Companion blog to the Original Future Salon. A group of Futurists and Changemakers that come together to discuss and collaborate around larger trends and what we can do to maximize human prosperity.
"Software isn’t just a way to put IP into otherwise inert objects. It’s also a way to automate them, to make them into unblinking, ever-vigilant enforcers for the manufacturer/monopolist’s interests. They can detect and interdict any attempt at unauthorized interoperability, and call the appropriate authorities to punish the offenders."
The last two sentences of Cory's epic column take it home:
There are no digital rights, only human rights.
There is no software freedom, only human freedom.
In the last 6 months, technology has become a lifeline for so many of us to stay connected. However, the same technology platforms that connect us also control us.
The new Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, offers us a glimpse into how a small number of designers in Silicon Valley are quietly reprogramming civilization.
The Social Dilemma sounds the alarm on surveillance capitalism in hopes of preserving the very fabric of our society before it’s too late.
Let's watch it together and discuss afterward what we can to improve the challenges that the film is tackling.
Connect via Google Meet at 6pm with the goal to start the movie no later than 6:15pm using Netflix Party. Connect via Google Meet at 6pm with the goal to start the movie no later than 6:15pm using Netflix Party. [According to their virtual tour page and as we are discussing the movie afterward, we are allowed to stream it. No Netflix membership needed.] The movie is 1h33m long, which gives us ample opportunity for in-depth discussion afterward.
We have started a Social Dilemma Resources Document where we collect resources for further inquiry or links to organizations that are tackling the problem that the movie addresses.
Is tracking the impact of great films committed to the environment and social justice and developing new media about environment and equity challenges.
POW! [Power Our World] to create a world that works for all!
I would like to invite the Future Salon community to an experimental POW! Network* event this Sunday 26th of July at 6 pm. Here is the framework:
Come together to watch an impactful movie.
Discuss the lessons learned from it right after.
Collectively come up with at least one concrete action that we all can do to impact the situation.
The goal is to go beyond just being informed about a situation, but produce a collective impact together. Will we come up and agree on a joint action? We don't know yet, but it is worth a try. Please join us for this experiment. This Sunday at 6 pm we will watch the 13th documentary film, which some call the most influential and timely movie of the year. https://youtu.be/krfcq5pF8u8 Please have the Netflix Party chrome extension installed. Yes, it currently only works with Chrome.
Once you installed the extension, an NP shows up next to the right of the URL bar in your browser. It is usually greyed out may be hidden in a dropdown menu. It lights up red once you are on Netflix. On Sunday we will share our Netflix Party URL with you. Unfortunately, you need to be a Netflix subscriber to be able to participate. *POW!(Power Our World) Network is an initiative spearheaded by Zann Gill & team which I am part of. It is tracking and influencing the impact of great films committed to the environment and social justice.
Join us next Tuesday, April 17th 6pm for an Introduction to Holo/Holochain the first time in the heart of Silicon Valley at Mozilla in Mountain View. Holo/Holochain is the next level blockchain platform that enables truly distributed internet, rooted in agent centricity, which allows you to be in charge of your own data. More details in Jean's Medium post Get Oriented: 7 Posts on Holochain and Holo. Jean Russell, project lead for the Holo ICO, will introduce Holochain and lead our conversation. Ms. Russell has been championing thrivability for a decade, with several published books on the topic, the most recent of which describes emerging organizational design and culture practices. She brings her skills and vision to the Holochain project where living system principles are being deeply woven into the design of a distributed computing crypto-platform.
We will do our best to webcast the event, but the best is to be there in person :-)
Most everybody loves the new World’s Apart Heineken commercial that is showing us in an experiment on how to bridge the political divide. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here, I’ll wait ;-)
The experiment proves, that the willingness to sit down and listen to get to know the other person and their viewpoint greatly improves, once you solved a problem shoulder to shoulder together. How can we scale this? And boy do we need it. I read about a study that just came out showing that the distrust between Republicans and Democrats is larger than it is between Israelis and Palestinians. [Take that with a grain of salt, as I am struggling to find it. If you do please post in the comments.]
The Twin Towns or Sister Cities, as they are known in the US, movement really helped Europe to come together again after the devastation of the second world war. A couple of months ago I shared my idea in the Sister City Barn Raising post. Such a connection and cultural exchange would really lead to a greater understanding between liberals and conservative citizens. Now most larger cities even in the midwest tend to be democratic.
Look what is possible if everyone works together!
I have since refined my idea to do the exchange between high schools from red and blue voting districts and have the students work together on a project: Sister High School Barn Raising would be a week-long high-school exchange. I think 10th or 11th grade would be ideal. A predominantly liberal high-school connects with a high school from a mostly conservative area of the country. At the beginning of the school year, the classes connect via video conferencing and get to know each other.
Then they come up with a “barn raising” project that they would like to tackle when they are visiting each other later in the year. They are old enough to come up with such a project on their own. The focus of the project should be to create something that is for the benefit of the school or the larger community where the school is located. The rest of the school year is spent preparing for the two projects: making a budget; creating a project plan, securing the funding; learning the skills that are needed to succeed with the project, and so on.
Then, towards the end of the school year, when they visit each other for a week, they can hit the ground running, working shoulder to shoulder to create their “barn”. I envision a buddy system, that the students visiting are living in the families of their buddy from the other school, which also ensures a much deeper understanding of the circumstances of the other student.
At the end of each visiting week, there is going to be a big party where everyone, even non-school people, are invited to come and celebrate what the students created. Some of the students may have focused on the party all week, created food, rehearsed music together, maybe even developed a play or musical that they perform that night.
These two weeks of working and living together will open up the eyes of everyone involved. They will realize, that their hopes and dreams are not that far apart: Living a good life, raising a family, creating things, coming together, and celebrate. It would make such a difference. Let’s do it.
If you are interested in making Sister High School Barn Raising a reality may be in your local high school, please fill out this form. Having grown up in Germany, therefore not even having first-hand experience with the High School system here in the US, I don't think that I am the most qualified person to make this idea come to fruition. Which organization has as its mission to create greater understanding and collaboration among our youth? Ideally with close ties to school administrations. Please comment if you know of any and introduce them to Sister High School Barn Raising.
Since the election there is a lot of soul searching going on about what went wrong and what can be done to get back on track. The two camps are drifting further and further apart. Red states and blue states seem less and less to get along. But we have so much in common: Love of our families, our country, our friends, music, and to make this country a better place for our children.
Sister City Barn Raising is an idea, that is not fully formed yet, but would be a very cool way to have joint experiences and celebrate our common ground. After the second world war, one of the ways the countries overcome their hatred for each other was by building partnerships between cities.
One of the most memorable events of my youth was a trip to Whitby in York. Together with our amazing teacher Raviol we organized that trip in 11th grade. We stayed for a week with families that had kids our age. Of course, we played them our music: Falco Der Kommissar and to this day we laugh about their reaction: “Where is your Kate Bush? She is rubbish, but much better than this.”
To live for a week among the Brits really opened my eyes to the larger world and made me understand them better. How about we organize such kind of exchanges between predominant republican cities and more liberal cities and towns. How about a week-long high school student exchange?
The Sister City exchanges should not only be to follow the twin town kids in school and visiting local tourist attractions, but it should be like a barn raising. The community of the two cities coming together around a common goal that helps the whole community.
Here is how it could look work: at the beginning of the year, the students collaborate with the Sister City school and agree which barn they want to raise aka which problems they want to tackle during the week that they are together in either city. One possible project could be funding and building a Makerspace at their school.
Throughout the year the students prepare for that week of working together so that they can hit the ground running once they meet. At the end of that week, there is going to be a big barn-raising party to celebrate all the things that have been accomplished. Some of the students may choose to make music together or develop their own theater piece to be performed during the celebration.
As I said in the beginning, Sister City Barnraising is an idea that could be implemented in all kinds of ways. Joined summer camps, festivals, economic collaboration, … <insert your idea here>. Greater understanding and hopefully friendships will form from these joint experience together. Cultural and economic ties will be strengthened, a win win for everyone involved. P.S. In part this post is inspired by Doc Searls posting about Barn Raising for civilization.
Can't wait to see you all tomorrow Wednesday 20th of January 6pm for our: Ceptr @ Thrivable Future Salon at the IFTF in Palo Alto. Register now if you haven't yet.
Ceptr is a toolset for building semantic, mashable, fully decentralized applications. As Bitcoin goes through a rough patch, Arthur Brock suggests a fractal method focusing on autonomous distributed processing as a more viable and scalable approach than global ledger consensus. Ceptr is a better way forward.
Some logistics for tomorrow:
We created a ride sharing document. Please use it to coordinate. We have people who want to come but lack transit!
Thanks to IFTF for providing sodas and water. We have limited donations for beer and wine. Please help out by bringing snacks, beer & wine to share to tide us over until...
Afterwards, we will march to Pizza My Heart down the block at the end. Fill your stomach then!
Agenda
Door open and networking 6pm
Starting 6:15pm
Welcome and Thrivable Future Salon History from Mark
Continue discussion over a slice of pizza and a beverage of your choice. We can't wait to see you all there. P.S. Can't be there in person? Join the Ceptr Thrivable Future Salon Spreecast for remote participation. We will do our best to include you in the discussion.
Just got the sad news that Thrivable Future Salon speaker Jay Cross suddenly died. We don't know the details yet, but wanted to share his great spirit from last month at the Thrivable Future Salon where he unveiled his new book:
Real Learning: The missing manual for the do-it-yourself learner.
We are very glad that we recorded the session via Spreecast and are able to share a video of his presentation, and, with that, the call for the learning revolution in his own words:
Jay Cross presenting at the Thrivable Future Salon October 2015[/caption] Couple of highlights:
He needs our help to spread the details about Real Learning, as he wants a couple of million people using these ideas by next year.
In this world working and learning are converging.
Do the exercises, in the book, as this is experimental learning, not regular learning.
Informal learning people didn't know what to do with it. It was handing the keys to the worker rather than the manager.
Lots of scientifically proven things improve learning: If you have a lightbulb graphic in front of you, then you are 15% more creative.
Q: Learning versus Brainwashing?
People should be in charge of their own lives. The more they know about themselves the more they know what they want to do.
Experimental learning is like the Sierra Nevada and school learning is like the North Pole.
School convinces us that you have to learn the curriculum to get a certain grade and it isn't worth shit to lead a better life.
Q: You went to Harvard?
Yes, my 50th anniversary is coming up.
Q: Why not create a school from your idea.
A school is a place where you get programmed. I love some schools, but I went to Stanford a few months ago, and I hear people speak from the national science foundation. MIT is writing this up ... everything we know about how people learn was violated. They are talking about: "Well, we got to be more open," but they didn't take a question until 4 hours into the event.
In summary real learning is not happening in the classroom. Please check out and implement the proven idea from Jay's latest book: Real Learning they will help you to live a better life. There is no better legacy than having us improve, and continuing to improve, people's lives via your ideas.
