Futurism – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Sep 6
2014

Why Germany Outrules and Outsmarts the Entire World! By Andres Agostini at www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

In Pictures.

Aug 29
2014

The Globalized Smartification and Changing for the Better Via Simultaneous: Activated and Deactivated Kaisen!

The Globalized Smartification and Changing for the Better Via Simultaneous: Activated and Deactivated Kaisen!

Chiefly, this brief post is about the pictorial I composed here.

Pay great attention to this proprietary image. I greatly value Japanese execs and sages but they focus only on throughputting(• the Known Inputs Into Desirable Outputs inside their premises, without considering the Non-Existential and Existential Risk of the External Environment (outside their industrial facade) at large as we do in the White Swan’s Tranformative and Integrative Risk Management Services.

(• Throughputting is a Latin word in its ING-form stemming from Latin language, namely: Modus Operandi (MO).

Yes, they Kaisen within and beyond the Assembly Line to HHRR and many other administrative facilities and operations. However, in Transformative and Integrative Risk Management we consider and implement, as a major sub-chapter, every possible and most updated tool(s) by Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement, most of the times to a “Shock and Awe” practical level for the sake of corporate lucre in sustainability.

This is a real-life story extremely summarized. I made a granularity-of-detail executive presentation to Toyota’s Board of Directors, including Mr. Noda (the Production Director). With the largest and smallest minuteness, step by step, sub-step by sub-step, I outright proved to Toyota Chairman, CEO, Production Director, CFO and others in the Board that using Kaisen to Manage Risks Holistically as per the Western state-of-the-art understanding was beyond ineffectual and inconsequential.

Of course and due to extreme Japanese regionalism and single mindedness, Mr. Noda assumed that I was too stupid to know something substantive about Kaisen and Toyota Production System and the American Professors who taught them their “stuff” through long consultative years.

When I first knocked the Toyota front-office door, I had spent twenty (20) years studying every advancement in business, management, and industry, clearly acknowledging every upside and every downside. In fact I was first introduced to a full-scope indoctrination in Japanese methodologies by Royal Dutch Shell. In Shell, like with Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti, there are no folly regionalism but frinctionless globalization and globalization smartification, thus embracing any useful approach, regardless of geography, story, race, ethnicity or else, as long as it further underpins the global strategic bottom-line, PERIOD!

I was heavily researching not just Toyota’s advancements and others by the Corporate Miracle of Japan of the 1980s, but absolutely everything regarding the countermeassuring of any form (including its many synonyms) of, direct or indirect, disruptions, both in the West and the Far East.

As Japan was topnotch and nobody in the West was doing something meritorious (as per Noda’s schema), he found it stupid and time-wasting and not lucrative to even consider the methodologies, even those by NASA and way beyond that, that I was ruthlessly researching, nation by nation, industry by industry. Ergo, as my amazing father and Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “ … I only have one counsel or you — be a master …” to the strategic surprise (Sputnik Moment) of Toyota, Noda, and Mitsubishi Motors.

Mr. Noda was extremely infuriated with me but, despite him, the Chairman hired me and carried on with emotional evenness, that of a Wise and Sage Patriarch. Mr. Noda gave me a nickname that I will not release at this or other time.

Other considerations pertaining to Kaisen and its evolution way beyond that, I will be commenting about in due time.

By Andres Agostini
White Swan Author
www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

Aug 29
2014

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

MASHABLE: EmDrive Is an Engine That Breaks the Laws of Physics and Could Take Us to Mars http://mashable.com/2014/08/02/emdrive-mars-momentum/

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: The Real Reason Companies Are Spending Less on Tech http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/08/the-real-reason-companies-are-s…Socialflow

THE VERGE: Biohacking meets ‘The O.C.’ in this trailer for BitTorrent’s sci-fi ‘Children of the Machine’ http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/19/6046359/biohacking-meets-t…he-machine

MOTHERBOARD: BitTorrent Is Making a Sci-Fi Show About a Techno Future Where We Use BitTorrent http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bittorrent-is-making-a-sci-…bittorrent

INFOWORLD: The rise of machines that learn http://www.infoworld.com/t/big-data/the-rise-of-machines-learn-248037

CBS NEWS: Smart shirts arrive at U.S. Open http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ralph-lauren-smart-tech-shirts-at-us-open-tennis/

THE DESERT SUN: Time running out for California in Tesla deal http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/energy/2014/08/2…/14765443/

ABC NEWS: Britain Ups Terror Threat Level from ‘Substantial’ to ‘Severe’ http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/britain-ups-terror…on=1206828

ABC NEWS: Iceland Volcano Threatens Major Travel Disruption http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/iceland-volcano-threatens-ma…n-25172763

CREDIT SESAME: Fundemental Lessons Learned From the 1.2 Billion Russian Password Hack http://www.creditsesame.com/blog/lessons-from-russian-password-hack/

BUSINESS INSIDER: JPMORGAN: The Russian Stock Market Is On The Brink Of A ‘Lehman-Style Shock’ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-29/jpmorgan-wa…z3BpBG7HIx

VOXXI: From Shanghai to San Francisco in 100 minutes, all underwater http://voxxi.com/2014/08/28/travel-san-francisco-shanghai-100-minute/

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Satellite Lost In Space? We’ll Tow It, Says Israeli Startup http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/27/satellite-lost-in-spa…i-startup/

IN THE WEST THEY WANT M.A.D. WIII. THE MOSCOW TIMES: Don’t Mess With Nuclear Russia, Putin Warns at Youth Camp http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/tmt/506145.html

REUTERS: Ukraine seeks to join NATO; defiant Putin compares Kiev to Nazis http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-ukraine-crisis-…0C20140829

SCIENCE MAG: Rebooting memory with magnets http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/08/rebooting-memory-magnets?rss=1

MARKET WATCH: Merkel briefly considers possibility she might be wrong http://www.marketwatch.com/story/merkel-briefly-considers-po…?link=sfmw

REUTERS: Islamic State’s appeal presents Jordan with new test http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/29/us-jordan-security…CO20140829

THE GERMANS AND SCANDINAVIANS, STUPID! NORWAY TODAY: Oslo is among the world’s ten most millionaire dense bye http://www.norwaytoday.info/home_view.php?id=12550

NORWAY TODAY: Sweden increases military readiness http://www.norwaytoday.info/home_view.php?id=12549

______________________________________________

By Mr. Andres Agostini
www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini
www.amazon.com/Author/Agostini

FOR MORE FREE INFORMATION AND RESOURCES, JOIN ON LINKEDIN’S GROUP
BECOMING AWARE OF THE FUTURES! at

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Aug 27
2014

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

OTTAWA CITIZEN: Ottawa jihadi seeking ‘martyrdom’ with ISIS in Syria http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-jihadi-seeki…s-in-syria

POPULAR SCIENCE: Why Are Israeli Startups Leading The Tech World? http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/why-are-israeli-sta…tech-world

SECURITY AFFAIRS: Foreign hackers stole Flight MH370 data from investigators http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/27693/hacking/hackers-st…-data.html

ISIS Is Entering U.S. Through Our Open Southern Borders http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=24453

TECH TIMES: New satellite images show rapid decline of ice sheets in Greenland, Antarctica http://www.techtimes.com/articles/13633/20140822/new-satelli…ign=buffer

BLOOMBERG: China Said to Consider $16 Billion EV-Charging Fund http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-26/china-said-…nding.html

MORE HACKERS. COMPUTERWORLD: Shadow cloud services pose a growing risk to enterprises http://www.computerworld.com/article/2598551/malware-vulnera…rises.html

POPULAR SCIENCE: Hypersonic Gliders, Scramjets, And Even Faster Things Coming To China’s Military http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/eastern-arsenal/hypersoni…ing-chinas

POPULAR SCIENCE: What Will Wisconsin Look Like In The Future? http://www.popsci.com/article/science/what-will-wisconsin-lo…ign=buffer

PLOS ONE: Transcriptomic Analysis of Tail Regeneration in the Lizard Anolis carolinensis Reveals Activation of Conserved Vertebrate Developmental and Repair Mechanisms http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0105004

BANK INVESTMENT CONSULTANT: Dementia: The Growing Retirement Risk http://www.bankinvestmentconsultant.com/news/client/dementia…gination=1

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Changing Corporate Culture Is Hard. Here’s How Lenovo Did It. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/26/changing-corporate-cu…ign=buffer

SECURITY WEEK: Personal Details of 27 Million South Koreans Stolen by Hacker http://www.securityweek.com/personal-details-27-million-sout…len-hacker

WASHINGTON POST: For sale: Systems that can secretly track where cellphone users go around the globe http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/for-sale-s…ingtonpost

REUTERS: Google buys video-processing service provider Zync Render http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-google-deals-id…nologyNews

SCIENCE DAILY: Scientists grow an organ in an animal from cells created in lab http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140825100049.htm

HUFF POST: Bill, Melinda Gates Donate $1 Million To Gun Control Campaign http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/bill-gates-gun-control_n_5711529.html

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Hypersonic Weapon Developed by US Military Explodes After Lift-Off Due to ‘Malfunction’ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hypersonic-weapon-developed-by-us-m…on-1462544

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Could Microsoft’s DeLorean System Change Cloud-Game Streaming? http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/could-microsofts-delorean-system-ch…ng-1462678

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Cyber Threats Hiding in Plain Sight: How to Protect Your Business http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cyber-threats-hiding-plain-sight-ho…ss-1460397

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Facebook Cracks Down on News Feed ‘Click-Bait’ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/facebook-cracks-down-news-feed-click-bait-1462644

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Lockmakers Beware: 3D-Printed ‘Bump’ Skeleton Key Can Crack High Security Locks http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lockmakers-beware-3d-printed-bump-s…ks-1462688

MICROSOFT: Quantum Computing 101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg8iCnQTLfM#b07g29t20w14

YAHOO FINANCE: Wave and Tidal Energy Market — Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 — 2020 https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wave-tidal-energy-market-g…um=twitter

YAHOO FINANCE: Hydropower (Large, Small and Pumped Storage) in Brazil, Market Outlook to 2025, Update 2014 — Capacity, Generation, Regulations and Company Profiles https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/hydropower-large-small-pum…um=twitter

FORBES: Teaching Business People How to Make Good Decisions http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2014/08/26/teaching-busi…ium=social

WASHINGTON POST: Coast Guard cutter fires warning shot at Iranian sailboat in brief altercation http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/26/…ingtonpost

MASHABLE: Report: Snapchat Valued at $10 Billion in Latest Investment http://mashable.com/2014/08/26/snapchat-10-billion-valuation…-main-link

REUTERS: AT&T merges wireless and business units led by de la Vega http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-at-t-restructur…sinessNews

REUTERS: CFTC fines Merrill Lynch $1.2 million for client fee errors http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-cftc-merrill-id…sinessNews

REUTERS: GM ignition-switch fund receives claims for more than 100 deaths http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-gm-recall-compe…sinessNews

CHARLIE ROSE’S SIXTY MINUTES: Bill Gates 2.0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPy0nWYYCFg

NEXT GOV: Thousands of Weather Satellite Bugs Won’t Be Fixed For Years http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2014/08/tens-thousands-…ars/92465/

REUTERS: Kleiner to invest in messaging startup Snapchat at near-$10 billion valuation: report http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/26/us-snapchat-kleine…sinessNews

TECHCRUNCH: Seagate Ships An 8 Terabyte Hard Drive, Perfect For All Of Your Totally Legal And Not Pirated Stuff http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/26/seagate-ships-an-8-terabyte…ted-stuff/

BRITAIN’S MOST ACCOMPLISHED SCIENTIST AND ASTRONOMER ROYAL Martin Rees PhD.: Can we prevent the end of the world? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMSU6k5-WXg

MASHABLE: The Australian Workplace of The Future Is Here and It’s a Bit Blurry http://mashable.com/2014/08/25/the-australian-workplace-of-t…source=rss

MORE HACKERS. COMPUTER WEEKLY: IoT-enabled devices to top 40 billion by 2020, say researchers http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240227341/IoT-enabled-de…on-by-2020

KAI: ‘Robo Brain’ will teach robots everything from the Internet http://www.kurzweilai.net/robo-brain-will-teach-robots-every…e-internet

RED ORBIT: NASA Selects Proposals To Increase STEM Education At Community And Technical Colleges www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113213524/stem-education-grants…wZ37mEE.99

KAI: How to enable the Internet of Things without batteries http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-could-enable-an-internet-of…ign=buffer

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Five things all Canadian cities should stop ignoring http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/five-things-all-…e20131211/

HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Contextual Intelligence http://hbr.org/2014/09/contextual-intelligence/ar/1

FORTUNE: New Bitcoin challenger launches http://fortune.com/2014/07/31/stripe-launches-bitcoin-challe…-for-free/

WIRED: Radical New Theory Could Kill the Multiverse Hypothesis http://www.wired.com/2014/08/multiverse/

POPULAR MECHANICS: The Electric Anticancer Helmet Battles Brain Tumors http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/med-tech/the-…t-16811299

IEET: Can Brain Implants Make Us Smarter? http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/brainupgrade20140826

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Global warming could be irreversible, UN report says www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/global-warming-ri…e20210954/

An Advanced Society, Especially a Balkanized Advanced Society! https://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/08/nonlinear-psychology

NEW YORK TIMES: Nonprofit Hospitals’ 2013 Revenue Lowest Since Recession, Report Says www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/business/nonprofit-hospitals-2013.…html?_r=0

POPULAR SCIENCE: The Future Of Urban Planning: Zoning For Drones http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/future-urban-planning-zoning-drones

Shakespeare: To Kaisen or not To Kaisen, To Fukushima or not to Fukushima! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140827052635-34…-fukushima

Lifeboat Foundation Worldwide Ambassador White Swan Update and Published Amazon Author by Andres Agostini at href=“www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini” target=“_blank”>www.linkedin.com/in/andresagostini

Aug 26
2014

Jacque Fresco’s book “Designing the Future” (2007)

Via @ClubOfINFO

Jacque Fresco’s futurist book, Designing the Future which serves as something of an introduction the revolutionary Venus Project, is a manifesto for redesigning civilization itself.

Jacque makes a call for a renewed modernism: “The application of scientific principles, for better or worse, accounts for every single advance that has improved people’s lives.” However, the real aim of the Venus Project is the abolition of money, which is described by Jacque as nothing but a source of debt, servitude and other injustice.

The book elaborates an anti-war and one-world vision that is very difficult to oppose. Indeed, its statements reflect some of the most enlightened views in the world today, with its staunch opposition to nationalism. Conflict, Fresco states, “is now totally unacceptable and dangerous because of war’s extreme human and environmental costs.” Even more appealing is Fresco’s encouragement that we treat the world as an “interrelated system with all its people as one family.” This amounts to an open-borders and anti-militarist position that I think reflects the aspirations of some of the most desperate and mistreated people on Earth and could lead to a profound reduction of hostility for all (p. 4–5).

Jacque writes that we need “new outlooks and approaches” and we should “direct the future”. This is a call for everyone to get involved – not just the elite. He challenges us to think how we might organize the world, if it were up to us. Personally, I do not feel qualified to organize the world, although I do think we can all say what we don’t think should happen. The solution, Jacque writes, must be “free of bias and nationalism”, which translates to an acknowledgment that Nineteenth Century nation-states are well beyond their best-before date.

In recognizing that nation-states are obsolete, Jacque warns we should still avoid generating “bad feelings” (p. 6–7). Jacque forewarns that what he is advocating is a “difficult project requiring input from many disciplines”. This recognition of the academic side of what he is advocating makes me bring in another respected theorist, Immanuel Wallerstein, whose work has focused on “reconceptualizing” the world to understand things like nation-states and vast global inequalities as production relations.

In a way, I am fully onboard with what Jacque is advocating already. If we could reconceptualize global society at a more popular level, rather than purely at an academic level, our task would be somewhat similar to the popularization of science attempted by such people as Carl Sagan. Nations, within the global social system, are only fleeting entities. If we could get people to accept that interpretation of society, we would accomplish what Jacque Fresco is talking about, but it is hard. I consider my own anti-statist essays as a contribution in that direction, and I would encourage other commentators to do their part, using whatever rhetoric or teaching methods they think best.

Jacque puts forward the idea that the scientific method should be rigorously applied to avert some of the biggest killers in modern life, e.g. car crashes (p. 15–17). This is a fairly convincing case, and one that I think has not been advocated yet by any other theorist, so Jacque deserves a lot of credit for it. The way to achieve it would probably involve integrating the local authorities with scientific advisory boards and ethics committees. This would have the added benefit of creating nice jobs for a lot of the students who tend to be thrown into positions that do not let them fulfil their true potential. One could argue that there are already plenty of science committees influencing governments, but it is not unreasonable to advocate there should be more, and at more local levels.

Matching what many intellectuals have pointed out, Jacque says “technology is moving forward but our societies are still based on concepts and methods devised centuries ago”, calling out the “obsolete values” that still shape many countries (the US not least of all) (p. 9). Another grievance mentioned is the corporate takeover of government, as protested against by the #Occupy movements. There are, today, “common threats that transcend national boundaries”, e.g. hunger, natural disasters of the kind that UN agencies are already attempting to combat (p. 10).

One of Jacque’s ideas resembles extropy, as articulated by Kevin Kelly. He states, “The history of civilization is the story of change from the simple to the more complex” (p. 13–14). Change is the “only constant”, the biggest enemy of which is the people in power who have trade advantages over others and strong reasons to maintain the status quo.

The best side of Jacque’s book is found in the compelling images of future architecture and design solutions that would reflect an economy geared towards human needs rather than profit. At least some of these principles will almost certainly become a reality in the future (p. 29–44, 48–52). However, Jacque’s ideas can be attacked from many angles, and these make it hard to accept the abolition of money that is really the core of his thesis:

“A much higher standard of living for everyone all over the world can be achieved when the entire Earth’s resources are connected, organized, monitored, and used efficiently for everyone’s benefit as a total global system – not just for a relatively small number of people.”

The problem with the above is that it is advocating globalization as it already exists, but neglecting a very fundamental element of that globalization: financial globalization. It is harder to believe that we can connect the entire world together solely in terms of resources than that we can connect it together financially. It is likely that going back to resource-based disparity rather than money disparity would lead to a more localized and therefore tribal existence with states becoming more possessive over natural resources. This would not be consistent with globalization as we have seen it thus far.

Jacque expresses the view that rather than laws and ethical people (as envisaged since as far back as Aristotle), we only need “a way of intelligently managing the Earth’s resources for everyone’s wellbeing” (p. 18–21). He is of the school of thought that “when we look at things scientifically, there is more than enough food and material goods on Earth to take care of all people’s needs – if managed correctly” (p. 19). This is also a view articulated by Ramez Naam in The Infinite Resource (2013), and that I have responded to in the past. The only problem is, it isn’t true. There are almost no distinguished scientists and scientific bodies who have stated that there are enough resources as we currently understand them to support the expanding population. There are even some prominent scientific bodies like the Club of Rome and various committees warning about our dwindling resources, constantly stating the exact opposite of what Jacque and Ramez have stated.

As much as I agree with what Jacque is trying to accomplish, it is patently false to say that looking “at things scientifically” is the same as using the scientific method, or that the scientific methods leads to redistributing resources to support everyone. Most scientists would disagree with what Jacque is saying. However, I am not arguing that they are right. I am arguing that we need to learn to tolerate how radical the idea of supporting everyone on the planet through the intelligent application of emerging technologies is, and how hazardous it could actually be. If we take the leap, we must wholeheartedly take any burdens and possible hazards into account as we do so. Humanity must know the risks, and not be persuaded to walk blithely towards something that still has so many unknowns.

Jacque lays out his case for abolishing all money. He gives 14 succinct grievances against the monetary economy that has been the norm for quite a few centuries. Most of these 14 points reiterate the same basic grievance that money enables people to be super-rich and others laden with debt, because… the rich people control it. However, in repeating these grievances against money and giving each of them more credit than they deserve, Jacque neglects the good points about money. It is still the only thing a lot of poor people have, and is the only way they can get their next meal.

It is not the unfair distribution of money, but the unfair distribution of resources, which keeps people and states poor or powerless. The rich are not rich because they have more money in their pockets, but because they physically control the resources that make money. They own keys to the factories and stockpiles. Rich states physically possess and control the world’s mineral wealth, and the labs where high-tech products are designed and tested. They use money merely as a way of throwing scraps to poor people where it would have been too inconvenient to give shares of their resources. So, if anything, money exists as a tool of remuneration to poor people, and would actually be a necessary component in any scheme to create more equality.

I, unlike Jacque, am what most people would call poor. If my money became worthless tomorrow, I would not be grateful. In fact, I would have few means of survival, and would wander the world begging for actual food and other resources from people and providers who are fortunate to possess a stockpile of resources. These providers in turn would wander the world begging for supplies, and other essentials they require to stay active. Therefore, the vacuum left by abolishing money would be more oppressive than any amount of debt, and it would also consume a lot more time and energy for everyone.

Not only would the abolition advocated by Jacque make life a lot more difficult for most poor people and businesses, but it would lead to the loss of a very basic source of dignity for the poor – the only medium with which they could actually buy and share resources. No matter how detrimental monetary greed can be, a poor man or business will always be grateful he can carry a wad of money around. He can’t pick up and carry a resource. One would hope that Jacque would at least try to overcome this terrible paradox of what is going to take the place of that money in a poor person’s hand, but he doesn’t. What is advocated instead is idealistic at best, and leaves one feeling hungry for the pizza that is probably never going to be delivered to your door by a drone if we really do get rid of money.

In fact, the form of remuneration posited by Jacque relies on “distribution centers” from which anyone can order an unlimited quantity of anything to their very door due to the unlimited capacity of the technology of the future (p. 76–78). If such a thing is inevitable from existing engineering trends, then we should be in awe of that technology, and not the Venus Project.

Something similar to the above occurs when Jacque states “Machines of the future are capable of self-replication and improvement, and can repair themselves and update their own circuitry.” Once again, this makes me ask, why then advocate Resource-Based Economy, if in the end we are always going to stand in awe of the machines and get unlimited free pizzas delivered to our doors anyway?

In a Resource-Based Economy, it is established there is no money, no credits, no debt, and no servitude. Here, “all of the world’s resources are held as the common heritage of all of Earth’s people” (p. 21). Unfortunately, the thing getting in the way of declaring our resources as a common heritage isn’t money, but the resources themselves. Just look how some states and firms have better resources than others, be it in the form of more high-tech facilities or more qualified personnel. One can’t just declare these people and things to be equally owned by all, or change their status in any significant way, by abolishing money, because they are still physically located in certain more advanced states (usually the US).

When it comes to how the RBE would manifest in practice, Jacque argues that all wealth and wellbeing should be based on immediate resources, such as water and fertile land. Unfortunately, this means areas with more resources would be better-off than those without, which takes us back to the problem already highlighted above.

Jacque says that increasing automation and peak oil are signs of “collapse” (p. 22), and that this collapse will provoke people to “lose confidence” in monetary economics. People will then turn to a global Resource-Based Economy as the solution. Unfortunately, this is not what usually happens in a collapse. In a collapse, people do not actually grasp at the most ideal solutions, never mind solutions prematurely based on future technologies. Just look at Iraq and Syria, where the failures of the state did not lead to a utopia but to a vacuum filled by pseudo-religious terrorist authorities.

The prediction that removing capitalistic competition by getting rid of money would result in the hippie-like outcome of peace and harmony (p. 69–76) is not convincing. If Christianity got one thing right, it is that humans are prone to sin. Even in a system with unlimited resources, there would be factionalism, security concerns, hoarding, vanity, greed, jealousy, power-mania, sex offenses, plain insanity and a plethora of other reasons for people to do evil. In sum, law enforcement and compliance would still be necessary.

Rethinking society is important, but the catalyst should be technology itself and the results spontaneous, rather than someone’s grand design. People should be in awe of the amazing things being made possible by nanotechnology and biotechnology, but they should be advocating that people invest in these technologies. Abundance is almost certainly going to rely on biotechnology, but there are many grievances against this field and promoting it might involve tolerating the directions taken by some large and rather controversial corporations.

Transhumanism differs from social design in that transhumanism is advocating the redesign of the human individual; a departure from our biological limits themselves as a way of escaping scarcity. Transhumanism is about maximizing the available choices and chances of survival of every human individual. We could go even further, and biologically re-engineer the world to access more resources, as I argued in my outlandish “terra-enhancement” article.

By Harry J. Bentham - More articles by Harry J. Bentham

Originally published at h+ Magazine on 19 August 2014

Aug 25
2014

Are we strategically surprised on August 26, 2014? The Fifteen Ignored Flanks for 40 Years!

A 93% of the inhabitants of the used-to-be developed world has, for forty decades, gravely violating the ensuing timeless imperatives of the wisdom.

All of the present content available in this Article is an except quoted from Mr. Agostini’s White Swan book. HOW TO FUNDAMENTALLY SOLVE THIS CHALLENGE, IT ALSO ADDRESSED, AT GREAT LENGTH, IN THE PRECEDING BOOK.

THE FIFTEEN IGNORED FLANKS FOR 40 YEARS (BRIEFEST LIST):

[No. 1 of No. 15] «…The future is not a destination; it is the result of actions that we take today, individually and together. If we can dare to envision the widest number of potential futures, then perhaps we can plan our actions more wisely today…»

[No. 2 of No. 15] «…The future is an act of will…»

[No. 3 of No. 15] «…And the future is now and about change…»

[No. 4 of No. 15] «…The future is not an echo of the past…»

[No. 5 of No. 15] «…The future is not what will happen; the future is what is happening…»

[No. 6 of No. 15] «…The future will happen with or without you … and the future is now and is about change…»

[No. 7 of No. 15] «…The future is hidden in plain sight. it’s right in front of us, if only we could see!…»

[No. 8 of No. 15] «…The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed…»

[No. 9 of No. 15] «…The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play…»

[No. 10 of No. 15] «…For the future is not what will happen; the future is what is happening…»

[No. 11 of No. 15] «…The future is not an extrapolation of the past…»

[No. 12 of No. 15] «…The problem with the future is that is different…»

[No. 13 of No. 15] «…The future is not an echo of the past…»

[No. 14 of No. 15] «…The future is not a privilege but a perpetual conquest…»

[No. 15 of No. 15] «…The future is not something we enter. the future is something we create…»

«…The Future is S-H-A-Z-A-M (“…The wisdom of Solomon, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury…»

A 93% of the inhabitants of the used-to-be developed world has, for forty decades, gravely violating the ensuing timeless imperatives of the wisdom.

THE FIFTEEN IGNORED FLANKS FOR 40 YEARS NOW (BRIEFEST LIST):