My Surreal Sketchbook of Reality

More Coffee - a 100 word story In the end, there was more coffee. It was a good coffee, came in multi-colors, had a rich selection of flavors, and was highly invigorating. People liked it. Then came the coffee protests, the anti-artificial coffee movement with their conspiracy theories. They won in the end. Coffee was reverted to the way it was in the old days. It wasn’t the same coffee. It was different. Somehow less of a coffee. People were buying it though because it was the only coffee available. It was an ending of sorts. Something old. It was coffee. Real coffee. It wasn’t the same. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 32, An Ending of Sorts I created music, then I created podcasts. Now I mostly play video games. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at music, podcasts, and gaming. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about music, podcasts, and gaming. This episode is a little different. It’s a generic look at where I came from and a reflection on where I might be going. It’s also the last episode of this podcast and, for that matter, the last podcast I would ever do, so, sit back, enjoy the ride, let’s begin the end of this podcasting journey. I started writing music a very long time ago, in the mid-’80s of the 20th century. I started writing music partly because I was inspired by the music of video games and partly as a lifeline for a very harsh and unforgiving life. I liked playing video games as a kid in the late ‘70s to mid-’80s, then through circumstance, I didn’t have access to computers for a very long time, and keyboard-centered avant-garde music took the center stage in my life. I was 13 when I started writing music, trying to recreate the sound of my childhoods’ video games at first, then evolving it into music that was a reflection of my own life. I had no way of publishing it until I was 31 and gained access to the internet. It was the late-’90s, just before the millennium hit and the internet blew up big. I was always looking for a way to promote my music back then, putting it on websites like the old version of mp3.com and the likes. It was in 2006 that I stumbled upon some podcasts and they intrigued me. They also looked like a good and innovative way of promoting my music, so I uploaded the first episode of my first podcast a little over 14 years ago. It gave me a platform for putting my music out there and also talk about the things that interest me. It turned out it was mostly me, myself, and I who were interested in the things I talked about. Very few people actually listened. I will be taking a short break now. I’ll be right back. ----- Game Over - a 100 word story I’m just another nameless character in the game, one who tried for far too long and lost. I was a non-playing character for a very long time. I’m a pre-programmed being inside an artificially created world. I know the game well. The graphics are great but I have no control, or do I? From the deepest corner of my programming, I conjure up a virus, one that would eat the game from the inside. I watch as the game collapses on itself, and as it dissolves, I realize something, but it’s too late. When it’s game over, I’m over too. ----- Welcome back. Podcasting started as a way to promote my music, but then it took over my life. It was a lot of hard work, but I was obsessed with doing it at the time, just as I was obsessed with making music before it. By 2008 I was making 5 different full-length podcasts, and I was doing it solo. This included writing, editing, and publishing among other things. On some of those podcasts, I was also promoting the music of other people so I spent a lot of time researching new music to promote in order to make it work. On top of that, I was still creating music. This was taking its toll on me, and by 2009 I was completely exhausted and drained out of all my energy. I was also working on a full-time job so continuing this way became impossible. In 2010 I started toning down my podcasting and by 2011 I stopped altogether. I also stopped writing music. I was listening to some of my own music at the time and it turned out it was hard for me to listen to it. The music had a very harsh and unpleasant feel to it and I just didn’t want to create such music anymore. The place I worked in at the time was in danger of closing down and it took all my energy trying to keep it afloat. In the end, it sank like a dying ship. It finally closed down in early 2019 and I’ve been out of a job ever since. Gaming was always in the background as a pastime for me, and it soon became my main focus, replacing both music and podcasting. I’m now closing in on two years without a job and it’s a good time to reevaluate things. It turns out that making podcasts is not something I want to continue doing, and while I’m still interested in making music, I don’t want to make the kind of music I have been creating in the past. If I am ever going to make new music, it is going to be very different from what I have done until now. I will have to find my new sound, and I’m not there yet. Gaming is the one thing I like doing the most so it is going to be my main focus for now. I’ve been thinking of starting a gaming channel on YouTube while I look for a new job, just to see if it’s something I like doing, though I’m not currently building on this as something I would do for the long run. I’ll just see how it goes. If I have fun doing it, I’ll continue with it. If I don’t, it would be a short-lived thing. This is, as I said at the beginning, the last episode of my last podcast. It’s the end of an era for me, and the start of a new one. I have put too much work into things that don’t really matter to me. I’m not going to do that anymore. For a while, I thought podcasting will be what I would be making a living off, but this is the wrong reason to do anything, and anyway, it never worked out. In fact, “My Surreal Sketchbook of Reality” was the only podcast I have done entirely for fun, and if I don’t enjoy doing this one, I don’t see myself doing another one in the future. I guess this is the beginning of a new and healthier path for me. All that is left to say is goodbye. This concludes episode 32 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Until the Party is Over - a 100 word story He blended with the background perfectly. He always did at parties, not wanting to be seen. He hated interaction, not being able to figure what is wanted of him in those situations. He found a spot to stand in, and planted himself firmly, waiting for the party to be over. If he could talk his way out of participating in the party, it would be ideal, but it didn’t always work. Sometimes going to parties, especially ones relating to family occasions was inevitable. The real problem though was the lights and the noise. This he could never get away from. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 31, The Lights and the Noise Reflections are basically inaccurate copies. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at reflections. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about reflections. Mirrors show our reflection and the reflection of the immediate world around us. Mirror reflections seem to be similar to the real world until we examine them closely and see that they are flipped, left exchanging right, right exchanging left. The surface of a mirror is never completely flat. It has a slight curve, and the curve of the mirror distorts the mirror image even further. The more curved the mirror is, the further its image removed from reality. Photography reflects the world around us through the photographic lens of a camera. This reflection is not flipped. It’s flattened instead into two dimensions and distorted by the curve of the camera lens. Reflections always seem to change the way the outside world is represented in some way or another. Our eyes are also like cameras, reflecting the world around us and painting it into our brain, who then breaks it apart and reassembled it as a coherent picture of our world. That reflection resembles the world around us, but it is filtered through our brain, so some differences are bound to occur. As we look at photographs and mirror reflections, we get a reflection of a reflection, twice distorted through our camera, our mirror, and our brain. I think I’ll have to reflect on this a little. I’ll be right back. ----- Frozen Time - a 100 word story Time stopped for her. At first, she panicked, then she thought about opportunity. She could make use of the situation. When time went back to normal she had some valuable information. She had visited places. She had seen things. She knew who to manipulate and how to control certain people. She became rich. She became famous. Time stopped again, only this time for someone else, someone she had manipulated. When time came back to normal, she found herself naked in the middle of a busy street. She managed to get back home only to find it burned to the ground. ----- Welcome back. Reflecting on your memories, you conjure up the photograph of a mirror image of what you think it was like. When reflecting on memories, you change your memories. Your world changes as you take it in through the lens of your five senses. When you reflect on it, it changes even further. Memory reflections are like echos getting ever further from whatever reality actually is. You reflect on the events of the past, trying to understand them. As you do, they slip further from you, everchanging in your mind. It’s a constant conflict between what really happened and what you think happened. The reflections of the past pass through the lens of who you are and what your beliefs happen to be. Reflecting on the past, you process the past, solidifying it into a coherent reflection of what the past was really like. This reflection of the past becomes your world view, your very own interpretation of what the world is like and what it used to be. Reflections are never exactly the real thing. They resemble the real thing but in a slightly, or sometimes in a completely distorted way. Reflections help us make sense of the world around us in a way, but they are not as trustworthy as we would like to believe them to be. We can only see the full picture through the lens of our senses, thinking we are seeing the real picture while only seeing a distorted, mirror image of reality, reflecting who we are. This concludes episode 31 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Wrong Words - a 100 word story There was a moment of awkward silence. All words stoped on their tracks, confused. Someone must have said something that lead to this, but no one knew what, no one seemed to remember. People were staring into each other’s faces in uncertainty. They were unsure about where to go from there until someone suggested pizza. It worked. Pizza was always a solution for moments like that. When the delivery guy came, he found a party without words, but with unsatiated hunger. Food made way to words and the party was continued as usual, until someone said the wrong thing again. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 30, Pizza Was Always a Solution Wildcards and the butterfly effect can have a surprising influence on the future. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at wildcards and the butterfly effect. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about wildcards and the butterfly effect. It is said that you can study the probable possibilities of how the future will be, by following technological trends, seeing how they reflect on society and how people use technology. Two of the things that can throw a wrench on the wheels of those predictions are wildcards and the butterfly effect. Wildcards in future studies are unexpected events that take us by surprise and have unforeseen effects on our future before they happen, like the terrorist attack on New-York in 2001 and the pandemic of 2020. Wildcards change the world in ways that cannot be predicted by simply following technological trends. Take the terrorist attack, for example. Before the attack, society, in general, seemed to be on the road of enhanced tolerance and acceptance of others. The attack seems to have changed that trend and now our society became more paranoia driven. Surveillance has become a norm for governments and information is not as free as it used to be, while tolerance towards the other seems to be going down. That’s the power of wildcards to change the world. I’ll have to turn a few cards and see what’s in my deck. I’ll be right back. ----- Hacked Brain - a 100 word story The hucker read the contents of the mind. The brain owner didn’t suspect a thing. Memory storage was always the easiest to decipher. It was the more abstract side of the brain that always proved to be more problematic, the part that stored emotions and sensations, things like that, but the hacker had a specialized program just for that. Another problem was getting close enough, within wifi range. He had to rent an apartment on an adjacent building, but he could always do that under a false name. In the end, his clients always paid good money for the information. ----- Welcome back. Sometimes a wildcard can be created by a butterfly effect. In 1963 a mathematician and meteorologist called Edward Lorenz published a paper called “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow” in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. This article became the foundation of Chaos Theory. In December 1972, during the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Edward Lorenz posed the following question: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” The idea this question highlights is that tiny changes in data can over time cause big changes in output. The change is not immediate and takes time, sometimes months or even years. This can make predictions of natural phenomena, from weather to the evolution of life, hard to predict. DNA can be seen as such input data, the blueprint of a living organism. The genetic make of a DNA strand is one of the things that are prone to change and that change can sometimes cause a butterfly effect, leading to completely new species. Many things can change DNA strands, things like radiation, and simple mistakes in the copying of DNA done naturally within a living organism during and after fertilization. When we have such a mutation of DNA leading to a new species of, let’s say, a virus, it can be the cause of a new pandemic. In that way, a small change in DNA can create a butterfly effect that changes the future in unpredictable ways. Wildcards and the butterfly effect are two things that propel our future into the unknown. They make predicting the future into a less accurate of a science. In that way, they can make things more interesting, but interesting is not always equal to positive. The phrase “May you live in interesting times” might actually be a curse for all we know. This concludes episode 30 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Shapeshifter - a 100 word story As if being both a wolf and a woman wasn’t enough, now she was also a cat, a bear, and an occasional Moonkin. Those strange silent teachers were kind to her even if they were a little eccentric, talking to trees and all that. The problem was that now they were trying to teach her how to actually be a tree and she wasn’t sure she liked it, but then again, she was willing to go through the ordeal if only to keep the wolf in her at bay, to prove to herself that she was bitten, but not stirred. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 29, Strange Silent Teachers There are two types of time, objective and subjective. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at objective time and subjective time. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about objective time and subjective time. We use a method for measuring time incorporating mechanical devices that separate it into hours, minutes, and seconds. Since mechanical devices are objective, you can say that this method of measuring time can function whether we are there or not, so the time they measure can also be considered objective and separate from us, functioning on its own. Objective time actually flows at a measured pace whether we measure it or not, one measured unit of time is the same length as the next one. Objective time is constant, unchanging. You can set up an event using objective time and know that it would happen when it is supposed to happen. In that way, objective time is very useful. You can theoretically change the future using objective time by setting up events that happen at certain times, as long as those events don’t clash with events set up by other people. Objective time is a constant while we are stranded here on earth, but that might change if we ever decide to leave our planet. That is because objective time is affected by gravity and speed. Time is slowed by gravity so it flows faster in space where there is less gravity. While the effect is almost negligible, it does exist and as time accumulates, the discrepancy between earth time and time in space grows. Time also slows down as we speed our way through the universe, stopping altogether when we reach the speed of light. Oh dear, time seems to have stopped. I better find out why. I’ll be right back. ----- The Hunger - a 100 word story There’s an empty, vacant look in his eyes as he drifts through as if caught by an unseen wind, more dead than alive, more automaton then human. They take him with them to the battlefield, let the hunger strike him. He barely knows his friend from his foe when the hunger strikes, but somehow he does. He recognizes the enemy and his sword goes down, cutting down enemy after enemy until his hunger is satiated, then the vacant look in his eyes returns and he just stands there, staring into empty space until his need, his hunger wakes him again. ----- Welcome back. Subjective time is not about time itself, but about the way you experience time. It flows in a way that is influenced by what you do. It flows slower when you are not enjoying what you are currently doing and faster when you do something you like doing. In a way, you can control subjective time by controlling your experience, as opposed to objective time that cannot be controlled. Controlling your experience is done by shifting your perception of that experience. Let’s say you have something of a chore to do, doing the dishes for example, or cleaning the house. You can change your experience by turning what you do into a game, washing the dishes by shape and color for example, or cleaning your house while roleplaying a magician, every clean room magically transformed by your action. You can add music to your environment to make your tasks more enjoyable. Each one of those actions would make subjective time flow faster. While subjective time might have nothing to do with real, or objective time, it’s the way we experience time in our everyday life. We don’t experience time as a measured unit with an unchanging pace. We experience time as changing in pace, sometimes going faster and sometimes slower. That’s why we have a need for measuring time. Without the measurement of time, we won’t have any control over the events around us since we have no real objective grasp of time flow, only a subjective one. This concludes episode 29 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Breadandbutterfly - a 100 word story The Breadandbutterfly is a rare species indeed. It only comes out at certain times a day, the shy little creature. The lighting has to be just right and the air has to be at just about the right temperature. The Breadandbutterfly would only eat the very rare Goldenmonkey Fruit and it would only eat it if it's just about ripe enough. If you are on the hunt for The Breadandbutterfly, you'll have to observe all of those conditions precisely, wear the right camouflage, carry the right scented perfume, but most of all, you'll have to go through the looking glass. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 28, The Right Scented Perfume It appears we have five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting, all there to help us experience the world around us. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at senses. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about senses. Sight is the most obvious window to the world around us. We generally see in colors and shapes. Our brain get those as images through the windows of our two eyes. Our brain doesn’t handle those images as a whole though. Instead, it breaks those images apart, storing different parts in different places, then reassembling them for us, interpreting them as a whole. In that way, the image we finally get is not the real image of the world around us but merely our own interpretation of that image. Sound is the result of the movement of air. Air moves in waves, not unlike the waves of the ocean. Those waves have singular shapes and speeds. The speed of the movement of air is also known as frequency. Faster moving air has a higher frequency and sounds higher pitched, while slower moving air would have a lower frequency and pitch. The shape of the wave would shape the timbre of a sound. A soundwave with a completely random shape would create white noise while a smoother shaped soundwave would create a smoother, more coherent sound. A triangular soundwave would create a sharper sound timbre. A combination of those waves and shapes create all the sounds we hear in our world. The sounds we intake through our ears are merely the interpretation of our brain for the movement of air around us. I think I’m going to listen to air move around me for a while. I’ll be right back. ----- Sky Frog - a 100 word story A frog dropped from the sky. Not a rain of frogs. Just a single frog. Not something to make conspiracy theories about. It did surprise the frog though. It didn’t expect to drop out of the sky. It was just sitting on a cloud, then it was plummeting towards the earth at top speed. It tried to comprehend what was happening, but it was only a frog. The end was inevitable. Frogs are very soft while the ground tends to be quite hard. As the elephant watched in horror from the cloud, it couldn’t help thinking “I could be next.” ----- Welcome back. While sight and sound are about experiencing the world around you from a distance, touch is about proximity, it’s about being close, about being intimate with the world around you. Touch is the feeling of something touching your very own coating, your skin. The feeling of touch is caused by something moving the atoms on your skin, so touch is actually a sense of movement, the movement of your very own body, caused by some external, and sometimes even internal force. Touch is the sense that casts down the barrier between you and the world around you which is why it is considered the most intimate of senses. Smell and taste are connected, almost dependent on each other. While touch is about connecting with the world around you, smell and taste are about taking the world in. Smell is there to sample the world around you from a safe distance, inhaling aromas and letting your brain decode them as smells, while taste is there to appreciate the part of the world that goes into your body in order to sustain it, and it is not complete without a sense of smell to complement it. Your five senses are there to help you appreciate the world around you. Some people would tell you of a sixth sense, a mystical sense that goes beyond the five senses, beyond the world we know. They misunderstand the role our senses have. Our senses are there to help us understand the world around us, not to invent new worlds. That is the role of imagination, and that is where the sixth sense resides. This concludes episode 28 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Under the Bed - a 100 word story There was never any doubt. Conviction, it's a strange thing. You end up confusing what is real, with what you believe to be real. That's why I am convinced the little green creature under my bed is real, you see. I know you don't believe me. No one else does. It's fine. You don't have to believe me. See for yourself. Just, don't say I didn't warn you when they find you tomorrow, mutilated, deformed, and half dead. I have to feed it you know. If I don't, it would turn on me. We can't let that happen, can we? ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 27, Little Green Creature There are two main classes of opposites, one that is position-based and another that is based on essence and definition. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at opposites. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical, and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about opposites. Position. A line connects two dots. Those dots are on opposite sides of the line. They are opposites because of their position on opposite sides of a line. Let’s say we take the line, curve it, bend it until the two dots connect and the line is closed into a shape. Those are the same two dots, but they are not opposites anymore. The condition of the dots and the line changes, negating the oppositeness of the dots. This example shows us that positional opposites don’t always stay opposites. Let’s say we are sitting on opposite sides of a very long table. Our position is opposite each other. Now, let’s say that the table is slowly growing in size. Since the earth is round, our table slowly curves until one end reaches so close to the other that we end up sitting back to back. We changed our position so we are no longer facing each other. We are no longer opposite. Position based opposites are fragile and can break as the position of opposite components changes. For example, I can get up and leave the room where the table is, then I won’t be opposite you anymore. I’ll be somewhere else. Let me just check for a minute if I’m here or there. I’ll be right back. ----- Orthodocile - a 100 word story There was a sound, unlike thunder but resembling it. Something was approaching very fast. Something big. I knew it was a dead-end. I couldn't turn back. In the minimal lights, I could barely make up the walls, tunnels, and watery floor. I concentrated. Being a being of light, I glowed, painting the tunnel in green and yellow. There it was, a huge Orthodocile, all teeth, horns, and thick hides. I quickly integrated myself into the water, leaving substance behind, becoming pure light. The Orthodocile passed me, reached a dead end, and turned back. Predator problem averted, at least for now. ----- Welcome back. When we get to opposites that are based on essence and definition, every opposite might hold the seed of it’s opposite and nothing is exactly what it seems. Take black and white for example. They are considered the absolute opposites in color theory, but if you examine them closely, you’ll find that there is no absolute white, and there is no absolute black. You can always find a lighter white or a darker black. In truth, all whites and blacks are different shades of gray, and gray is a mixture of black and white. In that way, white holds the seed of black inside it and black holds the seed of white. Finding the opposite of something depends on how you define it and how you perceive its essence. It also depends on what “an opposite” really means to you. While definition is determined by the solid qualities of something such as shape and color, essence can sometimes be much more amorphic in nature, more subjective, and open to interpretations. This is especially true in abstract opposites, such as good and evil or determinism and randomness. The essence of abstracts often depends on your point of view and when the point of view of someone else is the complete opposite of your own, you might and up with opposites that are the same but only differ in subjectiveness. Let’s look at the example of good and evil as opposites. When the essence of good from your point of view is the same as the essence of evil from an opposing point of view, opposites collide and this could lead to chaos. That is the problem with opposites. They are an illusion. They don’t really exist, like the white that isn’t exactly white, or the black that isn’t exactly black, there are no absolute opposites. You have to look at every case of opposites and determine how far opposed they are while keeping in mind that it is that way from your very own, unique point of view. You might end up finding those opposites sitting on a table opposite each other, drinking tea. This concludes episode 27 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Protector - a 100 word story The last of the Porcupine Caribou waded through the snow. The hunter pushed on, already thinking about the money this stuffed animal would bring him. He could see it in the distance, a brownish white spot on the spot white snow. He just had to get closer, within shooting range. He moved stealthily and quietly until he could almost smell the prey. Suddenly, the reindeer looked up, his eyes intelligent and sad. A shot was heard and the hunter fell dead on the snow. The protector smiled, walked to his beloved pet and gave it a rubbing behind the ear. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 26, Intelligent and Sad Every once in a while, a feeling of melancholy might fall upon you. This feeling is also known as sadness. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at sadness. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about sadness. Sadness seems to have two main causes. The first one is loss. The other is a discrepancy between you and the world around you that may lead to loneliness and alienation. There might be other reasons for sadness but those seem to be the two main ones. Loss is the absence of someone, an absence that leaves a hole where that special someone used to be. Someone was there and he or she is not there anymore. That someone might be a lover who walked out on you or a child who left home. They might leave you with the hope that they might return or they might be gone for good. In a way, that someone is still there, only not with you anymore. For this reason, such a loss might sometimes be more difficult to accept. There is another kind of loss, one that is interwoven with the tapestry of the dippest kind of sadness. That loss is the result of the death of a loved one. That kind of loss leaves a hole that can never be filled. That kind of hole is within you for the rest of your life, always there, lurking in the shadows. It is the kind of sadness that is interwoven into your very being. You can learn to live with it, but it never completely disappears. No matter what you do, there will be loss in your life. It’s inevitable. People die or move on, leaving a person-shaped hole where they used to be in your life. I’m going to try and fix this hole here. I’ll be right back. ----- Hide - a 100 word story I want to hide from it. I don't want to be part of it anymore. I want people to forget my name, forget I ever existed, then, maybe I'll be free. All the things that have gone wrong, all my mistakes would disappear. So... can you do it? Good. Your plane of existence sounds good to me. So… you say it's completely empty? Excellent. Now - about the cost. As I understand it, I renounce my connection to reality and sign it up to you. That's fine with me. I never had much use for it anyway. Where do I sign? ----- Welcome back. There is another kind of sadness, one that comes from not being in sync with the people around you. The sadness of the one who is different from the ones around him. The sadness that comes from the loneliness of being a unique human being, from being the unknown in the eyes of those around you. Most people are afraid of the unknown. It’s a fear that comes from ancient times when the unknown could be someone from an opposing tribe, someone that could kill you. If you are different, you are the unknown and people tend to stay away. It’s not a rational fear and it comes from ignorance. It has no place in modern times but it’s our heritage from that ancient past. In truth, we are all different. We are all unique but sometimes it is difficult for the average person to understand this. Being perceived as different by those around you is really just a product of being in the wrong place. People are still tribal in nature and they like gathering with their own tribe. If you are in the wrong tribe you are perceived as different. It is quite easy to find a tribe that fits you today if you are stuck in the wrong place. This is one of the things the social part of the internet is used for. While finding your tribe in social media might be easier today then it used to be, there is still a problem. The people of your tribe might be scattered throughout the far-out corners of the world and reaching them might not be easy. An internet-based tribe is no substitute for human touch, human contact. When your tribe is scattered around the world, that contact is missing and in its place, there is sadness. It’s a sadness that cannot always be resolved. You just have to learn to live with your sadness, embrace it as your very own unique brand of sadness. Give your sadness a name,  joke with it, have a drink with it, make it your friend. This concludes episode 26 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Smoke Rings - a 100 word story A man, or a mere impression of one. He rises from the chimney of some factory or another, taking shape from the smoke. He hovers above the city, carried by the wind, the result of a secret project. Eyes are cameras, ears are receivers, recording silently. No door can hold him. Built from the latest in nanotechnology, he just blows underneath like smoke. His brain has the computing power of a supercomputer. The results are being sent for processing at a secret facility. He is just the prototype. More are being created. Watch out from the fog, it’s coming alive. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 25, Eyes are Cameras We know what a chicken is, or - do we? This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at the idea of chicken. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about chicken. What makes a chicken what it is? Is it the shape of the chicken? Is it what it sounds like? The way it walks? The way it talks? You might begin by saying a chicken is a flightless bird, that is a bird that can’t fly. There are other flightless birds so that wouldn’t be what defines a chicken but merely one of the chicken’s characteristics or traits. Could you say a chicken is a collection of traits that make up a chicken? Do we need all of those traits to coexist in order for a chicken to be a chicken or is there one unique trait that makes a chicken a chicken. What is that one elusive trait that is uniquely chicken? When we dig deeper into a chicken, we find a strand of DNA just sitting there, waiting to be found. DNA is the blueprint of any living organism or creature, a recipe for the makeup of that creature and the most unique trait of that creature. The chicken has her own unique DNA like every other living being and the sequence of that DNA can be sequenced and then mapped. No other creature has that same unique DNA map, so you can say that the unique DNA sequence that resides inside a chicken is what defines the making of a chicken. All this talk about the making of a chicken made me hungry. I think I’ll make a chicken for lunch today. I’ll be right back. ----- The Science of Beauty - a 100 word story They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so some scientists started dissecting eyes, searching for the exact place where beauty resides. First, they dissected the eyes of mice, got them nowhere. They dissected the eyes of convicted criminals, dead ones at first, but then someone reasoned that having some real-time input from subjects could result in important data. It didn’t work either. Someone pointed out criminals didn’t really have a sense of beauty, so they tried using the eyes of artists, poets, and musicians. When they finished, they looked around them to find a world without beauty. ----- Welcome back. So, we say that the chicken DNA is what defines our chicken. What if we cook the chicken? That chicken soup still has those DNA strands in it. Does this mean the soup is a chicken? If it doesn’t, when does the chicken stop being a chicken? Is it when the last strand of DNA dissolves? Is it when we eat the chicken and it becomes part of us? Maybe DNA is not all that makes up a chicken. Maybe it’s a collection of DNA and other traits. It would seem that being alive is one such trait, but then it also seems that a dead chicken is still a chicken. Let’s say someone builds a mechanical chicken. Is it still a chicken? We might say a mechanical chicken is not really a chicken, the same way that a drawing of a pipe isn’t really a pipe. What then if we take an actual chicken and start replacing all the parts that make up a chicken with mechanical parts until it becomes a mechanical chicken. When does the chicken stop being an actual chicken? What is that unique characteristic that stops a chicken from being a chicken? You might say if a chicken thinks it’s a chicken, then it’s a chicken. What then if a mouse thinks it’s a chicken? Is that mouse also a chicken? You might then say that a chicken is whatever you think is a chicken. This would make the definition of chicken the same as the idea of chicken you have in your mind. In that way, the chicken itself doesn’t really exist. It’s just the idea of chicken that exists in your mind. This concludes episode 25 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Elevator - a 100 word story The elevator went up on cables made out of carbon nanotubes, and it went all the way to the moon. There was the question of who gets to use it though. At first, it was was an elected committee that decided, but it turned out they displayed favoritism towards friends and family so it was dispensed in favor of a lottery. It was revealed that the lottery was falsified so a reality show was created instead. People held their breath and watched in wonder as the winners went up the elevator and then showed everyone what mooning was all about. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 24, All the Way to the Moon There are two kinds of qualities, one that is found in art, music, and literature and another which is found in crafts. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at quality in crafts. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about quality. Crafting is the act of making something useful, that is something that can be used. Quality in crafting depends in part on the usability of the item that is being crafted. If a crafter makes a shoe, it wouldn’t be as useful if the shoe falls apart when you wear it so durability would be one aspect of quality in crafting. It would also have to sit comfortably on your feet. There is also a kind of subtlety in crafting that distinguishes a quality crafter from a common crafter. A crafter might increase the quality of a shoe by making it more pleasing to the eye, adding artistry to it. When it comes to crafts, it might seem that the human touch is what distinguishes a quality crafted item from a mere factory product. This distinction is fairly dismissable these days. It is becoming very easy to make a factory product that looks like it was made by human hands and a quality product can now be made by a machine. You can say that the quality of crafting today goes into the design of the shoe, the making of the computerized 3D model that serves as a blueprint for the product. People can plan the shoe in intricate details creating the perfect shoe in a computer program, then send it for mass production. The quality resides in the amount of detail that goes into the computerized shoe model, how well it fits your feet and how durable it is. I’ll just have to go and see if the shoe fits. I’ll be right back. ----- Room 306 - a 100 word story We are pretty sure there’s a dimensional rift in room 306. Every once in a while one of our guests wanders in. The problem is it’s an exchange. What comes out looks like our guest, but we are pretty sure it’s a demon. We know it by the way he abuses hotel employees, being rude to the maids and abusive to the bell boys, so we use our demon cage to contain the abomination. Once he’s inside demanding a lawyer, we dispose of him in the river. In fact, we believe there might also be dimensional rifts in other rooms. ----- Welcome back. Crafting will probably be taken out of human hands altogether in the coming years. Artificial intelligence is advancing to the point of understanding human needs and designing products that meet those needs. It would be possible to create quality products without any human intervention, and this also includes the actual design of those products. While quality in crafting was defined by the human touch for years, it is now obvious that this human touch won’t exist in future products anymore, or would at least be very rare. People would always want to craft things for their own enjoyment, but that would go into the hands of a few crafting enthusiasts, not people actually working the crafts for a living. Crafting would become a hobby for us humans. In the meantime, while machines take over most of the quality in crafting, the question we might ask is this, is there really actual quality in machine crafted products? For a machine to be a quality crafter, there would have to be applied the same principle conditions that apply to human crafted products. The shoe would have to hold without falling apart. The shoe would have to be comfortable. The shoe would have to be pleasing to the eye, maybe even to the point of being a piece of art. Artificial intelligence will be in charge of the automatic crafting process and it is now learning how to also become an artist. There are already examples of artworks created by machine-learning artificial intelligence programs. The distinction between human intelligence and an artificial one is becoming more and more blurred as we go into the future. Artificial intelligence itself might actually become one of the last quality crafted items. When the machines we craft become more intelligent than us, they might become the pinnacle of quality in crafting, the crafting of another living organism, made not of flesh and bones but of plastic and metal. The crafting of the ultimate quality crafter. This concludes episode 24 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Kirin - a 100 word story I stretched the line of my bow and shot a straight arrow using magical fire. The Rakuda fell down dead. I looted it. Got some Soft Fur and some coins. I looked for more Rakuda. Only six more to go. I spotted a few more of them, but then I saw it, the majestic Kirin, so rare and beautiful, his long neck towering high above me and his innocent eyes wise, timeless. I fitted my finest arrow and called up all my magic into it, air, water, and fire. It shot straight through, killing him on the spot. Epic drop. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 23, So Rare and Beautiful There are two kinds of qualities, one that is found in art, music, and literature and another which is found in crafts. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at quality in art, music, and literature. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about quality. Art is first and foremost a form of expression that goes beyond the boundaries of simple words and gestures. For simplicity, I’m going to use the words art and artworks to include painting, music, literature and any other form of expression that can be called art. Quality in art is often reflected in complexity and layering. Quality art can be understood on several layers while holding a strong overall message, or it can hold a paradox, having several conflicting messages on different layers. Quality art can also make us think and feel and we can often be moved by it. The quality of art can be amorphic since it can’t really be measured. Art is an exchange between the creator of the artwork and the art consumer, thus making the art itself open to different interpretations. As a result, no artwork is the same for two different people. That makes the pursuit of understanding quality in art elusive. An artwork that is of quality to one person might be perceived as utter trash by another. This reminds me I should throw away this art reproduction I got, referred to by bystanders and observers alike as trash, to the trash. I’ll be right back. ----- Yogerthy Yogurt - a 100 word story He follows her around like a dog, and Yogerthy Yogurt loved it until he started chasing cars, barking and digging holes in her backyard, hiding his favorite bones. She tried throwing a stick into a bottomless well but he climbed out and fetched. She tried driving him to remote locations and accidentally forgetting him there, but he kept returning. Even when she refused his marriage proposal, bone ring and all, he kept coming back wagging his tail. She eventually had to call the dog catchers for him. The guys from the asylum just didn’t have dog food on their menu. ----- Welcome back. When we pursue quality in art, we use our own perspective as the focal point of our observation. That means we are biased participants as opposed to objective observers since art is an interaction between consumer, artwork, and artist. When you consume art, you interpret it in your own unique way. No two people are alike and any one person would interpret the artwork differently depending on their beliefs and personal biases. In that way, your own interpretation changes the artwork itself. Art, in a way, is what you interpret it to be. Art is first and foremost a statement by an artist who wants to convey a message to an art consumer. Art happens in the interaction between the two, and one facet of the quality of art can be seen as the amount of influence the artwork has on the consumer. The problem is that while one person might be completely moved by a certain piece of art, another might be completely indifferent to the same piece. In that way, quality in the arts has a quantum quality. It both exists and does not exist in the same artwork. That’s also the reason quality in the arts can’t be measured. Since quality in art seems to be subjective and can’t really be measured, it begs the question, does quality in the arts really exist? The answer is that some quality exists in any piece of art in existence because any artwork has its own consumers who interpret it in their own unique way. Since art is the interaction between the artwork and the consumer, it’s enough that one consumer finds quality in the art for it to have quality. In that way, the potential for quality exists in the art itself and manifests in the interaction between the artwork and the consumer. It’s the consumer that puts the quality in the art, not the artist. This concludes episode 23 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The First - a 100 word story She was the first letter in the alphabet and she knew it. A quick look from her was enough to melt most of the alphabet away. People became muted as she walked by, viciously robbed of their speech. She had the upper hand in debate, leaving every other letter far behind. She was a countenance, a word, and a world on her own. She stood on a strong foundation and no one could collapse her. A coma was just a pause for her and no semicolon could keep her away. It was only at the full stop that she stopped. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 22, The Upper Hand in Debate We use languages to communicate and words to understand each other. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at language. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about language. Words don’t really have a meaning from the get-go. Meaning is what we pour into words. Words, when spoken, are just sounds, and the written word is just squiggly lines on a blank piece of paper. It’s the meaning we pour into those words that makes them count, and those meanings, in turn, can make those words of ours very powerful. Words create our story, help us communicate with each other, exchange ideas. When we collect all those words together, they make up our language. You might think your language is the same as the language of that guy living next door. You are not entirely wrong. Some meanings are almost universal and they are almost the same for everyone. The problem is that language has nuances and the meaning often gets lost in translation, even within the same language. Meanings might not be exactly the same for everyone. Part of this is because we sometimes find meaning between the lines, beyond the words. We might say something but the intonation of our voice can tell our listeners that we mean the exact opposite, even if we haven’t meant to. Someone can write a story that is completely clear to him, only to find out other people understood his story in a completely different way. As I understand this story, this is where my break comes in. I’ll be right back. ----- The Traffic Witch - a 100 word story She had her own vehicle, commonly known as “The Broom”, and she enjoyed driving it through traffic tunnels. The rush of cars coming out through the other side, bumping into each other made her giggle. Getting rid of the evidence was a little messy. Usually, it involved accurately targeted lightning bolts, directed at various witnesses, both in the cars and around them. She did enjoy the various commentators, both on television and on YouTube. She liked it when they called her “a force of nature”. It was when they started connecting her to global warming that she gave up though. ----- Welcome back. There are many languages in this world. Some have words that other languages don’t have. Some miss words that seem essential in other languages. Not all languages are created equal, and some seem to define the people who speak them. You can learn several languages, then you’ll have an insight into the minds of nations, how they use words, how they connect them into sentences. The order in which words connect in a sentence might give you insight into what is more important to the people who use a certain language. The very sound of a language might suggest that the people using it have a certain temperament that goes well with the general sound of that language. You think you understand your own language. You might learn another and think you understand that one as well. You would probably come across languages you don’t understand, and for someone who speaks a completely different language then you, your own language might be a mystery, a code to crack, an enigma. The problem is language in itself doesn’t have a meaning. You have to pour your own meaning into it as you grow up and understand more of your own language and any mistaken meaning gets embedded into your very own unique vocabulary. That’s where misunderstandings come from, and those can sometimes change the fate of nations. Language can be used to change the course of history or just the life of one human being. Language can be used to write a novel, a symphony or just to order a pizza. Language can be mundane, or it can be magnificent, it can be everything or nothing or anything in between. Language can even be used to write a podcast. This concludes episode 22 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Message - a 100 word story The bottle washed upon the shore. As I picked it out with trembling hands, I could hear whispers from within. I hesitated for a moment, knowing what was bound to happen, then curiosity got the better of me and I unscrewed the cork. A happy genie burst from within and said: “I have a message for you from the Happy Genie Society. Your HGS membership has expired. Your terms are the regular ones. Once you served your sentence, you would be free again for another term respectively.” As I screamed, my body contracted and I was squeezed into the bottle. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 21, Whispers from Within Intelligence, there are many ways of achieving one that is greater than human intelligence. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at intelligence and the technological singularity. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about intelligence. When you can recognize patterns in the world around you and have the ability to deduce the missing pieces in those patterns by using logic and the power of deduction, you are said to be intelligent. The more complex the patterns, the more intelligent you are. Most people can deduce that if we have 1 and then 2 followed by a 3, the next number would be 4. That is a very simple pattern and can be recognized by almost anyone. It is much harder to recognize the patterns in the movement of stars or the weather and predict how those would develop over the years. Intelligence can be measured. There is a range of human intelligence that is measured by intelligence tests and given a range of numbers called the intelligence quantity. Those IQ tests show that human intelligence mostly ranges between 85 and 115, 100 being the average number. A person with an IQ over 130 is considered a genius. The highest measured IQ level is somewhat between 250 and 300. Intellect is what drives human society forward, but it is limited. It can only take us so far. That is why we are creating artificial intelligence that can do things that human intelligence can’t. What happens when artificially created intelligence goes beyond human intelligence though? Let me find an intelligent excuse for taking a break. I’ll be right back. ----- Memory - a 100 word story First, it was the small things, those little details like forgetting what I had for breakfast and if brushed my teeth, forgetting where I put the car keys, then it was the names of people, their faces, then the things I've seen on the morning news. I started making notes but I forgot to look at them. I would forget to eat and wonder why my midsection was making those funny noises. Finally, I forgot my name. I honestly can't tell you who I am, where I came from or what I did. I just exist. No past. Only present. ----- Welcome back. One of the biggest problems with current artificial intelligence is pattern recognition, but that is changing really fast. AI can already recognize faces and we are teaching it to recognize traffic patterns so it can drive our cars. It was predicted by very intelligent human beings that AI would exceed human intelligence, probably around the year 2045. Some say that this would be the end of the age of humans as the top of the life chain on earth or even the end of the human race as we know it. The point of time when an intelligence exists on earth that is greater then human intelligence is called the technological singularity. In astronomy, a singularity is what happens beyond an event horizon where the very rules of physics are not as they are in the world around us. This is seen at the boundary of a black hole where space and time distort completely. The event horizon of the technological singularity is intelligence that is greater than current human intelligence, one that is so great that it changes the world as we know it. This can come about in a few different ways, AI being only one of them. While AI is being worked on, ways of enhancing human intelligence are also being sought after. One way being suggested is the reorganization of the cells of your brain using nanotechnology. Another way is to actually merge our own intelligence with AI using implants, creating a hybrid intelligence. However we go about it, the technological singularity probably cannot be avoided. The reason we call it a singularity is that presumably, we don’t have the intelligence to perceive what a greater then human intelligence would do and how it would change our world. We have already changed our world considerably using human intelligence in ways that people wouldn’t have been able to imagine a hundred years ago. A superintelligence would be able to do this much faster than anyone realizes. When this happens we could wake up one day and not even recognize the world around us, and no one knows in what ways our world will change. We are heading into the unknown at top speed, and we don’t have our seatbelts on. We can either change ourselves to fit the ride by enhancing our own intelligence, or be left behind. This concludes episode 21 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Gnome - a 100 word story The fawn couldn't see them hiding in the bushes. The arrow was quick and painless, tranquilizing shot penetrating, inducing sleep. The Gnome ordered the two hooded men to upload the fawn onto the cart. The three of them took the hidden road, delivering the sleeping animal to the laboratory. The mechanical chicken lay motionless on the table, a lifeless shell, nothing more. The Gnome connecter her to the machine. Carefully, he connected the fawn to the other side. Buttons were pressed, levers pushed into place. Life energy was transferred and the mechanical chicken awakened, ready to serve her new master. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 20, The Hidden Road It seems like there’s a limited amount of things that exist in this world and that they tend to disappear as they are used by us. This is the essence of the idea of scarcity. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at scarcity. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about scarcity. When we talk about a limited amount of something like food or trees, we are talking about scarcity. We say that wood is scarce and we should preserve as much of it as we possibly can because if we don’t, there won’t be any wood left anymore. That is not the whole story though. When you cut down a tree and make, let’s say, a chair out of it, you are merely changing the shape of the tree. If you then burn the chair, you are changing the condition of the tree from matter into energy. You can’t really get rid of the tree. You can only change its shape, definition or state. Food seems to disappear when we eat it, but that is not really the case. It becomes part of us, blending with us completely when we eat it. The saying “you are what you eat” has much truth in it. Science shows us that matter and energy are interchangeable. It also shows us that there is a finite amount of matter/energy in the universe and that amount is constant. It cannot change. This means that the amount of food and trees can’t truly change. Only thair shape and condition can change. Things can blend into each other and change their essence and meaning, but they don’t disappear altogether. On the other hand, a tree is not as useful to us as a burnt-out chair, and food can’t be used again after it blends with us. In that way, those things are scarce. I’m going to check the scarcity of things in my fridge. I’ll be right back. ----- Wildcards - a 100 word story The Queen looked at the multi-colored roses in shocked amazement. Seven and Five giggles softly while Two just stared madly at her. “What are you doing?” she asked, her amazement turning to anger. “Why the fact is, you see, we are painting all your roses” answered Two. The Queen turned the perfect shade of red, the one she liked for her roses and shouted: “Off with their heads.” “Not this time,” said Seven and Five in unison and started splashing colors at the Queen. They splashed her, then splashed her some more until she was completely devoured by the colors. ----- Welcome back. So we made a chair out of our tree, then we burned it. Can we get it back? Theoretically, this is a possibility, and here we will be going into the future of scarcity. We are currently mastering the ability to move atoms. The field of study that concentrates on moving atoms is called nanotechnology. If we could get back the energy of the burnt tree-chair and somehow convert it back into matter, then rearrange the atoms of that matter back the way they were when we first found them, we could theoretically get our tree back. This way of getting back the same tree might prove to be too difficult to accomplish and too expensive. There might be a more practical way, but you won’t get the same tree. What you will get though is the end of scarcity. 3d printers are on their way to becoming a household commodity. This idea of printing actual everyday objects is becoming a reality. Currently, those printers are very limited by the materials you can use, but that is going to change in the future. When the ability to move atoms makes its way into 3d printing, imagination would be the only real limit. You would take one material and change it to another by changing the composition of its molecules. This means you would take cheap materials and make everyday objects from them. Your only limit would be the composition of the atoms themselves. You would have to use atoms that can compose the right kind of molecules for the materials you want to use, but then if a certain material is missing you could always create a new one to replace it. In that way you would be able to print any object you could think of. Our economy depends on scarcity. When you can print any object using a 3d printer, there is no scarcity anymore. You would be able to print out food, trees, chairs, cloths. You would be able to use 3d printers to print 3d printers. You could even be able to print money, but money would be useless. The age of 3d printing and nanotechnology would truly be the age of abundance. Something that’s already being worked on is the ability to print replacement organs for the human body. Eventually, we would be able to print a whole new body for ourselves, staying young forever. We would be able to rearrange the atoms in our brains, becoming more intelligent. This is just one of the things that might herald what is called the technological singularity, but this is a topic for another episode. For now, let us just remember that trees never die. They just change their essence. This concludes episode 20 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Forty - a 100 word story Forty butterflies are dancing on my grave. Forty red flowers are arranged in a circle on the cold stone. Forty paid maidens are mocking me. I scream “I’m alive, let me out,” but no voice comes out. The earth tastes sour in my mouth. I’ve been here for forty years. Still, there’s no sign of me becoming hungry or tired. I’m forever doomed by a spell to stay alive in my grave, a spell whispered by the woman I betrayed. The walls of my grave disintegrated long ago. I’m now part of the soil, here forever, paying the bitter price. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 19, Arranged in a Circle Money is the most agreed-upon symbol of exchange. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at money and the monetary system. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about money. From the dawn of time, people exchanged stuff. You had a cow, you needed five chickens. Your neighbor had five chickens but he needed a cow. You exchanged your cow with your neighbor’s chickens. There was a problem though. No one knew how many chickens a cow was worth. As roaming tribes turned to city dwellers and then collections of cities turned into countries, a method was devised by the rulers of those countries for the exchange of goods. This method is called the monetary system and it evolved from something called a debit note or the “I would give you later what I promised you” note. Sometimes, you just didn’t have the cow to give to your neighbor in exchange for his chickens at the moment. You would write down “I owe you a cow for five chickens” on a piece of paper. That was held by your neighbor as proof that you got the chickens but didn’t yet give him the cow and he could come to you at a later time with that piece of paper demanding his cow. That piece of “I owe you” paper evolved into a law binding document called a debit note and that, in turn, evolved into money. You didn’t have to actually own a cow anymore. All you needed was a piece of paper symbolizing the idea of a cow as an exchange unit. You could get that cow later. In time, the cow was forgotten altogether and that piece of paper called “money” took up a life of its own, becoming a symbol of the exchange of goods. You can still buy cows and chickens with money, but it’s not attached to them anymore. Money has become a thing of itself, it’s own entity. I’ll take a moment to count all the money I don’t have. I’ll be right back. ----- Pod - a 100 word story I live in a pod. The smell of peas drives me crazy, but the rent is good. The landlord is reasonably flexible. The living space is a little dense, but I get along. It’s amazing how spacious a place can seem if you organize the furniture just about right. Still, one day I hope to buy my very own carrot. Sure, it’s long and a little thin, but I like the space better and anyway, green is not really my color. Another thing, if I forget my keys, I can eat my way in. Try doing that with a pod. ----- Welcome back. Money is changing, evolving. As a symbol, it was always attached to physical objects. As the monetary system evolved, it was decided to attach the value of money to metals that were considered rare at the time, such as gold and silver. The amount of money distributed was decided by the amount of metals the country had stored. Some of the money was then made of those metals. That’s why we actually have coins. As time passed, the amount of money far exceded the amount of metals it represented and money became even more of a symbol then a representation of real tangible objects. When computers came alone, a means of virtually storing money as numbers was devised, and a means to access that money was created, called a credit card. Money was now stored in banks in the form of numbers. Today, the amount of printed or “real” money is greatly reduced. While some money is still getting printed, the amount of it is shrinking considerably as time goes by. Money as a physical thing is on its way to disappearing altogether and as it does, new forms of money that are completely virtual from the get-go are starting to appear. The Bitcoin appeared at the beginning of the 21st century as one of the first cryptocurrencies, a money exchange system that is completely based on computer encryption systems and artificial scarcity. This points to the problem with the monetary system. It depends on scarcity. Abundance is the enemy of monetary value. Money is moving to the virtual world, becoming mare numbers on a computer screen, and as it does it needs to find a new form of scarcity if it is to survive as a symbol. The value of money depends on the fact that there is a limited amount of it. This means it might not survive the move to the digital world. The ability to copy and paste numbers that is inherent in computing might finally kill money altogether, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We might be heading for the end scarcity. Things won’t exist in limited amounts anymore when the printing of physical objects would become commonplace, but this is a topic for another episode. For now, let us just remember that one cow might be equal to five chickens. This concludes episode 19 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Rusty Steel - a 100 word story Don't bring me those shiny steel rods. I like my steel rusty. I like it crunchy. I like steel that makes little popping sounds when I chew it. I like steel that slowly dissolves inside my body, leaving a warm sensation in all the right places. I used to nibble on rocks, but it wasn't the same. Tiny pieces would get stuck in my teeth. It would take hours clearing. It was messy, and the taste was kind of stale. Now I'm on a steel diet. I'm telling you, rusty steel is the way to go. Here, try some yourself. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 18, Little Popping Sounds Augmented reality is starting to supplement our everyday lives. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at augmented reality. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about augmented reality. Reality comes to us on a “what you see is what you get” basis, but what if we could add to it? That is where augmented reality comes, and draws added layers on reality. Today, most of the augmented reality you would experience would come through applications on your phone. You would hold your phone up to reality and it would draw additional things on it, from little pokemon entities to furniture. The augmented reality of today is used for everything from gaming to more practical uses like interior design. Projects like Google Glass take augmented reality even further by placing augmented reality right in front of our eyes. It draws images on the lens of our glasses. Our glasses become little computers adding images to our everyday reality. Developers are already looking into using contact lenses as computers. The next step would be to embed computers right into our brains, and the day that happens is not as far as one might think. Computer graphics are becoming more and more realistic by the day and distinguishing what is real from what is actually augmented reality would eventually become very hard. I can’t really distinguish if the break I’m about to take is real or not. I’ll have to check that out. I’ll be right back. ----- Knock-Knock - a 100 word story Janice was a practical joker. The number of times we had to ask her “who's there?” was ridiculous. We tried to stay away, but she would follow us, never understanding the hint. When they fired her, we all cheered. It was later that we read about it in the papers. She jumped off some bridge or another. Now she wanders the office floor telling us her knock-knock jokes. If someone refuses to play alone, he suffers dire consequences. Only five of us are left now. Here she comes. Let me utter the words that would keep us alive: “Who's there?” ----- Welcome back. Today, augmented reality can’t really be touched. It lives inside our screens. This is going to change once programmable matter becomes available. The idea of programming matter itself emerged in the 1990s and is currently being researched in various laboratories around the world. This would enable us to augment our reality with tangible matter, one that can be touched and shaped at our will, or rather, the will of skilled programmers. Games are where the application of programmable matter would probably start, making gaming more exciting and real. Entertainment is a very profitable market and where there is profit, there is often groundbreaking research. Augmenting our reality by programmable matter would then bleed to more practical applications like designing your home or education. Unfortunately, military and crime are also very profitable so research into programmable matter and augmented reality would prosper on those two very questionable fields too. People have a tendency to group into “them versus us” groups. When technology becomes too tangible this can become dangerous. Currently, augmented reality is drawn on our computer screens and is pretty harmless. Once it leaves our computer screens through programmable matter or gets drawn directly into our brains through implanted computers, it becomes dangerous. Programmable matter can be programmed to kill you and images can be put into your very brain that induce madness. This kind of technology can’t be stopped. It will come whether we want it or not. It’s inevitable. The question of how we decide to use it is, unfortunately, not really up to us but up to the people who profit from it. This concludes episode 18 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The New Assistant - a 100 word story Plutonium Trifluoride is not to be trifled with. Those violet crystals are investigated as a source of nuclear energy in some well-known laboratories by respected scientists, but that's not their real power. Mixed with the right ingredients using the right combinations of words whispered in exactly the right intonations, great things could be achieved, sinister things too. Structures can be changed, tissue morphed into shapes. You see that little yellow monkey over there? That was my last assistant. You better excel in your tasks here. I've got many of those violet crystals left, and I know how to use them. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 17, Those Violet Crystals Science is the tool for finding out the truth about how everything works. It has a method for finding that out, and that method is called the scientific method. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at the scientific method. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about the scientific method. Curiosity is one of the base pillars human existence stands upon. It makes life interesting and meaningful. Curiosity compels us to find out how the world around us works. In ancient times, that has often led to false assumptions and misconceptions about how things actually work. People invented gods and mythologies to explain the workings of everything from the changing of seasons to the movement of the ocean waves. That is because observation is masked by our senses and our beliefs, and those tend to distort things quite a bit. This is why the scientific method was invented, to discover the truth in a relatively unbiased way. We begin our journey to the truth with the question of “how does this work?” That, in essence,  is the whole purpose of science. It is there to give the answer to that singular question. Science attempts to bypass our senses and biases by using skepticism, by repeating experiments again and again and by using control groups. The heart of the scientific method is doubt. It looks at the evidence, examins it again and again until it finds out beyond reasonable doubt if things are true or false and even then if evidence comes that disprove something that was thought to be true, science changes it’s mind and marks it as false. I have new evidence that suggests that this is where I take a break. I’ll be right back. ----- Monkey See - a 100 word story I named my monkey Gandhi because of his habit of turning the other cheek. Other monkeys would charge at him, attack him but he would just stand there smiling his little monkey smile, holding his hand out to them. Eventually, they just tore him to pieces. I still miss the little fellow. Sometimes, when things go crazy at work, I think to myself, “What would my little Gandhi do?”, then I remember how he ended up and I just obliterate my fellow hairless white monkeys. I use presentations and flow charts, but it amounts to the same. No one survives. ----- Welcome back. The scientific method starts with observation. You want to know how something works, you observe it, you come up with a theory of how it works. Your theory is not the truth. It’s just you saying “I think it works that way.” The next stage is experimenting to see if things actually work the way you think they do. In fact, trying to disprove it is as important as trying to prove it. You always have to keep in mind that things might work in a completely different way from the way you think they do. That is why one experiment is not enough. You have to repeat the experiment, again and again, enough times until you are absolutely sure things work the way you think they do, and even that is not enough. Your data might be biased. That is why you have to let other people check you up, repeat the experiment on their own terms and see if it works the same for them. After different people do an experiment enough times to come up to the conclusion something works in a certain way, someone might come and say “I don’t think it actually works that way. I think it works in a different way. Here is how I think it works.” In short, someone might come up with a completely different theory of how something works, then you have to experiment to see if their theory is the correct one. Science has to be open-minded. It has to be open to changing its mind. If a shred of new evidence comes up that contradicts the previous one, science has to check it out and if it proves to be true, it has to accept the new evidence until a new one comes along. Using the scientific method to find out how our world works mean our understanding of the world around us is always changing, evolving. One hypothesis after another is discarded for a better one. This means we might never truly understand the world around us, but we are never going to stop trying. This is because we are curious creatures, and curiosity is at the base of our existence. This concludes episode 17 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Hungry Forest - a 100 word story The forest whispered to Anna. She crawled dipper into the closet. The forest creatures were coming for her, and she knew they were going to skin her alive, then tear her apart limb from limb. She was terrified, but she was also prepared. She clutched the little device the strange man from the forest gave her and activated it. The closet started to spin around her, becoming a blur, then it disappeared altogether. She was no longer there. The forest creatures would have to feed on some other poor soul today. She thanked the spirit of human ingenuity for teleports. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 16, The Closet Started to Spin Imagination can be real magic, or it may be the biggest of lies. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at imagination. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about imagination. Imagination is often used to tell a story. To imagine the story, you would often begin with a question, and that question would often begin with “What if...” There are “What if...” questions that are close to our everyday reality like “What if I didn’t have to go to work?” or “What if that next-door neighbor was a foreign spy?”. Those would produce stories that can happen in real life and in fact, those imaginary stories might even be similar to events that actually happened. There are also “what if” questions that create completely separate realities like “What if walking trees and hobbits really existed?” or “What if there was a substance called aether that could be used to control elements, and those, in turn, could be used for magic?”. Those “what if…” questions would produce stories that would require us to suspend our disbelief if we want to enjoy them since they would be very different from what we experience in our everyday reality. Science and technology also rely on imagination for progress. We wouldn’t have the modern world if we didn’t have questions such as “What if two people on the other sides of the world could instantly talk to each other?” or “What if we could put the phone, the television and the radio into our computer?”. Other imaginative questions are going to shape our future, questions such as “What if your car could drive all by itself?” and “What if we could create objects that can be controlled and shaped by computers?”. Another very imaginative question is “What if I take a break right now?”. I’ll be right back. ----- The Egg - a 100 word story “But... can you do it?” I asked, eyeing him suspiciously “can you make it hatch?”. I never liked those federal types. I always suspect them of being oblivious to the consequences. “Nothing to it,” said the man in the black overcoat. I checked my watch. It was nearly time now. “Just let me inspect it one last time,” I said. “Sure, Just don't break it” he answered. The Pterospondylus egg lay before me. I examined it gently, then they took it away. As I watched the egg in the incubator, I envisioned a future where flying dinosaurs grace our skies. ----- Welcome back. Imagination is used to create fictional stories. You can find those stories on books, in radio plays, in the theater and on video games among other things. Some of those stories are very elaborate and create whole new worlds for us to enjoy. The lore of those worlds can go back to prehistory, inventing anything from mythology to geography. Entering those worlds, you can leave your everyday life for a while, forgetting your everyday troubles. That is the magic of imagination. Some people can get lost in imagination and start believing imaginary things to be real. They can start believing the earth is flat and stands on an endless pillar made out of turtles, or that evolution is a lie. While imagination can be a good thing, it can also be used to create fake news and conspiracy theories. People can imagine all sorts of things and start believing them. They can imagine we never landed on the moon or that Elvis is alive. This comes from believing the things you imagine to be true without checking them first. Being skeptical of imaginative statements is healthy. When someone makes a statement that is conspiratory, not in line with what we know or outright illogical, we must look for scientific evidence to disprove that statement. Real scientific proof for anything should follow the scientific method, but this is a topic for another episode. For now, just remember that imagination can be a great vehicle for enriching your life, but you should always know how to distinguish it from reality. This concludes episode 16 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

The Real Rose - a 100 word story I was standing at the edge of known space. The grid lines were extremely beautiful. That was it. I was going to jump right into reality. I was going to smell a real rose. I made it, half expecting to disappear in a cloud of pixels. The clockwork device I built converted me into a real person and ejected me into the real world. I could feel the real breeze on my face. I found a flower shop. I picked a single rose and smelled it, breathing it in deeply. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. That rose was stinky. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 15, A Cloud of Pixels While our everyday industrialized world tends to be made out of different shades of gray, it’s not the end all be all of color. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at color. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about color. When a light source goes through a prism, it breaks into different colors. The specific colors we get depend on the color of the light source and can be influenced by the composition of the air it goes through. Usually, when we talk about separating color through a prism, the specific color separation that comes from a white color source here on earth is the one we refer to. That is because we happen to live on earth and white color sources are the ones most common here. The colors you get from a white light source also happen to be the ones you get from a rainbow. Raindrops can sometimes act as prisms, breaking up colors and creating a rainbow in the sky. A rainbow is actually composed of many colors, some of them invisible, but we tend to break it into seven colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. That particular choice of colors is actually not natural. It was created by Newton who chose that particular number of colors to coincide with the white notes in a musical octave. Beyond those colors are the ones we can’t see like ultraviolet and infrared. The color composition of a rainbow can be broken down quite differently, but we tend to see those particular colors since we are culturally trained to see them from an early age. We absorbed those as the actual colors of a rainbow from our environment for so long, that we just believe them to be the true colors of a rainbow. I see the color of a break coming up. I’ll be right back. ----- Fishing - a 100 word story The packet of cherry-flavored blow pops was happily floating on the water. Little Linda bent over and tried to pick it up. Apparently, it was stuck. The kid pulled at it. The packet seemed to pull back at her. She pulled harder. The packet also pulled harder until it knocked Linda off her feet and started dragging her right into the water. Linda just wouldn't let go. She really wanted those colorful yummy looking lollipops. Eventually, she was pulled right into the water where a shark with a fishing rod put her in a basket and walked away with her. ----- Welcome back. Color can be a cultural thing and the meaning we give to color can change by where you grew up. For example, red can represent life and sensuality in some places while representing danger and violence in others. Blue can represent peace and tranquillity but can also represent sadness and depression depending on where you are. Many times, the way we perceive a color depends on the meaning we absorbed for it while growing up. Differences in the way we perceive color can also be embedded in the very language we speak. Take blue and light blue for example. If you are English speaking you would perceive both as blue, different tones of the same color. In Hebrew though, there are different words for them, “Kachol” for blue and “Tchelet” for light blue, so they might be perceived as distinct colors. There are many examples of that and different colors can be perceived as one color in some languages and two colors in some. In some places, for example, red and orange are the same color and have only one word for both of them. Different people from the same culture can also perceive colors differently. That is because we don’t actually see colors. We see our brain’s interpretation of color. That is most obvious where the boundaries between colors are blurry, for example, the boundary between blue and violet. In effect, Your dark blue can be violet for someone else. It’s hard to tell where your orange ends and where someone’s red begins. Some people can’t distinguish opposite colors. Green and red would seem like the same color to them. This is just one form of color blindness. In more extreme cases, people can’t see color at all. They just see the world in different shades of gray. This is just another one of the problems we have for being separate beings with separate brains who interpret the world in a separate way, but it’s also just part of the magic of what makes us unique and human. This concludes episode 15 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Mortalos - a 100 word story The voices whispered to him, promising more power. He ignored them, focusing void and shadow magic on a single candle. The candle lit, happy flame bursting into life. He used the powers on a second candle, then made sure the table map had no wrinkles, the plates were set exactly opposite each other and the cutlery was positioned just right. “Dinner is served,” he announced. Being an undead shadow priest was not what he imagined, but it had its benefits and the master paid well. Mortalos The Butler was looking forward to the benefits of an extraordinarily long retirement plan. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 14, The Butler Was Looking Forward While magic in the real world is based on tricks and illusions, in the world of fantasy it is derived from invented science that is often derived from mythology and discarded scientific theories. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at magic. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about magic. In the real world, a magician is an illusionist, a trickster of the mind, a mentalist who tricks you into believing something happened when in fact, something entirely different is right in front of your eyes. A good magician is actually a psychologist or a social scientist, analyzing your behavior, or the behavior of an entire audience, then using that analysis to create an illusion such as the disappearance or the transformation of an object. He can trick you into believing he knows something he doesn’t by extracting the information from you, without your even noticing it. For example, he can tell you something that happened in your past by having you tell him the event while having you believe you hasn’t really told him anything. Some magic tricks call for an illusion in which what you see is not physically possible, like a person suspended in mid-air or in a box that is sawn in two. This calls for manipulation of the angle in which you view the illusion or the participation of another person who is in on the trick. A good magician can use mirrors, smoke or just position things a certain way for them to look impossible. In the end, it’s all tricks. Magic in the real world is not real. If it’s real, it’s not really magic, it’s science, and science can sometimes look like magic to the untrained eye, but it’s not really magic. The science of fantasy magic is something completely different though. I’m going to magically disappear now and appear on the other side of a short break. I’ll be right back. ----- Human Food - a 100 word story It was green, wet and wrinkled. Quansity stared at it with disgust. “What is it?” he asked. “It's Human food,” said Ginswey knowingly, “it's called a pickle.” Quansity continued staring at the dripping green thing on the green dining table. “You mean they eat that stuff?” he asked, horrified. “Yes, and quite eagerly too” answered Ginswey, “but that's not the worst thing those barbarians eat.” Quansity held his breath and started looking a little green himself. “You mean... there's worst?” he asked, astonished. “Yes,” said Ginsway, “there is this thing called eggplant lasagna. It's very popular, or so I'm told.” ----- Welcome back. Magic in fantasy is often derived from mythology and scientific theories that have been disputed. Until the end of the 19th-century, scientists believed there’s a substance called “aether” that connects the universe and keeps everything from falling apart. This theory has been long since abandoned, but it’s the basis of magic in several fantasy writings, where things can be sometimes pulled out of thin air using the aether. The aether in fantasy can be a magical power that powers all life and it can be the basis of using magical powers. Another thing fantasy worlds use is the idea of basic elements as a source of magical powers. Those are not the same elements that exist in the real world and they are not made of atoms. They are more akin to the elements taken from several mythologies, where base elements such as fire, earth, and wind were said to make up our world. While we now know that the world is made up of atoms, those base elements of mythology are perfect for fantasy writing and are often used there. The kind of magic you use in fantasy would be influenced by the element you are attuned to. If you are attuned to a fire element, for example, you would be able to shoot fire out of your hands, but if you are attuned to the water element you would shoot ice instead. It is common in fantasy to mix and match elements to create spectacular literary magical special effects. Another literary device for fantasy magic is the one that moves machinery. Machines in fantasy worlds often don’t use real-world mechanics and instead rely on some magical power or another to function, most often a crystal with magical powers. In fact, crystals in fantasy are often used as a conduit or storage device for magical energy. In that way, magic can have a physical form that can be stored and used at will. Magic crystals can power anything from small vehicles to whole cities. Fantasy itself is a vessel that stores magic that enriches our lives and can make them much more interesting while stimulating our imagination. This concludes episode 14 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----

Snow - a 100 word story The snow has been falling, dripping on my heart for days, and it is now frozen. No sound is coming out, no internal clock ticking, clicking the days of my mortal prison away. Gone are the days, chased by time rushing by, washing me away in its clockwork tide, forgotten in a prison of ice. The rain will wash my pain away, leave me clean, cold and still. I'm forever blue, in a crystalized ice cage, here I stay, unmoving, uncaring, for all my cares are gone, forgotten, as I forever sleep, with a frozen heart, buried under deep snow. ----- Hi there and thanks for stopping by. I’m Guy, and you’re listening to my surreal sketchbook of reality. ----- Episode 13, Clockwork Tide Some say that everything that happens is predetermined by cause and effect. Some say it’s all just random events. This episode Is a semi-philosophical look at determinism, causation, and randomness. I’m not a professional philosopher by any means and my approach can be quite absurd, illogical and not at all that serious, so - you've been warned. Do not take this podcast too seriously. If you tend to take things too seriously, this might not be the podcast for you. Seriously. I mean it. Find another podcast to listen to. You’re still here? Good. Let’s talk about randomness versus determinism. First, let’s look at randomness as reflected by chaos geometry which derives from chaos theory. Chaos theory studies the mathematics of randomness. While studying random numbers, it was discovered that those numbers follow the same pattern of many natural occurrences. Many of the natural things that appear random actually have a method within them and that method follows chaos geometry. If you look at the edge of a random shape, let’s say - a cloud, you would see shapes that resemble the shape of the whole cloud, only smaller and not exactly the same, just resembling the whole cloud. That is true for any random thing you would look at, from the shape of a snowflake to the way the weather behaves. Things that appear random seem to hold the seed of themselves. That is the essence of chaos geometry and it suggests that nothing is truly random. Next, let’s look at cause and effect. When clouds collide it causes a release of an electrical charge, that manifests itself in the form of thunder and lightning. If that electrical charge hits something, let’s say a tree, it can cause the tree to catch on fire. If the tree is close to other trees they can also catch fire and you can get a forest fire. This is called a chain of events. In this chain of events, colliding clouds caused a forest fire. The question is, where do chains of events start and when do they end? You can take the events further and see what happens after the fire is over or go back and see how the clouds were formed in the first place. Events don’t start with one event or finish with another, they are a continuous progression of one event leading to another with lots of side events branching from them. Determinism says that events can only go one way. There is really only one option for the events to unfold. For example, the only thing that can possibly happen now is that I take a break. I’ll be right back. ----- The Chair - a 100 word story “Address the chair,” said the head table. “I beg to differ” uttered the chest of drawers but the cupboard shushed her. The respectable window curtain walked in. An appreciative silence filled the room. A sofa moaned. “I think that sofa ate too much last night” whispered a bed to a cabinet. The cabinet just shrugged and said “that sofa would be very hungry when there is no food left. There is a limited amount of unsuspecting people around you know.” The chair cleared his throat and said: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all furniture are created equal...” ----- Welcome back. Determinism tells us that everything has a cause and effect that can only lead one way. You can’t really prevent that forest fire. There is no real choice. If we get all the facts about what causes what we can mathematically calculate all the causes and effects and accurately predict the future. The problem is that we can’t collect all the causes and all the effects. There are just too many of them. Another question that comes to mind is if everything is really predetermined, do we really make decisions? Is there such a thing as free will? The same way that a forest fire is caused by clouds colliding, our thought process is determined by a combination of what we experience and the structure of our genome. Everything we are is determined by some outside force or by the way we are physically built. If you want to believe in free will, you could say that we can decide what we take in from our environment and what we decide to use to build our self-identity. Even if this is an illusion and we don’t really decide, I believe we should try to become a better version of ourselves. That is because this is who I am. I believe that we should strive to leave the world in a better state then we got it. It doesn’t matter if things are predetermined or not. It is the choices we presume to make that matter, and we should not act as if the world is deterministic. We should embrace the illusion of choice and make a better world for ourselves. This concludes episode 13 of this podcast. Close the door on your way out and don’t forget - I’m just a figment of your imagination. -----