Friday 30 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 10 - Open Memetics real-time sci-fi cybernetics

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

I had 6 hours of sleep to fuel yesterday's replying spree over at /r/sciencefiction: Negative/Dystopian Narratives limit our imagination and may help create what we fear. Where are the stories of positive, instructive (near-term), sci-fi based in equality, cooperation, connectivity and civil abundance?

Aside from a mild bit of trolling, I spent most of the day putting together replies to try to really shape it into a fantastic post.  I brought in a lot of links from some of my previous work and to other works, as well as cross connecting quite a few of the comments where discussion overlapped.

I made some replies to a post on /r/environment: David Attenborough interview: "The only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth...'It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde.'"

 Here was my reply:
This is a great example of what we were just talking about a couple days back on /r/sciencefiction:
Negative/Dystopian Narratives limit our imagination and may help create what we fear. Where are the stories of positive, instructive (near-term), sci-fi based in equality, cooperation, connectivity and civil abundance?

and the day before on /r/DarkFuturology:
Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

The premise is a worldview of division, stratification, self and other, etc. From this worldview foreign intervention is seen as the only real possibility.

If we were to come from the angle of permaculture, cooperation, abundance, etc, the possibilities expand. Its the difference between isolation and connection on the individual (peer) level.
on r/collapse, on r/environment, on r/DarkFuturology, on r/Anticonsumption


Found a really cool website for exploring culture in tv film book music game etc. TV Tropes Wiki

I have also put quite a bit of work into content for the /r/OpenMemetics sub:

Open Memetics as real-time sci-fi cybernetics for Open Society. Participatory Governance of civil internetworks, culture jamming, hyperstition:

From this post:
The Great Memetic Pandemic of 2015 was the spark that set fire to ego, and united the movements of consciousness. The long awaited chance to defuse exponential exploitation had arrived, and the tiny Blue Dot was almost ready to meet the stars. Once a whisper, the call had reached crescendo: Create, Connect, Converge!
[...]
Fate is not about a known or set future. Fate is about unconscious behavior. Fate is comfortable, automated behavior. Fate is a narrow set of possibility. Fate is about not participating in your own future.

From a comment of mine:


I am trying in part to point out how our sci-fi stories do not seem to pierce the hyperstition, the unconscious leading-edge wave of cultural narrative, for the positive. From Hyperstition post:
“Popular anxieties about the uncertainties of the future procured by rapid change are not merely the issue of ignorance,” explains historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto. “Rather they are symptoms of a world in the grip of ‘future shock'” (2001:556). Those who find change unbearable not only expect it to become uncontainable but work to make it so by fanning the flames of paranoia. ‘Future shock’ is one mechanism whereby hyperstition works to bring about the causal conditions for apocalypse. Once started, a hyperstition spreads like a virus and with unpredicatable effects. They are “chinese puzzle boxes, opening to unfold to reveal numerous ‘sorcerous’ interventions in the world of history,” explains Land (http://CCRU.net).
The operating system has loaded a bit of a virus called civilization. This is a great opportunity to point to the Dark Mountain project. Uncivilization | The Dark Mountatin Manifesto (not positive how active this movement is).
They call uncivilization that which I prefer to call Civilization 2.0. We can call it the upgrade to abundance motivated cooperation of peers (fundamental equality). The Dark Mountain project seems to acknowledge that art is very important to help shape culture (creative expression bypasses ego defenses).
I also like to highlight the importance of creative expression, or narrative (stories, art, humor, etc), in connection with the latest in scientifically understood possibility! This is sci-fi! How else do we make rapid changes to our culture without first imaging what we are currently doing and could be doing right now towards what. Some form of Open Memetics to keep the discussions connected and converged could accelerate this process greatly. Prosumers of our own culture, we could weave possibility (narrative) in real-time.

It's Friday night so that means time to kick back and enjoy the weekly jam + day of rest and lan games.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 8 - Science Fiction, where are the stories?

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

Posted to /r/sciencefiction:

I made a video and a few posts yesterday exploring the impact of negative narratives on our perception of possibility. I am looking for positive narratives, better experiences, a kiss to build a dream on. Star Trek is a great example, but its too far in the future to be useful. How do we get from here to there?

Let me share a story...
13'000 years ago, Omni was the foundation for meaningful human existence. During the development of agriculture and domestication, humans were accidentally mistaken for livestock. The sacred consciousness which lifted us out of the animal kingdom was repressed in every possible way so that we may again submit to those above us, and dominate those below.
Not paper and pen, printing press, radio, nor television broadcast could escape the clutches of exploitation until industry of the late 20th century wrapped the planet in a tangled mess of wire. The great forces of isolation and disconnection were smashed and scattered by this internet, but the cosmic battle raged on, with re-doubling of efforts directed through broadcast media and dark magic.
It was, however, too late, as the cat was out of the bag. The blockchain had already arrived, and began to consume the hierarchy, leaving deep green abundance of spontaneous self-organization in its wake. The Great Memetic Pandemic of 2015 was the spark that set fire to ego, and united the movements of consciousness. The long awaited chance to defuse exponential exploitation had arrived, and the tiny Blue Dot was almost ready to meet the stars. Once a whisper, the call had reached crescendo: Create, Connect, Converge!

/r/sciencefiction: ^- Negative/Dystopian Narratives limit our imagination and may help create what we fear. Where are the stories of positive, instructive (near-term), sci-fi based in equality, cooperation, connectivity and civil abundance?


The post also contained the full text of yesterday's: Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

I have to give credit to /u/FuturePrimative for giving me the idea to ask /r/sciencefiction about the stories that I am looking for.

/r/sorceryofthespectacle: Hyperstition on /r/sciencefiction - negative narratives - where are the stories? I linked this subreddit in because they're pretty interested in this stuff and might have some good input.

Pretty much replying to the replies... its a late night. I want to have the replies done for the morning so that discussion may continue with some fresh input. Aaand it's 5AM. This is a good example of why 9-5 "employment" is a distraction against social participation. And its 6:30 zzzzzzz..

One of the last conversations I participated in last night, having all kinds of fun

Tuesday 27 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 7 - Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?)

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday putting this video together. I have realized that if I want to post something in the morning, it has to be done the day before or it won't be done in time.

I am just going to repost the write-up which I have submitted to a few subReddits. The idea is to get multiple communities engaged in the same discussion so that different perspectives can interact. The way that Reddit is designed is for isolation and against persistence. So I am trying to link together different communities, and provide persistence through linking to the posts in this blog.

It seems that our tv shows and movies are painting a picture of armageddon, doomsday, and collapse at the same time endless negative news keeps us in a constantly fearful reactive state. We are shown that when bad things happen, police states, shadowy organizations, artificial intelligence like skynet, gangs and tribalistic behavior take over. The scenarios we are exposed to paint a limited range of possibilities based on scarcity, fear, deception, and exploitation.

Is it possible that this view of human isolation will unconsciously funnel us into these patterns of behavior in the case that the current order is lost? Are we so distracted and fearful that we cannot break away to build a positive world that we all seem to want?

We already have the ability to replace third party trust with technologies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The central bank is obsolete, and so are government and corporate hierarchical structures of deception and exploitation. It is possible to build a society based on open and provable cryptography. We can replace imports using 3d printing technology, we can drive massive efficiency gains through sharing technology and automated abundance. We can connect with each other again!

However, we are very distracted by analysis of news and conspiracies. There is no end to this. We might do better to assume that corruption and conspiracy is a pervasive fact of life and move on. Yes, they should be cataloged to inform our realm of possibility, but to get stuck in reactive analysis is the unconscious behavior of a captive mind.

Unconscious automated behavior is pervasive in society. It's how we can sleepwalk through our job, its how we eat without tasting, its how we make love without connection, it is the dead patterns of society.

Fate is not about a known or set future. Fate is about unconscious behavior. Fate is comfortable, automated behavior. Fate is a narrow set of possibility. Fate is about not participating in your own future.
/r/Collapse: Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

/r/Conspiracy: Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

/r/sorceryofthespectacle: Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

/r/DarkFuturology: Negative Narratives (or, do you believe in fate Neo?) - Are we consumed by a fearful reactive state? Is constant exposure to negative narrative creating the future we fear?

 

Saturday 24 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 4 - Photohunting Cool Water Snake + Bonus Cat!

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

    /\__/\
   /`    '\
 === 0  0 ===
   \  --  /
  /        \
 /          \
|            |
 \  ||  ||  /
  \_oo__oo_/#######o 
。^・ェ・^。

 "I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior." - Hippolyte Taine
With the image of the lion in mind, the Egyptians built the Sphinx, a huge effigy of the Sun God, with the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh, and they also worshipped the goddess Sekhmet, who with the head of a lion (see picture) was the goddess of war, who descended to the earth to destroy the enemies of Ra, and was known as the Eye of Ra. Amongst the list of Egyptian feline goddess we find Mau, a personification of Ra as a cat (Mau being the ancient Egyptian word for cat); Tefnut, a lion headed goddess whose name means Moisture and represents one of the most primeval forces of creation; and Mafdet, a goddess of protection. In an Ancient Egyptian spell which repels snakes, the protection of Mafdet is invoked: 'O cobra, I am the flame which shines on the brows of the Chaos-gods of the Standard of Years. Begone from me, for I am Mafdet!'

And: Bast, like Sekhmet was often said to be the daughter of Ra, and she was the protector of cats and those who took care of cats; her gifts were joy and pleasure [...] She also had an annual festival, which seems to have been one of the most popular in the whole of Egypt, accompanied by loud music and chanting. [...] Indeed, there is evidence that the Egyptians viewed them as aspects of the same divine force - Sekhmet being the violent aspect of the divine sun, and Bast being its gentler aspect.
- Cats and World Mythology,

A side note on toxoplasmosis: Often children were consecrated to Bastet - a cut was made on their arm and drops of cat blood poured into it.

Toxoplasma gondii: Infection with T. gondii has been shown to alter the behavior of mice and rats in ways thought to increase the rodents’ chances of being preyed upon by cats.[...]Rats infected with the parasite show increased levels of activity and decreased neophobic behavior.

Neophobia wiki: Robert Anton Wilson theorized, in his book Prometheus Rising, that neophobia is instinctual in people after they become parents and begin to raise children. Wilson's views on neophobia are mostly negative, believing that it is the reason human culture and ideas do not advance as quickly as our technology. [...] Neophobia, cainotophobia or cainophobia is the fear of anything new, especially a persistent and abnormal fear. In its milder form, it can manifest as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/base
Cats: An omen of the goddess Sekhmet.
If firearms are the great equalizer in the material realm (geo/biosphere), perhaps the internet plays a similar role of equalization in the immaterial (noosphere?). It is fitting that the internet would be heralded and propelled by cat-based karma. Ra open your eyes! Mafdet release the memetic fires! Bast, let us celebrate, let us party, let there be joy!

~
Ancient Music in the Pines
An Omni Syntheist shrine to the cat goddess Bastet. 

Some good discussion continuing over on /r/PoliticalDiscussion: Is politics based on human trust of opaque hierarchies a dead-end? How do we overcome deception and exploitation when it's formalized as the profit motive which drives our overall economy?



Friday 23 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 3 - Political (Hierarchy) vs Civil (Network)

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

I spent a lot of time yesterday and even a bit today covering questions about GeoTabs. The response has been really great! A lot of excellent questions and engagement, and the best part is that I still haven't come across any criticisms which couldn't be properly addressed.

I didnt wake up this morning and say "Today I'm going to troll Bill Gates," but it happened, although probably no one will notice ;)

Continuing on my Twitter fun, I challenged Elan Lee (co-creator of Exploding Kittens) to a race to see who can get more money for their Kickstarter campaign. It turns out that the "Exploding Kittens" campaign was launched a mere two hours after mine!

His campaign to make a russian roulette style card game based on exploding kitties (which admittedly I cant help but love the awesomeness of) has garnered over $3.5 Million with over 90k backers. $100k was raised in just the first hour of the campaign!

I am still showing a strong rally of $110 at this time and the pace is just not letting up! I think this is a testament to the power of the social network, if you have it.

The irony is that Open Memetics would give an avenue for really innovative ideas to make it into the culture. It would not matter if you know one person or 1 million, a good idea is a good idea. I know that there are many people out there with awesome ideas who are unable to make it past the noise. Unfortunately an Open Memetics system doesn't exist yet to help me spread the idea of Open Memetics.

I kept it pretty simple with the posting today and put my effort into this post on /r/PoliticalDiscussion: Is politics based on human trust of opaque hierarchies a dead-end? How do we overcome deception and exploitation when it's formalized as the profit motive which drives our overall economy? This discussion linked in today's video as well as the CryptoTown Global Consciousness Memeplex.
 
There have been some good responses so far, and I am pleasantly surprised that it has not been buried!


I also made a post on /r/OpenMemetics: Work to be done: Identifying the major areas of development for Open Memetics

There has been quite a bit of interest shown in this work, but I think a lot of work needs to be done to identify the scope and methods.










Thursday 22 January 2015

CryptoTown Day 2 - Create, Connect, Converge - Transition and Permaculture

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

I attended the monthly Transition Barrie meet-up yesterday (third Wednesday of each month 7pm at City Hall).

A transition/permaculture video was screened titled Words from the Edge. Its worth a watch. I think that the most important points to me were that none of us know exactly what the future will look like or how this will work but we should explore with an open mind. Another challence is overcoming cognitive dissonance that states that we know it is not sustainable but at the same time we like how things are.

A positive feedback loop of crises emerges from an economy based on greed and profit, builds a culture of not caring. Those who can do nothing don't care, those who are driven by greed are motivated to not care. Concentration of power influences political power and our structure of government changes. 1 Billion people are going hungry not because the land cannot support them, but because the industrial system sucks every grain out to feed animals and produce biofuel. Half of the hungry people in the world today are producers of food but cannot consume it.  - paraphrasing Vandana Shiva

Permaculture gives power to people on the ground. It changes the culture of people to care about the land and that culture spreads outwards. For this reason, systems of power and control will not help from the top down. In fact, they would only be motivated to scatter such efforts, if anything.

Activity so far today:

Twitter
CryptoTown Day 1 - Create, Connect, Converge - Why & how we should all be on the same page youtube.com/watch?v=GdJ...

Reddit
CryptoTown Day 1 - Create, Connect, Converge - Why and how we should all be on the same page - Open Memetics

Operation Unfuck the Hivemind (on /r/evolutionReddit)

CryptoTown Day 1 - Create, Connect, Converge - Why and how we should all be on the same page - Open Memetics

CryptoTown Memeplex - A guide for Planetary Consciousness and Civilization 2.0 in 2015. Kill the profit motive with local abundance!

CryptoTown Day 1 - Create, Connect, Converge - Why and how we should all be on the same page - Open Memetics

CryptoTown Memeplex - A guide for Planetary Consciousness and Civilization 2.0 in 2015. Let's guide our own culture with Open Memetics

CryptoTown Day 1 - Create, Connect, Converge - Discussion out of Transition Barrie meeting, how to get the youth involved in permaculture and connect movements. Open Memetics.



Wednesday 21 January 2015

Kickstarter Campaign Launch!

http://cryptotown.org
@CryptoTown
Kickstarter: http://kck.st/1ul9X8g

It was a Super New Moon yesterday and a great time to kick off my crowdfunding efforts! I spent all day putting it together. I have been trying to balance work with exercise and meditation and other things, but sometimes those 12 hour days come along...

Last night I only had time to begin engaging friends and family via Facebook and to make one quick tweet: Crowdfunded - Help me help you!  

Today I made two posts to Reddit on the Rad_Decentralization sub and the DarkNetPlan sub to try to get feedback on my GeoTabs system. I also threw in the CryptoTown Memeplex for good measure. All exposure is good, and the memeplex is relevant to these subs. I also included a link to retweet the above tweet.

GeoTabs - Internet 2.0? Client-Service model augmented/replaced by web of trust peer based flow. Opinions appreciated. Bonus: CryptoTown Memeplex - Civilization 2.0 - Equality - Abundance

GeoTabs - Internet 2.0? I am releasing all work I have done on this in the hopes that it's useful. Bonus: CryptoTown Memeplex - Civilization 2.0 - Equality - Abundance

Moving on to Twitter, I dont have so many followers, so when I make a post not many people see it. I am trying another strategy to tailor posts to specific accounts which resonate well with the CryptoTown memeplex. I have made a few posts already which simply try to offer something profound for the account's followers that they might be willing to share. If this happens on a large account it could spark a lot of interest.

https://twitter.com/CryptoTown/status/557930707390316544
https://twitter.com/CryptoTown/status/557934042302410753
https://twitter.com/CryptoTown/status/558038703537651714  

https://www.facebook.com/CryptoTown/posts/887243601326237 (but few FB followers.. oh well)


Regular updates to follow.