Axiomatic ones, I thought I was living in the Free World. Well, no part of the world is perfectly free. I am referring to the most fundamental attribute that defines freedom: Freedom of speech, which includes the freedom to think and develop ideas.
There was an event, sometime in the year of grace 2005, when we, living in the quite free world, learned that one of the greatest companies in the world, Google, had struck a censorship deal with the People's Republic of China. The deal (somehow amended at a later time, due to protests in the pretty free world) had Google accept the terms of the Chinese Communist Party for doing business in that huge market.
If them Googles wanted to do business in China, then Google would have to enforce censorship. The Google search results would not show to the Chinese surfers websites whose contents were unacceptable to the Communist ideology. For example, Web sites writing about the Tiananmen Square massacre (1989) will never show up in a Google search-results displayed in China.
That's how the blacklists of the Internet were born. They are largely implemented now in the search engines, especially Google, MSN, Yahoo. In 2012 (with the Penguin update), Google implanted blacklisting as an Inquisition-style policy. Many a webmaster expressly labels Google as a cruel god!
For all intents and purposes, blacklisting is illegal in the United States and probably other countries. Google or any other blacklister does NOT inform their users, in a directly visible manner, that they apply blacklisting. It could be interpreted as deceptive business practices.
I used to see, and communicate with visitors from Communist China. Hong Kong and Taiwan are still different cultures. People from the two non-Communist nations have always been visitors to my WEB site, the incredulously famous by now, SALIU.COM! The visitors from Communist China were impressed with my ideas. They had even given me a nickname, probably inspired by the Chinese horoscope: White Horse.
My Chinese guests had a special nice thought about me because of my origin and journey. I left Communist Romania in 1984. At that time in history, the Communist regimes of Romania and China were like brothers. My Chinese friends, who were still living under the Communist ideological tyranny, admired and also envied me. They realized how much of a difference freedom made in my case. It is one thing to enjoy free education and acquire great knowledge. But it is a totally different beast to work out your knowledge and develop new ideas. Had I attempted to do that under a Communist regime, most likely I would have been killed by the henchmen!
All of a sudden, White Horse was driven out of China! I believe it happened in the first weeks of 2006. I cannot see one single visitor from China (.cn) to my Web site! Probably there are still visitors from China. They are government officials who have the power to hide their tracks (IP addresses).
So, China scored the first point in the censorship match:
China 1 - USA 0.
My fellow Americans did not trail for long. They scored the equalizer in the summer of the year of grace 2006:
China 1 - Microsoft 1.
I test and rate the search engines from time to time. MSN Search (part of Microsoft) disappeared all of a sudden! It used to be #3 in referring visitors to SALIU.COM. Not a single referral from MSN search these days! The search engine still offers search results regarding my name, or theory, or software. Search on Ion Saliu or Ion Saliu Paradox. MSN search will show some results, but the most relevant site is nowhere to be found - SALIU.COM!
Evidently, MSN Search decided to blacklist and ban SALIU.COM, as China.com did. .com is one abbreviation for communism in the digital era! I tried hard to change the name of my site, like org (but I was afraid it might have conveyed sinful messages… like orgy…)
Meanwhile, I can see frequent visitors to this website from Microsoft.com. Probably the henchmen, he-he-he! The URLs show something like tide19.Microsoft.com. I am too… superior to ban their access! 2
Of course, the Muslim world is mad at me, especially since my commentary on the Prophet Mohammed cartoons. I used to see visitors from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and other Islamic cultures. Now, it's only Turkey left. Last time I saw a visitor from Pakistan, he was interested in this search string saliu dead in pakistan. (Granted, Pakistan came back forcefully and nicely after the first publication of this writing. They beat now Israel, even Italy, in number of referrals to my Web site!) I don't remember ever seeing a visitor from Iran! Iran probably sealed me off like China and Microsoft did.
There is more. The casinos blacklisted me because I am mathematically inclined, not because of cheating. I do not cheat. The online gambling sites want to silence me - again, because of my gambling mathematics.
Then, there is a small but active group of individuals who hate the gusts in me. They view competing against me one-way only: My total destruction. So, they attack, and hack-attack me, and file complaints against me!
Now you know what SALIU.COM is about. Think how it would feel like to not be allowed to come back! Two thousand visitors add this very website to the Favorites (or Bookmarks) folders - everyday, sometimes! Praise me, or curse me! Just don't impede me physically, like hack-attacking. I only care about the Truth. In fact, those who curse me do me more good than those who admire me. The attackers bring my name to the attention of new acquaintances! I know I strike a positive cord with a very large percentage of Homo sapiens.
Some might blame me for all this. They tell me that my tongue is too sharp. There are Christians who tell me that, not only Muslims or Communists. I don't agree. I am one of the most truthful individuals who ever lived — and one of the most logical as well. Truth is the only thing that matters to me. Truth is above anybody. I always try to make the most logical connection between cause and effect. It must withstand the logical, and if possible, the mathematical fury. Yes, searching the Truth is brutal. I am also blessed with the talent to write computer software to validate - or invalidate - ideas, thoughts, theories. I never hesitate to correct my own ideas. Logic and facts are above me.
The homo homini lupus principle is founded on good old jealousy or envy. Many humans feel really uncomfortable when a contemporary achieves. Many people feel more comfortable in cases when the achievers died long before. Some would tell you with intense hatred: “You ain't Socrates! You ain't Aristotle! You ain't Einstein!"... and so on... it's a long list. But all the over achievers of the past felt, painfully sometimes, the resentment of their contemporaries! It'll go on for the rest of time… could be millions of years!
In other situations, jealousy/envy turns into a case of severe mental disease. There is a low percentage of humans who want to achieve exactly what others already did. I know well my case — I struck deep hatred and hostility in a few individuals who wanted to claim discovery on what I had achieved years before them.
I remember a lamentable case soon after I published the famed Fundamental Formula of Gambling (FFG). A so-called educator begged me — in the name of his students! — to remove my FFG page from the Internet. The pathetic creature wanted to take credit for FFG! I have encountered several cases of blunt piracy and plagiarism of my Web page dedicated to the FFG! A couple of individuals even sold FFG on eBay as lottery systems I had created!!!
I discovered and published Ion Saliu's Paradox of N Trials in 2004. The adverse reactions were instantaneous. I even received multiple hostile emails from the same individual! Basically, they considered my 1 / e discovery as idiocy! “You are mathematically challenged”, they were cursing! And, as usually, they “advised” me to remove the particular Web page where I published my mathematical discovery! (The casino executives do that, too.) Guess, what? I saw in 2012 an edited page of Wikipedia (e constant) where my 1 / e discovery is considered correct mathematics. Of course, they do not give me credit for that. Nor do they demonstrate mathematically the 1 / e relation — because they don't know the demonstration (as of March 21, 2012)! In order to hide piracy, Wikipedia explains the new mathematical relation in an insanely unintelligible manner!
You must fight for what belongs to you. It is a virtue. The real sin is to allow others to rob you. The suckers might shout in public that you are not modest, or that you are bragging, or that you are narcissistic! One must make sure that what is his/hers always belongs to him/her. Muhammad Ali, the greatest champion of them all, was absolutely right. “It ain't bragging, if you back it!”
I always respond in the toughest of manners. Everybody must respond in the strongest fashion to defend what legitimately belongs to them. Don't worry – the criminals always react with hostility, sometimes intensely, sometimes violently. But they'll die down, sooner rather than later. Let's call it homo homini lupus in reverse.
I bear everything (jealousy, resentment, hatred, hostility... towards me) as a badge of honor. I experienced these forms of hatred or resentment since high school. Take it as badge of honor when your teacher of philosophy bans you from his class! I was a high school student and my teacher of philosophy was a Communist Greek refugee in Romania. He had the impression that I mocked Marxism. I had never expressed my negative opinions very directly. It was too dangerous - especially for my father! The teacher only deduced it. He was correct. He, too, knew that Marxism-Leninism was a primitive philosophy that created a brutal form of government. Since he believed I was too intelligent, he assumed I found plenty of joking reasons regarding Marxism and Communism!
My years in high school could be considered living in paradise. By comparison, my years in college were living in hell. I am referring to the ideological danger I was put in because of my ideas. My college fellows might be today leaders in a democratic Romania. But they were cowardice bastards when we were in college. It would be honorable to admit the past — and admit their actions were defined by the Fear_Survival principle. What is despicable is the Orwellian principle of rewriting the past. "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." 3
Almost every professor, too. “Ion, you right, baby,” they would tell me very privately. “But the timing is suicidal for you! Shut up and live another day!”
I remember of being hard on an economics professor of mine. He was a hard-liner Communist when Communism was in power. I was shocked to learn that he turncoated himself into a champion of democracy and free-market, after the death of Communism! I feel no remorse for my words! In fact, I should have been a whole lot more intense in my fire! Coward, I put your name here, again: Ion Blaga! He might as well have been in the commission that might have decided to remove my name for good from my alma mater and void my University Diploma!
I know Blaga is a sacred name in Romania, because of a great poet: Lucian Blaga. Lucian Blaga was somehow coward as well. He could not handle the situation of being a genuine poet and living under Communism. He became a Communist in appearance. He was executed on the order of the Soviets because of Lucian Blaga's written words: “I am first a Romanian, and then a Communist.”
The most correct words for Homo sapiens should be Socrates's: “I am first a citizen of the world, and then a citizen of Athens!” Great job, Socky! (I love diminutives as nicknames... they express my respect most of the time.) That's the best thing I learned from you: Sharp tongue! The Truth must be expressed with an attitude in order to be taken seriously! That's how we got here: Express our thoughts over the Internet - Electronic Agora, for you! Sharp tongues make sharp minds!
The very few teachers or professors who did not attack me tried to lead me away from philosophy and social sciences. They tried to lead me towards mathematics - to stay out of trouble. Guess what? Mathematics led me to the Fundamental Formula of Everything (FFG) - the ultimate proof of the absurdity of the god concept. New trouble for me! After challenging Marx, the god of Communism, I face now the dangers of challenging the god of Christians and other believers!
You gotta love the world! They give you gods to knock down! What could be more rewarding for a free Homo sapiens? Add to it the intellectual delight of knocking down billionaires who travesty in winged-angel attires!
Probably my real friends in Communist China had this to say to me:
“We are intelligent, too, White Horse! But we are NOT allowed to write songs like yours -
”Chairman General of China
Sees all-red in his retina;
Yet billions of greenbacks earmarks
As offertory to Karl Marx.”
To my really fellow Americans. Yes, China brings cheap and good products to us. It helps our checkbooks a lot. I am surprised that the most non-food things I buy are Communist-Chinese made! My fellows at the fruit farm I worked at informed me that the Chinese threaten now the apple business as well! Unbelievable, for America! Soon, they'll threaten your baby-milk business, head-bandana-bike-rider drunkards!
Well, yeah, they kill lots of jobs in the U.S. of A. But, hey, that's the course of history. China, India, and other regions of the world are going to kill millions of jobs in the U.S. of A.
Also, they will dangerously consume the NATURAL resources of their lands! Good for us, living here! In less than one thousand years, the natural resources, or lack thereof, will wipe out entire populations - in the count of billions! Japan did it first. Now, their population is shrinking! Their resources are shrinking. Growing shitake-mitake mushrooms ain't easier anymore! Forget about electronics! China makes 'em a whole lot cheaper!
China will drink up all their natural resources soon - in order to get those greenbacks from the U.S. of A! Then, they have no choice but drink up all their resources from Africa, and the former Soviet Union, and the former Eastern European bloc!
What I am saying, America, is: Enforce some principles! Nobody else is going to do it. They say, they have no power to enforce great philosophical principles. America, you still have the power to enforce principles! Do it, before you gonna die, like Athens and Rome! You do many bad things. But do the right thing now: Keep Light alive!
Read Ion Saliu's first book in print: Probability Theory, Live!
~ Discover profound philosophical implications of the Formula of The Universe, including Fear, Survival, Free Thinking, Censorship.
1 homo homini lupus = “man is a wolf to man” (Latin).
2 The grudge against me started in 1999 or earlier. It was the period when the United States government filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft Corporation (1998, www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/press_releases/1998/1764.htm, if not removed). I wrote on my home page (no later than November 1999):
”I am totally unbiased and not sponsored for this activity. I am not at all a Microsoft devotee. On the contrary, I think it would be better if Microsoft were broken up into three companies: operating systems, programming tools, and applications. Competition will always be better than any kind of monopoly. Just think of the competition Intel has faced in the microchip world. We all enjoy the results of such competition: more and more powerful PCs at lower and lower prices!”
How many innovating companies were unfairly destroyed because of the Windows monopoly built by Microsoft? Just think of Lotus, WordPerfect, dBase, Borland... Microsoft itself was the creation of vibrant competition. They had no clue how to write a spreadsheet, a word processor, a database manager, a fast compiler, a Web browser, a multimedia player… you name it… we won't get anything new for the time being. Worse, Microsoft changes Windows drastically, as in XP. Many non-Microsoft programs will NOT run under the new versions of Windows! Guess, what? We have no choice but buy Microsoft replacements! That's how I honestly see the truth. That's how I honestly express the truth. I take any consequence as a badge of honor!
The presiding federal judge ruled almost as per above: Microsoft must be broken up in order to safeguard fair competition and better serve the interests of the consumers.
A great thing happened with the break-up of AT&T monopoly (1984). Some highly positioned Americans defended the AT&T monopoly on the grounds that the entire U.S. government relied heavily on AT&T telephony. Nothing bad happened to the government or USA as a nation. Au contraire, the telephony simply exploded all over the world! No mobile telephony, with those glitzy and highly functional video-camera cell phones, would be possible today! By contrast, AT&T owned everything in the U.S. communication market. The subscriber even had to rent the telephone set on a yearly basis ($50)…
Later, a U.S. court of appeals overruled the presiding judge and simply slapped Microsoft on the wrist. Other governments, especially in the European Union, were a bit more successful in their antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft.
3 George Orwell, ”Nineteen Eighty-Four”.
I believe the MSN “below-the-belt blow” to be the direct result of my humoristic anti-Microsoft tirades — and especially my “economics song” dedicated to Blitser Gates.
The subject of redemption is profoundly philosophical. Can humanity advance without devouring? I am not talking here about a severely-mad philosopher's theory — Nietzsche and his murderous influence over the Nazis. I am talking about devour as in arm-twisting-cutthroat competition.
Think of Bill Blitser Gates and Microsoft. Blitser and his business team literally devoured the software industry! Microsoft mostly destroyed any trace of competition in the software business, including the previously seemingly infallible IBM. The result is, sometimes, you, the team owner, become the richest human in history.
Then, the urge for redemption strikes you. The best path to redemption is to pay — kind of a payback, but in a positive sense. For example, pay for the vaccination of all humans who can't afford to pay for vaccines and vaccination. Such acts are to be praised — but I accentuate that the whole picture must be shown. I, like most humans, would pay billions to do good to less fortunate beings — especially if I had amassed a huge fortune by quasi brutal means! The burden of guilt, even at the subconscious level, can kill sometimes...
But, hey, my "song" is primarily a humorous exercise! It sounds good accompanied by the melody of the Hispanic song Soy un povre araucano Ion Saliu sings on YouTube –
"Billy, Blitser, crocodile,
You devour in grand style:
First, you vaccinate your prey …
Then, for redemption you pay."
BRRRRRRRRAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Incredibly, Microsoft even condones piracy! One of their domains (Office) presents a book and a spreadsheet that pirated my spreadsheet known as Sports.xls. I made the sports spreadsheet public in 2000. Read: Using Excel to Help Solve the Spread for NFL and NBA Games.
Resources in Philosophy, Humans, Humanities, Ideas, Truth
See a comprehensive directory of the pages and materials on the subject of philosophy, humans, humanities, ideas, truth, Human_Computing_Beast.