10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
Rise of the Useless Class
As algorithms push humans out of the job market, wealth and power might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social and political inequality. Alternatively, the algorithms might themselves become the owners. Human law already recognizes intersubjective entities like corporations and nations as “legal persons.” Though Toyota or Argentina has neither a body nor a mind, they are subject to international laws, they ca...Folksonomies: automation universal basic income
Folksonomies: automation universal basic income
1 
notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
War is the Price of Diversity
The state of the world today is not essentially different from the state of the world in 1948. We are still faced with the same choices that we were facing in 1948. On the level of fundamental principles, we are faced with a choice between unity and diversity. The unity of mankind, or the diversity of nations and political institutions. National sovereignty is the contemporary expression of the ancient human tradition which divided us into {202} tribes, each jealously guarding its independe... 1 notes
notes16 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
When Politics Gives Way to Physics
People who take pride in the same object can form a knightly order but not a brotherhood of loving sons. However, as soon as pride in the exploits of the fathers is replaced by grief over their death, we will begin to perceive the Earth as a graveyard and nature as a death-bearing force. Then politics will yield to physics, which cannot be separated from astronomy. Then the Earth will be seen as a heavenly body and the stars as so many earths. The convergence of all sciences in astronomy is a...Folksonomies: cosmism transhumanism
Folksonomies: cosmism transhumanism
1 The "object" here is pride in culture, nations, and states. The "resurrected generations" refers to the transhuman belief that we will resurrect our dead to join us one day.
12 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Judy Seltz on Education
I believe to my core that education--that is, access to quality learning--is the only way we can be a true democracy and the only way that nations will thrive both individually and in a global community. Education is the best route out of poverty; it is how children learn how to be part of a civil society. I believe that education opens doors to words, to language, to reading, to music, to drama, to science, and to exploration. That makes teachers the heroes and heroines of our society. Every...Folksonomies: education human progress
Folksonomies: education human progress
1 notes
notes09 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Demographic-economic paradox
The demographic-economic paradox is the inverse correlation found between wealth and fertility within and between nations. The higher the degree of education and GDP per capita of a human population, subpopulation or social stratum, the fewer children are born in any industrialized country. In a 1974 UN population conference in Bucharest, Karan Singh, a former minister of population in India, illustrated this trend by stating "Development is the best contraceptive."[1]
The term "paradox" com... 1 notes
notesAs societies grow more developed, birthrates decrease, despite the increased resources.
09 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
War is an Alien Threat
More than a century ago a young Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited America. After that visit he predicted that the two great powers of the future world would be, on one hand, the United States, which would be built, as he said, ``by the plowshare,'' and, on the other, Russia, which would go forward, again, as he said, ``by the sword.'' Yet need it be so? Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we ... 1 notes
notesRonald Reagan suggests we would put aside our differences if threatened by extraterrestrials, but then notes that war is an alien threat--alien to how we desire to live.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Why There Cannot be a Language of Science
We may show that, as it was impossible to make the Latin a vulgar tongue common to
all Europe, the continuance of the custom of writing in it upon the sciences would
have been attended with a transient advantage only to those who studied them; that
the existence of a sort of scientific language among the learned of all nations, while
the people of each individual nation spoke a different one, would have divided men
into two classes, would have perpetuated in the people prejudices and errors, ... 1 notes
notesLatin could not become the language of science, common to all educated people, while the countries continued to speak different languages, would create a class division.
16 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Buckminster Fuller's Advice to a Youth
The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done—that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or Try making experiments of anything j^
Try making experiments of anything you conceive and are inten...Find things that need doing, but aren't being done, experiment, and understand that words are tools.
19 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Isaiah 2:4
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.A passage arguing for peace, where "swords to plowshares" comes from.
08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Science Unites
One of the great advantages of the naturalist worldview is that it serves as a basis for bringing people together under a common set of ground rules. Knowledge in science is public, not private, because it must be submitted to others for verification or falsification. A naturalist believes that the empirical truth is waiting to be discovered, and that we can all agree on the empirical truth so long as we believe in a few important criteria. Science can exist in any culture and any nation. It ... 1 notes
notesIf we all agree on an empirical worldview, then we have a common basis for understanding across nations and cultures.
