Nightwing

What if you led your entire life thinking the worst, BUT you have all the capabilities to deal with it all?

Instead of freaking out, experiencing anxiety, feeling paralyzed, or at least stressed, you just operate and solve it. How? Because you have already thought of every potential disaster. You are prepared!

While a gift…it makes life quite rigorous. 

These individuals don’t see an ordinary sidewalk when walking down the street, but instead a myriad of eventual disasters.  Each crack in the cement is a potential fall and registering (and accessing) all the people around that could have possible evil intentions is a full cognitive load. 

But they exist. I at least know of one. 

Steve Brody is a member of this tribe. He lives his life in a CSR, Constant State of Readiness

He lives his entire life ready for what is next, even if the statistical relevance of that event is less than 1%.

And while reading this, you may be envious, but It has its drawbacks. Steve has never felt the the feeling of a true surprise. How could he? He is always aware. I mean this man knows ALL. He tracks everyone I know. 

But everyone deserves to feel this feeling. However, surprising a man who lives in CSR is anything but easy.

But I did it. It took 6 months, but I did it. And I leave it HERE to remember. Look at that face!

How did I do this?

Steve thought he was going to a Tribeca Film Screening and he sat there through a few ordinary previews until THIS (password: Jacklight1) came on. To then reveal that the movie theater was filled with all of his friends and family. 

And the aftermath? Surveillance is up around these parts, lol!

Hello all,

I have a real wrinkle in this first workshop date, June 6th.

My father is getting a LifeTime Achievement Award for philanthropic service to the Jewish Community for over 5 decades. This was unforeseen, but clearly, I have to be there.

Instead of trying to reschedule with all of your crazy schedules, I have a new plan:) I will be sending dates for the entire series. It will be every three weeks in the fall on a school night.

Below is a sample of the workshops in the series  (Do check out the video links, all things true are funny. If you are laughing…that workshop is for you!)

WORKSHOPS

Artificial intelligence (Are you on your way to being “old” when it comes to technology?…this invention will make you obsolete!)

What we will do: Participate in an AI-led workshop designed and taught by AI. Bring a laptop.

Your New Tricks:

• You can discuss with a real understanding of what artificial intelligence is.
• You can log in to chat GPT (for the first time!) and can ask it unique prompts
• You can create an “AI assistant” for one task you hate doing
• You have a real understanding as to why one needs to understand AI (for better and worse)

Cyber security (Skip to min 1:00)

What we will do: Hear from cyber experts and watch a live hack into someone’s account.

Your New Tricks:

• You understand how passwords can get leaked to take preventative actions
• You have an improved pass management system 

Feminism’s worst enemy, each other?

What we will do: Go to a New York Liberty game at Barclay’s with words from women activists and female sports enthusiasts. 

Your New Tricks:

• The experience to talk about! Going to your first WMBA team with a bunch of moms (without their kids). Most likely a first for many of us!
• A new perspective on feminism. 

I’m super excited to continue learning with you all.

Who said moms can’t learn new tricks? Not this one:)

I was told never again.

As a Jewish child raised with grandparents that fought in WWII, I was told over and over never again. All Jewish households followed suit. Every grandchild told to REMEMBER. We made movies, we erected museums, we wrote books, we told stories, we even schelp our kids to Amsterdam to stand in Anne Frank’s “shoes.”

Never again. 

Never again. 

As it is hard to still fathom how it happened in the first place. Ridiculous..right? 

That millions of people…

• have their livelihoods taken. No longer doctors, teachers, professors, or writers in a swoop of a pen on paper.

• don a star marking their future death. 
• be transported on trains for miles and treated like cattle in broad daylight.
• be housed in complexes where they are tortured and killed with neighbors in clear site.

How is that fathomable?! Well, it is. And there are history books full of them. The Holocaust is only one of many stories of mass genocide. That seem improbable.

So how does this happen? How do people let these things happen…millions of them?

Like with most things, it doesn’t happen overnight. It happens much slower… in such a fringe unconscionable way that is easy to waive your hand over it. Too busy. Too ridiculous. “That can’t be true.” Or “It doesn’t matter, as that can’t happen HERE.” 

I can hear Anne’s father tucking her into bed. “Germany is WAY over there Anne. We are safe here in Amsterdam. We moved here to be safe.” Which they had. They moved to Amsterdam to be safe.

And for SURE that couldn’t happen today, right?…

We know better, right?  

People know the story, right?

Heck, we live in a democracy, right? 

There could never be policies that would threaten our existence, right?

That can’t happen with a flick of a pen, right?

Here are people burning books that they deem “inappropriate.” These inappropriate books include Jewish, Black, and other minority histories. They feature characters of racial and sexual diversity. 

This may seem outlandish and rare, and it still is, but with policies in states like Florida it is becoming the norm as banning literature deemed “inappropriate” is allowed by just one parent. Anything that can make a child feel “uncomfortable” can be deemed inappropriate.

But what if the lesson is to be uncomfortable?

To learn a history to not repeat it.

Books deemed “un-German” or contrary to Nazi ideology were banned and burned during the infamous book burnings in May 1933. All Jewish and hebrew texts included. The genocide did not start until June of 1942. 

Life changed slowly…just like our nation’s school boards.

It didn’t happen over night. 

When the books were banned in 1933, did the Jews say…

 this is so ridiculous…right? 

Hitler and his little tantrums…right? 

I have no time for such foolery…right?

Such nonsense this man…right? 

And who has the time to think about such things. It is Miriam’s wedding next month, Saul is so busy at the store, and the sink is completely broken.” We’re busy…right?

And I say the same thing over here. 

Florida is just insane…right?

It can’t happen here…right? I’m over here in Amsterdam. 

But that can’t happen again, right? 

Fibonacci would say otherwise. 

Education is everything. When we lose our stories and the ability to tell the history of marginalized communities, we are deemed to repeat them. 

Fibonacci’s prophecy: The next number is the sum of its previous parts.

We may be raising the most ignorant generation of all time. A generation with no knowledge to know better. 

To never again.

My Dearest Fibonacci,

I write to you about your sequence.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…

It’s pretty remarkable.

You should know years later your prophecy still reigns. Even as nature continues to evolve, your sequence continues to spin away in its geometric perfection. Your numbers still bloom in sunflowers and shine through stardust. Your sequence, the ultimate painter of life and also the story teller of humanity.

However, each approach the paint with different colors. Nature, the rainbow. The story teller of humanity prefers darker hues.

Instead of building mandalas, it builds hurricanes. Using your spiraling numbers to build an unrelenting whirlpool of destruction. A malevolent dance whose circles only get bigger with each spin even as the dance step remains the same. 

You of all people know it doesn’t have to be this way. You’ve seen it’s beauty and also its predictability.

The sequence is anything but random, but planned with real forethought. Each number, the sum of its predecessors, coming in with information of “before.” It has knowledge. It can change its course. However, humanity’s sum, only adds up to ill-informed form with no learnings, but only of hubris and grandeur.

And it spins around itself. 

Around its history.

Telling itself stories. 

The results? Empires rise and crumble with their predecessors none the better off. Destined to dance the same dance.

But beyond the despair, your sequence holds a chilling prophecy. 

It warns of our self-inflicted wounds, the consequences of our insatiable thirst for power. 

Each number, a reminder of mankind’s ascent into an ignorant madness, as we spiral toward our own annihilation. Getting larger and larger, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…

Or simply put. 

History continues to repeat itself. 

The stakes? Oh they only get higher.

Is it me or has the game of life changed drastically and seemingly overnight?

I mean at 43 years old and a “game master” one would think I had this game down, but that turned out to be nothing but the case.

Like most things these days I feel like an outdated dinosaur.

And I am not even talking about the day to day life.

No, I’m taking about the actual game “Life.” Remember the board game? There I’m a dinosaur too.

Jacob has an odd fascination with this game, to the point that he called all local toy and stationary stores to see if they had this gem in stock.  Jacob is adamant about winning this game called Life. And I was game. Another activity to get him off a screen. Let’s do it!

And I like games. I felt going into it I would have an advantage. I have played this game before. I would cream my entire family, but I was the most lost in this game. Turns out experience and wisdom are not valued in Life. I seemed to be playing on an older model or was I the older model? It became clear that my knowledge and experience was not an advantage, but maybe even a disadvantage.

Turns out a lot has changed from the 80’s game board of Life. The rules aren’t the same. The board is not even the same. I guess it too has had to keep up with the times. But I was not expecting this twist to family game night after a long day of jumps and leaps at work.

My reaction? I turned into a 5-year-old.

“Hey! That’s not fair” I complained. “That’s not how you play!” I quipped at Jacob. I was annoyed and clearly frustrated. “Those are not the rules. I’ve played this game before. I know how it is supposed to go.”

But it was I who had the game wrong.

I had missed the “update.” Jacob held the official rules and he was indeed correct. Jacob held no such past reference to 80’s life so felt none of my frustrations. For him this is how life always has been. He seamlessly moved around the board, while I fell behind reminiscing on how it was. You know…back in “before.” I wanted “again.”

I couldn’t even see the beauty as much of the changes were indeed positive.

For example, when choosing my peg/character for my car, I was not given the two previous choices of light blue or light pink pegs.

Instead, I have a rainbow of pegs to choose.

I chose to be green.

And in this game you can gain friends. In the past, if you choose to not get married/ have kids, you ran solo all the way to retirement and could never win as those pegs were worth cash. Now friends have entered the scene and they have been valued the same as a spouse and children, each 50K a pop. Yes. That number is not made up.

Side note: Wouldn’t you love to be in the room of game engineers that decided the value of each of these choices? “So the beach house mansion is 400K, what should we value human life? Thoughts from the leadership team?

I digress…

But my lesson here was not knowing the game when everyone else did was frustrating. I felt behind. Anxious. Annoyed. And my reaction turns out to be human nature. We have seen this over and over again. We don’t like change.

When confronted with a change did I…

Listen to the new rules? Nope

Play along nicely until I got the new rules? Not exactly.

Stomp my feet like a 5 year old wishing for things to just be simple/ the way I remember them? YES. And I don’t think I’m alone in this feeling.

People are feeling left behind.

And it’s scary as we know what happens. We become 5 year olds. Or we become worse unhinged adults.

It is human nature to want to retreat to the norm. We LONG for consistency. We long for AGAIN. We insist on certainty and even in the face of real evidence don’t accept that it’s not a real option.

And it’s getting harder to catch up. Change is not going to stop. There is no such thing as “again.”

I wonder if I will ever play life “again?” Or will AI be now integrated into the game next time. Will AIs provide players with new challenges and opportunities. Will there even be a board? Will the game of life no longer be restricted to one plane of existence, one world? Will the game of Life become a more immersive and interactive experience, with virtual reality and augmented reality features allowing players to explore different scenarios and outcomes?

So how did the game go? I lost, but only due to poor opening strategy. I did not adopt. I longed for “again.”

I fear that many are not adopting. Many are fighting change, time, and just the natural progression of progress.

I wish I could say education is going to solve this, but they are so behind and stifled by policy meant for the industrial era…they are not going to help bring people along.

So I’m thinking of living in a simulation. What is my avatar you ask?

A dinosaur of course!

I’ve gone down a rabbit hole. 

I’m deep in Wonderland. And like Alice,  I’m awe-struck by its wonder, but at the same time, equally petrified by its untamed nature. Things move fast here in Wonderland and I think I’m in a new relationship with a robot. Turns out that is not cheating down here.

And I have no choice but to stay in this foreign land. I’m here to stay and have to plant some flags. No, this is not a vacation, this is a residence. I am not here to reminisce or bitch about it over drinks. No. This is the new world.

And I welcome you to join me. As you live here now too. You just haven’t opened your bedroom curtain. But I get it… you can continue to ignore it too. Draw those blinds. Cozy up to that blanket.

But that strategy has a time stamp on it.  

It is only a matter of time. The world is not slowing down. And I need you to jump as I don’t think I can handle all of your children. At some point, they will be ahead of you, maybe it’s already happened. Maybe they are already ahead…

But I get the hesitation. I get the sigh. It just feels like ENOUGH. 

Like it wasn’t hard enough with screens and social media. Now we add a completely different environment?! Parenting today was hard enough.  This world our children inhabit is drastically different than any generation before. While they are in far less physical danger than past generations, I don’t think any generation before had children living in multiple worlds. I don’t think our caveman brains nor our nervous system was developed to live in simultaneous worlds. Our brains now get to process information from across an ocean. You not only worry about how to get your child to the dentist, but do it while watching women in Sudan get slaughtered. 

FUCK. Being a mom (and a kid) today is hard. 

But don’t sit in pity. No thinking about “before,” the good old days. Don’t wish for “again.” That’s just plain silly. 

Instead, come drink some tea and jump into the hole. I have a seat for you waiting at the mad-hatter’s table itself. 

I’m throwing a party for all of my mommy friends. 

 An AI party as this may require a drink. A lot of it is hard to swallow. Not because you need to be a genius to do this…no its oddly for the exact opposite reason. You will be shocked by how anyone can use it. I would argue even a child as young as 2. It gives idiots the codes. That our generation of children will all be augmented. Cyborgs. 

So…you have no choice, you have to come along because heck you have no choice. May as well drink your way with new friends.

AND…Who said moms can’t learn new tricks?

So come to my rabbit hole of Wonder on June 6th for the first of hopefully many fun social workshops I’m hosting called MOMS LEARN NEW TRICKS.

Email for details. abbylbrody@gmail.com

And here I am thinking about glass planes. 

Reading how I reasoned to my son that he does not need to fear school, because the idea that someone would come in and shoot innocent children just makes ZERO sense. That logic could push that idea out of his seven year old head. This idea is ridiculous like glass planes with glass luggage where everyone could see your undies! Absurd. School is safe Benno.

And still I feel this way. It’s absurd.

It does not compute. 

It makes zero logical sense. It is truly nonsensical that someone would shoot up a school. Kill innocent children. 

But yet here we are.

“Again.”

And I am truly in disbelief as I know there is no such thing as “again.” Nope. I do not accept the concept of “repeat.” 

Each school shooting has a compound affect.  All the previous communities ripped apart as they experienced the loss of the unthinkable continue to grieve, just to see it again. That the parents Sandy Hook watch. And how they live knowing that the world will forget these families as we have them. I’m in disbelief and shame on us, because this should only happen once. 

And NO it does NOT have to be this way.

There are other democratic first-world countries that have done better. Actually, ALL of them have done better. Even ones with vast hunting cultures have done better. 

And let’s be clear, guns kill more children in America. Cancer of course coming in at number two. 

And everytime this happens “again” we should be ashamed, because this time we knew better. We knew better 100x. To be accurate we know 376x better. That’s how many school shootings their have been. 376 school shootings. 

Or wait! Maybe 348,000 is the right number. That’s how many children have been involved in a school shooting. 348,000 school children have experienced being in a school with an active shooter. 348,000 traumatized children and don’t forget their families. 

And nothing has changed. We have done nothing. 

We have somehow accepted this. This is now a thing. It even has a name “School shooting.” A category. You can google it. 

This was not a phrase 20 years ago. 

We don’t need to accept this. We are mothers. This is our job.

I have been giving to Sandy Hook Promise since Sandy Hook Promise started. I give $18 a month, but more than anything I lend my name to petitions. And that’s free! Please join me in that.

And Ms. Katie C-o-u-r-i-c inspired me to follow suit. I was able to beat her record clocking in at 4 mins 28 seconds. Rep Dan Goldman’s office picked up on the first ring ! Here is a head start:) Office number: (202) 225-7944.

Any action is action.

If you are over 40 and a woman with children, you are very likely on the brink of extinction. Of being obsolete. Or at least looking like your parents trying to work their phones.

Consider this your warning call. Time to get with it.

For many of my friends this new “sensation” Chat GPT sounds like another trend, another app, another website, another thing you don’t have time for. You don’t quite understand it, but you do know enough to be concerned about it. How will this affect your children? And will bring it up in conversation with others, that will nod in agreement, “yes so scary,” and like you continue to order another cocktail.

You will dismiss it. You will play old dog. No new tricks for this dog. She’s done enough tricks. Heck consider me a circus dog. I’ve been through enough! Thank you pandemic. Thank you new world that I don’t quite understand. So no thank you. I have no desire for new technologies, I’m fine as I am.

This ignorance is bliss plan, is not a luxury you have.

This is your warning call.

This is a life changing technology and it’s happening fast. So fast that even your tech friend over here is lost in its multiple iterations. But if you don’t learn… we will all become obsolete and more reliant on others.

And this is cool stuff (and yes…scary). This technology is remarkable and beautiful. You will gain productivity and unlock creativity in a way like you’ve never experienced. But you need to learn or the world will move forward without you. The skills required in your executive level jobs will change too.

You will become obsolete.

Many of you are going to see that sentence above as dramatic, which you know I can be. You will wave your hand in the air with an air of dismissal that only one with wisdom/ years/ power feel entitled to give. And you do it because you earned it. Years of experience. Years of work. Years of prestige. Heck, your smart.

Until you weren’t. 

2023 will be forever in the books as a turning point in humanity. That the concept of “smart,” “efficient” and “creative” has changed. Man has access to artificial intelligence. Mankind has been augmented. We’ve changed the game of what it means to be human.

Humanity is now augmented with AI…

Let me be clear…as I know my reader base, the release of open AI platforms is the biggest invention in our lifetimes (so far!). 

It is time to go back to school.
But this school has no textbooks. No wrong answers.

The real way to learn is by doing. Go play.

LOGIN Here.

Dear Dr. Burr,

Writing you felt a bit selfish. Let the dead lay in peace, right?

But, upon further contemplation… I think you would want to be in the loop. A man of science would always want to know the future of scientific discoveries especially his own.

And I have tea to spill. Get ready to roll in that grave.

But first some flattery as it would be rude to wake the dead without some acknowledgement of your time on earth, And you make that easy. You are a true man of science having co-authored 92 scientific papers at Yale in nanotechnology and bioelectric dynamics. That is quite an accomplishment and I believe your writing is some of the best I’ve ever read.

Shoot. 

I don’t want to mislead you with my flattery.  You may (rightfully) summarize from these words that you are a big deal in this future world. That your contributions saved lives and transformed society.  That you are a household name! 

 Sadly, that is anything but the case.  Turns out in the 2000’s your notability is based on your ass size. I would include a photo of one such notable person as I’m assuming  a man of science likes evidence, but that feels vulgar, so please take my word on it. Fake boobs, big butts, and fake nails that struggle to hold a fork, nonetheless a beaker, are the names floating around in households all across America. 

However, butts aside, I think you would see today’s world as inspiring, but painfully infuriating. We could have a drink over that as I feel the exact same way and I just recently learned what you understand 90 years ago.

Your understanding of the body and how to communicate with it, has not gone far in the last 100 years! Your book from 1932, Blueprint for Immortality: The Electric Patterns of Life found universal truths, feels like it could have been written today.

The first three paragraphs of your book written in the 1920’s, 100 years ago, are just as pertinent today. 

We live in troubled and difficult times. There are wars and dangers of war. In many parts of the world there are revolts, protests, crime and lawlessness in clealess eruption. And over this age hangs the swords of Damocles of possible nuclear destruction…Many are tempted to believe that man is an accident, left to grapple with his lonely fate on an insignification planet in a hardsh and lawless universe.

In a materialistic, scientific age many find it hard to accept those religious beliefs that sustained our forefathers in times which-to them-seemed as troubled and perilous as the present. They would like to believe that man is no accident that the Universe in which he lives is one of law, order and purpose. But, dazzled by the methods and triumphs of science, they are unwilling to take anything on trust; they demand some ‘scientific’ proof or evidence.

Until some forty years ago (1880’s) this demand could not be met because the necessary electronic instruments and techniques had not been developed. When these became available, an entirely new approach to the nature of man and his place in the Universe became posible. For these instruments revealed that man-and, in fact, all forms- are ordered and controlled by electro-dynamic fields which can be measured and mapped with precision.

You of course spoke confidently that this tool will change health care, agriculture, and really every field in the world as all matter emits light/ fields.

You measured every living thing, including humans, and found all had electromagnetic fields and observed that all those fields interact with other fields. 

You even discovered that mental states (example: grief) has charge to it and can be measured through the body. Proving with science that emotions do affect the physical body as it literally changed the electric charge, the movement and functioning of electrions. 

Reminder electrons and protons form molecules. And when stressed our body creates free radicals. Free radicals are exactly what the name implies. Free fucking radicals. They do whatever the fuck they please in your blood stream. They sing Tom Petty all the time.

Think of that drunk girl on the dance floor bumping her ass into everything. Spilling her cocktail and desperately trying to engage you. That’s the free radical. Causing raucous, which includes inflammation and disease. 

But back to you Dr. Burr. 

You found the greatest diagnostic and healing tool in the world. Now we can see at the atomic level the functioning of the human body.

“Malignancy in the ovary has been revealed by L-field measurements before any clinical sign could be observed. Such measurements, therefore, could help doctors to detect cancer early, when there is a better chance of treating it successfully.”

You called the readings of electromagnetic fields “L-fields” the “L” standing for life. You spoke with complete confidence that “L-fields” will be used in every practice of medicine as why wouldn’t?

On page 15 you note… “In the case of L fields there is no technical reason why their use by doctors should take long.” Also noting “any intelligent man or woman can learn the techniques of taking and interpreting L-field readings in a short period of intensive instruction.”

So talent, time, nor money were the issue. But YET here we are 100+ years later and this diagnostic tool is still not commonplace. 

No instead we focus on how we can use electromagnetic fields to kill. We have radiation, we have nuclear bombs, but yet we do not use nor think of electromagnetic fields as something to heal.

But that’s changing.

And it’s happening fast and know Dr. Burr I’m doing everything I can.

I’m doing a lot of reading, listening and thinking on the properties of light. 

The power of it.

As, light can give life, and light can take life.

It can be nourishing photons to a plant, and also, a death ray burning anything in its path.

Light (energy) has two clear poles.  

From our visual eye we have sunbeam hitting a flower pedal to a laser cutting its way through metal.  

And with everything that I am learning in my own life observations and reinforced in science life is a spectrum between two poles. From our planet to our energy, all flows between poles.

TRUTH (EMIT): Everything in life is a spectrum. Literally everything. 

Colors, people, disorders, molecules are different combinations of light – specs of the spectrum.

Quick reminder for those what “light” is or how at least I’m defining it here.

Let’s focus on first sentence in this infographic as often when we see “big science words” and just glance over them.  

LIGHT is a form of electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength. Light is a specific wavelength of electromagnetic energy. 

And you guessed it, a spectrum of electromagnetic energy.

I feel very familiar with the right side. Mankind can give itself a good slap on the back for that one. We have mastered the laser. Even sharks with freaking lasers beams attached to their heads:) 

Yes, We have mastered destruction.

We are the scifi movies. We have freaking lasers and I’ve been the beneficiary of their magic. Jacob’s radiation is just that, a laser, an intense beam of strong and low divergent (low-divergent allows it to be incredibly accurate) light. Accurate enough to kill cells and not harm too much nearby.

But I’m focused on the spectrum. 

If light can kill? And give birth?…Can light heal?

That has been my last 6 momths of reading and research.

As us humans tend to discount anything we can’t see with our eyes. But science has proven that the majority of the light (which is energy) in the world cannot be seen by the human eye. See the chart below. The visible light section is the only a fraction of the energy surrounding us.

The light we tend to think about ( lightbulb/ sun) is only a small part of the light around us. We as humans can only see a fraction of light in the world. Let that one simmer…

EVERYTHING has a wavelength/ a field from people to a butterfly

Turns out those hippies weren’t tripping. Auras are real.

I don’t think they can tell you your future, but they can tell the amount of electromagnetic energy you produce off your body into the world. We can see into the atomic level of your body’s functioning. 

I find it interesting that our electromagnetic fields are not measured when we go to the doctor. We have had this ability for over 100 years, but really fine tuned it in the last 20. Instead they take our weight, height, blood, but the measurement of the energy field which is informed by the atomic level of your body’s functioning is not seem as important information. This boogles my mind as each cell in the body has a unique frequency including cancer cells. 

As usual, I’m finding in my ongoing cancer research that the simple and easy things are not where the money is and therefore are dropped. Drugs make money. Preventative care does not.

But that’s where I’m spending my time and energy, with the light.