The Buffett Donation

Good news for philanthropy - Sri


On June 26, Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest man, signed a letter of commitment that will eventually turn over most of his fortune--some $31 billion--to the foundation run by the world's richest man and his wife. With the stroke of a pen, Buffett doubled in size the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, already the largest organization of its sort in the world. The gesture not only emphasized Buffett's philosophical opposition to dynastic wealth but was also a strong endorsement of the Gates' entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy.

Heaven or Hell: Kurzweil & Garreau

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Humanity is on the verge of an incredible future. Technologies that seem like science fiction are already becoming science fact as researchers develop innovations that will transform the very essence of what it is to be human.

Kurzweil argues that the growth of computing power, miniaturization and increased technical prowess will turn the world into an incredible place -- free from the conflicts over resources and wealth that have plagued it and in the last century and almost led to our obliteration in the fires of global thermonuclear war.

These three scenarios -- which author Joel Garreau named Heaven, Hell and Prevail in his book, Radical Evolution - dominate debate about our future. Over the next three weeks CNN Future Summit will hear the arguments from all sides, speak to the key thinkers involved, and ultimately invite you to draw your own conclusions about what lies ahead for us all.

Computing without keyboard, mouse, voice or anything

'Mind over matter' no longer science fiction from PhysOrg.com


Sitting stone still under a skull cap fitted with a couple dozen electrodes, American scientist Peter Brunner stares at a laptop computer. Without so much as moving a nostril hair, he suddenly begins to compose a message -- letter by letter -- on a giant screen overhead.
[...]

Seeing whole and peace

I have never seen a conflict in which everyone could see the whole. On the contrary, I have only experienced conflicts in which some, and usually all, of the “part-ies” were identified with the “part.” They were, literally, “partisan.”
writes Mark Gerzon

Not much more needs to be understood about Peace.

If the one sees a part belongs to a party,
what does one sees whole belong to?
[Scroll down]



























The Universe

Were you thinking "holy"?

Injecting RFID into the Immigration Mess, Literally

Sometimes it is obvious to everyone, I mean including media reporters, when "moral compass" appears to be broken. Here is a stark example of Scott Silverman making ridiculous statements, self-promoting, unashamed, willing to bring imposition on others, and worse to label it all as "voluntary" as in "an election" - yeah, "by the government" or "by others".
Measure your body temperature before and after you read this item. - Sri

Injecting RFID into the Immigration Mess, Literally
May 19, 2006

By Evan Schuman

Applied Digital CEO Scott Silverman was a guest the week of May 15 on a Fox News show called Fox & Friends First, and he was there to give the immigration debate a shot in the arm. Or to implant his company in the middle of the controversy.

No matter which wordplay is used, he was there to argue that the U.S. government should buy tons of his implantable RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips and literally inject them into the arms of immigrants who are guest workers in the United States.

The chips would come from Applied Digital subsidiary VeriChip and are the same ones that a handful of people have already had injected into their arms, including the CIO of the Harvard Medical School.

On the show—Applied Digital offered a copy of the transcript—Silverman said the injection would be entirely voluntary. "It's an election on the part of the immigrant or an election on the part of the government, when we ultimately define what that technology is that no one has defined yet," he said. (The second half of that quote says nothing, but I kept it in for any philosophy and logic majors who want to try and puzzle it out.)

Click here to read about one airport's interest in using RFID to track luggage—and passengers.

Let's take a closer look. First, the "election on the part of the government" would certainly impact how optional it was. More to the point, though, how optional would it be as a practical matter?

You're a Mexican worker and you're trying to get a job, surrounded by others who will gladly take any gig you decline. Would you dare to refuse, knowing that your rivals may instead comply? Also knowing that American security agents are on the lookout for terrorists, would you really want to attract the kind of attention that comes from refusing an identification technique?

Lest we forget how volatile it is out there, U.S. border patrol agents shot and killed a man on May 18 as he was trying to drive his sports utility vehicle from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico.

The reality is that this is not at all going to be seen as truly voluntary. OK, but is there a legitimate reason for workers to resist? Absolutely. This technology has been implanted in relatively small numbers of people for a relatively short period of time. No long-term, large-scale testing has done, and there is no way to know what kind of health risks are posed by inserting this little glass tube into a person's upper arm.

What about privacy? Silverman was asked to respond to the statement, "A lot of people would say that it's dangerous, that it's invasive, it could be used to infringe on our civil liberties by tracking us." His reply avoided the first two-thirds of the question—I'd do the same if I were trying to hawk what he's hawking—and narrowly addressed the tracking issue.

Should the federal government support RFID tagging of human remains? Click here to read more.

"This is not a locating device. This has no GPS capabilities in it whatsoever," he said. "It is purely an identification device that reads a unique 16-digit identifier with a proprietary scanner within a very short range. It's a passive device with no power source under the skin that ties to a database where the relevant information is stored."

As far as I can tell, this is absolutely true, but it's also misleading. Yes, it's true in the sense that satellites won't—at this time—be able to track legal aliens as they move around town. But if a government or business decided to place enough of those readers in strategic locations—outside bars, gun shops, libraries, political offices and even tollbooths—people theoretically could be tracked.

Silverman also said that the U.S. government was considering this. "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it as an application for a guest worker program. But we cannot say today that they have actually bought it for immigration purposes," he said.

But let's get away from these trivial life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness issues. What does this mean for the RFID and EPC (Electronic Product Code) industries? This effort—even if it fails—is a gift-wrapped, bow-topped special keepsake for every RFID opponent in the world.

It combines overreaching and intrusiveness with a healthy dose of racism (Quick show of hands: How many people think this was designed with Canadians in mind?) That's just what the industry needs now.

Ironically, the RFID movement is starting to get some serious traction, with Proctor & Gamble and others starting to truly prove return on investment beyond the supply chain. Now is not the time to give ammunition to those who want to derail RFID.

But if someone indeed wants to do that, they have found an ideal spokesperson in Scott Silverman.

Evan Schuman is retail editor for Ziff Davis Internet's Enterprise Edit group. He has tracked high-tech issues since 1987, has been opinionated long before that and doesn't plan to stop anytime soon. He can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com.

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies:

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies:
"Human Enhancement Technologies
and Human Rights

May 26-28, 2006

Stanford University Law School, Stanford, California"

So, here is an organization that is akin to TIP mission - only partially. I will explore more and position it better. TIP wants to steer emerging technologies to serve needs of humanity. To put restraints is half the story. Steering to good is another half.

Beatles on teamwork

Magical history tour: The Beatles as the ultimate team: "Magical history tour: The Beatles as the ultimate team

By Steve Bates

Andrew Sobel, consultant, author and guitarist, like many in the baby boom generation, holds fond memories of Beatlemania, the rage that swept the United States in 1964 after four plucky lads from Liverpool hit this nation’s airwaves and played on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But what he recalls most is not the hair-shaking and the mediocre lyrics like “I want to hold your hand” and “yeah, yeah, yeah.” It’s not even the screaming teenage girls.

It’s the teamwork."

Songs this article uses in making its point about teamwork:

• Come together
• We can work it out
• Let it be
• With a little help from my friends
  

Mount Madonna: Government in Action

Here is a nice instance of current technology being put to good use. My friend Ward Maillard from Mount Madonna School is taking a group of students to the US Capitol. The kids will have a chance to meet with Representatives and Senators and staffers. But more significantly, they are sharing their experience with others in their school and with us all using a Blog. Since they got the local newspaper to provide the blog column, all of their readers are drawn into the adventure. Just wonderful - Sri

Government in Action
Web Site
Please join us over the next ten days as our twenty-three Juniors and Seniors upload daily commentary and photos of their extraordinary journey to interview a broad array of leaders across our nation's capital. Read what they learn from people such as Senator Diane Feinstein, Congressman Sam Farr, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, Leher News Hour Senior Correspondent Ray Suarez, Washington Post Columnist David Ignatius, former Presidential Candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Former Speaker of the House Tom Foley and many more.


That is Ward standing up in the picture.

Bainbridge Graduate Institute

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) offers both an MBA in Sustainable Business and a Certificate in Sustainable Business. In both programs, students work with distinguished faculty from top business schools to master proven sustainability practices.

Our Mission
To prepare diverse leaders to build enterprises that are economically successful, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable.

We mean this mission in the broader sense – not only preparing our own students, but also helping other business schools integrate sustainability (i.e., environmental and social responsibility) into the heart of their programs.
Our Vision
To infuse environmentally and socially responsible business innovation into general business practice by transforming business education.



BGI is pioneering a graduate curriculum for sustainable business education that infuses social and environmental responsibility into every course – not just electives but all required courses as well. We train students with the leading sustainability case studies, best practices, models, and business management tools. With this knowledge graduates will be well equipped to successfully lead a large corporation, small business or non-profit organization toward sustainability as a core strategy, or launch their own sustainable entrepreneurial ventures.

At BGI we demonstrate that sustainability drives competitive success and profitability. Find out if our MBA in Sustainable Business or our Certificate in Sustainable Business is right for you.

Explore More

* History
* Supporters
* Faculty and Administration
* Employment"

GE: on the "green path"

VALUE ::: Tomorrow's Markets, Enterprise & investment :::: "May 2005 may have marked an important turning point for General Electric, the venerable 127-year-old corporate titan. It was then that chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt publicly announced that the $150 billion company was betting its future on green technology. Immelt unveiled a company-wide growth plan—dubbed “Ecomagination”— aimed at solving some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems through the aggressive commercialization of new technologies such as wind power, solar energy, fuel cells, high-efficiency gas turbines, hybrid locomotives, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, energy-efficient lighting, and water purification technologies.



As part of the Ecomagination initiative, GE has committed to 1_ doubling its annual research investment in cleaner technologies, from $700 million in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2010; 2_ doubling its current $10 billion in annual revenues from clean tech products and services to at least $20 billion by 2010; 3_ reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 1 percent by 2012 from a 2004 baseline (it is estimated that greenhouse gas emissions would have increased by 40 percent without such action); and 4_ reporting publicly on its progress toward meeting these goals."

OECD Ministerial Declaration on International Science and Technology Co-operation for Sustainable Development

OECD Ministerial Declaration on International Science and Technology Co-operation for Sustainable Development: "DECLARE THAT:

They reaffirm their commitment expressed at the WSSD to the promotion of sustainable development through the application of science and technology by strengthening national innovation policies and programmes, and by enhancing existing global collaborative networks."

Water Cycle - State of the Knowledge

Chapter 5. Water Cycle. From Strategic Plan of the US Climate Change Science Program (Final Report, July 2003):
Recent renewed attention to Global Climate Change, Effect of global warming, possible sources of this such as Greenhouse gases, impact of the global climate change on glaciers, ocean currents, salinity, thawing of permafrost raise a spectacular doomsday type scenario. The impact cited include food production, energy use, change of habitable areas around the globe, national instabilities, ethnic/tribal/state warfare, increase in disease causing and disease-bearing insects, worms and microbes. Well, Well, Well. Go take a look at the cover of TIME Magazine to see the words "BE WORRIED, BE VERY WORRIED". Not so, says Sri.

One of the key attributes needed from scientists is HUMILITY. They need to be firstly aware of how seriously deficient their models are and how much uncertainty is built in. Prediction errors are compounded because of the various feedback cycles in nature. Furthermore, in addition to EXPLICIT assumptions of the models, there are IMPLICIT assumptions. Explicit ones show how aware of uncertainties the modelers are. The Implicit ones show how unaware they might be of those assumptions. One type of implicit assumption is "gradualism"; another is "linearity". To quickly grasp the impact of those on climate model, ask yourself, while a three parameter feedback system tends to exhibit fractal nature and chaotic behavior including butterfly effects, how come our climate scientists are talking about rise in temperatures of 0.5 degrees per decade. Do they grok anything? Humility is one part; greater reflective self-awareness is the other.

Let us examine the following report from Climate Science initiative. It puts forward a research agenda to study Global Climate Change. I only excerpt a very small section of it for illustrative purposes. The full report has to be read. What we don't know far outweighs what we do know. Science is woefully inadequate in modeling or predicting global trends.

"Question 5.1: What are the mechanisms and processes responsible for the maintenance and variability of the water cycle; are the characteristics of the cycle changing and, if so, to what extent are human activities responsible for those changes?

Question 5.2: How do feedback processes control the interactions between the global water cycle and other parts of the climate system (e.g., carbon cycle, energy), and how are these feedbacks changing over time?

Question 5.3: What are the key uncertainties in seasonal to interannual predictions and long-term projections of water cycle variables, and what improvements are needed in global and regional models to reduce these uncertainties?

Question 5.4: What are the consequences over a range of space and time scales of water cycle variability and change for human societies and ecosystems, and how do they interact with the Earth system to affect sediment transport and nutrient and biogeochemical cycles?

Question 5.5: How can global water cycle information be used to inform decision processes in the context of changing water resource conditions and policies?"

Children's education AND Rechargeable lantern

Prof Vijay Modi at Columbia has come up with a rechargeable lantern.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mechanical/modi/ColumbiaUniversityLanternBrochure.pdf

The idea he has is that a child will carry this like a lunch box to school.
At school it will get plugged into a charging unit. For 8 hours.
When the pack is taken back home, it can power a lantern for up to 7 hours.
Cost 25-30$
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mechanical/modi/ColumbiaUniversityLanternBrochure.pdf
Modi says it would encourage children to come to school and encourage parents to send them to school.

Modi is connected with Sachs' Earthwatch Institute at Columbia.

I wondered if we could come up with something better, one that would not have the weight of a lead-acid battery; and one that is more benign at the end of its useful life.

Tailor-made skin from 'ink' printer

by Rebecca Camber



BREAKTHROUGH: Prof Derby holds a tissue scaffold used in development of new skin
SCIENTISTS at Manchester University have developed a printer able to produce human skin to help wounds heal.

It could be used on patients who have suffered burns and disfigurements. With more research it could even replace broken bones.

Using the same principle as an ink-jet printer, experts are able to take skin cells from a patient's body, multiply them, then print out a tailor-made strip of skin, ready to sew on to the body. The wound's dimensions are entered into the printer to ensure a perfect fit.

The printer, which takes up an area equivalent to three filing cabinets, could see the end of traditional skin and bone grafts.

Scientists at the university's School of Materials have already successfully created skin and believe they will soon be able to create bone and cartilage.

TechWatch: OLED and InkJet printing

I will attempt to post a series of new blog entries to keep an eye out on emerging technologies that hold some special kind of promise. The intent is that with a better understanding of what is emerging, us peace workers, those of us interested in social uplift, can become eager to adopt these new technologies. The intent is the we can thereby create a "pull" so these technologies chart an early course to socially beneficial causes - instead of the usual pattern of peace waiting for "hand me downs" and "trickle downs" after the military, after big business have had their fill and are ready to throw "crumbs". So read on and imagine how some of the emerging technologies featured here can help us.

And, oh, more importantly share your thoughts by posting or leaving a comment.

To start the series, we begin by asking what does Inkjet technology have to do with large flat panel display. The link above is to EPSON company which is a leader in inkjet technology that is now going into flat panel displays. How come?

The advances in inkjet printing have made it possible to (a) reduce the droplets they emit to "picoliters" i.e. very very small; (b) use liquid forms of Polysilicon polymers that are useful in constructing electronic parts; (c) working with great precision and rapidity, these inkjet printing methods (think, liquid deposition method), using polysilicon on silicon or glass substrates (in place of conventional printing ink over paper) - they can do "nano manufacturing". Inkjet printing can now do imprinting at 100 nanometers, 50 nm at at its very best 35 nm patters.

So EPSON is using its advanced inkjet technology in manufacturing flat panel displays. These flat panel go beyond the usual LCD and Plasma display methods. LCD involves crystals that can be rotated by passing current through them and they change color. They need back lighting to make the color come through. LCD displays are power hungry. To use LCD in daylight (outdoor uses) needs greater amount of backlighting. Plasma uses plasma-phase (very much like gas) that glows. Now comes in a new method called OLED which stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLED is a polysilicon based sheet. When current passes through it emits light. OLED does not require backlighting. OLED is itself a light source. EPSON is interested in this because it can manufacture OLED flat panel displays by inkjet printing method.

OLED has great implications for home lighting in developing areas. They are cheaper to make and cheaper to use than LCD or other display techniques. Can this be used in the $100 Laptop? (Read about it)

Does polysilicon printing and OLED have implications for healthcare, education?

First Online Payment System To Be Open-Source And Bank-Independent Now In Beta: Ripple - Robin Good's Latest News

Conceived by Ryan Fugger and quite formally defined by Sylvain Poirier, Ripple is a P2P monetary payment system based on trust that already exists between people in real-world social networks.

By cutting out the institutional middlemen, Ripple is both more community-oriented and more efficient as a means of exchange

The idea is simple but it has world-changing potential.

Here is how it works, as explained on the Ripple.com site:
First Online Payment System To Be Open-Source And Bank-Independent Now In Beta: Ripple - Robin Good's Latest News: "Ripple is a monetary system that makes simple obligations between friends as useful for making payments as regular money.

Normally, if your friend Alice owed you $10, she would have to pay you back before you could make any use of that debt.

If you were creative, however, you might be able to pass the debt on to someone else who knew and trusted Alice, in exchange for something you wanted. For example, you might be able to get a book you want from Bob, who also knows Alice, in exchange for letting Alice know that she now owes Bob $10. Instead of money, you used Alice's IOU to pay Bob. Alice acts as an intermediary between you and Bob.

Ripple does the same thing, only it takes the idea one step further.

What happens if you want to get a haircut from Carol, who doesn't know Alice at all?

Your $10 IOU from Alice isn't useful because Carol being owed money by Alice doesn't mean anything to Carol. But suppose you had a way to find out that Bob, who knows Alice, also knows Carol. You could talk to Bob and arrange for him to take Alice's IOU in exchange for giving his own IOU for $10 to Carol. Since Alice owes him exactly what he owes Carol, Bob is even on the deal. Both Alice and Bob act as intermediaries between you and Carol.

And that's how Ripple works. You create a profile on the system and indicate who you know and how much you trust them by connecting to people by email address and giving them credit limits. Then whenever you want to make a payment to another Ripple user using only friendly obligations, the system finds a chain of intermediaries connecting you to the person you want to pay, and records the payment in each intermediary's account all the way down the chain. You end up owing one of your 'neighbours' on the system, and the payment recipient ends up being owed by one of her neighbours."

Will they fund TIP?

In several of our TIP discussions, I have been of the view that once we are clear about what we want to accomplsh, the venture and other capital sources will line up with TIP - so we can look forward to a "peace industrial complex" emerging - and thus to Make Peace Profitable. The following story illustrates what happens when a successful entrepreneur and who in turn became a venture capitalist gets a moral compass in his hand (heart, head).

PS: Vinod is a fellow IIT graduate and is accessible via the IIT Alumni club.


Valley man bankrolls clean-energy initiative:
OIL FIRMS TO PAY TAX TO FUND FUELS, CARS
By Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
Mercury News

Vinod Khosla is bankrolling a ballot initiative that would tax oil producers and subsidize alternative energy -- technologies he invests in as one of the valley's most prominent venture capitalists.

If California voters embrace the November initiative, the tax on oil companies could generate $4 billion for projects intended to reduce the state's dependence on oil by 25 percent within a decade.

Such political moves are still new territory for the well-heeled venture capital community more accustomed to funding start-up companies than ballot campaigns. That changed in 2004, when the industry put its money behind another technology-building initiative: stem-cell research.

This marriage of personal and political passions makes some consumer advocates uneasy, while outraging the oil industry.

Initiative backers are currently gathering signatures, which they say they'll submit by the end of the month. Khosla says the measure, which he's already spent more than $1 million to back, is not about him. He says it's about 'doing the right thing.'"

Foreign Aid has failed

The link above is to Business Week's review of Easterly's book, The White Man's Burden.
Recently I was sharing with friends Shikwati (Kenyan Economist) who had been interviewed at SpiegelOnline - he was cited as saying, 'For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!- it is hurting us'. Now Mr. Easterly, an economist with World Bank says aid has not worked. He is advocating only small focused tracked projects. This is consistent with how Richard Otto and Sri talked about Moral Compass for TIP.

[Excerpt from the book review]
The international development community is still reeling from William Easterly's 2001 book, The Elusive Quest for Growth. In it, the former top World Bank economist demonstrated how the panaceas concocted by the West to save the Third World, such as huge injections of aid, conditional loans, population control, infrastructure spending, and debt forgiveness, have all failed to stimulate sustainable growth and cut poverty.

Easterly is at it again. In The White Man's Burden, he marshals a wealth of fresh studies, original statistical analyses, his own anecdotal reporting, and historical precedents to buttress his argument that today's foreign-aid system doesn't work. He shreds practically every new strategy by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, U.N. agencies, and other donors aimed at lifting the world's poor out of misery. This book is disappointingly skimpy on solutions, but it is brilliant at diagnosing the failings of Western intervention in the Third World.

Mecca Cola World

Mecca Cola World: "Mecca-Cola specificity, a new business culture

Following the example of business activities started by charitable associations - the charity-business - we considered the idea of launching a new concept, amely that of putting the economy to work in the interest of ideology. Muslim and Arab Capital � being mainly in the form imposed by the most fierce materialistic apitalism, and often illegal and born of corruption, refuses, for fear of bringing ruin upon itself, to support the actions engaged. Because of this, militant people who are experiencing financial difficulties have no other alternative than to create profit-making activities to enable them to achieve their objectives, even though they did not start out as either traders or capitalists. One of the perversions of capitalism lies in the generation within oneself of the most brutal and the most inhumane part of oneself.

The spirit which governed the creation of Mecca-Cola was to create a profit- making business which would help to relieve human suffering where action is still possible. The most intolerable and the most immediate suffering is that of the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian people are experiencing indifference and general complicity, these being the most wretched and the most contemptible acts of apartheid and Zionist fascism. But, as we are profoundly Moslem in spirit and in training, we can only adhere to our precepts, namely, give back the good that we have received in greater measure, but also spread good around oneself. It is for this reason that we have opted for the distribution of a share of the dividends in countries which have so generously welcomed us, and in the populations amongst whom we live."

Center for Nanoscience in Society - Arizona State U

Well, Well. Right in my own backyard - and so welcome to it. Arizona State has now a center for nanoscience in society. They are in Tempe and I live in Phoenix. Time to make a connection - and see how TIP and CNS might interface. Onward HO!!

Designed as a boundary organization at the interface of science and society, CNS-ASU provides an operational model for a new way to organize research through improved reflexiveness and social learning which can signal emerging problems, enable anticipatory governance, and, through improved contextual awareness, guide trajectories of NSE knowledge and innovation toward socially desirable outcomes, and away from undesirable ones. In pursuit of this broadest impact, CNS-ASU trains a cadre of interdisciplinary researchers to engage the complex societal implications of NSE; catalyzes more diverse, comprehensive, and adventurous interactions among a wide variety of publics potentially interested in and affected by NSE; and creates new levels of awareness about NSE-in-society among decision makers ranging from consumers to scientists to high level policy makers.


CNS-ASU is one of two centers funded by the National Science Foundation to study nanotechnology in society; the other is at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition, NSF funds other team- and project-level research in the area. See the NSF Nanotechnology in Society Network page on this site or the NNI’s Societal Implications home page for more details.

Buddha Machine

Ah, yes, technologies for peace.

Peace in the world, peace inside too.



Yep, all it takes is a little Buddha inside, the Buddha nature!!

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Pennies for Web Jobs - Technology Review

The Impact of Emerging Technologies: Pennies for Web Jobs - Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_16519,300,p2.html

Do read this article and then come back to catch up on my violin playing below.
As you read it, ask yourself what this article is "really" about.
Is it about innovation, outsourcing, or about flattening of the earth, or about singularity that will first swallow up the bottom of the economic pyramid in to a mecho-bio-connected being?



So here is where the violin starts and sri starts just speaking his mind.

On the one hand this article is straightforwardly about just Amazon find a spiffy new way of doing something that would make it some more moola. The economic motive is what moves it. Quite inventive and gets its job done one way or the other. In the process it impacts possibly millions of "humans" working cheap that "assist" the machines do their job. On the other hand it does increase the interdependence of people across nations, oceans and places.

I had actually hatched a plan somewhat similar when I spoke to Michael Chertok ( not to be confused with Chertoff). Michael works with a nonprofit called Digital Divide Data (featured in Friedman's book The World is Flat). DDD works in Cambodia and Laos and employs about 30 people who are typing Harvard Crimson magazine archives into the computer. The old Crimson archives from a century ago are now in microfiche form and they want to put them on the www. Too expensive to have some americans type them in. Not enough volunteers I suppose. In any case, Michael was able to get the contract and took it to Pnomh Penh. There he found the very poor that do not know English. But they did not learn English to the work. They just learned the keyboard. Using visual recognition, they see a letter and type a letter. Crimson is now getting online. Harvard is getting its work done cheap and Cambodians are making a modest living, but better than what they might have had otherwise.

When I spoke to Michael, he was interested in expanding it to Bihar India and to bring this work to Dwarkoji.
As I investigated his business model, growth plans it was clear that finding new clients was a tough job for him. So our conversation turned to diversification. That meant thinking about new tasks to be done. I suggested that we do a photo classification and tagging website. We, Americans and Europeans, who take nearly 1000 or more digital pictures a day could get some help in organizing their collections and get it done cheaply. I picked this work because it would need very little English knowledge. People are good at looking at a picture (the one that needs to be classified) and say it looks like this-and-that-other from a palette that would have portraits, landscapes, close-ups etc. The classification could delve down another level, mountains, rivers, lakes, sunsets, flowers, beachballs, machinery, houses etc. We have not gone further as Michael is quite preoccupied keeping DDD in Cambodia going full tilt. When the time is right, we can move. The scary view below applies as critique for my idea also. So read on.

But here comes Amazon inventing something that is bigger, faster and more lucrative. That is ok. It only validates we had a good idea and a good model.

There is another side to the story we just read. If Amazon succeeds and then eBay and Yahoo and Google follow suit it could become a big industry. The picture that emerges from the scaling up is that of millions in Asia, Africa and Mongolia or Siberia who are looking, pointing and clicking at pictures that are dished up to them at 60 frames per minute. They are doing things that have no connection to their lives, looking at pictures that mean nothing to them. I suddenly see another version of the industrial revolution coming up. Millions involved in doing menial, repetitive, routine work at faster and faster pace. The work they do has no redemptive value to their lives except for the bucks they earn. They benefit not from the results of their own labor. They merely get compensated for their time.

Then there is the Venor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil (and the Matrix) vision of the networked cosmic machine that learns and communicates faster than humans and they have their work to do and humans are assigned tasks that benefit the computers. Sure there are other humans in the Amazon concept that benefit from all that and pay for the benefits they get. Butit all points to a vast segment of humanity that is dehumanized and becomes subservient to machines. In my vision, there were still "individuals" that needed the work to get done. In Amazon, Ebay, Google, Yahoo vision, the machines will make their own demands.

Just a slew of perspectives and no conclusion. However unsatisfying that is, that is where I want to leave this note. I can interpret and provide some context. But eventually the moral compass has to be constructed by all of us participating.

I have another essay that has been cooking for nearly 4 years. It has to do with trust in a world filled with machines and humans. That thinking was prompted after I spoke at NASA on trust and one member of the audience told me about she needed some advice on trust issues to be dealt with in a space colony they were designing. In that essay, I do set up the dichotomy of humans using computers as "tools" and networked-machines-in-charge of life and wellbeing doling out tasks to humans. Then I tried to find a third way based on principles of nonviolence and cooperation. This news article prompts me to pick up that old essay and work it through and release it. That meme needs to start floating.

Think a new thought

Ethics_Politics_and_Plentidue.pdf (application/pdf Object)
We all know that we do not live in an ideal world, far from it. However, the art of living consists in living in a less-than-ideal world without being of it by living from an ideal world. Living in a less-than-ideal world without being of it means that you do not abide by the prevailing but moribund paradigm of living, but by the new model of living that you create for yourself that may in the future become a new paradigm of living for humanity. Living from an ideal world means that you start living your life in accordance with a possible paradigm of the ideal world that you envisage. The source of power is in thinking. It is your thinking that moves and transforms your life. It is our thinking that moves and transforms our world. The art of living is indeed the art of thinking. What you think will determine your future. What we think will determine our collective future. Therefore, a new world will only come if we think a new thought. - Yasuhiko Genku Kimura

Sri on Video+Audio: Interview

Last Fall I attended the conference at Stanford on Accelerating Change, AC2005.
Elon University and Pew Internet conducted a series of video/audio interviews of several prominent attendees, myself as the lesser luminary (so I say).
http://www.elon.edu/predictions/audio/sridharan.mp3
is myself in audio only.
The interviewer's prompts have been edited out - so you have to infer where questions were asked and what the question would have been.

The container page is http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/visionaries.xhtml and has edited videos. The 1 minute video is a teaser/trailer. The 13 minute has a small excerpt of Sri (video), immediately following one of Victor Vinge's comments.

As you can see (hear) from these, I am an optimist - but much depends on what we actually do.

"I want to know who has their hands on the steering wheel. We need a values compass to steer the progress of technology". That is what Technology Initiatives for Peace is all about. Visit http://www.infinisri.com/TIP for more on TIP.

Spin Doctors Create Quantum Chip

Wired News: Spin Doctors Create Quantum Chip: "University of Michigan scientists have created the first quantum microchip, which could be a giant stride in the race to produce a new generation of brawny, super-fast computers."

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70001-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_12#

Working with individual ions is key to building powerful computing machines that will exploit quantum physics -- instead of transistors -- and trump the power of today's most powerful supercomputers.

So, on a semiconductor chip roughly the size of a postage stamp, the Michigan scientists designed and built a device known as an ion trap, which allowed them to isolate individual charged atoms and manipulate their quantum states.

The spin of the electron dictates the value of the quantum bit, or "qubit." For example, an up-spin can represent a one, or a down-spin can represent a zero -- or the qubit can occupy both states simultaneously.

This enigmatic feature of quantum mechanics is what gives the qubit a powerful advantage over the binary digit of classical computing. Known as quantum superposition, the ability of the qubit to occupy two quantum states at once means that it can execute computations at an exponentially faster rate. Each time a qubit is added to a quantum system, its computing power doubles.

A valuable feature of the quantum chip is that its size can be scaled to accommodate the objectives of a particular project. "Our target is to eventually develop a chip that can entrap 10 ions at a time," said Monroe. "But the primary goal is to prove that it works."

Hello Fellow Tipsters: Probe this news release. See if you can tell how close or far off this technology from realization? Will you see it coming in your lifetime? What leap of imagination or leap of faith is involved? - Sri

U.N. Game Wins Hearts and Minds

Wired News: U.N. Game Wins Hearts and Minds: "The roar of the chopper blasts through my headphones. Frantically clicking the mouse, I adjust my aim for the wind speed and fire my payload: a pallet stacked high with bags of rice.

What -- you were expecting a cruise missile?

With no guns to fire and no cars to steal, you would think that Food Force wouldn't be a very popular video game in today's market. But after it launched on Yahoo Games last spring, it quickly became the most popular free game on the site, racking up 1 million downloads over the first two months.

Created by the United Nations World Food Programme, Food Force is made up of six stages, each one built around a certain aspect of the emergency food program's operations.


The entire game takes about 30 minutes to play."

"Ten Recommended Attitudes About Technology"

Jerry Mander

1. Since most of what we are told about new technology comes from its proponents, be deeply skeptical of all claims.
2. Assume all technology 'guilty until proven innocent.'
3. Eschew the idea that technology is neutral or 'value free.' Every technology has inherent and identifiable social, political, and environmental consequences.
4. The fact that technology has a natural flash and appeal is meaningless. Negative attributes are slow to emerge.
5. Never judge a technology by the way it benefits you personally. Seek a holistic view of its impacts. The operative question is not whether it benefits you, but who benefits most? And to what end?
6. Keep in mind that an individual technology is only one piece of a larger web of technologies, 'megatechnology.' The operative question here is how the individual technology fits the larger one.
7. Make distinctions between technologies that primarily serve in the individual or the small community (e.g., solar energy) and those that operate on a scale outside of community control (e.g., nuclear energy). The latter kind is the major problem of the day.
8. When it is argued that the benefits of the technological lifeway are worthwhile despite harmful outcomes, recall that Lewis Mumford referred to these alleged benefits as 'bribery.' Cite the figures about crime, suicide, alienation, drug abuse, as well as environmental and cultural degradation.
9. Do not accept the homily that 'once the genie is out of the bottle you cannot put it back,' or that rejecting a technology is impossible. Such attitudes induce passivity and confirm victimization.
10. In thinking about technology within the present climate of technological worship, emphasize the negative. This brings balance. Negativity is positive.

(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. 1992.)"

Collaborative Video Documentary Investigating US Media Echo Chamber Role Towards The Iraq War Countdown - Robin Good's Latest News

Collaborative Video Documentary Investigating US Media Echo Chamber Role Towards The Iraq War Countdown - Robin Good's Latest News: "Kent Bye's documentary effort is also about how skewed and untrustworthy mainstream media can be, how it can mislead, lie and paint colors that are not in the actual subject being covered.

It is also about how to find new ways in which we can collaboratively produce a documentary, while leaving maximum freedom expression and action to all those involved."

Since the role of the media in distorting our perceptions of the world is a prominent theme in my mind, this type of use of technology is another example of how TIP would impact the world. - Sri

Instant translation - a nice example

Yahoo Messenger Translating Proxy
To bring together the world where people have different first languages, this type of instant translation service is a big help.
Currently this relies on central servers and PC with IM facilities. As technology progresses, look out for this moving to handheld communicators (cellphone with text messaging variations) and later dedicated devices that field workers can use. - Sri

" Yahoo Translating HTTP Proxy (YTP) is a two-way translator which works with your Yahoo! Messenger to translate (by
leveraging Google Translate) your typed message into various languages. At the moment, the languages available are
English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Each Yahoo conversation between two users has an associated
session ID. Developed by Ivo Zivkov, this is an open-source project for which the original source code is also available
for download. To test it without downloading you can use a live Translating Proxy running on a dedicated server. Set
your Y! Messenger HTTP proxy Server Name to avmedia.org, and Server Port to 8084. For more detailed instructions see here.
The proxy keeps track of each Yahoo session, and remembers which language, if any, is translating to and from. That is
why it can be used as a central server for any number of users, only limited by hardware limitations. Free."
http://avmedia.org/ytp/

Technology Peace Corps-TPC Vision

Technology Peace Corps-TPC Vision:
"The TechBridgeWorld initiative at Carnegie Mellon University is a pioneering effort to foster collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and partners from around the world to accomplish the following principal objectives:

* To provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate innovations in technology that promote sustainable development
* To collaborate with developing communities worldwide in researching the role of technology in each community as a means to sustainable development."

Led by Prof Dias, the advisory committee includes Prof Reddy, former colleague of mine.

The Technology Peace Corps (TPC) is the first program to be launched under the TechBridgeWorld initiative. TPC is an academic program in which students from Carnegie Mellon collaborate with students, researchers, and national-service volunteers in developing communities, under the supervision of both Carnegie Mellon faculty and host-community counterparts.
Each group's goal is to put technology to use in facilitating sustainable development in partner communities. The projects undertaken in the TPC program will be small projects that can be identified, designed, deployed, and transferred to the developing community partner within a two-year span. Each project will be, in significant part, a scientific experiment in the applicability of technology to sustainable development; thus each project's design will incorporate rigorous evaluation instruments and protocols to measure, and compare with other efforts having the same goals, the extent to which these projects achieve both immediate and sustainable success.

"

Important inventions in the Past Two Thousand Years

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?

This question is very central to the very rationale of TIP. Not only to figure out the most important inventions, but to understand the extent to which these inventions were prompted by the military or were co-opted by the military or the inventors simply "sold out" as their moral compass swirled around.
Go to http://tipwiki.wikispaces.com/Important+Inventions
and start your contributions to our own deliberations.

Note that Edge is "by invitation". Our TIP wiki is egalitarian and open to all. Please stop by.

Craigslist: 'Seeking human connection'

BBC NEWS | Americas | Craigslist: 'Seeking human connection': "As his current hero seems to be the cable TV satirist Jon Stewart, it is tempting to portray Craig Newmark as a liberal subversive - or an idealistic, digital age social worker - who is using his business to undermine conventional politics and morality.

But he refuses to be pigeon-holed: 'We try to be driven by the values of the people who use us,' he said."

I cite Craiglist as one of those TIPs that is focused on serving people and resists caving in to either the profit motive and definitely the militarism that plagues technology development. - Sri

Rebuilding Sacred America

From Stephen Dinan's weblog

I envision America gradually transforming itself from the greatest military power in the world into the greatest peace-making power. I see America training the peace troops of tomorrow – the healers, facilitators, social engineers, artists, psychologists, and teachers who will be on the front lines, defusing conflicts before they develop into wars and healing social wounds before they fester. I see an America in which a Department of Peace surpasses the Department of Defense in money, influence, and power. Our military infrastructure will have evolved to train powerfully disciplined torchbearers of a new culture. The wars of the past will give way to an era of global peace, sustainability and prosperity.

Science and religion must go hand in hand

Science and religion must go hand in hand

By Michael Gonsalves, Pune: A science-religion dialogue is key to the future shape of the cosmos and in addressing sensitive issues like cloning and genetic engineering, say scientists attending a global meeting near here.

"Whether cloning, biotechnology, genetic engineering and genome research will lead to a boom or will spell doom is the million dollar question confronting humanity," Job Kozhamthadam, president of the Indian Institute of Science and Religion (IISR) here, told IANS.

Kozhamthadam said therapeutic cloning was good for humanity but reproductive cloning - to create super human beings with distinct features like blue eyes or possessing super intelligence by sequencing genes - would create immense problems.

"By tinkering with the genetic structure, it is possible today to create a distinct clan of people," he said, pointing out that a company had cloned a cow with a human egg.

"In some behaviour, the transgenic animal will be a cow and a human being as well," Kozhamthadam said on the sidelines of an international symposium on "Science: Religion Dialogue and Cosmic Future" organised by IISR at Lonavla near Pune.

The meeting, being attended by 16 Indian and foreign scientists and various religious thinkers, is to end Friday. IISR, launched five years ago, is an institute to promote constructive and creative interaction between science and religion in India.

Quoting Albert Einstein who said "science without religion is blind and religion without science is lame", Kuruvilla Pandikattu, associate president of IISR, said the world's problems were so gigantic that science and religion had to work hand in hand for the betterment of humanity.

He said science alone could not solve problems, and the values and vision provided by religion were needed to give direction to the future of mankind.

Kozhamthadam, author of "Modern Science, Religion and The Quest For Unity", said in principle anything was possible in genetic engineering. But some experiments could lead to abuses.

On the other hand, the beneficial side of biotechnology was also evident.

For instance, metal-eating and oil-eating bacteria developed by biotechnology had been effective in cleaning the ocean bed and even recovering oil, said A.G. Bansode, a biotechnology scientist.

"Science gives technology and enables us to move forward but it does not give us a vision or direction. Therefore, while science is the means, it does not know the end that has to be provided by religion," he said.

"But religion alone cannot take us to our goal either," said Pandikattu, author of the book "Bliss of Being Human".

Since cosmic destiny is inextricably interlinked with human destiny, Kozhamthadam said, the science-religion dialogue could play a key role in giving shape to the future of the cosmos.

Open Source community participation in USPTO

http://developer.osdl.org/dev/priorart/index.html

OSDL supports the USPTO's drive to improve the quality of software patents. The goal is to reduce the number of poor quality patents that issue by increasing accessibility to Open Source Software code and documentation that can be used as prior art during the patent examination process. For the Open Source community and many others, this means a reduction in the number of software patents that can be used to threaten software developers and users, and a resulting increase in innovation.

Using Open Source code as prior art is a great step in improving the quality of patents - especially in the software arena. Semantic search and semantic processing is likely to make this even go better. - Sri, viewing this as another useful example of TIP-like technology use.

David Loy on Technology and intentions

Lack and Liberation in Self and Society: An Interview with David Loy:

"There’s a deep-rooted split within the Western tradition between the notion that technology is the solution to all our problems and the other extreme of a romantic reaction that wants to go back to nature. But it’s not a question of asking: “Technology: for or against?” Instead, the question is: “How do we understand technology, and what do we want from it? Why do we want to develop it?” Too often, technology manifests our desire for greater power and then ends up creating all kinds of problems, especially in the case of military and economic forms of technology. In response, we have to find ways to ask questions about motivations. That’s what’s so wonderful about the Buddha’s understanding of karma. Historically, when you look at what was going on in the India of his time, his spiritual innovation, or spiritual revolution, was emphasizing the importance of cetana, which means motivation, or intention. Karma isn’t just something mechanical that we can manipulate with sacrifices and the merit they accrue. The Buddhist understanding of karma requires us to look into our minds and understand what is motivating us. Are we motivated by the three poisons of greed, ill will, and delusion, or are we motivated by generosity, loving kindness, and wisdom? Rarely, if ever, will our motives be completely pure, in this sense, but we need to find ways to bring those kinds of questions into the public arena, into the Great Conversation, and that won’t be easy to do. For example, if you question our motives for developing certain technologies, then you’ll also have to examine the basis of our globalizing economic system, which is largely driven by greed, the desire for higher profits, increasing gross national product, more consumption. What can we do to get a handle on that collective greed and how can we restrain it? Do we need a new kind of economic system and new kinds of technologies, or is it a matter of applying certain kinds of restraints on the ones we have? I don’t know of any simple answers to those vital questions. That’s something that has to be worked out."

USATODAY.com - Iowa company develops solar fabric that gets Army's attention

USATODAY.com - Iowa company develops solar fabric that gets Army's attention: "Iowa company develops solar fabric that gets Army's attention
AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa company that created a lightweight, durable fabric capable of generating solar power is getting praise from the U.S. Army."

This is the type of technology that should quickly hit civilian and humanitarian uses. This also illustrates the trend in technology whereby the military is the "big sister" and peaceful civilian uses becomes the "cinderella step sister" working with hand-me-downs. Let us hope that TIP provides a means for reversing this trend. - Sri

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 2006: GAIN MORE TRUST - Vero Labs LLC

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 2006: GAIN MORE TRUST - Vero Labs LLC: "NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 2006: GAIN MORE TRUST

(PRLEAP.COM) NEW YORK, Dec. 26, 2005 – Scientists have known for quite some time about Oxytocin, a chemical produced by the brain that enhances social bonding. But what they have just proved is that it also controls who we trust. People who inhaled the hormone while listening to a sales pitch were significantly more likely to hand over their cash to a stranger with no guarantee of a return on investment.

Now, for the first time, a mass-marketed formula of oxytocin spray is available for U.S. consumers. Vero Labs, based in New York, unveils their flagship product, Liquid Trust, for anyone looking to gain more trust from others. And this, says Vero Labs, is something everyone wants. Liquid Trust is a sleek, colorless, odorless oxytocin body spray with a light alcohol-base, small enough to carry around in a purse or pocket.

The groundbreaking research that led to the formulation of Liquid Trust was published in Nature in June 2005. A study led by Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich investigated whether the suspected “trust effect” could be produced simply by getting people to inhale oxytocin in a sales interaction. Of the subjects given oxytocin, 45% handed over all of their cash. Since the release of this study additional studies have been released around the globe, including a brain imaging study published in the December 7, 2005 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. This study conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) revealed that Oxytocin boosts trust and reduces the functioning of amygdale (fear circuitry) and disrupts its relay station as a response to the fear stimuli.

Liquid Trust is the first product to take advantage of the latest research in the effects of Oxytocin. Useful in a wide variety of social situations, Liquid Trust is promising to give professionals the added edge they need to increase their sales and win over new and prospective clients.

Liquid Trust is now available for purchase worldwide and can be ordered online at www.verolabs.com or by phone (800) 507-3718. Vero Labs headquarters are at One Penn Plaza in New York City. "

A FORCE MORE POWERFUL | Videogame of strategy

"AFMP is primarily a game of strategy, emphasizing abstract ideas and planning rather than reflexes, coordination, or quick thinking. Realism will not depend on resource-hungry real-time animation, but on the accuracy of underlying behavior models. Game play involves the player's side (the movement) and an opponent (the regime). The regime will be created by the designer of each scenario, and controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI).

In AFMP, the player takes charge of the movement's material and human resources, assesses the strengths and vulnerabilities of the adversary as well as those of the movement, then chooses goals, strategies, and tactics. Scenarios involve individual characters, groups, and alliances, which interact with and against each other, depending on the player's decisions, the programmed scenario, and the actions of the regime.
Game play is governed by detailed interactive models – of strategic and political factors, ethnicity, religion, literacy, material well-being, media and communications, resource availability, economic factors, the role of external assistance, and many other variables. Tactics include such basics as training, fund-raising, and organizing, as well as leafletting, protests, strikes, mass action, civil disobedience and non-cooperation. Many game-play decisions involve selecting which characters and groups should take part in the strategy, and considering the benefits of such actions relative to their costs."

Picture of Globe

* The Game
* Game Play
* Game Pricing
* Game Features and General Information

A Force More Powerful: The Game of Nonviolent Strategy

Can a computer game teach players how to defeat real-world adversaries – dictators, military occupiers, and corrupt rulers – by bypassing laser rays and AK47s and choosing instead a non-military strategy and nonviolent weapons?

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, York Zimmerman Inc. and BreakAway Ltd. think so. For the past three years they have been collaborating on A Force More Powerful – The Game of Nonviolent Strategy, now set for release in early 2006. The game features ten scenarios inspired by recent history --conflicts against dictators, occupiers, colonizers, corrupt regimes, and struggles to secure political and human rights of ethnic and racial minorities and women – to demonstrate the effectiveness of nontraditional “weapons” such as strikes, boycotts, and mass protests.

AFMP is the first and only game to teach the methods of influencing or changing the political environment using nonviolent methods. Destined for use by activists and leaders of nonviolent resistance and opposition movements, the game will also educate the media and general public on the potential of nonviolent action, and serve as a simulation tool for academic studies of nonviolent resistance.

For general information, or to notified of the release of the game, contact
Miriam Zimmerman at mzimmerman@yorkzim.com.
Media inquiries should be directed to Alyson McColl at the communications firm, GMMB. Email Alyson.McColl@gmmb.com telephone + (202) 572-2807.


GAME PLAY

Playing one or more of the packaged scenarios, users will learn strategic planning, formulation of goals (such as compelling free elections or the resignation of a dictator), and the choice of tactics (such as strikes, protests, or boycotts). Designed for those with no previous gaming experience and only basic computer skills, the game emphasizes substance over the flashy action common to many popular games. A sophisticated visual interface will include 3D views and animation, but the game will be compatible with hardware commonly available in the developing world.

AFMP is primarily a game of strategy, emphasizing abstract ideas and planning rather than reflexes, coordination, or quick thinking. Realism will not depend on resource-hungry real-time animation, but on the accuracy of underlying behavior models. Game play involves the player's side (the movement) and an opponent (the regime). The regime will be created by the designer of each scenario, and controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI).

In AFMP, the player takes charge of the movement's material and human resources, assesses the strengths and vulnerabilities of the adversary as well as those of the movement, then chooses goals, strategies, and tactics. Scenarios involve individual characters, groups, and alliances, which interact with and against each other, depending on the player's decisions, the programmed scenario, and the actions of the regime.
Game play is governed by detailed interactive models – of strategic and political factors, ethnicity, religion, literacy, material well-being, media and communications, resource availability, economic factors, the role of external assistance, and many other variables. Tactics include such basics as training, fund-raising, and organizing, as well as leafletting, protests, strikes, mass action, civil disobedience and non-cooperation. Many game-play decisions involve selecting which characters and groups should take part in the strategy, and considering the benefits of such actions relative to their costs.

Scenarios are fictional, but based on recent historical precedents (nonviolent successes in Russia, Chile, Poland, the Philippines , and others) which designers are using to test and validate the models. Groups are the game's basic political units, representing the interests and agendas common to every complex struggle. Recruiting characters and building alliances is a principal game activity, involving labor, business, government, agricultural, academic and professional, media, religious, and military categories.
Each scenario is played within a physical environment which affects the conflict. A national map shows regions, cities, mining, industrial, and farming areas, rivers, mountains, ports, and the transportation network. Within regions, zoomed-in city views are detailed down to neighborhoods and buildings. However, a scenario may take place entirely within a single city or region.

A series of innovative views allows the player to gather information necessary to make decisions. An information screen shows changes in support levels for characters and groups (including the general public) over time, or by geographic area, correlated with tactics. An organization screen displays groups, characters, and alliances, and their linkages (whether based on fear, ideology, or economic interest) and the relative strength or weakness of relations.


GAME PRICING POLICY

A Force More Powerful – the Game of Nonviolent Strategy will be available for US $19.95 plus shipping and handling. In order to extend our audience beyond English speakers, we will channel proceeds from game sales into the future production of language versions.

• AFMP is turn-based (not a real-time game). Players take as much time as necessary to choose and plan actions before moving ahead. The time represented by each turn is variable.
• AFMP includes a scenario editor, allowing users to create custom scenarios, using the specifics of their own situations.
• An AFMP website will allow users to download updates and new scenarios; to exchange experiences, ideas, and custom scenarios which they create. Users will not be required to register.

Future Trends - Dr. James Canton

The Ten Top Business Trends for the New Future

1. Business and technology have fused into one system, one conversation, and one strategy, for one world. This is central to understanding the New Future.
2. Innovations are about new business models, enterprise and marketplace collaboration, new leadership and knowledge engineering.
3. Knowledge engineering, the formation and networking of knowledge-that which creates results, is the true asset of the 21st century.
4. The capture and analysis of customer information about product/service use, needs, wants, desires and behavior is mission-critical to the enterprise.
5. The integration of customer touch points across all channels is essential to future success. Watch out for the breakdowns.
6. The capacity of an organization to understand the key trends that will shape the future of technology, customers, society and the marketplace will determine the survival of the enterprise.
7. More disruptions are coming in the form of emerging markets, electronic exchanges, security breeches, and changing customer demographics.
8. Human capital, the value of talent will be the most valuable resource in the 21st century.
9. Entirely new industries will be formed by innovations yet to be brought to market. Look for the health enhancement, interactive TV nanotech, and on-demand supply chains to emerge.
10. The New Future will need New Leaders that are aware of how to attract talent, manage innovation, set high visions and execute profitably. There is a new paradigm about leadership that is emerging.



The Top Ten Trends, From Technofutures the book by Dr. James Canton

The Top Ten IT Trends for 2005 and Beyond Top Ten Healthcare Trends Impacting the Pharmaceutical Industry Top Ten Sales Technology Trends Top Ten Business Tech Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Computer Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Internet Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Robotic Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten E-Business Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Electronic Education Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Biotech Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Health-Care Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Nanotech Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Entertainment Trends for the 21st Century Top Ten Space Trends for the 21st Century

Technologies and Crises - Ervin Laszlo

"'I believe all crisis is caused by rapid, unreflective technological innovations, but I believe it is a crisis that does not have technological solutions; it has cultural solutions…spiritual solutions. The solutions lie on the level of consciousness. We can heal by shifting our consciousness. We need to heal, because the planet, in a metaphorical way, is coming apart at the seams. Humanity is coming apart…nature is coming apart. We have got to put it together. And naturally it is together…as a natural system it is integral. It is whole. We must stop disturbing it, we must act like we are a part of it. No problem in doing that because there are solutions…'" - Ervin Laszlo PhD

Informing the Public on Nanotechnology

New Grants Are Awarded to Inform the Public and Explore the Implications of Nanotechnology

A hands-on introduction to science at the San Francisco Exploratorium. Credit and Larger Version

October 6, 2005

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a series of initiatives that will greatly expand efforts to inform the general public about nanotechnology, and to explore the implications of that fast-moving field for society as a whole.

The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network. NSF has selected the Museum of Science, Boston, along with the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Exploratorium in San Francisco, to create and lead this network, which will also include many other science museums and research institutions (partial list below). The $20 million, five-year effort represents the largest single award NSF has given to the science-museum community, and will be a cornerstone of the foundation's multidisciplinary Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education program. The award was made by NSF's Informal Science Education program, with additional funding provided by 12 research programs from across the foundation.

Among the desired outcomes:

• Interactive Programs and Exhibits that will engage visitors to science museums and non-traditional venues in inquiry-based learning about the "nanoworld"
• Immersive Media such as planetarium shows and 3-D cinema that will showcase the nanoworld
• Visualization Labs where visitors will be able to explore the hidden features of the nanoscale landscape
• Public Forums that will allow for open discussion and debate about issues related to nanotechnology
• A Media Network that will bring current developments in nanoscale research to a broad audience
• A Website that will provide on-line access to exhibits, media, and interactive activities related to nanoscale research, as well as a gateway to other resources
• Professional Development efforts that will foster collaborations between nanoscience researchers and educators, and
• An online Professional Resource Center that will provide current information about nanotechnology education, tools and materials, research and evaluation, and other professional resources

Nanotechnology in Society. NSF has selected the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., to create two new Centers for Nanotechnology in Society. These centers will support research and education on nanotechnology and social change, as well as educational and public outreach activities, and international collaborations.

In addition, building on previously supported efforts, the foundation has funded nanotechnology-in-society projects at the University of South Carolina and at Harvard University.

All four of these efforts are being funded under the Nanoscale Science and Engineering program at NSF, which is one of 22 federal agencies in the government-wide National Nanotechnology Initiative. More specifically:

• The Santa Barbara center will receive about $5 million over five years to focus on the historical context of nanotechnology; on the innovation process and global diffusion of ideas in the field; and on risk perception and social response to nanotechnology, with a special focus on collective action and the action of global networks in response to nanotechnology. The center will also explore methods for public participation in setting the agenda for nanotechnology's future.
• The Arizona State center will receive $6.2 million over five years to develop a broad program of "real-time technology assessment" (RTTA) for nanotechnology research. The center will use RTTA to map the research dynamics of nanotechnology; to monitor the changing values of the public and of researchers; to engage both these groups in deliberative and participatory forums regarding nanotechnology; and to assess the influence of these activities on the researchers. The center will organize its efforts around two broad nanotechnology-in-society themes: freedom, privacy, and security; and human identity, enhancement, and biology.
• Building from a current Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) award, the South Carolina project will receive about $1.4 million over five years to examine the role of images in communicating about nanotechnology, and how research in this field is changing the scientific and engineering practices of the researchers themselves.
• The Harvard project will receive $1.7 million over five years to expand upon a prior NIRT award to UCLA. That project developed NanoBank: an electronically accessible database providing information about nanoscale researchers, research organizations and groups, patents, and firms. The new project, called NanoConnection to Society, plans to add a NanoEthicsBank and NanoEnvironBank; to integrate these and other databases into an overall NanoIndicator series; and to study the flow and distribution of patents in nanotechnology.

Taken together, these awards represent a new point of departure for NSF, explained Mihail Roco, NSF's Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology: "Since 2000 NSF has created 21 large centers and networks for nanotechnology," he said, each pursuing fundamental advances in topical areas from electronics, materials and biomedicine to manufacturing. "The two new networks are relevant to society and the public not only through their research and education targets, but also through their national goals, 50-state outreach programs and stakeholder participation. The nanotechnology field has been evolving rapidly since 2000, with technological, economic, social, environmental and ethical implications that could change our world."

-NSF-

The NISE Network Core Leadership Team

• The Museum of Science, Boston
• The Science Museum of Minnesota
• The Exploratorium in San Francisco

The NISE Network Institutional Working Partners

• The New York Hall of Science
• The Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York
• The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
• The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
• The Museum of Life and Science in North Carolina
• The Association of Science-Technology Centers
• The Materials Research Society
• Main Street Science, Cornell University
• MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Envision Center for Data Perceptualization, Purdue University

Media Contacts
Carole McFall, Museum of Science (617) 589-0257 cmcfall@mos.org
Leslie Patterson, Exploratorium (415) 561-0377 lesliep@exploratorium.edu
Gail Vold Greco, Science Museum of Minnesota (651) 221-9423 gvoldgreco@smm.org
Paul Desruisseaux, UC Santa Barbara (805) 893-8273 paul.d@ia.ucsb.edu
Skip Derra, Arizona State University (480) 965-4823 Skip.Derra@asu.edu
M. Mitchell Waldrop, NSF (703) 292-7752 mwaldrop@nsf.gov

Program Contacts
Mihail C. Roco, NSF (703) 292-8301 mroco@nsf.gov

Related Websites
The Museum of Science press release about the NISE: http://www.mos.org/doc/1892
Overview of NSF's Nanotechnology Programs: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/nano/
Nanoscale Science and Engineering: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=7169&org=NSF&from=fund
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=6669&org=NSF
National Nanotechnology Initiative: http://www.nano.gov/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.47 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

Receive official NSF news electronically through the e-mail delivery and notification system, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service). To subscribe, visit www.nsf.gov/mynsf/ and fill in the information under "new users".

Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
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Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

howard rheingold quote

"And there is no dispute that war was the original motivation and has been the continuing source of support for the development of computer technology."

"If it is true that the personal computer started out as an aid to ballistic calculations, it is also true that a population equipped with low-cost, high-power computers and access to self-organizing distributed networks has in its hands a potentially powerful defense against any centrally organized technological tyranny."

"It is up to us to decide whether or not computers will be our masters, our servants, or our partners.

"It is up to us to decide what human means, and exactly how it is different from machine, and what tasks ought and ought not to be trusted to either species of symbol-processing system. But some decisions must be made soon, while the technology is still young. And the deciding must be shared by as many citizens as possible, not just the experts. In that sense, the most important factor in whether we will all see the dawn of a humane, sustainable world in the twenty-first century will be how we deal with these machines a few of us thought up and a lot of us will be using."

from Tools for Thought by Howard Rheingold

Mexico's "robotic hospital" for training

MEXICO CITY (Reuters)—Faced with a growing number of medical students and few training hospitals, a Mexican university is turning to robotic patients to better train future doctors.

On Monday, Mexico City's UNAM University opened the world's largest "robotic hospital" where medical students practice on everything from delivering a baby from a robotic dummy to injecting the arm of a plastic toddler.

The robots are dummies complete with mechanical organs, synthetic blood and mechanical breathing systems.

"The country's rapid increase of medical students has not kept up with the number of medical facilities," said Joaquin Lopez Barcena, an associate dean at the university's medical school. "This a very a good learning opportunity for our students."

The $1.3 million facility has 24 robotic patients and a computer software program that can simulate illnesses ranging from diabetes to a heart attack.

Full article at http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1864194,00.asp

It is hard to know how effective these simulations are for education. If a student trains with robots, would s/he treat patients as robots? Or, would that result in increased sensitivity to the humanness of their real life patients?
How to judge such an effort?

NeuroMarketing - part 2

"Neuromarketing has its share of critics. Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit group that Ralph Nader set up to monitor commercial forces in society, sent letters to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in July 2004 calling for an investigation into the practice. Commercial Alert says it fears neuromarketers could 'peer into our brains' and control our buying behavior. Joshua Freedman of FKF says such fears are misplaced. 'Some people view this like Frankenstein and brain control, but I think that science, by trying to understand what goes on in human brains, should be very freeing by helping people understand how they make decisions"

Getting Inside Your Head -- NeuroMarketing

[From Time Magazine]
"Get ready for an Era of the Brain. New scanning techniques are making it easier to determine how our minds work and creating hopes in the corporate world that companies can make new connections with customers--and duplicate the Coke effect. The breakthrough behind all that is the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the latest in neuroimaging technology, which displays not only the structure of the brain but also how it actually functions, by measuring its blood flow. In the scans, specific areas of the brain light up as various mental processes occur. Although the technology is still in its infancy, the potential for looking inside the mind is already attracting researchers from other disciplines. Hybrid fields like neuroethics and neuroeconomics are emerging so rapidly that neuro may well become investors' next hot prefix. (So long, nano?)

What's creating the most excitement is a project called the International Consortium for Brain Mapping, a 12-year collaborative effort to create an atlas of the human brain, based on scans of 7,000 brains from three continents. Coordinated by John Mazziotta, who runs the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, the brain atlas is due to be released online next year. Data are being stored and analyzed on a supercomputer at UCLA with 1 petabyte of capacity--equivalent to a book with 250 billion pages. 'They are laying the groundwork for all other brain studies to come,' says Allan Jones, of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

The immediate benefit would be at the clinical level. The atlas would give researchers and physicians around the world access to virtual maps of how the brain functions, to compare with data they obtain from scans of their subjects or patients. By the end of next year, they should be able to project local scans free of charge into the online atlas via a computer technique called 'warping.' That will immediately show if some part of the brain appears to be working abnormally, compared with norms established by the scans of the 7,000 'healthy' brains. 'We can do very tight matches. For example, you could look for all left-handed Chinese women in their 20s with two years of college and make a match,' says Mazziotta. The atlas' scanning techniques could also be used to speed drug trials, since researchers could compare images of the brain before, during and after the administration of a new medication--and then compare those images with brains in the atlas."

Vitrual Spaces contest - winners

State Of Play Conference Announces Virtual Spaces WinnerAs part of the third annual State of Play conference on law, video games and virtual worlds, held at the New York Law School last weekend, the judges of the Virtual Public Space Design Competition have announced the winners of the contest, which invited participants to submit their best examples of public spaces and structures created for virtual worlds.

The first-place winner was Relay for Life, submitted by Randal Moss of the American Cancer Society Futuring and Innovation Center, Keith Morris, and Jerry Paffendorf, and created in Linden Labs' 'virtual world' MMO game Second Life, which allows extensive construction of player-devised assets on in-game servers, which are then viewable and interactable with by all Second Life players.

The public space consisted of an elevated circular track where a 24-hour virtual walkathon to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society took place. The track also encompassed a disco, an amphitheater, a silent auction park, a small yacht club, and a colossal main stage that hosted a virtual-world beauty pageant.

“We were delighted to receive 26 submissions representing an extremely wide diversity of concepts and interpretations of public space,” said New York Law School Professor Beth Noveck, director of the school’s Institute for Information Law and Policy and founder of the State of Play conference.

The link above takes you to the official site where you can read and experience many of the virtual spaces. - Sri

Google Grants - how about one for TIP?

Google.org: "In addition, one of our early Google initiatives was to create the Google Grants program, which gives free advertising to selected non-profits. To date, Google Grants has donated $33M in advertising to more than 850 non-profit organizations in 10 countries. Current Google Grants participants include the Grameen Foundation USA, Doctors Without Borders, Room to Read, and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. For information about the Google Grants program, please visit: www.google.com/grants."

Technology Initiatives for Peace, TIP could benefit from some free marketing from Google. Would one of our core group members make this a personal task? - Sri

Kenguru and the Long Tail

Kenguru and the Long Tail

Plausibly Surreal – Scenarios and Anticipations

Jamais Cascio

If you think this is just another "electric mini-car" post, think again. Yes, the Kenguru is a small, electric-power auto, but that's not what makes it interesting. The visible innovation of the Kenguru is the target market: people in wheelchairs; its deeper value is what it suggests for the future of material production: "Long Tail Manufacturing."

Vehicles for people in wheelchairs aren't terribly unusual, but they're nearly always a modification of an otherwise stock car (typically a van, to allow room for the wheelchair). Such vans are often ungainly and extremely fuel-inefficient, and the modifications to allow wheelchair access are expensive. The Kenguru, designed by Hungarian rehabilitative services company Rehab Ltd., is in most respects the exact opposite from the modified van: small, efficient, and built from the ground up to fit the needs of wheelchair users. The Kenguru was a top nominee for the 2005 INDEX design award in the "Community" category (won by Architecture for Humanity).

The concept is simple:

The car’s interior space has no front seat – just a space built to house the driver’s own wheelchair so all he/she has to do is simply roll in through the extra large car doors and into position. The wheelchair locks into place, within easy reach of the car’s controls which are centred around a joystick.

Continue reading "Kenguru and the Long Tail"