods hands” and the old “pray about it.” What a total and complete copout.
When I was in my teens, I began to notice all the rich politicians grinning through their teeth while kissing random babies and making empty promises on TV…and the bible thumping preaching pontiffs in church on Sunday (and on TV) asking for money from my mom and so many others – who didn’t have much money – it was then that I began to see through their cultish insanity. What would a rich politician, preacher, or omnipotent, supreme being need with my beloved mom’s very limited money? Oh right, they need it to pay homage to their god(s) by constructing mega churches, mansions, private jets, giant wooden non floating arks full of manufactured religiopolitical propaganda and outright lies (see the religious fanatic Ken Hamm and his Ark Encounter monstrosity)…their one true god is the almighty dollar. If you cannot see that, you need some professional help.
As the decades passed by I conducted extensive research by reading many books by many great thinkers, scholars, religious types, as well as many ancient religious texts, I studied ancient cultures, their myths, gods, etc., and came to realize the following:
While many religions started out with good intentions and their followers do in fact do good works, help people, and so on…many more are just corrupt businesses built upon the backs of all the ancient fearful books, myths, stories, and so on. So much blood, pain, suffering, hate, war, and so much needless death in the name of so many different gods – they are nothing more than cults of personality, control, and profit.
When I was in my 20s I began to realize I didn’t need any of them in my life. They were creating far more questions, anxiety, depression, and trouble in my mind, my world, and in the world as a whole, and I did not want any part in their malignant mythological madness.
Yet, at the same time I also noticed around me that some believers and religious types and their teachings and organizations were presenting good life lessons for anyone to learn and yes, many followers of today’s religiopolitical organizations are truly great people who do actually help those in need, and work very hard to make a better future for us all, and that is very good and very needed. While I fully applaud and support their selfless acts and humanitarian actions, I am not at all concerned about those that do good deeds in the name of a god, religion, or lack therof. What deeply concerns me are the cultish lunatic fringe dwelling extremist evangelical types that will not accept or even consider anything outside their chosen system of belief. Those who are quick to judge others, quick to twist, edit, modify, and even re-manufacture the words and teachings of their stone tablets, dusty old books, scrolls, and documents, to suit their fear and hate driven agendas and desire for profit, control, and belonging to their chosen cult…all while working behind the scenes to incite fear, hate, and to divide us from each other – some even go so far as to kill others and/or destroy property, and even go to war in the name of their god/religion/politics – the religiopolitical soup they are swimming within. That is so very wrong and it is not helping anything or anyone.
As a wise person once said:
“A very powerful and profound statement indeed. And expresses my thoughts why I have nothing for the American Brand of Christianity, nor Evangelical Christianity. It is a threat to humanity, the Earth, and Christianity overall. “To the church of my youth, What did you expect me to do? You taught me to love my neighbors, to model the life of Jesus. To be kind and considerate, and to stand up for the bullied. You taught me to love people, consider others as more important than myself. You taught me to sing “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” We sang it together, pressing the volume pedal and leaning our hearts into the chorus. You said that “He loved all the children of the world”. You taught me to love my enemies, to even do good to those who wish for bad things. You taught me to never “hate” anyone and to always find ways to encourage people. You taught me it’s better to give than receive, to be last instead of first. To help the poor, the widow, the stranger at the gate. You taught me that Jesus looks at what I do for the least-of-these as the true depth of my faith. You taught me to focus on my own sin and not to judge. You taught me to be accepting and forgiving. So I paid attention. I took in every lesson. And I did what you taught me. But now, you call me a “libtard”. A queer-lover. You call me “woke.” A backslider. You call me a heretic. You make fun of my heart. You mock the people I’m trying to help. You say I’m a child of the devil. You call me soft. A snowflake. A socialist. You shun the very people you told me to help. What did you expect me to do? I thought you were serious, but apparently not. You hate nearly all the people I love. You stand against nearly all the things I stand for. I’m trying to see a way forward, but it’s hard when I survey all the hurt, harm, and darkness that comes in the wake of your beliefs and presence. What did you expect me to do? I believed it all the way. I’m still believing it all the way. Which leaves me wondering, what happened to you?”
—Chris Kratzer”
All that said, and after much soul searching, it is now my humble opinion, based upon my years of research, life experience, observation, anxiety, doubt, and oh so much religiopolitical trauma, that I feel compelled to suggest the following…and remember, the only evidence i have that allows me to make this suggestion, is a great and deep pit that is lacking any measurable repeatable evidence.
This experience and gigantic lack of evidence suggests to me the following;
All the gods, religions, etc. all of them – are based upon stories made up by countless tribes of ancient early agrarian peoples from all over the planet to help them understand the world around them, and to comfort them from the cold hard realities of nature and of death, teach lessons of living in a society, and/or control the masses in support of an elite, greed, power, and control driven ruling class of bigmen, kings, queens, chiefs, and politicians.
Over the thousands of years since they were written – not by a god or gods – but by early humans who’s consciousness was awakening to the realities around them and had them questioning what they were experiencing – these ancient stories were then passed down, edited, adapted, modified, and manipulated to fit the needs and desires of kings, queens, chiefs, politicians, and bigmen – and yet even more blood flowed, millions more died in flames, at the gallows, in horrible torturous dungeons, while masses of believers watched and jeered in fear and support of the senseless killing by the leaders of the believers. Still more countless innocents perished under the stones, spears, fire, guns, germs, and steel, in the name of crowns, thrones, and politics, invisible lines in the sand, imaginary gods, and many more blood-soaked religious cults.
Oh, and let us not forget the countless babies, young children, virgins, those labeled witches and/or different, and many others that have been brutally sacrificed, murdered, burned, had their beating hearts torn from their chest, been brutally molested and raped by bent priests and politicians, left bleeding or freezing on an altar stone on top of a mountain, tossed into volcanoes, and/or enslaved in the name of countless religions and countless gods over countless centuries…why did the god or gods allow his creations, his children, to destroy his other creations, his other children – it makes no sense at all. If I were the parent of a child who started acting like some people do today (and back into deep history as evidenced in the archeological record), I would surely not let them get away with the heinous and bloody acts and tantrums they have perpetrated upon other humans – some they even claim to love. I would punish them gently, and I would teach them how to treat each other. I would be a good father and I would lead by example.
Where is he. Where is this god(father) when his children harm, disrespect, enslave, bully, rape, kill, and massacre others in HIS name?
Where was he in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, in all the wars, in the aftermath of all the hurricanes, tsunami, fires, floods, plagues, and on and on. Where was he?! Where is he now?
What about the bizarre, yet bizarrely accepted practice in some religions of allowing newborn babies to have their tender young genitals mutilated under the knife (or even the mouth!! – yes, it is a thing.) in the name of their parent’s chosen religion – myself included – what kind of loving god so brainwashes its believers that they freely choose to commit this barbaric and sadistic act!!!??? What right did they and do they still have to commit such a heinous, destructive, and traumatic act in the first fragile moments of the life of a brand new human!!!??? It is a truly despicable and disgusting blood soaked ritual that must be abolished. It was not yours to chop or bite off in the name of your imaginary god!!! I want my foreskin back!!! Yes, I went there.
Then, not that long ago, twisted lunatic fringe dwelling religious fanatics killed even more people by hijacking and flying passenger airplanes full of innocent people into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, thousands died, more blood flowed, believers offered thoughts and prayers as if that was going to somehow magically bring back the dead. WTAF!
So many innocent human beings have been brutally murdered in cold blood in schools, in churches, on the streets – by religiopolitical flag, book, political parchment, and weapon waving fanatics. Where are all the god or gods during all this bloody madness? If a god refuses to stop the cold blooded murder of HIS innocent children in a school, or of devought worshpers in HIS own churches – then it is my opinion that the god simply does not in fact exist.
The reality is this: All these gods we humans have dreamed up – exist ONLY in the minds of their worshipers.
Evidence supports that, in the wrong hands, religion and politics destroys life, progress, and prosperity.
Then, even more recently, some truly misguided religiopolitical cultish types tossed into the mad mix – old dead flags, toxic hyper-nationalism, stories of “promised” lands, guns, hate, fear, money, oil, division, prejudice, control, and so on…and now we have a very dangerous situation that may just blow up in our faces – if we let it. We must not let it.
Again, my own findings, experiences, observations, and the evidence and lack thereof all around me suggest that this:
The visible, measurable, tangible reality of nature all around us, is the only reality – it is all there is, and there is nothing more.
I believe this is the great fact that so many believers fear. They fear the reality of our shared existence. They do not want to believe that they are just another animal at the mercy of the whims of nature. They fear their own mortality. The fear their kinship with nature.
I do not fear this reality. I cherish my connection to the animals and the natural world. In fact, my connection to nature is a soaring spiritual experience.
I do not fear my own eventual death. I did not exist for billions of years before I did, and when I’m gone, I will not know it. The remains of my body will be recycled back into nature from where it originated, and my energy will move on into another life form or natural process – and I am 100% ready for that factual eventuality.
While I do not fear my own eventual death, I will however miss being alive, I will greatly miss the ones I love….but i won’t because I will be dead.
In the meantime, I have so much to do and not enough time to do it. Therefore, I should live while I’m here, enjoy and experience what it means to be concious in and of this life I am living. I will love, do good things for others, make a positive difference for the future, leave things better than I found them – IMHO that is what this life is all about….it is not about unending blind devotion to an imaginary superhero-like friend or a bloated toxic mouth-breathing puppet politician.
Clearly you can see that I am unhappy with the way things work and I’m angry at the way our culture seems to be working very hard to vector its highly fermented, souring, infectious death cult religious culture to its youth.
I talk big and often spout certainty at uncertainty…and at all the thousands of gods created by us ephemeral bipedal multicolored mostly hairless primates…but honestly, is there a god or gods – I do not know and I do not care.
What I do know is that I will not speculate, claim, or believe anything just because someone tells me to do so unless that thing is supported by peer-reviewed evidence – not magical or fearful thinking.
I do not have any evidence at all to support that any gods do or do not exist, but if evidence is ever found to support a controlling creator being existing on a level outside of our reality as we understand it, and/or the existence of a non-corrupt, empathetic, caring, politician – I will adapt my understandings of these things, accept them if the evidence is sound, and go on with my life. Until that time, I will not blindly follow the ancient dogma, and malignant myths, madness, and magical mysticism promoted by the masses.
Yes, I suppose all this makes me an agnostic, a humanist, a free spirit, or some other label…and I’m 100% OK with that.
Nor will I treat any politician or pontiff like a king, hero, or savior and I will not give them any of what little money I have…they take enough as it is in the form of taxes.
Yes, I will vote – but only because as a citizen of this country and this planet, it is my duty and I must have a say in the future of things. However, I will never vote party or personality, I will always vote for evidence-supported logic, reason, and reality. I will always honor facts and evidence. I.E. If the facts and evidence support that a politician or pontiff committed crimes against our country, humanity, and nature – then that individual will never receive my vote.
Going a bit back in time again – for young me, the damage had already been done. The well-meaning adults of my childhood had unknowingly created a massive mental block, a thick wall of rutting mythological religious madness and strutting political nonsense blocking out reality, to form in my mind. A thick wall of religious and political mental trauma that followed me around for decades and held me down like a lead anchor intentionally designed by its ancient forgers to restrict and limit my movements in the one and only life that I was living. Despite the fact that none of it, none of the twisted greedy politics and bizarre fabricated religious antics of the human being has ever made any sense to me, and it still does not make any sense to me at all…but the mass of the heavy anchor was still there…anchoring me to the devious dictates of the past, weighing me down with imaginary imagery and deep seated fears of things that do not exist. But that is the nature of trauma is it not?
Despite my lack of understanding – then and now as to why people continue to blindly follow these ancient destructive, divisive, cultish, irrational dictates, – my own research, education, and experiences soon led me out of the dark, limiting shroud of religiopolitical trauma and allowed me to destroy the imaginary gods and demons that had been existing only within my mind and tormenting me for so many decades.
While I destroyed the demons and broke the chains – the ghosts of the decades of religiopolitical conditioning, the programming, and the brainwashing from all sides – they remain to this day, burned like a hot brand on my mind by the world I grew up in. Often, it takes considerable energy to overcome these ghosts and think my own thoughts without the ghost of a god or devil attempting to pop into the mix and stir things up. This is the sad reality of religiopolitical trauma.
The great irony of the entire thing was that the well-meaning people from my childhood, all their friends and followers, the media, movies, and tv shows, they had all unknowingly been corrupted by the teachings of their elders and their cultures. They then created and curated all the gods, devils, heavens and hells they feared so deeply within their own minds and within their own culture. They promoted the ideas and the twisted images of hell for them (and for me) to live in within their own minds, an imaginary mental hell full of the very fires, devils, demons, and a heaven with a vengeful, hateful, selfish, judgemental, god – surrounded by winged angels – sitting upon a huge golden throne glaring down on the world like a toxic old father, or a bullying boss who would harshly discipline you and/or terminate you on a whim. They created all the things they all feared so much and then passed their toxic fairy tale creations on to their children.
I remember most of them all as good, caring, loving, people – why couldn’t they break the cycle, why couldn’t they break down the walls of trauma as I have done… as I am still trying to do? I’m not special? What gives me the ability to see through the smoke, mirrors, and snake oil created by the fearful hunter-gatherers, farmers, and controlling greedy charlatans so long ago and so recently? Why couldn’t they do so as well??? Maybe they were/are addicted to the bizarre religiopolitical ideas they have worshipped for so long, maybe they are comfortable in their illusions and that is all they need.
After the thick walls of religiopolitical trauma finally came tumbling down and i broke free from the anchor, it was as if I bobbed to the surface of a sea of darkness and was thrust into the light and I awoke from my fitful, traumatized, terrorized sleep. I was finally free of most of the mental darkness and madness…but the ghosts of the past do still linger, lurking deep in the dark recesses of my subconscious like the Balrog of Morgoth.
Life does not have to be this way.
Yes, I know some of you may feel the need to judge and call me “woke” “damned” “lost” a “black sheep” or “free spirit” – whatever. Question: why are you so judgmental of MY lack of adoption of YOUR beliefs? They are your beliefs, not mine. My beliefs should not matter to you unless your cult leaders have given you a task to assimilate others into your flock, fold, or party…if that is the case then you really need to get some professional help before you are the cause of anothers demise.
Do you feel the need to dislike or even hate or attack me? What have I done to hurt you? Why do you feel the need to attack me for my lack of your beliefs? It is my choice to not believe as you choose to. Why do you feel the need to attack others for having beliefs different than yours…and I know, it seems like that is what I’m doing here. Maybe that is what it looks like, but that is not my intention. My intention was to share my story, my experience, my long road to trying to find my real self, to heal myself.
My goal also is to analyze the system, the matrix we are all stuck inside.
I know, I have probably made some of you uncomfortable*, I may have somehow unknowingly threatened your beliefs and hopefully, that made you think outside of them, to analyze them for what they really are.
I have been uncomfortable with all this religion and political madness as long as I can remember. But finally, I feel like I am putting it behind me. Finally I feel like I am my own person. Finally I feel truly free.
Hopefully my story has inspired you think outside the box you may have been trapped inside for so long.
But if you are afraid of thinking, knowledge, reality, then I am unable to help you.
Go ahead, call me names, feel free to say what you will, that is your choice and that is your problem. I am not concerned with what you think about my choices, they are MY choices, not yours – I care what I think. Last I looked this is a free country and freedom applies to everyone, not just your religiopolitically modified ideas of what it should be.
However, I do respect what you choose to think and believe, and you are free to think it, believe it, and fully free to choose it. However, if your choices bully, target, and harm others, and/or threaten their personal freedoms and my personal freedoms in the name of your chosen religion and/or your politics – then you are a danger to yourself and others and you may benefit from some serious professional help.
Throughout this longterm self analysis and observation, I have finally realized that I am the owner of my own mind, and my own thoughts such as they are and as imperfect as they are, and I can make my own decisions and live my own life. I will not let those with cultish, controlling, agendas control my mind and my decision making process.
I choose to think for myself.
The real question here is this: when will all of the believers and followers of all the bizarre and twisted myths and evidenceless prophets and profit driven charlatans ever wake up from their dreams and accept reality for what it is…I do not know. What I do know is that from my observational point of view – the reality of nature, consciousness, and existence is all there is.
If I am able to help even one person step out of the mists of myth and madness and find a way to accept the reality of reality by sharing my story, then I have made a difference.
If any of this sounds familiar and/or if you believe that you, or someone you love has been the recipient of religious, political, or other lunatic-fringe toxic dogma, elite clubs, cults, or secret societies, and the resulting traumatizing emotional state they seek to instill in your mind – maybe it is time you get some professional help and break down the thick walls of religiopolitical trauma that separate you from the reality of reality.
We all only have a finite amount of uptime, it is our choice what we do with the time we have.
Choose wisely. Knowledge Conquers Fear. Free your mind. Do good things. Leave things better than you found them. Coexist. One Love.
Note: I will continue to update this post and it’s comments with new insight and unique observations of others who have inspired me to think outside of the highly restrictive box I recently escaped from. Feel free to add your own stories, insight, memes, etc.
I – and many if not most of you reading this – would simply not exist without the findings of science, technology, and engineering. Unsure of what I mean? I have written about this topic before but here we go again because this cannot be overstated.
Starting off with the obvious: somewhere during your timeline of life a medical procedure/surgery, external or implanted medical or dental device, topical, or internal medicine, antibiotic, vaccine, or vitamin, – (that was invented, tested, guided, administered, and/or prescribed by the expert skill, advice, and training of medical experts we call medical scientists, virologists, immunologists, bacteriologists, prosthetists, orthodontists, dentists, plastic surgeons, doctors, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and all the other “ologists,”) – has repaired, prolonged, enhanced, or saved your life – or the life of one of your progenitors.
Speaking of your progenitors; without one or more of the modern medical techniques and procedures I mentioned earlier – they may not have lived or lived long enough to bring those individuals who produced the being you call you into existence…in fact, they – and therefore you – may not have even been born at all.
Another fascinating fact: it is very likely that some of your progenitors would have never even met each other without a horse and wagon, car, truck, bus, boat, ship, aircraft, or possibly even a rocket bringing them to the instant in time where they first met – changing the course of history to eventually create you.
How many countless times in your life did a sanitation system such a water purification system, portable water filter, purified water from your local municipal water department, a simple wooden outhouse or gilded penthouse toilet – remove or greatly reduce the chance that you or your ancestors would contract a nasty parasite or deadly disease?
Where would you be and what shape would you be in without your soap, toilet paper, tooth brushes, contact lenses, eye glasses, dental implants, hearing aids, CPAP, Oxygen concentrator, hip, knee, and heart valve replacements, pacemakers, insulin, etc?
Then there was the discovery and implementation of better agriculture/animal husbandry techniques such as selective breeding, fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, genetic modification, preventative medicines – just to name a few – working together to produce a higher quality and quantity of foods allowing you to grow up strong and healthy.
Think about your home appliances for a moment. Where would you be without your refrigerator, range, microwave oven, dish washer, laundry machines, blender, coffee maker, ceiling fans, HVAC, and all that electricity that powers them…how different would your life be without these technological wonders?
What about all that energy that powers and supports your lifestyle? Where would you be and what would you be doing without petroleum products such as oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene? Then there is all that earlier mentioned electricity you use that is produced by all those coal, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar, battery, and nuclear-power stations – and all the inventors, scientists, technicians, electricians, miners, roughnecks, refiners, shippers, managers, and other people who worked together to bring all that energy to you and to keep it flowing when you want and need it?
What about your modern clothes, tents, buildings, your home’s walls, doors, door locks, glass windows, the screens on the windows keeping out the blood-sucking and disease-carrying insects, all allowing you to live a comfortable and safe existence?
Do you perform work that requires the common sense use of PPE’s (Personal Protective Equipment) to protect you from the elements such as sunglasses, safety glasses, air filter mask/respirator, chain saw chaps, snake gaiters, clothes, boots, gloves, sunscreen, climbing helmets, life jackets, body armor, or a simple bandana to keep you safe and healthy?
Have you used a personal tool or weapon that has protected you from a predatory animal or human attacker?
Where would you be without all these things?
Would you even exist?
What about your smoke/carbon monoxide alarms…your seat belts and airbags, automatic emergency braking and self-driving systems in your cars…your skateboard, bicycle, or motorcycle…?
That advanced tool of some kind – that hammer, handsaw, cordless drill/driver, Bic lighter or matchstick, pocket knife, multi-tool, Swiss army knife, fishing pole, rifle, animal trap or snare, backpack, length of nylon rope, dry bag, plastic bucket, or tin can, or again the ubiquitous bandanna, – that allowed you to fix a machine, build a shelter, procure, preserve and protect, cook, and prepare food or water so you could beat the odds and survive on and on?
What about all those electronic devices – like the one you are using to read these words – that you love so much; your smartphone/watch, computer, iPad, television, stereo, 2-way radio, that Tesla or Toyota in the driveway – do you have the first inkling on how they actually function? Do you have any idea how much engineering, science, thought, research and development, and testing went into them to bring them to reality on this very day so you can use them and trust them to work as you wish and need them to?
How about the systems in place that allow you to know what the weather will be tomorrow, when the tides will flow, the fish will bite, your exact location on the planet, and then give you turn by turn directions to the bodega where you buy your baked beans and Beluga Caviar – do you even have a clue what it takes to make all these things happen and get those beans and caviar to your dinner table?
And what about your dinner table…?
And what about all the intricate supply chains that have brought all these things to you? Have you ever given any of these technologies and systems the first thought with even just one of your 100 billion neurons?
All these things and systems are products of our science, engineering, technology, ingenuity, vision, and invention.
All of these things are also the products of our own evolutionary development.
One of the defining characteristics of our unique species is tool-making and use. All of the technologies we create are nothing more than tools made of modified natural resources (complex combinations of liquids, rocks, fibers, and sticks spiced up with a little bit of fire, electricity, and lots and lots of science and engineering) that allow us to better adapt and survive in this thing we call life. Since the first time early hominids turned simple rocks and sticks into stone tools and then more recently (maybe 1.5 – 1 million years ago) harnessed the power of fire and added it to his fast-growing tool box – we human-animals have invented, adapted, and “MacGyvered” our way through deep time to bring us to this day in our lives.
The simple fact is this: without our tools (ancient and modern) and without all the inventors, engineers, scientists – without all the experts (ancient and modern) that made them – in all probability we would only exist as just another ape among apes at the mercy of predators, the elements, and the relentless nature of nature.
Ouch!
The simple fact is that many if not most of us living today would not even exist without the findings of science and the miracles of modern technology and engineering – yet, a vast number of people alive, existing, and living today have absolutely no idea how any of these technologies – and the science and engineering that developed and supports them – function – even at a basic level.
It seems we may have created for ourselves a broken system in which some individuals in the human population today – while they gladly accept and use many of these tools on a daily basis – have willingly chosen to nurture and perpetuate an irrational fear and distrust of many of these most important life-supporting, life-sustaining, and life-bettering technologies and sciences. The very same technologies and sciences and that have allowed many of them to exist, to continue to be healthy, to have the things they need, use, and enjoy. Yet, for whatever reason – they still choose to take many of these things for granted, to fear some of these things while accepting others, and to ignore the findings of the experts even if it brings hardship and harm to themselves, their loved ones, and those around them.
Strangely, a small but growing fraction of the population of planet earth has chosen to not only fear some of these technological tools – but also to use some of them as tools and/or weapons to spread irrational fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about still others of these most important tools they have chosen to misunderstand and distrust. A great example is this: people with little more than a high school education – if that – sitting on a couch at home or in traffic – or in their production studios – safe in their comfortable bubble of air conditioned from climate change (which they also do not understand or believe) existence – using their high technology personal electronic communications devices connected to the internet via fiber optics, ground and space-based data relay stations, and wireless data transmission towers and access points – only to spread loads of made-up FUD and misinformation about the expert advice of an entire planet’s worth of medical professionals on the need to wear PPE’s (masks) and the need to use the medicines and vaccines derived by science to fight off a microscopic viral attacker in the middle of a global pandemic…and then they take livestock dewormer…and sell loads of marketing, paraphernalia, self-published books, “cures” and “potions” and just get richer and richer off the ignorance of their followers.
This last fact is the most dangerous of them all. These “lunatic fringe” dwelling, anti-science, anti-knowledge, illogical charlatans – are nothing more than knowledge terrorists working to bring down the progress of civilization by sewing irrational fears into the minds of those without the capability, the education, or the desire, to see through their toxic charade.
It seems as if a cold-war spy movie mated with Austin Powers and gave birth to today’s reality.
The only way I know to fight this growing anti-science, anti-knowledge, fear-focused trend is to teach, to work very hard to open young minds – and the minds of those that are young at heart and still open to accepting evidence-supported, peer-reviewed knowledge. The jobs of those of us who call themselves teachers is to plant the seeds of knowledge, inspiration, curiosity in how the natural world and the cosmos in which we float works. Then, we must continue to nurture those seeds with even more empirical evidence, adventure, experimentation, and lots of quality time outdoors in nature. Hopefully, the seeds of evidence and curiosity we plant will grow into great and wonderful trees of knowledge that will empower its gardeners to cast off their fear, hate, doubt, xenophobia, and anxiety and nurture it with curiosity, knowledge, evidence, wonder, love, trust, passion, and coexistence and a deep reverence for all life.
Plant that seed.
My personal science story:
The fact boldly stands that I would not exist without the findings of medical science, technology, expertise, and technique.
Why?
1. I was born premature – medical science, technology, and engineering supported my life until I could support myself.
2. Vaccinations protected me against all the things all the other kids carried – all the things that wanted a piece of me when I was just starting out.
3. I acquired Mycoplasma “walking” pneumonia twice – I may have died without treatment and medications and the experts who administered them.
4. I developed Appendicitis: I would have most certainly died without treatment and appendectomy.
5. I was bitten by a Timber rattlesnake: I may not have died but I would have probably lost the use of a finger and had lasting ill effects.
6. Both my biological and adoptive parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents – would have never met each other without ships, automobiles, and airplanes.
7. I have been in countless situations – many severe electrical storms and one hurricane come to mind – where a structure, vehicle, or technology provided shelter for me, and without it I would have died.
…and so on.
So yes, without the findings and application of medical, materials, chemical, food, engineering, botanical, and physical science and engineering – I would simply not exist.
It is as simple and as complex as that.
I do not fear the science, medical advancements, technology, and engineering discoveries, that have given me life – I accept and embrace them just as I accept and embrace nature – because science is our way of understanding and interacting with, and when the need arises – controlling the nature of nature. These things have given me life and are a part of me, and for that I am eternally grateful. I am also eternally grateful to all the teachers, scientists, engineers, botanists, doctors, dentists, nurses, immunologists, virologists, biologists, and others who have helped me along the way to become the living, healthy person I am today – and to understand the value science and engineering brings to all of us.
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.
Stevo's Personal Blog 
