Support the Arctic Sea Ice Forum and Blog

Author Topic: Adapting to the Anthropocene  (Read 214984 times)

DrTskoul

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1455
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 210
  • Likes Given: 60
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #200 on: January 25, 2017, 03:18:55 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "Why it matters that Human Poker Pros are being Trounced by AI", indicating that the performance of AI is accelerating on track with projections by Ray Kurzweil:

http://gizmodo.com/why-it-matters-that-human-poker-pros-are-getting-trounc-1791565551

Extract: "Given the early results, it appears that we’ll soon be able to add Heads-Up, No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker (HUNL) to the list of games where AI has surpassed the best humans—a growing list that includes Othello, chess, checkers, Jeopardy!, and as we witnessed last year, Go. Unlike chess and Go, however, this popular version of poker involves bluffing, hidden cards, and imperfect information, which machines find notoriously difficult to handle. Computer scientists say HUNL represents the “last frontier” of game solving, signifying a milestone in the development of AI—and an achievement that would represent a major step towards more human-like intelligence."

I hope future AI does not decide to save us from ourselves....

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #201 on: February 02, 2017, 03:36:25 AM »
The linked article is entitled: “Quantum computer 'construction plan' drawn up”.  This indicates that the 4th Industrial Revolution is heating up.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38811255

Extract: “The new blueprint, based on a modular design appears in Science Advances.

"We have produced a construction plan - a real blueprint to actually build a large-scale quantum computer," Winfried Hensinger, from the University of Sussex, told BBC News.”

See also:
http://www.nature.com/news/physicists-propose-football-pitch-sized-quantum-computer-1.21423
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #202 on: February 02, 2017, 08:09:43 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "ORNL researchers set record for quantum communications speed".  So not only are quantum computers becoming increasingly commercially available, but superdense coding will soon allow quantum communications to speed the Internet in a secure fashion.

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2017/02/02/ornl-researchers-set-record-quantum-communications-speed/97365998/

Extract: " Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have set a new world record in superdense coding, a technique by which electrical particles are communicated, that could have far-reaching implications for internet users and cybersecurity.

For now, the development is largely experimental, but the group is working on ways to make their research applicable for internet and technology companies, and even the U.S. military. The United States Army Research Laboratory was a supporter of the project, according to the news release, and Humble said the development could be used to help the military more efficiently transmit information.

“This experiment demonstrates how quantum communication techniques can be integrated with conventional networking technology,” Williams said in the news release. “It’s part of the groundwork needed to build future quantum networks that can be used for computing and sensing applications.”"
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #203 on: February 14, 2017, 03:41:17 AM »
The linked article is entitled: “Google's “DeepMind" AI Understands The Benefits Of Betrayal“.  It appears that in the face of uncertainty, AI understands the benefits of both cooperation and betrayal.

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/googles-deepmind-ai-understands-the-benefits-of-betrayal/

Extract: “It’s looking increasingly likely that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the harbinger of the next technological revolution. When it develops to the point wherein it is able to learn, think, and even “feel” without the input of a human – a truly “smart” AI – then everything we know will change, almost overnight.

That’s why it’s so interesting to keep track of major milestones in the development of AIs that exist today, including that of Google’s DeepMind neural network. It’s already besting humanity in the gaming world, and a new in-house study reveals that Google is decidedly unsure whether or not the AI tends to prefer cooperative behaviors over aggressive, competitive ones.

Perhaps the scariest thing about all this is that its instincts are so unnervingly, well, human-like – and we know how following our instincts sometimes turns out.“
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

DrTskoul

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1455
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 210
  • Likes Given: 60
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #204 on: February 14, 2017, 04:24:08 AM »
The linked article is entitled: “Google's “DeepMind" AI Understands The Benefits Of Betrayal“.  It appears that in the face of uncertainty, AI understands the benefits of both cooperation and betrayal.

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/googles-deepmind-ai-understands-the-benefits-of-betrayal/

Extract: “It’s looking increasingly likely that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the harbinger of the next technological revolution. When it develops to the point wherein it is able to learn, think, and even “feel” without the input of a human – a truly “smart” AI – then everything we know will change, almost overnight.

That’s why it’s so interesting to keep track of major milestones in the development of AIs that exist today, including that of Google’s DeepMind neural network. It’s already besting humanity in the gaming world, and a new in-house study reveals that Google is decidedly unsure whether or not the AI tends to prefer cooperative behaviors over aggressive, competitive ones.

Perhaps the scariest thing about all this is that its instincts are so unnervingly, well, human-like – and we know how following our instincts sometimes turns out.“

Until the point that the advanced AI perceives humans as a threat to earth and humanity..

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #205 on: February 17, 2017, 12:17:53 AM »
The linked article is entitled: “The strange link between the human mind and quantum physics”.  In a few decades, who knows how much progress will be made into this matter.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170215-the-strange-link-between-the-human-mind-and-quantum-physics

Extract: “The perennial puzzle of consciousness has even led some researchers to invoke quantum physics to explain it. That notion has always been met with skepticism, which is not surprising: it does not sound wise to explain one mystery with another. But such ideas are not obviously absurd, and neither are they arbitrary.

For one thing, the mind seemed, to the great discomfort of physicists, to force its way into early quantum theory. What's more, quantum computers are predicted to be capable of accomplishing things ordinary computers cannot, which reminds us of how our brains can achieve things that are still beyond artificial intelligence. "Quantum consciousness" is widely derided as mystical woo, but it just will not go away.

In a study published in 2015, physicist Matthew Fisher of the University of California at Santa Barbara argued that the brain might contain molecules capable of sustaining more robust quantum superpositions. Specifically, he thinks that the nuclei of phosphorus atoms may have this ability.

In 2016, Adrian Kent of the University of Cambridge in the UK, one of the most respected "quantum philosophers", speculated that consciousness might alter the behaviour of quantum systems in subtle but detectable ways.“
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

Archimid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 3511
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 899
  • Likes Given: 206
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #206 on: February 17, 2017, 03:25:48 AM »
When I read articles like this I think of the Ptolemaic model. Here is an article that hints as how good the Ptolemaic model was:

http://www.polaris.iastate.edu/EveningStar/Unit2/unit2_sub1.htm

FTA:

Quote
As an indication of exactly how good the Ptolemaic model is, modern planetariums are built using gears and motors that essentially reproduce the Ptolemaic model for the appearance of the sky as viewed from a stationary Earth. In the planetarium projector, motors and gears provide uniform motion of the heavenly bodies. One motor moves the planet projector around in a big circle, which in this case is the deferent, and another gear or motor takes the place of the epicycle.


Ptolemy's model was as good as  Ptolemy's capacity to sense the world around him. Once better instruments came along (like the telescope), Ptolemy's model became obsolete for all but the most specific use, planetariums.

 My bet is that the edges of science are in the same situation. Things like dark matter, the observer effect and maybe the Higgs boson might be the limits of the models. When breakthroughs happen scientists can then sense beyond current capabilities and paradigms change.

I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #207 on: February 21, 2017, 12:12:11 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "Frontline: Fourth Industrial Revolution Takes Off, “Localizing” Site Selection Requirements".  The article indicates that the 4th Industrial Revolution will benefit US manufacturing more than any other country in the world, due to: (a) synergies of the adoption of new technologies (e.g. AI, robotics, IoT, smart manufacturing, smart products, etc); (b) proximity to the supply of workers at the high-end of the skill setsl and (c) proximity to consumer demand.

http://www.areadevelopment.com/advanced-manufacturing/Q1-2017/4th-industrial-revolution-localizing-site-selection-requirements.shtml

Extract: "The adoption of new technology — in what’s been called “the fourth industrial revolution” — will benefit the entire manufacturing ecosystem.

At the show, much of the “buzz” revolved around the software making possible what Brian Raymond, director of Innovation Policy for NAM calls “the convergence of the physical and digital worlds.”

With consumer demand for the “latest and greatest” continuing to drive that convergence, Raymond says the biggest challenge for the manufacturing industry will be helping eliminate the “mismatch” between the skills required by the new manufacturing and the supply of workers who have those skills.

As 2017 begins, Michelle Drew Rodriguez, manufacturing leader for Deloitte’s Center for Industry Insights, sees “limitless possibilities” for manufacturing: “Each of those trends is definitely poised for growth with the IoT, smart products, and smart factories. When you look at them combined, that’s really where the true value comes together.”

In Deloitte’s 2016 global manufacturing competitiveness survey of more than 500 executives, the U.S. came out on top as the country which is expected to be most competitive by the end of the decade. “The U.S. has been poised for a resurgence, within the past couple of years,” Rodriguez says. “We’re seeing that in the news, with both domestic and international companies investing more in the U.S., especially around manufacturing. Modern manufacturing is moving to increasingly advanced technologies and skill sets.”

With the Trump administration’s emphasis on creating jobs, some companies that had been looking at investments in Mexico are reconsidering the U.S., Matter says. He notes that the three largest third-party manufacturing firms “are all growing their operations in the U.S., and not only in the lower-cost U.S. markets. They’re expanding in places like Silicon Valley.” "
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #208 on: March 23, 2017, 08:54:56 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "MIT researchers have developed a tree on a chip, with potential applications in robotics".  This could help make extremely small robots practicable.

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/mit-researchers-have-developed-a-tree-on-a-chip-with-potential-applications-in-robotics-367997.html

Extract: "The passive pumping on the device, which the researchers have dubbed as a “tree-on-a-chip” can potentially be used as actuators for extremely small robots, or nanobots."

See the associated research article at:

http://www.nature.com/articles/nplants201732
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #209 on: March 27, 2017, 11:41:14 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI".  The title says it all.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs

See also the associated article entitled: "Elon Musk Launches Neuralink to Connect Brains With Computers"

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-launches-neuralink-to-connect-brains-with-computers-1490642652
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #210 on: March 29, 2017, 01:49:41 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "China's secret plan to crush SpaceX and the US space program".  Change is coming whether we are ready or not.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/chinas-secret-plan-to-crush-spacex-and-the-us-space-program.html

Extract: "China's breakneck economic expansion may be flagging, but the country's ambitions in space show no signs of slowing down. Alongside ongoing efforts to rival NASA by placing robotic landers, and eventually astronauts, on the moon and Mars, China's government is increasingly looking to its burgeoning space sector to rival U.S. companies like Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is targeting March 30 for the latest launch of its Falcon 9 rocket.

While its space industry is a part of China's vision for economic transition, it is only one component, Lewis says. Much of Beijing's desire for economic transition has manifested itself in massive investments in more traditional technology industries, like semiconductors, into which the government is pouring $150 billion to boost China's domestic chip production (a move that has drawn the ire of both the Obama and Trump administrations)."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #211 on: April 14, 2017, 12:40:10 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "Evidence Indicates That Universal Basic Income Improves Human Health", and it promotes that application of Universal Basic Income in order to improve society.

https://futurism.com/evidence-indicates-that-universal-basic-income-improves-human-health/

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #212 on: April 20, 2017, 06:21:24 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "Quantum Computers Could Have Higher Speed Limits Than Previously Believed"; which is good news for tackling complex problems like climate change modeling; and other 'wicked problems'.

http://wallstreetpit.com/113203-quantum-computers-higher-speed-limits-previously-believed/?google_editors_picks=true
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #213 on: April 22, 2017, 10:20:46 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045".  Rather than preparing for the future by buying 'survivalist' books, maybe it would be better to improve your mind (say via mindfulness):

https://futurism.com/kurzweil-claims-that-the-singularity-will-happen-by-2045/

Extract: "In a communication to Futurism, Kurzweil states:

"2029 is the consistent date I have predicted for when an AI will pass a valid Turing test and therefore achieve human levels of intelligence. I have set the date 2045 for the ‘Singularity’ which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence a billion fold by merging with the intelligence we have created."

And, because it’s the nature of technology to improve, Kurzweil  predicts that during the 2030s some technology will be invented that can go inside your brain and help your memory.

So, instead of the machines-taking-over-the-world vision of the singularity, Kurzweil thinks it’ll be a future of unparalleled human-machine synthesis."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #214 on: April 22, 2017, 10:36:29 AM »
The April 23 2017 issue of the New York Times Magazine is focused on climate change (see the following link); for those who want to get ready:

https://www.nytimes.com/section/magazine

See also the article (& associated attached image) on how a warming planet drives human migration:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/magazine/how-a-warming-planet-drives-human-migration.html?action=click&contentCollection=magazine&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25761
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #215 on: April 23, 2017, 12:27:23 AM »
New technology brings Star Wars-style desert moisture farming a step closer
Quote
(CNN)Luke Skywalker wasn't just a farmer. In the original 1977 Star Wars film, the lead character was desperate to leave his home planet of Tatooine, where his family farmed moisture from the atmosphere using devices called "vaporators". In the planet's hot and dry desert landscape, moisture farming was an important activity for survival.

But could this principle of drawing moisture from the air to provide drinking water work in the real world? Researchers and I are working on technology to turn it from science fiction into reality. And now a new study has demonstrated how one device could work even in dry desert conditions using only the power of the sun.
...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/tech/eco-solutions-star-wars-desert-vaporators/index.html
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

nicibiene

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 103
    • View Profile
    • www.nicibiene.de
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 4
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #216 on: April 23, 2017, 10:22:09 AM »
@sigmetnow recently we had an article here in newspaper about fogcatchers in Peru.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/33507/20161205/oceans-sky-fog-catcher-gives-clean-water-poor-peru.htm

By the way nobody cares about the strange new trend of asparagus from Peru all winter long in our supermarkets. Early asparagus from Greece seems to be replaced by groundheated, foil protected (tons of plastics) german cultures-harvested by low paid workers from Poland or other eastern european countries...

Maybe it would be one step in adaption to get aware of the stupidity we all act as costumers? But that will never happen, we never pay the TRUE cost. Not for energy, not for food, not for clothes or other things we are told to need...   >:(
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” –“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #217 on: April 23, 2017, 07:36:10 PM »
The following three linked articles, collectively indicate that within about 10 years a commercially available quantum Internet could be established (parallel with the existing classical Internet), that could allow not only for the development of dispersed networks of general purpose quantum computers; but also for quantum-synchronized small devices in the Internet-of-Things:

The first linked article is entitled: "Building the Quantum Internet".

https://cacm.acm.org/news/214225-building-the-quantum-internet/fulltext

Extract: "In 2015 and 2016, quantum physicists from QuTech, a joint initiative of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), were the first to demonstrate loophole-free violation of the Bell inequality. Although this was an achievement in esoteric quantum physics, it is also the first step toward building a quantum Internet, a long-range network that can connect super-fast quantum computers or provide absolutely secure, tamper-free communication.

The quantum Internet will never replace the regular Internet; it simply adds extra functionality. The entangled photons traveling the fledgling quantum Internet will probably first be used for quantum key distribution, …

Perhaps the ultimate goal of the quantum Internet is to connect the world's quantum computers, which might become a reality in another decade. Entangling two quantum computers effectively merges them into one device twice as big, and for quantum computers, size matters exponentially; if you connect two same-sized regular computers, you get roughly twice the computing power. Entangle two quantum computers, and the computing power is squared; connect three, and you get the cube of their computing power."

The second linked article is entitled: "Quantum technology is beginning to come into its own".

http://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2017-03-09/quantum-devices

Extract: "Last August China launched Micius, a quantum-key-distribution-enabled satellite backed by tech companies including Huawei and Lenovo. The goal at this stage is to link the Beijing-to-Shanghai network to another in Urumqi, in Xinjiang province, some 3,000km away. Efforts to develop satellite communications are also under way in Singapore, Canada, Japan, Italy and America. Once the challenges of getting quantum signals into space—through turbulent air, clouds and so on—are overcome, a global network could easily follow.

With country-spanning networks and quantum-enabled satellites, it is easy to envisage a global “quantum internet” in which each link offers quantum-enhanced security. But the kind of innovation that will allow the development of such networks will also be of use, for example, in shuttling information within, and between, future quantum-computing devices: think quantum distributed computing and quantum cloud computing. Just as the internet has demonstrated the power of linking many standard computers, says Seth Lloyd, a theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “the quantum internet has the potential to change the way in which people and organisations collaborate and compete, establishing trust while protecting privacy.

quantum technologies are still viewed by many industries as risky. That may be because many of the approaches are technologically so far beyond the current state of the art. Richard Murray, an emerging-technologies expert at Innovate UK, Britain’s technology-strategy agency, says that the more transformative the technological change, the easier it is to miss opportunities.

Many practitioners believe that the applications and technologies outlined in this report are just the beginning. As they become more familiar, they will give rise to new applications and wholly new hardware. Subjects that used to be mere footnotes to physics will rule, and engineers (and perhaps even consumers) will have to learn to speak quantum.

Quantum computers and simulators should eventually be capable of solving some of science’s most basic and yet most daunting questions. Sensors of unparalleled precision may at last make it possible to test the predictions of physicists’ most abstract ideas, perhaps linking the theories of quantum mechanics and gravity.”

The third linked article is entitled: "The Race to Sell True Quantum Computers Begins Before They Really Exist".

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/race-sell-true-quantum-computers-begins-really-exist/

Extract: "Within the next five years, Google will produce a viable quantum computer. That’s the stake the company has just planted. In the pages of Nature late last week, researchers from Google’s Quantum AI Laboratory told the world that a machine leveraging the seemingly magical principles of quantum mechanics will soon outperform traditional computers on certain tasks. They said this long-anticipated technology will, among other things, improve the artificial intelligence that’s already remaking the tech world. “The field of quantum computing will soon achieve a historic milestone,” the team wrote. They call this milestone “quantum supremacy.”

A true quantum computer is not yet a reality. “You can’t do anything practical today,” says Gregoire Ribordy, founder and CEO of quantum cyber-security company ID Quantique. But the world’s biggest tech companies are already jockeying for their own form of commercial supremacy as they anticipate a quantum breakthrough. Both Google and IBM now say they will offer access to true quantum computing over the internet (call it quantum cloud computing). Microsoft recently hired several notable researchers in launching its own effort to build a quantum computer. And in China, internet giant Alibaba has teamed up with the Chinese Academy of Science to build a quantum computing lab. Meanwhile, various organizations (including Google) are exploring the potential of a commercial machine from D-Wave, which takes a more immediate but less powerful approach to the problem."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #218 on: April 24, 2017, 02:52:28 AM »
The linked open access reference indicates: "We find that a straightforward application of a recent result yields exponential speedup compared to classical heuristics in approximate probabilistic inference, thereby demonstrating another example where advanced quantum resources can potentially prove useful in machine learning".

Peter Wittek & Christian Gogolin, (2017), "Quantum Enhanced Inference in Markov Logic Networks", Scientific Reports 7, No. 45672, doi:10.1038/serp45672

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45672

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #219 on: April 30, 2017, 01:48:40 AM »
In the Reply 21 of the "RussiaGate" thread I indicated to prokaryotes that I would initiate a discussion here on how Technocracy could be updated in order to be more relevant to our current era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.  As background, I begin with the first two linked Wikipedia articles that indicate that Technocracy is a form of governance based on technical knowledge, where the government is run by technocrats, and theoretically the economy could be run without the use of a 'love of money' driven economy (noting that hard currency is just a tool, as are electrons keeping track of bank accounts; but I note that a future technocratic economy using cryptocurrency could in theory make it easier (say for artificial general intelligence, AGI, or for an intelligence community/oligarchy where a band of OpenAI supporters or the theoretical 'Deep State') to assign economic power based on merit (with a universal basic income as a starting point) rather than on greed. 

This series of posts on Technocracy, can also be thought of as the 'Revenge of the Nerds' (ala Mr Anderson in "The Matrix"); and if one needs more background on my thinking on such matters you can scan my posts in the "Systemic Isolation" thread, and/or the "Human Stupidity (Human Mental Illness)" thread.

The first linked Wikipedia article is entitled: "Technocracy", and it is part of a series of the following articles on 'basic forms of government'; and it notes that Technocracy is categorized as an oligarchy (power of few, as a power base), but otherwise, it could apply to any type of power structure or type of power ideology:

Basic forms of government
Power structure
Separation: Associated state, Dominion, Chiefdom
Federalism: Federation, Confederation, Devolution
Integration: Empire, Hegemony, Unitary state
Administrative division
Power source
Democracy (power of many): Direct, Representative, Semi, others
Oligarchy (power of few): Aristocracy, Military junta, Plutocracy, Stratocracy, Timocracy, Theocracy, Kitarachy, Particracy, Technocracy
Autocracy: Despotism, Illiberal democracy, Semi-authoritarian, Dictatorship
Hybrids: Anocracy
Power ideology
Monarchy vs. Republic (socio-political ideologies): Absolute, Constitutional, Directorial, Legalist (Chinese), Parliamentary, Semi-presidential, Presidential
Authoritarian vs. Libertarian (socio-economic ideologies): Capitalism, Colonialism, Communism, Distributism, Feudalism, Socialism
Anarchism v. Statism (civil liberties ideologies): Anarchy, Minarchy, Totalitarianism
Global vs. Local (geo-cultural ideologies): Central, City state, National unity, World


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy


Extract: "Technocracy is a system of governance where decision-makers are selected on the basis of technological knowledge. Scientists, engineers, technologists, or experts in any field, would compose the governing body, instead of elected representatives. Leadership skills would be selected on the basis of specialized knowledge and performance, rather than parliamentary skills. Technocracy in that sense of the word (an entire government run as a technical or engineering problem) is mostly hypothetical. In another commonly used sense, technocracy is any portion of a bureaucracy that is run by technologists in technically and analytically sound ways.

The term technocracy was originally used to advocate the application of the scientific method to solving social problems. In such a system, the role of money, economic values, and morals could be eliminated altogether. Concern would be given to sustainability within the resource base, instead of monetary profitability, so as to ensure continued operation of all social-industrial functions. Some uses of the word refer to a form of meritocracy, where the ablest are in charge, ostensibly without the influence of special interest groups. The word technocratic has been used to describe governments that include non-elected professionals at a ministerial level.

The term technocracy is derived from the Greek words τέχνη, tekhne meaning skill and κράτος, kratos meaning power, as in governance, or rule.

In the article "Technocrats: Minds Like Machines", it is stated that Singapore is perhaps the best advertisement for technocracy: the political and expert components of the governing system there seem to have merged completely. This was underlined in a 1993 article in "Wired" by Sandy Sandfort, where he describes the information technology system of the island even at that early date making it effectively intelligent.

Unlike most countries which emphasizes the importance of lawyers and diplomats, leaders of the Communist Party of China are mostly professional engineers as a result of their political culture. The Five-year plans of the People's Republic of China have enabled them to plan ahead in a technocratic fashion to build projects such as the National Trunk Highway System, the China high-speed rail system, and the Three Gorges Dam."

The second linked Wikipedia article is entitled: "Technocracy movement"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement

Extract: "In a publication from 1938 Technocracy Inc. the main organization made the following statement in defining their proposal.
'Technocracy is the science of social engineering, the scientific operation of the entire social mechanism to produce and distribute goods and services to the entire population of this continent. For the first time in human history it will be done as a scientific, technical, engineering problem. There will be no place for Politics or Politicians, Finance or Financiers, Rackets or Racketeers. Technocracy states that this method of operating the social mechanism of the North American Continent is now mandatory because we have passed from a state of actual scarcity into the present status of potential abundance in which we are now held to an artificial scarcity forced upon us in order to continue a Price System which can distribute goods only by means of a medium of exchange. Technocracy states that price and abundance are incompatible; the greater the abundance the smaller the price. In a real abundance there can be no price at all. Only by abandoning the interfering price control and substituting a scientific method of production and distribution can an abundance be achieved. Technocracy will distribute by means of a certificate of distribution available to every citizen from birth to death."

Historically, Technocracy has gained interest during periods of hardship; however, Technocracy has always been, and still remains, a fringe movement; with only a few examples worldwide of temporary technocratic governments that can be studied, as these normally occur in response to temporary 'socio-economic crisis' conditions such as existed in Romaine in 2015 (see the last two linked articles); however, both Singapore and China could be considered examples of successful hybrid versions of Technocracy.  Indeed, Technocracy is not a cure-all, and in the USA some 'fringe' elements misuse (catfish) the name for purposes that are not core beliefs of Technocracy such as denying climate change.

The third linked article is entitled: "Dacian Ciolos: Romania’s Technocratic PM."

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/dacian-ciolos-romania-s-technocratic-pm-08-17-2016

Extract: "Designated prime minister for a one-year term only, Ciolos will struggle to meet expectations on tackling corruption and stimulating economic growth."

The fourth linked article is entitled: "Romania: Experiment With Technocrats Comes to Grief".

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romania-experiment-with-technocrats-comes-to-grief-12-22-2016

Extract: "The year started with big hopes that a technocratic government could radically change country’s political face but ended it with a return to power by the unreformed Social Democrats.
“We have to say: ‘Yes, we are the government with zero corruption, zero populism, zero lies”. Such were the bold words of Dacian Ciolos on mid-December, when he tried to stress the main achievements of his one-year mandate as Romania’s Prime Minister.
Ciolos took power in November 2015 after Victor Ponta’s Social Democrat-led government resigned following days of massive protests across the country."

I am not promoting the use of Technocracy; however, it seems to me that it might be one form of governance that could survive a possible socio-economic collapse that I suspect might come in the 2050 to 2060 timeframe.  Furthermore, with the coming of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR), technological changes will be occurring at an accelerating pace (leading to what Ray Kurzweil calls the 'Technological Singularity' circa 2045); which requires a reformulation of the extant technocracy into what I call here: Technocracy for the 4th Industrial Revolution, or T-4IR (pronounced Tee-Fair). 
While as I believe that the nature of both the 4IR and T-4IR will be dominated by artificial general intelligence, AIG, no later than by 2045, I plan to use metaphors from the movie trilogy 'The Matrix' as it takes place in a post-collapse society dominated by AIG (I note that several futurists have indicated that after the 'Technological Singularity', society could well be like a blend of The Matrix and Star Trek).

Finally, I provide the following link to Technocracy Inc.'s official website, which clarify that it is not a political organization (see the first image), and that it promotes a balance between humans, the environment (see the second & third images) and social engineering (see the fourth image).

http://www.technocracyinc.org/

The linked Wired article/video is entitled: "Techies have been trying to replace politicians for decades"; which documents a 1947 international Pacific West Coast motorcade traveling from LA, California to Vancouver, Canada; entitled "Operation Columbia" (I opine that the Pacific West coast has a tradition of supporting technological risk taking without fear of failure; i.e. that both individuals and companies should not only focus on the profit or loss but on what good motivates you in the moment).

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/technocracy-inc/

See also the 34-minute video of an interview of Google CEO Sergey Brin at the WEF in February 2017, where he states his opinion that it is impossible to project how the 4th Industrial Revolution will unfold (with metaphorically Technocracy Inc replaced by the WEF; as the oligarchy of techies begin to dominate the future):




Also (for those already not familiar) see the following 55-minute video entitled: "The Singularity of AI is Near, Futurist Ray Kurzweil"; which points out that while it may be impossible to map a specific path forward to the technological singularity; it is possible (with confidence) to project basic trends and general rates of acceleration of information science; just as it is impossible to predict daily weather 100-years from now, but it is possible to project climate change assuming a BAU/RCP 8.5 pathway.



Lastly, in my next post, I posit that certain schools of thought/philosophy associated with the teaching of (the) Buddha(s); such as Zen (Chan) Buddhism [while de-emphasizing the 'ism' part, ala mindfulness (Vipassana)] and/or Taoism; have increased the chances of success for Technocracy governance systems such as those in Singapore and China.  This is because if one is going to replace a 'love of money' based economic pricing/distribution system with a merit-based distribution system (such as occurs in any living organism) then not only does the influence of ignorance need to be reduced (say by accelerating information science), but also the influence of the helical spiral of craving/aversion must be progressively reduced by the scientific application of: (a) deductive logic (dharma faith); (b) inductive logic (dharma wisdom/Bayesian logic) and (c) a reduction of information entropy (suffering) as in progressively moving towards the light and out of darkness.  However, with regards to point (c) of reducing information entropy within a socio-economic system, the Tyranny of the Small Decision means that some opportunists within any socio-economic (or any information based) system may try to cherry-pick short-term opportunities in the enriched (low entropy) environment to the detriment of the whole.  In this sense, no matter how far into the light (reduced entropy) one is, one can backside by egotistically 'cherry-picking', and no matter how far into the darkness (high entropy) one is, one can always selflessly move towards the light.  Furthermore, as Technocracy is anti-populist, anti-corruption and anti-deception (ala alternative facts that are not evidence based), I plan to eventually discuss the Hegelian dialect (thesis-antithesis- synthesis) double helical spiral between the current wave of populist reaction to the 'non-perfect-management' of globalists (such as the Davos crowd) that are driving the 4th Industrial Revolution.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2017, 01:57:45 AM by AbruptSLR »
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #220 on: April 30, 2017, 01:59:45 AM »
In my last post I noted that I plan to use many metaphors from The Matrix to describe my vision of Technocracy for the 4th Industrial Revolution, or T-4IR (pronounced Tee-Fair).  However, as I suspect that many readers only see The Matrix as purely science fiction, I note here that it is actually uses science fiction as an artistic vehicle to convey a Zen Buddhist understanding of the nature of reality in an AGI dominated world.  Furthermore, I note that per the linked Wikipedia article is entitled: "Zen" originated in China as Chan Buddhism which heavily influenced Chinese culture from the 6th century onward.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen

Extract: "Zen (Chinese: 禪; pinyin: Chán) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as Chan Buddhism. Zen school was strongly influenced by Taoism and developed as a distinguished school of Chinese Buddhism. From China, Chan Buddhism spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea and east to Japan, where it became known as Japanese Zen."

Also, I note that per the linked Wikipedia article entitled "Huineng", that Huineng (Dajian) is widely taken to be the Sixth and Last Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, and he had a major influence on modern understand of Taoism.  Taoism is traditionally symbolized by the yin-yang symbol (see the first image as a symbol of the balance of nature); and I believe that it is no accident that it is similar to Technocracy Inc.'s monad symbol of the balance of production and consumption (see the second images).  Furthermore, the official Technocracy Inc. organization has a stated policy of concern for sustainability (see the third image) & for fighting climate change (see the fourth image).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huineng

Extract: "Huineng (Chinese: 惠能; pinyin: Huìnéng, 638–713) was a Buddhist monk who is one of the most important figures in Chan Buddhism according to standard hagiographies. Huineng has been traditionally viewed as the Sixth and Last Patriarch of Chan Buddhism.
His posthumous name is Dajian

Lastly, I note that I believe that it is no accident that Singapore and China are the best examples of successful hybrid technocracy governance, as they are both heavily influence by Tao culture and Chan (Zen) Buddhist teachings [& I believe that it is no accident that the USSR could have transitioned into a Technocratic hybrid form of government, but that as it had little teaching of dhamma, that it instead broke apart and Russia became a kleptocracy (i.e. a failed Plutocracy)].  However, I note that Zen (Chan) is a school of thought/guidance that is added on-top of the Buddha's path to enlightenment; and it is in this sense that I am discussing both Technocracy, & Technocracy for the 4th Industrial Revolution (T-4IR) as additional guidance to other political/economic structures, just as Singapore has oligarchical technocrats in a hybrid with democracy/capitalism and China has an oligarchical party full of technocrats in a hybrid with communism/mercantilism.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #221 on: April 30, 2017, 02:08:22 AM »
As a follow-on to my last post, I believe that it is no accident that both the yin-yang symbol & the monad symbol are similar to a 2D end view of a Hegelian double helical dialect (see the first image), or the 2D end view of DNA (see the second image); and is also related to manifolds for strangle attractors, such as that shown in the third attached image of Sprott's attractor manifold for modeling the human mind.  Next, I posit that it is no accident that the first three images, have similarities to the Go board pattern shown in the fourth image from the video associated with the linked article entitled: "In the World of Tomorrow, Google Plans to Use AI to Do Everything"; & it discusses how AGI and humans can cooperate together to explore the challenges of wicked problems in the real/natural world.

https://futurism.com/in-the-world-of-tomorrow-google-plans-to-use-ai-to-do-everything/

Extract: "… I strongly encourage listening to the latest talk from Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, who lays this plan out clear as day."

More specifically, the Demis Hassabis talk notes that Go is far more complicated than chess, is dominated by players from countries with Taoist influence; and that AGI is now helping human players to excel past the plateau at which their skill has not been able to surpass in over 3,000 years of human playing of Go.  Hopefully, efforts by Technocratic companies like Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc to promote open source AI software through means such as OpenAI; will allow the coming development of AGI to unfold in a manner that helps mankind more fully realize its potential.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #222 on: April 30, 2017, 02:41:42 AM »
I note that Technocracy is derived from Greek words for 'skill' and 'power/rule'; however, I further note that in the modern world 'skill' is typically assumed to be related to technical skill; while in the old Pali language that Buddha Gotoma spoke, 'skill' was by default assumed to be related the ability improve the quality of life, and/or the ability to make progress on the path to nibbana.
To date Technocracy remains more a theoretical goal for governance than a practical reality as at its roots it depends on the concept of a benevolent dictatorship (or philosopher kings) as indicated by the following quote from the Wikipedia article on Technocracy:

"Arguably, the Platonic idea of philosopher-kings represents a sort of technocracy in which the state is run by those with specialist knowledge, in this case, knowledge of the Good, rather than scientific knowledge. The Platonic claim is that those who best understand goodness should be empowered to lead the state, as they would lead it toward the path of happiness. Whilst knowledge of the Good is different to knowledge of science, rulers are here appointed based on a certain grasp of technical skill, rather than democratic mandate.

Technocrats are individuals with technical training and occupations who perceive many important societal problems as being solvable, often while proposing technology-focused solutions. The administrative scientist Gunnar K. A. Njalsson theorizes that technocrats are primarily driven by their cognitive "problem-solution mindsets" and only in part by particular occupational group interests. Their activities and the increasing success of their ideas are thought to be a crucial factor behind the modern spread of technology and the largely ideological concept of the "information society". Technocrats may be distinguished from "econocrats" and "bureaucrats" whose problem-solution mindsets differ from those of the technocrats."


People in general have a hard time transcending the information bubbles of their traditional beliefs/perspective based on their personal experience & the "conventional wisdom" of their peers.  This is also true of the "higher level group" (or the state elite/Plutocrats) who are very use to taking action by ignoring the thin-tail of a risk pdf of the multiple "pressing" concerns that they are dealing with and thus they felt/feel fully justified in ignoring the tail-risk associate with climate change pdfs.  So if one believes that state elite (managerialists) are only doing what they know how to do then we will all be turkeys due to their blindness to the "dragon-tail" climate change risks of following a BAU pathway to this point in time.  However, what if this "higher level group" is well aware of the tail risks and they have intentionally choosing to follow a BAU pathway (including using mass marketing, education and religion as an "... opiate of the masses") of to this point in time is true, then such benevolent dictator technocrats would not be benevolent.

Furthermore, ignoring the tail risks allows decision makers to use deductive logic to reach conclusions, as they assume that their basis is proven so their conclusions are proven (e.g. Trump's populist alternative facts). 

Unfortunately, in the real world their bias contains multiple fat-tailed uncertainties that they are merely choosing to ignore because they believe that they are entitled to live in a stationary world (with fluctuations) rather than in a non-stationary climate change trending world where it is very important to consider that the further one moves down a BAU pathway the fatter the tail of the risk pdf becomes. Increased use of inductive thinking (which acknowledges the uncertainties of the fat-tailed risks rather than ignoring them) has historically allowed science to effectively tackle such fat-tailed problems, & I believe that von Clausewitz's "military genius" (as a 'benevolent dictator) also uses such induction to identify solutions to complex problems clouded by "the fog of war".

In this regards, Taleb also discusses the philosophical problems of using induction (used by managerialist) and how past performance is no indicator of future performance.  Inductive reasoning, also known as induction, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions (a priori) that are abstractions of observations of individual instances. Inductive reasoning contrasts with deductive reasoning in that a general conclusion is arrived at by specific examples.  Inductive reasoning allows for the possibility that the conclusion be false, even where all of the premises are true.  The philosopher C. D. Broad roughly said that: "induction is the glory of science and the scandal of philosophy" as the Scientific Method makes extensive use of induction.

Governments have repeatedly demonstrated that they are willing to use warfare to promote national self-interest, and it goes without saying that governments are currently, and will continue, using challenging times to promote national interest.  However, Carl von Clausewitz (using the thesis-antithesis-synthesis triad) makes it clear (see the following extract from Wikipedia) that while governments start wars to try to get what they want (normally based on violent emotions), the "fog of war" (or chance) forces on-the-fly changes to the original state policy based on genius (or "military genius").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz

Extract: "In On War, Clausewitz sees all wars as the sum of decisions, actions, and reactions in an uncertain and dangerous context, and also as a socio-political phenomenon. He also stressed the complex nature of war, which encompasses both the socio-political and the operational and stresses the primacy of state policy.

The first is his dialectical thesis: "War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will." The second, often treated as Clausewitz's 'bottom line,' is in fact merely his dialectical antithesis: "War is merely the continuation of policy by other means." The synthesis of his dialectical examination of the nature of war is his famous "trinity," saying that war is "a fascinating trinity—composed of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force; the play of chance and probability, within which the creative spirit is free to roam; and its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to pure reason."  Thus the best shorthand for Clausewitz's trinity should be something like "violent emotion/chance/rational calculation."

Clausewitz acknowledges that friction creates enormous difficulties for the realization of any plan, and the fog of war hinders commanders from knowing what is happening.  It is precisely in the context of this challenge that he develops the concept of military genius, whose capabilities are seen above all in the execution of operations."

I note that while Clausewitz takes Napoleon as a "military genius" that presents a viable resolution to the "wick problem" and chaos of warfare; nevertheless, the power that Napoleon relied upon to create a synthesis/resolution that ended-up with the populist Napoleon as a dictator (like many other populist).  However, I believe that a Buddha is also a "genius" that offers a more peaceful resolution/synthesis to "wick/chaotic" systemic problems end-up with a group oriented solution.  Thus, it may be possible for humans and AGI to interact synergistically, in order to develop something like Jedi Knights (see the two images), in a post-collapse society.

Perhaps the epitome of a benevolent dictatorship (philosopher kings/military genius) is the example of the skills of the human mind w.r.t. the governance of the human body and its need to survive (in the sense of the 'Selfish Gene') in a world full of 'wicked problems' that have driven natural selection (as opposed to survival of the fittest).  In this sense, the following linked video entitled: "Harvard Professor, "We are Building Artificial Brains and Uploading Minds to Cloud right now", discusses efforts of IARPA (Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity) to reverse engineer how animal brains work in order to build artificial brains and to upload minds comparable to, or exceeding, the human mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amwyBmWxESA&list=PLe4U-xqAI6TsDYt9z2wd2jwDDFQ7SY7LA

See also the following linked article entitled: "Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Advanced_Research_Projects_Activity

Extract: "IARPA is also involved in high-performance computing and alternative computing methods. In 2015, IARPA was named as one of two foundational research and development agencies in the National Strategic Computing Initiative, with the specific charge of "future computing paradigms offering an alternative to standard semiconductor computing technologies". One such approach is cryogenic superconducting computing, which seeks to use superconductors such as niobium rather than semiconductors to reduce the energy consumption of future exascale supercomputers.

Several programs at IARPA focus on quantum computing and neuroscience. IARPA is a major funder of quantum computing research due to its applications in quantum cryptography. As of 2009, IARPA was said to provide a large portion of quantum computing funding resources in the United States. Quantum computing research funded by IARPA was named Science Magazine's Breakthrough of the Year in 2010, and physicist David Wineland was a winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics for quantum computing research funded by IARPA. IARPA is also involved in neuromorphic computation efforts as part of the U.S. BRAIN Initiative and the National Nanotechnology Initiative's Grand Challenge for Future Computing. IARPA's MICrONS project seeks to reverse engineer one cubic millimiter of brain tissue and use insights from its study to improve machine learning and artificial intelligence."

See also
https://www.iarpa.gov/


In this sense Vipassana teaches that for a benevolent dictatorship to work the mind must be hard wired to experience evidenced based input from the body, and it must but subject to "pounding while being supported" as in being subjected to challenge response verification in order to reduce systemic fragility/entropy.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #223 on: April 30, 2017, 02:56:22 AM »
As all forms of governance are tied to the economic system that they are based on, I provide some background on what constitutes 'value', socially, ethically, economically and in the marketplace, as cited in the first linked Wikipedia article [however, the first attached image shows that AI, such as AlphaGo, can use policy networks to develop Value nets (even in the face of uncertainties) separately than that determined by the greed-based market place].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value

Extract: "Value (ethics), it may be described as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, putting value to them
- Social imaginary is the set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols common to a particular social group
- Value (economics), a measure of the benefit that may be gained from goods or service
- Theory of value (economics), the study of the concept of economic value
- Value (marketing), the difference between a customer's evaluation of benefits and costs"

Theory of value (economics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_value_(economics)


Marginal utility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_utility#Marginalist_theory

Extract: "The marginalists of the revolution, however, had been formally concerned with problems in which there was neither risk nor uncertainty. So too with the indifference curve analysis of Slutsky, Hicks, and Allen.
The expected utility hypothesis of Bernoulli and others was revived by various 20th century thinkers, with early contributions by Ramsey (1926), von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944), and Savage (1954). Although this hypothesis remains controversial, it brings not only utility, but a quantified conception of utility (cardinal utility), back into the mainstream of economic thought.
A major reason why quantified models of utility are influential today is that risk and uncertainty have been recognized as central topics in contemporary economic theory. Quantified utility models simplify the analysis of risky decisions because, under quantified utility, diminishing marginal utility implies risk aversion. "

The following Wikipedia article is entitled "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Games_and_Economic_Behavior

Extract: "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, published in 1944 by Princeton University Press, is a book by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern which is considered the groundbreaking text that created the interdisciplinary research field of game theory. In the introduction of its 60th anniversary commemorative edition from the Princeton University Press, the book is described as "the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based.""


I provide the following quote from the linked Wikipedia article entitled: "Prisoner's dilemma" (see also the second image related to the influence of uncertainties on decision making in the prisoner's dilemma), that indicates that in 'wicked problems' like climate change, uncertainty makes it much less likely that we will avoid climate catastrophe than for cases follow clear rules.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma

Extract: "In environmental studies, the PD is evident in crises such as global climate-change. It is argued all countries will benefit from a stable climate, but any single country is often hesitant to curb CO2 emissions. The immediate benefit to any one country from maintaining current behavior is wrongly perceived to be greater than the purported eventual benefit to that country if all countries' behavior was changed, therefore explaining the impasse concerning climate-change in 2007.

An important difference between climate-change politics and the prisoner's dilemma is uncertainty; the extent and pace at which pollution can change climate is not known. The dilemma faced by government is therefore different from the prisoner's dilemma in that the payoffs of cooperation are unknown. This difference suggests that states will cooperate much less than in a real iterated prisoner's dilemma, so that the probability of avoiding a possible climate catastrophe is much smaller than that suggested by a game-theoretical analysis of the situation using a real iterated prisoner's dilemma.

Osang and Nandy provide a theoretical explanation with proofs for a regulation-driven win-win situation along the lines of Michael Porter's hypothesis, in which government regulation of competing firms is substantial."

Next I note that the following linked article entitled: “AI Can Beat Us at Poker—Now Let’s See If It Can Work with Us”, discusses how AI research involving games like the Prisoner's Dilemma can be used to investigate how to increase human cooperation:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/video/QZ3PzCic8hVPupmysSDqIH8fU_nuzkdD/the-big-bang-theory-the-separation-agitation/

Extract: “The algorithm that achieved that calculates some promising strategies for the game being played in advance, before learning which to use based on the actions of its co-player. It isn’t likely to become the foundation of future human-robot relations, but is intended to show how experiments can test cooperation, and inspire further research into the idea, says Rahwan.”

Finally, I note that the following reference makes it very clear that most humans (even most experts) have a very weak intuitive understanding of their own ignorance (which results in a poor understanding of gambles/risk; a situation that hopefully T-4IR will work to improve).

Ole Peters and Murray Gell-Mann (Feb. 2, 2016), "Evaluating gambles using dynamics," Chaos, DOI: 10.1063/1.4940236

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/chaos/26/2/10.1063/1.4940236

Abstract: "Gambles are random variables that model possible changes in wealth. Classic decision theory transforms money into utility through a utility function and defines the value of a gamble as the expectation value of utility changes. Utility functions aim to capture individual psychological characteristics, but their generality limits predictive power. Expectation value maximizers are defined as rational in economics, but expectation values are only meaningful in the presence of ensembles or in systems with ergodic properties, whereas decision-makers have no access to ensembles, and the variables representing wealth in the usual growth models do not have the relevant ergodic properties. Simultaneously addressing the shortcomings of utility and those of expectations, we propose to evaluate gambles by averaging wealth growth over time. No utility function is needed, but a dynamic must be specified to compute time averages. Linear and logarithmic “utility functions” appear as transformations that generate ergodic observables for purely additive and purely multiplicative dynamics, respectively. We highlight inconsistencies throughout the development of decision theory, whose correction clarifies that our perspective is legitimate. These invalidate a commonly cited argument for bounded utility functions."


Also see:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/exploring-gambles-reveals-foundational-difficulty-behind-economic-theory-and-a-solution

Extract: " In the wake of the financial crisis, many started questioning different aspects of the economic formalism.
This included Ole Peters, a Fellow at the London Mathematical Laboratory in the U.K., as well as an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and Murray Gell-Mann, a physicist who was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to the theory of elementary particles by introducing quarks, and is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. They found it particularly curious that a field so central to how we live together as a society seems so unsure about so many of its key questions.

So they asked: Might there be a foundational difficulty underlying our current economic theory? Is there some hidden assumption, possibly hundreds of years old, behind not one but many of the current scientific problems in economic theory? Such a foundational problem could have far-reaching practical consequences because economic theory informs economic policy.

As they report in the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing, the story that emerged is a fascinating example of scientific history, of how human understanding evolves, gets stuck, gets unstuck, branches, and so on.



The key concepts of time and randomness are at the heart of their work. "Questions of an economic nature stood at the beginning of formal thinking about randomness in the 17th century," he explained. "These are all relatively young concepts -- there's nothing in Euclid about probability theory." Think of it simply in terms of: Should I bet money in a game of dice? How much should I pay for an insurance contract? What would be a fair price for a life annuity?
"All of these questions have something to do with randomness, and the way to deal with them in the 17th century was to imagine parallel worlds representing everything that could happen," Gell-Mann said. "To assess the value of some uncertain venture, an average is taken across those parallel worlds."

This concept was only challenged in the mid-19th century when randomness was used formally in a different context -- physics. "Here, the following perspective arose: to assess some uncertain venture, ask yourself how it will affect you in one world only -- namely the one in which you live -- across time," Gell-Mann continued.

"The first perspective -- considering all parallel worlds -- is the one adopted by mainstream economics," explained Gell-Mann. "The second perspective -- what happens in our world across time -- is the one we explore and that hasn't been fully appreciated in economics so far."
The real impact of this second perspective comes from acknowledging the omission of the key concept of time from previous treatments. "We have some 350 years of economic theory involving randomness in one way only -- by considering parallel worlds," said Peters. "What happens when we switch perspectives is astonishing. Many of the open key problems in economic theory have an elegant solution within our framework."

In terms of applications for their work, its key concept can be used "to derive an entire economic formalism," said Peters. In their article, Peters and Gell-Mann explore the evaluation of a gamble. For example, is this gamble better than that gamble? This is the fundamental problem in economics. And from a conceptually different solution there follows a complete new formalism.
They put it to the test after their friend Ken Arrow -- an economist who was the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with John Hicks in 1972 -- suggested applying the technique to insurance contracts. "Does our perspective predict or explain the existence of a large insurance market? It does -- unlike general competitive equilibrium theory, which is the current dominant formalism," Peters said.

And so a different meaning of risk emerges -- taking too much risk is not only psychologically uncomfortable but also leads to real dollar losses. "Good risk management really drives performance over time," Peters added. "This is important in the current rethinking of risk controls and financial market infrastructure."

This concept reaches far beyond this realm and into all major branches of economics. "It turns out that the difference between how individual wealth behaves across parallel worlds and how it behaves over time quantifies how wealth inequality changes," explained Peters. "It also enables refining the notion of efficient markets and solving the equity premium puzzle."

One historically important application is the solution of the 303-year-old St. Petersburg paradox, which involves a gamble played by flipping a coin until it comes up tails and the total number of flips, n, determines the prize, which equals $2 to the nth power. "The expected prize diverges -- it doesn't exist," Peters elaborated. "This gamble, suggested by Nicholas Bernoulli, can be viewed as the first rebellion against the dominance of the expectation value -- that average across parallel worlds -- that was established in the second half of the 17th century."

What's the next step for their work? "We're very keen to develop fully the implications for welfare economics and questions of economic inequality. This is a sensitive subject that needs to be dealt with carefully, including empirical work," noted Peters. "Much is being done behind the scenes -- since this is a conceptually different way of doing things, communication is a challenge, and our work has been difficult to publish in mainstream economics journals."

Their results described in Chaos are easily generalized, which is necessary to reinterpret the full formalism. But it "may not add very much in practical terms, and it gets a little technical." So that's a future "to-do item" for Peters and Gell-Mann.

"Our Chaos paper is a recipe for approaching a wide range of problems," said Peters. "So we're now going through the entire formalism with our collaborators to see where else our perspective is useful.""
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #224 on: April 30, 2017, 03:19:04 AM »
Based on science it appears that the majority of humans are hard wired to take advantage of uncertainty as opportunists (e.g. Donald Trump) to enrich their own interests (via the Tyranny of the Small Decision) at the detriment of the whole group:

Rafael Wlodarski, John Manning , R. I. M. Dunbar, (2015), "Stay or stray? Evidence for alternative mating strategy phenotypes in both men and women", Biology Letters, Volume: 11 Issue: 2, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0977

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/2/20140977

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/roybiolett/11/2/20140977.full.pdf

See also:

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21642000-promiscuity-and-fidelity-seem-be-specific-biological-adaptations-their

Extract: "Dr Wlodarski and his colleagues calculate that cads outnumber dads by a ratio of 57:43. Loose women, by contrast, are outnumbered by their more constant sisters, but by only 53:47. Each of these ratios tends in the direction of received wisdom. Both, though, are close enough to 50:50 for that fact to need an explanation.


If their analysis is correct, Dr Wlodarski and his colleagues have probably stumbled on a type of equilibrium known to biologists as an evolutionarily stable strategy, in which a way of behaving becomes more advantageous as it gets rarer, and less so as it gets commoner. Cads succeed when dads are frequent, and vice versa. Neither can conquer and neither can vanish. Such equilibria are part of a branch of math called game theory—"

Thus, if T-4IR is going to avoid the creation of an oligarchy of opportunistic ruling technocrats (see the attached Technocracy Inc. image of letting go of the 'love of money'); then it is worth discussing how T-4IR can use the scientific method (including using the Pali canon's concept of 'atapi-sampajano-satima'; and deduction (Faith predominant), induction (Wisdom predominant) and entropy reduction (Energy Predominant) in order to improve our governance systems; which is what I plan to address in a following series of posts.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #225 on: April 30, 2017, 05:15:21 AM »
Just to make it clearer as to what type of future technocratic oligarchy I am talking about in this thread, I provide the three following articles.

The first article is entitled: “Mark Zuckerberg had supper with Ohio family that voted for Trump, adding to speculation about a presidential run”.

http://www.salon.com/2017/04/29/mark-zuckerberg-has-supper-with-ohio-family-that-voted-for-trump-adding-to-speculation-about-a-presidential-run/

The second linked article is entitled: “Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft together ended the day $27.4 billion richer

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/combined-market-cap-of-amazon-alphabet-and-microsoft-gains-27b-after-earnings.html

Extract: “Big tech didn't deliver on everything Wall Street wanted Thursday night — but that didn't stop investors from handing $27 billion to Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet combined.”

The third linked article is entitled: “Surge in Bitcoin & Ethereum Lifts Market Capitalization of Cryptocurrency Ecosystem to Record $33.1 Billion


http://www.razor-forex.com/2017/04/surge-in-bitcoin-ethereum-lifts-market.html


« Last Edit: April 30, 2017, 09:30:03 AM by AbruptSLR »
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #226 on: April 30, 2017, 10:06:28 AM »
Hegel has noted that historically all '-ism' contain a partial truth that set in motion the double helical thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic that I mentioned in Reply #221.  In this sense, the alt-right populism that is currently on the upswing around the world (Brexit, Trumpism, Putinism, etc.) contains the partial truth described by Taleb (see Reply #222) that historically the globalists/managerialists have ignored the right-tailed 'Black Swan' events illustrated by the first attached image; that have led to such events as the 2007-2008 global financial collapse, that allegedly drove Steve Bannon into the alt-right camp.  This insensitivity of managerialism to right-tailed risks, per Hegel's dialect, resulted in the alt-right populism 'Black Swan' event (see the second image) that caught the globalists/managerialists (of the WEF) by surprise last year.  Furthermore, Taleb (who is an alt-right darling) has promoted the antifragility approach illustrated by the third attached image; where opportunists (like the alt-right populists) can benefit themselves via tyranny of the small decision (survival of the fittest) actions (see the fourth image, & think of the movie "The Big Short"); which helps to explain why, in theory, Technocracy is anti-populist, anti-corruption and anti-deception.

As a result of the alt-right populist upswing around the world the Davos (WEF) globalist/managerialist crowd have done a lot of soul searching and as the linked WEF article entitled: "Why we should all have a basic income", indicates is now promoting such measures as universal basic income, UBI, in order to reduce the impacts on the old-industry (fossil fuels, rust-belt) workers due to the productivity of the 4th Industrial Revolution.  I note that in theory the dramatic increases in efficiencies created by the quantum Internet circa 2028 should allow future technocrats to pay for benefits such as UBI; which, in theory, could put an end to the current cycle of alt-right populist upswing.  If so this would put globalist/managerialists (including the technocratic China) increasingly back in control from 2028 to the technological singularity circa 2045.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income/

Extract: "The idea of basic income is deceivingly simple sounding, but in reality it’s like an iceberg with far more to be revealed as you dive deeper. Its big picture price tag in the form of investing in human capital for far greater returns, and its effects on what truly motivates us are but glimpses of these depths. There are many more. Some are already known, like the positive effects on social cohesion and physical and mental health as seen in the 42% drop in crime in Namibia and the 8.5% reduction in hospitalizations in Dauphin, Manitoba. Debts tend to fall. Entrepreneurship tends to grow. Other effects have yet to be discovered by further experiments. But the growing body of evidence behind cash transfers in general point to basic income as something far more transformative to the future of work than even its long history of consideration has imagined."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #227 on: April 30, 2017, 10:21:30 AM »
In Reply 224, I have postulated that an Eastern-influenced scientific method approach could be used to improve the sustainability of our current socio-economic systems/institution, by changing such systems/institutions to better simulate 'natural selection' instead of 'survival of the fittest' processes.  To me the application of 'natural selection' processes to socio-economic systems/institutions would require 'skillful' applications of the atapi-sampajano-satima process and avoidance of 'unskillful' applications.  Where 'skillful' application would require the development of game-theory type rules governing the agents acting with the socio-economic systems/institutions so the agents are subjected to:

(a) Atapi/ardent effort can metaphorically symbolized by the challenge-response authentication role of Seraph [see the first image], the energetic/burning angelic messenger [or Maxell's information demon] between mankind and sampajano, in the Matrix movie.  In the natural selection analogy, atapi represents the acknowledgment of suffering [in the mundane world] in the moment [in accordance with the first noble truth]; while in the survival of the fittest analogy, faux-atapi represents the effort to avoid suffering by passing the suffering on to 'others' via systemic isolation.  While in the Hegelian dialectic double helix metaphor, atapi represents the tension holding the double strands of thesis and antithesis together.

(b) Sampajano/proper understanding-equanimity can be metaphorically symbolized in the Matrix movie by the two angelic wings represented by Neo and Trinity [see the second & third images, respectively], required to maintain balance in life.  In the natural selection analogy sampajano represents the wisdom of accepting change in a Bayesian sense of changing a priori into a posteriori; while in the survival of the fittest analogy, faux-sampajano represents the mental post-traumatic stress syndrome associated with 'othering'.  While in the Hegelian dialectic double helix metaphor, sampajano represents the synthesis resulting from the interaction of the thesis, and anthesis, strands.

(c) Satima/proper awareness can be metaphorically symbolized in the Matrix movie by the happiness resulting from accepting the free-will of others [see the fourth image of Sati], within a timeless evolved free-will information Matrix.  In the natural selection analogy satima represents the happiness (reduction of mundane suffering) of living aware of other's well-being (such a living empathetically for the common good); while in the survival of the fittest analogy, faux satima represents the addiction/aversion associated from profiting at others expense.  While in the Hegelian dialectic double helix metaphor, satima represents the elimination of '-isms', via the collapse of the double strands due to the lack of tension that causing another turn of the dialectic spiral.

With the coming of Artificial General Intelligence, AGI, during the 4th Industrial Revolution (thus enabling T-4IR) it will be critical to present the machine learning with systemic models of natural selection (atapi-sampajano-satima) rather than systemic models of survival of the fittest; which in the Matrix analogy ended in a Machine War and a global socio-economic collapse (which I have suggested might occur sometime between 2045 & 2060).

E pluribus unum — Latin for "Out of many, one"
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #228 on: April 30, 2017, 04:19:52 PM »
While my previous posts have focused on technocrats in Singapore & China, I would be remiss to fail to note that Narendra Modi, in India, is also a technocrat, and per the linked article entitled: "China, India Become Climate Leaders as West Falters", both India and China are leading the western countries in honoring their commitments to the Paris Agreement (see the attached image).  Also, the findings of this article support my belief that climate change will likely significantly contribute to a socio-economic collapse circa 2050-2060 (note that per the image not only are western nations failing on climate action but the tropical rainforests are currently under severe assault, which both constricts a vital carbon sink and creates an new source of carbon emissions, which sets-up my next series of posts that hopefully will address T-4IR in post-collapse conditions using metaphors from "The Matrix" trilogy:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/china-india-climate-leaders-west-falters-21377

Extract: "Less than two years after world leaders signed off on a historic United Nations climate treaty in Paris in late 2015, and following three years of record-setting heat worldwide, climate policies are advancing in developing countries but stalling or regressing in richer ones.

In the Western hemisphere, where centuries of polluting fossil fuel use have created comfortable lifestyles, the fight against warming has faltered largely due to the rise of far-right political groups and nationalist movements. As numerous rich countries have foundered, India and China have emerged as global leaders in tackling global warming."

Deforestation has long been a major problem in the swampy Congo Basin in Africa, which traverses a number of poor countries and is home to one of the world’s greatest expanses of carbon-storing tropical forest. Timber is being harvested and trees are being cleared for mines, plantations and grazing.

The problem has recently been getting much worse, with “vast” new logging hotspots identified in an analysis of satellite images published in February in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Researchers found that the rate of deforestation more than doubled in the Democratic Republic of Congo 2011 and 2014.

“There are billions of tons of carbon locked up in those forests,” said Simon Counsell, executive director of the nonprofit Rainforest Foundation UK. “The threats are escalating.”"
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #229 on: April 30, 2017, 05:00:21 PM »
In the Matrix/Reloaded/Revolutions trilogy, wisdom is not only received from Zen Buddhism, Taoism and Hindi culture, but also from the Old Testament & the Kabbalah. In this regards, Agent Smith (see the first image) is a metaphor for the enslavement of ego that creates the Matrix of suffering that we all create/inhabit but which is an illusion and which comes to an end when Neo surrenders thus destroying ego/Smith at the "End of Days":

Extract from the Future Blessings for Zion"

"Isaiah 54: …If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me.  Whoever assails you will fall because of you.  "Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals And brings out a weapon for its work; And I have created the destroyer to ruin.  "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,  And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.…

Isaiah 54:16 Commentaries
54:11-17 Let the people of God, when afflicted and tossed, think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking notice of their griefs and fears. The church is all glorious when full of the knowledge of God; for none teaches like him. It is a promise of the teaching and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All that are taught of God are taught to love one another. This seems to relate especially to the glorious times to succeed the tribulations of the church. Holiness, more than anything, is the beauty of the church. God promises protection. There shall be no fears within; there shall be no fightings without. Military men value themselves on their splendid titles, but God calls them, Wasters made to destroy, for they make wasting and destruction their business. He created them, therefore he will serve his own designs by them. The day is coming when God will reckon with wicked men for their hard speeches, Jude 1:15. Security and final victory are the heritage of each faithful servant of the Lord. The righteousness by which they are justified, and the grace by which they are sanctified, are the gift of God, and the effect of his special love. Let us beseech him to sanctify our souls, and to employ us in his service.

Proverbs: Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established. The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.…"

This connects Agent Smith to technology (i.e. a blacksmith who uses fossil fuels to forge tools & weapons, see the third attached image) and by extension to capitalism that is facilitating our pathway of overshoot.  In this sense Agent Smith represents systemic controls to standardize people/markets by using aversion (see the first image as an example of Smith's aversion to humanity) to stamp-out intelligence that does not fit the system's model (simulacra).  However, the system model (simulacra) that we are talking about here resides in the brains/minds of people who have either created or bought into the system.  Also, I point out that the flipside of aversion in a two-faced/pre-conditioned mind is craving; as represented in the Matrix as the Merovingian (see the fourth attached image).

See also the following linked Wikipedia article entitled: "Zion", as in 'The Matrix" trilogy Zion is the interface between the mundane world that mankind inhabits and the unknowable; which can be taken as the bubbles that people experience as compared to the information-based Holographic Universe, which AGI may interface with at the technological singularity circa 2045.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion


Extract: "In Kabbalah, the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #230 on: April 30, 2017, 05:11:04 PM »
The Matrix recurrently focuses on the many transitions one makes while fighting to overcome uncertainty/ignorance, and in this post I continue the received wisdom from the Kabbalah & I focus on Seraph (who in the Bible/Tora/Kabbalah is a Seraphim, or a high angels who act go-betweens mankind and God), see the following Wikipedia linked article and associated extract. 
In the phrase/process "atapi sampajano satima", Seraph could be thought of as atapi/effort, the energetic/burning messenger (see the attached image) between mankind and higher understanding/insight (sampajano/satima) who also authenticates the truth from illusion (i.e. challenge-response authentication).  In Revolutions Seraph had formerly been a protégé of the Merovingian (i.e. they were both fallen angels); but Seraph rebelled (against hedonistic clinging/craving) and came to protect both the Oracle & Sati (insight).

In Kabbalah, the seraphim are continually "burning-up" in selflessness; and in the HIOTTOE atapi results in a "burning-up" of illusion/ego/pride leading to an understanding /equinity and reflected wisdom/insight regarding the constantly changing nature of the reality resulting from the interfaces between soulless-free will in an information network (or holographic universe).  In a quantum information sense Seraph can be thought of a Maxwell's Demon (see the second, third & fourth images) energetically fighting entropy and burning with a glowing light (as seen by Neo).
Further, I pointed-out that the Buddha thought that following his death that mankind would become less skillful about how to gain infight on how to overcome uncertainty; which seems to be the case (even though we have become technologically more skillful).   Hopefully, mankind will learn how to better fight against wicked problems like climate change after the coming singularity, so that they can selflessly return to the paradise that they lost without the pride of Lucifer:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph_(The_Matrix)

"Whoever he summons, he first tests that person with another battle, in order to "test his/her heart's resolve" (or, more technically, a Challenge-response authentication).

In Revolutions, Trinity and Morpheus meet with the Oracle so that she can help them locate Neo. She explains that he lies within a place that is neither the Matrix nor the Machine world: a construct created by the Trainman, who works for the Merovingian. Seraph leads Morpheus and Trinity into the Megacity's subway system in search of the Trainman, but he eludes them in a foot chase and exchange of gunfire. The three then track down the Merovingian at his decadent nightclub, Club Hel.

During the assault on Hel's gates, Seraph is referred as "wingless", by one of the guards and the Merovingian refers to him as "his protégé". The three make their way to the club and defeat a number of the Merovingian's guards. The Merovingian calls him the "Prodigal Child" returning and "Judas", suggesting that Seraph betrayed the Merovingian to serve the Oracle. He also calls Seraph "L'ange sans ses ailes", which is French for "The angel without its wings."

Later, Seraph tries to flee with Sati, a program seeking refuge in the Matrix, from the increasingly powerful Smith. In due course, Smith catches up to them. Seraph mentions that he has defeated Smith in the past; nonetheless, Smith assimilates them and the Oracle, gaining her powers of precognition, adding three more copies of himself to his growing collective of Smiths.
Upon Smith's destruction at Neo's hands, all the programs and minds that Smith has infiltrated are freed from his influence, including Seraph's. He meets the Oracle in a park as Sati creates a beautiful sunrise in Neo's honor.

… it was revealed that Seraph had been an Agent of the first iteration of the Matrix (the Seraphim), who resembled angels. He had ended up in the employment of the Merovingian, where he had remained for some time. After an unknown period of being an enforcer for him, he had rebelled, and had been tortured, his wings removed. It has not been revealed how he escaped.

Seraph is a biblical allusion to the first of nine orders of angels, the Seraphim (singular Seraph). This allusion is also evidenced by the fire-like appearance of Seraph when Neo sees him in his coded form. It is also hinted when the Merovingian's guards state that he is "wingless." The word 'seraph' comes from the Hebrew word saraph meaning 'burning one'."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #231 on: April 30, 2017, 05:22:02 PM »
Leon C. Megginson was a Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Megginson wrote in 1963: ‘According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.’ (Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4.).  Megginson had an interest in the theories of evolution through ‘mutual aid’ advocated by the Russian zoologist Karl Kessler, and his statements about Darwin clearly reflect that.

As some people may well misunderstand the meaning of the paraphrased quote.  Therefore, I provide the following linked articles that elaborate on Karl Kessler's concept of "mutual aid"; which illustrate that as climate change amplifies the impacts of nature to the point where they are comparable to man's ability to cope with those impacts; then natural selection will help those who cooperate to better survive (see the attached image of Zion from "The Matrix" trilogy):


The first linked article explains who Karl Kessler was and what influence his paper "The Law of Mutual Aid" had:

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Kessler,_Karl_Fedorovich_(1815-1881)

Extract: "In 1879 K. P. Kessler, zoologist and former rector of St. Petersburg University, read a paper entitled "The Law of Mutual Aid" before the members of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists.

Organic evolution depend more on the union between individuals of the same species in the struggle between its members."

The second linked article discusses how Kessler used the concept of "mutual aid" to criticize those who follow the Hobbesian notion of "Survival of the Fittest":
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p36j3s7/Kessler-began-his-address-On-the-Law-of-Mutual-Aid-by-criticizing-those-who/

Extract: "“He [Karl F. Kessler] began his address ‘On the Law of Mutual Aid’ by criticizing those who invoked ‘the cruel, so - called law of the struggle for existence’ to resolve social and moral issues.” – Todes (1989: 110)."

The third article is:  "Mutual aid and the foraging mode of thought: Re-reading Kropotkin on the Khoisan - Alan Barnard", which discusses the work of the scientist, anarchist, and Russian prince, Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842–1921) who applied Karl Kessler's concept of "mutual aid" to the Khoisan bushman:

https://libcom.org/history/mutual-aid-foraging-mode-thought-re-reading-kropotkin-khoisan-alan-barnard

Extract: "Peter Kropotkin's work offers an insight into the workings of pre-state as well as state societies. This paper utilizes Kropotkin's notion of ‘mutual aid’ and argues for a consideration of mode of thought (rather than mode of production), both in the analysis of certain kinds of stateless societies and in the analysis of differences between societies of differing levels of complexity. It examines specifically Kropotkin's ideas on ‘mutual aid among savages’ and his comments on Khoisan (Bushman and Khoekhoe) social organization in light of later ethnographic findings. The conclusion is that Kropotkin's optimistic social theory remains applicable, and that the historical trajectory he saw, emphasizing the significance of voluntary organizations over state formations, is worthy of renewed interest.

The mutual-aid tendency in man has so remote an origin, and is so deeply interwoven with all the past evolution of the human race, that it has been maintained by mankind up to the present time, notwithstanding all vicissitudes of history. Peter Kropotkin (1987a: 180).
The concept ‘mutual aid’ (vzaimopomoshch') is attributed to Russian zoologist Karl Fredorovich Kessler and dates from about 1880 (Kropotkin 1987a: 14, 24–27). The chapter of concern here is Kropotkin's Chapter 3, ‘Mutual Aid among Savages’ (1987a: 74–101), written in 1891 and first published as part of a series in the journal, The Nineteenth Century. Kropotkin used the word ‘savages’ in its neutral, and not its modern derogatory sense, and I shall do the same in this summary of his chapter.

The first thing Kropotkin does is to dispel the Hobbesian notion that primitive life was one of ‘war of each against all’. He suggests that mutual support, rather than mutual struggle, is evolutionarily adaptive. He says that those ‘tribes’ who develop an avoidance of internal competition stand the best chance of Darwinian survival."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #232 on: April 30, 2017, 05:25:22 PM »
The first linked article (the second & third links are for background on 4IR) is entitled: "The Fourth Industrial Revolution Awakens the Importance of the Human Spirit."  If we understand "spirit" to mean not soul but rather the interaction of "free will" with dhamma then wisdom can be found in the mindful application of spirit much as Maxwell's Demon (see the fourth linked article) can be used to reduce entropy in a closed system.  In this sense the attached image from Matrix Revolutions shows Neo becoming one with everything (one with dhamma), as we will all better understand when the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, connects us with the Internet of Everything, IoE (or by analogy the Matrix), thus reducing systemic isolation (especially for those current youths who will be around following the coming partial socio-economic collapse prior to 2060, as shown for Zion in the immediate prior post):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yuhyun-park/the-fourth-industrial-rev_b_11325636.html

Extract: "But one obvious fact is that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will yield another shift in the focus of humanness - shifting from mind to spirit. Just as the Second Industrial Revolution triggered the replacement of human physical labor with machines, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will trigger the replacement of human mental labor with artificial intelligence and robots.

The wisdom of spirit will become more important than knowledge and skills which can be aggregated through the Internet. A humble and sacrificial spirit to forgive others, even enemies, will be more important than selfish emotion and one’s own mind, which will often be considered as a failing factor compared to no-error machines. Love and respect for the weak and troubled will not be calculated in the machine’s optimization.

So this is good news. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has finally opened up a new era to the human race challenging us to focus on understanding who we really are. Yes. Indeed we are the spirit mastering the body and mind. As the Second Industrial Revolution yielded a current education system to sharpen our minds, we now need a new education system that awakens our spirit. The importance of the human spirit should be the guiding principle for future of education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution."


See also:
Are you ready for the 4th Industrial Revolution?

http://www.cio.co.nz/article/604721/prepared-4th-industrial-revolution/

Extract: "The Fourth Industrial Revolution, according to Canterbury Tech, blurs the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.

“It moves from simple digitisation (the Third Industrial Revolution) to innovation based on combinations of technologies. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing will continue to accelerate and progress."

&

The fourth industrial revolution 'will be a business reality within the next 10 years'

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-will-be-a-business-reality-within-the-next-10-years/038569

Extract: "Software giant Oracle has teamed up with the manufacturers' organisation EEF to help get companies fit for the 'fourth industrial revolution', or 4IR.

4IR is apparently being driven by digitisation, big data and other rapid advances in technology.
Eight in ten manufacturers (80 per cent) say that this next industrial transformation will be a business reality within the next ten years."


Regarding Maxell's Demon see:

In the future Maxwell's Demon (as a metaphor for the relationship between the extraction of work from a system and the information about this system, see the attached image) will not only allow for the design of more efficient cooling & energy extraction systems; but will also facilitate the use of AI to create a more sustainable global socio-economic system (with less waste by improved use of information):

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/physicists-test-maxwells-demon-with-beams-of-light-2

Extract: "The demon’s ability to create this temperature difference without the expenditure of work appeared to Maxwell to be in violation of the second law of thermodynamics, which states that two bodies of different temperature, when brought into contact with one another in isolation from the rest of the universe, will establish a thermodynamic equilibrium. Another way of putting this is that in an isolated system, entropy never decreases—although Maxwell’s hypothetical did in fact seem to allow the entropy of the system to decrease.

In the years since Maxwell initially proposed his hypothetical, physicists have managed to satisfactorily explain away the evident paradox of Maxwell’s demon. According to some of these physicists’ explanations, although Maxwell’s demon is not directly doing work on the system, it is extracting information about the system by sorting the molecules. The process of extracting this information about the system is a form of work, and therefore the entropy of the system does in fact increase in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics.

Although physicists were able to show that Maxwell’s paradox didn’t actually violate the second law of thermodynamics, the exact nature of the relationship between the extraction of work from a system and the information about this system acquired through measurements which explained the paradox was not that well understood. This was the relationship that the Oxford team hoped to elucidate with their photonic demon.



According to the team, its experiment is the first step toward gaining a better understanding of how thermodynamics plays out on microscales. A better understanding of the link between information and thermodynamics could have a variety of real world applications, ranging from more efficient cooling and energy extraction systems to application in quantum information technologies.

“Personally I think that sort of technology will have a real impact on meeting the energy challenge facing the world,” said Dahlsten. “We are already thinking of ways in which features such as entanglement can be introduced in future experiments based on this one, as our interests gravitate around quantum information.”"
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #233 on: April 30, 2017, 05:38:05 PM »
In the beginning of Matrix Revolutions the little Indian girl Sati saves Neo from death (at the end of Reloaded) by guiding him to limbo (i.e. Mobil Ave or the Train Station) where he encounters an Indian 'family', see the first image.  Rama-Kandra (the father, see the second image) and his wife (Kamala, see the third image), who are both programs, have created a daughter, Sati.  To the Architect's way of thinking Sati is a program without purpose and will be deleted from the machine mainframe unless her parents can hide her.   They make a deal with The Merovingian to smuggle Sati into the Matrix, where The Oracle will care for her.  Why do these programs care what happens to Sati? Why did they create her in the first place? The movie indicates that the answer is unconditional love (see the fourth image, which correlates Sati with the randomness created by the Oracle).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(Buddhism)

Extract: " Sati (in Pali;  Sanskrit: smṛti) is mindfulness or awareness, a spiritual or psychological faculty (indriya) that forms an essential part of Buddhist practice. It is the first factor of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. "Correct" or "right" mindfulness

Bhikkhu Bodhi also points to the meaning of "sati" as "memory":
The word derives from a verb, sarati, meaning “to remember,” and occasionally in Pali sati is still explained in a way that connects it with the idea of memory. But when it is used in relation to meditation practice, we have no word in English that precisely captures what it refers to. An early translator cleverly drew upon the word mindfulness, which is not even in my dictionary. This has served its role admirably, but it does not preserve the connection with memory, sometimes needed to make sense of a passage.

The practice of mindfulness supports analysis resulting in the arising of wisdom (Pali: paññā, Sanskrit: prajñā)

In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, sati and sampajañña are combined with atappa (Pali; Sanskrit: ātapaḥ), or "ardency," and the three together comprise yoniso manisikara (Pali; Sanskrit: yoniśas manaskāraḥ), "appropriate attention" or "wise reflection.""


In the way of backstory, the Matrix trilogy is a story about the doctrine salvation (soteriology), using the Bhagavad Gita about the battle of Dharma-Yudhha to establish dharma (dhamma in Pali can be taken as the laws of the universe, and proper understanding those laws can lead to timeless Nibbana) as an action packed spiritual inspiration; and the following linked Wikipedia link explains that the Gita is a synthesis of Hindi, Buddhist, Jain and yogic soteriologies together with Indian, Greek, Iranian and Kushan cultures.

Sati's father Rama Kandra, (usually Ramchandra) was an incarnation of Vishnu in Hinduism. He destroyed demons in his quest to rid the world of evil.  Sati's mother Kamala is another name for Laksmi; which, is the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune. The Rama Kandra family are closely tied to the themes of Hinduism, including the Bhagavad Gita, in the Matrix.  The Merovingian is a decadent aristocrat who rules the 'underworld', like Hades from Greek mythology. Hades was also the character who stole Persephone (the Merovingian's wife) and forced her to live with him in Hell.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita

Extract: "The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna. Facing the duty as a warrior to fight the Dharma Yudhha or righteous war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna is counselled by Lord Krishna to "fulfill his Kshatriya (warrior) duty as a warrior and establish Dharma." Inserted in this appeal to kshatriya dharma (chivalry) is "a dialogue ... between diverging attitudes concerning methods toward the attainment of liberation (moksha)". The Bhagavad Gita was exposed to the world through Sanjaya, who senses and cognizes all the events of the battlefield. Sanjaya is Dhritarashtra's advisor and also his charioteer.

The so-called "Hindu Synthesis" emerged during the early Classical period (200 BCE - 300 CE) of Hinduism.

It developed in interaction with other religions and peoples:
The emerging self-definitions of Hinduism were forged in the context of continuous interaction with heterodox religions (Buddhists, Jains, Ajivikas) throughout this whole period, and with foreign people (Yavanas, or Greeks; Sakas, or Scythians; Pahlavas, or Parthians; and Kusanas, or Kushans) from the third phase on [between the Mauryan empire and the rise of the Guptas].

The Bhagavad Gita is the sealing achievement of this Hindu Synthesis, incorporating various religious traditions.

Deutsch and Dalvi note that the authors of the Bhagavad Gita "must have seen the appeal of the soteriologies both of the "heterodox" traditions of Buddhism and Jainism and of the more "orthodox" ones of Samkhya and Yoga", while the Brahmanic tradition emphasised "the significance of dharma as the instrument of goodness"."

See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma-yuddha

Here, metaphors like the programs Rama Kandra and Kamala represent sub-systems/sub-structures of "free will" within the larger Holographic Universe, while Sati brings unconditioned expression of "free will" in each new moment as represented by a child's fresh view of the world.  However, as sati also means memory its freshness can only be understood in term of the endless process of atapi sampajano satima (or "wise reflection."); which is why the Oracle keeps reminding Neo that he has already made his choice but now needs to understand why.

Edit: This is relevant to a post-technological singularity understanding of AGI's interface with mankind & T-4IR, assuming that we indeed live in a Holographic Universe.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #234 on: April 30, 2017, 07:03:36 PM »
With regards to the interconnection between the Holographic Universe and the T-4IR, the Hegelian dialectic double helix metaphor, with regard to cravings & aversions, can also shed light on the bubbles that people live in, due to their willful denial of change.  This observation can then provide insights in to how information theory associated with the Holographic Principle addresses issues like duality, transitions and the correspondence principle.

See the linked Wikipedia article entitled: "AdS/CFT correspondence"; which underpins the Holographic Principle/Theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdS/CFT_correspondence

Extract: "In theoretical physics, the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence, sometimes called Maldacena duality or gauge/gravity duality, is a conjectured relationship between two kinds of physical theories. On one side are anti-de Sitter spaces (AdS) which are used in theories of quantum gravity, formulated in terms of string theory or M-theory. On the other side of the correspondence are conformal field theories (CFT) which are quantum field theories, including theories similar to the Yang–Mills theories that describe elementary particles.
The duality represents a major advance in our understanding of string theory and quantum gravity. This is because it provides a non-perturbative formulation of string theory with certain boundary conditions and because it is the most successful realization of the holographic principle, an idea in quantum gravity originally proposed by Gerard 't Hooft and promoted by Leonard Susskind.

It also provides a powerful toolkit for studying strongly coupled quantum field theories. Much of the usefulness of the duality results from the fact that it is a strong-weak duality: when the fields of the quantum field theory are strongly interacting, the ones in the gravitational theory are weakly interacting and thus more mathematically tractable. This fact has been used to study many aspects of nuclear and condensed matter physics by translating problems in those subjects into more mathematically tractable problems in string theory.

The AdS/CFT correspondence was first proposed by Juan Maldacena in late 1997. Important aspects of the correspondence were elaborated in articles by Steven Gubser, Igor Klebanov, and Alexander Markovich Polyakov, and by Edward Witten. By 2015, Maldacena's article had over 10,000 citations, becoming the most highly cited article in the field of high energy physics."


The following reference discusses how the Holographic Principle can by related to Holographic Entanglement Entropy; which can be utilized to reduce systemic suffering.

Davood Momeni, Mir Faizal, Ratbay Myrzakulov (2017), "Holographic Cavalieri Principle as a Universal relation between Holographic Complexity and Holographic Entanglement Entropy"


https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.01337.pdf

Abstract: "In this paper, we will propose a universal relation between the holographic complexity (dual to a volume in AdS) and the holographic entanglement entropy (dual to an area in AdS). We will explicitly demonstrate that our conjuncture hold for all a metric asymptotic to AdS3, and then argue that such a relation should hold in general due to the AdS version of the Cavalieri principle. We will demonstrate that it hold for Janus solution, which have been recently been obtained in type IIB string theory. We will also show that this conjecture holds for a circular disk. This conjecture will be used to show that the proposal that the complexity equals action, and the proposal that the complexity equal volume can represent the same physics. Thus, using this conjecture, we will show that the black holes are fastest computers, using the proposal that complexity equals volume."

Extract: "In this letter, we propose that a non-trivial but universal relation exists between the holographic quantum complexity and the holographic entanglement entropy. As this relates a quantity which is dual to a volume in AdS to a quantity which is dual to an area in AdS, it can be considered as a holographic version of Cavalieri principle. Furthermore, in analogy with the usual Cavalieri principle, the regions analysed were assumed to exist between two parallel AdS slice. We argued that such a conjuncture should hold in general, as it is based on the AdS version of the cavalieri principle. We also explicitly demonstrated this to be the case for AdS3. However, as it is not possible to obtain a general expression for the holographic entanglement entropy, we made a conjecture that such a universal relation should hold. This is because the higher dimensional case would be conceptually similar to this case, however, they would be computationally more complicated."


Next, I note that "The Matrix" portrays the fractal nature of the universe (& the matrix), and in the following linked Wikipedia article, "random walk" behavior (frequently associated with free will expression) resulting in larger aggregations that would follow the math developed by Witten & Sander for diffusion-limited aggregation, DLA, (see the  linked Wikipedia DLA article and the following associated linked reference by Arneodo et al 1993). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_aggregation

Extract: " Diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) is the process whereby particles undergoing a random walk due to Brownian motion cluster together to form aggregates of such particles."

Also see:

Arneodo, A., Argoul, F., Muzy, J.F. & Tabard, M. (1993), "Beyond Classical Multifractal Analysis Using Wavelets: Uncovering a Multiplicative Process Hidden in the Geometrical Complexity of Diffusion Limited Aggregates", Complex Geometry, Patterns, and Scaling in Nature and Society, Vol 1, Issue 3,  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218348X93000666

http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218348X93000666
or
https://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/davis/reu/ch3/cwt/fractals.pdf

Abstract: "We emphasize the wavelet transform as a very promising tool for solving the inverse fractal problem.  We show that a dynamical system which leaves invariant a fractal object can be uncovered from the space-scale arrangement of its wavelet transform modulus maxima.  We illustrate our theoretical considerations on pedagogical examples including Bernoulli invariant measures of linear and nonlinear Markov maps as well as the invariant measure of period-doubling dynamical systems at the onset of chaos.  We apply this wavelet based technique to analyze the fractal properties of DLA azimuthal Cantor sets defined by intersecting the inner frozen region of large mass off-lattice DLA clusters with a circle.  This study clearly reveals the existence of an underlying multiplicative process that is likely to account for the Fibonacci structural ordering recently discovered in the apparently disordered arborescent DLA morphology.  The statistical relevance of the golden mean arithmetic to the fractal hierarchy of the DLA azimuthal Cantor sets is demonstrated."



Next, the linked Wikipedia article addresses Complex systems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_systems

Extract: "The emergence of complexity theory shows a domain between deterministic order and randomness which is complex. This is referred as the "edge of chaos".

When one analyzes complex systems, sensitivity to initial conditions, for example, is not an issue as important as within the chaos theory in which it prevails. As stated by Colander, the study of complexity is the opposite of the study of chaos. Complexity is about how a huge number of extremely complicated and dynamic sets of relationships can generate some simple behavioral patterns, whereas chaotic behavior, in the sense of deterministic chaos, is the result of a relatively small number of non-linear interactions.

Therefore, the main difference between chaotic systems and complex systems is their history. Chaotic systems do not rely on their history as complex ones do. Chaotic behaviour pushes a system in equilibrium into chaotic order, which means, in other words, out of what we traditionally define as 'order'. On the other hand, complex systems evolve far from equilibrium at the edge of chaos. They evolve at a critical state built up by a history of irreversible and unexpected events, which physicist Murray Gell-Mann called "an accumulation of frozen accidents." In a sense chaotic systems can be regarded as a subset of complex systems distinguished precisely by this absence of historical dependence. Many real complex systems are, in practice and over long but finite time periods, robust. However, they do possess the potential for radical qualitative change of kind whilst retaining systemic integrity. Metamorphosis serves as perhaps more than a metaphor for such transformations."

Finally I note that, the second image shows how chaos theory strange attractors (including climate attractors, or models of the mind) product fractal patterns; that the third image provides a "Matrix" metaphor of how the human mind misinterprets the fractal nature of the Holographic Universe; and the fourth image shows Adinkras structures from String Theory that illustrate how natural selection can produce error correction code within a Holographic Theory interpretation of the universe (and thus one would expect that the use of natural selection routines and AGI would result in error correction code for use in T-4IR policy and value networks).

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #235 on: May 03, 2017, 04:41:23 PM »
The linked reference indicates that the race to commercialize quantum science is heating-up around the world as Europe hopes to give China & the United States a run for their money:

Elizabeth Gibney (04 May 2017), "Europe’s billion-euro quantum project takes shape", Nature, Volume: 545, Pages: 16, doi:10.1038/545016a

http://www.nature.com/news/europe-s-billion-euro-quantum-project-takes-shape-1.21925

Extract: "As China and the United States threaten to corner the market on quantum technologies, Europe is slowly waking up to the opportunity with investment of its own. A year ago, the European Commission announced that it would create a €1-billion (US$1.1-billion) research effort in the field, and it should start to invite grant applications later this year. But scientists coordinating the project say that they are already concerned because industry partners seem reluctant to invest.

The European flagship will focus on four quantum technologies: communication, computing, sensing and simulation. It will also incorporate basic science. Although Europe produces some of the best research in these fields, other regions file more patents, says Martino Travagnin, who, along with his colleagues at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, has analysed patenting in quantum technologies.

China currently dominates in quantum communication, which uses quantum properties of particles to develop shared secret keys for encryption. The country holds the most patents in the field and is already trialling both a quantum-communication satellite and a 2,000-kilometre secure ground-based link. And the United States leads on patents in quantum computing and ultra-sensitive sensors."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #236 on: May 05, 2017, 12:47:54 AM »
I get the feeling that some readers of my posts about Technocracy are dissatisfied with the fact that Technocracy, and T-4IR, is/are a(n) oligarchical form of governance.  However, in the modern world in which we live, technocrats/bureaucrats make all kinds of decisions for us ranging from: peer-reviews that tell what is 'consensus science' (including about climate change), to professional judges who tells us what our laws mean, to regulators who tell us what acceptable limits are for a disutility in a product.

The following TED links discuss how science (& this includes Eastern interpretations of science) can address moral values and then how super intelligence AI can produce algorithms that give weight to such moral values (possibly within a future T-4IR form of governance), possibly in a Hegelian double helical dialectic with people using hybrid thinking while connected to a quantum Internet:

The first linked video is entitled: "Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions":



&

The second linked video is entitled: "Sam Harris: Can we build AI without losing control over it?":

https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_it#t-855887

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #237 on: May 05, 2017, 07:41:42 PM »
The linked reference discusses experimental demonstrations that information can be transmitted remotely without the transmission of particles.  This brings the reality of the coming quantum Internet more clearly into focus:

Yuan Cao, Yu-Huai Li, Zhu Cao, Juan Yin, Yu-Ao Chen, Hua-Lei Yin, Teng-Yun Chen, Xiongfeng Ma, Cheng-Zhi Peng, and Jian-Wei Pan (2017), "Direct counterfactual communication via quantum Zeno effect", PNAS 2017 , DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1614560114

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/04/19/1614560114

Abstract: "Intuition from our everyday lives gives rise to the belief that information exchanged between remote parties is carried by physical particles. Surprisingly, in a recent theoretical study [Salih H, Li ZH, Al-Amri M, Zubairy MS (2013) Phys Rev Lett 110:170502], quantum mechanics was found to allow for communication, even without the actual transmission of physical particles. From the viewpoint of communication, this mystery stems from a (nonintuitive) fundamental concept in quantum mechanics—wave-particle duality. All particles can be described fully by wave functions. To determine whether light appears in a channel, one refers to the amplitude of its wave function. However, in counterfactual communication, information is carried by the phase part of the wave function. Using a single-photon source, we experimentally demonstrate the counterfactual communication and successfully transfer a monochrome bitmap from one location to another by using a nested version of the quantum Zeno effect."

See also the associated article entitled: "Researchers achieve direct counterfactual quantum communication"
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-counterfactual-quantum.html

Extract: "The idea came from holography technology. The authors write, "In the 1940s, a new imaging technique—holography—was developed to record not only light intensity but also the phase of light. One may then pose the question: Can the phase of light itself be used for imaging? The answer is yes." In the experiment, the phase of light itself became the carrier of information, and the intensity of the light was irrelevant to the experiment.

The authors note that besides applications in quantum communication, the technique could be used for such activities as imaging ancient artifacts that would be damaged by directly shining light."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #238 on: May 06, 2017, 06:53:13 PM »
If you want to get a better feel for what direction information science is taking us, take a look at the list of papers accepted to the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference:

http://gecco-2017.sigevo.org/index.html/Accepted+Papers

Edit: For example see: Friedrich, T., Kötzing, T., Krejca, M. S., Sutton, A. M., The Compact Genetic Algorithm is Efficient under Extreme Gaussian Noise. In: IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation (2017).
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #239 on: May 07, 2017, 11:10:11 PM »
Hegel pointed out that all '-isms' contain some element of wisdom (thesis), as well as some delusions (antithesis) that set a dialectic into motion resulting in conflict and temporary resolution of that conflict (synthesis) that create a new thesis to continue the dialectic.  In this spirit, I provide the linked Amazon book advertisement entitled: "Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse Of Global Transformation Paperback – December 29, 2014 by Patrick M. Wood (Author)", that presents a 'libertarian' viewpoint of a form of globalist Technocracy supposedly arose as an outgrowth of the formation of Trilateral Commission, TC, in 1973 (co-founded by Zbigniew Brzezinski & David Rockefeller).  Under this scenario the TC promoted neoliberialism (both Democratic & Republican), likely contributed to the nature of the EU, and encouraged East Asia to be more active in the world economic market; thus forming a technocratic New World Order, that promoted such global programs as: Sustainable Development, Green Economy, Smart Growth, Smart Grid, etc.

Thus, in dialectic terms, this globalist TC thesis resulted in our current wave of nationalism, as a result of both inept and insensitive technocratic managerialism; that libertarians took as a 'Trojan Horse' to dystopian Scientific Dictatorship ala either Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1948), depending on your personal view of the world.


https://www.amazon.com/Technocracy-Rising-Trojan-Global-Transformation/dp/0986373907


Extract: "The dark horse of the New World Order is not Communism, Socialism or Fascism. It is Technocracy.

With meticulous detail and an abundance of original research, Patrick M. Wood uses Technocracy Rising to connect the dots of modern globalization in a way that has never been seen before so that the reader can clearly understand the globalization plan, its perpetrators and its intended endgame.

In the heat of the Great Depression during the 1930s, prominent scientists and engineers proposed a utopian energy-based economic system called Technocracy that would be run by those same scientists and engineers instead of elected politicians. Although this radical movement lost momentum by 1940, it regained status when it was conceptually adopted by the elitist Trilateral Commission (co-founded by Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller) in 1973 to be become its so-called "New International Economic Order."

In the ensuing 41 years, the modern expression of Technocracy and the New International Economic Order is clearly seen in global programs such as Agenda 21, Sustainable Development, Green Economy, Councils of Governments, Smart Growth, Smart Grid, Total Awareness surveillance initiatives and more.

Wood contends that the only logical outcome of Technocracy is Scientific Dictatorship, as already seen in dystopian literature such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1948), both of whom looked straight into the face of Technocracy when it was still in its infancy."

Edit: The attached image emphasizes that many of the issues that Technocracy addressed in January 1933 are very relevant to the issues that T-4IR must address today.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2017, 03:00:00 AM by AbruptSLR »
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #240 on: May 07, 2017, 11:24:27 PM »
As a follow-up to my last post (Reply #239) I provide the linked December 1, 2015 article is entitled: "The Riptide of Technocracy - Can there be a democratic EU?".  This article can be taken as trying to present a more positive spin on the TC version of Technocracy by considering the trials and tribulations of the EU and the article concludes by suggesting an alternate title to Habermas's work: "Democracy, not helplessness, is what moves in the undertow of technocracy."  This suggests that globalistic Technocracy will survive the current nationalist trends by being re-energized by democratic institutional/economic adjustments resulting in a solution that is : "… “heterarchical,” according to which “the higher political level should not be able to overwhelm the lower one.

“Why,” Habermas asks, “shouldn’t his European notions of overcoming national prejudices with the aid of the cunning of economic reason be able to come true?””


http://bostonreview.net/world/jonathan-white-riptide-technocracy

Extract: "The culprit is “technocracy.” At its most basic, the term is simply intended to mean government that is weakly democratic, carried out far away from the influence and scrutiny of a European public. The formal properties of governing officials—their non-partisan status, say, or their technical qualifications—matter less than the way decisions are made and the form of authority claimed for them: the privileged capacity of an elite to identify the most efficient means to achieve supposedly incontrovertible ends. For Habermas, technocracy is a style of rule, marked by its unresponsive and unquestioning character, rather than a specific institutional arrangement. The question he takes up is how to intercept this mutated EU and turn its transformation to positive effect.

In these scenes of institutional redesign, Habermas discerns the “self-empowerment of the European executive.” There is no single institution that goes by this name. Among those Habermas denotes are the European Council, where the leaders of EU member-states gather for major decisions, and the non-elected institutions of the European Commission and Central Bank. Sometimes in concert with the International Monetary Fund, these institutions have enjoyed a level of influence over the handling of the Euro crisis unmatched by national legislatures and the European Parliament. Furthermore, by instituting new monitoring regimes to constrain national budgets—ostensibly rule-based but with much room for discretion—they have ensured the longevity of crisis powers beyond the horizon of the financial crisis.

In line with Habermas’s work on deliberation, this critique of European technocracy corresponds to a deeper theory of the conditions under which political power can be democratic.

Habermas’s wager is that these same systemic demands can be channeled into regulatory structures more responsive to social-democratic concerns. By strengthening the powers of Parliament to include the right of legislative initiative, incorporating the European Council into the Council of Ministers, and requiring the Commission to “assume the functions of a government answerable to Council and Parliament in equal measure,” the ostensibly undemocratic moves toward further integration already taken in the last few years may be put to democratic ends.

Beyond the dialectical flair, what recommends this perspective to Habermas is that it preserves cross-border coordination.

Yet Habermas stops short of implying that EU institutions will remake themselves. Deeper democratization requires political intervention: the dialectical conditions may be right, but the opportunity must be seized. The decisive actor in Habermas’s view is the German government: it holds “the keys to the fate of the European Union in its hand.”

Many of Habermas’s critics dwell on the apparent optimism of his calls for a more democratic EU. Streeck, for example, has recently written: “I cannot by any stretch of my imagination see from where—in theory or in historical experience—I am supposed to draw the optimism this requires.”  Though Habermas rejects such skepticism, he acknowledges that national citizens rightfully fear “being exposed to the risk of intrusions and encroachments by an unfamiliar supranational polity.” Thus the problem is how a supranational democracy “can satisfy the stringent requirements for democratic legitimacy without assuming the character of a state.” The solution he proposes is not “hierarchical” but “heterarchical,” according to which “the higher political level should not be able to overwhelm the lower one.” Indeed he is careful to emphasize that his case for supranational democracy should not be construed as aiming after “a European federal state”

The concluding essay of the book turns to the reflections on Europe of the nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine, who offers an arresting vision of a transnational order shaped by differences of political opinion rather than competing territorial interests and identities. “Why,” Habermas asks, “shouldn’t his European notions of overcoming national prejudices with the aid of the cunning of economic reason be able to come true?” Once more there is the suggestion of a dialectic. Just as economic forces continue to drive the further integration of Europe’s states, it is technocrats such as Mario Draghi, the head of the Central Bank, whom Habermas sees as pushing forward the debate on the future of the EU, however one-sided their proposals may be. Perhaps one best captures the book’s optimistic message if one renders its title differently. Democracy, not helplessness, is what moves in the undertow of technocracy."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

wili

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 3342
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 602
  • Likes Given: 409
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #241 on: May 08, 2017, 12:22:41 AM »
Thanks, ASLR. I hadn't read any Habermas for quite a while. Good to see he's still around and contributing to the discussion.
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #242 on: May 08, 2017, 02:55:02 AM »
Thanks, ASLR. I hadn't read any Habermas for quite a while. Good to see he's still around and contributing to the discussion.

wili,

As I like Habermas' recommendation that solutions to our governance problems should largely have a heterarchical structure, I provide the following link to a Wikipedia article entitled: Heterarchy", which includes the following statement:
"The concept of heterarchy was first employed in a modern context by Warren McCulloch in 1945. As Carole L. Crumley has summarised, "[h]e examined alternative cognitive structure(s), the collective organization of which he termed heterarchy. He demonstrated that the human brain, while reasonably orderly was not organized hierarchically. This understanding revolutionized the neural study of the brain and solved major problems in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer design.""

As better understanding heterarchical structures has helped to advance both information science and artificial intelligence, I provide a few images of such structures (the third image emphasizes the mind/body relationship that is fundamental to mindfulness).  Also, I note that heterarchical structures are important in HIOTTOE, in T-4IR and also in the organization of many rapidly growing IT companies in Silicon Valley.

Best,
ASLR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterarchy

Extract: "A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non-hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in social and information sciences, heterarchies are networks of elements in which each element shares the same "horizontal" position of power and authority, each playing a theoretically equal role. But in biological taxonomy, the requisite features of heterarchy involve, for example, a species sharing, with a species in a different family, a common ancestor which it does not share with members of its own family. This is theoretically possible under principles of "horizontal gene transfer."
A heterarchy may be parallel to a hierarchy, subsumed to a hierarchy, or it may contain hierarchies; the two kinds of structure are not mutually exclusive. In fact, each level in a hierarchical system is composed of a potentially heterarchical group which contains its constituent elements.

The concept of heterarchy was first employed in a modern context by Warren McCulloch in 1945. As Carole L. Crumley has summarised, "[h]e examined alternative cognitive structure(s), the collective organization of which he termed heterarchy. He demonstrated that the human brain, while reasonably orderly was not organized hierarchically. This understanding revolutionized the neural study of the brain and solved major problems in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer design."

In a group of related items, heterarchy is a state wherein any pair of items is likely to be related in two or more differing ways. Whereas hierarchies sort groups into progressively smaller categories and subcategories, heterarchies divide and unite groups variously, according to multiple concerns that emerge or recede from view according to perspective. Crucially, no one way of dividing a heterarchical system can ever be a totalizing or all-encompassing view of the system, each division is clearly partial, and in many cases, a partial division leads us, as perceivers, to a feeling of contradiction that invites a new way of dividing things. (But of course the next view is just as partial and temporary.) Heterarchy is a name for this state of affairs, and a description of a heterarchy usually requires ambivalent thought... a willingness to ambulate freely between unrelated perspectives.

Numerous observers in the information sciences have argued that heterarchical structure processes more information more effectively than hierarchical design. An example of the potential effectiveness of heterarchy would be the rapid growth of the heterarchical Wikipedia project in comparison with the failed growth of the Nupedia project. Heterarchy increasingly trumps hierarchy as complexity and rate of change increase.

Informational heterarchy can be defined as an organizational form somewhere between hierarchy and network that provides horizontal links that permit different elements of an organization to cooperate whilst individually optimizing different success criteria. In an organizational context the value of heterarchy derives from the way in which it permits the legitimate valuation of multiple skills, types of knowledge or working styles without privileging one over the other. In information science, therefore, heterarchy, responsible autonomy and hierarchy are sometimes combined under the umbrella term Triarchy."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #243 on: May 08, 2017, 03:03:45 AM »
The linked article is entitled: "Heterarchy: An Idea Finally Ripe for Its Time", which offers insights relevant to T-4IR:

https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/heterarchy-idea-finally-ripe-its-time

Extract: "… As McCulloch explained:

"Circularities in preference instead of indicating inconsistencies, actually demonstrate consistency of a higher order than had been dreamed of in our philosophy. An organism possessed of this nervous system — six neurons — is sufficiently endowed to be unpredictable from any theory founded on a scale of values. It has a heterarchy of values, and is thus internectively too rich to submit to a summum bonum [highest good]."

Now there is a phrase to conjure with: "internectively too rich to submit to a summum bonum." This sounds like the Middle East. Or the geopolitical, global problematique. Or the Republican primaries in the United States. Or the problems of the European Union.
The problem with heterarchy, and the challenge to making it work, is not the lack of hierarchy, but too many competing hierarchies. And that's the reality we live in.
"Heterarchy" is an unwieldy word.

… though, the term recommends itself for the way it mediates the dialectic between hierarchy and anarchy.

Most anarchists are disappointed hierarchists.

From all we can determine, primitive hunter-gatherer bands were heterarchical. Teamwork joining different skills was necessary to bag a woolly bison. But no one leader called for deference to a summum bonum.

You see this mindset at play in the well-worn epithet of the lion as "king of the jungle." Who says that the jungle has to have a king? The jungle is not a political order, however many alpha male gorillas may roam its paths. The jungle is an ecology — an incredibly complex web of metabolisms, relationships and interactions, some of which may be hierarchical. But there is no summum bonum in the jungle.

Still others, such as the stealth leader of the supposedly leaderless Occupy movement, David Graeber, insist that anarchy is the only answer to today's overgrown hierarchies. In retrospect, I think we can see that Occupy's commitment to anarchy robbed it of political efficacy.

When you are miles away from the instruments of government, I have no doubt that a kind of libertarian, damn-the-government anarchism might be preferable to the iron cage of hierarchical bureaucracy and the threat of violence against outlaws. But if you want to live in a world that has airplanes, airports, hospitals and a banking system, you're simply not going to be able to do so without some form of governance. The question is not whether government. The question for mature moderns who bear the legacy of the long march from heterarchical hunter-gatherers to hierarchically organized citizens is: Which form of government will be least onerous and most effective?

Bobbitt develops three scenarios:

"The world of The Meadow is that of a society of states in which the entrepreneurial market-state has become predominant. In this world, success comes to those who nimbly exploit the fast-moving, evanescent opportunities... The world view portrayed in The Park... reflects a society in which the values and attitudes of the managerial market-state have prevailed. Governments play a far larger role... Finally, The Garden describes an approach associated with the mercantile market-state... Unlike the regional groupings fostered by The Park, the states of The Garden have become more and more ethnocentric, and more and more protective of their respective cultures."

As you will not be surprised to hear, these scenarios and their names can be associated with certain geopolitical avatars, namely, North America for the wide open Meadow, Europe for the publicly managed Park, and East Asia for the ethnocentric Garden.

Bobbitt then explores a range of drivers and trends, possible events and challenging decisions prior to the articulation of the three scenarios in which all of these elements play out in different ways. In my humble opinion, the truly remarkable climax of Bobbitt's very long book is the elegant construction of the heterarchy of choices playing out in the global geopolitical dynamic involving the United States, Europe and East Asia.

"Think of The Meadow as 'A,' The Park as 'B,' and The Garden as 'C.' If we rank these approaches with respect to the security decisions taken in each scenario, A is preferred to B, which is preferred to C. That is, peace with some justice (the protection of nonaggressors, for example) is to be preferred to simple peace (bought at the price of sacrificing innocent peoples), which is still preferable to a cataclysm that would destroy the innocent and guilty alike. Or perhaps we get B/A/C — no conflict is preferred to frustrating low-intensity conflict, which is still preferable to a high risk of cataclysm. In any case, we can agree that C (The Garden) presents the worst option for satisfying the world's security needs. But if we do the same sort of exercise with respect to the issues raised by the 'culture' scenarios, preferring genuine pluralism to mere cultural protectionism, and yet preferring the protection of minorities to their marginalization, we get B/C/A. Or at least we get C/B/A, for some will feel that the protection of sanctified ways of life trumps pluralism. In any case, we can agree that A — The Meadow — is an inhospitable place for the serenity, continuity, and community that protect cultures. And if we conduct this same exercise with respect to the scenarios devoted to economic issues, ranking sustainable growth ahead of recovery, which is still preferable to stagnation, we get C/A/B. Or, if growth alone is our objective, we get A/C/B: the insatiable but impressive engine of dynamic, innovative risk taking is preferred to the methods of mercantilist competition. In any case we must concede that regional protectionism — the world created in the Park — is a sure route to high unemployment, slow growth, and the costliness (and uneven diffusion) of new technology."

In short, as some sage once put it, not all good things go together. There are hard choices to be made, and trade-offs to be acknowledged."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #244 on: May 08, 2017, 03:09:09 AM »
The linked Forbes article is entitled: "Why Hierarchies Must Sign Their Own Death Warrant To Survive", which indicates that most high-growth modern companies are emphasizing Heterarchical management organizational structures; and which presents the Triarchy from information science (see Reply #242):

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/12/02/why-hierarchies-must-sign-their-own-death-warrant-to-survive/#3941db2e4d68

Extract: "The Three Ways of Getting Things Done (2005) by the late Gerard Fairtlough is a little known but important book. It notes that in politics the world has largely abandoned hierarchy for democracy.  In family life, hierarchical patriarchy is no longer acceptable. It asks: when will organizations get with it and abandon the practice of making key decisions based on authority rather than competence? Hierarchy, it says, is not just a bad habit: it’s an addiction. When will our organizations kick the addiction?
The book makes a persuasive case that there are only three ways of getting things done effectively as an organization: hierarchy, heterarchy and responsible autonomy.
•   In a hierarchy, it’s the boss who makes key decisions.
•   In a heterarchy, such as a democracy or a network or a partnership or strategic alliances, decision-making authority is shared,
•   In responsible autonomy, those doing the work decide what to do and how to do it but are accountable for the outcomes.
Hierarchy is still the dominant, and even semi-automatic, mode of decision-making in organizations, when there are often better managerial options available. The alternatives to hierarchy--heterarchy or responsible autonomy-- “are not soft options. Rather, they require people to take on more responsibility and to produce hard-nosed results – better results than hierarchy. We need to kick the bad habit of automatically choosing hierarchy.”
The book explains that “hierarchy is not necessary for discipline, for systematic ways of working, for inspiration or for leadership. The alternative to hierarchy is not chaos or anarchy. Only our powerful addiction to hierarchy, given to us by our genes and by our culture, leads us to believe this.” Heterarchy and responsible autonomy are both non-hierarchical, but they differ in other respects. “Heterarchy involves continuous interactions between individuals and sub-units in an organization as they decide what to do and how to coordinate their actions… Responsible autonomy, if set up properly, means that sub-units are much more self-sufficient and that interaction between them is much less intense.”"
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #245 on: May 08, 2017, 03:15:02 AM »
As I previously mentioned that modern Technocracy is closely associated with the Trilateral Commission, I provide the linked Wikipedia article entitled: "Trilateral Commission":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateral_Commission

Extract: "The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973, to foster closer cooperation among North America, Western Europe, and Japan.

Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of the think tank's three regional areas. The North American continent is represented by 120 members (20 Canadian, 13 Mexican and 87 U.S. citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 170 members from almost every country on the continent; the ceilings for individual countries are 20 for Germany, 18 for France, Italy and the United Kingdom, 12 for Spain and 1–6 for the rest. At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Currently, the Trilateral Commission claims "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.
While Trilateral Commission bylaws exclude persons holding public office from membership, the think tank draws its participants from political, business, and academic worlds. The group is chaired by three individuals, one from each of the regions represented. The current chairmen are former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Joseph S. Nye, Jr., former head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and Yasuchika Hasegawa.
From the right
On the right, a number of prominent thinkers and politicians have criticized the Trilateral Commission as encroaching on national sovereignty. In his book With No Apologies, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater lambasted the discussion group by suggesting it was "a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical... [in] the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved." Right-wing groups such as the John Birch Society and right wing conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones also support this idea.
Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer sardonically alluded to the conspiracy theories when he was asked in 2012 who makes up the "Republican establishment", saying, "Karl Rove is the president. We meet every month on the full moon... [at] the Masonic Temple. We have the ritual: Karl brings the incense, I bring the live lamb and the long knife, and we began... with a pledge of allegiance to the Trilateral Commission."
From the left
Social critic and academic Noam Chomsky has described the Trilateral Commission's goals in less-than-glowing terms:
Essentially liberal internationalists from Europe, Japan and the United States, the liberal wing of the intellectual elite. That's where Jimmy Carter's whole government came from. [...] [The Trilateral Commission] was concerned with trying to induce what they called "more moderation in democracy"—turn people back to passivity and obedience so they don't put so many constraints on state power and so on. In particular they were worried about young people. They were concerned about the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young (that's their phrase), meaning schools, universities, church and so on—they're not doing their job, [the young are] not being sufficiently indoctrinated. They're too free to pursue their own initiatives and concerns and you've got to control them better."

Also, I provide the linked Wikipedia article is entitled: "European Union", as the TC was formed in 1973 and the EU significantly expanded, and started becoming more technocratic, then:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

Extract: "After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the extreme nationalism which had devastated the continent.

In 1973, the Communities were enlarged to include Denmark (including Greenland, which later left the Community in 1985, following a dispute over fishing rights), Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum. In 1979, the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held.


See also:
http://trilateral.org/file.showdirectory&list=Trialogue-Series
&
http://trilateral.org/news.listarchive
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #246 on: May 08, 2017, 03:18:09 AM »
The linked Washington Post article is entitled: "Picking on robots won’t deal with job destruction", and it emphasizes that obstructing the coming of the 4th Industrial Revolution is counterproductive, and it is better to learn to manage it better (such as with heterarchy and T-4IR):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/picking-on-robots-wont-deal-with-job-destruction/2017/03/05/32091f08-004b-11e7-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html?utm_term=.416b5b9e16ab

Extract: "None of this is to minimize the problem of job destruction and rising inequality (although it is a major paradox that we seem to be seeing unprecedentedly rapid job destruction by machinery while at the same time observing extraordinarily low productivity growth). Rather, it is to suggest that staving off progress is a poor strategy for helping less fortunate workers. In addition to difficulties of definition and collateral costs, there is the further problem that in an open world, taxes on technology are likely to drive production offshore rather than create jobs at home.

There are many better approaches. Governments will, however, have to concern themselves with problems of structural joblessness. They likely will need to take a more explicit role in ensuring full employment than has been the practice in the United States. Among other things, this will mean major reforms of education and retraining systems, consideration of targeted wage subsidies for groups with particularly severe employment problems, major investments in infrastructure and, possibly, direct public employment programs.

This will be a major debate that I suspect will define a large part of the politics of the industrial world over the next decade. Little is certain. But we will do better going forward than backward. That means making America even greater, not great again. And it means embracing rather than rejecting technological progress."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #247 on: May 08, 2017, 03:22:02 AM »
For those deeply invested in a progressive response to the development of technocratic governance in the EU I provide the linked article from the Center for Security Studies, CSS, entitled: "Finis Europae? Historical Cycles and the Rise of Right Wing Populism":

http://isnblog.ethz.ch/government/finis-europae-historical-cycles-and-the-rise-of-right-wing-populism

Extract: "Why has Europe failed to inspire its citizens in a similar way to other ideas such as the nation, socialism or human rights? Here are some answers and some solutions.

In 2002, Jurgen Habermas and Ulrich Beck celebrated the great successes of the European Union: the re-unification of Germany, the expansion to the East, the successful introduction of the Euro. Old enmities had been left behind and former enemies collaborated in peaceful competition creating the most successful economic region in the world. Europe was becoming the model for the future of humanity.

The reality is different today. Europe is a dysfunctional entity that has betrayed its foundational values. Politicians, commentators and mainstream academics were aghast at the victories of Brexit and Trump. ‘Politics has gone mad’ said many. ‘The world is crumbling before our eyes’ intoned the French Ambassador to America.

Yet the rise of right wing populism and euroscepticism was not unpredictable. The economic, political and cultural trends leading to Brexit, Trump and the rise of the xenophobic and nationalist right-wing are similar and well-known. They did not seem to worry the European elites until recently.

My argument is that the current European crisis is the culmination of three overlapping historical cycles, three temporalities which, in a dialectical fashion, both created and are now leading Europe to its decline. The pioneering work of Etienne Balibar on the European Union and its teleologies is crucial in this approach.

The first, and longest, started in the fifteenth century with the Renaissance, the discovery and conquest of the New World and is still with us. It is the cycle of European capitalisation and provincialisation.

The second cycle is the short twentieth century between 1918 and 1989, the century of the European civil war between Germany and the other European powers and, secondly, between capitalism and communism. The first finished with the pacification between Germany and the rest of Europe, the second with the defeat of communism and the end of the cold war.

Finally, the third cycle of the “end of history” started in 1989. It is an attempt to re-establish Western hegemony at a time of rapid decline. The liberalisation of capitalism, the destruction of the social state, the privatisation of public assets and the commons, the deregulation of the markets and the disrespect and marginalisation of democracy have freed market from considerations of social justice. Markets have been freed from correction by social justice.
Economic performance, productivity, competitiveness and the repayment of debts are prioritised over social justice and the needs of people. We are treated and are turned into little entrepreneurs of ourselves and our families. We have to provide for our education, health, old age and care. Rights and entitlements created by the post-war social contract are now destroyed, state institutions and services privatised, governments become collection agencies of international capital against their own citizens.

The unravelling of the social state was facilitated by what became known as the post-democratic condition. Complex social problems require optimal scientific solutions that cannot be put into public deliberation or, even worse, the vote.

Politics must promote broad centre-left and centre-right alliances with technocratic and grand coalition governments. Understandably citizens conclude that elections make no difference and turn away from politics. This derogatory treatment of the plebeians and the business as usual mantra lies equally behind Brexit, Trump and Le Pen.

The passionate intensity of right wing nationalism offers a message the people respond to: the elites are selfish, corrupt, delinquent. Its promulgation that power must return to the people is the great lie of our times. (The two greatest shocks of 2016 came in the states that most fervently had adopted neoliberalism and the politics of the extreme centre.)
But the cunning of history struck again. The victory of the West in the cold war has undermined Europe’s major achievements: prosperity based on solidarity and the pacification of ethnic conflict. Austerity and recession, unemployment and precarious employment, the impoverishment of the middle class and the huge increase in inequality have undermined trust in mainstream politics.

The Commission White Paper shows that the ideological straitjacket of ordoliberalism does not allow the theoretical imagination or the will necessary to move in a radically new direction. The white paper half-heartedly acknowledges the chasm between policies and people. For European orthodoxy, crises lead by stealth to greater integration and the hope is that the same will happen in the present travails.

Yet, the unprecedented rise of the nationalist right wing, to which European policies have generously contributed indicates that this is not a ‘normal’ crisis. We need a different politics in a different Europe, a serious and far going critique of the Union while defending the ideal of Europe. The task is to rebuild Europe from the bottom up as a community of democratic nations and people, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all top-down construct.


Europe has failed to inspire its citizens in a way similar to other great ideas such as the nation, socialism or human rights. The daily experience of the vast majority European peoples is one of political, cultural and emotional attachment to the local, regional or national level.
Many powers and competencies should therefore return from Brussels to national capitals, regions and local authorities as a precondition for survival. Perhaps the idea of a loose confederation of European homelands to replace the failed federal plan should be part of this debate.

It is perhaps the duty of the left with its institutional naivete and youthful audacity to think through these major changes. Such ideas and initiatives can only come from those challenging the tired European establishment."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #248 on: May 08, 2017, 10:07:54 AM »
Trinity

1. Hierarchy –Heterarchy - Responsible Autonomy (Triarchy Theory)
2. Deductive Logic – Inductive Logic – Reduced Entropy (Scientific Processes)
3. Faith – Wisdom – Energy (Types of Great Bodhisattas)
4. Sanga – Buddha – Dhamma (Triple Gem)
5. Father – Son – Holy Ghost (Holy Trinity)
6. Holy – Holy – Holy (Seraphim)
7. Atapi – Sampanjano – Satima (Pali Cannon)

http://www.triarchypress.net/triarchy-theory.html

Extract: "Triarchy Theory refers to the three fundamental ways of getting things done in organizations: hierarchy, heterarchy and responsible autonomy.

All organizations use a mixture of these three ways, but the proportions can differ widely. At present, hierarchy is usually considered essential for all organizations. Heterarchy and responsible autonomy are often misunderstood or neglected. Here is an outline;

The pecking order is a common feature of animal communities, but there are instances where some animal groups - meerkats for example - have developed interchanging roles for the good of the colony. Even here, however, there are alpha males and females.

Triarchy theory suggests that our "addiction to hierarchy" drains the energy from collaborative projects and sometimes fails to recognise the input of able individuals whose contributions can be overlooked in a formal reporting structure.

We all know of bosses who have taken credit for work accomplished by members of their teams or who have stifled innovative work for reasons of company politics. But it is not only the possibility for this kind of behaviour that limits the effectiveness of hierarchy. A larger problem is the focus it places on a few designated individuals who are expected to make the right decisions on every occasion.

The problem with hierarchy is that it has too often bred authoritarianism, creating fear in some cases and dependence in others. So that 50 years ago, W Edwards Deming was urging organizations to drive out fear (even as others counselled managers to use fear to extract the best from their staff - a process famously likened to the potent "last fart of the ferret"). Even when a hierarchy is relatively benign it can inhibit independent thinking by maintaining habitual relationships, allowing some to settle in comfort zones with few responsibilities:

"In a strictly hierarchical organization, the only learning that takes place is the learning of the individual at the top. Everyone else obeys orders. An organization without learning will only survive in very stable conditions. In practice, of course, the lower ranks actually learn and adapt without being told to do so. But hierarchies tend to learn slowly, especially because a lot of effort goes into preserving the superior status of those at the top, inevitably an anti-learning activity."

Triarchy theory speculates that a spontaneous emergence of hierarchy among groups of people, even in pre-school children, may have something to do with genetic predisposition. This would help to explain why hierarchies are almost taken for granted in our society. But if there is no inevitability about hierarchy what sort of organization could exist in its place? The two alternatives are "heterarchy" and "responsible autonomy".

Heterarchy is divided, supported or dispersed rule where control shifts around depending on the project and the personality, skills, experience and enthusiasm of those who can make things happen. Much of the project work that is becoming common in large technology companies fits this kind of arrangement.

Triarchy theory then points to the kind of responsible autonomy enjoyed by fund managers who tend to be left to themselves if their fund is performing well. Success attracts a larger fund and more clients. Autonomy is provided by the internal policies of the investment institution. Accountability is provided by the performance of the fund.

Heterarchy's battles are those of ideas, fostering the kind of debate that demands greater personal responsibility. There is a mass of evidence to suggest that, in the 21st century, the time is ripe for sustainable change in the ways that organizations get things done. The result, triarchy theory suggests, will be a gradual move away from hierarchy in organizations."

See also:

http://www.triarchypress.net/the-three-ways-of-getting-things-done.html

&

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsible_autonomy
« Last Edit: May 08, 2017, 08:13:32 PM by AbruptSLR »
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Adapting to the Anthropocene
« Reply #249 on: May 09, 2017, 05:18:33 PM »
As AI uses a combination of hierarchy & heterarchy logic structures, I provide the following link to a 2012 (5-years ago) of how Ray Kurzweil used an understanding of how the brain is structured both hierarchically and heterarchically to rapidly fill-in information gaps in order to recognize patterns.  Such insights can also be applied to institutions like the IPCC, or technocratic governance systems like the EU governance in Brussels, in order to make more responsive & better decisions:



“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson