Oberg - What is peace? Summarising 35 years of thinking and practising: "The only realistic way to handle conflict is to accept and embrace them, become clever at handling them – in short, stop conflict avoidance and reduce conflict illiteracy, i.e. intensify across the board education and professionalization when it comes to learning how to “quarrel well.” This means that, grosso modo, peace can be learnt and has extremely little to do with good versus evil human beings as some will have us believe.
So, the dynamics or peace is perfectly compatible with conflict, indeed it can’t be separated from it. What it is incompatible with and must be separated from is violence. Thus, for true peace we need violence prevention or, to quote the UN Charter most significant and globally recognized (but violated) norm: peace by peaceful means (Article 1.1) and the abolition of war as an accepted social institution (the Preamble’s first sentence)."
Showing posts with label Global. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global. Show all posts
Feb 12, 2007
Does evolution select for faster evolvers?: "Does evolution select for faster evolvers? Discussion at PhysOrgForum
It's a mystery why the speed and complexity of evolution appear to increase with time. For example, the fossil record indicates that single-celled life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, and it then took about 2.5 billion more years for multi-cellular life to evolve. That leaves just a billion years or so for the evolution of the diverse menagerie of plants, mammals, insects, birds and other species that populate the earth."
It's a mystery why the speed and complexity of evolution appear to increase with time. For example, the fossil record indicates that single-celled life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, and it then took about 2.5 billion more years for multi-cellular life to evolve. That leaves just a billion years or so for the evolution of the diverse menagerie of plants, mammals, insects, birds and other species that populate the earth."
Feb 6, 2007
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: All Politics is Global: An Interview with Simon Rosenberg
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: All Politics is Global: An Interview with Simon Rosenberg: "The past few years have seen an interesting trend around global action on non-political issues like AIDS, climate change, and other transnational issues, what outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called ‘problems without passports’. "
Feb 5, 2007
Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before
Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before: "Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
366 maps and PDF posters will be finished by February 2007. Use the menu above or click on a thumbnail image below to view a map"
366 maps and PDF posters will be finished by February 2007. Use the menu above or click on a thumbnail image below to view a map"
Feb 1, 2007
KurzweilAI.net
KurzweilAI.net
New studies by Rice University scientists suggest a possible answer: the speed of evolution has increased over time because bacteria and viruses constantly exchange transposable chunks of DNA between species, thus making it possible for life forms to evolve faster than they would if they relied only on sexual selection or random genetic mutations.
"We have developed the first exact solution of a mathematical model of evolution that accounts for this cross-species genetic exchange," said Michael Deem, the John W. Cox Professor in Biochemical and Genetic Engineering and professor of physics and astronomy.
"Life clearly evolved to store genetic information in a modular form, and to accept useful modules of genetic information from other species," Deem said.
This process is analagous to the increased speed and complexity of human knowledge, as articulated in Ray Kurzweil's law of accelerating returns, which "applies to all of technology, indeed to any true evolutionary process,"
KurzweilAI.net, Jan. 31, 2007
New studies by Rice University scientists suggest a possible answer: the speed of evolution has increased over time because bacteria and viruses constantly exchange transposable chunks of DNA between species, thus making it possible for life forms to evolve faster than they would if they relied only on sexual selection or random genetic mutations.
"We have developed the first exact solution of a mathematical model of evolution that accounts for this cross-species genetic exchange," said Michael Deem, the John W. Cox Professor in Biochemical and Genetic Engineering and professor of physics and astronomy.
"Life clearly evolved to store genetic information in a modular form, and to accept useful modules of genetic information from other species," Deem said.
This process is analagous to the increased speed and complexity of human knowledge, as articulated in Ray Kurzweil's law of accelerating returns, which "applies to all of technology, indeed to any true evolutionary process,"
The Blog | RJ Eskow: Homo Futurus: How Radically Should We Remake Ourselves - Or Our Children? | The Huffington Post
The Blog | RJ Eskow: Homo Futurus: How Radically Should We Remake Ourselves - Or Our Children? | The Huffington Post: "Should parents have the right to choose their baby's gender? How about its sexual preference? Intelligence? Physical appearance? And are these left/right questions?
Futurists see a conflict forming over our dominion over the human body, and over the choices we make about our biological future - and that of our children. Some call it a clash between 'bioliberals' and 'bioconservatives,' and frame it as a debate over individual rights.
When it comes to transforming one's own body they may be right, but it gets thornier when children are involved."
Futurists see a conflict forming over our dominion over the human body, and over the choices we make about our biological future - and that of our children. Some call it a clash between 'bioliberals' and 'bioconservatives,' and frame it as a debate over individual rights.
When it comes to transforming one's own body they may be right, but it gets thornier when children are involved."
Dec 4, 2006
Wired 14.12: Me Translate Pretty One Day: "Spanish to English? French to Russian? Computers haven't been up to the task. But a New York firm with an ingenious algorithm and a really big dictionary is finally cracking the code."
Nov 24, 2006
Robert May forecasts the future - 18 November 2006 - New Scientist: "Application of the physical and biological sciences has made today arguably the best of times: we live longer and healthier lives, food production has doubled in the past 35 years and energy subsidies have substituted for human labour, washing away hierarchies of servitude. But the unintended consequences of these well-intentioned actions - climate change, biodiversity loss, inadequate water supplies, and much else - could well make tomorrow the worst of times."
Special Report on Brilliant Minds Forecast the Next 50 Years - New Scientist: "
What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations we asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas.
In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a universal theory of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for example - we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of us.
Delve into those visions of the future by author in the story list of this special report, or navigate forecasts by topic here:
Life: Ageing, alien life, consciousness, ecology, embryology, environment, evolution, genetics, health, humans, language, neuroscience, oceans, psychology, sex and social science.
Space and technology: Artificial intelligence, communications, computing, cosmology, space and technology.
Physical sciences: Chemistry, energy, materials, maths and physics."
What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations we asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas.
In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to evolve in new directions? And will physicists finally hit upon a universal theory of everything? In fact, if the revelations of the last 50 years are anything to go on - the internet and the human genome for example - we probably have not even thought up the exciting advances that lay ahead of us.
Delve into those visions of the future by author in the story list of this special report, or navigate forecasts by topic here:
Life: Ageing, alien life, consciousness, ecology, embryology, environment, evolution, genetics, health, humans, language, neuroscience, oceans, psychology, sex and social science.
Space and technology: Artificial intelligence, communications, computing, cosmology, space and technology.
Physical sciences: Chemistry, energy, materials, maths and physics."
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