bilateral kellerberrin

I dream about flossing but i never actually get around to it…

A bit groggy this morning. Jono’s 21st birthday party last night. Sonya, actually a friend of jono’s friend monica, is studying computer engineering/commerce. She’s been working on trying to programme a series of four lifts to make sure they go up, down, stop and prioritise particular journeys as they should. This, i reckon, is no mean feat. Apart from the notoriously dicky mechanics of a lift (which i’m sure she doesnt have to deal with too much) there are probably some really complex if/then strings to consider. IF i am on the ground floor AND i press the up button, THEN send the lift down from where it is BUT if someone else presses the down button on the way THEN allow the lift to stop and pick them up BUT do no allow anyone to get in if they pressed the up button etc… this is complex stuff, i think she said she’s programming in “C” whatever that might be.

Sonya and i talked about the abstract nature of money, too. She’s interested in the stockmarket and investment etc. i ask her what she thinks about the ethics of all that stuff. she reckons she will probably get a job for some big corporation and earn them heaps of money, and only get a fraction of that herself. But her main concern in the short term is financial security for herself, then she’ll worry about the ethics of the system or whatever. I ask her whether she will really feel more secure. But we agree that you can do big things with big money. I figure that this is probably a bit of a block for me, the money thing.

I also talk about money with one of jono’s mates, i didnt get his name. He did I.T. too, is now working as a mobile phone salesman, but wants to set up his own company called diet daily or something. We had a good laugh about the abstract nature of the so called “product” he will be offering in that venture – as he put it, “reselling common knowledge”. He’ll sell monthly access to a website where aspiring dieters can upload info about what they ate, and the site will generate advice and feedback which will supposedly set them on the right track. I asked him about the ethics of what he was doing, too. Actually, i wasnt that concerned about the business idea. Caveat emptor, right? It was more his employment strategies that had me worried. He was planning to “hire” data entry people as contractors on a “profit-share only” basis (meaning that they might enter 100 000 food/calorie items into a database and only get a share of a potentially meagre profit). He seemed to have no problem with this as a plan, saying “well if they have a problem with that scheme they can get a job with someone else”. His other money making scheme was about investing in a thing called the “space elevator” which sounded like an april fools joke to me. The space elevator is made from carbon fibre chips or some such which are light and strong, and this elevator will stretch up into the stratosphere. Whoever runs it can then sell access to the space station etc rather than having to launch rockets all the time (expensive and dangerous). The idea of a hi tech lift reaching up to the limits of the earths atmosphere is frightening and exhilarating. But i still couldnt get past the suspicious notion he was pulling my leg.

Claire’s parents have come one step closer to immigration. They are going to be coming to oz as “contributing parents” but will not be allowed to work for money or claim the dole. Claire had to put a 14 000 dollar bond in case they got in financial trouble. But the latest is that the parents have to give the government 50 000 dollars (they will never see this money again) in order to access our medicare system. The injustice of this scheme is so multilayered i dont know what to say.

Jo and redmond lent me a super 8 projector to show the film of jono as a 14 year old on top of our roof. Chris took me around to pick it up. We talked about the relative differences between humanities and science phds, and jo showed me a book about the maths of self organising systems etc. lots of graphs and stuff. A section about the prisoner’s dilemma which sounds fascinating. the prisoners dilemma is an experiment to see if it is beneficial, over time, to trust and co-operate or to exploit and go your own way. Redmond also talked aobut what sounds like an interesting article called antagonism and relational aesthetics, which i must dig out and read.