Like to listen to what goes on behind the scenes in film making or acting straight from an actor? Click here.
A Reunion Dinner with a secret to hide. Clickhere.
Have you taken all the modern comforts for granted? Behind every modern device there is the technology and with them comes the management and risks. Interested to find out what goes on below the hood? Click here.
I asked Stefan if he was serious about discussing about "Life Extension" on April Fool's day. On the very day, on arrival in Chinatown, Global Sounds Cafe was closed for reasons unknown to us. Stefan was late and called to say that he met up with an accident on his way. So, we had to hang around, expecting to wait for a bit.
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Ten minutes later, Stefan arrived looking unscathed. He told us it was an April Fool's joke and he didn't have an accident. He thought that I was playing an April Fool's joke on him - that Global Sounds Cafe was closed! It was not a joke - the cafe was indeed closed!
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Jokes aside, we then moved on to the street stalls and had our meeting there. There was only three of us and we decided to discuss about life in general rather than "Life Extension". There are two books that Stefan introduced. The first one is from the speaker above.
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This is a summary of "Ending Ageing" from amazon:
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MUST WE AGE?
A long life in a healthy, vigorous, youthful body has always been one of humanity’s greatest dreams. Recent progress in genetic manipulations and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals hold forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total control over our own biological aging.
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Nearly all scientists who study the biology of aging agree that we will someday be able to substantially slow down the aging process, extending our productive, youthful lives. Dr. Aubrey de Grey is perhaps the most bullish of all such researchers. As has been reported in media outlets ranging from 60 Minutes to The New York Times, Dr. de Grey believes that the key biomedical technology required to eliminate aging-derived debilitation and death entirely—technology that would not only slow but periodically reverse age-related physiological decay, leaving us biologically young into an indefinite future—is now within reach.
In Ending Aging, Dr. de Grey and his research assistant Michael Rae describe the details of this biotechnology. They explain that the aging of the human body, just like the aging of man-made machines, results from an accumulation of various types of damage. As with man-made machines, this damage can periodically be repaired, leading to indefinite extension of the machine’s fully functional lifetime, just as is routinely done with classic cars. We already know what types of damage accumulate in the human body, and we are moving rapidly toward the comprehensive development of technologies to remove that damage. By demystifying aging and its postponement for the nonspecialist reader, de Grey and Rae systematically dismantle the fatalist presumption that aging will forever defeat the efforts of medical science.
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I browsed through the second book (below) and found it to be possibly an easier read.
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A summary of "A Scientific Conquest of Death" in Amazon:
Nineteen scientists, doctors and philosophers share their perspective on what is arguably the most significant scientific development that humanity has ever faced - the eradication of aging and mortality. This anthology is both a gentle introduction to the multitude of cutting-edge scientific developments, and a thoughtful, multidisciplinary discussion of the ethics, politics and philosophy behind the scientific conquest of aging.
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One of the key issues is that if we were to live forever, then are we allowed to have children?
Also, isn't reincarnation a better way? In that we still live forever, but our bodies are recycled and renewed in each of our incarnation? That is, if you believe in reincarnation.
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Stefan said that it may be better also to have a scientific alternative to extend life, just in case, reincarnation doesn't really happen. :)
It is so beautiful at MacRitchie in the morning. It's been a long while since I have joined the Sunday's session, which includes a morning jog or walk followed by book reading. In this session, we continued with Bucky's book, "Utopia or Oblivion".
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In it, there is one part that said, "...we have gone from 1% of humanity being able to survive in any important kind of health and comfort to 44% of humanity surviving at a standard of living unexperienced and undreamed of before." He went on to say that we should reach a 100% of humanity surviving at similar standards by the end of the century (year 2000).
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We are nine years past the end of the last century, but clearly we have yet to reach 100%. There are still many who are living below poverty levels and starve.
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As metals synergise to form stronger alloys as per their given weight, and other advancements of technologies to make products cheaper, we should be able to achieve that '100%'. In fact, Bucky said that it all should be achievable by 1984!
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So what is wrong?
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There is criticism that there are some people that are profiteering and hoarding more than their fair share of money. I think such criticism is subjective, since, what exactly is 'fair share'?
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I would rather discuss it from the perspective of 'the system'. In Tao, whatever you send out will come back more valuable. If they come back less valuable, then the system is malfunctioning. For instance, as I breathe out carbon-dioxide, it goes out and come back as oxygen, which is more valuable to me. However, as the system corrupts or rather pollutes, due to industries or the cutting down of trees, then I will get back lesser and lesser oxygen (or value).
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In this context, we think that the monetary system is not working, it as has inflation built-in. As mentioned earlier, with the advent of technologies, goods and services should be cheaper and not more expensive.
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Perhaps manufacturing will get more and more efficient, someday basic goods and services will be given free; and people will be relieved from laborious tedium, but instead engage in creative work and do it for the passion.
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So may be basic accommodation, food, utilities, broadband, TV and public transport will be free. Any extra (luxury) will have to be paid. Then will we have achieved 'the one-hundred percent'.
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Some pixs taken during my morning walk, before the book reading:
It was a beautiful day and I was strolling along the peaceful residential mall when a cat suddenly came pouncing on some birds at the side and ran away with one of the birds in his mouth. A man sitting nearby who saw it happened remarked that we should catch the cat and punish it.
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Actually, the cat did what a cat naturally do. It is doing its part in nature. Often, we hasten to make judgments about events and attempt to command what nature should or shouldn't do. However, the event is often but just a tiny part the bigger scheme of nature.
Stefan feels that the documentary is the kind of futurism that his dad's generation would envisioned, that is mostly of flying cars and sleek buildings. However, he likes the part about the new social structure that Jacque Fresco proposes, where designs are displayed as holograms and environmental issues are automatically monitored and adjusted by technology, leading to more community and less politics.
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I observed two design principles that Jacque has that differs from Buckminster Fuller.
1. Jacque says that all his designs are 'transitionary designs', meaning that they will evolve and that he doesn't know what the future will be. Wherelse Bucky's designs are expressed more conclusively.
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2. Jacque designs toilets with wet plumbing, but Bucky says that we shouldn't mix liquid waste with solid waste as they become grounds for bacterial infestation and the spread of disease. Bucky propounded that human excretement should be vacuum packed and harnessed for their methane gas that can be used as a domestic and industrial fuel.
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Perhaps with today's technologies, it is now less of a problem to have wet plumbing. For instance, modern digestors can breakdown sewage rapidly into water and carbon-dioxide, thus minimise the risks of spreading diseases.
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What impressed me most was when Jacque said that we need a policeman to guard something, because there is a need for that something which the thief don't have and cannot get. If we make things in abundance and available to everyone, then there is no need to steal. So, there is no crime and no policemen needed. As an illustration, he said that if there are plenty of trees bearing lemons and peaches abundantly, you won't be able to sell them.
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Extending this thought further, if everything is in abundance, then we won't be able to sell anything too. Which means that money will become obsolete!
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Bucky said, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. "
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Joo Hock said that Bucky said "Do more with less" - for instance new metal alloys are discovered with much more strength per given weight, then previous metal alloys. Such that, Bucky said there is no need to mine for metals anymore. Those above the ground can be recycled.
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"Then why is this not happening?" Stefan asked.
"Because of the need to make profits and to hoard money and speculate", replied Joo Hock.
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So will we see a resource based economy and an eventual demise and obsolescence of money?
Stefan said that while it is a good idea to have a resource based economy, there will always be a need for money to get some resources (like gold) that will still be scarce. "But then, gold has very limited industrial purposes", I said. "Yes, but that doesn't mean that I am going to give them away", Stefan replied.
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I feel there won't be a sudden demise of money but perhaps a gradually diminishing importance of money when basic goods become free. For instance, basic housing, food, utilities, telephony, broadband and even television becoming free, but for more luxury you have to pay. Then we can really enjoy life and live a creative one.
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Stefan said that unfortunately for some people, when they reach that state, instead of using the time to improve themselves like reading books, attending courses,...etc, they just sit around doing nothing. I think that is because we are so accustomed to working in a fix paid job. There are many people whom I know that will feel terribly nervous about not working and 'doing nothing' at home.
I think many people are too caught up in their daily mundane chores. They have lost touch with their true self and have forgotten how to live their life. They have been conditioned into a structured regular job or a series of compulsive and pre-planned tasks. They have become 'human-doings', not 'human-beings'. I remember the time when I was a kid in Singapore, life was much laid back under the kampung roofs, tropical breeze and coconut trees. People tend to find something they like to do and didn't feel lost idling when they didn't have a job. This is common as official unemployment was very high then.
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I know of one who would collect selected dead tree branches and make lamps out of them. He will sandpaper, polish, lacquer, wire them and insert a light bulb at the end, and they were pieces of art! Others will do gardening, or will have their routine to take strolls and end up in the kampung football field to watch a friendly match, then walk home leisurely for dinner. Life was much slower - no mobile phones, no faxes, no internet, also (commonly) no jobs! :) Many people had hobbies though.
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Chris asked about something she read in Stephan's book "James 5" regarding 'reputation' which she is interested to know more. Stefan explained that 'repuation' can turn out to be yet another currency of the future, which money cannot buy. Online reputation rating is already here as in e-Bay ratings, but currently they have some weaknesses at the moment. Also online reputation ratings are not transferable across different websites or e-portals. But he reckons it will improve and 'reputation' will become more valuable for online trading, as unlike off-line reputation, online ones are more quantifiable.
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It's getting late. So the meeting ended. Around 10pm.
Everything in the market is free. As the RRFM website says, "No money. No Barter. No trade. Everything is FREE!"
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The founders of Google ever said that free is best, as nobody can compete with 'free'.
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Is this possible in today's materialistic society? Particularly so in highly urbanised and compact city states like Singapore. But here it is, there is a market where everything is for free! :)
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Wikipedia:
The Really, Really Free Market (RRFM) movement is a non-hierarchical collective of individuals who form a temporary market based on an alternative gift economy. The RRFM movement aims to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It holds as a major goal to build a community based on sharing resources, caring for one another and improving the collective lives of all.
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Participants from the SouthEast Anarchist Network (SeaNET)[2] held demonstrations using the first known Really, Really Free Market to protest the G8 summit. The first known Really, Really Free Market took place simultaneously in Miami, Florida, and Raleigh, North Carolina during the anti-globalization protests against the FTAA in 2004.[3] The idea quickly spread across the United States.
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The RRFM website states the following reasons for giving things away free:
Because there is enough for everyone
Because sharing is more fufilling than owning
Because corporations would rather see landfills overflow than anyone get anything for free
Because scarcity is a myth constructed to keep us at the mercy of the economy
Because a sunny day outside is better than anything money can buy
Because "free trade" is a contradiction of terms
Because no one should have to do without food, shelter, entertainment, and community
Because life should be a picnic, but it only will be if we make it happen
Are we seeing the beginning of what will be a world where we won't need to work for money because everything we need is already provided for us for free?
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This is what philosopher and comprehensivist Buckminster Fuller sees in his World Game. Futurist Alvin Toffler envisioned that there will be more and more common "Prosumers", like open source programmers, bloggers, YouTube contributors,...etc in our societies - this may be a halfway house towards a world where we work only for passion and not for money. Read post about "Revolutionary Wealth".
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RRFMs are so far fragments of free flea markets doting around the US and now has set foot in Singapore. But is giving away free sustainable in the larger scheme of the market? Or is the market any more relevant if everything is free?
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Proponents of this free world thinks that technology will enable us to make things cheaper and cheaper. This is evident in the computer industry. Some say that one day nanotechnology assemblers will produce things so cheaply that it will not be worth selling to anyone. When we reach that, then truly the whole world will be a RRFM as we will have manifested the true abundance in this eternally regenerative universe. Then, money and the monetary system that goes with it will be obsolete.
This week, we watched a TED talk "Why play is vital - no matter what your age", by Stuart Brown.. ..
Discussion:
Joo Hock started the discussion by saying that Bucky is one who advocates play and he himself plays alot by partying and also inventing the World Game.
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What is good about the talk?
I am impressed with the 15th century picture of adults playing in the village square. I didn't know that happened in the old days, and that we have departed a lot from those sort casual and simple play.
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I wonder how many in this discussion group has played in the last seven days. [Many hands were up. Brilliant!] I haven't played for the last seven days. Perhaps this is what I need now.
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J said that there is also play, like playing with words, but I think that is not enough.
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Someone intervened to say that I was being too serious in wanting to manage 'play' - that is to control what should be 'play' and what should not be. Really? Now who is the one managing? :)
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Lu commented that it was very sad that we need to have an academic research on 'play'. For him, he just go out and play and do not need an academic to tell him that play is beneficial for him.
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I think that is a very myopic view of what academic research is about. Academic (objective) research co-exists with subjective experiences of play. They feed on each other. In objective studies there are subjectivities (eg. assumptions) and in subjective experiences, there are objectivities (empirical data). This is represented by the ying-yang symbol - ie. in the cycle of black there is a dot of white, and in the cycle of white there is a dot of black.
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There are research results on 'play' that can be beneficial to our lives.
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Monica: Such as...?
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Such as the example when they found out that rats that were restrained from playing in an experiment ended up not knowing that they should come out to search for food after the cat is away and ended up dead in hiding. Those rats who played, came out to search for food and lived. This findings could be beneficial to the training of our soldiers. Since military training is very serious and can result in nerotic soldiers if they did not have play built-in, and lost their instinct to survive in the battlefield.
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Vasu: It'll be sad if one day we have people with PhD in Play. :)
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I think so too! (That could imply the danger of over-specialisation and living in a cocoon.)
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In my information security training course some years ago, I planned to facilitate a role play with an attack scenario but was advised that the senior managers may not be willing to play along. Vasu felt that this is often the case until they get immersed into the playing and enjoying the games. Perhaps 'information security' is too sensitive a topic then. The games may compel them to reveal many of their malpractices! :)
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Joo Hock related to us a story of one of his ex-schoolmate who was a brilliant student who was rarely seen playing. Then recently, he saw this schoolmate in town dressed only in his briefs. Apparently, he has gone out of his mind! Sad.
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In the talk, the speaker mentioned about experiments he did with some academically brilliant students who could not perform some of the puzzles that required practical skills. I think this is because academically inclined people tend to be auditory, rather than kinesthetic.
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Sadly our education system now is an industrial complex that educates everyone to become an academic. That means assuming that everyone is auditory.
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Joo Hwa mentioned that in the army, you get some ill-coordinated recruits marching with their right arm and right leg out together, and then their left arm and left leg out together. He said this is due to lack of play, but I disagree. That is merely because these recruits were 'f*cked up' (screamed at) by the sergeant so much that they are 'blur' (totally disorientated). I think we should also take care not to attribute everything to lack of play! :)
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What do you not like about the talk?
I find the talk is rather superficial. Basically, I didn't learn very much new from the talk apart from the 15th century painting that shows that adults play in public. This is very little to wake up early in the morning at 6.30am for a Saturday morning for. :)
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I was thinking adults today do play in public too! The play just got more serious. Less mucking around and more structured and competitive. For instance, we play football, rugby, tennis...etc. So there is more serious play and less serious play.
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There is a child who after finishing a module in his Montessori class, went on to pick another game (at random) to play. The teacher stopped him, as there is certain structure and sequence to his curriculum, but he replied that play is also learning and learning is play. This didn't go well with the teacher and he was asked to put the game he is holding back on the shelf. So, though play is learning, there is also a structure when applied in a formal curriculum.
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It is like if I have only learned of things that I am interested in, then I would probably not know what are 'complex numbers' and 'imaginary planes' in mathematics, because at that time, I didn't have the power of visualisation to have arrived at such abstract interests in mathematics. Without knowing abstract mathematics, I wouldn't have been able to study engineering and implement designs.
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Someone said to me once upon a time, that what we learn in school should be what we will unlikely learn after school. This is so that our knowledge acquired in school will support and complement our work or life experiences. This person concerned studied Latin, Greek Classics and Art. From what I know of her, those subjects must have put her mind in great stead, as she has a strong reasoning power and is also very creative.
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After the Session:
I asked someone who is a gamer and teaches game design and programming in the polytechnic about video games and what benefits they bring to players. He said that online games are virtual and we have not reached a state where we have the technology to make it very close to reality. Hence the learning from online games are less cognitive - that means what is acted on on the screen is a few 'layers' away from action in the physical world. Although, experience from the military shows that recruits who play lots of 'shooting' and 'war games' perform better.
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I wonder what benefits do other online games, especially the role play ones like Second Life has on individuals. Will it result in addiction and a warped perception of their real life and physical world?
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Post mortem:
There was no time to go into
"What are the possibilities that can come from this talk?"
Here, I think that we can start playing more. For instance, when I am stressed, I exercise to de-stress. While exercising helps, I think it would be better to play games. It is more effective and fun! Playing is more relaxing.
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Opinions (so not compulsory):
The Bucky Group sessions are for sharing and discussions. It is not an experimental ground for facilitators or facilitators who use the session as a platform to show off their skills. I am not referring to those verbal skirmishes that happen from time to time. I am referring to people who typically asks questions with ready packaged 'right answers' up their sleeves so that they can use them to teach others something. And if they don't get the answers they want, they will nitpick until they get the answers they like to hear. I don't think this is what our sessions are meant to be.
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So, please be direct. Just say what you mean, and mean what you say. Nobody gave you permission to facilitate. There is only one facilitator in Bucky Group sessions and that is Joo Hock. It is also best to reserve your NLP techniques somewhere else and keep the Bucky sessions free from manipulations.
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Don't try to explain what another person is saying when that person is around and is halfway explaining, unless asked to do so, or his explanation has gone really dire. You may end up explaining something other than what the speaker wants, thus compounding the problem.
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Similarly, don't introduce somebody else when that someone else is there next to you. It makes the session sounds like a seminar preview and sales presentation. Let the person introduce himself or herself. It is more comfortable that way.
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Don't say, "Let me finish first...", unless you really mean something else other than what was understood midway. Otherwise you are betraying the trust and patience the other person has placed on you.
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Lastly, it will help if attendees are more attentive. Usually, a lot of time is spent arguing about things that have already been clearly said.
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Some people are not even attentive to themselves and forget what they have said just seconds later. Such people then go on to 'deny' what was said, but not intentionally, because by that time, they had truly forgotten what they had just said! Moral of the story is that if you are not attentive, you don't remember and therefore you will be wasting your time and other people's time. *haiz*
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But, as I have said, these are just my opinions on how the discussions can be made more effective. They are not compulsory and you don't have to agree.
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Sorry I don't take notes in Bucky sessions and the above notes came straight out of memory. I usually can remember what is discussed because I listen. However, I can't remember a lot of details this week because I had only a few hours of sleep the night before and woke up at 6.30am to turn up on time. It is quite a sacrifice every Saturday morning and it is slowly taking a toll on me. So, I'll be taking a break from the Group meetings from next week.
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Also, my Bucky books have been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for a long time. Actually far too long and it is about time to read them. In view of that, I have planned to spend Saturday mornings by the beach, reading, taking notes and enjoying the morning bliss. I think it will be time more productively spent.
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Attending the meetings on the other hand, can be very frustrating and therefore stressful.
The Futurist Group is now called the "Acceleration Aware Singapore" from now on. This is so that we don't run into being perceived as an airy-fairy sci-fi group, but substantiated by current technological developments.
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The topic this week is about "Accelerating Change" and the homework to do before the meeting is to read up on:
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1. Wikipedia "Accelerating Change"
In futures studies and the history of technology, accelerating change is an increase in the rate of technological (and sometimes social and cultural) progress throughout history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future. While many have suggested accelerating change, its popularity in modern times is closely associated with the ideas and writings of Raymond Kurzweil, especially in relation to his theories about technological singularity. Read more
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2. Ray Kurzell's TED Talk on "How technology's accelerating power will transform us".
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3. Ponder the question:
"How does accelerating change effect me in the next 5, 10 and 15 years?"
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Meanwhile, here are some interesting articles and videos pointed out by some of our members during our online Skype conference:
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1. Singularity University - Preparing Humanity for Accelerating Technological Change. For more, click here.
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The technological singularity is a theoretical future point of unprecedented technological progress—typically associated with advancements in computer hardware or the ability of machines to improve themselves using artificial intelligence. For more, click here
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2. Future Shock Level - A Shock Level measures the high-tech concepts you can contemplate without being impressed, frightened, blindly enthusiastic - without exhibiting future shock.
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Shock Level Zero or SL0, for example, is modern technology and the modern-day world,
SL1 is virtual reality or an ecommerce-based economy,
SL2 is interstellar travel, medical immortality or genetic engineering,
What we're seeing is the first stage of a rapid centralization of data-processing power - on a scale unimaginable before. At the same time, of course, the computing power at the edges, ie, in the devices that we all use, is also growing rapidly. An iPhone would have qualified as a supercomputer a few decades ago. But because the user devices draw much of their functionality (and data) from the Net, it's the centralization trend that's the key one in reshaping computing today. For more, click here
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4. Projector phones: Cool app or visual pollution?
Chip maker Texas Instruments (TI) has shrunk a video projector to the size of a raisin and it says the device is cheap enough to become the next must-have feature for cellphones. This means people could project their photos, videos and Powerpoint-style presentations on walls, tables or just about any other surface. Read more
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5. World's First Nanoradio Could Lead to Subcellular Remote-Control Interfaces
Less than two weeks after a team of scientists created a nanoscale radio component, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have gone one better -- announcing the creation of the world's first complete nanoradio.
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The breakthrough nanoradio consists of a single carbon-nanotube molecule that serves simultaneously as all the essential components of a radio -- antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier and demodulator...
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...The nanoradio is less than one micron long and only 10 nanometers wide -- or one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair -- making it the smallest radio ever created... Read more
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6. Zeitgeist - The Movie
Warning: This is a long 2 hour documentary.
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7. Zeitgeist - Addendum
. 8. The Venus Project- The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. Read here
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All these and the week's meeting proper have not even started yet! :)
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Discussion:
We started by discussing about the movie "Zietgeist", particularly the part about the Federal Reserve and the printing of money without the backing of gold, and creating debt for the US Treasury. If money is based on gold, then Central Banks will be more restricted to printing money at their own will. Gold was used because it is very rare, though it is a precious metal that has very few industrial use, unlike platinum or silver.
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Still a monetary system based on gold can still be leveraged. They can also continue to practise 'fractional banking' (see the movie for details).
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has their own currency called the "Special Drawing Rights".
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Wikipedia:
Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are potential claims on the freely usable currencies of International Monetary Fund members. SDRs have the ISO 4217 currency code XDR.
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SDRs are defined in terms of a basket of major currencies used in international trade and finance. At present, the currencies in the basket are the euro, the pound sterling, the Japanese yen and the United States dollar.
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SDRs are used as a unit of account by the IMF and several other international organizations. A few countries peg their currencies against SDRs, and it is also used to denominate some private international financial instruments.
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SDRs basically were created to replace gold in large international transactions. Being that under a strict (international) gold standard, the quantity of gold worldwide is relatively fixed, and the economies of all participating IMF members as an aggregate are growing, a perceived need arose to increase the supply of the basic unit or standard proportionately. Thus SDRs, or "paper gold", are credits that nations with balance of trade surpluses can 'draw' upon nations with balance of trade deficits. Readmore
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Stefan suggested that we now move on to discuss about Aetheism and Agnosticism.
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What is 'aetheism'?
Aetheists do not believe there is a god. However, not believing is still a belief. They believe that there is no proof that there is a god and therefore it does not exist. It is difficult to prove what is god, if god itself is not defined.
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What is god?
If you claim a knowledge (of god) that you can't define, then you tend to move into the metaphysical plane. Those who argue that there is no evidence of god and therefore that it does not exist does not hold. Clearly, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Some think of god as something which they cannot imagine anything greater.
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Rejection of god is a rejection of a pattern of consciousness that has a higher intrinsic purpose and direction. God must have a purpose and meaning. Some of us finds it difficult to understand that there is such directions and meaning and therefore acknowledge themselves as agnostics.
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I think if there is a direction and purpose, it may be difficult for many to grasp and understand, since we tend to think of the world from our own view. Many people think that if there is a god, why did he allow all the catastrophies that befall mother Earth and its inhabitants. Why can't god fix these problems? However, if he fixes all those problems, then there won't be free-will. That wouldn't work either.
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I think we have to step back and look at the world from a broader perspective. Few people can step out of their own shell to look at it as an observer. For instance, if a tree falls onto my house, it is bad news to me, but a paradise for the termites.
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Also we are all in a unconscious evolutionary path. For instance, bees busy themselves because they want the honey and not because they have the wider purpose about the need to pollinate the flowers and sustain a global ecology.
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So I guess there is a higher purpose, higher meaning and direction, just that we may not be able to see them all.
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By clearing our minds through meditation or otherwise, it will be possible to see the world in clearer light and understanding.
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[Interjection from another member]: I can't follow this argument because it is much dependent on individual experience...
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Stefan: Wait. We have listened to your argument from a 'scientific' and logical view, which is objective, but this is not reason to reject subjective views based on another's experience.
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[that 'member']: Ok, granted. Agree to that.
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Someone said that there are also different types of aetheists, namely the weak aetheists and the strong aetheists. There are some who say that they are aetheists because there is no proof that there is god, therefore they don't know if there is god.
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That I think are confused people - neither aetheists or agnostics.
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It is difficult to determine if there is a god. Commonly, there is the rejection of the mono-theistic anthropomorphic god, as in the prevailing Christian practice. But it is something else rejecting the universal formless god force that is said to exist in every atom.
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It also depends on the religion. Buddhists claim to be aetheists as they don't believe in a god, but they speak a lot about Nature and the Universe. Are they supposed to be the same?
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Another participant says he is an aetheist because he rejects the many atrocities, calamities and wars that were conducted in the name of god. I corrected that that is a rejection of religion, not of necessarily of god.
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Stefan says that folklore, folk religion and practices are converging (or may be they have common intrinsic values) to compassion. I think this is because Mother Earth is vibrating more and more from the Heart Centre, as we enter a new era.
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There are different ways of perceiving this change and ultimately all truthful perception leads to the same.
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What the technological changes that help us come together to this unity and compassion?
The Internet is one.
I think if productive nanotechnology assemblers is another as it will create abundance, setting the human spirit free from drudgery and tedium.
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Some of the recent technological achievements like the nanoradio is staggering. It is so small and can be built into a helmet to amplify and transfer our thoughts.
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Do we want that?
That effectively makes everyone a telepathic agent. Do we want everyone to know every single bit of our thoughts? If not, then likely there will be 'thought filters' added to such a telepathic helmet.
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Some people may not want even their wives to know every of their thoughts. I suspect not 'some' but 'many'! :) But conversely, there are some couples who open all their thoughts to each other. Such couples often develop a psychic ability to read their partner's thoughts. So, without technology telepathy already exists, and our willingness to share our thoughts are really independent from the availability of telepathic technological aids.
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Will these technologies be imposed onto societies?
I think acceptance will come gradually with each new generation who grew up with these technologies. The young learn more easily and may be more open to have their entire thoughts broadcasted to everyone. They may not care about such privacy! Something which we may find hard to fanthom at present. Similarly, just say five years ago, many people would not put their photographs online, but today, it is common practice. Some even put their diaries online - we call them 'blogs'. :)
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Will there be more conflicts or harmony as a result of all the new (and some intrusive) technologies? Will there be a dependency on them? Will there be more twisted minds?
I think twisted minds are the way they are because of fear. Question is will these technologies create more fear. Will people become more fearful if there are more abundance, as produced by the nanotechnology assemblers? Chances are that there will be less fear, and perhaps more open-ness among the new generations.
[End]
The Futurists' meeting is held every Wednesday 7.30pm-9.30pm at the Global Sound Cafe, along South Bridge Road, in Singapore. Anyone welcome. There are no membership fees or anything to pay. You don't even have to agree with anyone, but just the need to participate and be open.
We are all to live in the present tense. It is a present continuous tense. But they will all, without exception, become past tense, and finally, past perfect.
This week, we listened in to Barry Schwartz on "The real crisis? We stopped being wise."
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Discussion:
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Joo Hwa said that what he likes about the talk is that, "Rule number 1, there are no rules"
Someone else continued that there are always rules, but we must use our commonsense to see what is practicable. However, I think that the word "commonsense" is precisely what bureucrats are afraid of. "Commonsense" has to be defined.
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Here, Ralf brought out the book "Common Sense", written by Thomas Paine in 1776, that set off the American Revolution.
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Wikipedia defines 'Common Sense" as "...consists of what people in common would agree on: that which they "sense" (in common) as their common natural understanding. "
Jo brought out his experience of handling exceptions in the travel industry in that it can be used as a competitive edge. Customers take delight in having their exceptions well handled.
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Jn replied that however, exceptions can be tedious to deal with and businesses may not like to end up spending too much time on exceptions which is a lesser occurence.
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Jn shared her experience of her company's rules on not accepting cash from customers due to past abuse. Jn has a client that works six days a week as a food stall attendant and is too tired to go to the bank to send the money. She doesn't have cheque books and doesn't know enough English to transfer money via the ATM. In view of that, Jn accepted her cash, but ended up being hauled up by her management for breaking the rules. Jn suffered a black mark in her company, but till this day feels that it was worth breaking that rule in that instance as she put the customer first.
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In my example as an information security policy manager in the past, we accept applications for waiver of certain policies by applications project managers. In it, they will explain why they can't follow certain policies and we will discuss and decide if we approve the waiver. Periodically, we will examine the statistics for the number of application for waivers, the number approved and determine if it is the policy that is not practical. If so, then we change the policy.
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Jn brought out the example of the mainland Chinese buyer of the two fountain heads of a rat and a rabbit, at the recent Christie's auction, and then refused to pay for them, in order to sabotage the auction. These two fountain figurines were looted by the European occupation forces during the Ching dynasty in China.
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W had a young employee who on the first day suggested that she can bring her previous clientele to her. W didn't accept to do that as she thought this is not morally correct. However, this is a standard practice in many industries. Private Banks poached senior private bankers just for their clientele. It is such an open secret that it is almost standard practice.
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It is such a common practice that some people even childed me for being naive and impractical to stick on to some moral values. Unfortunately, some personalities of such exploits and financial successes are amplified by the media as 'heroes'. What we need are more moral heroes, not just money heroes. And this moral heroes can be just ordinary folks.
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I have an experience with the 'auntie' selling three packs of tissue papers for one dollar at Tampines MRT station. That morning, I had only ninety cents of change and decided to just give the money to her. She refused and insisted that I take the tissue paper. I told her I couldn't do that as I had only ninety cents and not one dollar. Then she insisted that I take at least 2 packs of the tissue paper. I think she is a moral hero. Despite her visible abject poverty, she would refuse to accept charity and free money.
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Jacy also brought up an example of someone who advised her to park her car at the higher floors instead of the more danger prone lower floors. He doesn't have to do that, but did that as his moral responsibility. That too, is a morally heroic act.
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To round it up, I would say that as Dr Aaron have said, if we put Love first, the things will naturally falls into place. When we put Love first, we will know which rule to break or not to break.
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Exercise: Can you share about your experience with a moral hero or someone you know of that who is fit to be one? Send them in as a comment. Let's start the ball rolling of recognising moral heroes.
This Saturday is Flip's last session with us before he return to Holland for good. Flip has been in Singapore for 20 years and has been a regular in the Bucky Group. We wish him well and I congratulate him for ending his 'double life' between the two countries.
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After the coffee and cakes, we proceeded to watch a TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on "A new way to think about creativity".
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Joo Hock introduced the De Bono's Six Thinking Hats to bring forward some structure to our discussion. It also minimise prejudgement of a topic during discussions.
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From Wikipedia:
The de Bono Hats system (also known as "Six Hats" or "Six Thinking Hats") is a thinking tool for group discussion and individual thinking. Combined with the idea of parallel thinking which is associated with it, it provides a means for groups to think together more effectively, and a means to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. Read more
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I think this tool will bring about more focus and attentiveness among us during discussions.
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Notable note:
Someone shared the story of how a choreographer ( which is Twyla Tharp ) manage her creativity by getting inspiration from Billy Joel.
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One of her ways of managing her creative process is when she has a new dance to choreograph, she start a box and:
1. Write down her objective on an index card and put it into the box.
This week's discussion is about nanotechnology. It is a topic I barely know anything about. So attending this session is just an educational trip for me. Don't despair if you feel you too have scant knowledge of the topic.
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Here are some links which you may like to read first:
Nanotechnology, which is sometimes shortened to "Nanotech", refers to a field whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecularscale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.
Nanotechnology is extremely diverse, ranging from novel extensions of conventional device physics, to completely new approaches based uponmolecular self-assembly, to developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale, even to speculation on whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale... more
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For those of you who are at the expert level, you may like to read this post in the Next Big Future.
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While waiting for everyone to arrive, Stefan shared with us about this book that he is reading, "Homo Necans".
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Homo Necans: the Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth is a book on ancient Greek religion and mythology by Walter Burkert, which won the Weaver Award for Scholarly Literature, awarded by the Ingersoll Foundation, in 1992.[1] The book's core thesis is that when paleolithic man became a hunter, in spite of the generally omnivorous orientation of the great apes, lack of a predator instinct was made up for by turning patterns of intra-species aggression against the prey. Read more
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A begineer's book to read on nanotechnology, is "Engines of Creation" by K Eric Drexler.
Drexler wrote about a world where the entire Library of Congress fit a chip the size of a sugar cube and "universal assemblers" (tiny machines that build atom by atom) will be used for everything from medicinal robots that help clear the capillaries to environmental scrubbers that clear pollutants from the air.
Stefan started the discussion by saying that he chose the topic for this week because it is one of the three great foundations of the new future, namely: Transhumanism, Artificial Intelligence and Nanotechnology. He then asked if anyone in the group is an expert on productive nanotechnology assemblers, which got us laughing as it is difficult to be an expert on something that is not in production yet. :)
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Productive nanotechnology assemblers are about precise manufacturing that is self-repairing and self-replicating, at a very low cost. It is likened to replicating the contents in a DVD. With goods produced so cheaply, we may not need to work anymore - or at least the kind of work that we know of today.
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There is a book called, "The Diamond Age", which depicts the social remifications of nanotechnology. Here is something about the book on Wikipedia:
The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is a bildungsroman focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. Some main motifs include: education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence. Readmore.
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We then proceeded to discuss about the ramifications to society that the advent of nanotechnology may have. It will lead to a post-scarcity society, when we have a productive universal assembler. Most likely the owner of the technology will license it out to others to reproduce his assembler.
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There will then be no scarcity, unless people then look at handmade products or slightly imperfect products for novelty reasons.
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It will be an uncanny situation as then everyone will be very wealthy and that may not be liked by the rich people now, as generally, people likes to be relatively richer than others, than to have everyone equally rich - even if the absolute income of everyone can be high.
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Will there be a nanotechnology war in that, there will be dis-assemblers made to disassemble the assemblers? Fearful governments may do that to disassemble assemblers that are a threat to their hold on power. This in turn, may give rise to counter dis-assemblers, to dis-assemble the dis-assemblers.
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The software industry could be a good model to follow, in that they have the software, then malware (viruses...etc), then anti-viruses, then there are malware that attacks anti-viruses...etc.
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Actually so far we have been looking at the social ramifications from a Western viewpoint. That is, that all problems come about due to material scarcity.
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How about corporate control of nanotechnology?
Will there come a time when only one such company will control the entire world, just like how Microsoft dominate personal computers?
Will the first one to achieve a productive nanotechnology assembler control to the world?
Or will it be unlikely that the first one will be so advanced to be able to do so?
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Will this lead to immortality where we can have cellular replacement, or have our brains duplicated?
If so, which one will be the real me? The original me or the newly duplicated me? Is this legally the same person? It'll be likely that after the duplication the two (original and duplicate) persons will start to diverge in personality as they will start to have new experiences and learning processes.
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Perhaps the first productive assemblers will be one hardwired to produce specific objects and not a universal assembler.
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Will this assembler be developed from the military or the consumer market?
Military applications (products) tend to serve tactical purposes whilst the consumer market producers tend to be more strategic in their development.
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How about the Internet?
It was developed by the military and nobody expected that it can be so widespread and used to enable so many applications.
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Therefore, the 'joker in the pack' would be the human factor, or the human nature. What applications and social ramifications nanotechnology will have is likely to be lead by our innate human nature - to create, destroy, dominate, innovate...etc. There can be surprises on the way.
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Stefan then asked everyone how long we think we will get a productive nanotechnology assembler. I have no clue. Someone said 50 to 75 years. Stefan reckons we are only 15 years away, based on the developments that are already on the way - for that, you have to start doing some serious research and reading. For me, I am lost! :)
Bucky Group Rain or shine, unless otherwise stated Saturdays (8.30am-10.00am) at Hair Affair, B1 Adelphi . Sundays (7.00-10.30am) at MacRitchie Reservoir Breakfast after the reading session
Anyone can join the Bucky Group. There are no pre-requisites, no formal memberships nor fees to pay, but just the receptivity to life long learning and fun. The Group meets every Saturday and Sunday, and has been doing since 1995.
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