An Autonomous Agent

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Category: video (Page 8 of 24)

The Venus Project – Jacque Fresco

First, if you have never seen documentaries or talks about Jacque Fresco, you should definitely do so now. He is quite a visionary. I can’t believe he was 58 years old in 1974 when he was on Larry King. And now nearly 100 years old. What an extraordinary life!

Future By Design

Paradise or Oblivion

An insightful speech from Mr. Jacque Fresco has caused me to wonder about our society and its future. I think he identifies the issues, but I can we fix them?

With regards to a resource based economy, I think we should be careful with how much we change and how quickly. We don’t want to “throw out the baby with the bath water” as the saying goes. In other words, there are numerous highly productive structures which exist today, along with detrimental ones. There is much we can do to restructure various institutions to achieve many of the goals listed in the Venus Project. For example, there is nothing that requires corporations and governments to be hierarchically organized. That form of structure existed before I was born and even before my father. Why do we still follow it? I once read a book, suggested by John Bogle, called Servant Leadership, by Robert K. Greenleaf; in this book, Greenleaf puts forward ideas which reshape the structure of corporations and other institutions.

Anyway, just watch the talk and see what you think.

UPDATE: The Venus Project – The Choice is Ours

The Evolution of Ecological Consciousness

The Evolution of Ecological Consciousness is a well made and must watch presentation by the Permaculture designer Andrew Faust of the Center for Bioregional Living. He summarizes many of the ideas presented by Carl and Dorion Sagan and Lynn Margulis. In addition, he presents many fascinating visions for a future living experience in conjunction with biology.

Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death

In the documentary Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death the BBC takes a detailed look at one of the worst humanitarian disasters and ruthless killing of natives done during the imperial colonization era.

White King — King Leopold II of Belgium; Red Rubber — book by E. D. Morel; Black Death — Congolese killed number in the millions

The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)

Aaron Swartz was a critical protagonist and fighter for open access. Sadly, for Swartz, centralized sources of power detest such proponents of freedom. These power hungry institutions are constantly trying to win legal control over various aspects of the internet. Restriction and control of the internet inevitably results in clever ways around such imposed sanctions. Why then, do they keep trying?! Money, as usual, is the answer. And it is the responsibility of all freedom supporting internet users to demand and fight for such rights as seem necessary to uphold the open and free internet. I hope that one day the US constitution includes internet access rights.
Swartz’s vision of the internet as a way to empower the individual is a powerful force for democracy and societal progress. I suggest watching the documentary and biography, The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz.
Swartz ran into trouble when he tried to show the world how academic journal producers restrict access to their publications. They lockup knowledge and scientific discoveries inside virtual safes, where any combination of $$$$ will unlock the door. It is a shame. Academic knowledge should be shared and free to access; for a good example go to arXiv.org, also The Social Science Research Network.
P.S. I found out the other day that one of the coauthors of RSS was Aaron Swartz — when he was only 14 years old, wow! What would I do without RSS feeds!? They provide such a convenient and “simple” stream of articles, news, and updates. He was brilliant.

Counter Intelligence (2013)

Top Documentary Films posts links to numerous free films. It has been one of my favorite places to visit when I am bored; I especially like the coverage of controversial and radical subjects — films which are unlikely to be found on sites like Netflix and Hulu. One such documentary is Counter Intelligence, an investigation and history of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Through declassified public documents and former CIA officers, the film reveals how the CIA has operated in the past. Studying the history of the CIA, one can speculate as to how the agency may be influencing current world events.

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