This is the 100th article for Realizing Resonance! I can hardly believe it. It seems like only yesterday that I was posting my first article and thinking how empty the blog looked. I guess that was all the way back in October of 2010 though. I have discovered that the trick to being a blogger is to simply keep writing. It also helps to have readers, for which I am honored and thankful.
I think that hitting 100 articles is cause for celebration, so a special topic it is. At first I couldn’t think of an appropriate thing to write about for the 100th article, but then it dawned on me that I have never explained the name of the blog, Realizing Resonance.
The name Realizing Resonance was a collaboration between my wife Mary and I, years before the blog launched in 2010. I don’t remember the exact date, but I do remember that I was walking into an office supply store on my lunch break while talking to Mary on my cell phone. I conveyed that I wanted to create an organization or company with a name containing the word “resonance”, but I could not think of another word to go with it. Mary suggested, “realizing”, I said, “realize resonance”, she responded, “no, realizing resonance”, and we knew this name felt right somehow.
I registered the domain name, and then sat on it for years, without a clear idea of what I wanted to create. Nevertheless, the name expressed the direction of my sentiments. It is only now that Realizing Resonance has begun to coalesce around a theme of thoughtful and harmonic discourse about political, social, and economic issues.
To realize something is to bring it into being, or to accomplish it. I realized my dream of visiting Machu Picchu in Peru, and in fact I proposed to Mary there, realizing an engagement, from which we are now realizing our marriage. For more about this story read my article Romantic Embers at Machu Picchu.
In finance, to realize a gain is to sell an asset back to the market for more than it was purchased, and a gain is referred to as unrealized when an asset value rises but remains unsold in the portfolio. The realizing of gains and losses is a continuous process when financial markets are open, represented by random walks and roaring stocks on tickers akin to clocks. I proposed a semi-realistic thought experiment about what could go wrong with two billionaires realizing market gains in my article Fortune Telling and Professional Forecasting.
Sometimes, to realize, can mean to make something feel real, like realizing fictional characters and settings in a story. I tried to do this in The Band Practice Dialogues: Government and the Social Contract by creating a discussion between four fictional band mates. Sometimes, to realize, can mean to make something that is already real feel more real, through a newfound recognition, remembrance, or respect. As in, I just realized I haven’t played my guitar in a long time! In the article I Play My Guitar Because I Want To I argue for freewill, but recently I haven’t played guitar because I haven’t had the time.
Resonance is the quality of a system that allows it to grow in oscillatory amplitude when stimulated with the right frequency. Consider swinging on a swing set as a child. We learn quickly that the best way to reach maximum height is to pump our legs at just the right moment. We add energy in pulses at the correct frequency, the frequency of the swinging. We can disrupt our momentum by pumping our legs asynchronously.
Atoms and molecules can be excited through resonance, strengthening the power of their vibrations. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a familiar medical technology used for viewing the inner workings of a living human brain, detecting blood flow and neuronal firing patterns. Our invocation of resonance in this capacity could lead to the mastery of neuroscience and the creation of artificial intelligence, a topic I investigate in my article Artificial Consciousness and the Endicott Test.
When I pluck the A string on my acoustic guitar it vibrates at 110 hertz, compressing waves of air at that certain speed to get that certain tone. The hollow wooden body of my guitar is shaped in such a way that it provides a resonance. The intensification of music happens through resonance. I talk more about the vibration of sound waves in my article The Visualization of Sound and Music.
Realizing Resonance is the bringing into being of a systemic change or amplitude through a pulse at the system’s resonant frequency. When thinking about the system of life, it is not enough to realize resonance, because to realize a resonance is to change a resonance. To be alive is to be realizing resonance. We experience resonance with the things that energize and motivate us, realizing this in the always present phenomenal moments of life. In my article The Future is Not Real I go into more depth about the reality of living in the present.
The Realizing Resonance Philosophy Blog is about communicating a frequency that resonates with the search for truth. In 2010 and 2011 we covered an eclectic mix of topics, reflecting on time, future, history, music, aesthetics, love, mind, mystery, knowledge, economics, politics, ethics, law, and food and wine. All topics are all fair game for Philosophy.
Realizing Resonance in 2012
In 2012 we focused our Philosophy onto more pragmatic pursuits, social, economic, and political concerns being most appropriate for an election year in which this writer has an interest.
In January the theme was Moderation, which is also the general theme for 2012. That month we introduced The Moderate’s Manifesto, a special section which addresses vital political and economic items requiring public action, but which call for the judicious consideration and informed debate that is lacking in our ultra-partisan media. The Moderate’s Manifesto: Dealing with Deficits, Debt, and Downgrades considers the growing problem of the national debt, the direct and real reasons its exists, and prudential deliberation of the possible solutions.
In February, our articles coalesced around the concept of Liberty. Mary and I celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans that month, so a couple of posts were devoted to exploring the connections between liberty, sin, and anonymity. The Liberation of Marriage: Just in Time for Valentine’s Day is my favorite article from that month, an examination of the political and legal arguments surrounding same-sex marriage.
The theme for the month of March was Health and Environment, with discussions on the individual health insurance mandate, wind farms, and SodaStreams. I had the pleasure of writing about my family’s history in The Lorax and the Endecott, a look at the earliest conservation law in the English colonies. I compared the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, John Endecott, to the Lorax, which turns out to be the second time I have related an early colonial leader with a Dr. Seuss character. In my article The Strangers and the First Pilgrim Christmas I compared Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony to the Grinch.
I covered everyone’s favorite topic in April. Money! April was a busy month for me, I took a night class to learn SQL Server Analysis Services, I had a few demanding projects at work, and I suffered through about two weeks of bronchitis, so I was only able to write three articles on this important subject. The Changing Value of Money examines the money supply, bank reserves, and inflation since 1976, the year I was born.
As we continue realizing 2012 we hope to share more philosophical thoughts with you. In May we will carry on with the subject of Education. In June we expect to turn to the darker realm of Conflict, with articles on terrorism in Peru, the 2nd amendment to the Constitution, and voting for the lesser of two evils. There are a few articles in the pipeline on topics that I promised to cover, such as central banking and interest rate policy, a theme I have covered before in a few articles, most notably The Federal Reserve Conspiracy Tapestry Torn . I also plan to look into whether or not we can ever truly know that freewill is not an illusion.
I will continue to write about politics and economics as a moderate independent. I don’t like the idea of a political party and their restrictive platform boxing me in, but I recognize the reality of needing to choose a side when the real vote is cast. I will take sides on a issue of course, but I want to be nuanced about it, considering as many serious arguments on each side of an issue as time will allow me in 2012. Realizing Resonance will try to provide a more modest and humble take on the realities of democratic life at the center of the free world, without catering to the extremes. An exemplar of this is the article The Disputability of Macroeconomic Knowledge, which admits the limitations of economic science but does not disregard its insights and usefulness.
What is Realizing Resonance? In 2012 Realizing Resonance means the bringing into being of a political philosophy and economy that resonates across the spectrum. In the enduring future Realizing Resonance means the bringing into being of greater human harmony.
Jared Roy Endicott
