"Maybe" Some Thoughts on Paradigm Shift

I just read an article about the newest generation of robots able to harvest crops, such as lettuce. These, and other machines, will eventually replace farm laborers. This is part of a growing trend, as more automation and 'smarter,' more adaptive systems, replace human labor. Ideally, this frees humanity to pursue other endeavors. We are poised, in the next few decades, for a technological / societal leap forward. It is, perhaps, a shift for which our current labels and thoughts will no longer apply - way past left/right, conservative/liberal, capitalism/socialism. (Lest some of you fear I advocate laziness, I do not. We will work toward different goals, since we will no longer have to labor for such mundanes as shelter, energy, and food.) This will require a paradigm shift of epic proportions, if we are to leave a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren. I have chosen the following because of the line "living free in harmony and majesty / take me home." I trust it will be more than an idle wish. Most of us can certainly use more 'harmony' and 'majesty' in our inner and outer lives.

Letter To ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson

Dear Mr. Tillerson:

It is with interest that I read a Facebook meme in which you are quoted as saying, We have spent our entire existence adapting. We’ll adapt.” They are presented against a backdrop of what I presume is part of the current Colorado wildfire. This is attributed to a June 27, 2012 statement. Oh, I know – Facebook just screams credibility, and I’m quite aware these nine words are most probably out of context from a larger statement. Though rude it may be, these are the words on which I intend to focus, and not worry so terribly much about the larger context.   Adaptation is a marvelous thing, but adaptation can only go so far. When adaptation fails, extinction is the result.

In the face of mounting evidence for man-made contributions to global warming and the greenhouse effect, we have an example of the environment to which we will have to adapt, here in our own solar system: Venus. That’s going to take some doing. Now, of course, my example is extreme. Earth will not turn into Venus overnight. What will happen? I am afraid that those with means will retreat behind enclaves and citadels, hording remaining precious resources at the expense of those who are not so fortunate.

It need not be that way. What if ExxonMobil was to lead the charge? The need for petrochemicals will never go away – nor am I suggesting they should. What if our oil reserves could be reserved for plastics and other compounds, while being relieved of the need to provide energy? Sure, peoples’ portfolios might take a short-term hit in the by-this-quarter economy. What is to be gained? Our very future, and a future for our children, and their children. We can bequeath them vibrancy and abundance, and not a burnt, used cinder of a planet.

Sure, it’s a paradigm shift. Nanotechnology and automation suggest the shift is coming, anyway. What a public relations coup for ExxonMobil! New technology and infrastructure with the ExxonMobil brand! Solar cells, fuel cells, batteries – many possibilities…but we need to bridge the gap. We need time to get to the abundance. The next thirty to fifty years are critical. I’m just a guy, but I know the works of Buckminster Fuller, Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson, David Attenborough, and so many more.

I am invited to this by Mr. Doug Grandt, who has history, and “chops” in your industry.  You are in receipt, I believe, of several missives from him.  I trust your staff has presented them to you.  I share his concerns on this front, and several others, which is why I chose to write.  I’m just a guy.  All’s I know is what I see when I look around. 

We were children of the “space race,” pointed to a far-flung future by Clarke, Asimov, Campbell, Bradbury, Sagan and other visionaries. Our wings were the U.S. Air Force and NASA; our champions Shepherd, Glenn, Grissom, White, Resnik, McAuliffe, and so many more who, like Prometheus, dared steal fire from the gods. I know this was primarily a military initiative at first – I learned of Sputnik before the age of six – but did not our hearts burst with justifiable pride that July night, lo! those many years ago! when Neil Armstrong declared that small step for himself, that giant leap for the rest of us?

I look around, in the early 21 century, and wonder why we remain so dependent on fossil fuels? I also remember, ironically, that the first vehicles were electrical and steam powered. Now, don’t get me wrong – the development of the internal combustion engine allowed use of petroleum-based products which give the user a lot more energy bang for the buck, short term. In the face of an expanded interstate highway system – yet another military initiative? – we Americans enjoyed a half century in which the car was king, with no worries placed on our consumptions, including the rise of plastics, styrofoams, and other petroleum-based products. We used, and disposed. I am part of that generation. (Ironically, that expanded infrastructure helped feed an unprecedented economic boom.) Yet, my mother tells me stories of living in Germany for two years in the early 1960’s. One of those stories involved the relatively small rubbish / garbage can they had, which they were allowed to fill every week. Any extra waste was charged. One learned to conserve waste and space.

My high-school research paper was on hydrogen as a fuel. Granted, this was circa 1977, so we were not as technologically advanced. Even then, though, researchers were looking into deuterium-based laser fusion, and with hydrogen fuel cells, certainly understood the end result of hydrogen oxidation - water! I wonder what a “first-man-on-the-moon” initiative toward hydrogen as fuel would produce with today’s technology?

Why? It is becoming apparent, even to people like me, that oil is more and more difficult to get from under the ground. Greater effort and technology is required to gain every barrel we consume, and our consumption, as a race is rising. An exponential rise in population suggests an exponential rise in oil consumption – especially as other areas of the world gain affluence.

Technology suggests alternatives, such as making fuels from plants or garbage. Part of the overall solution – but why not broaden the scope? The sun produces, according to Dr. Knowledge of the Boston Globe, “measuring the quantity of solar energy/second reaching every square meter of Earth and then multiplying that by the total surface area of a sphere with radius equal to the radius of Earth orbit. We get the astonishingly huge amount of 400 trillion trillion watts. To put this into a crazy context, every second the sun produces the same energy as about a trillion 1 megaton bombs! In one second, our sun produces enough energy for almost 500,000 years of the current needs of our so-called civilization. If only we could collect it all and use it!”

Imagine the potential for humanity ... a clean, bright future.

What if ExxonMobil was to lead the charge?

What a public relations coup for Exxon/Mobil! New technology and infrastructure with the Exxon/Mobil brand!  Solar cells, fuel cells, batteries, paints and window films which collect solar energy.  Many possibilities await!

Mr. Tillerson, you and ExxonMobil have a rare opportunity to change the course of history, save humanity and other species, and leave a legacy that will make your grandchildren and their grandchildren proud.

Please lead the shift. Change course. Retire the refineries.

Thank you for your time,

Brian Esposito

Ain't No Homo Gonna Make It To Heaven and The Double Negative

The use of the double negative has long been a colloquially accepted part of the English language.  It’s generally used to reinforce a negative concept, or the absence of something:  “Mama didn’t raise no fool!” is a famous example.  That’s nice, but apparently, she did.  The negatives, like in math, cancel one another, and the statement becomes positive:  “Mama raised a fool!”  One might better say, “Mama didn’t raise a fool!”  “We don’t need no education.  We don’t need no false control” is the famous Pink Floyd declaration in “The Wall.”  Again, I understand that it’s meant to say ‘We really, really don’t need these things.”  Technically, it says just the opposite.  (Now, excuse me while I attend the crowd with the pitchforks and torches gathered outside.)

I further understand that language is context and style, as well as syntax.  “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing”…scibbity bip bop…OK, I can’t scat worth…scat.  “It doesn’t mean a thing if it doesn’t have that swing” just isn’t the same.  It gets you an “A” in English class, but Mr. Duke Ellington will have you “Take The ‘A’ Train” to F City.

My main complaint, overall, is that it’s one thing to know and understand the rules and syntax and knowingly break / bend / shape them to linguistic / lyrical purposes; and quite another to be completely unaware they’re being broken.  There are too many people with twelve to twenty years of education who don’t seem to know better.

All right, Brian (you patiently wonder) what has you clicking your heels and goose-stepping ‘round the metaphorical room, this time? 

Jawohl.  This little “gem”:

Please understand I do not fault the children.  I shudder at the ‘positive’ reinforcement they’re receiving at just the right age to give them a future of bigotry or confusion, sadness, and pain.  It is a trap which they can escape, but it will take effort on their parts, and, most likely, assistance from others.  May they find joy, whatever their journey may be.  (I remember such reinforcement learning my Catholic catechism lessons – which were positively benign, compared to this.)

The cheering, clapping adults – do they realize what they’re cheering?  Well, of course, Brian – the homosexuals who won’t go to Heaven!  I know you’re way ahead of me, at this belabored point, but what have the children sang?  “Ain’t no homo gonna make it to Heaven.”  If we do the “math,” they’re in – all of ‘em! – goin’ to Heaven!  So let us clap and cheer and celebrate, like the ‘adults’ in the video!  (You may be sure I’ve mentally substituted ‘adults’ with terms less…forgiving.  In part, I pity them, too – they have not yet awakened to the greater truths.)

Now, I have made a bit of light over something extremely sad.  I know that ridicule, in itself, doesn’t lead to understanding or solutions – though humor can be instructive. 

There are many things I would say to this group, though it would fall on deaf ears.  The least I would say, as I enjoy the irony,  is, “Pardon my laughter.”

Injustice

Do we realize that most of the miseries of life are created by people and inflicted upon other people?  (I do not discount disease, natural death, and natural disaster - but those are part of the natural condition...in a world filled with war, famine, politics, prejudice and

I     N     J     U     S     T     I     C     E.

(There are so many forms of injustice, I gave it its own line.)  (Not that I discount the wonderful invention and progress of human mind...I just wanna ask, Can we knock off some of this other stuff, please?)

A Short Note Attached To My Signing the Petition Against the Keystone Pipeline

While I was initially in favor of the pipeline, I have determined, as best I can while tiptoeing through the minefield of "slanted," agenda-driven "journalism," that while the pipeline represents an increase in oil production here in the States, there are questions of whether the oil will be used domestically, or sold overseas.  Job creation is minimal -- pretty much for the duration of the pipeline build.  I see no long-term job growth from this enterprise.   Most importantly, is the ecological damage to be done by the gathering/frakking of this material.  It is easy to say NIMBY - not in my back yard, but it matters, in the long run, how we treat our neighbors to the north. 

I try not to be an unreasonable person.  I've spoken in favor of local projects and local development, such as landfill expansion, and commercial development, because they made our municipality more responsible on a local level, and were not unreasonable, given the extenuating circumstances.

Nor am I one of those who disfavors a corporation making a profit -- but at what greater cost?  Shall we ask the buffalo, or the passenger pigeon?

Thank you,
Brian

With All Due Respect

Why is it, when we say "with all due respect," we generally mean nothing of the kind?

Regarding SOPA-A Letter to My Congressional Representatives and Senator

While issues of copyright and ownership are not fully resolved in the ever-changing landscape of evolving Internet and mobile-application portal technology, there is cause for great concern when, from what I’ve been able to gather, it seems like corporations are trying to turn the real problem of on-line piracy into an excuse to gain greater control of content, and over the average user of the Internet.  From what I’ve gathered, most of the piracy is due to some overseas “cartels,” anyway.  Most of the video uploads that I’ve seen on YouTube include the disclaimer that the uploader is not claiming copyright to the material.  I have discovered artists and material of which I might not otherwise have become aware because of sites like YouTube.  My modest YouTube channel includes over 400 views of my spoken rendition of Robert Frost’s “Acquainted With The Night.”  Maybe these viewers will go on to discover more of Frost’s poetry, as well as the other poets I’ve included.  I expect no monetary profit – forgive me the pride of stating that the profit comes from trying to spread the light of poetry and literature to others.  Aside from that, I just like doing it.

I am prepared to walk away from the Internet.  Such would be like a grievous smite to the nose, since the Internet makes a good deal of things convenient, and it is my main source of entertainment.  I got along just fine before the Internet.  I imagine I can do so again.  (Oh, the horror!)

Please continue to make use of existing law to combat piracy and infringement, or use more carefully crafted legislation (read:  legislation that is meant to provide true justice, and not power to corporations)  in order to combat the true sources of piracy – a task probably better suited, as has been suggested elsewhere, to law enforcement itself.

Thank you for your consideration,

Brian Esposito

The Staffing Industry

Seen on monster.com: "The staffing industry is evolving..." 

It must be evolving, because it sure doesn't seem to be driven by 'intelligent design'!