Utopia

Found @ http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/09/urbanism-in-the-house-tuomas-toivonen.html

Seeding

"Because we've got to get to people's consciousness."

http://www.vallejo.to/articles/summit_pt1.htm

FuckinA.

Meet-The-Parents

This is an email trail from my parents last night that I was cc'd in on (but did not take part in as I was asleep in Antipodean shores). Each line was a one line email with the initial subject line of: 'Translate in to English':

Mum: "Need for research in the paradigm of structured-data retrieval"
Dad: SQL
Dad: Dig up your ancestors.
Dad: Beat Alzheimers - back up your brain. In at least three places.
Mum: Let's see what Donal comes up with ... :)

Incentives

What-is-code

- Code is a set of rules, principles or laws.
- Code is a representation of information or the system for transmitting messages with brevity/secrecy.
- Code in computing terms is a set of instructions that process data (data also ending up a form of code too). At its lowest layers code becomes signals or patterns of electrical current or light travelling from one point to another.

Note: These descriptions are logical frameworks within which an entity operates. They are not natural laws and more often than not can be broken.

Code is used in many facets of modern human life and in many cases controls our financial, utilities, transport and telecommunications systems globally.

What is a node?
Pretty much everything in this universe can be described as part of a greater interdependent system at one scale or another. In Information Technology a node is a representation of an entity in a system. The node can be an intersection point, a discrete entity in itself or an aggregate of components (including other nodes) which have been grouped together based upon shared attributes or functions.

When any node in a system runs software (e.g. code) it may perform and/or offer local or remote services. The service is dependent upon message passing across a medium from point A to point B. This message passing or signaling occurs on top of many predefined layers. Each medium and layer has rules for message passing/interpretation called protocols. The robustness of the code at each layer and the ability to handle exceptions comes in to question at times of failure or unexpected input. Accordingly other similar nodes or code may be affected if vulnerable to the same set of conditions. At different abstraction layers there is generally tight coupling (e.g. a rigid dependence upon other components in the system). The robustness of a system or service is then predicated on how it handles exceptions, failures, unexpected circumstances or changes in its operating environment.

Who or what controls the inputs, processes and outputs of code?
Who or what dictates the command and control channels for certain services and signaling between layers?
Who governs the use of code, the maintenance and the life cycle thereof?

Does the code:
- perform the required functionality?
- fail gracefully and signal as such?
- handle unexpected inputs and conditions?
- prove suitable to the environment where it is deployed?
- operate within certain pre-defined tolerances?
- withstand sentient attackers (does it have to)?
- prove defensible over time?

What and where are the interfaces between local/foreign code or code and humans?
Can the humans inject possible weaknesses or inflict damage to the system?

When one looks at computing resources connected directly or indirectly to a global or local network there are many potential vectors for attack or failure modes to be accounted for. Fancy a nibble or a byte from a Smörgåsbord of code?

If there is one thing that's constant, it's change. IT is about managing change.
People, process and technology are constantly changing but where does that leave the code and previous "point in time" testing? I am going to start arguing for "feature viscosity" and massive warning lists of caveats for "unintended use" as part of End User License Agreements.

Note: There is no globally recognised certification for software engineering akin to other professional trades and there is no line in the sand when the tide keeps changing.



Aside: SEI Certification (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/certification/) and FIPS(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIPS_140) / CC(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Criteria) don't count.

Lessons4Life

I grew up with He Man. This explains a lot in terms of a potential early moral compass and responsible edutainment in the eighties.

Awakening

Parallel consciousness streams will overtake the existing legacy construct to create a new hybrid society. We can only bring the ones that want to come. Seekers. Cross generational mentors. When the students are ready the teachers will present themselves.

Those entrenched in the past will not be able to morph the historical wisdom, learning and legacy system in to the new encapsulations required, dying out.. an accelerated generational breeding out is occurring.

(As long as we don't totally disconnect by racing ahead too far, too fast)

Cohabitation-in-the-Construct

Thoughts / intent ->
Words / conversations ->
Actions / connections / transactions ->

My local and universal influence carries with it a massive responsibility. Interconnectedness and feedback loops abound. Together our power is amplified when aligned. The medium only effectively carries a message when it is in harmony with the change or resonance of the overall superorganism.

This is why (for me increasingly) it is very important to have AWARENESS of all thoughts, feelings, words and actions (including from whence they arise e.g. fear/love/ego/repression/imprints or historical patterns) and also how these things affect the surrounding environment and entities. I must not carry negativity nor reflect it back on others. Constructive criticism and the drawing of contrasts can be positive when stemming from love. Unfortunately many feelings (in my experience) are ephemeral in nature and cannot be trusted especially when built upon automatic thinking and non-reality. Intuition is also a powerful signal, sometimes so loud yet sometimes so subtle that one must have a very quiet mind and open heart to even begin to notice it.

Hence the original and continual journey on the inside to try and understand the triggers and purify the influence I exert on my environment (including back upon myself).

I am you. We are us.

"Meaning no harm" is aside from "doing no harm" and herein lies one of the challenges.

What defines or encapsulates the initial state(s), processes and final state(s)?
In fact, there is no initial or final state... just a complex flux and a replenishing group of cells and entities with a complex aggregate neuroplasticity. Where do you want to grow today?

Survival is a balance between growth and protection. One cannot survive in protection mode all the time, nor can one grow continually without periods of homeostasis. This is all part of the dance. If you listen carefully you may even be able to hear the music. Why rush and who exactly are we competing with or dancing with anyway?

I have intuited and felt something very deep and important for some years now.. yet it's hard to walk the path, let alone find the right trail.. no excuses, just AWARENESS.

How deep is the rabbit hole? Sometimes so deep we(I) block it, numb it, try to escape from it, or fall in...

Much love to all...

Donal (human I think)

Love_2.0

Questioner: Is it possible for a man and woman to live together, to have sex and children, without all the turmoil, bitterness and conflict inherent in such a relationship? Is it possible for there to be freedom on both sides? I don’t mean freedom that the husband or wife should be constantly having affairs with someone else. People usually come together and get married because they fall in love, and in that there is desire, choice, pleasure, possessiveness and tremendous drive. The very nature of this in-loveness is from the start filled with the seeds of conflict.

Krishnamurti: Is it? Need it be? I very much question that. Can’t you fall in love and not have a possessive relationship? I love someone and she loves me and we get married - that is perfectly straightforward and simple, in that there is no conflict at all. (When I say we get married I might just as well say we decide to live together - don’t let’s get caught up in words.) Can’t one have that without the other, without the tail, as it were, necessarily following? Can’t two people be in love and both be so intelligent and sensitive that there is freedom and absence of a center that makes for conflict? Conflict is not in the feeling of being in love. The feeling of being in love is utterly without conflict. There is no energy loss in being in love. The loss of energy is in the tail, in everything that follows - jealousy, possessiveness, suspicion, doubt, the fear of losing that love, the constant demand for reassurance and security. Surely it must be possible to function in a sexual relationship with someone you love without the nightmare which usually follows. Of course it is.

~ Krishnamurti, Meeting Life.

Fear 2.0

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us."
— Marianne Williamson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson )

Tribes.

Tribalism. Social Cohesion. Value/Scarcity. Choice Architecture. Complexity. Influence. Amplification. Group entities. Superorganism.

Done.

Kids

For the kids, both old and young.
Unstained eyes, pure love..
Natural forms, sound harmony..
Complex effects, feigned change.
Slower is ok. Don't trust all adults.
Find answers both inside and out.

Go-deep

“And so one has to be free from fear, and that is one of the most difficult things to do. Most of us are not aware that we are afraid, and we are not aware of what we are afraid. And when we know of what we are afraid, we do not know what to do. So we run away from it. You understand, sir? We run away from what we are, which is fear; and what we run away to increases fear. And we have developed, unfortunately, a network of escapes. So one has to become aware not only of the fears one has but also of the network which one has developed and through which one runs away."

"As we said, a mind that is afraid, do what it will, will have no love whatsoever; and without love you cannot construct a new world. Without love there can be no oasis. And you, as a human being, have created this social structure in which you are caught. To break away from that - and you have to break from it completely - you have to understand yourself, just to observe yourself as you actually are. Then out of that clarity comes action. And then you will find out for yourself a different way of living, a way of life which is not repetitive, which is not conforming, which is not imitating, a life which is really free and therefore a life that opens the door to something which is beyond all thought.”

“So we must question, we must doubt, not only the experience of another, but also our own experience. To seek further experience through expansion of consciousness, which is being done through various forms of psychedelic drugs, is still within the field of consciousness and, therefore, very limited. So a person who is seeking experience in any form - especially the so-called religious, spiritual experience - must not only question it, doubt it, but must totally set it aside. A mind that is very clear, a mind that is full of attention and love - why should such a mind demand any more experience?”

“So to free the mind from all authority there must be self-knowing, that is, self-knowledge. I do not mean the higher self or Atman, which are all the inventions of the mind, the inventions of thought, inventions born out of fear. We are talking of self-knowing: knowing oneself actually as one is, not as one should be, to see that one is stupid, that one is afraid, that one is ambitious, that one is cruel, violent, greedy; the motives behind one’s thought, the motives behind one’s action - that is the beginning of knowing oneself. If you do not know yourself, how the structure of your mind operates, how you feel, what you think, what your motives are, why you do certain things and avoid other things, how you are pursuing pleasure - unless you know all this basically, you are capable of deceiving yourself, of creating great harm, not only to yourself, but to others. And without this basic self-knowing there can be no mediation...”

Krishnamurti For Beginners, An Anthology, ISBN:8187326018

Reality.

Beyond explanation and articulation. I am part of it.

Smile

From: http://ffffound.com/image/0bf8bed9dd37c4033ec097b3ae16ecabbd208e03?c=4152632

Future, self-determination, mobility and copyright.

Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer and one of the best known bloggers in the world (Boing Boing) talks about the future, self determination, mobility and copyright.

Trust

"If I don’t trust the people I am with, I can’t be interdependent with them.
 If I don’t trust them, I can’t build community with them.
 If I don’t trust myself, I will never be able to trust others.

And if I’m not honest with myself, I can never be fully honest with others."

With thanks/props to http://www.daddytude.com/2009/09/prequel-humility-arrogance-trust-honesty/

Computer Timesharing Video

Known-Knowns