Brain Whales of a Motorcycle Stimulated Geezer Mind - 13 May 2026
Above: Terrible's Chevron. Fillmore, UT. 09 May 2026
Out and About on the 'Wing.
I covered the 330-mile-long ride from Park City to Ivins (I-80 and I-15) in less than five hours. I made one stop, at Terribles, in Filmore. The gas prices are ten cents a gallon higher at Terribles than at the Maverick at the south end of town. But the Maverick is always packed. Terribles is a new station, fewer customers, clean, well lit, and well stocked. Also, Terribles has an easily accessible restroom if you are in a hurry to use it... something more important to me as I age. A small price to pay for the extra forty cents on a four-gallon fill-up, what?
While riding the 'Wing I'm not wired to music, phone or podcasts. What goes in my mind on a 330-mile-long solitary slab (freeway) ride with only one stop? A fast-moving motorcycle stimulates my brain. Most of the time, my geezer brain is like a calm sea were occasional ideas surface like whales quietly sounding. When I am on a fast-moving bike, the brain-sea churns with whales aggressively sounding all over the place. Who knew that a motorcycle is also a tool to stimulate reflection!?
Here are some of the brain whales that surfaced during today's ride.
On Providence.
Stimulated by the drone of the 'Wing, I thought that if there was a providential impact on things happening in the world, certainly DJT and my father's memoirs project must be beneficiaries.
Notwithstanding Trump's opponents throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, including three assassination attempts, DJT seems to be successfully moving forward with his agenda, with much of which I agree (border, energy, tariffs, confronting Iran, yada). Providence? OK, Trump's presidency is not over yet. The success or failure of DJT's presidency will be measured by whether or not he eliminates the nuclear threat posed to the US by the fanatics in Iran. The jury is currently out on that.
I shamefully procrastinated for twenty-five years getting my dad's (Weldon J. Taylor) memoirs edited and published. Dad was Dean of the BYU School of Business from 1960 to 1975. Three years ago, I was called out of the blue by a former Citibank hire of mine, Mark Gasser, who after thirty years of silence, wanted to reconnect. He and his family had settled in Salt Lake City. Mark set up a luncheon in Park City with some former Citibankers, including Robert E. Wells, who after leaving Citibank became a general authority of the LDS Church. I had not met Robert Wells before the luncheon.
I learned at that luncheon that Well's daughter, Elayne Wells Harmer, was a professional editor. Wells made an intro of me to Elayne. Elayne had a deep understanding of the milieus where Dad worked, including BYU and the upper levels of LDS Church hierarchy. Having Elayne not only being a qualified editor but also knowing the playing field where Dad "played," would help immensely. Elayne agreed to do the work and three years later we are past the point of editing and on the point of publication. Providence? Did Dad do something from the beyond to lever me out of my twenty-five-year long torpor to get his memoirs project moving... with just the right editor?
Thoughts on social media impact on LDS church leadership.
On my social media feed, I see a lot of influencers and podcasters seeking to either buttress or run down LDS belief. I mused, the hum of the 80 mph 'Wing producing the most pleasant white noise, "How do the LDS general authorities deal with all this free speech back and forth, pro church and con church, made possible only in the last couple of decades by the internet and social media?
Top of mind, I thought of three reasons why the LDS Church seems to remain strong in the face of an onslaught of social media and podcast criticism of doctrine and Church origins.
1. The Book of Mormon is a unique work that, setting aside its claimed divine provenance, seems beyond the capacity of even a genius teenager like Joseph Smith to create. So, if Joseph Smith didn't produce it as he said he did, who wrote it? Pooh poohing its claimed divine origins, Mormon haters have never come up with a satisfactory explanation for the provenance of the Book of Mormon.
2. The upper-end estimate of the net worth of the LDS Church is $300 billion. The LDS Church teaches its members to minimize indebtedness and to save. Executing on these principles at the macro level seems to have paid off for the institutional LDS Church.
At times, considering its $50 billion endowment, I've often thought of Harvard University as more of a hedge fund than a university. One could draw the same analogy to the LDS Church: hedge fund or church?
Thinking about the LDS Church's wealth today, I mused, as I sped on the 'Wing down I-15, about the circumstances surrounding the building of the first LDS temple in Kirtland, Ohio in 1836 and compared conditions then to LDS temple building today.
Coincident with the building of the Kirtland (Ohio) Temple in 1836 was the national Panic of 1837. LDS Church founder Joseph Smith had established the Kirtland Safety Society (a bank) which failed leading to heavy debts, lawsuits, accusations of mismanagement and widespread apostasy among church members. In January of 1838, Joseph Smith and his 2IC, Sidney Rigdon, fled Kirtland at night on horseback for Missouri to escape potential arrest and violence.
As of 2026, the LDS Church has 216 dedicated temples. What a change 190 years makes! Considering the LDS Church's wealth, or temporal soundness, social media brickbats hurled at putative doctrinal inconsistencies seem more like gnats on an elephant's rear end than potentially serious assaults on the church's underpinnings.
3. US Mormon demographics show higher marriage rates, lower divorce rates, higher birth rates, and better education results than most other US demographics. I remember Mom saying frequently that Mormonism offered a good way to raise families. Mormons believe that the nuclear family is the bedrock for future civilizational success as well as eternal salvation. More than most, Mormons have walked their talk on nuclear family integrity.
Thoughts on future of human consciousness.
Finally, I wondered, as I sped on the 'Wing SB on I-15, how ecclesiasts, LDS and otherwise, were confronting the rise of AI and its future impact on human consciousness? Larry Page of Google is willing to accept the fact that a hybrid or AI evolved human intelligence is something to be welcomed. Elon Musk says no. Human intelligence must be preserved intact, Musk says.
We are nearing the point when attributes formerly attributed to God, with the help of artificial intelligence, can also be ascribed to mankind. For example. Much of what goes on in the world today is captured by cameras. Ring doorbell cameras. Images taken by everyday people with their phones. Security cameras everywhere. Most of those images are stored in the cloud. It is no longer farfetched to suggest that with the use of AI all of the world's images could be stitched together, AI filling in blanks, to produce a real time record of all of the world's occurrences. I thought of this scripture:
Luke 12:6-7
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
With advancing technology as aforementioned, AI enhanced mankind will have the capacity to track the movement of every sparrow on earth. How, I wondered, as the 'Wing motor throbbed, are ecclesiasts going to explain a seeming convergence of the powers of mankind with what heretofore have been powers heretofore attributable only to God? And what about the possibility of a "merger" of human consciousness with AI?
Almost five hours of speedy motorcycle riding elapsed and I arrived in Ivins. The outdoor temperature was pushing one hundred degrees. I shed my motorcycle protective gear, walked into the house, gave TIMDT a kiss, said hello to Freddie, got a Spindrift from the fridge and plopped into my living room chair. I dozed. The seas were calm... brain whales sounding no longer.