Saturday, October 27, 2012

Outside the Asylum: The Intimacy of Art

I know plenty of you are still stupid enough to titter at the thought of the word intimacy, and I'm okay with that. Its the stupid part of the brain that I find most interesting, and while I have an abundance of raw material to study, sometimes, other peoples stupid is so exciting that it casts light on my own.

People who are offended by art confuse me. Art is an exercise in creating a dialog between people. It is an intimate experience that warrants more involvement than a passing glance at a wall or a buildings facade. Art is about touching and being touched in a visceral way. It is about showing common understandings of a theme and dancing around that theme with an open mind.

My use of language is art. I flog a letter into perverse contortions that emulate the idea of an asshole eating itself because cognitive assonance is a tool for others to control you. I discard the illusion of taboo. What I say to you is spelled out blood red illustrations of weapons of a new age. That makes me an artist... maybe. Or a Wizard, or a craftsman of some other genre some people aren't prepared to engage in.

The trick to raising awareness about the human condition is to ask a human. Artists tend to know some of those. They actually live in a world where hearts break when a mortgage package is refused. They actually have to watch the faces of you mindless drones, who labor day after day in the salt mines and wonder how you keep your souls. Artists have to ask these questions, because they live inside us every day.

You are an artist. The only way to feed that part of yourself is to engage art and share in it. Love someone and show them that love with the trait you think is best in yourself. Carve a better world by sharing your love with another person in a way that gets your hands dirty. Make love with your skin off and share art with the people you love. Wonder at it and fantasize about the feelings of the subjects... because art is fucking with you and you can't even find the buckle on your straight jacket to get involved.

Museums are the natural area on the asylum grounds... feel free to play naked in them. Fuck each other in public over a Rembrandt. Lick her ears over Monet. Grab his cock in front of a Degas. Be sensual when you experience the art. Imagine the painter was rock hard every time his brush hit the canvas. Imagine Mozart throwing away ink under the piano. Books and rhymes are foreplay... take your lover in public, where everyone can see it.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

Patents for Charity

Patents; a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention

The very definition of patents holds true in every sense. What doesn't however is the concept of patents giving an edge to a company over an other in a business sense rather than it being useful to everyone in general. The current model of business requires patents to generate revenue in order to survive in this competitive environment. That in most cases negates the very concept of useful, which happens by putting a hefty price tag on access to such innovation by the consumer.

A simple strategy can use this current model to benefit those who don't have the basic necessities for survival. It requires the cooperation of governments, companies and all platforms (Universities, R&D Companies etc.) that develop new technologies. 


When a patent application is being made the government should provide companies/people who patent these new technologies with a tax cut. This only applies when the person/company uses a percentage of the royalties received to fund charitable organisations around the world. The outcome would benefit the company or person who patented the technology. The person receives money for their efforts in research and development while a company stands to make profits from endeavours. The tax cut provides motivation to businesses/people who would otherwise pay the government hefty taxes depending on the amount received as royalties. The price of the patent may come down depending on the percentage of tax cuts there by possibly reducing the price of the end product for the consumer.

Here is an example of how the system would work:

Personal:
The current tax paid by a person earning more than USD 390,000 is 35% .
If this person earns USD 800,000 then he/she effectively pays USD 280,000 as tax.
Now if this person where to register the patent under the system mentioned above and the tax rate was cut by 5% he would only play USD 240,000. The remaining 40,000 is broken up as 25% to charity and 75% as tax returns. He gains back USD 30,000 while USD 10,000 is given to charity.

Corporate:
Corporate tax is 35% on revenue more than USD 390,000.
A Corp. ( a tech company) earns a net profit of USD 8,000,000 and thus is taxed USD 2,800,000. Reduce the tax rate by 5% on signing up for this system.
The tax returns for the company will be USD 300,000 while USD 100,000 goes to charity.

These figures are just an illustration. But think about how much this would increase the funds  the available to charities across the world to provide a better chance at survival. If 10 individuals and companies earned the same amount and were under the program not only will they get back the money they worked for but charities would receive USD 1,100,000 from such an initiative.

The government on the other hand will loose about USD 4,400,000. This amount is but a drop in the amount of money that the government earns from taxes. Bear in mind that this applies only to patent holders. This model can be expanded to make the price of innovative products cheaper for the consumer at the same time which in turn feeds the drive for innovation and possibly improve the way the current system of business works.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Social Management: Structures and Policies

Human beings are social animals. Travel through time and you will see that this has always been the case. We need to voice our opinions and share our concerns and come to a common conclusion on how to mover forward in life. Problem is that society has increasingly become more concentrated on singular policy making and attacks those that have no reason to follow such decisions. More time is being spent on a system ridden with flaws rather than radically rethinking the way we approach each other and life.

While issues are wide and many there has only been attempts to consolidate into a single way of thinking while leaving out alternatives. That would be like a single computer for every man, woman and child and this computer fed us, gave us shelter and dealt with our problems. Imagine the catastrophe if the system failed. No way out, no alternative thinking. In the end we will end up dead because the alternatives will be forgotten and of course will be too late to think about solutions.

Then there is the issue of managing our selves, on an individual scale, as part of a community and so on. The current method like an inverse pyramid. The foundation of society being the bottom and also the weakest. The strongest and frontline of policy making at the top. How will the system keep a check on itself when the decision making power is concentrated at the bottom. A single mistake and the entire system disintegrates. This has been the case time and time again throughout history. Sadly this is the only system that survives because humanity struggles to attain power and become the "alpha male". True intelligence suggests that a change in this behaviour will essentially lead us to real evolution and not revolution.

Example:
Take the case of Napster. The peer to peer service was centralised in a sense where everyone using the service had to remain connected to this central database in order to access other people's music. The servers were taken down and everyone was left in the dark.
Take the system of torrents. It is peer to peer based but runs on a decentralised method where people are connected directly to other people. Trackers serve as databases to information on the location of people and the content itself. DHT provides the same information but without the need for special servers. Take out any source and there are other sources that can still be accessed.

The alternative to the current system is a torrent style approach. Break the current system into multiple root level administrators. This allows different communities to approach different problems effectively and efficiently. The next level allows for a common policy system for a group of communities (within a geographic location) that delivers equal rights . Outside that will be a larger system that links to other parts of the planet as well other communities. Such a system of "rings" will allow for proper tracking of policy making and serve as a people powered system of vigilance. The system also allows for alternate access to problem solving and policy making. Such a system has stronger bonds and is less likely to fall due to poor decision making.

This alternative system also provides the opportunity to better understand management level decision making as well as true equality based policy making. Consider the amount of relevant information that will reach from one point to another or from community to community. It also allows for a system of rating decisions and a quick policy "review and change" system. The system benefits from flexibility and fast turn around time from a potential problem to integration of the solution. Such a system also benefits from better access to knowledge, which in turn provides better access to quality education and ways of liberal thinking (think open-mindedness).

The possibilities are endless. Rethink the system.


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Outside the Asylum: The Problem with Borders

I can't understand why you patients are constantly declaring the existence of new and different wards. Seem's that you think skin color or clan name is some sort of "phrenology" for the value of individuals and their potential. For some reason, the concept of legitimate liberty escapes large portions of you. Allow me to illustrate with a point from contemporary history.

Slavery is a touchy subject. The meaning of the word has changed over time, and people like to draw lines around where they believe it existed in history... but an honest examination of the concept of slavery clearly demonstrates that it is an ever present yet abhorrent under current of the reality we live in.

In the 21st century, we have countries who are going to war over the right to gather rain;government contractors affiliated with the U.S. and the U.N., participating in human trafficking in regions they are supposed to be "stabilizing"; most of the world's tech addiction is being fed by a human breaking machine; and American companies using slaves instead of hiring domestic labor I'm forced to ask what sort of people you've entrusted with decisions about the well being of the world. Let's talk about THESE binders full of women.

The watchmen go unwatched while we shovel faces full of rom/coms and surreality TV. I'm guilty. You're guilty. The person running that brothel 2 miles from your house is guilty...

You think all this abuse is taking place over seas? How naive are you? Don't you ever read the arrest logs in the local paper... sure, some of those hookers chose the life. Some of them don't even know what country they woke up in. How many of the workers in that mill are legal? How many hands in that field are picking to keep out of jail.

We get caught up in the changing of the guard when an election comes, but some problems live past the last administration... and some live past the point of reason. As much as I love the spectacle of politics, the specter of real human problems pretty much crushes any interest I have in listening about how we're going to manipulate the tax code to favor one group or another. How about we address real issues, like how companies that participate in this kind of trade can remain partners in our communities? That might hurt campaign funding though.

We all have a shot at attaining perfect misery in this life. There is no reason to help each other find the bottom. Gravity will do that for you. If we're going to put up boundaries that define how far we are allowed to pursue happiness, lets not gerrymander ourselves into hell. Some crimes ignore borders. Resolving them requires recognition of their scope. Dig deeper.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Outside the Asylum: Tools of the Trade

One of the biggest problems you inmates run into is communicating across your diverse delusions. For some reason, you all seem to have your own personal languages in order to communicate. While I realize each of you bounces off of reality at a different angle, my greatest dream is to create an means by which you can share your unique imaginary view of reality with each other, so you can all align yourselves properly. To that end, I've pulled together a map towards the idea.

I realize that in the digital age, the ability to share experiences has been... abused. The bandwidth necessary to share that picture of your bagel this morning could have been dedicated to more beneficial duty, but if we're going to have the ability, lets TRULY capitalize on it.

With the emergence of products like ProjectGlass from Google and the advancements in augmented reality gaming it won't be long before Second Life and your first life are bumping up against each other. You're going to be able to skin your friends and decorate your house using purely digital sources combined with 3D Printers.

But the really exciting part is what sort of interfaces are coming to help us manage all the data more efficiently. Spatially aware gaming sensors have adapted people to the idea of using their body as a controller, but we are chasing the dream of the brain-computer interface.

There are several different approaches currently being examined, and each has its own benefits and limitations. Emotiv is a company that is pursuing electroencephalography as a means to interface with a computer. Berkley is using MRI technology to project images from your brain into a digital reality. Potentially the most useful, although simultaneously prohibitive non-invasive method would utilize MEG which has the potential to give the most precise reading of neural activity in real time, but is severely limited in utility because of its sensitivity.

Then, we have the people at Braingate, who are in the early stages of clinical testing for a chip that implants directly into the motor cortex of the brain, which allows you to control the computer cursor or a robot arm using the same thoughts you would for natural muscle movement.

The goal is to gather as much detailed information about brain activity and map that activity to the experiences that create it. Every person is going to have a unique biological reaction when trying to mentally execute a task, so all of these methods require software that learns to connect your brain activity with another event. The software has to learn how we think so that it can act like an extension of us.

Knowing humans and technology, how long do you think it will be before we're trading experiences like sky-diving in our data streams the way we share pictures of biscuits and tea today?


Recycling Energy

The energy demand of the world is constantly increasing at an alarming rate. The sources for energy are few, dangerous in some cases and mostly exhaustible in nature. Making matters worse is the price of these dwindling resources. Pondering over this dilemma reminded me about a phenomenon that was rather eye-opening. Some of us recall the little sticker on our mobile phones. These stickers would light up when a call was made or received and while texting as well.  This rather simple trick may hold the key to what I like to call recycled energy.

The idea here is simple. Recycle energy that is "lost" when converted into another form of energy from various scenarios. A typical pylon (High-voltage power distribution tower) may produce enough energy to light up 1300 fluorescent tubes without the tubes even being attached physically to a power source. How is this possible? The key lies in Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR). Every electronic device that we use emits a certain amount of EMR. People, in fact also produce and are affected by this form of radiation.  

Nikola Tesla was a pioneer in the field of electronics and wireless transmission. A quick look at his work reveals the potential this source of energy holds. In one case, light bulbs in houses around 100 feet from lab lit up during his experiments into wireless transmissions. The fact it was done accidentally is further testament to this incredible concept. Nikola Tesla's work is a starting point to look into the idea of recycling energy.

While we always looked at tangible sources that we could control there was another phenomenon that shows us the vastness of a possible energy source. That natural effect is called St. Elmo's fire. In real life situations this typical occurs during a severe thunderstorm and is mostly seen occurring at the tip of sharp objects such as lighting arrestors. They can also be seen on water in open seas during such weather conditions.

Electro-Magnetic Radiation as I mentioned earlier is produced by any electronic device. Research into converting EMR to useable energy may allow us to, at the least, reduce the footprint on energy demands. Since electronic devices produce EMR it may be possible that in future highly efficient variants of these converters could possibly serve as the sole source of power with the assistance of a series of capacitor. Electric vehicles could take advantage of this idea to gain longer range without recharging. It may even be possible to make self-sustaining electric vehicles.

Then there is the advantage that this idea can be deployed in remote areas where it is difficult to provide electricity due to poor infrastructure or due to the extreme conditions of the location.

Some key facts:
1. The average EMR output from a mobile phone is approx. 1W.
2. Pylons create tremendous amounts of heat due to the resistance required to create very high voltages needed for long distance power transmission.
3. EMR from an average pylon can power more than 1000 tubes. Each tube requires approx. 20W. That means each pylon produces enough EMR equivalent to 20KW.

If you would like to do some further reading I suggest that you start here:
Electro-Magnetic Radiation
Nikola Tesla
St. Elmo's Fire
Richard Box

Image Credit: richardbox.com

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Revolutionise Education

Education as it is right now is rather outdated and most certainly deceiving as far as the value it purportedly provides is concerned. It has as always programmed the mind of the child to think in a close-minded way. Education promises liberal and progressive thinking but only delivers the opposite. To further re-inforce my statement look at the current state of the world we live in. More wars, more problems, poverty and even famines. What is the cause for this?

A close look at the current system provides all the necessary information to support my thoughts. For example: A student arrives at school and is punished for being late. The problem is that if a teacher is late it is accepted since they are very busy individuals. Students must accept that reality and thus it induces a sense of perverse obedience. 

This sort of thinking makes future generations accept any outcome for they are made to believe that this is how the world works. That there are more important matters than the greater cause that is humanity. If I were to say that children were taught to counter-argue everything taught in class then would the world be in the pathetic state it is right now? Consider this: A student is taught to comply with society in order to survive for if they don't then society will caste them out for going against the "pack". This "society" makes you proud of your identity. They tell you that the less fortunate or formerly colonised parts of the world are 3rd world countries. If that is the case then all "1st" world countries must be on Mercury. This concept of segregation is horrifying to say the least. What ever happened to unity in the educational environment? What happened to we're are all the same? 

Then there is the question of religious studies in school. What on earth are you gaining from religious studies other than hatred for another community or in some cases blind belief in something that was misinterpreted by man many times over from one generation to another and from language to language. I am not saying don't have religious studies in school. Teach the core meaning of what is "prescribed" in every religions' "holy" text. Teaching as is from them is ludicrous. It is not only outdated in some cases but down right instigating aggression towards others. If they don't call "your" god by the name you were taught you are told that he/she is a devil worshipper. I honestly do believe that religious studies should have no place in school. It should be left to children to decide once they have become matured adults.

Liberal thinking and culture so far have been against each other in the classroom. Why is this the case? Is liberal thinking living the way you see fit or is it trying to remove your identity so that you can fit it another one? What do you think would happen if they were to teach you the real value behind every single cultural holiday or tradition? Liberal thinking is a must for it is the way forward but not by forgetting where we came from. It is important to understand that every culture has it's flaws. Certain values that were correct back in time may not have any relevance today. Accept the good and leave out the rest. If we knew in general even about every other culture we wouldn't be fighting by saying that I am right you are wrong based on culture and other "dividers" in life.

The current education system doesn't motivate children to think "outside the box" quite the contrary. They are taught to behave as per society's norms through the use of fear. In a scary sense they promote bullying and harassment of others for being "different". Just because a student comes from a different country and/or background doesn't make him/her any different from you. Where is unity being promoted in class? I think that bullying, segregation and other negative values should be punished. They should strike fear into children that try such a thing. They should make them feel small for if they are taught to do so then this surely will be the demise of humanity.

In closing I would like to add that the current system is rigid and fiercely attacks those who have the ability to achieve great things simply because they are not "socially" apt. Look at the greatest thinkers in history. They were all "failures" in this system. Heckled for being "weird" and punished for questioning established norms in not only the classroom but society as well. An atmosphere that is supposed to promote such thinking is dealt with utmost severity. How is this meaningful and advantageous to humanity? 

Remember: There are those who are rich only financially AND there are those who are rich in knowledge and love. Money will come and go. What you do to share knowledge today will stay forever for it will benefit all of mankind.

There are a handful out there that have managed to "escape" this dilemma. Those people no doubt strive to question education as it is at every possible juncture. I ask you to comment on my thoughts because together we can avoid this dangerous situation.