DIY Industrialism: Lumenlab

Lumenlab makes a $600 robot tool called miCro which is not only the all-purpose tool many people need, it can also build parts for their $1600 RoGR robot tool which will:

"Replace most tools in your shop, improve the quality of your work and spend less time doing it!"

They proclaim that do-it-yourself-and-then-have-the-robots-do-it-for-you is the go-to philosophy of the New Great Depression:

"Every dollar spent must count in today's economy and Lumenlab's robotics products are not only the best value on the market, you can use them to generate income!"

They also sell $230 recycled desktop computers with Ubuntu and the software for controlling the robots pre-installed. If you add $65 for a used 15" LCD monitor (latest RE*PC price) and $25 for a keyboard and mouse, then you can get a basic home/small business fabrication system for under $1000 and the full enchilada for under $2000. In other words physical fabrication technology is now about the same cost as the computer hardware you use to design electronic content.

Junk Thought: A Definition

“The defining characteristics of junk thought, which manifests itself in the humanities and social sciences as well as the physical sciences, are anti-rationalism and contempt for countervailing facts and expert opinion. It cannot be stressed enough that junk thought emanates from both the left and right, even though each group—in academia, politics, and cultural institutions—thrives on accusing the other of being the sole source of irrationality….The real power of junk thought lies in its status as a centrist phenomenon, fueled by the American credo of tolerance that places all opinions on an equal footing and makes little effort to separate fact from opinion” (Jacoby 211).

- Jacoby, Susan. The Age of American Unreason. 2008;
from chapter titled, "Junk Thought."

Eschatology, Money Metabolism ,Global SuperOrganism

I am writing this blog entry acknowledging my blind-man's view of an elephant.

Reference materials:

• Evidence of a Global SuperOrganism -Kevin Kelly
• The Behavioral Revolution -David Brooks
• Auto-Catalytic Software Development -Joe Gregorio

Along with the three documents above, a fourth reference is this snippet from a friend's email:

Our conversations frequently touch on eschatology (the end of the world) whether it's a religious eschatology like the second coming or a secular eschatology like peak oil, economic collapse or kurzweil singularity. It's interesting how people react differently to an anticipated end of the world regardless of it's precise nature.

Finally there are people who see the ending of worlds as an endless cycle which should be endured rather then fought, escaped or embraced. The old religions: Hinduism, Shinto, Roman and Orthodox Catholicism for example encourage this attitude in many of their adherents, which you can see in the internal politics of India or the apocalyptic science fiction of Japan. I particularly recommend the novel A Canticle for Liebowitz as one Catholic's post-apocalyptic vision of the future.

A key theme in Canticle is the preservation of books (and eventually all knowledge) by the Albertian Order of Liebowitz, and it's implications for the rebirth of technology and long-term survival of the human race. The monks contend that this is what the Church has always done, even though worldly governments and philosphers go through cycles of creation, destruction and reinvention of ideas as well as civilization itself.

I do not have a working articulate synthesis-thesis that ties all the above together, but I do have a bullet list of ideas to popcorn into this dialogue space:

1. With source code text files being the bedrock of the internet civilization/organism, are programmers standing in the position of Albertian Order of Liebowitz? Or maybe the early free software pioneers at least? Better than Irish monks who preserved Greco-Roman scholastic greatness through the 1000 years of ignorance in Europe, the OSS programmers are preserving text (source code) that moves and operates on itself, which is an order of magnitude higher than the mission of the Irish monks. [ see the auto-catalytic reference ]

2. If money is the nutrient of the internet super-organism , are the recent global monetary troubles something that could arouse the imperative of self-awareness in the ii? Given D. Brooks opinion that human perceptive abilities are too weak for global investment, the super-organism needs massive global scales of wealth, and humans need the global transfer of information and goods, are we at a crossroads in which humans and the super-organism have a mutual interest and urgency to address that interest? [ see the kevin kelly super-organism reference ]

3. Extending #2. Will the world's middle and lowest classes see their need of free flowing global information as more imperative than the wealthiest, and see efficiencies gained by the super-organism becoming human's transactional policeman? Will the world's less-than-most-wealthy see the internet transactional civilization of Amazon/Google as their only true savior, rather than Luddite dreams of basal economies ( local and less technology) rising up to rescue their families?

Writer predicts demise of Open Info Culture

Article of reference: An End to Open Source after Economic Downturn

Just read the article. The author is either:

1. thinking of open source/open info world as sort of a donations-of-the-wealthy-enough, where wealth has more to do with time than money. He is thinking of it as an equivalent to donations to United Way.
2. thinking of the commodity being produced as a widget that gets simply given away. Sort of like building lawnmowers, then just parking them on the street corner and any idiot can pick one up. Further, this equates the open source/info people to tinkerers that want to build lawnmowers for fun -basically mechanics with some extra time who like having a mini-factory at home.

The author doesn't get that we are making the meaningful and useful part of a telecommunication infrastructure, the last mile of it. Or more like the last few inches of the TCP/IP layer where those worthless bits get turned into what we really want and need.

Yes, a lot of activity will cease. Which kind? The kind that is all hype, the dross, the crap, the stuff that marketing is telling is cool rather than the true popular will. Thank god for everyone of these deaths. Thank god.

Open info culture will whittle down to projects that resemble the seminal moments of its beginnings: Stallman's obsessive pursuit of a C compiler, Torvald's posting of an OS project. Open info culture will become once again Zen, the users crafting what they use.

No, this will not do much for getting some chicken on the dinner table, or the roof fixed, but then that's not what open info culture was originally about in its purer days.

A note on specifics: I would see myself using Google's cloud computing services MORE, not less, if I am less wealthy. I see myself using only free software to do anything on a computer. If no new open source was created, I bet I can do anything needed with the python, perl and sqllite we already have. Even if Wikipedia was to slow in its addition of new material, I would use what's already there. Google may make less revenue if economic activity goes down, but I bet it still has a resiliency much like the broadcasting and entertainment business did during the Depression and World War 2.

Female Promiscuity and the OODA Loop

My friend Seth provided this schema of combat operations process employed by sexually promiscuous females.

A woman who is disrupting a working group by 'ho'in' around is simply exploiting a weakness in a culture whose family values are based on romantic monogamy. It is not especially difficult to bond quickly with fellow workers and get inside their social OODA loop, getting a great deal of power with limited resources: "In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries--or, better yet, get inside [the] adversary's Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop. ... Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries--since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns they are competing against." (Think about that Boyd quote from a sexually promiscuous woman's perspective.)

Of course it is not only women who can manipulate people in ways that undermine their ability to act. Hucksters, motivational speakers and spiritual gurus use similar tactics. They always have something "clever" to say which stops the conversation and stupefies the mind, as you get stuck halfway in Observe-Orient-Observe-Orient-Repeat paralysis. And if you call them on it, refusing to be caught flat footed and keep maneuvering, then they call you Shrill, Militant, Agressive, Domineering, just as you would be labeled, Insensitive, Sexist, Misogynistic and Abusive for complaining about sexual sabotage.

Asynchronous personalization and convenience versus communal ritual

It is October 21st 2008 and I just mailed my absentee ballot yesterday for the November election. This morning there is an article in the local paper highlighting the profiles of candidates running for Washington State Superintendent of Education ( a hotly contested position ).

I use this as an example of "asynchronous personalization and convenience versus communal ritual". The media will be serving up information and disinformation within the next two weeks synchronized to work with those attending the ritual of election day poll attendance. It is interesting, beyond the domain of politics or even media influence on society, to note how being out of sync with a ritual creates a disjoint with timed information.

I am thinking of any communal ritual here. Election day poll attendance, Sunday church attendance, Ramadan, or even the timing of gift giving to a particular day (Dec 25th). I am not against: Islamic fasting, Bible study and reflection, Xmas gifts, or voting , I am emphasizing the choice between 1) just doing the action and 2) doing the action coordinated with others.

Whole writing and academic careers have been built upon promoting asynchronous individualism or communal ritualism. Both have their strengths, and we don't have to be so stupid as to side with just one for our whole lives.

I definitely become more proficient and happy in asynchrony. The advent of wide spread use of the internet in the 90's seemed to help me intellectually and to communicate with others -I went for 24 years without a phone because I hated communicating in a real time dyadic conversation, before email there was no way to get ahold of me besides writing a letter to my often changing address. I dwell well in asynchrony. But then I exist on the margins of our species and cultural boundaries.

Synchrony and ritual is knocking on my door. In the last few days my wife has opened up a quest for ritual in our lives, a sacred place to participate the sacred time of Christ Mass. [her blog entry here]

X VERSUS Y is not a tension -it is the force that propels a return of balance. I'm glad for have the powerful Gods Asynchrony and Synchrony in my life.

Against Zero Growth: Technical economic growth solutions to polution

From seanat: " It probably starts with public awareness and getting people to view the land as more valuable for conservation than for building."

This sounds like a Zero Growth perspective, which is exactly opposite of a wise or reasonably progressive society. The Earth is first and foremost an economic engine. The cultures in the world who do not operate on an economics-first principle are noteworthy as impoverished, powerless people.

There is likely an answer to this in technology, something along the lines of additives to the water that could eat away at the pollutants. I am not saying we have the answer yet, but we should be emphasizing solutions that are technical, not natural.

My comment posted on article: Science panel says "radical" changes needed to control stormwater.

Bloomberg's sighting of a Black Swan

Assaults on students at Seattle's Roosevelt High School

[link] Seattle P-I Article with user comments

Posted by JoeUser at 10/9/08 9:56 a.m. 194545

I attended Roosevelt from 77-81. I was robbed twice on school grounds by black students, and this was almost a daily occurrence among my friends back then. The attackers were nearly always kids that had been bussed in from other schools, so we never knew who they were, and they typically disappeared from school for a week or two afterwards, so the problem never went away.

Regarding reader "Roosevelt" comment about baseball bats...it was also fairly common for people to show up at school with a trunk full of them after an incident.

I know one student who ran down the stairs in front of the school when a black kid pulled a knife and attempted to rob him. The attacker threw the knife from the top of the stairs and managed to nick my friend in the back.

I'm not afraid to say that it was black students committing these crimes, because that's who it was. Is it racist to state that fact? I don't recall a single instance of a friend being robbed by another white kid.

I had many black friends in high school, and still have many today. I don't care what color a persons skin is as long as they are good people. Unfortunately, many experiences in high school and while living in the Central District for three years have made me wary.

Nimbyism versus Universal Solutionism

In the NIMBYism vs Global-Solutionism choice, the later is untenable and not what local community resources should concern themselves with. Global-Solutionism is just an old Catholic Social Justice construct ( universal solutions ) that is fine for someone's religion but is ruining civic dialogue and purpose.

I am progressive and ONLY practice Nimby-ism. The exception is the global effect I intentionally introduce with my commerce, which is heavy on the use of Amazon.com.

( the reason I'm so touchy about NIMBYism is in our local papers the dominant refrain when dealing with neighborhoods with high drug abuse on the streets is to denounce NIMBY's, and claim we need to the wider scope of poverty or homelessness statewide or nationwide. I disagree with that dominant refrain, )

Supporting material:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbyism

Tipping Point Specifics: When the Police Protect the Users and Makers

CNN: Sheriff orders no evictions for foreclosures. [link]

In this earlier rant [ not my best writing ] I'm juxtaposing a class of doers versus a class of investors who make nothing but own merely by speculation. In this post I'm juxtaposing the Users of cultural artifacts versus Absentee Abstract Ownership.

If or when our economy and society implodes/devolves, the most crucial question is who the police and military will work for-who will they point their guns at, serve eviction notices to, or help in standing guard for their property. As people's monetary resources dry up, it will be crucial whether the police/military stay cohesive, and if so, who will they determine owns the physical resources of this industrial society. If they side with the Absentee Abstract Ownership class by removing people from the use of the cultural artifacts necessary for a modern life, then we have a recipe to replay the horror of the early Middle Ages -Roman citizens became lifelong debtors (slaves) to their creditors. ( It took the bubonic plague to kill off those who maintained the status quo of Europe, and allowed in the slow march out of the Dark Ages into modernity).

This sheriff in Chicago is functioning as a counterexample: police siding with the general population rather than the Absentee Abstract Ownership class. Want to avoid decades or hundreds of years of serfdom? Support police like the Sheriff of Chicago. I recommend a meme, THE SHERIFF OF CHICAGO, as a quick reference to the archetype and the political construct.

It is no small detail that this THE SHERIFF OF CHICAGO emerged from the people, rather than academia, and it was first publicized on Fox News and CNN, rather than the alternative-left press or left leaning bloggers. Even if the mechanics of the THE SHERIFF OF CHICAGO is essentially socialist, I think if it had come from the left or academia it would have provoked the police/military, along with ordinary citizens, into a more staunch support of the Absentee Abstract Ownership class. If it had come from the left or academia, I'm pretty sure I would have died a slave.

John Robb's Resilient Community (see his blog) thesis is a crucial concept to anticipate and build upon if our society goes through major disruptions. THE SHERIFF OF CHICAGO meme needs to be spoken easily and frequently by everyone participating in the early construction phase of the resilient community.

The Vow Dialogue

Craigslist philosophy thread that I started.

Today I vow < linux_lance > 10/02 06:52:32

1. Not to intervene in social system to save dying nodes
2. Transact with all in a peaceful ambivalent modality
3. To practice Nimbyism, not global solutionism
4. To end social justice
5. Make all life machine readable, and machine manageable

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Is your idealogy regarding this matter.... < shakesfear > 10/02 14:00:31

That humans can reach their ultimate potential by enhancing their bodies with nanotechnology and computer bionic replacements, but essentially the mind left as it is - with the exceptions of possible faster (data) processing by enhancing certain cerebral functions? OR - do you propose or is your main focus on man creating a new machine totally void of all biological and organic features and programmed with the creation (not yet conceived) of artificial intelligence? In other words, do you propose that humans create a better more efficient model of themselves, but eventually the biological, organic, humanoid would soon be extinct and the world left with our creation to further our goals? E.g., instead of creating the superman within ourselves, you would rather forgo your species and let humans die with the legacy of being God and creator of a new and more efficient thinking machine?

It certainly brings new meaning to the Nietzsche phrase "God is dead"...or as some theists would interpret as being that our God created us and then once free will was placed within us our creator died -his purpose no longer needed. Makes one ponder how many "Gods" we have gone through and is it our time now to be God and create a model in our own image and somehow give it free will and AI and our existence extinct.

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excellent capture of my ideology < linux_lance > 10/02 15:15:44

I think I am choosing this one->" man creating a new machine totally void of all biological and organic features and programmed with the creation (not yet conceived) of artificial intelligence? "

But there is a little more to it than your two choices ( which you wrote pretty well and are accurate ).

The third choice would be the machines governing man, and the whole planet. Not eliminating man, but being in symbiotic relationship. The symbiotic would be in job vacancy. Man gives up a huge amount of social engineering and control jobs such as legislative, courts, police and gives this job to the machines. The machines would excel by not doing to two things humans often did in those positions: corruption and/or performance inconsistency. Even the honest cops and legislatures out there have limits to what they can learn and what they can see.

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Do you think upgrading AI < maslow > 10/02 18:51:45

would cause human degradation, or equal upgrading?

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my answer: humans will equally upgrade § < linux_lance > 10/02 18:59:11

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Another's answer assuming Google is AI < linux_lance > 10/02 19:17:02

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/06/will_we_let_goo.php

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So do you feel the distance < maslow > 10/02 22:21:08

from organic to synthetic will always equate to a need to keep up with progress? Do we constantly run the risk of having too much of a gap in leader to follower, and limited resources dictating the survival of the fittest?

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yes, almost assuredly < linux_lance > 10/03 06:31:36

This retool of our lived environment, and the resulting gaps and disparities, is nothing new. It was an intuitively known when European descendants converted land into crops for global trade rather than local sustenance for aboriginal agrarians, nomads or hunter-gatherers. Britain wanted a line of demarcation, to leave the aboriginals land for their lifestyle and technological strata. The American Revolution was primarily about deregulating that line of demarcation, opening up an unmitigated competition between technological cultures.

By this precedent, the question of protections to mitigate disparity between leader and follower was answered.

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Thus it seems the gap < maslow > 10/03 07:10:12

continues to get wider, and narrower, wider, and...

On the other hand, there have been major falls of civilizations, where the majority imprint of said civilization, is left behind.

Can a more connected world suffer an even greater downfall? Should overly dependent needs hierarchies be broken? And, conversely, should too loose systems become more efficient...

Or is the continual adaptation a normative state?

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yes, continual adaptation < linux_lance > 10/03 07:53:20

I believe continual adaptation is the normative state. A stronger statement is that anthropology is the study of continual adaptation, and where it is different from zoology's evolution is on cultural/technology emphasis alongside genetic mutation.

Can a more connected world suffer an even greater downfall?

Not sure. Most of the anarcho-primitivists talk I hear seems to think "blow up internet, trains,planes, and autos and we will have a localism utopia" seem to forget the world was very connected in the era of wooden hulls, metal swords, gunpowder, and sails. I'm fearful of that meaner world we would downfall to, but mapping out plans of how to survive in a world of more prevalent schism genocide and slavery. But complete downfall to eating grass, don't think so.

Should overly dependent needs hierarchies be broken?

The Global Systems-Health role of terrorism is to test, and harden, the Global Systems-Health. Thanks nihilistic criminals, terrorists, and hackers -you are our unpaid systems test engineers.

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Does this mean that moderation < maslow > 10/03 12:11:55

wins the day?

It seems the extremities always collapse to the center...

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Yes, moderation or I'm looking for... < linux_lance > 10/03 12:51:25

Moderation or something else. Maybe not moderation on rate change ('let's don't change so fast'), but more like ubiquity of the change. Ah here, if a big change, then speedy wide dispersal of the change.

So I'm seeing moderation as one optimization doctrine, but another optimization doctrine being immoderation -extreme and swift change for a lot of people.

Hmmm, maybe moderation *does* win the day. Extreme mutation is an ok practice, but not of a whole class/species/type, as this is very poor evolutionary gambling.

Extreme change without speedy wide dispersal is, to me, the mother of volatile social tensions. I tend to be very pro ubiquity.

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That makes sense < maslow > 10/03 16:32:20

Major shifts require equally major dispersal to bridge the gap, while the majority of evolution is moderately sequenced.

Well done.