Times of Transformation

These are indeed times of incredible change - often this transformative period in cosmic-Earth history is not taken seriously enough... perhaps our species will struggle through the transition without sensing it or experiencing it. This wake-up reminder comes from Thomas Berry:

The changes presently taking place in human and earthly affairs are beyond any parallel with historical change or cultural modification as these have occurred in the past. This is not like the transition from the classical period to the medieval period of from the medieval to the modern period. This change reaches far beyond the civilizational process itself, beyond even the human process, into the biosystems and even the geological structures of the Earth itsel

Berry talks of the Ecozoic period as a transition into integral community:


The Ecozoic is the period when human conduct will be guided by the ideal of an integral earth community, a period when humans will be present upon the Earth in a mutually enhancing manner... The first principle of the Ecozoic era is recognizing that the Universe is primarily a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. This is especially true of the planet Earth. Every being has its own place and its own proper role in the functioning of the planet, its own presentation of itself that might be identified as its voice

More can be read here

Let us be reminded that 'the very purpose of the planet Earth seems to be to exhibit a culminating celebratory mode of expression, something to justify the emergent galaxies, the supernova explosions wherein the elements were formed, the shaping of the solar system, the emergence of this privileged planet'

Perhaps time to embrace the creative spirit in us all?

A Future of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR)

The issue of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) is something which I have returned to various times. Again, it is in the UK news.

Recently there was a news report here in Britain whereby 'specialists' were recommending parents not to let their children place a laptop computer onto their laps whilst working. The Telegraph in their article 'Warning on wi-fi health risk to children' talk of:

Children should not place computers on their laps while they are using wireless internet connections because of potential health risks, according to a leading Government adviser. A leading Government adviser warns of potential health risks to children using laptops with wireless internet connections.

Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the committee on mobile phone safety research, called yesterday for pupils to be monitored amid mounting public concern over emissions from wi-fi networks. He is concerned that few studies have been carried out into the level of exposure in classrooms and believes that if health problems do emerge they are likely to be more serious in children.

Also, next week the well-known and reputable UK documentary program - BBC's 'Panorama' - are doing a broadcast on the possible dangers of mobile phones and EMR.

In the UK we also have the problem/issue of TETRA - which is a radio-mast network set-up throughout the UK to provide communications for the emergency services, especially the police force. And there have already been concerns about this network, which is out of the reach of civil authorities since it deals with security communications of 'national interest'.

This pdf report is worth reading - Confidential Report on TETRA Strictly for the Police Federation of England and Wales

And - TETRA pictures

Also - TETRA: A Critical Overview into the death of Officer Neil Dring

A free online book called: ELECTROMAGNETISM & LIFE by Robert O. Becker and Andrew A. Marino

We need to perhaps think more seriously about protecting ourselves - a Firewall of the Body + Mind

Preparing for an alien invasion?!

Here we go - another book that puts military confrontation as the answer to all possible future 'unknowns'.

This book gives a strategic defense and warfare analysis of dealing with non-human contact: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion by Travis S. Taylor et al.

Book description

"This book describes a serious look at defending the planet in the event of an extra-terrestrial invasion. Travis Taylor, et al, have written the definitive book on the defense of earth against a potential alien incursion. Whatever your beliefs on the subject...the book also serves as an important primer on the potential future of warfare on every level. It is tightly grounded in current day realities of war and extrapolates thoughtfully but closely about future potentials. It should be on the reading list of anyone who is serious about national security and the future of war."

And what if such 'entities' are already here, playing poker deals with our ineffectual leaders? Or perhaps the future is one of cooperation not based on fear and paranoia?

Opening the UK UFO files

Well, first it was the French and now the English are soon to follow. In a matter of weeks the British MoD will open its UFO files to the public (Read - 'MoD opens its files on UFO sightings to public'):

The documents due for release are witness reports of apparent UFO sightings, many by civil pilots and military personnel. Most were simply collected and filed by a small, secret unit within defence intelligence called DI55. A few are thought to have been investigated further by the military, but the details have never been made public. There are 24 files due for release, each containing 200-300 reports of sightings, plus internal MoD briefings and correspondence.

However, this is usually a combination of wanting to appease public pressure by releasing only what the public have reported in the first place rather than the detailed MoD findings and secrets on this subject. After all, a secret is still a secret!

Or, as some are already suspecting, it is part of a global acclimatisation program for readying the general public into acceptance of the UFO presence for more gradual public disclosure. Whatever the reason, you can be fairly sure that nothing of importance will be released without official sanction - and most probably not in these upcoming files...

Still, its a start.

Beyond Terror

Here's an interesting read - and can be done in a couple of hours - a very concise yet one of the best summaries currently depicting the geo-political situation/mess.

The Oxford Research Group has published “Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World”. The report focus on the disproportionate attention given to terrorism compared to the imminent threat from environmental degradation, competition over resources, “marginalisation of the majority world” and global militarisation. Some facts:

In 2001 in the US alone the number of Americans killed from the following:

Malnutrition - 3, 500
HIV/Aids - 14, 000
Pneumonia - 62, 000
Heart disease - 700, 000+
Suicide - 30, 000+
Traffic accidents - 42, 000+
Fire-arms related - 30, 000
Homicides - 20, 000+

International terrorism - around 2, 500

If you don't wish to buy the hard copy for £3.99 from Amazon.uk - then read the entire report for free - here.

The future is female

Now here comes a welcome report - finally, a well-respected researcher and thinker - the futurist Ian Pearson (who is a futurologist for British Telecom) predicts that 'The future is female' in saying that culture is shifting from an information economy towards a 'care economy' that is more suited to feminine traits and capacities:

We have had the industrial age, we have had the information economy. But now for something different: "the care economy", predicts BT's Ian Pearson. And, says Mr Pearson assuredly, women - not men - are best suited for this shift.

After years of so called soft skills - such as communication - being sidelined, they will now play centre-stage. "People will have to focus on being people, using their emotional skills," asserts Mr Pearson - with male confidence.

And, he insists, women are instinctively good at this.

Well, not that this is new, yet the public acknowledgment will help...

Back to the Real World

Back from the travels, into the 'real world' of technics, machines, and white noise... reminding that:

Whoever uses machines does all his work like a machine. He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine, and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. It is not that I do not know of such things; I am ashamed to use them.

Chuang tzu

And I sit back to begin more research reading - I open this page:

Nanotech, biotech, artificial intelligence, smart cards, embedded chips, smart dust, fragmentation of humans into consumer, patient, voter, worker roles for sorting by government and corporation: all of these together spell the end of the human in ways we can't entirely grasp, much less control. Are we human? Are we bionic free agents? Are we cogs in the machine?

What do you want?
What do you love?

Do you love? Welcome to the Machine

An interesting report just in is that the BBC plan 'A to Z'-of-mankind Web site that they say will be a definitive guide to mankind:

The Dictionary of Man (www.dictionaryofman.com) and an eight-part television series aim to document every human society currently existing, the BBC said on its Web site. Geldof said the Web site would create the largest living record of DVDs, books, films, photographs, art, and documented and personal accounts from people in every group in society.

"This will be an A-to-Z of mankind," Geldof said during the launch of the project this week. "It will catalog the world we live in now, the people who share this planet, the way we live and the way we adapt to face common and different challenges."

The Web site will also include social networking technology so that individuals can trace their clan, tribe or family.

Ah, it seems all is well then... and we'll be documented before the end... a toast!

The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think - But is it all Good?

Some news just coming out on various 'future' scenarios, here in the UK and in the US.

In the UK:'Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future' is a piece from the Guardian that discusses a new 90 page MoD report that tries to picture the next 30 years and the "future strategic context" likely to face Britain's armed forces. It includes an "analysis of the key risks and shocks" by Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD's Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre. For example it predicts the following:

Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by criminal gangs or terrorists groups...

...By 2035, an implantable "information chip" could be wired directly to the brain. A growing pervasiveness of information communications technology will enable states, terrorists or criminals, to mobilise "flashmobs", challenging security forces to match this potential agility coupled with an ability to concentrate forces quickly in a small area.

Now, something from the US. Nanotechnology: The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think" is the title of a report [PDF] published this month by Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, United States Congress. What is surprising is that perhaps for the first time high-ranking political figures are discussing the implications of the 'Singularity', once dismissed as science-fiction. Some extracts state:

Dramatic breakthroughs will occur in diverse areas such as medicine, communications, computing, energy, and robotics. These changes will generate large amounts of wealth and force wrenching changes in existing markets and institutions...

...If technology continues to advance at exponential rates, what happens after 2020? Technology is likely to continue, but at this stage some observers forecast a period at which scientific advances aggressively assume their own momentum and accelerate at unprecedented levels, enabling products that today seem like science fiction. Beyond the Singularity, human society is incomparably different from what it is today. Several assumptions seem to drive predictions of a Singularity. The first is that continued material demands and competitive pressures will continue to drive technology forward. Second, at some point artificial intelligence advances to a point where computers enhance and accelerate scientific discovery and technological change. In other words, intelligent machines start to produce discoveries that are too complex for humans. Finally, there is an assumption that solutions to most of today’s problems including material scarcity, human health, and environmental degradation can be solved by technology, if not by us, then by the computers we eventually develop.

The pdf of the military report can be downloaded here

Some information here to digest... as ever, the focus I stress is upon a future we wish for ourselves and that means we maintain, sustain, and expand positive spiritual mindfulness. Let's remember that technology can be an aide to human evolution, yet the main catalyst is the consciousness that manifests through the individual...through our thoughts and deeds...

I shall be away for the next 12 days...wandering like a troubadour, or hobbling like a hobo... Blessings

THE ALLIES OF HUMANITY

In recent years there has been a move towards 'Disclosure' of the interaction between non-terrestrial intelligences and people on earth. There are now organisations established to develop the politics - or 'Exopolitics' - of this liaison and the implications in managing such affairs. I would suggest looking at two of these organisations:

Exopolitics.com and Exopolitics.org

Another organisation worth looking into is the The Society for The Greater Community Way of Knowledge:

This organisation is the channel for the Allies of Humanity books, the first of which can be downloaded as pdf from here - I quote:

THE ALLIES OF HUMANITY is being presented to prepare people for a whole new reality that is largely hidden and unrecognized in the world today. It provides a new perspective that empowers people to face the greatest challenge and opportunity that we as a race have ever encountered. The Allies' material contains a number of critical if not alarming statements about the growing intervention and integration of extraterrestrials into the human race and about the aliens' activities and hidden agenda. Instead of providing "hard" evidence about the reality of alien visitation to our world, which is already well documented in many other fine books and research journals on the subject, the Allies material, as it is known, addresses the dramatic and far-reaching implications of this phenomenon.

The source of this information describe themselves as physical beings from other worlds who have gathered in our solar system near the earth for the purpose of observing the communications and activities of those alien races who are here in our world interfering in human affairs. The source refer to themselves as the "Allies of Humanity." The Allies' stated purpose is to alert us to the risks of emerging into a Greater Community of intelligent life and to assist us in successfully crossing this great threshold in such a way that human freedom and self-determination can be preserved.

A 10-Point Summary of the Allies Message is available as pdf here

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Stop Future Disasters

Here is a great example of both learning about the future and having fun at the same time!

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction group has teamed up with the UK game design studio Playerthree to create the Flash-based “Stop Disasters” game. The goal of the game is to reduce the harmful results of catastrophic natural events — the disaster that gets stopped isn’t the event itself, but its impact on human life.

And here's h ow it works:

The player chooses what kind of disaster is to be faced (earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, wildfire or flood), then has a limited amount of time to prepare for the inevitable. The player can build new buildings, retrofit or demolish old ones, install appropriate defensive infrastructure (such as mangroves along tsunami-prone shorelines or firebreaks around water towers), institute preparedness training, install sirens and evacuation signs, and so forth — all with a limited budget, and with ancillary goals that must be met for success, such as building schools and hospitals for community development, or bringing in hotels for local economic support.

Once the money is spent (or the time runs out), the preordained disaster strikes, and the player gets to see whether his or her choices were the right ones. At the easy level, there’s generally enough money to protect the small map and limited population; at the harder levels, the player must make difficult choices about who and what to save.

Its like playing SimCity yet you can be involved from a few minutes to 25 minutes... and for all ages, believe me!

Again, the link: “Stop Disasters” game

Military Mind Scanning

They never stop, do they? The future is increasingly going to be fought in the area of neurotechnology.

Consciousness is the ultimate 'high ground' from which to gain control over human behaviour and evolution; it is the realm where the changes are really occuring. And now the U.S. military is working on computers than can scan your mind and adapt to what you're thinking. In this article in Wired called 'Pentagon Preps Mind Fields for Smarter War Stations' it writes that:

Since 2000, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, has spearheaded a far-flung, nearly $70 million effort to build prototype cockpits, missile control stations and infantry trainers that can sense what's occupying their operators' attention, and adjust how they present information, accordingly. Similar technologies are being employed to help intelligence analysts find targets easier by tapping their unconscious reactions. It's all part of a broader Darpa effort to radically boost the performance of American troops.

"Computers today, you have to learn how they work," says Navy Commander Dylan Schmorrow, who served as Darpa's first program manager for this Augmented Cognition project. He now works for the Office of Naval Research. "We want the computer to learn you, adapt to you."

Go to the article link above to read more...

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GURDJIEFF - Fourth Way

I have to confess that I am an old Gurdjeffian - G.'s ideas shaped much of my formative thinking...where would I be if I had never picked up and read Ouspensky's 'In Search of the Miraculous'?? I wonder...

So above is a 3 minute intro to the man himself...albeit brief...

Predictions of the Future

Freeman Dyson once said - 'Insight requires Imagination'.

The future is too important not to be imagined now... and for those imaginations to be turned into Insight...

SIR ARTHUR PREDICTS THE FUTURE

Here are Sir Arthur C. Clarke's predictions for 2001 to 2100.


2001 Jan. 1 The next millennium and century begin.

- Cassini spaceprobe (launched October 1997; arrives Saturn July
2000) begins exploration of the planet's moons and rings.

- Galileo probe (launched October 1989) continues surveying Jupiter
and its moons. Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of Europa
appears increasingly likely.

2002 The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by
low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding
the end of the Fossil-Fuel Age. Economic and geopolitical
earthquakes follow, and, for their discovery of so-called "Cold
Fusion" in 1989, Pons and Fleischmann receive the Nobel Prize for
Physics.

2003 The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning
engines by the new energy device.

- NASA's robot Mars Surveyor (carrying Lander and Rover) is
launched.

2004 The first (publicly admitted) human clone.

2005 The first sample launched back to Earth by Mars Surveyor.

- The Dalai Lama returns to Tibet.

2006 The world's last coal mine closed in India.

2007 NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble)
launched.

- President Chandrika Kumaratunga gets the Nobel Prize for
restoring peace to Sri Lanka.

2008 On what would have been his 80th birthday, July 26, the film
director Stanley Kubrick, who made 2001: A Space Odyssey,
posthumously receives a special Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

2009 A city in North Korea is devastated by the accidental explosion
of an A-bomb. After a brief debate in the U.N., all nuclear
weapons are destroyed.

2010 The first Quantum Generators (tapping space energy) are
developed. Available in portable and household units from a few
kilowatts upward, they can produce electricity indefinitely.
Central power stations close down; the age of pylons ends as grid
systems are dismantled.

- In spite of protests against "Big Brother" government, electronic
monitoring virtually removes professional criminals from society.

2011 Largest living animal filmed: a 75-meter octopus in the Mariana
Trench. By a curious coincidence, later that same year even
larger marine creatures are discovered when the first robot
probes drill through the ice of Europa, and an entire new biota
is revealed.

2012 Aerospace-planes enter service. The history of space travel has
repeated that of aeronautics, although more slowly, because the
technical problems are so much greater. From Yuri Gagarin to
commercial space flight has taken twice as long as from the
Wright Brothers to the DC-3.

2013 On a flight sponsored by Bandar Seri Begawan, a Brunei prince
becomes the first member of a royal family to fly in space.

2014 Construction of Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins, by assembling and
converting the giant Shuttle tanks which had previously been
allowed to fall back to Earth.

2015 An inevitable byproduct of the Quantum Generator is complete
control of matter at the atomic level. Thus the old dream of
alchemy is realized on a commercial scale, often with surprising
results. Within a few years, since they are more useful, lead and
copper cost twice as much as gold.

2016 All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes
the unit of exchange.

2017 December 16. On his 100th birthday, Sir Arthur Clarke is one of
the first guests in the Hilton Orbiter.

- China holds the first nationwide popular elections to its
parliament.

2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the North Polar icecap. There is
no loss of human life, but the resulting tsunamis cause
considerable damage along the coasts of Greenland and Canada. The
long-discussed Project Spaceguard, to identify and deflect any
potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is finally activated

2020 Artificial Intelligence (AI) reaches the human level. From now
onward there are two intelligent species on Planet Earth, one
evolving far more rapidly than biology would ever permit.
Interstellar probes carrying AIs are launched toward the nearer
stars.

2021 The first humans land on Mars, and have some unpleasant
surprises.

2023 Dinosaur facsimiles are cloned from computer-generated DNA.
Disney's Triassic Zoo opens in Florida. Despite some unfortunate
initial accidents, mini-raptors start replacing guard dogs.

2024 Infra-red signals are detected coming from the center of the
Milky Way Galaxy. They are obviously the product of a
technologically advanced civilization, but all attempts to
decipher them fail.

2025 Neurological research finally leads to an understanding of all
the senses, and direct inputs become possible, bypassing eyes,
ears, skin, etc. The inevitable result is the metal "Braincap" of
which the 20th century's Walkman was a primitive precursor.
Anyone wearing this helmet, fitting tightly over the skull, can
enter a whole universe of experience real or imaginary - and even
merge in real-time with other minds. Apart from its use for
entertainment and vicarious adventure, the Braincap is a boon to
doctors, who can now experience their patients symptoms (suitably
attenuated). It also revolutionizes the legal profession;
deliberate lying is impossible. As the Braincap can only function
properly on a completely bald head, wig-making becomes a major
industry.

2026 Singapore becomes the world's first country to enforce Truth in
Advertising.

2036 China overtakes the U.S. in gross national product to become the
world's largest economy.

2040 The "Universal Replicator," based on nano-technology, is
perfected: any object, however complex, can be created - given
the necessary raw material and the appropriate information
matrix. Diamonds or gourmet meals can, literally, be made from
dirt. As a result, agriculture and industry are phased out,
ending that recent invention in human history - work! There is an
explosion in arts, entertainment and education. Hunter-gathering
societies are deliberately recreated; huge areas of the planet,
no longer needed for food production, are allowed to revert to
their original state. Young people can now discharge their
aggressive instincts by using cross-bows to stalk big game, which
is robotic and frequently dangerous.

2045 The totally self-contained, recycling, mobile home (envisaged
almost a century earlier by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any
additional carbon needed for food synthesis is obtained by
extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2047 Hong Kong celebrates its 50th year as an SAR by completely
eliminating border controls and barriers between itself and the
rest of China.

2050 "Escape from Utopia." Bored by life in this peaceful and
unexciting era, millions decided to use cryonic suspension to
emigrate into the future in search of adventure. Vast
"hibernacula" are established in the Antarctic and in the regions
of perpetual night at the lunar poles.

2051 Ground is broken on the moon for self-sustaining, robotized
colonies, where the elderly will survive longer, thanks to the
low lunar gravity.

2057 October 4. Centennial of Sputnik 1. The dawn of the space age is
celebrated by humans not only on Earth, but on the Moon, Mars,
Europa, Ganymede and Titan - and in orbit round Venus, Neptune
and Pluto.

2061 The return of Halley's Comet; first landing on nucleus by humans.
The sensational discovery of both dormant and active lifeforms
vindicates Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's century-old hypothesis that
life is omnipresent throughout space.

2090 Large-scale burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace the
carbon dioxide "mined" from the air and postpone the next Ice Age
by promoting global warming.

2095 The development of a true "space drive" - a propulsion system
reacting against the structure of space time - makes the rocket
obsolete and permits velocities close to that of light. The first
human explorers set off to nearby star systems that robot probes
have already found promising.

2100 History begins...


Copyright Arthur C. Clarke 1999

Magnetic Vortex

This video was recorded on Jan. 12, 2007 by Japan's Hinode spacecraft: A magnetic vortex almost as big as Earth twisting, turning, finally erupting in a powerful solar flare. Watch from this link:

NASA's Magnetic Vortex

Asteroid Impact

This video really does deserve watching - it is a Japanese simulation of what a large meteorite collision would look like... Enjoy, somewhat...

The Psychology of Security

Bruce Schneier is one of the most educated authorities on Internet and digital securities - so I cannot pass up this chance to mention his recent essay on 'The Psychology of Security' where he makes good discussion on 'Risk Heuristics':

The first, and most common, area that can cause the feeling of security to diverge from the reality of security is the perception of risk. Security is a trade-off, and if we get the severity of the risk wrong, we're going to get the trade-off wrong. We can do this both ways, of course. We can underestimate some risks, like the risk of automobile accidents. Or we can overestimate some risks, like the risk of a stranger sneaking into our home at night and kidnapping our child. How we get the risk wrong--when we overestimate and when we underestimate--is governed by a few specific brain heuristics.

Animation of Surveillance State and Trusted Computing

This is a video worth watching - a 4 minute animation on increasing surveillance strategies... wonderfully animated:



Via CeMoRe

Toward Homo Noeticus

John White refers to himself as a 'consciousness researcher' and he considers that humanity and the earth have the makings of a promising future together. He feels that the form of human being that will be here to participate is a primate of a very different order than the human as we know it today. He calls it Homo noeticus —the next step in human evolution:

So yes, we face various crises, but my recent research and my personal experience tell me that we will make it through those crises. That is part of the grand design of creation. That is part of the intelligent purpose behind the universe. God didn't bring us forth through five million years of human evolution to snuff us out just like that. We have the means; we have the potential to deal with crises in an intelligent way, which is aligned with the teleological drive that we have for self-transcendence.

But it's not absolutely certain, as far as I can see. We could OD as a planet, so to speak. I don't think we will. We have weathered many, many crises in our long history, and I see all sorts of hopeful signs telling me that we will weather these too. In fact, as a friend of mine said, "Hope is an acronym for Help Our Planet Evolve." And I am ever hopeful.

Read the full interview with John White here

Alien Volcano

A beautiful picture, taken on Feb. 28th by the New Horizons spacecraft: A volcanic eruption on Io.

Read the NASA link here

Militainment

I thought the concept of 'Militainment' was a useful idea to take a look at, especially since there is a worthwhile video that examines this - University of Georgia professor Roger Stahl has his Militainment site that links to his video titled Militainment, Inc:

Militainment, Inc. is a nine-part critical investigation of the militarization of popular culture. The pieces of the puzzle - from video games to reality TV - combine to form a larger picture of the integration of entertainment and military affairs. The film asks: How has war taken its place as an entertainment spectacle? and What does this mean for the ability of our democracy to consider this most destructive of human activities?

This well-constructed video can be downloaded from Stahl's own site above or in easy 10 minute clips on YouTube here