A sort of rosebud key to everything

He wandered in a daze, feeling neither young nor old, substantial yet somehow not there at all. A voice had told him he must write as if the last day in his life was at hand. It was one of those desert island questions, a gotcha hypothetical, yet now he could not be sure whether he was already gone or if his sleep-walking state was due to the effect of the request on his psyche. He was not sure he could write. But then he saw the two pens and the open notebook. And he knew that he was meant to comply with the instruction he had received, even if they were not really his last words. It was a now thing. A live-as-if thing. A step removed from reality. A mind game. A preparation. A plumbing. The pen was running out of whatever they put in it, so the words I am trying to read are indistinct. The first sentence is, "I am a nomad of the universe." Then it becomes very indistinct, something like, "I would like to be remembered", and then something about having seen truth up close and that it was "splendid". I think he was saying that nothing he had done mattered. But seeing something splendid did. It was as if he would conclude his life not with justifications or regrets, but with a wisp of recollection, not described, a positive, a reality. Yes, somehow to see reality was the key. Nothing else mattered. Not history nor even literature. If one could focus on what was there, what is there, and keep doing that, even a tiny percent of all one's conscious time, one might have something to exult about on that last day. A sort of rosebud key to everything.

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FROM A Call For a Crowdsourced Worldwide Wave of Action

FROM A Call For a Crowdsourced Worldwide Wave of Action ~ #www | Evolve Society http://buff.ly/1aC2KZx

> Mass gatherings, demonstrations;
> Marches, parades;
> Flash mobs, swarms;

> Shutdown harmful corporate and governmental operations;

> Worker Strikes;

> Hunger strikes;

> Sit-ins;

> Strategic defaults, debt strikes;

> Foreclosure prevention;

> Boycotting corrupt corporations;

> Move your money out of the big banks and the stock market;

> Use alternative currencies and economic systems;

> Cancel your cable television and support independent media;

> Use independent online tools that don’t sell your info and protect your privacy;

> Online civil disobedience, Anonymous operations;

> Leak information on corruption;

> Use alternative energy;

> Build your own urban and hydroponic farms, or get your food from them;

> Support local businesses;

> Join local community organizations;

> Take part in food banks and help develop community support systems;
> Start or join intentional and autonomous communities;

> Experiment with new governing systems, Liquid Democracy;

> Host teach-ins;

> Organize socially conscious events;

> Make conscious media;
> Guerrilla postering, messages on money;

> Help inspiring groups and organizations spread their message;

> Random acts of kindness and compassion;

> Mass meditations, prayer sessions and spiritual actions.



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Recent note to the C. S. Peirce List

I define dogma as a deliberate attempt by a social entity to create a basis for dividing individuals on the basis of its premises. Absent this social context it is merely a characteristic, usually applied to a divisive person or group. As a social reality it can be described and measured.

I define reality as everything, as all, as what we can know and what we cannot presently know. It is the realm from which all signs rise.

I define ethics as values rather than virtues or characteristics. Values ascribe worth. Certain values are in my definition general or universal, applying to all. I arrived at my sense of this as an abduction (guess) based on several thousand kids inclining to what I regard as the values underlying the Gospel of Mark. Ethics in my understanding and within the triad reality ethics aesthetics derive from the three active values tolerance, democracy and helpfulness. The underlying or root value is non-idolatry which I take to be the intent of the Biblical advice that we have no gods save the One who refused to identify himself to Moses. Non-idolatry suggests to me a degree of iconoclasm and the skepticism valued in circles that promote scientific method. 

I see aesthetics as what Keats had in mind when he combined truth and beauty as all we know on earth and all we need to know. I think the art world even in Danto's sense is too narrow a definition of the realm of aesthetics. I think Shakespeare was (as usual) pertinent in suggesting we are all players, that what we do is performance. In triadic terms aesthetics is the third because it is an expression or an action whose conscious aim is truth and beauty.

All of this is amplified and hopefully clarified in my little Kindle book  Triadic Philosophy 100 Aphorisms eBook Kindle Store http://buff.ly/I71xPx    

I will be glad to forward a Word document of the mss to anyone who is willing to review it.

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Charlie Knuckle

Charlie Knuckle was not his real name. He could have been easily traced if he had ever appeared. It was the most elaborate scheme ever perpetrated in the MLB. It made doping look like a tiny footnote. Here's how it went down. The year was 2053. The Yankees had gone through a huge crash, one of those cyclical meltdowns where aging incompetents and hapless newcomers could not go the distance. No playoffs. Disconsolate fans. In walks Charlie Knuckle. When the season ended, the very next day, the entire Yankees front office was replaced. Within a week, all the deadwood was on the way out. And the following spring, the team consisted of the most unlikely assortment of players ever assembled. Charlie Knuckle controlled it all from his Manhattan hotel apartment. The new team was made up of retired veteran gold glove winners plus three renowned, but somewhat used up, sluggers. The center of the operation was fifteen pitchers and five catchers. The pitchers were all versed in the knuckle ball. The catchers spent the winter acclimating themselves to double-sized mitts and the zen of spearing tosses that had no rhyme or reason. Tampa went wild when the Yanks arrived for spring training. The papers were filled with speculation. Charlie Knuckle kept a low profile thanks to the services of discreet doormen and elevator operators. To make a long season short, the 2054 Yankees won 100 games by the middle of August and swept the playoffs and World Series handily. What was the actual MO Charlie insisted on to bring about such a remarkable result. First, he instructed the sluggers not to go yard, but to swing gently, creating pin point bloopers that might yield up singles while causing mayhem as opposing outfielders and infielders tried to snag them. He instructed his all-knuckle-ballers to be alert to the provisions of their contracts. Pay-per-pitch. A cool $1000 for every pitch that resulted in a called strike. Three-passed-balls-you're out of the game. As many as ten pitchers might be employed in a single outing. Catchers were similarly rewarded. The result was a great show. The methodology yielded up so many substitutions that crowds went wild. Rarely would there be a meltdown. Someone of the fifteen hurlers would be on. The team era was 2.1. The sluggers managed over 100 rbis each. In the dugout, the manager and his assistants could be seen talking on a red phone. It was a direct line to Charlie Knuckle. It is said that every move that was made was suggested by this strange individual. It was surmised, accurately, that whoever was behind this had unlimited resources and a somewhat jaundiced mind.

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Cybercommunities - Understandings

1

A cybercommunity is integral - it integrates residence, work, service, commerce and recreation.

2.

A cybercommunity is tolerant - it is open to all who accept and practice tolerance.

3.

A cybercommunity is democratic - its members practice constitutional democratic governance and affirm the universal value of democracy.

4.

A cybercommunity is helpful - it upholds the value of help as reciprocal and encourages mutual assistance.

5.

A cybercommunity is non-idolatrous - it values scientific method, freedom of thought and an iconoclastic but civil temperament.  

6.

A cybercommunity is public. Its material structures are not owned by occupants but by the community.

7.

Occupancy of spaces that are "private" is by subscription.  So is membership in the community. So are many of its services and commercial ventures.

8.

Cybercommunities may be privately or publicly owned. Members may invest in their community. Cooperative banks will function within cybercommunities.   

7.

Cybercommunites provide employment, education, and all spaces one associates with an integrated urban existence.

 8.

All but private spaces are shared, multi-purpose. Public spaces are be created, moved and enlarged with ease. Open areas are small and plentiful - squares, circles, small parks.

9.

A great deal of flexibility will be the hallmark of cybercommunities. For example one would not be required to own anything that requires individual plumbing. At the same time there would be all manner of choice as to what sort of "private" plumbing one would desire. Similarly food processing could be in a kitchen of one's own or in community kitchens or eateries spread throughout the community.

10.

Cybercommunities would serve all ages and conditions. Health care and all other services for a community of 10,000 would be available.

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One day fossil fuels will run out

"One day fossil fuels will run out .... the only imponderable is, when it will happen. "http://buff.ly/1groBG8 #estoleads

"Oil, coal and gas at 2006 rates, ... will last a further 40, 200 and 70 years, respectively."http://buff.ly/1grpQoI #estoleads

Our future energy will come from sun and wind.

We face 100 years of unprecedented dislocations due to weather and the collapse of the oil economy.

As in the past, small local communities will mark the genesis of new forms of society and economy.

Cybercommunities are an effort to imagine a future that can survive the collapse of the oil economy.

Cybercommunities are car-free.

Cybecommunities have a population of up to 10,000.

Cybercommunities are no more than four levels and no more than a mile across.

Cybercommunities can evolve from present neighborhoods.

Cybercommunities can be built from scratch.

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Our Future Energy Will Alter Everything

1. Sun and wind, the rivers and oceans will be the sources of future energy. 2. Solar power is in its infancy but one thing seems clear. The more concentrated collection can be, the more energy. The present notion of grafting solar to existing structures is at best a stopgap. See http://buff.ly/1cDvhky 3. Wind power is even more undeveloped. But it's allure has attracted enough competing modes of execution that it is probable that it will equal sun as a future energy source. See The Future of Wind Power http://buff.ly/1edr8Sk 4.  Rivers and oceans offer a varied menu of options, but it is logical to guess that they would compose at least one third of the total needed - with wind and sun - to meet all energy needs in the future. http://buff.ly/1cDyalh 5. Cybercommunities aim at complete energy sufficiency based on the evolving technologies and their applicability in various locales. Sun will revolutionize Africa's energy future. And so forth. A transition to these forms of energy is required. As fossil forms diminish in availability this triad of energy sources will emerge. 6.  A cybercommunity approaches energy flexibly. Solar technology will be shared community-wide with cost and design savings. Imagine a solar enabled matrix that can support the surfaces that make up the spaces of a cyber-community. Imagine an elevated cybercommunity near oceans and rivers, utilizing as yet undeveloped means of utilizing water-based energy. Imagine an evolution of turbine technology to produce a Stonehenge perimiter of tall turbo-silos around a cybercommunity in the world's wind-prone regions. 7.  There is yet another energy source that would be important in a cyber community - us. A walkable community could have surfaces throughout that rode on nano-turbines capable of generating energy via footfalls. The prospects for nano offer a menu of options: Concepts for future electricity generation http://buff.ly/1edw7SW 8. An unresolved question is how today's fabulously wealthy multi-national corporations will effect the move to sun-wind-hydro energy. One could predict that they would seek to corner the market and gain profit. The rise of democratic cyber-communities could counter this by pooling resources to choose items on a growing menu of options for creating autonomous uses of these free resources. 9. The common denominator of this new energy configuration is that it requires local cooperation on an unprecedented scale to achieve its economic and social potential. Shared solar, shared turbines and other commonly-held technologies argue for an increasing consciousness of local power and greater pride in local achievement than at present. 10. The challenge to all of this thinking is palpable. The current energy industry and its allies have little or no interest in anything but squeezing the last ounce from today's diminishing fossil sources and savaging the rivers and oceans. Just as public transit has been crucified by these forces in the past, so too the effort to minimize the truth of the environmental consciousness is all the reminder we need to warn us that we are among the world's endangered species. Here is a salient conclusion to this colloquy. The Fracking of Rachel Carson | Sandra Steingraber | Orion Magazine http://buff.ly/GTEreH Stephen's Remarkable Kindle Store