PLAN [y]our WORK ...

[Michael Grove]

 then WORK [y]our PLAN

For those who are familiar with my zaadz@gaia musings it will come as

no surprise that my own vision as a child  was not too dissimilar to that

of Jaron Lanier himself - someone whom I quite definitely regard as an

integral artist reflecting on the restrictions of the technology of the day,

whilst contemplating the very best way of utilising those technological

restrictions to further promote the artistic communications process - as

opposed to my own artistic reflexions of trying to live my life unseen.

I have been reading his latest "long-awaited book" - as Lee Smolin has

referred to it - which has been lent to me by Kate - and I have been struck

by its spiritual, moral and scientific juxtaposition to and support for certain

ideas that have been proposed by the Institute for  Cultural Evolution in

its  Draft  Campaign  Plan  for  Reducing  Political  Polarisation  namely -

"the incentive which could involve actively championing the creative

individualism and meritocracy that have made America great, and

which remain critical for its future."

I found this to be particularly so in the context of Jaron Larnier's -

"belief that cybernetic totalism will ultimately be bad for spirituality, morality and business" and that "people have often respected bits too much, resulting in a creeping degradation of their own qualities as human beings" and his argument that -

when you deny the specialness of personhood,

you elicit confused, inferior results from people. 

"By leaving people in poverty, at risk of their lives due to lack of basic living essentials, we have stepped across the boundary of civilization. We have conceded that these people do not matter, are not important. Allowing them to starve to death, freeze to death, die from deprivation, or simply shooting them, is in the end exactly the same thing. Inflicting or allowing poverty on a group of people or an entire country is a formula for disaster." - Jeff Mowatt

I would say that -

"THE machine is in 'deed' USING US more

than THE MACHINE IS a reflexion of US"

and that -

THE TIME is very definitely NOW for

us ALL to reflect on that statement 

In the context of the undesirability of the technological restrictions that

have been "locked-in" to "the system" - as Jaron Lanier has described -

IT MUST be seen as a priority - that more attention and focus be directed

towards those whom I have referred to as the normal ones - when one

considers the entirety of the work and conclusions which Thomas West

has spoken about since his involvement with The Arts Dyslexia Trust 

event at the Mall Galleries in London.

AS the Institute for Cultural Evolution goes on to say in its draft report -

This could be promoted through the formation of a "President's Council on Meritocracy and Excellence," which could advise the government and act as a watchdog for Libertarian concerns. Most Libertarians value both freedom and responsibility for individual citizens. Yet individualism is often pitted against the social safety net as if the two were mutually exclusive. It is possible, however, to recognize the need for important social services and anti-poverty programs without losing sight of the need to limit the size of the Federal government. 

My vote is that Jaron Lanier should be the ONLY one to be considered for the Chairmanship of that proposed -

"President's Council on Meritocracy and Excellence"

.

[Michael Grove]

In relation to certain human artifacts, particularly

the mass-produced objects, it is difficult to make

contact with and feel the unique life of that presence.

Yet one can find that life pulsing, most readily, in the

materials of which that artifact is made. In the wood

of the telephone pole, which was once standing in a

forest, in the clay bricks of the apartment building,

even in the smooth metal alloy of the truck door that

you lean against -- there, in those metals originally

mined from the bones of the breathing earth, one can

still feel the presence of patterns that are earthborn,

and that still carry something of that wider life. But if

I look at the truck purely as a truck, what I see is not

something that is born, but something that is made.

And there is surely an important distinction between

the born and the made. But even with that

distinction, the made things are still made from

matter, from the flesh of a living cosmos. 

David Abram during an interview with Derrick Jensen entitled ...
                                            
Alliance for Wild Ethics || The Perceptual Implications of GAIA

[Michael Grove]

ONE ONLY has to JUST CONSIDER the ramifications of Robotic Process Automation, to truly understand the real changes which will be 'cast down from above' on HumanKIND by their 'masters of the globe'.  

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required a human to perform. What distinguishes RPA from traditional IT automation is RPA software's ability to be aware and adapt to changing circumstances, exceptions and new situations. Once RPA software has been trained to to capture and interpret the actions of specific processes in existing software applications, it can then manipulate data, trigger responses, initiate new actions and communicate with other systems autonomously. Large and small companies will be able to reap the benefits of RPA by expediting back-office and middle-office tasks in a wide range of industries, including insurance, finance, procurement, supply chain management (SCM), accounting, customer relationship management (CRM) and human resource management (HRM). RPA software is expecially useful for organizations that have many different, complicated systems that need to interact together fluidly. For example, if an electronic form in a human resource system is lacking a zip code, traditional automation software would flag the form as having an exception and an employee would handle the exception by looking up the correct zip code and entering it manually on the form. Once the form was complete, the employee might send the completed form on to payroll so the information could be entered into the organization's payroll system. With RPA technology, however, software that has the ability to adapt, self-learn, and self-correct would handle the exception and interact with the payroll system without human assistance. Although RPA software can be expensive, the technology offers companies an alternative to outsourcing and can ultimately result in lower operating costs, decreased cycle times and increased productivity for human employees who no longer are tasked with boring work. Because RPA technology tracks and monitors all the tasks that it automates, it can also help companies to become more audit- and regulatory- compliant. Though it is expected that automation software will replace up to 140 million full-time employees worldwide by the year 2025, many high-quality jobs will be created for those who are able to maintain and improve RPA software. .

[Michael Grove]

Dawn of the New Everything by Jaron Lanier Guardian Review – memoirs of a tech visionary. Jaron Lanier is both cheerleader and doomsayer in a highly personal story of virtual reality

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/20/dawn-of-the-new-every...