When Dreams Become Reality

Sometimes I seem to do my most creative thinking when I am only half awake. Perhaps that’s because there isn’t so much of me interfering then with the thought process! Trouble is that often, later in the day, I just know I had something brilliant, but can’t quite remember what it was. Maybe I am just being like the guy on an LSD high that thinks he has resolved the biggest question of the universe, or maybe I actually sometimes do have something worthwhile to offer.

Sometimes I can remember what occurred to me. Early this morning I mused about how, if our descendants could travel back in time, they could come back and meet every person who has ever lived and take tissue samples and perhaps even capture our thoughts --- the personhood of each of us. People who have developed technology of time travel probably have technology for replicating someone. And then I thought about the biblical promise of resurrection, and I wondered at the similarity between that and the notion of a new person being created from a past one with all the memories of the past one. People that could do such a thing could probably put that consciousness into an indestructible body also.

Then I thought about the notion of the human mind being linked to a computer, and how that would mean being able to get into the minds of others through a computer network. Ultimately all consciousness would merge into one. The singularity as Kurzweil calls it. I can see why that new collective person could be taken as God.

So there we have “God” doing the resurrecting in that fantasy.  I expect some reading this will think I’m onto something, while others will think I’m ON something.

I doubt that time travel will be man’s bailiwick, as I explained at http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/12/where-are-time-travelers.html.

Another problem is that if I was replicated like that, I do not think the new one would be me, as I discussed at https://gordon-feil-practical-living.blogspot.ca/2016/12/does-world-need-more-of-you.html.  I don’t think that would be a real resurrection.

Freeing Myself to Love

We discussed how we have desires related to security, pleasure and power which are properly characterized as addictions (http://gordon-feil-theology.blogspot.ca/2017/05/what-is-gods-love.html). They are not needs.  They trigger unhappy feelings when we do not satisfy them.  These feelings can be extremely painful at times.  They can totally engage us and distract us from a path of healthy productive behavior.

Our tendency, when experiencing these feelings, is to try to dynamically affect what’s happening so that we get what we want. We try to force situations and circumstances to change into conformity with what we believe would eliminate those painful feelings triggered by those addictions.

These separating emotions and the resultant actions we take in order to compel life to conform to our desires result in a destruction of our tranquility.  Instead of experiencing a peaceful awareness that all is well, we experience a pain that keeps us from loving.  Love is an attitude, and that attitude finds no home in the mind that is consumed with life’s hurts.

If we want to be able to love, we need to get rid of those addictions.  We can have preferences instead.  If I agree to watch a movie with you and it turns out to be a total yawner for me, my pleasure addiction can cause me to feel bored, irritable and impatient.  Those are separating emotions.  They are me rejecting what is happening.  They are me refusing to accept my here and now.  I will want to force a change.  I may complain and even argue with you about it.  I may leave. I may lose myself in other thoughts.  All are ways to force the situation to change.

Instead, I can choose to be free of those addictions so that I am operating from a peaceful perspective in which I am centered (not being pulled this way or that by my emotions).  This is a principle from which Paul draws the admonition to “cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit and live a holy life in the fear of God.”¹ (II Corinthians 7:1).  When I am centered, I then have freedom to love.  I have freedom to accept what is happening, be cool with it, not be wrapped up in resultant painful emotions, and allow love to preoccupy me.

SR&ED Basics: Part 5

The in-person review of your SRED claim involves determining whether you did eligible work, and then if it is decided that you did, a reviewer makes a decision as to what it cost, i.e.: what expenditure amounts are eligible.

The determination of the eligibility of the work done relies upon the 5 questions addressed in a series of posts:

http://gordonfeil.blogspot.ca/2016/11/the-5-sr-questions.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/uncertainty.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-second-question.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/question-3.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/01/question-3-continued.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/02/question-4.html

http://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.ca/2017/03/the-last-question.html

Quantifying your claim also involves reviewing the costs associated with eligible work: engineering, design, operations research, mathematical analysis, computer programming, data collection, testing, and psychological research.  This doesn’t mean that everything you spend on these are eligible costs. The costs have to have been incurred to do the research or experimental development that comprises the project. If the expense was incurred for a reason other than to aid in resolving the technological uncertainties of the project or to obtain technological advancement, it is not claimable as part of that project.

Certain types of work are specifically excluded: market research or sales promotion, quality control or routine testing, research in the humanities or social sciences (excepting psychological research);  exploring for minerals or petro-chemicals (but developing tools for these activities can be eligible), commercial production, style changes, and routine data collection.