From Scientific American — Check this out! Robots that can digest biological matter, and even human waste. Great potential on long space missions. It’s a seemingly overlooked area of energy extraction for machines in general. Remember how The Matrix machines used solar energy, then switched to biological/heat energy from humans once we blotted out the sky..? That’s right! We are merely quickening our own demise! Isn’t that swell?

“Today’s robots that fly, jump or roll around must refuel or recharge as does any gadget that runs out of energy. Tomorrow’s new generation of self-sustaining robots might keep going nearly forever by grazing on dead insects, rotting plant matter or even human waste. The vision of robots capable of plugging themselves into the natural world of living organisms has begun taking shape in several labs around the world…”

Not only does it have robotic potential, but the fantastical transhumanist mind would surely sense a diamond in the rough here, too; Just image you’ve uploaded your mind, and whether you are cloud-based or personal-server-based you need at least one source of renewable energy, preferably with FEW mechanical parts that can fail… Now we can bet that biological processes will last on Earth for a long time, much longer than human life for sure, and that wind-mills, nuclear plants, and solar panels can and will all fail. What else would you want to rely on but self-moderating power systems such as these..?

“… The first EcoBot (created in 2003) was powered by E. coli bacteria feeding on refined sugar. Then “EcoBot-II” (2005) harnessed sludge microbes to break down dead flies, prawn shells and rotten apples. Finally, “EcoBot-III” (2010) showed how a “digesting” robot could also dump its leftover waste, so that its microbes wouldn’t be poisoned by their own filth and could keep powering the robot. …”

Now whether you’re worried about a robot takeover or alternatively just expect humans to become more robotic to maintain planetary dominance, power generation is going to be a major issue in the future. And it’s likely to move this direction, simply because of the freedom from the grid (autonomy) and the reduced risk of mechanical failure in power systems (resiliency). These traits are fundamental to future(istic) power systems. The waste-power arms race is on!

( Source: Feb 5, Scientific American )

• Capture the most captivating of materials, content, articles and more.
• Find the most fascinating facts, images, and information available.
• Integrate with self and website the most profound wisdom and stories I can.

Captivating materials and articles should read like poetry, delectable, fluent, smooth, accessible. Fascinating information should be transformative or enlightening. Images should be beautiful or awe-inspiring. Meta-integration-worthy wisdom must be capable or proven to have stood the passage of time and reach across cultures. All new content should be exemplary (from nature, humanity, science, art, literature) or illustrative (of important trends, patterns, cycles, etc.).

FYI, here are some of the places I generally like to look…

Quotes collections and websites – BrainyQuotes, Thinkexist, and Wisdom Quotes.

Social news aggregators and engines – Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Slashdot.

In books I read, the majority being sci-fi novels (and I’d argue that I generally pick very good ones). Sci-fi favorites from recent years: Foundation Trilogy/Series, Ender’s Game(Series), The Algebraist, Pushing Ice, House of Suns, Accelerando, and The Wind-Up Girl. Non-fiction favorites from recent years: What Technology Wants, The Next 100 Years, The Narcissism Epidemic, and The Evolving Self.

And of course I must mention TED.

I plan to pursue growth and thrival-fuel through these means. Please share your thoughts with me on other great sources of news and other fascinating or captivating information…

This is how I plan to…

differentiate & integrate,

explore & reflect,

discover & synthesize,

and widgetize & optimize ; )

A WARNING TO SELF AND READER ALIKE

Do not forget that all this hunting for paths through which to expand the mind, improve the intellect, evolve the self, (the same goes for entertaining yourself), that too much time spent on transistasis (change/evolution) equates to problems with homeostasis (the renewal, detox, and settling of physical and psychological selves).

As a rule, you must stand up and move your body around every hour if you are on the computer for more than two hours per day, and who isn’t these days, right? This is very important; you must train your body as you hone your mind — they go hand in hand. If you sit for too long reading or surfing the internet, your immune system and your cardiovascular system go into hibernation and blood vessels and muscles (as well as general well-being) atrophy. Watch out for the whole, holistic self. Meditation, whether sitting-emptying-the-mind style or walking-around-reflecting-on-things, is also to be considered essential, as is being with friends and family, which is very hard to do indeed when plugged in…

This is a mostly personally relevant list of 10 countries I thought I ought to travel to or live in at some point. However, it does contain a few good general insights and some interesting cross-referenced information from the Index of Economic Freedom and the Freedom on the Net report (links below). For example, you may be interested to know that Estonia is among the top 15 economically free countries in the world, but that it also tops the charts in press freedom and has the world’s greatest internet freedom.

I have included crosses (†) to indicate my own interest in the culture of countries listed where applicable, in addition to minuses (–) to show places that I am not interested in going to or spending that much time in (for now). For example, the United States is ranked 9th in Economic Freedom, extremely high in Press and Internet Freedom, but nonetheless it is my country of origin and therefore less interesting to visit than many of the others. For this reason it gets a minus. Note that I am also very interested in learning other languages and that I studied Spanish and Japanese for many years. Hence, Australia is less interesting, while Japan, Chile, Brazil, and others are more so.

Press Freedom I haven’t included but hope to in future editions of my list; This is something that is, of course, intimately connected with Internet Freedom and very important for every nation on Earth. It is another attribute that, for me, increases the gravity and draw of a place. If you are curious about Press Freedom as well right now, know that Freedom House publishes both reports: (PRESS FREEDOM) and (FREEDOM ON THE NET 2011).

This list is comprised of well-established, demonstrably-free societies that also happen to interest me personally. In later lists I hope to include information from the Human Development Index, Press Freedom statistics, and more.

Top 10 Thrive Countries for 2011

1. United States
2. Germany (†)
3. Hong Kong
4. Switzerland (†)
5. Estonia (†)
6. Japan (††)
7. Singapore
8. Chile (††)
9. Brazil (††)
10. Australia

Thrive Countries, 1st Issue (PDF)

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Important Points

• Geriatrics works on treating pathology – cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease – but much too late in the game to extend lifespan.
• Gerontology attempts to prevent aging by adjusting a very complex system, the metabolism (see picture below). This can have many unwanted side effects. Thus, progress in this field is very difficult.


Simplified Metabolic Diagram

• Maintenance and rejuvenation extend lifespan by repairing damage, a process which can be repeated and, itself, improved upon in a parallel process to overall technological progress. All this without altering or disrupting the metabolism.
• Longevity Escape Velocity (L.E.V.): Even marginal rates of advancement in treatment efficacy can exponentially increase life span when considered over periods in which patients receive rejuvenations every 20 years; each treatment removes greater amounts of damage, more comprehensively.
• Key Claim of L.E.V.: Eventually our ability to maintain health will hit a threshold at which our medical technology will effectively increase average life span by one year each year (or more). This will eliminate any diminishing returns in damage repair efforts; we will be able to repair more damage in one year than can actually be accumulated during that year. This is what de Grey refers to as “the Methuselarity”.

A new study from UC Davis is showing that meditation can, over-time, help to increase your telomerase, a vital rejuvenating enzyme that extends the life of cells and helps to repair damage. The key is in meditation’s ability to reduce stress levels. Stronger psychologically; stronger physiologically. Clifford Saron, a researcher who contributed to the study, had this to say:

“The take-home message from this work is not that meditation directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person’s health and longevity, rather, meditation may improve a person’s psychological well-being and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person’s sense of well-being may have a profound effect on the most fundamental aspects of their physiology.”

The participants in the experimental group underwent intensive training during a three-month retreat, and, compared to the control group, generally showed greater ability to avoid neuroticism/negative emotionality, in addition to feeling more in control of their lives and aware of themselves by the end of the study. I personally find this a very encouraging link between mind and body. I used to meditate more often and connected this with the Buddhist philosophical mindset that I had created for myself. While I no longer would link as much of my purpose in life to such Buddhist ideals as infinite compassion and the complete elimination of suffering, I still enjoy a contemplative kind of meditation every once in a while, where I merely try to watch my thoughts float on through my head.

The aim in a large part of the various meditation methods is to ‘observe without judgment’ and become aware of your own mind and how it works. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a sitting-down, lotus-position, focused-breathing type task, but some structure seems to be helpful if we look at the volunteers in the UC Davis study, who practiced in a group setting for two hours a day, and in solitude for an average of about six hours a day. This is an intensive dedication to structure which is surely unrealistic to any normal working person, unless of course you are a ‘paid meditator’. But I digress…

You may not have 8 hours a day to train your mind and sharpen your awareness, but as little as 10 minutes I find often helps me regain my emotional footing during turbulent times. Here are a few different techniques for you to try out… And may they fuel your telomerase production through improved mental health!

• Impermanence Meditation: Think on happy and unhappy events/times in your life. Think back and notice how all these things change and nothing is permanent. As you recall an experience, say to yourself “This is also impermanent.” or “This too will pass.” This I have often tried as I am falling asleep, my head full of fantasies and worries for the coming day. It calms me down to think of the transient nature of everything like this. You may find it useful, too.
• Watching the Dust Cloud: The mind is constantly churning with thoughts. Trying to stop yourself from thinking anything is generally futile, like trying to clear the motes of dust floating in a sunbeam by throwing spears at individual specks; every time you throw a spear, the whole cloud just gets kicked up again. Wait and the dust settles. Here, the idea is to compassionately note to yourself, “Thinking, good buddy…” and choose a focus point — your breath going out, the look of the back inner side of your eyelids, the sounds you are hearing, whatever you want. Choose a focus point and notice yourself thinking. Let the quiet enter naturally and you should finish feeling quite refreshed — but I will warn you that I have spent up to 45 minutes working towards this clear-mind-feeling, although it was worth it in the end. The realization that you are having no thoughts fill your head is singular and also quite exciting.
• A Healing Light: Good for relaxing the body. In this exercise, the practitioner images a brilliant source of healing light wandering slowly and meticulously over every section of the body. As it does it’s healing work in your mind, you feel the sensation in your toes, then the bottoms, then the tops of your feet, and working slowly up the legs and torso, out onto the arms, and up the neck to the face and head, the light sets your body tingling… Even without an imaginary light source, “feeling” your toes, feet, legs, torso, arms and head one-by-one is a revitalizing mental massage.
• Tonglen Meditation: This one I get from Pema Chodron. It is meant to provide illumination in dark and hopeless times. You start with the assumption and, well, fact — that despite the level of your woes, there are those out in the world who are worse-off, those who live with great suffering: Hunger, disease, poverty, chronic stress, intense anger, resentment, jealousy, deep-seated negativity, and more. To awaken the Buddha inside of you — or perhaps Inner Light for those not so keen on Inner-Buddha — one must continue to develop empathetic skills. In Tonglen Meditation, one breathes in (symbolically) the black, poison smoke of suffering, lightening the burdens of fellow human beings, and then breathes out peace, love, wisdom, hope, and happiness, in a clear, cleansing breathe of light. Taking in suffering, breathing out release from suffering. The target may be an individual as well, a mourning mother, a drug-addicted father, a lonely child, a relative who is ill, anyone you choose. To cleanse others awakens the Inner-light, the Inner-Buddha, who can more easily see the transient, unjust, and cyclic side of things. This helps to develop compassion and empathy, and put things in one’s own life in perspective.

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We are all tied to each other by the bonds of duty, responsibility, kinship, and social pressure. At times these obligations are wearisome, the contracts interminable, our superiors insufferable. At times it feels like slavery. And surely thinking it so would not help in the slightest… But here, if we expand our thinking and take all forms and lengths of the chains between us to be forms of servitude, and act with the wisdom of Seneca in mind, we may find it to have a liberating effect on the mind, one that lessens the burdens we feel:

“We are all chained to fortune: the chain of one is made of gold, and wide, while that of another is short and rusty. But what difference does it make? The same prison surrounds all of us, and even those who have bound others are bound themselves; unless perchance you think that a chain on the left side is lighter. Honors bind one man, wealth another; nobility oppresses some, humility others; some are held in subjection by an external power, while others obey the tyrant within; banishments keep some in one place, the priesthood others. All life is slavery…”

In essence, what he means here is that we all have our place in life, one in which we are basically stuck, but then, he says, even the very fortunate are chained to their heavy gold chains, however blessed they may seem. We all have our personal prisons which we must acknowledge; we all have things to trip us up, things we resent in life, so the overall perspective becomes very important in trying to decrease the burden and the feelings of resentment we feel. He continues…

“All life is slavery. Therefore each one must accustom himself to his own condition and complain about it as little as possible, and lay hold of whatever good is to be found near him. Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it. Small tablets, because of the writer’s skill, have often served for many purposes, and a clever arrangement has often made a very narrow piece of land habitable. Apply reason to difficulties; harsh circumstances can be softened, narrow limits can be widened, and burdensome things can be made to press less severely on those who bear them cleverly.”

It is, of course, a brave claim that we are all equally burdened in life. I’m afraid Seneca may often be misread in this case, but the wisdom is not to be found in what seems an oversight or an ignorance of vast differences in opportunities, his negligence of the global wealth-gap, or other inequalities. The wisdom of these lines is that summed up in phrases like roll with the punches and go with the flow. There is a natural rhythm that life provides, that situations seem to circumscribe, and a life without bonds and obligations and struggles is unthinkable; we were all put on this earth to climb personal mountains, to fight invisible, personal demons — and sometimes big external ones, too. So do what you can, says Seneca, do what you can with the forms of slavery that plague you…

Having recognized our chains as a part of a great big interdependent web, I would like to present another psychologically stabilizing quote, a Chinese proverb about work and duty. This is one that speaks to a special sense of freedom that sadly goes unrecognized most of the time. It goes like this:

“If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man.”

This is a simple, but profound line that makes me think about my work as a teacher: As a teacher, there is always more work to do, and I could leave just when my lessons finish, but I often feel better doing just a bit more at the end of the day to help prepare myself for tomorrow. I feel like this proverb supports that sentiment nicely. By doing just a bit more when you are indeed free not to is, in terms of time commitment, trivial, but, in terms of building intrinsic motivation, quite substantial and symbolic.

There is an attitude change that seems to set in if you apply this wisdom often enough. The best part of this is that the positive shift in thinking is generally quite disproportionate to the amount of effort that is required do that extra bit of work. Come in a minute or two early to school. Symbolically, you are demonstrating to yourself your own freedom to do it. Try it. Bring in an snack to share with colleagues at lunch time. Offer to make copies for your busy co-worker. Come a few minutes early to help set up for the meeting. You may find that small, symbolic acts of freedom like these can change your outlook and your feelings about your work.

But does this really apply to everyone?

Being that I work in educational institutions, I have to be fair and say that my work is rarely that tedious or insufferable; my most arduous tasks generally grading and paperwork, and it is principled work too — the majority of the time it is obvious what the purpose of it is. This is due to the idealism which is fused into the foundations of the work I and other teachers do all over the world: Ultimately, we strive to help young people develop their minds and their abilities and prepare to be independent adults.

So, 99% of the time the what and the why of my work are clear to me and I consider myself very lucky. Perhaps that’s why these quotes about responsibility and doing a little extra do not strike me as at all odd. After all, it’s not like I’m that waitress (Jennifer Aniston) in the restaurant in Office Space who gets reprimanded for not wearing more than the minimum 15 pieces of flair or anything… Such a person, and I don’t know, maybe you are that person, could reasonably be insulted by the “wisdom” conveyed by these quotes, thinking: “Why should I wear 16 pieces of flair at work? How could that extra bit help me at all? How could that possibly make me any happier with my work?” So, clearly, in some circumstances, the words of Seneca and our anonymous Chinese philosopher fall on deaf ears. This is where you do the extra bit, though, and try to think about where these quotes are applicable to your life. It doesn’t have to be work-at-work, after all. Just think about these examples in the social and personal realms:

In Social Settings:

I often find that those parties-I-don’t-really-want-to-go-to are worse when I show up late. It’s like I feel the obligation, but I resent it, so I come late and ironically I feel guilty for it. Somehow I’m better off coming early this time. Try it: Show up on time because you’re free to, pitch in in the kitchen after being treated to some home-cooking because you’re free to, tip the fast pizza delivery-guy a little better or buy a down-trodden friend a beer — all because you are free to. The ways in which you view these acts is largely what determines the emotional reward you receive from them. Again, you can see each of these extras as everyday social obligations, but you can also see them as something you are free to do — that’s where it gets liberating.

Personal Goal Setting:

Let’s consider the sense of freedom to be gained in the personal realm now. Say you want to get in shape and you’ve resolved to do 20 push-ups a day. At first you work up slowly to 20, but then after that you’re back in that drudgery zone. “Ugh”, you say, “I did it yesterday… Surely I can skip it today. It won’t make any difference, right?” — Now this is the perfect place to try on the proverb. Say to yourself “Okay, today I’ll do twenty and then maybe a couple more.” Surprisingly, you do 22 and feel great, much better that you would if you’d done either 0 or the required 20, and it is because you are taking the one true route to that hidden store of freedom within you; with 20 you’d have done the minimum; and, with 0 you’d have just made excuses and probably lost some resolve to maintain your goal at the same time… So we see personal goals like doing 20 push-ups a day can become opportunities to feel free as well, by doing just a bit more. It feels good, even if it is, strangely enough, just you freeing yourself from self-imposed slavery.

May you find freedom in the slack that your chains provide…