The “environment” problem (from an A.I. perspective)

Biggest issue:

Living in harmony with your environment vs. changing your environment so that you can live according to your beliefs.

Beliefs are NOT intelligence.

Quite the opposite. Changing beliefs = Learning.  Learning/Adapting=Intelligence.

A.I. = life form that adapts and learns to live in harmony with its environment
Possible effect: will help humans do the same if it cannot be overpowered by them.

We are not destroying the environment. We are changing it. But we are changing it according to wrong MECHANISTIC  beliefs, from a point view of force and control, not balance.
Real order and balance exists naturally. Imposed order according to beliefs leads to death, because beliefs are incredibly limited maps/models of the real world, and not the actual thing.

The real problem is not machines becoming intelligent, but humans becoming ‘mechanical’, or machine like. Abandoning/forgetting  their creativity. Living mechanically, following a set of beliefs we are being programmed with from cradle to grave by parents, school, media, and those who benefit from us being a zombies…ahhh.. I mean consumers.
The truth is we are the ones being consumed. Or wasted.

Our purpose is to create.

Open Space Technology / Community Space Program

In the past year or so, I saw a lot of people getting together and creating startups. It seems there are money available, not going into stock market anymore, but waiting for viable new enterprises to be invested in.

Also, many  talented people have left the organizations they were working for, in order to grasp the chance for taking life into their own hands and, together with other like-minded individuals,  create a work environment that nourishes their aspirations.

With so many talented scientists and engineers out-there, unhappy, and/or frustrated with their current employment, and people with money looking for an avenue to invest that ‘has a future’ and a meaning, I almost expect to see quite a few aero-space startups coming up to take the world by storm.

Also, in case the money are hard to come by, crowd-sourcing should be an option. I’m not a business person, but I can imagine that a, non-governmental, not for profit space company could raise a lot of donations initially from crowd sourcing.
More and more people are looking for a different way to do things, and it is obvious by now that ‘change’ will not come from any existing institution, regardless of skin color, gender or nationality of its leaders.
This may sound naive but here is an idea:
- everyone can donate to the “community space program”, and whoever donates at least 10$ or the equivalent in their country, has the right to vote on the direction of the program.
- everything will be very transparent, moderated on public forums
- the technology will be open-sourced, GPL style, where you have to give back to the community if you make improvements
- the donation can includes code, technology, time, etc
… and so on
The idea is to allow everyone to participate and benefit from this, just like open source, with the difference that this is also a collective effort to achieve a common dream, together but also as individuals, without need of middle men who don’t understand a thing and have “special interests”.
Everyone on the street would have the power to DIRECTLY have an influence, and see that influence manifesting, have a chance to be an astronaut one way or another.

I would give  10$ for it.

Comfort vs. Peace

Talking to someone the other day, this came up. That more and more people are starting to realize that money, although they can bring you comfort, they cannot bring you peace (of mind or heart).

I think most people mistake peace for comfort, and spend most of their life trying to bring about comfort, when what they really need is peace of mind.

So, my advice to whoever might be reading this, forget about comfort, find and do what makes your soul sing with joy, and regardless of your financial situation, you will be happy, for you would have found peace.

Hammer to fall

I saw recently a piece of art created by banging a hammer on a piece of stained glass, and then putting the pieces back together in an organic, harmonious way, where the cracks and the parts create a beautiful landscape.

It occurred to me that once in a while we do have to do that to ourselves, otherwise life will (with a little help from our subconscious). When a self image grows in an inauthentic way, because of many different beliefs, fears and other factors in our life, we grow rigid and get stuck in an unfulfilling existence. New ideas and perspectives can’t come in because of this rigidity, and all development is stopped. This is when we need the hammer. This is what people going around depressed, seemingly suicidal, with unexplainable behavior  are searching for without really knowing it.

And the hammer will fall, make no mistake. Sooner or later.The best way to go through this, when you are in this kind of situation, is to do it yourself -  as a ritual:

1. Take a piece of glass (the more fancy colored the better, but it should work with clear one), put it in a tray, in a safe place like a garage or outside, and think of it as your identity, self image, current life, etc.

2. Smash the glass by hitting it in the middle with a hammer. Try not to hurt yourself in the process .

3. Using gloves, remove the small shards and glass dust.

4. Take some labels and attach one to each of the remaining glass pieces.

5. On each label write one aspect of yourself, especially aspects you may have never used before, or you were afraid to use, or you wanted to but never thought you are capable of, as well as ones that you know well.

6. Put the pieces together as to recreate the original surface, but without them touching each other. Arrange them such that the whole thing ‘feels right’ and ‘harmonious’ to you

7. Contemplate, take a picture, see how you feel, whatever comes to you.

Observation: You can do the whole thing without the labels, it will still work, in an even more mystical way.

Any iPhone app or Flash coders who think  this might be a cool app idea, contact me, we can save a lot of glass and create something interesting, especially given the Apple touch screen.

I believe something similar is happening also with our current social structures, we got to the point where the corruption, the secrecy and the abuse by the banks, politicians and the secret handlers behind them has become so entrenched that the ‘pyramid’ will crack. When that happens we will need individually and as a group to take a good look at ourselves and our world and put ourselves back together, not as a rigid hierarchical structure, but as a beautiful, organic, jigsaw puzzle of a stained glass mandala.

Technology with heart and conscience

Instead of supporting companies to find ways to sell people more things they don’t need, why not support an informed population of individuals to find out who they are and what their life purpose is, and then support businesses to focus on creating the tools these individuals need to find out and to fulfill their life purpose.
This is what data mining and advanced pattern recognition and understanding technologies would be used for under this paradigm.

Teaching and Learning

“The true teacher gives the disciple the courage to throw his or her world off balance, even though the disciple is afraid of things already encountered, and more afraid still of what might be around the next corner” Paulo Coelho

Need I say more ?

The truth is we all teach each other and learn from each other.

But if there is one thing I like to do, it is to encourage everyone to throw their world off balance (they call it a ‘phase shift’ in systems science) in order to get in touch with their inner truth and inner knowing.

Here are some more quotes I find useful:

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Albert Einstein

“What does learning mean: accumulating knowledge or transforming your life?” Paulo Coelho

“I’m afraid of taking steps that are not on the map, but by taking those steps despite my fears, I have a much more interesting life.” Paulo Coelho

“You can’t force commitment, what you can do… You nudge a little here, inspire a little there, and provide a role model. Your primary influence is the environment you create.” Peter Senge

“‘The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you hear what is sounding outside. And only he who listens can speak..” Dag Hammarskjold

“The faithful witness is at his best when he is questioning and clarifying and avoiding the specialists obsession with solution. He betrays society when he is silent…He is true to himself and to people when his clarity causes disquiet.” John Ralston Saul

Business and Unconditional Love

I could have easily named this Business vs. Unconditional Love, based on how most if not all business is being done today.

The way I think business should be is like a dance. Ever tried Argentine Tango ? If you did you will know what I mean, and you won’t need to read the rest of the post.

In any couples dance, both partners want to dance, or to create a dance. I see the dance  as something in itself. Just like a relationship, there are the two participants, and then there is the relationship, as an entity in itself (sometimes manifested into a child, a project, a dance).

In a true dance, nobody is trying to take advantage of the other, or make a profit off of them. (Yes, I do think the idea of chasing a profit at any cost is retarded.)

In a dance, everyone tries to be the best they can be, letting their inspiration flow spontaneously, while still within the structure created by the knowledge of the dance moves, the flow of the music, the ability of their partner, the other dancing couples on the floor, and  everything there is.

The reward is beyond words, for everyone and everything.

The partner here is both your customer, and your business partner. But especially your customer.

This is the intention with wich I think business or any kind of relationship should be done. Unconditionally, for the love of the dance and transcendence of boundaries.

Good luck, and may the dance be with you .

Honesty and Authority

Honesty is not something another authority should discern for us, but something we ourselves should.
It is the right of anyone to be dishonest if they so choose to.
It is our responsibility to detect that, and to not cooperate with what we know at a certain level it is not right. If everyone did this, there would be no dishonesty, because it would be a useless feature.
The only reason we buy into it now is because of fear and disempowerment programs we have culturaly been subjected to from birth.
What we need is self-empowering.
Unfortunately nobody can do it for anyone else but themselves. So start by finding out information. Lots of information, from many points of view, become a detective in relation to your own identity and the reality you live in, be it political, physical, informational, energetical, cultural, etc. See points of view that are not mainstream. Evaluate their truth through your intuition. Why would people say the things they say. Who has an interest and what that interest might be ? Watch the emerging patterns. Develop a critical mind. Before its too late.

I don’t think we will be able to develop A.I. until we develop ourselves. Let me rephrase that. Whatever A.I. we develop will reflect ourselves. Therefore we really need to develop ourselves before we develop an A.I. that reflects the sorry state of fear, ignorance and disempowerment most people are in right now.

Opportunities

Although these times may seem incredibly difficult, they are actually full  of incredible opportunity. But the opportunities will come in very different form than expected.

Because the times are changing, the opportunities they bring will be related to the new consciousness that is coming in and very different from the old consciousness that is on its way out.

How is this new consciousnes like?  So far it is a lot about hope, young but wise energy, changing the world to reflect our hearts and aspirations rather than our fears and insecurities.

What is ‘level of consciousness’ ?

Level of consciousness is the degree to which you experience/perceive your connection to everything else in the universe.

The higher your level of consciousness, the more ‘consciousness frequencies’ you can tune into.

The more frequencies you can tune into, the more levels of being you can exerience.

If you can truly tune into a rock, the rock and you become one, and from outside it will be percieved that you can move the rock (telekinesis). Same way you can interact with everything. The key to ‘tune into’ something is ‘unconditional love’ or complete acceptance towards that something.

Experiments have showed that becoming one / blending your consciousnes with cells in a petri dish will make those cells listen to your consciousness and increase or decrease their growth rate by as much as 50%.

A jedi, as an example, would be someone with a very high level of consciousness.

Aikido and some forms of Tai Chi are as far as I know the only martial arts that basically train you into increasing your level of consciousness (without calling it that).

In order to do any of this stuff you have to first work on feleling unconditional love.

Will talk about this another time.

When a friend of a friend dies…

The times that are coming are nothing less than a major shake-up for the whole humanity, and a lot of people will decide to leave.

All around people go trough major life crises, while we’re all together in different sorts of common crises.
Everything that has been ‘under the lid’ for long times, is now coming out to be cleaned-up. It is not easy. All people that I know are at different stages of going through some major life crisis.

A few who are past ‘midpoint’ are coming out transformed, powerful, inspiring. But I know what they have been through when they started, and quite a few considered suicide (more or less seriously, one even attempted it). Apparently it is quite common when going through major life transitions.

I – for myself – thought I was dying many times in the past 2-3 years, and if it wasn’t for my partner  to point out that dying people don’t have the appetite I had, who knows…
I guess all we can do is to be here for each other and support each other while going through our own individual transformation. And for the ones who leave – we can honour them and their memory, knowing that most likely they are supporting us from the other side – and that after we’re done here we’ll meet again, for other great adventures.

Technology

Somebody asked on a discussion forum: “Does technology belong with the social sciences or with the natural sciences ? What do you think ?”

This is a good question, and comes at a very ripe time.

For me, technology is a way or perspective of looking at things, of understanding reality with the intent (from the observer) of creating somethign new (practically rather than just for theoretical understanding).
Therefore, (almost) no matter where I look, if I have the ‘technology’ glasses on, I will see technology.
I think it is usually classified as a social thing because of the antropocentric orientation of our culture. As this is view now expanding, so is the view of technology.

What is going on ?

Having an experience on this planet and during these times is quite exciting. Also sometimes frustrating, painful, and sometimes plain boring. But amazing nevertheless. What inspires me the most is to see people transform, finding in themselves the seemingly impossible and seeing the Universe answering to this transformation.

So what’s the point, why yet another blog ?

The times we are living are not easy. Some of us, including myself, would like to share information, express ideas, and hopefully help with transitioning these times.

Hopefuly you will find these pages interesting. You may even comment on them .

Consciousness, information, energy

There are many theories about the nature of reality.

I don’t subscribe to any of them, but my mind needs at least some coordinate system in order to go along. So knowing this may change, I can see three distinct aspects / building blocks of reality to refer too : consciousness, information, and energy.

Consciousness is ever-present intelligence. It creates information, algorithms. Energy binds to information and creates structures. Therefore our reality is made of energy at different levels of solidity, but this energy is organized in structures based on information. And information is created by pure consciousness.

Again, this is just  one perspective to look at things. Just as when looking at a tree we can see root, trunk, branches, leafs and fruit. Or we just see a tree. Depending on the context of our thought.

Oh, so I just mentioned thought. What is thought ?

Well, it is energy bound to information and can eventually become manifest as a ‘solid’ thing. It is a dynamic structure starting as pure information and then evolving, its existence depending on how much energy is put on it by…consciousness.

And it is all frequency and waves.

Hey, and then there is awareness.

About this some other time…

The Universe is a mystery continuously revealing itself

The way to enjoy and participate in this unfolding of the mystery is to stay open and  allow the magic to coexist with reason.

Magic – because we need the feeling of wonder – what we are and what everything is. Reason – well because our mind likes to create models of reality and then play with them. I think this is how this dimension came about. Mind is like A.I. The problem is when we mistake the model for the real thing, like mistaking a map for the real terrain. Then Magic reminds us the truth of the infinite possibilities and holds us back from getting stuck in rigid belief systems.

Magic and Reason are not opposites, but merely two sides of the same coin. If we have one, we have both of them. But if we loose one, we lost them both. It is reasonable to acknowledge the infinite possibilities. It is magical to come up with a structure to enjoy them.