Friday Thinking is a humble curation of my foraging in the digital environment. Choices are based on my own curiosity and that suggest we are in the midst of a change in the conditions of change - a phase-transition. That tomorrow will be radically unlike yesterday.
Many thanks to those who enjoy this. ☺
In the 21st Century curiosity is what skills the cat -
for life of skillful means .
Jobs are dying - Work is just beginning.
Work that engages our whole self becomes play that works.
The emerging world-of-connected-everything - digital environment -
computational ecology -
may still require humans as the consciousness of its own existence.
To see red - is to know other colors - without the ground of others - there is no figure - differences that make a defference.
‘There are times, ‘when I catch myself believing there is something which is separate from something else.’
“I'm not failing - I'm Learning"
Quellcrist Falconer - Altered Carbon
Content
Quotes:
Magic helped us in pandemics before, and it can again
Articles:
Novelist Cory Doctorow on the Problem With Intellectual Property
Good People and Wicked Problems
Publishers grapple with an invisible foe as huge organised fraud hits scientific journals
Powering ahead with community batteries
Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth
Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other Worlds
Resetting the biological clock by flipping a switch
Turning tree bark and compost into aircraft wings and plastic bags
New 'Swiss Army knife' cleans up water pollution
Beer byproduct mixed with manure proves an excellent pesticide
Researchers develop prototype of robotic device to pick, trim button mushrooms
How do you self-identify? You probably have many aspects to yourself and would resist being reduced to or stereotyped as any one of them. But you might still identify yourself in terms of your heritage, ethnicity, race, religion: identities that are often prominent in identity politics. You might identify yourself in terms of other social and personal relationships and characteristics – ‘I’m Mary’s sister.’ ‘I’m a music-lover.’ ‘I’m Emily’s thesis advisor.’ ‘I’m a Chicagoan.’ Or you might identify personality characteristics: ‘I’m an extrovert’; or commitments: ‘I care about the environment.’ ‘I’m honest.’ You might identify yourself comparatively: ‘I’m the tallest person in my family’; or in terms of one’s political beliefs or affiliations: ‘I’m an independent’; or temporally: ‘I’m the person who lived down the hall from you in college,’ or ‘I’m getting married next year.’ Some of these are more important than others, some are fleeting. The point is that who you are is more complex than any one of your identities. Thinking of the self as a network is a way to conceptualise this complexity and fluidity.
Consider Lindsey: she is spouse, mother, novelist, English speaker, Irish Catholic, feminist, professor of philosophy, automobile driver, psychobiological organism, introverted, fearful of heights, left-handed, carrier of Huntington’s disease (HD), resident of New York City. This is not an exhaustive set, just a selection of traits or identities. Traits are related to one another to form a network of traits. Lindsey is an inclusive network, a plurality of traits related to one another. The overall character – the integrity – of a self is constituted by the unique interrelatedness of its particular relational traits, psychobiological, social, political, cultural, linguistic and physical.
Lindsey-at-age-five is not a spouse or a mother, and future stages of Lindsey might include different traits and relations too: she might divorce or change careers or undergo a gender identity transformation. The network self is also a process.
It might seem strange at first to think of yourself as a process. You might think that processes are just a series of events, and your self feels more substantial than that. Maybe you think of yourself as an entity that’s distinct from relations, that change is something that happens to an unchangeable core that is you.
You are a network
Despite the often dismissive use of the term, the placebo effect remains one of the most powerful effects in modern medicine. Its twin, the nocebo effect, can be equally powerful: if a patient has been advised to expect a negative side-effect, she could well go on to experience it. As for overall outcomes, even some of the most potent drugs have at most a 60 per cent efficacy, while placebos sit at 35-40 per cent. It’s also not clear to what extent the greater effectiveness of certain modern drugs is due to their marketing.
Magic helped us in pandemics before, and it can again
This is an important signal - that builds on the work toward an emerging economic paradigm that re-imagines how we value our values and find value worth valuing.
In the same way that we don’t have a name for tuna fish, cuckoo clocks, and D&D miniatures that encompasses them as a single category, we didn’t really have a category that was patents, trademarks, and copyrights. They were all things that businesses might use, but they weren’t the same thing. If we had to talk about them as a category, we would call them monopolies or creators’ monopolies.
And having a monopoly is a hard thing to defend! If you’re anxious that your monopoly isn’t quite doing it for you and you go to your legislature and you say, “My monopoly needs to be bigger,” you’ll get kind of a skeptical hearing.
Novelist Cory Doctorow on the Problem With Intellectual Property
Patents were once seen as a temporary reward for inventors. Now, as novelist Cory Doctorow tells Jacobin, they've become supposedly inviolable "intellectual property" rights that simply enrich people like Bill Gates.
If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an incredibly instructive case study in what the neoliberal dogma that now governs our waking lives really means when stripped of artifice or pretense. As things stand, just a handful of profit-driven private companies currently control the knowledge and expertise required to produce vaccines — with people in many poorer countries not expected to be vaccinated until at least 2024. It didn’t have to be this way, of course.
Enabled by a monopolistic global intellectual property (IP) regime and with a tip of the hat to billionaire Bill Gates, Big Pharma and its political allies have largely succeeded in controlling and defining the narrative during the early vaccine rollout — transforming the prospective solution to a global crisis into yet another occasion for narrow corporate profit, in this case at the expense of public health and a speedy end to the pandemic.
The ground, however, may slowly be shifting. With the Biden administration’s recent announcement that it will support a waiver of IP protections for COVID vaccines, worldwide moral outrage toward vaccine apartheid may finally be having an impact. As for Gates himself, the billionaire is currently experiencing a messy divorce and may be facing the most serious crisis for his meticulously crafted personal image since the antitrust actions of the 1990s.
This is a long-ish article - but the author is brilliant - mostly - and this framing of the situation is worth the pondering.
At what scale do we need a phase transition in our moral framework? - I suspect this is where institutions are important. If Climate Change and the societies of digital environments represent a Crisis of Consciousness - where humans must grasp themselves to be one species in one environment/context - then perhaps we need more global institutions as global social commons.
In other words, simple situations reward those who feel, and punish those who think.
But when things get complex, and problems get wicked, things flip around.
Good People and Wicked Problems
When effectiveness gets unmoored from morality, it is better to be weird than good
I had an aha! moment recently that helped me figure out what it means to exit the culture wars. Not a high-minded martyr flounce that only looks like an exit, while keeping you as entangled as ever, or a checked-out retreat that cedes stakes and agency for sanity, but an actual exit, where the conflict becomes incapable of co-opting your presence or agency within it. A vaccine of sorts.
The key is to appreciate what happens when good people meet wicked problems, and what to do about your own desire to be good.
Broadly, encounters between good people and wicked problems lead to intuitive moral reasoning failing, and unconscious folk models of moral causation unraveling. Firm moral ground beneath your feet seems to liquify the moment you try to act.
So moral reasoning doesn’t really fail outright beyond a particular point of socio-technical complexity, but it becomes increasingly unreliable. The islands of comprehensible moral order in an increasingly complex world get smaller, farther apart, and more unpredictably located.
The world of easy copying is inherent in the digital environment - the protections of copyright doesn’t seem to diminish the spread of fake news nor of fake science. This article could signal a use case for a distributed ledger tracking the open use of science data and provide sound credit for original work - And enable it to be openly used by everyone to further research work.
Publishers grapple with an invisible foe as huge organised fraud hits scientific journals
While plagiarism and fraud isn’t new – individual researchers have been caught photoshopping electron microscopy images or inventing elemental analysis data – paper mills serve up professional fakery for their customers on an industrial scale. Buyers can apparently purchase a paper, or authorship of one, on any topic based on phony results to submit to a journal. This makes them not only harder to detect and crack down on, but also exponentially increases the damage they could do.
The extent of their operations became apparent in early 2020. Two independent groups of image detectives came across a number of manuscripts, all from different authors at different institutions working on different biomedical topics, that seemed to share strange inconsistencies – as if they had all used the same stock images. The set now contains almost 600 manuscripts. Another set of 125 was discovered only a few months later. And there could be 10 times as many professionally manipulated papers that have not yet been – and might never be – found, estimates science integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik.
Image manipulation or use of stock images at this scale has never been seen before, says Sabina Alam, director of publishing ethics and integrity at Taylor & Francis (T&F). The Biochemical Society’s Portland Press called it a ‘new and acute pandemic of falsified information’, having rejected over 600 manuscripts suspected to originate from paper mills in less than a year.
An amazing signal of the progress being made in the transformation of global energy geopolitics. This is like the sports dream companion to Ford’s new electric F150 Pick-Up Truck. The graphics of beautiful.
Hyperion’s Insane New Hydrogen-Powered EV Supercar Has a 1,000-Mile Range—and Can Recharge in 5 Minutes
Developed with ex-NASA engineers and current space technologies, the XP-1 also offers a blistering sub-3-second sprint to 60 mph.
In the United States, plug-in electric vehicles account for just less than 2 percent of all vehicles running on roads, but Southern California–based Hyperion Companies, Inc., and its Hyperion Motors division, is banking on cutting-edge, space-grade hydrogen fuel-cell technology to help consumers embrace the electric car market with much more vigor. Hyperion’s first salvo in the battle against combustion is the XP-1 prototype—a futuristic supercar with a claimed 1,016-mile range and the ability to haul to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds. Oh, and the recharge time is less than five minutes.
We have to re-imagine how we architect communities - not just and assemblage of private homes - but with a new commons - and commons-based infrastructure.
Powering ahead with community batteries
Community-scale batteries are already achievable in Australia, will complement existing household batteries and will allow more solar energy to be stored in our suburbs, analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows.
With the move towards community-scale batteries gathering pace across the nation, two new reports from ANU show the best way forward when it comes to their rollout.
The batteries have power capacity of around one megawatt (MW), or enough to power around 100 houses. They help "soak up" solar power generated during the day, improving reliability.
This is of concern - it’s not if it will happen - but when it will happen.
Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth
A few days ago, millions of tons of super-heated gas shot off from the surface of the sun and hurtled 90 million miles toward Earth.
The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, wasn't particularly powerful on the space-weather scale, but when it hit the Earth's magnetic field it triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm seen for years. There wasn't much disruption this time—few people probably even knew it happened—but it served as a reminder the sun has woken from a yearslong slumber.
While invisible and harmless to anyone on the Earth's surface, the geomagnetic waves unleashed by solar storms can cripple power grids, jam radio communications, bathe airline crews in dangerous levels of radiation and knock critical satellites off kilter. The sun began a new 11-year cycle last year and as it reaches its peak in 2025 the specter of powerful space weather creating havoc for humans grows, threatening chaos in a world that has become ever more reliant on technology since the last big storms hit 17 years ago. A recent study suggested hardening the grid could lead to $27 billion worth of benefits to the U.S. power industry.
An amazing signal - that expands our view of where we can find life.
Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other Worlds
New work suggests that the radiolytic splitting of water supports giant subsurface ecosystems of life on Earth — and could do it elsewhere, too.
Scientists poke and prod at the fringes of habitability in pursuit of life’s limits. To that end, they have tunneled kilometers below Earth’s surface, drilling outward from the bottoms of mine shafts and sinking boreholes deep into ocean sediments. To their surprise, “life was everywhere that we looked,” said Tori Hoehler, a chemist and astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. And it was present in staggering quantities: By various estimates, the inhabited subsurface realm has twice the volume of the oceans and holds on the order of 1030 cells, making it one of the biggest habitats on the planet, as well as one of the oldest and most diverse.
Researchers are still trying to understand how most of the life down there survives. Sunlight for photosynthesis cannot reach such depths, and the meager amount of organic carbon food that does is often quickly exhausted. Unlike communities of organisms that dwell near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor or within continental regions warmed by volcanic activity, ecosystems here generally can’t rely on the high-temperature processes that support some subsurface life independent of photosynthesis; these microbes must hang on in deep cold and darkness.
Two papers appearing in February by different research groups now seem to have solved some of this mystery for cells beneath the continents and in deep marine sediments. They find evidence that, much as the sun’s nuclear fusion reactions provide energy to the surface world, a different kind of nuclear process — radioactive decay — can sustain life deep below the surface. Radiation from unstable atoms in rocks can split water molecules into hydrogen and chemically reactive peroxides and radicals; some cells can use the hydrogen as fuel directly, while the remaining products turn minerals and other surrounding compounds into additional energy sources.
Domesticating DNA - enables us to understand and learn how many processes are control - in an age of ubiquitous sleep disturbances - this may signal new ways to find wellbeing.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that these clocks can be disrupted in organs or tissues, which may lead to disease. And, of course, we all know about jet lag, which is caused by travel across time zones, or problems that are caused by the switch to or from daylight saving time. "We know very little about how our cells coordinate these oscillations, or how it affects the body, if for example, one kidney is out of phase with the rest of the body,"
Developing this adaptation took Kolarski several years, but the result was well worth the effort. "It was a real scientific 'tour de force' and a beautiful example of interdisciplinary cooperation,"
Resetting the biological clock by flipping a switch
The biological clock is present in almost all cells of an organism. As more and more evidence emerges that clocks in certain organs could be out of sync, there is a need to investigate and reset these clocks locally. Scientists from the Netherlands and Japan introduced a light-controlled on/off switch to a kinase inhibitor, which affects clock function. This gives them control of the biological clock in cultured cells and explanted tissue. They published their results on 26 May in Nature Communications.
Life on Earth has evolved under a 24-hour cycle of light and dark, hot and cold. "As a result, our cells are synchronized to these 24-hour oscillations," says Wiktor Szymanski, Professor of Radiological Chemistry at the University Medical Center Groningen. Our circadian clock is regulated by a central controller in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a region in the brain directly above the optic nerve, but all our cells contain a clock of their own. These clocks consist of an oscillation in the production and breakdown of certain proteins.
Here’s a small signal of an emerging metabolic economy - something that should become part of a ‘green new deal’ investment strategy.
Turning tree bark and compost into aircraft wings and plastic bags
Trees, crops and even organic waste can be transformed into a bewildering array of plastics to use in products ranging from single-use bags to heavy-duty airplane wings.
These so-called biopolymers could play a vital role in weaning us off petroleum plastics—which will help cut greenhouse gas emissions, and ensure plastics come from a renewable resource.
And in some cases they could help to reduce plastic pollution. One of the major sources of plastic pollution is packaging, which accounted for nearly 40% of the plastic used in the EU in 2019, according to Plastics Europe, a trade association. Researchers have developed ways to make biodegradable food waste bags and food packaging from municipal food and garden waste.
project VOLATILE, has developed a technology that can be integrated into existing municipal anaerobic digestion and composting plants. It uses microorganisms to break down organic waste into volatile fatty acids, which are the building blocks of the PHB and PHBV plastics used to make plastic bags and food packaging.
The main by-product is a residue which can be used to make compost. Hydrogen gas is another by-product, and it can be used to make electricity.
Another small signal of transforming our economic paradigm into a metabolic one.
New 'Swiss Army knife' cleans up water pollution
Inspired by Chicago's many nearby bodies of water, a Northwestern University-led team has developed a way to repeatedly remove and reuse phosphate from polluted waters. The researchers liken the development to a "Swiss Army knife" for pollution remediation as they tailor their membrane to absorb and later release other pollutants.
The research will be published during the week of May 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
The team's Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane is a porous, flexible substrate (such as a coated sponge, cloth or fibers) that selectively sequesters up to 99% of phosphate ions from polluted water. Coated with nanostructures that bind to phosphate, the PEARL membrane can be tuned by controlling the pH to either absorb or release nutrients to allow for phosphate recovery and reuse of the membrane for many cycles.
The team has demonstrated that the sponge-based approach is effective on scales, ranging from milligrams to kilograms, suggesting promise in scaling even further.
We should have all heard the meme - ‘I like beer!’ - this is one more small signal of both more benefits from beer and a metabolic economy.
Plots demonstrated increased yields by around 15% compared to the control plots after one year. Additionally, the organic matter treatment boosted populations of beneficial microorganisms in the soils, as demonstrated by a significantly higher soil respiration rate.
Beer byproduct mixed with manure proves an excellent pesticide
The use of many chemical fumigants in agriculture have been demonstrated to be harmful to human health and the environment and therefore banned from use.
In this study published to Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, researchers from the Neiker Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development in Spain investigated using agricultural by-products rapeseed cake and beer bagasse (spent beer grains), along with fresh cow manure as two organic biodisinfestation treatments. The lead author Maite Gandariasbeitia explains: "Rapeseed cake and beer bagasse are two potential organic treatments which have shown really positive results in previous studies.
To disinfest the soil and reduce these nematode populations, beer bagasse and rapeseed cake were incorporated into the soil with fresh cow manure as a potential organic treatment. After the first crop post-treatment, the researchers found a significant reduction in galling on plant roots.
This is a small signal of the emerging transformation of our agricultural capacity - AI-powered bots to plant, weed, protect, harvest and process all manner of food.
"The mushroom industry in Pennsylvania is producing about two-thirds of the mushrooms grown nationwide, and the growers here are having a difficult time finding laborers to handle the harvesting, which is a very labor intensive and difficult job," said He. "The industry is facing some challenges, so an automated system for harvesting like the one we are working on would be a big help."
Researchers develop prototype of robotic device to pick, trim button mushrooms
Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have developed a robotic mechanism for mushroom picking and trimming and demonstrated its effectiveness for the automated harvesting of button mushrooms.
In a new study, the prototype, which is designed to be integrated with a machine vision system, showed that it is capable of both picking and trimming mushrooms growing in a shelf system.
The research is consequential, according to lead author Long He, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, because the mushroom industry has been facing labor shortages and rising labor costs. Mechanical or robotic picking can help alleviate those problems.
This is a small local signal - of a much larger concern and potential solution to re-imagining how we design for urban life.
Ottawa Community Housing, PAL Ottawa enter into show-stopping partnership to create affordable housing for aging artists
Sporadic jobs and lack of compensation or benefits result in some self-employed artists living below poverty line, in need of rental assistance
Starving artists need not be homeless, now that the Ottawa Community Housing Corp. has entered into a preliminary agreement with non-profit organization PAL Ottawa to help keep a roof over artists' heads.
The two organizations have signed an official memorandum of understanding to work together toward creating affordable rental units for senior artists, ages 55 and older. The mid-rise apartment building, to be constructed and completed between late 2023 and early 2024, will be located in the Gladstone Avenue and Rochester Street area of Little Italy, where there’s already a happening arts scene. The plan is to build 80 apartment units, as well as complementary creative spaces. At least 40 per cent of the units will be below-market-rate rentals while the rest will be near-market rentals.
The unique and innovative partnership with OCH, the city's largest social housing provider, marks a major breakthrough for PAL Ottawa, a grassroots arts organization created in 2012 to come up with an affordable housing solution for older artists, including actors, singers and musicians, visual artists, dancers, writers and arts administrators. It also provides personal support to artists, so that they don’t end up isolated and alone.
#micropoem
Thinking about phase transitions -
intensities -
and scale -
yesterday's sustain-abilities -
are not tomorrow's flourishings -
There is no Solution -
there is only eternal solutioning -
oops that’s called evolution -
