Sat 8 Nov 2008

Now I lay me down to sleep

Posted by Stephen under Knowledge
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Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

 - 18th century children’s prayer.
 
As communication between people increases, it increases the intelligence of the human collective.  This is called emergence.  For more information see James Surowiecki: The moment when social media became the news on TED.  But when we are connected to a network, not only do we affect the network, the network affects us.
 

The Circular Mill of Death

 
The ant colony is the classic metaphor for emergent behavior.  An example where the collective acts smarter than an individual in the group.  But there is a phenomenon that throws off the decentralized bottom up intelligence. Ants occasionally go astray.  If army ants get lost, they have a rule where they follow the ant in front of them.  This can result in a circular mill of death.

 In the early part of the twentieth century, the American naturalist William Beebe came upon a strange sight in the Guyana jungle.  A group of army ants was moving in a huge circle.  The circle was 1,200 feet in circumference, and it took each ant two and a half hours to complete the loop.  The ants went around and around the circle for two days until most of them dropped dead.  
     What Beebe saw was what biologists call a “circular mill.”  The mill is created when army ants find themselves separated from their colony. Once they’re lost, they obey a simple rule:  follow the ant in front of you. The result is the mill, which usually only breaks up when a few ants straggle off by chance and the others follow them away.
     …[T]he simple tools that make ants so successful are also responsible for the demise of the ants who get trapped in the circular mill. Every move an ant makes depends on what its fellow ants do, and an ant cannot act independently, which would help break the march to death.”

- James Surowiecki from “The Wisdom of Crowds”

Groups are only smart when the people in them are as independent as possible. 

- James Surowiecki

 

Religion’s Circular Mill of Death

 

Western religion is following a circular mill of death while Eastern religions get many things right.  Eastern religions just haven’t put it all together in one complete package yet.  Here are some examples of things that are right. 

 
  • meditation - Buddhism
  • energy movements - Tai Chi
  • there are positive aspects to destruction (Shiva) - Hinduism  (The Western equivalent is the Phoenix.)
  • Life is an ongoing epic battle between good and evil.  Spiritually advanced beings sometimes intervene. - Krishna in the Mahābhārata  (Kudo’s to George Lucas.  He also gets this right.  {The Force/the Darkside/the Jedi/The Sith})
 
So take the opportunity while you are here to live, experience, grow, and evolve.  What happens when you die is a choice.  The choice is yours.  Not choosing is a choice also.  What work did you do while you were here?  Did you evolve your consciousness?  Did you follow your own thoughts or did you follow the ant in front of you?

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

- Kahlil Gibran (artist, poet, writer, philosopher, theologian and the third-bestselling poet in history after William Shakespeare and Laozi)
 

Sat 8 Nov 2008

Coldplay Viva La Vida lyrics

Posted by Stephen under Lyrics
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Another in my series of inspiration lyrics in music.  Viva La Vida from Coldplay:

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
“Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!”

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Catholic choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Catholic choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Catholic choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can’t explain
I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

 

Mon 3 Nov 2008

Waking Our Kids on Election Night

Posted by Stephen under Politics
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A cute article from Monique Fields at TheRoot.com called Waking Simone.

Seeing Obama, “the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas,” on television, giving a speech about where he plans to take this nation would be a memorable moment. I’d like to give my daughter, whose mother is black and whose father is white, the opportunity to tell others she was awake that night when history was made.

…

If Obama wins, it may take years, decades even to see the effect it will have on the generation that has yet to be bestowed a name. Simone may remember the evening of Nov. 4, 2008, or maybe she won’t, but she won’t have the opportunity if I let her sleep through it.

 

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