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Tuesday, October 9
The new "Mirror of Tomorrow" on Ning
by
ronjon
on October 9, 2007 01:42PM (PDT)
This is a discussion about the new "Mirror of Tomorrow" website that RYD and Ronjon have been setting up on the social networking platform called Ning. It's a private discussion reserved for the Administrators of SCIY, located within a new locked subcategory named "Ning Technical": ADMIN > NING FEATURED > .. Ning Technical
It started with the following replies to the article "How Many Lives," a lovely poem by RYD from his book Passing Moments. I've copied below the initial comments regarding the MoT site on Ning:
Re: How Many Lives? - a poem by RY Deshpande
That’s a way out and I’ll pursue it. But that
leaves the fundamental problem with Ning unsolved. It is necessary to
have freedom to introduce tabs depending upon the user’s needs.
Presently we’ve in essence only two—Forum and Photos. But there can be
many other creative activities, particularly when we begin to visualize
tapping the socnet potentials and possibilities. Video, educational
sessions, science demonstrations, music, dance, drama, choreography,
fiction, yoga classes, presentation of history, live debates, etc.,
etc.—the whole world of arts and sciences can open out and there has to
be scope on the platform for working these out. Will it be possible to
approach Ning with some of these suggestions and explore to what extent
they can entertain these ideas? But I think it will be good if it
happens.
RYD
I'll continue the discussion here with replies to this article. ~ ronjon
Friday, April 13
Life Divine classes via Skype, by Debashish Banerji
by
ronjon
on April 13, 2007 11:00AM (PDT)
Debashish Banerji conducts Skype-based online studies on Sri Aurobindo's opus "The Life Divine" every Wednesday from 7:30-9:30 PST. The audio recordings are archived. You can listen to recordings of these classes here on this page or the most updated versions in their archived location at:
Life Divine studies via Skype, by Debashish Banerji, Ph.D.To join the Skype conference, please send your Skype Id to Debashish at debbanerji@yahoo.com
Notes:1) These online classes began on March 22, 2007. To hear the early classes, go here, then scroll to the bottom of the page. 2) Click on the more » link below each Hipcast.com icon to see the beginning and end of each LD quote being discussed, and a link to an online version of the text graciously provided by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Monday, December 5
Topics within "Intro to SCIY" Category
by
ronjon
on December 5, 2005 04:18PM (PST)
Click on the names of these subcategory ('Topic') folders to see articles relevant to each Topic:
Saturday, May 30
Orientalism Revisited: Edward Said’s unfinished critique (Boston Review)
by
ronjon
on May 30, 2009 04:11PM (PDT)
With the 1978 publication of Orientalism, Edward Said launched a critique of Western scholarship on the Middle East that still reverberates through academia and government. By characterizing Middle Eastern cultures as incapable of adapting to modern life, the early Orientalists, in Said’s view, hid their colonial, and indeed racist, biases. In the process, he suggested, Orientalists fooled themselves—and Westerners generally—into believing that their studies were undertaken with total neutrality. Said particularly attacked Bernard Lewis as the contemporary exemplar of this entrenched view. In a series of exchanges, Said argued that such scholarly bias contributed to the failure of the West to recognize Palestinians as a distinct people or to value Middle Eastern nations except for their oil. While Said did not live to see how Lewis’s views would influence the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq, the terms of his critique still divide scholars.
Despite decades of controversy, however, neither Said’s most recent supporters, such as Juan Cole and Rashid Khalidi, nor his most ardent critics, Raphael Patai and Daniel Pipes, have succeeded in subjecting Said’s concerns to a serious analysis that might address the central question: can scholarship on the Middle East ever be freed from its political context? ... more »
Tuesday, April 21
'The God Delusion' by Richard Darwkins, a review by H. Allen Orr (NYRB)
by
Rich
on April 21, 2009 11:24AM (PDT)
Reference: 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution
... As you may have noticed, Dawkins when discussing religion is, in effect, a blunt instrument, one that has a hard time distinguishing Unitarians from abortion clinic bombers. What may be less obvious is that, on questions of God, Dawkins cannot abide much dissent, especially from fellow scientists (and especially from fellow evolutionary biologists). Indeed Dawkins is fond of imputing ulterior motives to those "Neville Chamberlain School" scientists not willing to go as far as he in his war on religion: he suggests that they're guilty of disingenuousness, playing politics, and lusting after the large prizes awarded by the Templeton Foundation to scientists sympathetic to religion.[2] The only motive Dawkins doesn't seem to take seriously is that some scientists genuinely disagree with him.
Despite my admiration for much of Dawkins's work, I'm afraid that I'm among those scientists who must part company with him here. Indeed, The God Delusion seems to me badly flawed. Though I once labeled Dawkins a professional atheist, I'm forced, after reading his new book, to conclude he's actually more an amateur. I don't pretend to know whether there's more to the world than meets the eye and, for all I know, Dawkins's general conclusion is right. But his book makes a far from convincing case. more »
Thursday, October 9
'Reflections on Machine Consciousness,' by William Irwin Thompson
by
ronjon
on October 9, 2008 08:57PM (PDT)
I've taken the liberty of typing in all of Chapter 4 of my copy of this important book, because it powerfully addresses one of the main themes of SCIY, the manifold relationships between science, culture, and consciousness. (ron)
"It is a paradox of the work of Artificial Intelligence that in order to grant consciousness to machines, the engineers first labor to subtract it from humans, as they work to foist upon philosophers a caricature of consciousness in the digital switches of weights and gates in neural nets. As the caricature goes into public circulation with the help of the media, it becomes an acceptable counterfeit currency, and the humanistic philosopher of mind soon finds himself replaced by the robotics scientist. ...
"Both the mechanists and the mystics say that we are now at a great bifurcation in human evolution. The mechanists like Ray Kurzweil, Danny Hillis, and Hans Moravec prophesy that we are at the end of the human era, and that 'nanobots' are about to be embedded in our bodies until our antique organs of flesh are entirely surrounded by a new silicon noosphere of networked computers. Like ancient mitochondria or chloroplasts surrounded by the gigantic eukaryotic cells, we are about to be engulfed in the next evolutionary stage. So the mechanists see noetic technologies surrounding human culture and consciousness and compressing it into an endosymbiont in a larger and swifter and more elegant evolutionary vehicle. ...
"Mystics flip this literalism over to see technology as a system of externalized metaphors that derive from pre-existing ontological modes at play and at large in the universe... For the mystic — be she Cabbalist or Sufi — an angel is a 'Celestial Intelligence' — a form of cosmic noetic organization that does not require a detour through animal evolution. So when Kurzweil claims that by 2030 implanted nanobots in the bloodstream will enable humans to turn off to the outside world to attune to a virtual reality, the mystic would recognize a literalist rendering of the process of meditation. Kurzweil's vision of the world in 2030 reminds me of Borges's 'Library of Babel'. 'I suspect that the human species — the unique species — is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, useless, incorruptible, secret'. [2] And here we need to be sensitive to the full force of Borges's use of the word 'Babel'. ... " more »
Thursday, June 12
Soros attacks 'craze-following' institutions for inflating oil prices
by
ronjon
on June 12, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
George Soros, the billionaire financier, has rounded on institutional investors who have been ploughing money into oil, saying they are following a "craze" that is inflating a commodities bubble and harming the global economy.
And he predicted that the rise of index funds that allow retail investors to bet on the oil price could lead to a crash that destabilises more than just the commodities markets.
Mr Soros was called to give evidence on Capitol Hill as US lawmakers investigated whether "speculators" were manipulating or otherwise influencing the price of oil, which has doubled and doubled again in the past five years. A 25 per cent spike since the start of the year has sent petrol above $4 a gallon in many US states and sent the issue to the top of the political agenda. ... more »
Tuesday, June 10
Triggering Global Revolution
by
ronjon
on June 10, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
 ... The state capitalism embraced by Vladimir Lenin and carried forward today under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has immunized itself against the machinations of financiers and the collapse of the dollar. Russia is preparing for an economic storm. Capitalism contains, within itself, the germs of its own destruction. The dollar has become a paper currency and the collapse of the dollar is therefore inevitable. This collapse may not happen today or tomorrow; but one day, it will happen. The fever of financial crisis has already raised our collective temperature. Real estate values are falling. The stock market cannot remain high. There is a banking crisis, a credit crunch, an energy crunch and more. An economic unraveling has begun. Once this process becomes full blown the unity of the Western world will be undermined. The free world will become unstable. Demagogues will rise to power. Violent political passions will be engendered. Russia will be powerful again. The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Charles Plosser, has warned that attempts to stabilize the banking system are distorting markets and preventing asset price corrections. Worse yet, financial stabilization policies “subsidize risk-taking” by leading financial institutions.” Such policies, says Plosser, risk systemic instability through the promotion of moral hazard. The whole financial system has become an exercise in moral hazard: massive indebtedness, consumption on credit, out-of-control social entitlement programs, protections for investors, corporate bailouts and the greatest moral hazard of all – our fiat currency... According to economist and Nobel laureate Robert Mundell, the U.S. dollar is headed for a major crisis. “I see the problem coming maybe in the next recession,” he explained. Credited as one of the “intellectual fathers” of the single European currency, Mundell is presently advising the Communist Chinese. “The swings in the dollar–euro exchange rate are big problems,” he noted, “and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Americans get the benefit of these swings and Europe gets the wrong end of the stick.” ... Perhaps the day is coming when oil-producing countries won’t accept dollars in exchange for oil. Perhaps they’ll want real money instead of paper. Behind the “new financial instruments” intended to save the banks we find paper. Behind the paper we find the dollar. That is to say, more paper. The U.S. Constitution is also made of paper. What previously backed all this paper was character; a willingness to work hard and accept pain – as well as painful truths. ...
more »
Sunday, June 8
Faltering Economy squeezes the American Dream
by
ronjon
on June 8, 2008 11:49PM (PDT)
Work hard, play by the rules and tomorrow will be better than today. That implicit promise has been at the core of the American Experience through good times and bad.
-- But now, whipsawed by plummeting home values, $4-a-gallon gas, rising food prices and gyrating financial markets, Americans increasingly fear that the national bargain has unraveled, that their once-steady march toward affluence has derailed. In a new USA TODAY poll, 54% of those surveyed say their standard of living is no better today than five years ago.
"Fewer Americans now than at any time in the last half century believe they're moving forward in life," concluded a recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center. -- The USA TODAY respondents were more upbeat about the prospects for improvement in the next five years, but only 45% expect their children to live better than they do...
So is the American Dream dead? Well, it's at least wounded. ... more »
Wednesday, June 4
Investor: Clean Tech Is Only Hope for the Collapsing Economy
by
ronjon
on June 4, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
As the mortgage and financial crisis continues to notch more victims, the question on many economists' minds is not whether a recession will happen, but how deep it will get and how long it will last. But one prominent voice thinks the high-flying finance industry isn't going to bounce back -- and that we'll need to look elsewhere to set the U.S. economy back on firm footing.
Eric Janszen is an angel investor and founder of the contrarian market website iTulip.com, which The New York Times credited with "accurately predicting that the [internet] bubble would pop." Now Janszen believes the American economy needs a fundamental restructuring away from its foundations in finance, insurance and real estate. His prescription: a new bubble based on green technologies.
In a widely discussed Harper's article in February, "The Next Bubble: Priming the Markets for Tomorrow's Crash," Janszen argued that clean tech is the only sector that could create enough "fictitious value" to replace the losses from the housing bubble, if only temporarily. ... more »
Tuesday, June 3
Only Greentech Can Save U.S. Economy, Says Über-Investor
by
ronjon
on June 3, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
...We need another wealth-generating economic bubble. And that, said Novogratz, must come -- can only come -- from new energy sources and green technology.
"As the price of oil goes up, there's got to be a green revolution. I think of what will be the next driver of the American economy, and it's green energy. That's a huge growth opportunity. It's not about the pollution. It's about the energy. Gas will go to $10 a gallon," he said. ... more »
Monday, June 2
The end of the world as we knew it is upon us
by
ronjon
on June 2, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
The oil age began in 1860. By 2006 the world¹s oil rigs pumped oil at a rate of 85 million barrels a day. They haven¹t come close since, even as prices have risen to more than $100 per barrel. -- Breaking our fossil fuel dependency will require plugging into the grid instead of pulling up to the pump. And there are some interesting energy options and others are doing a lot more about developing them than Americans.
Germany leads the world in its installed capacity of renewable energy sources (25 percent), and is the third largest producer of solar panels after China and Japan. -- The share of electricity generated from renewable sources exceeded 14 percent in 2007, an increase from 11 percent in 2006. This means that Germany has already met the European Union¹s target that 12.5 percent of electricity should come from renewable sources by 2010. -- Enercon, a major wind equipment maker, claims that the renewable-energy business will become a major part of the country¹s manufacturing business, alongside cars and machine tools. Employment in the renewables industry is now 250,000 ands expected to double by 2020. Throughout Germany, around 160 technical institutions are doing research on alternative energy. ... more »
Sunday, June 1
Transition Network: tackling Peak Oil & Climate Change, together
by
ronjon
on June 1, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
...The transition model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question: for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:
* significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil)
* drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)?
Typically, self-determined solutions will involve some flavour of relocalisation. -- We're building a range of materials, training courses, events, tools & techniques, resources and a general support capability to help these communities. ... We're hoping that through this work, communities across the UK will unleash their own collective genius and embark on an imaginative and practical range of connected initiatives, leading to a way of life that is more resilient, more fulfilling and more equitable, and that has dramatically lower levels of carbon emissions. ... more »
Wednesday, May 21
"The Final Empire," by Wm. H. Kötke. Chap. 5: THE PHANTOM AGRICULTURE
by
ronjon
on May 21, 2008 02:00AM (PDT)
This is Chapter 5 of SCIY Editor Wm. H. Kötke's recently reprinted Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future. It's so relevant to SCIY's core concerns that, with William's full support and permission, we're going to be serializing all 20 chapters here on SCIY (at an average rate of a chapter per week). -- To see the first four chapters, go to: • Chapter 1: Pattern of the Crisis • Chapter 2: The End of Civilization • Chapter 3: Soil-The Basis of Life • Chapter 4: The Forest I hope you find this as interesting and important as I have, ~ ronjon more »
Monday, May 19
The Old Titans All Collapsed. Is the U.S. Next? - Washington Post
by
ronjon
on May 19, 2008 01:56PM (PDT)
... Here, then, is the unnerving possibility: that another, imminent global crisis could make the half-century between the 1970s and the 2020s the equivalent for the United States of what the half-century before 1950 was for Britain. This may well be the Big One: the multi-decade endgame of U.S. ascendancy. The chronology makes historical sense -- four decades of premature jitters segueing into unhappy reality.
The most chilling parallel with the failures of the old powers is the United States' unhealthy reliance on the financial sector as the engine of its growth. In the 18th century, the Dutch thought they could replace their declining industry and physical commerce with grand money-lending schemes to foreign nations and princes. But a series of crashes and bankruptcies in the 1760s and 1770s crippled Holland's economy. In the early 1900s, one apprehensive minister argued that Britain could not thrive as a "hoarder of invested securities" because "banking is not the creator of our prosperity but the creation of it." By the late 1940s, the debt loads of two world wars proved the point, and British global economic leadership became history. ...
With the help of the overgrown U.S. financial sector, the United States of 2008 is the world's leading debtor, has by far the largest current-account deficit and is the leading importer, at great expense, of both manufactured goods and oil. The potential damage if the world soon undergoes the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s is incalculable. The loss of global economic leadership that overtook Britain and Holland seems to be looming on our own horizon. ... more »
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RYD