"No Kevin," Judy said quietly. "You talk about the capacity for evil, but that's just an excuse. Human nature is not about the extremes that a few people go to; it's defined by the way that people work hard every day to keep within reasonable bounds, no matter how hard that is. It's the way people can become so annoyed with each other they want to shout and hit and fight but, even so, they don't. They sit down and talk, no matter how hard that might be. You see human nature every time an exhausted mother is so frustrated by her child's crying that she wants to lash out, but instead takes a deep breath and starts rocking the child to sleep again. Everyone has a capacity for evil; that has been the excuse used by all the worthless leaders throughout history to up the ante for their own ends. Don't tell me about the capacity for evil; tell me how you resist it and act to be a good honest person"
Tony Ballantyne - Capacity p350
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
What Good Is Facebook
People like to blog about what facebook, twitter, or other social media applications are good for.
They are all wrong. Actually many people have good ideas about how to use social media, but it is typically from there own perspective. Don't take anyone's word for the purpose behind it and how to use it. Jump in any find your own purpose.
I use facebook and twitter to tune into ideas from many other individuals around the world as well as to promote sharing of ideas between various cultures and groups. It is past time that we move beyond tribalism and treat everyone on the planet as members of our own group. Being in touch with many people from various backgrounds is the best way to overcome our cultural biases.
Very seldom do I refuse a facebook request to become friends. Learning to share ideas and get along with everyone supersedes any fear of being exploited.
As well as the many friends I have met online, and never will meet in person, there is also many people who I first met online and later met in person. For me social media is not about keeping track of my friends and relatives, but is about interacting with many people around the world as well as making new friends.
They are all wrong. Actually many people have good ideas about how to use social media, but it is typically from there own perspective. Don't take anyone's word for the purpose behind it and how to use it. Jump in any find your own purpose.
I use facebook and twitter to tune into ideas from many other individuals around the world as well as to promote sharing of ideas between various cultures and groups. It is past time that we move beyond tribalism and treat everyone on the planet as members of our own group. Being in touch with many people from various backgrounds is the best way to overcome our cultural biases.
Very seldom do I refuse a facebook request to become friends. Learning to share ideas and get along with everyone supersedes any fear of being exploited.
As well as the many friends I have met online, and never will meet in person, there is also many people who I first met online and later met in person. For me social media is not about keeping track of my friends and relatives, but is about interacting with many people around the world as well as making new friends.
Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer is a good nugget of wisdom, but there is a major problem with the first line.
In the first line you are asking for outside help, but this is not something that can come from outside, this is something you much teach yourself. By asking God to grant your wish, you are distracting your thinking away from where the real solution lies. Serenity is a state of mind which you must program into your mind through hard work, often taking many years of constantly refocusing your thinking.
This is why I like Buddhist teachings, it is all about familiarizing your self with your mind, and how to refocus your thinking to achieve serenity.
Stop asking and get to work.
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer is a good nugget of wisdom, but there is a major problem with the first line.
In the first line you are asking for outside help, but this is not something that can come from outside, this is something you much teach yourself. By asking God to grant your wish, you are distracting your thinking away from where the real solution lies. Serenity is a state of mind which you must program into your mind through hard work, often taking many years of constantly refocusing your thinking.
This is why I like Buddhist teachings, it is all about familiarizing your self with your mind, and how to refocus your thinking to achieve serenity.
Stop asking and get to work.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Hyperconnectivity
The start of my previous blog entry triggered a conversation on twitter with @XiXiDu. My comment about it being harder these days to carry on a serious discussion with people, resulted in XiXiDu's comment that its probably easier than ever. This points out lazy thinking on my part, and how our perceptions are shaped by where we focus our attention.
My brain is full of stuff since I have been an avid reader all my life. In recent years I have added blogs and social media to the torrent feeding my brain. With social media, some of those ideas are starting to spill out, so it is no longer a one way flow of information.
In the past I have occasionally tried to express my ideas, but have often run into opposition. This opposition typically come from people who have never or have rarely done any reading since they got out of school. People who do not actively seek new ideas, tend to reject anything that doesn't comfortably fit with their world view. They don't take the time to understand and point out the flaws in the ideas, they just automatically reject them.
The people I meet online typically have a different perspective, they are people that actively seek new ideas and are willing to push the boundaries. In other words "to boldly go where no man has gone before".
My online activities and resulting offline activities have increased the ridicule from people who have not taken the time to explore new ideas and find out what social media is about.
Being hperconnected using second life, facebook, flickr, twitter, blogs and other online applications is changing who I am and how my mind works. Thanks to all my online friends who are helping to kick my mind up to a new level.
Hyperconectivity is not only changing me and my online friends, it is changing the way our global society works. For example the offline world seems intent on patching the old economic order to try to get it functioning again. Online there are many groups and thousands of individuals working out new ways of doing things.
Here is the conversation I had with @XiXiDu. I pulled it out of friendfeed, merged the two streams, and inverted the time line so it can be read top to bottom.
XiXiDu: "With many people these days it is hard to carry on a serious conversation..." - These days? It's probably easier than ever... @wburris”
April 6 at 8:45 am
wburris: “RT @XiXiDu: "With many people these days it is hard to carry on a serious conversation...", I should have qualified that with "offline"”
April 6 at 8:51 am
XiXiDu: “What I meant was that people are generally more open-minded today than ever before. I agree, just not about "these days"... @wburris”
April 6 at 8:59 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu There seems to be a completely different mindset between people I have know for years, & people I meet online.”
April 6 at 9:08 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu Hyperconnectivity changes people”
April 6 at 9:10 am
XiXiDu: “Same. The difference is that the appearance of people online is by interest and offline by more organic reasons. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:12 am
XiXiDu: “That's why I think that even tho most people are not autistic, socializing will increasingly shift towards the metaverse. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:14 am
XiXiDu: “It's just so much more appealing, because you can group with people that are much more like you than the people physically around. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:15 am
XiXiDu: “Which is at first very good, since it empowers completely new kinds of ideologies. But later it may cause only reassurance, not evolution...”
April 6 at 9:18 am
XiXiDu: “The old days of spatial dependence that caused adherence to corporeal entities like countries are replaced by the empowerment of memes!”
April 6 at 9:21 am
XiXiDu: “Memes like transhumanism would have no chance of becoming strong in a spatial dependent world, a world without a Noosphere.”
April 6 at 9:23 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu you are correct, it is that my online contacts typically have similar interests to mine, which is not always true offline”
April 6 at 12:39 pm
Here is a twine about hyperconnectivity:
http://www.twine.com/twine/11h43rww7-2xq/friendship-in-hyperconnectivity-fh
My brain is full of stuff since I have been an avid reader all my life. In recent years I have added blogs and social media to the torrent feeding my brain. With social media, some of those ideas are starting to spill out, so it is no longer a one way flow of information.
In the past I have occasionally tried to express my ideas, but have often run into opposition. This opposition typically come from people who have never or have rarely done any reading since they got out of school. People who do not actively seek new ideas, tend to reject anything that doesn't comfortably fit with their world view. They don't take the time to understand and point out the flaws in the ideas, they just automatically reject them.
The people I meet online typically have a different perspective, they are people that actively seek new ideas and are willing to push the boundaries. In other words "to boldly go where no man has gone before".
My online activities and resulting offline activities have increased the ridicule from people who have not taken the time to explore new ideas and find out what social media is about.
Being hperconnected using second life, facebook, flickr, twitter, blogs and other online applications is changing who I am and how my mind works. Thanks to all my online friends who are helping to kick my mind up to a new level.
Hyperconectivity is not only changing me and my online friends, it is changing the way our global society works. For example the offline world seems intent on patching the old economic order to try to get it functioning again. Online there are many groups and thousands of individuals working out new ways of doing things.
Here is the conversation I had with @XiXiDu. I pulled it out of friendfeed, merged the two streams, and inverted the time line so it can be read top to bottom.
XiXiDu: "With many people these days it is hard to carry on a serious conversation..." - These days? It's probably easier than ever... @wburris”
April 6 at 8:45 am
wburris: “RT @XiXiDu: "With many people these days it is hard to carry on a serious conversation...", I should have qualified that with "offline"”
April 6 at 8:51 am
XiXiDu: “What I meant was that people are generally more open-minded today than ever before. I agree, just not about "these days"... @wburris”
April 6 at 8:59 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu There seems to be a completely different mindset between people I have know for years, & people I meet online.”
April 6 at 9:08 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu Hyperconnectivity changes people”
April 6 at 9:10 am
XiXiDu: “Same. The difference is that the appearance of people online is by interest and offline by more organic reasons. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:12 am
XiXiDu: “That's why I think that even tho most people are not autistic, socializing will increasingly shift towards the metaverse. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:14 am
XiXiDu: “It's just so much more appealing, because you can group with people that are much more like you than the people physically around. @wburris”
April 6 at 9:15 am
XiXiDu: “Which is at first very good, since it empowers completely new kinds of ideologies. But later it may cause only reassurance, not evolution...”
April 6 at 9:18 am
XiXiDu: “The old days of spatial dependence that caused adherence to corporeal entities like countries are replaced by the empowerment of memes!”
April 6 at 9:21 am
XiXiDu: “Memes like transhumanism would have no chance of becoming strong in a spatial dependent world, a world without a Noosphere.”
April 6 at 9:23 am
wburris: “@XiXiDu you are correct, it is that my online contacts typically have similar interests to mine, which is not always true offline”
April 6 at 12:39 pm
Here is a twine about hyperconnectivity:
http://www.twine.com/twine/11h43rww7-2xq/friendship-in-hyperconnectivity-fh
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Woo Woo
With many people these days it is hard to carry on a serious conversation, because their brains are bogged down in woo woo.
You could say why worry about peoples crazy ideas. The reason is that the world has some serious problems to be solved, and it would be nice if everyone was committed to solving those problems instead of making them worse. A large portion of society seems to be committed to pulling the rug out from under the very tools that will help us solve these problems.
Do your part by understanding critical thinking and the scientific method, and fight for these topics to be included in your children's education.
For an idea of some of the problems to be solved and the seriousness of them, please watch this video of Jared Diamond. Why Societies Collapse
You could say why worry about peoples crazy ideas. The reason is that the world has some serious problems to be solved, and it would be nice if everyone was committed to solving those problems instead of making them worse. A large portion of society seems to be committed to pulling the rug out from under the very tools that will help us solve these problems.
Do your part by understanding critical thinking and the scientific method, and fight for these topics to be included in your children's education.
For an idea of some of the problems to be solved and the seriousness of them, please watch this video of Jared Diamond. Why Societies Collapse
Friday, April 3, 2009
Do you believe in evolution?
This is really a stupid question, but it is a good trick question, for revealing someones understanding or lack of understanding of science.
Acceptance of evolution is not a belief, it is a recognition of the scientific process in action. If you have no understanding of the concepts behind the modern theory of evolution, and the scientific process, you might think the question is about your religion.
The theory of biological evolution is not just something that popped into Darwin's head, turning him into a god who is to be believed forever after. Darwin observed the natural world and came up with some possible explanations and wrote these down. His own personal beliefs on the matter are irrelevant. What matters is that his work was the needed inspiration, to start a new area of investigation that has vastly improved our understanding of how the world works. The success of modern medicine is largely a result of this understanding. Thousands of scientist have worked hard over the last 150 years to refine our understanding of biological evolution. This is not something you just throw away because it contradicts your belief, and you are too lazy to educate yourself about critical thinking.
The whole argument about God vs Darwin is a stupid argument. The real argument is about whether or not we should base our actions on careful observations, experiment, and critical thinking, or our beliefs.
Believe whatever you want, but please keep it at home, and don't use it as an excuse for destroying the foundation on which modern society is built. Let our children get a proper education, based on an understanding of how to use their minds for solving problems.
If your personal beliefs interfere with your understanding of the scientific process, you should definitely not hold public office in a position where you make national decisions on science policy and funding.
Acceptance of evolution is not a belief, it is a recognition of the scientific process in action. If you have no understanding of the concepts behind the modern theory of evolution, and the scientific process, you might think the question is about your religion.
The theory of biological evolution is not just something that popped into Darwin's head, turning him into a god who is to be believed forever after. Darwin observed the natural world and came up with some possible explanations and wrote these down. His own personal beliefs on the matter are irrelevant. What matters is that his work was the needed inspiration, to start a new area of investigation that has vastly improved our understanding of how the world works. The success of modern medicine is largely a result of this understanding. Thousands of scientist have worked hard over the last 150 years to refine our understanding of biological evolution. This is not something you just throw away because it contradicts your belief, and you are too lazy to educate yourself about critical thinking.
The whole argument about God vs Darwin is a stupid argument. The real argument is about whether or not we should base our actions on careful observations, experiment, and critical thinking, or our beliefs.
Believe whatever you want, but please keep it at home, and don't use it as an excuse for destroying the foundation on which modern society is built. Let our children get a proper education, based on an understanding of how to use their minds for solving problems.
If your personal beliefs interfere with your understanding of the scientific process, you should definitely not hold public office in a position where you make national decisions on science policy and funding.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Free Health Care
Free health care here in Canada is great, we can see a doctor whenever we feel the need, without worrying about being able to afford it. When we are in an accident or have a major illness we can obtain excellent care at no cost (as long as we don't get stuck in the lineup in emergency).
The downside is that it is still based on the monetary system, and the government is always looking for places to cut funding. At the family doctor level, they are not always up to date on the latest advances in technology. They are also limited in the amount and types of testing that they can recommend. This results in many people falling through the cracks and not getting the advice & treatment that they need.
We need access to regular testing of our state of health, including genetic analysis, nutritional analysis, and detection of life threating illness. The public education system in addition to teaching critical thinking and science needs to teach what is known about nutrition and personal health care. I would prefer to focus on my own area of expertise and not have to read medical and biology scientific papers just to keep myself going.
If the government funded health care system is not willing to provide these basic services, they need to allow private clinics which provide these services. Here in Canada, if you want to maximize your health care, you need to fly to the US or elsewhere, and pay out of your pocket. The problem with this is that in addition to the health care costs you have the additional travel and accommodation expenses.
All I am asking is that the public system does its best to keep up with science & technology, as well as focusing on prevention, and early detection. In addition, allow me to explore other options without having to leave the country.
The scientific & technological revolution is on the verge of providing us with virtually unlimited resources for enhancing and extending our healthy years. Now is the time to embrace this so that we all can be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
The economic collapse is not a valid excuse for stopping progress. It is not a sudden end of resources, it is the disintegration of systems based on bullshit, and limited thinking. It just means we have to apply a little more intelligence, science, & technology to the way we do things. Health care, like any system can be optimized by applying engineering, science, and critical thinking.
The downside is that it is still based on the monetary system, and the government is always looking for places to cut funding. At the family doctor level, they are not always up to date on the latest advances in technology. They are also limited in the amount and types of testing that they can recommend. This results in many people falling through the cracks and not getting the advice & treatment that they need.
We need access to regular testing of our state of health, including genetic analysis, nutritional analysis, and detection of life threating illness. The public education system in addition to teaching critical thinking and science needs to teach what is known about nutrition and personal health care. I would prefer to focus on my own area of expertise and not have to read medical and biology scientific papers just to keep myself going.
If the government funded health care system is not willing to provide these basic services, they need to allow private clinics which provide these services. Here in Canada, if you want to maximize your health care, you need to fly to the US or elsewhere, and pay out of your pocket. The problem with this is that in addition to the health care costs you have the additional travel and accommodation expenses.
All I am asking is that the public system does its best to keep up with science & technology, as well as focusing on prevention, and early detection. In addition, allow me to explore other options without having to leave the country.
The scientific & technological revolution is on the verge of providing us with virtually unlimited resources for enhancing and extending our healthy years. Now is the time to embrace this so that we all can be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
The economic collapse is not a valid excuse for stopping progress. It is not a sudden end of resources, it is the disintegration of systems based on bullshit, and limited thinking. It just means we have to apply a little more intelligence, science, & technology to the way we do things. Health care, like any system can be optimized by applying engineering, science, and critical thinking.
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