Category: #OSE Open Source Everything

Chapter 2 Open-Source Everything Extract II

OpenBTS is t he open-source software/hardware combination that replicates cellular phone services using open spectrum, enabling free and very low-cost communications.  Combined with mesh networks and other means of disconnecting from the government/telecommunications monopoly of the grid, OpenBTS is the foundation “liberation technology” and is central to the release of humanity from corrupt hierarchies and their “rule by secrecy.”

When the five billion poor receive OpenBTS and have access to the Internet, everything will change.

. . . . . . . . .

It is my personal and professional belief–as someone deeply concerned about both security and intelligence–that security can only be achieved through pure transparency not secrecy.  Intelligence can only be maximally effective if it is open and collective.  At present, the contract between the secret intelligence community and the alternative open-source intelligence community could not be starker.  This illustrates the failure of banks, corporations, governments, and non-governmental organizations (such as global charities, with the Red Cross coming to mind) to act purely in the public interest.   There are two reasons for this: one, because they can hide behind secrecy and not be accountable for some or all of their acts; and two, because in the absence of public intelligence, the public is impotent.

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

Chapter 2 Open-Source Everything Extract I

When we allowed for the “taking” of Earth resources for private profit, without regard to the true cost of the taking to the ninety-nine percent as well as future generations, we broke the Whole Earth System, literally.  We began corrupting the smooth feedback loops and ecologies that had been centuries in the making, in essence poking holes in t he fabric of nature within which man had been a component, but not a dominant nor even a decisive change agent.

. . . . . . . . . .

The heart of F/OSS is not in avoiding financial costs, but rather in avoiding opportunity costs imposed by the proprietary or concealed source code that cannot be improved upon by others at will.

. . . . . . . . . .

Quoting from the Open-Source Initiative under the leadership of Michael Tiermann:

Open-Source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.  The promise of Open-Source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory lock-in.

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

Chapter 1 Open Sesame Extract III

…when the human is commoditized, capitalism fails; when the human is unleashed, capitalism benefits all.

The industrial era sentences most men and women and children to lives as inert “cogs” in a system that denies their humanity, and in denying their humanity, represses the very God-given or cosmos-inherent capacities that we alone among all the beasts possess; the capacity to innovate and create beyond any individual's wildest imagination, but working together in the aggregate, using shared information and collective sense-making as a foundation for eradicating waste and achieving optimal harmonious wealth creation for all.

. . . . .

In my view, the many spiritual movements that seek to expand human consciousness and foster a sense of community have failed in one vital respect: they have not focused on the urgency of putting humans in touch with real-world information, not just “themselves.”

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

Chapter 1 Open Sesame Extract II

Panarchy is an ideal condition in which every individual would be connected to all relevant information and able to participate in every decision of interest to them, from local to global.  Panarchy thus represents direct democracy within a nonhierarchical, open-source context.  In the ideal state of panarchy, every citizen is fully actualized, deeply steeped in integrity and intelligence, and able to participate creatively in the constant social reproduction of their world.

. . . . . . . .

At its best, panachy provides for near-perfect resilience in the face of great complexity because it reduces the resistance between all human minds and reaction points to near zero.  What this means is every human mind is connected to every other human mind, and to all relevant information; that observations by human immediately reach all other humans (imagine super-Twitter); and that with tools for thinking, the relevant human intelligence can be aggregated and applied to any situation in near-real time.  This is not something corporations or governments can do today.

Open Source Everything and Panarchy are symbiotic–a state of being, a state of mind, a state of the Earth.

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

Chapter 1  Open Sesame Extract I

The core concept here, one that Buckminster Fuller would endorse, is of achieving ZERO RESISTANCE in transfer of energy and information.  Put in other trerms (that Occupy, among other movements, would appreciate), the objective is to eradicate CORRUPTION and all “burdens” on human activity that have been contrived and imposed without the consent of the governed.  Corruption and lies are “resistance” to optimal functionality.

. . . . . . . .

In an open-source community, all costs are minimized and benefits are optimized.

. . . . . . . .

This network is capable of doing what no other network–and certainly no government or corporation–can aspire to: tell the truth, the whole truth, all the time, rooted in transparency and building trust–this is the alchemy of the twenty-first century: share information, earn trust.  Transparency, not secrecy, is what rpoduces validated intelligence (decision-support) that is truthful and trustworthy and therefore priceless.

. . . . . . . .

The contemporary challenge is our transition from the industrial-era worldview of unbridled consuption, selfishness, and “anything goes”  to a new information-era worldview of “it's all connnected,” which means that we are all accountable for the whole.  Resources are limited, brain power is virtually infinite.  Open-Source Everything is the meme, the mind-set, and the method.

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

Open Source Everything is our path to power, peace, and prosperity, a restoration of the sensibility of the indigenous peoples of the world whose sacred knowledge we in the “advanced” West have disdained at our own peril.

Open Source Everything reconnects us all to the root power of the cosmic universe, restores our harmony, and unleashes our inherent gifts of innovation, entrepreneurship, and generosity.

. . . . . . .

Homo sapiens is the “Wild Card.”  Being is a mystery, Nature is a given, Science is a process, and Community–a prosperous world at peace–is a goal.  The human species is the 900-pound gorilla that has the capacity to self-destruct for lack of temperance, or to become One with Gold through transparency, truth, and trust.

Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .   Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot