Times are changing more than one realizes

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For example, using bitcoin did you know you could buy a piece of art that exists only on the Internet? No physical representation exists. You can buy the art but you don’t own it. You can sell shares to people who won’t own it either. “Oh,” you say, “isn’t that just like leasing?” Perhaps but unlike leasing you can’t use the art or take it anywhere. Besides, thousands of other bitcoin investors are buying the same art so they can sell shares, too.

Try to set your mind in the most abstract position possible. This buying and selling of art shares takes the place of a bank and associated trading of debt between banks. Bitcoin was invented the year after the 2018 recession which was caused entirely by crooked bank dealings with something called collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Passed off as triple A mortgages, the mortgages in fact were not triple A and contained all manner of mortgage failure.

Eventually, the false value of the CDO, very high because the whole intent was to make profit, came to light as mortgage after mortgage failed due to nonpayment. Caught ‘holding the bag’ so to speak, banks suffered unexpected losses; simultaneously real estate values plummeted because of the collapse of mortgage valuation in private investment markets.

So instead, bit coin users don’t buy real estate debt, they buy an artificial internet object that takes the place of real estate and is not subject to CDOs or any other bundling of debt because in the bitcoin world, every transaction is saved in one massive database where, to coin a TV theme, “everyone knows you’re name.”

Unless you have extra Monopoly money, don’t run out and buy an emoji. The bitcoin world is very fluid because it is not anchored to a three-dimensional world of physical things and human investment like jobs and commerce. It behaves more like a commodities market where prices are flexible based on availability instead of the value of the dollar. Bitcoin values – there are several different coins – can fluctuate wildly for no realistic reason. Still, one can avoid the shenanigans of Wall Street and the banks if one has a lot of Monopoly money to invest.

Eventually, paper money and even credit cards may disappear as the cloud and Internet become the financial platform for economics. Mariner wrote a post in February 2020 comparing North American Indian wampum to Kenya’s “first nation to do so” no-bank system by transferring cash with smartphones since 2007. The smartphone application world already has the software that can handle cash transfer but there are legalities in the way. For now, one needs a bank or card number.

Mariner still carries cash in a wallet he bought ten years ago. The bitcoin, bankless world doesn’t fit in the wallet. Where’s a cashier when you need one?

Ancient Mariner

A Recipe for Progress

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Feeds 350 million – Let rise for 30 years.

Add 50 states:

AXIOS – “States are responsible for many of the laws with the greatest direct impact on people’s daily lives. Republicans control 30 state legislatures and the GOP has the trifecta — the governorship, state House and state Senate control — in 23 states, while Democrats do in 15.”

Blend with gerrymandering to maximize representatives in the House of Representatives.

Toss in a Constitutionally mandated representation of 2 senators from each state regardless of population. (Wyoming, the least populated state with 581,075 citizens, has two senators; California, with 39,512,223 citizens, has two senators).

Divide into two halves representing the 20th century and the 21st century. Using Covid, throw away the half representing the 20th century.

 

Herbs and Spices

Do not use antitrust – especially with the technology sector.

Use taxation sparingly if at all.

To increase hot spiciness, divide two political parties into four.

To add an aged flavor, do not enact a term limits act.

Do not add new concepts of education; it will confuse the older generations.

Ask China to economically control South America.

To prevent too much rising, avoid supply economics.

Continually agitate while baking. For a topping, use China’s Artificial Intelligence global network.

 

Good Luck, Zees.[1]

Ancient Mariner

 

 

[1] Generation Z, born from 1997 to 2012

Generational impact on retirement

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Mariner has written about the conflicts between younger generations and older generations during this rapid shift in culture, economics and technology. Primarily because of the pandemic – a literal meth dose for culture – and delay of a more orderly change in culture between 1960 and 2021, the split is unusually focused between baby boomers (born 1940s-1960s) and generation X (born 1980s-1990s). Millennials are in the middle with older ones tending to be more traditional and the younger ones tending toward contemporary views.

Noting the perception of social morality between the two generations is akin to the Grand Canyon split of Arizona. Everyone is familiar with the many populist uprisings – more a social class issue than an age issue – but the generational conflict has more to do with institutions. Any and all institutions are included from government to business to public service to Wall Street itself.

The central issue between the generations has three parts. First is the manner of social interaction, that is, the ‘intrusion’ of smart phones, privacy, and altered ways of fulfilling human-to-human social relations. The second part is the interpretation of a successful life, that is, the 40 year career is a thing of the past; living in an era of better resources like housing, college cost, and flaunted family vehicles as a measure of success is disappearing. It is the third part that is the subject of this post: The role of institutions in the new world social order.

Below are a few examples.

Tenure is a term you’ll often hear associated with professors. Academic tenure means a professor has been granted lifetime employment with a college or university. It also protects them from being fired without cause. Tenured professors are smart and educated and have demonstrated good skills and many are past normal retirement because tenure protects their job. In other words they are baby boomers and a few from the silent generation (born 1920s-1940s). The role of colleges in society already is beginning a full transition to a new era where colleges are not staid, building-rich fortresses with an insulated student body. The new college will need to diversify its role moving out into the community, partnering with business, other public and private institutions and creating subjects and majors that mean more to the younger generations. Will colleges trim their baby boomer administrators and professors? Frankly, it is do or die time for colleges to rise like a phoenix from traditional classrooms.

Like colleges, other private service institutions like churches, retirement homes and libraries, the emerging culture is less interested in sequestered services because modern technology has provided any individual the opportunity to engage in personal activities more independently. A few examples are listed:

Churches struggle to keep an active outreach program because older parishioners are more comfortable sitting in pews or watching online services.

Small nursing homes have difficulty enlisting enough residents to sustain operability. More health services are easily available outside of retirement homes.

Community services for senior citizens have difficulty sustaining participants, e.g., lunch and dinner programs have dwindled because seniors can order meals online and have them delivered.

Libraries are caught with rooms full of books that go unread because of internet browsers. In each of these examples, the administrators typically are older millennials or baby boomers. These older administrators, like the professors, are classy, responsible people. But they are old. They did not have the same reality in their active years that the current generations are experiencing.

Speaking brutally, retirement is the solution to help institutions redefine their functions. Making mandatory retirement fair will take new government regulations and financial guarantees for the retirees.

As mariner has advised for Congressional elections, do not vote for any candidate over 55. The emerging culture demands that institutions redefine themselves to be ‘out on the street’ dealing with the citizenry on their turf instead of being sheltered within the comfort of stationary buildings.

Ancient Mariner   (Talk about old . . .)

Humanism

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Someone suggested mariner should expound on humanism, referenced in his last post about ABBA. He proposed that computer intelligence was damaging the humanistic elements of society.

Generally, humanism refers to a focus on human wellbeing and advocates for human freedom, autonomy, and progress. It views humanity as responsible for the promotion and development of every human, advocates the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings and has concern for humans in relation to the world not only politically but in the human relation to the planet as a whole. Wikipedia uses the word ‘agency’ which means capability to perform as intended.

Humanism has no theology; the core ethic is the responsibility of humans to do what is best for humans. Humanism often is compared to secularism because both philosophies espouse a human-based morality that includes self-imposed responsibility for the wellbeing of humans, including the reality within which humans must exist.

The difference between the two is that secularism focuses more on the separation of church and state while humanism has no argument with the existence of theological beliefs – as long as it improves the agency (ability to perform as intended) of its believers. Humanism depends on science and existential circumstances to define both reality and moral agency.

What is important to humanism is its concern for success in life for all people and extends that concern to all of reality such that humans and reality are in concert. A large part of that position is the inclusive nature required. Many of the ethical principles are similar to those in the New Testament, that is, respect everyone without prejudice, do no harm, bond with humanity using compassion and assuring one’s agency is focused on the wellbeing of humanity.

Caring for humans is a natural instinct for the species. The ability to read the emotional state of a person by the expression on that person’s face, without even realizing one is analyzing, is a simple example of how important human emotion is. Compassion is a particularly strong emotion in humans but it is damaged by being abused or by constricting normal behavior. Humanism is a political advocate for equality and freedom and it promotes the agency of society generally.

When an individual frequently withdraws from interaction with humans in order to focus on a smartphone, does that improve the wellbeing of humanity? When the information on that smartphone is unreliable or manipulative, does that improve the wellbeing of humanity? When too many trees are cut down and it affects global warming, does that improve the wellbeing of humanity? When economic policy is unbalanced by classism, does that improve the wellbeing of humanity? Whatever the issue, humanists will ask: Does that improve the wellbeing of humanity?

Ancient Mariner

It’s Happening

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The musical group ABBA is cutting its first album in forty years as part of a stage performance – as digital avatars! Sigh. . . ABBA, the most popular pop singing group in the seventies, is one of mariner’s favorite singing groups. But as digital avatars? Mariner has never watched the movie ‘Mama Mia’ because no one can replicate the ABBA sound – especially not Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep. Mariner listened to a couple of new songs that will be on the album. They still have the same sound but he isn’t sure he wants to see them in their avatar world.

How much sacrifice and damage is digital ‘reality’ causing the normal human experience? Mariner is reminded of occasional events when mirrors and photographs were shown to primitive tribes that were not part of the modern technical world. They reacted fearfully and suspected that their spiritual self had been stolen; certainly the image of self was altered if not stolen. So, too, mariner is suspicious.

Television used to be a handy tool as a remote camera. Mariner was a fan of the Baltimore Colts back in the days of John Unitas; the television broadcast away games. That was handy and appreciated. Now the television camera and telephones have been invaded by surreal reality, loaded with false imagery, false information and false ABBA.

Documentaries have warned us time and again about digital tomfoolery especially when it involves political information or marketing; it is hard to produce a hit movie today without outrageous digital monsters, scenery and abuse to rational comprehension. Where is Bela Lugosi when you need him?

Humans should have known this would happen, that their real human world would be distorted and leveraged. It is only fair, though, because humans have been distorting and leveraging the biosphere for 20,000 years.

It is the spirit and philosophy of humanism that suffers damage. Humanism can be traced to ancient Greek philosophy, which prioritizes human morality. Humanism is the prevalent philosophy embedded in democracy; humanism is the core of compassion; humanism is required for a cohesive society.

But the technical world of computer intelligence feels no need for these qualities. Just as we have plundered the planet’s biosphere, so is computer intelligence plundering humanism. Artificial intelligence is not bound by morality; it is bound only by whether it can be done – without regard or accountability to the human-only world of emotions and 200,000 years of evolutionary responsibility as a tribal species.

Goodbye, ABBA. You are missed.

Ancient Mariner

Life in the fast lane

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It is too fast for mariner and other elderly folk. It is common knowledge that the beginning of the twenty-first century is a tumultuous border between a disappearing culture and an emerging one. Computers began the transition seventy years ago, and then the internet emerged. These two advances alone changed how a person views daily reality. In fact, reality itself is subject to revision.

Mariner read in his email today that the hottest market in software-related purchases is to buy and register an avatar that represents you while you are logged on. First, accessing the internet required a simple password; then it was a password and a clue; then the passwords had to be extraordinarily complex; then many services required the names of relatives; then a four-digit pin was added. Taken together these identifications assured others on the internet that the linked person was actually the real person. But now all that folderol will be unnecessary because you will be an animated creature or thing when you are logged on.

Two movies come to mind: The Matrix and Avatar. At least Neo retained his human form in The Matrix. In Avatar Jake Sully had to have blue skin and a funny nose. Facebook has been in the news for its aggressive pursuit of metaverse, a three-dimensional internet that seems lifelike similar to your representation in an online game. When you log on to Facebook, you won’t just be logged on; you will be one of the creatures in a bizarre zoo.

Ironically, mariner is reading a book about how we define factual reality.[1] The central point is that truth is not a finite object. The human perception of truth is just that – an ever changing perception based on what is judged to be the most dependable information at that moment. Unfortunately the computer combined with the internet has loosed Pandora’s Box in the form of unsubstantiated ‘truths’. Social media is the evil device that can use false information flamboyant enough to sway our perception of reality.

The clue that hints at the future culture is the dependence on unsubstantiated information – including an electronic shaping of our interaction with reality. Google makes billions of dollars selling access to our personal profiles, shaping what we know, believe and depend on as a full and truthful reality. Mariner often makes the point that opinion doesn’t need facts; today, manipulating opinion is out of control and is the biggest threat to the new culture.

Ancient Mariner

[1] The Constitution of Knowledge, A Defense of Truth by Jonathan Rauch. Published by the Brookings Institution 2021, ISBN 9780815738862.

GIG Work

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Mariner is acutely aware that the Internet and its future iterations definitely will change the world of work. One of the new work models emerging is the GIG world of employment. GIG means that jobs are in response to corporate need rather than in response to career development and all the trappings of lifetime security that the +60 crowd understands.

Gig workers, generally, enjoy the freedom of earning an income providing the link between corporate automation and the corporate need to have personalized service. A simple but common example is food delivery services. With the Internet as a tool, GIG workers have unparalleled  opportunities to live where they want, with their lifestyle from living in cars with an Internet link to living in Thailand to enjoy better benefits than are available in the U.S.

Statistical studies have shown that the freedom to travel, to live eccentric lifestyles, to earn just enough to sustain their lifestyles, is all that’s needed. While it is a world of independence, it suffers from the lack of unions, standardized employment models that provide insurance, retirement and minimum wage. In the United States, a more traditional labor relations society, these shortcomings have become a court issue.

In some respects the GIG movement and the homesteader movement have a lot in common: Society has become an intense competition for assets – not lifestyle. It is not possible for everyone to be successful in the world of dollar security; especially not in the world of self-identity and personal gratification in life.

Mariner discovered a pleasant review of GIG work (that is, not politically abused) on PBS Passport/ROKU. It may be available as a local PBS documentary – mariner doesn’t know since he switched to a smart TV. The program is titled “The World Of Work – The Next Generation: Why I choose to live and work in my car”. It provides an insight into the conflict of pressurized economics versus the desire to live an unencumbered life.

Check it out.

Ancient Mariner.

Consumers have control

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Here’s an interesting quote from ProPublica about the two-decade long drought conditions affecting several western states and the disappearing Colorado River:

“A majority of the water used by farms — and thus much of the river — goes to growing nonessential crops like alfalfa and other grasses that feed cattle for meat production. Much of those grasses are also exported to feed animals in the Middle East and Asia. Short of regulating which types of crops are allowed, which state authorities may not even have the authority to do, it may fall to consumers to drive change. Water usage data suggests that if Americans avoid meat one day each week they could save an amount of water equivalent to the entire flow of the Colorado each year, more than enough water to alleviate the region’s shortages.”

It isn’t just cows. Mariner knows for certain that blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay have a shrinking population; Maine Lobsters are moving to cooler waters in Canada; the wild salmon are threatened by new open faced mining near the Arctic Circle; Australia has drought conditions, too, so there goes ostrich and emu; Has anyone priced bison lately?

What consumers need to do is have cities and towns change their ordinances so consumers can raise rabbits, chickens, geese and invasive species like the Burmese python or the Tegu lizard – both in Florida.

But give up thick, juicy T-Bones or country ribs? It’s a lot to ask but consumers are now in charge of climate change.

Ancient Mariner

Wife versus smart TV

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Mariner often publishes the fine poetry his gifted wife produces. He has always claimed she should make a living as a poet. But now, his wife is showing that she is multi-talented. She wrote an accounting of our introduction to a new smart TV. She sent the piece to the Fort Madison Daily Democrat, a newspaper published in Fort Madison. The editor was pleased with her description of our adventure and encouraged my wife to send more articles.

Her article was headlined across the top of the opinion page and took more than half of the page. Below the article is printed in its entirety:

 

Adventures in the Brave New World of Television

When a thin purple line appeared down the middle of our TV screen, it didn’t seem too ominous.   Within a few days, the thin line became a thick stripe of purple and we knew the end was near.  I suppose we could have watched it that way for a long time–like using up the last of the shampoo in the bottle–but  we had already cut the cord of our DISH subscription, and we were ready to step into the new world that awaited us with a smart TV.

Have you bought a new TV recently?  I went online to read reviews.  We wanted to replace our massive 43 inch screen with one of the same size.  It turns out that 43 inches is no longer considered massive.  It is the size you buy for a second bedroom or a dorm room.  If we wanted to stay with that same puny size, we would not have all the bells and whistles that are available on larger screens that start at the small end at 50 inches and go up to 85 inches or larger.

We decided we did not need all the bells and whistles or have room for a theater experience in our living room,  so we ended up buying  a 43 inch TCL Roku TV that we found at Walmart.  Did I mention that it is a smart TV?  Did I mention that we had cut the cord to our satellite service?  We thought we knew what we were doing as we had used a Roku stick on the old TV to get free streaming TV from the internet.   We plugged in the new TV and it said “Welcome!  Let’s get started setting up your new Roku TV.”  That was a good sign.  Then it asked us to find the internet using our wifi password.   We knew our wifi password and typed it into the box on the TV screen using the remote control.   We were feeling fairly confident that we were just as smart as our new TV.  Then the TV screen said, “Great.  Now let’s set up your Roku Account.  Type in the email address linked to your existing account.”

The Roku stick that went with our old TV was a gift from our California son in law.  He had bought the stick, stuck it into the back of the old TV and set up a Roku account.  We did not know what email he used to set up the account.  We did not want to start a new account as we had saved a number of channels and we did not want to start over from scratch trying to find them again.  The screen said, if you do not know the email that is linked to your Roku account “go to settings/account/help.”  We couldn’t find a settings link anywhere on the TV.  I thought maybe settings was on the Roku account on the internet so I googled Roku.com.  In order to sign in to my account I needed….the email address that was attached to it.

Fortunately there was an 800 number to call if all else failed.  You may be wondering why I did not call my California son in law who had set up the account.  He was at that very moment on an airplane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and we did not want to bother him.  Instead we bothered Vineesha, a young woman who was possibly somewhere in India.  She asked for the number on the Roku stick from our old purple stripe TV.  Vineesha stayed on the line while we found the old Roku stick in the mess of cables behind the new TV.  With the number from the Roku stick Vineesha was able to give us the email address linked to our Roku account.  It was my daughter’s email account.

My daughter was not on a plane, but she was far away in California.  I called her to explain that she would be getting the code numbers to type into her computer that would link our new TV to the old Roku account.  She got an email from Vineesha with the code, she typed it in to her computer in California and instantly our Iowa TV said, “Success!   Now there is just one more step.  Type in your Roku password.”

Do you see the problem with smart TV’s?  They are a little condescending in their helpful tone.  They are a little smug in their assumption that we had all of our passwords in place.  Our password was, in fact, flying somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.

My daughter in California  texted her husband on the plane, he texted the password back to her,  she called us with the password, we typed it in on our Iowa remote control and our TV was finally, finally set up and running.  It did not have a purple stripe down the middle of the screen.  It had all of our channels in place.

So what have we learned?   We learned that it takes a village to set up a smart TV.  A global village that spans the globe across multiple time zones from Iowa to India to California to a transatlantic flight somewhere in midair over the ocean.  It is a humbling experience to realize that your household devices can be controlled from a few lines of code transmitted from thousands of miles away.

And yes, we learned to use old fashioned paper and pencil to write down the email and password to our own TV.   Our wonderful new TV that is smarter than we are.

–

Multi-talented, indeed.

Ancient Mariner

Removing Polarity

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Mariner was challenged to describe how polarity could be overcome. He did imply a few things that need to be corrected but it is true that he did not address ‘how’. So here are a few examples; some already are ideas that have been discussed in the press and documentaries.

֎ About colleges. Already a ‘socialist’ issue in Congress is legislation that would abate or eliminate the cost of a student’s tuition. If college administrators were smart, they would know the swings in population and the races of that population are swinging away from the white, financially capable market served today. However it occurs, colleges will be forced to step back in line with inflation. And students haven’t been asked yet to pay their student athletes’ salaries.

Mariner and his father went to a high school that had a full community college on the top floor so this is not a new idea but it may become popular. Mariner is aware of several small liberal arts colleges that are considering mergers with other colleges, community colleges and even independent locations; examples include public libraries, large corporations, labor unions and other agencies that focus on special careers. One mariner is familiar with is agribusiness classes taught in state department of agriculture offices.

Another idea already being discussed is a student body selected not only by grades but balanced by appropriate representation based on where the students live – even to the extent of which neighborhood. Public schools already abuse representation selectively by using it to keep unwanted students out; the intent of the new college version is to assure representation from every quarter. This instantly would correct several issues:

֎ The implied failure of nonwhites because they have no college degree.

֎ Reduce by a significant amount the tendency for a person to say “I’m successful, you’re not.”

֎ Focused more on public schools, build curricula based on real-life interest and talent, e.g., shape classes around teams of students with a curriculum that includes dealing with life experiences along with the abstract subjects that are typical today. If nothing else, the student experiences what a team relationship is, thereby softening much of the identity conflict present today.

Mariner has been reading about Anabaptists. Each colony is such a tight team that no individual is paid for their labors and everyone receives support from all members. Admittedly, Anabaptists practice a communist economy that would not work in open markets but the United States could use a little ‘communisty’ accountability.

֎ Perhaps another old but good idea is to require that a police officer live on his beat and/or walk the beat. Mariner has made this suggestion before; the change in behavior of the policeman can only be positive. Not that cruisers would disappear but the beat cop would be the first contact for residents and for crime response. With a beat policeman on a response team, incidents like entering the wrong house and killing Breonna Taylor may not happen.

֎ As to reforming the government, mariner is quite positive that regular readers already know his attitude toward American governments. He will not pursue further abuse to his readers in this post.

Ancient Mariner