Blogs

John Michael Greer, on what kind of agriculture to expect after “peak phosphorus”:

(excerpts)

“It’s true, of course, that the rapid depletion of the world’s reserves of rock phosphate, a key ingredient in chemical fertilizers, is a serious short term problem. Today’s agricultural systems depend on chemical fertilizers, and there aren’t any other abundant and highly concentrated sources of mineral phosphate available to be dumped into the intake hoppers of fertilizer factories. Still, this doesn’t mean that we’re all going to starve to death; it means that the way we produce food nowadays is not long for the world, and will be replaced by other ways of producing food that don’t depend on mass infusions of nonrenewable resources.

John Michael Greer responds to a critique of his new appropriate technology movement, by Rob Hopkins of the Transition Town movement (see below):

1. Part One: excerpts from Greer:

• paper.li – read Twitter as a daily newspaper
  paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.
• Infographic: The NewsScape - 8 sources of value creation in a post-channel media world - Trends in the Living Networks
  I have just prepared a framework to crystallize some of my thoughts on the news landscape today, which I've called The NewsScape. Individual channels - such as print, TV, internet, and more - are becoming meaningless. In the post-channel media world we are entering, the entire landscape is laid open. The NewsScape shows how value is created in this world.
• Key trends in media and communications usage - Trends in the Living Networks
  

What is the connection between the historical tradition of socialism/communism and the contemporary emergence of ideas and practices centered around p2p dynamics and the commons?

1.

Let’s first tackle our understanding and interpretation of communism.

To me it is basically the idea, probably born at the same time as post-tribal class-based society, that an alternative human arrangement based on equal relationships and without the inheritance of wealth and privilege is possible. It is something that appears again and again in human history as an expression of those that are not privileged in the existing social arrangements.

A prominent example is of course the form of the Christian communities as described in the Act of the Apostles, but it is a recurring theme across history.

• Videos tagged 'dividendeuniversel' on Vimeo
• Dividende Universel - Wikipédia
  Le Dividende Universel est un système de création monétaire, qui défend le principe que chaque citoyen d'une zone monétaire est co-propriétaire de cette zone, comme d'une entreprise, et que de ce fait, il est en droit de participer à la création monétaire sous la forme d'un dividende régulier versé sur la base d'un pourcentage de la masse monétaire totale de la zone économique répartie entre tous les citoyens de façon parfaitement égale et symétrique.
• https://nouvellesociete.wordpress.com/
• Jean Zin #solidarite#solidarite#solidarite
  

Via Open Culture:

“Above, we have TED’s Chris Anderson interviewing Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website that made headlines last month when it released the Afghan War Diaries, all 92,000 pages worth. During the 19 minute interview, Assange talks a little more about the philosophy behind WikiLeaks, how the organization decides when to release information (or not), how the site has changed world events, and what some more ordinary leaks look like. No matter what stance you take on WikiLeaks, the interview is worth a watch. You’ll only hear more about them down the line.”

Two important updates from John Robb:

- an analysis of Wikileaks as an open source insurgency

• when-global-agreements-arent-necessary: for a p2p namespace beyond ICANN
• Trojan (automobile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  according to the open manufacturing list, an example of distributed production?
• mil forge = sourceforge for the military
• Pentagon's DARPA Unit Goes Wiki With Crowdsourced Tech Project
  

fractal sovereignty is where the sovereignty of the individual and the sovereignty of the group are simultaneously fully embraced.

Excerpt from Alan Rosenblith:

“The question about where to place sovereignty has long been one of the core divides in politics. Many who consider themselves conservative favor the sovereignty of the individual over the group, decrying regulations, taxes, etc. Those who may consider themselves liberal tend to believe that taxes are a good thing because they contribute to the common good. In the spirit of “transcend and include” we have been exploring what it would mean to embrace both types of sovereignty fully. And, as is the case with many other topics, the MetaCurrency people don’t all agree. But here are my thoughts.

• OneWebDay 2010 | Home
  One WebDay, held on September 22 every year since 2006, is a global event aimed at giving all participants in this unprecedented turn in human evolution that is the Internet a chance not only to celebrate it, but also to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining the open-networking principles that have made it the success it is.
• P2PU launches 3rd round of courses, with “Copyright for Educators” - Creative Commons
  The Peer 2 Peer University, more commonly known now as P2PU by a growing community of self-learners, educators, journalists, and web developers, launches its third round of courses today, opening sign-ups for “courses dealing in subject areas ranging from Collaborative Lesson Planning to Manifestations of Human Trafficking.”
• Daniel Araya
  

Excerpted from Tikkun’s Amanda Udis-Kessler:

“Devaluation and dehumanization are equally important and equally present in any form of inequality that has both structural and cultural elements. And devaluation and dehumanization have profound spiritual implications for how social inequality works:

Via OTC: “Robby Rodriguez talks about the importance of holding resources in common and resisting market solutions to resource management – shares traditional acequia irrigation system as an example.”

Video:

• PRACTIS