Labels: heaven on earth, theology

Labels: 6th UU principle, 7th UU principle, heaven on earth, sermons

Labels: angels, heaven on earth, peace, personal bookmarks, theological sources, war and peace

A friend of mine gave me this.
He's going through some soul searching and path-discerning,
so I'm holding his heart now as ever.

Labels: heaven on earth, our mission, personal religion

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From a video of Floyd Red Crow Westerman
The songs that follow are well worth the listen as well.


pax hominibus,agape to all,joel

Labels: angry at organized religions, Christianity, heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, presence, theological sources

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A friend asked me some questions on Facebook, and I want to answer them here, so that Facebook doesn't try and claim some weird rights to them, and because I realized that I haven't really blogged on the trinity for some strange reason (but thought I had)....

Here it is:

Hey Joel,

I've been meaning to ask you two questions. Your FB post today lends a third:

If you don't mind,"what does it take to be a Unitarian Universalist minister?","What does it mean to be a UU minister?", and now,"What do you know about the Holy Spirit?".

I hope the evicted fellow you were attempting to help is doing well,


1. What's it take:

• A calling
  
• A decision to answer the call
  
• Successful completion of an M.Div degree: ~3-5 years in seminary (I'm just finishing at sksm.edu)
  
• A one year internship in a parish ministry or community ministry setting
  
• A three month chaplaincy internship
  
• One needs to pass a preliminary and final review board composed of peers (ministers and lay people in the UU movement)
  
• And one needs to read this ever-looming pile of books: https://secure2.uua.org/leaders/leadership/ministerialcredentialing/16224.shtml
  
• Finally, it requires a congregation that sees fit to ordain/bless the minister's ministry

2. To me being a UU minister means that one upholds the 7 unitarian universalist principles, works as a prophetic agent for social justice in multiple arenas, tends to pastoral care needs in a congregation or community, and probably several other things, including sending handwritten "glad you came to visit us" cards to new visitors. :)


3. What do I know about the Holy Spirit? "Knowing" is the realm of epistemology and metaphysics, and in my studies, knowing has turned out to be conflated with believing far too often. As a dyed-in-the-wool universal agnostic who recognizes the ubiquity of metaphor, I come from a school of thought where we must operate within a consensual reality based on reason, extended by faith, whenever truth is impossible to ascertain....

To answer the actual question: from a Unitarian standpoint, I'd say the trinity is a human-made construction of meaning, applied to divinity. As a "Transcendental Trinitarian Unitarian Universalist,"I recognize a model of divinity in which there is a divine whole, undivided into sections. In addition, I also recognize the trinity as a model for understanding the nature of divinity, dividing it into three parts, cognitive handles that may help us grasp the divine in all its complexity and beauty:

Divinity Beyond: Commonly known as "God"--that which is beyond conception, beyond understanding, or even imagination. At one time, we didn't understand the Sun, or the seasons, molecules, or the inside of the human body/mind. As we learn more

Divinity Within: Commonly known as "the Son", but exists within everyone--it involves going deep to find that still small voice of conscience and drive within oneself; and

Divinity Between or Among: Commonly known as the Holy Spirit, which is a connection or glue that holds us together in beloved community--interpersonal communication with a quality more like a caress or kiss than an invasive/phallic communicative endeavor (to put one's words/ideas/psyche into another) or an enveloping/yonic endeavor (to inconsiderately frame another's words/ideas/psyche into one's own structure). I also touch on the Holy Spirit a little in the previous post on John 2.

Those three parts of this trinity can be kind of exemplified by a paper clip turned into a triangle. It's a scalene triangle--the sides aren't all the same length. We're not really sure which side/angle represents the within, beyond, or between. And the edges are curved, meaning there's a little bit of gray-space or overlap between each of the two where they meet. I could elaborate I suppose but I won't. I'm going to bed instead.


4. The evicted fellow is doing pretty crappy actually. He's fully living on the streets now (sleeping on the sidewalk) and took off mid-way through yesterday's Bible Study, leaving his coat and umbrella behind. I had intended to hook him up with some resources, but won't see him again until NEXT Thursday. Unfortunately, he is one of multitudes of people on the streets with mental illness who are unable to participate or navigate within the system--a system which would be nonplussing/stymieing for anyone, really.


lyrics: world wake up today

colors: black, brown, white

mood: long day

chant/prayer/mantra: !!!


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: heaven on earth, homelessness, inter-faith, mental health issues, Multitheticalism, parousia, theology, writing

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Regarding Candlepower
Delivered 9.27.2009 at First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco


Light does not sit still. It wants to spread in every direction until it hits something to reflect off of, or to be absorbed.

But doesn’t the word “light” describe more than just matter or energy? From a spiritual perspective, light is knowledge, information, and reason—and even emotion. Light shows the paths available to us, and the light of understanding can help to dispel fear and confusion.
Candlepower is another term for luminous intensity, or how bright a light appears to be shining.

The title of this sermon is also a reference to actual candles. Now, I want to start with a brief story about a candle we have at home. He’s sitting right back there with his mom and grandma, and his name is Henry. Sometimes our infant wakes up alone in the bedroom with the lights out, and starts to wailing. I’ll go in and scoop him up to my chest, get the drool towel on my shoulder, and rock him back to sleep while singing in the darkened room. His favorite lullaby is actually a variant of “This Little Light of Mine” from our hymnal. He likes it best when I sing it under water. The underwater version goes something like this: “Thbibs lbibttble lbibliblbght obf mbibne, iblbl’m gmloblbing tblblo let it shine.” As soon as he gets close to nodding off, I switch over to a steady rhythmic version that I call the “Seraphim’s Lullaby.” In Judeo-Christian lore, the seraphim are the inner ring of angels singing songs of praise night and day to God.

This lullaby echoes the last word from “this little light of mine” in a rhythm as he starts to nod off. “Shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine ,… shine, shine, shine , shine-shine,” which then repeats. Then as Henry’s totally conking out from the monotony, I work my way down to singing “Shine…” every eight beats, until I can finally lay him down slowly in the crib.

That to me is one example of a candle, it’s some personal information, a message that I sing to my baby, a prayer whose seeds will hopefully be planted deep within, for him to shine his light steady and strong, whatever that may turn out to be. And each of us has different messages, and different light to shed onto the world. Our light is composed of our experiences, perspectives, passions and hopes. Getting in touch with the uniqueness of our own light is a process of constant unfolding. Then when we shine out, it’s through our words and our deeds—through our life itself.

When our candles of life come together, they inform each other. By listening intently to the experiences, perspectives, passions and hopes of another, the light in ourselves grows in intensity, or changes hue. We can feel more strongly about our truths, or develop a more nuanced understanding. And when our own light is flickering, one candle can always light another, and that’s one empowering blessing of being among a community of broad-minded thinkers and compassionate feelers.

When enough people share in community, we have a rich discourse that becomes a bonfire, where we can not only have light, but also warmth, and sometimes “heat” when we come to disagreements. I’ve already witnessed that this congregation’s conversations are often energized enough to grow from words into action. And the fire turns into steady-burning coals….19th-century Universalist Mary Livermore tells a story how before there were matches, if your kitchen’s fire went out in the night, you either needed to work flint and steel together until a spark caught so you could light your tinder and rebuild your own fire from scratch (a painful proposition), or you would beg a shovelful of coals from a neighbor. A vibrant and thriving religious community like this one has coals it can offer, not just to the Sunday afternoon fellowship, the Lutherans, the Buddhists, and the other groups that meet here, but to the wider community. And they have coals that would enrich us as well.

A campfire like ours at First Unitarian Universalist is highly visible, and draws people in from further away. That’s our goal—to grow spiritually as a community, and draw people in, so that new visitors and old members alike can come here to fan the flames of their passions for justice, and become more active in the world. Here’s a question to ponder, what things have you found here that make you come to life, and make it natural to devote your time and energy here?
[pause for water, smack water glass against pulpit by accident]

Yet while a roaring fire is more robust than an individual candle, even our campfires are in danger of being blown out or diminished by the rain and the wind of an environment that doesn’t know to value what we have here. It’s all the more frightful when we find our voices shut out of the mass media, and there are other voices amplifying values that run counter to ours. Our good news that God loves everyone, and that everyone is saved isn’t likely to be well-received if it can’t be heard, or runs contrary to nihilistic and damaging messages blaring through the airwaves.

Our message presents danger to some people. For some, our news means questioning their whole worldview based on a personal and everlasting life, and accepting a savior to overcome sins. For others, it means weighing their relationship to the Earth and the welfare of its inhabitants against their own self-interests. Questioning fundamental assumptions and habits like these is difficult, and when people first hear our good news—and I realize there may be some sitting right out here today, or perhaps listening online—when people first hear our good news, we are a new candle joining an existing candle, which burns differently.

So our light can attract hostilities as well as friends. Our message brings cognitive dissonance and fear to some. Our goals may run counter to their goals of maintaining their livelihood, their lifestyle, or their retirement plans, or their hopes and fears for an afterlife, so they will fight our message. From Jesus decrying the Pharisees killing of prophets in Matthew 23, to Hypatia of Alexandria, to MLK, all the way to Van Jones, the brightest luminaries have been under attack by powers with vested interests, with their light diminished, sullied, or even snuffed-out. Humanist philosopher Erich Fromm says, “Those whose hope is weak settle down for comfort or violence; those whose hope is strong see and cherish all signs of new life, and are ready at every moment to help give birth to that which is ready to be born.” What light exists that can finally burn brightly enough that it cannot be snuffed out?

The Sun is one such source of light that will be constant and shining for ages to come. What would it take to get our message THAT bright? How about a compelling enough message to help draw in a critical mass of people sharing their lights on a global scale? Our message is right on: everyone’s together in this spherical blue and green boat, everyone’s included, and nobody should be left behind. Our message is one of communities rooted where they are, and extending out to any other communities who would join in common cause. The sixth Unitarian Universalist principle, states “[We...covenant to affirm and promote] the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.” The thought that the sixth principle might come into reality is awe-inspiring, isn’t it? That’d be a huge change! One I hope we all learn to truly welcome.

The principle says “the goal of world community.” A goal is a dream with a deadline. We’re not about affirming the dream of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. It’s a goal. There’s got to be a deadline, or the light is blurry. If we leave the deadline unset, then that’s just a dream deferred. That’s justice deferred, peace deferred, and liberty deferred.
So, what do we envision—how will we know when the goal of “world community” is successfully realized? It requires that we establish common ground on which to speak and listen freely. We can start by all acknowledging our common humanity, and the worth and dignity to be found in everyone. Until we do that, we’re standing on different ground, not common ground. From common ground, we can freely share the lights of our myriad communities of identity. And with that common ground conversation, we can equitably negotiate shared definitions for peace, liberty and justice.

We’ll need to do a lot of work to get to that common ground. From physics, power is defined asthe ability to do work in a given amount of time. A more powerful movement can get more work done more quickly. A more powerful movement is composed of more people participating more fully.

Today’s second lesson is the story of Aten, the god responsible for the Sun. This god was represented by a bright disk in the sky, with arms reaching out of it, each with a hand bearing gifts. More hands, more voices, more lives working for common ground means more power and faster work toward our goal. Not everybody’s going to join our churches. Perhaps they disagree with organized religion entirely, or perhaps they’re happy with the worship and the people of their own faith communities. But surely they will lend their hands and co-create with us once they see the light of our message, and our goal. And our fourth principle—the one about our “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” compels us to share this light with them, pronto. For when we truly embody truth and meaning, we find we’re responsible to act on it, and share it.

Until we create a deadline that we mean to be accountable to, there’s a disconnect at work here. The “end-times” or the “last generation” has been a concept people have anticipated at least since the book of revelation was written, and probably much earlier. For many people, the end of time, or to my understanding, the end of the age, was always “just a few years away.” But it’s been that way for countless generations. It’s time to get in sync, and focus our resolve and determination to bring the end of this age, through introducing a beloved world community.
The God I know and love, who waits with a plenitude of gifts that true community brings, has been ever-restless for world community to come into being. This God is getting less and less patient, first ringing the doorbell, then knocking, knocking, knocking, then pounding at the door, demanding, “Who put this door here? And why is it taking so long for them to answer?” There’s real pressure to answer the door, to answer this call, because nature has a way of making corrections. That danger to our environment is a real-life fire-and-brimstone scenario, which I’ll reserve for another sermon, some other time. We try not to work from a place of fear, so let’s instead look at the possibilities of opening the door and answering the call.

A few weeks ago, Rev. Fitch mentioned in his homily that this community needs to go public and show the world a new paradigm for the 21st century, and I would challenge us to take that a step further. To reach our goal, we need to shine the light of a 3rd millennium community. To guide humanity’s eyes toward the horizon and see the sunrise, and know that just as our message of world community starts to shine, so too, the fire of the human race is only just now beginning to burn like the stable star of today’s first lesson.

So I’ll ask, and this is not a rhetorical question, but you need not answer aloud right now: How soon do you think this world community can be delivered? How soon will we be able to establish common ground throughout the races, beyond national boundaries, and across ethnic lines? How soon until we can establish common ground for everyone based on the fact that they love and are loved, not based on what kind of person they love? And how soon until we can establish common ground that says nobody is left behind, that when we come to the economic table, nobody leaves hungry, without an adequate piece of the pie? What if that depends on us talking and acting on our goal of world community? How quickly can our light spread?

We are not alone. We have allies. Who are they? “Anybody who will answer to the call for this world community we yearn for.” But the call is critical. It brings the power of suggestion into play. Some people have forgotten their dreams, or do not believe we can achieve this goal. Perhaps they’ve never even thought about the possibility of world community. If we who carry this torch don’t invite them, they won’t know when or where to show up, or to show up at all.
And here’s more good news: for the most part world community happens as people come to life and join one at a time, empowering each other. The people you share this message with—your friends, family, maybe even people you’re just conversing with for the first time, they might really need Unitarian Universalism.

Before last week’s service while I was talking with a parishioner, I shared a little about this sermon, and I mentioned how long it took me to stumble upon this religion, and how there are a lot of people in the world out there who want—who need—the gifts of our theology. She shined her light right back and said, “and they have gifts that we need.” To me, that is a reminder of the true give-and-take involved in this commission.

Some say we need to get more people in our doors, and into our congregations, but I think it’s more than that. Howard Thurman, the longtime minister at the Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples just up Larkin Street, said: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." So get in touch with your passion and find or create an avenue to manifest that passion, either within or beyond these church walls, and get other people excited about it. And listen to others, and hear their passions, so they can realize their goals as well.


May the work that we do shine like the fusion of the Sun, and may this community achieve that goal of world community, with the inclusion of everyone and energy of everyone working toward it. And when you go forth from this place, may you know in your innermost heart that you carry the Sun within.

Amen.


Please stand and take a few moments to greet your neighbors during the hymn’s introduction, and then join in singing the Hymn of Hope, This Little Light of Mine, #118 in your hymnals.

There's a link to an audio recording of this sermon (and the full service) at http://www.uusf.org/AboutUUSF/SermonArchive/index.htm

prayer/mantra: 1 down, 10, 100, 200, 500, 1000+ to go...?

pax hominibus,
agape to everyone,
joel

Labels: astrophysics, favorite scriptural passages, globalism, heaven on earth, Henry, inter-faith, our mission, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community, sermons

 I've been skydiving one time, and it was one of the most intense things I've ever done.  But it took a lot of training and had the possibility of serious injury.

Labels: heaven on earth, recreation, sustenance, technology

This is just too cute, and I wanted to bookmark it for myself and also share it.

In a nutshell, what I like about this is that a major corporation is asking kids to share their imagination and dreams, and then amplifying it out to the world (I guess that's one of the advantages of being a major media corporation). Hmmm, that's the first time I've thought of Google as big media -- I guess since they don't have TV stations, etc, they don't fit the normal definition, but with acquisitions of things like YouTube (and of course being the ubiquitous search engine), they're certainly grabbing a lot of eyeballs now....

chant/prayer/mantra: allow your children's dreams to become real, and just maybe they can put this world's nightmares to rest.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: art, google, heaven on earth, media, theological sources

 So I was thinking of a government that automatically ran itself somehow.  And wondering if maybe "Autocracy" was the correct word, because linguistically, that seems sensible.  However, autocracy describes a type of tyrannical rule similar to a dictatorship.

Labels: globalism, heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community

Well, I'm exhausted. I'm writing a 25 page paper for the "Christ, Krishna, Buddha: Towards a New Theology of Divine Embodiment" course, and it's been trying. I've been resisting doing it, and getting enough done at each stage to make it come into being, but it's been DIFFICULT, as if I'm taking the resistive energy from ancient sources. The paper is supposed to plum the depths of ontological grounding, and the nature of the flux between ultimate reality and the story we (as experiencing subjects) tell about it. It's due today at 5 pm. I hope it's done by then, and not too slipshod... I've got several good sources to draw from, and the quotes already pulled into an outline, and I've been chewing down the outline into the written sections.

lyrics:
The sun burned hot, it burned my eyes
Burned so hot I thought I'd died
Thought I'd died and gone to hell
Lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I went to the river but the river was dry
I fell to my knees an I looked to the sky
I looked to the sky and the spring rain fell
I saw the water from a deeper well
-Emmylou Harris, Deeper Well

colors: Green, Red, Brown, and White (trying to get into the Xmas spirit, don't ya know?)
In other news, we found an artificial Christmas tree still in-box, with a tag saying "free" on it, sitting on the corner the other evening while we were walking the dog. It looks just fine in our living room.

mood: Soul-tired.

chant/prayer/mantra: Simply for strength, for myself, to finish this paper. And for all the others who need to finish papers, now or in the future.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Christianity, christology, heaven on earth, Multitheticalism, personal religion, Process Thought, theological sources

Labels: art, Book of Romans, Capitalism, Christianity, equal rights, heaven on earth, oppression, paradigm shift, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, tarot

Here is something I posted on a slashdot poll the other day, which asked, "Who is to blame for the US financial situation?" I was responding to someone who blamed the American Dream. It's the first thing I've ever posted there that got modded to +5:

What we need is for people to start redefining the American dream.

Here's a start:

1. A modest two-bedroom home (house, apartment, or condo) within walking distance of a municipal train line powered by electricity.

2. A home that is energy efficient, and powered by local power off the grid.

3. A job within half-hour's travel from one's home. (Perhaps by electric car/scooter/motorized skateboard, but preferrably by public transport or bicycle.)

4. A grocery store with good produce, and some good restaurants, all within walking distance.

5. And a 30-hour work week.

6. A cute puppy, if you're into that sort of thing.

7. A modest wardrobe of clothes that you really like, with a classic style that matches you, so you don't need to buy into next year.

8. Three or four pairs of good shoes (dress, sports, knockabout, boots).

9. Well-maintained and funded municipal lending libraries and public workshops for tools, so that not everybody needs to own a reciprocating saw and a compound miter saw for those once-a-year projects, or try to set up and maintain their own home recording studio. (If you're super-serious about that avocation, then yes, you have your own private workshop out back, but often, owning and maintaining your own is more of a hassle and a waste of resources.)

10. A clean and safe park within walking distance.

11. An electric guitar or piano or something of your own to cherish, that reflects an authentic manifestation of your true self and your avocation.

12. An internet connection that is as robust as a phone or electrical connection, and secure, and as simple to access as a (70s-style) television.

13. A community, a job, and a government that supports me more and counts on me, but doesn't exploit me.

14. A partner and friends to enjoy life with.

That, to me, is the American dream. I could care less about impressing you that I'm keeping up with the Joneses. I'd rather impress you by being me, and by allowing you to be you.

While I offer that as a hope and as a new vector for us all to pursue, I recognize a few things:

First, it would require a little bit of reengineering our politics, government, and economy, so that we could establish these "sharing" things. It would also require a little bit of backtracking with respect to the draconian pursuit of individual achievement in the USA.

Second, this is not just a dream for the USA. This is something I'd like to see for everyone alive in the world.

Third, we may need to cut that dream back even more, unless we can get our population down a bit further. My list, while much more modest than the old American dream, may still not be sustainable, especially when we consider the trees, the bees, and the orangutans. Read Sustainability by John Cobb for more info on where I'm coming from.

And fourth, this is just my vision of how things ought to be, and I haven't elaborated on many of the complexities of these goals, so please try not to read in arguments against them or support them without spending a little time thinking of what they might mean to you, and what kind of backstory I would add in support of these goals.

lyrics: "Angel flying too close to the ground." -Willie Nelson

chant/prayer/mantra: "Change is coming. Now is my time." From Forty-six and 2, by Tool.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: heaven on earth, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, renewable energy, slashdot, sustenance, theology, tool, Universalism, USA

x=logos=christ

x(-1) is the one who learns to taste the creator's wisdom for the first time (adam and eve, the first person to make a wheel, or matches, the first person to sell land, or split the atom)*
x(0) is th one who knows and speaks the understood nature of the creator's wisdom/logos (zoroaster, moses, some OT prophets, mohammad)
x(1) is th one who learns to incarnate it and manifests it (krishna, buddha, socrates, jesus, hypatia, joan-of-arc, mlk, saoshyant?)
x(1.5) is th one who basks in the afterglow of the incarnate (gospel writers, disciples, paul, saints, promise-keepers)
x(2) is th one who can speak and manifest it without punishment or remonstrance
(saoshyant)
x(3) is th one who can live it freely and naturally (saoshyant, along with a not-too distant future generation) (post Glory of Romans 8.)

*th enumerations within parens are not meant to be exhaustive, only examples

chant/prayer/mantra: may we enter the unravelment of the Zoroastrian eschaton, and all be of one ousia with the saoshyant.

i know that may all sound nutty and high-falutin', but really its just fancy theological talk, for "let's get past this, and get along, and get it on to happening, eh?"

pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: Book of Romans, Christianity, christology, heaven on earth, parousia, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, theology, Universalism

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...

...is acceptable to me.

Makes reference to
"There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male [a]and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." from Galatians 3:28. That and Romans 8:18-25 are about all the Paul I can take, however. Too toxic. Paul gets two points for two good pericope samples. Although this one kind of has a yonic invasive quality to it, it might be difficult to deal with for some folks who've been through certain Christian damage events, or who simply don't appreciate the violation of being hoovered into a giant wicker basket.

lyrics: Eddie Izzard, talking about the Stoics, on "Circle".

colors: blue, orange, and yellow, for an angel education picture i drew earlier today.

mood: metatronic, bionic, embryonic

chant/prayer/mantra: be. do. have (only a little). enjoy.


pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: anti-oppression, Book of Romans, classism, coursework, equal rights, freedom versus freedom, heaven on earth, Multitheticalism, parousia, racism, theological sources, Universalism, Women's Rights

If u lived here, u'd b home by now! (IOW, earth is yr heavn. EOM)

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addendum from home: i had this revelation today after leaving the library, when my coworker who lives only a few blocks away was almost home already and i had to spend another 30 minutes to get home. i think the quote above does a fairly concise job of explaining the basics of my understanding of what jesus was trying to say about "the kingdom of heaven" being right here. and its why i get so upset with christians (and Muslims and people in other religions i suppose) who focus on and anticipate the afterlife to enough of a degree that they disregard their lives, and the condition of this world.

Labels: Christianity, heaven on earth, Islam, theology

I got a new Pentium M laptop for school a few months back. The integrated wireless card that came with it seriously sucks. As I'm typing this, I wonder if the connection will remain strong enough to send the bits through the wireless router when I send it. The wireless access point is about 12 feet away, just below me in the basement. I needed to update drivers earlier, and presently don't feel comfortable trying to access my Ximeta NDAS single hard disk server from the wireless laptop connection. Even when two feet from the wireless access point, the laptop behaves like somebody fed it lock-up pills when I try to connect to the NDAS server. I got the NDAS single hard disk server for the express purpose of being able to store and access my files on a lighter weight server than a full 300 watt box running all the time. Fortunately, the NDAS works great with the wired computers, so I can transfer files to the laptop by first transferring them to a desktop and then sharing the folder that the files are in. But for the most part, that defeats the purpose -- I could've just gotten an extra hard drive for my desktop and turned it on when I needed to share it.

Simple. The new technology is sometimes painful. How often do we accept that our cell phone connection drops out and our conversation gets cut off? Or our PDA falls to the ground and we lose three weeks of data since the last hotsync? Sync it up more frequently, that's the ticket. Getting to and from work requires a heck of a lot of effort. Either I drive and have to fight among traffic and obey stoplights and the rules of the road, or I bike or walk and have to fend off drivers without my own 1000 pound exoskeleton. A somewhat reliable one at that. Our car had a lot of issues the first 80000 miles, but the last 30000 have been pretty trouble free. Still, it's no secret that a car drains you head to feet.

This laptop has another issue. When I type, about once every few sentences, keys will registter twice -- that last instance wasn't intentional. I'm a great typist, and never have that problem with other keyboards. Unfortunately, this means that if I want to make sure that I don't have typos, I actually have to read the words as I type, even if I type them perfectly. Kind of a hassle.

I used to think that it would be so exciting when we finally have bionic ears, so that when our hearing is totally shot, or if one is deaf, there can just be a microphone membbrane within the auricle that sends an electrical signal to an electrical-neural junction where it's parsed direct by the brain. Unfortunately, I bet it will have a few bugs at first. Bleeding edge always does. For those who havve been deaf all their lives it will be a true miracle and I will sing hallelujah alongg with them. BUT even though my ears are overly sensitive to sounds and I could probably hear better, I wouldn't want to trade them for the new technology until it "just works" and is maintenance free enough that I'd have to get them checked on as frequently as I go to the audiologist, which isn't very often.

The point I guess I was getting at is that technology hasn't really arrived until it "just works". I think we're all excited about progress, or at least we should be in most cases, but there's a reason that cable TV, broadcast TV, TIVO, and FM radio are going to be around for a long time, while intternet streaming and downloads will be popular for some who swim upstream, but not entirely ubiquitous. When people can go to the local Target/Shopko/Walmart, pay $300 for a device that they plug into the wall, switch it to Channel Slashdot or Channel Wikipedia, or Channel HotOlderAsianLadies, it will catch on. Better yet instead of a channel changer, there'd be easy, configurable AND acquiescent portals that help guide you to the information/bits you really want or need, rather than funnelling you to the highest paying advertiser, then we'll be at a real level of maturity in the information age.

Right now, computers and the internet are a powerful medium, but I see them also as a hostile environment. Yes, yes, I can build a computer up from parts. With a bit of time I could configure a Linux distribution if I could spare the time, but I'd rather do otherwise. Put Linux inside of a $300 configurable internet appliance that "just works" on a communication system that is outside of the spamosphere, where it's not about buy and sell, but about free information trade. That will have people lining up ffrom Beijing to Helsinki to Los Angeles. Of course, in addition to having a browser, it'd be nice to havve it ship native with an email program, a newsreader, an instant messaging program, multimedia software for editing pictures, audio, video, flash, html, C++, formatted documents, etc. While we're dreaming here, why not roll them all into the OS, so they load when the OS loads, and feel truly integrated, rather than as separate disjoint programs? I suppose you'd need more memory in this system, but maybe these programs could be much more dynamic about allocating memory, so when they initially load, only the outer shell of the program's functionality is actually up. When accessed, it loads up the parts that it needs and deallocates as the code path gets far enough away from functions. Yeah, that's the ticket. And of course, to the stupid user, it all "just works," and they don't need to know anything more about it than they need to put toast in the toastter, or to turn on the hot water. And they don't need to type, since the OS has a microphone and logic that helps it to identify your speech as well as one human can tell what another is saying. Sure, it would all be rudimentary at first, only understanding the words you say to it, but eventually as it learns your movements and gestures and has a couple decent CCDs for parallax viewing, it'd be able to decipher body language and the tone of your voice.

Not long after that, we'll have ourselves a real rational AI. And of course, not just any rational AI, but one that will be able to ascertain what needs to be done better than we do, and maybe one that can control its base desires, or is entirely naive to the idea that impure motives could ever exist. Then, programmed correctly, that AI can run the world (as a steward with the best interests of the Earth and all inhabitants firmly in mind/logic), and we can just go about living our lives, following our recreational, vocational, and avocational desires, while the show runs itself.

Sure, it's idealistic to think all that, but somebody needs to set some goals. That's where I see us in a hundred years if we make it through the mess today, and can choke off all the bad seeds before they grow.

And yes, I know there are a lot of other checkpoints that we need to hit before we get to that state. Point A will always be where we are at. Point B is where we are trying to get to. It requires frequent progress updates of the direction and the magnitude of the current vector we're on. Are we heading toward point B? Has anyone really set up a point B that we can come to a consensus on?

Some people think that point B is not for us to define, or for us to experience the Rapture(tm) -- I think the "Left Behind" publishers should be allowed to claim that as (tm) if not actually (r).
Some people think that point B is for them to assume control over others -- the Taliban, the major corporations, the leading world governments, the financial elite, to name a few.
Some think that point B is to live out in the stars, but it will be a while until we're ready for tthat -- once we get the nuclear fusion thing figured out (my guess is it'll be "just works" in 70 years. Sad that I likely won't live to see it).

But on a serious note, none of us will live to see it if we are not able to collectively focus focus focus focus focus focus focus on the problems that beset us on all sides today. From every direction the sirens are loud, and I'm just pointing them out.

From a triage perspective, the short list of seeds that must be planted and sprout quickly (next five years):
1. Peace. Fucking dammit. Peace. Now.
a. This comes through security
b. Peace comes through justice.
c. Peace comes through forgiveness of others' past injustices.
d. Peace comes through repentance and atonement on the part of all who commit injustices (include self here please - a very rare ffew indeed are beyond reproach)
2. Secure and dismantle every weapon of mass destruction, then every weapon that can blow off somebody's limbs or put holes in their skin (knives excluded).
a. Make it understood to all that we are one collective community, spread across continents and island.
b. Remove the idea of bombing, shooting, and murdering from the list of tolerable behaviors. Not ever should these things be done. If we find that humans need to slowly wean off it, take it into virtual reality. Quake 3 or Halo or Doom should help. Just stop killing real people.
3. Put major funding toward securing biological dangers, including viruses, disease, genetic mutation, etc.
4. Keep our eyes on the sky in a serious way to watch for asteroids, and develop means to prevent them colliding with Earth.
5. We need to collectively ascertain reasons WHY its important that our civilization continue and thrive.
a. Our existence here and now is a miracle, in and of itself.
b. When we're here on Earth, we can think of a lot of ways to have fun.
6. Start living within our true means, at sustainable levels of resource use.
a. This one, I fear, will be tough for everyone. When I was young, we were told to conserve energy. Until we find ways to tap more powerful, safe energy sources and use raw materials judiciously, we need to conserve resources. Take pride in being efficient with resources, not in earning money from them.
b. Curb population growth (drastically). Encourage others to have fewer children, so we'll use less resources. We need to get down to ~4 billion by 2050, and eventually hit stasis somewhere around 1.5 - 2 billion.
7. Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them. Help them. Rely on them. Be kind to them. "who is my neighbor, blah blah blah?" Anyone within proximity to your person, or whom you communicate with via telephone, email, instant messaging, or facemail. Yes, people may suck sometimes, but see the good in the others. See it in yourselves.

The next revolution will not be political. By necessity, it will be spiritual.

Love.

Labels: artificial intelligence, computers, heaven on earth, our mission, pax hominibus/bright shiny future, religious community, salvation, technology, war and peace