sent2null space

I've had several lively discussions in the last few months about the possible implications of an increasingly automated society. As a designer of a system (Action Oriented Workflow) that is made to automate much of the completion of repetitive actions taken by employees in various lines of business this topic has been a focus of my analysis for nearly 10 years now. In the context of software designed to enable users to work on business critical object in applications designed for various verticals, this idea of automation requires the study of workflow interactions and business processes across multiple user and system interactions that can be distributed across the world. The problem space is huge and with AgilEntity platform I've created a solution that will generalize across verticals. The analog of AE in the physical realm though lies in the advances that are being made in the field of robots and the sister field AI, that is now enabling the creation of astonishingly li...

Access to people from different regions of the world is good thing for several reasons. First, having other people from other places nearby or easily able to come by allows the chains of xenophobia that naturally forms between geographically disparate groups of people to wither in the face of constant interaction. Interaction does serve to strengthen some stereotypes but it tends to do it only in a minority of the respective populations that actually do inhabit the stereotypes of their group. The vast majority, silent majority as ever...only experiences what we (here online) already know...most people are just like us, have the same loves, hates, desires...and interests...despite their locations of origin. The second reason has to do with linguistics, when people from different groups live together the pressure to pick up additional languages or words from those languages increases...for the young this is actually beneficial for the mind as multiple language cognition has been found to...

After suffering a running injury early last year (around March) I was forced to stay off my alternate day routine of running. During these runs I would burn about 1,000 Calories per workout and it was enough to enable me to maintain my weight between 175 and 178 lbs from 2002 until the date of injury. After the injury I only slightly compensated in diet modification for the lost Calorie burn, however due to the high level of fitness that my muscle cells had achieved over the years it took almost 5 months before I started to gain weight appreciably. I started noticing more than usual snug fit in my jeans and tops but it wasn't until August that things started to fall off a precipice as the lack of exercise and the lost fitness in my cells coupled with the maintained high Calorie diet began to take their toll. Nearing the middle of December I gained the bravery to weigh myself and was shocked to find that I had ballooned to 210 lbs. the highest weight I'd been in 8 years. As is u...

[Comment posted to friends Facebook article thread today. He thought we were ruining the environment, and in this slice of time indeed we are...but a grander context shows this to be a blip on a long history of much bigger changes effected by other life systems on Earth before us.] In the eye blink of Geologic time that we've been here, Earth...over which we kvetch so, is going to "belch" and free herself of the scourge that is us. The belch may be a super massive Caldera explosion or it may be ...due to her crossing the path of a cosmic pebble dislodged from the Asteroid belt or it may be the next deep Ice Age...but the belch will come. We may go on to reign for 5,000 years of glory and yet...Earth then, can belch and throw *whatever* we evolve into ...headlong into chaos...no matter how powerful. The hiccup in the environmental system that we are indeed causing now will be rectified...and in the vast space of Geologic time to come will be remembered in her records as no...

A recent article in Salon has me thinking a bit more about how members of current and future generations will be remembered by posterity. In light of the many advances in science that are occurring quickly in physiology and medicine, microbiology and genetics, there are some interesting wrinkles to the question that are not probed by the author of that article. In the article the author references a quote stated by Machiavelli concerning his views of those that would go on beyond their death to be alive in the minds of future men. In fact, in his Discourses on Livy (c. 1517), he even provided a formula for predicting who might be famous in, say, 500 years' time. The first rank of glory belonged to those "who have played the chief part in founding a religion." Next came those "who have founded either republics or kingdoms." At the end, he adds: "Some modicum of praise is also ascribed to any man who excels in some art ... and of these the number is legion....

Deconstructing Landmark Forum: Prologue: Recently I was introduced to the Landmark Education organization by a girlfriend, she was effusive about the many lessons she learned and the "breakthroughs" she had while taking their "forum" and other self help and improvement seminar programs. I was immediately credulous, as a student of science I often find myself playing the advocate of reason when discussion emerges over any particular topic. Often the subjects that provide the most fuel for application of this reason based approach to information analysis are seemingly difficult to quantify without descending into machine gun fire ejaculation of "ideas" with little but anecdotal support behind them. The books of experience that people in various areas serve as the guide for their views a priori of new evidence, this bias against the future by correlation with the past often serves to hold people back from changing their views to suit new observations...

Over two years ago I mentioned how the social interaction on FB enables what I called the fostering of an illusion of grand audience . The idea is that the pseudo public nature of discourse on an FB wall leads people to place more importance on personal appearance than they would on a less socially constructed web site. It's all part of the interesting psychology that people manifest while participating in this pseudo-public space called a Facebook profile. It is the digital equivalent of a podium on a stage that has flood lights obscuring your view of the audience. You know that people are there because you hear them but you can't exactly see them all (analog of not knowing who sees what you post or reads it) this does an interesting thing to people. First, when challenged while on their "stage" they are far more likely to react with a defensive posture on many subjects that in reality they would be for more reasonable discussing. I've been perplexed by the harsh...