Next time I see some really cool clouds I'm going to try and make a point of filming them. I wrote a nice PhotoShop filter (it's really simple, just an unsharp mask, a sharpen mask, a hue change, a difference undo, and then another hue change) that I think does a nice job on clouds (which I wanted to use time-lapse style in the new BME FILMS intro for the DVDs that are produced inhouse).
By the way, I think that Al Gore did an excellent job on SNL last night; he's definitely the most relaxed and comedically aware politician that I've seen on TV (a surprise to many I'm sure, but the reviews are so far universally positive). I was thinking though — how freaky must this make the US political system seem to people from other parts of the world? It's kind of weird when you think about it in light of what the purpose of government is.
But everything's weird when you look at it's root truths and meanings; look at money. What is it? What does it really mean? Rewind farther and ask “what has value”. It all comes from natural resources and the ability to exploit them. Land, food, oil, power (even solar power comes from the sun), and so on. Yes, labor has value too, but ultimately it's all just traded for the products of the earth and the sun.
Let's look at three technologies that will become available over the next hundred years:
- Small cold-fusion/zero-point/etc. power generation. That is, a small box in your closet that can generate reasonably unlimited amounts of power for essentially zero cost. So energy is free.
- Small automated manufacturing devices. That is, a small box in your closet, that given a certain amount of raw materials can build you anything you ask it to. So all products are free.
- Small automated recycling devices. That is, a small box in your closet that breaks apart anything you give it into its component raw materials (which could then be fed back into the second device).
The world will get very weird then — and don't think the current powerpeople don't know all of this. They know that when this occurs, money won't keep them in power in the same way, so they'll need to exercise control more directly. Which is why the US — clearly the world's leader in pushing blindly toward the future — administration seeks to put into place civilian control mechanisms via the Homeland Security bill and so on.
You'd think those three devices would put an end to greed… But greed isn't just about having more than your neighbor. It's also about your neighbor having less than you. Which means that if everything is effectively “free”, the only solution for those who want power is to take things away from others.
