Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

       So, a few years back, I had a psychologist say in a condescending, mocking tone "he thinks he knows the secrets of the universe" as I was at a hearing to determine how long I was going to be committed to a psychiatric facility. It was kind of an arrogant assumption on his part, as I never actually claimed to know those things. No one can know definitively the "mysteries of the universe" as that doctor so eloquently put it.        I just actually take the time to think about them and puzzle over them.  No one ever came to answers about their life and came to solve or understand mysteries without actually taking the time to think about them. Sometimes the answers to life's mysteries as they  pertain to you don't come from the external universe, they come from your internal one.         It's a matter of belief. Your beliefs structure your mind. In a sense, what you believe about reality shapes and provides the foundation to your reality. This is an i

One of the great problems of a two party system, and of ideological rigidness that unquestioning loyalty to a particular ideology creates is the deprivation of creative and innovative thought and policymaking within the political system.      This happens because ideological loyalty confines political innovation to a set of parameters dictated by that particular ideology. In other words, the viewpoints and tenets of certain political groups don't allow ideas that deviate from their established way of thinking.      This almost always chokes innovation in policymaking that could make amazing and powerful positive changes within the system.  Ideological rigidness confines policymaking to a set of established ideas and agendas that are not flexible. This ideological rigidness is, unfortunately, a biproduct of a dichotomous two party system.         Along with the name-calling and fear-mongering that comes naturally within American politics, ideological rigidness and inflexibility in p

     I get off of work at 12:30 on the average night. It's a pretty late shift and then I either have a 10 minute bike ride or 30 minute walk home across town.  I usually fall asleep at 2:00 or so after supper and winding down time.          Over the course of the last 6 months or so, I have been waking up consistently at 6:00, often to the dot, and I have had a general feeling of unease and discomfort overtake my body and mind for a few hours.  I'd eventually fall back asleep and sleep until just before I have to go to work again, but that general feeling of discomfort and sometimes even dread is something that is quite a mystery, and it is a relatively new phenomenon in my life.         I just get a feeling of uncertainty, often overtaken by the questions of "what am I doing here?" or "what happened?"  or "how did I get here?" or "where am I going?"  Some of my best philosophical thoughts and ideations come at this period of the day.  S

     Life can be very confusing and very uncertain. In trying to come to terms with an uncertain and complex existence, I have developed a few coping mechanisms, some healthy and some not so much.         I realized that much of the happenings of my world happen in places and situations that are cloaked from my sight. "Behind the scenes" so to speak. Even in my personal life, I don't see with my own eyes or hear with my own ears the activities and conversations that people who have a level of power over me have in their private times and concealed partakings.        Of course, thinking about this can lead to problems of paranoia and a state of suspicion about uncertain and cloaked happenings and things, but even so, many of the decisions made in the shadows and behind closed doors involving me and my circumstances do affect my life and can become stumbling blocks or hindrances to my progress.       Conversations and decisions behind the scenes do happen. They happen all t

      I write about information quite a bit. Whether it is information theory, abstract versus concrete information, or posts on ideas (which are forms of abstract information in their own right), the topic of information comes up rather frequently in my posts.          I have written posts on how the imagination and certain components of the media act as mediums by which information from other realms of existence can be transmitted into our world. In other words our minds and the media bridge our world with others that very well could exist.          From my perspective, I view the human mind as a sample of a much larger, singular consciousness, something akin to what many would call God, and that we are a finite, isolated sample of that broader infinite cosmic mind. As a result, many of us inherit the creative quality of that infinite mind, and most of us have the capacity to tap into that creativity to at least a rudimentary level.         As a result, our minds are connected to a b

I know everything about you I know every mistake I know every accomplishment I know every blessing I know every curse I know every gift you have been given I know every loss you have been dealt I know what you want I know also what you need I know what you hope for I know your dreams I know your thoughts I know your secrets I know you as someone who tries to be honest I know you as someone who tries to be good I know you didn't mean for so much darkness to happen in your life. I know you didn't intend to hurt your family or alienate your friends I know you want to do what's right I know you want liberty I know you want to be healthy I know where you belong I know who loves you I know who hates you I know who hurts you I know who helps you I know where you came from I know where you are going I know your pain I know how much you struggle I know you tried your best I know, dear child, that you know I am your God Most importantly, I know how much you love me What you need to k

     It's not an uncommon thing for a child to like big numbers. Counting to a hundred is a big step for a lot of kids. Counting higher and higher becomes a mark of achievement for many children the older they get. Once you introduce infinity, well, the game's over, haha, so to speak. It's the go to choice of kids in number contests. Once "infinity" is dropped, the contest ends in a definitive victory for the 3 year old who learned how to use the biggest number he or she could think of to obliterate the competitor.       Of course, most kids (and most adults) can't completely wrap their heads around infinite things. People are finite. We're a very small species on a very small world in a very big existence. Every person has a degree of cognitive limitations in regards to comprehending the big stuff. The infinite stuff.  Sometimes I wonder if children have a better grasp of these things than many adults do, to be honest.        Infinity and infinite things

No matter how horrible, brutal, unforgiving, vicious, or terrifying evil may be, it is not the supreme force in existence. Not by a long shot. Evil is based on a darkness, an absence, a blindness. All it takes to destroy a darkness is light, and light obliterates darkness. Light is substantial. Light is real. Darkness is not substantial. It is an absence. An emptiness.  Darkness doesn't exist in its own right.      If God is infinite, and his creation shares in his infinity to an extent, I believe that evil is finite. It is limited. It is not all powerful. It is not an infinite force. In fact evil is a representative of the the true antithesis of creation; void. Nothingness. Emptiness. Darkness. Anything that acts on behalf of or spreads darkness or emptiness into reality is acting on behalf of evil to an extent.          Evil things usually destroy, corrupt, pervert, or steal, as do evil people.  However, evil people are often deceived in terms of the scope of their power, the sco

 The world we live in is complex. There are many places, many things to do, many forms, and many ideas. There are many people to talk to and many wonders to behold with our senses. Going out even further, our galaxy, our universe, and existence is even more complex and wondrous.  That is the external world, the external existence. All living things share it, operate in it, and experience it. That is the place where we learn, grow, build relationships, and build our lives.      Even with the external world comes another, more intimate world. The world within ourselves. I would argue that each individual human has an internal world. One with dreams, with hopes, with desires, with fantasies, and with thoughts and images and creativity in our own right. Even so, humans are isolated receivers of information, separate from other humans and other consciousness by our isolated minds and coupled with our internal worlds and our internal awareness, humans are essentially a world within a world.

       I used to have these dreams of traveling across the universe. I would float through endless space, passing through galaxy after galaxy and star system after star system. I would coast through these galaxies and into nebulae and sometimes even onto some of the planets around some of the stars.  Much of these dreams came from media and entertainment I had as a child. I used to have a program called "Starry Night" on my iMac growing up, and this program gave you the ability to pilot a space-ship and travel to other stars and even other galaxies. Much of my dreams had the same feel of this program.        The further I went into space, the more mysterious and even colorful the universe became. It was truly endless. Sometimes I'd reach some sort of boundary where I would run out of galaxies to pass through and I'd cross that boundary only to find more galaxies or even sometimes structures and colors and a mixture of stars and objects that are hard to describe, and I

One of the most difficult things about being human is shame and coming to terms with a world that you can't go through without making mistakes or suffering failure.      Shame is a natural response to those mistakes and failures. Shame is a natural response to sin. Shame is natural, but it's quite unhealthy. It can cripple your ability to live a normal life. It can become a barrier to contentment and happiness and lead to a wide array of emotional problems.      One of the big freedoms I long for the most is the freedom from shame. The freedom from feeling like there is something inherently wrong with me. Something irredeemable about my nature. A weakness and a failure that condemns me not so much in the eyes of others, but in my own eyes mostly.  I know I am not condemned in the sense of some sort of eternal damnation, but I condemn myself in my own eyes because of the standard I set for myself that I fail to live up to.       This standard is unrealistically high, so I end up

In some of my posts, I have talked about the possibility of an infinitely complex mind being able to to create and combine an infinite amount of forms and an infinite amount of ideas. This would truly be the mind of God. If you breakdown our reality into three primary constructs, our entire reality would be made up of forms, ideas, and the physical "matrix" of space, time, and substance that the forms and ideas are projected through and into for consciousness to detect and interact with. These three constructs are one way of describing the foundations of our reality.       Now in space, physical forms can get quite complex, with the complexity and amount of possible combinations and arrangements of forms increasing depending on the scale and the amount of space occupied. You have forms like a three-dimensional brain reaching high levels of complexity over a small amount of space, or you have forms like the scope of the observable universe reaching a high level of complexity o

         Game scenarios rarely stay stable for long. In fact, instability and imbalance is often what drives the procedures and progression of many games. Games themselves are scenarios that attempt to create a balance or "equilibrium" out of competitive system in discord or disorder.                Equilibriums happen in certain game scenarios when competitors or cooperators reach a point in the progression of the game where they become satisfied with the current state of affairs of the game and their current positions within the competition or interaction in regards where they want to be and end up as the game progresses while taking into account the positions and strategies of their fellow players.         The great problems equilibriums face is that they always break down over time. Some may last a while, yes, but entropy breaks down all systems, and equilibriums in certain circumstances are precarious and fragile already, especially those dealing with contentious territo

     One of the things I struggle with the most is being content and happy with what I got. Like any human, I want something more. A more adventurous life. A more purposeful life. A challenging career. Travel. The Finances to support such a life. Contentment is hard. It's hard to be content and satisfied when left in a state of wanting things I cannot have and an inability to navigate a system with many more doors closed than open. I often don't even know where the doors are, or the steps to take to a more adventurous and satisfying life.            This lack of contentment and satisfaction fuels my drive to write about what I write and put myself out there as much as I do. Unfortunately, no matter how smart or knowledgeable I may be and how gifted of a thinker I am, this is still not opening doors. My writings, though profound at times, aren't attracting the kind of attention I want, nor are they paying the bills. I don't know how to navigate this world. I dug myself i

We seem to be on a precipice. As I write this, America prepares to elect its leadership again, and with this comes the very real risk of civil unrest and disorder to follow it. The destabilization brought about by Covid-19 and the resulting economic disruption puts our country, our world even, at risk of disaster or calamity. The future is always uncertain, and no one knows exactly how things will play out, but what I do know is that every physical thing is bound to entropy, including political and social systems.      Social entropy breaks down all human systems over time, and this can be made to happen quicker and made worse by events like pandemics and conflict. The decay of complex systems are inevitable, but you can refresh the systems themselves and restart the entropy.               Paradigm shifts in politics, the sciences, and society as a whole can restart this entropy process, although paradigm shifts can cause much discord and resistance to change, but if successful, some p

If you want to understand the behavior and actions of terrorists, militant extremists, and organised groups of human beings, you have to develop a significantly thorough and well-rounded understanding of ideologies and belief systems      Aside from plots, positions, resources, and membership numbers of certain groups, understanding the tenets and goals of their belief systems and ideologies is an essential component of intelligence gathering.        Ideology and beliefs are the incentive behind the actions of almost all organised bodies of human beings, militant or otherwise. Even apolitical organisations have a set of objectives or goals based around ideas. Since ideology is the incentive to the actions of groups, understanding the structure of the information that makes up these ideologies can greatly help efforts in combatting things like extremism and terrorism and possibly help predict and anticipate the movements and strategies of these groups. Every political ideology has a goa