tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8712390640556606972024-03-13T12:13:25.816-07:00Synchronicity & MetaverseJosh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-25282260160432801192023-06-06T18:56:00.000-07:002023-06-06T18:56:09.939-07:00<p> It may be technically true that such policies as urban "camping bans" do not constitute the "criminalization of homelessness." What these policies criminalize are people's efforts to substantially alleviate their homelessness. And since people who are homeless are going to be inclined to make such efforts, these policies should perhaps be described as criminalizing the homeless, rather than criminalizing homelessness.</p><p><br /></p><p>Homelessness, in fact, continues to be a key structural component of the political-economic regime that generates, and is maintained by, these policies. We should recognize that prohibitions on the erection of structures amount to the *manufacture* of homelessness. By manufacturing homelessness, power structures wield the threat of complete destitution in order to induce us to serve them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some may feel that this arrangement is necessary in order to keep civilization from descending into utter chaos and ruin, but we can at least make this assumption more conscious and explicit, and then examine whether other arrangements, perhaps involving less bureaucracy and less brutality, could as effectively, or more effectively, provide for our security, health, and flourishing. It's obvious that certain agendas are served when the current arrangement is characterized as necessary, and that these agendas have exerted outsized influence over our discourse. So plotting an optimal course may require some deep critical thinking. And when we dig into these questions in connection with the full range of world issues that confront us, we may conclude that it's the status quo power structures themselves that pose the greater risk of precipitating a (further) slide into planetary catastrophe.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think all of this can, and preferably would, be expressed not in any kind of judgmental way, but rather in a way that reflects deep understanding of the impulses and factors behind the criminalization policies. Within the current civilizational context in which we coexist, these criminalizations readily emerge. They're often presented as ways of addressing very real, and highly visible, ills and depravities. We do have some people (both homeless and otherwise) who have deteriorated to such a degree that emergency intervention is warranted for their own well-being and that of others. There's often been a strong reflexive tendency to attribute such problems to excessive leniency or permissiveness, but this kind of analysis lacks context. Our societies have included varying sorts of mutual assistance and tolerance, but they've also included a hierarchical superstructure that consistently neutralizes all but most rudimentary attempts to build a decent life outside the hierarchy. (In 2017, I managed to secure a place to live in a self-organized urban homesteading village. I lived there for four years and it was of incalculable value, but such opportunities have been extreme exceptions, almost unheard of anywhere in the world.)</p><p><br /></p><p>A new kind or degree of civilization seems important in this potentially burgeoning metaversal era. More refined ethical standards may be important in order to successfully assimilate such powerful new technology. Moving beyond the suppression of solutions for homelessness, beyond the use of the threat of homelessness as a way to keep us in line, could be a key step.</p>Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-68742287024987742472022-11-03T15:12:00.001-07:002022-11-03T15:15:25.007-07:00<p>Homelessness, drug abuse, and mental illness are distinct but partially overlapping problems. With some people, drug abuse has contributed to them becoming homeless. With some, it’s been just the reverse. Some have been homeless without abusing drugs, and some have abused drugs without being homeless. Similar statements can be made about the connections between homelessness and mental illness, and between mental illness and drug abuse. And sometimes two or more of these problems arise with no clear direction of causation between them.</p><p>Mental illness</p><p>Shortages of mental health resources – facilities and services – and shortages of mechanisms for placing and connecting people with appropriate resources, have, over many years, left many people to deteriorate further and further. We have a complicated history, in which mental health facilities, policies, and practices have themselves sometimes been harmful for the patients, but in recent decades the large-scale unavailability of resources and mechanisms has been disastrous.</p><p>Drugs</p><p>Our exquisitely sensitive, complex, delicate bodies are affected in a vast variety of different ways by different substances. Part of learning and growing as a species is that we as individuals are increasingly able to program our bodies and minds in multitudes of ways, including via chemical regimens. As we evolve beyond our legacy of highly centralized, authoritarian ways of managing regimens and safeguarding our health, it’s important for individuals to gain more comprehensive knowledge and tools for optimizing our use of drugs.</p><p>We have a very heterogeneous group of substances that have often hitherto been classed and treated as illicit ‘recreational’ drugs. Some, like opioids and methamphetamine, do, based on their chemical properties and the physiological effects they produce, seem to merit extreme caution, skepticism, and avoidance. The state of the world we live in, our struggles to be comfortable in our skins, political/economic conditions, etc., help explain the prevalence of these drugs, but friends feel the urge to warn each other when such potentially seductive but demonstrably dangerous choices are readily available.</p><p>Other substances that have often hitherto been classed and treated as illicit ‘recreational’ drugs, like cannabis and psychedelics, can often be benign or even highly medicinal or therapeutic. Not that there's no potential for abuse or misuse with these also - there can be, but also, these are substances that seem to have major potentials for positive personal/social transformation when deployed intelligently.</p><p>It seems crucial to affirm these sorts of distinctions between different drugs, while also remembering that the results in each case depend on multitudes of other situational factors in addition to the chemical properties of the substances.</p><p>Homelessness</p><p>There’s much that can be said about the “role,” and the often harsh realities, of homelessness throughout history. At the current moment it seems salient to mention that criminalization policies like camping bans and feeding bans actively prevent people from building concrete solutions on the ground. If better solutions than outdoor camping and feeding are not suppressed, then people naturally adopt those solutions.</p>Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-1063555876934950342021-10-25T17:02:00.004-07:002021-10-25T17:24:44.173-07:00Metaverse project pageSee <a href="https://patreon.com/graphicalonlinediscourse">patreon.com/GraphicalOnLineDiscourse</a> for recent posts regarding the Metaverse and graphical online discourse (the prospective emergence within the Metaverse of means of communication that will transcend spoken and written languages).
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-22896115406499780902020-06-24T17:32:00.002-07:002020-06-24T17:34:00.736-07:00With regard to autonomous/free/self-organized zones, it seems best to avoid identifying them too closely with any particular group of people. The participation and support of vast numbers of people are involved in the creation and continuation of such a place. A major defining characteristic is that it's open to, and organized for the benefit of, everyone, to a significantly greater extent than was the case at the location previously. (This is true of the zone as a whole, within which people have their respective private areas/structures.) Attempts to determine "the goal," or "the message," of such a phenomenon, seem likely to be missing some of its most significant aspects. Whatever other messages and goals there may be, the phenomenon is a prime example of McLuhan's paradox: the medium is the message. If there's a welcoming, self-organized space, where people can have a relatively decent existence and the opportunity to participate peacefully and meaningfully, then that in and of itself is an important goal and an important message.<br />
<br />
For a more optimal paradigm to emerge, we'll ideally want to have more optimal systems and mindsets ready before deactivating systems of the previous paradigm. But we also find that systems of the previous paradigm constrain us, and constrain the development of more optimal systems and mindsets, so significantly that in some cases, and in some places, it's important to be able to exist free of those constraints, in order for that development to happen and in order to address ongoing humanitarian disasters.<br />
<br />
The mutual aid that occurs in such places has sometimes drawn disparagement. A friendly, free, centrally-located space can make possible a comprehensive continuum of care - shelter, food, clothing, etc. (It can simultaneously help with higher parts of Maslow's hierarchy too.) There's clearly an ongoing emergency, and these zones, whatever else they may be, are a way of addressing the emergency. Many in this world have tended to be forgotten or left behind. Effective, comprehensive, large-scale caretaking is a relative novelty. A situation in which such caretaking becomes possible in a very sudden and very visible way is likely to elicit some alarm and concern, despite the urgency of the underlying situation. The emergency has gone on for so long that in many ways, it seems we've gotten used to it, or become numb to it. But an emergency, especially one that could very well become even worse than it is already in the near future, calls for a response - not a panicked or ill-considered response, but an effective response, which may involve thoughtfully altering certain familiar patterns in how things function.<br />
<br />
An emergency is a serious situation to deal with, often difficult and unpleasant, and often tragic, but it can sometimes spur innovation yielding results that are useful beyond the emergency situation. Besides the fact of many people currently facing serious dangers and hardships like extreme poverty, plenty of other aspects of our world may be ripe for restructuring. There's an appropriate eagerness to help those facing immediate emergency situations, so we would expect those types of things to be among the first issues to be addressed in a free space. But if we let it, such a place can also become a hub for experimentation and innovation, reverberating everywhere.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-39895917585317603652019-10-12T00:15:00.001-07:002019-11-14T00:04:34.899-08:00The paranormal & the paradigm<i>[Part 2 added Nov 12; last edited Nov 14]</i><br />
<br />
<b>Part 1</b><br />
<br />
I'd like to discuss two contrasting points, which we've often treated as mutually exclusive alternatives, but which have some notable implications when we consider both together. 1) The presence of transcendental (mystical, paranormal, spiritual, or extradimensional) realms. An abundance of evidence and experience indicates the existence of such beings and phenomena. 2) The absence of transcendental realms. The elusiveness of these beings and phenomena is a key fact to acknowledge. The Veil of separation between the other worlds and ours seems to be very conscientiously maintained.<br />
<br />
In the absence of the transcendental, life on earth has its heavenly aspects, but it’s also been replete with pain, suffering, hardship, struggle, and despair. Understanding and contacting the transcendental have been enormous interests and challenges - frequently controversial, sometimes seemingly all-consuming.<br />
<br />
As difficult as it is being separated from the transcendental, we can say that this separation imparts definite purpose to our lives. We encounter millions of missions to accomplish - problems to solve, tasks requiring care, effort, focus, etc. - that would presumably present very little challenge if there were no Veil. In other words, transcendental beings could presumably accomplish these missions, solve these problems, carry out these tasks, quickly and easily. Even the subtlest or most spiritual forms of development - accepting existence and non-existence, interacting with others and the self authentically and compassionately, experiencing and reflecting the unity in everything, etc. - even such lessons as these could conceivably be taught in the context of a far less ambiguous relationship with the transcendental realms. In fact, this bereft earthly setting sometimes seems like one of the most chaotic, least suitable environments possible for the growth and flourishing of conscious beings. We can bitterly resent being unnecessarily placed in such difficult situations, but such bitterness seems to produce a less elegant, less optimal existence. While we’re here in this world, attending to constructive activity (from the spiritual to the physical) produces positive consequences - immediate and personal, cosmic and long-term. Seems like a sensible use of our time.<br />
<br />
The transcendental realms have been so absent that it’s easy to see how so much credence has been given to the idea that they probably don't exist, or, at least, don't interact with us in interesting or intentional ways. We’ve suspected that entertaining the transcendental amounts to unrealistic wishful thinking. And in fact, it is a comforting position to entertain! And comforting doesn’t necessarily mean wrong! My honest assessment (and that of many others) is that a solid preponderance of the evidence points toward the reality of these other realms and toward the possibility of experiencing closer contact with them.<br />
<br />
Many worthwhile avenues of spiritual exploration and discovery (in addition to life and death themselves!) seem to present themselves. We can study, practice, and refine techniques for manifesting paranormal phenomena and cultivating paranormal capacities. We can facilitate psychedelic experimentation. Maybe we can eventually develop spiritual machines.<br />
<br />
If we take care not to hastily deny or reject the transcendental, let’s not hastily deny its absence, either. In order to connect more fruitfully with the true nature of mystical realms, it seems important to acknowledge their mysteriousness, acknowledge that there’s no clear, single, exclusive, spiritual authority. We’re tasked with using our best judgment to interpret the complexity of what’s going on and with co-creatively developing approaches and solutions to issues big and small.<br />
<br />
<b>Part 2</b><br />
<br />
And indeed there are some big issues for us to approach and solve. Examining the nature of our situation, we can see the value of some very epic changes. To wit, there’s a competitive character to much of our lives, and to many of the systems by which we organize the world. We set ourselves, and parts of ourselves, against each other, on the premise that this helps preserve fitter, more well-adapted behaviors, that without organizing ourselves by means of competitive game structures, the parts of the whole won’t cooperate harmoniously or optimally.<br />
<br />
Longstanding habits naturally bias us against epic changes. It can be hard to seriously entertain the possibility that things that have been a certain way for thousands of years may change in one’s lifetime. But there’s a growing affinity for prospects of freeing ourselves from inner conflicts and from outer conflicts including competitive economics and power politics. We accumulate information and acumen and capabilities over time; occasionally we reach inflection points; occasionally we experience rapidly cascading realizations, openings, novelties. We’re clearly already in an era of many big, unprecedented changes. There’s reason to think that we have the wherewithal and the resources to carry out a monumental positive transformation and create a true golden age. It’s not inevitable, but it’s possible, and it’s well worth aiming for.<br />
<br />
Every day that we continue serving and perpetuating competitive game structures as central organizational components, we inflict more unnecessary pain and hardship on ourselves and each other. There’s outright violence, disease, destitution, and other disasters. And we forgo many diverse opportunities to learn and grow and serve, as we focus our energies into relatively narrow areas where proficiency correlates with competitive advantage.<br />
<br />
We’ve built our capabilities to such a degree that we’re on the brink of magnificent new experiences/phenomena like worldwide peace and prosperity, space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension - if we make the required profound changes. If we don’t, there are real risks of our unprecedented capabilities being put to use in increasingly destructive ways.<br />
<br />
How can we help bring about this paradigm shift?<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-74081599037795429282018-12-19T16:40:00.000-08:002018-12-16T16:41:07.301-08:00archive of geeks.one postsFrom early 2017 to August 2018, I was using an account on the geeks.one server, which ran <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/">Mastodon</a>, an open-source program facilitating <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_social_network">distributed/federated social networking</a>. (My account was "geeks.one/joshmaurice" or "@joshmaurice@geeks.one".) The geeks.one server has gone belly-up, so I'm posting this archive of my geeks.one posts.<br />
<br />
Aug 11<br />
I woke up this morning having dreamed about a showing of a movie called "The Secret Life of Plants." I looked it up, and it's a documentary from 1979, the year I was born, based on a 1973 book of the same name, with some interesting and controversial material about plant consciousness, and with a soundtrack by Stevie Wonder.<br />
<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWcVnMPChM<br />
<br />
Aug 2<br />
I think it's very important for us to<br />
* undertake a deep analysis, a fundamental rethinking, of what we're doing here, and<br />
* make a profound shift in how we're operating.<br />
<br />
In order to do that in a coordinated way, on a large scale, I think we need an explicit set of new core values, new core principles, and that is a purpose that the Z3 Paradigm Framework can serve.<br />
<br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6NTuLPOHS0<br />
<br />
https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg<br />
<br />
Jun 24<br />
In many respects, the overall discourse seems to be stuck in a rut. That doesn't mean there aren't worthwhile conversations happening; there are. But new sets of core values, like the ones that the Z3 Paradigm Framework offers, seem to me to be very important for optimizing the discourse and getting out of many of the ruts that we're in.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 24<br />
Doesn't the discourse seem to be stuck in a rut? Doesn't it seem that radically advancing the narrative with new core values will be helpful?<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a><br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jun20<br />
Postverbal (a sci-fi scenario), part 1<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/06/postverbal.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/06/</span><span class="invisible">postverbal.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 13<br />
The obsolescence of words:<br />
"At this moment words remain a crucial part of life in multitudinous ways because we don't yet possess communication systems that can replace them. But we have the ability to create such systems."<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-obsolescence-of-words.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/06/</span><span class="invisible">the-obsolescence-of-words.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 13<br />
There are multiple fundamental systemic areas where (deep and rapid) transformation is critically necessary. Without encapsulating these (distinct but interconnected) issues into a single framework, it's hard to see how we can succeed in making the necessary breakthroughs in any of these areas, much less all of them, within the requisite time frame.<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/z3pf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#z3pf</a><br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
May 30<br />
A full year on, I still have a very keen (though maybe seemingly quixotic) interest in communicating this paradigm framework to more people. There are plenty of entirely understandable reasons for it having gotten so little traction so far. But the relevance of the framework itself has only increased, in my view. And it's been improved quite a bit over the past year. The most recent edit was 17 days ago.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
framework authors: <a href="https://mastodon.host/@abc123" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">mastodon.host/@abc123</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
May 19<br />
I'd like to try to express why I'm so keen on this image from the Z3 Paradigm Framework. To a significant degree, our world is ruled by an abstract, artificial entity called money, which we symbolize (at least in this part of the world) with "$." If we're going to evolve toward a new way of organizing our world, it seems that it will be very helpful to have a succinct symbolic representation of the new system - a new symbol that can replace "$"<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
May 4<br />
Been making some edits to "A tale of three paradigms" including the addition of this sentence today:<br />
Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity (1933) gives techniques for cultivating a kind of optimal flexibility - in Alfred's terms, a "full conditionality of our semantic responses," an "∞-valued orientation."<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/</span><span class="invisible">a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html</span></a><br />
<br />
May 4<br />
Hey all!<br />
Today I learned that the community of open-source, distributed, federated social media platforms has been dubbed The Free Network, at least in this pretty quick, but detailed, September 2017 article. <a href="https://medium.com/we-distribute/a-quick-guide-to-the-free-network-c069309f334" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">medium.com/we-distribute/a-qui</span><span class="invisible">ck-guide-to-the-free-network-c069309f334</span></a><br />
I've been sharing some thoughts regarding money, voting, competition, and the Z3 Paradigm Framework* right here on this Free Network account over the past couple weeks, before I knew that it was The Free Network!<br />
*Z3 Paradigm Framework:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2</span></a><br />
<br />
May 3<br />
Z3 is a deep, yet concise, framework for an optimal civilizational paradigm. Well-meaning guardians of the status quo will diligently ignore it, but I believe it's time for those of us with prophetic inclinations to proclaim that the future will be zhergish!<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 27<br />
A tale of three paradigms [edited 4-27-18]<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/</span><span class="invisible">a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 24<br />
Z3: a better way to be<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 24<br />
The idea that competition should be a major aspect of how we organize the world seems to be both a sacred cow and a paper tiger. I see it being defended by people who identify as "conservatives," "liberals," "libertarians," and "anarchists." They keep broaching the topic in ways that seem to indicate that they're noticing the societal role of competition being increasingly questioned and challenged.<br />
<br />
Apr 23<br />
This page describes some fundamental problems with voting, and gives a rationale for creating better systems while participating in voting systems in the meantime:<br />
<a href="https://vote99.weebly.com/voting.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">vote99.weebly.com/voting.html</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
It seems important for those who see the fundamental flaws of voting systems to vote -- if the only ones participating are the ones who don't understand, we can expect the worst possible results.<br />
As Noam Chomsky has suggested, electoral politics should comprise a very small portion of one's civic engagement.<br />
<br />
Apr 23<br />
Money is so ubiquitous & so unnecessary. We say it takes a lot of money to build a house, or to build smartphones, etc. But if you demolish a house, or dissect a smartphone, you'll find no money in there (unless maybe someone hid it in the walls of the house). It's only "necessary" because we believe it is. We can look at it like a massive shared hallucination. Let's try to see past this hallucination. Imagine what we could accomplish on this planet if no one had to think about money ever again.<br />
<br />
Apr 15<br />
"There's a largely untapped dimension of hardware connectivity. Our devices can now act not only like telephones, connecting to others via central switchboards, but also like walkie-talkies, talking directly with each other." March 30, 2018 <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/meshnetworking" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MeshNetworking</a><br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/03/mesh-networking-post-verbal.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/03/</span><span class="invisible">mesh-networking-post-verbal.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 15<br />
A tale of three paradigms [in progress]<br />
It seems potentially helpful to distinguish among three major psycho-social paradigms, and to assign a familiar mathematical symbol as a label for each:<br />
1. ><br />
2. =<br />
3. ∞<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/</span><span class="invisible">a-tale-of-three-paradigms-in-progress.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 7<br />
Promulgate it<br />
(To the tune of "Legalize it")<br />
Promulgate it<br />
Don't derogate it<br />
Promulgate it, yeah yeah<br />
And I will adumbrate it<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/z3pf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#z3pf</a><br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 3<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.social/@brianpoe" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@brianpoe</a></span> ...create new ways of communicating that would make it feasible to imbibe, on reasonable timescales, more of the huge amounts of info that's out there. I think there's really something to the saying, "a picture's worth a thousand words." If we can explore all that information through pictures instead of words, then maybe we can learn at least a thousand times faster. BTW, ICYMI, I wrote another blog post related to this on the 1st: <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/let-me-expand-bit-more-on-some-areas-i.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/</span><span class="invisible">let-me-expand-bit-more-on-some-areas-i.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 3<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.social/@brianpoe" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@brianpoe</a></span><br />
Hi Brian,<br />
Those likely future trends are some of the reasons I highly recommend the Z3 Paradigm Framework. (zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg)<br />
Going back to your first comment, I would emphasize that I really do appreciate how enormously useful written and spoken words have been. Using the Internet, going to bookstores and libraries, I see billions of words that I'd love to read - I'd love to learn all that info - it would be so useful and enjoyable. This motivates me to try to...(continued)<br />
<br />
Apr 1<br />
We've been having a spirited discussion about economics, Z3, etc. in the comments of one of Eric S. Raymond's blog posts.<br />
"Z3 advocates valuing or loving everyone, caring about/for everyone, which seems similar to what many have described using terms like agape, universal/unconditional love, etc." <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7887#comment-1942819" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7887#commen</span><span class="invisible">t-1942819</span></a><br />
<br />
Apr 1<br />
blogged:<br />
"3D Internet interfaces & post-verbal ontologies"<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/let-me-expand-bit-more-on-some-areas-i.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/</span><span class="invisible">let-me-expand-bit-more-on-some-areas-i.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 31<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.social/@brianpoe" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@brianpoe</a></span> When I write about post-verbal communication, I'm not necessarily thinking that present forms of communication will be discontinued - I'm focused on imagining radically new forms that we can help create. Just as we still make animal noises and use body language despite the fact that we have spoken and written words, we may continue using spoken and written words well into the future, but in many ways they may be eclipsed by newer forms of communication. I've blogged many ideas about it<br />
<br />
Mar 30<br />
blogged:<br />
"Mesh networking & post-verbal communication"<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/03/mesh-networking-post-verbal.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/03/</span><span class="invisible">mesh-networking-post-verbal.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 28<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> We've edited the final sentence of Z3, part 4, replacing "As more and more people do it" with "As people do it more and more" -- the transition isn't only a matter of discrete instances of people "joining" -- it's a matter of each of us repeatedly, habitually, increasingly embodying these more optimal patterns.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2018/03/21/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2018/03/21/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-4</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 29<br />
An essay called "Telepathy or Tragedy?" may be in the works~<br />
<br />
Mar 21<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Z3 Paradigm Framework, part 4<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2018/03/21/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2018/03/21/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-4</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 20<br />
If I were going to try to express the essence of the Z3 Paradigm Framework, it might be: Let's take an omni-authentic and omni-compassionate approach, and structure our world around that instead of political hierarchy and commercial transactions. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 20<br />
"Dennis McKenna on Psylocibin Dosage"<br />
(March 2016)<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWdkHL0EfRU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=zWdkHL0EfR</span><span class="invisible">U</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 18<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://gs.kawa-kun.com/kitredgrave" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@kitredgrave</a></span> hello?<br />
<br />
Mar 16<br />
I believe the time has come for us to embrace tools of consciousness expansion like marijuana and psychedelics as part of a comprehensive paradigm shift. Or even if you don't want a comprehensive paradigm shift, at least embrace these tools of consciousness expansion. "Embracing" them in this sense doesn't really have anything to do with the question of whether you want to take them yourself. But you can accept and celebrate the value that they can have for many, many people.<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a><br />
<br />
Mar 13<br />
Friends, in case you weren't aware, Jeffrey Mishlove continues to post about two new interviews per week to the New Thinking Allowed channel, and he also recently started a series of daily monologues.<br />
New Thinking Allowed: Conversations (and monologues) on the Leading Edge of Knowledge and Discovery<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/psi" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#psi</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbGITLnzplK7jwNcw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbG</span><span class="invisible">ITLnzplK7jwNcw</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 13<br />
"In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal."<br />
Masanobu Fukuoka<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/localagriculture" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#LocalAgriculture</a><br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/permaculture" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#permaculture</a><br />
<br />
Mar 13<br />
"Wanna channel your energy towards a destination of choice?<br />
Let’s bring it to neutral first."<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/IamAshtar/status/973153058900402176" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">twitter.com/IamAshtar/status/9</span><span class="invisible">73153058900402176</span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 13<br />
A key aspect of the current competitive paradigm is the notion of working "for" a particular person or group. In an omni-cooperative paradigm, we can work *with* particular people and groups, but we can work *for* the good of everyone. <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a><br />
<br />
Mar 10<br />
Good morning, friends. How are you? I continue to find it very important to promote zhergish values. I've written many social media & blog posts inspired by the zherg framework, and I'm working on another blog post now. Here's a link to the Zherg website. <a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Mar 3<br />
To bridge the gap between our cosmic, angelic potentials and our current reality which includes widespread violence, oppression, and wasted resources, let's examine and optimize our first premises ~ zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg<br />
<br />
Mar 3<br />
Rudolf Steiner said, before you take single step toward knowledge or power, take two steps toward ethics. This expresses one of the huge reasons for upgrading our philosophical (including ethical) frameworks. We're on the verge of significant steps toward knowledge and power, but first there's significant ethical/spiritual growth to be accomplished.<br />
<a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Feb 28<br />
It probably makes sense to pursue tactics like new political parties and such, to advance zhergish values, but let's also of course be practicing "cultural zhergism" anywhere and anytime ~<br />
<a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Feb 28<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> We're celebrating nine months since the Zherg project was publicly launched. In these nine months of noospheric gestation, Zherg has received significant positive feedback. The small amount of substantive negative feedback has led to productive conversations that have validated and reinforced the zhergish message. These nine months thus affirm that Zherg is ready to begin the next phase of its life. Thanks, everyone. <a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Feb28<br />
we've all been somewhat caught up in competitive games - for instance, in my case, agar.io - that's been the zeitgeist of the age - doesn't mean we can't participate successfully in an omni-cooperative system ~<br />
<br />
Feb 11<br />
Pavlov, skepticism, and labor<br />
<a href="https://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/02/pavlov-skepticism-and-labor.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/02/</span><span class="invisible">pavlov-skepticism-and-labor.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Feb 7<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Truth and Love<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://mastodon.host/tags/z3pf" rel="tag">#z3pf</a><br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Feb 4<br />
What Honeybees Can Teach Us About Democracy<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abk-advcCIw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=abk-advcCI</span><span class="invisible">w</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 29<br />
There are angelic possibilities - prospects of creating a true paradise on Earth - and yet we remain largely mired in systems of meathead authoritarianism & silly speculation. How can we overcome this inertia & reach for the stars? Here are some ideas for a basic philosophical framework around which we can structure everything: <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 28<br />
I find Zx/Zherg so cogent and salient that I find it almost strange that I don't see more people talking about it ~<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 22<br />
Kurdish Christians Call for ‘Urgent’ International Protection Against Turkish Shelling<br />
<a href="http://www.faithwire.com/2018/01/22/kurdish-christians-call-for-urgent-international-protection-against-turkish-shelling/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">faithwire.com/2018/01/22/kurdi</span><span class="invisible">sh-christians-call-for-urgent-international-protection-against-turkish-shelling/</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 22<br />
Zx: a message of love and liberation<br />
<a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> <br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/promulgatepromulgate" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#promulgatepromulgate</a><br />
<br />
Jan 21<br />
Why formulate and promulgate new paradigm frameworks like Zx?<br />
<a href="https://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-formulate-and-promulgate-new.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/01/</span><span class="invisible">why-formulate-and-promulgate-new.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 21<br />
I recently came upon this, a nice 2016 documentary about Terence McKenna called True Hallucinations<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MG5gFtZ3U8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=8MG5gFtZ3U</span><span class="invisible">8</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 21<br />
Some have found Zx confusing. I think it may take more effort than usual to figure out what it's saying, but I think it ultimately makes quite good sense & is very relevant for us today. You may want to read Z1 and Z3. Z2 is just a slightly trimmed down Z1. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 16<br />
Friends have discussed the idea of setting up a new political party as a moneyless, volunteer-run organization, only using money for necessary election fees ~<br />
<br />
Jan 16<br />
There's been talk about starting a new political party ~ Our current major political party logos seem rather like sports team mascots -- donkey, elephant... ~ How about something comparably substantive, like the chart at the bottom of Z3, part 3, specifying two components to emphasize, and two to deemphasize? ~ <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/12/04/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/12/04/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-3</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 16<br />
the takeaway from what seemed like a pretty insightful dream a few nights ago: Truth and Similarity<br />
~<br />
<br />
Jan 13<br />
<a href="https://geeks.one/media/b_YaluK1AXuRcPe-5s4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">geeks.one/media/b_YaluK1AXuRcP</span><span class="invisible">e-5s4</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 13<br />
I maintain that an appropriate, effective solution is probably going to need to be radical -- it's going to need to address root issues. The Zx framework's radicalness does place it somewhat outside of many people's current comfort zones, which poses challenges in promulgating the framework. If you feel uncomfortable with it, I'd love to discuss it with you. If you feel comfortable with it, I'd ask you to share it and help demonstrate that there's significant interest in & support for such ideas<br />
<br />
Jan 13<br />
Huge amounts of our discourse still focus on individual personalities, partisan labels, and special/competing interests. Policies and substantive matters do get discussed, but clearly with less than satisfactory progress toward consensus. All of this indicates to me that the time is ripe for new paradigm frameworks to emerge, superseding and supplanting our current ones. <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Zx</a><br />
<br />
Jan 11<br />
Some people have been saying there's just not enough interest in a paradigm shift for it to happen. Do you see how that statement can function as a self-fulfilling prophecy? There is a tendency to get comfortable with the status quo. But we also dream, and look ahead. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 11<br />
<a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
Check out this wonderful formula for organizing our existence and coexistence; it's encapsulated in this simple chart:<br />
<br />
Jan 8<br />
The Science of Curing Aging<br />
Aubrey de Grey | 20 Nov 2017<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ARUQ5LoUo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=S6ARUQ5LoU</span><span class="invisible">o</span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 6<br />
Let's create a life-based economy! <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jan 5<br />
"The mistake is investing 100-percent certainty in a result and not holding a probabilistic view of scientific truth or risk and benefit." Catherine Kerr, neuroscience researcher <br />
<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/i-was-a-meditation-skeptic-until-i-tried-to-make-my-case/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fivethirtyeight.com/features/i</span><span class="invisible">-was-a-meditation-skeptic-until-i-tried-to-make-my-case/</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
These Noomap folks seem to be taking some interesting steps toward a "distributed, holographic/holonic, semantic web" -- a "3D cyberspace browser" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqWiVQJLY9I" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=xqWiVQJLY9</span><span class="invisible">I</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
I think a very important (and very concrete) aspect of the paradigm shift is localized agriculture. Some Portland tiny home villagers are already participating in this by cultivating gardens. More villages, and more gardening, are very much in the works as we speak.<br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://social.tchncs.de/@frankiesaxx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@frankiesaxx</a></span> If you want/need a thing I have, then I can just give it to you. The person who has the other thing that I want/need can give it to me. Because I want you to get what you want/need and the other person wants me to get what I want/need.<br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://social.tchncs.de/@frankiesaxx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@frankiesaxx</a></span> Yes<br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://social.tchncs.de/@frankiesaxx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@frankiesaxx</a></span> Yes. But what if, instead, you were to give the potatoes to someone who can use them, without tokens or barter, and likewise, the person with the wheat gives it to you, and is given cloth by the person with the cloth, etc.?<br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
I hope more people will read and share "Z3 Paradigm Framework." Part 1 anticipates and addresses some major categories of objections or hesitations that seem likely to arise. Parts 2 and 3 list the proposals that comprise the framework.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
the ongoing transformation of values, and our relationships with current-paradigm systems in the meantime<br />
The purpose of money, the purpose of any transactional system, is to incentivize actions that benefit others. A crucial assumption underlying these systems is that people won't care enough about others to take such actions to the same degree without these incentives. A major challenge that we're trying to meet is that of creating a transformation of values...<br />
<a href="https://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-ongoing-transformation-of-values.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/12/</span><span class="invisible">the-ongoing-transformation-of-values.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
We now have available multiple inspiring visions of, or frameworks for, a radically new paradigm, including the Zx project (<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> ) and the Venus Project (aka resource-based economy -<br />
<a href="https://www.thevenusproject.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="">thevenusproject.com/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> ).<br />
<br />
Dec 30, 2017<br />
If we're not offering an inspiring vision of a radically new paradigm, then our attempts to make piecemeal improvements thru moderation or modification of the current system may backfire, by spooking people & prompting them to double down on harmful purist ideological commitments<br />
<br />
Dec 26, 2017<br />
July 3, 2017: Zhergishly upgrading core values and transforming society <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/</span><span class="invisible">zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 26, 2017<br />
February 3, 2017:<br />
I can see your halos: Further depiction of forthcoming interfaces<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/i-can-see-your-halos-further-depiction.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/</span><span class="invisible">i-can-see-your-halos-further-depiction.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 26, 2017<br />
January 10, 2017: graphical/universal interfaces, filters, filter bubbles, artificial intelligence, global mind <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/01/graphicaluniversal-interfaces-filters.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/01/</span><span class="invisible">graphicaluniversal-interfaces-filters.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 26, 2017<br />
via Daniel Pinchbeck:<br />
A Vision for the Future:<br />
"Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells and vast colonies of microorganisms that work together seamlessly as a community. Individual cells do not hoard excess energy or "wealth" for themselves but rather store any excess energy in fat deposits that are freely available to the cellular community as a whole. So energy can flow seamlessly... Without any competition, cells and organs work with maximum efficiency..." <a href="http://youtu.be/n7yJz78cBiM?a" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">youtu.be/n7yJz78cBiM?a</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 26, 2017<br />
February 8, 2017: Labels and conversations beyond the ideological x-axis <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/labels-and-conversations.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/</span><span class="invisible">labels-and-conversations.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
Please help spread the important messages contained in Zx. Thanx!<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
So commerce and political hierarchy seem to be two sides of one coin (a particularly apt metaphor!) and so it seems fitting to specify that we want to discontinue both of them.<br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
Commerce and political hierarchy are two of the major methods by which civilization has been organized, and as such there's been a big ostensible rivalry between them. Behind the scenes, or on a deeper level, I think they're both ways to try to make things work without really valuing one another. Instead we pass the buck to authority figures, or pass bucks in exchange for goods and services.<br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
The political message (corresponding to the eye in the pyramid) seems very important due to the unfortunate extent to which systems of control and domination have factored into our civilization over the years. "Liberatory" and "libertarian" and "anarchist" movements (for example) have tried to remedy this, but it remains a serious issue.<br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
Even the best ideas can become traps when that happens. People are going to be understandably suspicious of any major new paradigm, suspicious that it could become a new dogma. So by including a statement of non-dogmatism among the basic principles of the paradigm framework, we can effectively counteract those suspicions, and we can help civilization overcome this centuries-old problem.<br />
<br />
Dec 25, 2017<br />
Here's why I think that what I've been calling Zx's epistemological message (represented by the eye with the infinity sign) is so important. A huge problem that people have experienced over the centuries has been dogmatism, the phenomenon where we fall so in love with our models of reality that we forget that they're models and mistake them for the reality they represent.<br />
<br />
Dec 24, 2017<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Zx</a> I know people are tired & wary of ideology, and for good reason. But ideology rules our lives in many ways nonetheless. Some of us seem very much disinclined to unpack or challenge the ideologies that rule our lives. For those of us inclined to do so, we should realize that criticizing those ideologies, or criticizing people for upholding them, is woefully insufficient. What seems necessary, in order to effect real change, are robust and salient new principles to replace the prevailing ones.<br />
<br />
Dec 24, 2017<br />
Could this be an emblem for the next phase of civilization? Let's hope so!<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 24, 2017<br />
Have you read Zx (Zherg)? Do you understand it? Do you agree with it? Why or why not? I'd be fascinated to know your answers to any of these questions :)<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 17, 2017<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Zx</a> It seems beneficial to put this on the table, inject it into the collective consciousness, participate in helping it seep into people's awareness in a way that will bring us a step closer to achieving consensus on this sort of paradigm.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 15, 2017<br />
We're experiencing a multifaceted planetary crisis. At the same time, fabulous possibilities, beyond our wildest dreams, are within reach. Many proposed strategies don't go deep enough to bring optimal results. Time to take a step back & revise the basics. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> <a href="https://geeks.one/media/5vbczn9GCvDKQkGzafY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">geeks.one/media/5vbczn9GCvDKQk</span><span class="invisible">GzafY</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 14, 2017<br />
Being of Service to All Creation with Stanley Krippner<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9E_oGpaW9g" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=w9E_oGpaW9</span><span class="invisible">g</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 8, 2017<br />
<span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://the86community.com/profile/kelli" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@kelli</a></span> Cool, very interesting. Here in Portland the four tiny home villages give formerly underhoused people housing, community, meaningful work, and other opportunities, etc. :)<br />
<br />
Dec 7, 2017<br />
Continuously & perpetually changing ourselves from the inside out: I think this is key, no matter how sophisticated/advanced/enlightened one may already be, and/or no matter how constrained/victimized one may be by others & by the systems to which we're subject.<br />
<br />
Dec 7, 2017<br />
cooperative tiny home villages: a key strategy for constructing optimal futures<br />
<a href="https://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/12/httpswww.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/12/</span><span class="invisible">httpswww.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 6, 2017<br />
Let's try this. <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Zx</a><br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a> <br />
<a href="https://geeks.one/media/RxKkaNMbMy_0NvbV5EM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">geeks.one/media/RxKkaNMbMy_0Nv</span><span class="invisible">bV5EM</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 6, 2017<br />
In May 2015 I wrote about "formulating intelligence & unity." <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2015/05/formulating-intelligence-unity.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2015/05/</span><span class="invisible">formulating-intelligence-unity.html</span></a><br />
The Zx project now seems to have produced a memeworthy fulfillment of my hopes for "formulating unity."<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<a href="https://geeks.one/media/smobn3QlpYTQHi5F09g" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">geeks.one/media/smobn3QlpYTQHi</span><span class="invisible">5F09g</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 6, 2017<br />
November 7: Mycologist Paul Stamets talks with Joe Rogan<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=paul+stamets+joe+rogan" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/results?search_que</span><span class="invisible">ry=paul+stamets+joe+rogan</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 6, 2017<br />
Consciousness and Cosmology with Jude Currivan (New Thinking Allowed)<br />
"Here she expands upon her insight that matter and consciousness are one and the same. Therefore, rather than say that we have consciousness, she maintains that we are consciousness. She refers to her early childhood experiences of supernormal awareness, and claims that this is the birthright of all individuals. We lose these natural abilities due to cultural conditioning."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qflk7NIj6bw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=Qflk7NIj6b</span><span class="invisible">w</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 4, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Z3 Paradigm Framework<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<a href="https://mastodon.host/media/67lzUVCn1IehUDXMBKM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">mastodon.host/media/67lzUVCn1I</span><span class="invisible">ehUDXMBKM</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 4, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Z3 Paradigm Framework, part 3<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/12/04/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/12/04/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-3</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 1, 2017<br />
While I'm here -- In Case You Missed It! There's a new version, with parts 1 and 2 of it released so far, of what I've been jabbering about since this May: Zx<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 1, 2017<br />
Carne Ross Ted Talk (April): Accidental Anarchist<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hc2_jY4KhY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=2Hc2_jY4Kh</span><span class="invisible">Y</span></a><br />
<br />
Dec 1, 2017<br />
Why do we call it being "upset"? Well, there's a whole set of things that you would like to have happen, but there's this whole other set of things that are happening; it's kind of like being upstaged, or upended<br />
<br />
Nov 26, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Z3 Paradigm Framework, part 2<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/26/Z3-Paradigm-Framework-part-2</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 25, 2017e<br />
We're at a crossroads...<br />
Let's talk about a spiritual-ethical-political-economic-sacramental reformation.<br />
Check out the Zherg paradigm framework:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/11/were-at-crossroads.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/11/</span><span class="invisible">were-at-crossroads.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 17, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Z3 Paradigm Framework, part 1:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/11/17/Z3-Paradigm-Framework</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 10, 2017<br />
So the Graphical Supersession Point can be defined as the point when GOD becomes our primary medium for explicit/public communication<br />
<br />
Nov 10, 2017<br />
GOD: Graphical Online Discourse<br />
ZHERG: Zounds! Halos Encircle Real Gods<br />
<br />
Nov 6, 2017<br />
Let's not let inflexible ideological attachments, to Money or Mohammad or Marx or what have you, keep us from what can be an extremely, zhergishly good outcome for everyone<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 6, 2017<br />
I think the cooperative tiny home movement is a very significant phenomenon. There are at least four tiny home villages here in Portland so far. As we build and optimize structures, relationships, and cultures, we can house the houseless while helping to refine cooperative models and to actualize more effective cooperation in society at large.<br />
<a href="https://geeks.one/media/Bn9I8k2_OvtiivvGrP0" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">geeks.one/media/Bn9I8k2_Ovtiiv</span><span class="invisible">vGrP0</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 6, 2017<br />
"We'll need to develop a viable, convincing, realistically based, inspiring vision of the direction that we want to evolve toward. We need some good, solid ideals for human evolution." Thomas Lombardo<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a>!<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1498&v=TL-sqPSkp9I" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?time_continu</span><span class="invisible">e=1498&v=TL-sqPSkp9I</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 2, 2017<br />
Oct. 18: Mark Pesce: Rise of the Replicators<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/@mpesce/rise-of-the-replicators-4011fcc015c7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">medium.com/@mpesce/rise-of-the</span><span class="invisible">-replicators-4011fcc015c7</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 2, 2017<br />
Oct. 17: Science of Us: The mystery and value of dreams and the epidemic of dream deprivation<br />
<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/were-in-a-dream-deprivation-epidemic.html?utm_campaign=sou&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">thecut.com/2017/10/were-in-a-d</span><span class="invisible">ream-deprivation-epidemic.html?utm_campaign=sou&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1</span></a><br />
<br />
Nov 2, 2017<br />
Neural network pioneer Geoff Hinton has helped create something that seems to be a step beyond neural networks: "capsule networks."<br />
<a href="https://futurism.com/weve-finally-created-an-ai-network-thats-been-decades-in-the-making/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">futurism.com/weve-finally-crea</span><span class="invisible">ted-an-ai-network-thats-been-decades-in-the-making/</span></a><br />
<br />
Oct 21, 2017<br />
ROOSTER: gift-economy/pay-it-forward/zhergish message boards, operational for Portland, Palo Alto, Berkeley, and Austin so far <a href="http://therooster.co/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="">therooster.co</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Oct 7, 2017<br />
Periodic reminder: please read Zherg:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
Here's a video of me reading it:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=408&v=5j3Xq1Lmurg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?time_continu</span><span class="invisible">e=408&v=5j3Xq1Lmurg</span></a><br />
<br />
Sep 17, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Your endorsement of zhergish transformation can help usher in a new age<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2</span></a><br />
<br />
Sep 12, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> Before you can achieve it, you must first perceive it: Let's promulgate Zherg to help everyone perceive a positive new paradigm! <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2</span></a><br />
<br />
Jul 22, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> ZHERG: Ideas for a transition<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<a href="https://mastodon.host/media/OPAQcm0l_36JYKPMozE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">mastodon.host/media/OPAQcm0l_3</span><span class="invisible">6JYKPMozE</span></a><br />
<br />
Jul 26, 2017<br />
What would a new & improved paradigm for the 21st century look like?<br />
I shared these thoughts earlier this month: <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/</span><span class="invisible">zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Jul 5, 2017<br />
Zhergishly upgrading core values and transforming society<br />
<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/07/</span><span class="invisible">zhergishly-upgrading-core-values-and.html</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 30, 2017<br />
The Future of AI: from Deep Learning to Deep Understanding, Ben Goertzel<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbUg9IuIs_8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">youtube.com/watch?v=nbUg9IuIs_</span><span class="invisible">8</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 30, 2017<br />
8 AR Programming Blocks<br />
"What would it look like for these VR programs and programming blocks to co-exist with objects in the real world? Would real life situations, interactions and locations inspire ways to think of programming that aren’t immediately obvious?"<br />
<a href="http://elevr.com/8-ar-programming-blocks/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">elevr.com/8-ar-programming-blo</span><span class="invisible">cks/</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 29, 2017<br />
meatspace ergonomics for VR users -- "The office of the future" elevr.com/the-office-of-the-future/<br />
<br />
Jun 29, 2017<br />
a reading of zherg1.0<br />
[a/v is a bit out of alignment for about the last quarter]<br />
<a href="https://youtu.be/5j3Xq1Lmurg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">youtu.be/5j3Xq1Lmurg</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 29, 2017<br />
Someone suggested today that Zherg seems to amount to an attempt to create a new religion.<br />
This can be daunting to contemplate, so big and profound that we hesitate to go there. But if we think about it, I think we'll see that this kind of thing is exactly what we need, whether or not we use the word "religion."<br />
(zherg1.0:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a>)<br />
<br />
Jun 29, 2017<br />
As we continue tuning into psi and advancing our sciences and technologies, a truly utopian golden age beckons. But we should optimize our core values and principles in order to make the world better today, and in order to survive long enough to make it to the golden age.<br />
Really, a I don't dismiss the idea that a genuine golden age could begin later this evening, if the conversation about optimizing core values and principles were to happen, to trend, to become a thing.<br />
<br />
Jun 26, 2017<br />
I'm really looking forward to a zhergesque paradigm shift<br />
Please read this momentous document & share it with others <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 19, 2017<br />
Zherg2 is a slightly shorter version of Zherg. In Zherg2 the paragraph regarding the All has been removed. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/06/18/Zherg2</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 16, 2017<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a> If we truly value each other, then we can agree to cooperate voluntarily, without any buying or selling. <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
<br />
Jun 15, 2017<br />
I remain very excited about <a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a>. We can avoid disaster & pave the way for utopia by building a zhergish consensus <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
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Jun 15, 2017<br />
In Feb. I wrote about trying to avoid using the terms rightist, leftist, centrist, conservative, liberal, SQW, & SJW <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/labels-and-conversations.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/</span><span class="invisible">labels-and-conversations.html</span></a><br />
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Jun 11, 2017<br />
adopting an agenda for positive change ~ we can be new paradigm early adopters :)<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
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Jun 10, 2017<br />
Bucky Fuller titled one his books Utopia or Oblivion. He saw these as the two likeliest options for our species. This still seems true today. A zhergish plan seems like a good way for us to get utopia rather than oblivion.<br />
Even if the stakes weren't so extreme, it just seems like the right thing to do.<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
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May 31, 2017<br />
This anonymous document seems to me to be a recipe for utopia.<br />
<a class="mention hashtag" href="https://geeks.one/tags/zherg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#zherg</a> <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
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May 30, 2017<br />
I feel we can really use a formulation that can effectively supersede our legal, religious, and ideological texts, one that can serve as a unifying statement of our large-scale goals and plans. Zherg seems like a good candidate for this. Let's put this in front of more people's eyes!<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/single-post/2017/05/26/Zherg09</span></a><br />
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May 26, 2017<br />
RT <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.host/@ABC123">@ABC123</a></span> We may add links from words in the text to pages that elaborate on, or illustrate, the points being made. So feel free to send suggestions for those, along with any ideas regarding the text itself. We'll incorporate your feedback into any future versions of Zherg. It's now at version 1.0, and we welcome and urge you to share it with others.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-70955250209881777852018-10-14T09:55:00.005-07:002018-10-14T10:01:20.876-07:00One last purely theoretical think piece on our forthcoming radically new interfaces<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<b>The pieces are in place</b></div>
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Imagine a time just before speech -- when people had the physical ability to produce the same phonemes we use today, but before they had developed the practice of assigning definite meanings to sequences of phonemes. Maybe those ancestors vocalized expressively, playfully, with what we would now call babbling, glossolalia, and even song, but without having discovered the trick of maintaining elaborate, shared, memorized dictionaries of verbal labels for people, places, things, actions, etc.</div>
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There's a parallel between the unrealized potential of that situation and the situation we're in today with regard to the Internet. The computing/networking hardware we've deployed can potentially be used (programmed) in ways that will allow us to improve upon our current capabilities as significantly as the invention of speech allowed prelinguistic people to improve upon theirs.</div>
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Speech lets us convey, with a brief utterance, any idea to which a phonetic code (a word) has been assigned. We can utter several phonemes per second, thanks to the vocal dexterity conferred by the fine musculature of our lips and tongues, with which we manipulate the sounds that we generate using our diaphragms and vocal cords. This system, combined with the mental capacity to keep track of indefinitely many ideas, allowed our ancestors to share and compare precise information far more efficiently than ever before, apparently far surpassing, in many ways, what could be accomplished by any other beings on Earth.</div>
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Now, many millennia later, with our globe-girdling network of rapid, flexible devices, each possessing powerful processors along with sensitive input and vivid output capabilities, we have a system that, if used correctly, can enable us to present and imbibe information with an efficiency another gigantic order of magnitude beyond the efficiency of speech, or of writing. Writing transforms spoken language into a durable, visual medium, but our technology can now evoke ideas far more rapidly and flexibly by presenting complex, dynamic, audiovisual structures whose meaning we can apprehend much more directly, without relying on memorized correlations of ideas to phonetic or alphabetic codes.</div>
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So we can compare the current status of our species to that of our nearly-linguistic ancestors. This applies whether or not the above depiction of human prehistory is factually accurate. If the depiction is seriously flawed, or even totally fictional, then we can view the comparison as, at worst, a fitting analogy to a fictional scenario. Or we could use the analogy of a babbling toddler, who will be ready, any day now, to begin speaking, or any number of other analogies. The main point -- the very salient and seemingly somewhat underappreciated thing -- is that we're right on the verge of amazingly new and improved abilities vis-à-vis communication, expression, learning, etc.</div>
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<b>Speech, writing, and then... something else</b></div>
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Much of what we're currently doing with our technology involves electronically transmitting spoken and written language and recorded video. When the electronic images and sounds have begun responding continuously, and helpfully, to our input, guided by vast troves of available online wisdom, then we will have created something new, which we could call a medium or modality, a new form of language or communication, etc. It doesn't seem to matter which of these labels we use, as long as we understand that we're discussing something radically advanced, relative to spoken and written language.</div>
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Rather than memorizing and deploying phonetic (spoken) or alphabetic (written) codes, we'll be memorizing and deploying relatively intuitively representative audiovisual objects. These representations won't tax our memories the way our current language does. Dealing with vivid, evocative images and sounds is naturally easier than dealing with sequences of phonemes or of textual characters. A string of spoken words or a block of text is relatively opaque until we scan through it, at least cursorily. The audiovisual representations of the new medium, by contrast, will convey at least some meaning even when we only glance at them. Then, if we want to learn more about such a representation, the option of delving more deeply into it - zooming into it or summoning additional/related vivid/evocative representations - will be readily available. If we want to learn how an object relates to any other particular object, or if we want to perform any other possible operation with something, these options too can be a few taps, or drags and drops, away.</div>
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So the meanings of everything we experience through the new medium will be relatively intuitively obvious, and when something isn't obvious enough, we'll have relatively easy and direct ways to learn about it. With people around the world communicating through representative, dynamic images/sounds instead of relatively opaque words, we can expect to expeditiously overcome a great many misunderstandings, language barriers, and other limitations.</div>
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<b>A high, high, high priority</b></div>
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We spend billions of person-hours every day interacting with our connected devices. Once we've optimized the operations of our interfaces, our screen time will be vastly more fruitful and enjoyable, and we'll require significantly less screen time to perform a given action. We'll be able to accomplish multitudes of tasks that currently involve reading/writing or listening/speaking far more efficiently and effectively. (This includes learning about everything from bartending to Buddhism and beyond. The time and effort that learning requires are surely among the major constraints limiting the advancement of our species. To accelerate learning is to accelerate progress. Even skills whose acquisition requires extensive hands-on experience/practice and/or interpersonal interaction very often also entail a large book-learning component. In a virtuous cycle, our interfaces will help us get smarter faster, which will help us feed ever more intelligence back into the network, etc.) And we can expect that with the new medium there will emerge entirely new tasks, new actions, new ways of seeing and doing, possibilities and phenomena that we can't yet anticipate.</div>
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With such a prospect looming so large, it's sensible for us to sideline, or put on hold, some other priorities as we commit significant resources to the project of bringing this new medium to fruition.</div>
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Hopefully I've sufficiently communicated my reasons for being interested in this topic. In the future, rather than continuing to use words to theorize about the forthcoming medium, I plan to focus on helping to actually create it, possibly including the creation of mockups to illustrate some ideas.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-38256274246588750432018-09-30T23:54:00.011-07:002022-05-12T08:56:38.825-07:00Zhergish memetic transformation<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Memetic transformation</span></b></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Our efforts to change the world for the better take many forms. We can speak in general terms, and say that every moment is an opportunity for positive manifestation and transformation. We can also categorize our efforts/manifestations/<wbr></wbr>transformations in various ways. The following categories aren't necessarily exhaustive, mutually exclusive, or rigorously defined.</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Internal: exploring the universes within; changing ourselves from the inside out</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> External: engaging with others, with the environment; social communication and cooperation</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Intra-institutional: operating in the context of existing institutions</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Extra-institutional: operating in the context of less formal or newly emerging systems</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">(There are times when an appropriate/optimal course of action entails modifying or replacing our institutions. These actions can be intra- or extra-institutional, depending on the extent to which the institutions provide serviceable and accessible mechanisms to facilitate their own modification/replacement. Sometimes, when institutions are due, or overdue, for change, and their workings have in the meantime become markedly outdated or onerous, an optimal course of action may entail evading or countering those workings.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The above is a fairly arbitrary list of some categories of actions that can have positive effects in the world. The main point of listing these is simply to emphasize that such actions come in many varieties.</span></div>
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The <a href="http://zherg.net/">Zherg</a> project employs a strategy for effecting positive change through what we could categorize as memetic activity. Memes have acquired a reputation as a relatively frivolous form of communication. But the word "meme" in its original sense simply refers to the uniquely human modalities by which information replicates and evolves. So memetic activity is a very broad category, no more or less inherently worthwhile than any other broad category of activity.</div>
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When we're operating internally, constructive actions may include meditation, introspection, dreamwork, and the cultivation of parapsychological abilities. Some potentially worthwhile external activities might be conversation, intimacy, various types of cooperation, etc. Examples of positive intra-institutional efforts can include participation in established economies or markets, voting, and so on. Extra-institutional tactics could include demonstrations, occupations, vigils, autonomous zones, etc. And in memetic modes, we perform the valuable actions of formulating, spreading, and building upon, chunks of information, also known as memes.</div>
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For a long time, there's been the idea that some key memes might emerge, which could facilitate rapid and comprehensive transformations of our psycho-social landscape. Let's look at the Z3 Paradigm Framework as a candidate for fulfilling these expectations.</div>
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The positive components</span></h2>
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Very broadly speaking: Religious and spiritual frameworks have often emphasized bigheartedness, universal love, valuing and respecting everyone, etc. But such frameworks have often emphasized uncritical acceptance of, or adherence to, specific constructs, and have sometimes explicitly downgraded the role of the intellect or the mind. Scientific and secular philosophical frameworks, on the other hand, have often emphasized a clear-eyed pursuit of truth, but have often downplayed or ignored heart/ethics/morality/values, or have fallen short of an all-embracing ethical viewpoint.</div>
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The positive message of the Z3 framework clearly and succinctly emphasizes the importance of both heart and mind in equal measure. Each of these relates to one of the two enumerated positive components of Z3. Thus we have a balanced outline, on a very general level, for a radical restructuring and optimization of our lives and our civilization. It can be treated as "formal," in the sense that it can be explicitly adopted by individuals and groups as a creed or mission statement and can replace formal systems based on money and hierarchical authority, but it doesn't bind us to any structure, any rules, beyond a bare minimum set of principles. These principles are fairly easy to agree with, though truly, deeply implementing them may require time and effort. Explicitly adopting them can help focus our efforts in that direction.</div>
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This sort of framework can help us clarify and resolve many chronically intractable controversies. Let's consider abortion. A zhergish approach would entail concern for the well-being of all beings, including bacteria, tardigrades, insects, fetuses, etc. Our world teems with life, all kinds of life, continuously emerging, living, and dying. Even the most loving, compassionate, thoughtful, creative actions will involve damaging and even destroying some forms of life. We must use our wisdom to make optimal choices, always considering the long-term interests of everyone. We destroy animals' lives by including meat in our diets, but this seems to be important (at least historically) for optimally, or adequately, nourishing human beings, who may play a key role in helping all life on Earth to migrate into space and flourish in realms beyond Earth. This could be key for allowing Terran life to survive when the Sun turns into a red giant in a few billion years. Likewise, in the full moral and planetary context, it makes sense for a being with a complex, highly-developed intelligence, a member of a technological species, to be able to decide whether or not to undertake the risks and rigors of bringing a pregnancy to term, and to be supported in this decision. To argue otherwise seems to entail arbitrarily or dogmatically privileging beings with human DNA over other beings and disregarding pertinent attributes and circumstances. As technology advances, we can look forward to new solutions such as high-quality artificial meat and the transplantation of fetuses into artificial wombs.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The negative components</span></h2>
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The two positive components of Z3 seem to be, in many ways, the most important parts of the framework by far. These are the components that actually describe the structure of the new paradigm. It may seem unnecessary, inadvisable, or suboptimal to include the "negative components," the parts of the current paradigm that are to be discontinued. Why not just focus on the positive and allow the old, obsolescent components to recede when they're superseded by the new? Might we be "giving power" to these negative components by naming and discussing them - exactly the opposite of the desired effect? Might we simply be feeding negativity and resentment?</div>
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One reason to include the negative components is that the positive components, while definitely crucial, may not by themselves provide a satisfactorily compelling picture of the proposed transformation. Each of the two positive components reflects familiar ideals, to which humans have aspired for so long that they may at first glance appear clichéd, worn out, anodyne, banal, bromidic, trite, platitudinous, etc. To finally, truly live up to these ideals will undoubtedly be utterly transformational, but so much skepticism, cynicism, and fatigue have proliferated with respect to these ideals, that some additional components seem important in order to vividly communicate the shape of the proposed change in a way that overcomes people's habitual reactions. By mentioning that the change will entail growing beyond some specific, very prominent aspects of our present psycho-social reality, we can build a more complete and relatable picture of the paradigm shift.</div>
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These aspects, what we're calling the negative components, have been so prominent that without explicitly naming them, it may be difficult for people to imagine doing without them. Even much of the theorizing and advocacy that's widely regarded as highly radical, and much of the science fiction that's widely regarded as highly speculative and far-out, often include one or both of these aspects of our current reality in the future scenarios they describe.</div>
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We may, as we're still in the process of shifting the paradigm, participate in or encounter projects, trends and trajectories with zhergish characteristics. Without a zhergish framework as a reference, the fact that these phenomena lack the components of hierarchical authority and/or quid pro quo transactions may be held against them. The historical prominence of hierarchical authority and quid pro quo transactions may engender the automatic assumption that their absence is a sign of dysfunction. Movements may be criticized for lacking specific leaders, or for providing ways to function without buying and selling in competitive marketplaces. By explicitly detailing a vision of a new paradigm that doesn't include these components, we can help create space for such phenomena to flourish.</div>
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By including exactly two negative components, Z3 seems to strike a key balance. Many philosophies, frameworks, systems of thought, etc. have attempted to define one component that subsumes all, or most, or at least vast amounts, of the undesirable phenomena of the world. A single "enemy," whether conceived of as an actual being or as a more abstract entity, has been the focus of the negative aspects of such theories. ("evil"... "money"... "money in politics"... Korzybski seemed to lay quite a lot of blame on <a href="http://stevenlewis.info/gs/identity.htm">"identification"</a>...) Such an approach often seems to oversimplify matters. On the other hand, when a theory includes larger numbers of negative components, it runs the risk of simply creating a laundry list of complaints without getting to the real roots of the problems.</div>
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When we apply a serious analysis, the two negative components of Z3 readily emerge as two major aspects of our current paradigm that are intimately connected to the fact that we haven't satisfactorily implemented the two positive components. The negative components, which we could roughly express as "money AND politics," have often been seen as adversaries, as two competing centers or systems of power and influence, but upon deeper analysis, we can see them as two sides of one pre-zhergish coin.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h2>
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If we want to build a world that incorporates a healthy, ever-evolving approach to truth and values, then let's embrace models like Z3 that can help us do that. Cheers!</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-35721058422922558932018-06-19T13:08:00.000-07:002018-06-20T12:09:55.561-07:00Postverbal, part 1As our protagonist lounges in a recliner, sipping kombucha and enjoying the gently swaying trees, mostly clear skies, and fragrant air of a warm, early-summer day in Cascadia, something fleetingly occurs to him regarding his own name, Zen Coolidge.<br />
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Growing up, people often complimented him on his name. "COOL name!" - a nice enough, if somewhat obvious and literal-minded, comment to hear frequently from new acquaintances. If names mattered - and they did matter in many ways in those relatively superficial times, the late 20th century of Zen's childhood and the early 21st century of his early adulthood - then his served him reasonably well.<br />
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But now, it's been quite a while since the last time he saw or heard or used the words "Zen Coolidge." Have you ever suddenly remembered an old friend whom you hadn't thought about in what seems like a very long time? It feels a bit like that when Zen thinks of his name.<br />
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It's not that he has changed his name or assumed a different identity. It's just that people don't use words much at all anymore.<br />
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Zen lives in a postverbal era. Words can help to convey the events of this sci-fi scenario to those who still live in a verbal era. But postverbal people like Zen largely think and communicate in other ways. Words are nostalgic.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-61517135332405553902018-06-17T12:46:00.000-07:002018-06-17T12:46:26.185-07:00the Internet as the AGI hardware substrateWhat type of hardware substrate do you envision for the first artificial general intelligence (AGI)?<br />
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Many scenarios seem to envision AGI emerging in a particular computation system, and/or perhaps in a robot or robots. Many scenarios involve the system being connected to the Internet, as a crucial aspect.<br />
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What I tend to envision is that when an AGI first emerges, the substrate will be millions or billions of Internet-connected devices, along with their human operators. Not only will the collective computing power of all these Internet-connected devices dwarf the computing power of any particular system, but the inclusion of millions/billions of humans in the mix may also be crucial.<br />
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The software platforms through which billions of people currently interact -- Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. -- are (compared to what seems possible) fairly stupid/limited, focused significantly on goals like maximizing users' engagement/attention in order to more profitably sell their attention to advertisers. But creating more intelligent ways of connecting these existing biological intelligences (ourselves), to each other and to software and information, could well help us congeal into a more effective, coherent global mind, which would begin to have many of the capabilities that we expect AGI will have.<br />
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Such scenarios have been envisioned by science fiction authors and others. The salient strategy that seems to suggest itself is for AGI projects to be structured as social media platforms. I've blogged about some of what I'd like to see such platforms do in the early stages:<br />
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<li>focus on post-verbal communication, using graphics and nonverbal sounds instead of words, pervasively and increasingly.</li>
<li>focus on giving users the greatest possible control over the behavior of their interfaces.</li>
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This can facilitate vastly more efficient cross-pollination of information and of programming components: We'll see, in this graphical environment, visual representations of information, including the tools that others are using to filter/curate/manage their info-streams. We can take those tools and plug them into our own control panels, which regulate the behavior of our interfaces/info-streams, allowing us to more efficiently locate and create additional information (including additional tools for info-stream filtration/curation/management), and so on.<br />
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This strategy seems like a great way to optimize our screen time and speed us toward optimal cultural evolution, if nothing else. And I suggest that through it could emerge something we would feel compelled to recognize as AGI.<br />
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This is not to say that existing and future AGI projects with complex cognitive architectures running on particular systems are misguided strategies. It's just to say that such architectures can - and for maximum impact, should - be deployed in an open, distributed, social media context, contributing maximally to the creation of optimal experiences for Net users and to the growing intelligence of the Network (all interconnected devices and people) as a whole.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-80127668670500571462018-06-13T16:24:00.000-07:002018-09-16T19:46:28.636-07:00The obsolescence of words<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Words remain a crucial technology for coordinating our efforts, for accomplishing cooperative tasks -- from preparing a meal to launching a rocket ship. And words remain a crucial medium through which we perform less tangible (but equally valuable) activities -- learning, imbibing the wisdom and creativity of the ages, sharing experiences, expressing heartfelt feelings and thoughts, getting to know each other. Even solitary activities like thinking, planning, organizing, and doing chores, involve words.</div>
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And yet, along with the ubiquity and extreme importance of words, there's something else about them that we ought to appreciate: They're potentially on the verge of obsolescence.</div>
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At this moment words remain a crucial part of life in multitudinous ways because we don't yet possess communication systems that can replace them. <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/04/let-me-expand-bit-more-on-some-areas-i.html">But we have the ability to create such systems.</a> It's entirely possible for us to create, in fairly short order, media that will:</div>
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<li>do many or most of the jobs that words do, and</li>
<li>do those jobs much more effectively.</li>
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The salient point to appreciate here is that the effort and resources required to create these new systems are minuscule, compared to the benefits that will result. Improved information systems, improved modes of expression and communication, facilitate creative and imaginative growth and progress. And internal, intangible aspects of growth and progress are directly linked to external, tangible aspects. Constructing post-verbal communication systems is a vital part of achieving vastly greater prosperity, i.e., material abundance for everyone.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-30444795322863275692018-04-15T00:13:00.002-07:002018-05-21T11:20:21.267-07:00A tale of three paradigms [last edited 5-21-18]It seems potentially helpful to distinguish among three major psycho-social paradigms, and to assign a familiar mathematical symbol as a label for each.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 1. <b>></b></span><br />
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Let's try to imagine a relatively simple form of self-reflecting consciousness - a very basic awareness of self and others as such. We might associate this with animals, who generally don't seem to invent, memorize, and deploy elaborate symbolic ontologies the way we do, and from/with whom we've been posited to have evolved. But for present purposes it seems immaterial whether you think we evolved from slightly less sophisticated beings, devolved from slightly more sophisticated beings, are molded by an omnipotent being, are running on the computers of aliens in their parents' basements, etc. We've all probably had the experience of feeling "half awake." Groggy. In a rudimentary sort of state of mind. Operating largely "on autopilot."<br />
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Our priorities under these circumstances are necessarily fairly simple, straightforward, and have often tended strongly toward matters of immediate personal comfort, self-preservation, finding safety, security. As we learn and change more about ourselves, we can improve the instincts that guide us when we're groggy. But over the years and centuries, in various types of stupors, we've often perceived others as possible threats or impediments to our own comfort, security, etc., or merely as exploitable means to our own ends. In our relatively single-minded drive to escape danger and reach our immediate goals, we've sometimes stepped on others. The impulse to get out-from-under, to climb up to safety, to success, has entailed a lot of what we've come to label inconsiderateness, predation, aggression, violence, victimization, domination, subjugation, etc. <br />
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And these sorts of behaviors have comprised a significant part of our story on this planet. We speak of the war of all against all. The dog-eat-dog world. Might makes right. And so on.<br />
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The '>' sign, resembling to an arrow pointing to the right (the direction we go when we read and write) can represent a simple movement in a definite direction motivated by any felt imperative or goal. It can also represent the impulse to come out on top in a struggle for survival and/or resources, to be "more than" or "greater than."<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 2. <b>=</b></span><br />
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Unsatisfied with the prevailing levels of sin and strife, we've attempted over the centuries to find a better way. We've noticed the impulse to be "greater than," and we've identified it as a major problem to be remedied. Sometimes there's been the impulse to go in the opposite direction, to try to achieve righteousness by being "less than," through self-sacrifice, submission, self-denial or asceticism, etc. But the attempt to achieve various types of equality, as a solution for our psycho-social ills, has been adopted in very large-scale, systemic ways.<br />
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Love thy neighbor as thyself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We speak of being created equal, equal rights, equal representation, equality before the law, equality of opportunity, etc. By considering both ourselves and others, in equal measure (of various sorts), we found a strategy that worked more nicely and more effectively on large scales, compared to raw, vicious power struggles. We still compete for resources, and are expected to be principally concerned with securing our own personal wealth, but we temper the competition by practicing empathy (engendered by putting ourselves in others' proverbial shoes), and by implementing game rules aimed at giving everyone a fair shot.<br />
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One of our most widespread economic customs is the exchange of value for value, the two parties of a transaction giving each other items of roughly equal worth. (Let's make a deal!) This way, neither side seems to be taking undue advantage of the other. Things balance out. Even-steven. Fair and square. The centrality of equality in our transactional economics is reflected in the two parallel lines, of equal length, that appear within the symbols of some currencies (₴, ₦, ₽, ₮, ₩, ¥, etc.). <br />
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The '=' sign has been a key tool for making precise expressions in mathematics and coding. And in terms of the paradigms this essay describes, moving from half-awake, tunnel-vision-like, and paranoid '>' orientations to '=' orientations has helped us get along and work together much more effectively, and has helped great masses of people to flourish much more fully.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> 3. <b>∞</b></span><br />
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As mentioned above, there's disagreement about the origins of our species. But we can agree that it's possible for us to learn and grow in very significant ways. Many practices, religions, and philosophies over the centuries have aimed toward astronomically higher consciousness and better behavior. <br />
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In his 1901 book, Richard Maurice Bucke profiled people who had manifested what he called <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/cc/index.htm"><i>Cosmic Consciousness</i></a>. Richard anticipated that this type of consciousness would continue to become more common, and eventually would thoroughly "occupy and possess the earth." Alfred Korzybski's <i><a href="http://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/sands.htm">Science and Sanity</a></i> (1933) gives techniques for cultivating a kind of optimal flexibility - in Alfred's terms, a "full conditionality of our semantic responses," an "∞-valued orientation." These books make many interesting points and observations, though they also reflect in some glaring ways the limited consciousness of the times in which they were produced.<br />
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The <a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg">Zherg project</a> (2017-18) gives a prescription for a paradigm based on indefinite expansion of awareness and on the value of all beings.<br />
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When we've sufficiently opened our hearts and minds, we'll no longer treat each other as adversaries in a contest for survival or resources. We'll be able to leave behind our equality-based political-economic customs and institutions: If we're no longer playing games for resources, then obviously there will be no reason to be concerned with making the games fair. We'll treat everyone well, not just as a result of relating the treatment of others to the treatment of oneself, but as a result of considering others worthy of love in their own right. We'll coexist and cooperate harmoniously and synergetically. All beings will always be equal, in a very real, very fundamental sense, but infinity seems to be a better emblem for this emerging paradigm of universal consciousness and universal love.<br />
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Although many of us have, in various ways, become associated with, or even, in effect, become spokespeople for, one or another of these paradigms, it seems very helpful to look at them as three categories of tendencies, all of which are present in each of us. I do think that the more aware we become of these tendencies, the more we'll sublimate the > and = tendencies into the ∞ tendencies. Just by definition, when we frame the issues this way, the ∞ paradigm seems to be an optimal goal to aim for, a state of affairs which, if things go well, will increasingly subsume and transcend the others.<br />
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There've been bitter struggles and tensions between the > and = paradigms, continuing to this day. These struggles have done a lot to distract our attention from the beckoning promises of ∞ tendencies and possibilities. We've sometimes felt that there's much remedial education or maturation, and/or remedial equality or fairness, to be achieved before we can realistically consider trying to implement such utopian, idealistic aspirations. But we've been implementing them all along, in many different ways, big and small, reflecting the infinity within each of us, as beings whose eternal, perfect nature has been sometimes occluded and forgotten. And each such implementation has prefigured a possible planetary future where ∞ paradigms have thoroughly prevailed on macro scales.<br />
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"Utopian" ideas and proposals have often been dismissed as unproven or unrealistic. But when we consider the instances in which we've manifested ∞ tendencies, we find that "utopian" programs have in fact been implemented successfully in multitudes of times and places. Systems connected to less utopian paradigms have ignored, or even actively undermined or destroyed many of these ∞ manifestations. The more we consciously amplify our ∞ tendencies, the closer we can come to a true planetary utopia.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-50945509946471252982018-04-05T20:20:00.000-07:002018-04-05T20:20:26.179-07:00Let's utilize the Wapato Jail facility and grounds for housing<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />We're a domesticated species. We often don't do well without a stable domicile. A quick look at the streets of our cities bears this generalization out. When thousands of people are without adequate shelter, it's only decent to place a very high priority on finding locations that they can occupy. </span>Solving this problem is more of a social and psychological challenge than an engineering challenge. People's physical bodies don't take up a lot of space, relative to the size of a city. The engineering of these solutions is a significant project, but it's entirely feasible, if we marshal the will to make it a high enough priority.</div>
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Speakers at today's weekly Multnomah Building meeting advocated for utilizing the Wapato Jail facility and grounds for housing. I see this as an example of the types of innovative housing <a href="https://twitter.com/joshmaurice/status/974442711074983936">alternatives</a> that I urged everyone to support at a recent Multnomah meeting.</div>
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Happily, fewer people are being caged than was apparently expected to be the case, leaving an empty facility that was built as a residence for hundreds of people. Part of the opposition to using it for housing has to do with the "<a href="http://www.wweek.com/news/city/2018/04/04/make-wapato-jail-a-homeless-shelter-once-again-its-a-divisive-question-in-a-portland-election/">symbolism of putting homeless people in jail</a>." It's understandable that many people would see this as an unwelcoming image. But a facility converted from a place of punishment and confinement into a welcoming home could potentially be a symbol of healing, progress, and redemption. And in addition to the building, the 18 acres on which it sits can accommodate tiny home villages, which can keep many more people warm, dry, and safe.</div>
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Wapato won't be a solution for everyone, due to its distance from city center and other constraints. But that's no reason to eschew a solution that will work for hundreds of people. If we really want to make headway, we'll embrace a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joshua.maurice.37/posts/10215787271013853">wide variety</a> of solutions, each of which will be partial and incomplete. Every solution, including this one, will have real, immediate value for real people, and will be a piece of the puzzle of creating a new and better world.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-80847995673624104432018-04-01T12:11:00.000-07:002018-04-01T17:41:44.151-07:003D Internet interfaces & post-verbal ontologies<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
Let me expand a bit more on some areas I was touching on using the rubric of "<a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2018/03/mesh-networking-post-verbal.html">post-verbal communication</a>."</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I've been exploring ideas having </span>to do with bringing about new internet interfaces (for humans and others), with a 3D environment as kind of the basis of the interfaces. As people are able to program their interfaces in more and more sophisticated ways, we'll create graphical, post-alphabetical ways of programming and communicating, and there will be positive feedback loops toward the creation of more and more intelligent algorithms. It's a scenario that I often don't even think about in terms of AI, but it does seem like maybe the most likely and also the most <a href="https://intelligence.org/2016/12/28/ai-alignment-why-its-hard-and-where-to-start/">aligned</a> scenario realistically conceivable for the creation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence">AGI</a>.</div>
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There are some ideas that might be more easily/fruitfully explored through coding than writing. But here's something I've been thinking about lately. If we consider in general terms the objects that will appear in our interfaces, many or all of them, in addition to their gross shape, color, arrangement with respect to nearby objects, etc., will have meta-objects, which facilitate doing anything pertaining to the particular object(s) to which the meta-objects pertain, and which will be somehow structurally connected to their objects, making them<span style="background-color: white;"> easily accessible</span>. These meta-objects could be where you'd reprogram/tweak the behavior of the object, and/or view stats, diagnostics, and attributes of the object, and/or view other related information (i.e., explore the whole universe of available information with that object as the starting point).</div>
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Naturally, we'll also want to be able to 3-dimensionally reprogram the ways the meta-objects structurally connect to their objects, and so on. The concept of a "meta-object" seems entirely relative - any object might be considered a meta-object, with endless levels of meta, meta, meta, all the way down - but such a category sometimes seems useful in visualizing how these interfaces might function.</div>
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I've heard and seen many words over the past several years, and I've been in the habit of speculating about how to turn the words I encounter into shapes, etc. I think it can be a very enjoyable, massively collaborative project, creating interconnected post-verbal ontologies.</div>
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There are some potentially inspiring images and ideas <a href="http://elevr.com/">here</a> - these eleVR folks have been doing some interesting explorations with VR, including mocking up some 3D programming components. I linked to some of their pages several months ago from my <a href="https://geeks.one/@joshmaurice">Mastodon account</a>.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-92058885916429742552018-03-30T11:29:00.000-07:002018-03-30T11:29:44.044-07:00Mesh networking & post-verbal communicationFor our Internet to grow & mature healthily, we'll want to keep strengthening its backbone. Our 20th-century telephone system has evolved into information superhighways with billions of connection points. We'll want to maintain & expand this immense web of digital pathways.<br />
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There's a largely untapped dimension of hardware connectivity. Our devices can now act not only like telephones, connecting to others via central switchboards, but also like walkie-talkies, talking directly with each other. The prospect of direct, peer-to-peer Internet connections, known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking">mesh networking</a>, holds enormous promise for improving our access & our bandwidth.<br />
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So we've barely begun to make use of some of our hardware's networking capabilities. We've also barely scratched the surface with regard to the potentials of the software that we might run on these billions of connected devices.<br />
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Spoken & written words remain major conduits for knowledge. We put significant amounts of time/energy into words: finding them, composing them, listening to & reading them, comprehending & interpreting them, etc. Our information technologies have helped make many of these operations more efficient, but the inherent limitations of our language media, of the spoken & written word, still seem to be some of the biggest constraints on our effectiveness & our flourishing.<br />
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But it's entirely conceivable that we'll overcome the constraints of our words by creating <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/02/i-can-see-your-halos-further-depiction.html">post-verbal ways of communicating</a> with our billions of sophisticated, connected input/output/computing devices. We see the beginnings of it already, but there's a whole new dimension of collaboration & shared experiences in store if we diligently pursue the possibilities.<br />
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Mesh networking & post-verbal communication. Let's make them priorities. Let's make them happen!Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-27568857936995723292018-02-11T12:14:00.000-08:002018-02-11T12:14:55.843-08:00Pavlov, skepticism, and labor<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-8676-066f-0425-961983165e01" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">We can all do better. Sometimes our regrettable shortcomings can distract us from the shortcomings of the systems by which our societies are organized, and vice versa. It’s only sensible to keep trying to improve on both micro and macro levels. Once we’re confident enough in ourselves, confident enough that we’ll behave well and cooperate, we’ll deactivate the legacy systems that presuppose that we’re disinclined to cooperate without mechanisms administering Pavlovian incentives and disincentives to us for good and bad behavior. We’ll arrive at a new level of self-control and mutual aid. It’s not that we’ll deny or harshly suppress our mammalian instincts and values; it’s that we’ll employ our apparently-more-unique self-reflective cognition to put our inherited instincts and values into the service of all beings. The ambiance and dynamics of mammalian dominance hierarchies can be sublimated and transformed and absorbed into new ambiances and dynamics. If we’ve been consciously designed, this collective blossoming seems to be a major challenge that our designers have set before us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">(If the situation is uncomfortable, or if it seems wrong somehow, pause and reflect. It’s okay if familiar patterns fall away. We’re always navigating between the familiar and the new; we always remain grounded in our connection to, our identification with, the infinite network. Maintain a high level of calm awareness; return to first principles. Carry on. Words may be very unnecessary.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">By promulgating these ideas, we make them more feasible. The perception spreads. We perceive the goal, and then we achieve the goal. There’s long been anticipation of a revolutionary shift in mass consciousness toward a more authentic and loving mode - so much anticipation, with so little apparent progress, that many of us have become very skeptical that this long-prophesied event will take place any time soon. Two points seem important in response to this skepticism. First, we have medicines that can facilitate this shift - not exactly panaceas, not necessarily instant cures, but medicines which can act, for many, many people, as empathogens, entheogens, catalysts of cognitive breakthroughs. Recognizing, respecting, and intelligently and carefully utilizing these medicines on large scales, instead of suppressing them, can go a long way toward getting us where we want to be. Second, we emphasize the combination of consciousness change and systems change. The prospect of discontinuing the political/economic systems of Pavlovian conditioning, systems that currently require so much of our energy and attention, can go a long way toward fleshing out the vision of the world we’re creating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">The performance of physical labor -- using hands, tools, etc. to help people and to operate and improve our world -- nourishes the performer’s body, mind, and soul. Optimally we should give everyone the privilege of partaking in a wide variety of such tasks. Intellectual development and intellectual tasks are also important parts of life; it’s vital for each of us to engage in these also. In freeing people to decide how to participate in society, we’ll be giving everyone the opportunity to volunteer for a healthy, interesting range of valuable physical and intellectual activities. That’s how we can experience these activities -- as opportunities, rather than burdens. People will of course still specialize to some extent -- this will be an appropriate choice in some situations, not an imperative imposed through political/economic control structures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Attempts to seriously critique such scenarios tend to concede that “it would be great” -- if people could handle it. So if we can agree that it would be great, let’s promulgate the vision and the methods that will help get us ready to handle it beautifully.</span></div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-63107302201654976002018-01-21T13:47:00.002-08:002018-01-21T13:51:38.215-08:00Why formulate and promulgate new paradigm frameworks like Zx?<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<a href="http://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg">Zx paradigm framework</a></div>
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One reason (among many) to perfect (or radically improve) our value systems, social systems, etc., is that these "humanities" projects, as difficult as they may appear from certain angles, represent a challenge that it seems ought to be achievable, if (as seems very possible) major breakthroughs are at hand which will catalyze major techno-psychic revolutions. In other words, if we're going to be able to automate thought soon, or at least radically improve our information technologies, then it really seems like we ought to be able to solve the problem of how people on this planet can get along and act remotely appropriately.</div>
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(The question of whether to dedicate attention to the humanities or the technological projects can itself consume significant attention. It seems reasonable to think that the humanities goals may be achieved before the technological ones - that figuring out how to cooperate with each other, using human languages, may come before figuring out how to make our machines optimally cooperate with each other, using machine languages. So, by attempting to bring the humanities projects to fruition, we're attempting to check an item off a list such that we can then devote a sufficient amount of attention to the technological projects to bring <b><i>them</i></b> to fruition.)</div>
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So this is one way in which radically upgrading our value systems may be a key step toward radically upgrading our technological systems.</div>
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(Though, we may, and surely will, at least from time to time, also give attention to technological projects while the humanities projects are still underway.)</div>
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Many types of ethical/social/humanities projects/progress and technological projects/progress are and will be happening all the time; the above remarks are referring mostly to highly revolutionary breakthrough formulations in both areas.</div>
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You may not trust people to value everyone. You may not trust people to behave remotely appropriately without the constraints of our current-paradigm systems.</div>
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But if you agree that valuing everyone is a good goal, then you have reasons to promulgate paradigm formulas based on this goal. Promulgating such formulas, painting a picture of a wonderful new reality based on these principles, can give people inspiration and direction - it can help people to move toward being able to embody these ethical ideals. And simply promulgating these frameworks isn't going to create a situation where we're implementing the new paradigm before we're ready for it. It won't be comprehensively implemented until critical masses of people become confident in our ability to abide by it.</div>
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The act of promulgating such frameworks can function as a positive self-fulfilling prophecy. Often people have stated that such changes are surely decades or centuries or millennia away, without seeming to appreciate that such statements can function as negative self-fulfilling prophecies. The speed at which consciousness and values can change has been kept artificially low by the suppression of consciousness-altering, mind-expanding agents and by other means. Many of our limits are self-imposed, imposed and perpetuated by people rather than by outside forces. Promulgating these frameworks can catalyze chain reactions of progressively more potent positive feedback, which can help in the removal of some of these self-imposed limits and therefore in the massive acceleration of the maturation of our values and consciousness.</div>
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Another reason to promulgate these frameworks is that, in many instances. such as the tiny home village trend, we're already operating according to the principles of the forthcoming paradigm to a significant extent, and these frameworks can give to these instances important kinds of validation and nurturing. </div>
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So please process and promulgate the new paradigm; we're losing many opportunities and wasting living beings and living energy every day we delay. The prospect of this transition can be daunting, but we're looking at a rapturously socks-knocking new world that we can help bring into being.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-45649666824627857072017-12-30T04:06:00.001-08:002017-12-30T04:06:47.518-08:00the ongoing transformation of values, and our relationships with current-paradigm systems in the meantime<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
The purpose of money, the purpose of any transactional system, is to incentivize actions that benefit others. A crucial assumption underlying these systems is that people won't care enough about others to take such actions to the same degree without these incentives. A major challenge that we're trying to meet is that of creating a transformation of values, of consciousness, sufficient to uncontroversially falsify that assumption.</div>
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As we're in the process of creating the transformation, we'll naturally have a tendency to operate, in some ways, to some degree, within the frameworks of our transactional systems. There's no excessive contradiction or conflict, necessarily, in participating in a system while participating in a process that will make that system obsolete. It's also true that, during this process, as always, many of our actions will take place outside of transactional systems, despite these systems' prevalence in many areas, and despite any intentions/aspirations for these systems to prevail in even more areas, including some of the areas in which we're acting "extratransactionally."</div>
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Everything said above regarding transactional systems holds true for systems of hierarchical authority also.</div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-91542021628162460032017-12-07T11:06:00.000-08:002017-12-07T23:02:04.571-08:00cooperative tiny home villages: a key strategy for constructing optimal futures<a href="https://www.portlandoregon.gov/video/player/?tab=council">https://www.portlandoregon.gov/video/player/?tab=council</a> (Dec 6 2017 AM Session @ 14:20)<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=860&v=MRuPqEF6Y0w">https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=860&v=MRuPqEF6Y0w</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MRuPqEF6Y0w/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MRuPqEF6Y0w?time_continue=860&feature=player_embedded" width="520"></iframe></div>
(communication starts at 14:20)<br />
<br />
Morning. I'm Josh Maurice. Last time I gave one of these 3-minute
communications was 2 years ago, at the other meeting place across the
river, where they have it on Thursdays, and I talked about what I've now
been sometimes referring to as the cooperative tiny home village
phenomenon. At that time, 2 years ago, a 3rd village had just started,
and now we have 4 in Portland. And I've personally, over the last 6
months or so, had the great fortune to be able to be really personally
involved in this. So I want to express, testify, that I find this very very significant, and a hopeful, positive, trend and phenomenon,
which can hopefully be expanded upon expeditiously.<br />
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We have a
very interesting little ecosystem of villages now, with these four; they
each have their own unique character, and we all learn from each other
and share information and resources. I really want to thank everyone
who's helped make it possible - my fellow villagers, all the volunteers
who come and lend their time and resources and know-how, and city people
who've helped a lot with sanitation, reducing fire hazards, clearing
brush, and so on and so forth.<br />
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It's still to some extent a fairly
controversial phenomenon in many ways, but I think it helps to have an
idea of where this is all going. People are a little uneasy about where
it's going. It's fairly new and different. And there's so much more to
say about it. But the last thing I'll mention is, if we would like to
have a framework for a future paradigm that this may be prefiguring,
there's a website I'd like to mention that does that in a way that I
think is pretty robust and salient: <a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg">https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg</a><br />
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I could go on and on, but that will have to do it for now. Thank you very much, everybody.Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-36612589613639729842017-11-24T21:29:00.000-08:002017-11-24T21:31:01.158-08:00We're at a crossroads. We can have an amazingly wonderful future where we cure diseases and aging and do multitudes of other exciting, worthwhile things. But right now, there are so many trajectories going in other directions. People are starving to death and dying violently. Huge amounts of human potential are going to waste.<br />
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We aren't helpless observers of this situation. We can do something about it. Our actions have a part in determining whether the world gets better or worse. Let's talk about a spiritual-ethical-political-economic-sacramental reformation.<br />
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Check out the Zherg paradigm framework:<br />
<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/">https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg/</a><br />
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Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-14952398887279595062017-07-03T23:59:00.001-07:002017-07-03T23:59:54.416-07:00Zhergishly upgrading core values and transforming society<a href="https://zhergish.wixsite.com/zherg">(ZHERG: Ideas for a transition)</a><br />
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Valuing everyone, as a guiding principle, is central among the ideas we're assimilating with this framework. This principle can help us steer ourselves toward making more kind, loving, positive, benevolent choices. This is an ethic conducive to avid participation in the shared adventure of life.<br />
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Somewhat more concrete, but also extremely important, is the assimilation of the existence of consciousness-expanding wonder drugs. Experiences mediated by these substances frequently count among the most profound, significant, life-changing, eye-opening experiences of people's lives. (Less monumentally memorable but still profoundly beneficial effects can come from smaller doses.) For this open secret to be a secret no longer -- for our society to be structured at all levels in ways conducive to creating supportive conditions for these experiences -- is a big deal.</div>
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If we agree to base our intentions and efforts on a principle of valuing existence and everyone in it, then we can profitably discontinue participation in systems fundamentally structured around interpersonal competition for resources.</div>
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These competitive systems that can be profitably discontinued are intertwined with many vital systems that we'll be keen to continue. We want to avoid throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. Let's get a bit more precise and specify two major types of systems that we anticipate discontinuing.</div>
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The first of these two is what we can call political hierarchy, whereby people are rigidly ranked with respect to each other. Instead of practicing political hierarchy, we will defer to each other as appropriate in each situation. Leading and following of various sorts will occur routinely, as collaboratively arranged phenomena. No one will be considered to have any kind of blanket control or authority over anyone else. We affirm that we're capable of interacting with each other in voluntary, civilized ways. If someone isn't meeting these expectations, we'll address the situation collaboratively and transparently, working together to restore them to health and harmony. If someone poses a serious danger, we can detain them humanely to keep them from harming anyone.</div>
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The other major type of system we can discontinue is what we can call conditional transactions. This means I won't try to obtain things directly in return for the good deeds I do. I'll constantly consider the impact of my actions on everyone affected, and others will likewise be considering the impact of their actions on me. We will help each other because we value each other. All work will be done on a volunteer basis. We'll document people's work and consumption, to whatever extent is feasible and valuable for record-keeping, but we won't charge anyone for anything. The people working at a given location will collaboratively determine the shared parameters of the operations.</div>
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Our task is to continue any authentically valuable activities, whether they've been intertwined with competitive economic systems, with governmental systems, or with any other systems. We'll continue our valuable activities, the ones that clearly serve and affirm and enhance life, while discontinuing political hierarchy and conditional transactions. We'll keep food growing and water flowing, we'll keep sanitation functioning, well keep caring for each other. We'll keep valuing and nurturing friends, family, skies and wilderness, arts and culture, research and development, etc. With our new paradigm, we'll be able to be more effective than ever in serving these enduring values.<br />
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The concept of a boss can disappear from our organizational structures. We can use terms like admins, hubs, and points of contact, for parties who are relatively centrally involved in organizing a given process. We can organize the activities of people and groups in complex ways, without anyone or any group occupying a greater or lesser rank relative to others, in terms of general power or authority. Some information flow patterns that had been taking place under the auspices of chains of command will be valuable to continue, but these flows will now be reimagined simply as chains of communication or information, conserving the valuable functions being served by these information flows while folding them into the new nonhierarchical organizational patterning. People who were bosses in the status quo ante will, in many instances, have special knowledge that remains valuable, and they will continue to give guidance. But there will be no formal, rigid hierarchies, and so no more competing or contending for positions of authority, no more energy put into currying favor with authority figures, etc.<br />
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All forms of money can disappear from our organizational structures. Money has been so prevalent, and our economies have become so highly financialized, that this single step will free up vast resources. Most of us have spent significant portions of our lives dealing with money in various ways. Many of us deal with it full time, in financial or political institutions, insurance, accounting, fundraising, etc. Many are occupied with activities that generate income but don't otherwise serve anyone's authentic values. The discontinuation of these many money-related tasks will be among the most direct consequences of our transition. The vast time and energy that this frees up can be devoted to multitudes of valuable, life-serving activities.<br />
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The change will be a major one, but we've been building toward this for a long time. Years and years of growth and development have brought us to this milestone. We've been preparing our minds. And our communications technologies stand ready to expedite conversation and consensus around a historic, global transformation.<br />
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There are many promising avenues of research and development, in communications technologies and in many other areas. There are utopian (but realistic) technological possibilities, scenarios in which abundance is ubiquitous and we've automated almost all of the difficult work at which people have toiled for so long. We face the prospect of vastly greater happiness and well-being for everyone, a world where we spend our time freely exploring, relating, learning, and enjoying. But if we're going to fulfill utopian hopes, certain major procedural adjustments appear as wise choices. Utopian eventualities are eminently conceivable, but their manifestation is hardly guaranteed. Turning these scenarios into reality depends on our creating favorable psycho-social conditions for them. We're facing serious challenges and suboptimal realities that can be addressed by shifting our civilizational paradigm. There's concern as to the safety of developing some more advanced (and therefore potentially more dangerous) technologies, in the context of such psycho-social conditions as prevail currently. The anticipation of new psycho-social conditions, new civilizational paradigms, has been high. These psycho-social processes, these human systems, have emerged as the most relevant media, the most pertinent technologies, for us to upgrade at this moment in history. This will prepare the way for further technological advances to unfold safely and robustly.</div>
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Even if a fairly brief formulation, like a small app or algorithm, might play a key role in enabling revolutionary technological advances, we'll want to upgrade our human systems forthwith, for the reasons just mentioned (upgrading human systems will create more favorable conditions for creating new technological formulations, and there are safety concerns with revolutionarily new technologies in the context of our current psycho-social systems). And we don't know right now whether a single, brief, algorithmic formulation will play a revolutionary role or not. So let's not delay in formulating unity and utopia -- coming to an agreeable understanding among ourselves -- which will put us into better positions to pursue revolutionary software, among many other projects.</div>
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<b>We can proceed with optimizing our civilizational trajectories without waiting for any major technological breakthroughs. </b>Vast transformations of our consciousness and our organizational patterns are possible in the context of technological capacities that already exist. Implementing this major paradigm shift will entail creating many new systems, and making many changes in how we use our technologies, but launching the new paradigm doesn't require any revolutionarily new technologies beyond what we have today. This shift is a process that unfolds in our hearts and minds, in our actions, and in our interactions mediated by body language, speech, writing, and other media.</div>
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Let's carry out this paradigm shift in fairly short order so as to optimize our experience on this planet and eventually reach a future of leisure and abundance. Disease, environmental collapse, and other at-least-partially preventable problems have been harming and killing people in significant numbers, and there are serious prospects for some of these problems to get drastically worse very quickly. The imperative is clear to optimize the systems by which we operate, in order to improve living conditions, alleviate the threat of monumental catastrophes, maximize our chances of building utopias, etc.</div>
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Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-37395684004965304872017-06-29T02:02:00.000-07:002017-06-29T02:02:36.465-07:00<div class="gmail-m_-6127103468915606500gmail-m_-2276629826272920315gmail-_1mf gmail-m_-6127103468915606500gmail-m_-2276629826272920315gmail-_1mj" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Progress often happens by virtue of very regular, cyclical movements, and it often happens in fits and starts. Sometimes we lose ground. But as long as a person is living in at least a certain state of health, and as long as a civilization persists in at least a certain state of health, an overall tendency toward learning, maturing, growing, expanding, zesty exploration, does seem to be a general trend, even if it doesn't always happen as fast as we'd like, and as much as we're frustrated by our backsliding. The novelties of the centuries and millennia are conserved, preserved, enriching the present, fertilizing new novelties that will then be conserved into the future. (If there is one! -- None of this should be taken to suggest that this process of civilization can't come to a catastrophic halt or that deep changes aren't called for in order to survive and thrive.)</span></div>
<div class="gmail-m_-6127103468915606500gmail-m_-2276629826272920315gmail-_1mf gmail-m_-6127103468915606500gmail-m_-2276629826272920315gmail-_1mj" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">
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<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We mourn the passing of our friends, the disappearance of those lives, with their personalities, relationships, and knowledge. Before we follow them, the adventure of occupying this planet includes taking our intelligence, our awareness, our experience, to ever higher heights, absorbing and assimilating the information and resources coming to us from ourselves, from each other, from our ancestors, and from other sources, transmuting them into groovier, more ethical, more beautiful, more loving patterns.</span></div>
Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-3407798811227319782017-05-05T17:39:00.000-07:002017-05-11T09:33:22.491-07:00hair vibes & the fediverseA few weeks ago, I was walking down the street, on one of my many long walks, during which I think about many, many things. On this occasion, I was thinking about my hair, and how Nyx has been adamantly against my cutting it again. And right then, I was passing by a head shop. A guy was sitting by the side door, and he yelled to me, "You need a haircut!"<br />
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Since I'm here, I'd like to take the opportunity to invite and encourage everyone to join <a href="https://fern.surgeplay.com/@joshmaurice">me</a> in the open, distributed social networking universe, known as the fediverse. <a href="https://mastodon-bridge.herokuapp.com/">This page</a> helps people find their Twitter friends on Mastodon servers.<br />
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Mastodon, the software, exploded in popularity early last month. Then, later in the month, news came out regarding mastodon remains that seemed to provide some indications that humans have been in the Americas for 10 times longer than was previously commonly accepted.<br />
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Today, these two toots appeared consecutively in my feed and are timestamped 3 minutes apart:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_BdmT5US7ioqq-GrnoisPnqHcWMrhyphenhyphenCvg8gtR1kmfHh-R9v1bgkQexjnfUeGRuCPitzNbZ_zUoTo3dkBfxAdjc4h-Eid-ERkfjv7j8vYYp1nH5OdoJu4bi6buZb95ZZt3QUR9niSA_Ju/s1600/Screen+shot+2017-05-05+at+5.06.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_BdmT5US7ioqq-GrnoisPnqHcWMrhyphenhyphenCvg8gtR1kmfHh-R9v1bgkQexjnfUeGRuCPitzNbZ_zUoTo3dkBfxAdjc4h-Eid-ERkfjv7j8vYYp1nH5OdoJu4bi6buZb95ZZt3QUR9niSA_Ju/s320/Screen+shot+2017-05-05+at+5.06.30+PM.png" width="302" /></a></div>
<br />Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-32505635762580465482017-02-08T20:57:00.000-08:002017-02-21T17:13:49.664-08:00Labels and conversations beyond the ideological x-axisNo one yet seems to have registered any disagreement with <a href="https://novni.com/letters/read/15934/unities-dualities-and-political-labels">this December 2015 essay</a> advocating transcending the political categories of "right," "left," "conservative," and "liberal." But the labels in question are still used with some frequency, and they continue to play very divisive roles in our discourse.<br />
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Lots of people seem to be giving more thought to how they relate to these terms. We seem to see them in quotation marks more frequently, and more people seem to be explicitly deciding not to identify with either side of the dichotomies these terms represent. When they're used in political polemics without quotation marks, they still seem to me to be some of the very least helpful terms in our discourse. I'm not saying to ban any words from your vocabulary, but rather just to give more thought to them. When I mention "chucking" or "eschewing" or "transcending" these categories, it's shorthand for transforming our relationship with them, going beyond habitual linguistic loyalties. These particular political labels really seem frequently to perpetuate self-fulfilling prophecies of divisiveness, partisanship, factionalism, hostility. Chucking them can help us get past some of the superficial levels of discourse, to the more substantive levels of processes, policies, practices, paradigms. Of course, there's a lot invested in playing linguistic games on relatively superficial levels. Those who can see and function beyond such investments can become an example and beacon for others.</div>
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In addition to "conservative" & "liberal" & "right" & "left," a newer pair of terms seems useful to mention: "status quo warrior" and "social justice warrior." (I want to note that there are differences between these three pairs, though they've often been treated as equivalent. Nevertheless, I think the points in this post can be fruitfully applied to all three pairs.) The terms SQW and SJW seem to have come to be used mostly derogatorily. Why is that?</div>
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If we use simple, charitable definitions of "status quo" and "social justice," they can be looked at as another basic duality of the universe.</div>
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Status quo is what exists. Reality. Truth. Empirical, informative, descriptive facts.</div>
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Justice is rightness. Goodness. Values. Preferences. Normative stuff.</div>
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So we have the "is," and then we have the "ought." </div>
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If we ignore the status quo, or if we disrupt it too much, too fast, this can clearly bring problems. Ignoring values can lead to stagnation, destruction, and suboptimal experiences, and we can make mistakes in the values that we choose.</div>
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To illustrate this duality, let's say you're holding some mushrooms. Another person approaches. This is the status quo: you have mushrooms and someone's coming.</div>
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Now let's look at some of the more normative aspects of the situation. You've evaluated these mushrooms as exquisitely delicious and/or good for you. The other person, for whatever reason, looks like they could use some.</div>
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Facts and values are inextricably intertwined, dual aspects of any situation, both involved in making a good decision, like giving some mushrooms to the other person, helping to produce a new and probably better status quo: two happy mushroom munchers instead of one.</div>
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So it's the "warrior" part that really seems to bring a lot of negativity to these terms. War has been widely perceived as one of the worst plagues of human history. And war isn't just outright violence but also cold wars, the mistrust & suspicion & seething resentments that we carry around, which are unpleasant and draining in themselves, and which can sometimes erupt quickly into hot wars.</div>
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If we're identifying heavily, in our general political orientation, with one side of a definitionally balanced duality, then this imbalance seems almost bound to lead to an overabundance of disturbances. Fighting or hostility could be considered the epitome of social disturbance. These are phenomena such that, generally speaking, when we substantially decrease them, our lives get substantially better. The idea of fighting for one's values, fighting the good fight, fighting against nefarious forces, is still very widespread. Certainly, we don't want to discount the importance of fighting if the occasion really calls for it. And our world has been so full of violence that fighting has often been used as a metaphor for passionate, idealistic societal engagement. But a major part of The Fight, in this metaphorical sense - a major part of the righteous mission we're on - is surely overcoming the era of violence. A critical examination of our political rhetoric and allegiances can aid this mission.</div>
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I think there's been a feeling that forgoing these labels may amount to a hollow and even dangerous equivalency or relativism. I think this is a legitimate concern, and we should take care that we're not just trying to linguistically project an existentially unattained unity while erasing or papering over important distinctions. But all things considered, I think clarity and unity and other worthwhile goals are best served by, by and large, retiring these terms (or using them very carefully, preferably in quotation marks, or in contexts where they have a clearly conveyed, precise meaning), and talking instead about the deeper issues, which have been connected to these terms, but which all too often seem to be ignored, forgotten, neglected, as we get hung up on labels and on interpersonal drama, etc.</div>
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Words mean things. The words "conservative," "liberal," "left," "right," "SQW," or "SJW" might mean something so important to you, as ways of describing yourself or others or both, that it seems essential to keep using them. But what if the worthwhile positions, causes, and principles that you hold dear are better served by eschewing these political labels? When someone does use these words in a way that seems to be perpetuating the uncritical adversarial assumptions that have prevailed through so much of our discourse, we can take this as an opportunity to unpack some baggage. The cycles of hostility to which these words have been connected over many decades, and the fact that they're defined in opposition to each other, suggest that they're helping keep us at an impasse where no one's goals are being achieved the way they could be if we were to get past the impasse.</div>
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We can think of these changes as an innovation, an expansion, spawning new ideas and opportunities, rather than as a contraction or a loss. It's not that anyone should suddenly stop being who they are - if you lean "left," "right," "conservative," "liberal," you'll retain all the knowledge and experience that have influenced you to lean that way, you'll retain your values and passions and commitments, but you can embrace the other side of the duality also, at least in the sense of the labels you use for people, and in the sense of your readiness to relate to people, and even maybe in a more literal sense, expanding the circumstances and conditions in which you're likely to hug someone. We can imagine new standard practices emerging that reflect these expanded affections. At various events with specific agendas, in which people gather in a room or outdoor space, there could be hugs all around before and after the agenda.</div>
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These changes don't even require giving up the idea that the side you've been leaning toward, or affiliating with, has better positions and a better history than the other side. We're talking about changing some of the ways we use labels to describe people. It may seem superficial or gimmicky, but it can have real effects. If we want to manifest a future where we all win, let's use language that makes room for that. And if you consider the people on "the other side" to be tragically misguided, that would seem to be good reason not to expect them to be the first to carry out these cultural/linguistic innovations. You'd better take the initiative and set the example.</div>
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If we stop identifying with one side of a duality, it doesn't mean becoming, or succumbing to, or conceding to, the other side. It can be a transition to a new level of sophistication, a greater ability to communicate and relate and cooperate.</div>
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Are misguided people amenable to persuasion? Very often, yes, naturally. And if a greater consensus can happen, it will surely bring enormous benefits and forestall significant pain. So let's really optimize our rhetoric, upgrade and restock our linguistic tool chest.</div>
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We have an infamous capacity for rationalizing to support our favored positions. We can think we're being reasonable, clever, even generous, magnanimous, when in fact our behavior just comes off as smug or worse to those holding different positions. If our aim is reconciliation and unity, this outcome can't really be considered that clever.</div>
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Pride remains a tricky problem that it seems we can stand to keep working on. Its pitfalls have been noted frequently throughout history, but we're still learning. We definitely want to feel good about our good deeds, but taking it to the point of pride seems like an inelegant solution, ultimately a folly, though one that's still fostered, reinforced, advocated, facilitated, in many ways.</div>
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I don't say all this just to admonish others; I'm very inspired, and sobered, by ways I've personally fallen short karmically. I noticed myself appearing to flip the bird on video a few years ago, when talking about some adversarial dynamics I was involved in. I don't seem to have realized I was doing it at the time; I noticed it when I watched the video. But an unconscious gesture like that can belie other, less visible modes of judging or dismissing others and inflating oneself. More recently, I deigned to participate in some conversations on social media, with my contribution sometimes consisting of little more than sloppily tarring people with labels, without getting much involved in deeper discussion of the issues involved. I also pretty carelessly curated a public list of questionable characters, lumping together people with pretty widely divergent views/characteristics into this small, ill-defined category.</div>
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The power of habit is strong. If we hold views similar to those of our ancestors, then it could be said that we're continuing with habits that go back to long before we were born. And when we change our views during our lifetime, when we have a conversion experience, we might then form a habit of associating our former views, along with the people who still hold similar views, with our wayward youth, dismissing those people as "childish," etc., and constructing a new insular identity, different from the previous one, but still insular.</div>
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People convert from "right" to "left," "conservative" to "liberal," and vice versa -- a two-way street -- and sometimes go back and forth multiple times. But the conversion from strong identification with any of these labels, as general political descriptors, to a perspective that transcends and includes them, seems like it may be a one-way street.</div>
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Luckily, factors like the accelerating feedback loops of culture and media make it plausible that we can learn from our mistakes faster than ever before.</div>
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The habit of looking for ways to unify, congeal, integrate - finding points of contention and resolving them - can be very fun and rewarding.</div>
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We can build oneness without sacrificing eachness. We'll always have interesting differences; each of us will always be unique in many ways. In fact, attaining greater oneness will undoubtedly help there to be greater eachness. There seem to be many constraints and barriers that simultaneously constrain both unity and individuality.</div>
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Trying hard to transcend the divides represented by a few particular, frequently used, political labels isn't saying anything against labels in general, of course. All discourse involves labels. What other labels might we suggest using? What ideologies or methodologies do we want to signal-boost?</div>
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Advocating "centrism" in a political context seems possibly liable to invoke and reify the same frameworks, the same linguistic divisions or dualisms, that we're trying to overcome.</div>
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Two models I think are worthy of note are the <a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy">circular economy</a> and the <a href="https://www.thevenusproject.com/resource-based-economy/">resource-based economy</a>.</div>
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Various strands of "liberatory" and "libertarian" thought have pointed toward horizontal methods of organization that go beyond quid pro quo transactions and/or hypercentralized government control.</div>
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There's voluntarism[1]; there's 100%ism[2]; there's Pay It Forward; there are many labels that could come in handy.</div>
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[1] <a href="https://novni.com/letters/read/42933/mini-voluntarist-manifesto-105">Mini Voluntarist Manifesto 1.05</a></div>
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[2] <a href="http://vote99.weebly.com/faq.html">99 2020 FAQ</a></div>
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We may be on the verge of creating new media that will help us communicate much more effectively, but as we build those media, we may want to keep some of these points in mind with regard to the conversations we have in the meantime through our current media. Many of our current conversations are dysfunctional, to various degrees. You might take a look at <a href="http://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/sands.htm">Science and Sanity</a> and <a href="http://www.whale.to/c/Prometheus%20Rising.pdf">Prometheus Rising</a> if you've never done so. These books are antiquated in many ways, but pretty fascinating, quite possibly still very relevant. Given the stakes, we should give very high priority to putting into our communications maximum clarity and best intentions for the well-being of all. Let's be willing to take long pauses, let there be dead air, as we bring our truly best efforts to our linguistic behavior. Let's prioritize facilitating open, productive, earnest discussion of salient or controversial topics, with an eye toward real resolutions, real meetings of the minds. For instance, there's disagreement about climate change. We can set up in-depth conversations (via podcast, etc.) between people able to present some of the most robust possible cases for different points of view on the issue. Eric S. Raymond or Dr. Judith Curry could represent the perspective that the changes probably aren't as dire as often depicted. That issue has connections to conversations about fossil fuels and other energy sources, though of course many other factors besides climate will come into our energy conversations too.</div>
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One salient consideration seems to be that many banal, counterproductive, & destructive activities are greatly accelerated by the ways we define, promote, and incentivize economic success and growth. Economic success and growth as we measure them include a significant amount of economic activity that has no life-sustaining or -enhancing value apart from helping to generate income that people use to buy access to resources. So, by fundamentally changing our economic system, we can help put our technological activities into better harmony with life on earth, while also freeing up the time spent performing actions that contribute to success within the economic system but that have no other utility.</div>
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Let us know what you think; thanks for reading!<br />
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[edited 2-18-17]</div>
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Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-871239064055660697.post-54345962732139067752017-02-03T16:16:00.001-08:002017-02-03T16:39:56.116-08:00 I can see your halos: Further depiction of forthcoming interfaces<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> </span><br />
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">A reader suggested that I follow my <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2017/01/graphicaluniversal-interfaces-filters.html">previous blogpost</a> with some more concrete descriptions of some of what we might see and do with our graphical interfaces. The following may help to create a more dimensionally rich picture, with some 3-dimensional ideas for organizing data (I <a href="http://jmmsynch.blogspot.com/2016/05/from-agario-to-ggodd-global-graphical.html">previously</a> described several 2-dimensional ideas) and some ideas regarding navigating temporally in addition to spatially.</div>
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We could start with the idea that you'll often tend to be particularly interested in what's happening in your immediate geographic area. So the interface might initially display a picture/map of your current location at, say, the neighborhood scale, from which you can zoom out to the scale of continents or galaxies, or zoom in - maybe to the scale of your face, with the help of your device's camera. So you can navigate to any geographic location you like.</div>
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Maps/images depicting real-world objects will be connected to images depicting more virtual objects (with the help of something like the <a href="https://www.mixedrealitysystem.org/">Mixed Reality Service</a>); we'll swim smoothly between the worlds.</div>
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Toward the edge(s) of the screen can be what we could call the relatively "meta" items. If the main or central part of the screen contains a chunk of cyberspace, filled with contiguous items that are related fairly directly to whatever you're engaging with or exploring at the moment, then out by the perimeter you can have items that are relevant and useful in more general, indirect, abstract ways. So this outer area could be like a halo of meta-items: frequently used resources/tools, updates, messages/alerts, etc. This area can serve functions similar to our current social media, email, browser bookmarks, toolbars, window menus, the array of frequently visited pages that our browser generates when we open a new tab, and whatever else we tend to consult frequently. </div>
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So around the main part of our display, we may have this halo, which we could call the "main halo." Many objects within the display could also sprout halos of their own, containing meta-items specifically relevant to the object, like related topics, or functions that are particularly applicable to the object. A halo can hover a short distance away from its object, or maybe encircle it, more like a hula hoop, or the rings of a planet. And of course items within a halo can have their own halos, and so on.</div>
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Consider the complex sequences of images that flow through your mind when you're absorbed in a work of fiction or nonfiction -- not the images your eyes are taking in of the text itself, but the images in your mind of the meanings behind the text, evoked by the text. Well, with sufficiently advanced graphical ontologies, millions of books (and other texts) could be automatically converted to graphics, so that we can imbibe their meanings by traversing a path, and looking, instead of reading. As we traverse these graphicalized works, we can stop and make changes when we see ways the translation can be improved, if there isn't yet AI that's become impeccable at this job.</div>
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Now let's say you're traversing a sequence, or thread, of information, and when you're partway through it, you want to stop your traversal temporarily and do something else within the interface. Maybe you're stopping in order to make improvements, as just mentioned; maybe you want to explore more deeply some item in the sequence that you don't understand very well; maybe you're responding or reacting to something that has appeared in your main halo; maybe some tangential, or seemingly unrelated, thing has just occurred to you and you want to follow up on the thought before you forget it. Once you've taken care of the digression, how do you get back to where you were in the original thread? If you remember how you got from that point to where you are now, maybe you can spatially navigate back to it fairly easily. Maybe you zoomed in when you were digressing, and now zooming out will get you right back to the thread. But if the path back to the thread is more complicated, or if you want to go back to someplace more temporally distant, maybe a place to which you hadn't specifically intended to return until now, then you may want to navigate temporally. (You may not know exactly <i>where</i> to go to get back, but you may have a good idea of <i>when</i> you were there.) The system will remember where you've been, so you'll be able to rewind and fast forward through your history. This seems likely to come in handy frequently; you may keep your temporal navigation tools somewhere prominent in your main halo.</div>
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While there will be privacy and solitude available in this new environment, it will offer multitudes of new ways to meld with others. We'll have radically more flexible ways to videoconference, we'll be able to "tether" one person's point of view to another's so that the one can follow the other's peregrination through cyberspace in real time (sharing the same trip, as it were), etc. We'll all be inhabiting and co-creating this immense mixed-reality environment. All around us will be structures constructed via massive cooperation of people and machines.</div>
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By the way, in writing about the output of these interfaces, I've written mostly or completely about the visual aspects. The visual seems likely to keep playing a prominent role, but there may also be amazing things we'll be doing with sound, and kinesthetic feedback, and other modalities.</div>Josh Mauricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03589553391522701891noreply@blogger.com2