transcendentman.com

AFIFest Screening, Nov 5

So, Jeff Bertholdi — Mr Bentvision – put your money where your youtube is and take me up on this bet. I’ll fly out there and buy you dinner in 2029 if Ray is wrong. You do the same if he is right. Have we got a bet?

This…brought tears of angst and joy to my eyes. I wonder if you might understand why?

There is reason for calm (the thick line). It seems the system may be to some degree auto-governing. That is, the damping factor has significantly notably increased beginning approximately the same time the volatility took a hit. Smart consumers quietly, instinctively and collectively closing the hatches as and unprecedented storm darkens the sky?

As with most superb technology, the device itself recedes into the background. It is the dramatically improved access to content which makes this game-changing. What content? In my current  ”Collection” (see at left) I’m currently subscribed to 45 podcasts–a mixture of video and (mostly) audio. Today while resting in recovery from a bug I caught at MIX, I listened to three deeply insightful episodes from one of my favorites: Krista Tippett. Krista is a master of the interview. With a voice and speaking style that is so captivating as to almost be distracting, her weekly exploration of meaning, philosophy, religion and faith, Speaking of Faith, has secured a position at the top of my weekly must-listen list. The first, A History of Doubt first aired last May, should be required listening for those who, like me, struggle with a childhood of faith no longer held dear.

Poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht says that as a scholar she always noticed the “shadow history” of doubt out of the corner of her eye. She shows how non-belief, skepticism, and doubt have paralleled and at times shaped the world’s great religious and secular belief systems. She suggests that only in modern time has doubt been narrowly equated with a complete rejection of faith, or a broader sense of mystery.

The second, Muslim Women and Other Missunderstandings from December 2006, is similarly at the top of my recommended listening list for Westerner’s yearning to better understand the ‘Muslim world’.

Is there such a thing as the Muslim world? Is the “veil” a sign of submission or courage? Is our Western concern about women in Islam really a concern for the well-being of women? Our guest, Egyptian-American Leila Ahmed, challenges current thought on these and other questions.

The third, Pagans Ancient and Modern, I found fascinating from several angles.

An environmentalist who pursued the ecological impulse of Paganism, from its ancient roots to its modern revival in Europe and North America, discusses his observations about the spirit of Paganism and its influence on everyday Western culture — and even on old-time religion. 

I’m looking forward to listening through the entire SOF Archives. I always have a few synched to the Zune at any given time.

I‘m using a new on-line mind map tool which seems quite capable. Click the thumbnail for a snapshot of this map (so you don’t have to register).

You can launch the map viewer (and make contributions) here: Artistic and Creative Symposiums and Adventures (Mindomo map)

There’s a big hullabaloo today in the global blogosphere. “Blog Action Day”. While it’s an interesting experiment in internet-assisted awareness generation, tomorrow and next week it will mostly be forgotten. Let’s watch.

Sure, I care about the environment. But one recycled newspaper at a time isn’t going to get us there. If the projections of technology’s accelerating change are any indication, significant solutions with massive impact will surface over the next decade or two. If we survive.

The problem of combustion-based energy haunts the global environment. Fortunately, clean alternatives are nearer than most realize. Photo-voltaics have increased in efficiency at an amazing rate over the last two years and are now as viable and cost effective as traditional coal-fired power. Extending the curves just 10 years portends a time where internal-combustion is already on it’s way out—an albatross.

[EDIT 18OCT] That didn’t take long! Kind of fun little experiment, though:

Related: I just ordered up 3 months of Ray Kurzweil’s Longevity MultiPack. I’m sold on this stuff. I have been ever since the first time I read Fantastic Voyage: Live long enough to live forever. Ray and Terry believe that within the next 20 to 50 years technology will be advanced to the point where the aging process is largely conquered. As is typical with Ray’s predictions, he starts out a lone voice in the wilderness but is soon joined by the scientific masses.

If this pans out, it becomes much more important for one to ‘mind the gap‘: don’t do foolish things like not buckling your seatbelt or smoking.

It also raises the Power of Compounding to an entirely new level. Teach your children!

Continue with Part 2.

Where are today’s the grand visions of the future? In sharp contrast to yesteryear, we hear far more in the media today about fears of technology gone bad. Many around us live in constant fear of what’s next.  Thomas Frey nails it when he claims in an opinion column in today’s Rocky Mountain News that this is a result of today’ new market for fear. News organizations spend enormous budgets on stories designed to tell us what we should fear. Politicians build platforms based on fear of the opponent. Hollywood creates movies where technology is the villain.  Fiction-writers like Crichton pen books like Prey painting a horrific future where unrestrained technology wreaks havoc.

Reality will likely fall somewhere in between these extremes. Well-funded and staffed organizations such as the Foresight Institute amd the Singularity Institute are focusing on the challenging sociological and ethical impact of tomorrow’s technology. Because of these efforts, combined with the undeniable affects of accelerating change such as the astonishing increase in solar cell efficiency demonstrated in labs over the past year, I do not hesitate to place my bets on a brighter future—a Futurama of 2025. Whatever the outcome, it’s going to be quite an experience. I feel very fortunate to be along for the ride and young enough to see it through.