Causes, Effects, and Natural Selection

Science is about causes happening and effects stemming from those causes.  Goal setting is about changing causes to reach desired effects.  In goal setting you are not observing effects as in science.  You are dictating them.  

Natural selection appears to be a goal to sustain life.  Strict cause and effect should have no goals.  I am not arguing that natural selection is false here.  But I certainly don't mind asserting that nature has intended goals.  There's a term already in existence for this assertion - teleology.  And there's also a term for its counterargument - teleonomy.  

When I asked Copilot AI about teleology, it suggested an argument based in teleonomy that variations in species occur randomly, and environments filter out the variations so that only the successful variations survive.  Sure seems to be more of a deterministic argument than a free will argument.  

But I believe that the striving we experience in life goes far beyond unintentional programming.  Can't prove it of course.  But I can assert it vehemently.    

Obligation vs. Preference

It should seem clear that obligation is not determined by preference.  Certainly not at the individual level because it can potentially erase accountability.  But then we have to think, is obligation determined by collective preference?  I would imagine not.  Otherwise books like Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds never would have been written, and peer pressure wouldn't have a negative connotation.  

Why Does EVERYONE Say Their Parents Were Bad?

I don't know if I visit the most representative locations on the internet as far as statistical samples go by frequenting Yahoo news articles and political Youtube videos and such, but I swear, in almost every forum or comment section, for every one person I see complimenting their parents and calling them a blessing, I see about 20 or 30 talking about how toxic their parents were.  And we're not talking about teenagers that are still in the middle of maturing and dealing with discipline issues.  These are people in their 30's and 40's who've had ample time to look back.  

My question is, why the dissatisfaction?  Are there really THAT many bad parents out there abusing and neglecting their kids?  Is there just too much expectation regarding parental roles where they have to be absolutely perfect to even be considered decent?  I mean, WHY do so many people have problems with their parents?  I had awesome parents, so it boggles my mind that so many people apparently did not.  

I can't stress enough that I have NO problems with my parents and what they did in my upbringing whatsoever.  They were good people that tried their very best and did WAY more than they ever should have for me.  Were they flawed human beings?  Of course.  Who isn't.  But once I grew up, and possibly even before then, I could certainly tell that they clearly had my best interests at heart and put in SO much effort and sacrifice for my own wellbeing - particularly my mom.  

This realization is not dampered when I look back and think how scared I was when my mom yelled at me or how mad I was at my dad for using the belt when I got really out of line.  They did these things because I needed correction.  Not because they were on some power trip or thought it was fun.  Because they darn sure didn't seem to have fun correcting me.  Not to mention they bought me more toys than I could even count over those 17 or so years.  And they didn't cheat on each other or spend all night at the bar.  

Are parents like mine really so rare?  If so, I guess I can see why the divorce rate is so high.  But it still boggles my mind that so many parents would be problematic enough to not even be considered decent, much less good.  

Even if I classified mine as phenomenal, that could still potentially be an understatement.  The fact is they deserve more love and respect than I could ever give them.  Thank you mom and dad.  Regardless of how your peers behaved, you were shining examples of a traditional family structure.

Exploring Oppression's Limits... On the Weak End

I wonder, how oppressed would Cinderella consider herself to be if her stepmother and stepsisters still held household authority over her, but forced her to do little or no chores, and she spent most of her time playing on a computer all day.  I imagine if they continued to verbally torment her, that would still be oppressive (or at least abusive).  But I'd think it would take more to claim she was genuinely oppressed besides her not be the one in charge making the decisions.

I think to be a true oppressor, one has to exercise enough authority that they transfer most of the shared workload to the one they're oppressing, and not carry it themselves.  But I'm not sure how much distinction we make between terms like jerk, bully, oppressor, and abuser on a daily basis, and that may factor into this thought exercise here.  Those terms probably each emphasize slightly different negative characteristics.

Mr. Friend

My son's favorite stuffed animal growing up was a frog he called Mr. Friend.  It was hard not to like Mr. Friend.

Jet Jaguar Can Deadlift

 

AI Caught Making an Error - Oops!

When I ask AI questions usually, either it doesn't make any error, or it makes errors I don't notice.  But this time it definitely made a noticeable error.  I asked it to verify the number 1984 in binary, and I believe 11111000000 is correct, but that translates only to 1024+512+256+128+64.  There should be NO 32 in the sum as AI stated here.  

The 11111000000 stands for 1*2^10 + 1*2^9 + 1*2^8 + 1*2^7 + 1*2^6 + 0*2^5 + 0*2^4 + 0*2^3 + 0*2^2 + 0*2^1 + 0*2^0

Hope I typed all that out right and didn't make an error myself.