The Zen Materialist...

There are occasions where less bandwidth is required. The Charlotte Theorem

Recently I was at a concert. It was way past midnight. The group the Spazmatics were performing their uber geek renditions of 80's hits like the Cyndi Laupers "Girls Just wanna Have Fun" and the Smith's "How soon is Now?"... Ironically, It gave me an alternative ending for a book I am working on where a dyslexic falls in love in an online virtual world only to be tortured by the lack of sensory input that that online medium provides...But I digress

Since the performance was live in a small venue DragonFly,  you can imagine the amount of sound coming from very large speakers which not only come from the stage but are also hooked into the entire dance club. Needless to say, it was loud.

To communicate you have two normal cases; one press lips to the others ear and shout, or use hand gestures and hope they understand a) American Sign Language b) wonderful world of flailing arms

Neither are very effective and both modes of communication provide so many artifacts and miscues that little is understood, and much is implied. Which of course in term of communication, requires immense understanding of the message and the messenger. For if you do not know the messenger or have any clue to the message then the communication stream is severely downgraded.

Yet the paradox remains. From the Mathematical Theory of Communication by Shannon & Weaver; Information is the measure of one's freedom of choice in selecting a message. The greater this freedom of choice, the greater the information, the greater is the uncertainty that the message actually selected is some particular one. If noise is introduced, then certain distortions and certain extraneous material increase the uncertainty. But if uncertainty is increased so is information is increased...\

The Shannon theorem states that given a noisy channel with channel capacity C and information transmitted at a rate R, then if R < C there exist codes that allow the probability of error at the receiver to be made arbitrarily small. This means that theoretically, it is possible to transmit information nearly without error at any rate below a limiting rate, C.

But inside a loud concert where the noise exceeded acceptable levels for most chosen channels, like speech and dark enough where even gestures might not transmit well, nothing to say about the wide and varied probability of what the receiver might interpret as symbols.

I chose another channel.

I noticed a girl dancing on the edge of our group. She wore glasses, was tall, dark, and attractive. As a host of a small band of Generation Xer's at an eighties cover band concert I thought it sad she was dancing alone. The eighties are strewn with songs about dancing alone. See Billy Idol and Smiths for references.

As she danced, some new blue bandana girl bounced into our circle and pushed her out. Nothing verbal was transmitted, nothing said. But I felt a twang of sadness that she was left out. As a host of various social groups I try to get strangers involved in activities.

Time passed and so did the strange bouncy girl with a bandana. I traveled around the entire concert and when I arrived at my old dancing spot there she was. Still alone. Why is this girl alone? I was burnt out from doing one event after another for over a week and my voice was raspy and weak from shouting...

Now keep in mind, I am happily married. So I don't want her phone number, or her email or the ability to take her out later for a coffee. But I was struck by a sadness and beauty so I had to ask.

I chose another channel.

I pulled out my smart phone and began to text a message. On the well lit screen I asked "why are you still alone". And tapped her shoulder and shoved my lit message in her general area.

At first she hesitated. Then she pulled out her phone and began to type. "I am waiting for a friend" "why are you alone"... Our low bandwidth conversation continued. With smiles and glances we maintained a cordial conversation without speaking. 

Words were never transmitted over any wireless signal. We simply used a text window to communicate. Is it odd? Can two people share thoughts when the noise level of a specific channel nears capacity for that channel?

One only needs to look at my second favorite channel SecondLife to see what we were doing was just a variation of theme from that. Two avatars sharing a chat window. And replacing relatively narrow channel of 3-D graphics and basic textured shapes with minimal details and minimal sound effects , was a broadband channel in real life space with diminished channel capacity by massive noise, smoke machines and flashing lights in a dark room.

Thank you SecondLife,  for giving me an opportunity to communicate in the real world using the technology for the virtual world.  

And yes her name is Charlotte...

Before you scurry out the door to get that new "fatty" Nano or the iPhone sans phone, keep in mind what Apple has done to your muscle memory... First, they taught you to spin a touch sensitive dial that unlike the old dial telephones had no holes to spin with. Instead, you learned to move through menus via a finger twirl... It sounds obvious, until you find that special someone who has never used an iPod.. Then, you watch and listen as they try to figure the navigation out. They are confused. They are frustrated. They can't understand why this "thing" is so popular...

What gives?

Well it turns out Apple is about to hoist another new muscle memory onto the market. Via the iPhone and Ipod Touch, the pinch and flick will be a new set of muscle memories that embed their product line into your autonomic reactions. Those same learned skills that enable you to program your Tivo or change channels on that multi-function remote in the dark are about to form all new synapses that have tremendous effects on the market place.

So yes Apple may have exceptional skill at creating great technology, but a small piece of the puzzle is their ability to get you to learn new muscle skills to work their devices... And the skills you learn can even make other devices seem awkward. Try using a dial or any flat service after you have mastered the flick from an iPhone? Try even a non-iPod MP3 music player?

The Zune, clearly in my opinion and many others is an iPod knock off. It too has a dial, but it is not designed to react as the Apple Synaptics designed dial works.. Why Microsoft designed a device that looks extremely similar but reacts differently is not completely understood. But the lack of success the Zune has experienced may well be in some small part to adding a new device that to any iPod user doesn't seem to work properly...

Of course Microsoft may be doing the exact opposite, introduce a device that looks like an iPod, but behaves differently to stop the flood of iPod devices getting into the hands of more PC users. The "Halo" effect has been well documented, and I for one, will not add to it here. But as a neuro-musculature move it is intriguing to follow up on that idea...

The Apple new line of products will require constant practice, so that the neural networks and motor neuron/muscle group pathways become fast and effortless, requiring no conscious thought to achieve the fluid sequence of motor activity that produces the optimal behavior.

And that becomes the lock in.. Not so much DRM, but rather a set of specialized learned muscle memories that help embed the behaviors to a very external and very specific device. Learned neural networks based solely on patented mechanisms, that Apple has a lock on.

So the discussion on Digital Rights Management, is not nearly as powerful as the learned behaviors associated with using a particular music player... Zune may be an attempt to thwart your muscles from learning a new muscle memory... Thus changing forever your expectations of what a MP3 player should feel and react like...

Yet thousands of tiny ships have already set sail... Apple has you learning the flicks and twirls already. And market share in muscle memory has already proven a potent combination... Just a thought as I tap my finger gingerly into a QWERTY keyboard instead of an Alphabetic keypad...

Now, Let Me tell you what I really think.
(the real nobodies)

People, you know them Chris, the little guys who say this country is all they got. Got us into this war. The short sighted, lacking nuance, Cowboy and Indians mentality.

The people who thought revenge was needed for 9/11 but wouldn't know that Revenge is a dish best served cold. Doubtful they would know who de la Clos was?

And here we are today looking at Reagan who has a tear rolling down his face? How blithely ironic and truly un-deconstructed that image is today in face of our war of consumer choice.

Because it is our war fought with our generation's attitude, and our generation's skill. You not only go to war with the army you have, you also go to war with the country you have...

But French knew, the Germans knew, and I would venture somewhere inside you, knew too...

Regardless, we got the war we wanted, fought the way we wanted, and no matter how blue in the face I or the few others yelled it was a mistake... The country wanted war on the cheap, like a pair of Chinese made socks from WalMart we buy on credit.

Well, Let me tell you Mister Matthews what I really think...

It's the 21st century, and we are all connected, the rules have changed even if the mentality of the little guy hasn't...Video of your sex exploits would have killed a career 20-30 years ago, today it gets you TV series, Mosques are network hubs with no barrier to class, while our Cellphone networks discriminate against those outside our circle of friends... We now see the rise of the social capital entrepreneur, that uses grand exploits to increase their social net worth, and uses the dense network of communication and social networks intermeshed to achieve whatever selfish goals they wish to perpetrate.Or don't baby boomer watch YouTube?

And yet it is the nobodies sir, who got us into this. It is the nobodies who will die for it also.
And it will be the nobodies who can't see or understand that there is very little difference between the rise of a Paris Hilton in the United States and the rise of Osama Bin Laden in the Middle East... Both members of the new social capital entrepreneur class..

It is new terrain, and the nobodies are lost. And while you whine and complain, and ignore your sweet walks down country roads with the civilian corporal henchmen who helped sell the nobodies, this bloody mess, the responsiblity lies squarely on your head...

Because just like a typical baby boomer your indignation comes in small individually wrapped sanitized bite size pieces for consumption.

And because of that, you sir, you by being another commodity in this 21st century of the networked information age have an apology not to me, or your fans, but to the nobodies. The nobodies with their arms blown off, their skulls popped open, their legs turned to stubs.

Tell them, no really, seriously walk out of your office, and don't stop walking till you get to the first VA hospital and tell them... I am sure you'll bond immediately, I mean, you avoided the draft, had Republican parents, look them in their little guy eyes...

Do me one favor, when you tell them sitting in their cockroach infested beds, who's buddies died inflight over Germany, and remind them that their ideas of good guys and bad guys, and 9/11 revenge all of it is just a bunch of crap. Tell them that is what got their leg blown off. It's nuanced, yet their reaction may just be predictable as the wars outcome...

So keep the cameras rolling Chris Matthews. Keep the cameras rolling...

Link to Hardblogger : The Iraq War: It was all predictable

A walk in the shoes of a geo-caching newbie....

I am a Zen Materialist. First what is Zen Materialism?

     It is not a religion; it is a spiritual faith and philosophy that guides me to a higher state of personal and social behavior. It draws upon the wisdom of the Talmud, the New Testament, the Koran, and the writings of Kumarajiva. In essence, if the Buddhists believe you must learn to walk along the sands of time and leave no footprints, the Zen Materialist believes that you must learn to take steps with purpose to leave a path that can be used by others to find there waypoint(knowledge of where they are in life).

     As Buddhist believe you must let go of all material possessions a Zen Materialist believes you must learn how to be a consumer until you can learn to be a creator. The idea of Zen Materialism is to be a creator with no destructive waste, and to do so in ever increasing awareness of larger and larger systems from your cells to your family to your planet.

 
     It is not just eco-capitalism, it is an understanding of system theory that states that creators of great materialist advances are only doing good if they understand all the consequences of there creations in ever increasing depth and clarity. Cars, to potato peelers, even movie producers have purpose, and if a mass of products makes us more efficient and yet do go to waste in a harmful manner, then they provide a path to better living through intelligent design. Not intelligent design by a supreme creator, but rather the creator in our minds.

     A creator of great personal computers who does not take into account the waste of the product in land fills with in a few years is not following a path of Zen Materialism. A computer that can be reused and recycled is.

There are for noble markets of Zen Materialism:

The Human Capital: Or how much do I know?

The Biological Capital: Or how well can my body achieve a task

The Financial Capital: Or how much economic resources do I have to apply to a task

The Social Capital: Or how many persons do I know or know I exist

     What ties all of these markets together is the Moral Imperative Exchanges.

     What are we the person, the family, the society willing to trade to balance the capital in one market to get more capital in another? Outside these markets are the material world, the objects we use to create greater efficiencies (in physics and engineering, ratio of the amount of power produced by a machine to the amount of power put into it) in these markets. So in essence the exchange main purpose is to have each individual reach an equilibrium and become materialistically neutral, or put back into the material world what one takes out of it.

     Zen Materialist have no church, or persons of any symbolic cloth, but they do have symbolic positions, which can be comparable to priests, though they hold no closeness to a higher power, they simply symbolize waypoints on a journey towards enlightened balance. These include, the common repairmen, (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc) or the clergy of Zen Materialist. They devote their lives to keeping machines efficient. The tend to be philosophical by nature, and generally do good work by using and saving as much as can be salvaged from the natural forces of entropy. There are also the engineers, they are a class of creators that if they understand Zen Materialism can do the most good, though rarely without the help of others. The world of Zen Materialism has many characters and players, but this essay is not an attempt to fully explain the entire philosophy, but just a background to present a new and recent phenomenon.

     Inside the world of the internet which obeys the laws of networks is a small but growing phenomenon called Geo-Caching. It has rules and lessons which despite being completely ignorant of Zen Materialism actually obey all its beliefs. And if you understand Geo-caching, you will begin a journey that will enable you to understand Zen Materialism not as an ecological or political movement, but how technology and behavior can create social capital and biological capital without sacrificing the material material world but rather enhancing our awareness.

     The idea of Geo-Caching is simple. You go to site web or real location and receive latitude and longitude coordinates for a cache. You then journey using your Global Positioning Service tool, a phone or car or portable GPS receiver and go to that cache. Once at the cache, the cache creator may give you more hints for another cache, may ask you to sign a log book. The cache creator may give you what Geo-Cachers call a Travel Bug, a harmless object with a numeric code that allows the cache creator to track the travel bug’s longitude and latitude you anonymously fill out later. Or they may ask you to leave something else behind. They believe in “Cache in and Trash out”, so the entire 'game' is played in an eco-friendly way that allows you to log in to a map website and play the game all over the planet.

     This is an example of Zen Materialism, or the art of technology to help others discover journeys that bring people together. You do not have to create recyclable computers to be a great Zen Materialist master, you can help others along their journey to find things that are important to finding balance in their noble markets.

     The geo-caching helps build social capital by meeting others who leave caches, it increases biological capital due to the exercise to reach many caches. It strengthens human capital because it requires an understanding of coordinates, solving puzzles, and using our evolutionary instincts to discover ways to journey forward. It does so with a minimum of financial capital. Thus the use of one capital market that enriches three others and who’s moral imperative is to leave no waste and respect others treasures, is a very important living koan to understand fully.

Links: www.Geocaching.com

Headlines: "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff' author dies of heart attack"                                                            Inside Bay Area - NEW: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff' author dies of heart attack 

Headline: "Machines can't save our world / Kim family's story shows limitations of new technology"       Link to Machines can't save our world / Kim family's story shows limitations of new technology

Carlson's and Kim's death are linked by an invisible thread

What is interesting about the untimely deaths of these two individuals is that small stuff matters in very similar ways. Because it is all the small stuff that is connected to other small stuff, that when you look at all the small stuff interconnected it becomes really big important stuff. This is the basis of systems theory, it is a basic component of spiral dynamics, it is the basis of biological systems, it is the basis of neuro-cognitive psychology, it is the basis of social networks, and even technological networks. The invisible thread is that element or interface that we as humans provide a consciousness to connect them all. We can operate in a world of small stuff, manage all the small stuff, and be connected to all the small stuff. Its not that hard, it does not require sweat, and it might just save your life.

Ironically, the guy promoting a book about holiday stress dies of cardiac arrest on flight from one book appearance to another. Sadly, the guy who reviews tech gadgets didn't have a satellite phone or portable GPS to find a way out of the wilderness.

The second article states technology can't save our world. Well, no one machine, no one device, not one helicopter infrared camera can do it. But that's not what this article is about. Its about all the devices connected. One cellphone is useless without infrastructure to allow it to connect to emergency services. One anecdote about how to pat yourself on the back will not lower cortisol while you spend the holidays making public appearances on different coasts.  

What is lacking is the connection these two men made. One analyzes new gadgets that makes our life better, and the other analyzes new behaviors to make our life better. Yet neither made the connection in their own life to have the gadget that would have saved one and the behaviors that might have prolonged the other.

One can not say for certain if Mr. Kim had spent $39 rental fee for a satellite phone or purchased one for $700 dollars. Or if he had purchased any number of GPS devices ranging from $500 & up what might have been the outcome?

Nor can one say for certainty if Mr Carlson had in the last 6 months had his homosystiene levels checked, or gotten a C-reactive protein test or any number of indicators for heart disease. Or whether a defibrillator was on board and if somebody even used it.

What we can sketch out is this these were 20th century men living in a 21th century world. In the 20th century we lived in a cause and effect world. Big forces caused big effects, the two world wars can be seen like chess pieces, with clear black and white sides. But were all connected. We have multiple redundant systems that keep us connected. Cellphones, Laptops, email, and on and on... In the 20th century newsreels feed us information, major network anchors feed us headlines, but not now...Not in the 21th century. We are the person of the year...

We are connected, we are networked, but are we aware of all the connections? This is the real issue. Can we be aware of all the small stuff we are connected to? If we can't who can help us? Who will emerge as the one that begins to see all the connections to all the small stuff.

It is not just technology and communications, but we are now looking at our biological selves as connected networks of small stuff. Digestive systems connected to endocrine systems, connected to nervous systems. Then we have the brain itself, a barely mined golden vane of separate neuron based 'small stuff' of visual, emotional, and motor networks.

The days of matching a cough to a pill, and the removal of a dictator to democracy are over. Now we have to begin the long hard haul to put all the small stuff into the big things that happen. Welcome my 20th century friends, this is the 21st century.

In socio-economic and political realms, the gurus are emerging, certainly Al Gore comes to mind. And some might even point to persons like Dr Weil and Chopra as gurus in the world of health and wellness. 

Those are just the first generation of forward thinkers, yet who are going to take the place of Mr Carlson in terms of behaviors and Mr Kim in the world of gadgets? Hopefully persons who see that all the small stuff matters because all the small stuff is connected to you.