Thursday, September 7, 2017

Soon All Major Economies Will Be Forced To Isolate Themselves From The World Wide Web...

...Just as I predicted in my work of fiction "The Light Of Creation" almost ten years ago when I first started writing it.

This will not, to put it mildly, be a good thing, for it will feed into an increasing desire for "Fortess XYZ," where XYZ will be whatever conglomerated power groups (whether they be single nations, or factions like Europe, or the Pacific rim, or even just groups of corporations) that develop now, and into the future. And in this, of course, will be the desire to control, feeding into the already identified need to control info, of how your people view the meaning of it all; working every more dutifully for the elegant, and careful, expression so as to make for a seamless internal reality. With the right meaning sets in mind, in fact, the idea might be made to seem the most natural thing imaginable. And after enough time, perhaps there won't be the ability to imagine anything else. And just imagine how good you could get at that if you could develop your own VR version of an internal web. Completely free of course because you want them on it without worrying about having to pay for it. In fact, this would be so valuable that you would even be willing to pay them a small stipend just to show them how much Big Brother loves them.

China's Internet Crackdown Is Another Step Toward 'Digital Totalitarian State.'

Feds Suspect Russians Behind Cyber Attacks On Power Plants.

Hackers Gain Direct Access To Us Power Grid Controls



Wednesday, September 6, 2017

It Takes A Coordinated, Cooperating Community To Educate The Children Who Live There

Not some product you can buy from an obsolete marketing system. Especially when profit is the primary motivator of the "service" provider.


AN ELEMENTARY PROBLEM


Free-market boosters, including Betsy DeVos, promised that a radical expansion of charter schools would fix the stark inequalities in the state's education system. The results in the classrooms are far more complicated.






Sunday, September 3, 2017

What If America Did A Complete Inventory Of Itself?

I mean a complete inventory of everything it knew about making, and process, and materials, and the natural world, as well as all of the productive capacity it had. All of the plants, factories, labs, machine shops, necessary services facilities (like water, power, roads, information circuits, as well as physical facilities to deliver things like prepared food, healthcare, or justice by the rule of law, etc). What if we could collect all of that and then step back to consider:

Wow! This is a lot of capability. I bet this is way more than any of us ever dreamed of. If for no other reason than we've never had a chance to step back and consider it all before. Or what we could do with it if it was ours, as a working nation, to actually make full use of in the first place.  But now, of course, we're talking about what our people could do if they were truly allowed to govern themselves; be the managers, and the maintainers, and the consumers, as the daily routine of working community life.

With all of this ability. With all of this knowledge, if we started with a clean slate... Maybe a whole world of possibilities might leap out because we wouldn't have to start from any one preconceived notion. We could just play around with all of the possibilities that might pop out of very creative minds; even the seemingly outlandish ones, and see if something interesting might surprise us.

The biggest thing, though, right now is only partly concerned with what we end up changing to. Right now the more important part is to recognize that major league change is coming. The kind that requires a major league response.

Change is always coming, certainly, but we're facing a lot of change that will happen because of actions set in motion from the past. Our technological change has had consequences. And now we must deal with those consequences.

One aspect of tech change is that we are in a completely new operating environment as concerns our current handle on instrumentality (the ability to make, communicate, and perceive); made all the more damaging by the pace of change now that electricity mutates a very old operating system.

Another aspect of tech change is the fact that so much of the full cost, of consuming all of the things that we've consumed so far as factory motivated consumers, has not been paid. So, after so much carbon put into the air, and so many other poisons all about as well, the planet, as you might imagine, is not very happy about this, and is letting us know this in no uncertain terms.

So I assure you. And let this be buttressed by over 25 years of looking at various complex systems. I assure you that change is coming. You have the choice of trying to best manage how we'll face that change, or just sitting back and let things play out as they will with the systems we have. I gain (or lose -- in the interests of full disclosure) nothing no matter which choice you make, so it makes little material difference to me. I can say, however, as a died in the wool dreamer, that it breaks my heart we wouldn't at least try to do something different. As long as it has meaning in the balanced sense that "thoughtful, loving structure" is supposed to imply, what we eventually end up with is irrelevant right now. The first step is to acknowledge the need for change in the first place.

We take that step and then we can start taking stock of not only what we're made of, but what kind of spirit and will we can muster to find common ground, and compromise. I think the grand compromise between Libertarians and Progressives that I have outlined (from the "I Had a Daydream" post) is a good place to start. Maybe you can come up with a better one. Either way, we simply have to try.







And This Is Just The Beginning Of Severe Weather

They can't even afford to pay for what they've already poisoned us with, how do you think even more is going to fare.


THE WRATH OF HARVEY


The explosions and ensuing fire at the Arkema chemical plant early Thursday are just the latest in a wave of damage, disruptions, and pollution at industrial facilities along the Texas coast.




Saturday, September 2, 2017

Some Likely New Turbulence, For Those Who Need Air Carriers,

...is in store for those same folks usually stuck on the ground, amidst a lot of humiliation (what with the invasive security now, and the "the cattle should just be quiet as they enjoy this cheap seat" attitude of the airline managements; themselves still stuck on on the current hub and spoke system. Nothing more than another kind of "disruption" the hot shot entrepreneurs love to talk about.

As the linked video below indicates, very long range, direct, point to point, flights are on the horizon now that engine efficiency has gotten to the point it has. This means that a lot of places that depend on hub and spoke now may be in for a surprise once the major airlines simply start flying over the old hubs. Will they, or their various spoke airports, be able to remain viable? Or will they go the route of the once venerable public train, or bus stations, as they fade from glory, and begin to look like the last dregs of strip mall trash, just waiting for the property available signs to be put up.

And this might happen if my hybrid dirigible blimp trains take flight or not. Which will likely mean, if we don't do public air trian regional transport, even more communities around the nation, as well as the rest of the world, will be without the very necessary freedom of being able to vote with your feet. Something else, in a growing, list that too often can become just another factor in why things are becoming unstable; wherever that may be. And lest we forget it is instability that creates desperate people, who then end up doing desperate things. None of which is in our long term interests. Which is also why an enlightened view seeks to correct the situation before the desperation starts.

Why New Jets Could Destroy Airlines