cudo's to Gore..?

[Phil Henshaw-2]

For Al Gore to receive the Peace Prise is great, and he may be our only
chance ever for a 'science president', but he still speaks about (or
completely fails to actually) the critical difference between quantitative
and qualitative change where it really matters.   The 'equation' for
responding to climate change he has helped make the dominant world view
is 'politically expedient' but thoroughly incompetent,   It balances
quantitative change in economic impacts on the earth against qualitative
change in the technology and policies for how to do it.    What it ignores
entirely is that the former increase by larger and larger steps and the
counter effect of the latter can only increase by smaller and smaller
steps.

If building one house consumes 10 units of resources and you improve the
efficiency by 20% then build two more houses, you've done 'good' on both
counts, but the equation doesn't balance.  The next step following the
equation is still worse because the improvements in efficiency become
smaller but the doubling of quantities remains the same (until you take that
into account or the economies fail).  The whole project to save the earth is
riddled with that ill conceived thinking for how to 'do good'.

The save the earth 'image' is right but the method is to do it on the
cheap, not asking people to discuss the underlying problem.  It is failing
to limit the growth in the quantity of impacts now, and will continue to
fail, for real obviuous natural causes.  It'll be hugely better for the next
president, whoever it is, if this comes out before rather than after they
are elected.

--

Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040
tel: [phone]
explorations: www.synapse9.com
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[Owen Densmore]

I think what's more interesting in Gore's ascendancy is that he's  
found an answer to "what do you do with old presidents!".  Now I  
realize he didn't officially win, but he's in that camp, and joins  
Jimmy Carter in terms of global impact.  We can argue as well that  
Jimmy wasn't spot on in all things, but again, they both are getting  
an "A" for their overall work.

Recently Bill Clinton joined the club in a VERY interesting way.  He  
decided on a simple strategy.  He founded an organization comprised  
of very diverse, but prominent people and had a global conference  
with them all.  They had to satisfy two criteria to come the next year:
1 - They had to commit, not just talk.  He'd been involved with great  
conferences with wonderful ideas but the evaporated after they  
departed.  He REQUIRED continuity.
2 - They had to come up with an innovative, although some times  
really simple, idea that would make an important change in some  
aspect of our global world.

Well, this was a huge success.  So he decided to broaden it to you  
and me.  Dede and I watched a great session of Martha devoted  
entirely to this effort, and to the new web based program "my  
commitment".  Here's the Martha show:
   http://tinyurl.com/32kgpv
.. and here's the website:
   http://mycommitment.org/
(I can make available a DVD of the program if the web version is too  
difficult to use.)

I'm going to do this.  My first step is to understand the XO (One  
Laptop Per Child) architecture.
     http://laptop.org/
They are having a get one/give one program in November .. I'll let  
folks know when it starts.  Here's a NYTimes article on it:
   http://tinyurl.com/2xf4xs
I'd like to see if there's a software effort that would be useful for  
the XO community.  GIS and a way for villages to put themselves on  
the map could be one project.  Not sure, gotta think about  
interesting, useful stuff for a fantastic device.

     -- Owen owen at backspaces.net
Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.

On Oct 12, 2007, at 7:46 AM, Phil Henshaw wrote:

> For Al Gore to receive the Peace Prise is great, and he may be our  
> only
> chance ever for a 'science president', but he still speaks about (or
> completely fails to actually) the critical difference between  
> quantitative
> and qualitative change where it really matters.   The 'equation' for
> responding to climate change he has helped make the dominant world  
> view
> is 'politically expedient' but thoroughly incompetent,   It balances
> quantitative change in economic impacts on the earth against  
> qualitative
> change in the technology and policies for how to do it.    What it  
> ignores
> entirely is that the former increase by larger and larger steps and  
> the
> counter effect of the latter can only increase by smaller and smaller
> steps.
>
> If building one house consumes 10 units of resources and you  
> improve the
> efficiency by 20% then build two more houses, you've done 'good' on  
> both
> counts, but the equation doesn't balance.  The next step following the
> equation is still worse because the improvements in efficiency become
> smaller but the doubling of quantities remains the same (until you  
> take that
> into account or the economies fail).  The whole project to save the  
> earth is
> riddled with that ill conceived thinking for how to 'do good'.
>
> The save the earth 'image' is right but the method is to do it on the
> cheap, not asking people to discuss the underlying problem.  It is  
> failing
> to limit the growth in the quantity of impacts now, and will  
> continue to
> fail, for real obviuous natural causes.  It'll be hugely better for  
> the next
> president, whoever it is, if this comes out before rather than  
> after they
> are elected.
>
> --
>
> Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> NY NY 10040
> tel: [phone]
> explorations: www.synapse9.com
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Frost]

Owen Densmore wrote:

> I'm going to do this.  My first step is to understand the XO (One  
> Laptop Per Child) architecture.
>      http://laptop.org/
> They are having a get one/give one program in November .. I'll let  
> folks know when it starts.  

Please do, and thanks Owen, I'd almost forgotten about that.

I was one of the people who wrote to technology at laptop.org on January 4,
2007 when the <cache expired> AP story on the OLPC project came out to
that effect (that they were considering a buy two, donate one program)
because like others I'm sure, I'm extremely curious about the hardware
in those $100 laptops, which as I understand it contains, among other
innovations, next generation LCD technology mainly aimed at reduced
power consumption.  Every computer professional, programmer, and
hobbyist I know is very keen to have a look at one of those hand-crank
laptops and be involved in helping donate one to a child, and what
better way than to donate/get one.

Thanks again,

-Nick
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Nicholas S. Frost
7 Avenida Vista Grande #325
Santa Fe, NM  87508
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