https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helloandlullaby.chinesecalligraphy3&hl=en
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Chinese Calligraphy app
now in the google play store. Learn Chinese Calligraphy with Chinese Calligraphy 3 app designed by me, hello and lullaby. This app can be used as a reference for 30 common Chinese characters. It is a simple scrolled gallery with different characters for 30 common words and their English translation. Just visit the link below the picture or search Chinese Calligraphy 3 in the google play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helloandlullaby.chinesecalligraphy3&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helloandlullaby.chinesecalligraphy3&hl=en
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Subliminal Messages Part 2: Letter Frequency Composition
This essay shows the subliminal harmonies and dissonances between letter frequency distribution across Shakespeare’s Sonnets and compares them with those of the verses on Eminem’s Recovery album. The concept of harmony and dissonance as it relates to letter frequency will be made clearer through use of graphs in which the average use of each letter per verse is presented. The verses from each author’s respective works are compared to the other verses in the order in which they were published, which is important as the harmonies and dissonances phenomenon can span multiple verses in a row and were most likely not intentionally organized this way consciously. In the future, people may want to have a professional linguist analyze everything from political speeches to movies, music albums, and books, to maximize the overall aesthetic effect of language in the subliminal dimension of letter frequency as it is presented in this essay.
If you look at figure 1, you will see a chart of the vowels as they are used in each of Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a percent of total letters used in each sonnet. Of note is the stratification between the first level, letter E, the second level, letters A, I, and O, and the third level, letters U and Y with letter Y being considered always a vowel in computer analysis of the letters. This stratification is sometimes harmonic in that you can see it distinctly for as much as 10-15 sonnets in a row, and is sometimes dissonant in that the second and third levels jumble together also for as much as 10-15 sonnets in a row. This can also be referred to in the mathematical sense as a phase space, because we are not yet sure as to whether they are actually harmonic and dissonant sounding to the ears. All we know so far is that there is a clear distinction for multiple sonnets in a row.
This study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets shows us what we are looking for in figure 2, the same data for Eminem’s Recovery album. This time the stratification is different, with the harmonies less easily seen until closer to the end of the album, though they are also noticeable earlier on if you know what you are looking for (a 3 level stratification as described in the last paragraph). Interestingly, the dissonances are jumbled differently in Eminem’s verses with the 2nd level merging up with the 1rst level instead of down with the 3rd level as in the sonnets. We are looking here at two completely different styles of composition that remain mostly consistent in how they differ throughout the body of work, but the harmonies in the two respective bodies of work are of the same stratification.
In composition, it’s not that a dissonance is undesirable, in fact the areas of dissonance can make the areas of harmony more powerful and vice versa. We see in Eminem’s album composition slight harmonies towards the beginning in verses (8-13) and (16-18) that build to more powerful harmonies towards the end (21-22, 25-26, 28, 31-32, 38-39, 42, and 44). Most of his singles are in the latter half of the album. In fact, of his four singles, the two that became number 1 hits on the billboard hot 100 chart follow the same pattern of dissonance in two verses followed by a harmonic verse. These are Not Afraid (19-21) and Love the Way You Lie (40-42) on figure 2. His other singles are Space Bound (27-29) which has a dissonance harmony dissonance structure and No Love (25-26) which arguably has a harmony harmony structure. The album ends on a harmonic tone.
This is just an initial investigation looking at results that could possibly be noticed subconsciously as they appear subconsciously organized in entire bodies of work. For this reason the general trends of stratification are what we are primarily interested in, though it may be worth further study to see how much and to what level of detail these trends can be picked up on a subconscious level. This investigation of how vowels are stratified by frequency shows us that the organization of letter frequency by harmony and dissonance is a real phenomenon with practical application and deserves further attention.
If you look at figure 1, you will see a chart of the vowels as they are used in each of Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a percent of total letters used in each sonnet. Of note is the stratification between the first level, letter E, the second level, letters A, I, and O, and the third level, letters U and Y with letter Y being considered always a vowel in computer analysis of the letters. This stratification is sometimes harmonic in that you can see it distinctly for as much as 10-15 sonnets in a row, and is sometimes dissonant in that the second and third levels jumble together also for as much as 10-15 sonnets in a row. This can also be referred to in the mathematical sense as a phase space, because we are not yet sure as to whether they are actually harmonic and dissonant sounding to the ears. All we know so far is that there is a clear distinction for multiple sonnets in a row.
This study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets shows us what we are looking for in figure 2, the same data for Eminem’s Recovery album. This time the stratification is different, with the harmonies less easily seen until closer to the end of the album, though they are also noticeable earlier on if you know what you are looking for (a 3 level stratification as described in the last paragraph). Interestingly, the dissonances are jumbled differently in Eminem’s verses with the 2nd level merging up with the 1rst level instead of down with the 3rd level as in the sonnets. We are looking here at two completely different styles of composition that remain mostly consistent in how they differ throughout the body of work, but the harmonies in the two respective bodies of work are of the same stratification.
In composition, it’s not that a dissonance is undesirable, in fact the areas of dissonance can make the areas of harmony more powerful and vice versa. We see in Eminem’s album composition slight harmonies towards the beginning in verses (8-13) and (16-18) that build to more powerful harmonies towards the end (21-22, 25-26, 28, 31-32, 38-39, 42, and 44). Most of his singles are in the latter half of the album. In fact, of his four singles, the two that became number 1 hits on the billboard hot 100 chart follow the same pattern of dissonance in two verses followed by a harmonic verse. These are Not Afraid (19-21) and Love the Way You Lie (40-42) on figure 2. His other singles are Space Bound (27-29) which has a dissonance harmony dissonance structure and No Love (25-26) which arguably has a harmony harmony structure. The album ends on a harmonic tone.
This is just an initial investigation looking at results that could possibly be noticed subconsciously as they appear subconsciously organized in entire bodies of work. For this reason the general trends of stratification are what we are primarily interested in, though it may be worth further study to see how much and to what level of detail these trends can be picked up on a subconscious level. This investigation of how vowels are stratified by frequency shows us that the organization of letter frequency by harmony and dissonance is a real phenomenon with practical application and deserves further attention.
Fig 1 (click to enlarge)
Fig 2 (click to enlarge)
Subliminal Messages Part 1: Letter Frequency Preference
“It is impossible to read the compositions of the most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled with the electric life which burns within their words. They measure the circumference and sound the depths of human nature with a comprehensive and all-penetrating spirit, and they are themselves perhaps the most sincerely astonished at its manifestations; for it is less their spirit than the spirit of the age.”
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley was right when he said writers (as a generalization) are tuned in to the spirit of their generation, but what sounds pleasing to one person may not give the same pleasure to his or her neighbor, and thus there is a variety of poetry and literature even from within a single generation that often express the same concepts in different ways using different words. It seems common sense that each individual has different literary tastes, but it is my intent to show that different tastes do not confine themselves to subject matter and word choice, but extend to the very use of different letters themselves. That the elemental sounds of words can influence our word choice or be studied as mass trends is not readily apparent. It would seem that, by sheer probability, two authors may use different amounts of each letter to form a book as unique as the individual that wrote it. However, in the example of Jane Austen’s literature as well as that of H.G. Wells’, we see a consistent pattern of usage of certain letters more than average and others less than average. This pattern is especially interesting because the two authors are opposites of one another in letter preference for nearly half of the alphabet.
In this small study, 4 popular books were chosen from each author to make a total of 8 books, plus an additional 7 books from other authors to make a grand total of 15 books. These additional books are to help us get a more precise grand total average letter frequency as well as see how other books compare to the 4 from each author that we are studying. First, all of the letters from each of the 15 books were counted and a baseline was set for each letter as the average percent of each letter used in context of the total of all of the letters used. For example the letter A was used a total of 536,812 times across all 15 books. There were 6,635,567 total letters used, therefor the letter A represents about 12.361 percent of the total letters used in all 15 books. Then, the total letter usage for each individual book was done in similar fashion, the result being the percent of each letter when the total of all of the letters for the individual book are taken into account. The percent of the individual letter as used in relation to the book is subtracted from the average percent of that letter as is used in all 15 books, and this is done for every letter. Some results are negative and some positive. For the negative results, the letter was used more than average, while the positive numbers show a difference that is positive because the letter was used less than average, and this subtracted from the average yields a positive result. The accompanying graphs are thus counter intuitive as I repeat: positive values are letters used less often and negative values are letters used more often than average.
For the purposes of this paper you can pretty much just eyeball the graphs to see the difference between Jane Austen and H.G. Wells, but this is because they have been set up to be a difference from the average in the fashion described above. How big is this difference. Each 0.1 percent represents a certain number of times the letter has been used. This is a different number of letters for each book, however the average for letter A is 537 times = 0.1 percent. So the number of letters that very for the letter A can be thought of as somewhere in this ballpark. It would be slightly less for Wells’ shorter works and slightly more for Austen’s longer ones, and completely different for the letter B.
First level differences in letter choice are unanimous throughout the 4 books of one author and are opposed unanimously to the four books of the other, and this across the boundary of average letter usage. These letters are A, D, G, K, and Q, with O, T, and Y so close that I am counting these as first level as well. Second Level differences are almost there if it weren’t for that one pesky book that throws it all off, but you can still see the difference. Letters J, P, R, and V.
There are several differences between the work of Jane Austen and that of H.G. Wells that may account for the difference in letter usage.
1.The length of their respective works are different with Austen averaging 529,442 letters per book and Wells averaging 200,921 per book.
2.The authors are different individuals with different tastes.
3.Gender
4.Genre
5.Time Period (Austen = turn of the 19th century while Wells=turn of the 20th)
6.Other (Including but not limited to several factors combined.)
We can attempt to look at some of the other authors listed for insight into these factors. Moby Dick, for example, is a longer book than those of Jane Austen, and yet for first level difference letters A, G, K, and T, and second level difference letters J,R and V, Moby Dick letter usage is in the range of the works of Wells. This is, however, just one example and further study is needed.
Hopefully this short report on some of the works of H.G. Wells and those of Jane Austen will spark some interesting and more comprehensive research. The rest of this paper shall consist of graphs for each letter. It may also be of worth to note that Austen and Wells are also diametrically opposed to one another in consonant to vowel ratio also across each of their 4 books and across the baseline average of the totals of 15 books.
The order of books throughout the following graphs is presented below. For purposes of graph analysis, books 6-9 are written by Wells and books 10-13 by Austen. The difference letter graphs of note are presented below, click the image to enlarge.
1.The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
2.20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
3.Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
4.Billy Budd by Herman Melville
5.Moby Dick by Herman Melville
6.War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
7.The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
8.The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
9.The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
10.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
11.Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
12.Emma by Jane Austen
13.Persuasion by Jane Austen
14.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
15.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley was right when he said writers (as a generalization) are tuned in to the spirit of their generation, but what sounds pleasing to one person may not give the same pleasure to his or her neighbor, and thus there is a variety of poetry and literature even from within a single generation that often express the same concepts in different ways using different words. It seems common sense that each individual has different literary tastes, but it is my intent to show that different tastes do not confine themselves to subject matter and word choice, but extend to the very use of different letters themselves. That the elemental sounds of words can influence our word choice or be studied as mass trends is not readily apparent. It would seem that, by sheer probability, two authors may use different amounts of each letter to form a book as unique as the individual that wrote it. However, in the example of Jane Austen’s literature as well as that of H.G. Wells’, we see a consistent pattern of usage of certain letters more than average and others less than average. This pattern is especially interesting because the two authors are opposites of one another in letter preference for nearly half of the alphabet.
In this small study, 4 popular books were chosen from each author to make a total of 8 books, plus an additional 7 books from other authors to make a grand total of 15 books. These additional books are to help us get a more precise grand total average letter frequency as well as see how other books compare to the 4 from each author that we are studying. First, all of the letters from each of the 15 books were counted and a baseline was set for each letter as the average percent of each letter used in context of the total of all of the letters used. For example the letter A was used a total of 536,812 times across all 15 books. There were 6,635,567 total letters used, therefor the letter A represents about 12.361 percent of the total letters used in all 15 books. Then, the total letter usage for each individual book was done in similar fashion, the result being the percent of each letter when the total of all of the letters for the individual book are taken into account. The percent of the individual letter as used in relation to the book is subtracted from the average percent of that letter as is used in all 15 books, and this is done for every letter. Some results are negative and some positive. For the negative results, the letter was used more than average, while the positive numbers show a difference that is positive because the letter was used less than average, and this subtracted from the average yields a positive result. The accompanying graphs are thus counter intuitive as I repeat: positive values are letters used less often and negative values are letters used more often than average.
For the purposes of this paper you can pretty much just eyeball the graphs to see the difference between Jane Austen and H.G. Wells, but this is because they have been set up to be a difference from the average in the fashion described above. How big is this difference. Each 0.1 percent represents a certain number of times the letter has been used. This is a different number of letters for each book, however the average for letter A is 537 times = 0.1 percent. So the number of letters that very for the letter A can be thought of as somewhere in this ballpark. It would be slightly less for Wells’ shorter works and slightly more for Austen’s longer ones, and completely different for the letter B.
First level differences in letter choice are unanimous throughout the 4 books of one author and are opposed unanimously to the four books of the other, and this across the boundary of average letter usage. These letters are A, D, G, K, and Q, with O, T, and Y so close that I am counting these as first level as well. Second Level differences are almost there if it weren’t for that one pesky book that throws it all off, but you can still see the difference. Letters J, P, R, and V.
There are several differences between the work of Jane Austen and that of H.G. Wells that may account for the difference in letter usage.
1.The length of their respective works are different with Austen averaging 529,442 letters per book and Wells averaging 200,921 per book.
2.The authors are different individuals with different tastes.
3.Gender
4.Genre
5.Time Period (Austen = turn of the 19th century while Wells=turn of the 20th)
6.Other (Including but not limited to several factors combined.)
We can attempt to look at some of the other authors listed for insight into these factors. Moby Dick, for example, is a longer book than those of Jane Austen, and yet for first level difference letters A, G, K, and T, and second level difference letters J,R and V, Moby Dick letter usage is in the range of the works of Wells. This is, however, just one example and further study is needed.
Hopefully this short report on some of the works of H.G. Wells and those of Jane Austen will spark some interesting and more comprehensive research. The rest of this paper shall consist of graphs for each letter. It may also be of worth to note that Austen and Wells are also diametrically opposed to one another in consonant to vowel ratio also across each of their 4 books and across the baseline average of the totals of 15 books.
The order of books throughout the following graphs is presented below. For purposes of graph analysis, books 6-9 are written by Wells and books 10-13 by Austen. The difference letter graphs of note are presented below, click the image to enlarge.
1.The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
2.20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
3.Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
4.Billy Budd by Herman Melville
5.Moby Dick by Herman Melville
6.War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
7.The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
8.The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
9.The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
10.Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
11.Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
12.Emma by Jane Austen
13.Persuasion by Jane Austen
14.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
15.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Philosophy of Number: The Shadows of Prime Numbers
Prime numbers are the elemental building blocks that determine the composite numbers, and they famously divide the number line into random increments in a fashion that has baffled mathematicians for centuries. There is an interesting related phenomenon, however, that we can understand. You can categorize sets of multiple primes within the boundaries of two smaller consecutive primes squared, thereby projecting these smaller primes onto larger segments of numbers farther down the number line in a meaningful way. I am calling this effect a shadow. Take all of the primes between 25 and 49 as an example. 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, and 47. Their pattern may not be known, but these are the gaps in the unique shadow produced by projecting 5 squared and 7 squared in which all of the composite numbers in between are uniquely generated from all of the preceding primes up to and including the smaller of the two primes we are squaring to produce the entire space of the shadow. In the case of the shadow between 25 and 49, every composite number can be produced by the formulas 2x, 3x, and 5x with x being all positive integers extending out to infinity. The second we reach 49, we need to use a higher layer of composite numbers to begin producing some of the composites which appear. So, we add a 7x to our list of composite numbers by smallest factor, but we never need to do this until we reach the square of the next prime number at which point the previous shadow changes to a unique new shadow. We can generate all of the composite numbers from 49 up to 121 with the formula layers so far introduced including 7x, but when we get to 121 (11 squared) we need to begin including 11x in our smallest prime factors list to cover all of the composite numbers in the shadow. So the squares of prime numbers present us with real boundaries that extend up the number line, covering larger increments that each contain more prime numbers. By looking at just the composite numbers, we simplify the primes to the gaps between these numbers, the light in the shadows, with these shadow numbers generated from much simpler elements. In this way, the numbers can be thought of as unfolding in groups of numbers which are then projected to the unfolding of larger groups of numbers. These groups are bounded by the squares of each consecutive prime, and their makeup is foreshadowed much earlier than when they appear.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
The Matrix Meets Black Swan
5 Ways “The Matrix” and “Black Swan” are the Same Movie
Spoiler Alerts
In the film “The Matrix” we encounter a heroes journey narrative structure with a strong emphasis on internal struggle (to come to terms with oneself) or spiritual awakening. We watch as Thomas Anderson aka Neo, the “man leading a double life” is awakened to the truth about the very fabric of his reality and the degree to which he can willfully manipulate space and time to control that reality as not just one person, but “the one” person. In “Black Swan”, we see Nina Sayers, a young woman wanting nothing more than to be a ballerina, yet chosen from within this narrowly focused life path to fulfill two ballerina roles as both the white swan and black swan in Swan Lake. Her struggle to accurately portray both identities causes her reality to unravel as she becomes increasingly familiar with both roles while losing control of reality and slowly going insane. On the surface these two movies may seem like polar opposites of each other, but this surface is just a construct to hide the truth about these movies... that they are, in fact, one and the same movie.
5. Both movies overtly feature a real world and a world that is imagined. Further, this imagined world requires behind the scenes logistics to keep it functioning. In “The Matrix,” Neo is unplugged from the matrix computer construct, but he and a select few can travel back into it anytime they want to or need to. This computer construct is incredibly complex incorporating every facet of known human existence into a seemingly real world for all of those connected to it. The team even has “training sequences” that help to prepare them for this alternate world of the mind. When Neo wakes up in the human pod farm, we get to see a little of the behind the scenes of what it takes to keep the matrix running. The physical world that runs this construct is immensely complex with towers of people, and robots overseeing every technical hiccup such as Neo waking up and pulling out his wires. We also are privy to the infamous complex computer code scrawling in green letters across what are usually multi-monitor setups.
In “Black Swan” we once again have a select few that participate in a theater/dance recreation of Swan Lake and regularly train to appear flawless onstage. This type of production doesn’t just occur because everyone is really into ballet and wants it to happen, it takes dedicated professionals, directors, and lots of work behind the scenes handling logistics such as fund raising. We are brought along on one such occasion with Nina to a fancy event with patrons of the arts where she is introduced as the new Swan Queen. Aside from these such events there is everything else involved in running a production, from makeup and wardrobe to set design. 4. Each protagonist is selected to be a leader. The two protagonists (with oddly similar names - Nina and Neo) are each selected to fulfill a leading role as a part of the team (and each team has a unique costume style to differentiate themselves from the general public). Even though Neo is “the one,” he still lives aboard the Nebuchadnezzar and eats the same gruel as the rest of it’s leather and trench coat to real world rags crew. Similarly, Swan Lake is no one woman show, it has a entire cast that all rehearse together. They may wear tutus to perform, but when they’re not on stage or training, we see the same loose fitting clothing that the Nebuchadnezzar’s crew wears.
- matrix leather - matrix rags
- black swan dark - black swan rags (are those the exact same rags?)
3. Each protagonist is doubted in their leading role. “Black Swan” goes extremely into the intense pressure that Nina feels preparing for her role as the Swan Queen. The main voice doubting her is her director, but we are also privy to the kind of backstage gossip that can occur among competitive ballerinas. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is similarly not sure if Neo is “the one” or not, but in both movies the groups have directors / leaders that push each protagonist in a mentor role to realize their potential in the production (or matrix) by “letting go” of whatever it is that is holding each of them back respectively. Favoritism is also an issue when we see Beth telling Nina that she used to be the favorite, or Cypher telling Trinity he didn’t remember her ever bringing him breakfast (as she did with Neo). We as an audience even question whether the protagonist is fit for the job after a dramatic fall during a training sequence or rehearsal sequence, but then watch them begin to transform in an abandoned train station scene.
- matrix train station
- black swan train station
2. Both movies use the same symbolism. Both movies use special effects with mirrors/reflection to show the reality of our protagonist begin to change. In Black Swan, Nina sees her reflection change in the train window. There is also the mirror in her dressing room, which she dramatically shatters during the performance at the end. Actually she has a mirror in her bedroom too, there are mirror’s in the dance studio, there are pretty much mirrors in every scene of the movie. That’s because her transformation took a lot longer. In the matrix we see Neo getting arrested in the rear view of Trinities motor cycle. Not long after this he is reaching out to touch the shattered mirror that liquefies and slowly covers his whole body turning him into the Terminator 2. Just before this he is given a choice between a red pill and blue pill reflected in Morpheus’s glasses. (Nina is also given pills in Black Swan).
- matrix mirror
- black swan mirror
1. Both protagonists are persuaded to go to a club to party. In addition to being introduced to each character while they are literally waking up (symbolic of their soon to be metaphorical waking), each protagonists doesn’t have much of a social life, but is persuaded to go out late at night to party at the club. This results in another waking up scene with them being tired, hungover, and late for their appointments the next day. This happens to Neo at the beginning of the movie, while for Nina it is a little past the halfway mark and with a more dramatic emphasis on this being a part of her “letting go”. Another waking up scene in each movie involves the protagonist opening their eye’s and screaming underwater while in a tub or pod of some sort.
- matrix neo sleeping
- black swan nina sleeping
In The Matrix one of the cast members says "we don't wake people up after they've reached a certain age, the mind cannot handle it." It is possible that all Black Swan is a side story in the same universe about a young woman noticing a lot of glitches in the computer construct of her reality, like the scene where the mirror looks at her while she is looking away, and her mind is unable to handle it. Neo was messed with a little in the beginning of The Matrix when Trinity was leaving messages on his computer to "follow the white rabbit" or Morpheus was giving him directions on the cell phone in a seemingly omnipotent way, telling him to take the scaffolding to the roof of a skyscraper. If things had played out slightly differently, Neo could have been the one going insane while Natalie Portman hopped on board the Nebuchadnezzar to save humanity.
Spoiler Alerts
In the film “The Matrix” we encounter a heroes journey narrative structure with a strong emphasis on internal struggle (to come to terms with oneself) or spiritual awakening. We watch as Thomas Anderson aka Neo, the “man leading a double life” is awakened to the truth about the very fabric of his reality and the degree to which he can willfully manipulate space and time to control that reality as not just one person, but “the one” person. In “Black Swan”, we see Nina Sayers, a young woman wanting nothing more than to be a ballerina, yet chosen from within this narrowly focused life path to fulfill two ballerina roles as both the white swan and black swan in Swan Lake. Her struggle to accurately portray both identities causes her reality to unravel as she becomes increasingly familiar with both roles while losing control of reality and slowly going insane. On the surface these two movies may seem like polar opposites of each other, but this surface is just a construct to hide the truth about these movies... that they are, in fact, one and the same movie.
5. Both movies overtly feature a real world and a world that is imagined. Further, this imagined world requires behind the scenes logistics to keep it functioning. In “The Matrix,” Neo is unplugged from the matrix computer construct, but he and a select few can travel back into it anytime they want to or need to. This computer construct is incredibly complex incorporating every facet of known human existence into a seemingly real world for all of those connected to it. The team even has “training sequences” that help to prepare them for this alternate world of the mind. When Neo wakes up in the human pod farm, we get to see a little of the behind the scenes of what it takes to keep the matrix running. The physical world that runs this construct is immensely complex with towers of people, and robots overseeing every technical hiccup such as Neo waking up and pulling out his wires. We also are privy to the infamous complex computer code scrawling in green letters across what are usually multi-monitor setups.
In “Black Swan” we once again have a select few that participate in a theater/dance recreation of Swan Lake and regularly train to appear flawless onstage. This type of production doesn’t just occur because everyone is really into ballet and wants it to happen, it takes dedicated professionals, directors, and lots of work behind the scenes handling logistics such as fund raising. We are brought along on one such occasion with Nina to a fancy event with patrons of the arts where she is introduced as the new Swan Queen. Aside from these such events there is everything else involved in running a production, from makeup and wardrobe to set design. 4. Each protagonist is selected to be a leader. The two protagonists (with oddly similar names - Nina and Neo) are each selected to fulfill a leading role as a part of the team (and each team has a unique costume style to differentiate themselves from the general public). Even though Neo is “the one,” he still lives aboard the Nebuchadnezzar and eats the same gruel as the rest of it’s leather and trench coat to real world rags crew. Similarly, Swan Lake is no one woman show, it has a entire cast that all rehearse together. They may wear tutus to perform, but when they’re not on stage or training, we see the same loose fitting clothing that the Nebuchadnezzar’s crew wears.
3. Each protagonist is doubted in their leading role. “Black Swan” goes extremely into the intense pressure that Nina feels preparing for her role as the Swan Queen. The main voice doubting her is her director, but we are also privy to the kind of backstage gossip that can occur among competitive ballerinas. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is similarly not sure if Neo is “the one” or not, but in both movies the groups have directors / leaders that push each protagonist in a mentor role to realize their potential in the production (or matrix) by “letting go” of whatever it is that is holding each of them back respectively. Favoritism is also an issue when we see Beth telling Nina that she used to be the favorite, or Cypher telling Trinity he didn’t remember her ever bringing him breakfast (as she did with Neo). We as an audience even question whether the protagonist is fit for the job after a dramatic fall during a training sequence or rehearsal sequence, but then watch them begin to transform in an abandoned train station scene.
2. Both movies use the same symbolism. Both movies use special effects with mirrors/reflection to show the reality of our protagonist begin to change. In Black Swan, Nina sees her reflection change in the train window. There is also the mirror in her dressing room, which she dramatically shatters during the performance at the end. Actually she has a mirror in her bedroom too, there are mirror’s in the dance studio, there are pretty much mirrors in every scene of the movie. That’s because her transformation took a lot longer. In the matrix we see Neo getting arrested in the rear view of Trinities motor cycle. Not long after this he is reaching out to touch the shattered mirror that liquefies and slowly covers his whole body turning him into the Terminator 2. Just before this he is given a choice between a red pill and blue pill reflected in Morpheus’s glasses. (Nina is also given pills in Black Swan).
1. Both protagonists are persuaded to go to a club to party. In addition to being introduced to each character while they are literally waking up (symbolic of their soon to be metaphorical waking), each protagonists doesn’t have much of a social life, but is persuaded to go out late at night to party at the club. This results in another waking up scene with them being tired, hungover, and late for their appointments the next day. This happens to Neo at the beginning of the movie, while for Nina it is a little past the halfway mark and with a more dramatic emphasis on this being a part of her “letting go”. Another waking up scene in each movie involves the protagonist opening their eye’s and screaming underwater while in a tub or pod of some sort.
In The Matrix one of the cast members says "we don't wake people up after they've reached a certain age, the mind cannot handle it." It is possible that all Black Swan is a side story in the same universe about a young woman noticing a lot of glitches in the computer construct of her reality, like the scene where the mirror looks at her while she is looking away, and her mind is unable to handle it. Neo was messed with a little in the beginning of The Matrix when Trinity was leaving messages on his computer to "follow the white rabbit" or Morpheus was giving him directions on the cell phone in a seemingly omnipotent way, telling him to take the scaffolding to the roof of a skyscraper. If things had played out slightly differently, Neo could have been the one going insane while Natalie Portman hopped on board the Nebuchadnezzar to save humanity.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Theory: District 9 is a prequel to Gattaca
District 9 is a prequel to Gattaca
Spoiler Alerts
Have you ever wondered what led humanity into the genetically enhanced yet heavily segregated dystopian near future world of Gattaca? The events that unfold in the documentary styled present day District 9 may explain how we got to this future world. In District 9 we have an alien ship that crash lands into Earth leaving a whole alien crew stranded in the slums of South Africa’s famously apartheid loving Johannesburg. The important thing to remember here is that this is a singular event. This is why it never comes up in Gattaca. There is no Independence Day style alien invasion that levels cities or really affects any part of the world outside of Johannesburg. The aliens essentially come in peace and park their big space craft within earths atmosphere before being relegated to the slums while humanity tries to figure out what to do with them and their incredible genetically linked technology. Guns that can only fire when a member of the alien race handles one but will not turn on in the hands of a human. Nobody in Gattaca’s society, a society revolving around human genetic superiority, would freely admit that so much of it’s technology was stolen from non-human aliens.
How did Gattaca’s society evolve to what it became in the film? It is entirely possible that the research done into these weapons and space travel systems and accompanying genetics research necessary to merely activate this technology leads humanity down a path where we are no longer segregating aliens, but begin to segregate less genetically modified humans at the plausibly rapid pace of change that accompanies defense spending and military investment. What if more alien ships show up and they are less friendly, especially in light of how humanity has been treating the first set of alien visitors? This explains why the segregation in Gattaca is so out and in the open and everyone seems to be okay with that. Once you open the door to segregation of another intelligent species such as that of District 9, there is no turning back.
What else could explain the rapid development of technology in such a short frame of time. In Gattaca, we see that, over the course of Ethan Hawks lifetime, space travel has also advanced from what it is in our time to multiple manned launches to the moon and beyond to other planets every single day (as our protagonist hopes to be on one of these flights). The only thing that would explain such a dramatic technological advancement in such a short period of time is alien technology. Currently, our society is toning down efforts at space travel, but if we knew beyond a doubt that aliens existed and could in fact reach earth, space travel would probably become a bit more of a priority.
One subtle reference in Gattaca is the 6 fingered piano player, an evolved humanity’s classical metaphor evoking the first human genetic transformations which revolved around being able to handle the alien technology. Humans first started by altering their hands as they had seen happen with the protagonist of District 9 in their documentary / top secret tape of the earliest human encounter with being able to use the alien weapons. In District 9, humans were still struggling after 20 something years to activate the weapons before the events of the documentary transpired. That tape must have been studied over and over by Gattaca's futuristic scientists with whom all metaphorical significance concerning how we should treat each other is lost upon.
Spoiler Alerts
Have you ever wondered what led humanity into the genetically enhanced yet heavily segregated dystopian near future world of Gattaca? The events that unfold in the documentary styled present day District 9 may explain how we got to this future world. In District 9 we have an alien ship that crash lands into Earth leaving a whole alien crew stranded in the slums of South Africa’s famously apartheid loving Johannesburg. The important thing to remember here is that this is a singular event. This is why it never comes up in Gattaca. There is no Independence Day style alien invasion that levels cities or really affects any part of the world outside of Johannesburg. The aliens essentially come in peace and park their big space craft within earths atmosphere before being relegated to the slums while humanity tries to figure out what to do with them and their incredible genetically linked technology. Guns that can only fire when a member of the alien race handles one but will not turn on in the hands of a human. Nobody in Gattaca’s society, a society revolving around human genetic superiority, would freely admit that so much of it’s technology was stolen from non-human aliens.
How did Gattaca’s society evolve to what it became in the film? It is entirely possible that the research done into these weapons and space travel systems and accompanying genetics research necessary to merely activate this technology leads humanity down a path where we are no longer segregating aliens, but begin to segregate less genetically modified humans at the plausibly rapid pace of change that accompanies defense spending and military investment. What if more alien ships show up and they are less friendly, especially in light of how humanity has been treating the first set of alien visitors? This explains why the segregation in Gattaca is so out and in the open and everyone seems to be okay with that. Once you open the door to segregation of another intelligent species such as that of District 9, there is no turning back.
What else could explain the rapid development of technology in such a short frame of time. In Gattaca, we see that, over the course of Ethan Hawks lifetime, space travel has also advanced from what it is in our time to multiple manned launches to the moon and beyond to other planets every single day (as our protagonist hopes to be on one of these flights). The only thing that would explain such a dramatic technological advancement in such a short period of time is alien technology. Currently, our society is toning down efforts at space travel, but if we knew beyond a doubt that aliens existed and could in fact reach earth, space travel would probably become a bit more of a priority.
One subtle reference in Gattaca is the 6 fingered piano player, an evolved humanity’s classical metaphor evoking the first human genetic transformations which revolved around being able to handle the alien technology. Humans first started by altering their hands as they had seen happen with the protagonist of District 9 in their documentary / top secret tape of the earliest human encounter with being able to use the alien weapons. In District 9, humans were still struggling after 20 something years to activate the weapons before the events of the documentary transpired. That tape must have been studied over and over by Gattaca's futuristic scientists with whom all metaphorical significance concerning how we should treat each other is lost upon.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Garden State Meets Batman Begins
Garden State Meets Batman Begins
Spoiler Alerts
The similarities between the movies Garden State and Batman Begins are remarkable. They are both essentially homecoming stories where our protagonists, each suffering the death of a parent or parents and blaming themselves for this death, both return from extended absences. Each protagonist must overcome obstacles related to this loss of loved ones and ultimately “finds them self” albeit the path they each take is a different path. Still, both movies share some common ground.
Both movies feature mansions. Both movies have steep cliffs/ an abyss.
Both movies have comical swimming scenes.
Both characters learn to blend in.
And both characters steal.
In both movies, psychiatrists are the antagonists. The Scar Crow in Batman Begins is really Dr. Crane, a psychiatrist who mistreats his patients and tortures them with his scar crow mask. In Garden State, Zach Braff’s father is the psychiatrist who misdiagnosis him when he is younger due to the untimely death of his mother, and has him overly medicated throughout most of his young adult life. This is ultimately what each character is confronting, well, that and the league of shadows. Who’s to say they’re not in Garden State though, they’re ninjas, they could be anywhere.
Spoiler Alerts
The similarities between the movies Garden State and Batman Begins are remarkable. They are both essentially homecoming stories where our protagonists, each suffering the death of a parent or parents and blaming themselves for this death, both return from extended absences. Each protagonist must overcome obstacles related to this loss of loved ones and ultimately “finds them self” albeit the path they each take is a different path. Still, both movies share some common ground.
Both movies feature mansions. Both movies have steep cliffs/ an abyss.
Both movies have comical swimming scenes.
(Ninja Training)
And both characters steal.
(This is why Batman Begins begins with batman in prison.)
In both movies, psychiatrists are the antagonists. The Scar Crow in Batman Begins is really Dr. Crane, a psychiatrist who mistreats his patients and tortures them with his scar crow mask. In Garden State, Zach Braff’s father is the psychiatrist who misdiagnosis him when he is younger due to the untimely death of his mother, and has him overly medicated throughout most of his young adult life. This is ultimately what each character is confronting, well, that and the league of shadows. Who’s to say they’re not in Garden State though, they’re ninjas, they could be anywhere.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
The Truman Show Meets Interstellar
The Truman Show Meets Interstellar
Spoiler Alerts.
When revisiting Jim Carrey’s “The Truman Show”, one thing fell right out of the sky and struck me, and it wasn’t a lighting malfunction or Indian Air Force drone. The Truman Show portrays an apocalyptic end of a whole world that has been created and maintained over the course of Truman Burbank’s entire lifespan. This world is separate from our real world and has an entire population that are soon to be out of jobs, and not just any jobs, lifelong careers were assumed in the roles these people had accepted. As both films start out with documentary type footage, we learn that for the cast of The Truman Show, the television show is their whole life. Granted, they aren’t slowly suffocating to death or worried about basic commodities like food running out, but the movie is still a dramatic end to a world that has existed for quite some time and these peoples very way of life. Interstellar is also an apocalyptic scenario, though this one is reminiscent of the dust bowl of the early 20th century and clearly adapted to modern concerns of global warming. Both plots are based around highly advanced feats of engineering, one to create a habitable bio-dome on earth, the other to bring that bio-dome through the skies.
Truman, much like Cooper of Interstellar, wants to explore. He wants to travel, though he is confined to a small town/ film studio for his entire life. We see him as a young boy in school talk about his hopes to explore like the great Magellan, the first person to sail around the entire planet. His teacher urges him to reconsider however, claiming that there’s nothing left to explore. In Interstellar we see Cooper visit his daughter’s school. Apparently she was in trouble for bringing in an old textbook featuring details of space exploration. The teacher informs Cooper, and us as the audience, that these old textbooks are no longer in use. They now teach kids the truth about how the moon landing was faked so that the Soviet Union would put too many resources into trying to achieve something with no practical value. In this world they “don’t need any more engineers, we need farmers.” An educational system shooting down the dreams of young children is thus a feature of both films, and there’s more...
Mentioned above in this writing, both Truman and Cooper get signs from above pretty early in the film. In the Truman Show, a light comes crashing down from the sky (seemingly from nowhere), and in Interstellar it is a drone with solar panels. In both cases these machines that interact with light show us something of the modern technical aspects of the worlds of each of these movies. We also see Coopers family driving crazy to catch the drone before learning that they can’t go any further because of a large cliff that marks an end to their journey. This is like when Truman is driving crazy with his family before realizing that the roads out of town end abruptly. In each scene our protagonist asks the person in the passenger seat to take the wheel.
Both movies also feature dramatic ocean scenes with crashing waves that threaten our protagonist’s lives and yet have large stretches in the middle of these oceans that are so shallow the water comes up to our protagonist’s ankles. Coincidence? Much like Truman pieces together magazine clippings to remember the girl of his dreams, Cooper is then forced to watch his children grow up through video clips of all the time that went by while he was on this planet.
Both movies are based around a lie of some sort. For Truman his entire life is revealed to be a lie. In Interstellar, it is the life of Cooper’s daughter that is revealed to be a lie upon Michael Cain’s deathbed. A lie that she fully believed and has been working on to be reunited with her father. (Truman also hopes to be reunited with his father if you can remember this part of the movie. He also is struggling to find the truth, and this is a concession the director makes to try and ease his mind about leaving). Mann also lies about the planet he landed on and there is a whole section of the movie based around this lie.
When Truman finally leaves, he enters a black hole (doorway) where we can only assume he spends at least some time revisiting scenes from his life since the whole thing was recorded. The audience view of Truman is also kind of like Coopers view of his daughter from within the black hole, he can watch her whole life to communicate with her. There’s even a scene in the Truman show where the hidden cameras are watching Truman through a bookshelf. This is the pivotal library scene where he meets the love of his life before she is taken away to Fiji. (Did I mention the speech Mathew McConaughey makes about sailors that can’t swim and how the space ship is like a boat?)
Spoiler Alerts.
- The Truman Show Meets Interstellar
When revisiting Jim Carrey’s “The Truman Show”, one thing fell right out of the sky and struck me, and it wasn’t a lighting malfunction or Indian Air Force drone. The Truman Show portrays an apocalyptic end of a whole world that has been created and maintained over the course of Truman Burbank’s entire lifespan. This world is separate from our real world and has an entire population that are soon to be out of jobs, and not just any jobs, lifelong careers were assumed in the roles these people had accepted. As both films start out with documentary type footage, we learn that for the cast of The Truman Show, the television show is their whole life. Granted, they aren’t slowly suffocating to death or worried about basic commodities like food running out, but the movie is still a dramatic end to a world that has existed for quite some time and these peoples very way of life. Interstellar is also an apocalyptic scenario, though this one is reminiscent of the dust bowl of the early 20th century and clearly adapted to modern concerns of global warming. Both plots are based around highly advanced feats of engineering, one to create a habitable bio-dome on earth, the other to bring that bio-dome through the skies.
Truman, much like Cooper of Interstellar, wants to explore. He wants to travel, though he is confined to a small town/ film studio for his entire life. We see him as a young boy in school talk about his hopes to explore like the great Magellan, the first person to sail around the entire planet. His teacher urges him to reconsider however, claiming that there’s nothing left to explore. In Interstellar we see Cooper visit his daughter’s school. Apparently she was in trouble for bringing in an old textbook featuring details of space exploration. The teacher informs Cooper, and us as the audience, that these old textbooks are no longer in use. They now teach kids the truth about how the moon landing was faked so that the Soviet Union would put too many resources into trying to achieve something with no practical value. In this world they “don’t need any more engineers, we need farmers.” An educational system shooting down the dreams of young children is thus a feature of both films, and there’s more...
Mentioned above in this writing, both Truman and Cooper get signs from above pretty early in the film. In the Truman Show, a light comes crashing down from the sky (seemingly from nowhere), and in Interstellar it is a drone with solar panels. In both cases these machines that interact with light show us something of the modern technical aspects of the worlds of each of these movies. We also see Coopers family driving crazy to catch the drone before learning that they can’t go any further because of a large cliff that marks an end to their journey. This is like when Truman is driving crazy with his family before realizing that the roads out of town end abruptly. In each scene our protagonist asks the person in the passenger seat to take the wheel.
- Interstellar
- The Truman Show
(The Truman show scene is truly the epitome of Murphy’s Law.)
Both movies also feature dramatic ocean scenes with crashing waves that threaten our protagonist’s lives and yet have large stretches in the middle of these oceans that are so shallow the water comes up to our protagonist’s ankles. Coincidence? Much like Truman pieces together magazine clippings to remember the girl of his dreams, Cooper is then forced to watch his children grow up through video clips of all the time that went by while he was on this planet.
Both movies are based around a lie of some sort. For Truman his entire life is revealed to be a lie. In Interstellar, it is the life of Cooper’s daughter that is revealed to be a lie upon Michael Cain’s deathbed. A lie that she fully believed and has been working on to be reunited with her father. (Truman also hopes to be reunited with his father if you can remember this part of the movie. He also is struggling to find the truth, and this is a concession the director makes to try and ease his mind about leaving). Mann also lies about the planet he landed on and there is a whole section of the movie based around this lie.
When Truman finally leaves, he enters a black hole (doorway) where we can only assume he spends at least some time revisiting scenes from his life since the whole thing was recorded. The audience view of Truman is also kind of like Coopers view of his daughter from within the black hole, he can watch her whole life to communicate with her. There’s even a scene in the Truman show where the hidden cameras are watching Truman through a bookshelf. This is the pivotal library scene where he meets the love of his life before she is taken away to Fiji. (Did I mention the speech Mathew McConaughey makes about sailors that can’t swim and how the space ship is like a boat?)
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
An Abstract Economic Model Based on Middle Class Income Ideals
An Abstract Economic Model Based on Middle Class Income Ideals
by Hello and Lullaby
Designing this economy is to be a bit like designing a perpetual motion machine, so there are certain things in this model that are left out or exaggerated to simplify the dynamics of the real world into a basic framework, with simple math, that can be used in comparison to the real world economy. This comparison is made simple due to it’s use of an abstract average income in U.S. Dollars and the intuitive costs of a person’s daily life as it’s basic unit. This is then extrapolated out to a larger scale and made a basis for comparison to the real world. I will try to make this as much of a logically consistent framework as is possible using as few assumptions as I can to give as accurate a picture as possible of one type of stable economy in the abstract. The way I have represented here is not the only way to develop an abstract model, nor do I make any claim that it is the best way to develop an abstract model. Hopefully, it will be enough to just have designed a perpetual motion machine. There is a strong focus in this model on employment, strong middle class, stability through economic diversity, social security, and general innovation/ competitiveness as well as balance between government and the private sector as best as is possible in a competitive, production oriented information economy. One should be careful when drawing conclusions from this theoretical model to be a reason for real world change in policy in these or any other areas.
Basics Rules: If
1. 100,000 people are born every year. 50,000 boys and 50,000 girls.
2.Everyone lives to be exactly 100 years old.
3.There is no immigration or emigration or they balance each other out exactly (to simplify the mathematics of the model and not meant as a political comment about immigration/emigration)
4.Everyone attends college
5.Everyone retires on their 64th birthday.
Then The total population is always 10 million people and can always be broken down in the following way:
Age 5 & Under - 600,000
K-12 - 1,300,000
College - 400,000
Workforce - 4,000,000
Retired - 3,700,000
Total: 10,000,000
This is a $50,000 per year income broken into a 5 block model by spending which will be used to calculate economic employment by spending sector. Each block is 20% of individual spending.
By making this 5 block model the basic unit on which our economy is based, we emphasize a strong middle class as a focal point for everything else in the economy.
This model can also represent a large scale economy defined by expectations of middle class income.
If
6.Everyone earns $50,000 a year
7.There is a 40% income tax rate
8.The government uses this tax with 50% going towards salaries of government employees and 50% towards equipment
Then
50% of the total taxes of the workforce goes directly towards salaries to support 20% of 4 million. So direct salaries from taxes accounts for 800,000 government jobs.
If
9.What is needed based on the earlier population breakdown meets the following requirements stated by career.
10.General practitioners and dentists are all government employees such that simple checkups and visits are free.
Then
1 Doctor (General Practitioner) and 2 Support Staff / 1000 People
30,000 General Medical
1 Dentist and 2 Support Staff/ 1000 People
30,000 Dental
1 Voted in Political Representative and 2 Support Staff/ 1000 People
30,000 Political
3 Police Officers and Personnel / 1000 People
30,000 Police
3 Firefighters and Personnel / 1000 People
30,000 Fire
3 Mailmen and Personnel / 1000 People
30,000 Mail
1 Teacher and 1 Support Staff / 25 k-12 and college students
136,000 Education
1 Military / 100 People
100,000 Defense
Total 416,000
From 800,000 leaves 384,000 others working in mining, forestry, analysis,
tourism, Libraries and Museums, garbage and recycling, R & D, etc...
Total 800,000
This has all been the 20% of the workforce whose salaries are paid for directly with tax money, and an example of how 1 block can be broken down by employment from individual spending. This is the easiest block to show a breakdown, but you could use the same basic structure to show the rest of our economy with the next 4 blocks and see that in this way the model is somewhat realistically applicable.
The Remaining 4 Blocks
Though the remaining 4 blocks (or 80% of the economy by spending) are each different, they are all products of some kind or rely on products such that they can share a common business model of 50% labor and 50% parts and equipment (similar to how Marta, the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, splits its earnings). These parts and equipment are then broken down again into 50% labor to produce them, and 50% refined raw materials needed to build them. This last 50% of refined raw materials, or 25% of our initial block, goes to the government. It takes the place of a sales tax and is important to maintaining monetary value against inflation.
The 50/50 business model turns into a 75%/25% labor to materials economic model that applies across all of our remaining 4 blocks. Each block thus has 600,000 people employed and 25% of the spending block going to government surplus. This is true for the Housing and Utilities block, Government Equipment from taxes block, General Spending on consumer goods block, and last but not least, the insurance and savings/investment block (though this last block may seem more flexible, the same basic principle shall apply for purposes of this model).
With a 5% surplus from each of our 4 remaining blocks, we have a total of a 1 block equivalent that is government surplus. The 20% budget surplus by spending will account for our Liberal arts jobs, with public sector artists and musicians as well as social scientists, and will also cover research and development, all with a ratio to be adjusted as needed as well as by changing interests in fields of study.
This should all be a somewhat solid framework allowing for flexibility within spending block sectors as well as between, and a roughly equal size of government employees to private sector employees (40/60) as well as workforce to retired (about 50/50). This may seem like the government is too large by comparison to the real world US economy, however this is due to the 20% of our workforce that is employed in liberal arts careers by the government. This is how we support a strong private sector creative media with data, reports, studies, and artwork in this model, as well as account for automation of labor. In this model, the government does not own all of the manufacturing equipment as in communism, however it does own some machine tools which can be used to design other machines and tools for small businesses at a cheaper price so that they can compete in the private sector with larger operations (another way to curb inflation and maintain the competitive edge).
Areas of Model So Far Unaccounted For
The spending areas this model doesn’t account for so far are:
1. Mining, Refining, and Recycling equipment, and Machine Tools owned by government.
2. Social Security
3. Tourism both inbound and outbound
4. Imports and Exports
5. Other
The first two and #5 are to be the basis of “printing money” on government issued credit, while #3 and #4 are to be maintained by government employees and private sector business to balance out with respect to a 5 year economic activity index. While some may look at this model and say “the inflation will be too high,” I argue that this is simply a solid structure, and with so much produced locally, the effect of inflation will not be as high as it seems. Inflation will be lowered in part due to the government monopoly over raw materials mining and refinement as well as strong investment in recycling and proper managing of imports and exports as well as tourism. The economy will grow in capital gains of having more equipment, the latest equipment, and top notch infrastructure due to a fixed salary of $50,000 per person, and thus a consistent ratio of money to population (an increase in income in this economy is not impossible, it just means that you have to do less work and still get the same amount of money). The value of money and goods produced by the society will therefore be reliable, cutting edge, and at consistent cost if all based on a consistent price of raw materials. In fact, you are able to support a larger retired population which will have a roughly equal economic voice to the workforce in consumption, as well as perhaps a stronger voice in the stock market, and thus maintain a conservative pace of change with focus on quality in all matters of business and politics.
An example of how money could be generated and spent by the government may be that the government stipend of the retired population is represented by the first 3 blocks of our 5 block model, and this population does not have to pay taxes. Houses will mostly be paid off, and so this block becomes only housing maintenance costs, furniture, and what had been monthly payments of $1,000 is now extra money for investing or spending on grandchildren, etc... as well as increasing cost of medical care from private sector specialists as one ages. One could also sell their house and still pay a monthly rent with the proceeds from selling their house going to those areas mentioned above. A forth block per member of the workforce shall cover the ratio for mining, refining, recycling, and machine tool equipment as it relates to the number of individuals and businesses in the society. A 5th block per member of the workforce shall cover miscellaneous spending unaccounted for in this model such as the criminal justice system, public parks, etc...
In the end, this is only an abstract model, but one from which you can begin to mentally project all of the moving parts of an economy in a simple way. The total size of this economy as individual income is 311 Billion U.S. $’s per year plus trade and tourism surplus. Assume an equal wage of $50,000 per year. What would happen to this economy over 100 years if no other economies existed? What would happen over 100 years if other economies did exist? How can this model be adjusted or developed to be more stable, accurate, and long lasting while remaining a simple outline of an economic structure? How does this model compare to, and is it more or less stable than our current economic structure? How would you develop a model such as this?
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