Category: Cultural Intelligence

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Infinite Games–Play with Rules and Boundaries

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Serious Games
Jon Lebkowsky Bio

Infinite Games

by jonl on March 29, 2011

Via Flemming Funch, a review of “Finite and Infinite Games – A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility” by James P. Carse: “A finite game is a game that has fixed rules and boundaries, that is played for the purpose of winning and thereby ending the game….An infinite game has no fixed rules or boundaries. In an infinite game you play with the boundaries and the purpose is to continue the game.”

All finite games have rules. If you follow the rules you are playing the game. If you don’t follow the rules you aren’t playing. If you move the pieces in different ways in chess, you are no longer playing chess.Infinite players play with rules and boundaries. They include them as part of their playing. They aren’t taking them serious, and they can never be trapped by them, because they use rules and boundaries to play with.

Phi Beta Iota: This is a perfect “capstone” commentary from Jon–himself a hacker pioneer–Epoch A is over.  Epoch B has begin.  Epoch B changes everything, including the rules.   It bears emphasis, over and over again, that INTEGRITY is essential for infinite games to create infinite wealth.  Corruption is a cancer.

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What Google Needs to Do–Besides No Evil….

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency

Well worth the read….

I don't think this is so much about Google as it is about fostering innovation and good overall business practices, taken from the standpoint of a former Google employee.

There are many good nuggets in here — my favorite being the “NIH” (Not Invented Here) Syndrome and the like.

What Larry Page really needs to do to return Google to its startup roots

Posted on March 24, 2011 by slacy

I worked at Google from 2005-2010, and saw the company go through many changes, and a huge increase in staff.  Most importantly, I saw the company go from a place where engineers were seen as violent disruptors and innovators, to a place where doing things “The Google Way” was king, and where thinking outside the box was discouraged and even chastised.  So, here’s a quick list of things I think Larry could do to bring the startup feel back to Google:

Read detailed posting….

Phi Beta Iota: The post is not only credible, but the comments are spectacularly reinforcing.  It is also with sadness that we observe how quickly Google acquired all of the bad habits of its start-up funding partner and continuing co-conspirator in institutionalized ineptitude, the US secret intelligence community.  We continue to emphasize that Corruption–and Integrity–are about much more than individual honor or good intent–they are systemic.  Corrupt feedback–and losses of integrity in small things–are cumulative.

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Pentagon Pathology: Follow the Money

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Intelligence (government), Law Enforcement, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Andrew Cockburn's essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth is titled “Follow the Money.”  There are a lot of people who will say that is an undignified way to assess America's national security apparatus; they might even say that Cockburn's focus is cynical.  I would personally venture to guess that a disproportionate number of those saying so are doing rather well – thank you very much – in that same national security apparatus.  Or, they plan to do so in the foreseeable future.

Cockburn summarizes his argument in a interview in the ongoing series conducted by Federal News Radio.  Chris Dorobek of the DorobekInsider Show interviews Andrew Cockburn.

Following the money and understanding why that is important is key to comprehending why the Pentagon, Congress, the manufacturers, and the think-tanks behave the way they do.  After all, as Cockburn says in the DorobekInsider interview, why do you think the manufacturers put all those ads in the Washington Metro system.  They're not there for the area's teachers or the local sports teams' fans.

But there is much more to following the money than just that.  Cockburn explains fully in his essay in The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It. He addresses perhaps the most powerful and recurrent theme underlying contemporary defense community behavior.  Read Cockburn's essay.  Download the book free.

Have a comment?  Pro or con?  We welcome a public debate.
_____________________________
Winslow T. Wheeler
Director
Straus Military Reform Project
Center for Defense Information

Phi Beta Iota: INTEGRITY.   One word.  The one word not spoken at the Pentagon by anyone above the rank of Major.  You don't make Colonel, and you do not advance as a General, without drinking the kool-aid and “going along” with systemic corruption.  Our shame–our continuing shame–is a burden on the Republic.

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Five Principles of War Propaganda: Libya in Play

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda

The five principles driving war propaganda are in play in Libya

By Duncan Cameron

rabble.ca March 22, 2011

EXTRACT:  The blog empirestrikesblack cites Belgian investigative journalist Michel Collon who has outlined five principles driving war propaganda:

1. Obscure one's economic interests;

2. Appear humanitarian in work and motivations;

3. Obscure history;

4. Demonize the enemy; and

5. Monopolize the flow of information.

Read full article….

Tip of the Hat to Mario Profaca at Facebook.

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Food Industry’s Erin Brockovich–Unhealthy Truth

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, 12 Water, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Strategy, Waste (materials, food, etc)
John Steiner

From John and Margo

All we can say is do watch this!

Patriotism on a Plate
February 2011 TEDx Austin talk.

Robyn shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a “Real Food” evangelist. Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a “typical” breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring.

Amazon Page

Robyn authored The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It. A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children.  She founded allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of “20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter.” The New York Times has passionately
described her as “Food's Erin Brockovich.”

Follow Robyn O'Brien on Twitter

Phi Beta Iota: Across all twelve “policy” domains from agriculture to water, with food cutting across all  domains ans especially Family, Health, and Society, we are seeing the emergence of public intelligence in the public interest.  What we are not seeing (yet), is the integration of “true cost” information as a core element that must be available to the public; and the integration of all that we can know about each domain in isolation, into a larger “360 degree” strategic analytic model for getting a grip on how we live and how we spend.

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Robert Kaplan on Geopolitics–Mostly Very Wrong

Analysis, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Policies, Threats

Robert Kaplan

The Middle East Crisis Has Just Begun

For the U.S., democracy's fate in the region matters much less than the struggle between the Saudis and Iran

Robert D. Kaplan

Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2011

Despite the military drama unfolding in Libya, the Middle East is only beginning to unravel. American policy-makers have been spoiled by events in Tunisia and Egypt, both of which boast relatively sturdy institutions, civil society associations and middle classes, as well as being age-old clusters of civilization where states of one form or another have existed since antiquity. Darker terrain awaits us elsewhere in the region, where states will substantially weaken once the carapace of tyranny crumbles. The crucial tests lie ahead, beyond the distraction of Libya.

The United States may be a democracy, but it is also a status quo power, whose position in the world depends on the world staying as it is. In the Middle East, the status quo is unsustainable because populations are no longer afraid of their rulers. Every country is now in play.

Read full commentary by Robert Kaplan….

Phi Beta Iota: Perhaps his meeting with Barack Obama served kool-aid, and he drank it.  This article, which can certainly be considered to be an authoritative depiction of the prevailing views in Washington, is disappointing at multiple levels.  The author lacks a strategic analytic model, an ethical model, and a process model, as well as an appreciation for how the tortilla has flipped.  Epoch B was born in the 1970's coincident with Peak Empire when the US was thrown out of Viet-Nam by indigenous people's with stronger ethics, a stronger culture, and an unconquerable will.  Today Epoch B is a young teen-ager, just beginning to flex its muscles.  “Dad” can no longer win a physical contest with this young teen-ager, nor can “Dad” understand the nuances of the digital age the way this teen-ager–the first generation not to be a “mini-me” of “Dad”–does.  Most of us never imagined that Wall Street and the two-party “front” for corporations would last as long as it did after the 1980's meltdown.  We all under-estimated the placidity of the American public.  Now the American public's perceptions are secondary.  The five billion poor are on the march, and Washington has absolutely no clue what to do next.

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Spot-Light on Coca Cola as Evil Incarnate

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 12 Water, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Amazon Page

The Coca-Cola Case

By Maria Popova

What Colombian laborers have to do with American foreign policy and the history of soda.

Labor rights are among the most pressing human rights issues in industrialized nations. But what makes the subject most devastating is how remote it feels to most of us yet how deeply infused our everyday lives are with its enablers, from the inhuman factory conditions in the Chinese factories that churn out our favorite shoes to the impossibly low wages of the Indian farmers who grow our afternoon tea. The Coca-Cola Case is an unsettling feature-length documentary by directors German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia exploring the subject through the lens of America’s favorite soft drink, investigating the allegations that Coke orchestrated the kidnapping, torture and murder of union leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala and Turkey.

After months of investigation into Coca-Cola, all evidence shows that the Coca-Cola system is ripe with immorality, corruption and complicity in gross human rights violations, including murder and torture.”

Read full review with video inserts…

Phi Beta Iota: Home and host country issues with multinational corporations were deeply studied in the 1970's, and then the universities were commercialized, distracted, bought off, you name it, they did everything except think holistically.  The fragmentation of knowledge is the equivalent of mass human insanity.  Coca Cola is representative of the broader issues, but like Nestle and others that sell “liquid,” it is particularly evil with respect to draining public water aquifers without regard to the “true cost” of that untaxed and unregulated behavior.