Stephen C. Rose's Blog, page 3

It was not exactly heaven. More like a dream.

It was not exactly heaven. More like a dream. You know how in a dream you know you are there but you are both real and more or less not real? And yet some dreams have this quality of being more real than anything.

Anyway, this is what happened to me after I was deemed dead, duly cremated and my ashes scattered in the East River. I will never know why I casually said to do that. It is a good thing sensations I had were not related to being incinerated. I am happily without memory of the entire sordid process.

Do I know where I am? Let's put it this way. I know that I am! I know that whoever I was, I am conscious in much the same way as I was when I lived. The difference, I think, is that now is completely now. I can be completely unconscious at will or completely conscious. I can go anywhere without being any more aware of substance than in a dream. And I do. I can stand on a field where Herodotus stood contemplating a view of the Persian landscape. I can move with thought.

And yes I see now exactly what heaven and hell are in terms of my own experience. I can access anything I ever knew and anything I ever lived. And the result is that I am fully aware of myself in a way that was never possible when I was alive. When you think about where Hitler ended up, just realize that punishment is living with everything you ever did. And that heaven - if it is real at all - is everything wonderful you knew and experienced, available to you with the precise intensity that existed when it happened.

Is this all there is? No. It cannot be. For things to be this way overturns everything I ever imagined. True, I always valued dreams. But I never knew that they were a sort of preview of what lies beyond our days on Planet Earth.

Our Future Energy Will Alter Everything

1.

Sun and wind, the rivers and oceans will be the sources of future energy.

2.

Solar power is in its infancy but one thing seems clear. The more concentrated collection can be, the more energy. The present notion of grafting solar to existing structures is at best a stopgap. See http://buff.ly/1cDvhky

3.

Wind power is even more undeveloped. But it's allure has attracted enough competing modes of execution that it is probable that it will equal sun as a future energy source. See The Future of Wind Power http://buff.ly/1edr8Sk

4.
Rivers and oceans offer a varied menu of options, but it is logical to guess that they would compose at least one third of the total needed - with wind and sun - to meet all energy needs in the future. http://buff.ly/1cDyalh

5.

Cybercommunities aim at complete energy sufficiency based on the evolving technologies and their applicability in various locales. Sun will revolutionize Africa's energy future. And so forth. A transition to these forms of energy is required. As fossil forms diminish in availability this triad of energy sources will emerge.

6.

A cybercommunity approaches energy flexibly. Solar technology will be shared community-wide with cost and design savings. Imagine a solar enabled matrix that can support the surfaces that make up the spaces of a cyber-community. Imagine an elevated cybercommunity near oceans and rivers, utilizing as yet undeveloped means of utilizing water-based energy. Imagine an evolution of turbine technology to produce a Stonehenge perimiter of tall turbo-silos around a cybercommunity in the world's wind-prone regions.

7.

There is yet another energy source that would be important in a cyber community - us. A walkable community could have surfaces throughout that rode on nano-turbines capable of generating energy via footfalls. The prospects for nano offer a menu of options: Concepts for future electricity generation http://buff.ly/1edw7SW

8.

An unresolved question is how today's fabulously wealthy multi-national corporations will effect the move to sun-wind-hydro energy. One could predict that they would seek to corner the market and gain profit. The rise of democratic cyber-communities could counter this by pooling resources to choose items on a growing menu of options for creating autonomous uses of these free resources.

9.

The common denominator of this new energy configuration is that it requires local cooperation on an unprecedented scale to achieve its economic and social potential. Shared solar, shared turbines and other commonly-held technologies argue for an increasing consciousness of local power and greater pride in local achievement than at present.

10.

The challenge to all of this thinking is palpable. The current energy industry and its allies have little or no interest in anything but squeezing the last ounce from today's diminishing fossil sources and savaging the rivers and oceans. Just as public transit has been crucified by these forces in the past, so too the effort to minimize the truth of the environmental consciousness is all the reminder we need to warn us that we are among the world's endangered species. Here is a salient conclusion to this colloquy. The Fracking of Rachel Carson | Sandra Steingraber | Orion Magazine http://buff.ly/GTEreH

One day fossil fuels will run out

"One day fossil fuels will run out .... the only imponderable is, when it will happen. " http://buff.ly/1groBG8 #estoleads

"Oil, coal and gas at 2006 rates, ... will last a further 40, 200 and 70 years, respectively." http://buff.ly/1grpQoI #estoleads

Our future energy will come from sun and wind.

We face 100 years of unprecedented dislocations due to weather and the collapse of the oil economy.

As in the past, small local communities will mark the genesis of new forms of society and economy.

Cybercommunities are an effort to imagine a future that can survive the collapse of the oil economy.

Cybercommunities are car-free.

Cybecommunities have a population of up to 10,000.

Cybercommunities are no more than four levels and no more than a mile across.

Cybercommunities can evolve from present neighborhoods.

Cybercommunities can be built from scratch.

We overcome when we cleave to Abba

Abba is the one Jesus prayed to. Abba means father, dad and friend. Abba is at odds with cruelty. Abba has no interest in revenge. Abba is familiar, present, good. Abba is in every human being. Abba is a light, a guide, a friend. Abba is good news that Jesus bears. Abba speaks to us if we but ask. Abba is one with our highest self. Abba overcomes all tragedy. We overcome when we cleave to Abba.

Frame your life in terms of reality, ethics and aesthetics.

Triadic philosophy thinks in three stages - Reality, Ethics and Aesthetics. Triadic thinking starts with Reality. Reality is whatever you want to deal with. You are the master of your mind. Reality rises within within you, outside of you and beyond you. Triadic philosophy consciously keys thinking to the now. Any concern is fodder for conscious thought. Now is all there is. We move continuously from moment to moment. In triadic philosophy your reality runs up against ethics. Reality meets tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and non-idolatry. A meeting with ethics always helps define your reality. Ethical definition is the second stage of thinking in threes. Aesthetics is the final stage of the triadic thinking process. Aesthetics can be thoughts, deeds, movements. Aesthetics acts, performs, impacts, impresses. Aesthetics is mindful action.. Aesthetics fuses truth with beauty, beauty with truth. (Keats) Aesthetic action always intends to achieve the very best result. Open yourself to the three stages of conscious thought. Frame your life in terms of reality, ethics and aesthetics.

Charlie Knuckle

Charlie Knuckle was not his real name. He could have been easily traced if he had ever appeared. It was the most elaborate scheme ever perpetrated in the MLB. It made doping look like a tiny footnote. Here's how it went down. The year was 2053. The Yankees had gone through a huge crash, one of those cyclical meltdowns where aging incompetents and hapless newcomers could not go the distance. No playoffs. Disconsolate fans. In walks Charlie Knuckle. When the season ended, the very next day, the entire Yankees front office was replaced. Within a week, all the deadwood was on the way out. And the following spring, the team consisted of the most unlikely assortment of players ever assembled. Charlie Knuckle controlled it all from his Manhattan hotel apartment. The new team was made up of retired veteran gold glove winners plus three renowned, but somewhat used up, sluggers. The center of the operation was fifteen pitchers and five catchers. The pitchers were all versed in the knuckle ball. The catchers spent the winter acclimating themselves to double-sized mitts and the zen of spearing tosses that had no rhyme or reason. Tampa went wild when the Yanks arrived for spring training. The papers were filled with speculation. Charlie Knuckle kept a low profile thanks to the services of discreet doormen and elevator operators. To make a long season short, the 2054 Yankees won 100 games by the middle of August and swept the playoffs and World Series handily. What was the actual MO Charlie insisted on to bring about such a remarkable result. First, he instructed the sluggers not to go yard, but to swing gently, creating pin point bloopers that might yield up singles while causing mayhem as opposing outfielders and infielders tried to snag them. He instructed his all-knuckle-ballers to be alert to the provisions of their contracts. Pay-per-pitch. A cool $1000 for every pitch that resulted in a called strike. Three-passed-balls-you're out of the game. As many as ten pitchers might be employed in a single outing. Catchers were similarly rewarded. The result was a great show. The methodology yielded up so many substitutions that crowds went wild. Rarely would there be a meltdown. Someone of the fifteen hurlers would be on. The team era was 2.1. The sluggers managed over 100 rbis each. In the dugout, the manager and his assistants could be seen talking on a red phone. It was a direct line to Charlie Knuckle. It is said that every move that was made was suggested by this strange individual. It was surmised, accurately, that whoever was behind this had unlimited resources and a somewhat jaundiced mind.

Stephen C. Rose

The name Abba defies entropy.

Abba is the only name Jesus gave for the god he prayed to. It means father, dad, friend, chum. Abba is at odds with texts that portray the deity as cruel, vindictive, distant and condemning. Abba is familiar, available, good. Abba is a force, however named, within all human beings. Abba is a light, a guide, a friend. Abba is the one whose good news Jesus bears, embodies and exemplifies. We use different names and come from different traditions. But one by any name, within us all, is the same. The name Abba defies entropy. The name Abba subsumes tragedy in the comedic. Abba signifies reversal in the world and in us all.

Abba's Way

A Gateway to The Life of The Mind

I derive from the great American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce the idea of thinking in threes. Thinking in threes is a liberating and easy way of moving beyond the inherent conflict of binary thinking. To think in threes, start with any reality - an idea, a sense, an image, anything. The reality or sign is always the first stage of thinking in threes. The second stage of thinking in threes is whatever blunt truth your reality bumps up against. Blunt truth in thinking in threes can be conscious or spontaneous. If your goal is to live a good life, you might submit your reality to the blunt truths of ethics. Inevitably, any reality that comes up will bump into something that modifies it. If you fancy a color, a name modifies it. If you fancy freedom, it encounters conditions. In binary thinking, the second stage of thought is the end. Binary thinking is either-or. My way or the highway. One or two. A or B. Binary thinking is very useful but it is utterly limited as a philosophy of life. To enjoy a good and conscious life, thought must enter a third stage. The third stage is revolutionary. It is where consideration turns into constructive action. When we fail to enter the third stage of thinking, we become literally thoughtless. Cain's reality was envy. Its referent was Abel. The thoughtless result was murder. All binary thinking runs the risk of doing serious violence. When one thinks in threes, one can consciously apply ethics in the second stage. One can frame an action that is consistent with ethics. The third stage of thinking in threes is a conscious translation of a general reality into a specific action. Ideally, this action will be informed by ethical values and the result would be what tends toward truth and beauty. Whatever your philosophy may be, thinking threes is a sensible starting point. It avoids the sort of binary conflict that is almost the default in much politics and culture. It makes one critical and even iconoclastic in society. It is not an occasion for pride. It is rather the process of becoming mindful. This becoming is one gateway to the life of the mind.

The Most Successful Man in The World

Stringfellow Jones was born in what was left of New York City on May 10 in the year 2100. The floods of the 21st century turned Manhattan into an island a mere five miles long and a mile wide. Nonetheless the Jones family prospered because Archer Jones, Stringfellow's father, had made millions as the waters rose. He did so by borrowing money. It was still possible for someone with a prep school and Ivy League background to make hay even as Wall Street itself became impossible to occupy. During low points in the financial zig zag of the century, Archer accumulated millions, then billions, as the value of money declined along with interest rates. His fortunes rose in 2090 when a recovery restored his wealth to its former value. He used the money to rebuild what remained of Manhattan. It was now substantially weather-proof

Archer celebrated his sixtieth birthday in 2099 by marrying his seventh wife, a seventeen-year-old named Emily Sweetbread. He met Emily on Twitter. Of all the big Internet operations of the early 21st century Twitter alone survived intact. Archer was bi-sexual and had enjoyed three male brides but he wanted a child. In his penthouse, at the top of what had been the RCA Building, he experienced an orgasm that actually exceeded masturbation on his internal thrill meter. He stretched his lithe body with exquisite pleasure. He even felt love welling up for Emily, partly because he believed correctly that she would fulfill his devout wish, which she did forthwith. Stringfellow's birth took place in the bed where he was conceived. Oscar the midwife pronounced the lad perfect. Champagne was served and Emily was up and about the next day.

Emily was more than a pretty thing by a long shot and Archer knew it. The result was that Stringfellow promised to be fully able to exceed the most far-reaching achievements of his successful father.

But Archer never lived to see Stringfellow's success. He never imagined that Stringfellow would dwarf his domination of the shrunken island of Manhattan. With champagne in his bloodstream and the sight of the newborn in his head, he tripped over a loose shoelace on the balcony and his lithe frame began a swift descent, caroming off several levels. Archer landed at the very point where, come December, one of the few surviving Manhattan traditions, the lit Radio City Christmas tree, would cover the pavement his patrician blood had stained.

Nietzsche and Bonhoeffer Meet on The Way to Heaven.

Nietzsche and Bonhoeffer met at their common level on the way to heaven. Part of their interesting dialogue follows.

N. May I call you Dietrich?

B. Of course. And you are Friedrich! This is wonderful.

N. Illuminating to say the least. There is this. There is us. And there is you. Where to begin?

B. So much to say. I think we must dispense with all but what is most important to each of us. I want to talk about how we both got here.

N. I want to share a persistent thought and ask you a question. Please begin.

B. I was hanged for my part in the effort to assassinate Hitler. It was excruciating. It seemed to take an eternity. All of my good will was momentarily absent. When I found myself here, I did not realize that we are known so entirely and that we can exist as we do now, with full awareness beyond anything we could have imagined.

N. I date my death the day I went mad in Turin. I count the intervening years before my final breath as a time out. I share your sense of the complete logic of this. Everyone gets exactly what they did and were - their consciousness insofar as it developed. This is a remarkable instance of eternal return and for that matter of amor fati. We must face our lives forever! Do you have any regrets about yours?

B. Many. I regret as you perhaps do as well that I did not have a fully satisfactory relationship. I regret in retrospect that I did what I did. And I feel cheated of the time it would have taken to fully state what I now understand. It is all the more painful because of the apparent legacy that has formed around me.

N. Sorry, but I am amused. I think killing Hitler was a wonderful way to go. Vastly better than having a sister make you into an apologist for him. We posthumous authors are not as fortunate as I once dreamed.

B. You at least have an enduring influence beyond all that. Me? I am going the way of the churches, off into the sunset. What is your persistent thought?.

N. That I actually completed my work save for one thing. I erroneously rejected Jesus. I blame the influence of my admirable father who was like you a minister of the gospel not of Jesus, but of a messiah created to exempt the world from the responsibility Jesus commended to all. I failed to understand him. I failed to understand proper values. I dug my own grave, as it were. It seems clear to me we both have regrets.

B. If I had it to do over, I would have chosen nonviolence. I would be killed on the way to confronting Hitler or avoid the encounter entirely, living to fight another day. The latter would have made the most sense. The legacy I left was a recipe for being permanently misunderstood. I was not a martyr. I suffered from the illness of two thousand years. Religious schizophrenia.

N. We must go now. We shall meet again. I never thought of this as our destiny, to be part of the continuity in this way. The freedom of the cosmos is preserved. Remarkable.

B. Indeed it is. And the world survives without us.