The World According to Xenocrates

Gun Control: The Paralyzing Price of American Freedom

xenlogic — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:36:24 +0000

America’s biggest problem is that it fatally overvalues its freedom.

— Xenocrates

Guns. Guns! Everywhere. The news feed coming out of the freest country in the world is starting to read like a play by play for the war in Afghanistan. Why is there so much gun violence in America? At this point, there is no point arguing against the right for law abiding citizens to own guns. Doing so would be pointless. Rather, this post seeks to highlight that America’s biggest problem is not its guns. Guns are only a symptom of the actual problem.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

The Problem with Online Social Networking

xenlogic — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 23:13:37 +0000

Give humanity anonymity and see the true potential of its depravity.

— Xenocrates

We are repeatedly trying to simulate human behaviour online, with dramatic results.

Social networking has changed humanity forever. I began to realize this when I discovered a frightening trend in the news about how kids were killing themselves over things done online. Why would someone do that? I thought. That is when I decided to embark upon an ambitious social experiment two years ago to see the true depth of how social networking has changed the human animal. This post documents my findings in grave detail. Note well: you may find the contents of this post either deeply upsetting or deeply disturbing. You have been warned.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

The Problem with falling in Love

xenlogic — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:53:06 +0000

Our parents were incredibly naive about love.

— Xenocrates

There was once a person you would have moved heaven and earth for. He or she was all sorts of amazing. Your only problem with this person is that all of the wonderful things that you once loved about them have inexplicably evaporated. You want to know something interesting? The factors that caused the evaporation were always there when you first met. It’s just as you got to know them better, they became harder to ignore. It’s like the intensity of the good things you loved about them have swapped places with the bad things. Familiar?

Then we need to talk.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

Top Anticipated Films, 2013 Edition

xenlogic — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 04:57:39 +0000

The geek has inherited the earth.

— Xenocrates

This is going to be yet another bumper year for blockbuster comic book / science fiction films.

In 2012, I thought we were going to have an incredibly bumper year for tent pole pictures. As it turns out, my excitement was relatively short lived. Only two films truly delivered last year in my opinion. First was the under rated Chronicle (found footage drama of teens accidentally attaining super powers and learning to deal with it responsibly) and Marvel’s The Avengers. The latter was a comic book blockbuster that went on to become the third highest grossing film of all time. It signals a trend in blockbusters over the last decade that continues for 2013.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

Everything Is Nothing

xenlogic — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 01:37:47 +0000

If perception is truth, then there’s no such thing as truth.

— Xenocrates

The squares labeled A and B are the same shade. Click here to see proof.

Rene Descartes once posited that the only proof that we exist is the fact that we are conscious of ourselves thinking. His famous quote, “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) has a great deal of meaning for those of us who are constantly in search of the meaning of life. I have already posited that life has no intrinsic meaning outside of what you choose to give it. In this post, I’ll go a step further to demonstrate why there is no such thing as truth.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

Humanity’s Obsession with its Destruction

xenlogic — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 02:47:43 +0000

Fear is the most compelling form of folly.

— Xenocrates

What is it about the complete and utter destruction of mankind that causes most of us to react with such a uniform sense of paranoia? Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many people around the world were in full on, weaponized panic over the past week, because they were compelled the world was going to end on December 21, 2012. Well it didn’t happen—as I had predicted in an earlier post about a similar prophecy that failed to materialize. However, our fear of our destruction has captured our imagination for decades. Just look at the video montage above taken from no less than seven different movies. Why?

Well, it has to do with our programming.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

A Rational Explanation for Apple’s Irrational behavior

xenlogic — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:32:36 +0000

Fear is directly proportional to the size of the coward.

— Xenocrates

Are you frightened by crawling creatures? Does the sudden sight of a scurrying mouse startle you? Does the wayward flight of a random cockroach make you duck? Would the sight of a black spider resting on the wall across the room fill you with terror just after you turn on the light in your bedroom? If so, have you ever asked yourself why? Why would you, a human, the most fearsome animal on the planet be terrified of such tiny crawling creatures? Curiously, the same behavior exists in giants of religion (Christianity fears Atheism) politics (GOP vs. Democrats) and even technology (Apple Inc. vs Samsung et al). Why do giants fear dwarves? This post explores the psychology of giants like Apple Inc. Apple fan boys won’t be amused.

■ Special Thanks to Stewart Panton (Twitter: @Stewpert) and Alex Albert Sim (Twitter: @bertzzie) for contributions to this article.
■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

What’s the point of it all?

xenlogic — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 03:21:18 +0000

God is the correct answer to a silly question.

— Xenocrates

A young woman confronted me recently about my last post. She was angry at me because it made sense. All her life, even though she doesn’t subscribe to any particular religion, she still wanted to believe that somewhere out there, there was something more than the life that we have. Apparently she was dissatisfied with how her life turned out and hoped that there was something more. So I conceded that yes, there is something more, but it is probably not spiritual. She was furious: “Why not?” She prodded. “How else can we explain our existence if there isn’t some grand purpose to it?” This post is my answer to her question.

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

The Higgs Boson: Why the ‘God’ Particle won’t quell Religion

xenlogic — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:36:10 +0000

Now that we’ve found the creator in a laboratory, can we stop believing in this religious nonsense?

— Xenocrates

Unless you were living under a rock for the last 72 hours, it is inescapable that you’ve heard the news. Scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva have finally discovered the particle that for the last 38 years has been theorized as being responsible for conferring mass to subatomic particles. In layman’s terms, it is the particle that is responsible for the creation of the universe. So that ultimately begs a very crucial question: Now that we’ve found the universe’s creator in a laboratory, can we stop believing in this religious nonsense?

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

The Imminent Death of the BlackBerry

xenlogic — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 01:12:13 +0000

Simple minds are amused by simple things.

— Xenocrates

Umm… aren’t these all basically the same device?

While I always understood the appeal of having a smart phone, I never understood the appeal of having a BlackBerry when smarter smartphones exist. While I totally understood why RIM’s BlackBerry devices got so popular, I never quite got why RIM’s BlackBerry devices stayed so popular for so long. It should come as no surprise that the most overrated things are enjoyed by the most underwhelming people. Yet, now that RIM’s demise is imminent, I can’t help but be genuinely surprised that anyone is actually surprised RIM is about to tank.

No, really; you didn’t see that coming?

■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com