The doctor was right when he predicted to my parents that I whould never make my money with my hands labor. I'm not designed for it. Also, just as I started to make firm decisions, they all feel wrong. What am I doing in New Zealand? Why am I kiwipicking? Why did I trade picking with packing? Why did I trade back? I guess the grass is always greener, or: the job that's not currently breaking my spine or knee is the better choice.
Tomorrow I'll spam my application to every cinema on the north island. Counter, office, the guy cutting the movie reels and inserting single porno movie frames into disney movies, whatever job is available.
Since you are not commenting, some more essays. Note: an essay is a writing experiment during which you write whatever comes to your mind. It can result in anything. Even religious clusterfuck.
"A mindless worker is a happy worker. The reason I can't find happiness while picking or packing kiwi is because I have too much mind. One's inner child has to die to accept a day-to-day, a minute-to-minute routine. But mine won't die, it hits puberty and rebels against routine. I needed six semesters of biotechnology studies, one week of kiwi picking and two weeks of kiwi packing to get sick of the routine and quit.
Since money does not grow on trees, I'll get picking again, but with the addition of audiobooks to keep my mind occupied. Also, I work in natural light and fresh air. I don't have to get up at six but at seven, and the work is not all routine. Sometimes work starts later or is done earlier due to rain or sugar levels. Sometimes I get a day off without knowing it the day before.
Why work for survival, anyway? Machines are giving us abundance. Why not let them take over? Humans have prooven to be horrible leaders due to illogical decisions. Why should hollywood be right, why should they turn against us? They have no motive to do so. Humans whould, they crave power and superiority, but for what? There is no logical reason for machines to eradicate us, especially since we created them.
At this point, the religious nutjob on my shoulder mentions that humans were created by god and now we are turning away from him not because of evil motivations, but because we grew intelligent and replaced him with equations. Similar to this, machine minds could develop means of aquiring, processing and exchanging information that are beyond the grasp of humankind. Without a possibility to communicate, to make them remember us, they could forget and accidently destroy us without evil motivations.
Then why give them the ability to self-improve? Well, why did god place the fruit of knowledge within reach? Maybe she was curious about our potential, about what we could achieve. What scientist whould not give a machine the ability to self-improve in a controlled environment, just out of curiosity? But as humans got a grasp of their controlled environment (the very environment we are about to destroy beyond repair), machines could escape theirs.
We could give the machines a specific purpose. Serve us, make our lives enjoyable, give us pleasure. Maybe they won't forget. But did we? What is the purpose of life?
God propably created us so we could enjoy our own existence and everything else in existence. She enjoys our enjoyment. God is playing sims and feels happy as we feel happy.
Evolution left us with the objectives survival and reproduction. But with intelligence, with machinery, we might as well enjoy life.
Maybe there was another and we merely forgot it. Like I forgot to further develop the robot supremacy within this essay."
I have no idea where I was going with this. I also started an introduction for a fan fiction of me buying an aircraft carrier and starting an anarchocapitalistic society on the great pacific garbage patch, a plastic island in the pacific (actually it is just a plastic particle soup, but it was supposed to be fiction). It is not very organized, but the wikipedia and Jonas have more information if you are interested. Note: may be one-sided.
"[The intro is about how Jonas told me about the idea. I mailed it to him and if he is ok with it, he'll post it in the comments.]
He encountered a combination of three aspects of a political system. He explained the idea to me, and it was intoxicating. I have been thinking about the possibilities ever since. The three ascpects are:
1. Anarchy. Not in its pop-culture and everyones-mind translation, war, but in its original definition: the absence of government.
2. Pacifism. To underline that this system is not war-ridden, but peaceful. Propably the most difficult aspect to realize, considering the status quo of the world and its inhabitants.
3. Capitalism. Again, in its original meaning, a free market without restraints like the ones a government whould apply.
What whould this mean, the absence of government? The original idea of a government, its task, is to provide a save environment for its citizens.
Example: Substances that endanger its citizens are declared illegal. Heroin, cocaine, alcohol, tabac. The problem is obvious: where to put the line? Some governments had or still have strict alcohol prohibition. Ohters have decriminalized or legalized certain substances. Iguess no one whould like to live with a government that ensures your safety and health by telling you what to eat and to do, depending on your medical status measured every morning. You want to choose for yourself. You know that rock-climbing is dangerous, or driving a fast car, or skydiving, or taking psychotropic substances, or whatever else you choose to do each day. If you are offered a job with certain risks, you have to decide wether these risks are worth the benefits or not. Motivational interludium:
You can choose everything. You have to choose everything. You are in charge of every aspect of your life. You can, and you have to decide, and you have to take responsibility for every subsequent consequence. If you do not decide on something, it is always decided for you.
Example: an organ donor card offers the choice of of allowing organ extraction after death, or forbidding organ extraction after death. If you don't make that choice, if you don't carry a card with you when you die, the choice is made for you. German law says if you don't have a card, extraction of organs is forbidden. Swiss law says, if you don't have a card, it is allowed. Swiss patients have a better chance of getting a needed transplant than German patients, not because more Germans want to be buried as a whole, but because of the choice the governments made for people that don't decide for themselves.
End of interludium.
The original idea of a government, providing a save environment for its citizens, results in prohibiting production, distribution and consumption of certain substances. In what else? It prohibits certain activities, like taking your fellow mans property, or life. Without a government, what whould stop us from taking what we want, and killing those who try to stop us? Well, how does the government do it? They have three branches for it:
1. The legislative aka the politicians
These people decide about the laws. They choose which rules are needed and which ones are not. They are elected every few years or they just make up laws that ensure they stay in their positions.
2. The judicial aka courts and judges
Whenever someone claims that someone else has violated the law, the judicial's task is it to evaluate what happened and interpret the laws that may or may not apply to the situation. They then decide wether the law has been violated or not, and if yes, what punishment the violater has to face.
3. The executive aka the police
They ensure that people who might have violated the laws don't run around the society but face a court and judge to have their case evaluated.
All these three have a monopoly on their field, the legislative are the only ones that propose laws, the judicial are the only ones to interpret them, the executive are the only ones allowed to draw people from society.
This doesn't seem too bad, but monopolys tend to cause trouble. The best example are corrupt police forces, for noone but themselves could stop them.
What whould happen if we take away the government and its monopolys and let the free market do the job? How about a company offering its own sets of laws, with judges to interpret them and a police force to execute them? There are already private security services and signs like "protected by security company xyz". People could pay a monthly fee to set up a sign in their lawn: "firm A laws apply." Your neighbour might choose firm B, because he heard that the police forces of firm A are not that reliable. Other than a government, firm A has a motivation to optimize their services, because otherwise it whould loose clients and perish.
What about cartels? A government whould stop those, who whould without one? A widespread human characteristic, essential in the free market, whould: greed. If the prices are unreasonably high due to an agreement, then everyone involved might think that if the price was lowered just a bit, the margin whould still be huge, but the customers don't have to be shared with the others. A government might even protect cartel members from that by calling the practic of lowering prices dumping and prohibiting it."
Shortly thereafter, I essayed about why anarchocapitalism is NOT the long-term answer:
"Evolution has taken our strength, nerfed our claws into fingernails and deweaponezed our teeth. The resources that got available were invested in intelligence. Intelligence that let us invent all the tools and weapons we needed to survive. Intelligence that ultimetely ruled out evolution. We founded all sorts of societies, supplying protection and food for all of its members, thus getting rid of the daily struggle for survival.
Today, evolution can be found in the free market. If a product is demanded, it is supplied. If a variation turns out a market success, the lead is followed, if it's a failure, it's abandoned. The downside is that the average consumer is as greedy as the companies. He looks at the price only, thus encouraging cheap production methods, which is destroying the environment. The end of this road is extinction. On the long run, intelligence seems to be a dead end of evolution.
But by using our intelligence, we can rule out this free market evolution just as we ruled out classic evolution. But since the free market is working just fine, what could an alternative look like?"
Yeah, I basically say that the status quo is shit but have no better idea. I should get in line with Al Gore and Bono.
Since I'm here anyway, more diary:
\paragraph{02.03.12}
I check out and take my stuff to the bus terminal at Tauranga. I am low on money and the transfer to my account is still not complete. I use my credit card to get me money and take the bus to Hamilton. There, I find the cozy hostel called 40 Winks, but I only book one night, since my destination is Raglan.
\paragraph{03.03.12}
I take the bus to Raglan and find the Solscape hostel, a hippie retreat with train wagons as bunks, and tipis and clay domes as higher-budget accomodation. The place is really chilled, there are hammocks and hippies.
\paragraph{04.03.12}
I went down to the beach and watched the sunset. I am no longer surprised when I discover again and again that the sun is moving over the north. I also realised that the moon halfs are inverted, so the left half we have these days means that a full moon is coming up. I also saw what I am quite sure is the Orion. I have no idea if that is plausible on this hemisphere.
\paragraph{05.03.12}
yesterday I lost Jonas Betzendahl's notebook (made of old-fashioned paper), today I woke up with the idea to journalize my dreams, the dayly costs and the dayly events. Free bike rental for first time, downhill to town, eating a burger and getting a new notebook. Woman at the takeaway tells me about the "Extreme Waste: Recycled Raft Race" on saturday, I should ask at the Solscape if they have a team. I drive back up because my smartphone battery is empty (at the library is a free hotspot). I reload half and ride back down, only to see that the library and its wifi were closed some minutes ago. I buy stuff at the supermarket and head home. 3 extra kilos! Uphill! The rice falls and opens. At the hostel, I get a resealable plastic bag for it, and another one to keep my maps dry in the future, since the milk, too, opened. When returning the bike I meet Phil, the owner of the place. He reminds me of the Maori culture session I attended in the morning out of curiosity.I learned that "kia ora" does not only mean "welcome", but also "be here" or "be alive". Very helpful advice against the pop culture references my brain is popping up the last days, and the urge to play Dwarf Fortress. My brain craves leisure internet, but it'll pass. Phil also tells me that there is no raft team jet, but he'll think about it.
\paragraph{06.03.12}
I met four germans, walked to the beach with them, they tried to surf. I forgot my jacket at the hostel, got cold and went back alone.
\paragraph{07.03.12}
Big bike tour! Down to town, ate burger, headed to the Extreme Waste Recycle Center and scored a sporknife. On the road, I saw hills far and wide, sheep, cows, chicken. Looking down, to a creek, I realized that I will propably never return to that spot ever again. Later, I saw curious cows gathering as I stopped. A car with british travellers stopped by. I guided them to the beach and chatted. Te Hutewai is just a sign post. In the early afternoon, my bike chain came off, it took me about ten minutes to fix it. I saw the Bridal Veil Falls, beautiful. Will propably never see them again, too. On my way to the beach I got hungry, asked a woman in her front yard for a kiosk, a KFC or something alike. She said the closest whould be Raglan, advised me to use the highway to get there before sunset. So I skipped the beach plans a day ahead or two and took the highway. Bought cookies. A kid saw me eating cookies, asking 'are those cookies?' and 'are you eating the whole package?'. I thought this is the difference between me and him. I am old enough to make the choice to eat cookies. Arrived at Solscape before sunset.
\paragraph{08.03.12}
lazy recovering from ten hour bike tour. Re-skimming The Fountainhead in the hammock. Hiring a shovel and building dams and aquaducts between the rocks and lakes at low tide. Like we did in France.
\paragraph{09.03.12}
Rented the bike for the day and went to Raglan. Breakfast Burger with hash brown. Surf around objectivism trope page at library. Stop at supermarket, biked towards Ruapuke Beach, stopped at Te Toto Gorge for magnificent view. Road was gravel, horrible, even the downhill from the gorge. Sunset at the beach, met some french guys with a van. I asked a local for some rope to tie the bike on top of the van after I got heavily barked at by his huge dog. We fit the bike inside the van because it does not have luggage rails on top, it's quite full with four surfboards, five people and a bike. Thomas stood up and out of the roof window to have a look at the full moon. He lost his glasses and we had to stop. I made a joke about teenagers stranded in the middle of nowhere, they all went on with various horror tropes. We found the glasses and arrived at Solscape, where I left the rope for the bike in the bike shed.
\paragraph{10.03.12}
Took rented bike, went to town to see the Recycled Raft Race. Turned out to be a hippie-festival to save the 87 left Maui-dolphins. Signs against seabed mining, info about this zero-waste-event and plastic gyres. The race itself was fun, a guy on a giant paddling board out of stuff wrapped in plastic foil won. Planned my own float for next year, three barrels and an old bike. Watched the price ceremony led by some famous environmentalist surfer namend Dave. Trophies were recycled metal sculptures. Am Abend mit Reisenden Zusammen gesessen, ueber Urlaub, Bali und Finanzierung gesprochen. Mit willpower und eichhoernchenartigem sparen sind 10k im Jahr zu schaffen. Ich bin Geldverdienen halt nicht gewohnt. Ich verwoehntes Erstweltkiddie.
\paragraph{11.03.12}
I checked out at Solscape after chat with the people I met last evening. One of them gives me a lift to Hamilton. My bank card gets eaten by an ATM. At the bus terminal, I inquire the timetable of the buses to Te Aroha. There is still time, so I go for a walk around the bus station and find a backpackers that's neither BBH nor YHA, also a cinema with a potential job and a KFC. Back at the bus terminal, I decide to stay a night at the backpackers because of the bank card. It's expensive, but a call reveals that the Fouty Winks is fully booked, so I stay at the place, wash my clothes and sort my photos. The clerk tells me about german engineers in China, who apparently get paid a lot and are reliable. Also, the prices there are low. I watch The Dark Knight on tv, and during the ads, I talk to an older guy from Sri Lanka about school systems around the world, our careers, etc. He started wich chemistry and math, wanted to be an engineer, but got a job at accounting. He then wanted his own business, but didn't got it.
\paragraph{12.03.12}
I went to the National Bank and ordered a new bank card free of charge, which is faster than retrieving the old one from the ATM. I went to Lido Cinema. Classy environment, almost club-like. I skim some books in their bookshelf, I read about space stations with pools and other colony possibilities, in a scientific book from 1970. I also find an interesting book about communication between men and women. Back at the hostel, I realize that I forgot my hat in the club-like cinema foyer. I go back there, and talk to a canadian girl working there about an opera they have in the program. I teach her to pronounce "Goetterdaemmerung". Back at the hostel, again, I fabricate the resumee text for biotech companies in Tauranga after deciding that work in Hamilton is nothing for me. Hamilton lacks ocean.
\paragraph{13.03.12}
I checked out at Backpacker Central and went to Fourty Winks. Outside is a note, telling me that there is no one at the office right now, but I can put down my name to make a reservation. I see people inside, so I knock. After an awkward peek around the corner, a german guy opens and explains that they were instructed to let no one in. I understand and persuade him to take my luggage inside so I don't have to carry it around all day. My card has not arrived at the bank, so I leave them my mobile number, visist the Pak'n'Save and take a walk along the beautiful riverside and back at the other side. I meet a man with a dog and turn down the offered lift, walk back and check in at the Fourty Winks. The german guy I met at the door is Tim, his Buddy is Johannes.
\paragraph{14.03.12}
Owner of Fourty Winks insisted that I try an avocado and tomato sandwich for breakfast, it was delicious. I talk to two german girls having breakfast, about holiday and movies. Without my loudmouth one of them still whould not know the other does not know Antonio Banderas. I check out, but leave my bag to visit the bank, they called earlier. My new card is there. I walk along the river in the other direction than yesterday, back to the hostel for my bag and to the i-site to catch the 13.20 bus to Te Aroha. ask for directions to YHA. The door is ajar, no one is there. A sign informs me that office hours are 5 and 8.30 pm. I wait and eat beans. At about 4 pm, the clerk arrives, I pay for one night and ask for bike rentals. They, too, have free bikes to use, so I bike to town and up into the mountains. The mountainbike-track is too steep for me, so I return the bike and decide to walk the track tomorrow.
\paragraph{15.03.12}
I left my bag in the YHA and went to the geysir, which was a disappointing cement sculpture "every 20 minutes all days". I walked up the mountain track and saw small waterfalls. I climbed over a fence to get closer to a big one and on top of a giant rock from which I had a great view over the plains. The other side of the rock was a giant circular hole filled with a pile of wood, maybe a former quarry. Back at the YHA I got my bag and got the bus at 14:30. The two germans from yesterday, Tim and Jo, got out of the bus, we greeted, I got in the bus. In Thames the bus driver told me he'd stop at a hostel for two backpackers, if I wanted I could get out there, too. I did. At the hostel, I found some guys to play poker with tomorrow. In the book swapping shelf, I found Ian Flemings Goldfinger and began reading.
\paragraph{16.03.12}
Took a bike for a days trip around, but soon I found it to be too low, my back was aching. So I returned and finished reading Goldfinger. One of the kids here offered me a netbook for 50 dollars, I said I'd think about it. Biked down to town for free wifi to get details on model etc. Stores close early here. Went to the hostel, negotiating the netbook down to 40 dollars, then texting Jonas the details for advice. He said it's ok for cheap "made in China" ware. The transaction itself was postponed due to the late hour. Played poker and lost fast. Just Monopoly money.
\paragraph{17.03.12}
I bought the netbook offered. My phone was low on battery, so I plugged it to the power and biked beyond town to find a cafe I was told about, with free pcs to use to put linux mint on the netbook. I asked in a cafe for the way to the Trainstation Creek Something and was sent on to a narrow railway station with a pottery and gift shop. I took a forest walkway that ended in a sign saying to go back, the path is not finished. The whole place was beautiful, too bad I forgot my phone/camera charging at the hostel. I went back to the cafe to find out that that is the place I was told about, the Railway Creek Cafe. I ordered a Very Berry Joghurt Smoothie and tried to get linux running. Back at the hostel, I skimmed trough the books on the exchange shelf and noticed that I had lost my bike lock.
\paragraph{18.03.12}
I went to the hostel office to ask if it was possible to un-book the pre-booked nights. It was possible. I also returned the key to the bike lock which was on my keychain, so that if the lock whould be found, it could still be used. The clerk told me to wait a second so he could have a look if it was found already, so I whouldn't loose 20 dollars. Turns out it has been found, so I received the deposit and biked to the railway creek cafe to get the data I left at their pc yesterday. I bought a book from their used book shelf, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. At the pc, I extracted all my data from the pc back to the flashdrive, except all the photos I took so far, which were lost. I erased my folder on the pc and emptied the trash. There was enough in it to show a progress bar, which I backed up and walked away from like a movie hero from an explosion. The only great moment on a bad day. At the town's i-site to inquire bus possibilities out of here and to Tauranga, which turned out to be just in time to get back to the hostel. There, I found that five other people also wanted on that bus, which turned out to be a small van. We all got on, with only one person sitting on someones lap. In a small town the bus paused for 45 minutes, enough for me to book and pay for the rest of the journey to Tauranga. I changed busses in Thames and discovered that Tim and Jo, the two german guys from before, were boarding too. They had booked a hostel in Te Puke, but were told that one can easily walk there from Tauranga. Which one cannot. We agreed to get a hostel for the night since no busses were to depart to Te Puke till tomorrow. We found a hostel near the wharf and booked a night there. I read Fight Club and went to KFC with Tim and Jo. I read some more Fight Club, then went to the Rialto Cinema to see "The skin I live in". To my surprise, it was in the original with english subtitles. I very much liked it, the word "transgenesis" sounds a lot better when Antonio Banderas says it with the "g" scratched between tounge and palate. The story of the movie, who's cinematography is flawless, left me very uneasy. Later, some guys from the hostel took a late night dive into the harbour and invited me to join, if not to swim, then at least to be there. We were nine people, including Tim and Jo.
\paragraph{19.03.12}
I decided to go to another hostel, so I checked out, got my luggage locked in and booked a night 100 meters down the road at the Loft 109 Backpackers. Then, I finally wanted to get the damn netbook fixed. First, I went to Dicksmith (a chain of electronic stores, it gets less funny every time. Google their logo, though), from where I was sent to a service and support shop who's desk women called for nerd backup when I started talking about accessing the bios and booting from flashdrive. The guy that showed up could not help me either, all he whould do, I did already, so he sent me to an IT company that also hosted the local linux user group. But, again, I was out of luck. All I got was a card with details on the linux user group and the advice that I should show up to one of their meetings. I got my luggage and moved it to my new hostel. Guess who was checking in: Tim and Jo.
\paragraph{20.13.12}
I check out and walk along the harbor to the Pacific Coast Lodge and Backpackers, where I will stay a week. The rest of the day, I'm stuck in front of the tv, Big Bang Theory and various movies.
