Who Am I – A Selection of Blog Posts

November 8, 2013

Bob Fiske

Who Am I – A Selection of Blog Posts

Here are some posts from my blog “Flipped, Not Cracked”.  I think they illustrate aspects of what I would like to call “my higher self”.  I hope you find something useful here.  I desire to share freely.  I own nothing.  It simply passes through me and is available to fall into your lap.

Blessings,

-- Bob

How I Consecrate Eating

http://flippednotcracked.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-i-consecrate-eating.html

Nature’s Brains (Part 6)

http://flippednotcracked.blogspot.com/2012/08/natures-brains-part-6.html

environMENTAL

http://flippednotcracked.blogspot.com/2010/10/environmental-1.html

Reciprocity: Like Water to Fish

http://flippednotcracked.blogspot.com/2012/12/reciprocity-like-water-to-fish-part-five.html

You Clean It, You Own It

http://flippednotcracked.blogspot.com/2012/03/you-clean-it-you-own-it.html

A Flipped View of Problems

A Flipped View of Problems

Sometimes, when you move far enough away from an issue, you can see it differently.  One time this happened was when I worked in aerospace, and I was on a flight home from a business trip.  Flying at 35,000 feet at night I felt “removed” from everything.  I wrote in my journal, and an idea emerged.

It seems that many (and perhaps all) problems contain the seeds of their own solution.  If you look deep enough into a problem, you will find clues.  At least these will tell you what not to do.  Knowing a problem well insures that you will not solve the wrong problem.  A really good problem will contain more than just some clues.  It literally contains a solution.  This problem will speak to the problem-solver and announce, “You can do this!”

Thus, there can develop between the problem and the problem-solver a relationship.  There are times that this relationship can be quite intimate.  In fact that is the key to the flipped view.

In the flipped view, the universe is populated by entities we call “problems”.  These entities are just floating around the universe, waiting to be solved.  What does a problem need in order for it to progress to solution?  It needs an “intelligent entity” to which it may attach itself.  When this attachment happens, then the problem has a chance to be solved.

So, you could ask, “Who is the agent behind a problem’s solution?”  In the flipped view, it is the “problem” that is riding the “intelligent entity”, much as a cowboy might ride a horse.

In the flipped view, I picture a kind of marriage happening between problem and solver.  Lucky is the problem that hitches itself to a capable solver.  That solver has intelligence and skills.  That solver is dedicated to solving a problem.  And, in a somewhat poetic sense, that solver loves his or her problem.

All this time while we humans self-aggrandize ourselves as God’s greatest creation, God is smiling at God’s best tool for moving a universe packed with problems into an ever more transformed state.  God is smiling because solved problems are satisfied on completing their eons long journeys.

The Three Essences, Kurzweil Reimagined

May 1, 2010 to May 6, 2010

Bob Fiske

The Three Essences, Kurzweil Reimagined

I see the world in ways that are natural for me, yet unnatural for others.  It’s a sad story.  It’s a story of sacrifice, and ripping away of things we cherish.  Maybe.  It might not feel like that in the end because we might embrace it without reservation.

Essence One: Environ-mentalism.  This is a restructuring of human cognitive and social characteristics with the aim of permitting human beings to coexist in harmony with the global natural environment.

Essence Two: Species-purpose.  This refers to a reorientation of meaning and purpose away from self-gratification, family-gratification¸ regional-gratification and national-gratification, and toward global awareness that the parts must serve a higher-order, all-encompassing design.

Essence Three: Dying-accept.  This transformation asserts that one way of living is no better or worse than another way of living.  There is nothing wrong with pain, suffering, hunger, illness, aging or dying since they are all states of being completely alive.  This essence seeks a state of consciousness in which individual human experience reduces to trivial importance in light of the demands of Essences One and Two.

These essences forecast a redefinition of the constructs by which we assign value.  Some of our most cherished notions will be sacrificed in favor of the welfare of the total human genome.  Indeed, they will be sacrificed in favor of the welfare of the total terrestrial genome and the total bank of phenotypic characteristics that those genes produce in living entities.  In other words, preservation of diversity will overrule individual success.  This has always been life’s (nature’s) biological agenda.  Now—because of our numbers and our intellectual dominance—humanity will necessarily take ownership of nature’s agenda.

New values imply new currencies.  Already this is happening in the techno-sphere.  Here is a TED talk by Jesse Schell called “When Games Invade Real Life” (http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html).

This way of thinking allows me to view Kurzweil’s “singularity hypothesis” in new ways.  If the ultimately intelligent computer emerges (along with its incomprehensible artificial intelligence), it will take ownership of nature’s agenda and the development of Grand Design.  It would create the new currencies.  These currencies would take birth as expressions of a point system with such a complex underlying algorithm that humans would not be capable of understanding it and would require computers to even access it.

Already we see the early stages of this in complexities of the tax code and investment instruments.  At any rate, using the singularity’s algorithmic point system, the post-singularity AI would have the means to positively motivate human behavior, shape human values and engage in diversity-promoting husbandry.

Instrumental Directives

Bob Fiske

Instrumental Directives

Here is a little background, just to let you know how I arrived at this.  I was reading Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now for the second time.  I got up to the same chapter where I had stopped the first time—and I quit again.  It was driving me crazy!

Several days later, while visiting my parents, I went for a morning walk.  I needed to settle my brain, which was whirling around and around.  The brain, the intellect, does not submit easily to spiritual awakenings.  I walked, I grumbled, I asked, I moaned.  Why?  Why?  How does Tolle’s spiritual awakening help the world?  Why does this matter so much to me?  Why do I feel so alone?

Finally, a thought came that lent me some stability: What do you know?  I started to think about my writing and my journaling.  A picture was forming.  The picture was formed of words.  Not just any words, though.  Verbs!  Verbs flooded into my consciousness.

Verbs are important.  They represent action.  Moreover, a verb can stand for an entire sentence.  The shortest sentence is the imperative, the directive.  Run!  Jump!  Buy, buy, buy!

In fact, a well-chosen verb can stand for more than a sentence; it can stand for an idea.  Plant it, water it, explain it, and it starts to grow.  Yes, a verb can become an entire treatise, telling others why you chose it and what it means to you.

So, yes, these verbs began to paint a picture in my head.  It started with my deepest yearnings for humanity.  As I thought about it, I realized that my yearnings for humanity were not shared by most people.  At different stages of our adult lives, we choose where to focus our energies, what to call important.  So, I began to put myself into other people’s shoes.  The verbs began to arrange themselves into three “islands”.

The last island popped into my head, literally, as I stepped up to my parent’s front door.  No kidding!  I’m reaching into my pocket for the house key, and Bam!  The picture felt complete.  In the kitchen, I immediately grabbed some paper and sketched my work as a diagram.

Between then and now, I have thought about it and have “refined” it.  The three islands now have names and represent three levels of awareness and action.  Also, I polished some of the words.  The urge to look clean, I suppose.  For instance, the verb “conserve” was originally “use less”.  And, “replenish” was “give back”.  Maybe I should have left them alone, should not have tinkered with perfection.  Hah!

So here it is.  First the overview:

And now, the verb-y version:

Possibly, I am the only one to whom this is meaningful.  I guarantee you, that would not be the first time.  However, if you grasp this immediately—especially the earth directives—I would very much like to make your acquaintance.

With love,

Bob

Reciprocity Essay – Abstract & Summary

Bob Fiske

Reciprocity Essay – Abstract & Summary

ABSTRACT

Some people may be aware how "values" can shape an individual or an organization.  "Deep values"—values woven into an entire culture—usually defy perception.  This essay examines the deep value of reciprocity.  In its most pure sense reciprocity can be defined as a fair exchange.  Pure reciprocity is hard to find because it is usually contaminated by the idea of maximizing payoff.  Non-pure reciprocity is the common form because it is so heavily promoted by marketing.  Thus, most people have been conditioned to give only for the sake of a payoff.

Maximizing payoff has been taking a toll on the earth and underprivileged societies.  To repay the debt requires tempering our "taking nature".  This essay defines the concept of nobility and a new unit of currency, The Noble.  The practical effect of using this currency may be a marked change in human nature, culminating in responsible stewardship of the earth.  Issues related to adopting a noble nature and using The Noble currency are discussed.



SUMMARY

1.    If you change a person’s values, then you can expect a change of his or her beliefs, actions and social affiliations.  Many values connect with the larger, containing social infrastructures.  These include industrial, financial and political structures.  The social infrastructure reacts like a living being.  If you attack its values, it will forcefully maintain its values and its methods of operation.

2.    Some values are “deep values”.  They are woven tightly into the culture and are held by virtually every person.  But deep values are hard to recognize unless the system is in gross imbalance.  This essay focuses on the deep value known as reciprocity.  Although reciprocity suggests the idea of fair exchanges, it is usually modified by the natural human tendency to maximize payoff.  Some people justify this as efficiency, or doing more with less.  Our huge human population is causing this distortion of reciprocity to deliver more and more damage to the world system in which we live.

3.    Marketing and advertising promote the idea of reciprocity every day, and help it become a deep value that is barely noticed.  The system of “fair exchanges” is more and more out of balance.  Some are reaping far more rewards than others.  The result of this is that significant segments of the world-society are recognizing that reciprocity does not necessarily lead to balance and fairness.  The good deal we have been conditioned to seek out may hide important costs.  The spirit of accounting, in which all benefits are matched by costs of equal value has been tinkered with.  Experiments in economic systems produced a dominant form—capitalism—that expertly hides so-called externalized costs.  These are debts we owe to the natural world and to exploited workers who remain beyond the view of our consuming society.

4.    We have become conditioned to give only for the sake of payoff.  Yet our system of exchanges mortgages the welfare of exploited countries, the existence of other species and the future that humanity will inherit.  Our system of exchanges is based upon the strong drawing upon the weak and the power to ignore invisible debts.  These are uneven exchanges, yet they are deemed “fair”.  If this is what we mean by reciprocity, then the proper thing would be to call for “non-reciprocity”.  This is defined as a giving act that does not expect a payoff to balance the loss.  This is defined as taking from the present world only enough, and putting back what you have taken to preserve the opportunity to take in the future.  Economic models in modern societies do not grasp this concept.  They are couched in terms of raising the bar.  In these models no credence is given to lowering the bar.

5.    In our relationship to the earth, it is time to start repaying the debt.  Who will take the lead?  Suppressing our desire to take might appear to be an insurmountable challenge.  Maybe the answer is to un-suppress other aspects of our nature.  The fully human being is endowed with capabilities such as self-restraint and judgment of actions as good or bad.  There may be other suppressed capabilities of the fully human being.  Expanding these capabilities will help temper our taking nature.  Additionally, our economic system is tied in with the methods we use to achieve a sense of self-worth.  If self-worth is primarily achieved through earning an income and buying goods and services, then this, too, will impair our ability to modify our taking nature.

6.    NOBILITY IS THE ABILITY TO GIVE SOMETHING OF VALUE WITHOUT RECEIVING ANYTHING IN EXCHANGE.  Could we use this idea as the basis for a revised economic system?  That is hard to know in advance, however, in an optimistic manner, I propose a new kind of currency for testing the idea: The Noble.  This currency incorporates two ideas: doing favors and paying a benefit forward.  If conventional monetary currency compels a value system that promotes taking, then a new currency could compel an opposite value system, one based on giving.  I propose that, from such a currency, a revolution of human nature might emerge.  This revolution would result in individual self-worth as well as responsible stewardship of the earth.

7.    Having put forth the Noble as a new currency, we consider two questions.  First, is it safe to use this currency?  Will others take advantage of your generosity?  Some suggestions for diminishing this risk are stated.  However, the ultimate answer is that using the Noble is a way to change yourself.  The second question approaches this from a different angle: a Noble shows its users.  The aim of the new currency is to change human behavior, one person at a time.  Seeing a list of names on the back of a Noble can communicate motivation to the recipient of a Noble: if these people are acting differently, then maybe I can, too.  Some final thoughts hinge on the ideas of choice and willingness.  To change my behavior is, first and foremost, a choice to do something different, something unusual and uncomfortable.  I pose this discomfort as two parting questions that dare the reader to examine his or her willingness to try on the uncomfortable notion of giving and receiving favors.





CLICK HERE to go down the rabbit hole.

Reciprocity – Like Water to Fish, Part Seven

Bob Fiske

Reciprocity – Like Water to Fish, Part Seven

CLICK HERE to go to Part Six

Using the Noble currency.  In the last section I introduced the Noble, a new unit of currency that is the antithesis of conventional reciprocity-based currency.  The point of the Noble is to give something away without expecting anything in return.  The hope is that the favor so performed will inspire the recipient to pay the benefit forward to someone else.  The back side of the Noble is designed with multiple pay-it-forward lines.  Thus, favors can be paid forward through a series of people.  There are two points I can make about the usage of Nobles.

First, what is the experience of Person A giving a Noble to Person B.  If I give this card to Person B, then I am “putting myself out there”.  I am declaring that I am available for doing a generous act of some kind without knowing in advance what that act will be.  This can be a little bit threatening.  Do I really want to commit myself in such a way?  What if the person asks me to do something unreasonably difficult?

One answer to this fear is indicated by the phrase on the bottom of the front of the card.  It says “For example, one hour of my time”.  This will, hopefully communicate that the recipient should make a reasonable request of the giver.  Another answer might be as follows: everything is open to negotiation.  For instance, I could say to Person B, “I’m sorry, but that is more than I can do right now.  Here is what I am willing to do for you.”  A third answer might be to remind the person that he or she will have to pay forward a favor of similar magnitude.  In other words, suppose Person B asks me to buy a car.  If I agree to do this, then I would be within my rights to suggest to Person B that he or she will have to buy somebody else a car in the future.

I am sure that a lot of people reading this might be thinking, How do I know that I can trust the recipient of the card to act honorably and pay the favor forward?  Let’s face reality.  You don’t know.  Giving a Noble is an act of faith in the goodness of the human species.  Yet, we know that there are people out there that don’t act nobly and who take advantage of others.  Now, isn’t that the way of the world?

What I mean is this.  If we start with the presumption that everyone is a criminal, then our behavior will sink to that level of selfishness.  However, if we want to bring out the best in people, we’ll probably get there faster through the positive assumption of goodness than the negative assumption of criminality.  It takes a certain degree of character to make yourself an example through your actions, especially when it does not appear to be the popular thing to do.  It takes a measure of nobility to act that way.

Please remember one thing.  By using the Noble currency, you are not trying to change another human being.  Rather you are trying to change yourself.  But, if it makes you feel better, then just pass the card to somebody to whom you feel kindly disposed.  In other words, give it to somebody you trust, like a friend.

Here is the second point I can make about this card.  Because there is room on the back side to list multiple names and pass this card around, each Noble has a life!  I find this exciting.  The currency will record its own history of being used.  Imagine getting a Noble that has lots of names on the back.  Wouldn’t that convince the recipient that this idea was valued by a group of people?  Wouldn’t that make the recipient feel like part of a living chain of people with an idea and an action?

Epilogue.  In this essay I have described an idea that I found.  Or maybe it found me!  Not only that, this idea consumed me!  And therefore, I felt it was worth sharing with others.  I have tried to express the idea as a sequence of thoughts and to make a clear argument.  My hope is that you find this essay to be persuasive, even compelling.

Maybe I didn’t succeed in doing that.  Maybe you still have reservations.  In that case, I have just a single suggestion for you.  Do a small act of nobility.  The next time you get a nickel back as part of your change at the store, put that coin down on the sidewalk for someone else to find.

Want two final questions to chew on?  Think carefully!  Are you willing to do a favor for a person, any person?  More importantly, can you find it within yourself to allow someone to do a favor for you—and not repay the debt back to that person?

Summary of Part Seven.  Having put forth the Noble as a new currency, we consider two questions.  First, is it safe to use this currency?  Will others take advantage of your generosity?  Some suggestions for diminishing this risk are stated.  However, the ultimate answer is that using the Noble is a way to change yourself.  The second question approaches this from a different angle: a Noble shows its users.  The aim of the new currency is to change human behavior, one person at a time.  Seeing a list of names on the back of a Noble can communicate motivation to the recipient of a Noble: if these people are acting differently, then maybe I can, too.  Some final thoughts hinge on the ideas of choice and willingness.  To change my behavior is, first and foremost, a choice to do something different, something unusual and uncomfortable.  I pose this discomfort as two parting questions that dare the reader to examine his or her willingness to try on the uncomfortable notion of giving and receiving favors.

CLICK HERE to go to the abstract of this essay.