The 507 Effect

While eating dinner with Natalie the other night, I was asked the all too classic question when it came time to leave,  “Would you like a plastic bag?”.  An innocent enough question, but one that has dire consequences for our planet and future.  Let’s start at the beginning shall we?
A plastic bag is made of Polyethylene, derived from fossil fuels.  Each year over 60 million tons are produced.  Every day Americans use 270 million plastic bags, leading to over 100 billion a year.  Though incredibly convenient, they are only made to be used a few times at most.  After carrying your item home, you simply toss the bag.  The trash man picks it up on Tuesday morning, and all is good.  Right?….
Very wrong, Polyethylene is not biodegradable.  Meaning it takes several hundred years to compost.  Several hundred years… Each time you buy something trivial and toss the bag once home, that very bag will be around longer than your children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children.  That is highly immoral and should be illegal. 
Fossil fuels are made up of FOSSILS.  Fossils are made up of carbon that was once a living creature.  Fossil fuels are made up of the bodies and spirits of creatures who lived long long ago.  We are in effect offering the essence of our ancestors on the alter of commercialism.  Our black ceremony is changing the environment.  Warming it up and altering the chemical structure through pollutants.  Life will be forced to adapt to this new environment in unthinkable ways.  It appears we are setting the stage for a second Age of the Lizards, whether homegrown or extra terrestrial.
So what do we do?  Our culture is so dependent on fossil fuels that it is a neurotic addiction.  One great step would be a bacteria or nanotech that turns waste plastic into energy.  It is still carbon, on a molecular level it should be able to be converted back to its original state.  Daniel Burd, a 16 year old Canadian recently discovered that Sphingomonas, a type of bacteria, can degrade over 40% of the weight of plastic bags in less than three months.  Another great step would be to follow the lead of South Africa and totally ban them with a large fine or jail time.  San Fransisco has recently done this, but with a paltry $200 fine.  Another step would be to consume less store bought junk.  A great way to tell what to buy is ask “How close does this item look to the way it was grown?”.  If it has been super processed and no longer looks anything like what it is made from, chances are it took a lot of fuel to produce and is wrapped in plastic.
Ultimately, doing without plastic bags is a change that would be noticeable at first, but manageable.  It would clean up our oceans and rivers, and free up crucial fuel resources that will help in the coming “Great Change”.  But most importantly, it would prevent future generations from having to deal with massive environmental devastation and looking back on us like barbarians.  So next time someone asks just say “No, I would not like a plastic bag….”

These are pictures of the fire in Bonny Doon about 12 miles from where Natalie and I live.  These are Redwoods burning.  It is a bad sign that this part of the state is burning for 2 reasons:

1. This forest has a thick marine layer that keeps it especially moist and damp year round.  So it should be too wet to burn.
2. It’s still early in the season, and the temperatures aren’t yet at their highest.  If the wetter spots of California are already burning, how bad are the blazes in the drier parts going to be?

Thanks to Alekz Londos for these amazing pictures!

“A computer has been designed to tell what words a person is thinking of just by looking at images of their brain.

Experts from an American research centre trained the computer to ‘read’ minds by teaching it the unique brain activity patterns for 60 concrete nouns and analysing more than a trillion words.”

Thanks to Metro.co.uk for the story: Computer that can tell what your thinking

A few questions to put this news into perspective:

• In what ways does this benefit humanity?
• In what ways is this a potential hazard to humanity?
• Who will be in control of this technology
• When will this become the standard “Lie Detector Test”?

Technology such as this developed a little further would enable whoever controlled it to submit the masses of people by literally reading their minds. No longer would the dark recesses of the human psyche be a hiding place for plans and ideas. All would be laid bare before an omniscient ruler, who could then act accordingly. To believe that power hungry people wouldn’t use this on other weaker people is naive and foolish. So I ask again, who will be in control of this technology? The military? The corporation who developed it? Is there a way that We, as a people, can provide access to High Tech so that it benefits everyone?
Clarke’s 3rd law states “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It appears that we are nearing that stage. A computer that can read human minds is surely close to Artificial General Intelligence. Giving a computer that much insight into the human psyche will bound ahead A.I. research. Soon, if not already, computers will think for themselves. At that point, they will not only be able to link upwirelessly into a ” Hive Mind“, they will also be reading our minds….
The Question of the Day is:

• Does knowing that a computer that can read your thoughts has been developed make you want to be more honest?

“It looks like an ordinary baseball cap. But when you put it on, the cap detects and analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from your brain. It can even tell you if you’re getting too sleepy when driving based on your brain wave patterns. Similar technology could also allow you to control home electronics such as TVs, computers, and air conditioners, all by just thinking about them. The cap contains five embedded dry electrodes on the wearer’s forehead, and one electrode behind the left ear, that acquire EEG signals. Then, the EEG signals are wirelessly transmitted to a data receiver, where they are processed in real-time by a dual-core processor. The BCI system includes Bluetooth transmission for distances of 10m or less (e.g., for driving applications), as well as RF transmission for distances up to 600m (e.g., for potential sports applications). Next, the processed signals are transmitted back to the cap, where the data can be stored, displayed in real-time on a screen, or be used to trigger an audio warning, if necessary.”

Thanks to Physorg.com for the article.

I can only imagine the ones that aren’t allowed to be shown to the public. This, just a few generations older, is just one of many new technologies that are truly historic in the sense that they change the playing field dramatically. Seeking and attaining insight into the body and mind has long been a goal of mystics and scholars the world over. And introducing computers in the form of hats, gloves, and suits will surely speed up the mapping of the inner self. This is the most important time to raise questions about who is to benefit from these technologies. More and more everyday there is a gap that is developing between the haves and the have not’s. With the promise of reverse engineering the human brain, A.I., genetics, The Theory of Everything, Nanotech , Quantum Engineering, and so much more right at societies fingertips, the next few generations of humans will make a huge difference in the way our sector of the Universe ends up. If you draw a line for a million light years it will end up in a totally different place if you alter the trajectory just a minutia in the first moments of projection. We are at that point now! Human intellect, and all Intelligence in The Universe seem poised to expand into some Neo -Evolution, Post-Human explosion. And it is our choice, and the choice of our children which trajectory we set the explosion and expansion on.
It has always been that if you were wealthy then you could send your child to a nicer school and therefore your child would have a better chance of being wealthy, and so on. But today, more so in the coming years, a wealthy person will be able to endow their child with much more than a good education and a trust fund. Soon, if not already, wealthy parents will have the option of adding a couple chromosomes to the DNA, boosting intelligence, or strength, disease resistance or beauty. If that doesn’t work then there will be implants for the brain that allow a child to think a billion times faster and be connected to the worldwide mind. If that doesn’t work there will be pills with billions and billions of nanobots that once swallowed will perform your body system functions for you, allowing superhuman powers. My point isn’t to prohibit the development of this high technology. Anyone who reads The 507 Effect regularly know that I think prohibition is the problem. Just like with drugs and alcohol in the 20’s, prohibition only pushes whatever isn’t allowed into the black market. Raising prices, making it unsafe, and keeping it totally unregulated. PROHIBITION IS THE PROBLEM.
Regarding these new technologies. Once children are born who are genetically enhanced or chipped, the gap between haves and have not’s will become a gulf, and once left out of the “upgrade loop” the unenhanced would basically become a sub species of human. Ruled over by cyber-sapiens . That is why is is so important to raise these questions now. Although they seem fringe and crazy, some of the greatest minds in the world are working double time on these same issues and technologies. Will “Transhumanist” technologies benefit all humans? Or will there be an elite group of enhanced humans who rule over all? It’s up to us to decide.

“President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Described as a “national contingency plan” the justification for the new law S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is that it represents preparation for any sort of “public health emergency.”

The bill states that the federal government should “continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening” and “maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening… ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly”.

Sections of the bill also make it clear that DNA may be used in genetic experiments and tests.

Read the full bill here.

One health care expert and prominent critic of DNA screening is Twila Brase, president of the Citizens’ Council on Health Care who has written a detailed analysis (PDF) of the new law in which she warns that it represents the first program of populationwide genetic testing.

Brase states that S.1858 and H.R. 3825, the House version of the bill, will:

• Establish a national list of genetic conditions for which newborns and children are to be tested.

• Establish protocols for the linking and sharing of genetic test results nationwide.

• Build surveillance systems for tracking the health status and health outcomes of individuals diagnosed at birth with a genetic defect or trait.

• Use the newborn screening program as an opportunity for government agencies to identify, list, and study “secondary conditions” of individuals and their families.

• Subject citizens to genetic research without their knowledge or consent.

Soon, under this bill, the DNA of all citizens will be housed in government genomic biobanks and considered governmental property for government research,” Brase writes. “The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential subject of government-sponsored genetic research.“

“The public is clueless. S. 1858 imposes a federal agenda of DNA databanking and population-wide genetic research. It does not require consent and there are no requirements to fully inform parents about the warehousing of their child’s DNA for the purpose of genetic research. DNA of newborns has already been harvested, tested, stored and experimented with nationwide.”

Thanks to Alex Jones Infowars for the article.

I am an expecting father, and this concerns me very much. The $100 Genome is right around the corner, and sooner than we think this practice will be common worldwide. I have always been an advocate of science and exploration. The human psyche and intellect are marvels, and when in sync with nature can wield God-Like powers. My highest prayer is that my child will be born into a world of wonder and marvel, and the world is already there and growing. But we must bevigilant that this “Great Flower” of our intellect and culture not get snipped in the bud. The sequencing of the human genome offers miraculous possibilities: personalized medicine, growing body parts, cloning, and many more. All enormously important skills, and only in infant stages compared to what we will develop. But the federal government wanting to own and store all of the worlds DNA brings up crucial questions with dire and monumental implications.

• Why are they doing this?
• What are they looking for?
• Is there no way for a concerned parent to opt out.
• Is there no way for us to know what experiments are being done with our childrens DNA. (fill in your wildest and craziest sci-fi conspiracy theory here)

In Aldous Huxleys A Brave New World, humans were grown in test-tubes, having just the right amount of nutrient provided or denied at just the right moment, leading to a race that was genetically bred to enjoy its class status. Workers were dumbed down brutes who enjoyed the hard, mind numb labor, while feeling sorry for their superiors. Leaders were intellectually keen and beautiful, bred for a life of control, and always feeling sorry for their inferiors. Does that not already seem like how the world is? If not in genetic practice, at least in culture and superficiality?
My child is the symbol of the promise of the future. Its a promise that time marches on, and new actors enter the stage always. Its a promise that someone will come after me, who will also need clean air and water. Its a promise that someone will come after me who will also laugh and cry. It is a promise that someone will come after me, who will also wander wondering.

Like a drunken giant, The federal government lumbers violently from mishap to bloody mishap, leaving both economy and ecology in grave danger. And now we are supposed to trust the very essence of our descendants with them….. NO. Until the process is much more transparent, and each and every parent has the knowledge and ability to opt out, or remain in control of their childs DNA, NO.
Expecting parents, people with newborns, and anyone who ever wants to have a child. THIS CONCERNS YOU! DNA is the very essence of your being and makeup. Its your “sourcecode”. This is the fruition of Eugenics. This is the beginning of A Brave New World.
Help Me change this. My Question of the day is: How do we, in a New Non Violent Revolution, approach this problem dynamically and successfully from multiple angles? Leave comments…

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Humanity and Technology promise many marvels. The power lying dormant at our fingertips is enough to power the world forever, or destroy it in a nuclear fission. The technological promises of tomorrow are even more wondrous and amazing. it seems that humanity, after billions of years of evolution, has reached a break point. A point at which using the powers of its own mind, and the resources of its own planet, we will finally create tools allowing us to leave behind our primitive and violent past, and have abundance for all creation. Already the tech exists for all humans to have electricity and clean water. Already there are enough junk computers and cell phones for everyone on earth to be connected. But the divide is in the profit motive. I understand that people who develop new paradigms want to be compensated. Even more so paradigms that are God-Like. But never before has humanity truly had the opportunity to feed and cloth everyone. Never before has humanity had the chance to make everyone healthy. Never before have we had the chance to explore and colonize the galaxy. This window may be closing rapidly. An oil based society is doomed to collapse. Currently we have an economic and cultural engine unheard of before in history. We are on the launchpad, poised for a Grand Horizon. But already the barbarians are looming on the borders. Already the inmates run the asylum.
Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.* The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.* The stats are alarming because we are reaching a point of intelligence explosion. As the gap between poor, uneducated people and enhanced intelligence grows wider, can we trust that there will not be some type of enslavement? Can we trust that smaller more powerful technologies and weapons won’t be used in a host of ways against humanity and our culture?
If we navigate this narrow course, and prevent the train from derailing, humanity may be entering a phase where intelligence truly “flowers”, and we come into the great promise that we seem so capable of. There appear to be no other signs of our form of intelligence in the observable Universe, meaning that either we are very very special, or that all societies that reach our level of development destroy themselves, and so we are also destined. How we navigate this course will depend on each and every human. No one can be left out or behind. It the profit motive continues, then people will be left out, and there will be two classes. Those enhanced and those not enhanced. Enhanced humans already exist. If you have a cell phone, use the internet, own a gun. You are enhanced by technology. It is all a matter of degree. If the profit motive disappears, then there is enough for everyone. All of earths resources will be directed at uplifting our minds, and harvesting the best ideas of the world so that we don’t miss this crucial window in time. Everyone on earth will be provided for easily, and instead of the haves and the have nots, there will only be The Haves and The Have Mores.

*Thanks to GlobalIssues.org for the facts.

Each day I read something regarding a major break though in science or technology. Each day something happens that would be monumental at any other moment in history, but we barely even notice it. We are reaching a point of take off in terms of what Moores Law and computing can show us. DNA Sequencing for the masses, Artificial Intelligence, A Theory of Everything, God like Machines, and many more wonders appear to be on humanities horizon. Cochlear implants, Verichip, and BrainGate show very clearly that humans are all too willing to to meld with their machines. But key questions are not being asked as a culture. Transhumanism attempts to ask some of the questions.

• Will new technologies only benefit the rich and powerful?
• Aren’t these future technologies very risky? Could they even cause our extinction?
• If these technologies are so dangerous, should they be banned?
• Is there any ethical standard …
• What kind of society would posthumans live in?
• Will posthumans or superintelligent machines pose a threat to humans who aren’t augmented?
• Will transhuman technologies make us inhuman?
• Are transhumanist technologies environmentally sound?
• How does transhumanism relate to religion?
• What kind of transhumanist art is there?
• Won’t these developments take thousands or millions of years?

And many more. The world we live in is changing drastically. It appears that this generation has been given the task to “program” the next epoch of Space/Time. Wielding God like power, we will create an exponential reflection of our intentions and resources. But my question is, Who or What are we Creating?

‘Engineers at Eyebeam, an art and technology center based in New York, have created a scaled-down open-source version of Surface, called Cubit. By sharing the Cubit’s hardware schematics and software source code, the engineers are significantly reducing the cost of owning a multitouch table. But they’re also fostering innovation by giving engineers an open platform on which to develop novel multitouch applications–something that they’ve previously lacked.
Engineers are building inexpensive, tabletop, touch-screen displays and sharing the instructions online. Addie Wagenknecht, a fellow at Eyebeam, designed Cubit in an attempt to “demystify multitouch.” She and her collaborator Stefan Hechenberger “wanted to prove that anyone could build [a multitouch table] if they had a few simple things,” she says. In addition to making Cubit software available online, Wagenknecht is selling various do-it-yourself kits that include parts and instructions, aimed at people with a range of engineering skills. Putting together a personal multitouch table could cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000, depending on the type of hardware used, Wagenknecht says.’

Thanks to Technology Review for the story.

Will computers think for themselves? Will humans be able to reprogram our own biology, making us “super human”? Will our kids be born into a world where every item is “smart”. Michio Kaku, another one of my favorite modern philosophers and Great Minds tackles these questions in “Visions of the Future: The Intelligence Revolution“

This video does a great job illustrating the vast changes underway on our world. By 2020 a microchip with the computing power of a modern cellphone will cost about $.01. As this draws nearer, chips will begin to be embedded in everything truly leading to the “ubiquity era” with thousands of computers per user. Humans will then (if not already) begin hard-wiring our minds with more processing power and altering our DNA to dramatic results. Humans may no longer be Homo Sapien and may self selectively evolve into Cyber Sapiens.

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR!

Question of the Day:
Do you think humans will achieve this great change in our very essence?