These are my discussions with one of the world's most talented phsyicists. I will not tell you who. But you can see he largely agrees with me, Larry Page and others who advocate a kind of freedom and liberty that is pricipled and dignified without being rapacious and bottom line oriented. The sinlge e-mail that is mine, explamifies how I try to convert people to a more libertarian point of view, a 21st century one that combines the best of right and left. At the same time, it does not aboadon, but affirms, what I think of as best in America. For this discussion a prominent neo-conservative told me "you 'Jeffersonians' will drive this country off a cliff." While at the same time he and his neo-conservative buddies over at Heritage are driving us into the gorund. Gives you reason to pause and think that the worlds leading physicist thinks I got the answer right in its basics. Even if we disagree on its design. It makes me think of Einstein discussing issues with this brain power, and humbles me in a profound way.
The names have been edited to protect the identity of everyone except me.....
Dear Brian-
Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, I probably jump too far in touting Socialism, without qualifications. You write of 21st century socialism. I'll offer a few refinements:
If you're a couple of guys named Hewlitt and Packard, inventing magic in a garage in California, the government should offer loans and stand out of the way. Hewlitt and Packard should be free to blossom.
However, once the Hewlitt Packard company gets to a certain size and you seek major public funding for major capital facilities, etc. you "go public" on Wall Street. At that point, your enterprise becomes a Public Trust, overseen by the SEC and your principal shareholders. You have become a major employer. Employees and suppliers depend upon you. Your major shareholders will be the pension funds. The pension fund managers have an interest in your long term stability and viability. Steady dividend payout, rather than jerking the dividends up, down, and sideways ( I can tell you first hand what that means to research funding in a major corporation).
The impact of Enron, WorldCom and many other corporate flim-flam schemes resulted in Sarbannes-Oxley and related accounting controls to assure transparent financial reporting. The other evolution has been Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software packages like SAP. These ERP packagesOnce you roll your company into a publicly traded corporation, you will probably retain a significant number of shares. However, there's no gilded family inheritance to produce the likes of Paris Hilton, George W. Bush, or Erik Prince ( scion of Amway and founder of Blackwater USA). To paraphrase Warren Buffett, you want to give your kids enough money that they can do anything they would like, but not so much money that they don't have to do anything. I'm convinced that inherited wealth is a guaranteed way to produce socially disconnected a**holes.
[sensitive information] really tie together every corporate transaction, internal and external. They are a pain in the backside to set up, but once you have them, the controls are pretty impressive. Literally, the left hand isn't allowed to do what the right hand does. The shareholders now have the ability to drill down into the corporation to root out inefficiencies, managerial favoratism, etc. They need to see it all. That also means that everyone gets to see all the technical information.
Look at the litigation regarding Microsoft's software or life-saving pharmaceuticals. I'm fully aligned with Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google. Information must be free. Especially all technical information derived from corporate research. There are any number of screaming social needs that are being squelched due to corporate manipulation of the patents laws. Any technology worker is motivated to "make the next big discovery". Researchers at DuPont, Dow, Rohm & Haas, etc. are equally motivated just to have the intellectual "bragging rights" about the next big thing.
Publicly Funded International Corporations are just too powerful. They absolutely need to be stripped of their "Personhood". Do a little research regarding Santa Clara County versus the Southern Pacific Railway in 1886, and how the actions of a court reporter assigned "personhood" to modern corporations.
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html
If anything, the proposals that I offer will limit people pursuing incorporation. This is good. We need to promote small, individual ownership ( small company competition versus mega-corporate consolidation). Today, everyone ( even individuals) incorporates to hide behind the corporate "veil" or shield. No --->> people need to be accountable for their actions. Nobody should be able to hide from the consequences of their acts.
Enough for now. I'll get off my soap box. Thanks for listening.
Next:
Hi R, Before you totally jump onto the socialist bandwagon, I want you to understand that limits on corporations are as important as they are on government. I would offer this as the appropriate solution for both corporate and governmental affairs. That these principles will release the maximum human potential and control the egregious behavior of the corporations in the same way they control the egregious behavior of governments. Just replace the word government with "the company" and there you have it. It avoids the extremes of rightism we have now, or leftism which stagnates corporate innovation and leads to a meltdown. It offers what John Nash called a political economy of Representative majority-ism without the fascist or George Orwell behavior. It could also be called 21st century socialism, but that would also be incorrect because it is really a variant of Jeffersonian democracy and it is the core principle of American government- until recently- it promotes the maximum of human liberty with as little dependency on a "leader" or "boss" as is humanly possible.
These are as far as I have been able to study the 13 principles that make the very best governments that have ever existed in the entire history of the world. Let me know what you think and add to them if you think there needs to be more, but please pass them up the line because I want our children to live in this type of government and not have to face what we have had to face...
1. The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption, especially monarchism and aristocracy.
2. The farmer, small business man and worker (scientific or otherwise) best exemplify virtue and independence from corrupting influences; government policy should be for his and her benefit. Financiers, lobbyists, bankers and industrialists make cities and suburbs cesspools of corruption, and should be avoided.
3. Americans have a duty to spread the "Empire of Liberty" to the world, but should avoid doing so through violent force or overbearing alliances. Mostly we should mind our own industry and be proud of our own states and nation.
4. The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers so that the majority does not infringe on the rights of any minority.
5. Republicanism, also known as representative democracy, is the best form of government and representative democracy is needed to prevent the tyranny by the majority, as Madison explained in Federalist No. 10
6. The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
7. The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals. The Bill of Rights is a central theme.
8. The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
9. Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
10. A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and while necessary should be limited, but every citizen should be encouraged to contribute their talent to the defense of their community; in foreign relations it is much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo, and economic leverage than violent force.
11. The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept.
12. In Matters of War all the people, and their talent should be called upon to ensure speedy victory and dissent should not be ignored, but embraced to help those who disagree understand the causes that impel us to conflict and encourage their contribution to reconstruction and civil development in any effected nation.
13. The Government should make peace and a peaceful world order its ultimate goal without the desire to control how peace is achieved, not through a "new world order" but through an adjustment of policy that allows for pan Americanism and mutually beneficial development.
Tell me what you think,
Brian
Next to kick off the discussion:
Thanks for sending along the New York Times article; re: The Boltzmann Brain floating in Space. However, I can't quite get there. I think of it the same way as the proposition that a team of monkeys banging on key boards will someday produce a Shakespearean sonnet, by random chance.
However, I am taken with the PhD thesis by Hugh Everett that the multiple options available at the Quantum level should logically yield a series of infinite, parallel universes (multiverses).
For all his genius, Hugh Everett was a pretty sad character. See attached article from Scientific American:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-many-worlds-of-hugh-everett,
It kind of squares with the only logical conclusion that I can think up that will allow humanity to survive. That is, there is no positive outcome if people only continue to work to avoid punishment ( either in this life, or the next). Humanity can only progress to the "next level" as we strive to work together out of mutual respect and mutual, social interest.
As I see the devolution of the World of ******* ( former arms merchant and the oldest manufacturer in the United States) , I have become a dedicated Marxist / Socialist. So were Jesus Christ ( The Deified Individual) and Buddha ( The Universalist). Both of these gentlemen were entirely peaceful and entirely committed to "living for Others." The Capitalist / Corporate world is trending towards the same logical demise as the Soviet / Communist state. I'm convinced that the major adjustments to strip the imbalanced powers from international Corporations will happen in my lifetime. Corporations must serve people, not the other way around. Only now, with Sarannes-Oxley, updated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and real time Enterprise Resource Planning softwares; we can pull off the efficient, transparent accounting to support centralized planning, in a way that the Soviets could not.
If you don't believe my thoughts on Corporate America, don't just think about ******** --- which is a pretty good employer with real manufactured products and some vestige of management integrity. Think about the telcos. financial services, and the main stream media outlets (Rupert Murdoch & FOX). Guess who's funding Hillary ?
All the "multiverse" options that continue along a path that depends upon fear of retribution, punishment, distrust, etc. will just peter out. Our "alternate selves" in such alternate multiverse will probably end up in some neo-con inspired, fire and brimstone Armageddon.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein
The only "multiverse" option that will survive, is the one that works because we trust one another, we care about one another, and we want a better world for everyone's child.
The names have been edited to protect the identity of everyone except me.....
Dear Brian-
Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, I probably jump too far in touting Socialism, without qualifications. You write of 21st century socialism. I'll offer a few refinements:
If you're a couple of guys named Hewlitt and Packard, inventing magic in a garage in California, the government should offer loans and stand out of the way. Hewlitt and Packard should be free to blossom.
However, once the Hewlitt Packard company gets to a certain size and you seek major public funding for major capital facilities, etc. you "go public" on Wall Street. At that point, your enterprise becomes a Public Trust, overseen by the SEC and your principal shareholders. You have become a major employer. Employees and suppliers depend upon you. Your major shareholders will be the pension funds. The pension fund managers have an interest in your long term stability and viability. Steady dividend payout, rather than jerking the dividends up, down, and sideways ( I can tell you first hand what that means to research funding in a major corporation).
The impact of Enron, WorldCom and many other corporate flim-flam schemes resulted in Sarbannes-Oxley and related accounting controls to assure transparent financial reporting. The other evolution has been Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software packages like SAP. These ERP packagesOnce you roll your company into a publicly traded corporation, you will probably retain a significant number of shares. However, there's no gilded family inheritance to produce the likes of Paris Hilton, George W. Bush, or Erik Prince ( scion of Amway and founder of Blackwater USA). To paraphrase Warren Buffett, you want to give your kids enough money that they can do anything they would like, but not so much money that they don't have to do anything. I'm convinced that inherited wealth is a guaranteed way to produce socially disconnected a**holes.
[sensitive information] really tie together every corporate transaction, internal and external. They are a pain in the backside to set up, but once you have them, the controls are pretty impressive. Literally, the left hand isn't allowed to do what the right hand does. The shareholders now have the ability to drill down into the corporation to root out inefficiencies, managerial favoratism, etc. They need to see it all. That also means that everyone gets to see all the technical information.
Look at the litigation regarding Microsoft's software or life-saving pharmaceuticals. I'm fully aligned with Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google. Information must be free. Especially all technical information derived from corporate research. There are any number of screaming social needs that are being squelched due to corporate manipulation of the patents laws. Any technology worker is motivated to "make the next big discovery". Researchers at DuPont, Dow, Rohm & Haas, etc. are equally motivated just to have the intellectual "bragging rights" about the next big thing.
Publicly Funded International Corporations are just too powerful. They absolutely need to be stripped of their "Personhood". Do a little research regarding Santa Clara County versus the Southern Pacific Railway in 1886, and how the actions of a court reporter assigned "personhood" to modern corporations.
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/SCvSPR1886.html
If anything, the proposals that I offer will limit people pursuing incorporation. This is good. We need to promote small, individual ownership ( small company competition versus mega-corporate consolidation). Today, everyone ( even individuals) incorporates to hide behind the corporate "veil" or shield. No --->> people need to be accountable for their actions. Nobody should be able to hide from the consequences of their acts.
Enough for now. I'll get off my soap box. Thanks for listening.
Next:
Hi R, Before you totally jump onto the socialist bandwagon, I want you to understand that limits on corporations are as important as they are on government. I would offer this as the appropriate solution for both corporate and governmental affairs. That these principles will release the maximum human potential and control the egregious behavior of the corporations in the same way they control the egregious behavior of governments. Just replace the word government with "the company" and there you have it. It avoids the extremes of rightism we have now, or leftism which stagnates corporate innovation and leads to a meltdown. It offers what John Nash called a political economy of Representative majority-ism without the fascist or George Orwell behavior. It could also be called 21st century socialism, but that would also be incorrect because it is really a variant of Jeffersonian democracy and it is the core principle of American government- until recently- it promotes the maximum of human liberty with as little dependency on a "leader" or "boss" as is humanly possible.
These are as far as I have been able to study the 13 principles that make the very best governments that have ever existed in the entire history of the world. Let me know what you think and add to them if you think there needs to be more, but please pass them up the line because I want our children to live in this type of government and not have to face what we have had to face...
1. The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption, especially monarchism and aristocracy.
2. The farmer, small business man and worker (scientific or otherwise) best exemplify virtue and independence from corrupting influences; government policy should be for his and her benefit. Financiers, lobbyists, bankers and industrialists make cities and suburbs cesspools of corruption, and should be avoided.
3. Americans have a duty to spread the "Empire of Liberty" to the world, but should avoid doing so through violent force or overbearing alliances. Mostly we should mind our own industry and be proud of our own states and nation.
4. The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers so that the majority does not infringe on the rights of any minority.
5. Republicanism, also known as representative democracy, is the best form of government and representative democracy is needed to prevent the tyranny by the majority, as Madison explained in Federalist No. 10
6. The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
7. The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals. The Bill of Rights is a central theme.
8. The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
9. Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
10. A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and while necessary should be limited, but every citizen should be encouraged to contribute their talent to the defense of their community; in foreign relations it is much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo, and economic leverage than violent force.
11. The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept.
12. In Matters of War all the people, and their talent should be called upon to ensure speedy victory and dissent should not be ignored, but embraced to help those who disagree understand the causes that impel us to conflict and encourage their contribution to reconstruction and civil development in any effected nation.
13. The Government should make peace and a peaceful world order its ultimate goal without the desire to control how peace is achieved, not through a "new world order" but through an adjustment of policy that allows for pan Americanism and mutually beneficial development.
Tell me what you think,
Brian
Next to kick off the discussion:
Thanks for sending along the New York Times article; re: The Boltzmann Brain floating in Space. However, I can't quite get there. I think of it the same way as the proposition that a team of monkeys banging on key boards will someday produce a Shakespearean sonnet, by random chance.
However, I am taken with the PhD thesis by Hugh Everett that the multiple options available at the Quantum level should logically yield a series of infinite, parallel universes (multiverses).
For all his genius, Hugh Everett was a pretty sad character. See attached article from Scientific American:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-many-worlds-of-hugh-everett,
It kind of squares with the only logical conclusion that I can think up that will allow humanity to survive. That is, there is no positive outcome if people only continue to work to avoid punishment ( either in this life, or the next). Humanity can only progress to the "next level" as we strive to work together out of mutual respect and mutual, social interest.
As I see the devolution of the World of ******* ( former arms merchant and the oldest manufacturer in the United States) , I have become a dedicated Marxist / Socialist. So were Jesus Christ ( The Deified Individual) and Buddha ( The Universalist). Both of these gentlemen were entirely peaceful and entirely committed to "living for Others." The Capitalist / Corporate world is trending towards the same logical demise as the Soviet / Communist state. I'm convinced that the major adjustments to strip the imbalanced powers from international Corporations will happen in my lifetime. Corporations must serve people, not the other way around. Only now, with Sarannes-Oxley, updated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and real time Enterprise Resource Planning softwares; we can pull off the efficient, transparent accounting to support centralized planning, in a way that the Soviets could not.
If you don't believe my thoughts on Corporate America, don't just think about ******** --- which is a pretty good employer with real manufactured products and some vestige of management integrity. Think about the telcos. financial services, and the main stream media outlets (Rupert Murdoch & FOX). Guess who's funding Hillary ?
All the "multiverse" options that continue along a path that depends upon fear of retribution, punishment, distrust, etc. will just peter out. Our "alternate selves" in such alternate multiverse will probably end up in some neo-con inspired, fire and brimstone Armageddon.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein
The only "multiverse" option that will survive, is the one that works because we trust one another, we care about one another, and we want a better world for everyone's child.
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