Jeffrey Alexander Martin

The US wouldn't exist without George Washington. One, the US probably would've lost the Revolutionary War against the British. Two, if George Washington hadn't been the man that he was, he would have ended up being king. At one point he had to give a speech to his own army at Newburgh to stop them from taking congress by force and installing him as king. Three, if he hadn't been willing to be the first President, which he didn't want to do, then there's a good possibility the states would have split apart at the beginning and had a series of ongoing wars. In Washington's farewell address he notes three things that could lead to the downfall of the US. Do you think these three things have or are happening? First, let's start with the foundation of society. Washington states: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, ...

One day a wolf was seen lurking near the sheep field. Two guard dogs caught up with the wolf and asked him, "What are you doing around here?" The wolf replied, "I'm on a walk. Can't I just go on a walk?" The guard dogs let the wolf go. The next day a lamb came running to the pen and told a sheep that a wolf had scared him near the woods. The sheep said to stay away from the woods. The next day a sheep saw the wolf walking through the field. He ran to the guard dogs and told them. They said, "Has he done anything wrong?" "No," admitted the sheep. The guard dogs did nothing. The next day a lamb was heard screaming. The guard dogs ran to him. The lamb was bleeding. "The wolf bit me!" he said. The guard dogs ran after the wolf. When they caught him they brought him back to the herd. A trial was held. The wolf said, "I'm sorry. It was just a mistake. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I won't do it again." The sheep ...

I've considered doing a PhD. They take years and are expensive. I have an interesting project idea though. Here I'll include what the proposal could look like, an email I wrote to a businessman about it, and an email I wrote to a professor about it. PhD Research Proposal Title: A Value-Based Framework for Analyzing Autobiographies: Mapping Meaning and Motivation in the Lives of Influential Individuals or Autobiographical Personality Analysis: An Axiological Framework for Analyzing Writing About the Self Abstract This research proposes a novel framework for the systematic analysis of autobiographies and memoirs through the lens of value theory, social psychology, and computational linguistics. Drawing on Viktor Frankl’s fourfold structure of creative, experiential, encounteral, and attitudinal values, this project aims to develop a scalable methodology for mapping the motivational structures of historical and contemporary figures. The study will integrate theories of meaning-mak...

Humanity is obsessed with the end of the world. Will the world end with a bang like a meteor, asteroid, volcano, or bombs? Will it end with robots and AI taking over? Will it end with a deadly and infectious bioweapon? All of these are possible, but I think it's just as likely it will end in a whimper. I gave ChatGPT 18 articles and books to read from John B. Calhoun on his studies on population. This is what the AI summarizes for the future of humanity: Overview This document synthesizes the key insights, experimental findings, and long-range predictions of ethologist John B. Calhoun across his published works from 1962 to 1993. It is designed to teach a reader unfamiliar with Calhoun's work how his theories of behavior under crowding relate to possible trajectories of human society—especially in regard to population dynamics, role differentiation, and extinction risk. 1. Core Experiments and Findings      Mouse Utopias and the "Behavioral Sink"      In hi...

People have worried about population growth because of the depletion of resources. It turns out that population growth was something to worry about, but not because of the depletion of resources, because of the social, mental, and spiritual collapse that goes with it. In 1751 Benjamin Franklin wrote 'Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.' about population growth in the American colonies. The population grows fast when the resources are available. This helped inspire Thomas Malthus to write 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' in 1798. Essentially, populations of animals grow to the extent they can according to the resources available. As the supply and demand of things like food and space equalize then larger amounts of strife and struggle keep the population from expanding. Sometimes there can be a major increase that wipes out the resources, which then wipes out the population, but more often there's an approximate balan...

All life has purpose. It's part of the definition of life; a rock doesn't in itself have a purpose or goal that it's aiming for, grass does. The roots of grass aim toward water and soil, the blade bends toward the sun, it struggles to live against the harsh realities and difficulties of life, it reproduces. Humans too pursue purposes, some small and some large. An obvious question is, "What is the highest pursuit of human life?" This question has been answered in many different ways by many different people throughout human history. The human cultures and traditions that have evolved over the millennia are hard-won knowledge. It's a history of trial and error written in human lives lived and lost. A few weeks ago I was on a road trip and drove to the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. It's quite the drive along a twisting and winding road next to the mountain cliffs. I was walking around the top taking pictures and looking at things. There was an ol...