Monday, October 18, 2010

HW #6

1.
Consolidation of government is critical. This showes how the UK government is taking steps to consolidate...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-13/government-plans-to-announce-it-s-axing-some-of-700-quangos-merge-others.html
The following outlines a system for a unified, democratic, planetary government...
http://future.wikia.com/wiki/Government
World government as defined by Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_government
2.
I am going to attempt to develop a social network, which provides a platform for people to work together to draft legislation in hopes for a better future. This is how it will work: There are four different entities as of right now: individual citizen, organization, politician, and issue. All of these entities will be different in content, but similar in design and search availability. The first, an individual citizen- A profile page. A page where a person can express their views and beliefs, and an area where people can go to follow my action throughout the website. For example, if I make posts on an issue page, another member can see that on my profile page. Secondly, an organization, similar to a person page, but a group of people should be noted. A politician page is a place where people can research / discuss politicians and see what they are doing today, that will in turn, affect the future. And last, and most importantly, an issue page: here people can research / discuss information pertaining to any issue that they like. We will provide a shell of issues, but members can add new issues as they like. Also sub issues will be used as needed. Here people use the data to clarify problems or set goals, then the community tries to theorize solutions to those problems or goals, which we will then consolidate into legislation. We pass along this legislation to congress, a lobbyist, or an organization that supports our cause. For example, the issues: Energy > Natural Gas > Fracture Drilling. I could upload a link to watch the documentary "Gas Land". I could propose the goal: By 2015 any fracture drilling must be x miles from a clean water source. I don't know how to do this, but maybe our members can come up with a valid solution. Another example: say our members come up with legislation to increase the production of wild mills in the US. An organization like Wind Energy Association could team with us for added leverage in trying to pass our legislation.
This project doesn't really examine the future. It is more like examining the present and taking steps for a better future. There will be no governing policy besides for that our solutions are determined democratically and that we are here for progression of humanity.
I will implement this through the Buddy Press plug in for Word Press. Minus domain registration and server costs, it will be free.


3. I do not understand this question

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

homework #5

http://jp.senescence.info/thoughts/transhumanism.html
this deals with the future of brain-augmenting chips/helmets/computers/etc.
 They call it transhumanism, in that people will continue to evolve by a product of technology. This is a very interesting idea and anyone interested in this idea should look at this website. These people advocate the moral right to use technologies, like genetics and nanotechnology, to extend their individual capacities, to surpass natural limits and improve ourselves in both physical and psychological areas.
another on the same subject...
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1679115,00.html
The science of growing body parts

http://www.iheu.org/node/2093
this deals with population control.
this group is called the internal humanist and ethical union.
World-wide birth control by means of immediate and effectual action is necessary to fight the hunger in this world. The unrestrained growth of the world population may be the end of mankind. In countries with a high birth rate more instruction, material encouragement and easily accessible methods of contraception are very necessary. This has to be pursued in spite of religious or ideological opposition.
Another...

this topic deals with creativity with computers / learning. Instead of looking into the distant future I choose to talk about a current issue that shows where we are at now.
http://www.kisaso.com/technology/milo-and-project-natal-the-future-of-ai-and-game-control-science/

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Milo is about to be released and is supposed to revolutionize gaming.
Currently, the environment Milo inhabits is relatively simple.  We follow him around his house, backyard, and neighborhood.  It’s clear, however, that Milo is only the first step toward a new, fully interactive gaming experience.  With the Nintendo 64, game designers took games from 2D graphics into the world of 3D play.  Milo and the AI’s that are sure to follow will take games to the next dimension of human interaction.  Imagine a sidekick in an RPG (role playing game) that can actually carry on complex conversations and sense your moods. Imagine characters that change thanks to your interactions, a world where no two gamers’ opponents or allies are the same.

http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2007/03/the-future-of-education/
favorite point: from teaching to learning

http://www.eldis.org/id21ext/E4mm2g1.html
Distance Learning. An idea that goes back decades, but has yet to be successfully implemented.

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The Last Lecture was inspiring because he had such a positive attitude. Almost every point he made was full of insight into life and what really matters.

I'm still not sure exactly wat I want my topic to be, but I would like to do something about the future of government if that is possible.

TRIZ on Government:
branching out- government could turn into a world government where countries act as states
taking out- government could become more localized by removing a central (nationally focused) main power.
merging- government could merge with business / economics (already has some)
nested doll- government could become more tiered, house, sub house, sub sub house, sub sub sub house continuing until every citizen was accounted for.
dynamics- make it easier for a regular person to get elected by restricting amount of money someone can spend on campaign
another deminition- another powerful political party
make porus- make transparent
homogeneity- work better with other governments
copies- figure out what works best and implement it around the world (we do not currently have the correct answer)
preliminarty anti-action- create legislation against things we know don't work

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Homework #4

I found my picks on Intrade.com. The sections I chose from are: Legal, Politics,  and Science.

The first pick is for Barrack Obama to be the democratic nominee. This costs $8.30 per share and I choose to buy 48 shares for $398.40

The second pick is for the democratic party to win the presidential election. This costs $6.19 per share and I choose to buy 64 shares for a total of $396.16

The third pick is for Romney to be the republican candidate. This costs $3.24 per share and I choose to buy 30 shares for a total of $97.20

The fourth pick is for the Higgs particle to be discovered before Dec 31, 2013. This costs $1.50 per share and I choose to buy 33 shares for $49.50

The fifth pick is for california to legalize marijuana in the November 2010 ballot. This costs $4.02 per share and I choose to buy 14 shares at $56.28

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Homework #3

The delphi method of solving problems uses group knowledge to get an estimate of when something will happen in the future. When this method was preformed on my idea the range went down significantly and the the median also went up considerably. This means that after discussion the group agreed that the population would not increase to a point where a birth control program would be instated for a long time.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Homework #2

"Mr. and Mrs. Future, The board of World Population Commision regets to inform you that your application for child birth has been denied on account of a genetic mutation in the Y-chromosone. Any attempt to bypass your artificial operating system will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In your particular case, there are available medical operations that could possibly fix your mutation. Another option would be to adopt. We apologize if this news is upsetting to you, but this process is in place for the betterment of humanity now and in the future."

This idea is not really that far off. One of the smartest people in the world, Chris Langen, once said that if he was in charge he would implement a world wide birth control program in order to control population and prevent over population.

The world's current growth rate is about 1.3%, representing a doubling time of 54 years. We can expect the world's population of approximately 6 billion to become 12 billion by 2054 if the current rate of growth continues. It has been said that our earth can support life up to 15 billion people. In that case we will see a major population problem within this century barring a large-scale war and / or disease. There are many moral and ethical issues deep rooted in this idea, but the future of humanity depends upon such a program.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Homework #1

Old far fetched sci fi movies were once laughed at when they said, "one day it will be like this," but now people are more open to the idea of living like that. Whenever you blink these days there seems to be some groundbreaking discovery brought to us by technology. And as technology increases and prices go down, more and more people will be able to participate in technology based ventures, which will, in turn, increase technology. This leads me into my first link discussing the Law of Accelerating Returns...
http://research.lifeboat.com/law.htm
This research is written by Ray Zurzweil, American author, inventor and futurist, who is involved with Lifeboat. Their mission statement reads: "The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the singularity." Companies like this safe guard our future and I predict more of organizations like this as we get closer to the singularity and when problems arise in the areas of: "energy (nuclear / solar), food supply, population, fresh water supply, forests and wood supply, global engineering, pollution, biodiversity, various menaces to human survival, and the role of ideology in discussing these matters." A website that goes into further detail on these topics including existential risks and the sustainability of progress is...
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
The last link deals with process of becoming transhumanis, where people improve themselves with all possible technologies available including "life extension, cryonics, nanotechnology, physical and mental enhancements, uploading human consciousness into computers and megascale engineering." This is a scary thought for me, but I find no moral or ethical problem with increasing life potential and duration so I say full speed ahead. This is something that I will definitely be keeping an eye on...
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/index-2.html
...Makes me want to live forever.