Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Michel Bauwens: Collaborative Economy Destroying Jobs [and Tax Base] – What’s Next?

03 Economy
Michel Bauwens

Yes, the collaborative economy is destroying jobs. So what’s next?

OuShare, 16 October 2012

by Stanislas Jourdan

Let’s not be blind: yes, the collaborative economy is destroying a massive number of jobs. Is that a disaster though? It is, if we don’t redefine what ‘job’ and ‘work’ means, and how they relate to income. However, if we seriously consider the radical alternatives, this could be a great step for society.

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The major point of the Collaborative Economy is that value creation is being scattered among society. This makes it difficult to be measured. For instance, consumers are now involved in the co-production of the products they buy. The problem is not only that they do not get paid for their contribution, but a large number of companies would not even exist if they could not use open-source tools created by communities of developers , long before these businesses were even created, for free. In other words, a large amount of the market economy’s profits is built on a large free lunch – the one of the non-market economy.

. . . . . . .

A simple solution to this would be to give everyone a basic income grant, without conditions and not means-tested. Philosophically, this would be a compensation for what the French economist Yann Moulier Boutang calls the “retribution for pollinisation”, or a reward for all non-marketable values we create by accident, like bees that fertilize flowers by carrying pollen.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Michel Bauwens: Collaborative Economy Destroying Jobs [and Tax Base] – What's Next?”

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Sepp Hasslberger: Deep Geothermal $1B = 100 Nuclear Plants But Clean and Safe

05 Energy
Sepp Hasslberger

Deep Geothermal: The Untapped Energy Source

Until now, geothermal technology has only been used on a small scale to produce power. But with major new projects now underway, deep geothermal systems may soon begin making a significant contribution to the world’s energy needs.

Ultimately, thanks to unusually hot rock close to the surface and existing infrastructure from oil-and-gas production, the Cooper River basin alone could produce about 10,000 megawatts of electricity — enough to replace 20 large coal-fired power plants, says geologist Doone Wyborn, Geodynamic's chief scientist. That’s just a taste of the potential that this technology, known as enhanced geothermal systems, holds for Australia and the world, according to Wyborn.

In the US, researchers estimate that for just $1 billion invested over 40 years — the cost of one large coal-fired power plant and a fraction of the cost of a nuclear power plant — 100 gigawatts of clean, dependable geothermal power could be developed in the United States alone. That’s the energy equivalent of more than 200 coal-fired power plants or 100 new nuclear power plants.

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Howard Rheingold: Myth of Internet-Based Overload – and a Lesson for for All Organizations

Advanced Cyber/IO
Howard Rheingold

Study Explodes the Myth of Internet-Based Information Overload

The key differentiator between those who feel overwhelmened by the volume of information available today and those who feel empowered and enthusiastic appears to be….know-how. –Howard

From socialmediatoday.com – September 18, 12:41 PM

“But now, there’s proof that all this worry about information overload, message meltdown and attention crash is overinflated hyperventilating. A study out of Northwestern University finds that “very few Americans feel bogged down or overwhelmed by the volume of news and information at their fingertips and on their screens.”

Published in the journal The Information Society, the findings were based on seven focus groups with 77 participants from around the country. According to study author Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies, “We found that the high volume of information available these days seems to make most people feel empowered and enthusiastic. People are able to get their news and information from a diverse set of sources and they seem to like having those options.””

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David Isenberg: BusinessWeek on Morality of Drones

07 Other Atrocities, Drones & UAVs
David Isenberg

Drones: The Morality of War From the Sky

By

Bloomberg BusinessWeek, October 11, 2012

President Obama, who is putatively a civil libertarian—or, at the very least, the preferred candidate of most civil libertarians—has achieved something remarkable over the course of his term. He has led an expansive war against America’s enemies using lethal flying robots that not infrequently incinerate innocent civilians, and he’s been rewarded for it. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted earlier this year, 83 percent of Americans support Obama’s drone policy.

This is especially noteworthy because those who support the policy don’t actually know what it is. It’s discussed by the administration in only the most cursory and circumspect manner. Obama has provided the public with very little information about its revolutionary consequences.

. . . . . . . . .

One reason the people of North Waziristan—the innocent as well as the guilty—find drones so frightening is the matter of “signature strikes,” or “atmospheric strikes.” The U.S. national security infrastructure allows the targeting in certain benighted places of clusters of young men whose identities are not known but whose behavior is deemed suspicious. This policy is as remarkable as the president’s decision to use drones to assassinate American citizens on foreign soil, as he did with the al-Qaeda strategist Anwar al-Awlaki, based in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was a despicable figure, but isn’t it just a bit strange that the federal government can’t eavesdrop on a U.S. citizen’s phone conversation without a court order but can assassinate him without one?

Read full article.

See Also:

Berto Jongman: US Drone Strike Death Numbers — At What Cost? + Drone Meta-RECAP

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SmartPlanet: CISCO in Lake Nona, Flordia – Brilliant Today, Flooded Tomorrow

Advanced Cyber/IO, SmartPlanet

A Florida aerotropolis bets on intelligent infrastructure

By | October 23, 2012

Ever heard of Lake Nona? If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a 7,000-acre, 25,000-person planned community in Orlando, Florida with urban ambitions the size of Tokyo.

In just 15 years, the community wants to become ”a global model and standard for sustainable urban development” — quite the opposite from what’s typically found in sprawling central Florida. To do so, it wants to tightly and deliberately link educational facilities, recreational facilities, a “medical city,” workplaces, retail centers, entertainment and residential development using digital infrastructure.

The community announced this morning that it plans to partner with Cisco, the American networking technology company, to design and deploy networking infrastructure to connect its healthcare, real estate, retail, education and community services.

What’s that mean, exactly? Things like “smart work centers,” “intelligent buildings” and unified healthcare and education services. Also, digital signage, unified communications (data, voice, wireless), fiber to the home, energy management, smarter transportation and IP-based video surveillance. (If it can be digitized, it appears that Cisco is willing do it.)

Because of the deep level of integration between the two entities, Cisco has declared Lake Nona an “Iconic Smart+Connected city” — the first in the U.S., and one of eight in the world.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  It merits reflection that CISCO and IBM and other great companies are not coming together on this, their lack of commitment to Open Source Everything being one reason.  It also merits reflection that in 100 years Lake Nona will be under sea water.   No one in the USA outside of Earth Intelligence Network seems to be thinking 100 years out, which is going to make the cost to future generations much greater.

See Also:

Graphic: Maps of the Post Flood Future Geography

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NIGHTWATCH: Qatar Enters Gaza – Arabs versus Iran?

04 Inter-State Conflict

Qatar-Gaza: The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on Tuesday became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas won control of it through elections in June 2007. He crossed into Gaza from Egypt.

The Emir pledged $400 million to build two housing complexes, rehabilitate three main roads and create a prosthetic center, among other projects. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the visit by Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani has helped lift the Israeli blockade.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Qatar Enters Gaza – Arabs versus Iran?”

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Sterling Seagrave: General Electric, Not the Japanese, is Prime Culprit for the Fukushima Meltdown

08 Proliferation, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude
Sterling Seagrave

“The nuclear plant at Fukushima was built by GE (General Electric), which means it was not the Japanese who miscalculated the risks of building in a flood plain in an area subject to earthquakes and consequent tsunami. GE has been involved in a great many similar projects in Japan for many decades, since long before WW2. A full investigation of GE's role is imperative, because blaming it all on the Japanese is a cop-out — especially when you realize that the consequences of the Fukushima disaster are much greater (and scarier) than has been revealed so far. Sterling Seagrave”

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