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Re: [ba-unrev-talk] Connecting the Dots... but "don't metaphor mein." - Andy van Dam



Eric Armstrong wrote:
"John J. Deneen" wrote:
  
Well, here's an interesting reference to review and discuss:

     "Guns & Butter" investigates the relationships among
     capitalism, militarism and politics. Maintaining a
     progressive perspective in the aftermath of the September
     11th attacks, "Guns & Butter: The Economics of Politics"
     reports on who wins and who loses when the economic
     resources of civil society are diverted toward global
     corporatization, war, and the furtherance of a national
     security state.
     <http://www.gunsandbutter.net/home.htm>

    
I went there, and saw a page with a couple of links to people,
but no content to discuss on the page I saw. Was there 
something there that you thought was pertinent?
OK, so why can't you just take a few minutes to do a Google search?

E.g.   As a starting point with pointers to many other links.
Unanswered Questions: Thinking For Ourselves: Citizens' 9-11 Inquiry
<http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0208/S00096.htm>
<http://www.rise4news.net/GNB.html>

Threaded Discussions

UnAnsweredQuestions.org is an on-line community of concerned citizens, researchers, independent investigators and journalists asking and exploring unanswered questions. Our intention is to add energy to those who participate in a spirit of independent, non-partisan and useful inquiry. We believe that good questions can lead to answers and solutions. We believe in transparency that supports people and possibilities with uncommon sense.

We are starting with questions about 9-11 the US and international response to 9-11. These questions lead to deeper questions about the sustainability and integrity of our cultures, our governments and our economy.

If you want to know more, perhaps you would like to read the brief, pleasant history of how we got started.
<http://www.unansweredquestions.org/>


So, perhaps investing a little more of your time in some kind of Collective Intelligence for insights on "unanswered questions", then developing and sharing some profound knowledge seems more reasonable than a just a reactive pro/con IBIS approach that eventualy leads to a misleading reductionist conclusion.

As a responsible published writer and programmer, hopefully you will consider the necessary precautions before misusing IBIS technology since whether you realize it or not it could become out-of-control and dangerous.

You're making up rules and law as they go -- one accommodates the other. The beast is mutating with the ferocity of a lethal virus -- it has the character of a plague.

There's got be be a better engineering approach, as Doug has repeatedly suggested in many similar ways:
[ ...] don't just apply computer technology for office automation processes and limit its scope by focusing on specialized knowledge (i.e., connecting the dots) governed only by extrapolated business/marketing value-propositions, but do apply it in principal to "The Augmentation of  the Human Intellect".
This paper set out the basic ideas that have continued to guide Englebart's work:

"By 'augmenting human intellect' we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems. Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by "complex situations" we include the professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, attorneys, designers—whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years. We do not speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, intangibles, and the human "feel for a situation" usefully co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids." (Englebart, Augmenting Human Intellect: Introduction)


For instance, can you imagine how a misleading reductionist conclusion from a reactive pro/con IBIS discussion could  simply be automated end-to-end for a speech writer to deliver to Pres. Bush?

E.g.
<http://home.attbi.com/~charlibrary/bushspeech.swf>