Tag Archives: Capitalism and Greed

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. YOU CAN’T MANAGE THE TRUTH. WE ARE OR WILL WE BE LOOKING A SOCIAL BOMB WITH THE CURRENT PANDEMIC.

07 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Civilization., Communication., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Dehumanization., Disasters., Disconnection., Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Humanity., Inequality, International solidarity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Political Trust, Reality., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Truthfulness., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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(Four-minute read)

We already have the power to destroy ourselves without the wisdom that we don’t, but this Coronavirus pandemic is another kettle of fish altogether, there is no need to press a button. 

Most species live for millions of year so we are at 200,000 are teenagers. 

If we play our cards right we could be around for hundreds of thousands of years to come. 

Now that we realized the truth, of the fragility of our present times we need to revamp our World Institutions to get the risk of living down and keep it down forever. 

Perhaps after this Pandemic, we as a species need to write a constitution for humanity to set us on the right course to sustainability. 

Why? 

Because no one individual, no president or politician has been able to solve in the last century even if they wanted to, the problems that Earth our home must tackle as a species. 

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Worldwide we are now looking at more than 838,000 cases of COVID-19 leaving the majority of citizens jobless, broke, and without options.

You’d think people would be used to it by now. Every couple of years the world is thrust into hysteria by the latest virus that is threatening to wipe out a significant portion of the population.

How many shocks can an international economy sustain?

How many shocks are likely on their way?

Forests are burning. Glaciers are melting. Ecological systems are collapsing. Resources are running out.

Coronavirus has and is changing everything and not everything.Post image

We just haven’t noticed it yet.

But those changes will become more apparent by the day.

Suddenly, we may have to think about things we’ve never needed to consider before.

Like a social bomb that can explode at any moment.

In our global society, this outbreak moved from a remote village to a major city on the other side of the world in under 36 hours.

Despite generous government-mandated disaster pay, unemployment, and stimulus checks, it’s only a matter of time before many issues combine to become the flashpoint that leads to an explosion of civil unrest.

The consequences will be very different in countries where political institutions are weaker and where the illness or death of a leader has been known to generate the kind of power vacuum that might inspire rival leaders, opposition parties, or the military to launch a power grab. 

HOWEVER, ultimately its impact will not be counted in human fatalities.

Nor in the cost of treating the sick.

It will be in our minds. It’s in our economic system. In our societies that are all linked to the overwhelming extent of globalisation, urbanisation and ecosystem collapse.

Our interconnected world – and its ultra-efficient flow of trade, investment, knowledge and people – has been revealed to have feet of clay.

Globalisation will have to be rethought because most of the population is the urbanised disassociated from even basic agriculture, NOT TO MENTION THE WORLDS ECOSYSTEMS. 

We have skewed supply chains so far to the extremes that when they are perturbed, people get into a lot of strife and our way of life isn’t built to cope with it.

What COVID19 is emphasising is that our system is set up ideally to transmit such a disease and is extremely susceptible to even small interruptions.

It jumped into a world humans have moulded to their own purposes. But that world is also nirvana to a virus.

We’ve actually put ourselves in an ideal position from the perspective of a virus, which is why we see estimates of anywhere between 30 and 60 per cent of the population likely to get it.

It has burst on an unready world.

COVID-19 will eventually pass and become more controllable with vaccines and developed natural immunity, but not yet and not before it could wreak profound change on those who currently hold political, economic and military power around the globe.

It has set in motion a chain of events that will bring consequences, that none of us  IMAGINE NOW.

Everybody is suddenly very aware of just how reliant we are on China for everything from medicines and machinery to electronic components and rare Earths.

There is a big judgement call to make such are the levels of interdependency built by reliance on global just-in-time supply chains that the developed economies will largely sink or swim together.

But it’s not just China. It’s the whole globally specialised network of supply.

Diversification is now a necessity, not just strategic aspiration.

Suddenly the logic of many belts and many roads is plain.

It is not possible to manage the truth.

When benefits run out on a national scale, fear, lack of food, employment, the number of people dying with the potential for much more yet to come there is risks of a domino effect leading to Civil unrest.

Fear becomes the default emotion. The very emotion that motivates people to take to the streets to engage in civil unrest and protest.

Exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources.

Historically, larger outbreaks of civil unrest tend to occur in largely populated areas.

But most people don’t go further and ask the question; “What exactly are people afraid of?” Is it death? Of course, that is mankind’s greatest anxiety, especially for those who have children. 

South Korean soldiers, in protective gear, disinfect the Eunpyeong district against the coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: Woohae Cho/Getty Images

Civil unrest affects more than just the civilians involved and the law enforcement that are called on to subdue it. It isn’t limited to riots. Violence and destruction aren’t necessary to classify civil unrest. It can start for many reasons. Of course, any prediction is hard to make given that infections haven’t yet peaked.

The sooner you accept the need to go into lockdown, the better.

The sacrifice isn’t fun, and borders on tragic. Hopefully, people will see fit to prepare for such setbacks in the future as history has shown that this will not be the last impending “catastrophe” to derail us from our lives. 

All human comments appriciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S : What key knowledge would you need to start rebuilding civilization from scratch?

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19

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    ( TWELVE MINUTE READ)  It is now the general consensus that the world and the manner we live on it will change once this Coronavirus pandemic is over. The coronavirus has turned life upside down, and when it’s over—which seems far off and even worse, indeterminate—our lives will be changed permanently. the coronavirus pandemic has ruthlessly laid bare just how fractured our society is.  Living in the modern world, we have become disconnected from the basic processes that support our lives, as well as the beautiful fundamentals of science that enable you to relearn things for yourself – Google it. Leaving the current situation aside we are woefully unprepared for a world that is and going to be affected by climate change. A civilization is a complex human society which is very messy for the majority of the civilians. The word “civilization” relates to the Latin word “civitas” or “city.” The term “civilization” was often applied in an ethnocentric way, with “civilizations” being considered morally good and culturally advanced, and other societies being morally wrong and “backwards.”  Today’s modern definition is still in flux as the concept of “civilization” is hard to define. The problem is that most people have no clear understanding of what civilization is or, perhaps as important, what it isn’t. Wikipedia. According to this seemingly omniscient cyber-seer, civilization is defined most broadly as “any complex state-society characterized by a social hierarchy, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment”. How many of us would fight for civilization if we thought that we were fighting for the increasing complexity of the state and its social hierarchy? How many of the agrarians amongst us would fight for a civilization that defined itself as being separate from the natural environment and as seeking to dominate it? How many of us would fight for incessant urbanization, centralization, and the passive domestication of ourselves alongside the domestication of other organisms? How many of us had realized that being civilized was the willingness to make ourselves cattle in the service of increasingly complex social hierarchies? How many of us thought that civilization was marked by the sort of “specialization of labour” that had reduced human work to that of a disposable cog in an increasingly large and complex mechanism? How many of us guessed that civilization was defined by culturally ingrained progressivism and other supremacist ideologies? How many of us perceived that taxation was civilized and that increasing taxation was therefore and presumably a mark of increasing civilization? If this is civilization we would be justified in hoping that civilization would go to hell and that, indeed, we would be equally justified in believing that it was all too evidently going there. However, it is still a helpful framework with which to view how humans come together and form a society. All civilizations have certain characteristics. These include: (1) large population centres; (2) monumental architecture and unique art styles; (3) shared communication strategies; (4) systems for administering territories; (5) a complex division of labour; and (6) the division of people into social and economic classes. Again according to Wikipedia, “civilization” is merely an ideological construct of the eighteenth century! It is not a reality in itself but an idea by which an irreligious and irrational “rationalism” can explain and explain away, to its own prejudiced satisfaction, the history of human culture. This is how civilization is defined on the internet. Is civilization worth defending? Should we aim to conform to it so that we can be considered civilized? Maggie Thatcher once said that there is no such thing as a society.  How wrong she was What is civilization? It is the conforming of the heart of humanity – equality for all.   Culture is everything about human society, i.e. it refers to the knowledge and features of a specific group of people living in a region. Many forget that a culture is only as great as the rival cultures around it, and all history was written by the winners. So if we are to reinvent anything it won’t be civilisation, but the culture that makes us civilised that will have to change.  To do this we will have to ask what has been tried before and what the results were? What resources are available, what new theories are there?  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING UNTILL EDUCATION/ HEALTH IS FREE FOR ALL. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL WE SHARE THE RICHES OF THE EARTH– FRESHWATER, FRESH AIR, GREEN ENERGY. ALL FOODS ARE NON-MODIFIED AND SOLD UNDER ITS NATURAL CONDITIONS.   WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING UNLESS INEQUALITY DISAPPEARS. THE RICHEST 1% NOW OWN HALF OF THE WORLD’S WEALTH. THE GAP BETWEEN THE HAVES AND HAVE – NOT’S WHERE ONLY A FRACTION OF SOCIETY REAPS THE BENEFITS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH WILL HAVE TO BE TACKLED – THE BIFURCATED ECONOMY.  (Forty years of neoliberal policy means that wealthy individuals and large companies today have so much “surplus of capital” that they don’t know what to do with it. billions parkEed in tax havens.) WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL RACISM AND RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY IS ABOLISHED  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING BY CREATING LOTTO MILLIONAIRES WHILE SLUMS EXIST.  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING WHILE THE ARMS INDUSTRY EXISTS.  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING WHILE SOVERGIN FUNDS EXIST.  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING WHILE PROFIT SEEKING ALGORITHMS EXIST. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL WE REALISE THAT EARTH COMES FIRST THEN ITS PEOPLE. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL WE ACT AS ONE.    WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL ALL WORLD DEBT IS WRITTEN OFF. TOTAL PUBLIC DEBT WILL BE IN THE TRILLIONS. WORLDWIDE, THE TOTAL MOUNTAIN OF DEBT HAS REACHED A RECORD AMOUNT OF 322% OF THE WORLD GDP. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING TILL WE UNDERSTAND THAT ONE’S REACH MUST GO BEYOND ONE GRASP. THE CORONAVIRUS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO LAUNCH A NEW GREEN DEAL THAT IS AMBITIOUS ENOUGHT TO SAVE THE PLANET. NEVER MIND WORLD CONFERENCES TALKING ABOUT IT DO IT. THINK BIG. ACT NOW. TOGETHER.  WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING UNTILL WE DO AWAY WITH DIVIDENDS AND REPLACE THEM WITH A BASIC LIVING INCOME. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING UNLESS WE REFORM THE UNITED NATIONS REMOVE THE VETO AND TURN IT FROM A BEGGING SHOP TO A FULLY FUNDED ORGANISATION WITH A PERTUPITUAL INCOME FROM A 0.05% WORLD AID FUND. ( See previous posts.) WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING UNLESS WE CURBE CONSUMERISM AND MOVE TO SUSTAINABILITY.  WE’VE CONSUMED BEYOND OUR MEANS FOR A GENERATION AND NOW THE BILL IS COMING DUE SUDDENLY. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING WITH GDP AS OUR CULTURAL GOAL. WE CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING WHILE WE TOLERATE ZOMBIE BANKS. NO FEWER THAN 147 INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL BANKS CRISES ACCURED BETWEEN 1970 AND 2011 ACCORDING TO THE IMF. IT’S TIME TO PUT THE BANKING SYSTEM IN GOVERNMENT HANDS AND TO DISMANTLE CASION CAPITALISM. My point is the pandemic and its aftermath will be super-consequential for how we live the rest of our lives. There will be implications across the board; for business,  government, culture, sports and the arts, as well as behaviour. It’s not too soon to think about that. Smartphones have given us an always-on connection to the world’s information but history develops our researching skills and our understanding of human behaviour. What we’ve done in the last generation is we’ve replaced normal human interactions and social capital with technology and money. And we’ve done that with a deleterious impact on our health and our happiness because technology and money hijack our brains in a stronger way than slow, kind of boring conversations do and yet that’s our heritage. Our culture is systems blind. Monetary stability, public safety and all manner of civilised goals have grown too complicated and big. The idea of the trickle-down effect of the free capitalist market is no longer true it continually funnels things towards the top.  It doesn’t speak to the bottom half of society now.   They say that the best things in life are free, that adage is only true if basic needs are covered. A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck, week to week, month to month.  A universal basic income is the way to go.  A basic income that supports the bottom half of society with enough to pay for basic needs. There is no doubt that many businesses that are booming during the pandemic will continue to thrive. But we continue to look at issues like climate change or renewable energy or poverty and we don’t think of how everything fits together. And right now we’re lacking a map of how to go forward. No matter how this all unfolds, the biggest thing that’s going to contribute to better futures is social nodes of communication and social capital. WE CAN’T GO BACK JUST TO GO OUT AND HAVE AN ORGY OF CONSUMPTION AND BACK TO NORMAL WITHOUT LEARNING ANYTHING FROM THIS.  WE CAN’T ALLOW GOVERNMENTS TO BECOME AUTHORITARIAN. NOR ALLOW SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS TO REMAIN UNREGULATED. It is already clear that in future we will look back on 2020 as a turning point, the beginning of a new era. Will we ever shake hands again? Or hug? YES ON OUR TERMS.  NOT GREED AND EXPLOITATION  That’s where we’ve headed back to again if governments don’t cop on to the new slow world  And if you’re a super-rich person … instead of investing in the stock market, maybe take some of that money and invest it locally. All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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        .      The weather is extreme, with searing heat most of the day.    army was eventually left without wars to fight, religions with vague ‘new age’ beliefs, all of which eventually blended into a new religion,      Political Parties are abolished. Only Candidates can represent themselves in all elections.        I not only suggest and encourage constructive criticism

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: ARE WE NOW REAPING THE REWARDS OF PROFIT FOR-PROFIT SAKE?

30 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., Human values., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The pursuit of profit., The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Unanswered Questions., Universal Basic Income ., VALUES, Wealth., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Economy.

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(Five-minute read) 

First, let me state the obvious.

The Covid-19 doesn’t just call our bluff it is questing the way we allow our society to be run. 

It is bringing into sharp relief what some of us have always known to be true. Our current way of living must end.

Capitalism and the culture of hierarchy that props it up is now extremely screwed up. 

The story of Capitalism up to now has been selling your labour so you don’t end up on the streets.

We should not behave to exist this way.

We come into this world kicking and screaming for our own needs while our birth’s, and our eventual departure’s, have all been turned into a product by capitalism to generate profit. We leave silent.

We live in a world where nearly everything has some kind of cost and the increased workforce automation is suggesting that things will keep getting worse.

What is considered valuable by man or the people of this world are of little or no value when one is confronted by a virus (which unfortunately some of us are witnessing this very minute) that does not discriminate any grounds.  

Money, wealth, riches, gold, property, power and so on are either transitory, fading or can be destroyed in the blink of an eye and are of no value in the long term.

In the past few years, the money markets have fallen in a heap with the global financial crisis and the value of money becoming very shaky. The same can be said of shares, property and other investments. And this is nothing new for the economic cycle goes through boom and bust every seven to ten years making fortunes at one time and destroying them at other times.

However, men believe that wealth gives you the power to be able to rise above the problems and issues of the world.

How wrong he is.

The coronavirus is not the only virus we have to confront we also have to confront capitalism and the world that sustains it.

Climate Change was not enough to make the world pause.

The challenge man faces is that we think only of the here and now.

We now have a moment to consider what a rapid response to the climate emergency would look like – how we build a society that completely transforms our social order towards something that is in equilibrium with the biosphere and gives to each according to their needs.  

But will more sustainable capitalism emerge from Covid-19 highly unlikely as the protection of private interest over public interest remains the same?  

What the coronavirus has and is showing is that our cheapskate governments can provide far more in social programmes than they have. 

While none of us can predict the future let’s hope that this time the penny drops. 

The risks of Covid – 19 are now but the risks of climate change with the clock ticking needs us to wake up before the alarm goes off. 

It’s not science, not protest, that will save the planet. Science alerted us to global warming but understand the nature of the world is crucial to dealing with it. 

Everything has a function and our function is to fit into our world and not divorce ourselves from nature.

With the age of technology and its Algorithms working themselves into everything relentless, enabling profits to disappear far from the trickle-down effect the coronavirus is revealing heroes and villains across the world.

The markets might be paralysed with numerous industries entering a state of suspended animation the environment is getting a recovery period.

Covid -19  is showing us that on the horizon, capitalism in its current form threatens value. It is built on the premise of instant gratification.

Many businesses today are aware of this failing in mankind and play to it to great effect encouraging us to insure ourselves against the cost of living and dying but we are now trading for time and for eternity.

The corona-virus is certainly a much greater reward than the fleeting pleasures of this life.

The new WFH world that emerges from this will be intriguing – Universal Basic Income.

All human comments appreciated

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. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. WE ALL KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT ARE WE WILLING.

23 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Capitalism, COCID-19, CORONA VIRUS., Disconnection., Human values., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Poverty, Reality., Refugees., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, VALUES, Wealth., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Economy.

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(Five-minute read) 


STOP DESTROYING OUR PLANET:
It’s no secret that our planet is in a pretty dire condition.

The problem is a massive one.

It’s so big that there are things that you do every day that are helping to bring about the end of the world, and chances are that you might not even know it.

Here are a few.

China produces a whopping 80 billion disposable chopsticks every year. The vast majority are used—and thrown away—That kind of production takes 20 million trees, and not just any trees.

Estrogen, one of the active ingredients in birth control pills and hormone therapy treatments, was introduced into a freshwater lake research facility in Ontario. 

The impact was almost immediate. Male fish first began producing egg proteins and then producing eggs.

Wastewater treatment and its impact on freshwater ecosystems.

Hormones that aren’t absorbed or used end up in the sewer system after they cycle through the human body. In areas where sewer water is dumped into lakes and rivers, the average fish population is about 85 per cent female. The cause has been traced back to the release of improperly treated wastewater that contains hormones from hormone therapy drugs and birth control pills. A stark contrast to the normal 55 per cent. Fish exposed to the hormones not only lose the ability to reproduce, but their accidental hormone treatment impacts eggs at the development stage as well.

Prozac. Might have something to do with the decline in the starling population over the last few decades—to the tune of about 50 million birds. 

Drinking straws. 

The United States alone uses about 500 million drinking straws made from a polypropylene plastic that doesn’t disintegrate or dissolve.

These millions of straws are around forever, making up a huge part of the estimated 12 to 24 tons of plastic that end up ingested by fish and other marine wildlife every year. And that includes about one million seabirds that die after eating plastics. One of the most common items found in autopsies? The drinking straws that come attached to juice boxes.

Eating frogs.

The fungus that’s being spread by the live food trade is different than one that’s being blamed for most of the recent die-offs.

The consequences of the fungus and its ability to hybridize create the potential to unleash an epidemic across the globe.

Antibacterial soaps, washing liquids/tablets use triclocarban and triclosan, chemicals while most of those chemicals are removed from wastewater when they’re run through a treatment plant, they have to go somewhere. When triclocarban degrades, it degrades into two chemicals—both carcinogens.

When triclosan is run through a treatment plant to make drinking water, it doesn’t exactly make safe drinking water. Instead, it makes other chemicals that can include chloroform. And those chemicals travel through the food chain in plants, animals, and ultimately humans.

Farm-raised fish.

Shrimp aquaculture has resulted in the large-scale degradation of coastal areas, the destruction of wetlands, and salinization of freshwater areas and drinking water. Salmon farming relies on the release of fish food and nutrients into the water, which always results in wasted feed and a huge amount of fish droppings in the water

Extra waste products end up sinking to the bottom where they react with the medicines and other nutrients used to keep the fish healthy along with antifoulant agents used to keep nets clean. That means fish farms are a breeding ground for sea lice, which are as disgusting as they sound. More chemicals are used to control the sea lice, which end up killing the other marine life that was supposed to be in the area in the first place.

Not the eco-friendly choice you’d think.

Soybeans 80 per cent of the world’s soy production goes into livestock feed.

1.2 million hectares of soy was planted in Brazil’s rain forest in 2005 alone. 

Global food waste. 

Every year, global food waste amounts to about 1.3 billion tons, and that’s such a big number that it’s impossible to imagine. Meanwhile, about 870 million people are starving.

Inequality: Lack of Healthcare, Nutrition and Education.

We all know that the world’s richest 1 per cent, those with more than $1 million, own 44 per cent of the world’s wealth. In many countries, a decent education or quality healthcare has become a luxury only the rich can afford.

Being poor all too often means more sickness and an earlier grave. 

The story of inequality in many developed countries, including the U.S. and U.K., is more sobering. However, when you are born in a poor place where every tenth child dies, as the well-to-do’s share of the national economic pie surges, a pandemic is a joke.

So what can be done to right this unsettling imbalance and restore a sense of opportunity for the billions of people who are being excluded from the gains of economic development?

The first and most important step may ultimately be recognizing the scope and scale of the problems caused by inequality in the first place and resolving to do something about them.  

Inequality is out of control with the human costs devastating.

Like many other environmental problems, there’s absolutely no easy answer but it is time we opened our eyes.

Ironically, with the coming economic collapse due to the coronavirus, we might finally be recognizing inequality’s great economic costs may be just the motivation that financial interests need to take the issue seriously.

Its not Amazon fortune and power that will grow exponentially.

The growing gap between rich and poor is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging our economies and tearing our societies apart.

If not with climate change added to next pandemic it won’t be the virus that kills you but the influx of refugees. 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

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THE BEADY EYE SAYS: THE CORONA VIRUS IS SHINING A LIGHT ON WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD AND IT IS SPREADING FAST.

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Denial of Death., Disconnection., Environment, Evolution, Fourth Industrial Revolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Post - truth politics., Reality., Refugees., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Unanswered Questions., VALUES, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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(Ten-minute read) 


AS IF WE DID NOT KNOW it is posing that fundamental profound question once more.

Are we going to care of the Earth so it can care for us?  

It is impossible to say which way the disease will go however there is no doubt that it is creating the biggest restriction of civil liberties “in peacetime”. 

We know that we all tracked by Google.  Behind all the restrictions governments will adopt powers that they will loath to relinquish when the crises are over. 

There is every like hood that the pandemic will strengthen the state and reinforce nationalism.  What won’t change is the inequality and greed, rather it will create a less open, less prosperous and less free world. 

Of course, it did not have to be like this but it will be the straw that brakes the camel’s back of globalization and it will probably result in uncontrolled Co2 emissions.

In the short term, with decoupling and rivalry coming to the forefront driven by a cascading sense of vulnerability there will be a race to return to full production.

However the Pandemic is proof of our interdependence but we are not or are we heading for a poorer, meaner, and smaller world.

If the Pandemic shocks us into recognizing our real interests in cooperating multilaterally on the big global issues facing us all it will have served a useful purpose. 

We all know that it is not enough to think of one nation’s power over another when it comes to climate change. The key is learning the importance that we have all to act together and Covid -19 is going to show that we are failing to adjust our strategy on many fronts to this new world. 

Either way, this crisis will reshuffle the international power structure in the way we can only begin to imagine. 

If we don’t support each other the result will be instability and widespread conflict within and across nations. 

We know that there is a dramatic new stage in global capitalism on the horizon with supply chains be brought closer to home.  We are going to see failed states with billions of economic refugees on the move. 

We are going to see the USA no longer as an international leader. 

To date, international collaboration has been woefully insufficient. 

What is needed it targeted assistance that provides hope that men and woman can prevail in response to this extraordinary challenge.  

If it gets Airborne the white full personal-protection suits that presently strike fear into the hearts of us all will be worthless.

AS IF EARTH DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS THE NEXT NASA PROJECT TO MARS IS SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH IN JULY. 

NASA’s 2020 Mars rover. 

The rover will collect and cache promising samples for eventual return to Earth.

The first pristine pieces of Mars won’t be coming down to Earth for at least another decade, but the time to start preparing society for the epic arrival is now. 

This is an extremely grave point.

On the one hand, we can argue that Martian organisms cannot cause any serious problems to terrestrial organisms, because there has been no biological contact for 4.5 billion years between Martian and terrestrial organisms. On the other hand, we can argue equally well that terrestrial organisms have evolved no defences against potential Martian pathogens, precisely because there has been no such contact for 4.5 billion years. The chance of such an infection may be very small, but the hazards, if it occurs, are certainly very high.

Martian rock that has already arrived on earth contained structures resembled the fossilized remains of bacteria-like lifeforms.

What if such samples turned out to be dangerous, and contagiously so?

Are there some Mars-oriented lessons to be learned from COVID-19. 

Here on earth, it is gruelling and potentially lethal work to identify a virus never mind virus from other planets. 

It is estimated that there are 1.6 million unknown viruses in birds and mammals. Of these, it is thought between 600,000 and 800,000 are zoonotic, meaning they have the potential to jump from animals to people. 

Virulence, contacts and the length of time for which people are infectious are the three factors that determine what is called ‘the basic reproductive rate’ – how far and fast the epidemic will spread. 

There may be a staggering 3,200 different types of coronavirus harboured in bats alone.


As with historical infectious disease epidemics, the coronavirus that’s spreading currently is another example of why it’s so important to understand the consequences of interacting with environments humans rarely contact and then distributing widely whatever [they] picked up.

If one looks at the outbreak in Africa, of Ebola and the HIV/Aids pandemic – which to date has killed 35 million and infected 70 million – started about a century ago in Cameroon when a chimpanzee virus was transmitted to a human who almost certainly killed, butchered or consumed it.

Markets were closed during both outbreak, but they are now once more doing a roaring trade selling tropical game including monkeys, chimpanzees, cane rats, bats and snakes. Bushmeat is entrenched in local culture and is often a vital form of subsistence, hence why the authorities are unwilling or unable to announce an outright ban.

Last, with or without artificial intelligence we continue at our collective peril to make imbalance’s in the ecosystem.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: THIS CORONA VIRUS IS ASKING ALL OF US WHAT TYPE OF WORLD DO WE WANT?

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., CORONA VIRUS., COVID-19, Disasters., Disconnection., Evolution, Honesty., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Our Common Values., Poverty, Reality., Refugees., Religious Beliefs., Survival., Sustaniability, Technology v Humanity, Telling the truth., The common good., The current state of our oceans., The essence of our humanity., The Future, THE FUTURE OF OUR OCEANS/SEAS, The Obvious., The Refugees, The state of the World., The world to day., Truth, Truthfulness., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, War., WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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(Seven-minute read) 

I know that humans are the only type of species that are suitable to manage the earth but it does not make them the right species!

Apparently not.

Did we ever think that we would be living in a world where it is life-threatening to go our side and I am not talking about terrorists or any other Hollywood science fiction movie scenario?

There’s a lot of bad news out there but this is not a death sentence. 

 It’s time to save the world. ” We can use it as we wish”

No one owns the earth. No one has the right to do whatever they want.

We’re not the only thing that lives here, nor are we more important in any way.

We cannot use the world as we please as our actions are endangering not just us but other species. 

Our Earth was meant to be lived on in union with its Ecosystems and we cannot allow that to be broken.

The Coronavirus ( Covid  19 ) is illuminating what is wrong with our world. 

So our most crucial life questions are: 

What Kind of World Do We Want to Leave to Our Children?

Whatever your interest — whether it’s the environment, health care, poverty, or education — there are simple steps each of us can take to make life better not just for someone in our own community. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” now needs an Earth Declaration. 

Here are the top six of my non-legal binding the goals.  

Use Global Warming to Solve Global Warming.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.

Sustainable Development Goals which will take years for a critical mass of governments to actually rally behind. 

The allocation of resources to fight climate change and other environmental issues over the next decade can be achieved by making a profit for profit sake pay. ( See the previous post on a 0.05% World Aid Commission. How it could be implemented so the costs are spread fairly) 

End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Global poverty. Reduce inequality within and among countries. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Expand access to clean drinking water, green energy.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation. 

The 2020s sounds like such a radical futuristic decade however to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development requires a coherent and plausible conception of social justice. A basic income, a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement.

Stop the sale of arms. 

The estimate of the total value of the global arms trade in 2017 was at least $95 billion.* However, the true figure is likely to be higher. On any given day at any given moment in your life, there are at least 15 wars and armed conflicts actively going on all around the world — even if you’re only hearing about a few of them on the news.

There are an estimated 11-12 million refugees in the world today with between 12-24 million Internally Displaced Persons.

Electoral Reform with Citizens’ Assemblies. 

These aren’t just focus groups or consultations though but for the members to engage in serious, informed reflection on important policy matters with people they may never normally meet.

As Hubert Reeves ( Canadian-French Astrophysicist) say’s, ” Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and Destroys a Visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshipping “

Feel free to have idea sex between your ideas and mine so we can come up with even better ideas. It’s a way of saying: “We agree that these are the world’s top priorities right now.”

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THE BEADY EYE LOOKS AT THE CRISES FACING THE WORLD.

08 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in 2020: The year we need to change., Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism, Disasters., Environment, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Inequality, Life., Modern day life., Natural World Disasters, Our Common Values., Poverty, Survival., Sustaniability, Technology, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, War, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders, World Organisations., World Politics

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Five minute read.

With all aspects of our life made into a form of viewing entertainment. We live in a world that has become desensitized. 

The result is that most if not all of us pay little attention to the state of Earth.

The drawn-out nature of many crises now facing us all underscores the importance of coming together to urgently resolve the root causes of a humanitarian crisis.

It is unlikely the situation will improve. 

 Where do you even start? Which issues are the most urgent?

 

So this post is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it serves as an overview of some of the major issues all global citizens should be aware of.

Sometimes it can seem as though there are too many – from climate change to inequality around the world, too many people living without access to medical care its not worth knowing. 

But just in case here is why we are in such a mess. 

12.9% of the world is undernourished, about 30% of the adult population is overweight.

Conflict continues to drive displacement and food insecurity but communicable diseases are still responsible for 71% of deaths.

The international community, and in particular wealthy nations, are failing to meaningfully share the responsibility for protecting people who have fled their homes in search of safety. 

  • 25.9 million refugees globally — the highest level ever recorded
  • Half of the world’s refugees are children
  • A third of refugees — 6.7 million people — is hosted by the world’s poorest countries
A mother rocks her sick child in a camp in Afghanistan's Badghis' Muqur district, where the IRC supports displaced families.

Driven by nearly two decades of conflict and political instability; 9.4 million Afghans (25 per cent of the population) need humanitarian assistance. There are almost 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees living outside the country.

4.6 million Venezuelans have fled the country as of November 2019. 

There are over 2 million displaced Nigerians.

Eleven million Syrians (65 per cent of the population) are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The Democratic Republic of Congo 15.9 million people require humanitarian assistance. 

Over 24 million Yemenis (80 per cent of the population) are in need of humanitarian assistance,

South Sudan 7.5 million people need humanitarian assistance. 

600 million children are not mastering basic mathematics and literacy while at school.

Forests are key to producing the air we breathe, yet these are being depleted at a rate of 26 million hectares every year.

Extinctions are happening at what scientists estimate to be about 1,000 times the normal pace. Not only are we losing flora and fauna, but we are also damaging our ecosystems, and throwing them out of balance

Our oceans are under threat.  

Sand and gravel are now the most-extracted materials in the world, exceeding fossil fuels and biomass.

Climate change is another issue.

There is actually not enough fresh water for each person currently living on the planet. 

Population growth. The number of people on the planet is set to rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 with 2 billion aged over 60.

More than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008, leaving more than 200 million people unemployed globally.

With 43% of the world’s population connected to the internet, regulatory frameworks are unable to keep up.

In this complex moment in history, in which so many are suffering and the Earth itself is in peril

The cloud of nuclear destruction hangs over each of our days.

But the question remains what kind of society do we want to have?

The reasons behind current trends are many and complex.

The detail of the information that we are beginning to capture about our world is mind-blowing. The granularity of the data we are beginning to collect through advances in technology. While improving our lives through cleaner energy sources, personalized nanomedicine and nano-engineered materials.

In all of these areas, progress will undoubtedly lead to a reduction in conventional jobs and inequality on a global scale not seen before.

But technology alone can not break the self-reinforcing mechanism that causes poverty to persist. 

As highly innovative products emerging will, however, promote inequality if only a few have access to this new technology and the knowledge to master it.

Education is probably the single most important tool for turning technology into an engine for opportunities for all.

Public policies, which are currently mainly focused on fostering economic growth, should focus on providing further opportunities, less inequality and a more sustainable economic, social and environmental future.

Technology is not the solution but it is, for sure, a powerful tool towards achieving this ambitious objective.

Whether it’s turning promises on climate change into action, rebuilding trust in the financial system, or connecting the world to the internet there is an overall lack of long-term investment, which has serious implications for global growth.

But the most astonishing canvas is right in front of us if only we would listen with our ear to the earth we might see the light we cannot see.

In short, the world urgently needs a new, global plan based on genuine international cooperation and a meaningful and fair sharing of responsibilities. 

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THE BEADY EYE OPEN LETTER TO THE DELEGATES OF THE FORTHCOMING UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE IN GLASGOW: If you thinks they we have a problem with migration today … wait 20 years.

06 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by in Climate Change.

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Fifteen-minute read.

Dear Delegate,

Although climate change undoubtedly posed an “existential threat to our world” it is not too late to take decisive action.

So far we had the Cop-out 15 to Cop 25, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 the Paris Agreement in December 2015 and now the 2020 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow.

As you know dealing with climate change will require coordinated action by nations around the world.

Up to this point what we have seen are countries and industries trying to gut, block or water down all efforts, in a rearguard manoeuvre that mirrors President Donald Trump’s rollback of climate policy in Washington.

24 million people were displaced by weather-related disasters this year.

As climate change begins to alter patterns of disasters, we can imagine these figures will get worse. Understand how changing weather patterns and disasters will alter patterns of migration. This will be both difficult and almost impossible to predict.

Reduction of carbon emissions has no chance of being reached through a voluntary cap and trade system utilizing the free market system. Why would countries strongly enforce caps and targets on their emissions if it puts them at a competitive disadvantage in the market place?

The fact is that if we are to save the planet from a devastating ecological meltdown, it is going to require an immediate and I mean immediate, reduction in greenhouse gases.

We must abandon the absurd notion that the invisible hand of the free market system will solve the crisis.

Why?

Because a market-driven voluntary system will not work.  

Because they are traded for huge profits. There is no baseline from which true carbon reductions can be measured, verification is lacking. 

Because it is cheaper to pollute and buy credits than it is to change production processes.

It is totally unrealistic to believe that carbon reductions on a large scale can be attained unless mandatory reductions are implemented and a full scale global. 

While rewarding carbon-reducing technologies makes sense we will only be able to take worthwhile actions if they are funded by a self-perpetuating fund with outright non-repayable subsidies. 

However, I don’t have to tell you that when it comes down to the wire as who and how we are going to fund the way forward to tackle fairly any actions the simple answer is that we do not have enough time to haggle about it. 

It can be achieved tomorrow by placing a 0.005% commission on all world activities that seek profit for profit sake. ( See previous posts)

The world stock markets are 99% run by high-frequency algorithms. Exploiting market conditions that can’t be detected by the human eye.

Of course, this begs an important question will such a commission affect the free market and can it be applied worldwide. 

Yes to both. 

It will not be climate change that creates another refugee crisis.

Rather, it will be the attempts to stop this migration that will be creating a crisis.

Climate change will not wait. Neither can we for climate refugees.

Regardless of how fast we cut emissions, we are going to see more and more people on the move and there is no single global agreement that can be signed and ratified to change this fact. 

Most of what you know about climate-linked migration is probably wrong.

We all know that climate change is the unpredictable ingredient in our rapidly changing world – and it’s potential to trigger both violent conflict and mass migration – needs to be considered as an urgent priority for policymakers.

As its effects spread, it will destabilise entire economies and overwhelm poorer countries lacking resources and infrastructure. 

When added to existing social, economic and political tensions, it has the potential to ignite violence and conflict with disastrous consequences.

Poland is highly dependent on polluting coal for power (Pic: Beemwej)
You cannot strike a bargain with Climate. 

The choice faced by politicians and all of us is not about how to prevent climate-linked migration.

That possibility is gone, several decades ago.

There is now a stark choice between two very different options:

One: Trying to stop people from moving—which will lead to something that looks like a crisis—or helping people migrate out of the most badly hit areas.

Two: Is to facilitate climate-linked migration in a legal and organised way.

Support for migrants and refugees is at an all-time low. People are already using migration as a way of adapting climate change, with little or no help.

When migration isn’t illegal there is no need to do it secretly. No need for traffickers and smugglers. And no need for migrants to hide as soon as they arrive.

There is no simple law that could be passed that would “fix” climate-linked migration.

The problem is this won’t stop people moving so we need to start by defining exactly what a climate refugee is.

Droughts, hurricanes, floods and sea-level rise are all forcing people to move but picking out one group of people to call “climate refugees” is very difficult.

WHY?

Political responses to climate-linked migration are complicated, and it’s a field where the answers are often not simple.

Because if climate change plays a role in displacement it becomes difficult to draw the line.

What do we know about the links between climate change and conflict?

Climate-linked migration is very often from rural areas into cities.

So if the seas do rise to the predicted levels and people move within there own countries they will not be refugees climate or otherwise.  

To be a refugee you have to have crossed an international border which is part of the official definition of what makes someone a refugee. But, as the impacts of climate change worsen, more people will want to migrate across borders.

Therefore there is only one course of action and that is to open approved channels into the EU and other world nations in order to determine who is a genuine refugee and who is not. 

Few politicians will risk making bold statements about making provision for more people. Climate change is also a low priority for electorates in developed countries.

This is the climate crisis, not the coronavirus. tomorrow is too late. 

These changes cannot take place tomorrow. They should have been implemented yesterday!

Capitalism caused the problem now it should pay to resolve it.

Climate change is unequivocal, that we are responsible, and that our choices before us matter”.

We were never going to get there in one go unless we spread the cost in a way that is acceptable to one and all.  

Yours Faithfully 

The Beady Eye. 

Footnote: All supportive comments appreciated.

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THE BEADY EYE SAY’S; HERE ARE THE BIG QUESTIONS THAT ARE YET TO COME WHEN IT COMES TO TECHNOLOGY.

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Digital age., DIGITAL DICTATORSHIP., Digital Friendship., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Google, Google it., Google Knowledge., Human values., Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Reality., Sustaniability, Technology, Technology v Humanity, The common good., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., War, WHAT IS TRUTH, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Leaders

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Thirty-minute read.

Who owns what?  What’s our purpose in life?  What are the values that we believe in? How do we think and make decisions?  What do we mean by work?  Can our work ever have true meaning unless it is to serve others?

What will help us all think deeply about the questions we need to ask and answer?

Climate change or technology.

However, for many of us, the answers to these questions differ in our working lives, compared with our personal lives, with family, friends and neighbours.

Were a ruling elite like Google to impose a command-and-control, fear-driven culture in which power is abused and the outcomes are social and economic misery for the vast majority?

Our reaction, if we are to go by what is now observable, will be So what? Now what?

MAKING sure companies compete fairly is a tricky business. The firms being regulated know far more about their business than those doing the regulating;

“Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia but for all of humankind.” Says Putin. “Whatever country comes to dominate this technology will be the “ruler of the world.”

His rhetoric is entirely appropriate. Automation and digitalization have already had a radical effect on international systems and structures.

Technology can easily be referred to as the scientific knowledge to the practical problems we are experiencing in the world today.

On the other hand, its core strategy is to gobble up market share with profit-seeking algorithms.

Our environments are all so full of technology to the point that most of the time we take it for granted.

So are we all becoming personified idiots?

Technology has a great impact on all the fundamental aspects of all our cultures including laws and how they are enforced, language, art, health care, mobility, education and religion.

The obvious problem with all of this is that countries will not own or be in control of the technologies.negative effects of technology

While we all sit back and accept the benefits technology it also brings manipulation on a  worldwide scale with our future in the hands of only a handful of corporations and the vast amount of people that are okay with that.

It’s hard to argue against innovation. It’s hard to argue against greater choice, more convenience and lower prices.

One way or the other it is also hard to underestimate the fundamentally different rules that Google /Amazon/ Facebook/ Apple/ Baidu play by.

Hiding behind forked rhetoric that the data they collect does no harm as it is anonymous.

You do not need to know who you are. It is enough to know what you consume, your habits, your tastes, and where you are, through the IP address, the GPS of the mobile, or your Google account. Your name, or your phone number, is not important to sell you things.

Blurring the borders of privacy. Replacing real-life communication.

And on top of it, violent games and videos killing empathy and bring destruction into an individual’s life. Plagiarism and cheating are increase while analysis and critical thinking decline, ending up in social isolation.

(We now have a new perverse sexual harassment of Cyber flashing which is not against any law. Why? Because our laws cannot keep up with the speed of change)

Commercial technology like Smartphones, I pads, Home Alexa/Echo and there like is about creating another consumer touchpoint for their robust ecosystem of e-commerce, services, and media taking advantage of less sophisticated consumers and trick them into consuming items for short-term satisfaction and long-term pain.

Originally created to serve faithfully to humanity, digital devices are revealing their harmful impact on our lives.

We should all be careful what we wish for.

There’s an argument made by big corporations for each country to charge corporations the lowest possible tax rate, to loosen environmental regulations down to zero, and to eliminate employee protections. All so that a country’s commodity producers can be the cheapest ones.

The voice market war has only just begun.

The contenders:

Amazon-Echo v Google-Alexa.amazon-echo-google-home

Once they figure out how to improve their recommendations and push more people to make regular household purchases via voice it will lead to an explosion in voice-based shopping.

Google already has one of the most valuable brands in the world.

Google maps have virtually no meaningful rival.  Gmail…Google basically controls our handheld existence.

Google controls your life, literally, even if it costs you to believe it.

Google trackers have been found on 75% of the top million websites.

When you search on Google, they keep your search history forever.

Google is a company that offers almost all its products for free because the money is earned by selling the data it collects with those products, to advertisers and companies.

Last year Google made over $161 billion in total revenues.

As it is the premier search engine in the U.S., Europe, and many developing countries Google has the tools to control much of the world.

That’s just Google then you have Amazon.

With around 225 million customers around the world, Amazon wants to deliver everything you want to your doorstep, including Foods anywhere in the world. ( 300 items a second) These days half of all product searches start on Amazon.

Our lust for cheap, discounted goods delivered to our doors promptly and efficiently has a price.

Amazon has done a lot of good for consumers by expanding choice, making shopping far more convenient and by delivering extraordinary product value.

Yet, we can’t–and shouldn’t–ignore the profound effect that Amazon is having on just about every corner of the retail world they set their sights on.

Amazon is selling its facial recognition technology, known as Rekognition, to law enforcement agencies.

First and foremost, Amazon isn’t required by its investors to make any real money.

For us the Great unwashed there’s always the opportunity to cut a corner, sacrifice lifestyle quality and suck it up as they race to grab a little more market share.

With their algorithms, they tell you what restaurants you have to eat in, choose your music, label your photos associating them with each family member or friend that appears in them, pay for your purchases, suggest the movies you should see, and the apps that may interest you.

When in fact the searches we do, what websites we visit, what products we look at, where are we, your medical history, your political beliefs, your associations with others your employment prospects, everything from the womb to the grave is collected and analyzed

Before I hear you calling me a hypocrite I also have used Amazon.

If this scenario prevails, would this be really the way information is supposed to be organized?

In short, does the fact that an algorithm is able to provide more relevant information than a human justify this scenario?

These big brands platforms are more powerful than governments. They’re wealthier. If they were countries, they would be pretty large economies. They’re multinational and the global financial situation allows them to ship money all over the world.

Can we do anything to make a difference?

We need to be supporting the development of an efficient circular economy.

Why?

Because sustainability is an unstoppable force.

Let’s not race to the bottom.

Country’s population size will become less important for national power as small countries that develop a significant edge in AI technology will move far above their weight.

Ultimately, however, winning and losing will not be determined by which country gains the most growth through AI. It will be determined by how the entire global community chooses to leverage AI — as a tool of war or as a tool of progress.

They can eliminate rules protecting clean water, air or consumer safety, but they will always find a way to be cheaper or more brutal than you.

We all assume that Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, are spying our activity and up to now advertiser is not interested in your name when they are it will be too late and the winner will be Inequality.

So what does all this mean and what are we all going to do about it when we’ve stopped talking about it?

Once you start to connect all the invisible dots together the impact on society will, in the end, be down to the people that use the technology they have to be responsible for it and if they use it irresponsibly they have to be held accountable.

A Footnote:

For me, there is little point in Jeff Bezos setting up an Earth fund when Amazon is one of the biggest promoters of pollution. Pretending to be a do-gooder.

The brown box doesn’t begin to address the larger issue: Each year in the United States alone thrown paper in the trash that represents approximately 640 million trees or roughly 915,000 acres of forest land.

Amazon ships an average of 608 million packages each year, which equates to (an estimated) 1,600,000 packages a day.

Then when we talk about energy consumption, we’re talking about the sources of energy that generate our power: oil, coal, natural gas and alternatives like solar, wind, hydropower and biofuels.

How much electricity they use and the bill is, god only knows, so its no wonder that they have contracts with oil and gas companies.

Now consider that people conduct over 1,6 billion searches per day, and you get a massive energy footprint of roughly 12.5 million watts.

Is e-commerce reducing or increasing our carbon footprint?

Google’s worldwide operations, collectively worldwide use about 2.26 million megawatt-hours per year to power its global data centre operations, which is equivalent to the power necessary to sustain 200,000 homes.

In 2018 Google generated 39.12 billion dollars earnings out of which it paid 243 Million a day in electricity.

This is only an educated guess.

The link between global warming and energy demands is obvious. Surely both of these players should be investing in Green energy.

There’s a deafening silence from pundits and elites and columnists and politicians on our joint self-destruction.

They are simply going on pretending it isn’t happening.

We don’t, as societies or cultures, value learning or knowledge or magnanimity or great and noble things, anymore.

The average person has become a tiny microcosm of the aspirations and norms of elites. We’re the only people on earth who thwart our own social progress, over and over again — and cheer about it.

We are caught in a death spiral now. A vicious cycle from which there is probably no escape. The average person is too poor to fund the very things — the only things — which can offer him a better life:

The result is that a whole society grows poorer and poorer.

Unable to invest in themselves or one another, people’s only real way out is to fight each other for self-preservation, by taking away their neighbour’s rights, privileges, and opportunities — instead of being able to give any new ones to anyone.

Though it’s too late to escape for them, let us hope our governments regulate their algorithms for profit sake.

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THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. WILL 2020 BE THE YEAR OF THE BIG MELT OR THE BIG FRY.

02 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by in #whatif.com, 2020: The year we need to change., Climate Change., Evolution, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Our Common Values., Politics., Populism., Post - truth politics., Purchasing Power., Reality., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., Unanswered Questions., WHAT IS TRUTH, What needs to change in European Union., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Aid., World Leaders, World Organisations.

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(Fifteen-minute read) 

 

It looks like being both.

We are the first generation to know we’re destroying the world, and we could be the last that can do anything about it.

SO AS IF YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.  

We need to recognize that everything we do, every step we take, every sentence we write, every word we speak—or don’t speak—counts. Nothing is trivial.

Take personal responsibility.

We need to use social media – this is one of the most effective ways to get brands to listen to you, so tell them that you want a change.

Why?

Because, unfortunately, the politicians who dominate the world stage are, depressingly, mostly cut from the old cloth, and the leadership challenges they face, are particularly complex and will require different skills — notably a clearer vision among leaders of organisation’s shared purpose.

Because the digital revolution is far from over the pace of change only seems to be quickening when in fact it is causing isolation. 

Because, we are allowing non-regulated large technology platforms to become too powerful, using their size to dominate markets and we are not paying enough attention to how the tools they create can be used for ill –  like device addictions, as we drown in notifications and false news feed posts.

Because there is an increasing imperative for all of us to respond to climate change.  Which will and is challenging our lives developing on a daily bases right in front of our eyes into our biggest need to act as one.

How can any of this be achieved? 

How will the changing political, economic and environmental landscapes shape the world?

Don’t get caught up in the how of things. Don’t wait for things to be right in order to begin.

Because in our age of tectonic geopolitical shifts, “alternative facts,” and conflicting narratives, our routine everyday life is losing sight of our true goals and aspirations.

Because with the rise of short-sighted populism we will solve nothing, other than feeding the great unwashed with short term gratification.

We need to write a piece of software that eliminated malware, viruses and all of that crap. 

We need to show our political leaders that they want to change, to understand our common humanity.

We need to try to put yourself into another person’s headspace and accept people for who they are and what their beliefs are.

We need to collaborate and push for policies that complement both sides of the political spectrum.

We need to make wasting our resources unacceptable in all aspects of our life.  Every product we buy has an environmental footprint and could end up in a landfill. The impact of plastic pollution on our oceans is becoming increasingly clear, having drastic impacts on marine life.

We need to be more conscious about what we buy, and where we buy it from. Living a less consumerist lifestyle can benefit you and our planet.

We need to use our purchasing power and make sure our money is going towards positive change.

We need to realize that what we eat contributes around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for almost 60% of global biodiversity loss.

We need to be supporting eco-friendly products.

We need to try to waste as little food as possible, and compost the organic waste we can’t eat.

We need to make education free for all.  Start educating not for profit but for a better understanding of what is the common values of life.

We need to stop asking the world’s smartest scientists to find us more time and to reverse gravity’s effect on our lives.

We need to stop killing each other. Countries start wars and people die and more people are in poverty.

We need to create out of profit for profit sake a World Aid fund with perpetual funding. (See previous posts) A new nonprofit called Carbon Offsets to alleviate address Climate change and Poverty. 

We need to realize that all significant change throughout history has occurred not because of nations, armies, governments and certainly not committees. They happened as a result of the courage and commitment of individuals. Believe that you can and will make a difference. 

The genesis for change is awareness so I need to stop. 

This year will not only be another opportunity for the leading minds in media in all its forms to highlight consumption for consumption sake.

However, if they wanted to spread a message that helps us all they would ban advertising that promotes consumption for consumption sake/profit. 

Feel free to add your priorities. With rapid innovations in technology and open access to data its no longer “wait and see.” We need to stop the huge feeling of apathy. 

The coming year, let alone the next decade looks unpredictable.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.  

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