Month: June 2018

I have been meditating for the past 10 days. I aim to meditate at 9:30 pm every night, although that doesn’t always happen. I got home and meditated later than that after seeing Maps & Atlases and also last night after seeing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

I’m trying to exercise more which (partially) means exercising before work more. Which means more days where I need to wake up at 6 am. If I had to I could stay up late and wake up at 6 am basically every day. But the point of getting up at 6 am more often is for health. So if I’m going to do that, I want to do so while also maintaining 8 hours of sleep. That sure sounds easy, right? Not.

And so that means getting into bed around 9:30 pm. Except when I started attempting this routine, I would just get in bed and toss around for a few hours.

Hence, the meditation. And while I don’t feel like I get much out of it in the moment (although, while I’m new and don’t really understand it, I don’t think that’s the right way to think about it), or feel different overall, I have been having an easier time falling asleep by 10 pm than I was before meditating.

10 straight days down, we’ll see how long I can keep that streak alive and how long I can keep alive a streak of general repetition. Tonight is the first of two nights I’m staying with friends in Chicago and then next week I’ll be at my family’s cottage with a large group of friends for over a week. We’ll see how these changes to my overall routine impact the meditation routine.

Last night I watched the movie Gattaca. I had never heard of it until Scott Alexander wrote about it on his blog Slate Star Codex. I really enjoyed the movie although I think the message the filmmakers were going for was a bit hollow.

The premise: In a society where parents can control the genetics of their offspring, a non-genetically engineered man poses as a man with “high genes” to become an astronaut and fly to Titan.

Apparently, at its 1997 release it dramatically raised the visibility of a genetic engineering future. Today, I hear about trans-humanism fairly often (that’s also partially a result of running in weirdo-libertarian circles)

My attitude towards genetic engineering is that of my attitude towards pretty much all technology: sounds great, I’m sure there will be some downsides, but with enough time and trial & error individuals will put it to good use. While I think a society as depicted in Gattaca, where you can’t get a high-status job without high-status genes, is far-fetched, I could see the general thrust being true.

But I don’t think you’ll see employers taking peoples’ blood samples and running them through a computer (beep boop beep) to make decisions. You’ll still still be looking for who gets the job done best and, yes, genetics will help put people ahead in a lot of situations. But if genetics isn’t everything even in professional sports, I sure don’t see it being everything in astronautics. Or any other field.

You should read Scott’s blog post. If you’re terrified by the future presented in Gattaca, look around you for the similarities we hold today.

Last night I saw the band Maps & Atlases perform at Rock and Roll Hotel. They are a band I have followed a bit throughout their career. I like their second album Beware and Be Grateful so I was glad they played a bunch of songs from it. Earlier this month they released a new album Lightlessness Is Nothing New. I listened to it once yesterday before going to the show. I enjoyed one song but was not very impressed. They didn’t really focus on it during the concert and I was not exactly intrigued to listen to it much more. However, they put on an enjoyable performance.

They have been known as a “math rock” band, and that showed from the beginning as singer/guitarist Dave Davison showcased his tapping skills on guitar in the opening song. Drummer Chris Hainey also put on an impressive performance with a lot of power behind it. The crowd was largely stoic, although they got more energetic for Old & Gray / Fever.

The opening act, Prism Tats, was downright painful. But I guess that’s what you get for an opening act at a half-filled Tuesday evening concert.