Kundalini and the Collective Consciousness

In the spiritual community we often hear the cliché about a general Kundalini Awakening being the Next Great Evolutionary Leap for Humanity.  But the details are vague regarding ‘how so?’  Perhaps it’s comparable to the distinction between Theoretical Physics and Applied Physics, where we have known about the Theory of Quantum Mechanics now for 40 years, but still the cars, sewing machines, flashlights and airplanes are still designed and run the same way Isaac Newton would have had them run 300 years ago.   I suspect that nobody will ever really understand Quantum Mechanics until we dry our dishes with a Quantum Dishtowel, or something like that.   And, likewise, the Kundalini Energy will remain oddly mysterious until it is found to be good for something.   

 

So, yes, I also subscribe to the cliché about “the next big evolutionary leap for humanity”, but after decades of thinking about it I have an idea about just what it might consist of.  Perhaps the Kundalini can be used to Link into the Collective Consciousness.   Well, how did I arrive at that hunch, or perhaps the more appropriate question for now would be why would I want to think so?

 

Back decades ago I had a few personal experiences which go a long way in explaining why I would want to think there is an actual existential Collective Consciousness that we could tap into, particularly two very Big Dreams I had.   In the first dream, back when I was still a young man and not very philosophically sophisticated, I came upon the grave of one of Europe’s Greatest Thinkers and it had been defaced with graffiti saying that “______ would not live beyond the grave”, but instantly I had muttered that “everybody lives beyond the grave”.   But whatever Higher Wisdom that had been directing that Dream was not to allow me to get away with such an unfounded assertion without some kind of a challenge and so suddenly a large oak tree on the crest of a nearby knoll erupted in flames of multicolored lights, and out of it billowed a Voice that said “Not all men will live beyond the grave… but ______ will”.   Oh, I need to mention some details that indicate just how significant that Fiery Tree and Voice must have been in the context of this Dream.  The instant the Tree ‘Lit Up’ my legs gave way out from beneath me and I came crashing down on my knees, on what seemed like hard granite, but I felt no pain.   Also, tears sprayed from my eyes, but I felt no emotion, which puzzled me even at the time.   Now, one would suppose that I would have been speechless in awe, but, since I felt no overwhelming emotions, I was intellectually quite curious about the Mortality Issue that the ‘Tree’ had brought forward and so without any hesitation I asked “Well, then, what about me?  Will I live beyond the grave?”   Well, the Tree did not immediately give me an answer, seemingly wishing that I should have a little time to contemplate just how possibly disturbing certain answers to that question might be for me, and the Tree’s apparent point was not lost upon me, and I got really nervous really fast.     But finally the Tree spoke and said “Yes, you too will live beyond the grave, but remember one thing: Birth is but an Illusion and Christ is the Life in All Things”.  Now even at the time I did not see the allusion to ‘Christ’ as being in reference to any historical individual, but rather to some kind of All-embracing Spiritual Status – some disembodied Cosmic Christ.   And of course the notion of “Life in All Things” speaks of a Collective Consciousness with no need for further elaboration.

 

Then there was the second Big Dream not many years after the first.  I appeared to be in a sparse landscape, that seemed as dry as some areas in North Africa, the Near East or the American Southwest, but still there were some clumps of grass, some bushes and a tree here and there.  I seemed to have just arrived on the Dream Scene when suddenly this young man appeared just in front of me, so close within my personal space that it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  But what instantly caught my attention was the young man’s boundless smile – it quite radiated joy (one can approach duplicating such a Smile with your Kundalini Energy simply by imagining that all your Chakras are like Flat Horizontal Plates which you can turn up at the edges, along with turning up all the Muscle Groups in your body, like turning up a Smile, with the Idea that they are like Flowers Lifting and Unfolding to the Sun Light.  I do that before walking into strange new places with people I never met before.  It seems to help in putting both them and myself at ease.)    Well, in that Dream, I had never experienced such a powerful smile, and his eyes were very entrancing.  The Young Man, as a person though, was not very impressive.  He was thin to the point of emaciation, dark but one would say more ‘brown’ than ‘black’, with a narrow face and a thin nose, and for a beard he had just a slight tuft of curly hairs.  But I could not help but be moved by his perfect joyfulness.  In this Dream I seemed to have been rendered ‘speechless’.   Well, since I had nothing to say, the young man turned and began walking off, but before he was 20 meters away, the same voice as in the other dream spoke up and said from out of the blue, “He went out into the wilderness and became One”.   With that the Young Man developed a silver blue aura.  Then, what was more remarkable was that the nearby grasses and bushes began picking up that same silver blue aura, and then I noticed that even the trees out in the distance began to shine silver blue.  It became clear that everything that was alive had the same aura and that it was connected and centered on him.  I had a hunch at the time that he was experiencing all of that as part of himself – that he felt the Oneness.   Maybe that is what made him so happy, or was it being so happy that made him One with everything? 

 

Also, I might add that that dream is suggestive of what we hear about some traditions of Shamanism whereby it is reported that some Shamans can transform into crows or cats or coyotes or whatever, but what I suspect is probably really happening is only that a Shaman can opportunistically reach his or her consciousness out and partake of the perceptions of crows, cats or coyotes or whatever else is already out there and part of the landscape which the Shaman is concerned with knowing about.

 

Also when I was a young man, I read of a Saint that lived in India just a bit more than a hundred years ago, Shirdi Sai Baba, whom is not be confused with the charlatan Sathya Sai Baba who set up his scam much later.  Shirdi Sai Baba… let’s just call him Sai Baba…  was claimed by both the Hindus and the Muslims to be one of their own, but more appropriately we could describe him as a Fakir – a kind of Sufi that stems from a tradition that predates Islam going all the way back to Persian Zoroastrianism, the first Moral Religion.  You see, Sai Baba had a Sacred Flame going which is the hallmark of Zoroastrianism.   Well, to get to the greater point concerning his influence upon my thinking concerning the Collective Consciousness, one of the things that Sai Baba was famous for was being able to relate objectively true stories from the viewpoint of both animals and people.  Later in the 20^th Century there was another Saint in Southern India, Ramana Maharshi, who could do much the same thing.   This Ability would seem to indicate that it is possible for individuals to harness and focus selectively within the Collective Consciousness.   Of course, in regards to anecdotes concerning Saints, there is a huge problem with both exaggeration and invention.  You see, these Saints accrue to themselves Followers who form Social Groups around them which seem to distribute Status among themselves on the basis of who can tell the best and biggest stories about their Guru.   I would not have believed the problem so chronic and pervasive unless I saw it in operation with my own eyes.  But, yes, it seems a bit paradoxical, but religious devotees are huge liars.  I believe that many such people believe so fully in their own good intentions that the heinousness of their lying about most everything is entirely eclipsed from their notice, but of course there are others who are calculating scoundrels and bad down to the bone.   Unfortunately I had arrived at this skeptical awareness only after decades of studying the lives of many of these various Saints.   So the greater part of that acquired ‘knowledge’ was subsequently cast into doubt but not before it had greatly influenced what was probably to be the greater part of my life span.  So almost from a kind of mental force of habit I retain a bit of hope in a super-natural possibility which still awaits some solid confirmation before I could in good conscience talk about it with any fervent conviction.   

 

But all that interest in the Saints, before I became largely disillusioned, led me to earnestly investigate Mysticism and Mystical Experiences.  Mystical Experiences are interesting in that people who have had Mystical Experiences claim that in their moment of excitement that they Knew Everything and that All Truth was Revealed.  However, the problem arises that they can provide few details after the fact.  The literature of Mysticism gives this problem a name – Ineffability.  William James, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, in his classic “Varieties of Religious Experience”, circa 1905, talks a great deal about Ineffability.  The consequence of Ineffability is that it turns the Mystical Experience essentially into a purely aesthetic, even sensual experience – a Super High Buzz, but which in practical terms is good for nothing, or even damaging, in the sense that Mystics may become addicted to the purely Sensual Experience while ignoring their Social Duties and Obligations, like students getting high instead of doing their homework.

 

But maybe Ineffability is a Right Brain vs Left Brain kind of thing.  The Right Side of the Brain sees things holistically in complete flashes, images and intuitions, while Left Side of the brain sees things linearly, in some ordered way, with associations and connectedness between points of reference.   Or we can say that the Right Side of the Brain uses Pictures, while the Left Side uses Descriptive Narrative.    So perhaps the problem of Ineffability sources from focusing the Mystical Experience in the wrong side of the head (where right is apparently wrong).  If the Mystical Experience were to be generated from the Left Side of the Brain, the side that deals with Speech and Language, well it would probably be a whole lot more likely that we would come back from it with more to say, though the experience may lose something of its spectacular quasi-visual splendor that only the right side of the brain can provide in full.

 

There is also the issue regarding the various, different and often contradictory reports given by those exceptional few who purport to bring back some form of “eternal wisdom” from their mystical experiences.  Such wide variance would incline us to believe such ‘Truths’ to be subjective rather than objective, and if these Enlightened Truths are only subjective, well, that only means that it was ‘true’ in the sense that an individual really experienced them, and didn’t just make up a story.  But the broader definition of Truth, that a thing is plainly known to exist or its existence can be objectively confirmed, cannot be affirmed by subjective images or thought forms, not unless it can be demonstrated that such subjective impressions are widely shared.  After all, it is the proof of a general Objective Reality that the shared experience of Society confirms it.   And in regards to Religious and Mystical Experiences, we do not yet have this confirmation.  Again I refer to James’ “Varieties of Religious Experience” where you can see just how bazaar and off the beaten path some ‘enlightened’ realizations can be.

 

But we may be able to address this problem of Shared Objective Reality within our mystical experiences by determining whether we use our Kundalini to look Inwards, into ourselves, or Outwards, into the World and Society.   Looking Inwards has been the typical direction.  Most popular thinking these days seems fully on board with the notion that all wisdom comes from within, no matter how foolishly we see people actually behaving who act solely according to their own guidance.   We need to ask ourselves what we can learn from ourselves that we do not already know?  We get nothing new by watching old reruns over and over again.  Self-Inquiry is a labyrinth that can only circle the same old ground over and over again.  If we want to put the Kundalini to any positive use, we must point it Outwards and Think where we have never Thought before.   

 

True Civilization could become an achievable possibility if Humanity could be unified by a tangible shared Collective Consciousness.  Looking Outwards to Others will take us in that direction.  Looking inwards is only to look backwards.  We can’t take that next great evolutionary step forwards by always backtracking over our failures and shortfalls.   The Ancient Wisdoms got us into the mess where we are today.  With this surge in Kundalini Awakenings, we need to configure a new path forward.  

An Experiment to Test Kunalini Awakenings for Collective Consciousness

I’ve been involved with Kundalini for about 4 decades now but just recently became aware of what looks like a Surge in Awakenings (but that may simply be attributable to a more widespread Social Media, in the sense that the numerical rates of awakenings may have held at an approximately constant level, but we are now becoming more increasingly aware of their occurrences).   But if there is truly an Upsurge in Kundalini Awakenings, I was wondering if it may be an indication of the blossoming of what we could refer to as a Collective Consciousness.

 

I suppose I am not the only one that may be curious about what the wider implications could be concerning a proliferation of Kundalini Awakenings in the general population, especially if such a broad Awakening significantly increased some real apparently intangible Connectedness between those who are ‘awakened’ or even between them and those who are not ostensively ‘awakened’, or maybe even between Everybody, whether or not they see themselves as ‘Awakened’ or not.

 

Anyway, I decided to do something with my idle curiosity and so I whipped up what could be the basis of an Experiment that could be conducted in more than several ways:  I created two EXCEL Spreadsheets (if you want to see, email me and I can send you the attachments), the first labeled SEND and the second labeled RECEIVE.   Both sheets have identical lists consisting of ten Categories with ten elements each.  On the SEND sheet there is a box beside each Category Name that contains a Random Number Generator Algorithm which pops up an integer between 1 and 10.  The Random Number Algorithm that I used is INT(RAND()*10+1)… cool, huh? (and, yes, nothing goes in the closed parenthesis after ‘RAND’ because it is supposed to create its own number).   Of course the random numbers should be different on each printed sheet, and just copying the same SEND sheet would be an unspeakable anathema, and so if one is printing out more than 1 SEND sheet, in order to get the numbers to change for each print out, just Select all the Random Number Boxes, Copy them, and then Paste them off to the side, and that will make the original boxes update to new numbers, and then you just have to delete the boxes that you pasted off to the side before hitting PRINT.  The idea of using Random Numbers is so the ‘Sender’ does not have to get subjectively involved with picking and choosing what to Send, and the Receiver doesn’t have to worry about whether to guess what kind of ‘Mind Games’ the Sender might be playing with his or her ‘picks’.   The Sender or Experiment Administrator (if the Experiment is designed that way) simply has to draw circles around the Elements on the SEND sheet that corresponds to the Random Numbers, indicating that those are the Elements to be ‘sent’.   The RECEIVE sheet is the same as the SEND sheet except it is marked SEND and it does not have the Random Number boxes and it should remain pure a pristine until the Receiver draws the circles.   

 

As I said above, the Experiment could be conducted in several ways.  Most simply, an Experiment Administrator could generate the two Experiment Sheets, circle the Elements corresponding to the Random Numbers on the Send Sheet, and then perhaps take a minute or two to allow the sight and consciousness of the Circled Send Sheet to sink in and register (within the Collective Consciousness), and finally to mail the second sheet to the Receiver Subject.  The Receiver upon receipt of the Receive Sheet would then circle the choices of what he or she decides that he or she has ‘received’, and then mail it back.  Of course if the Experiment Administrator is conducting more than one experiment at a time, he or she would have to develop a Control Protocol whereby the Experimental Sheets are identified as inseparable pairs, such as writing “X 101” in the corner of both the SEND and RECEIVE sheets.   This version of the Experiment would be easiest to administer, but it does seem a bit detached.  However, such an Experimental Formal would be similar to the methodology that the Remote Scientific Viewers were using (both the Soviet and the American Military Intelligence Organizations had their own offices of Remote Scientific Viewers).  The methodology of RSV was to write a detailed Intelligence Question on a sheet of paper and then seal it in an envelope on which they would write a Control Number  and then they would file it.  Then, let’s say for example that the Control Number is 748, they would go to their Remote Viewer person, without the envelope, and simply say “Give us what you can get concerning number 748?”… That’s all.  The Remote Viewer should have no ‘objective’ idea at all regarding what “748” is referring to.  That keeps his or her mind open to any possibility.

 

A version of the Experiment I would be more interested in, as being much less ‘detached’ though a bit more complicated, would involve two professedly Awakened Subjects.  Two Sets of Controlled Pairs of Experiment Spreadsheets would be used, and each of the two Subjects could be given or mailed a Receive Sheet from one Pair and a Send Sheet from the other.   The Subjects then could coordinate with each other for a time convenient for each of them, or a 3^rd Party Administrator could do the coordinating between the two Subjects, if it is felt desirable that the two subjects should not be made aware of the each other’s identities.  The specified time would have to be an exact 20 minutes, with the two subjects participating in synch, even if time zones apart.    The two subjects could use this one particular Time Clock Website to coordinate and synch up with: https://time.is/  which has Hour, Minute, and Second, as well as various Time Zones that the subjects could agree upon in advance.    For instance, if the two subjects decided to begin the Experiment at 8:00 London Time then the Subject who agreed to be the first Sender could take exactly one minute to ‘Send’ an  Idea of their first circled Element in the first Category.  And the subject who agreed to be the first Receiver could take that same minute to ‘receive’ the Idea and draw a circle around that Element on his or her blank ‘Receive’ Sheet.   At each passing minute, the Subjects would move onto the next Category on the list.  There are 10 categories which would take 10 minutes, and after the 1^st Pair  of Sheets are complete, the Subjects would ‘switch over on the fly’, as they say, and the Subject who was Sender would now become the Receiver, and visa versa, and the second Pair of Sheets could be completed in the second 10 Minutes.  To finish up they would take their sheets, stuff them into envelopes and send them back to the Administrator, or get in touch with each other and grade the sheets themselves –that’s if the Experiment was being done rather informally.  

 

Now, regarding Grading and Significance – it wasn’t long in thinking about it before I determined that 10 Categories of 10 Elements each would be the best Intuitive Way to go.  This is because the Probability of correctly ‘guessing’ one thing from a single List of 10 is ‘1 in 10’, meaning that 9 times out of 10 a person would guess wrong and come up completely empty.  But given 10 separate Lists with each List having 10 Elements, the Probability would be that even by just guessing an overall score of at least 1out of 10 would be the likely outcome.   A ‘2 out of 10’ would be Lucky.  A ‘3 out of 10’ would be a real long shot.  So I would retest anybody who scored a ‘3 out of 10’ because if they could repeat at that level, we and everyone else would want to know what is going on.  If we found people who could test at such significant levels on our little informal home grown Experiment, then we could probably get some real University involved in conducting Experiments that even they could take seriously.  

 

But at our Level our primary concern would be to show ourselves what we are dealing with, not just at the personal level anymore, but as regards to what will certainly begin taking on tangible Social Manifestations – that the Upsurge in Kundalini Awakenings is actually the Dawning of the Age of Collective Consciousness.

 

Of course, the Experiments might also come back flat, indicating that whatever the Kundalini is in each of us, it is isolated and self-contained.  Then the concern would go in the direction of showing the Kundalini to be the Stuff of Superior Individuals, and offering a new avenue for the Selfishness of the Strong to exploit the meekness of the Weak.  But I do hope that finally the ‘We’s’ can win out over the ‘Me’s’, and that the next grand step in Evolution will be toward the Strengthening of Human Society and not just of Human Individuals.   As far as Evolution must see it, it’s best to Survive as a Society than to let a few Strong Individuals kill us all and Destroy the Planet while they’re doing it.  And the flowering of a Collective Consciousness would actually give Society a Unitary Mind, and a Society that Actually Thinks with One Mind would be quantum leaps stronger than any rat’s nest of selfish scheming individuals who would hope to exploit and contain it.   So I’ll have to cross my fingers and hope to luck that the Experiments land on the bright side.

New Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan

When the United States announced its new Rules of Engagement Policy regarding its Conflict in Afghanistan with the Taliban, we, in effect, learned what the old Rules of Engagement were.  It seem that the Obama Administration, in order to persuade the Taliban to go lightly on the Americans, since the Americans were planning on significantly ratcheting down their presence to a skeleton of what it had been, committed to the policy of Fighting Only When Attacked.  Basically it was “If you don’t screw with us, we won’t screw with you”; “live and let live”; “be smart enough to let a sleeping dog lie”.  Such a policy would allow for as much ‘peace’ as could be expected in a Nation where ‘war’ has become perhaps their biggest money making ‘Industry’.  You see, from the Taliban point of view, if the Americans stopped being such a nuisance then they could certainly be tolerated to stay, since they were no slackers in regards to paying their way.   The Americans were spending tons of money in the Country, much of it going to the Taliban as ‘protection money’ ( you see, there were ‘Security Companies’ that were contracted by Afghanistan Businesses, Municipalities and even by the American Armed Forces to ‘protect’ certain areas, roads, buildings, etc.  But these Security Companies merely channeled the lion’s share of the money to the Taliban to persuade them to keep their distance. ), and I would suppose even the Afghan Government, the nominal sworn enemies of the Taliban would divert funds to the Taliban so that they would come out and fight every once in a while, but nothing too severe.  You see, as soon as there is any true and lasting Peace in Afghanistan, America would simply pack up its Billion Dollar War Machine and go home.  After all, America is now sworn to never ever again to engage in ‘Nation Building’ but would be perfectly willing to stay forever as long as there is a Fight.   So if it is a Fight they want, then it is a Fight they’ll get… even if it has to be Stage Played.   Without War Afghanistan would only have the opium and heroin Trade to pay all its bills, and prices there have dipped since the American Pharmaceutical Companies have flooded the American Drug Markets with cheap ‘black market’ opioid pills (if not the work of the Board of Directors, we can well imagine that in any big Pill Factory that nobody can actually counts every single pill that the machines spit out, thousands each second, and if there ARE numbers, that such numbers can’t be played with.  I suppose in each big Pill Factory there must be at least 50 workers and Managers who have gone into business for themselves, carrying home a lunch pail or briefcase full of pills every day.  Oh, and then there could be the Conspiratorial Partnerships, where some middle level Production Manager teams up with a Shipping Clerk to ship complete crates of Pills to some ‘shell company’ address somewhere, while erasing any Paperwork Trail of the bogus transaction.   And then certain foreign Generic Factories probably don’t even have to hide it, except to be careful how they ship the pills in.  You can only imagine how many things that get shipped across the border which are basically hollow and can be filled with pills, and the drug dogs at America’s International Airports aren’t trained to go crazy about ‘prescription drugs’, and the Big Overnight Shipping Companies don’t even wait for Customs Inspections anyway and packages go almost directly from plane to delivery truck… yeah, I wonder how that works, but that’s another story), so with the bottom knocked out of the Opium Trade Afghanistan would go broke without the War.  So I suppose the tacit policy of both the Afghan Government and the Taliban was to fight just enough to keep America interested, involved and reliably reaching to pick up the check and pay the bill.  

 

Now, certainly, there must be Career Government People, Military Leaders and even some Politicians who see what’s going on.  And, yes, there are actually some people who react in repulsion to such a suggestion that the War is largely artificial.  For instance, a few years back when the Fight in Afghanistan was an International Affair, that is, when America was diplomatically ‘twisting arms’ of other Nations to join the Fight, well, there was a situation where the French sent in a few Battalions and they stayed a year, and were to be replaced by a Detachment of Italians.  Well, the Italians were pleased because apparently they were going to be in a Really Quiet Zone.  But the French, before leaving, told the Italians that such Tranquility was no Accident, but that it was relatively cheap to procure.  They wrote out a Name and a Phone Number and told the Italians what they could expect to pay for a Year’s Vacation.  Well, the Italians bulked as such a dishonorable suggestion and swore they wouldn’t give a lead lira for any favors.  The French shrugged their shoulders and left to go home to their Hero’s Parade.  It seems the Taliban were miffed enough at the Italians for their attitude, that they moved their forces around, and though the Region was strategically a nowhere land, it was suddenly the focal point of intense fighting.  So a great number of the Italians died for nothing else but Honor, and they didn’t even save any money.  To rebuild their shattered garrison it cost ten times what the Payoff would have been.   The Americans also reacted poorly in a similar situation when they ‘discovered’ or the Press found out that a Security Company was paying off the Taliban to allow the major supply route road to stay open.  You think the Press would know when to shut up.  So the American’s, knuckling under to He-Man Macho Political Pressure, had to fire the ‘corrupt’ Security Company and actually Fight to keep the Supply Road open.  Well the Road was hundreds of miles long, and suddenly the Taliban was contesting every inch of it.  And the American’s had to do all this Fighting while being strangled for Supplies (duh!).  I suppose hundreds of American’s died because back then the public was still taking the Press seriously.  Now, the Military would just have to call it all of bunch of Fake News and keep with the  Program that’s working just fine. Or maybe it was the case that the Military really  was appalled and decided to Fight instead of Pay.  Yes, it boggles the mind, but there are crazy people like that.  Italians aren’t the only people will to die for nothing better than Honor.

 

Oh, wait!  Remember General Petraeus and the Iraqi Surge.  Basically, the Key to his Strategy was to pay off the Sunni Tribes to stop fighting against the Americans.  He even armed them so they could offset the Shia Militias.  Now that is a Guy who would have had no qualms about paying the Taliban to keep the roads open.  I wonder how much he would have paid them to ‘take’ certain Provincial Towns so that the American’s could pretend to Win Battles taking them back again.  If Petraeus was no real hero, he certainly knew how to act like one.  A real John Wayne.   But was Petraeus uniquely cynical or are they ALL like that?  Interesting question.  But it’s not simply a question of being either Honorable or a Scoundrel, but also of either being either Smart or Stupid.  This is not Morally or Intellectually just a 2-dimensional Picture.      

 

Anyway, the New Engagement Policy will roll back the Old Engagement Policy and go back to the ‘Fight to Win’ Policy that was utilized back when Americans had upwards of 100,000 Troops in the Country, that they would admit to, and who know how many Foreign.  You have to wonder what the heck the American Generals are now thinking.  If America with its International Allies could not suppress the Taliban with such a huge super Army, how do they think they will do with just a tiny fraction of that number?  There are only 13,000 Troops in Country right now.  The Trump Administration has alienated any possible Allies.  You know, what Foreign Soldier from anywhere in the World would want to serve under the current American President, and no Nation’s Public would sit quietly and allow its Sons and Daughters to be taken up to fight under the command of the current American President.  Adolf Hitler during the mid-1930’s was more Internationally Popular than Donald Trump is today.   

 

Then we must consider that the Taliban has only grown stronger.  It’s been 7 years since the last serious fighting, and that means that Taliban boys who were 9 years old back then are now 16.  In America these kids would be playing High School Foot Ball, and it would be a pretty good game.  And these Kids would need minimal Military Training to fight alongside their fathers.  Just think about who they are and where they come from.  The Taliban have been at War almost constantly since 1980.  Every night when they sit down to family dinner they hear stories about the glorious bravery of those who died, and the cunning cleverness of those who lived.  From mother’s milk on these kids have heard every detail of every Battle ever won or lost.  From the time they were three years old, every stick on the ground was a Toy and that Toy was some kind of Gun or Grenade Launcher.  These Kids will go up against American who go through an 8 Week Boot Camp, and then business as usual Field Training when they go out to their units.  That’s okay as Modern Developed Nation Armies go, but the Taliban Kids were born and raised to be Fighters.  And they have learned all the lessons of Modern American Warfare.  Hmmmm … unless the Americans have something new up their sleeves… well, Drones are relatively new and can be mighty pesky.  But Drone Technology now is too limited and spotty to weigh in significantly in any full scale battle campaign.  A Concept that would Work would be Artificial Intelligence Drones that would simply go out and identify and kill Taliban Fighters and do it night and day, around the clock.  They wouldn’t have to be very big either.  I don’t know why they make Drones so large.  They are virtually the same size as the planes they are replacing.  Well, Planes were designed big so they could carry human pilots and big heavy old ‘dumb’ bombs.  But with Artificial Intelligence Weapon’s Systems and Targeting, a killer drone wouldn’t have to be much larger than a seagull or an eagle.  You could even have one big Mother Drone (half the size of small single engine Cessna, so the “Big Mother Drone” would be kind of small too) circling high above which could refuel and rearm its Baby Drones.  The Baby Drones, with fixed wing, and not those noisy slow helicopter things that the Taliban could swat like flies, could identify a target from up high (or use Targeting Info from the Mother), cut power and go into a silent dive where it would buzz close enough to shoot one small caliber bullet into the head of its target (the accuracy of its aim assured by using the same Image Stabilization circuitry that steadies the video in almost every cheap camera sold today), then  the Baby Drone would rev back up and climb back up to ‘Mommy’ to dock and take on another load so it could make another pass.  You don’t need a 2500 lbs. drone carrying 250 lbs. missiles that price tag out at two and a half million dollars in order to kill somebody when a 20 cent 22 bullet from a $2000 Baby Drone could do the same thing.   It would kill somebody just as dead.   But so far I haven’t heard that the Americans are fielding any such Weapon’s Systems.   It seems that   Generals are generally slow and stupid when it comes to adopting Innovations.  Only during Major Total Wars where Nations are Fighting for their Survival do the Generals seem to allow themselves to be influenced by Technologies and that is only because they see themselves running out of bodies that they can through into the Battle (for instance, in World War I the British had prototype Tanks almost from the very start of the War but resisted the very idea of them, that is until they suffered so many losses that by 1917 they were entertaining the idea of bringing tanks onto the Battlefield to replace the men they no longer had, but then America came into the War with the promise that there would be thousands of new bodies to toss into the Mauls of Death, so the Tank was again put on the strategic backburner.)

 

Anyway, I wonder whether the American Generals genuinely realize what they are getting into.  Maybe they think that what fighting they have seen from the Taliban in these last few Slow Years has been everything they got, and so they suppose that it wouldn’t take much more to knock them over completely.  Maybe they don’t realize that Obama’s Engagement Rules actually served to encourage the Taliban to cut way back, and to hold most of their material and personnel assets in reserve in order to consolidate, rebuild and re-arm, probably for the eventuality that when America does leave, the Taliban can quickly pounce on Kabul Puppet Regime and return Afghanistan to the 2001 Status Quo.

 

America could be unloosing on itself an avalanche of the best insurgent fighters in the World today (a mix of salty old ‘unkillable’ Vets and zealous young athletes) who have behind them warehouses (or ‘warecaves’) full of new weapons, stockpiles of ammo, and enough high explosives to place an Improvised Explosive Device on every other square inch that America wishes to step on or near.  And it wasn’t some stupid Trump idea, either.  These are Career Generals we are talking about!  But, on the other hand, Trump did use his Presidential Powers to reshuffle the top levels of the Chain of Command at the Pentagon.  I suppose the Moron might have put the Block Heads in charge.  Maybe all the Big Thinking is being done by a guy called Mad Dog.

 

If I were a Ground Pounder in the American Services, I would be nervous right about now.  When you kiss your wives goodbye it’d probably be a good idea to tell them that it’s okay if they make plans without you.  And then with as much peace of mind as you can muster, jump up on your horse and ride off to your own Little Big Horn.   

Successful Negotiations with North Korea

Certain Presidents of the United States are continuously repeating the notion that Negotiations with North Korea have been “failing” for the last several decades and that it is time to take a new tact.

 

Well, we need to ask ourselves “What constitutes a Successful Negotiation?”  If we want Peace then we can say that Negotiations are “Successful” as long as Peace is maintained.   Well, the President said it himself, that nothing has changed for decades with North Korea.  Well, we have been At Peace that whole time, haven’t we?   And President Trump seems set on the Idea of ‘changing all that’.

 

Yes, I have heard that the President feels that our Negotiators have been humiliated because they have not gotten all that they have asked for.  Well, I can see that Political Appointees might be subject to ‘feelings’ such as ‘humiliation’, but seasoned professional diplomatic personnel are above such pettiness.  I suppose it is like Professional Pig Farmers not taking the Squeals personally.    

 

Besides, Trump is being a bit simplistic about the History of Negotiations with North Korea, even when taken on his own terms.   I can suspect that Trump ignores all his Official Briefings on the Subject, if he permits himself to be briefed at all, but opens his mind only to what he gets from FOX TV.   And what I don’t expect he would ever hear from FOX TV is that the Clinton Administration successfully negotiated a Treaty with North Korea which put an end to their program for uranium enrichment – they actually shut down their one and only reactor and it was indeed verified that they filled the entire installation with concrete.  But there was a change of Administrations from the Clinton to the Bush, and a new Republican Dominated Senate refused to abide by the Stipulations of the Treaty.  You see, the United States had agreed to build or have built several Oil Burning Power Plants and to supply the Oil.  Bush and his Senate, arguing only that the North Korean’s “couldn’t be trusted” were actually the ones to renege on the Treaty.  Yes, maybe details were found that North Korea was not complying with, but history apparently found them so insignificant as to forget what they were.  Besides, the Devil in many of these Treaties are the Small Details.  If you look hard enough you can always find some violations somewhere.   It is sort of like a 55mph speed limit on a Las Angeles freeway.  The Cops could really just pull over anybody, couldn’t they?   It reminds me of one of Iraq’s ‘Compliance Failures’ prior to Baby Bush’s Invasion.  A certain DD Form was not filed.  Iraq argued that they did not even use that DD Form (an American Department of Defense Form) but the Bush State Department, eager for War, was able to point down in Subparagraph aaa.211c on page 578 that such a DD Form was indeed specifically required.  “There!  We caught you!”

 

Of course, this suggests the notion that the American Diplomatic Corps is actively deceitful.  However, in my heart of heart, I only suspect deceit from the Political Appointees.  The Career Professional Diplomatic Corps is probably less likely to lie, cheat, deceive and play clever Lawyer Tricks with the Truth then are Politicians and their crony Appointees.   

 

Oh, and the Trump Administration may offer an instance were no Diplomats are involved at all, or not significantly involved.   You see, Trump has surrounded himself with the Military.  In all previous American Administrations there was a clear separation between the Departments of State, which dealt with the Diplomatic Relations among other Nations, and the Department of War, which was subsequently euphemized into being called the Department of “Defense” even though the great majority of American Military Adventures are not defensive at all.  But my main point here is that diplomats have been largely removed from the equation.   America relies on it Military People to Negotiate Peace.  But I do not see this Task as anything that would come easily to any American Military Man.  You see, America has too long a tradition of demanding Unconditional Surrenders.  You see, if you examine History you will find that Demanding Unconditional Surrenders prolongs Wars.  After all, how can you REALLY ask anybody to surrender and put down their arms unless they have Some Idea what they are Surrendering to?   An Unconditional Surrender essentially implies the understanding that the Victor can slaughter every man, rape and then kill every woman and child, bulldoze every building, and then salt the earth.  You know, sort of like Israel would like to do with Gaza.   Considering such a serious drawbacks, one could then wonder why the Idea of Unconditional Surrender became so dominantly popular among the Militarists.  Well, we need to ask ourselves “who gets to Negotiate ‘Conditioned’ Surrenders?”   It would be the Military Field Commanders who would make the deals in order to secure the Surrenders of a City here, an Enemy Commander there, or perhaps even an entire Nation.   For instance, when Napoleon Bonaparte was still just a General he had secured the subjugation of Italy not just on the Battlefield but through Negotiations arrived at largely on his own Terms.  The Italians laid down their Arms because Napoleon offered ‘Conditions’ they could live with.  But back in Paris the Politicians felt that Napoleon had failed to say “pretty please”.  

 

So America, spoiled by Easy Wars where they come in at the end of brutal conflicts between other Nations to finish off crippled and weakened foes (such as with both of the World Wars), or tiny little Nations whose Military Assets are dwarfed by America’s casual Military Might (such as Iraq and Serbia), has Normalized the Habit of insisting always on Unconditional Surrenders.  Generals are simply supposed to Fight to Win and to let the Politicians and State Department do all the Heavy Lifting were THINKING is concerned.  THAT has been part and parcel of American Military Culture now since the Civil War in the 1860’s, from the days of Ulysses S

. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant”.   So this inflexible American Military way of dealing with Conflicts not only prolongs and protracts Wars but makes Negotiations impossible as the Generals seem to insist upon Unconditional Preconditions even before the very first Talks can commence.   This is also how Israel has avoided Peace for so long.  Israel insists that the Palestinians refuse to Talk when actually they mean that Palestine refuses to Unconditionally Surrender;… that if the Palestinians want to be able to “talk” about how many men, women and children won’t be put to the sword; how many buildings won’t be bulldozed, and how much earth won’t be salted then they need to concede that Israel has the perfect right to do all that if it really wants to. 

 

Anyway, America needs to bring back its Professional Diplomatic Corps.  If Just Talking can stave off War, then Just Talking would be a wonderfully effective tactic, wouldn’t it?  Of course, here again, America, under Trump, has been stymied.   You see, the present Secretary of State, while more sensible than most of Trump’s cronies, is still seriously suffering from a career spent engaged in a self-deluding state of tunnel vision and wishful thinking.  He was CEO of a Big Corporation where things are not run on the Basis of Information Intelligence but on the basis of CEO hunches and guesses which are supported by a multilevel cadre of Yes Men and Butt Kissers.  That is how Capitalism Works.  They claim it to be very successful, but this is only because Capitalists of the same stripe largely monopolize ALL the Big Corporations, so they really simply don’t have any Intelligent Competition to compare to, or at least not in America where they control who gets funds from the Big Corporate Banks.   So, America now has a Spoiled Rich-Brat Hunch Artist as Secretary of State who has marginalized his Career Diplomats, and even Downsized his own State Department, guaranteeing that his own Power to Accomplish Anything would be eviscerated and marginal.    He effectively presided over the poisoning of the well he would be expected to drink from. 

 

So, looking objectively at it all, I would say that prospects for Peace are rather dismal if one were relying only upon America.  I suppose the World will have to cross its collective fingers and hope that North Korea, China, Russia and perhaps Europe can pull together enough influence to keep America from rashly jumping into a needless and perhaps catastrophic War.   But, even the World seems to be behaving irrationally here.  It seems that the World’s Solution is to implement a colossal framework of draconian Sanctions designed to totally strangle North Korea’s Economy and make them Totally Desperate.   Yes, Economic Sanctions worked in bringing Iran to the Peace Table, something that  the Trump Administration now so little appreciates.  But Iran has a huge Politically Active Business and Middle Class which even their Hard Liners need to recognize and placate on occasion.  And Iran actually does have Elections.  But with North Korea the World seems to want to commit a Genocidal Slaughter using Starvation, Disease and Civil Discord as their Weapons (three of the Horseman of the Apocalypse to save us from the fourth which is War, which would probably ride in anyway).   The World’s hope with these Sanctions is to be able to leverage the policies that come entirely from only One Man (“kill the Snake’s Body and the Head will die too”).  Or maybe the World hopes that there will be a Rebellion before everyone dies.  However, in the Real World, we know that one can Maintain Order simply be feeding the Order Maintainers.   For instance, if we look to some very unfortunate occurrences in History, we can discern a number of clues as to how the Nazis ran their repressive and murderous Concentration Camps.  They could not afford to commit a great many Military Personnel to maintaining these Camps, so they set up a Privilege System among the Inmates themselves.  The Privileged Inmates got fed only so long as they were able to maintain order.  So maintaining order is what they did.   Perhaps this could raise questions about all the Holocaust Survivors we heard and know about.  How was it that THEY survived when everyone else died?  And of course to know the Truth about it we have only the word of the Survivors – the “Truth” is whatever Story they decide on, isn’t it?   The Dead can’t argue, can they?   It is probably much like Battlefield Survivors, were the Courageous and the Heroic who exposed themselves to Enemy Fire and are Killed, but those who dodge and duck and manage to keep their heads down survive.  Heaven only knows what ‘Lone Survivors’ do, or don’t do, in order to stay alive, and we could expect that few would freely admit to deserting and waiting back in the Woods, tucked under a log, until all the firing stopped.    In such terrible and unfortunate circumstances we can almost certainly be sure that the Dead are much more noble than the Living, and so it is a shame that they were the ones who had to die.   It seems to be Evolution working in Reverse – the Survival of the Least Morally Fit.  But to get back on point, from a Regime as sophisticated and Worldly Wise and free of Sentimental Illusions as the North Korean Regime, we could expect that even a significant proportion of the Population could suffer and die while the Regime would still be able to struggle on.  And if the Regime is ever confronted by the situation where its Armed and Well Trained Army becomes desperate and can no longer be placated and relied upon, well, then What Would the Regime Lose by Going to Nuclear War?

 

Hmmmm.  I better keep thinking about all of this, because from where I see it now, I honestly don’t believe there is any hope.  It’s like every player on the Field is doing their utmost best to screw it all up.  Maybe it will be good for Wall Street – using Short Contracts they can effectively Sell High, right before the World Cataclysmic Apocalypse, and then Buy it all Back REALLY Low.  Not much will be left, of course, but at least they will be able to say they own Everything… oh wait, they already do.   As I said, it doesn’t seem to make any sense at all, does it?

Open Letter to North Korea’s Kim Jung On

 

Dear Chairman Kim,

I am an American and have heard of your determination to defend North Korea and that you believe that you are now in a state of War with the United States.   Given what you believe you know, of course all of your actions would seem to be warranted; however, I believe you are unaware of just how much the current President of the United States is being effectively contained.   Of course you know that President Trump has absolutely no experience with Politics or with Leadership.  Nobody under him is really loyal to him or even needs to be.   The worst that can happen to any of these Underlings is that they will lose their Job, and under this Current President, losing their Job is perhaps the Best Career move they could make.  You see, everyone hates the current President.  It is really no secret.   You yourself have described him perfectly and every official American in Washington D.C. begrudgingly agrees with you.   

 

But you worry that the current President can still give orders.  Well, that is true only up to a point.  The President has surrounded himself with Career Military Officers.  The President himself was only a Real Estate Developer in an Economy where the institutionalized Tax Structure and Bankruptcy Laws made it virtually impossible to fail, and even given that, every Real Estate Developer in America who started at the same time as Trump with one tenth the money, is now at least 10 times as Rich.   So you can easily imagine what his Career Military Officers must think of their President.    His present Chief of Staff, a Retired Field Marshal, is rumored to have 3 things always on his person – the first is a signed letter from a Doctor stating that President Trump is incompetent.  The second thing is a copy of the 25^th Amendment stating that an “incompetent” president can be summarily relived from  Duty, and the 3^rd thing is high pressure syringe stick that can blast a strong sedative into the President even through his suit jacket which could put him to sleep in seconds.    I feel that you should know this, so that if you have been hearing through your Unofficial Channels that the Institutionalized Career American Government is assuring your Existential Safety, then you can perhaps give yourself the comfort of believing them.  

Of course, it still is worrisome that so many Career Military Officers seem to be in complete charge of things.  The Career Diplomats and State Department People have been sidelined and so now all the “diplomatic” work is being done by Defense Department People and the President’s amateurish Political Appointees.  And the Military knows only one thing  -- as they say “a handyman that only has a Hammer thinks that every problem is a Nail”.   And so from these Militaristic “Diplomats” we hear of all these Preconditions to Talks about how North Korea must TOTALLY disarm before America will even come to the Table.   Of course, that is just silly (after all, America tolerated the Nuclearization of Everybody Else, and so why not you too?   Why should anybody suppose the consequences would be any worse?).  I am sure that more reasonable proposals are coming your way via the Unofficial Channels.   Unfortunately this may be pointing out an inherent weakness in Democracies, that it always seems More Popular with the Masses to ‘talk tough and threaten war’  when simply negotiating a Settlement would be easier and far less costly in both blood and treasure.   So all the REAL Talks must be done Unofficially.

But, given the current situation under the current American Administration, you cannot expect any break through with Negotiations.  For that you will need to be patient and bide your time until the Profession Career Government People can again return Government to some rational Order once a new President, from either Party, can come to power.   But in the meanwhile, you should rest easier with the assurances that nobody will obey any crazy orders from the current President and that if he does go ‘over a certain line’ he will be instantly bundled up and taken off to Walter Reed Hospital and placed in the Psychiatric Ward where he will not be able to do harm to a single living soul.

Government by Meritocracy Aided by Supercomputer AI

Technology changes everything.  I remember intellectual discussions 50 years ago where people would argue that Communism, specifically Planned Economies, couldn’t work.  Back then it was hard to argue the point because one realized that there would be too much important data that one would have to keep straight, and the legitimate concerns of multitudes of people would inevitably fall through the cracks.   But in the late 1980s when Computers started winning Chess Matches and we were hearing more about Super Computers, then it became reasonable to argue that Super Computers could help with all the essential data, but there were still concerns about what the heck the Super Computers were expected to do with it all.  Yes, I knew how Supercomputers were used to ‘Model’ various constructs, but the Models were always so dependent upon just the right set of assumption algorithms.   A planned economy could still go belly up simply because the programmed assumptions were off the mark, in the same way that Super Computers programmed to Model Weather Patterns and Hurricane Tracks were getting it wrong a great deal of the time.  But now we are being presented with the combination of Super Computers and Artificial Intelligence bolstered with Machine Learning capabilities. 

 

The Super Computers would handle the Data.  You could upload hard data on every recorded economic exchange, market data, weather data, consumer data, polling data, school and court records – if it is on a spreadsheet then it can go in as Hard Data.  You could also upload Soft Data such as Economic Projections from specific pundits,  Trade Publications and Scholastic Papers, News Editorials and Opinions, Social Media chatter,  fashion trends, Hit and Cancelled TV Shows, Movies and Media.  Then, with the capabilities of AI and Machine Learning (where you give an AI System a Goal to achieve and it constructs a Best Guess Methodology for pursuing that Goal by considering all known variables, but then, without further programming instruction inputs, it can refine and adapt its Methodology to achieve its directed Goal in an ever more efficient and elegant manner), then the System could ‘learn’, or rather,  ‘teach itself’ what it all Hard and Soft Date means and how to apply it to achieve its Set Goals (you can imagine how this would work – at super high speed the “System” would  endlessly create new Comprehensive Models of Reality using years old sources of Hard and Soft Data and the compare those Models’ “predictions” to subsequent  Events as they really occurred, rejecting inaccurate models and refining those models that were most successfully prophetic).  Once reliably predictive Models of Reality are created within the “System” one could have a high degree of trust that the System would Know What was Going On and know that if such and such an Action were implemented then there would be a Certain Resultant Effect.  Depending on the Set Goals of the System, providing that the Set Goals are not impossible demands, a Government and Economy directed by such a “System” would continuously trend in the direction of perfectly conforming to those Social Political and Economic Set Goals.

 

Obviously the Set Goals would be very important.  Just the requirement that they not be impossible would greatly constrict many of the envisioned possibilities that could be politically imagined.  And to be Possible would imply that the Goal must be Sustainable.  Right there we could eliminate any Set Goal that includes any notion of exponential Growth because any exponential expression, no matter how seemingly slight the positive exponent, such as an interest rate or rate of inflation or GDP (Gross Domestic Product), will eventually veer up in a curve toward Infinity which of course is impossible to ever reach.  We can see that even now.  In order to maintain a system of Capitalism based on lending money at exponential rates of interest, it is necessary to continuously increase the Money Supply at roughly the same exponential rate. 

 

Likewise, Set Goals should optimally be set so that Conditions do not hit Saturation Levels beyond which one would run into the Law of Diminishing Returns, in which steering inputs have less and less influence.  An example of this could be that as Fossil Fuels become more and more scarce, that it could possibly take more energy to extract and process them than they are intended to provide – effectively costing more than its worth.   So just in order for the “System” to maintain an optimum level of Control, resource demand must be way down from saturation levels and levels of diminishing returns, that is, the “System” should not just target Sustainability, but Sustainability within a healthy margin.

 

Of course we could expect many people to be disappointed with “Sustainability”.  Right now the World has several millions of people who are extremely wealthy and therefore control a huge proportion of the Earth’s Resources and we can understand well enough that they would be very happy with the present arrangement.  But the drawdown they put on the Earth’s Resources are unsustainable and any “System” that would impose Sustainability would certainly run afoul of this Most Affluent Economic Class.  It is unfortunate that not everybody would be delighted with a Plan that is ultimately necessary, because Unsustainability eventually would hit a very hard wall.   We can either turn away from that Wall while we have a chance, or slam right into it. 

 

But, yes, it would be nice if everybody could be Happy.  One factor I believe could be very significant in engendering a general ‘happiness’ and that would be in regards to increasing the Available Resource Per Person, not by trying to create or procure more Resources, but by allowing for a steady decrease in the Number of People.  For instance, if the planet had 12 Billion People, then, however resources were allotted, we could not imagine that a significant percentage of this mass of humanity would have much to be thankful for.  However, if the Planet’s Population was allowed to contract to about 200 Million, that is about 3% of what it is now, I could more easily imagine that the quotient of Available Resources Per Person would be high enough where we could all understand it in terms of being a General Condition of Prosperity, where not only basic needs would be met but where there would be plenty extra for artistic, creative and social flourishing.   And then with the Human Population cut way back, there would be not nearly the need to put so much land under the Plow and the grasslands and forests could be allowed to return, and all that increased greenery would suck a lot of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and promote more leaf-to-air evaporation which would increase the Cloud Cover which could reflect some of the Sun’s heat energy back up into space, as well as providing more rain which would serve as a Positive Feedback for even more forests, grasslands and greenery.  So less Population would be a Win Win for everybody that would be alive, as those who are never born really wouldn’t have a say in it.   But, yes, I can imagine how most women of childbearing age would wish to have a baby, or babies all their own.   I suppose the social solution for all these women yearning to be mothers would be to give up on the Nuclear Family and transition to female centric Communities where many women could live together and participate in the rearing of a few children.  Of course Men could visit, but it would be best for men to live apart.  You see, Men could be far better Role Models if their visits were kept brief, that is they could come wearing their best cloths, and dine with the Community and engage in some hours of Social Activity – Dancing and Music or whatever.  They could show themselves to their best advantage, and then go back to their own Male Oriented Quarters where they could again pick up on all of their casual nasty habits, and, most importantly, live well clear of feminine scruples, fussiness, and nagging.    And, of course, in the Women’s Community the few children would be the center of it all.  I suppose there would have to be studies made on how to prevent all these children from growing up absolutely spoiled rotten.   Or maybe “spoiled rotten” would become the new Personality Normal.  We’ll leave that to the Future. 

 

Oh, and by now most readers must have reached the inference that for the “System” to really be viable, it would have to be Globally implemented.  Just One Country could not solve all the World’s Problems if all other Nation were pulling in the opposite directions.  Of course now it would be politically impossible to envision a Unified World, but perhaps in a Generation or two the People of Planet Earth will come to develop a more Cosmopolitan and less Nationalistic Point of View, and begin to understand that Economic Competitiveness is just the World Fighting Against Itself, where One Group succeeds by holding the others down or even by doing deliberate harm to them.  It shouldn’t be long before the Peoples of the World develop a Vision that embraces the Virtue of Cooperation.   Then the “System” could be implemented Globally.

 

In a previous blog I had mentioned having a Meritocracy, that is, a Government composed of People.  But what would we even need them for if we were effectively automating Government with an Automated “System”?   Well, somebody has to interface with the “System” and monitor it if for no other reason than to assure the People that the “System” does not suddenly go “SkyNet” on us.   And you can imagine that a great many people’s natural political leanings would have them complaining about how the “System” was being wasteful and giving everybody else everything but screwing over their own particular set of self-interests.   It would be the role of People in Government to respond to such criticisms.   Indeed, not just chronic complainers would be asking questions but I would anticipate that the Universities and the Press would be curious to know why and how the “System” was making its decisions.

 

You know, it would probably be no easy task for People in Government to answer for the Doings of the “System”.   You see, the “System” is in effect Thinking Inductively and making generalizations using billions of data particulars in its logical-rational-practical process for decision making.  Even if you asked the “System” to explain itself, could anybody be expected to understand the Answer?

 

Well, that is why you need a Meritocracy.  You would need really the Best and Brightest across many Intellectual Disciplines – Economics, Sociology, Education, Psychology, Criminology, History, Agricultural and Animal Sciences, Medicine, Health Care, Disease Control, and especially Public Relations.  They could be organized into Departments which could again be subdivided and compartmentalized with Specialized Experts scattered about with the hope that no matter how obscure some problem, concern, or enigma, that somebody within the Meritocracy could be expected to get a handle on it and be able to somehow conceptualize a coherent explanation for it. 

 

In order to facilitate communication between Men and Machine, the “System” could be fed a detailed assessment of each Official’s scholastic background – every book and paper they ever read and everything they ever wrote.    So when the “System” would be asked a Question, it could be specified that the Answer should be specifically tailored to the understanding of a Specific Department or Set of Individuals.  Of course, I could allow for the “System” augmenting its Answer with ‘Suggested Reading’ recommendations for certain individuals whom the “System” believes most capable of understanding its “Answer” but whom the “System” anticipates could still use a bit more ‘background info’ before heorshe could fully grasp of the concepts being discussed.    

 

Of course, much of the activity in each Department would be solely to satisfy their own curiosity, and undertaken for the reason of conscientiously monitoring the “System” and to forestall being taken by surprise by It.  And frankly I believe that most of this ‘Specialized Detail’ would bore the General Public.  Yes, the Meritocracy should be ‘transparent and forthcoming’ to the People who have to live with the “System”, and specific information should be allowed to those who ask for it (particularly those who are studying for the next cycle of Civil Service Tests which would be the Gateway into becoming part of the Meritocracy).  But burying the General Public in millions of pages of scientific gibberish would perhaps obscure more than it could reveal.  It puts me in mind of how Lawyers will create a Contract that is 68 pages of legal gibberish in microscopically fine print simply so they can hide one predatory clause that is easier to sign up to if it remains unread.  Too much information can often serve only to cloud what is essential.

 

Just as the Departments were created as an interface between the Meritocracy and the “System” so the Meritocracy would have to have a similar Office for interacting and communicating with the Public.  We could call it the Office of Public Accountability, the OPA.  The OPA would be a Synthesizing Level above the Departments and so it would need liaisons between the Departments whose jobs would be in trying to discern the Big Picture Processes that the “System” is implementing.   You see, while the divisions between the Departments make perfect organizational sense, still, in the Real World there are no hard and fast border lines separating things – Economics affects Society affects Criminal Behavior affects Media Trends, etc.   So the OPA would have to review, reflect and determine whether there is anything that we can Humanly Understand about the “System” Operations that is useful or important and could be of interest to the General Public.   In this sense the role of the OPA is largely that of Public Relations.   The Job wouldn’t be easy.  The OPA would have the difficult task of distilling all the specialized techno-talk and expert-speak of the Departments into something that any normally educated member of the General Public could grasp.   Some kind of balance would need to be struck between the extremes of overwhelming the Public with specialized obscurity, and offering so little explanation as to appear vague and uncertain.

 

One concern I have regarding a Computerized AI Supercomputer System is that its Super Efficiency would come at the price of a Super Complexity.  The World’s Population would depend upon it for the Distribution of All Necessary Goods and Services.  But what if the lights went out?  What if a very intense Solar Flare where to have the intensity of a Nuclear Bomb’s Electromagnetic Pulse and fry all the circuits?   Humanity would be helpless.  So this is another reason to cut way down on Population.   Is we continued then, as now, to concentrate hundreds of millions of people together in urban concrete jungles hundreds of miles away from cultivatable land and irrigation water, and the “System” were to shut down, the results would be unthinkably catastrophic.   So the Population must be kept within viable limits calculated to be able to survive a “System” breakdown, and  that Population should be spread out in areas that could, in the event of an emergency, be quickly converted to agricultural use.   One of the most important roles of the Meritocracy would have to be in regards to Contingency Planning and Preparation,  that is, if the “System” goes down there would have to be a “To Do” List for each and every person, so that actual people could step in and take over in the Distribution of Necessary Goods and Services.