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Foundation Selections for the Manual of Civilization
For me, the Manual of Civilization could be one of the most important projects of our time. The idea is to collect the most important 3000 books required to rebuild civilization from the ground up. It is an idea that resonates with me in particular; as it aligns with the Foundation’s library project, as well as, with my own personal priorities which include the preservation of knowledge, primarily technical knowledge. To use a metaphor, if Adam and Eve started off on a new planet and only had 3000 books to rebuild civilization, what would those 3000 books be? These are the books that should be codified, and persevered for all…
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On Sacred Intelligence – And the Foundation
What is the most important thing in existence? On the surface this seems a very existential question but in truth there is a simple and elegant answer; that is to say intelligence, and like unto it knowledge, are the most important things in existence. But you might ask why? Why is intelligence and knowledge so important as to be the most important thing in existence? First, let us acquire some context by defining what intelligence is in this context. There are, in fact, a lot of definitions for intelligence as can be seen by its definition on wiki: Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including, but not limited…
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Transhumanist Ideas Need to Evolve for Mainstream Popularity
Why do you (transhumanists in general) care if mainstream thinking in modern civilization cares about ‘Transhumanism’? If you talk to random people on the street about transhumanism, you will get eye-squinting and other strange responses. For the most part, the response will be negative. Transhumanism is not anywhere close to anything the average person cares about. However, if you could back a few decades and ask someone about being ‘Green’ you would get a similar response to what you get now regarding ‘Transhumanism.’ In general, we all seem to agree that Transhumanism by itself is mostly a secular idea; that we as humans can be more than what we are,…
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Manual of Civilization
Author: David J Kelley One of my favorite organizations is the Long Now. The reason for this is their focus on one simple mission that I strongly believe in. Their focus is on long term thinking and they don’t have the politics and over intellectualization like many other groups I’m familiar with. Their singular focus is on helping society and planning for the long term (ie, say the next 10,000 to 100,000 years). This singular purpose, strong organizational structure and group focus has allowed them to move forward where other groups go where in the real world. Without real action and real measureable results a group is without value. One…
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Modernizing the Education System
Author: Pratoriate Monk There has been much reported on the problems with our education system: that students in the United States are lagging behind many of their peers in other countries in mathematics, science and reading. The typical response is to look at class sizes or at student performance on a per teacher basis to try and find solutions to these issues. There has been talk of “getting rid of ‘bad’ teachers and rewarding ‘good’ teachers.” There have been efforts to alter the curriculum to “better prepare the students for the test.” None of these efforts have enjoyed much measurable success in improving the scores of America’s students. Other countries’…
