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Hi everyone. Yep, it's been a long time since I wrote anything for Future Hi or anywhere else for that matter. I've been so busy with more practical matters that finding the time to express my thoughts publicly has not been possible.
Indictments and Political Scandal
As you may have heard, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff was indicted on five felony counts. In those moments where I take politics seriously, this could be a big deal and make me happy, but it doesn't. It's quite possible these indictments are only the beginning of seeing this criminal adminstration fall from power as much as it deserves to. Regardless of the probability of that, it all doesn't matter. The damage has already been done. America's reputation has been shattered, the deficts are soaring, dramatic increases in police state powers have been essentially cemented into law , etc., yada, yada, ad nauseum. Basically, the entire political game is a dead end for you, me and humanity. I can't possibly think how any reform, no matter how sweeping will make much of a difference. Politics is dead, lets move on.
Post-Politics:
If we hope to have a future, we need to start thinking post-politically. Some people, might have a problem with that whole concept. They think that has long as individual interact with each other, there will be politics. This is not true. As Timothy Leary made a strong case for, politics is rooted in power struggles within the contraints of a planetary 2-dimensional surface. Iain Banks makes the most compelling case I've ever read. As long as we remain on a planet, there is limited space in which we can travel. Any direction we decide to go in, we will inevitable end up back where we started. All corners of the globe have in some way been explored, colonized, utilized, cordoned off, walled, fenced, enclosed, patented, owned, copyrighted, raped and plundered. There is no wild and free frontier left, no place left to explore or to escape to. Sure, there are some places more free than others, but the differences are often trivial. For most people on the planet, life is hard, brutish and short. For those of us lucky enough to be in the developed world, the walls are closing in, fast. But,
End of Hierarchies and Traditional Power Structures:
Don't loose hope folks, because things are a accelerat'n! The current system with all its corruption, greed and shear stupidity and incompetence can't last much longer. Not only from an environmental and sustainable point of view, but because there is rapid, but still deep current change underway. It's all around us, and it's happening without anyone noticing much. It's not some big monolithic light from the sky change that we are archetypically expecting, but a much more subtle and profound change happening that we won't notice until its already happened. These changes are all around us. Humanity is waking up. People are becoming more aware, we are taking all of these tools and technologies for granted. The network is growing, and will continue to grow. Meanwhile, what we actually see with our traditional conditioning is more laws, copyrights, restrictions and so on. It's all an illusion folks. They only exist if you believe they exist. Most, if not all of these new laws are almost entirely uneforceable. The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to network intelligence, peer to peer technologies, free internet, sustainable energy systems, etc.
Power of the Network:
Here is an example of some of the stuff that the power of the network is producing by motivated programmers:
Netsukuku the Anarchical Parallel Internet (Internet)
Developed by the Freaknet, Netsukuku is a new p2p routing system, which will be utilised to build a worldwide distributed, anonymous and anarchical network, separated from the Internet, without the support of any servers, ISPs or authority controls. In a p2p network every node acts as a router, therefore in order to solve the problem of computing and storing the routes for 2^128 nodes, Netsukuku makes use of a new meta-algorithm, which exploits the chaos to avoid cpu consumption and fractals to keep the map of the whole net constantly under the size of 2Kb. Netsukuku includes also the Abnormal Netsukuku Domain Name Anarchy, a non hierarchical and decentralised system of hostnames management which replaces the DNS. It runs on GNU/Linux.
On the alternative energy front:
don't even know where to begin. Breakthroughs in this area are happening almost daily. If you've been reading blogs like World Changing, you'll see that there is so much going on with alternative energy now, that it is now impossible to keep up with the overwhelming rapid pace of global conversion to post-peak-oil alternatives.
Canda Proposing 30 GW wind farm in far north
On the space migration front:
Spaceship One and Two, and then Space Ship Three hold so much promise. There are only the beginning, but they are the first genuine steps of humanity getting off of the planet. With the advent of mass produced nanotubes, we could soon see the commercial construction of several space elevators. Space elevators mean price to space in the hundreds of dollars. Hundreds to change your life forever. What does this mean for the space game? It means that almost everyone who wants to go will go. When you have millions, billions of people who can now afford to go to space, there will be the infrastructure to support it. Every enterprising, capitalizing individual or group will make sure of that. Because the profit potential of this will be enormous beyond all comprehension. To give you an idea, imagine what the total World Gross Product is today. It will triple within the first 5 years of a sub-$1000 price to orbit, and after that it will continue to grow at a conservative 20% a year. Imagine the total economy of humanity growing by 20% a year. You are not rich now? You will be, and so will everyone else. Nothing will ever be the same after this.
I can already hear people, saying, "But what about molecular nanotechnology?". Yes! What's amazing about the above figures is all of that is possible without molecular nanotech. It only requires some master of nanomaterial construction. Once nanotech assemblers hit the scence, things will really take off.
On the longevity front:
If you make it the next 20 years, you're going to live damn near forever. So you might as well accept it. :)
So, what's in store in the next 20 years and beyond
Have fun! Now for me, back to the work at hand. :)
Over the last few months I have been wanting to re-contextualize Future Hi beyond its psychedelic roots. I don't want to water it down any, only redefine with a context that embraces a radically "high" future where psychedelics are more clearly a part of rather than the core of the site. What specifically do I have in mind. First would be to take the 'Celebrating the rebirth of psychedlic futurism' off and replace it with something else, but that still captures the higher levels of consciousness-vibe. Does anyone have any suggestions?
As for the content, everything will remain, but I would like to see an increased emphasis on expanding the non-psychedelic portions of the site (i.e spaceship earth, alternative energy and sustainability, community building, dreaming and psi, hedonics and paradise engineering, immortality, the cosmic frontier, other forms of I squared and consciousness expansion, transhumanism, and increasing coverage of new paradigms beyond materialism and reductionism.
Sorry for the delay in posting. As many of you know I was at Minds 6 this year. My primary reason for going was to meet people I've come to know online. I made a point this year of working the event the opening day. I was lucky enough to find myself working the reception desk, which meant that I stamped every persons hand who came in. This turned out to be a rather intimate experience, as this was most people’s first impression as they came in. With years of customer service behind my belt, I made a point of being very friendly, and making a variety of jokes as people came in. The stamp was a large copyright symbol. I told many people that now they have been stamped, they have also been copyrighted, scanned, cataloged and assimilated. It made for some good laughs. Before people could get stamped, they had to pass through the opening door with ticket in hand. This was worked by a lady who worked for the Palace of Fine Arts - so she knew nothing about who we are, and the people and celebrities of our community. Since I know a lot of people in the community, including many of the speakers this year, I was able to smooth this process. It was quite funny when she tried to stop Sasha Shulgin. I don't think he had a ticket, but with Sasha this event would probably not even exist! Sasha is like royalty, and so we made sure he got the red carpet treatment.
Another celebrity was John Gilmore. A lot of people don't know who he is, but for me he is also a celebrity. I told the lady to let him in without checking his ticket, and then stamped him right away. He tried to tell me who he was, and I said, "Hi John, yep, I know you who are. How's that lawsuit coming along?” John turns out to be a really nice guy. Later, seeing how tired I was, he offered me some chocolate beans from Peru that kick started me again.
There were lots of great presentations. Mark Pesce managed to record his entire presentation using his Ipod around his neck. Mark's presentation was smooth, brilliant and hilarious. Definitely the best he has ever given. Here is the torrent.
Mark Pesce - Hyperpeople.torrent
On Saturday night, a whole bunch of us including Mark, Earth and Fire Erowid and myself went out to dinner. I ended up leaving my cell phone there. I didn't realize it until I was already back at the conference. This ended up becoming a kind of epic search. I went back to the restaurant, and the waitress told me that a guy with silver hair had picked it up. There were about 15 people in our group. When I got back to the conference, I was able to figure out who that was; unfortunately a new round of talks had begun and would not end until 10pm. So I waited until those were over. I finally spotted him coming out, and he told me that "The Finish Guy" had it. Then I had to remember what he looked like. Fortunately others in our group remembered his face. Also being Finish he was quite tall, so we were able to spot him. Sure enough he had the phone. I was hugely relieved and we all laughed about it. Mark ended up taking a picture with his camera phone of the Finish guy and myself, and then we got a picture of Mark and myself here:
The next morning was Sunday, and it turned out to be a picture perfect day. The temperatures were in the high 70's. I could not have asked for a more beautiful day - it was glorious. If you have ever been to San Francisco, you might understand the rarity of such days. Mark Twain once said, "The coldest winter I ever knew was a summer in San Francisco." I ended up taking tons of pictures. Here is a classic post-card shot I took that day.
I wanted to hear Alex Grey talk, so we rushed back just in time to hear it. Afterwards I was walking around the vendor’s area when LVX23 called my name. It was delightful to finally meet him. We ended up getting caught up in conversation with several others. I was pretty tired by then, so I stepped out of the conversation to grab some tea. I was walking around when I came across this guy doing some yoga in the chill space. I can't tell you how I knew, but I just knew I had to meet this guy. When I sat down next to him, he said he had just begun to explain Kundalini yoga. However, I quickly discovered that he wasn't explaining it so much as actually getting me to do it! Within 3 or 4 minutes I was getting very relaxed and centered. As we worked through the charkas, I could feel my kundalini actually move up my spine. I have been doing various forms of mediation and yoga for 20 years. I like to think I have a really great and powerful system to work through powerful energies and resolved any kind of negative emotion or pain. However, with what was happening with me here was beyond description. This young buddha-teacher, who goes by name of Anson Vogt, was articulating all these things that I had been waiting to hear for years. I really can't explain it much better than that, only to say he said all the things I have needed to hear for a very long time. As the energy moved through my heart chakra, and up past my throat chakra towards my crown, I went into this profound state of love and bliss like I had never felt before. The whole world become unified in my consciousness. I could feel my head become the sky. I could no longer remain sitting, and I laid on my back as I wept tears of joy. As this happened, my whole life took on new meaning. Many of the "issues" I had been struggling with resolved immediately. I had multiple epiphanies simultaneously. It suddenly became clear precisely where my life is heading next, what I need to do. There is way too much to tell here, and much of it is intensely personal. Needless to say I am a changed person, and I have never felt so good before. I'm still high today, a week after this experience. I have a new found respect for the power of kundalini yoga, and plan on integrating it more profoundly into my work going forward.
Who would have thought that at Mind States, a conference largely devoted to the drug experience, would find myself having one of the most sublimely transformative experiences without drugs. I am very grateful I went.
Something that I found via Bruce Sterling's blog at Wired, it seems like an amazing idea :
'WHAT IS A CORPORATE COMMAND?
A Corporate Command is an instruction work, a call to action in the form of an imperative:
"Just Do It"
"Turn on the Future"
"Live without Limits"
"Tap into great taste"
"Think different"
"Ride the light"
"Live Like You Mean It"
It is the hypothesis of the Institute for Infinitely Small Things that these commands, largely and consciously ignored by a public over-saturated with advertisements, function at the scale of the infinitely small. Tiny events that do not disturb one's consciousness or disrupt one's identity as "free" agents, these commands seep under the surface of the individual and lay claim to the territory of the Deleuzian Virtual. Desire, memory, and future potentiality become territories for conquest and tactics for social and political control.
By compiling, tabulating, concretizing and enacting these commands in the International Database of Corporate Commands (IDCC), the Institute for Infinitely Small Things seeks to better understand the mechanisms behind this deployment of power and its larger cultural ramifications.'
This is from The Institute for Infinitely Small Things, if you want to add any corporate commands yourself, you can add them to Corporatecommands.com
Since so many of us are in a funk, I thought I'd share some news over the past few weeks of positive things happening in the world, or just some fun and weird inspirational tidbits:
Putin Signs Kyoto - It's official. President Putin signed Russia into the Kyoto treaty today. It was the last country needed in order for the treaty to go into effect; ninety days after Russia submits the paperwork to the UN, the treaty goes into effect for the 126 nations that signed it. See the NY Times article for details. - What's so ironic about this now, is that the US in it's refusal to sign it, will now have devastating results on America's economy and its ability to do business with those countries who did sign it. Stupid.
Kiwi Power - New Zealand Wind Farm Delivers 90 Mega Watts - Meridian Energy's Te Apiti wind farm in the Tararua ranges is now capable of delivering its full 90 MW capacity to New Zealand's national grid, enough to power some 45,000 average homes. The project's 55th and last wind turbine has now been fully commissioned almost exactly a year after construction began on the country's -- and the Southern Hemisphere's -- largest wind farm.
Kiwi Zorbs - This looks like a blast. Here is a video from National Geographic.
Hermit Tunes In, Turns on and Drops Out on Los Alamos Land - Roy Michael Moore, a 56-year-old who grew up in Amarillo, said he came to Los Alamos about four years ago for a "very distinct reason": to get the attention of scientists working on the most complex cosmological problems of the universe and introduce them to his unifying theory. Mike, as he calls himself, has come to be known as either the "caveman" or the "hermit," depending on to whom you talk, since he was discovered on Oct. 13 living in a well-appointed cave in a deep, wooded canyon on Los Alamos National Laboratory property. "I think it is just heaven on earth," he said about his former home. What the intruders found was a bit startling. Moore had made himself a home in a south-facing cave— "the most beautiful views in town, no irritating neighbors"— complete with photovoltaic solar panels, batteries to store the solar energy, satellite radio, wood-burning stove, a bed and a glass door sealed across the cave's entrance. Here's Mike personal website which is very extensive and goes over all of his theories, philosophy, and autobiography.
Hydrogen Car Powered By Sunlight - A teacher called Cory Waxman and his students have built the only self-sustaining hydrogen vehicle that uses a conventional internal-combustion engine. The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water, a technical feat that rivals the advanced technology being researched by major auto companies and universities. The four-cylinder engine is tuned to run on hydrogen, which is produced by a hand-built electrolysis system mounted in the bed.
Solar Energy UK: Solar Power for All New Homes - Here's a link to the Gaurdian Article.
Car That Runs on Compressed Air
Self Sufficient Desert Home - Last summer, eight students at the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning designed a three-bedroom desert home that generates its own electricity and water and is situated in Bluff, Utah, 22 miles from the nearest town. The house is built of an energy-efficient material known as rammed earth. Solar panels generate enough electricity to light the house and power small appliances, while the stove and fridge are fueled by propane. But the most striking element is the 2,500-square-foot "butterfly" roof floating over the house to collect rainwater. One inch of rainfall fills the house's cistern, which supplies water to the kitchen and bathroom. Construction of the house, done with volunteer student labor and recycled materials, took 16 weeks and cost $21,219.58.
High Tech Buildings Use Sunlight, Sea Water to Save Energy
Open-Source Currency - Future Hi pal Douglas Rushkoff has a new piece in The Feature. Handheld wireless technology stands ready to enable what's known as the "complementary currency" movement in ways so powerful that the dominance of national currencies such as the dollar and the euro may soon be called into question. This is not as preposterous a scenario as it sounds. After all, it's only been since the Renaissance that nation-states have been powerful enough to corner the money market. Before then, most municipalities developed their own currencies, often basing them on very different principles than the ones we use to justify our currencies today.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity - I especially found this one particularly relevant - A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. As one of the major themes of this site, I think human stupidity is the world's biggest problem over all other problems combined. If intelligence and the critical thinking skills that go along with could be increased across the board, all of other problems could be solved.
Smart Drugs are Back - At least 40 potential cognitive enhancers are currently in clinical development, says Harry Tracy, publisher of NeuroInvestment, an industry newsletter based in Rye, New Hampshire. Some could reach the market within a few years. For millions, these breakthroughs could turn out to be lifesavers or, at the very least, postpone the development of a devastating disease. In America alone, there are currently about 4.5m people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and their ranks are expected to grow to 6m by 2020. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), defined as memory loss without any significant functional impairment, is estimated to afflict at least another 4.5m people. Because the majority of MCI patients will eventually develop Alzheimer's, many doctors believe that intervening in the early stages of the disease could significantly delay its onset.
(Link via Technoccult, via R.U. Sirius)
Electric Currents Boost Brain Power - New research has found that running a mild electric current through your brain can significantly boost your verbal skills, with no side-effects, as far as anyone knows so far. Very interesting. It appears to decrease the firing threshold of neurons in the path of the current. This research was applied mainly to the frontal lobe of the brain. I wonder what it might do to other brain regions? Fascinating discovery.
(Link via Nova Spivack)
One of the most recent and striking crop circles yet.
My theory is that these are human made and that when all the evidence is examined, the stalks are getting microwaved on only one side, which would cause them to create tension an therefore bend downward. This would allow them to continue growing because their stalks are not broken. The patterns are generated using a complex pre-designed template that tells the microwave been precisely where to paint the image. Who knows where this beam comes from. I suspect it comes from some kind of very high altitude dirigible. This would be an ideal platform since it is both stable and undetectable from the ground. There is some compelling evidence that such very large, very high altitude dirigibles exist. A few years ago some striking daytime footage (video link) from Northern Arizona showing what appears to be a very large cigar shaped object slowly moving across the ski at very high altitudes. Jim Dilettoso of Village Labs, who specializes in advance digital image analysis concluding the object is probably in excess of a mile long and flying at an altitude of at least 80-100,000 feet! Who knows what these guys with black budgets do with all their money. Did you know that the SR-71 project cost more than the Apollo Moon project and nobody knew of its existence for 25 years?
High Oil Prices Might Be A Blessing In Disguise - An increase in the price of oil will cause great short-term hardship to all the industrialized economies. It will also throw the emerging economies into recession or depression. However, the increase in prices also undoes the second half of Saudi planning. Alternative energy and technology become affordable at the higher price point. Instead of solar prices falling to the "magic number". Oil prices have risen to create a new "magic number". Doubling oil prices has almost the same same effect as halving solar prices. Increases in oil prices make solar power more competitive. The same applies to other alternative energy sources such as wind, hydrogen, hydro, geothermal, biomass, tidal, and biodiesel. Each increase in prices increases the viability of other energy sources. It may not be necessary for the other source to be cheaper, just cheap enough.
The Longevity Gene - Technology Review reports that MIT Professor Leonard Guarente may have found the genetic factor that allows mice undergoing 'caloric restriction' to live up to 30% longer. It's long been known that cutting down food intake by about 1/3 can extend the lifespan of mammals by up to 50%. Professor Guarente has found that manipulating a single gene -- the SIRT1 gene -- can produce longer mice lives without caloric restriction. What's more, all mammals -- including humans -- have a similar gene.
Drugs and the Nation - The election results show there is still substantial support for liberalizing the nation's drug laws – just not too far or too fast.
As you may have noticed Future Hi is back. We were down for over 3 weeks. In that time I had lots to write but not outlet in which to express it. And as blogging tends to go, unless you write it while it's hot it's can loose it relevance. No matter, I'm really happy to be blogging again, it's just that I'm a bit rusty having not written a single word in almost a month.
While Future Hi was down, the last few weeks have been amazing for me personally. I met some wonderful new friends and had a uniquely powerful experience which is inspiring me in all sorts of new directions.
Big kudos to LVX23 for his prolific and colorful contributions.