Showing posts with label confusion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confusion. Show all posts

Monday, February 7, 2011

Global Warming: Balancing Perspectives and Facts

Here's a great illustration from InformationIsBeautiful.net on the often stark contrasts between the "industrialist-capitalist" apologetic front and the ongoing scientific research and consensus on the effects of the CO2 on global warming. The concept of "truthful speech" is evidently a virtue long-lost in the antiquity, when we live in a world where warped or false state statements to advance slanted agendas have become the norm of the day. Below is a composite of the diagrams for eye-food. Please see the full documented illustration and related notes on the website.

= A Compilation of Illustrations from the Global Warming Visualization =

People keep thinking the world isn't ever going to tip out of balance despite our global efforts to sap her dry and to pump her full of every conceivable kind of harmful substance in liberal excess. Hoping to consume without worry for the future is however a very short-sighted utopia. Our imaginative sugar-coatings of the emerging problems may give us a hollow sense of solace, yet if we fail to address the actual existing problems at the bottom of the buzz, all we will have accomplished is juggling a parade of words while the world grows all the more morbid on the background.

Whenever you take too much and neglect the greater balance, whether in nature or the society, you'll be deprived of the pleasures of your loot at the end of the day. If you don't build with two eyes for sustainability, you're not going enjoy a balanced life-cycle in production — a concept not at all outside the realm of common sense, if you care enough to actually pause and think about it. There are no infinite resources, there is no infinite tolerance — and if you don't know where exactly the line is drawn in water, then by all means err on the side of caution!

= Fact Checking: "The Global Warming Skeptics vs The Scientific Consensus" =

Foresight is everything if you intend to operate on a scale with potential global impact, whether we're talking about governments, corporations, or anyone else in the helm. The evil of confusion is rampant in the absence of foresight for sustenance and balance, and this cardinal vice is at the heart of countless environmental disasters. Greed makes us blind in one eye; greed-driven power blinds them both. And we all know the story of the blind leading the blind into the proverbial dark pit!

= Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526–1569): The Blind Leading the Blind =

As with the global warming chart here, whenever we form opinions and broadcast thoughts on important topics like these, let's seek to look at all the perspectives — if only to ensure we're actually commenting on the real issues deserving attention, not just the ongoing popular hearsay. Whether it's politics, global warming or ideological conflicts, we need to carefully identify and understand the variables and relations of the whole big picture — and to keep double-checking our perspectives to ensure we're battling beyond the lofty realms of our stimulated imagination!

There's too much broadcasting of strong opinions in proportion to the little homework people do with the information they digest and pass on as facts. A saturation of convoluted opinions and off-balance commentary leads to an overall convolution and degradation of the level of helpful and constructive discussion, leaving the actual pressing issues all but resolved while we bicker on about trivialities. Comparing perspectives and getting to the bottom of claims is not optional at this point, for the amount of warped information flowing across the cyber-highway has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade.

= A Holistic System Definition: Spirituality and Wisdom Grid (SySpir) =

Let's not contribute to the confusion, let's contribute to the solutions! The actual solutions will only become more evident once we've cleared through the buzz of confusion and arrived at real data and more reliable information to work with. Check your sources and distill information to facts, look for gaps and seek for the full spectrum of insight, double-check your own thoughts and question your trail of reason, keep your approach open and subject to recurring peer review — and contribute your share in a solution of wisdom to heal the growing state of confusion in the interconnected world of information.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pogo vs. Towers of Confusion - Epic Battles

General Confusion, the veiled enemy within our lines, slips in through the gates of deficient understanding of the efficient and latent factors, variables and patterns governing the actors and the field of activity in our existence. A stubborn human lack of insight offers him a safe haven, a virtually infinite breeding ground for his clandestine sabotage.

As thorough and symmetric understanding of our base existential dynamics decreases, entire infrastructures and establishments collapse — ground to dust and powder in the heat of their own increasing friction, meeting their demise with the cancer of pathological asymmetry, leaving but a residue of ashes scattered in the winds of entropy. To gain a clear perspective, Pogo has to conquer the Towers of Confusion first.

Pogo starts his quest up the long and slippery steps of the Tower of Confusion.
He needs to press the red button at the top and take the whole tower down.
The Troops of Entropy, led by General Confusion, will mercilessly burn to ashes world empires, nations, corporations and companies, social environments, networked platforms, software architectures, and even your very own psychological domains. The Winds of Entropy and the slow-acting Poisons of Confusion can decimate everything from the smallest microcosm to the greatest macrocosm.

Learn to observe and understand the dynamics across your systems, seek to transcend the pandemonium through astute wisdom. Understand the functional symmetries of your environment, and seek to nourish and advance them with your thoughts and actions. Symmetry leads to balance, and balance is a prerequisite platform for happiness and fulfillment — rewards rarely found on the slippery slopes of confusion.

If you drive a submarine, you can move under the waves of Confusion.
Otherwise, cultivating a high lung capacity can be a versatile asset —
especially in a two-player game with a one-seater bubble submarine.
"Pogo starts from the bottom and has to find his way up to the top. Along his way to the top of the tower, Pogo encounters many different enemies, mostly shaped like basic geometric shapes. Pogo can shoot some of the enemies, while some are impervious to shooting. Contact with an enemy knocks Pogo down to the ledge below. If there is no ledge below, Pogo falls into the sea and drowns. Once he has reached the top of the tower, Pogo needs to enter a door to trigger the tower's destruction mechanism. After that, the tower crumbles to the sea. " 

Nebulus was one of my great inspirations during my early formative years with technology. Pogo's enemies, as the common problems we encounter in our lives, are mostly shaped like basic geometric shapes. The trick to success is to gain extra lives on the way up, because Pogo will unavoidably fall to the sea at times as the Troops of Entropy are raging in full spirits. The better Pogo can understand the nefarious moves and strategies of General Confusion, the smoother his conquest of the towers of confusion and entropy will become. Thumbs up for Pogo — he's my childhood hero!