Mental Blocks - Apathy Despite the Contrary

I viewed Michael Pritchards TED presentation of his amazingly efficient portable filter for creating sterile water the other day. It is yet another story of one guy who had enough of misery fed through the media. In this case that even a super industrialized country were not even able to help its own people with clean drinking water after hurricane Katrina in 2004. He literally went into his workshop and fairly quick came up with a tool that could solve the problem, the Lifesaver bottle.

Michaels story is amazing, but from my continuous search in these matters, not unique. There is a problem that would improve or save hundred thousands of lives, we have a solution (at least one), but we just choose not to act to solve it - against what may seem logical or humane. As Michael points out, the foreign aid for one EU country could actually give clean drinking water to everyone who needed it. For a single person like me, it is off course difficult to imagine why this would not be attractive to a government. Imagine the PR value of such sponsorship. Almost anyone who had such a bottle would be grateful.

Apathy, "same-procedure-as-last-year", or "more-of-the-same" seems to be the only 3 options I can see in work now. It seems like a loop without end. Michael Pritchard mentioned it as well; at one point you just shut off mentally. The brain can not handle all the misery and the things you feel you "should" act on as a decent human being. It is easier to turn away. You stay sane. Personally I believe this is the most dangerous disease of human kind - apathy. We can ride our way to extinction in a sofa.

Dalai Lamas book "How to see yourself as you really are" gave me a clue how to deal with this myself (because I do not believe it is in any ones right to tell others how to live). The book confirms that it is not possible to act on all the misery on your own. Global issues should be handled by the leaders. One can act by improving, first one self (probably the hardest part), then the near surroundings, local community etc. Not through force, but by example. Curiously, this kind of thinking is also reflected in martial arts (not referring to sport): if you can not save yourself, you can not save your family. If your family is not safe, you can not worry about your friends safety. And so on.
I live by this. It works, for me. I do not create miracles, but it rubs off on others from time to time. I will write more about this later - what I have done.

Further reading and related items:

Thank you Johnny Chung Lee for The Interactive Whiteboard

Jackpot it becoming more frequent when looking for Open Science. Today I found the TED talk with Johnny Chung Lees hacks for the Wii Remote Controller. Amazing how one man playing around in his laboratory can create revolutionary technology for a percent of professional equipment. But the best part is - he share it! And better yet, according to himself, what fascinates him even more than the actual inventions is how quickly people pick up an invention through the internet and improve it when offered it freely.

So, thank you Johnny Chung Lee for not only being an outstanding inventor, but also allowing your inventions to benefit us all!

If you wish to create $14 dollar steady cams, virtual whiteboards, interactive touch screens, 3D eye wear for graphical contents with material even poor people may afford - go see what is on Lees website.

Johnny Chung Lees project website
TED talk

Tools and further reading

 

Modus Vivendi - waiting for an outcome

When I chose the blogs original name, modus vivendi (now changed to "Alchemy, Science, Innovation...") it was because initially for other reasons than I would today. But I consider it a very well chosen title. Modus vivendi is Latin and means: way of living (modus: mode/way, vivendi: of living).

Politically the term is used as temporary arrangement that allows life to go on. Modus vivendi can be use about territorial disputes (eg. Israel), lay down of arms (eg. North Ireland), ethnic minority problems (eg. Gypsies) and so on. So, in no way a final solution, but an unstable agreement that allow everyone to have a life while waiting for something better.

Another way of looking at the term is as a philosophy (way of life). Life never settles or concludes. It is dynamic and can be governed by principles. I have practiced such a path for years now through the understanding of Budô. Bu means the path relating to conflicts such as war or survival, and dô: way of life.

Now, choosing a path normally means you seek some level of enlightenment. It does not mean you will reach it - it is the journey (improvement) that is the purpose. For the first kind of conflicts mentioned that is often solved with a modus vivendi, enlightenment is probably one of the few ways out of a crisis. It is slow, painful, and difficult, but rewards of the process can be rewarding.

The conflict I see, between alchemical thought and modern science is the focus of my thoughts and this blog. I do not know how I knew that modus vivendi would nail the problem to the wall for me. Both of these philosophies have a common root, but diverged, much like we see ideologies part people in other conflicts. Alchemy exist today as a minority, but it is growing stronger, louder, and more aggressive in the absence of answers from the dominant path (modern science) in providing the what really matters to most of us: our a way of life... or perhaps just living.

I am almost ready with my research in how the two philosophies are intertwined and why it is all accumulating these years. I am not going to give you another 2012 doomsday prophecy, but attempt to give a sober overview that make good sense in my world.

Further reading:

Aphorism

In Paul Mollers TED talk on his development of the Skycar, he finished with a beautiful statement on how a visionary invention is received. I believe that his quote fits the conflict between different ways of using knowledge in this blog very nicely.

First, it is ridiculed by those ignorant of its potential.
Next, it is subverted by those threatened by its potential.
Finally, it is considered self-evident.

Links:
Paul Mollers TED talk

Further reading:

Explosion of idealistic firms in Denmark

Michael Lund writes in the Danish newspaper Politikken today that new firms with idealistic concepts are sprouting from The Economic Crisis as never before in Denmark. While most traditional firms goes bankrupt, firms giving their surplus to charity, or aim to put employ socially challenged individuals, are reviving the support and attention of their customers, multiply in numbers over the last 6 months.

I know that once your mind is set up for something, it sees it everywhere. Like I would like to see people beginning to throw away their prejudices, take matters into our own hands, and accept the responsibility. So, I admit I may just be noticing trees in the forest. But it make my day happier to believe that we (people in the industrial world) are perhaps slowly waking up from decades of apathy.

Original article in Politikken

About the time of last post the media are escalating in attacks of anyone to blame for the apparent economic crisis (except the leaders). As the crisis is described as worse and worse, people being sacked in large numbers, the pockets getting shallow, I just can not help thinking: "What happens if the impossible happens in the time of great despair?"

I see the private initiative of reaching space as such an event. Could it not give us a focus when being desperate? If They can fly into space, I can take care of my family without a job - to create an example. Perhaps we will begin to learn that we actually CAN take care of ourselves and each other to great extend, and don't really have to be dependant on many of the things we think we have to depend on.

I really look forward to this event, and I hope it will be a wake up call for the world.

A dream of space

One of the main drives for this blog is a dream. A vivid one. One of those dreams that works as a wake up call. In short, I dreamt that doubters (established scientists and government) literally one day had to wake up one morning looking up into the sky and see creative engineers, who did not care "what is possible", blasting off towards their dream: space.

After that dream I have been able to see these people in everyday life doing amazing things, everywhere, and struggling to be heard. And after writing my last blog entry, I realize, just I now realize how close this dream is to become reality. Scaled Composites is just one private initiative creating space crafts for human flight, right now! But other, even bolder initiatives, are currently testing their rockets for manned flight these days. In my own home country, Denmark, Copenhagen Suborbitals are getting ready to launch their first rocket (currently unmanned). They are quite serious about going to space. But the Suborbital group are ignoring/challenging at least two existing dogma of space travel: it has to be expensive and that it is difficult. I am fairly sure that more private or non-government projects launched by enthusiasts out there, wanting to reach for the sky no matter what.

If this happens, I think we will enter a new age. An age where people will (more readily) accept the impossible to spring from a garage (or a converted boat - as for the Copenhagen Suborbitals), rather than a billion dollar research institution. In my own mind I named this The Age of the Alchemists (has a nice ring to it).

Link: Interview with Copenhagen Suborbitals (in Danish)

World finest minds: our science is not superior

I decided to put up a list of quotes from alchemists/engineers/inventors/scientists who are all icons and fathers of the leaps that advanced our technical capabilities to where they are today. The point with these quotes is that is seems to me that intellectuals, including myself, seems to pass through 3 phases that come with age and accumulation of knowledge: idealism, scepticism, and wisdom. The first and last are open for imagination and boldness in the pursuit of the limits. The middle one, which is the dominant one today, prevails as "common sense" in most of us. The quotes below are from people who, in my opinion, has something to show for being labeled among "our world finest minds" - but aware that boundless minds and risking the impossible are required to reach for the sky.

“I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”

Isaac Newton, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian


“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.”

“The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.”

Niels Bohr, physicist. Nobel Prize winner.


“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist. Nobel Prize winner


“We haven't got the money, so we've got to think!”

“If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment”

"The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine." (great minds don't see everything)

"For Christ's sake, Soddy, don't call it transmutation. They'll have our heads off as alchemists."

Ernest Rutherford, the "father of nuclear physics", 1908 Nobel Prize winner


“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself.”

“Doubt is the father of invention.”

Galileo Galilei, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher


“The man of science is a poor philosopher.”

“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.”

Arthur C. Clarke, inventor. Nobel Prize nominated.


“Breakthroughs are what define our species. They come about because we are threatened.”

“If you don't have a consensus that it's nonsense, you don't have a breakthrough.”

"Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.”

“We have a lot of openings for people...not just engineers, but people that can help us build research spaceships and production spaceships.”

“Our success proves without question that manned space flight does not require mammoth government expenditures...it can be done by a small company operating with limited resources and a few dozen dedicated employees.” (so "alchemists" launched into space)

Burt Rutan, legendary aerospace engineer, and driving force in Scaled Composities.

Open University, half way to Open Science

Open Science seems to be on the fast track. Several initiatives are now promoting university education for even the poorest in the world (Open University). If you have Internet and speak English, you can join. Distance teaching has been used for a long time in traditional universities, but now professionals specialists in their fields are spending their time and money to educate those who are willing, regardless of background. A neat idea if you believe that bringing education to the uneducated will help calming the world - I do.

I see Open University as one leg inside the traditional universities for the concept of Open Science. I hope that if the universities realize it is possible to convey teaching as an open media, the golden egg, science, may follow faster in the footsteps. In my opinion to the benefit of most, on the contrary to

Links:
Article in New York Times
Article in The Guardian
University of the People
Open Course Ware Consortium
Open University on iTunes

Further reading: