Open Letter to Jaron Lamier

(I chose to place this here because it relates to the changes we can intend and implement by 2012...)

Dear Jaron,

As I begin this letter, I am reading your book, You Are Not a Gadget; I will completed your book and amend this later if needed. [smile]

I am moved to write you because there is a very major (and suppressed) change approaching from a very near horizon that will be far more radical (and for the better) than even the internet (or “interweb,” as I refer to it in my writings – read The Abundance Paradigm, a novella available online for free), though the interweb will play a crucial role in the process.

So far in your book, I have gotten to the Maslow’s Pyramid section, with the paragraphs, which most prompt me to write this, beginning on the previous page and continuing above that section. I want to address the image it presents.

But first, let me go more into what the change will entail, and how it is a radical paradigm shift. One which encompasses technological advances benefiting everyone who wants their benefits. There will be no elite. Or, rather, everyone will live at the standard of the elite, if they choose to. No one will wake up to discover acquaintances affording life extension while they are “left behind.”

In the scarcity paradigm we presently live in, the bottom line of scarcity is energy – human energy as well as energy from sources which we use human energy to access. To account for energy expended, a monetary system developed. From the energy needed to comb the beaches for whole and perfect shells and transport them, to the foods and goods produced by human and machine energy, exchange of goods, services and money represent accounting for energy all along the line.

If we look at our planet and consider what is available in resources other than energy, it becomes clear that there is more than enough to support two, three or ten times the present population. It has been pointed out that, if one gave ¼ acre of land in Australia to each and every human on this planet – an amount of land that could support a human in subsistence if the land had optimal conditions – there would still be a chunk of Australia left over. And though not every acre is optimal, there’s still the rest of the planet. (Australia has 4% of the land mass of Earth, excluding Antarctica.)

To look at this another way, the volume of every human on this planet would not completely fill one side canyon of the Grand Canyon. We humans really are a drop in the bucket relative to our planet.

So clearly, there is plenty to go around.

What we lack is energy – or energy credits. What could we do to change this? Good question. We should probably seek answers.

I am sure you are acquainted with the scientific discovery of what is being termed “Dark” Energy. Science programs are rife with discussions of it these days, but have you noticed that not a single one asks the most logical question…can we extract this energy in usable form? The answer is Yes. There have been successes in doing so. Wilhelm Reich, Nicola Tesla, Viktor Schauberger and many others observed phenomena and worked with them in affecting an energetic change. Recent names have been obscured because there is an effort to obscure the findings.

Before we dismiss the idea of suppression, perhaps we should ask: Why would anyone want to suppress any idea that we can extract energy from the font flowing into our universe? It would solve all the big issues in our society. To understand, consider yourself to be one of the elite, wielding power over the masses through manipulation of the energy flow (read Jeremy Rifkin’s Entropy (1980) to grasp how this works; interestingly, “Dark” Energy is Negentropic) and you rather like the feeling of being “better,” “higher class,” above the hoards you control. Would you want to give up that control?

Let’s ask if adding a virtually infinite, ubiquitously available source of energy would take your control away (elite as you are). Most certainly. To answer the question on the page header with the Maslow’s Pyramid section in your book (What Will Money Be?), since money is merely “stored” energy credits, the addition of such energy would make money obsolete. I have said before, and I will say here to you, “infinite money” has no application. And with no tie to a grid, with no need for money to get what one wants, no one will be in control of one but oneself.

This will surely remove a lot of motivation… The motive to steal, the motive to commit fraud, the motive to enslave or to accept slavery for wages, the motive to sell insurance or open a bank account, the motive to suppress solutions, amongst many. But it would open the door for each and every one of us to pursue our bliss.

The motives of higher order will still exist, however: the motive to teach, the motive to love, the motive to research with pure intent, the motive to create in art and music and film, and other such motives will burgeon, now with unhindered outlet. Perhaps there will be a resurgence of apprenticeship, as tuition vanishes with the money it requires. Though basic education will be suggested, our children will be encouraged to seek their bliss. Our bliss may change over the course of our lives, as well, but with comfort and means, we will create far more in the society freed from the yoke of a monetary system. All of us can contribute as our bliss dictates – and jobs done by those who love to do them are seldom done poorly.

But what of all the schlep work? All the jobs no one loves to do? As you are aware, the field of robotics is advancing in geometric progression, and even now, we can build robots to do the jobs no one (or not enough people) wants to do. Our planet could be stewarded, organically and with thought, by robots programmed to do the work (and we know there will be no shortage of programmers). Sure, some people will want to till the earth, and more power to them. Robots will move out of the patches of land humans wish to tend.

All programming for public works will be open source. This allows for improvements and maintains honesty (though, without money, there will only be piques of passion to motivate one to program with ill intent).

With profit removed a motive, goods will be manufactured to last, and only require packaging for hygiene or protection of goods. Waste management will become very easy to maintain with such reductions in waste. And the creators of quality goods will gain in reputation. Reputation is the coin of the soul.

Social friction will be reduced radically. In such a world, no one needs to spend any great deal of time with someone they do not like (how many people “hate” their boss…?). Interest groups will congregate and work together, with perhaps competing groups trying to produce the best of whatever they are creating. The best will give reputation to the group who accomplishes it.

The interweb comes in by way of organizing efforts. Problems can be presented, and solutions suggested. Local, regional and global issues can be discussed and addressed head on. Our leaders would emerge (I recommend reading about the phenomenon and analysis of emergence if you have not already done so) from this milieu, with much closer to the best solutions to real problems than we have now. Rather than solutions dictated by a social interaction based on some having what others do not – necessitating a money system – all will have what they want.

How many would love to do their job if they could do it on their own schedule? I suspect a rather alarmingly low percentage. Most would “Rather Be [you fill it in].” What if we wanted to have our job and just do it when the mood strikes? What if we could spend time with our families, go camping, paint a picture, teach a child, and could decide when – or even if – we go to work? Would we not be happier? Would we not want this?

Ok, sure. Some jobs will be played as games – Monopoly, or some sophisticated creation of the future, will take the place of actual banking, for instance. If you LOVE going in on a schedule to decide whether loan applications should be approved, there will be somebody who will take your game wishes and create such an illusion for you. In fact, games will become more and more exotic and real. But we’ll also have vast choice of when we play or go to the beach. We will be creating bliss in consciousness. (The Church of the Sub-Genius will understand; it’s called slack.)

Back to the points I have read so far in your book – which is, by the way, brilliantly presented thus far – I look at Maslow’s Pyramid, and see it inverted to how I would see it. In a scarcity paradigm, that is the orientation. In a scarcity paradigm, the point is the goal of conscious experience, with diminishing layers upon which it struggles to attain or maintain the peak. In an abundance paradigm, conscious experience is the point, with all the needed energy and material to sustain goals and ambitions flowing down into it.

Sure, goals and ambitions will change – being a drug lord will not really work, for example. People will use drugs to alter the experience they are having and it would be wise to accept this. Remove the money from marijuana (and advertise truthfully), and it is clear no one would object to its use. It will be, as it is now, by far the highest percentage of the presently “illegal” drugs of choice among those who choose to use a drug presently under edict that they May Not.

Cops will tell you they only have issues with the pot smokers who have also been drinking. (Why isn’t that information stressed in our media? one might ask.) The rest of the “illegal” drugs make up such a small percentage, that I figure many of these users will heal, once we offer honest information, and the pressures to conform to a yoke of money expectations have been lifted. The very few remaining will be statistically unexistant.

Those who care about people who have issues (of any kind) can/do/will offer love and support. Nobody will be forced to give up on those they care about, and nobody is forced to change except in their location if someone objects to their behavior; when in the presence of non-consent, remove oneself to empty areas or areas of consent. In the end, those who choose behavior that elicits lovingkindness in somebody will have somebody who cares. (This is, I suspect, the nature of spirit…)

There are obstacles to this goal, as I am sure you can see. Letting people know that there is a very high probability that we could pull this off is just the first step. People must believe enough to add their intent to doing it in great enough numbers that it reaches a tipping point (read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point for a grasp of tipping point dynamics). To that end I wrote that novella I mentioned above. It is called The Abundance Paradigm, and might initially read as a Star Trek bliss trip but will prove itself, beginning in the third chapter. As I said, it’s available online (at abovetopsecret.com) along with much of my other writing. I have a book for sale, co-written with my partner, and my contributions address all this with spirit but in secular terms all the way. Its cost is dear – just under $30 – but it’s also available through abovetopsecret.com on their media site for free (with copyrighted images in place). Just search for me…

Ah, let me introduce myself. I AM Amaterasu. [smile]

Thank you for reading and considering.

Amaterasu

I'm rather amazed that I received no comments... Surely someone here has a response they could make...

I was hoping you would get a reply back from him or at least someone to make a comment as you have said .I get your message and could hope to see such a shift,but I don't think we plebs could stand up to the beast that is in the position to see it realized .

reply to post by the2ofusr1


And I believe that if we were all on the same page... We could easily remove their power. Thanks for your response!

reply to post by Amaterasu



Hey Amaterasu...

I just received a telepathic response from Jaron (apparently we are connected like that, so I let him know about this) in regards to your wonderful OP.


If his response comes across a little jumbled, that's because our office walls are quite thick and I could only write so fast...sorry.


Amaterasu Buddy...

Thank you so much for taking the time to not only read my book, but to create a thread that is so deep - deep like an empty well.

Now, I noticed you pitched your own book, and in a sly way, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do:

"I have a book for sale, co-written with my partner, and my contributions address all this with spirit but in secular terms all the way. Its cost is dear – just under $30"



With that said, I have to go now. I feel a little dirty for some reason. And if I find time I will sign up to ATS so I can read it for free...because there is no way in hell I am paying money for it...


That was the last I have heard from him...


Hope I could help...

reply to post by facelift


The book is also available for free on ATS. Link in my sig.