Monthly Archives: April 2026

A peek at future economics

Posted on by
Reply

From Scientific American:

“Last Sunday, at the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, a red humanoid robot of a type named Lightning finished the course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds—faster than the human world record. Its long legs were modeled on elite runners, and its motors were cooled with a liquid-circulation system adapted from the smartphones of its maker, Honor, a Chinese phone company.”

But it isn’t just muscle and performance. From mariner’s December 7-25 post:

[ Tilly Norwood has her own AI set, an historical collection of backdrops and an AI cast as needed. One person writes script, finds cast and background and creates Tilly as the lead character. Barbie Doll hasn’t got a chance! Not even a physical, three-dimensional, conversational sex doll like Lucy has a chance.

Viewers could easily accept her alongside all the other TV stars on television, smartphone and laptop. The difference is that about 500 paid artisans aren’t needed. The big shift in job descriptions is that for humans, there won’t be many. ]

A massive shift in resource distribution is in the future. Hints of its nature already are available in trade relationships (which Don did his best to break up with his tariffs). In many trade relationships, already the bonding force is stronger than that of politics. The best example is China’s trade relations with a number of South American nations.

Does the reader remember when banks held your money so you could write a check instead of carrying lots of money with you? Even better, do you remember when you could use a credit card when you didn’t even have cash to cover the transaction? These are good training experiences for the next move: You won’t need cash at all – the banks will manage your budget for you. This will allow nations to manage more closely your consumption as it relates to global resources. Walmart and Amazon already are offering to be your purchasing agent.

As a last early example of the economic future, it is  imperative that the reader become familiar with Crypto financing. Your statistically determined wealth will exist along with everyone else’s. Many things will change. Just one: the reader will no longer have to pay taxes – they are automatically paid.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sompn intristin

Posted on by
1

Recently mariner shared with his readers a sound that might be a word. His friend, a language guru, shared it with mariner. The word is ‘tryna’ (trying to). As readers know, mariner uses hearing aids with less than accurate reception. What he hears most often is a slurred noise which he must presume is words. He and his friend collect the most garbled words they hear. The original word collected was ‘skoeet’.

Since he was introduced to ‘tryna’, mariner has been thinking about the reason human monkeys slur every language. It is accurate to say that humans possess a deeper intelligence than monkeys, thereby busying themselves with the concept of shapes called letters that represent sounds. With better imagination, humans even use pictures to represent sounds, e.g., emojis and other drawn representations. Is the word for a hand print on the cave wall ‘me’?

While monkeys and humans have quite different brains, they have almost identical anatomy when it comes to making noises – especially communication noises (even whales have communication noises). Is human slurring a desire to use anatomically comfortable noises just like monkeys? Is the idea of conjuring letters as sounds an imposition? Mariner duno.

Ancient Mariner

Driving the bus

Posted on by
Reply

There are many different ways a brain begins to age and loose functionality. Just because you forgot your car keys when you went to use the car doesn’t mean your brain is senile. Another example is what they call ‘aphasia’. Aphasia is a neurological disorder caused by brain damage—most commonly from a stroke, tumor, or injury—that impairs a person’s ability to process language, speak, read, write, and understand speech. It affects communication but does not impact intelligence. Then there’s the old standby, loss of hearing. Everyone assumes deafness is dumbness. Common to everyone but increases with age, is the common experience of ‘why did I come into this room?’

Living in the midst of these mannerisms but knowing he can still think and deal with multi-dimensional tasks, mariner has created a grouping of these difficulties into a behavior called ‘Driving the Bus’. The ‘bus’ is a metaphor for the human body. When any brain action involves the five senses, it is driving the bus. Forgetfulness or the ability to remain focused or the disruption caused by habits are the three most common examples, given physical disorders like vision, hearing, etc.

Mariner had an experience today when executing one of his daily responsibilities: getting daily mail from the post office. He gathered the mail ready to be mailed, got into his car, drove to the post office, picked up the incoming mail, drove home before he noticed he forgot to mail the outgoing mail. Not only that, he came into the house still wearing the vehicle-based sunglasses – a repeating error worthy of a few curse words.

One can perceive that all these behaviors interfere with ‘driving the bus’. Still, as the driver of everything the brain does, things still are functional in general; one can’t forget to pee or form scabs on injuries or recognize clickbait. Even with a forgetful bus, our brains are better focused than any elected official. Here is a test: Do you know when you are responding to clickbait?

So remember, when we old folks sit unresponsive in a room full of talkers, we ain’t stupid, our bus just isn’t the latest model.

Ancient Mariner

A new poem by Mariner’s wife

Posted on by
1

Clickbait

Am I a fish that you think you can capture
My attention with a shiny lure?
Do you think that my attention is for sale?
Do you think that I will rise to the bait
Of the latest rift in the royal family
Or a chair yoga class that promises
Ten pounds off in two weeks
Or the latest news of a woman
Who fell off a cruise ship–
Or was she pushed?
Or a list of possible names
From the Epstein files
Or the cat in the cargo hold
Who came home after traveling
Thousands of miles back and forth
Across the country
Or the hiker who fell to his death
On a mountain trail–or was he pushed?
Or the video of the bear
That spent the night on the porch
Of a suburban home
Or the ‘swoon-worthy’ photos
Of the latest male lead
On Masterpiece Theater?
It appears you know me well–

I am a fish.

MKM 4-11-2026

Necessary life skills for oldies

Posted on by
Reply

Mariner has been confronted by old age. Check out a few thousand articles on YouTube (Junk University) to learn old folk skills from muscles to money to religion. If the reader isn’t a socially active person, it is easy to become TV-bound in a recliner. If the person is retired but has no significant, time-consuming hobby or cause, the brain gets lazy. Here’s mariner’s Junk University advice – the overall objective is stay linked to your immediate outside reality.

BODY

Five times each day for two minutes,stand erect and lock your knees. This gesture    improves posture and brain concentration. When you take your daily walk, don’t look down – keeps the balance function working and improves posture. Walking a half hour outside the house every day is a famous recommendation from everyone. Just being outside the house can be beneficial.

Always when picking up anything close to the floor, squat, don’t bend. This gesture strengthens and stretches the whole body and may be the secret to getting up from laying flat on the floor.

Squatting, lift something heavy from the floor to a table then put it back on the floor. Barbell weights are convenient but a tabletop sewing machine can work or two ten pound dumbells – anything heavy enough to be a bit of a strain. Keep the back as straight as possible by spreading the knees. Do this twice every morning.

THE BEHAVIORAL MIND

Behavioral mind means dealing with tasks involving the five senses as they deal with your real world. Mariner’s metaphor is ‘anything to do with driving the bus’. Simplest example for all adults: not remembering why you walked into a room. Virtually all behavioral issues are linked to a lapse in memory. Mariner cited one of his own lapses in a recent post: he starts to put his coffee in the refrigerator instead of the microwave. This lapse is caused by distraction within the brain ; consciously, we try to think of two things at once – which only the subconscious brain can do.

A common thing to strengthen your attention span is to do puzzles – any kind of puzzle. Like all the activities mentioned, do it daily. Most of these lapses can be reduced by deliberately making the brain do lateral thinking. Another challenging exercise is to prepare a meal which has unusually elaborate, multi-step recipes.

Force yourself to completely finish one task before starting another one – even tiny ones.

THE REASONING MIND

Reasoning mind is the brain processing abstract thoughts, evaluation of real world circumstances, relationships, and emotional self evaluation. Real world circumstances require staying in touch, consciously knowing the status of friends and family, staying involved with your community.

Those who like to read have an advantage. Read some nonfiction on purpose; being able to rationalize new thoughts is a brain skill. Mariner understands the pain of traveling but go somewhere new every once in a while – the brain actually likes to explore.

You can’t stop the aging process but you can help keeping it pleasant.

Ancient Mariner