Haiku of the Day:
lover of wisdom
in knowledge's well swim deep
waters becoming
Age and level are the demons of our pedagogy; no person ought ever be deemed too young or old regarding enlightenment. When we call education to a period of life, implying that one's learning is ever through, we deceive ourselves and destroy the capacity of our society to grow. This shows in consumer behavior as well as occupation, the majority limited as to what they know by those standards which are socially reinforced -- mandatory education, occupational specialization, and work experience, supplemented with a healthy dose of whatever the market will bear. As a result, competition for the highest quality at any price is mistakenly preferred to a universal baseline from which one can climb as life calls one to do so.
How we live our lives is dictated by the education system we have, when the education system we need should be dictated by how we live our lives. The days of training in a single field for a single profession are gone, as are the days of expecting a single wage earner to support a household. To repair this we need to build skills from an early age that are as applicable to life outside work as they are to basic job skills. We must also keep education in the lives of adults, making every working person more capable, not less, of filling today's new jobs than they were the year before. This is how we fill the good jobs with good people, put good workers with outdated skills back to their most gainful purpose, and guarantee that our children grow up atop, not beneath, the rising tide of global education.
25.2.12
24.2.12
Owning Identity
Haiku of the Day:
that coat and plumage
intersect function forms
with conjunct beauty
We are ourselves and no other, and that alone should stand in this age of endless information. To the extent that records of our being, financial, medical, or otherwise, must be stored, it is the right and responsibility of the owner - the identity to which that record belongs, not the recorder - that it be accurate, real property, perhaps the most valuable in an age of widespread credit. Exactly how is up for discussion, but our life histories need to be made ours, in the sense that intellectual property is ours, only to be used by others with our permission, and only as we permit, instead of constantly negotiating ownership; why must we compromise our recorded identities with legal contracts full of verbose limitations of another's choosing?
I propose that we take back our data, take responsibility for it, and form a cooperative for storing and distributing that data securely to only those parties we wish to have the data. This endeavor will be profitable, as it is to those who produce marketing research, credit ratings, and insurance risk analysis today using our own records. The cooperative will be more accurate than current record keeping, as the owners will know when the data is wrong and note the corrections. Lastly, it will be good for society, as we will all have everything we need to know about ourselves at easy reference; no more dependence on recollection. This is the "real" social network, where we all share the responsibility of managing who we trust with our information, instead of a legal team from a profit-driven corporation.
that coat and plumage
intersect function forms
with conjunct beauty
We are ourselves and no other, and that alone should stand in this age of endless information. To the extent that records of our being, financial, medical, or otherwise, must be stored, it is the right and responsibility of the owner - the identity to which that record belongs, not the recorder - that it be accurate, real property, perhaps the most valuable in an age of widespread credit. Exactly how is up for discussion, but our life histories need to be made ours, in the sense that intellectual property is ours, only to be used by others with our permission, and only as we permit, instead of constantly negotiating ownership; why must we compromise our recorded identities with legal contracts full of verbose limitations of another's choosing?
I propose that we take back our data, take responsibility for it, and form a cooperative for storing and distributing that data securely to only those parties we wish to have the data. This endeavor will be profitable, as it is to those who produce marketing research, credit ratings, and insurance risk analysis today using our own records. The cooperative will be more accurate than current record keeping, as the owners will know when the data is wrong and note the corrections. Lastly, it will be good for society, as we will all have everything we need to know about ourselves at easy reference; no more dependence on recollection. This is the "real" social network, where we all share the responsibility of managing who we trust with our information, instead of a legal team from a profit-driven corporation.
16.2.12
The Problems
Haiku of the Day:
decaffeinated
society might relax
enjoying morning
[continued from 2/15/11]
The next two problems are somewhat intertwined: the cost of medicine and medical devices contribute to an ever-expanding budget for human health, while the mechanism of intellectual property, at least in terms of patents, is dominated by the patent medicine industry. Other issues, like hospitalization as a part of health care and counterfeiting as a drain on intellectual property owners, require local action focused on the logistics of each. Keep in mind that the best market solutions are those that create more efficient markets, and the giants of the information age have all built their wealth by building the wealth of those who participate in the market; these are solutions one can profit from without direct investment, but which profit most - in return on investment, not absolute net gains - those who own the market.
3. Restoring Affordable Health Care? The recipient of health care, the individual who is maintaining his or her health, must become to the medical industries what the voter is to democratic government, the by, of, and for behind it, not just the vicarious customers through an employer or government proxy. Medical records must be owned and operated by the person, not an institution, and health care should once again begin and most nearly end in the home. Then we must do a better job of bringing innovation to patients more efficiently, a large part of which is the mechanism for patent approval, drug and device approval, and the licensing and expiration of vetted patents.
4. Respecting Intellectual Property? Current intellectual property laws are broadly disregarded and the underlying rights infringed because it creates in practice what does not exist in nature, the monopoly of an idea. While it is just and fair to demand the market provide compensation for those who develop intellectual property, be it patent or copyright, ideas pass freely between people, across borders, and with virtuous sharing; laws should not attempt to prohibit this flow, the bread and butter of the information age in which we live, but instead encourage it, as it does with other commodities, by regulating a free market for buying and selling these ideas. Either by royalty or blanket license, all intellectual property should be brought to the market, that everyone who would profit by it may, that the creators might continue their creation, income secure, uninhibited by the business of turning ideas into consumed goods and services.
decaffeinated
society might relax
enjoying morning
[continued from 2/15/11]
The next two problems are somewhat intertwined: the cost of medicine and medical devices contribute to an ever-expanding budget for human health, while the mechanism of intellectual property, at least in terms of patents, is dominated by the patent medicine industry. Other issues, like hospitalization as a part of health care and counterfeiting as a drain on intellectual property owners, require local action focused on the logistics of each. Keep in mind that the best market solutions are those that create more efficient markets, and the giants of the information age have all built their wealth by building the wealth of those who participate in the market; these are solutions one can profit from without direct investment, but which profit most - in return on investment, not absolute net gains - those who own the market.
3. Restoring Affordable Health Care? The recipient of health care, the individual who is maintaining his or her health, must become to the medical industries what the voter is to democratic government, the by, of, and for behind it, not just the vicarious customers through an employer or government proxy. Medical records must be owned and operated by the person, not an institution, and health care should once again begin and most nearly end in the home. Then we must do a better job of bringing innovation to patients more efficiently, a large part of which is the mechanism for patent approval, drug and device approval, and the licensing and expiration of vetted patents.
4. Respecting Intellectual Property? Current intellectual property laws are broadly disregarded and the underlying rights infringed because it creates in practice what does not exist in nature, the monopoly of an idea. While it is just and fair to demand the market provide compensation for those who develop intellectual property, be it patent or copyright, ideas pass freely between people, across borders, and with virtuous sharing; laws should not attempt to prohibit this flow, the bread and butter of the information age in which we live, but instead encourage it, as it does with other commodities, by regulating a free market for buying and selling these ideas. Either by royalty or blanket license, all intellectual property should be brought to the market, that everyone who would profit by it may, that the creators might continue their creation, income secure, uninhibited by the business of turning ideas into consumed goods and services.
15.2.12
Four Priorities for a Modern World: The Problems
Haiku of the Day:
easily foolish
counting discarded barrels
after a fish shoot
There exists an infinite continuum of problems for our kind to solve; the solutions invariably lead to new problems, but this is life. For efficacy's sake, I have selected four problems for which modernity has provided simple, profitable answers. When there is money to be made, and the system permits it, an opportunity arises for the entrepreneur and customer to achieve what the politician and voter cannot--rapid, revolutionary change in the way average people live.
The Problems:
1. An Alternative to Fiat Currency? Everyone is impacted by the control of currencies with no intrinsic worth by entities that have their own agenda. Our global economy needs a global currency, one that acts as a real unit of trade, an equally real store of value, and apart from any government or body that would or could manipulate value.
2. Universal Access to Quality Education? There are ever fewer jobs that require no formal training, and most of those that do not would benefit from so doing. Yet the wealthiest nation in recorded history is forced to look overseas for the best applicants, many of whom receive their post-secondary education there. Our world needs a universal educator, capable of taking any person, from anywhere, and producing an educated mind with the skills to provide value as labor or entrepreneur, as the individual chooses.
[to be continued]
easily foolish
counting discarded barrels
after a fish shoot
There exists an infinite continuum of problems for our kind to solve; the solutions invariably lead to new problems, but this is life. For efficacy's sake, I have selected four problems for which modernity has provided simple, profitable answers. When there is money to be made, and the system permits it, an opportunity arises for the entrepreneur and customer to achieve what the politician and voter cannot--rapid, revolutionary change in the way average people live.
The Problems:
1. An Alternative to Fiat Currency? Everyone is impacted by the control of currencies with no intrinsic worth by entities that have their own agenda. Our global economy needs a global currency, one that acts as a real unit of trade, an equally real store of value, and apart from any government or body that would or could manipulate value.
2. Universal Access to Quality Education? There are ever fewer jobs that require no formal training, and most of those that do not would benefit from so doing. Yet the wealthiest nation in recorded history is forced to look overseas for the best applicants, many of whom receive their post-secondary education there. Our world needs a universal educator, capable of taking any person, from anywhere, and producing an educated mind with the skills to provide value as labor or entrepreneur, as the individual chooses.
[to be continued]
14.2.12
It's All Money, Sonny.
Haiku of the Day:
recompense at least
not only to exploit ourselves
in public offer
Okay, I've got some stuff to say again.
Decided not to say it on F---Book.
Decided to revive this little nothing of a gem i call the blogo-dodecahedron.
I don't like ads, but I guess ones that pay me are better than ones that pay someone else. As a plus, this puts me in a position to turn any ad revenue into something I do like!
I've got a few projects in mind, and I don't care so much who gets rich, if anyone, so it probably wouldn't hurt to make them available here as they come online. So i will do just that. In the mean time, I will post, as often as the urge strikes, to describe positions that I have come to: positions which, after long thought, led me to the conclusions on which these projects are based.
Am I planning on throwing wrenches? You bet, but they'll be right here to examine before they hit the gears.
recompense at least
not only to exploit ourselves
in public offer
Okay, I've got some stuff to say again.
Decided not to say it on F---Book.
Decided to revive this little nothing of a gem i call the blogo-dodecahedron.
I don't like ads, but I guess ones that pay me are better than ones that pay someone else. As a plus, this puts me in a position to turn any ad revenue into something I do like!
I've got a few projects in mind, and I don't care so much who gets rich, if anyone, so it probably wouldn't hurt to make them available here as they come online. So i will do just that. In the mean time, I will post, as often as the urge strikes, to describe positions that I have come to: positions which, after long thought, led me to the conclusions on which these projects are based.
Am I planning on throwing wrenches? You bet, but they'll be right here to examine before they hit the gears.
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