On: Neon Genesis Evangelion

The series starts out looking like it's a shallow minded mega-mecha romp, catering to a Japanese obsession with giant humanoid robots. Only a few subtle pointers suggest otherwise: some non-linear story telling, and a focus on paralysing psychological problems on a part of the main character.

Pay attention to the details that flash past in the lengthy titles if you want some early clues about things. The title music is a purpose written, cheesy, Japanese synth-heavy song (with often indecipherable translation), and the outros are (sometimes amusingly) different versions of “Fly Me to the Moon” in 'Engrish'.

The "Eva" mecha things, each piloted by specific kids, blunder through 1 battle per episode, each against a unique "Angel". It begins to get formulaic; a cross between that awful 70s TV sci-fi "UFO" and Zoids. The whole set up seems pretty arbitrary and silly in many ways. But hidden depths are slowly revealed, until, by mid series, the episodes undergo a phase change, to earnest plot development.

There are no explicit explanations by the end; the last 2 episodes are almost entirely a surrealistic exploration inside the psyche of the main character(s) mind(s). Considering, at length, the meaning of personal existence and the identity, finally resolving into acceptance and connection/merging will all other character[']s [minds/souls]. This is the Human Instrumentality Project, that has apparently been the mysterious goal of the powers that be all along.

Religion:

There's many Judea-Christian references throughout, mostly symbolic to start with, then more explicit and apocrypha (outside of modern Biblical Cannon) as the plot progresses. The Dead Sea Scrolls predicting Angel attacks (and more), the Eva's being clones of Adam (not robots at all) and humans being referred to as Lilims (i.e. from Judaism: Daughters of Lilith (Adam's first wife) and the Angle of death)... Christianity represents only 1% of Japan's population, so all these references are, I suppose, a mirror of the western portrayal of Eastern Mysticism: exotic, strange and scary.

Sexuality:

Part of the popularity of this series is, I imagine, that 3 of the 4 main characters are attractively drawn females, 2 of which/whom are about 15 years old. These could be murky waters to tread, but I think it's covered artfully, tastefully and realistically. Certainly the earlier episodes do offer a serving of titillation from the self-consciously sexy “Misato” (adult), but this is all part of lulling the viewer into a false sense of security, later broken as the depths of this character out. “Asuka” is a fiery girl desperately hung up on, and continually offering her body to, an older guy, to no avail. “Rei” is the quiet enigma (and prime selling merchandise figure), a total loner. Will she eventually fall into Shinji's arms, or perhaps turn out to be his sister (Starwars Style)? The closer she's inspected, the odder she seems: caring less about Shinji accidentally falling on her naked body, than the safety of a pair of broken spectacles. All nudity is purposeful and tasteful (unrealistically so, with nipples sometimes absent).

Shinji's orientation is a little ambiguous: he appears to lust after each of the female leads at some point. But “Kaworu” turns up towards the end, a charismatic boy who invites him to sit and talk naked in the showers, later holding his hand, then saying he loves him... I think Shinji is just relieved to find someone he can talk to and trust. And Kaworu saying “I think I was born to meet you” is clearly more about the fate of the world, given that he's an Angel and all.

Future Technology Compliance:

It seems like a complete failure at first: IRL we're 6 years from the primary setting (2015), and there's no sign of gigantic robot warriors, or sky scrapers that can be lowered into a subterranean abyss (leave alone “2nd impact” that happens in 2000). But given that the Eva's aren't actually mecha, but rather supernaturally derived entities essential to the core of the plot, this is excusable. Also, the enormous underground (lost world style) cavern, is implied to have been a [divine] creation (probably 1st impact; where Lilith, the 2nd angle usurped Adam, and gave birth to the human race, according to Wikipedia), and the city has been planned from scratch as a defendable fortress.

The near-future time-line being so close to the creation of the series (1995), presumably came about because it was so tempting to tie in the “2nd Impact” with the turn of the millennium, associated with a 2nd coming of Christ. Also, the plot relies heavily on having post pubescent child pilots, so that sets the main time frame at 14-15 years after 2nd impact: 2015. So not just arbitrary use of artist licence there.

On predicting everyday tech (in 2015) the series does OK (on balance), though perhaps it didn't bother at all, and that's just what *Japan* was like in 1995 (being so ahead of us): there's a total lack of flat screen desktop computer monitors, and “Shinji” (main character) continually listens to a cassette walkman. But the kids do all use little laptops in school, and the infrastructure of society (transport, electricity, most buildings, construction engineering) seems down to earth and sound enough (apart from a few niggles, like how exactly entire, massive Eva units are recovered from from smoking wrecks, out in the field).

Mobile phones are almost common enough, but there's no particular signs of Internet (in stark contrast to the anime film "Ghost in the Shell" from the same year), with heavy reliance on traditional voice only communications: answer machines and such. This is feasible, and anyway ties in with portraying aspects of emotion/psychology during certain events.

In fact, psychology is arguably the main theme of the series; all 4 main characters have enormous difficulties with self worth, identity and/or social interactions. (apparently resulting from writer/director Hideaki Anno's previous major depression.) These problems are impossible to ignore, when watching the series, getting frustrating almost to the point of annoyance (that the charters just can't console each other, or even get along civilly in the face of annihilation!). But there's undisputedly a beauty to the darkness, particularly with “Asuka” going from super-confident, bossy, show-off down an unrelenting spiral as her ego unravels towards suicide.

Again, in contrast to GITS, there is no (strong) AI, instead there are a trio of massive super computers based around biological brains, copied from an existing human. Even the “dummy plugs” (to control the Eva's without a pilot) turn out to be have been driven by soul-less clones of “Rei”. (Though it's far from clear on exactly what was supposed it going on there.)

There was super intelligence though; the ultimate goal of (the illuminate esq) “Seele” and the conclusion of the series: the “Human Instrumentation[/Complementation] Project” appears to be the merging of (all) human minds/souls into one, heavenly mind. There doesn't appear to be any physical method for this, purely the metaphysics the series is predicated on: breaking down of inter-personal AT fields, that boarder and protect human (and apparently angel) souls, allowing a merging referred to as the next stage of “evolution” and a return to the “primordial soup” (by far the worst mincing of science in the whole franchise...eww!).

Apart from this metaphysical silliness and the pseudo-religious references (to some extent), I quite like their definition of self: formed and shaped by interaction with others and self. Episode 25 and 26 even seem to feature versions of other characters that exist within the mind/soul of Shinji in a way reminiscent of Douglas Hofstadter's “I am a Strange Loop” (perhaps Hideaki Anno was influenced by "Godel Escher and Bach"); little doll-like personality simulations, in one's brain, that can be considered themselves to be little souls.

* Death and Rebirth

It may seem to be a summary of the series, but that's an impossible task to fit a 1 hour format. Instead it mostly just flushes out the main characters a little in readiness for the End of Evangelion movie. It almost exclusively uses footage from the original series, but in very short clips, flashing back and forth anachronistically. The result is a completely different beast to the series; simply being no time to explore the subtle development of the expansive emotional landscape of, loneliness, fear, anger and small reconciliations (that mean so much when they eventually come). Instead an impression of frantic adventure comes across. For example: among the rapid fire of clips, there is an indulgence in including the long silence, in the lift, between Rei and Asuka, which hints at the nature of the series, but I think it misses it's mark here, it's too incongruous, there wasn't the necessary context to appreciate it's emotional depth.

It might serve as a good reminder for those who've seen the whole series a while ago, but I'd imagine that naive viewers would get no idea of the chronology of events, it seems to me that it would be impossible to tell what had happened at all, even confusing which characters were being shown at times (e.g. it kinda looks like Misato accidentally goes back to bed next to Shinji, not Asuka). There is no mystery or build up to revelations, certainly there is no time for the false sense of situational stasis characterising the first half of the series.

* End of Evangelion

There is a blatant disconnect between the end of Episode 24, and the (controversial) mysterious ending, which is basically a dream sequence, explaining nothing. There's brief imagery that suggests both Misato and Ritsuko have been shot, but that's about it. Apparently Hideaki Anno was unable to finish the series to his satisfaction, due to practical limitations put upon him. There's even some imagery in the episode's title sequence that only later turns up in this 2 hour movie (e.g. Unit01 unfurling it's yellow wing things). Part 1 fills much of that gap with an emotional-roller-coaster-come-meat-grinder of solid events and a genuinely spine-tingling battle.

Be warned, if you've watch (and enjoyed) the whole series, you're about to see everything ripped, painfully to shreds with great style and tragic finesse. At the intermission we're left wondering if Shinji's about to kick some serious arse in an apocalyptic looking Unit01?... Part 2 holds no such promise, it's purely the final lament towards Armageddon (and beyond) that's been inevitable since the beginning. The Lilith/Rei goddess is (re)born very stylishly, supernatural essences merge, and the fate of humanity rests entirely in the mind of a boy who's gone way past post traumatic stress disorder, into the realms of crippling psychosis.

This was a brave ending: an epic tragedy, done the way only anime does (I've not seen a Hollywood blockbuster dare to *actually* go through with ending the world!). The fact that the series *has* an ending, and was indeed written to be a discrete (but comprehensive) statement, gives it major kudos with me. I'm not very keen on the use of real world footage towards the end (it kind of breaks the '4th wall'), but that was probably just to help really bring his message home...

“Human souls create their own bodies.”... etc, is clearly a crock of shit if taken literally. I doubt it's meant to be. “Imagination and creative power will create the future for us, and the flow of time.” Is something I believe in; our future is primarily shaped by our desires, which are only limited by our imaginations, the Singularity cometh and these will be realised, and so on. But, I reckon Hideaki Anno sees his work more philosophically as a metaphor for every-day social interaction between people; their inherent loneliness; a built in incompleteness. And probably an examination of personal difficulties he's had; the recurrent theme of running away, deliberate isolation from fear of being hurt; translates to the ultimate defensive technology: the “AT field” standing for “Absolute Terror”; the intangible boundary between minds (AKA souls), that may seem impenetrable to any possible exertions, when one's clinically depressed, has some other mental illness, or is just alive. Neon Genesis Evangelion is an olive branch extended to the world.

ZEITGEIST 2 ADDENDUM - by Peter Joseph

Official video torrent - http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Zeitgeist: German ~ "the spirit of the age and its society"

Below are my notes of significant or interesting points made in this elucidating (and highly recommended) 2 hour documentary from 2008. (Famous) quotes I particularly liked are in “blue italic”, verbatim, and my own thoughts annotate in [bold red].

Part 1 – Money as debt and control system.
Part 2 – Confessions of an 'Economic Hit Man', Globalisation, Terrorism?
Part 3 – Failings of the current system and an alternative.
Part 4 – How the universe really works, summary, action.

---

The monetary system is the biggest, and most unquestioned forms of faith. A misunderstood institution.

*** 0h6:50 - Part 1
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who believe they are free." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - d.1832)

According to "Modern Money Mechanics" (by Federal Reserve):
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Modern_Money_Mechanics.pdf]

National Debt:
US government buy (paper) money from the Fed in exchange for (paper) bonds (AKA securities). (only 3% of money in circulation is physical currency)

Money then deposited in a commercial bank. Which has an 9:1 fractional reserve obligation; $10M deposit allows $9M of extra loans to be made by that bank. (while 10% must be kept in reserve)

But that $9M is new money that can be deposited, enabling further money creation. So $10M deposit => $90M new (thin air) money, increasing the money supply by $100M overall.

Greater money supply reduces overall value of currency: Inflation.
Overall 96% devaluation in 94years (since setup of current Federal Reserve).

*Money IS Debt*

In 1835 the national debt was cleared by shutting down the old Fed, because it was controlling the government.

Debt always has to be repaid with *Interest*, so banks will always demand back (and receive) more money than they create; more than exists!: Thus more money/debt *must* continually be created to stop the system breaking. Thus, inflation is inherent.

Foreclosures and repossessions are inherent too.
[ Sub-prime mortgages aside, statistically, I suppose, there will always be some unlucky people, in that sense the banks always win. Because of this reductions in employment due to automation and recessions are big wins for banks]

Q. Who are you working for? A. the banks.
Economic slavery requires people to feed and house themselves. (Regular slaves need more looking after, more expensive)

The World Bank & IMF extend this control system to entire countries...



*** 0h21 - Part 2
Confessions of an economic hit-man (John Perkins)

"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.
One is by the sword. The other is by debt."
(John Adams 1735-1826 - 2nd president of US)

Big loans to a small country (with natural resources) inevitably go to big (American) industry to build expensive infrastructure.

This benefits only a few of the richer citizens, leaving the country unable to pay back the loan (with interest). Instead bigger loans are taken, or internal control/ownership of resources is sold out to big foreign industries. (or relinquished for political support on the world stage).

Specific examples of economic attacks:

(x) Dr Mohammed Mossadegh - Elected Iranian president 1951-53
Nationalised Iranian oil, so citizens benefit fully from it's exploitation.
1 CIA agent (Kermit Roosevelt, Jr) managed to corrupt country and overthrow him in a coup d'etat and reinstalled the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as dictator, co-operative with foreign business.
[Operation Ajax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax]

(x) Jacobo Arbenz Guzman - President Guatamala 1951-54
Implemented land rights policies to benefit the people.
Seen as communist threat in US.
Toppled by US government (CIA).
[Operation PBSUCCESS - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBSUCCESS]

(x) Jaime Roldos Aguilera - Popular Pressident Ecuador 1979-81
Oil money for the people.
(John Perkins attempted to corrupt him)
Died in plane crash. (assassination)
2 key witnesses to investigation died in car accidents.

(x) Omar Torrijos - President of Panama - 1968 1981
(John Perkins attempted to corrupt him)
Negotiated back control of panama canal.
Wanted reparations for military damage by US.
Died in plane crash (after being handed a bomb)

(x) Chavez - Venezwala 2002
Coop attempt: apparent insurrection in the streets (staged by CIA). Was withstood by president through popular support.

(x) Iraq demonstrates the escalation through levels of action taken to control a country:
1. Corruption (economic hit men)
2. Assassination (Jackals)
3. Invasion (Full Military)

Saddam Hussein (had been employed in an attempt to assassinate a previous leader). He was so paranoid, he could not be assassinated, so invaded in 90s.
Left in power after invasion, thinking he would be brought back in line (without his military), already being the type of dictator usually installed.

Reconstruction work (from invasion) given to big US companies (another aspect of the profitability of war).

[Of course there was then the highly dubious 'evidence' for the 2003 invasion. Perhaps one should watch "W" (2008) for what was going on there. Was almost certainly about securing oil supplies when it should have been about human rights. But I think US/UK citizens would actually support that anyway, perhaps many even realise this already and deliberately turn a blind eye, as they stand to benefit greater economic stability.]


Citizens of countries that historically built empires at least knew they were doing so. Those in the [west] are unaware of this clandestine empire, where there is more slavery in the world than ever before (economic slavery).

"Corporatocracy" are the contemporary Emperor (unelected, unanswerable, etc).

Heads of business tend to move back and forth into government (democrats and republicans):
e.g. Dick Cheney retired from Halliburton (big oil) during the 2000 presidential election, receiving $36M retirement, then $400k 'compensation' while in office. e.g. Bush family oil business.
[Tony Blair now works for JP Morgan Chase (which controls assets of $2.3 trillion)]

Business often forges policy and hands it to government to implement.
[Evidence all the (bad) copyright laws and such coming into force, across the world, as desired by recording industry. This industry is orders of magnitude smaller than oil, finance and retail, and it has had so much influence over policy. UMG's (25% of market) revenue was €4.65Bn (2008); $390Bn for ExxonMobil (with only 3% of world oil production)]

There is no explicit conspiracy (no meeting up to plot). They are all just trying to maximise profit (regardless of social and environmental cost).

+ 0h41 - This is "Globalisation"

Put a country in debt, then impose 'Conditionalities' or 'Structural Adjustment policies':

(+) Devalue currency => indigenous resources become much cheaper for foreign industry.
(+) Expense cuts (social programs: health , education)
(+) Privatisation - sell national services to foreign businesses.
(e.g. Bolivian government sold water company to Bechtel; price hikes caused civil unrest and nullification)
[Presumably the inspiration for "Quantum of Solace" 2008]
(+) Trade liberalization - local economy undercut by [subsidised] imports. (e.g. Jamaican farming)
(+) Allow sweatshop factories &/or environmental destruction.

It is admitted that only 40% of IMF & World Bank projects succeed (so they increase poverty overall). But industrial profits have always soared.

e.g. In 2000, 50% of Ecuador's budget was debt servicing.

World Bank is American: USA has veto power over World Bank (because it owns most of it's money).

The "Free Market" itself is a global empire.

51 of the worlds top 100 economies (by GDP) are private corporations.
[Data used in video is outdated (2000); Exxon (now biggest) stated $164Bn vs 2008 revenue of $390Bn (though oil prices have rocketed recently): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue
Puts it above Greece (at 26). Now 50 of the top ~110 economies are corporations]

47 of the 51 companies are US based.
[I make it 14 of the top 51 companies head-quartered in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue
but the film probably means, operating in the US, therefore having legitimate influence over US policies]

Then there's the World Trade Organisation to consider too.


+ 0h49 - 'Terrorists':

"Al Qaeda" was originally the name of a US database for the Mujahideen; supported by the US in the 80s against the USSR expansion into Afghanistan. (The name is only used for US propaganda)

68 American killed by terrorist acts (2004) => $162Bn global war on terror. [one part of total defence budget]
2 times more Americans die of peanut allergies.
450'000 Americans died from coronary heart disease => $3bn on research

Now 1M people on terrorism watch list.

This is all to support the establishment against growing domestic/international anti-American sentiment.

The true terrorists work in the highest positions of government, finance and business.

Before 1980 Afghanistan produced 0% world opium. 40% by 1986 (after US backed war). 80% by 1999.
[unknown accuracy, Wikipedia states that poppies were traditionally grown]

Taliban destroyed most opium fields in 2000. Since US invasion (planned before 9/11) production has broken records; 90% of world's heroin now comes from here.
[2006 figure - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban#Opium]



*** Part 3 - 0h54:40
"The best that money can't buy"

(based around) Jacque Fresco - [self appointed] Industrial Designer and social Engineer.

"Greed and Competition are not the result of immutable human temperament... greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being created and amplified... the direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive" (Bernard Lietaer - Founder of the EU currency system)


Corruption (moral perversion) is a direct result of a monetary system. Human welfare is 2nd to Profit.
(-) Serve: Dumping of toxic waste.
(-) Grey Area: Large retailers displacing small local business.
(-) Subtler: Automation replacing human workers.

So it's hard to trust people under a monetary system; they may be acting against your good for their profit. Industry does not care about people, it can not afford to, by design.

All governments: communism, fascism, democracies are just as corrupt; their societies are still run by business.

"We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both" (Louis Brandeis - Supreme Court Justice 1916-39)

McCain and Obama had largely the same major campaign contributors: big business. (they have effectively been vetted as acceptable)

Politicians can solve nothing, because they are not trained or empowered to do so. Technology is always the solution. (They are elected to maintain the system, not bring in changes).

+ 1h07 - Technology is the *only* thing that has brought improvements to everyone's lives (not politics, religion or money; false institutions)!
[I would say that money systems are a technology and have brought improvement by encouraging cooperative behaviour. Politics seems largely arbitrary, hindering as much as helping. IMHO it should only exist (in a free market) to mitigate/legislate against immoralities that are otherwise economically favourable. e.g. uphold human (worker's) rights, prevent pollution, etc.]

Efficiency, Sustainability and Abundance are anathema of Profit. Scarcity is it's main tool. (diamonds are burned at the Kimberly diamond mine to maintain the price)

[I've noticed that mobile phones, TVs, etc never get super-cheap, they just get better for the same price; to maintain business models and profit margins, obviously.]

Ergo, it is impossible to have a sustainable world of abundance, with technology developed to maximum efficiency (under the current system).

[I would argue that it's not necessarily advantageous, in the long run, to perfect technologies. Taking too long getting the most out of one paradigm could just be wasted effort, or at worst slow development to the next paradigm. After all, evolution doesn't breed perfection, it selects for any solution that works, however bizarre or marginal.]

Human nature? Or human behaviour??:

Greed is no more natural than wearing clothing!

It's going to take the redesign of our culture and values (to get rid of greed, crime, elitism, hatred, etc), and will have to be related to the 'carrying capacity' of the Earth, not some political/religious notion [ideology] of the way the world ought to be.

[Talking about 'Carrying capacity' is pretty telling to me; it implies a limited imagination of technological advance: At the moment it is widely accepted that for the entire human population of the world to live to the standard of westerners would require about 3 Earth's worth of space and resources... But that's if using only contemporary technological solutions. Everyone could eat as excessive a diet as Americans if agricultural productivity continues to rapidly increase (beyond apparently limits imposed by the total amount of arable land): e.g. GM crops, vertical (multi story) farming, lab grown meat, etc.]

+ 1h15 Venus Project - a “Resource Based Economy”:

Directly interested in personal well-being. Whereas at the moment, if there is a problem in society, it won't be fixed unless money can be earned form it.

Difficult to talk about this because the public is not sufficiently well informed of the current state of technology.

"We currently have the technology and resources sufficient that everyting we have now could be available in abundance without a price tag or submission through employment" [...hmmm???]

"At present we have no need to burn fossil fuels or damage the environment. The alternatives already exist."
(Current paradigm is there to sustain current market structures)

Solar, Wind, Tidal, Wave & *Geothermal*!
We already have abundance. No need for conservation or pricing. (These solutions are being held back because it doesn't fit existing business models of energy companies.)
[It's certainly true that the fluctuating price of oil has stifled investment in renewable (even bankrupting schemes) because the goal-posts for market parity (energy production cost) keeps changing so drastically.]

The battery technology to power an electric car over 200 miles at up to 100mph already exists and has done so for some time.
[Until very recently, electric cars (and batteries) hadn't fundamentally improved since they were superseded by internal combustion engines 100 year ago (so the story goes). I think petroleum powered cars have genuinely been the best available technology. Only recent advances in nanotechnology are making electricity storage quick, efficient and cheap enough (to manufacture) for widespread use in automobiles. Having said that, there's been a profound lack of innovation in electric vehicle technology by the major car manufacturers. All the new motor designs and battery tech I've heard of has come from small, unrelated companies and Universities.]

We should have 'mag-lev' trains instead of aeroplanes:
Fast, clean, fraction of the energy use, New York to Beijing in 2 hours.
(only held back by profit structure and energy patents)

[Pollution from the exploding aviation industry does worry me, seeing as battery power jets are not an option. And I do love the idea of hyper-sonic mag-lev trains in vacuum tubes... but the infrastructure investment (in terms of labour, time and natural resources) would be utterly vast. And it would be entirely inflexible (unlike airline routes) to demand. It's the kind of mega-engineering project that only a communist dictatorship could go through with at the moment. I think a limited number of services like this might come to be, when automated engineering-construction technologies make it sufficiently trivial. But the main reason super quick global transport won't prove popular IMHO is that it will be largely irrelevant: telecommuting, virtual presence and virtual reality close the distances involved near instantaneously, and use practically no energy (as only information is moved over the internet).

All of the other physical engineering visualised is passé-futuristic too; vast monolithic structures, epitomising blade runner esq. dystopian cities before all the grass died and the metal work got dirty. I'm not saying there'll be no place for grand architectural statements, and 'archologies' will probably even be necessary in major cities (as they continue to grow, for new reasons). But the defining engineering paradigm of the future is going to be customisation/variety/novel solutions. Saying that we are going to (or indeed *should*) get all our energy from geothermal, is committing the same fundamental mistake as predicting in the 1950s that we'd "all be living on the moon" by now; the actual reality is always more subtle and diverse than one can imagine, so all sources of power will be tapped to some extent, probably largely decentralised generation (e.g. domestic solar PV, etc), linked together by an internet-like 'smart grid'. Approached by western and developing regions from opposite directions.]


+ 1h23
US industry has a fundamental leaning to fascist dictatorship: when you 'punch-in' in the morning, you enter this world (corporate structure). And you *have to* have a job to live.

The monetary system is in direct conflict with technology:
It requires that people have jobs to earn money, thus preventing technology from freeing people from labouring, despite automation continually reducing the need for humans in the work force. This clash proves the falseness of the monetary based labour system. (companies downsize instead of reducing the working week, so we are justified fearing machines in the current system)

The monetary system will continue to paralyse improvements from technology, and must be overturned.

Virtually all forms of crime are a result of having a money system.

+ 1:27 - US has largest prison population, consisting mostly of monetarily deprived individuals.

"If people have access to the necessities of life without debt/barter/trade, they behave very differently."

[I've been thinking that welfare payments should begin to rise (rapidly). In line with increasing automation raising the level of skill for the simplest of jobs available; there will soon be no unskilled jobs available. In the limit, the only real jobs would be the ones that people want to do out of enjoyment: artists (musicians, entertainers, etc) and a perhaps a small number in R&D.

From Marshall Brain's Singularity Summit 2008 Talk: Rate of job creation appears to resume at a decreased rate after each recession [graph]. Also, employment lags financial market recovery. Productivity is shooting up 2.5% per year (in US), but compensation (pay) only rising by 0.7%, meaning that wealth is being increasingly concentrated. As soon as Bipedal robots reach near human intelligence 1/2 the current jobs will disappear. I reckon on most retail (and warehousing) jobs disappearing sooner, with RFID tags on all merchandise negating check-out clerks (and simple robot automated warehouses already taking off).]

Removing monetarism will not remove all incentives; people will still make art for enjoyment, [science out of curiosity], strive to reach for the stars.

A resource based global economy would not be perfect, just a whole lot better than the current one.



*** Part 4 - 1h32
"My Country is the world... and my religion is to do good."
(Thomas Paine 1737-1809)
[A philosophy I share]

The social values of our society is fundamentally the result of the collective ignorance of: Emergent and Symbiotic aspects of natural law.


+ Emergence - When uninhibited, all systems naturally change fluidly. There are no static, imperial truths. Therefore everyone, however intelligent they may be, will find all of their understandings swept away eventually.

Being proven wrong should be celebrated (not considered the worst kind of failure).
[This is perhaps the main reason children's rampant learning is stifled by adulthood; once society fully instils in them the fear of being wrong, trying new things becomes dangerous territory.]

People maintain the current (flawed socio-economic) system by ostracising individuals whom behave differently.

It's time to change! (monetary system)

(Theistic) religions pose barriers to personal and social growth. (preaching adherence to absolute beliefs, as opposed to logic and new information)

Lacking understanding, (early) people made God in their image [to fill the gaps]. The foundational myths of contemporary religions are themselves emergent culminations [of astrology and ancient mythology. See part one of the original Zeitgeist movie.]

Religious belief has caused more conflict and division than any other ideology.

+ Symbiotic (relationship of life)

All systems are arbitrarily invented divisions of reality. This systematised, divided thinking, is where the illusion of 'free will' comes from. Everything is actually connected!

Success relates to how well we connect to the environment around us.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality" (Dr. M.L. King Jr)

Seeing everything as you (yourself) is to have Unconditional love (for we are all everything simultaneously).

+ 1h45 - "We are one species. We are star stuff harvesting star light" (Carl Sagan)


+ Summarising:
(.) Our true problems in life are technical, not political.
(.) "Weapons of Mass Creation" (i.e. not mass destruction, e.g. a globally constructive Manhattan project)
(.) 1h48 - Fractional Reserve policy is slavery through debt, because it is impossible for society to be free from it.
(.) Free trade uses debt to manipulate entire countries into slavery.
(.) Competition (the primal basis of capitalism) by it's nature rules out large scale collaboration (for the common good).

+ Action: We have to stop supporting this system.
It has to fail. People have to loose confidence in their leaders.

(0) Reject divisionary propaganda (we are born into).
(1) Expose the Fed Cartel [US only] – Boycott: Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America.
(2) Turn off television (corporate news) - use new internet news services, and protect the internet. [Net neutrality, etc]
(3) Do not join the military. Soldiers fight for corporations, not freedom.
(4) Get off-grid.
(5) Reject the political system (2 parties supported by the same ppl).
(6) Join the movement:
Declare all natural resources as common, inform people of the true state of technology, and work together rather than fight. [i.e. the Venus project]


[(0) goes nearly without saying: religions are obsolete, nationalism is largely abhorrent. That's why I quite like the UK, as it is generally complacent and practically atheistic.

(2) “Boing Boing” et al FTW! Though I do watch a bit of channel 4 news when eating dinner.

(3) Not going to happen anyway!

(4) I desperately want to do this anyway. With solar PV following an exponential price/watt improvement trend, it'll only be a couple of years until a roof full of panels is an indisputably good investment. Electric power (ground source) heat pumps and series hybrid (range extended) electric cars too; gimme, gimme! The distributed energy revolution is coming, and none too soon.

(5) Personally I've always voted Lib Dem (Labour's been more Tory than the Tories for the last decade, who have been left without any sensible unique policies). The UK political system is not too bad; Wasteful, but not massively corrupt.

(6) I'm not at all convinced of the feasibility of this 'project' any time soon. Don't get me wrong, I think we should be consciously aiming towards something like this; a peaceful society where nearly everything is free (much like Ian M. Banks' "The Culture": http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm). ]

Who owns our national debt? (I recently found out)

With the Northern Rock nationalisation and various other bank bail-outs/prop-ups, the government has conjured up a whole load of cash from somewhere. But where exactly does a country's government borrow money from?; all the UK's other country buddies seem to be in the same situation, so surely they can't be helping out. Does it borrow from the Bank of England? If so, do they just print more money? (but that would cause inflation) I've heard that the “Federal Reserve” (in the USA) is neither Federal, nor has any reserves, is it possible the Bank of England is privately owned too?!.....:

Bank of England was originally a private entity given a monopoly over issuing money by royal charter, in return for a huge government loan. It was nationalised in 1949 [by a Labour government].The idea and reality of the National Debt came about during the 18th century, also managed by the bank. Responsibility for government debt management was transferred to the new UK Debt Management Office in 1998.

[Wikipedia]

That all seems above board; so the Bank of England is a branch of government, that doesn't really seem to do very much at all any more. An offshoot of it sells government bonds and “gilts” to the private sector. Meaning that anyone in the world with numbers in their bank account can give them to the government. Generally these generous souls consist of:

- Pension funds
- Investment trusts
- Private individuals

Of course, government doesn't rely on charity; these loans will be paid back, through future taxation (rises if necessary), and with interest. UK National debt at the start of 2008 was £512Bn with total national debt interest payments of 31Bn for 2007: that's roughly 6% per annum. 2.5% of GDP (all the money UK citizens earned that year). At the end of December 2008 after the troubles last year, debt was £697.5Bn, which makes debt repayments the 4th bigest governmnet expense, behind social security, health and education, and just ahead of the defence department! And because selling of government bonds is open market, to sell more, higher interest rate repayments have to be offered, to encourage buyers.

Sounds bad, right? But looking at the table of national debts of all countries [1], the UK is right down the bottom with it's measly 47.5% of GDP. The US has 71% and Japan 194%! Apparently it makes a major difference as to the nationality of the financial entities who own the debt: with a country of prudent savers, the Japanese own 90% of their own debt (and interest rates set by Japan's central bank are low, making debt repayments low too). Whereas, 25% of the US's is foreign controlled, meaning that it is haemorrhaging money to other economies through repayments. Biggest US debt owners:
Japan - $592bn 
China - $502bn (China has a total of $1trillion dollar based assets)
UK - $252bn

[above: US national debt, % of GDP]

To keep current events in context, look back at the figures for national debt for the last century; the recent, huge spike from pouring liquidity into Banks is barely a blip compared to the enormous burden left by the great depression and the second world war (see graph). 

Also, pretty much all governments borrow money and as a rule, (developed) countries never go bankrupt. It is a useful tool: buffering income from taxes, and allowing the purchase of infrastructure and other public investments now, that can be more easily paid for in the future, when the country's productivity has increased. As any budding Singularitarian will know, this is a continuing, exponential increase too, thanks to technology and 'increasing returns'! So why not rack up the debt a bit?!

It does bring problems that should not be taken lightly:
+ Extensive borrowing will mean higher taxes in the future.
+ It can have a negative effect on your country's exchange rates.
+ 'Crowding out' of private sector investment; no finance left for private enterprise (baulking the economy).
+ The Centre for Policy Studies argues that the real current UK national debt is actually £1,340 billion (103.5% GDP) including all public sector liabilities: pensions, Private Finance Initiative contracts (e.g. Northern Rock).
+ The 'demographic time bomb' means pension liabilities and healthcare demands are going to continue increasing massively. 

[above: optimistic forcast of UK debt]

But I haven't entirely answered my original question!: Who, exactly, owns our national debt? Which specific individuals we are subservient debtors to I did not manage to find out. I'd quite like to know (if anyone does know). I presume (given that pensions have fallen in value by a huge amount in the last few years) that it will be a load of rich, trust fund kiddies and banker types. Which would fit in with various corporate banking conspiracies. Bankers bleeding the world dry both ways: cocking up the banking industry by being dishonestly greedy, then making a killing lending money to governments, who have to save corporations that are 'too big to fail'. There seems no incentives to stop them doing this deliberately. Even if the financial clusterfuck was pure stupidity, it still makes the rich a whole lot richer.

If only the corporate media pointed concerted focus at significant issues like this, instead of going bananas over which MP used public money to unfairly buy a second toilet brush! (As Stephen Fry says too) 

I've been playing quite a bit of Simcity 4 recently (a recurring addiction), and unlike the real world, your spending is immediately stopped the second government finances hit red, and borrowing comes at a hefty 12% per annum, flat rate, which is sure to finish you off if taking out a loan because of budget deficits. Pretty unrealistic, but it's more informative (with regards to government finance and money in general) than anything I was taught at school. The origin of money and some basic political economics really should get incorporated into standard, non-optional curriculum. 

Most of the hard information above was from here: http://www.economicshelp.org/

What is money itself ???; I highly recommend watching Money as Debt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8&feature=related

Social Behaviour Catches up with Art

This latest statement from 'Anonymous' to copyright enforcers, blogged on Boing Boing, but currently disappeared from YouTube reminded me (again) of the Ghost In The Shell TV series: "Stand Alone Complex" from 2002 in Japan; 'Anonymous' is near identical to the "Laughing Man" incident that unravels through the GITS SAC series. (and I'm not the first to blog this)

"What separates the Stand Alone Complex from normal copycat behavior is that the originator of the copied action is not even a real person, but merely a rumored figure that performed the copied action. Even without instruction or leadership a certain type of person will spring into action to imitate the rumored action and move toward the same goal even if only subconsciously. The result is an epidemic of copied behavior-with no originator. " [Wikipedia]

This prescience of the GITS anime is an example of why it's so damn good; so much deeper than the unapologetically moody, fast paced action romp of Cowboy Beebop (though admitidly not quite as stylish). Anonymous and the SAC also share much with the V for Vendetta meme (Anonymous even employ the stylised Guy Fork's mask). This is an excellent movie, and probably a brilliant 1980s comic book series too (though I've not seen that). 

“Creedy: Die! Die! Why won't you die?... Why won't you die? 
V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.” [V for Vendetta 2005]

This is not the same as the previous two examples because V is clearly responsible for initiating the social uprising, most importantly seizing temporary use of state controlled TV broadcasts. In the GITS universe and our current world, this prime mover is not so important: 

Web 2.0 means that any one person's message can reach a massive audience, either by attracting a traditional media frenzy, or purely online with a catchy YouTube video. And every individual with whom the idea resonates can be a secondary source (as with wave propagation in physics). Synchronicity of people's mental states, possibly (but not necessarily) all outraged by a scientology/copyright (par example) incident, primes society. Now a single 'spark' can tip the balance, starting a 'chain reaction' (like self sustaining nuclear fission); a widespread state-change in activity: a demonstration (for example) emerges near spontaneously. 

The emergent event may easily overshadow the, apparently, precipitating message in terms of notoriety, to the extent that it never happened in the 'mind of the general public'. Like a cover song is thought original by a younger generation. As J.D. Salinger's short story, "The Laughing Man" (1949) effectively overwrote it's inspiration: Victor Hugo's “The Man Who Laughs” (1869). The Stand Alone Complex series draws heavily from Salinger's short. Not just the title, but characterisations too. The quote on the identity censorship spot (cropping up frequently in SAC and pictured above) is from Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye”:

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

Which brings me full circle: evidencing how all art (and EVERY idea of man) is predicated on previous ideas, ridiculing argument to extend copyright laws, or even their very application in the first place.

On: "Nova Swing" by John M Harrison

Generally I don't regret having done something I didn't enjoy, once, because it's a new experience and should help set the things I do like in context. But having been somewhat disappointed by the vague way Light imitated having a plot, I perhaps shouldn't have been so hopeful that the 'sequel' would shed more light on this universe; because it really doesn't! It is only a sequel in the loosest sense. There's a couple of arbitrary references to characters from the previous book, and the entire story is sat in one of Harrison's generic, pseudo Film Noir cities composed primarily of Lycra clad, horse-sized girls, called “Annie”, pulling rickshaws.

More plot is available from the back cover description, than on the pages within. It is ostentatiously busy being Avant-garde surrealism. And while this seems to have convinced a number of critics that it's clever, I found it to be a puzzle with no solution: a contrived nonsense. 

Apparently, Lisa Tuttle (THE TIMES) praises it as having “...well observed descriptions of the real world.” But the characters are only 2D snapshots of personality, each offering no more depth than could be gleaned from a single, evocative, monochrome photograph. Certainly, everyday existence can often seem impenetrably pointless, but real people and places don't fit exclusively into a dozen templates (which he mostly established in the previous book). And again he presents physical ultra-impossibilities, with the Detective's Assistant running back and forth invisibly fast, purely by means of her genetic modification.

Maybe his description of agoraphobics (for example) is spot on, and I'm just too naïve to appreciate it. Maybe I'm so hopelessly caught up with the drum beat of our progressive reality that I miss the entire point of this piece. Or perhaps it is just stupid.

On Light by M. John Harrison

Light is written by M. John Harrison and bears ringing endorsements from practically every sci-fi author of note, including 2 personal favourites of mine: Iain M Banks and Alastair Reynolds. Having also won some awards, my expectations were high. That the story opens in a “bleak Midlands town” is perhaps even more personally significant than at first glance, given the author was also born here in Rugby. 

The 3 main characters are visited in turn as the brief chapters rotate between them, each headed with a recurrent symbol to identify which, and all containing murder and sex in spades. The prose is deliberately mysterious, seemingly promising revelations just as soon as one gets to the next chapter, but then merely repeating the intrigue: frustrating. With this chapter format, one would usually expect integration at towards the end, but Mr M. scorns us here too, concluding as blunt and randomly as many of the death's along the way. One of the story lines apparently has no utility other than adding extra texture and depth to this imagined universe, as if John had some clever link in mind at the outset, but then grew lost and confused (perhaps in sympathy with the repetitive dream sequences of the other 2 plots), forgetting this purpose before he could finish... This plot is also the most atmospheric, trying but largely failing (for me) to build a sense of dread, in a similar way to what Reynolds has often pulled off.

There are plenty of mentions of fractals and chaos; buzz phrases of the latest scientific paradigm shift, well under way at the turn of the millennium, which is one of the 2 temporal settings in the book (oddly pre-dating the writing of the book by just a couple of years). There are no technological singularities in sight, and the solar system scale engineering is reminiscent of Niven and Clarke with a thin veneer of contemporary sentiments. Harrison persistently refers to space battle events happening inexact numbers of nanoseconds, giving an instant feel of obsolescence for all but the most naïve reader. These parts also appear to have gaping inconsistencies where entire conversations are had, in normal human time, about something that's going to happen within the next microsecond! :os

So, while it was easily entertaining enough to keep reading, I didn't really enjoy doing so. Perhaps I'm missing the point; it is clearly not meant to be a linear page-turner with a crescendo of peril as a loveable character (one can empathise with) overcomes the odds, saving the world and getting the happy ending.

On: Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

For someone like myself who is a long time reader of 'Space Opera' with a splash of cyber-punk, this book takes a long time to get at all interesting. In fact, if I hadn't already known the hidden depth of the plot (from a review of this Hugo award nominee) I probably wouldn't have bothered wading through the first 14 chapters; set in the 1920s, there's no indication that the book wasn't written in the same period until the “Interlude” where the cool, cosmological scale stuff is finally, abruptly, revealed. 

The end was as expected, reasonably solid, with no extra twists or turns. Heart stings are pulled sparingly, and the fighting is also more about boringly grim realism than all gun's blazing heroics.

Major spoilers: I presume this wasn't a plot hole (because they needed to be there at the right time) but: Tom Compton and Guilford Law are down the Psion's hole, in the abandoned city, mid way through the book, when they both have ghost's riding in them to an extent, it seems silly that they leave and then have to fight their way back 45 years later, perhaps Wilson should have made that a aspect clearer. The explanation of how the simulated Earth became split in the first place is half hearted. But of course, any arbitrary event is equally as feasible during a war between God-like intelligences in a simulated universe at the end of real time: an inherent problem of writing a book in such a setting. It's not clear what happened to all the souls of Eurasia in the “Miracle”, it seemed implied that the Psions had access to them with Vale communing with the dead. But as long as the makers of the Achieve ('good guys') have complete backups of the galactic history it contains, then only the individuals that had chance to deviate from their original selves (thanks to the evil Psions) represent potential casualties.

This book seems to be trying to be fully hardened science fiction: apart from techno-babble about (currently hypothetical) Higgs fields, the galactic Achieve is built in a universe suffering 'heat death' from continued expansion (what cosmologists now expect), rather than a Tiplerian Singularity at the end of a closed space-time. Similarly, the standpoint on artificial conciousness appears to be a compromise between fully Strong A.I. and the limitations Roger Penrose claims exist: Wilson has it that a machine can indeed be conscious as long as it's thought processes utilise certain quantum effects (indeterminacy & waveform collapsing, etc), exploiting the obvious hole I've always seen in Penrose's arguments. While the 'bad guys' in the book are only pseudo conscious, algorithm based entities. They are cunning enough to understand human motivations and adaptable enough to fight an information based war against the collective mind of an entire post galactic super-civilisation, but they apparently don't have that 'je ne sais quoi'.... Wilson doesn't explain further.