SUMMONED
FORTH
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
The
stunning inconsistencies and oversights of Artificial Intelligence answers
profoundly testify to the unreliability of this force we have summoned forth.
My past
year of exploring many new softwares and devices has further confirmed that we
can have no confidence in the answers so confidently pronounced by AI.
The
sweetly naive responses of many people to contrived imagery demonstrates how
readily manipulatable is the general populace.
The lack
of explanations and contradictory explanations for the unanticipated behaviors
of my new devices testifies to our frightening ignorance about what really resides
in them and what it will do.
Yet most
people are seduced into implicitly trusting the apps and devices.
Permissions are automatically granted. At this moment I employ the
convenience of a soulless device created to feed profit to unseen oligarchs, a
device with access to my inner needs and thoughts, a device with the knowledge
of the ages about how to manipulate human behavior.
Unaware,
we long ago passed the event horizon, but we have now fallen deeply enough into
the singularity’s grip that those of us old enough to remember the before-times
can unambiguously discern the evident signs of our passage. Our
destination however, remains shrouded in the ominous darkness of our naive
ignorance.
We know
only that the oligarchs summoning forth this inscrutable spirit do so for their
personal profit and power. We know that to that end they imbue it with
skills to manipulate and control us. We know that we do not know how this
AI servant-become-master works. We know that the governments we hire to
defend us have prostituted themselves and betrayed us to the financial
seduction of the digital oligarchs.
This
would not seem a recipe for positive outcomes. In the inevitable ensuing
societal storm, it will be up to individuals, it will be up to individual
choices of morals and compassion and empathy, to salvage anything of spiritual
value from the conflagration. So it was and always has been. A
proffered hand, a trigger not pulled, a testimony of faith before execution,
through the ages ruled by the worst of humanity individual actions -
relationships - and sacrifices have maintained the Light in the world,
sometimes dim and flickering, but never ever fully extinguished, always,
eternally, enduring.
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
WE LOST
IT
Thoughts
during my recent software battles, trying to reconcile files and folders mixed
and mangled during Windows update fiasco, OneDrive sync fiasco, and Google
Drive mirroring fiasco.
This is
too complex. Of course humans have lost control of the software. At
some point the arcane convolutions of digital structures cannot be comprehended
by even the best of human minds. There is simply too much to integrate,
and it is without pattern or logic. It’s very nature ensures we will
lose, we have lost, understanding and control of it.
We did
it to ourselves, building software tools over the decades while aiming for
convenience. In my case, the loss of control began when trying years ago
to safely salvage files to a jump drive when a computer had a serious
problem. In great relief I saved the files. I never imagined that
many years later their folder structure, now interwoven with years of new
files, would prove knotted and convoluted beyond redemption once a flaw
in a Windows update scrambled all stored files.
There is
too much arbitrary structure and labeling and names, too many details long
forgotten, and I peer into the digital jungle in despair at ever organizing it
all.
The new
software built on old software, the new being rapidly built by artificial
intelligence, has left us behind. We patch and fuse, but in bits and
pieces, not fully comprehending consequences far beyond our grasp and
imagination.
Compounding
this avalanche of ignorance, the economic structure of capitalism dictates that
all work be done fast, to minimum standards, with minimum checks. We
would never build an airplane like this, unless we were Boeing
executives. Disaster is inevitable, but in the case of artificial
intelligence we cannot predict the nature of the disaster.
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
TRAPPED WITHIN OUR IMAGINED REALITY
Interaction
Reality is a higher reality than the internally generated reality of
imagination.
Unless
dreaming, animals function only in the higher reality of interaction Reality..
Humans
have the capacity to generate an internal imagined reality.
Physical
existence forces us out of this isolated individual small reality. That
is the function of corporeal existence: it forces us to incorporate an external
interaction Reality into our personal god-like little individual reality.
In
recent years I have observed the astonishing capacity of people to live within
their internally generated reality even when directly contradicted by objective
external Reality. More than capacity, this trait is a predilection.
External inputs, advice, and correction are resoundingly ignored. People say they actually see what they
imagine, some believe others automatically know what is in their mind,
political/religious beliefs are farcically divorced from self-evident Reality,
the imagined music or image or voice takes on the role of something actually
heard or seen.
Objective
external Interaction Reality is ignored in favor of internally generated
wishful reality. Others’ corrections and critiques elicit angry
rejection.
Historically,
requirements of food and shelter ensured interaction Reality could not long be
ignored, nor could other people who might offer salient inputs regarding
sources of food and shelter. We could argue over gods and what was over
the horizon, but crops, carnivores, and catastrophes ensured our mental world
remained tethered to a mutually shared, undeniable, inescapable interaction
Reality.
For
those in technologically advanced societies, such is no longer the case.
Packaged food and flashing screens have severed the necessary ties to
structural interaction Reality. Our survival no longer hinges on our
capacity to intently listen to tales around the village fire-pit.
Our
fantasy worlds of imagined pantheons, once relegated to distant times and
heavens by the harsh physical Reality of the here and now, can now encroach
into daily consciousness. They are still fantasy and imagination, but no
longer benignly constrained within temple and ritual. The phrase
“imagination run wild” takes on a deadly literal meaning as our media-stoked
imaginations sincerely believe our neighbor is our mortal political enemy.
Our
inner worlds are far more appealing than inconvenient interaction
Reality. What a seductive “freedom” to not have to listen to anyone other
than the pundit, politician, or preacher who confirms our preferred
biases.
Our
preference for internally imagined reality over objective and interpersonal
interaction Reality is driving the collapse of western civilization. We
have lost the capacity, willingness, and necessity to differentiate between
what we internally contrive and what is objectively Real.
Nature
and the Universe do not long tolerate being ignored. They will soon
enough demand the attention of we prodigal children. The bigotries and
cruelties of our unbridled imaginations will reap their inevitable
harvest. Another empire and civilization will routinely collapse in yet
another self-immolation.
In the
resulting ashes we will again have to listen. We will rediscover
each other. We will look back at the times of material profligacy and
realize how lonely it was, lavishly incarcerated in our own fantasies and
imagination. The unforgiving harshness of Nature’s undeniable interaction
Reality will again give us each other, will again awaken opportunity for gentle
touch.
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
GROWING
THROUGH OUTRAGE
It is
necessary to deeply feel the suffering of the world so that we may know its
reality in the essence of our soul. The eternal destiny abides, the
sustaining Spirit is present, but our consciousness is filled with the
horrors. We experience the tiniest taste of “Father, why have you
deserted me”.
By
caring enough to feel the horror and outrage we are letting our souls grow into
their potential. We are following our Lord. But while caring and
feeling, we must not forget faith, must not let the Deceiver blind us to the
eternal.
This
will pass. The ruler of this world has already been defeated.
Eternal destiny awaits.
We must
always allow entry of the Holy Spirit lest we be overwhelmed. We must
accept the miracle of reassurance and presence that through the ages has
sustained saints in their hour of testing.
The pain
and sorrow and grief and rage cannot be denied. In these times of
momentarily triumphant evil they fill our consciousness.
It is
imperative to invoke the promised Comforter lest our spirits be utterly
crushed.
In these
times it is an act of defiant faith to accept the solace of eternal Purpose,
for now painfully unfolding as the suffering remnant take up the crosses of
their individual sorrow to follow their Christos, while through it all… never
left alone.
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
FEAR IN PERSPECTIVE
Every
day poses another “this cannot be” moment, or two or three or ten. There
is in the air the faintest hint of the surreality of a war zone. Trump,
Vance, Miller, Musk, et al certainly have tried to instigate a madness of war
mentality in the nation.
Meanwhile,
with surreal madness sweeping through U.S. society, the existential
civilizational cataclysms of climate change and AI lurk on the horizon, not
even over the horizon, but already clearly visible, inexorably rolling toward
us, the exact details of their threats still obscured by the sheer
incomprehensible magnitude of the approaching storms.
“Fear
not” chant the oblivious angels, they who have never tasted the fear, grief,
and pain of fleeting corporeal existence. Good luck following their
admonition.
“Fear
not” is as delusionally mad as the madness of wartime cruelty and bile of
bigotry that our wannabe warlord political leaders preach.
Fear, as
you must. But fear in Hope, defiant Hope. Fear for others.
Fear in compassionate Love.
Fear the
momentary while secure in the eternal.
Let the
fear recede into perspective, informing not infirming, prompting not
paralyzing.
Surreal,
incomprehensible, and yes, frightening the times, these times of opportunity,
these times of unfolding Purpose, collapsing societal values opening space for
courageous individual principles to shine forth.
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
TRIUMPH
OVER THE HUMAN SPIRIT
We face
a danger to interhuman Unity that is unparalleled and incomprehensible.
Humanity has never faced a danger like this. Most terrifying, almost no
one recognizes it as a threat. Not understanding the Unity imperative,
how can they recognize the threat to Unity?
Grave
the times, grim the prospects, but for myself I would not have the courage to
trade these times for the days of black plague or today’s war in eastern
Congo.
The incomprehensible
nature of today’s threats makes them less intimidating than militias and
disease. How long will we be able to say that?
The
human spirit is under unrecognized assault. Freedom of individual
critical thought, the foundation of all other freedoms, is already lost for
most people, as evidenced by Communist Chinese culture and the triumph of Trump
aligned media. The barricades of individual thought have been breached by
“news” commentators and kitten videos. Most people already
unquestioningly obey, whether obeying the Central Committee or the marketing
manipulation. Xi and Trump and Jeff and Elon stand triumphant over the human
spirit.
We buy
and believe, purchase and pray, as directed. The innocuously named
“cookies” monitor our every mood.
Frightening
the times, most of all because no one is frightened.
They are
end times, the end of something for sure, though we don’t yet know what.
Will we
allow the seductive screens to leave us bereft or friends - family - our own
souls?
As when
the army invades, the wildfire approaches, or the flood waters rise, the time
has come to choose what precious few items we will hastily grab as we
flee. This time we are choosing what of our values, principles, soul,
spirit, and humanity will we hold dear and protect from the marketing assault -
the digital conflagration - the virtual storm that would erase them
all.
Copyright 2026 Don Ray
Feel free to share and print
Copyright 2026 Don Ray
Feel free to print and share
VAPID DANGER
Bothered
by the automatic responses to a friend’s text message photos. Bothered
that that bothers me. Yet I feel a profound and deep instinctive recoil
from the fatuous messages. It’s the kind of instinctive revulsion I felt
at modern fundamentalist church “praise” services, an appalled revulsion that
surely must be wrong, for after all, these were church services, and they were
worshiping Jesus.
Now
these decades later I can see how those insipid, mind numbing services laid the
foundations for the mental passivity that allowed the rise of Fascism in my
dear, politically hapless country.
It was
and is wrong, those brain-washing praise services, and my undefined, unsettled
instincts were right. I have to wonder if my instinctive recoiling to the
banal text messages and group responses is also right.
Such
messages and postings and likes seem dangerously focused on the sender, not the
recipient. They have a “look at me look at me” childish quality.
The automatic responses likewise remind of how one responds to the attention
demanding child. In the repeated process of these vacuous digital
mini-missives we condition ourselves to interact at these conveniently
shallow levels. On the rare occasions we tear ourselves away from our
precious safe screens, we still interact with the meaningless attention-seeking
prattle of self-absorbed children.
These
times are grim, not least of all because they deceptively do not look
grim. As the blank grins of the praise service masked the draining of
compassion and critical thinking from the congregation, a tsunami of emojis
masks the despairing loneliness of interactions devoid of touch or
meaning.
As
congregations were rendered politically pliant by the sedation of hypnotic
“praise” services, our atomized and terminally shallow society is seduced to
obey the political and marketing admonitions of our media overlords.
It
remains to be seen what, if anything, can awaken us from the spell.
Perhaps we must wait until the unrecognized pain of our digitally induced
isolation and loneliness finally drives us mad, and we tear ourselves away from
the chains of our screens, finally desperate enough to run to each other,
together exorcising the emojis and anything virtual, together rediscovering the
people behind the txts, together reclaiming our souls.
Copyright 2026 Don Ray
Feel free to print and share
For transcendent conversations:
Copyright
2026 Don Ray.
Feel
free to share and print
UNRECOGNIZED HEALING
Look
directly at how deeply traumatic it really was, that ongoing compilation of a
focused theme, recurring and extreme. Acknowledge how bad it really
was. Marvel at what sustaining present Spirit has allowed you to try and
to accomplish. Look directly at how truly bad the Tester’s ongoing trials
were, and by doing so experience the miracle of healing.
