What's a meta for?

The world exists only as metaphor. By the world I mean this experience we call reality, or life itself. This is literally true as you never directly interact with anything in your life, instead you deal with mental projections of the physical thing. This doesn't actually taste like strawberry, my brain is just telling me it does. Flavors are merely signals, catalyzed by chemicals, and interpreted by our nervous system; every quality an object might have is merely the interpretation of it by our brains.

These interpretations are put together to form a picture, right now my picture is one where I am sitting down, at work, typing out my ideas. To create this picture, my brain is combining memories, spatial awareness, and input from my senses. These pieces of the picture come together like a puzzle and are presented to me in the form of life/existence/reality/the world. However, none of the pieces would fit anywhere unless there were other pieces to fit in to. My interpretation of the world only makes sense when compared to something else.

What else is there to compare the world to? Humans are carriers of things that may not exist in the universe, manifestations of ideas. Some of our manifestations do exist, such as tables and cars. Others are more complex and may not exist, like utopia or teleportation. During the process of turning an idea into reality, we continually compare our progress with our idea. We navigate the world in much the same way; in our minds we construct a model that makes sense to us, then act according to the predictions of this model.

This model cannot simply be false or wrong, it is based on some semblance of objective reality. All are not equal, some models are closer to reality than others. Those that are closest to reality are of the greatest worth as they allow the most accurate interpretations of sensory input. These models allow predictions of the future; if I do not eat then I will be hungry, if we lower interest rates then the economy will improve, etc. The best models of reality yield the most accurate predictions.

Each of us has a model of reality, a way we think the world works. Even if you feel you don't understand how the world works, that knowledge of your own fallibility is part of your model. You see the holes because they are big, but you understand exactly what you need to understand in order to survive, otherwise you wouldn't be here! (Or know how to read for example.)

Every instant you are unconciously comparing your sensory input to your model of the world. This is how you walk: your brain takes nerve cell transmissions from your legs, orientation information from your inner ear, and spatial information from your eyes, to compute where your foot should go. This is how you make decisions, you consult your model of the world to decide which action will get you what you want.

Your model is not a thing which exists in objective reality, it exists only through its effects on your actions. For example: if your model includes a bit about examining and improving your model, then your ability to make accurate predictions will increase. In this way you can further your goals through more deliberate actions. By improving your model of the world, you alter your actions to better fit the world.

Improving your model is a form of meta-thinking, thinking about your thinking. A headache is normal here, your brain doesn't have a mirror to see itself in so it struggles a bit. This can be dangerous too, the goal of meta thinking is to literally change how you think and that can go many ways. In order to prevent yourself from erring and changing your model for the worse, you must take precautionary action in adjusting your mental metaphors.

Eventually every metaphor break down, Einstein's relativity fails at the quantum level just as 'The Economy' doesn't exist between two people. Your model has limits too, eventually you will experience something that does not fit. Your sensory input will tell you one thing but your model will say "that's impossible." What will you do then?

Digital music revolution

How did you discover your favorite music? If you were born in 1900 you might have heard it on the radio or at a local show but unless you were wealthy you probably didn't have any music to call your own. If you were born in 1950 you grew up during the British Invasion, vinyl records and rock n roll stations were the way to go as genres multiplied and diverged. If you were born in 1980 you probably had a walkman, albums were cheaper in casette form and you could share music with your friends as the RIAA cried bloody murder over mix tapes. If you were born in the 90's you probably saw the last of casettes as cd's took over and were immediately eclipsed by mp3 players. If you were born after 1996 your music collection is probably larger than those of all your ancestors combined.

Children born today may never know a world without Pandora or bittorrent, they will dive headfirst into the music of any generation and may never come up for air. Computer technology is revolutionizing the musical world and we're the lucky ones in the middle of it. We can now create virtual instruments that produce sounds we feel instead of merely hear and we can share our tastes with those across the globe. No longer are we limited by physical instruments, artists worldwide are experimenting with the sounds that will define our generation and shape music for decades to come.

General MIDI summed it up well, "[the synthesizer] is a machine designed solely for the purpose of creating any imaginable sound that the operator knows how to specify, and he must specify it in a kind of detail that has never been possible or necessary before." House, techno, dubstep, chill out, a vast array of genres have been springing up over the past two decades even as they themselves subdivide into finer and finer categories. I can imagine a world 20 years from now where music played solely with physical instruments is considered classical or even archaic. Those bands won't be outdated, they haven't been so far but just as performance was forever changed by the microphone so is production being changed by the computer.

Deeply involved in the electronic music scene are a number of experience enhancing drugs, notably MDMA. This is having a profound effect on music even if our society naively chooses to sweep it under the rug. While certainly not the only drug in music, molly changes the experience at a fundamental level which matches up very well with modern music. Rave music in particular (included in this but not mentioned specifically are all bass heavy genres of music) has a feel to it that is inseparable from its sound, a song can be melodically simple and astoundingly invigorating due to the heavy vibrations the listener feels. MDMA is known for enhancing the feel of music and, as this safer-than-alcohol alternative grows in popularity, the physical sensations of electronic music continue to intensify.

Music is raw emotion distilled into vibration, it has a power over the human spirit that has never been fully understood and always powerfully felt. As our collective ability to alter sounds expands faster than we can explore its effects, I expect we will find insurmountable joy becoming hopelessly lost in this electronic music revolution.