Friday Philosophy: Looking back at the present

The WeaveMothers agreed with a request to vibrate a string.  They were whole as well as individual.

Maybe the unit would understand.

Imagine a future.  In my future, you would choose a good one, one good for coexistence on this planet as long as we all have to live here.  

See if you can act so as to turn reality towards that future.  Plan.  Create or discover the necessary resources.  Shape a scheme.  

Set up the dominoes, as many as you can build, and try to find the words that will generate the change you seek.  You will undoubtedly fail.  Analyze feedback.  Loop.  Hope for convergence.  Better yet, design for it.

[Have I mentioned I once took a class in Optimal Control Theory (feedback control and system stability)?  Probably not.  Ordinary differential equations.  Linear and non-linear systems.  And I taught linear programming many times over the years.  I believe all knowledge gained is to be used, even for purposes for which it was not initially intended.  And everything happens for a reason.  Including my education.  Even my signing up for that course on a whim.

It dawns on me that this is part of the reason I sometimes have gotten annoyed at lack of feedback.  Feedback loops work  better when there is more accurate feedback.]

Repeat over and over again, adding to the resources, revising the plans, changing arenas as necessary.  Alter the initial conditions somehow.  See if I can find the words to to start the dominoes knocking each other over.

Do what I can do.  Incite, maybe even inspire, other people to do things which will add to what I can do.

Then do more.

If nothing else, maybe set an example.  Inspire someone else to imagine that future, so that maybe it could be kept alive.

I wonder sometimes if anyone will be there to keep this hope alive.  And wonder if some day change in the trajectory of reality will be achieved in an amount sufficient to converge to that future.

What else is a human being meant to do?

As the teacher once said,

We seek to fling our students, like peas, into the future.

A better future…and with the hope those students will pull the present towards that future.  And with hope that we have had more students than we realize.

Rapidly would be nice.  I struggle with impatience sometimes.

Relative Size Small Moments I am not John Chapman But I’d be honored if some of my words were the seeds for someone like him If history has taught me anything it is that it will not be me who can spread those words and the thoughts they express It takes someone like you rather than someone like me All I can do is interact with you make a minor adjustment in those small moments that make change possible –Robyn Elaine Serven –June 6, 2008

This unit thinks she understands your message.  I will attempt to vibrate accordingly.

This unit thinks she understands your message.  I will attempt to vibrate accordingly.

“This may have happened before,” vibrated a WeaveMother.

“Or it may not,” came a response.  “Perhaps that event was this one.”

The WeaveMothers pondered.

In some future WhereWhen happentracks were minutely altered as the locomotive changed direction.  The Greataway was vast and held a nearly infinite number of possibilities.

The Listener waited for the Tale to continue.  Creation myths had always been a favorite.  Co-creation was even more fun, what with reality twisting and all.

A WeaveMother became aware of the passing of the train.  The Greataway was vast indeed, with even enough room for it to converge now and again.

Millions of intricate moves.

We live in an occupied country, misunderstood;

justice will take us millions of intricate moves.

–William Stafford, from Thinking for Berky

How better could I spend my time?