Category Archives: power

277. Democracy – Comment on a Proposal

This short post adds to a recent dis­cus­sion in The World Post: Berggruen, Nicholas and Nathan Gardels (8 April 2014) “Post-Party Democ­racy Can Restore the Rule of the Many Over Money”. The World Post, online @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/post-party-democracy_b_5108263.html?utm_hp_ref=world Kudos to the writ­ers … Con­tinue read­ing

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273. What Is Going On Here?

Because they are mega-every­thing, states like China and the USA become test par­a­digms for what can go right and wrong in man­ag­ing humans. Con­sider these:  1) The US has the world’s largest and most sophis­ti­cated assem­bly of spy­ing orga­ni­za­tions. They col­lect … Con­tinue read­ing

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272. God, defined

God : def­i­n­i­tion: A form of socially shared delu­sion imply­ing a sen­tient, omni­scient, omnipo­tent, non-human force which is nev­er­the­less con­cerned with human actions. Often used sub­con­sciously by indi­vid­u­als to avoid ego respon­si­bil­ity for cer­tain thoughts and actions. Used socially by … Con­tinue read­ing

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271. Security & the Neo-feudalists – One Dimensional Chess

A few cen­turies ago Europe was dot­ted with castle fortresses, sur­rounded by sup­pos­edly impreg­nable stone walls and moats of water. Bar­ri­caded in these castles were lords and ladies, suck­ing the life out of the peas­ant farms around them, and blow­ing … Con­tinue read­ing

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270. King Kong and Big Data

Big data is an enabling tech­nol­ogy. That is, it enables both risks and rewards, accord­ing the skills and judge­ments of those who engage it (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-pro/business-it/how-big-data-can-result-in-bad-data-20130720-hv11k.html?rand=8744926). Human beings have never been known to turn down an enabling tech­nol­ogy, regard­less of the … Con­tinue read­ing

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266. Pity your neighbour’s cat

The most cer­tain qual­ity of power is that those who seek it will mis­use it. A sec­ond cer­tainty is that an army of zom­bies will eagerly imi­tate their lead­ers. And so it is with “cyber war­fare”. Gov­ern­ment lead­ers rou­tinely spy … Con­tinue read­ing

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261. Boo! So What Are You Afraid Of ?

What are you afraid of? If you are under 30 you are prob­a­bly afraid of being laughed at by your friene­mies, but prob­a­bly not afraid of burn­ing half your brain cells and poi­son­ing your liver with booze, or get­ting an … Con­tinue read­ing

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