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Sharing
For as long as I can remember I was schooled and saw others schooled in the art of sharing. When my son was younger I can remember reminding him to share his toys with other children. Extra piece of food at a meal? Share it. See someone who needs something you have? Share it. It’s something I always believed helped make us better people in the long run.
Now as an adult I realize that society has changed and sharing is now more suspect than not.
So why now am I even bothering to keep doing so? Like most of the living I have had decades of life altering experiences , many heart wrenching life stopping moments and every thing that can be experience between. I recently decided to change my life in more ways then one.
I changed my lifestyle to a more healthful one, changed my personal life to leave behind baggage I’ve held on to way too long, changed my career path and decided to expand my horizons about how I define sharing.
So what is the definition of sharing?
- To divide and parcel out in shares; apportion.
- To participate in, use, enjoy, or experience jointly or in turns.
- To relate (a secret or experience, for example) to another or others.
- To accord a share in (something) to another or others.
Basically for me sharing is the new way I tithe back to society. I use to tithe to the religious organization I was reared under and with. Then as I became more aware I tithed to the local homeless shelters and food banks. Then domestic abuse shelters and finally I found what works best for me.
Everyday I try to tithe 10% of my waking hours and a 10% of my income to those around me. It might be the down on their luck couple at Circle K without enough gas money, it might be part of the lunch I brought, it might be the smile I share but basically it’s something I offer and experience daily.
Sharing your smile, lunch, a book or just a joke which can brighten your day more than you realize. So what if occasionally you encounter nothing but negative around you and feel like not bothering. Share something and feel the difference around you!
Here’s to the power of sharing!
In honor of Bill Austin
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~ Kahlil Gibran
The world lost a great man this morning. My friend and past work partner has left us here and has ventured forward to the next great adventure in his life cycle.
Rest in peace Bill, you will forever live on in the lives of the many people you have touched in your lifetime.
Who was Bill? He was a kind, gentle soul who helped everyone he met. He believed in the best in everyone. And he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met.
Bill was the Inventor of Record for the following US patents:
7,177,819 Wireless intelligent real estate electronic lock box
6,624,742 Wireless intelligent real estate sign and electronic lock box
6,487,180 Personal information system using proximity-based short-range wireless links
6,434,158 Entryway system using proximity-based short-range wireless links
6,424,623 Virtual queuing system using proximity-based short-range wireless links
4,284,834 Diethynyl aromatic hydrocarbons which homopolymerize and char efficiently after cure
4,180,649 Homopolymerizable acetylene-terminated tetraimines and process for making same
Common Sense Agile – Stating the Facts aka Telling the Truth
Stating the Facts aka Telling the Truth to your Clients
After years of learning “the traditional” what not to tell your clients, I know now I will continue telling them the truth. If it hurts them to hear it, it should only sting once. After hearing the truth, it’s their option to either change it or accept it. Either way they know about it and are doing what works for them as a business owner.
I’m a firm believer that telling the truth contributes to several good paths of conversation with your clients. It opens up a perspective that they might not even be aware of.
So for those of you that haven’t heard my 15 second speech on telling the truth; be forewarned. If we ever wind up working or sharing or communicating about a subject, I will always state the facts.
Looking forward to those conversations folks.
History Repeats Itself – The Looming Internet Bubble Version 2 and Thinking of the Old Days
Wow, as I sit here tonight thinking about the bubble of 1999; I can’t but help to see similar signs of that time now in 2011. Linked In, Facebook, Pandora, and more are all heading towards public offerings. The valuations are again in the stratosphere, like in 1998 and 1999.
Are we doomed to repeat the past? Thinking back to that time, I’m realizing quite a few of my successes and my failures. What I did well, I did really well, what I did bad I did really well, to paraphrase Mae West.
So what have I learned:
- That we all need heros and mentors
- That it’s OK to fail, it’s how you handle it that matters more
- That walking away and taking a timed break will do your heart and passion good
- That you should celebrate your success when it happens and learn from what worked and what really didn’t
- That we need to build relationships, projects won’t sustain your business, relationships will
So here I go, I’m back to trying to learn from Bill Gross of Idea Lab again. Over 14 years ago he was my hero, on the cover of Inc. Magazine and launching a Start-Up Factory. He was my role model on what was possible in business. His start-up Idea Lab was the inspiration for the name of my second software development start-up Idea Avenue, Inc.
After recently connecting with someone that worked closely with him around that time, I find myself following him again. This time it’s his blog at www.billgross.com. I urge you to read it and learn about the man and his principals, then go to his business at UberMedia to learn what they are doing to help change the world, 140 characters at a time.
Here’s to sharing a great resource whom offers sage advice on everything from business to saving our planet.
Recent discovery
I was just cruising the web and found Hugh MacLeod’s gallery again. It’s been a couple of years since I first saw his work so finding it again last night felt like a new discovery all over.
I’ll share one of his “scribbles” with you here. Check out all his recent work from SXSW 2010, I really liked the US map as I’m a true “yankee “but now live in what he refers to as the “boring” part of the states. (I don’t disagree).
Check out his site here:
http://gapingvoidgallery.com/
The polygot web
Mapping the internet as it goes truly global (Image: Matthew Hurst/SPL)
Imagine what browsing the web would be like if you had to type out addresses in characters you don’t recognise, from a language you don’t speak. It’s a nightmare that will end for hundreds of millions of people in 2010, when the first web addresses written entirely in non-Latin characters come online.
Net regulator ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – conceded in October that more than half of the 1.6 billion people online use languages with scripts not fully compatible with the Latin alphabet. It is now accepting applications for the first non-Latin top level domains (TLDs) – the part of an address after the final “dot”. The first national domains, counterparts of .uk or .au, should go live in early 2010. So far, 12 nations, using six different scripts, have applied and some have proudly revealed their desired TLD and given a preview of what the future web will look like.
The first Arabic domain is likely to be Egypt’s and in Russia orders are already being taken for the country’s hoped-for new TLD. The address HOBЫЙyЧеНЫЙ.pф – a rough translation of “newscientist” with the Cyrillic domain that stands for Russian Federation – can be registered today.
Mind Reading (Neural Decoding) Goes Mainstream
For the past two months I’ve been running a large project for the world’s largest provider of higher education and have not really had a lot of time to post.
During that time I kept seeing signs of what I call the start of the human-machine convergence. Yes, I know there are precedents for this and these are not the “true first signs”.
I’m interested for another reason, the way it is being marketed. For some reason it’s being commercialize this holiday season. Several “toys” are being promoted to consumers that allow brain reading to control objects in front of you.
Mattel and StarWars Science are both offering these toys at your local Walmart or Target. But good luck finding them, even with a $100+ price tag they appear to have sold out.
I don’t have the time to post all of my thoughts, and came across this article below that sums up what I was missing above. Have fun and enjoy the read, let me know your thoughts too!
Mind Reading (Neural Decoding) Goes Mainstream | h+ Magazine.
Other Resources:
Thought Translator Knows Vowels from Consonants
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/24279/
Neuroscience 2009
http://www.sfn.org/am2009/
Brain scanners can tell what you’re thinking about
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427323.500-brain-scanners-can-tell-what-youre-thinking-about.html
NeuroSky
http://www.neurosky.com/
Emotiv Systems
http://emotiv.com/
Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12500
Toyota Unveils Wheelchair Propelled by Thoughts Alone
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/clay-dillow/culture-buffet/mobility-mind-control-toyota-unveils-wheelchair-propelled-thoughts-a
Guggenheim Upwards P.O.V
Guggenheim Upwards P.O.V
Memories of my past
Memories of my past – Happy Holidays!
Singularity Salon Talk
Singularity Salon Talk – Presentation Transcript
- Putting the Human Back Into the Post-Human
- If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Singularity Some Meandering Thoughts by Jamais Cascio
- What is the Singularity? A disproportionate increase in the power of intelligence to achieve desired ends, including further boosting the power of intelligence.
- Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
- Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. –Vernor Vinge, 1993
- The Singularity story echoes two very old tropes in popular mythology, but with a more recent twist.
- HUBRIS. We make things that try to kill us.
- ASPIRATION TO HUMANITY. We make things that want to be like us.
- The twist? Transcendence.
- The Singularity Story (in five slides)
- we create AI
- The AI “wakes up”
- The AI makes itself smarter
- The AI makes itself much smarter
- The AI takes over It might be friendly It might be unfriendly (not much we can do about it, either way)
- (the end)
- But what happens when you change the focus?
- we create AI
- we create AI (but now the focus of the story is the “we”)
- we create AI (but now the focus of the story is the “we”) OK, what “we”? Are there competing projects? Is this secret? Public? Civilian? Military? Open Source? How do governments react? How do markets react? How do citizens react? What are we doing in the meantime?
- not the end
- What’s Pushing Us to Do This? Technological capacity Competition (markets & politics) Need for complex systems to grapple with complex problems Curiosity
- What Might Hold Us Back? Dead-end technology paths Regulations Backlash against AI (or related technologies) Fear
- COMPLICATION #1: RESPONSIBILITY CREATION HAS CONSEQUENCES
- COMPLICATION #2: POWER POLITICS MATTERS
- COMPLICATION #3: LIABILITY A NO-FAULT SINGULARITY?
- COMPLICATION #4: RIGHTS NO SUCH THING AS A HAPPY SLAVE OR AN ETHICAL MASTER
- COMPLICATION #5: EMPATHY DON’T KICK THE ROBOT
- So… where does this all lead?
- Scenarios!
- Scenarios! tool for collaboration vs tool for competition short-term thinking vs long-term thinking
- cascio@openthefuture.com Twitter: @cascio
Singularity Salon Talk
View more presentations from Jamais Cascio.
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