Just a few questions | 95 comments (95 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Neither am I connected (4.00 / 6)

I suspected you would say this. I knew Jerome did not take the well-traveled politically-connected road out of X, and that Chris Cook fell out with the financial industry.

Let's start talking seriously about changing the game then. Like Barbara said, the strongest vibe that ET gives out is that of underutilised talent. That's probably in many ways a misperception but still...

And we should think more about Changing The Game, than playing it.

I want to understand the meta-game so I can change the game.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Nov 21st, 2006 at 05:09:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Neither am I connected (4.00 / 6)

I think the meta-game is how do you relate to your fellow humans, and beyond? The Capitalist Game is "Say what you want; feel free...as long as you relate via money-based intermediaries...it's cool."

The Simpsons are on Fox, is what I mean.

But we are separated geographically. So the meta-game for us is linguistic in the first instance, hence the "magazine" appearance of ET: writing words in such a way that they have effects in the world...word magic. I think building up a discourse around sustainability...what does it mean, what do we all HAVE to do if we are activists towards a sustainable Europe? (That's where I see the focus.)

So changing the game is changing the use and focus of language. We all post for different reasons, but if there is a focus on...well...I'd say a focus on getting away from the moneyman intermediary. Not that abstract exchange value (etc.. Chris/Jerome, I bow etc...)..ya know, money is sometimes useful and often necessary. But if my power if free, my food grows around me, my house is well insulated against excess heat/cold...and I have access to the latest information...the latest wisdom...

Not sure I'm helping here, but I think as Sven says, the game starts with our own intentions, desires...our own ability to step outside of our various boxes, take a look around...

(Sven can explain how us not having a homunculus affects this ;)

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 21st, 2006 at 05:26:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Neither am I connected (4.00 / 2)

Re: The Individual..

On Radio 4 this morning, the 8:10 topic was Nuclear Fusion. The conversation was between an expert from (I think) California and (in the "reactionary" postion) a guy from Friends of the Earth. The conversation went something like this.

Nuclear Guy: The technology isn't there yet, but we're working towards it.

Friend of the Earth Guy: The timescales are too long; we need to invest in renewables now.

Nuclear Guy: I agree. We have our funding (From the U.S., Europe, Russia, India, and China) to build and run an experimental fusion reactor. I also think we should invest in renewables now.

The individual...you have to start somewhere--with yourself? But individuals live in groups...they aren't found in isolation. That mix of group and individual...the stones on the Go board...the particle/wave strangeness...I think they're all connected. I think there is a way to map our knowledge of the intimacies of nature ("outside"?) to the human situation ("inside"?) I cannae do it because I know too little about the "outside" part...but I think mapping across, using the knowledge to greatest effect...

When man is born, he is tender and weak;
At death, he is hard and stiff.
When the things and plants are alive, they are soft
and supple;
When they are dead, they are brittle and dry.
Therefore hardness and stiffness are the companions of death,
And softness and gentleness are the companions of life.

Therefore when an army is headstrong, it will lose in a battle.
When a tree is hard, it will be cut down.
The big and strong belong underneath.
The gentle and weak belong at the top.

I don't think this is mumbo nonsense, I think it is another attempt to...to eff the ineffable, as melo put it. Yet if this is indeed how nature works, then we can update 2000+ year old attempts at talking to the human condition with our latest knowledge...

For me, these are all means, if used correctly, to closing the gap between self and other, between individual and community...but I'm too dim to make the connections (as my Go playing demonstrates!)

And I may have wandered off topic (moi? ;) so ignore, move on, I just wanted to say something along these lines to try and clarify my thinking somewhat--I thank ET for the space to do so!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Nov 21st, 2006 at 05:43:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Neither am I connected (4.00 / 4)

To a certain extent - for me any way - ET is a refuge where I have learned a great deal as well as being able to tune up my own thinking in the company of tolerance, as well as transdisciplinary expertise. But I'd certainly like it to be much more than a refuge.

We've hit a small wall with the SOS project. The key guy on funding issues just took a job as communications director at one of the largest consulting groups in Finland, and I guess it will be a year before he has much spare time. He will take the hundreds of hours of discussions on SOS and changing the game that we've had, into that new job, and I trust that he will do what he can with it. But I am useless with the official funding application requirements of legalistic BS. They make my blood boil.

So I am thinking now of opening up the SOS discussion here. I'll talk it over with the Man from Lyons tomorrow. The university and business school connections remain solid - maybe I have to persuade them to come here to ET. Give me a little more time.

The students at Kaos Pilot business are the most interesting bunch I've met - and in the end it is they who will change the game (and indeed it was they who invented the slogan). The change is something that will happen with the next generation - the ones who will grow into organizations taking a natural facility with the networking technology that, to me, is driving the phase transition we have entered.

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Nov 21st, 2006 at 05:48:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Just a few questions | 95 comments (95 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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