The Book of Ashes

What I would like to see... 1:31PM

Is people working together to maximise their output, rather than working towards individual goals which to the whole contribute little or nothing. I'd like to think we're at a stage where we realise our roots, the driving forces that shaped us and brought about our current levels of science and technology. But to some degree we are not. The whole encourages teaching and learning and the scientific method, this raises us to achieve more as individuals and as a group but in reality we are just doing what we were taught to do, nothing more, nothing less. It is society as a whole which has progressed slowly to bring us to this level.

An example at this stage may be of benefit. If you were taken as a child and raised 500 years ago, you would have grown up as a person no smarter or dumber than those around you of your time. You as an individual (and all of us inclusive that are alive today) are not special, it is society and its state that makes you appear smarter than those before you. The opposite is of course also true. A person from that time, brought up in ours, would be just as smart as us. As an individual we are just as dumb and gullible as they were back then. Our only difference is the quality of what our society (read places of learning such as schools) has taught us. Other than that we just do what we were taught, just as people did 500 or 1000 years ago.

Well its not quite that simple. I guess the biggest difference is the methods we are taught such as problem solving, lateral thinking, the scientific method (hypothesis, experiment, conclusion). Although once again these are taught.

The biggest thing I believe is this...

You should not believe anything you are taught, analyse it for what its worth, assign a "truth" weighting to it (how likely is it to be true given the source you got it from and any associated proof) and then use that as a basis in life to add more weight to it or disprove it. Don't believe everything you are taught!

So now we understand what has shaped where we are from why can we not shape where we are going? Lets set an end goal of where we want to be in 1000 years and then set out the steps that need to be accomplished along the way to achieve this goal.

Do we want life to be a fight for the most resources between individuals? Do we want people trying as hard as possible to achieve ownership of as much land as possible only to die and that be their contribution to the world, having taken as much land as possible from others? For this is an example of the reality today. People work as hard as possible to build up their real estate portfolios, to aquire natural resources, companies and ultimately power. It is a side effect of this drive that causes much of our technological development.

It is easy to talk ideals. However it is not easy to implement a plan which works for eveyone to head towards these ideals.

Lets look at available potential at 100% efficiency. Lets take the resources required by a country for food production, that required to support and keep alive its people. These days this is not that much but for our standard of living there is a lot that comes with it. This includes electricity supply, fresh water supply, transportation over land, sea and air and the required maintainence and support of each of these services. And this is only the start, from there we require clothing, plates, knives and forks to eat with and pots and pans to cook in. The list is on going. Each service sits at the end of a chain of services from retrieving the raw natural resources to refining them, turning them into a product and then transporting them to the final destination. Each step is a business and requires management to run smoothly.

Straight away we find ourselves in our current situation whereby we have many different businesses all operating to provide services. We then find that people perform the best when the rewards are highest, e.g. capitalism. Supply and demand whereby the highest salaries are commanded by those with the most ability to get them (not always the most deserving however). This gives a country an economic advantage over other countries and whereas centuries ago it used to be superior force that allowed countries to take over other countries, these days it is economic power that gives a country the most advantage (given that most wars are now fought with guns, tanks, missiles and bombs it is the country that can afford the most weapons and development into those weapons that becomes the most powerful).

While we still compete within ourselves (and we are) we cannot work together.

There is however a new model that is emerging. It is not complete in its forming yet as the technology that is driving it is not quite there. I speak of course of the internet and its ability to connect minds and ideas. The current online phenomenom of social networking and communities allows people to quickly share ideas and formulate opinions and the growing arena of open source software and ideas is fostering an almost cult like following. This represents a possible future, that I think is inevitable but I cannot know.

The final outcome must be every mind linked just as today many computers are linked via instant messaging applications. Straight away I can see what music my friend is listening to, whether he is on his computer or not and I can talk to him quickly and efficiently. What if we extend this idea. I have an interest in physics. I'm sitting at home cooking dinner when an idea about quantum entaglement comes through. A guy in India believes that ..etc etc.. and I am interested. I think his idea through and perhaps suggest a few things. A million other people have also heard his idea, some have made suggestions. Ideas can now germinate much faster and this is just the tip of the ice berg...

Steps:

1. Email on computers
   
2. Instant messaging on computers
   
3. Instant messaging on hand held devices
   
4. Add in further feedback (user is awake, asleep, running, at this GPS coordinate, with these people, ability to hear what they hear, see what they see, etc)
   
5. Device is integrated into the body (nervous system).

Soon there will be no alone...