from The Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie

from The Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie

3 months ago

There are no words. 

3 months ago

Kevin Slavin: How Algorithms Shape our World 

It took me 3 times before I could fully comprehend what Kevin had to say. The future looks horrendously terrifying in a fascinating way when you consider how much we incorporate uncontrollable algorithms into our lives like Kevin suggests. Besides that, this is an exceptional presentation.

Transcript:

This is a photograph by the artist Michael Najjar and it’s real. In the sense that he went there to Argentina to take the photo. But it’s also a fiction. There’s a lot of work that into it after that. And what he’s done is that he actually reshaped, digitally, all the contours in the mountains to follow the vicissitudes of the Dow Jones Index. So what you see, that precipice, that high precipice with the valley, is the 2008 financial crisis.

Link to the rest of the transcript.

(Source: youtube.com)

3 months ago

Century of the Self: a Four Part Documentary about Consumerism, Democracy, and Propaganda 

From Hopeless Bleak Despair:

The documentary breaks down just how and why a small handful of men took the ideas first put forth by Sigmund Freud to create the idea of ‘public relations’. They then began a steady manipulation using this type of propaganda to spark and perpetuate needless consumerism and to influence the political landscape of western culture. This manipulation has led to a fundamental change in the psyche of the individual, and thus, the way our society exists, operates, and ultimately where it is going and why.

A summary from Wikipedia:

[…] The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy, commodification and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitudes to fashion and superficiality.

Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, a key player in the development of ‘public relations’, sums it up:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

This is a must-see documentary. It will completely alter your outlook on business, consumerism, and democracy. 

3 months ago
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[…]By 2100, we shall have the power of the gods of mythology that we once worshipped and feared. In particular, the computer revolution should give us the ability to manipulate matter with our minds, the biotech revolution should give us the ability to create life almost on demand and extend our life span, and the nanotech revolution may give us the ability to change the form of objects and even create them out of nothing. And all this may eventually lead to the creation of a planetary Type I civilization. So the generation now alive is the most important ever to walk the surface of the earth, for we will determine if we will reach a Type I civilization or fall into the abyss.

From The Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku. We’ve only gotten a taste of things to come with technology. 
3 months ago
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The preeminent transnational community in our culture is science. With the release of nuclear energy in the first half of the twentieth century that model commonwealth decisively challenged the power of the nation-state. The confrontation is ongoing and inextricably embedded in mortal risk, but it offers at least a distant prospect of felicity.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
4 months ago

How Entrepreneurism and Capitalism Can Help the Education System

I’d like to begin this off with a quote from Publius Syrus: “Everything is what it’s purchaser will pay for it.” 

With that in mind I would now like to ask you what you think it means to have an education. Think about it.

I think having an education means being able to contribute value to the world. If you are educated you are able to play a role in society. An educated person is able to contribute to the well-being of Planet Earth.

I think the education system should realign it’s purpose to these merits. If the education system helped students contribute value to the world, I believe the journey towards peace and truth will be one step closer. 

Of course, there’s a problem with how to implement this idea. Theory is one thing, practice is another. There needs to be a systematic tangible process to this mumble jumble vague idea of “contributing value to the world”. 

This is where capitalism and Publius Syrus’ quote comes in. Value is determined by buyers. In other words if you’re making money, you can be sure you’re contributing value to the world in some form. “Everything is worth what it’s purchaser will pay for it.” If a product isn’t selling, it does not hold value to purchasers. On the other hand if people are coming in by the dozen offering you millions of dollars for something you offer, you hold immense value.

This is where it all comes together. If you had an education system focused on profit, to use a word that has many negative connotations, real world results can be garnered. Even better, educators will know they have done their job when their students are making money. Because if the students are making money, in some way they are contributing value to the world. 

The education system should be facilitating development, evolution, and maturation. The future of education lies in entrepreneurism and capitalism because real world results are what matter. Not an A+ or a letter beside your name. 

4 months ago
quotevadis: KUBRICK: “Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope with our mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their Idealism—and their assumption of Immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if he’s reasonably strong—and lucky—he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s élan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death—however mutable man may be able to make them—our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfilment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” — Stanley Kubrick Anything is possible in time, quantum mechanics says so. Genuine meaning can be created in time. So have faith in the future that genuine meaning can be created, facilitate that process and you’ve created meaning for yourself. 

quotevadis:

KUBRICK: “Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope with our mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their Idealism—and their assumption of Immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if he’s reasonably strong—and lucky—he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s élan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death—however mutable man may be able to make them—our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfilment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”

— Stanley Kubrick

Anything is possible in time, quantum mechanics says so. Genuine meaning can be created in time. So have faith in the future that genuine meaning can be created, facilitate that process and you’ve created meaning for yourself. 

4 months ago
In The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes talks about Neils Bohr and his ideas regarding harnessing atomic energy. Specifically Niels Bohr argued the advent of nuclear bombs would force nations around the world to be honest and cooperate. Consequently the faults in politics would be exposed and social progress would be made: Bohr talked to George Marshall after the war[…]. “What it would mean,” he told him, “if the whole picture of social conditions in every country were open for judgment and comparison, need hardly be enlarged upon.” The great and deep difficulty that contained within itself its own solution was not, finally, the bomb. It was the inequality of men and nations. The bomb in its ultimate manifestation, nuclear holocaust, would eliminate that inequality by destroying rich and poor, democratic and totalitarian alike in one final apocalypse. It followed complementarily that the opening up of the world necessary to prevent (or reverse) an arms race would also progressively expose and alleviate inequality but in the direction of life, not death. Whether or not the armament of atomic bombs provoked these changes in the world can be argued, regardless, this is a story and there is a moral to find here. As we become more proficient in manipulating science to our use and become more and more powerful, we are forced to take a step back. We are forced to realize the drastic consequences that can occur misusing our science discoveries. On the other hand if we implement them and use them wisely, our science discoveries can provoke social changes. To put it succinctly the pursuit of science leads us down a path of social progress that would be unattainable otherwise.

In The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes talks about Neils Bohr and his ideas regarding harnessing atomic energy. Specifically Niels Bohr argued the advent of nuclear bombs would force nations around the world to be honest and cooperate. Consequently the faults in politics would be exposed and social progress would be made:

Bohr talked to George Marshall after the war[…]. “What it would mean,” he told him, “if the whole picture of social conditions in every country were open for judgment and comparison, need hardly be enlarged upon.” The great and deep difficulty that contained within itself its own solution was not, finally, the bomb. It was the inequality of men and nations. The bomb in its ultimate manifestation, nuclear holocaust, would eliminate that inequality by destroying rich and poor, democratic and totalitarian alike in one final apocalypse. It followed complementarily that the opening up of the world necessary to prevent (or reverse) an arms race would also progressively expose and alleviate inequality but in the direction of life, not death.

Whether or not the armament of atomic bombs provoked these changes in the world can be argued, regardless, this is a story and there is a moral to find here. As we become more proficient in manipulating science to our use and become more and more powerful, we are forced to take a step back. We are forced to realize the drastic consequences that can occur misusing our science discoveries. On the other hand if we implement them and use them wisely, our science discoveries can provoke social changes. To put it succinctly the pursuit of science leads us down a path of social progress that would be unattainable otherwise.

4 months ago
From Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs: The upshot of a demographic transition theory is that the total fertility rate declines with a lag, leading to a massive onetime bulge of population as the society transitions from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality. At both the start and the end of the transition, the overall population growth is low, but during the transition, the population soars. The world has been in that transition, claims the theory, for the past two hundred years. In fifty years’ time, or earlier with good policies, the world will complete the transition and enter an era of population stability.  According to this theory, our rapidly growing population as of recently as well as today is nothing but a transition. That is to say our overcrowded planet is not an end result but is a process. Humanity in the next stage will settle down. The chaos that runs rampant today will die down. Peace and tranquility will be garnered. Order can be reestablished.  Today is nothing but the scrambling of people all over the world working towards peace. Imagine a world where everybody, including species other than humans, can get what they want. There will be no competition over resources.  Today the piñata has been ripped apart and everybody is rushing in trying to get all the candy they can get. Tomorrow will be like the Christmas dinner where everybody is family and each person has enough to eat and the leftovers are given to the people in need. The demographic transition theory holds huge implications for the future.

From Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs:

The upshot of a demographic transition theory is that the total fertility rate declines with a lag, leading to a massive onetime bulge of population as the society transitions from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality. At both the start and the end of the transition, the overall population growth is low, but during the transition, the population soars. The world has been in that transition, claims the theory, for the past two hundred years. In fifty years’ time, or earlier with good policies, the world will complete the transition and enter an era of population stability. 

According to this theory, our rapidly growing population as of recently as well as today is nothing but a transition. That is to say our overcrowded planet is not an end result but is a process. Humanity in the next stage will settle down. The chaos that runs rampant today will die down. Peace and tranquility will be garnered. Order can be reestablished. 

Today is nothing but the scrambling of people all over the world working towards peace. Imagine a world where everybody, including species other than humans, can get what they want. There will be no competition over resources. 

Today the piñata has been ripped apart and everybody is rushing in trying to get all the candy they can get. Tomorrow will be like the Christmas dinner where everybody is family and each person has enough to eat and the leftovers are given to the people in need. The demographic transition theory holds huge implications for the future.

4 months ago