How I came to my current belief system

I was a child during the "space race" and became enamored with science at an early age. I was also raised a strict Lutheran evangelical. I suppose, looking back on it, that I formed a view that faith, hope and most of all charity sustain us when our scientific understanding of reality falls short. I have never believed that science could fail; only that it accomplished slow and painstaking progress toward more complete theoretical and more useful applied understandings. Like you, I continue to learn as much as I can about the current and ever sharpening set of understandings about our reality which we term the “scientific record.” Science and religion must coexist, I reasoned as a child, so the theory of evolution and theology must coexist.

If we can accept that the biblical Genesis explanation of creation is an oft-repeated oral history derived of a very old, perhaps even ice-aged scientific understanding of the origins of our reality, passed down with fidelity yet filtered through the lenses of contemporary civilizations of those early millennia following the worst stages of the last ice age meltdown, then some sense can be made of it. A barbell of Sumerian through Babylonian dominance to the north, and Egyptian dominance to the south, of course weighted the worldview of those pastoral wandering Hebrew tribes which in recent millennia ended up scripted into the canonized sayings of the monotheists.

Finally, genetic research has begun to unlock the actual corporeal and spatial evolution of our species. The series of humanity’s journeys from Africa to the Levant and beyond begins to emerge. Genetic research and the social sciences together explain right-handedness, a selective trait humans have bred into a strong preference. Do you see any reason that human sensations of the mystical and divine should not have also been selectively bred into our species, given its insatiable curiosity and longing for control, order and meaning?

In the end, I believe it matters nothing whether people succumb to the primitive Limbic centers astride our recently enlarged brains and maintain a belief in the mystical and supernatural, or whether a person by training and discipline of the greater masses of that organ comes to see the supernatural as a construct that covers the uncomfortable and unknown with the comforting and imaginative. As Douglas Adams once wrote, such people watch God disappear "in a puff of logic."

There are plenty of open questions in science today, not least of which is whether our historical worldview of a unitary reality must give way to plural or even infinite coexistent realities. The dizzying “E-8” theory of matter has led to some new subatomic particle discoveries. Dr. Lovelock’s Gaia (self-regulating planetary life systems) hypothesis has succeeded with a number of predictions already. The notion that inanimate (?) natural systems dynamically and chemically maintain an energetic environment with varied ecosystems in conditions most favorable for life forms to develop - regardless tectonic swirling of Earth’s crust or even the 30% brightening of our solar star - is so much more fascinating to me now – sorry, a theological treatise can't touch this.

This is especially so when you consider that stochastic interruptions in the gradualist's status quo - periods of extreme violence - provide a staccato in the long natural rhythms. These catastrophic periods clear or even destroy/regenerate habitats and communities for a harsh, usually brief and rapid strengthening and diverting of species who seem to will their survival. Five great extinctions have each changed the entire complexion of life on Earth in the deep past and the sixth is setting upon us now. Is this the harsh justice and kind benevolence of some higher power, or more simply the bumblings of a blind watchmaker named Nature? I cannot see that our choice in the matter makes a real difference in any sphere but that thin and fragile one, human culture.

So let us each stop our own violence, for nature will certainly provide. Let us unite our purposes toward the survival and extended development of the current top trophic species on Earth, humanity, and those untold others which support our continued existence for as long as that path remains open. Let us begin to act together on all that we know with reasonable certainty, for the actions of humanity have already proven a significant Force of Nature, even if unwitting and unintentional. Otherwise we become irrelevant, crass and by Charles Darwin's definition, not the "fitter."

Live-Work in a VM environment






VMware, which manages most computing server-side and communicates the results to practically any screen anywhere, can transform even the most humble computer or TV screen into super-powerful data crunching and scenario-running appliances. This could finally untether the information worker from the traditional workplace. Nearly all computer work can be done more efficiently at any touchscreen, even on the smartphone. In a "virtual machine" environment, any dataset an entity holds can be run in any application it can access, and on-the-fly pragmatic choice of operating system will become second nature.

$25 USB-size "computers" are a reality even now (see "Rasberry Pi") and VMware or equivalent might allow literally any view screen to become multiple virtual corporate workstations commanding complex software and supporting video teleconferencing. The solid-state nature of "zero-clients" means that there is nothing for the IT group to support in the field. If any one screen or a USB plug-in breaks somewhere, the user can move immediately to another and continue working. All data remains securely inside the data centers, with greatly enhanced access and flexibility. Users will be able to view and analyze that data robustly through every model, method, and statistical test that “the cloud” can muster. This holds forth the tantalizing promise of ever more productivity from a truly unleashed global workforce.

How will private and public goods be distributed in such an environment? Will people find work-homes with the kinds of gathering spots, educational and comfort amenities and basic goods and services all within a smart-phone tele-conversation's walking distance? Will these neighborhoods disperse into Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City where happy farmers organically toil and the best of nature finds restoration near every Live-Workhouse Pod, while residents wear their VM helmets to zip here and there at leisure in their hour-capable MultiCopters (see the "e-Volo Multicopter")?

Alternatively, will some of the great towers of Wright-Le Corbusier-Mies van der Rohe at last be green-built into self-sustaining hives of super human (and/or other animal?) activity? Perhaps clustered around an interior space-elevator site and surrounded outside by a spectacular combination of natural and working lands? Can these locations be chosen with the greatest cooperative strategy relative to each other and to the non-hive society below? And can these built environments, including what we today call urban infrastructure, be easily deconstructed for reuse as the shorelines encroach and climate zones travel pole ward?

Will Bitcoin-style distributed financial processing occur at solar-powered servers in every Live-Workhouse in the world, allowing money once again to become a medium of exchange rather than a measure of wealth (see "Bitcoin")? The Bitcoin idea distributes the work of tracking economic transactions the same way the World Wide Web and IP generally distributed the work of telecommunication. It could also help the economy deflate to a new "gold standard", freeing us from slavery to physical growth for fear's sake.

Will the logistical-distribution industry then be the next to democratize, so that any traveler can elect to carry a vehicle-limited weight of GPS-aware packages along even slight portions of their routes toward final delivery? And rewards for helping a weatherproof package along the way could increase with a multiple of distance closed and difference from "normal" delivery progress, denoted by the rainbow hue of its flashing GPS ribbon - lime green being right on track, the infrared end being quite late and the ultraviolet end being much faster than usual - with direction of travel indicated by which portion of the ribbon is glowing brightest - every package is its own compass. Then sending a package from anywhere to anyone would become as easy as releasing a feather to the wind.

Will abundant generosity and kindness while striving to make meaningful contributions of your time on Earth become truer measures of wealth and power? Will the workforce discover a new equilibrium balancing hard work, food, rest and pleasure-seeking? How will children be treated in such an open and driven society? Will new and more helpful forms of family relationship evolve?

How will all society ensure that the top 1% do not covet either their current account nor financial account wealth but engage in a vigorous disbursement program to empower as much future good as possible, commensurate with their status measured at each perhaps 5 year Census? This would be a far different world if every millionaire died penniless but completely fulfilled. How will all society ensure that every member wherever they may be, especially those in the completely dependent lower 5%, participates in a thriving community of around 150 people (see "Dunbar's number") who know, love and commit to be locally connected with them whenever they're around? Perhaps a different 150 individuals would form this community in every locality that a society member may custom. If this can be achieved, society will become entirely self-regulating and most police work and incarceration can finally end, or at least focus on criminal behavior that damages many locations or the economy-environment-information commons as a whole.

So dear readers, one step at a time; allow for Live-Work facilities for sure! Still, I've been somewhat shocked by the speed of technological and environmental change lately, and I think change may overwhelm the whole idea of legal-illegal codes shortly unless we can transition our living-working-transit spaces apace.

Rasberry Pi

Well come, Rasberry Pi!