Better alternatives: let's optimize the whole world!
Our current level, how we live together and how we treat Earth's precious eco system, is this the best we can do? I think not!! We can become much healthier, physically and mentally, live beyond the technological singularity while at the same time giving more space and living closer to nature. We can make it: beautiful, exciting, fun. Yea I know realists; balance, light-dark, it is impossible to only be happy. Don't worry; shit will always be happening. But on average things can be made better or worse right? Well then waiting for a better future is stupid. We have to create the future that we want, by developing and applying better alternatives.
My approach is simple: just optimize 'everything'!
1) Take a good look at the current situation, at everything.
2) What do we want to improve, and what most urgent? (but every small thing counts)
3) What seem to be the better alternatives?
4) Are these alternatives possible within the current state of this universe?
5) Leaders of all countries, make wise choices on what to optimize and when.
5B) Or make Giesbert dictator of the world, because democracy can be such a drag.
6) There will be resistance against change. Who needs compensation?
7) Keep evaluating and adjusting. Reality is complex, don't trust your predictions.
Next level
Applying better alternatives may be hard to do, but not impossible, thus possible. Easier is to do nothing and stay stuck at our current level. Our current problems though belong to our current level. To get rid of these, we have to move on. I want to go to the next level! No again; the next level will not be paradise, as in this universe there are always 2 sides to everything, but it will be better.
* About the picture above: This group of people are one example of a better alternative, as most of them are part of the care-team that keeps me alive. The norm in The Netherlands is to when you get a serious injury, to move into a what I call "handicap-storage facility". Although sometimes the best solution, I am super happy with what we call the PGB budget, with which I pay my care team. As such I live in a normal house in a normal neighborhood, where I have control over my care and thus over my live. It is not all perfect: to organize everything is way too much, and where the money is comming from is always trying to give less. True this photo is not from an average day, the care team and friends organized a fantastic party at my 50th birthday :-)
How to design a better future
Designs for a Better Future
I know of only a couple:
- The Venus Project, by Jacque Fresco
- Zicht op de toekomst, by Robbert and Rudolf Das
Aren't there more?
Resistance against Change
A Better Alternative or even a Design for a Better Future, can not be create in reality just like that. The resistance against change is massive. How can we turn most of that power into a force for change?
Topics
The challenge is to improve almost everything, and to never stop improving! (as long as makes sense). Here a list of topics that need to be improved, say I. What do you think is the one to tackle first?
Quit the Bullshit
We need time energy and money to develop and apply the better alternatives. Where can this come from? Well, I think we waste way more than 50% of our power on bullshit. What is BS and what is not?
New goals
I predict that if we succeed in creating a better future, we will have a lot of spare time. But no worries; we'll find new and exciting stuff to do.
The better alternatives organization
If my health allows I will start "The better alternatives organization", but clearly not something I can do alone. It is on my to-do-list.
Reality
What can we learn about reality while living in our virtual realities.
Space
We live on the surface of a little plantet in a unbelievable large space. What is space, how to travel through space and gather information. How to protect the Earth, live on other planets and in space ships.
The order of things
There is the order of small to large. More interesting is the order from most elementary to more complex, as it is the most elementary parts that dictated what combinations are possible.
Emergence
Possible the most interesting word. Has a lot to do with the order of things, but reaches further; into the non-material world.
How to learn about reality
It is impossible to see the reality, and illusions are real illusions. Still it is possible to learn a lot about reality, and forget a lot of BS.
Energy
Energy seems to be an basic element, present everywhere, dictates how everything went/goes/will go, like god if you like, but what is it?
Propulsion
We move stuff around. Propulsion is a word used in aviation and space flight, but it can be applied anywhere where forces accelerate mass.
Emotions
I could make a smart robot, all logic, but I don't know how to give it emotions. I could make it fake emotions but that doesn't count. Feelings & emotions are real, right?
Size matters
How come that a small pudding stands up and a large one collapses? Make a bird twice as large and it can not fly anymore.
Humans
How do our brains and body work. What do we want, how do we function as individuals and groups.
Human Virtual Reality
How do our brains make a virtual reality -that we experience as reality. This may be the most important page of my site.
Human Intelligence and Wisdom
Human intelligence is amazing and limited. What is wisdom and how does human wisdom diver from other spiecies's wisdom.
Human nature
How would you explain to an alien what humans are like? How do we differ from all the other spiecies? How do we function as individuals and in small groups?
Human boxes
Our brains work quite digital: something either checks a box or not, gets this label or that label, or both, or make a new label. Reality however does not separate itself into many boxes with unique labels.
Traps for humans
There are many way to trap a human in ways that they don't understand well, similar to flies that get trapped by a window. If we would educate ourselves more about traps, would could have more freedom.
Large groups of people
When people form large groups, new hard to control behavior emerges.
Governments
When a larg group of people forms, the need to organize this group arises. Often power hungry individuals step forwards to lead. These can be the worst. Maybe no one individual should be a leader.
Police and Army
If we agreed on certain laws, we need police to enforce that. And if our group is worth defending, we need an army. But far too often, the police and the military are abused for stupid power games.
Money
I don't want trade chickens on the market place for bread. Money is a great tool. But the current financial system is sick, using the brightest minds to make money with money. And then came the robots.
Trust
We can move forwards really fast if we can trust each other and the information that is around. But it turns out that we are not always trustworthy. How get we get to a state of trust?
Birth control
When we know how we want to live on this finite size earth, we'll see what number of people would fit that picture. Then comes the difficult task birth control. Not by force! And who is fit enough to be a parent?
Disasters
We are ill prepared for disasters. How can increase our chance of survival? Preppers have a point. Viruses, asteroids, solar storms, earthquakes, droughts, fire, floods, war, recession, nuclear boom, ..
Technology
Use energy to rearrange atoms in for us useful structures. What is possible in this universe and what is not?
Robots
Non biological machines that use machine intelligence and can move around in our world. We can use them for good and bad. I want two robots please.
Bio technology
At first we'll try to prevent and cure diseases, fix what is broken (repair my neck please!). Then we will try to enhance our biology. We'll see the intended and unintended consequences.
Transport of goods and people
We want VTOL! But: safe, energy efficient, powerful, and self-flying. Then we could do away with most: roads, train tracks, water channels. Parking spots in town can become gardens.
New basic stuff
Large complex things are build-up from smaller simpler parts. The discovery/development of a new part, can have a huge effect; making many more complex things possible.
Energy sources
Are there enough sustainable energy sources?
Yes there are!
We are surrounded by energy.
In a way, the whole earth is energy.
Energy transport and storage
We want not just power, we want it to be available always and anywhere, to power our machines.
Good Food
We need to eat and we like to eat good food. What are the best ways to produce/process/transport/store food.
Manufacturing goods
We produce a lot of stuff. What about the cost of producing and owning this much stuff? We want cheap products, manufactur whatever we like. No regulation = crappy producs, slafe labor, large scale pollution.
Open quality products
I would like to see way more quality products that are designed to last for a very long time, are easy to: clean, maintain, repair and upgrade.
Recycling
In our lives, we deal with the structure and location of large combinations of atoms. We usually don't change the atoms. All of our waste can be re-used, except for radio active waste.
Machine intelligence
We learned how to use the power of fire and steam to increase our access to power, and now we are learning how to increase our access to intelligence. Machine intelligence is a basic part of AI.
Technological singularity
That is when, fueled by machine learning, AI gets to the point where it can develop itself in an unbelievable high phase. This will general AI can be super useful almost anywhere and will change almost everything.
Information
Knowledge and wisdom, standing on the shoulders of giants, sharing trusting understanding information.
One language
If the goal is to start working together better than ever before, we must start by communicating better then ever before: we need to speak the same language, a new language.
The did-not-work-Library
We focus on the ways that work well, and don't keep track of the ways that did-not-work, while this information is as important. We need to remember the often hard learned lessons.
School
Did school prepare you well for life? What is the purpose of going to school?
How old are you? Maybe time to go to school again, get an update!
Beyond the limits of one mind
What are the limits of 1 human mind, a group of human minds, and a group of human minds working together with machine intelligence.
Inventions
I love Research & Development. What is problematic though:
- Patents make inventing almost impossible.
- There are too little funds for non comercial R&D.
- Double checking outcomes, is not rewarding.
Decision making
How can we make better decisions, more quickly.
People are slow and not neutral. Maybe by applying machine intelligence, we can remove this human bottle neck, and speed up progress like never before.
The News
Today's news gives us a very poor representation of reality. It is often no more than a dark form of entertainment. It How can we improve the news? I like Statistics and in depth stories.