You are the Key to Peace
You are a mind, inseparable from your body. You are a robot. You are one of many androids. You are an organism called Earth. You are a sun called Sol. You are called the Milky Way galaxy. You are called the Local Cluster. You are called the Universe.
You are the sole owner and operator of a humanoid robot. It has a processing unit whose capacity is among the most sophisticated on Earth. It uses 25 watts of energy and is powered by its own organic biodigestive intake manifold.
This robot has many flaws because it was not design, but evolved into a clumsily built, as if by happenstance, android that was only suited to survive against its environment.
But now, we are our own environment and the surroundings we once had to defend against has been replaced by each other.
The dynamics of human interaction is infinitely complex yet we seem to try making some sort of order out of it, as if we knew what order it should be in to begin with. It is absurd to think that we are anything but lucky to be in the position we are in. Rather we treat ourselves as rulers and masters when we are merely infantile students. On the scale of what is possible versus what we have achieved, we are still monkeys with tools.
We have really only been at least a little good at building a civilization for around two thousand orbits or Sol. What was successful in the past is not working anymore. The old system lacks in scalability and now has more individuals than it can handle without becoming unstable. It is clearly not very stable.
However, no person can hope to know what is best for society. No one person is that much more intelligent or worthy of speaking for so many, of making such important decisions or most importantly, making decisions for us.
There is but a single thing that exists that you have some semblance of control over. It is yourself. The Homo Sapiens Model 1986, January edition, here. It is the one thing I can control.
Most people try to control. When you try controlling things, they control you instead. If you control nothing, or very little, the world has very little control over you. If you try to control yourself, you become stressed. Stress is not control.
Control is having enough to control to let go. Instead of trying to control the incessant thoughts that plague your mind, let go of them, pay them no heed. Simply listen to yourself breathe instead. If you can do this always, you have control enough to let go of the chaos.
As a robot, you operate a certain way. Being that you have no chance of controlling your environment, you have no choice but to spend day after day working on your masterpiece.
Your body is a direct expression of your average, day to day state of mind. The way you care for one of the most sophisticated machines on Earth reflects just how much you appreciate life. This body is your masterpiece, the ultimate canvas, capable of anything imaginable, the most sublime expression of you. Yet we are content to live our lives dedicated to full-time consumption.
All we do is eat, watch, drive, breathe, drink, get drunk, fuck, sleep, browse, and die. This is our lives, this all we care to do. This is our true expression of self. We try to cover it up, to be something we're not, to be something we think will impress everyone else. The only person you need to impress is yourself.
Impress yourself by letting go of the petty things that don't matter. Letting go of all the fake drama of life and concentrating on what actually matters. Not money, fame, or even love are important in the world we live in. These are just things we do to occupy ourselves that we've taken a little to seriously.
What we all need to concentrate on is making ourselves excellent human beings we can imagine.
The problem is we've been given these examples of perfection that seem to be out of reach, as they are so far from what we are, so we don't even bother trying. It's much easier to dedicate life to consumption and comfort, you think.
Perfect is not achieved in a lifetime, so you better get started.
If you do not move towards being perfect, you have given up, become satisfied and quit trying. You take what you got and call it a day. At whatever age it is, you sit there the rest of your life, content, but in your own little made up fantasy bubble world. You have forced yourself to be something you are not. You are a fraud, wholly and completely. You cannot let go.
But you must let go of all of it. Everything that does not matter, that isn't important, whose time could be better spent doing something great with our resources.
Instead we play a wasteful theater of human drama, complete with wars, murder, starvation and revolutions. How could it possibly get anymore exciting than that? We are not great, we are murderers. We are not oppressed, we are the oppressors of ourselves. Maybe we should have real laws, like, don't being a fucking jerk. Or don't take more than you need. Or one for trying to exercise control over someone other than yourself.
Maybe we should have a society where the people that contribute the most things which matter are the highest respected individuals, rather than the ones that are on the television most.
If your body is a direct reflection of your state of mind, your actions are also an extension of your mind. The things you do is your mark on the world.
What if you break it down like follows? Your "score" in society, instead of how much money you earn, is how much karma you've earned. Karma is a general term for good things. It originated from the internet as a freely distributable form of currency which could buy nothing and was merely an indicator of whether or not you approve of something another person has said. In the societal sense, your karma would be how much you consume versus what you contribute to society, as judged by others. If everybody knew this number based on a stock-market-esque system, we could measure our improvement on a daily basis.
But this is not what we should do. What we should do is behave as if we were in this system, but without the system. If the system was there, it would result in abuse of the system. Humans are clever and will manipulate any system designed by other humans, mostly because they are greedy and power hungry, but also because we view it as a challenge. We are problem solvers. And right now, we are spending our time creating our own systems to solve and manipulate. Unfortunately, the largest systems, which some manipulate for fun, have a direct influence on everyone else.
We must abandon all systems, our former artificial selves, and become everything humans were meant to be.
Comments (0) 09.23.2011. 01:14
Six Keys to Creating Profitable Customer Relationships
This title is everything in a nutshell, everything that causes pain in the world. Everybody wants profitable relationships from everyone else and that is their immediate goal.
In our society, we do not wish to build a profitable world in which everyone can exist harmoniously. The reason we cannot have a perfect world is because we DO NOT WANT it. We'd rather pay lip service to every other human we come in contact with.
WE WANT YOU TO BE OKAY WITH US STEALING YOUR MONEY.
We want to see how many different ways we can fuck you without you getting too upset about it.
This is our world, Animal Farm Incorporated.
But you don't see it. It's too comfortable in a warm pile of shit for you to care about anything. You're going to be dead before you can reap what you've sewn, so why should you care?
I'm here to tell you that we're doing everything wrong. I know you won't want to admit something like that, but it's true. And it hurts too much for you to even acknowledge it, ignorance is bliss.
What have you left for me to work with? A nation that's collectively at the bottom of a bottle, whose governing system is nearly indistinguishable from the most popular reality television shows, whose criminals sleep the best at night, whose bankers are employed to enslave those walking out of the nest.
You accept it as necessary, because things can't be any other way. You accept it because if your beloved capitalism and republic fail, then you have nothing to fall back on, you know no other ways.
By the time I came into this world, everything was bought and sold already. Civilization had already conquered all it could. I spent a large percentage of my life disillusioned by propaganda and now I'm waking up to the cold hard reality of my future.
Those who came before me left nothing for the future, nothing for me, my friends, my children or our health. They have sold me as a line item on China's debt collection invoices. My government guaranteed that I would slave my life away to ensure we repaid our debt to China. They have constructed society in a manner that ensures this happens.
I ask of my parents, who should be repaying who? You work hard not for yourself, but for the future. Without a future for the human race, all your effort was for naught. This is why you have created what you have worked so hard for all your life, this world for me to live in. However, you insist on doing things your way, when your time has obviously come and gone.
I don't owe you anything. It is you that owes me the opportunity to make things right.
Comments (0) 06.17.2011. 13:21
My Perspective
I was born in January of 1986. I was brought up to believe in the American Dream, that if I simply followed the Rules, I would be rewarded with a comfortable, middle class lifestyle with a decent amount of disposable income.
When I was 18, I was not as questioning as I could have been. Presumably, I thought I already knew it all without actually finding out. I still believed I was one of the smartest people ever born because high school was so easy. I didn't get good grades or anything, maybe a 3.0 gpa, because it was boring. There was so much better stuff to think about.
I would venture to guess that 90% of what we learn before we are 18 is a complete waste. The education I received was a dumbed-down, propagandized version of what some politician thinks I should know. I won't say that what I learned was false or incorrect. The actual quality of the education I received was pretty good. My entire family is teachers so I know it's a tough job and all my teachers were good. I'm not complaining about that. It's the system itself, the curriculum, the fact that it completely fails the top and bottom 10 or 15 percent of students.
After a few years in college, I was slowly coming to realization that the world was nothing like I believed it to be. Thus, my life was not what I wanted it to be. The more I learned about the world, the more I realized I was way off course.
This realization came at the cost of many quarters of failed math classes during the engineering program, still believing that because I was capable of becoming an engineer, I could force myself to do it. During college, I had a powerful subconscious desire that didn't want me to be an engineer. No matter how much I fought myself, it was eventually too difficult to overcome. I would buckle down and study math and do homework and finally pass calculus 3 my third time around, but could never maintain the self discipline to do it multiple quarters in a row.
It just wasn't for me.
I guess I wanted to please those in my life by doing what they expected of me, doing the "right thing" according to them. All the while though, I knew deep down it wasn't what I wanted. I was just occupying myself while I truly figured out what I want from life.
Hindsight is 20/20 but I wish I had done that exploring while flipping burgers and paying rent in a crappy apartment somewhere. Or even before I turned 18. But how was I supposed to know what I wanted when I had no perception of the real world? Of course I don't actually wish that. Had it not been for my experiences so far, I might not have arrived where I am today.
In the end, I am stuck with an absurd amount of student loans for which a family member cosigned. When you dance with the devil... Anyway, the "right" thing to do would be to suck it up and give my best effort to pay off my student loans before going on hiatus. Then I would be completely free to do as I wish. And so would my cosigner.
Unfortunately, I don't actually believe that's the right thing to do in my situation. As I learn about how the world really works, I find out that our once great society has been overrun by bankers and other corporate criminals living the high life at the cost of the "middle" and lower class. That's just the way it is. If you don't see it like that, you're not looking. I know that every dollar I pay on my student loans is another dollar used to support the legitimate racket of the upper class. Every dollar I give to the banks is another dollar I'm not spending figuring out what to do about the mess we're in.
Consequently, I choose to do the right thing, unpopular with everyone though it may be, and send a symbolic payment of $5 each month to my debtors. That's all I feel they deserve at the moment. Actually, they don't deserve a cent, but in case they take me to court, I can say I tried.
As motivation to ensure I repay them, they are ruining my and my cosigner's credit. It's pretty much legal extortion.
I'm sorry I took so long to figure out what I want in life. But make no mistake about it: this is my life and I will live it how I choose. I will not exercise the will of power hungry criminals that have their grubby paws in everything. I'm also sorry that I let society do me a monetary favor. I would genuinely rather have borrowed from a mafia loan shark. They are more reasonable.
When you look at it from my perspective, I am being punished for not following the standard societal procedures of graduating college and entering the work force like a good bee. Punished for wanted to make myself better with education, in order to make the world a better place. Punished for not being certain about which education I even wanted.
Sure, I could have jumped through all the hoops, buckled down, became an engineer and gone on to do wonderful things. I just don't feel like I would have achieved my potential. I would have sold my soul for comfort and security. So that's what the purpose of my adventure/journey/hiatus/pilgrimage/etc is: to figure out how to achieve my potential while simultaneously protebsting the system by not participating, the consequences be damned.
I am sure this will all hang over my head until the banks are either gone or satisfied (paid). I will do something about it eventually, but I will not submit to extortion, even for my cosigner. Until then I will go ahead and let everyone be mad at me until I either a) realize I was being an idiot all along or, hopefully, b) my actions eventually mean something and people see the bigger picture and what I'm trying to do.
Then again, perhaps this is all a huge way of justifying being a fuckup. I truly do not believe this is the case, but if it is, I will find out on hiatus.
Comments (0) 06.06.2011. 06:01
The Current System is Obsolete
In a settlement that practices neotopian order, people with (outside) debt could seek refuge. If the bank comes to take the home they live in, within the settlement, the home does not belong to anyone (as it technically belongs to everyone) specifically and is therefore not for sale. The bank has no possible claim.
Our economy would be fundamentally sound, without anyone trying to skim off the top as middlemen in transactions, as is the case in a capitalist market. An economy where scamming others for personal good does not pay off even a little because it's so much easier to do it the right way.
Our current markets are obsolete in a sense, as they are fragile, but they do indeed function pretty well when used honestly. The problem is essentially this. Those that control the mechanisms of the economy, in this case bankers, are in a prime position to exploit the system without anyone finding out. Power is too great a temptation for most men. Eventually the system becomes corrupt and collapses.
I feel as though this is a feature, not a bug. Market values are based on how investors feel, a whim even. There is no raw data in the numbers that means aything useful because it's all based on arbitrary currency values.
A stable system would result from keeping detailed economic statistics of consumption and production, supplying useful indicators to everyone. Even creating such a system would likely garner popularity, eventually enough to go mainstream. Essentially, it would be a credit card linked to a website to track exactly what you buy and how much you produce. The cards could be anonymous, too. Since the purpose is to gain economic data, anyone using any card is still going to record the data. As an incentive, people could look up their own card number to check out their statistics.
This economy is driven by everyone doing free work. Because they work for free, the work is never obligatory. The credit cards are used to track task accomplishments, but otherwise, working is pretty much the same: you show up at a particular time, do some work, have the supervisor sign off on a job well done, and swipe your card. Pretty simple. Not only that but you are also credited with Experience Points (XP) for your work that should approximately reflect your skill levels in a particular area.
The people do work for free because they know a simple fact. Society provides them with everything they need and want, so in return they give freely to their society, knowing they will be rewarded in kind, even though the reward is indirect. Having all your data stored on this card is useful for merchants to determine whether or not they should give you a 'rare' item should you ask for it. If you contribute nothing, the Porshe dealer will not give you a Porshe, but you will still get what you need to live and prosper
Representative-based government is now obsolete. The internet makes it easy for citizens to represent themselves, to have their own voice be heard. Moreover, neotopian citizens are constantly voting with their actions anyway. They do not necessarily need their voice to be heard on an official website because they can make the changes themselves.
The core principles of neotopian society are as simple and sound as can be. First is that no one is granted any authority over anyone else. Essentially, you must abide by 'treat others the way you wish to be treated'. This also means no punishment is allowed, but that doesn't mean we are defenseless against criminals. With the internet as pervasive as it would be in neotopia, every citizen having access, common criminals, if there are any, would be quickly called out and pressured by society to change their ways. You must always remember there are no police stopping you from murdering someone, but instead you are opening yourself up to the consequences of humans, some of which are wild animals. Proceed with caution (don't piss people off) and you will have no problems.
Another core pillar of neotopia has to do with knowledge and its wide accessibility. Everyone is responsible for everything. Therefore, we must provide public documentation for every system that runs in society. With documentation and general education, the population will know how to do all the jobs several times over. It would be the equivalent of the effect interchangeable parts had on the industrial revolution. This knowledge of systems would be of value because they are useful and would probably comprise a sizeable percentage of the settlement's value, even though it could not be measured economically. Value, in this case, being defined as something that is useful.
In the end, all we need to do is provide the public with good alternatives to the things they dispise. Creating new, novel systems to replace the old failing ones seems pretty easy in this day in age. If nobody beats me to it, I will spend a fair percentage of my time designing the systems that would be necessary to completely replace centralized authority and control, instead giving it to the people, the individuals, the only ones that actually live in this country.
Comments (2) 06.02.2011. 03:25
Enslaved by Paper
Hey you. Yeah, you over there. The one stressed about your financial situation or future. I have something to ask you.
Can you eat money (and survive)? Can you make clothes (that you would want to wear) out of money? Will it power your car? Can you drink a refreshing glass of cash when you are thirsty? Can you build anything from it?
The answer to all of these questions is no. Unless you're a troll. Regardless, money is worthless. It has symbolic value and power which we give it.
Let's take a look at what has happened in the past few years. Our Congress sold us out using our own money. Bankers are making record-breaking bonuses while the economy isn't doing so great, pitiful you might call it. The American public suffers indignities or worse.
I have a suggestion for you. Stop paying your debts. All of you. Your friends too. Every time we give our money to the banks, we give them more power to continue bending us over in a methodical fashion, emotionless, down to a science. It sounds ridiculous, but they can't take everyone's house, and they will try.
The game they play is simple. They have something that you want: credit. Rather, they can make sure you get and maintain a good credit score if you play by their rules. Your fear is losing your credit. If you are unafraid to lose your credit, they have no power over you. If you are unafraid to lose your car, your house or have a lien put on your property, then you have beat them in their game.
I have heard "debt" defined as a claim on future income. The only way we can ensure future income is with a salaried position at MegaCorp, Inc. A peaceful refusal to modern slavery is to simply stop paying your bills. Obviously, you must be prepared for the consequences, but if we unite against our common enemy, we can win our lives back.
How many of you will be in debt the rest of your life? The next 25 or 30 years (new homeowners)? Maybe the next 4 years if you bought a car. Maybe the next 10 or 15 years if you went to an expensive university.
You willingly accept this slavery, believing it is the price you must pay for having a place to live, an education and transportation. You must work 40 hours a week in a job you probably hate to have a chance of making enough money to pay any type of loans.
By generously lending money, banks ensure that you work for them your entire life. They want to own you.
End modern slavery. Vote with your actions, not your money.
Comments (0) 05.26.2011. 06:06
Utopia's "Doctor Problem"
It is said that without the large paycheck doctors receive, you would not be able to encourage individuals to invest the huge amount of time and effort required to become one.
In the utopia that I envision, you would be recognized in society based on what you've done for them. A doctor makes large sacrifices and therefore people would treat them nicely. As far as being able to have anything they want, they largely could. If a doctor is a bad driver, we probably would not give them a Murcielago. However, I see no reason they shouldn't be a high priority when it comes to housing selection.
In Utopia, not everyone can have all they want. This is due to the physical restriction of resources. Instead, the idea is to let those which contribute the most to society to be granted what they want over those that do not contribute as much. The embodiment of this idea has manifested as currency. The people that contribute most to society are given the most currency to do with what they wish.
In the realistic utopia I envision, it would be a little like Facebook or what have you. Everything you contribute to or consume from society is noted on your Facebook profile. For those concerned about privacy rights, I would venture to guess they are merely afraid to see what those numbers might actually be, lest they be forced to see the person they actually are.
In Utopian society, our knowledge grants our power. In currency-based systems, value is merely arbitrary. With a technologically-oriented social network, society is able to accurately gauge its resource usage and production, allowing it to better manage them. For example, the US, world capitol of Gluttony, if you showed everyone the exact number of calories they consume on a daily basis, they might be shocked into eating healthy. Or maybe not.
Instead, our societies attempt to translate everything that exists into a single, universal trading standard. During this conversion from labor and materials to products and paychecks, true value and worth becomes completely arbitrary. During this process, entropy is introduced into the system, bit by bit, creating instability. This is why the nature of our economy is to rise quickly before crashing to a halt; it is fundamentally flawed.
If we can have a more precise system in place, we can make sure doctors and janitors alike get what they earn. "If there were no money, nobody would be a trash collector" Again, if it is made known on their profile that someone is a trash collector in a society where you are not forced to do so for money, I would certainly treat this person with respect, knowing full well that they are doing a job most would not do.
The answer to the woes of society is technology and information. With these tools, we can build a stable, free society where humans are equals and limited only by their motivation.
Comments (0) 11.01.2010. 08:45
The Science State
If there's one thing in the world that always produces results, it is science. Science is a methodology that, if executed properly, will invariably produce useful data. We know this because every piece of technology on our planet was made by using the scientific method.
The Science State is a governing body which makes every decision based on empirical evidence produce by the scientific method.
To ensure scientific accuracy, all procedures, experiments, data and results must be fully transparent to the public. This isn't so much that we don't trust the government (even though we don't), but because scientists make mistakes. The more sets of eyes you have looking at something, the more likely we are to notice and correct the mistakes.
The Science State is dedicated to finding truth. Truth, while manipulable by disinformation, can always be found again. Truth is constant. Truth is security. Truth can be found with the scientific method.
The Science State is also dedicated to flexibility and adaptability. If evolution has taught us anything, it is that the species that can adapt the best will be best suited for survival.
The objective of the Science State is to find the best way to do everything the people want to do. For example, if the Science State were to deal with the issue of healthcare, there would be several experiments and studies carried out on which system would work best. This way, we have solid evidence of why some systems work while others fail. As it is now, our politicians have unknown motivations when voting a particular way, usually stemming from financial influence.
In the Science State, and indeed, any state, knowledge and information are power. The more a person or group knows, the better decisions they are able to make and the more power this knowledgeable unit gains. When governments hide information, they are weakening themselves. While there may be a lot of smart people in the CIA, there's a lot more smart people that aren't in the CIA (or NSA or FBI or ...).
Coupled with the open source ideology, science can create a very stable government for its citizens. The stability comes from verifiable facts at all turns. Instability comes from politicians who put up a front like they're doing what is best for their constituents, but are actually playing a delicate balance game between corporate and public entities. Does it really matter if your constituents like you when you can just spend the most campaign money and win anyway?
The idea of the Scientific State is to rid ourselves of the middlemen. These middlemen prevent us from having control of our own government by being susceptible to influence via campaign donations.
One important thing to realize about this system and any system is that it can be compromised. The Scientific State system limits abuse by being completely transparent. Because of this, attempts at abuse will be blatantly obvious to those paying attention.
Openness will allay enemy aggressions and gain the trust of friends and non-friends alike. It is true that secrets are only for those that have something to hide.
A truly great country does not have anything to hide from the world. A truly great country will influence the world without military power. The only thing a great country needs is great ideas. You cannot kill an idea, and ideas spread faster than war. A truly great country leads by example, not by force.
Comments (0) 07.07.2010. 10:37
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