The Synthetic_Universe

I started this blog nearly a year ago with full confidence in what themes it might eventually embody. However, regarding the thematic definition of the "Synthetic Universe", well, this has been difficult to pin down... until now.

The Synthetic_Universe is about culture. Specifically, culture is the "synthetic universe", one created and perpetuated by the human mind. Everything we experience in our universe is understood through culture. The symbols and beliefs of science and religion are both derived through culture. The labels we use to define our world, determine friend from foe, and maintain familial relationships are all products of culture. In our Synthetic Universe, we project value on currency, material goods, and food. In our Synthetic Universe, we watch movies, listen to music, and engage in sport. Within the Synthetic Universe we organize society, recognize authority, and enforce "law" through fear of reprisal. Our Synthetic Universe is very real. In truth, to us, it IS reality... yet, it is not the only reality.

Outside of the Synthetic Universe exists the environment: space, earth, ecology, community, the cosmos, etc. For purposes regarding this post I will refer to the natural environment as the "Entropic Universe", ie. the universe of matter and energy, time and decay. The Entropic Universe represents the antithesis of the Synthetic Universe in a manner analogous to the relationship between "entropy" and "negative-entropy", or -1 and 1. We humans exist between both the Synthetic and the Entropic Universes: our bodies consist of matter, space, and energy (i.e. the molecules and atoms that make up our cells), yet our REALITY exists within the Synthetic Universe.

Day by day, year by year, we live our lives from dream to dream. At any moment we possess memories of the past and plans for the future. Yet these represent only a small fraction of what truly exists. Our minds are influenced by cognitive filters that shape the entropic information we receive through our senses. The end product is the Synthetic Universe, a meaningful mosaic of memory, and a network of sympathetic human minds. Through the synthetic universe of culture, we maintain our identities.

I know the thoughts in this post open up a monumental can of worms, but that is the intent of this blog. It's time to explore the Synthetic Universe.

More Hemp News

Published on Saturday, June 25, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Hemp for Victory
by Ralph Nader

Congressman Ron Paul, a libertarian from Texas and an obstetrician who has delivered over 6000 babies, is trying to deliver our farmers from a bureaucratic medievalism in Washington that keeps saying "No" to growing industrial hemp.

Many farmers want to grow this 5000 year old long fiber plant that has been turned into thousands of products since being domesticated by the ancient Chinese. That is their heresy. The enforcer is the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Washington, DC, which has placed industrial hemp on its proscribed list next to marijuana.

Detailed petitions signed by agricultural groups, agricultural commissioners, International Paper Co. and others were presented to both Clinton and Bush to take industrial hemp off the DEA list and let the states allow farmers to grow it. The DEA turned the petitions down cold.

The arguments for this great, sturdy and environmentally benign plant are legion. In over 30 countries where it is commercially grown, including Canada, France, China and Romania, industrial hemp has been used to produce hemp food, hemp fuel, hemp paper, hemp cloth, hemp cosmetics, hemp carpet and even hemp door frames (Ford and Mercedes).

Factories, food stores and paper manufacturers are free to import raw hemp or finished hemp materials from foreign countries. Last year, about $250 million worth of hemp products were purchased from abroad. But federal law in the US prohibits farmers or anyone else from growing it on US soil.

Why? The DEA says that industrial hemp grown next to marijuana can camouflage and impede law enforcement against the latter. Strange. This problem doesn't bother Canadian police authorities or similar officials in other nations. Besides, since industrial hemp is only 1/3 of 1 percent THC, growing it next to marijuana would cross-pollinate and dilute the illegal marijuana plants. No marijuana grower wants industrial hemp anywhere near his or her pot plots.

You can smoke a bushel of industrial hemp and not get high. Far too little THC. Like poppy seeds on bread. You may, however, get a headache, if you try.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew industrial hemp on their farms. Drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. Imagine the billions of trees and tons of bleach chemicals which would have been saved were hemp a big source of paper. A multi-billion dollar a year farm crop blocked.

During World War II, hemp was made into very strong rope for the war effort. The Department of Agriculture made a film "Hemp for Victory" to encourage more cultivation.

Enter Ron Paul, the courageous. Numerous colleagues of Rep. Paul, in both the House and Senate, believe as he does regarding the legalization of industrial hemp farming, but they are afraid to go public lest they be accused of being "soft on drugs". This is true, for example, of the North Dakota Congressional delegation, in spite of overwhelming private and public support for farmers being allowed to plant it in their spacious state.

On June 23, 2005, Congressman Paul introduced HR 3037, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. The bill requires the federal government to respect state laws (already five of them) allowing the growing of industrial hemp. Immediately, Congressmen Peter Stark (D - CA) and Jim McDermott (D - WA) co-sponsored the legislation.

Rep. Paul's announcement was made during lunchtime in the Rayburn Office Building at the House of Representatives. Denis Cicero, owner of the Galaxy Global Eatery in New York City, served up a delicious and nutritious luncheon featuring industrial hemp. Speaking were two leading North Dakota farmers, David Monson, also a state legislator, and Roger Johnson, the North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner. Their remarks were so compelling that in my remarks, I asked whether there were any DEA representatives in the audience who wished to reply. Nobody responded.

Last summer I shared a podium with Rep. Paul at a large gathering of organic farm and food enthusiasts in New England. It was a debate of sorts. At one point, I challenged the Congressman to apply his libertarian philosophy by introducing legislation to let farmers have the freedom to grow industrial hemp and sell it to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. He immediately said he would. And he has done it.

There are those like former CIA chief, James Woolsey, who support growing hemp to reduce our reliance on imported oil. More broadly, industrial hemp advances the growth of a carbohydrate-based economy instead of a hydrocarbon-based economy.

Thomas Alva Edison, Henry Ford I and the presidents of MIT and Harvard dreamed of this transition during the nineteen-twenties. Unfortunately, the synthetic chemical industry of DuPont, Dow Chemical and others pushed this dream aside. The rest is the history of environmental damage, pollution-disease, geopolitical crises and many other external costs.

Please urge your members of Congress to support HR 3037. Free our farmers and you, the consumers, to move toward a more sustainable economy.

from common dreams

We Americans are a bunch of head cases...

Study: U.S. Leads In Mental Illness, Lags in Treatment
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; Page A03
from Washingtonpost.com

One-quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within the past year, and fully a quarter of those had a "serious" disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day to day, according to the largest and most detailed survey of the nation's mental health, published yesterday.

Although parallel studies in 27 other countries are not yet complete, the new numbers suggest that the United States is poised to rank No. 1 globally for mental illness, researchers said.

Please read the whole article.

On the topic of mental function, ever wonder about those prescription drug commercials that suggest in their consumer disclaimers that some patients using a placebo displayed improvements in their health? Indeed some patients are effectively treated with a sugar pill... as in some patients convinced themselves that they are feeling better, and thus they "heal" themselves.

What if culture induces some forms of "sickness"? It is probably an understatement to suggest that modern society can be stressfull to an individual within that society. In the town I live in, I can find fancy liquor stores in every strip mall. Cigarette boxes line the selves surrounding the cashier at every gas station and food mart I enter. During the evening news, I am bombarded by pharmaceutical ads at every commercial break: Cialis, Viagra (stress can also minimize one's sexual behavior), and a myriad of drugs for hypertension, high cholesteral, and indigestion.

With all the drugs in our society, is it any wonder that Americans are losing their minds? I believe America has a drug problem, but our "mental illness" is the byproduct of our mind-numbingly dynamic modern culture. Individuals can experience burnout, but so can societies. Keep this in mind next time you flip on the television. Here you'll find a wonderful microcosm for the lifecycles of popular culture... just don't watch too much or your mind will go numb.

(no seriously, it will. read this)

for related thoughts, see also: Revolutions

Hemp Facts

from the Hemp Industry Association:

1) Hemp is among the oldest industries on the planet, going back more than 10,000 years to the beginnings of pottery. The Columbia History of the World states that the oldest relic of human industry is a bit of hemp fabric dating back to approximately 8,000 BC.

2) Presidents Washington and Jefferson both grew hemp. Americans were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic. The federal government subsidized hemp during the Second World War and US farmers grew about a million acres of hemp as part of that program.

3) Hemp Seed is far more nutritious than even soybean, contains more essential fatty acids than any other source, is second only to soybeans in complete protein (but is more digestible by humans), is high in B-vitamins, and is 35% dietary fiber. Hemp seed is not psychoactive and cannot be used as a drug. See TestPledge.com

4) The bark of the hemp stalk contains bast fibers which are among the Earth's longest natural soft fibers and are also rich in cellulose; the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in its inner woody core are called hurds. Hemp stalk is not psychoactive. Hemp fiber is longer, stronger, more absorbent and more insulative than cotton fiber.

5) According to the Department of Energy, hemp as a biomass fuel producer requires the least specialized growing and processing procedures of all hemp products. The hydrocarbons in hemp can be processed into a wide range of biomass energy sources, from fuel pellets to liquid fuels and gas. Development of biofuels could significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and nuclear power.

6) Hemp grows well without herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Almost half of the agricultural chemicals used on US crops are applied to cotton.

7) Hemp produces more pulp per acre than timber on a sustainable basis, and can be used for every quality of paper. Hemp paper manufacturing can reduce wastewater contamination. Hemp's low lignin content reduces the need for acids used in pulping, and it's creamy color lends itself to environmentally friendly bleaching instead of harsh chlorine compounds. Less bleaching results in less dioxin and fewer chemical byproducts.

8) Hemp fiber paper resists decomposition, and does not yellow with age when an acid-free process is used. Hemp paper more than 1,500 years old has been found. It can also be recycled more times.

9) Hemp fiberboard produced by Washington State University was found to be twice as strong as wood-based fiberboard.

10) Eco-friendly hemp can replace most toxic petrochemical products. Research is being done to use hemp in manufacturing biodegradable plastic products: plant-based cellophane, recycled plastic mixed with hemp for injection-molded products, and resins made from the oil, to name just a very few examples.

also check out

vote hemp

CRS Report for Congress (pdf: Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity