How Good Collaborations Happen: Please take 10 minutes to
complete this survey on
collaboration,
which I collaborated in developing. My colleagues and I really need
your responses to this for some research we're doing on the
collaboration process. Thank you!
Book Tag: In the latest round of blog tag, I've been selected
by Mutualist Kevin
Carson to tell all about my favourite books. Here are my
answers:
1. Total number of books I own:
Impossible to say, since I keep giving them away in droves once I've
summarized them down to a page of notes (does that mean I don't 'own'
them any more)? There are about 800 in my bookshelves now, and I've
given away at least that number again.
2. The last books I bought: Clay Christensen's Innovator's Solution and Peter Ward
and Donald Brownlee's The Life and
Death of Planet Earth.
3. The last books I read: Currently reading Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt et al, Conceptual Blockbusting by James
Adams and The Midnight
Disease by Alice Flaherty, all recommended by readers.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me: Can't limit it to five so here
are eighteen: The
Fourteen Books that Have Formed my Natural Philosophy,
including #13 Straw
Dogs by John Gray and #14 Creating a Life Together by Diana Leafe Christian
(I've written about all of these in the blog if you're looking for
more information on them) Natural Selection and
The Law of Averages by
Frederick Barthelme Riddley Walker by
Russel Hoban Complete Works of TS
Eliot
5. Others I tag to continue the meme: How about this: If you're a
reader and would like to blog about these questions, consider yourself
tagged.
I'm working on an update of the
long paper
that describes my 'journey' to environmental awareness and activism.
Rather than starting the revision at the beginning, I thought I'd
start
with what was most important -- the final section with the 'root cause
analysis' and the 'solution map' that ultimately became my How to Save the World Roadmap.
When I first published this paper on my blog, the charts that
accompanied it generated more buzz than the paper itself. You can find
them here and
here.
Since then, I've come to realize that these variables are less
cause-and-effect than components of a self-reinforcing and
self-perpetuating system. In Systems Thinking terminology, the
'virtuous circle' of life that existed in nature until about 30,000
years ago was 'disrupted' by events that upset the equilibrium and
rippled through the system, producing a new self-reinforcing and
self-perpetuating system that we call 'civilization'.
Based on the research I've since done on population, violence, and on
our political, economic and social systems, I've now updated the
charts
to show the circular nature and greater interrelationship of the 19
elements. The first chart shows how nature works as a self-managed,
self-balancing planetary organism -- a map perhaps of what is called
the Gaia Theory:
Chart 1
And the second chart shows the equivalent man-made
systems that have come into play with the dawn of civilization 30,000
years ago. This replacement system, alas, is not self-balancing -- it
is utterly unsustainable, though our awareness of that fact is only a
century old:
Chart 2
How did this unfortunate transformation occur? We don't
know for sure, but the most compelling theory I have seen is that, as
a
consequence of the last ice age, and/or the invention of efficient
hunting tools (like the spear, and the bow and arrow), there was a
sudden and massive shortage of the big, lumbering game that man had
hunted so easily since his emergence on the planet. So the element to
the right of the red box changed from "Abundant Resources and Energy"
(chart 1) to "Scarcity of Resources and Energy" (chart 2). Usually
when
this happens (except when it is a result of a major extinction event
like that caused by the meteorite impact 65 million years ago that
wiped out most of life on Earth), nature is able to fix the imbalance.
It does so by causing the species suffering the shortage to reduce its
fertility rate, temporarily increasing its mortality rate (more of
them
are eaten by predators, and epidemics arise to reduce over-crowding),
and the result is a reduction in their consumption of the scarce
resources (food, land etc.), until the scarce resources have had time
to replenish themselves (illustrated in chart 3, below, which is based
on the work of Darwin, Lovelock, and Edward T. Hall). In this sense,
our planetary organism Earth behaves analogously to a human
organism -- when there's a shortage of food, it goes into hibernation,
lowers metabolism, and draws on internal reserves (fat) to compensate
until a new external food supply is found.
Chart 3
But the situation 30,000 years ago was different. Man
had
developed enough intellect to institute some man-made solutions to
scarcity instead of relying on the ones nature had always used. These
human inventions included agriculture, animal domestication, and then,
to make those work, a whole series of social, political and economic
systems. We created man-made 'stores' of resources to offset the
natural shortages, and tools to protect ourselves and our food
supplies
from, and even eradicate, natural predators and diseases. Our
intellect
tipped the balance of power, at least temporarily, from nature to man.
Once that 'tipping point' had been reached, the rest of the 19
elements
on Chart 1 were transformed into the corresponding elements on Chart
2.
By enormous strength of ingenuity and will, we have entrenched this
New
World Order for 30,000 years, and exported it to every corner of the
globe.
The problem is that it's unsustainable, and the kind of tinkering with
it espoused by optimists and those that deny we are in crisis, just
won't fix it -- both nature and civilization are immensely complex
systems, and civilization is also immensely fragile. We need to
simultaneously work on many of these 19 elements to create a new
'tipping point' to restore the natural system that worked for millions
of years before civilization. That doesn't mean going back to a
pre-civilization lifestyle -- that would be foolish and impossible. It
means moving forward on many
fronts -- political, social, economic, ecological, technological and
in
the way we make a living. Let's take a look at some of the weakest
points in Chart 2 to see how we might, with coordinated or ingenious
small-group effort, flip some of them over to their corresponding
Chart
1 states:
Innovation: We need to develop:
Simpler, cheaper, more reliable birth control
technologies (and ban technologies that increase human fertility)
More efficient clean energy technologies (and
encourage
their development by banning technologies that create massive
environmental damage like coal-burning plants, dams, nuclear plants
and
internal combustion engines)
Technologies that prevent rather
than treat diseases (we could learn
much from nature in this area, but we had better do so before we
destroy her medicine cabinet, the tropical rainforests), because
families that live long, healthy lives are
smaller
Technologies that reduce the amount of poisons we
release into the air and the water
Production technologies
that produce no waste, and whose
products are 100% biodegradable -- If it can't be completely,
inexpensively, easily and quickly recycled, it should not be
produced
Technologies that eliminate expensive, polluting,
dependence-creating transportation of goods, and allow local
self-sufficiency and bioregionalism to work (Local wind and solar
energy co-ops, and new greenhouse technologies that expand the range
of
foods that can be locally produced, for example) -- Nothing should
have
to be imported unless it cannot be reasonably produced
locally
Technologies that allow us to do more with less, that
replace hardware with software and molecules with bits -- and where
there is no alternative to durable goods, they should be lightweight,
recyclable, and unconditionally guaranteed to work for many lifetimes,
so there is no need for landfills
Nutritious, delicious foods
that use no animal products,
to render obsolete current technologies that cause massive suffering,
like factory farms and pharmaceutical and chemical products using
laboratory testing
Technologies that produce more edible plant
mass per
acre, without using pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers or genetic
engineering
Networking technologies that allow people working
on
solutions to global problems to self-organize and collaborate more
effectively
Information technologies that allow citizen and
consumer
groups to organize and to identify, prosecute and defeat socially and
environmentally irresponsible corporations, governments and
organizations
Technologies that allow us to learn better from
nature --
the languages of other animals, the mechanisms of self-regulation,
self-organization, conflict resolution, and other important
lessons
Technologies that will prevent and treat mental
illness,
that can be inexpensively and easily provided to all, including those
on the streets and in our criminal institutions
Social Activism: We need
to:
Completely revamp our education systems and wrench
them
away from corporatist control -- they should be community-run,
autonomous, mobile, virtual, and dedicated to teaching responsible
citizenship, how to learn, how to think creatively and critically, how
to get along with others, and how to make a living with those one
cares
about (everything else they can learn by themselves -- they don't need
to be force-fed anyone's biased viewpoint)
Persuade people of
the need and advantage of limiting their families to one
child
Persuade people of the need and advantage of a
'radically simple' lifestyle
Demonstrate by example the
superiority of self-selected,
self-managed communities over both the nuclear family and larger
political units (cities, states) for effective, efficient,
self-sufficient social, political and economic
organization
Think critically and creatively, never stop
challenging, never stop thinking of ideas to make the world even
better
Learn to live a healthy vegan lifestyle, and make more
of our own foods instead of relying on prepackaged foods
Learn
to compromise, cooperate, collaborate, resolve conflicts amicably,
build consensus and negotiate better
Organize to use our very
real power as citizens and
consumers to end corporatism, devolve power to communities and
individuals, create a more open, fair, socially and environmentally
responsible and egalitarian society, and support local
enterprise
Learn to listen, be more respectful and pay
attention
better -- to nature, to each other (especially those with different
views), to women, to children, and to our own instincts
Pace
ourselves -- saving the world is going to take enormous energy,
passion, faith and courage
Community-Based Enterprise
Formation: We need to:
Encourage and facilitate the
formation of innovative, locally-owned, community-based
businesses
Pledge to buy local, so that we have more say in
our
economic lives, so that business is incented to invest in and take
seriously its responsibility to the local community, and so that
unnecessary, polluting, traffic-creating transportation of imported
goods is minimized
Encourage and enable community-based businesses to
take
an active role in the education system, showing our young people how
to
run their own successful local business enterprise
Create
community-based financial institutions that will
exclusively fund community-based businesses and hence enable people in
the community to invest locally
Political Activism: We need
to:
Revamp corporate law to make corporations once again
the
servants of man, not our masters -- rewrite corporate charters to make
them more restrictive and more responsible, and make corporations once
again mere 'economic shells' with no political power, no place
for
corrupt individuals to hide, no separate 'rights', democratic voting,
open information access and a strict size and salary cap
End agricultural and other business
subsidies
End the tax subsidies to religious organizations,
and treat them legally as political organizations
Reform election laws to introduce proportionate
representation and instant-runoff voting, eliminate gerrymandering,
prohibit corporate and group campaign financing, cap personal campaign
financing, and have all elections supervised by international
observers
Shift taxes away from income and employment and
towards
pollution, waste, resource consumption, speculation and wealth
accumulation -- and use these taxes to radically even out wealth and
power disparity
Change our measures of economic 'success' --
scrap GDP
and similar measures in favour of Genuine Progress Indicators and
similar measures of well-being and equality
Revamp
and reduce property rights to cap ownership by any
one individual, require public access to land with special social
attributes (e.g. ocean-front), increase ownership responsibilities,
prohibit property ownership by corporations and organizations (they
could still lease appropriately zoned lands from the public), prohibit
property ownership by non-residents, and solve the Tragedy of the
Commons
Set aside a significant amount of the Earth's area,
across all bioregions, as wilderness land, where no development,
economic activity or pollution would be allowed, and human access
would
be heavily limited
Strengthen, hone and globalize charters of human
rights
and freedoms to include absolute rights to free health care and
education, and give them legal status ahead of domestic
law
Scrap 'free' trade agreements that undermine local and
national social and environmental laws and traditions
Set
global standards for government spending -- a maximum
% of government revenues that can be spent on military activities and
a
minimum % that must be spent on international humanitarian aid, and
expel from the UN countries that violate these standards
Write
off all current third-world international
indebtedness, prohibit creation of new international debt, and ban
extraterritoriality (political and economic activities that compromise
local or national sovereignty)
Reinstate usury laws (limit
interest rates on consumer debts to no more than 3% above inflation
rate)
Introduce currency reform to allow LETS
systems
Extend anti-cruelty laws to all animals, and for the
purpose of such laws define them as living beings, not as property
I have deliberately put political activism as the final category of
this list, because the more I learn about change, the more I am coming
to believe that politics and law are much less effective levers for
change than innovation, social activism or community-based enterprise
formation. Political activism is an uphill battle against the status
quo and against entrenched wealth and power. Social activism and
community-based enterprises, by contrast, work peer-to-peer,
citizen-to-citizen and consumer-to-consumer and, thanks to the power
of
modern communications, can spread virally very quickly, undermining
the
political and economic establishment by working beneath their radar,
until, starved of its grass-roots citizen and consumer support, this
establishment simply crumbles, no longer needed. Most of the bullets
on
the Political Activism list above are, in fact, more about undoing
things that are contributing to ecological collapse, than about doing
something else. And innovation, which respects no political or
economic
authority, can help immensely.
Many of my readers have told me "that's fine, but I'm not rich,
powerful, expert, entrepreneurial or innovative, so what can I do now
to help, to make a difference?" That's a fair question, and I'm
developing the answer to it as the final section of the revised paper
(and also as a more practical replacement for the Roadmap). I should
have it finished next week, and I'll publish it here first.
Fantasy Land
Fantasy Land06/11/2004 02:34 PM USA Today Jun 11 2004 6:22PM GMT
Pure fantasy
Pure fantasy06/03/2004 08:32 PM USA Today Jun 4 2004 0:43AM GMT
Fantasy Planes02/14/2004 10:27 PM Some Strange Aircraft Designs .. Future planes of the past .. Fantasy
Airplanes .. never got built ..
[LINK]
home.att.net/~dannysoar/FantasySectionIntro.htm track this
site | 4 links
Fantasy Veepstakes
Fantasy Veepstakes11/13/2003 10:02 AM Pretend for the moment that Howard Dean wins the nomination. Who
would be his most interesting choice for running mate? (Note: Reality
need not impinge on this decision, although we should perhaps limit
ourselves to living, non-fictitious human American citizens.) John
McCain? He's a straight talkin' kinda guy and he's got the military
hero vote sewn up. Ross Perot? He's a straight-talkin' kinda guy and
he's got the vague and confused vote sewn up. Also, he's shorter than
Dean. Al Franken? I've been reading Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell
Them and he's got my vote. Martin Sheen?...
If there is anybody out there who has actually beaten Jecht in FFX
and won the game, I'd love some tips/pointers. I have played that
final boss battle over and over again, and every time I get beat down
when he enters his second form. I simply can't keep my characters
alive and take out the towers and damage Jecht all at the same time.
What am I missing?
A Typeface Fantasy10/28/2003 11:06 PM And this is where we dive right in to the pressing issues, the
questions that matter by god! The burning quandry at the forefront of
all of our minds is, of course, where in the world did they pull...
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy08/14/2004 06:25 AM VERY IMPORTANT ! PLEASE READ !
Fantasy Bedtime Hour
Fantasy Bedtime Hour06/24/2005 05:55 PM Speaking of Stephen R. Donaldson .. "Fantasy Bedtime Hour" ..
online
Tolkien Fantasy Comes to Life12/19/2003 11:51 AM It's time for another trip to Middle Earth. The third installment of
the epic Lord of the Rings series drags on in parts, but the film is
worth the wait. By Danit Lidor.
China's fantasy craze
China's fantasy craze04/01/2005 11:03 AM Online role-playing games played by millions have led to a spate of
suicides, deaths by exhaustion and even an attempt at self-immolation.
wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61726,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 track this
site | 4 links
I Spy Fantasy released on hybrid CD-ROM
I Spy Fantasy released on hybrid CD-ROM11/10/2003 11:27 PM Scholastic Corp. announced
monday the release of I Spy Fantasy, a new game based on the I Spy
book and television series. I Spy Fantasy takes kids on three
different adventures -- one inside a sand castle, one on an alien
planet and one under the sea.
'Final Fantasy XI' under attack
'Final Fantasy XI' under attack04/18/2005 06:10 PM DDoS attacks bog down performance of Square Enix's online services;
gamers in Japan, Europe and North America affected.
The "rape fantasy" that went wrong (Reuters)04/09/2004 04:13 PM Reuters - A California man has pleaded guilty to residential burglary
after
he set up a meeting with a woman on a rape fantasy Internet chat page,
but instead broke into
a different woman's apartment.
AOL kicks off free fantasy sports08/16/2004 10:21 AM Company offers free online fantasy-sports games to its paying members
and outside Web users.
Lockergnome Favorite: Fantasy Investment
Lockergnome Favorite: Fantasy Investment06/07/2004 11:41 PM Fantasy Investment is an online stock market simulation game. You just
sign up with the site and start participating in the market like
normal stock market monkeys do. You're even given US$100,000 to begin
with. It looks very realistic, but you have to keep in mind that all
of this is a game. The money you spend and the money you earn is not
real. Don't start contacting the site saying that they owe you three
million dollars. There are, however, prizes that are up for grabs. The
top forty players are prominently displayed on the site, and reference
to the most active stocks is also present. This game would be great
fun for anyone who wishes they were a high roller.
NASA: Reality Surpasses Fantasy01/05/2004 04:20 PM CBS News Jan 5 2004 2:17PM ET Grok Description matches for Spirit of Gaia - Fantasy RPG GrokA matches for Spirit of Gaia - Fantasy RPG
Spirit of Gaia - Fantasy RPG
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
