Author: Draókos

Where is the Technology

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Tricoders Voyager

Are we there yet?

I am from a generation gap that watched Star Trek every day.  The Original Series (1966–1969).  Star Trek: The Original Series, frequently abbreviated as TOS, debuted on NBC on September 8, 1966.  I was ten years old; I could not stop watching this TV series.  The show tells the tale of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise and its five-year mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

I saw an announcement of some thermal gloves of cutting edge technology, and in my appreciation, they were too thick.  When you claim advanced technology, you have to consider many variables, for example, electric, solar, mini, or sub-mini and very thin components, state of the art practical wear.  You want to have these capabilities to freely move around.  They would be outstanding if that technology were as slim as skin.  You want to keep your hands hot.  In turn, this will send a message to the brain, saying that you are warm, but you also want to have the feeling that you are not wearing anything.

Sorry I am from the 60s Star Trek and all related series that follow.  Star Trek Generations, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, but I have yet to see more advanced technology after 50+ years of the commencement of the series.  All this talk about future Fantasy.  I do not include Star Wars that was released on May 25, 1977.  First subtitled Episode IV – A New Hope in the 1979 book The Art of Star Wars, or Back to the Future Back to the Future opened on July 3, 1985, on 1,200 screens in North America and all that has come out afterward.  I know we as a human race have come a long way in technology but, 50+ years?

Let us present a few examples: I am a USAF veteran that served from December 1974 through November 1982.  I have seen up and close the Aircraft SR-71 most commonly known as Black Bird.  It is more like a spaceship than an aircraft.  For reference, I just did a Google search on the information of the Black Bird design and in-service.  Google is telling me, and I quote: “ The original Blackbird was designated the A-12 and made its first flight on April 30, 1962. The single-seat A-12 soon evolved into the larger SR-71, which added a second seat for a Reconnaissance Systems Officer and carried more fuel than the A-12.  The SR-71’s first flight was on December 22, 1964. This information is taken from Lockheedmartin.com.

In my duty station, I was informed that SR-71 was coming to the base.  I talked to the Captain in charge of my unit, and he told me, maybe to impress a young adult, that the design was started in 1956, 63 years ago.  Could you imagine that?  1956.  Back in 1978, this aircraft was Top Secret and it was immediately taken in a hanger so that no one could see it.  This jet is a long-range, supersonic reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying at Mach 3.2.

When it first flew, it was a fantastic performer and still is after three decades of unmatched capabilities. The SR-71 has serviced the United States for more than 35 years.  What the public sees now is what the government or whatever power wants you to see.  Behind sealed doors, there is more than meets the eye.  (Believe it or not, I am not troubled by it).

The second example I want to acknowledge is medical technology.  While in the military, I hurt my cervical, back spine, and my right knee.  In 1976, MRIs or CT Scans did not exist.  Some x-rays were taken and dismiss it as nothing to be a concern.  In the first series of Star Trek, they had what was called a Tricorder.  It would function as scanning anything, life signs, medical conditions, universal translator, database information, and recording anything the explorers could gather.  Are we even closed to this miniature technology?  Our CT-Scan and MRI machines are humongous.  Can we see through walls, can we replicate any components or food?  Can we dematerialize and rematerialize in another part of the world?

Do you remember the movie “The Fly”?  The Fly is a 1958 American science fiction-horror film produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and starring David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, and Herbert Marshall. The screenplay by James Clavell based on the 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan.  The film tells the story of a scientist who was transformed into a grotesque creature.  A common housefly enters unseen into a molecular transporter he is experimenting with, resulting in his atoms being combined with those of the insect, which produces a human-fly hybrid.

Can we produce paper-thin bulletproof glass (Remember when Kirk had to return to earth to bring back a humpback whale to save the planet?  How about cars so light that their body is made of plastic harder than stainless steel.  Can we make Sky Walker laser sword or canons, sonic weapons, I know some exists but not used, and I am talking miniature?

Today we are yet to see a supercomputer that mimics the human brain.  The Human Brain Project was or is part of research to produce this technology by 2020, but it seems a dud.  I honestly was looking forward to this project’s success.  They intended to treat neurological illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.  This treatment, in turn, would provide viable solutions to emotional conditions, in general, like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and many other neurological issues.  Many brotherhood Veterans like me would have benefited greatly from this technology.

 

 

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

 

When You Don’t Want to Be Here, but You’re Too Afraid to Die

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Share on PinterestIllustration by Brittany England

I don’t want to be here anymore, but I’m too afraid to die.

I typed this into Google a year ago, my hands shaking as I questioned what I meant. I didn’t want to be alive or exist anymore. But at the same time, I didn’t quite want to die.

I felt selfish as I typed it, thinking about all of the people who had been suicidal, worrying that I was being disrespectful to those who had actually lost their lives that way. I also wondered whether I was just being dramatic.

But I pressed enter anyway, desperate to find an answer for what I was feeling. To my surprise, I was met with search after search of the exact same question.

“I don’t want to die, I just don’t want to exist,” read one.

“I’m suicidal but I don’t want to die,” read another.

And then I realized: I’m not being silly. I’m not being stupid or melodramatic or attention-seeking. There were so many other people feeling the exact same way. And for the first time, I didn’t feel quite so alone.

But I still felt what I felt. I felt distant from the world and from myself; my life felt almost as though it were on autopilot.

I was aware of my existence, but I wasn’t really experiencing it. It felt like I had become separate from my own self, as though a part of me was just watching my body go through the motions. Daily routines like getting up, making the bed, and working the day away felt almost mechanical. I was in a toxic relationship and heavily depressed.

My life had become repetitive and, in many ways, unbearable.

And I questioned what the point in that was, exactly. Why continue living if I didn’t actually feel like I was alive?

I started to imagine what people’s lives would be like without me in it. I wondered what would happen after I died. I was bombarded with intrusive thoughts, suicidal feelings, urges to hurt myself, and feelings of despair.

But there was one thing contradicting that: I was scared to die.

So many questions would run through my head when I thought about actually ending my life.

What if I attempted to kill myself and it went wrong? What if it went right, but in the last few moments of my life I realized I had made a mistake and regretted it? What exactly happens after I die? What happens to the people around me? Could I do that to my family? Would people miss me?

And these questions would eventually lead me to the question, do I really want to die?

The answer, deep down, was no. And so I held on to that to keep me going, that little glimmer of uncertainty every time I thought about ending my life. If that tiny bit of unease was still there, there was a chance I’d be making the wrong decision.

There was a chance that a part of me thought that things could get better.

But it wasn’t going to be easy. Things had been going downhill for a long time. I had been suffering with severe anxiety caused by PTSD for several months, which had escalated to daily panic attacks. I experienced a constant feeling of dread in my stomach, tension headaches, body tremors, and nausea.

This had been taking over my life for so long until, all of a sudden, I snapped.

That’s when everything went numb. It was a huge turning point, going from feeling everything at once to feeling nothing at all.

And, in all honesty, I think the nothingness was worse. The nothingness, combined with the same daily routine and toxic relationship, made my life feel utterly worthless. At the end of my rope, I turned to Google. No one ever really explained how to cope with suicidal ideation, particularly when you don’t really want to die.

Scrolling through post after post, I realized that actually, a lot of people understood. A lot of people knew what it was like to not want to be here anymore but not want to die.

We had all typed in the question with one expectation: answers. And answers meant we wanted to know what to do with our feelings instead of ending our lives.

Realizing this gave me hope. It told me that if these people, like me, were still here — despite feeling all the same feelings — I could stay, too.

And maybe, I hoped, that meant that deep down, we all wanted to hold on to see if things could get better. And that we could.

My mind had been clouded by the anxiety, despair, monotony, and a relationship that was slowly destroying me. And because I had felt so low, so numb and empty, I hadn’t actually taken a step aside to really and truly look at this. To look at how things could get better if I attempted to make changes.

The reason I thought I was just existing was because I really was. I was miserable and I was stuck. But I hadn’t picked apart my life to realize why.

I can’t say that in one day everything changed, because it didn’t. But I did start to make changes. I started to see a therapist, who helped me gain some perspective. My toxic relationship ended. I was devastated about it, but things improved so quickly as I started to exercise my independence.

Yes, I still got up every morning and made the bed, but the rest of the day would be at my hands, and slowly but surely, that started to excite me. I think a huge part of feeling as though I was just some form of existence was because my life was so predictable. Now that that had been taken away, everything seemed new and exciting.

With time, I felt like I was living again, and most importantly, that I had and have a life worth living.

I still suffer with mental illness. There are still bad days, and I know there always will be.

But knowing that I got through this truly difficult time in my life gives me the motivation to get through any other bad moments again. It’s given me the strength and determination to carry on.

And despite the way I was feeling at the time, I’m so glad I Googled that question. I’m so glad I realized I wasn’t alone. And I’m so glad I trusted that unease when it came to the idea of taking my own life. Because that unease led me to living a life I’m actually happy to be living.

What I want you to know — especially if, like me, you found yourself here through a Google search or a headline that caught your attention at the right time — is this: No matter how lonely or awful you feel, please know that you’re not alone.

I’m not going to tell you it isn’t a horrible, scary feeling. I know that better than most. But I promise you things can and often do get better. You just have to hold on to that doubt, however small it might be. That doubt is there for a reason: There’s an important part of you that knows your life isn’t over yet.

And speaking from experience, I can assure you that small, nagging feeling is telling you the truth. There’s a future you who will be so glad you listened.

Hattie Gladwell

 

Hattie Gladwell is a mental health journalist, author, and advocate. She writes about mental illness in hopes of diminishing the stigma and to encourage others to speak out.

 

¿Necesitamos Exhibirnos?

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

desnudos en las marchas del orgullo gayPara mostrar belleza no es necesario estar casi desnudos para aladear arte o moda.  Soy fanático de la tecnología e investigador cibernético y he visto muchas damas mostrar su belleza totalmente vestidas, sin mostrar algo de su cuerpo sagrado, pues aun utilizando vestimenta holgada emana de ellas una sensualidad natural radiante.  Pienso que más que radiante, deslumbrante, es una belleza interna maravillosa y encantadora que hombres prudentes se maravillarían ante su presencia.

Es más belleza interna, seguridad, una estabilidad emocional sobrenatural que va más allá de lo imposible.  La verdad a mí no me importa lo que las damas hagan o dejen de hacer con sus cuerpos, entiendo que si lo exhiben es porque algo están vendiendo y ese daño se lo debo al mercadeo de modas, promoviendo una vanidad enferma que no produce nada bueno, pero así es el universo, todo tiene su balance.

Pero para mi gusto, no se sientan ofendidas o cualquier otra emoción que puedan asociar a lo que voy a decir porque es mi opinión y sólo mi opinión.  Voy a comenzar a BLOQUEAR todas personas que tengan, en mi opinión, un sentido sexual más que sensual en su muro, blog, o cualquier otro medio social, por más que admire a dicha persona y por los logros que ha alcanzado con los mismos.

La verdad es que existen infinidad de opciones, todos tenemos opciones, eso de que no tenía otra opción, es pura justificación para hacer algo que desea hacer de su subconsciente.  Pero, de nuevo, es mi opinión y absolutamente nadie tiene que estar de acuerdo con lo que digo, pues sólo me escribo a mí mismo, reforzando mis propios valores y sobre todo mi humanidad.

Conozco muy bien que, en la vida, individuos han pasado por eventos traumáticos que los han llevado hacer las cosas que han hecho o que hacen, pero siempre está en nosotros, nosotros somo los únicos responsables por nuestras acciones o inacciones.  La culpa no es de nadie más, exceptuando algunos casos de la niñez y espero que el Human Brain Project, pueda arreglar por lo menos la mitad de esos problemas.

La humanidad del ser no se puede perder.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

Los Principios Universales

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Volviendo a mis raíces pseudocientíficas sobre las leyes universales psicofísicas.

Los siete principios o axiomas, como están descritos en el Kybalión, son:

Mentalismo. El Todo es mente; el universo es mental. El Todo es el conjunto totalizador. Nada hay fuera del Todo.

Correspondencia. Como es arriba, es abajo; como es abajo, es arriba. Afirma que este principio se manifiesta en los tres Grandes Planos: el Físico, el Mental y el Espiritual.

Vibración. Nada está inmóvil; todo se mueve; todo vibra.

Polaridad. Todo es doble, todo tiene dos polos; todo, su par de opuestos: los semejantes y los antagónicos son lo mismo; los opuestos son idénticos en naturaleza, pero diferentes en grado; los extremos se tocan; todas las verdades son medias verdades, todas las paradojas pueden reconciliarse.

Ritmo. Todo fluye y refluye; todo tiene sus períodos de avance y retroceso, todo asciende y desciende; todo se mueve como un péndulo; la medida de su movimiento hacia la derecha es la misma que la de su movimiento hacia la izquierda; el ritmo es la compensación.

Causa y efecto. Toda causa tiene su efecto; todo efecto tiene su causa; todo sucede de acuerdo a la ley; la suerte o azar no es más que el nombre que se le da a la ley no reconocida; hay muchos planos de causalidad, pero nada escapa a la Ley.

Género. El género existe por doquier; todo tiene su principio masculino y femenino; el género se manifiesta en todos los planos. En el plano físico es la sexualidad.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

Recuerdos Innecesarios

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Image result for Símbolos de muerte

¿Qué nos pasa como seres humanos y nuestra capacidad para recordar eventos traumáticos y trágicos en nuestras vidas? ¿Será amnesia colectiva que se nos tengan que recordar cada instante de eventos trágicos y casi nunca de los buenos?

Yo no estoy diciendo que nos yazcamos en esos pasados recuerdos, si no saber que sí ocurrieron y que, por defecto, no debemos, tenemos que asegurarnos estar más preparados física y emocionalmente para eventos futuros a los que nadie nos enseña a enfrentar.

Es lamentable cómo se habla de la instrucción educativa, la educación y la academia y ninguna de estas entidades preparan a los niños e individios de una forma efectivas para enfrentar eventos catastróficos, incluyendo la muerte. Nada se habla de ésta última como si fuera un Tabú, como si fuéramos inmortales y nunca vamos a morir.

¿Cuáles deberían ser nuestras verdaderas intenciones en instruir, educar a un país o pueblo? El dinero y los bienes gananciales no pueden ni deben ser la orden del día, tiene que ser algo más profundo, si prefieres, algo más espiritual o sobrenatural. Sí, la protección de la vida es sagrada y es importante, pero también el conocimiento de que algún día llegaremos a nuestro fin. En mi humilde opinión, personalmente pienso en una muerte digna, satisfecho de lo que he logrado en el tiempo que he estado en este mundo y poder dejarlo sintiéndome en total paz y tranquilidad conmigo mismo. Estas cosas no se enseñan, tal vez en otros Países del mundo tengan una visión distinta a la nuestra y le doy la bienvenida pues es parte de una realidad inquebrantable.

Yo quiero, deseo, necesito ayuda para reconciliar mi vida, todavía estoy a tiempo para ello. He podido ver como varios de mis familiares han fallecido en total paz como si estuvieran soñando y otros en una agonía aterradora. Yo me quiero ir sin dolor, sin trauma, sin angustia y todo se logra reconciliándose consigo mismo, aceptando que todo lo que hicimos, lo hemos hecho lo mejor que pudimos con las herramientas que teníamos a la mano.

No soy pesimista soy un analítico realista que ama la vida y al ente humano con mucho respeto, por lo que ello conlleva. El Humano. Todos somos seres humanos y nos debemos y debemos respeto a todos y todo sobre nuestra existencia en este planeta.

Estoy seguro de que mucho estarán pensando, “Éste está loco”, estoy bien con eso, no me guarda ninguna relevancia pues se muy bien quién y qué soy. Sólo tengo algunas dudas y deseo reconciliarlas. Las cuestiones nunca se apartarán de mí como nuestro amado Sócrates, que siempre tenía preguntas.

Porqué hablo de que esto porque se sigue trayendo el pasado para que recordemos, ya muchos recordamos, Hugo, Georges, María, 911, Iraq, Kuwait, Afganistán, terremotos, fuegos infernales, masacres en campos de concentración y en escuelas primarias, en edificios gubernamentales y privados, todos eso lo recordamos muy bien, por lo menos la mayoría, eso pienso. Lo que no queremos ver; es que nada es para siempre y que vivimos prestados en este mundo y cuando tu boleto de abordaje te llega, se acabó y sigues a otro lugar que del que nunca hemos podido saber.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

Lenguage

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Image result for Símbolos de comunicación

Language is just a symbol of communication, is not who or what you are, and that will never change.

El lenguaje es solo un símbolo de comunicación, no es quién o qué eres, y eso nunca cambiará.

 

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

 

Tragedias inadvertidas

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

Todas las tragedias, incidencias lamentables son tristes cuando nos tocan bien de cerca. Muy difícilmente nos recuperamos de ellas y algunos alcanzan superarlas.

Hoy se conmemora un incidente lamentable de muchos que han ocurrido atravez de la historia.

Si aprendemos de nuestras faltas limitaremos futuros incidentes que nos traigan tristeza.

Si NO aprendemos, entonces estamos destinados a pasar por el mismo sufrimiento.

El ser humano TIENE que aprender lo que significa serlo, de lo contrario seguiremos en el mismo rumbo.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP

Fine line…

/ Draókos / Leave a comment

In all things seen and unseen, there’s a fine line in between for everything. Madness and Sanity, Love and Hate, Sensuality and Sexuality, each according to each individual’s perceptions.

Then, when much is too much? or, little too few? Is society able to establish these boundaries? Is it possible to accommodate everyone?

If the answer is no, not everyone can be accommodate, then are the rights of the ones left without say wrong? Just because a majority say so?

Take history as a metric. Let’s say 500 years ago, a person with epilepsy would be considered a mentally disabled person. How about 50 years ago. Would the color of the skin be a negative factor in human behavior? How about today, is gender any relevant to the human condition?

What about 50 years from now, would the human elderly be treated better or worse than today. Mind you that in this time there are very little and few benefits or laws that protect these population.

Then let’s examine our original hypothesis. Where do we put, cut, or establish the fine line?

Can anyone say?

Consider the war between Athenians and Spartans. Each would say that they had the answer, but did they?

No one can stop or detain evolution. Things that are meant to happen will happen and there’s nothing that humanity can do about it.

Draókos (The Black Dragon)
Psicofilosofía Urbana es (c)1980
Copyright 1980 ICP