Meetings work on protocols.
Pre-meeting needs are time, place and agenda and introduction.
Greeting protocols like handshake, bow, bare right hand and exchange of cards.
The cup of coffee before, water during and tea or gift afterwards enhance bonding.
Computers do the same, as in IP the Internet Protocol. Each computer has a number, so to exchange data, the numbers are connected as in a phone system.
For efficient networking, both computer and driver and driver’s mindset must be in synch. Hence the research and money in user interfacing. The failures of systems are as more due to unforeseen computer phobia than to malfunction. A nice example of this en masse is the national reaction to the death of Diana. There needs to be a resonance of processes between the minds of the composer and the audience. Note also in the Diana case the interaction of the audience: shock, tears, action, blame, involvement. Reinforced by media makeover, and the various levels of discussion that triggered different reactions and expectations in each viewer. Branding is currently effective but will ultimately become a turn off.
For a system to work, there needs to be parallel resonance and pleasurable interaction between the end users. Ongoing systems need ongoing market involvement from top to ground root.
Videoconferencing Some suggested uses for UK schools.
Clubs for specialist students
Secondary teaching of hard subjects like mathematics and physics
Primary teaching of rarity subjects like computer science
Revision sessions
Intra-school and inter-school meetings
INSET sessions to illustrate techniques and possibilities
Daily and extra-ordinary senior team and departmental meetings where needed.
Careers advice by past students.
Mentoring of student and teachers.
Outsider-led support for focus groups on topical issues eg cyber bullying. parental involvement, reactions to current media issues, local opinion leaders.
Feedback from parents on progress and problems. This could be edited, batched and dealt with by phone or email. The video equivalent of voicemail.
Of course safety, child safety and total political correctness must be fully taken into account before there is any thought of using any of these. Schools have a duty of care, and the reputation of the institution affects the education of students very strongly. It is also crucial that the school retains the respect of the students, by delivering the very best it can, and explaining and justifying any deficiency. Able students need guidance on how to rectify or work around the matter.
Transport
Why do we travel? We all desire novelty and change. Our genes leap up at the prospect of new fields. Our mental habits refresh better in challenging environments. Tedium reduces intellectual brightness. Hence art, Hollywood, and music. But with travel comes pollution. Decay for those stuck near the paths of travellers. In every empire, travel has been for the aristos. With government army if needed. To expand the empire or protect the leadership, usually. In a democracy we are each the governor of our province, briefed to beats the bounds. Driven by ancestral need, we travel. Blanking the damage we do to ourselves as we criss-cross the paths of others. And unaware of the physical, mental and moral stresses on ourselves.
Morality
Ethics we leave to philosophers. Pricipia Ethica being a major heave by a heavyweight economist (Maynard Keynes). Morality is the standards we try to live to. The commandments, pillars and tenets of the major religions being a solid basis for comfort. Of course the wine of hypocrisy – see the Screwtape letters by Narnia’s creator CS Lewis – is still a major sin. Very hard to escape, hypocrisy. It besets us all as we justify our living standard relative to the rest of humanity. Slavery is meat to the hypocrite, excessive profit rare wine. And the turning of cheeks is welcomed as opportunity by the slaver. Position on the koros-hubris-ate-nemesis loop probably determines the bounds of morality.
Celeb effects
The unseen triggers of evolutionary herd behaviour condemn us to ignorance of the attractiveness of celebs global and local. Few can resist the royal contact of knighthood, the team feel of the football pennant, the film made by a star. We justify them to ourselves by dreaming of glory, status for family, influence, wealth. They influence career and private life, others’ opinions of us, and self perception. Like alcohol and the rest, we are insulated from reality and fly the daily coop for a while. Perhaps a necessary escape, with a small price to pay. And perhaps essential for every culture to keep its citizens in parallel on the flightpaths.
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( 3.3 / 140 )The Roller
Volume 1 Number 0.4
With thanks to Slashdot, Homer the Greek, The Register, Cervantes, Bryson, Andrew Och, Dominus illuminatio mea and much sf.
Themes this week and next
• Governance
• Religion
• Prison
• Cures for sleep apnoea
• Education
• Networking
• Transport
• Morality
• Celeb effects
• Blame culture
• Recycling energy
• Nuclear politics
• Triggers for good hysteria
• Dreams of power
• Pschological strictures
• All is memory and process
• Who shall be king?
• Using less utility: water, energy, oxygen, space, community, ..
• Why would I lie to you? Old tendencies. I lied, so I lived.
• Why schools, like hospitals and courts and media, will fail.
• Prisons a victim of success.
Piece structure
Paradox or puzzle. The two sides. Dichotomy resolved. A solution.
Governance
Democracy is not very good but it is the best we’ve got. This euphemism is a weak palliative to the myriad fears about the destructive effect of our current ruling forms. It leads on via ‘You can’t buck the market’ to helpless inertia. [Of course you can buck the market by changing it, by creating your own niche, by selling security. Or by moving.] So the young get toys to manipulate hormones and mental patterns, families get nappy changers and church communities, grandmas get influence, and oldsters get Floridas. One soundbite is about the time we give to choosing which party instead of inventing, contributing to, and driving our own. Trial idea: a public list of ideas worth working for. Such as this one.
Religion
Opium of masses or vessel of true culture or bringer of at-one-ment. The nature of god reflects the evolutionary stage of the creator of the religion, not just the numeracy of the priesthood of the day. As a joint effort, churches seek to be narrow to survive passage through the gates of their holy cities. Thus the western religions, where the med was surrounded ankle deep by settlements and stone strongholds. Dreams of unassailable temples and cathedra were offered to replace the malice of the invader with a benign and caring discipline. Hence the popularity of church and mosque as refuge from reality for the children of the book. And the Bo Tree for the East , where the elder religions have escaped the localised pastor and given those with freedom from feeding themselves the chance and desire for a re-make.
Trial idea: Would a cyber-centre for change backed or fronted by the physical version for initial group editing. A melding of wikis, perhaps.
Prison
The only purpose of prison is to protect society. True but a sad reflection of our inability to use prison to protect society. Some spend millions keeping millions behind wire, some find that too expensive, and some just execute by labour camp. Slavery is a similar problem or opportunity depending on your attitude to it. Most of us are happy to enslave and see enslavement as just, effective, and part of the natural order, which it always has been. Particularly when others are doing the slaving, and we can then evaluate both sets and come out doubly virtuous.
Trial idea: Open prison, with degrees of incarceration depending on the needs of society and the individual.
Cures for sleep apnoea, the bane of millions.
Contrary to the medical and lay press and phone-ins, there are cures for snoring and sleep disturbances that work and work well. Sadly they clash with western culture and its capitalist rules. The cures are cheap, effective and permanent. They need discipline, care and understanding. They involve posture, diet, positive attitude and patient input. Plus a little flexibility.
Those whose soft palettes fall into the airway when on their backs should sleep in the recovery position.
Those whose bulk makes the recovery position untenable should fix it.
Those with problems digesting lactose should cut out dairy, especially after midday.
Those with nasal passages that block or drain badly – snufflers - should sleep as upright as is needed for automatic draining. An adjustable bolster under the mattress if need be.
Those with compacted throat tubes could stretch them with a rolled up pillow tucked under the side of the neck.
One couple we know use an adjustable bed with mutual flip up. Neither patient nor audio sufferer complain.
A massage at bedtime on feet or higher can help quick drop off.
Mental stimulation of the cacophonous sort like TV news after dusk is a no-no.
Dark is essential, quiet is beneficial.
Contrary and constructive opinions would be welcome while the medical world seeks consensus.
Trial idea: If these fail, write in to the Review of Sleep Research or similar publication.
TBC
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