Tag: future

Love

A Letter to the One

by Matt the Pioneer, posted in Uncategorized

Sometimes in life, you can go a long while, alone, adrift, detached, and without anyone to share your life with. Sometimes that can change though, and, in this case, change again. Back to the void. Back to emptiness, back to nothing at all, nothing at all forever, without love, there couldn’t be life. I had that happen to me with a woman I met from Switzerland. We encountered each other in a strange way, as all ways are, and we fell in love immediately. I remember our first meeting, where she was into poetry, and so was I. We both went to the same university, and she had on a toque, I love women with hats. We dated once a week for about six months before the cold steel of reality sent us on different paths, her into the unknown, and me one rung closer to hell.

Love tells us what we should and shouldn’t do.

               I liked that she was original, creative, intelligent, and both carefree and careful. She melted my heart at her attempts to make my life better, which she did from that day until this. On our third date, it was obvious that we would get married, we were going to make each others ever after that much better. We talked about our home countries, the nazi’s and everything in between. My life was constantly high, even though I was not, because I knew that given a few days I would see her again. Love is funny, it comes into our lives and never leaves, and it sure wouldn’t have if either of us had been the ones directing our own destiny. She was cute, and constantly happy. Fun to be with, including when we played tennis. I like to think I could spend the next hundred years looking forward to the morning each night when I go to sleep, if I could only wake up next to her.

Women are the best part about being a man.

               The Swiss don’t eat Greek Salad I learned, they mostly seem to eat squash. They also don’t like the nazi’s, but who does? I think history is determined by those who take action, not those who just ponder. So with that, I embark on a journey, how to win her back. I would love to hold her hand or gaze into her deep ocean blue eyes. I would love to go to Thailand with her by my side. I want a life filled with love, and hers sure was. Now that she has been gone a while, the journey might take a bit. I don’t actually know her last name, and to be honest, she wasn’t with her first. I have been so alone for so long and stuck in my ways, that I think it is time to change things up. I know I found my meaning in life, both work and love, but I only ever work and am lonely at the present. So join me if you want, in winning her back, I don’t know what will work, but I’ll start with a poem. As with any adventure, I could greatly fail, but failure is only failure if it stops the journey, the adventure is always there for those who wish to undertake it.

The adventure in life, is felt by loving every day.

               My first step on the journey is to get a job as a Front End Web Developer, I think that while give me some income which I can use to push aside my own failures, my own inadequacies. Why I postponed the journey though, is due to circumstances beyond my control, tomorrow though I shall embark, and hopefully I can find the woman I am in love with, even if it means leaving my comfort zone, even if it means risking it all, even if I fail, because those who never start, always fail to succeed. I never wish for love to fail in anyone, so why should I accept it in myself. Love is life’s point, love is the miracle you can experience everyday, so with that, I change, and I hope the rest, falls into place.

The Internet as a Means of Self Expression

by Matt the Pioneer, posted in Life, Technology

It is the year 2024, almost halfway through the decade. Within a month presents while be bought, gifts while be wrapped, alcohol while be drunk and the new year will arrive. With it comes the facts of this day and age, five billion people are online and have internet. Somewhere around four or more billion people have a smartphone with internet access, and more time is spent on the internet than watching cable television. The internet is a strange invention, you don’t just consume content like a television, newspaper, or book, but contribute back as easily as typing a YouTube comment or liking a Tweet. It allows humans from any culture, any society, and any background to not only browse the internet, but shape and form it as well.

The Internet can change interaction

What does it take to make an internet site? All, it takes is an internet connection and a computer; either Windows, Linux, or macOS, and time. You first need to figure out the basics of HTML, then, some CSS, and if you are feeling lucky you can dabble with JavaScript. HTML is the backbone of the web. It stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is an electronic document that can be sent from the server to the client (you). It uses tags which look like “<h1>This is a Heading</h1>” to enable the transfer of information to your web browser. CSS is the look and feel of the web, it is how you can style your website to look like a graphic artist’s dream or nightmare. It allows the structure of the internet (HTML) to look different by affecting the styling of HTML elements. JavaScript is the interactivity like Facebook’s infinite scroll newsfeed. That at its basics is all that is sent from the server to your internet browser. That is how the web works. That is the complexity and simplicity of the internet.

Can anyone create a website?

Anyways, back to the point of this blog post, if anyone can make a website and anyone can be online, what does it mean to express yourself as a individual human being in the modern age? Are we content to simply consume the web, or do we also want to contribute back? And, if we want to contribute back, with the rise of large tech companies, how do we know that we can without being inhibited by censorship from companies or states? What are the rules underpinning the internet?

Does self expression cost money?

Sure, it is great to imagine that anyone can be on Facebook, but, in actuality, is it possible to be banned? Is it possible to be blacklisted from Google? And does Twitter really need to change its name. Is it possible to release a CD on Spotify and it never be heard? Is it every one’s dream who spends time on YouTube to have their own YouTube channel, in theory that is great, but imagine this scenario: you develop a channel as large as Mr. Beasts only to be thrown aside by the YouTube algorithm over something controversial. And, if that is possible, who is to say it is done for a good reason, whether on YouTube or elsewhere, and if that can be done, is it being done as we speak? Right now, are there people who are banned from Facebook? Websites that are banned by Bing? Or even YouTube channels blacklisted for no good reason. Even if there is a good reason to ban someone, where does self-expression start, and censorship stop? What are the rules of the actuality of the internet?

If the rules aren’t known, how do we know they are being followed?

At the end of the day, the world of the web is managed by a few dozen large internet companies for the western English language web. The rules are often stipulated in their terms of service but those are long are complicated to read, even if they are read, are they what is actually followed or is there some element of the unknown involved. When you have poured your heart and soul into your chosen hobby and want to share it with the world, why should a corporation theoretically have the right to destroy your life and your means of individual self expression. With little to no court cases based around internet organizations blacklisting individuals or even small companies, we are left with two options: either they don’t ban people, or they do. If they don’t, how come? What are the actual rules of the world wide web. And, if they do, how is that building an open an inclusive society of the future. How is that respecting the rights of the individual and the whole of society.

The web is a fundamental human right

I believe, that if what we are aiming for with the internet is to build a better future than is possible without digital technology, then there needs to be some actual laws underpinning of human self-expression on the internet. If it were possible to establish such laws that all web sites must follow, then we would need to make sure that the laws are actually followed by every major web site. At the end of the day, there are laws that involve website cookies and internet privacy that are commonly followed on the web, but as our civilization goes online, I hope we can ensure no one gets left behind. With the dawn of the digital comes a change in how we live our lives and how we interact with each other. Individual self-expression is just as important as money, and our humanity needs to be respected as we express ourselves online and embark on the frontier of tomorrow.

Starting Fresh, Staying Motivated

by Matt the Pioneer, posted in Life, Technology

The destination is often not the goal, even though if the road is travelled upon for long enough, one eventually gets there. They say the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, and this is my first step in such a journey. I have decided to do something new, bold, unique, and I am done inflating my own ego, now, I promise. Instead I’ll simply describe to you my undertaking, it involves the word Meta Verse and may even include some programming of a Raspberry Pi. I have decided to start fresh, take a chance, gamble, and maybe even profit or at least have fun, not, again. In short, I have decided to start a company, although not a normal or boring company, not that many actually are when you are involved with them.

The challenge with strategic situations is you don’t always have the best strategy.

What this company does is attempt to create a sort of different version of a Meta Verse that I believe might become a different way of interacting with technology. The Meta Verse is often talked about in the news, but what is it actually, what defines it, and how will we know when we arrive at The Meta Verse? I’ll start with my opinion that there while be many Meta Verses each doing slightly different. There will for certain be one coming out of both Apple and Meta, they are both aiming for mixed reality and virtual reality. They most likely will succeed and I hope it changes the way we interact with technology, not only that, I hope it transforms our social interactions because despite all the technology in the world, when we actually hang out with other people, it tends to be the exact same as it has been for generations.

The Meta Verse is a collection of all possible Meta Verses.

It is always either meet at the bar, coffee shop, or over dinner. On the occasions where you do go to someone’s home the time spent is great but then it is mostly talking, and sometimes you run out of things to say. That is where the Meta Verse comes in, it solves the problem of how to socially interact with other people in meaningful ways. For instance, you could interact with each other while all at your own homes, be physically present, and be socially interactive. Sometimes it could be a simple game like Settlers of Catan only in Mixed Reality so that you have something in common to bond over. Other times it could be a gamified virtual reality game of truth or dare that bonds you together. By being able to encourage social interaction to be different than it ever has been is the real allure of a Meta Verse.

Being social, is being human

That is the type of company I am starting, a new way to interact socially, a common hobby that draws acquaintances to become friends and friends to become better friends. It is also a Meta Verse in the sense that it is digital but not in the sense that it needs a virtual reality headset. Instead it relies on another piece of technology to give that same level of immersion. Right now, I am about to launch its main page, so I won’t expand on that in this blog post.

Sometimes waiting, is caring.

Instead, I’ll say what I would like the version of the Meta Verse I am working towards to achieve, long term, when it is ready to launch. I hope it is able to make bridging the gap between being total strangers and being acquaintances as easy as possible, from there comes the start of friendship and with a common hobby that is not so hard to do. In short, I hope it is friendly enough (both the people and the technology) to allow better forms of communication than could exist without it.

Motivation is the bread and butter of starting a new company.

I also hope, that it is so much fun to pioneer in our version of the Meta Verse that it becomes one of those who have tried favorite ways of passing the time. I believe it could be, and now all that is required is to start, launch, and run it into that unforeseen future, knowing I could fail, again, but trying my best to succeed all the same. Wish me luck, or hate me, I don’t really care.

Sometimes when you start off liking someone, you end up loving them.

The Ebb And Flow Of Time

by Matt the Pioneer, posted in Life
As the eras dawn and fade, as time slips by in pace, as the past recedes, so does it change the course of history. Empires fall and grow, citizens become more liberal, and our human characteristics mostly remain the same, modified a bit by societal constrains. We don’t know where the future leads, for we are bound to the present and immune to the past. We don’t know if there will be times of despair or times of pleasantries, yet, one thing we know for sure, is that in the future we will bring with us the past, use the present, and remain human in doing along the way, for that is what we are, inventors, caretakers, lovers, and friends, capitalists, literate, and sometimes just odd men.
History is a repetition of individual days
To try and foresee the future, is a human fallibility, we know there will be one, we know one day we will see, that the future has evaded our grasp, and moved past the present to be someday soon. We know that time will continue marching on, although, what we don’t know, is how to increase the best possible chance, that the future will be the best possible future, from cities to space, political systems to society, engineering and the arts, we need to plan to get the best possible lucky break, a chance if you will, at becoming what we may. 
The luck we make, may in fact come through preparation
If we wish the future to be, more and more inline with contentment, prosperity, and what we hope, than someone or a group, must figure out how to plan for it all. How to plan for technology and the human condition, shifts in thinking to an epoch change, a discovery that remakes it all, to the plan of what to do with the land we know. In the distant future, we will be fueled by the past, so we should probably give it our best shot and bring together the brightest minds, we wish to arrive everyday into the future, with at least a good idea of how to make the best use of our resources.
No one knows for sure what the future may hold, perhaps we will undo the greats of history, perhaps we will arrive to a wave, a crest of innovation, a new governmental form for the people. How to implement all of those possibilities, is something I believe, humanity needs to study with its utmost care, invoke the brains of reason, the creatives of the mind, and get the people thinking, of what they would like humanity to become.
Never forget, there will be tomorrow too, the day before is always new
If we plan for the future, with all we got, perhaps that future will be more pleasant, a pathway to happiness and inspirational hope. I know that if we plan for as many certainties as possible, we will reach it no doubt. We will reach it and wonder, what comes next, for the tale of humanity is not a book you shut, it is not a book you put down, it is ongoing and eternal, it is the book of man and when the readers read, the past and present, we would like the book to get better as you flip through the pages, we would like for humanity to prosper and grow. So let us all help write the book, and we will all be grateful to those, who helped bring about the future when it sails through time, reaching us in the present with humanity at the high points of our lives.

The hardest part of planning, is writing something down.