Author Archives: Daedalus

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This post is a follow on from the previous one which used the word intelligence to denote the 5th force of the universe. For those that have just joined, here is the back story so far.

For the past 15 years, David Jones (a colleague who is also retired) and I have been meeting for lunch on a fortnightly basis. During these lunches we solve the world problems of the day and then settle on to cosmology. David has taken on the task of revising the ‘standard model’ of the Big Bang and I have been trying to expound my theory of there being a 5th force of the universe -- the force of intelligence.  This force is present at the fundamental level of quantum mechanics and is as pervasive as the forces of gravity and electromagnetism.

We come up against the usual problem of trying to describe new concepts using ordinary everyday language -- trying to give new meanings to old words. This was a problem that Ludwig Wittgenstein, an early 20th century philosopher, grabbled with and failed to succeed. He considered his philosophical works a waste of time, gave away his vast family wealth and became a reclusive and taught school in some remote part of Norway. He had a similar view of Bertrand Russell’s work, Principia Mathematica. Bertrand was Ludwig’s PhD supervisor at Cambridge.

Wittgenstein's view of philosophy was that it floundered at the meaning of words and the use of language. According to him, we communicate by using mental pictures of what we mean. We need those mental pictures in order to communicate. In trying to describe something new like the 5th force of nature, using words like consciousness or panpsychism or intelligence immediately brings a lot of baggage with it and different kinds of images in the mind of the listener. In order to free oneself from old images new words need to be coined and new mental pictures to go with them. 

A candidate word for the 5th force of the universe is LOGOS.  In ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology,  Logos  represented divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning. Its usage here in cosmology is free from the philosophical and religious contexts but does give it the flavour of a force of nature that has intelligence and consciousness properties, 

Drawing a picture of this 5th force of nature is challenging but it can be placed alongside the other forces in the table below:

 

We now come to the problem that Wittgenstein so clearly stated when it comes to describing something entirely new, “whereof we can not speak, we must pass on in silence.” And it is reminiscent  of the first few lines of the Tao Te Ching  “The TAO that can be spoken of is not the TAO itself. A description of the TAO would require a duplication of the TAO.”

LOGOS, the 5th force, embodies the total intelligence of the cosmos. It is the emergence of properties of matter from subatomic particles, quantum mechanics, to atoms, to molecules, composition of rocks, molecular biology of living things, stability of chaotic systems, the red spot of Jupiter, the lifting of consciousness to the rapture of poets, the feeling of awe and oneness with the universe. Its wonder and manifestations are one and the same.

Like gravity it operates at the cosmological level but it also operates at the quantum level. Does it explain the fundamental problem of the ‘observer effect’ in quantum physics -- the double slit experiment? When there is no observer, the atoms fired one at a time form the inference pattern of waves 

but when an observer is present, they form two bands as they pass through the slits  -- waves/particles..

The best mathematical description of LOGOS so far is that made by Wissner-Gross and his equation for intelligence: F = T ∇ Sτ. In his equation, F is a force that acts so to maximise future freedom of action. It acts with some strength, T with the diversity of possible accessible futures, S, up to some future time horizon, Tau. In the words of Wissner-Gross: “Intelligence should be viewed as a physical process that tries to maximise future freedom of action and avoids constraints in its own future.”

Like the diagram of the space-time continuum of Einstein, the force field of LOGOS encompasses the cosmos by connecting everything in a quantum  entanglement. 

We are accustomed to living in the electro-magnetic force field with sunlight, radio waves of all lengths, infrared (heat) waves, X-rays, microwave towers, bluetooth. We use electromagnetism in our electric motors, smartphones, computers and electric toothbrushes without giving them a second thought. The force field of LOGOS pervades our culture, the arts, our sciences and every aspect of our intellectual life. It is present from the quantum world to the vastness of the cosmos.  

It has been described that certain individuals like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are able to bend reality -- they are hooked into this force. This is probably how the mystics contemplated the universe from time immemorial. 

Maybe with the force of LOGOS we will not need dark energy and dark matter to prop up our current understanding of how the universe works.

That is LOGOS, the 5th force of the universe described in a nutshell. Having given the 5th force a word and some concepts, this becomes the beginning of the story and further discussions will evidently follow. (I can also hear the mutterings of dissent from the scholars of the Classics and maybe software programmers but hopefully they can see the problem of assigning the right word(s) to this force.)

Personally I’ll continue to use ‘the force of intelligence’ and sometimes consciousness when talking about the 5th force as outlined in the Table above. I also intend to go through the Tao Te Ching and pick out some insightful descriptions  for the 5th force of the universe.  

Now like Wittgenstein, it is time to “pass on in silence” 

Comments?

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In order to understand the significant of this question some background is required. During this lockdown period we have had an opportunity to reflect on our ‘essential priorities’ and the kind of world we would like to live in. It is not just a manner of going back to ’normal’ since that normal was not all that great for a large portion of humanity. We are also heading for a climate change disaster, there are huge income inequalities in most countries and the ‘for profit’ capitalism is not providing for the health and social requirements for a ‘just and fair society’.

The Back Story

Over the last 15 years or so, David Jones, a retired professor of microbiology and I have been meeting for lunches on a fortnightly basis during which we discuss the state of the world and contemplate the cosmos. David in his retirement has become interested in cosmology and the evolution of the universe and I would expound the idea of the fifth force of the universe, the force of intelligence. By and large we agree on the standard model of the four forces in the universe (the strong nuclear, the weak nuclear, the electromagnetic and the gravitational) and the overall outline of the Big Bang model of the universe.

David takes issues with many of the details of the Big Bang and the things that the model does not explain and proposes alternate scenarios to explain Black Holes, dark matter and the ‘flatness’ of the universe. I invoke the force of intelligence to explain how the universe works. I will let David explain his theory of cosmology in his own words in a future blog post, but I shall attempt to explain the force of intelligence in the following brief paragraphs.

The force of intelligence

Having a Taoist predisposition to seeing the universe as self-organising and naturally flowing along intelligence lines, the universal law of intelligence proposed by Wissner-Gross  seemed imminently sensible. He proposed the equation:

F = T ∇ Sτ to explain this new fundamental force. In the equation, F is a force that acts so to maximise future freedom of action. It acts with some strength, T with the diversity of possible accessible futures, S, up to some future time horizon, τ (Tau). In short, intelligence maximises future freedom of action and keeps options open. It not only correlates with the production of long-term entropy, but actually emerges directly from it. The force carrier is the intelligon (my notation) much like the photon is for electromagnetism.


The results of the force intelligence are to maximise the future freedom of action and keeps options open. We cultivate open minds not because we are liberal or conservative, young or old, but because we understand intuitively that it is a matter of survival—physically, emotionally and intellectually—to maximise access to future possibilities. This occurs at all levels of biology, the physical and the cosmological world.

We as humans have a high level of consciousness and are sometimes awe-struck as we look up at the universe and are moved to feel at One-With-The-Universe. We can at first hand have the experience of the force of intelligence. Intelligons are the force carriers of this and carry information between things and how to behave. As photons give us light, intelligons are the information. (Here is where we encounter difficulties in using commonly used words to describe new and novel ideas. This is why the use of the language of mathematics is easier — but then we are not mathematicians. But indulge me for awhile and suspend your preconceived ideas and the ordinary meanings of the words.) At present we have no ways of measuring the force of intelligence and it is only recently that gravity waves (gravitons) have been detected but there are manifestations of the force of intelligence all around us from cityscapes to molecular biology.

From our understanding of the weak and strong nuclear forces and the electromagnetic force we have created not only destructive nuclear weapons but all manner of wondrous electronic devices that turn night into day and project images and information around the world. With internet connectivity we can link all of humanity into an interacting — dare I say an intelligent entity. As an aside, it is interesting that Issac Newton, a Trinity College student at Cambridge was sent home to continue his studies during the 17th century Black Plague pandemic. During this ’social distancing’ he used his time wisely and worked on the theory of gravity,



Intelligent systems

The earth has often been described as a Goldilock planet. It has the right proximity to a star allowing liquid water; is a rocky planet; has the ability to support an atmosphere neither too thick or too thin; has a magnetosphere strong enough to protect the atmosphere from Solar Wind stripping; temperatures that change not too little and not too much from night to day; diversity of life creating a food chain; tidal action from a large moon; a stable central star; an atmosphere with an ozone layer; both land and water on a surface with more water than land.

James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis in the 1970s developed the Gaia Hypothesis which conceived of the earth as a self-regulating system. The idea of a world having a planetary Logos, is ancient and is found in both Eastern and Western cultures. Gaia is usually conceived as a "formative force," an active, intelligent, purposeful presence at work in the material world to guide and guard the course of planetary evolution — the force of intelligence.



The story so far

The first human ancestors appeared between five million and seven million years ago, probably when some apelike creatures in Africa began to walk habitually on two legs. They were flaking crude stone tools by 2.5 million years ago. Then about two million years ago some of them spread from Africa into Asia and Europe. Then about 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged. In a relatively short period of time humans have taken dominion over the planet and we are now living in the Anthropocene period. This geological age can be viewed as the period during which human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment. This is not good news since human activity is causing the deterioration of the environment through depletion and pollution of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and habitats; the extinction of wildlife species; ocean acidification; global warming; ozone depletion — the list goes on.

Where does Covid-19 fit in?

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 and has since caused a large scale Covid-19 pandemic that has spread to 70 countries. The first known coronavirus to cause severe illness in 2003 was know as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) emerged from China after humans contracted the virus after direct exposure to civets. A second outbreak occurred in Saudi Arabia and became known as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) after direct exposure to camels. SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to a bat coronavirus but there is no evidence of direct bat to human transmission. There are suggestions that intermediate hosts such as pangolins or civets or ferrets were involved. This leaves the possibility that future outbreaks of illness causing strains of the virus could be circulating in animal populations and could once again jump into humans.

The conditions of the ‘wet’ markets in China where several species of animals are kept alive in cages under very stressful conditions provided ideal conditions for animal cross-infections. These are man-made profit-orientated situations that should be banned as bad practice and made illegal. The coronavirus in bats probably only causes a mild illness and may be useful for bats in combating predators which may intrude on their ecology.

YES

Is Covid-19 a cosmological event? The answer is YES. Habit destruction and the extinction of wildlife species has been a key factor in the emergence of Covid-19 as well as HIV in West Africa and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These actions can be seen as going against Gaia, the active, purposeful presence of the force of intelligence at work. When a society doesn’t invest in a sound healthcare system with safety nets for the underprivileged, protective equipment for emergencies, etc it will reap the results of those decisions.

YES, we will eventually be able to control Covid-19 using drugs and vaccines. But it will take years to repair the economic and social damage. YES, we will still be susceptible to the next pandemic virus emerging from wild animals.

YES, Covid-19 has caused us to pause in a global lockdown and forced to think about what is essential in life post-Covid-19. There is not a simple way to reset things to what they were before because things were not that good before Covid-19. During this pandemic governments were finding funds for healthcare, innovations in education and communications, wage subsidies towards a universal living wage and social support. Why not for a better future?

YES, even global companies such as Amazon, Google and Apple will need to reconsider their bottom-lines; it can not only be for profits and that they must have a social responsibility as well.

AND after Covid-19 we still have the problems of climate change.

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From Shawn Stevenson

Notes

#1. Fill a need

  • what's an area that is lacking in my space?
  • what's a need that's not being adequately met?
  • Is there an area in my space that I can innovate?

#2. Operate at the macro level

  • structure
  • delivery
  • episode length
  • days per week

#3. Operate at the micro level

#4. Utilize cooperitition

#5. Be Captain consistency

#6. Provide an incredible amount of value

#7. BE YOURSELF

  •  the weird, quirky things about yourself
  •  you have something special to offer

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This video is from the science of HIV.

This blog post is about the life cycle of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) that illustrates the need to add another universal force to the current four (strong and weak nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational) namely: Intelligence. That intelligence operates at all levels, including the cosmological. It does not require consciousness or life. It is the anti-entropy force that leads to complexity and the evolution of everything within the universe.

One usually doesn’t think of viruses as having intelligence. Intelligence is more usually associated with animals that have complex brains and nervous systems. In a previous blog post I used the example of a simple bacterial RNA virus, MS2 as an example of the intelligent behaviour of a string of 3569 RNA nucleotides wrapped in a protein shell. I explained how the virus used the ‘noise’ (error-rate) of ribosome translation to orchestrate the timing, the order and quantity of its gene expression. (The flip-side of what is normally considered to be entropy or chaos.)

The life-cycle of HIV is much more complex and with the aid of an animation (see above) we can visualise the interactions of its many components with that of the cell in the life cycle — the manifestation of intelligence at the molecular level..

The back story to HIV

Back in ’60’s Howard Temin, as a research postgraduate student,  worked on an RNA tumour virus, Rous Sarcoma Virus. This virus causes tumours in chickens. Using tissue culture cells, he observed that mutations in the virus caused structural changes in the infected cell. He proposed in his PhD thesis that this RNA virus replicated via a DNA ‘provirus’. This upset the widely held belief at the time of the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology of Watson and Crick -- that the sequence of information flows from DNA to RNA to protein and never from RNA or protein to DNA.

In 1969, Temin showed that RNA tumor viruses carried the enzymatic ability to reverse the flow of information from RNA back to DNA using reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase was also independently and simultaneously discovered in association with the murine leukemia virus by David Baltimore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1975, Baltimore and Temin shared the Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine. This group of viruses containing the enzyme reverse transcriptase were classified as retroviruses among which HIV is an important member.

The discovery of reverse transcriptase is one of the most important of the modern era of medicine,  Reverse transcriptase is the central enzyme in several widespread viral diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis B. Reverse transcriptase is also an important component of several important techniques in molecular biology, such as the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and diagnostic medicine.

This animation, as well as giving the general public some idea of how HIV replicates, illustrates the awe-inspiring molecular intelligence of this virus and is an example of the force of intelligence at work in the universe.

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A 'community town hall type meeting' was held on September 17th, 2017 in the St David Lecture, University of Otago to discuss daisy drive technology. The meeting was chaired by Professor Gemmell who leads the Trojan female technique for NZ pest control.

Kevin Esvelt

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Kevin Esvelt

Kevin presented a talk which illustrated the technology of daisy chain drive in lay terms and invited the public to become involved and to share their suggestions, concerns, and criticisms. How should this technology be tested for safety and stability? Where should field tests take place and how should they be monitored?

This open and community-responsive development approach is planned to be the polar opposite of the traditional closed-door strategy used for engineered crops. He left the audience with the following points to consider as pros and cons.

Daisy drive: reasons in favour
- humane: no poisons required
- local and species-specific
- open, community-guided research
- already committed to removing invasive rodents
- success would ultimately eliminate engineered genes
- development doesn’t mean agreeing to deployment

 Daisy drive: reasons against
- mostly theoretical
- unclear how to test spread and stability in the lab
- hard to predict outcomes of ecological change
- genetic control may have international complications
- some object to genome engineering
- may conflict with Maori values or be unsuitable for other reasons

Kevin emphasized the high risks that  New Zealand might face from the international community who may impose non-tariff trade barriers or from individuals who might seek to illegally introduce genetically modified animals into their own country. He cited the example of the illegal introduction of rabbit calicivirus from Australia to New Zealand in 1997.

For further information, see the Responsive Science website for New Zealand predator-free.

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The Department of Conservation has set a target for New Zealand to become pest free by 2050. This includes mice, rats, stoats, rabbits and possums. This is very unlikely to be achieved using the conventional methods of poisons, diseases, traps, shooting or other such methods. 

Previous posts have described the use of genetic drives to control pest populations (Trojan Female Technique) and CRISPR global gene drives. 

However, as Kevin Esvelt explains:  "the problem with current CRISPR-based gene drive systems is that they can spread indefinitely. That means releasing a handful of organisms could eventually affect every population of the target species throughout the world. It's unclear how these systems can be safely tested.

Standard drive systems spread indefinitely because a single piece of DNA encodes the desired alteration, the CRISPR system, and instructions to cut the original DNA sequence. In cells that produce sperm or eggs, CRISPR cuts the original version, causing the drive construct to be copied in its place. All of the organism's offspring will inherit a copy, editing will happen again in the offspring, and the process repeats until the drive system has spread through most or all of the population.

In daisy-chain drive systems, the CRISPR components are split up and scattered throughout the genome so that none of them can be copied on its own. Though physically separated, they're functionally arranged in a linear daisy-chain: element C causes element B to drive, and element B causes element A to drive.

Element C doesn't drive, so its abundance is limited by the number of daisy drive organisms released.  Natural selection will gradually eliminate C from the population. That means B will initially increase in abundance, then decline and vanish. In turn, A will increase even more rapidly, but eventually will run out of B and disappear -- as explained in the video above."

For more on Daisyfield Gene Drive Systems

A Community Meeting to discuss Daisy Drive Technology is being held in Dunedin, New Zealand on September 17th, 2017 at which Kevin Esvelt is the keynote speaker. More about this event after the 17th.

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The development of a new genetic system called the ’Trojan Female Technique” (TFT) will make it possible to tackle certain pest control problems and to use them to make NZ pest-free. 

What is the Trojan Female Technique?

‘Trojan females’ carry mutations in their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that affect male, but not female reproductive fitness. They reproduce more female Trojan descendants and sterile males. From modeling, single large releases and relatively few small repeat releases of Trojan females can provide effective and persistent control within relatively few generations. They are also effective even when pest numbers are low.

A world-first proof-of-concept was reported in a recent paper published in eLife by Professor Gemmell and his colleagues of the Anatomy Department, University of Otago.

Prof Gemmell said that the Trojan female technique has several advantages in that it does not require elaborate genetic techniques, delivery systems, special vectors or intermediate hosts. Also it was ‘natura’l and species-specific. It would be possible to carry out experiments in controlled enclosures or small islands to ensure that there is no harm to other wildlife. 

In 2016 the Department of Conservation has set a target for New Zealand to become pest free by 2050. This includes mice, rats, stoats, rabbits and possums. This is very unlikely to be achieved using the conventional methods of poisons, diseases, traps, shooting or other such methods. 

For more about genetic tools for a pest-free NZ, see previous post on CRISPR.

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There are numerous protests about Trump. I was impressed by Michael Moore's call to action on his Facebook page --  creative dissent at its best and a template for the organizing of any other  kind of public protest. (From the Huffington Post)

Do These 10 Things, and Trump Will Be Toast

10-POINT ACTION PLAN TO STOP TRUMP

1. THE DAILY CALL: You must call Congress every day. Yes - YOU! 202-225-3121. It will take just TWO MINUTES! Make it part of your daily routine, one of those five things you do every morning without even thinking about it:

1. Wake up.

2. Brush teeth.

3. Walk dog (or stare at cat).

4. Make coffee.

5. Call Congress.

It is impossible to overstate just how much power you have by making this simple, quick DAILY CALL. I know from firsthand experience the impact it has. These politicians freak out if they get just 10 calls on an issue. Imagine them getting 10,000! Holy crap - the dome will pop off that building!

NOTE: if you're saying to yourself, "I don't need to call because my rep is a Democrat!" -- that is NOT true. They need to hear from you. They need to know they have your support. Don't believe it? Our beloved Sen. Elizabeth Warren voted in favor of Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development! I'm sure no one in Massachusetts thought they had to call her. YOU DO! She and the other Dems need to hear from the boss -- YOU! They work for us - and what boss doesn't have daily contact with his or her employees?

It's easy to make The Daily Call. To call your U.S. member of Congress or Senators in D.C., dial 202-225-3121 (or 202-224-3121 if busy). It's even better to call their direct line. For Senators, find each of their numbers here: http://bit.ly/2kko0Ao. For the direct line to your member in the House of Representatives: http://house.gov/representatives. 

Here’s some great news: Someone has created an app to make this very easy: Go to the App Store and get "5 Calls". The app will dial the friggin' phone for you and give you talking points for when you speak to your reps!

Here's what a sample week of your DAILY CALL can look like:

On Monday, call your Congressman/woman and tell them you do not want them to repeal Obamacare. In fact, you want them to improve it so that we have single-payer universal health care like all other "civilized" countries.

On Tuesday, call the first of your two U.S. Senators and tell him to vote NO on Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy. He couldn't even remember there was a Department of Energy - or what it did!

On Wednesday, call your other U.S. Senator. Demand she do everything in her power to block the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Thursday, call your local State House/Assembly representative in your state capital. Tell her you want the House to vote for legislation that prohibits the incarceration of nonviolent drug users.

On Friday, call your State Senator. Tell him you want him to support all efforts to reduce those activities which cause climate change.

If you’d rather to write to your reps, you can find the best way to do that for each of them here by typing in your address on: democracy.io.

I will post updates on the actions we're fighting for each day and week on my Twitter and Facebook pages. If you want to know what to call your reps about, I encourage you to follow me right now on Facebook at facebook.com/MMFlint and on Twitter at @MMFlint. All my social media sites are at my website www.michaelmoore.com.

Remember -- A call a day keeps the Trump away.

2. THE MONTHLY VISIT: To add even more pressure, SHOW UP! Your member of Congress has a local office in your town or somewhere nearby. So do both of your U.S. Senators (often in the nearest federal building). Go there and ask to speak to their aide about the issues we're facing (again, I will continually post them on my social media sites).

Also, don't forget to visit the local office (or the state capitol office) of your State Representative/Assemblyperson, and your State Senator.

And, if you're lucky to live within driving distance of Washington, DC, show up on Capitol Hill and pay an unannounced (it's legal!) in-person visit to your U.S. Senators and your Congressman/woman. They pay serious attention to this. It blows their mind that you'd drive that far to see them. Do it!

I know not everyone has the time to do THE MONTHLY VISIT -- but if you can, please do!

3. YOUR OWN PERSONAL RAPID RESPONSE TEAM: You and 5 to 20 friends and family members must become your personal RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. Sign everybody up so that when we need to leap into action (like we did at the airports the hour after Trump signed his Muslim Ban), you can email and text each other and make an instant plan. On other days, you'll share links to good investigative stories and TV news items. Come up with a name for your RAPID RESPONSE TEAM -- mine is called "The V for Vendetta Rapid Response Team" and it consists of myself, my daughter and son-in-law (and their new baby!); my two sisters, their spouses and adult children; my cousin; 8 friends; 6 co-workers; and my next door neighbor. That's 27 of us and we live from Seattle to Michigan to Maryland. And each of them are forming their own local Rapid Response Teams. So that means the 27 on my team are so far responsible 405 new Rapid Responders overnight! And each of those 405 are doing the same - they're recruiting their own 5-20 people - and BOOM! 4,050 more Rapid Responders tomorrow -- and growing!

4. JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!: We all know it's time for all of us to be part of a greater whole, so let's actually physically sign up online and JOIN some of our great national groups. I've joined Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and ERA Action. Some charge money to join, so if you don't have much, pick the lowest amount ($5 for ACLU for example) -- or join groups that don't charge anything (but if you can help them financially, please do). They will keep you informed of national actions and fight for us in court.

5. THE WOMEN'S MARCH NEVER ENDS: The historical, record-breaking January 21st Women’s March on Washington -- and the hundreds of other Marches that day across the US and the world, with over 4 million in attendance! -- brought massive numbers of people out who had never protested in their lives. It inspired millions of others and ignited so many local movements we still can't count them all. The day after the Women's March, another two dozen protests took place. The day after that, 2,000 Utahans jammed into their state capitol in Salt Lake City. Then, on the following Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans occupied their local airports to oppose Trump's Muslim ban. And on and on and on. Every day -- still! -- dozens of actions continue to take place as if the Women's March never ended. It hasn't. Join it!

I and a group of friends have set up THE RESISTANCE CALENDAR (www.resistancecalendar.com) that is updated daily, where you can find out what actions are taking place near where you live. All you have to do is type in your city or state in the search bar.

It's critical that large numbers of us continue to march, protest, sit-in, and be very visible -- to Trump, so he knows we are the majority; to put the Dems on notice that we expect them to grow a spine; to our fellow Americans who live in Boise or Tulsa or Grand Rapids and have been feeling alone and afraid since the election. Our mass presence reminds them the people didn't elect Trump. And it is good for each of us to operate in concert with each other, to feel the solidarity and the hope.

And the official Women's March on Washington -- they've called for a national Women's Strike on March 8th. Let's join them!

6. TAKE OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The old guard of the Party has twice in 16 years presided over the majority of Americans electing the Democrat to the White House -- only for us all to see the losing Republican inaugurated as President. How is it that we have won the popular vote in SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS -- the Republicans have only won ONCE since 1988 -- and yet, we hold NO power in any branch of government?! That, plus losing 1,000 local seats in this election that the Dems use to hold -- plus watching many Dems in Congress unwilling to stand up to Trump -- PLEASE, the old leadership has to go. God love 'em for their contributions in the past, but if we don't enact a radical overhaul right now, we are doomed as far as having a true opposition party during the Trump era. And that, more than anything, will help to usher in the vice-grip of a totalitarian culture.

You must do two things:

1. Let the DNC know that THIS SATURDAY, February 25th, the Democratic National Committee MUST elect reform and progressive candidate, Congressman Keith Ellison, as the new DNC chair. Keith is a former community organizer, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and a key backer of Bernie Sanders. He not only has Bernie's support --and mine--but he's also backed by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Gloria Steinem, John Lewis and many others. Sign his petition of support at www.keithfordnc.org/howyoucanhelp. Let the DNC know how you feel.

And locally, you need to start attending your county Democratic meetings. If possible, organize your friends and others and take over your local Dem organization. More on this at a later date.

7. HELP FORM BLUE REGIONS OF RESISTANCE: People keep saying to me, "Mike - I live in a Blue State - what can I do?" If you live in a Blue State, you have one of the MOST important tasks to complete: Show the rest of America what it looks like when Trump isn't in charge! Blue States and Blue Cities must do an end-run around Trump and create the America we want to live in. That means New York goes ahead and offers Free College for All. California can create its own Universal Health Care. Oregon can stop mass incarceration of African Americans. Hawaii can enact its own climate change laws. Blue States can show the rest of country how much better life can be. Important historical note: Before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, California and New York passed their own state laws to make it legal. This greatly helped pave the way for CHOICE being the new normal -- and the enactment of Row v. Wade.

8. YOU MUST RUN FOR OFFICE: I know, that's the LAST thing you want to do. But if we keep leaving the job up to the dismal, lame, pathetic political hacks who have sold us all down the river, then what right do we have to complain? This is only going to get fixed when you and I decide we are willing to put in our time -- even if it is a brief time -- and run for office. I ran when I was 18 and got elected. You can, too. We need good candidates for the 2018 elections -- and not just Congress and State Houses, but also school boards, city councils and county commissions. Why not take out a petition today and run next year? Heck, I'll bet I'll even support you!

I realize most of you can't do this -- but there is one office every one of us can and SHOULD run for next year: PRECINCT DELEGATE. Every precinct, every neighborhood can elect x-number of Dems to the county Democratic Convention. It's on the ballot and it's usually blank - no one runs for it. So the precinct delegates end up being appointed by the party hacks. And that's who ends up eventually at the national convention to pick the next presidential candidate. So this is an important position to run for. The time commitment is just 3 hours a year! You attend the county convention -- that’s it. Call your city or county clerk and find out how to get on the ballot. If you'll do it, I'll do it. It's the first step to making sure we put a candidate on the ballot who can win.

9. YOU MUST BECOME THE MEDIA: Stop complaining about the media, stop wishing they were something they're not, find the ones who are doing a good job and then start your own "media empire" by sharing their work and your work on the internet. Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and information. Make sure all your friends and family are signed up. Yes, I'm talking to you, Baby Boomers. Get over it, put down your postage stamps and your "TV clicker" and find a six-year old to show you how to start tweeting. You can be your own reporter, your own editor. You can curate the news for your friends. And now Facebook lets you have your own network with Facebook Live! It's all free. Get on social media now. Imagine, your own CNN is in the palm of your hand...

10. JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY: Trump's Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can't take mockery. So we all need to MOCK HIM UP! Not just the brilliant people at SNL or Colbert, Seth Myers or Samantha Bee -- but YOU. Use your sense of humor and share it with people. Get them to do the same. Keep sending around the SNL links spoofing Sean Spicer, Trump and Kellyanne -- there's no such thing as watching them too many times! Hahaha. I truly believe the final tipping point for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter -- the mocking, the unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate him and force him out of the White House. I know this seems like Mike’s fever dream, but I believe it can work. I don't know what happened to Trump in boarding school at 13 and I don't care. Whatever it was, let's use it. He's used all the other things he picked up over the years - misogyny, bigotry, greed - against the powerless and the unfortunate. It's time to laugh him outta town. And if there's one thing we all could use right now is a good laugh -- AND the possibility of a much-shortened presidential term.

So, there you go! The 10-Point Action Plan to Thump Trump. Something for everyone. And every one of us needs to do them. Please share this and spread the word. We can stop him. We can nonviolently block and obstruct halt the damage he's doing. But it's going to need -- and take -- ALL HANDS ON DECK!

Let's make Trump toast again.

-- Michael Moore

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us-election

Genopolitics is the study of the genetic basis of political behavior and attitudes.

The election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States could not pass without comment or analysis. The map above tells me that there was something more than politics going on — it is a map of fear. A threat felt by middle-America that the world is changing and that they are being left behind with no jobs and no future. This fear was fanned by Trump into the flight or fight response — a heritable conservative human trait -- hence genopolitics. Do liberals and conservatives think differently or have different brains — the answer is: YES.  (See previous posts: My Genes Made Me Do It).

There is something of a consensus regarding the genetic nature of human traits -- the so-called OCEAN classification -- Openness: (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious Conscientiousness: (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless)  Extraversion: (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)  Agreeableness: (friendly/compassionate vs. analytical/detached)  Neuroticism: (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident).  For more on this, see the previous posting on  Me, Myself and Us by Brian Little. Furthermore, specific studies on the political behavior of twins has shown that political affiliations are significantly influenced by genetics. Settle et al, showed "that heritability accounts for almost half of the variance in strength of partisan attachment, suggesting [that] we should pay closer attention to the role of biology in the expression of important political behaviors". 

What are the candidate genes? A round-up of the usual suspects: monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), the serotonin transporter (5HTT), the dopamine receptors (DRD2) and (DRD4). Using a genome-wide linkage analysis, it will be possible to identify other chromosomal regions associated with political attitudes. In particular, neuroscientific analysis has shown that in Liberal vs Conservative brains, there are differences in their amygdala, the part of the brain that makes emotional responses.  Research has shown that people’s whose basic emotional responses to threats are more pronounced,  develop ring wing opinions.

Liberal vs. Conservative: A Neuroscientific Analysis by Gail Saltz. Watch the first 4 minutes to get the gist of the analysis -- it is 15 minutes long.
 

Finally the Clinton campaign depended on genopolitics of the most fundamental kind — that women would vote for Hillary because they were women.