Jack London

In 1897, Jack London left San Francisco for the Klondike to join the gold rush. He was just 21. A few weeks earlier, a ship had arrived in San Francisco from the Klondike carrying more than a million dollars worth of gold, and London got his stepsister to mortgage her house and lend him the money for the trip.

It was a tough journey, including a long haul over the famous Chilkoot Pass. Winter hit before London could even start looking for gold. 

He spent that winter in a little fur trader's cabin the size of a tool shed he read the books he'd brought along - Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. 

By the time spring arrived, all the good claims had already been made, so he gave up looking for gold and decided to collect stories from the people there.

On the journey home, he almost died of scurvy, but he wrote a book. That book was The Call of the Wild, which became one of the most popular books of the time.

That was 1903 and the novel was a turning point in London's career, propelling him to literary stardom and enabling him to live a life filled with both creative and personal adventures. This success also provided him with substantial financial rewards, which allowed him to focus more on his writing.

The novel established London as a prominent American author. He gained recognition as a skilled storyteller with a deep understanding of nature and the human (and animal) condition. He became highly productive, writing and publishing numerous works over the next several years. These included The Sea-Wolf , White Fang, and Martin Eden.

He bought a ranch in California and later embarked on a sailing voyage across the Pacific in his yacht, the Snark. 

Despite his success, London faced various health problems. His adventurous lifestyle, combined with heavy drinking, took a toll on his body. By the end of his life, he suffered from kidney disease and other ailments.  

London continued to write prolifically, though not all of his subsequent works achieved the same level of acclaim as The Call of the Wild. Nonetheless, he remained a significant literary figure until his death in 1916 at the age of 40. 

We Are Living in a Simulation.

“This is a cardboard universe, and if you lean too long or too heavily against it,
you fall through.” - Philip K. Dick (PKD)

We are living in a simulation. Maybe. At least some people (not crazy people) believe it is a possibility.

It sounds like a sci-story (The Matrix probably comes to mind) to say that we are software emanations in a vast, unimaginably complex computer simulation. But it is not a new idea created by someone like sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (PKD). The ancients thought about it. Philosophers have considered how real things in front of us might be. In the 18th century,  British empiricist George Berkeley talked about immaterialism.

PKD (who I have written more about on another website) uses the idea of our reality being a simulation. But we would need to be able to step outside of the simulation to know there was a simulation.

Davoudi talks about ways we might fall through the cardboard universe. If our universe is made of code, there are probably glitches, which means that whoever is the "simulator" controlling the code, it would need to make corrections. That's where the complicated science enters.

Philip K. Dick theorized "The Matrix" in 1977 when he wrote about that we live in a "Computer-Programmed Reality.”

Are we prototypes?
Is our solar system a project of another advanced civilization - or God?
Do they want us to figure out the simulation? Are they trying to help us to figure it out?

Want to go further down the rabbit hole?

• Simulation Theory Explained in 3 Videos
• Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?: A 2-Hour Debate with Neil Degrasse Tyson, David Chalmers, Lisa Randall, Max Tegmark...

The Epic of Gilgamesh

One of the earliest known poems in human history is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated in ancient Mesopotamia around 2100 BCE. 

This epic poem (author unknown) recounts the adventures and exploits of Gilgamesh, a legendary king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. 

The poem is composed in ancient Sumerian and Akkadian languages and is one of the earliest works of literature known to humanity. It predates many other ancient literary works, including the Homeric epics of Greece (such as the Iliad and the Odyssey) and the ancient Indian epics (such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata). 

It consists of various episodes and narratives, including Gilgamesh's quest for immortality and his friendship with Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods.

I read Gilgamesh in college where it was presented as both a poem and a discovery that provided valuable insights into the culture, beliefs, and storytelling traditions of ancient Mesopotamia. It remains a significant literary and historical artifact, showcasing the enduring power of storytelling and poetry throughout human civilization.

Neo-Assyrian clay tablet. Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11: Story of the Flood.
Known as the "Flood Tablet"
From the Library of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC

This Girl Is a Tronie

Girl with a Pearl Earring is Vermeer’s most famous painting. It is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case, a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear.

Johannes Vermeer was a master of light. His studio workspace was set up so that the light source came from the left side and that is clear in many of his paintings. It is shown here in the softness of the girl’s face and the glimmers of light on her moist lips. And of course, the shining pearl.