Who, what is zunipus?

I am zunipus. My given name is Derek.

You are zunipus, assuming you are human.

All of us are zunipus.

Zunipus is a baby-talk sort of word that came out of a dream I had at age 13. I'll tell the dream some other time. Zunipus is an adjective. It describes anything that is deceptive. It is a neutral word. It does not infer bad or good. It is simply descriptive.

So why are all of us zunipus? We are imperfect systems. We are never completely correct. We pretend to know absolutes but we can't. We are incapable of being certain about anything. Or as I like to put it: We never know everything about anything. Our system, our bodies, which house our senses, mind and spirit, does a remarkable, some would say miraculous, job perceiving and evaluating our environment. To say something is zunipus is not to denigrate it. I am not saying mankind is bad because its systems are faulty. To be zunipus is to be a person who believes they know 'reality' but do not. No matter how carefully we use science to perceive the 'real' we can never be certain. We, as systems, are simply not perfect. We make errors, our sensing abilities are limited, the information we collect requires interpretation which by definition requires abstraction from the initial stimulus, and so on.

I will go into depth into the details and ramifications of being zunipus in the future. For now that is hopefully enough to get you started with the concept of zunipus.

I might as well introduce you to a synonym of zunipus, except this word is not neutral. It is a satirical word, making fun of the thing it describes. The word is:

Squinky.

I invented the word zunipus, but not squinky. The word squinky has been around for years. But it has no definition that I am aware of. Every time I see it someone is using it in a different way. That is remarkable, to have a word that is merely a sound and not a symbol for something in the 'real' world. Well, I have harnessed and tamed squinky for my own purposes, and I think it may come in handy for other folks as well.

Something that is squinky is perceived to be incredibly kewl, wonderful, chic, rad, fab, great. But it is... not. You have been deceived. The squinky thing or person has a deceptive quality. Paris Hilton is squinky. Scienterrificology (as I call it) is squinky. John Travolta is squinky. Tom Cruise is squinky. Pet rocks are squinky. President George W. Bush was squinky, but the mask fell off.

Now you have a new tool with which to describe the world. People love judging things, and the word squinky is a very useful and even insightful way to do so. But keep in mind the root concept behind squinky, that is the word zunipus.

Share and Enjoy!

:-Derek