Get Up, Stand Up

2008 Called. It Wants to Know What Happened to Barack Obama.

One of the many little thrills of being a part of the Obama campaign four years ago was a deep and abiding sense that, finally, a political leader had come along who could live up to our highest aspirations. Yes, Obama was cool and played basketball and was conversant in ironical youth culture, but when it came down to it, he was overwhelmingly serious. The other guys were hauling unlicensed plumbers onstage and suspending their campaign at the drop of a hat, but Obama kept his eyes on the prize and played the grown-up. Now he's talking about "Romnesia."

More Congressional Fail: Elected Officials Think They Are Underpaid

(follow-up to Huffington Post piece-- read comments!)

absolutely outrageous...  

Changes in technology and in how information is shared both further and faster are transforming how organizations operate. Thomas Malone, of the MIT Sloan School of Management, shows how the changes in organizational structure mirror changes in how human society has organized and operated. His presentation illustrates that these changes can be primarily tied by a single factor, the cost of communication, and he presents present-day examples to show what the organization of the future may look like.

From the Snowden, Poitras, Greenwald AMA on reddit

SuddenlySnowden EDWARD SNOWDEN 3499 points 2 hours ago*

"What's the best way to make NSA spying an issue in the 2016 Presidential Election? It seems like while it was a big deal in 2013, ISIS and other events have put it on the back burner for now in the media and general public. What are your ideas for how to bring it back to the forefront?" (masondog13)

Snowden's reply:

"This is a good question, and there are some good traditional answers here. Organizing is important. Activism is important.

At the same time, we should remember that governments don't often reform themselves. One of the arguments in a book I read recently (Bruce Schneier, "Data and Goliath"), is that perfect enforcement of the law sounds like a good thing, but that may not always be the case. The end of crime sounds pretty compelling, right, so how can that be?

Well, when we look back on history, the progress of Western civilization and human rights is actually founded on the violation of law. America was of course born out of a violent revolution that was an outrageous treason against the crown and established order of the day. History shows that the righting of historical wrongs is often born from acts of unrepentant criminality. Slavery. The protection of persecuted Jews.

But even on less extremist topics, we can find similar examples. How about the prohibition of alcohol? Gay marriage? Marijuana?

Where would we be today if the government, enjoying powers of perfect surveillance and enforcement, had -- entirely within the law -- rounded up, imprisoned, and shamed all of these lawbreakers?

Ultimately, if people lose their willingness to recognize that there are times in our history when legality becomes distinct from morality, we aren't just ceding control of our rights to government, but our agency in determing thour futures.

How does this relate to politics? Well, I suspect that governments today are more concerned with the loss of their ability to control and regulate the behavior of their citizens than they are with their citizens' discontent.

How do we make that work for us? We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.

You can see the beginnings of this dynamic today in the statements of government officials complaining about the adoption of encryption by major technology providers. The idea here isn't to fling ourselves into anarchy and do away with government, but to remind the government that there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed, and that as the progress of science increasingly empowers communities and individuals, there will be more and more areas of our lives where -- if government insists on behaving poorly and with a callous disregard for the citizen -- we can find ways to reduce or remove their powers on a new -- and permanent -- basis.

Our rights are not granted by governments. They are inherent to our nature. But it's entirely the opposite for governments: their privileges are precisely equal to only those which we suffer them to enjoy.

We haven't had to think about that much in the last few decades because quality of life has been increasing across almost all measures in a significant way, and that has led to a comfortable complacency. But here and there throughout history, we'll occasionally come across these periods where governments think more about what they "can" do rather than what they "should" do, and what is lawful will become increasingly distinct from what is moral.

In such times, we'd do well to remember that at the end of the day, the law doesn't defend us; we defend the law. And when it becomes contrary to our morals, we have both the right and the responsibility to rebalance it toward just ends."

“The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.” -CS

Reading Stephen Hawking’s opinion piece in The Guardian today made me think again of Sagan...  Specifically, the Pale, Blue Dot and his last interview with Charlie Rose...  if you’re familiar with either then it will be no surprise why I had to choose a Carl Sagan quote as the title of this post...  

There’s a lot to unpack in Stephen Hawking’s opinion piece in The Guardian today...  his words tie together so many themes that you will find in my online collections and things I share...   

“This is the most dangerous time for our planet” 

Sounds pretty dire, huh?  But at the end of the day I agree that there’s hope... 

One Last Thought (via my page on space/perspective)

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified facade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.” — Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 astronaut

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ps

Who is CS?  Carl Sagan of course...  I recently posted about him because it was Cal Sagan day a few weeks ago...  funny enough, he also came up today in a discussion at work in reference to the recent post about his course notes, course materials, and more being available in an online Library of Congress collection...  check out the links for more information and food for thought...  

Kardashev Scale

The Kardashev Scale – Type I, II, III, IV & V Civilization

Will Mankind Destroy Itself?  (video)

see also my posts on Fermi’s Paradox and miracle of life

as well as these links: Why is the Scale of the Universe so Freakishly Large? Science Says Earth is One of 700 Quintillion Planets in the Universe

Dyson Sphere:  Capturing the Power of a Star infographic

Advanced alien civilizations rare or absent in the local universe  via Physorg.com

Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the Rocket Man With a Sweet Ride

Museum

Elon Musk pledges $1 million to help build Nikola Tesla Museum

The Oatmeal convinces Elon Musk to donate $1 million to Tesla Museum

Hyperloop  

MINISTRY OF INNOVATION / BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY Hyperloop—a theoretical 760 mph transit system made of sun, air, and magnets

SpaceX

After successful landing, SpaceX to sue Air Force to compete for launch contracts

Tesla Motors

FTC sides with Tesla, says it should be allowed to sell directly to consumers

New Jersey bars Tesla from selling cars directly

Why Elon Musk Just Opened Tesla's Patents to His Biggest Rivals

Will Richardson's latest talk:

The Surprising Truth About Learning in Schools | Will Richardson | TEDxWestVancouverED

Beliefs about how we can help students develop into powerful learners versus how schools work 

We know how to help kids develop into powerful learners. Now, we just need to make that happen in schools. "A parent of two teen-agers, Will Richardson has spent the last dozen years developing an international reputation as a leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks and education. Will has authored four books (with two more on the way), including ""Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere"" (September, 2012) published by TED books and based on his 2013 TEDx talk in Melbourne, Australia. ""Why School?"" is now the #1 best-selling TED book ever. A former public school educator of 22 years, Will is also co-founder of Modern Learner Media and co-publisher of ModernLearners.com which is a site dedicated to helping educational leaders and policy makers develop new contexts for new conversations around education.

Formative vs Summative Assessment