Why should I fear death? While I am death is not. While death is I am not. Why should I fear that which is never around while I am?
The universe is thirteen point seven billion years old we are told and will end with space erupting between every thing so that nothing which we are now made of will remain intact. The universe has a beginning and will have an end. There is a limited amount of time which any civilization would have to use.
However the universe is vast and only just beginning. We find ourselves at the cusp of a curve which we do not fully recognize the full height of. We are at a very interesting point in universal history and we are only very small at this apparent time. To give you a hint of what may come let me give you these very large numbers to try to comprehend.
The human brain is what stores our memories it seems. Our best thoughts about it is that it is a computer. We have come a long way in understanding what makes up the brain and have made inroads into quantitatively comparing it to our own computers. While the software is different then anything we so far have written. The number of calculations which we think goes on in a human brain is staggering. We've reach an estimate for the amount of computational power from two separate means and as we hoped, we find agreement. The human brain performs about ten to the fifteenth to ten to the seventeenth power operations per second. That's within a few magnitudes for what our fastest supercomputers today can perform. Let me remind you again. That's a ten with about fifteen zeros after it. We are talking about an immense number.
None the less it is still small in the grand scheme of things. Today, physicists believe that the largest number of operations that can happen in two kilograms of matter is ten to the fifty second power operations per second, fifty two zeros. That would be enough to equal all six point seven billion humans living today living out ten thousand year lives every few billionths of a second. This staggering difference should show us just how small we are compared to where we will achieve in the future should the humanity overcome it's destructive tendencies to itself and get on with what it's already doing: improving technology. Given how things have changed in our own short life spans compared to our ancestors lives I hope you pause now to comprehend how much grander life could be.
It appears to us that we live on a system which is very conducive to our living our lives. While it can always be said that the universe favors us while we are alive, that we now have some basis for saying what we are I'd like to dream for you how I think things will play out and probably are already playing out in the universe at large.
Our planet is said to be four point five billion years old. This is some eight and a half billion years younger than the universe itself. The universe as far as we can see seems to be about the same everywhere when adjusted for the time differences created by the speed of light. Before our earth crusted over to form the rocks which we find on it's surface today, which we can date using sophisticated techniques, it was molten and being pummeled by objects from space. Our local solar system was reducing itself to a lower energy state. Things fall and release their potential energy into larger bodies which our or planets, moons, and sun. Computer simulations can give us confidence that this is just natures way. Added to that, and more convincing yet, are the extra solar planets which we have detected. The universe seems to follow patterns and enjoys repeating itself.
With a calm place to live the chemicals which make up, life had a chance to form. We have already detected that space is filled with the chemical constituents of life. While the study of abiogenesis is still young it seems that there is much for it to work with to give us a theory of how the building blocks of life could form molecular structures that can replicate themselves given a conducive environment which by the process of evolution produced us. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that life was not only destined to take hold of our planet, but also other planets as well which from our servery of the universe is probably vast in number.
But where are they? Why haven't they shown themselves to us or even given hints of their existence? Why questions are notoriously difficult to answer but let me give you my theory as to why we find ourselves so alone in a place that for our practical purposes is infinite. They are not telling us about themselves, they are listening to us.
Electromagnetic waves occur every time something magnetic moves. They travel at the speed of light and always have some presents, whether as a photon or as an excited state of an electron or other particle. They keep going, in other words. The information which they contain is conserved. Theoretically the information which produced an electromagnetic wave is available to any person with a physical form of it. Our brains produce electromagnetic waves as to our electronic devices. With the above estimates for computational power available in the universe it seems possible that when enough light years as needed to get there to occur, an alien civilization could read our very thoughts as if from a record of the past. Given our computational nature it seems like it should be possible to build a galactic dream machine where our thoughts could continue beyond the constraints of our own planet.
The fantastic nature of such a proposal warrens further explanation. Why would they want to do these things? But what else is there to do? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a different person? In our dreams we construct within our minds whole worlds which we interact with including persons. When you look at our selves as the result of computations it's easy to guess from even an outside perspective that this is what is being done. Recreationally we create simulated worlds where we can act our our fantasies on today's feeble computers. It's a need of intelligent beings it would seem to dream. Without dreams the mind goes mad. It has been shown that only a few days without dreaming can cause permanent psychological damage. With tens or hundreds of orders of magnitude of computational power available to an advanced civilization, the need to entertain themselves would be great. Any new information would be welcome it would seem. It might seem anticlimactic for intelligence to find it's end in a dream world. I would like to point out the number of geniuses in history who have killed themselves as the result of mental illness possibly preventable by a bit of sleep. Just like children, we get cranky. Some of us become cranks. Any civilization with that amount of computational power would probably have to fulfill the same requirements if it were to last the billions of years the universe is making available to it.
There are those of you who might point out humanities difficulties with getting along with itself and it's power of destruction as an alternative reason. Evolution would select out these civilizations of course, and this may be the reason we find no intelligent life on other planets. But I would point out the understanding of conflict we have come to understand in economics. Borrowed from religion, some might say, is the golden rule acting in the equations of commerce. It does not surprise me much that the golden rule was first formulated it seems among a people living in a trade route. The golden rule comes out of a realm of mathematics called game theory. It is the best known way, called tit-for-tat, to play a game called the repeated prisoners dilemma written into poetry. Perhaps a better translation of the actual algorithm would be “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but don't be a sucker”. With the advent of nuclear bombs I offer this translation for your enjoyment: bomb onto others as you would have them bomb onto you. The reason we never had world war three it seems is that no side could profit from it. There has never been a direct war between two nuclear armed nations. It's simple enough even for the military mind of a general to understand.
It seems that our world is destined for peace. We have plenty of nuclear ore in the ground and are well underway to civilizing the poorest countries due to the cheap labor they can provide. An economic equilibrium around the entire planet is being reached. With abundant wealth and the tendency for educated women to have fewer children it seems the entire world will reach an equilibrium of persons and wealth given time that will allow us the full use of those nuclear materials by the reduced tendency for terrorism that would result. Even at our current rate of consumption with increases added in we have millions of years of fuel already known about. This should give us plenty of time to construct a system of satellites around our sun to provide vast power for the suns expected five billion year lifespan. We have the opportunity to live in an amazing world and we seem to have the natural tendency to do it. It would seem also likely that other civilizations would follow a similar pathway.
But should we expect galactic conquests as civilizations collide? I think not. From our understanding of intelligence and our knowledge that the universe is going to end, it would seem a far better strategy to merge minds if space was an issue. Just as a Mac and a PC can communicate over the internet, when we get away from our animal brains made of so much jelly, we will find a meeting of the minds possible and probably entertaining. This seems a natural course. Our human bodies seem to be programmed not to live much beyond our reproductive years, yet the desire to live remains in the individual. Our understanding of biology is likely to reach a point on a long enough time line where we will leave our frail bodies behind and move into a simulated world to live out the rest of our consciousness. Once in a virtual world we would be free from death. Only hazards of mind would remain. We might merge with the wrong person and need to restore ourselves from a backup. But it might also be the natural inclination of the psyche to produce one or a few consciousnesses and always a welcome thing. We like to talk and gossip. It might seem a fitting end for the multitudes to reform themselves into a few who can keep track of each other and provide comfort and company too. Or it might be that we need a multitude of consciousnesses and that we never fully leave the animal forms in our simulated world, finding the greatest comfort in them. What has kept civilizations civil to each other is trade. The commodity I propose is simply information. Perhaps the only reason to go into space and to other starts is to bring copy of our library of consciousnesses and works of creativity. The logic of peace is so easy to understand it would seem only the civilizations that destroy themselves would not join in on the game. Information is a fundamental quantity in physics. It might trade well.
This opens up new and great possibilities. Civilizations that could have been recording our mental history might have a copy of some of the thoughts of our ancestors. Some of them might come after having been reanimated in the alien world. Some of them might be packaged as amusement rides where you could live the life of another person, say Jesus Christ.
I mention him because the world I describe is a bit like his version of heaven. Perhaps should we be lucky enough to live long enough, we'll live in a reasonable enough simulation of heaven as to scarcely be any different. And as the universe winds to it's end, perhaps we'll all celebrate as we merge into a single consciousness to create for that final moment, God.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Craigslist Rants and Raves.
I'm trying to drum up some support for the campain by posting at craigslist.
I am voting for all the third party candidates at once. Here is why.
A Nuclear Reactor In Every Hummer
Re: What it means to be a Republican.
Stupid Fine Print
Re: Ways to be a good republican
I am voting for all the third party candidates at once. Here is why.
A Nuclear Reactor In Every Hummer
Re: What it means to be a Republican.
Stupid Fine Print
Re: Ways to be a good republican
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Nuclear Reactor In Every Hummer
¿Did you know there is a nuclear reactor under the building you're in?
It's called the earth.
We are sitting on top of the worlds largest nuclear reactor. Stop being afraid. Sixty particles from space pierce your body every second. Your smoke detector produces about 1 million particles per second. Your chair is slightly radioactive. When we talk about radiation we are talking about a huge range of numbers that our monkey brains can't understand. Stop being afraid.
Back in the 50s the energy secretary of the United States said we would soon have energy too cheep to meter. It was called a breeder reactor and it had the property of producing more fuel then it consumed. In other words some of the energy that was being made from converting mater into energy was being used to create more fissionable material. The principles are simple enough that a boy scout made a breeder reactor in his parents garage right under their noses.
We are killing people for oil. People are being uprooted, pauperized and killed because we need to secure oil from their country. You probably know someone who died or knew someone who knew someone who died for oil. You yourself are slowly being killed by the effects on this earth of burning oil and coal. We are fucked either way.
So lets do a cost benefit analysis. If the benefits outweigh the risks then it makes sense to do, if not then of course you don't do it. ¿Would the risks involved with creating energy too cheep to meter from nuclear breeder reactors out way the risks? Could nuclear be safer then oil.
If you had limitless energy from breeder reactors you could:
We could manufacture products that are energy intensive for far lower cost. Practically all the cost of aluminum is the energy it takes to refine it from common clay, bauxite. Titanium is the same way. In fact titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the earths crust. Why everything isn't made of titanium is only because titanium is basically a form of energy and energy is expensive when it has to be produced with oil or coal. The same is true for a hole host of chemicals. The soap you are using is not actually soap. Unless you buy natural soap you are using chemical waist to wash yourself. Modern soap is actually detergent that is cheep because it is a waist product. It's not the best soap but it's cheaper because they are basically selling something they were going to through away.
We could manufacture food using chemical processes that would produce food cheaper and of higher purity then can be done by growing food? We could feed a population a thousand times the size of the current population with ease. We could turn the entire planet's surface into one big city. ¿If we wanted to?
We can take chemicals that would be too energy intensive to destroy and destroy them or make them into chemicals that we can use. The chemistry is there, it's just too expensive to do with energy costs as high as they are.
¿Do you know what you do with nuclear waist?
You refine it and make another reactor out of it.
Refining nuclear waist is energy intensive, that is why we don't do it now, but we could. But even if we decide to bury it we would still not be doing such a horrible thing.
You can not live in a cave indefinitely. The cave walls are radioactive enough that it is dangerous to spend too live in caves. You can dig an awfully deep hole if you are willing to put the energy into it. With limitless energy we could dig miles deep for low cost. So far deep that the walls of the cave would be more radioactive then some of the items we consider radioactive waist. Don't forget, the earth is a nuclear reactor. The deeper you go the more radioactive it gets.
Again we are talking about large numbers here. E=mc^2 means that there is a lot of energy in mater. c^2 is 90,000,000,000,000,000 m^2/s^2. Thats a mighty big number to multiply by. It means that if the mater contained in your brain were to be converted into energy it could produce 50,000,000,000 KWH or 50 terawatt hours. Your brain could supply the entire world's energy needs (electric and travel), that's the energy needs of 6.6 billion people, for about three hours. What a way to go.
¿Do you know why the U.S and the U.S.S.R never went to war with each other?
Because with nuclear bombs on both sides it would have been suicide to do so.
The bomb changed warfare forever. A nuclear power can not be conquered militarily. Once a country gets the bomb it's invincible. In an odd way the bomb is a stabilizing device. The generals know that the only way to win a nuclear war is not to start one in the first place. The only countries that are in jeopardy are the ones who don't have the bomb.
Now that the Americans and the Russians have had a chance to mingle it really seams comical the situation we were in. It seams that no one was really as hostel as the other had thought they were. It's a truth about people that they are basically kind. Charles Manson doesn't even think he himself is evil. No one does. That's cause we're not. We just make mistakes every so often and we get forced into doing things at times, but given the chance anyone would be kind to us and we could be kind to anyone.
It's written into the laws of mathematics. We are living a non-zero-sum game. We don't have to play as it there has to be a looser. We can all be winners. The cost of having losers in the game of life is to high. We need to play this game carefully with the intention of not leaving people behind. The benefits of cooperation are too grate to ignore. An investment in kindness will pay off in the long run far more then any short term bargain.
An adult is a person who has left their childhood fears behind and replaced them with wisdom. Being an adult is not something you become just by getting old.
If we love all those who hate
and fear only fear itself
we will fear nothing, hate nobody
and finely love even love itself.
This world is being horribly mismanaged. Mostly what we have to do is trust people to be good if we give them the opportunity to let their natural kindness shine. We know how to make the world into heaven. We must not be afraid to do so.
It's called the earth.
We are sitting on top of the worlds largest nuclear reactor. Stop being afraid. Sixty particles from space pierce your body every second. Your smoke detector produces about 1 million particles per second. Your chair is slightly radioactive. When we talk about radiation we are talking about a huge range of numbers that our monkey brains can't understand. Stop being afraid.
Back in the 50s the energy secretary of the United States said we would soon have energy too cheep to meter. It was called a breeder reactor and it had the property of producing more fuel then it consumed. In other words some of the energy that was being made from converting mater into energy was being used to create more fissionable material. The principles are simple enough that a boy scout made a breeder reactor in his parents garage right under their noses.
We are killing people for oil. People are being uprooted, pauperized and killed because we need to secure oil from their country. You probably know someone who died or knew someone who knew someone who died for oil. You yourself are slowly being killed by the effects on this earth of burning oil and coal. We are fucked either way.
So lets do a cost benefit analysis. If the benefits outweigh the risks then it makes sense to do, if not then of course you don't do it. ¿Would the risks involved with creating energy too cheep to meter from nuclear breeder reactors out way the risks? Could nuclear be safer then oil.
If you had limitless energy from breeder reactors you could:
We could manufacture products that are energy intensive for far lower cost. Practically all the cost of aluminum is the energy it takes to refine it from common clay, bauxite. Titanium is the same way. In fact titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the earths crust. Why everything isn't made of titanium is only because titanium is basically a form of energy and energy is expensive when it has to be produced with oil or coal. The same is true for a hole host of chemicals. The soap you are using is not actually soap. Unless you buy natural soap you are using chemical waist to wash yourself. Modern soap is actually detergent that is cheep because it is a waist product. It's not the best soap but it's cheaper because they are basically selling something they were going to through away.
We could manufacture food using chemical processes that would produce food cheaper and of higher purity then can be done by growing food? We could feed a population a thousand times the size of the current population with ease. We could turn the entire planet's surface into one big city. ¿If we wanted to?
We can take chemicals that would be too energy intensive to destroy and destroy them or make them into chemicals that we can use. The chemistry is there, it's just too expensive to do with energy costs as high as they are.
¿Do you know what you do with nuclear waist?
You refine it and make another reactor out of it.
Refining nuclear waist is energy intensive, that is why we don't do it now, but we could. But even if we decide to bury it we would still not be doing such a horrible thing.
You can not live in a cave indefinitely. The cave walls are radioactive enough that it is dangerous to spend too live in caves. You can dig an awfully deep hole if you are willing to put the energy into it. With limitless energy we could dig miles deep for low cost. So far deep that the walls of the cave would be more radioactive then some of the items we consider radioactive waist. Don't forget, the earth is a nuclear reactor. The deeper you go the more radioactive it gets.
Again we are talking about large numbers here. E=mc^2 means that there is a lot of energy in mater. c^2 is 90,000,000,000,000,000 m^2/s^2. Thats a mighty big number to multiply by. It means that if the mater contained in your brain were to be converted into energy it could produce 50,000,000,000 KWH or 50 terawatt hours. Your brain could supply the entire world's energy needs (electric and travel), that's the energy needs of 6.6 billion people, for about three hours. What a way to go.
¿Do you know why the U.S and the U.S.S.R never went to war with each other?
Because with nuclear bombs on both sides it would have been suicide to do so.
The bomb changed warfare forever. A nuclear power can not be conquered militarily. Once a country gets the bomb it's invincible. In an odd way the bomb is a stabilizing device. The generals know that the only way to win a nuclear war is not to start one in the first place. The only countries that are in jeopardy are the ones who don't have the bomb.
Now that the Americans and the Russians have had a chance to mingle it really seams comical the situation we were in. It seams that no one was really as hostel as the other had thought they were. It's a truth about people that they are basically kind. Charles Manson doesn't even think he himself is evil. No one does. That's cause we're not. We just make mistakes every so often and we get forced into doing things at times, but given the chance anyone would be kind to us and we could be kind to anyone.
It's written into the laws of mathematics. We are living a non-zero-sum game. We don't have to play as it there has to be a looser. We can all be winners. The cost of having losers in the game of life is to high. We need to play this game carefully with the intention of not leaving people behind. The benefits of cooperation are too grate to ignore. An investment in kindness will pay off in the long run far more then any short term bargain.
An adult is a person who has left their childhood fears behind and replaced them with wisdom. Being an adult is not something you become just by getting old.
If we love all those who hate
and fear only fear itself
we will fear nothing, hate nobody
and finely love even love itself.
This world is being horribly mismanaged. Mostly what we have to do is trust people to be good if we give them the opportunity to let their natural kindness shine. We know how to make the world into heaven. We must not be afraid to do so.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
I wonder if the invitation got lost in the mail
Today I crashed the debate between Cindy Sheehan and John Sununu at the Temple Adath Yeshurun in Manchester. It was fate I tell you. I crashed on the floor at Jamie Grady's Apartment just a few blocks from the temple that night. My life is truly charmed and strange.
I got there just as the Sheehan's people were setting up. I did some magic tricks and juggling for the supporters and gave my shtick about running for senate and told everyone to cross out the fine print on the ballot, write my name in, and also vote for whoever they were supporting. Down with the two party system. It felt fabulous.
When the debate began I stood in the back with my panted face and listened to each of those two fools give their opening statements. When the clapping subsided I shouted "You bleed the people. I'm Michael Lidman and I'm running for senate. Shut down Guantanamo bay. Stop torturing people in our names."
Eye shadow, 5$. Lipstick, 4$. The cow eyed vacant look on Sununu's face as Manchester's newest and most fabulous queen running for senate was escorted off the property, priceless.
I got there just as the Sheehan's people were setting up. I did some magic tricks and juggling for the supporters and gave my shtick about running for senate and told everyone to cross out the fine print on the ballot, write my name in, and also vote for whoever they were supporting. Down with the two party system. It felt fabulous.
When the debate began I stood in the back with my panted face and listened to each of those two fools give their opening statements. When the clapping subsided I shouted "You bleed the people. I'm Michael Lidman and I'm running for senate. Shut down Guantanamo bay. Stop torturing people in our names."
Eye shadow, 5$. Lipstick, 4$. The cow eyed vacant look on Sununu's face as Manchester's newest and most fabulous queen running for senate was escorted off the property, priceless.
Modern Life is Rubbish
Modern life is foolish and devoid of respect for life. The common man apparently cares more deeply about having five hundred channels and high-def sporting events then with life which burns into his retinas from every direction only to be ignored for the phosphorescent glow of illusions of predatory minds. This Christian nation has done more then then Satin every would do to destroy the souls of men. If such an being could exist, it would have nothing more to do then to sit back and let the priests and profits of this world send their pawns against each other. Nobody respects life who gives it so cheaply as the truly religious do.
I'm not talking about your Sunday driver going to a church for a sense of community. That it what is beautiful about them, they let the words of the poets who write this trip drift through their mind with little interaction with the true life's blood of their spirituality. The man who lives without fervent regard for his or her religion is not the subject of this discussion beyond the sins of neglect and words not said against the true problem child of religion, the fundamentalist.
The fundamentalist is something that is not understood by the Sunday driver. A person who actual believes every word that they are told is part of their religion has many land minds to contend with. All the western religions, except for most Jewish traditions, tells it's followers that this life is not where it's at. That life is just a temporary hardship that will one day be lifted or in certain cases of misconduct be magnified beyond all earthly description. This cheapens life.
There is no good reason to believe in a life after this. Furthermore there is good reason to believe that even if it should seem a near certitude that there is something beyond this life that we should not take the leap of faith and act on that assumption. The moment we find ourselves living is sacred beyond all other moments. Here and now is all we ever have. The past and the future do not exist.
Living outside the moment is a mistake we all make more then we need to. It always seems to lead to our receiving less out of life then what we could archive from worshiping the present tense. To constantly live in the future is to miss the point; which is remember to live.
I leave you with this good Christian theologians.
"Without God there is still All(ah). All there is is All, ah. God, if he exists, is part of All. I am not God. You are not God. But I am part of All; We are part of All; And All is more then God."
Allah Akbar might best be translated with an assumed being verb. "There is no God but All is (exists)". There is reason that Islam is a more advanced religion: more defensible then Christianity that is. It's newer and so has not gotten past it's love of martyrdom like Christianity has to some degree and like Buddhism has to a much larger degree (kamikaze anyone).
I'm not talking about your Sunday driver going to a church for a sense of community. That it what is beautiful about them, they let the words of the poets who write this trip drift through their mind with little interaction with the true life's blood of their spirituality. The man who lives without fervent regard for his or her religion is not the subject of this discussion beyond the sins of neglect and words not said against the true problem child of religion, the fundamentalist.
The fundamentalist is something that is not understood by the Sunday driver. A person who actual believes every word that they are told is part of their religion has many land minds to contend with. All the western religions, except for most Jewish traditions, tells it's followers that this life is not where it's at. That life is just a temporary hardship that will one day be lifted or in certain cases of misconduct be magnified beyond all earthly description. This cheapens life.
There is no good reason to believe in a life after this. Furthermore there is good reason to believe that even if it should seem a near certitude that there is something beyond this life that we should not take the leap of faith and act on that assumption. The moment we find ourselves living is sacred beyond all other moments. Here and now is all we ever have. The past and the future do not exist.
Living outside the moment is a mistake we all make more then we need to. It always seems to lead to our receiving less out of life then what we could archive from worshiping the present tense. To constantly live in the future is to miss the point; which is remember to live.
I leave you with this good Christian theologians.
"Without God there is still All(ah). All there is is All, ah. God, if he exists, is part of All. I am not God. You are not God. But I am part of All; We are part of All; And All is more then God."
Allah Akbar might best be translated with an assumed being verb. "There is no God but All is (exists)". There is reason that Islam is a more advanced religion: more defensible then Christianity that is. It's newer and so has not gotten past it's love of martyrdom like Christianity has to some degree and like Buddhism has to a much larger degree (kamikaze anyone).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
On The Social Safety Net
Life is like climbing a ladder. To clime a latter you need a place to stand, a foot to step up, and a helping hand. Without a place to stand you need to step up, but you will need the helping hand to steady you. Without a foot to step up you must stay in place, but you will still need the helping hand to keep from falling. However without a helping hand you can not climb safely and moreover you would be useless if you ever got to the top.
Each of us was given a place in this world that we did not earn. Each of us was given various amounts of talent and various amounts of help developing that talent. Some of us have been given the talent and the help for us to develop on our own. But none of us can truly claim to be self made.
It is my belief that we all have the potential for something greater then we are and that that potential is squandered on this planet at a staggering rate. In the pursuit for the highest rung on the later we have left many behind who are still in need of a helping hand. We have put our vessels up on stilts when what we are in most need to get on our way a rising tide: A rising tide to lift all ships.
Some of the most creative minds are labeled retarded or mentally ill. And I should not see a smile on the faces of the wealthy before every last child on this planet is fed, yet alone educated. The human mind is faster then the fastest super computer built to this date. To allow one brain to go undernourished and uneducated is to waste a resource grater then any handy work of man.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Senate Campain Kicks Off
I'm pleased to announce my candidacy for US Senate here in New Hampshire. I started with an email to the election board of New Hampshire. Here is the text of that email.
----
Elections@sos.state.nh.us
I noticed something wrong with the November sample ballot I downloaded from the Town of Merrimack web site (I am a resident of Merrimack). Here is the URL
http://www.merrimacknh.gov/sites/merrimacknh.gov/files/2008%20November%20_Ballot_Sample.pdf
Printed all over the ballot are the words "Vote for not more then 1".
Why should voting for one candidate disqualify a person from voting for another candidate? It's perfectly obvious what the intention of the voter is: they are approving of each candidate selected. It's perfectly obvious how to count such a ballot; one vote for X candidate and one vote for Y candidate. There is no way this would unfairly bias the count as you still can't vote for one candidate more then once.
I am going to select more then one candidate on my ballot and I am telling everyone I meet to do the same. I've even decided to run for US Senate as a write in candidate in order to make this issue more public.
How do you intend to count such ballots?
This is not a trivial matter. In every country that votes as we do has (with two exceptions) a two party system. There is nothing sacred about the two party system. While most people have a preference between the top two candidates, there is higher disapproval of the top two presidential candidates then I've ever seen. Your system of voting leads people to make strategic votes for one of the top two candidates instead of voting for the candidate who best represents them if that candidate be from a third party. Allowing a voter to only select one candidate from the lot unfairly benefits the Republican and Democratic party candidates. Allowing a voter to vote for all candidates who they approve of rectifies this problem.
I intend to get these votes counted if I have to get the court to decide the matter. The court said back in 2000 that if you can ascertain the will of the voter then the vote must be counted.
Very Truly Yours,
Michael Lidman
----
Elections@sos.state.nh.us
I noticed something wrong with the November sample ballot I downloaded from the Town of Merrimack web site (I am a resident of Merrimack). Here is the URL
http://www.merrimacknh.gov/sites/merrimacknh.gov/files/2008%20November%20_Ballot_Sample.pdf
Printed all over the ballot are the words "Vote for not more then 1".
Why should voting for one candidate disqualify a person from voting for another candidate? It's perfectly obvious what the intention of the voter is: they are approving of each candidate selected. It's perfectly obvious how to count such a ballot; one vote for X candidate and one vote for Y candidate. There is no way this would unfairly bias the count as you still can't vote for one candidate more then once.
I am going to select more then one candidate on my ballot and I am telling everyone I meet to do the same. I've even decided to run for US Senate as a write in candidate in order to make this issue more public.
How do you intend to count such ballots?
This is not a trivial matter. In every country that votes as we do has (with two exceptions) a two party system. There is nothing sacred about the two party system. While most people have a preference between the top two candidates, there is higher disapproval of the top two presidential candidates then I've ever seen. Your system of voting leads people to make strategic votes for one of the top two candidates instead of voting for the candidate who best represents them if that candidate be from a third party. Allowing a voter to only select one candidate from the lot unfairly benefits the Republican and Democratic party candidates. Allowing a voter to vote for all candidates who they approve of rectifies this problem.
I intend to get these votes counted if I have to get the court to decide the matter. The court said back in 2000 that if you can ascertain the will of the voter then the vote must be counted.
Very Truly Yours,
Michael Lidman
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