Like many other people who enjoy superhero stories, I’ve often thought about what superpower I’d like to have. Some of my favorites include intangibility at will, psychic powers, and rapid regeneration. But there’s one that rises to the top every time my imagination treads this path – the ability to heal others.

But then I think some more about it…

What would life be like if I had that ability? I would feel compelled to heal as many people as possible. I’d feel guilty when I rested or took any time for myself because I’d know there’s someone I could be helping. Since there’s no shortage of sick and injured people, how would I prioritize who I help first? Those closest to death? Those nearest to me? Those in an area where illness is most concentrated so I can help the greatest numbers? Would people hate me because I didn’t get to their loved one in time? I’ve not come up with good answers to these questions.

It makes me glad I’m merely human. Sometimes it’s important to appreciate the things you don’t have.

What about you? What are your dream superpowers? Would you feel strongly motivated to do the most good? Would that responsibility be too much?

Speaking of superhero stories, there are a couple of excellent podcast novels that explore the genre in interesting ways. The first is Brave Men Run by Matthew Wayne Selznick. It’s the most realistic depiction of what the world would be like if super-powered humans began revealing themselves told from the perspective of high school aged boy just coming into his own. The second is How to Succeed in Evil by Patrick E. Mclean. This podcast novel had me laughing out loud more than I have listening to any other novel yet managed to be quite thought-provoking at the same time.

Did I mention both are available for free? Seriously, give them both a listen – they’re well worth it.

Einstein famously said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I believe one of the reasons this quote is so famous is because it hits upon a fundamental truth – past experience is a good predictor of future experience. Put more formally, inductive reasoning is conditionally valid. The condition being that any conclusion drawn from inductive reasoning can be thrown out if enough conclusive counter examples are found.

How does this work in everyday life? It’s fundamental to our everyday functioning. When we get hungry, we eat because past experience has shown that eating satiates hunger. We expect our future behavior of eating to have the same outcome as our previous experiences of eating. When we drive, we press the gas pedal to accelerate. Why do we not hit the brake pedal to accelerate? Because past experience has proved to us that braking decelerates the car. Inductive reasoning is so fundamental to our experience that Einstein uses the rejection of it, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” as the very definition of insanity.

What I find interesting is that this axiom of experience is rationally unfounded. The Scottish philosopher David Hume pointed this out in An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. Thus the fact that we all accept induction as valid makes it an article of faith (defined as belief without rational justification). I believe that induction qualifies as an axiom (often called a postulate as well) – a simple claim accepted without proof on the basis of being self-evidently true.

Axioms function as starting points upon which other statements can be logically derived. For instance, in geometry, one of Euclid’s axioms is that a straight line segment can be drawn connecting any two distinct points. This is not proved via geometry but instead used with other axioms to derive all of geometry. Similarly, induction serves as a starting point for or experience of reality. It cannot be proven by experiencing reality, but can be used to understand our experience of reality.

Thus I call inductive reasoning the fundamental axiom of experience. This has some interesting implications which I hope to explore in future posts. What do you think?

…the radio plays the sounds we made and everything seems to feel just right. The Aughts are over and looking back on them, it was a damn good decade for me personally. I earned two college degrees, discovered what it is I want to do with my life (even if I only did it for four years), landed a lucrative job, worked my way out of my short-term debt obligations, and bought a home. I rediscovered the benefits of exercise, moved to a new state, and met some amazing friends. Most importantly, I married the love of my life.

Looking forward to The Teens, I expect things to only get better. I’m going to continue my exercising and plan on being in the best shape I’ve been since my high school years. Another goal is a retirement of sorts. As I mentioned, I know what I want to do with my life. The trouble is that I’m not doing it. There are many reasons for this, mostly financial in nature. If current trends continue, I will have secured at least a decent standard of living for my full retirement later in life and eliminated most, if not all, of my debt obligations. I have a goal of retiring from banking by the end of the decade and enter my second career – teaching collage mathematics.

This also happens to be a perfect time for Jess and I to plan the next phase of our life together. Very recently, we finally dragged ourselves out from underneath the mountain of credit card debt we buried ourselves under during college which opens up new opportunities. Since then, we’ve been having serious discussions on how we want to live. We’ve made some decisions but they’re not all final, some of them are private, and it’s too early to talk about them on a blog. Hopefully, some details will be forthcoming.

While I’m working to make the next ten years better than the last, I’m wishing you a great decade as well!

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Happy New Year (and a few days)!

As most of you already know, I achieved my primary exercise goal for 2009. I walked 1,000 miles. My average pace was about 4.2 miles per hour. I also achieved my secondary goals of doing over 10,000 push-ups, 20,000 crunches, and 10,000 back exercises (it’s kind of like a reverse crunch where you lie on your stomach and arch your back). This, of course, has changed me. I have much more energy throughout the day, feel less stress, and built up my muscle tone and strength. Surprisingly, I only lost about 10 pounds. I’m not too worried considering first that weight loss wasn’t part of my goal and second because I put on some muscle weight, I lost more than 10 pounds in fat. In short, I am much more fit today than I was at the beginning of the year. Thanks to my friends, family, and twitter pals that gave me encouragement. Your support helped me get out there on the difficult days.

It’s time to set up my physical goals for 2010. Once again, my main goal will be 1,000 miles, but limiting myself to walking was a bit boring. Instead, I want to travel 1,000 miles under my own power this year. Right now this plan includes walking, running, and cycling. I may add swimming to this list as well. With cycling in there, 1,000 miles is much easier to achieve, so I’ve limited the number of cycling miles that contribute to the goal to 300. That means at least 700 of them will be on foot. I’ve also doubled my secondary goals from last year to 20,000 push-ups, 40,000 crunches, and 20,000 back-crunches. In addition, I’ve going to add a weight lifting goal. I’m not sure what the particulars will be, so I’m just starting off with 60 minutes of lifting with free weights a week until I get comfortable with a routine. This will allow me to set a realistic annual goal eventually. For the fun of it, I’ve also tossed in 30 minutes with Wii Fit a week.

I hope 2010 is your healthiest yet!