"We Be The Humans"
Older Retired White Guy. Buddhist.
"Non nobis solum"
Likes trees better than people. Books better than trees.
"We Be The Humans"
Joined Aug 2018
More.
(This is an important read.)
"But such is not the case; the two states of mind are so incommensurable that each seems unable to communicate with the other, and so such persons are buffeted back and forth, sometimes afloat with technological optimism, at other times struck dumb with a foreboding that seems to intensify with each passing season."
To Read: an Essay
Magic and the Machine
by David Abram
"And so we remain transfixed by these tools, searching in and through our digital engagements for an encounter they seem to promise yet never really provide: the consummate encounter with otherness, with radical alterity, with styles of sensibility and intelligence that thoroughly exceed the limits of our own sentience."
2.
If someone bought you a spectacular book, you would be grateful.
If they did it day after day....
You might say, "Hey, why don't I buy one for you today"
This place is still mostly funded by one person, buying us all a spectacular book, day after day.
1.
I Joined CoSo in August 2018.
And fell right in. One of the many things I post here is books. Books I have read, want to read, or will read in the future.
Sharing a good book is the one thing that brings me the most happiness.
I chose these books out of my interest, but I read far and wide.
606 books recommended
"We Be The Humans"
boosted
Stumbled on these folks and am just blown away by their work. It's a combination of art and technology in ways that I find moving. I've always loved kinetic sculpture, and they're pushing that art form in magical ways.
I also love that the work is done by a huge group of people (over 60 folks on their team), and so, even if led by the vision of two--the work is collaborative.
Spend some time exploring!
The Effort to Build the Mathematical Library of the Future.
A community of mathematicians is using software called Lean to build a new digital repository.
By Kevin Hartnett
There are huge, important areas of math that have never been fully written down. They’re stored in the minds of a small circle of people who learned their subfield of math from people who learned it from the person who invented it—which is to say, it exists nearly as folklore.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/building-the-mathematical-library-of-the-future-20201001/
New Ambient
Mellow Out Everybody
by Calmer Feeling
https://calmerfeeling.bandcamp.com/album/mellow-out-everybody
We need a powerful progressive alternative: grounded in caring, universality, and repairing the Earth. Direct transfers, housing first, and a jobs guarantee are policies that work:
* Need money? Here's money.
* Need a home? Here's a home.
* Need a job? Here's a job.
If those sound expensive to you, consider the unbearable cost of mass poverty, homelessness and unemployment.
https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/
And
New York-based artist Kara Walker is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures that have appeared in numerous exhibitions worldwide.
Here is a talk by her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiDUo24R7lI
Here website:
( I doubt that many here don't already know all this. But if you know someone still in the dark.... This is a great thing to listen to.)
Podcast:
Philosophical Disquisitions
Privacy is Power
My guest today is Carissa Véliz. Carissa is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute of Ethics in AI at Oxford University.
https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2020/10/83-privacy-is-power.html
Book
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51781479-privacy-is-power
#CoSoEconomics
Political Economy After Neoliberalism.
The government, not the market, is the only viable solution to some of our greatest challenges.
By Neil Fligstein, Steven Vogel
"For policy, since there is no “power-free” solution but only an infinite variety of power balances, we should not be too shy about turning the dial to recalibrate the balance in the public interest."
To watch:
(Yep this is oversimplified, and yes it is going to piss some people off. Yet this was exactly my take for many years..... Now not so much)
You don’t have free will, but don’t worry.
http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/10/you-dont-have-free-will-but-dont-worry.html
I once worked in a printing co-op.
About ten members, all sharing equally.
This plant had a big beautiful kitchen, where we all cooked and ate lunch.
Most if not all decisions were made around that kitchen table.
As you walked into the kitchen you’d see this big sign:
“This is Co-Op, we practiced the art of printing.
If here together, we can solve,
Money,
Sex,
And The Dishes,
Everything else will work out just fine.”
"We Be The Humans"
boosted
Research has also found people who are introspective are more likely to ruminate on negative thoughts when evaluating the self. Self-evaluation through “Why” questions could leave you feeling depressed and anxious, while being entirely unproductive.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-introverts-corner/201302/introspection-versus-rumination
Rather than asking “Why,” highly self-aware people ask, “What?” “What” questions are more productive, and focuses on objectives and future goals, rather than past mistakes
I have worked in a few "co-ops", and "collectives", and mostly in a union shops. The difference is all about power. Not pay. Not benefits, nor guaranteed employment.
When a "collective" works well, it is very flexible to the needs of the workers. It operates on a human scale. Decisions happen from the bottom up, rather than the top down.
You might be surprised how productive, and how efficient a "collective" can be. Just by removing the managerial level.
There is no one size fits all, relationship between workers and owners.
Any that think so, will create unintended consequences for many.
My take: Open up choice. Give the power to the worker and let them decide. Mandates almost never help all, only a selected few.
If one could work, "at whim", receive a decent pay without benefits.
That is one choice. If one could work at less pay, and good benefits, that is another choice. Let us give the power back to the workers !
A Review of:
How Everything Can Collapse:
A Manual for Our Times.
by Pablo Servigne, Raphaël Stevens
A Beginner’s Guide to End Times
Two French thinkers offer a manual for a radically altered future
By Sophie Pinkham
Here’s one note of optimism: by making possible futures feel real, novels, films, and other works of art can help transfigure dread into action.
Book:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53839141-how-everything-can-collapse
A Review of:
An Event, Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida
by Peter Salmon
Think Jacques Derrida was a charlatan? Look again.
For Derrida, however, philosophy has seen itself as concerned with solving problems that exist independently of us, when it should be trying to understand the insoluble mysteries that we have to live with.
by Julian Baggini
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/jacques-derrida-philosopher-not-overrated
Book:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54968950-an-event-perhaps
Shit... This is the hardware MIDI controller I have been waiting for !
32 high quality endless encoders and IPS monitor, all in one !
€700.00 pre-order.
This is a big stretch, price wise, I am going to think on it.
More:
"The builder mentality, although probably more common among scientists and engineers, is not more scientific. It mostly reflects a difference in trust, something that is easier for the people doing the building. Everyone else moves along the builder–conserver spectrum based on a myriad of factors, including recent events and their own experiences."
"We Be The Humans"
Older Retired White Guy. Buddhist.
"Non nobis solum"
Likes trees better than people. Books better than trees.
"We Be The Humans"
Joined Aug 2018