Cluster reboot dependency hell

Red Hat Cluster should die in a fire.

What does that say?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaOHGODOHGODOHGOD

via youtube.com

HAHAHACANTBREATHEOHGODOHGODOHAHAHAHAHAHA

neophilia vs. neophobia and humanity 2.0

After I left the Lambda Lounge meeting tonight, I was thinking about Matt Taylor‘s presentation on “humanity 2.0″ and the singularity. I was reminded of Robert Anton Wilson‘s discussion of neophilia vs. neophobia in several of his books, including Prometheus Rising.

My interpretation of it is that we all have some degree of neophilia (attraction to novelty and new ideas) and some neophobia (resistance or aversion to the same). It’s natural. It’s also an attribute which is often confused for intelligence nowadays – people who are neophiles tend to view other neophiles as being smarter, and neophobes as being dumber. As the rate of scientific discovery and technological advancement increases, neophilia becomes more important for social success, but it’s at best only an aspect of intelligence. Neophobia seems increasingly backwards and disadvantageous, but it’s still a critical balancing element that we all possess even if some of us don’t like to emphasize or even recognize it in ourselves.

This ties in with Wilson’s discussion of the idea that we can only advance socially by first understanding our fundamental primate nature. We have to truly identify and understand our limitations before we can develop ways to either eliminate or overcome them. Scientists who study sociology or anthropology understand that we are not all that different socially or psychologically from primates. This makes sense, because as Matt pointed out we’re not really very different genetically from chimps. Most people don’t really like to think of ourselves as slightly smarter, slightly less hairy chimps, but that’s basically what we are. While we have all this great technology, we’re mostly using it to do what chimps would do with it, at a basic level: socialize, “hunt and gather”, and satisfy our hedonistic urges.

So in response to Matt’s urging to guide the use of technology to the “right” purposes, I would suggest that we first have to decide what the truly “right” and “wrong” purposes are. I would further suggest that being able to make those decisions accurately will require more than just technological development – it will require social development. And so ultimately, we have to hope that the uses we make of technology will help and not hinder social development in the meantime, and that we have the foresight to know what direction we’re headed in and how to steer.

So what do you think?  How can we use technology to help us make the right decisions about how to… use technology?

Regarding the name

Regarding the name of this blog:

I believe the universe is fundamentally made up of information. In one frame of reference which I’ll call “mine”, there are four basic facets or aspects of information which appear to exist:

1. Space – everything seems to have a position in three “dimensions”
2. Time – events seem to occur in a linear framework
3. Matter – some things appear to have mass and volume (substance)
4. Energy – things seem to change position and interact with each other causing changes

And then, of course, there’s… well… UNIX. Yes, UNIX.  Why?  Because I’m a geek.

So there you have it.

Hello world!

OK, blog reset. Moblog test from iPhone.