Despite being a lifelong gamer (starting with Atari, SEGA and NES in the 80s and everything else since), games aren’t something I tend to write about.

That said, I’ve become a wee bit obsessed with PUBG since it came out for XBox…OK, that might be an understatement. I’ve played 500+ rounds, and I pretty consistently make it into the Top 5 to 10 now (>50% of the time, depending on how well I follow my own rules), and have ranked #167 in North America on Solo (FPP; ~260-ish in Solo N/A TPP).

I’m not the best, but I’m pretty damn…

Albert Einstein is famous for many reasons, and left behind many memorable quotes about all manner of intelligent subjects. That said, my favorite quote of his, by far, is this. “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of this quote. Walking down the street. Driving. Reading posts on Facebook or Twitter. Wars, mass shootings, moronic politics. Observing people, anywhere, it is constantly obvious…

Humans are incredibly fucking STUPID.

And yet…we’re also creative, and in many ways truly brilliant. No other species…

According to psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, happiness comes down to roughly 50% genetics, 40% choices, and 10% circumstances. If this is correct, that means you only really control 40–50% of the factors influencing your happiness…at best. But the bit you control can be hugely impactful, and to some degree you may be able to affect the genetic component by tweaking your brain chemistry in various ways. Perhaps in the future you’ll even be able to tweak your happiness genes, but I digress.

Along these lines, I think it’s important to point out that “Happy” is simply a balanced brain chemical cocktail…

The idea behind universal basic income (UBI), in which one’s government would provide every citizen in a country with a set amount of cash each month, is thought by some to be a potential panacea to our global inequality and under/unemployment woes.

But to many others the idea is ludicrous and utterly unsustainable. So which is it?

Some countries and cities have run or are running pilot tests, and while it’s still quite early, it seems unlikely that UBI is going to work exactly as planned. …

Extremist beliefs, terrorism, racism, bigotry. If you watch the news, it seems like we’re seeing a resurgence of some of the worst characteristics of humanity on a global scale.

Why can’t we all just get along? Cognitive dissonance, that’s why.

Cognitive dissonance (<- read this link, it’s by the creator of Dilbert and it’s awesome) occurs when someone holds contradicting beliefs (such as, “I can do what I want with my life”, but also, “gay people shouldn’t be allowed to get married”), and/or encounters information that conflicts with their existing set of beliefs (the Bible says Earth was created in…

Before we get going, just a quick note: This post is not ordered in any particular way. As I thought of technology or an innovation that I felt would be relevant, I wrote it down. Free writing at its best ☺ Enjoy!

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Since I was riding in a car as I thought of this post, I’ll start with transportation. If we still have cars, they’ll drive themselves (Google, Audi, etc.). They will be electric (Tesla), and I imagine at some point powered either by solar, hydrogen or wireless induction technology (power via the road itself). Car ownership will…