[ExI] Is this Extropic?

[Bryan Bishop]

On Saturday 05 July 2008, Bryan Bishop wrote:
> A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Kevin Kelly wrote:
> > A timeline of where we expect these cost/benefit/risk-thresholds to
> > fall in each sector of our civilization, or a field map of places
> > we can see where our linear lives cross exponential change --
> > either would be very handy to have.
>
> I'd avoid the cost/benefit/risk-thresholds in terms of segmentation
> and sectoring; but a map of technologies for the exponential
> evolutionary influence to seep into otherwise linear, stale
> processes, is an interesting plan, and I submit that the SKDB system
> (or whatever we call it) is the right tool for that job (societal
> engineering / mapping and for the proposals of evolutionary
> approaches to different problems), but as to the validity of a map or
> ontology for describing it all? I think that's still suspect.

Grumble grumble. I dislike forgetting my own ideas. I was talking with 
another individual yesterday about this and mentioned an intriguing 
formulation of software development for biotech development. A group 
calling itself a biogang threw up a wiki and a few blogs somewhere out 
on web and implements a cyclical "burst work" model. They assemble, do 
some work, and then leave it in whatever state it is when they decide 
to leave, much like F/OSS projects that die off*. The work is made 
completely accessible for anyone else to continue it. Projects 
don't "die" because the group fails to follow through, it only "dies" 
if they fail to throw up relevant information, files, schematics, code. 
The bursty model is obviously implemented in email, instant messaging, 
and to some extent our behaviors -- ALT+TAB over to email, click click 
click, go back to the other screen to do something else, sit, think, 
sip of coke, tap tap tap, repeat. This 'random' convergence of 
interested individuals is what can keep a springboard from failing 
completely and how you can jump from one fractal stratification to the 
next or iterate through the entities (planets of the star system, or 
galaxies of the cluster, or using the FreeCar** system to leave cars 
for individuals to cycle through a city) of the current cycle/set. It 
solves the original problem of material input in that when you're doing 
that "jump" you're typically estimating the amount of material 
resources that you're going to have access to, and so you have overall 
limits to perceived possible growth (it'd be irresponsible to 
voluntarily become cancerous, for instance). So while you still have 
the purity requirements for materials, you also start off with the 
typical landscaping scenario of surveying, analysis, measurements, so 
you know (somewhat in advance) what you're getting yourself into. You 
could prepare different separation processes from the metallurgical 
sciences or materials engineering disciplines, etc. The individual 
tools allowing separate agents to explore and settle these regions are 
commonly already available in software, which allows for those units of 
bursty work to be constructed and piped together. The overall 
architecture of the preservation and integration of the separate 
projects / tools / systems that are 'left alone' is a fairly good 
description of what goes into SKDB. For instance, an electric vehicle. 
And so this is a basis to making the springboading and fractal 
stratification work, especially for specific projects. And it fixes the 
problem of purity of inputs as I explained. But this doesn't explain 
how to strategically enhance and implement those bursty work cycles 
into actually happening. We can do better than just sitting around 
waiting for something awesome to happen. Personal incentives or plain 
old configuration/style options and such are an interesting idea -- 
it's the reason why people paint their cars, or put stickers on their 
doors. Customization. I suppose simply by exerting social or selective 
pressures these extropic values can be promoted, but this strategy of 
just hoping for the right people to show up? Max, is that a good method 
of extropic strategizing?

An 'extropic map' (really a roadmap), which is essentially what Kevin 
Kelly is looking for (hey, he's the first result on Google 
for 'extropic map' -- not a coincidence), would map out the extents of 
and functional basises and drives for improvements and growth. I think 
he wants a map so that he can watch out for the intersection of linears 
and exponentials, or if I am allowed some extra creative license, so 
that we can strategically promote/do the bursty work to functionally 
implement and scoptically increase the values that we (those in a 
particular bursty work group) share. It's not a matter of long term 
thinking, it's a matter of extropic thinking, or really just extropy. 
The problem with this is that we're right back where we started, this 
would be turning back into yet another discussion on the implementation 
of extropic strategies and guides of these strategies. Haven't we gone 
over this too many times by now? What did we get out of it previously?

- Bryan

* for instance, openmosix is a recently dead project that has been 
resurrected by some individuals that I've been hanging around, although 
I admit I haven't contributed code due to the daunting kernel review 
task that I'd have to chug through :-)

** this isn't the actual name of the group/project, but it's out there 
somewhere. 
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