Daily Archives: April 5, 2017

Inside the plan to replace Trump’s border wall with a high-tech … – The Verge

Posted: April 5, 2017 at 5:07 pm

The year is 2030. Former president Donald Trumps border wall, once considered a political inevitability, was never built. Instead, its billions of dollars of funding were poured into something the world had never seen: a strip of shared territory spanning the border between the United States and Mexico. Otra Nation, as the state is called, is a high-tech ecotopia, powered by vast solar farms and connected with a hyperloop transportation system. Biometric checks identify citizens and visitors, and relaxed trade rules have turned Otra Nation into a booming economic hub. Environmental conservation policies have maximized potable water and ameliorated a new Dust Bowl to the north. This is the future envisioned by the Made Collective, a group of architects, urban planners, and others who are proposing what they call a shared co-nation as a new kind of state.

Many people have imagined their own alternatives to Trumps planned border wall, from the plausible like a bi-national irrigation initiative to the absurd like an inflatoborder made of plastic bubbles. Mades members insist that theyre serious about Otra Nation, though, and that theyve got the skills to make it work. Thats almost certainly not true but its also beside the point. At a time when policy proposals should be taken seriously but not literally, and facts are up for grabs, Otra Nation turns the slippery Trump playbook around to offer a counter-fantasy. In the words of collective member Marina Muoz, We can really make the complete American continent great again.

If nothing else, the Made Collectives members who say theyve delivered their Otra Nation proposal to the US and Mexican governments are ambitious. The proposal calls for an agreement that would turn the border into an unincorporated territory for both nations, with an independent local government and non-voting representatives in the US and Mexican legislatures. The new territory would stretch for 2,000 kilometers, covering 20 kilometers on each side of the border. (That would bring Tijuana, El Paso, and San Diego, among other cities, into Otra Nation.) Residents of the co-nation would retain their previous citizenship, but they would be granted a new ID microchip and could rely on Otra Nations independent health care and education systems.

You have to take Otra Nation seriously, but not literally

Once established, Otra Nation would supposedly produce enough energy to power itself and neighboring areas, thanks to 90,000 square kilometers of solar panels that would be installed across the deserts. Its new government would dismantle the central US-Mexico border in favor of biometric checkpoints on each side of Otra Nation, preserving and restoring watersheds and local ecosystems. It would build an intercity hyperloop network across the country, starting in the sister cities of San Diego and Tijuana. A set of sharing principles would encourage the growth of companies like Airbnb and Lyft, but prohibit ones that look to minimize human employment with autonomous vehicles and drone technologies in other words, no Uber.

Parts of the proposal, like the hyperloop, feel like science fiction worldbuilding or Silicon Valley fanfic, and the whole thing is written with the casual confidence of someone proposing a landscaping project, not a massive political shift built on technology that doesnt even exist. Its not clear how serious its authors are about their proposal, even when you speak to them. On Skype, members admit theres a very, very slim chance the US and Mexican governments will be amenable to Otra Nation. But they say theyve formally applied for a US government contract, and theyre hoping to put the issue up for a popular referendum, which they compare to the 2016 Brexit vote. We should at least have the opportunity for both nations to vote on a solution, says architect and humanitarian Cameron Sinclair.

Sinclair, who co-founded the nonprofit Architecture for Humanity and won a TED Prize in 2006, was the most high-profile Made Collective member I spoke to. Team members decline to put their names or faces on the website; their group photo shows human figures with animal heads pasted above their shoulders. Sinclair and others say that the group remains quasi-anonymous in order to keep the focus on Otra Nation, rather than the people behind it. In addition to generalist architects and designers, Made supposedly includes members with close ties to past US and Mexican government administrations. One person also claims to be working on an undisclosed hyperloop-related project.

When I ask for a best-case scenario for founding Otra Nation, Sinclair outlines a complex but surprisingly compact roadmap. By 2018, the US and Mexico would sign a bilateral agreement to form the zone, and the estimated 40 million future members of Otra Nation would have their own vote, guaranteeing their consent. Meanwhile, the Made Collective would secure funding in the form of either government contracts or multi-billion-dollar private investments. The group would begin working with companies to lay hyperloop and solar power infrastructure, while also creating the biometric ID system for citizens. I would say by 2022 we would be underway, he says. if everything went well, including getting the vote from the people that would now become residents of Otra Nation, I would say [it could open] by the mid-2020s.

Could it work in practice? Hard to say.

In reality, getting past the first step would be extraordinary. The US has unincorporated territories like Puerto Rico, and there are plenty of disputed areas, micronations, and special economic zones. But University of Colorado professor John OLoughlin, who studies quasi-recognized de facto states, called Otra Nation a pie-in-the-sky idea. I have never heard of such an arrangement, he told The Verge. University of York professor Nina Caspersen, who also works on de facto states, was intrigued but skeptical. This sounds like a fascinating idea, but without much precedent, said Caspersen, who suggested Andorra a small nation headed by co-princes from its neighbors France and Spain as a possible precedent. But even if the US and Mexico agreed to share the border, many questions would remain. Could it work in practice? Hard to say, said Caspersen. The countries could end up in disputes over defense, border security, or anything else Otra Nations government couldnt manage alone.

Basic questions about Otra Nation remain unsettled. The team describes a sophisticated biometric ID program at the borders of Otra Nation, but theres also a heavy dose of utopianism as architect and collective member Tegan Bukowski puts it, people will respect borders because the borders are no longer oppressive. I think what were proposing is a trust-based enforcement, rather than the idea that its a security based enforcement, says Sinclair. Its not even clear how the nation will keep itself running after the initial investment period. I dont think weve actually figured out the tax system yet, Sinclair admits.

Whether Otra Nation is a long-shot proposal or a pointedly political art project, Made Collective is effectively mirroring the administrations approach to the wall: an unprecedented civil engineering initiative that exists more vividly in the realm of imagination than policy. As we talk, members argue that their plan would take less time and money than the border wall, even pledging the leftover funds to arts and education agencies. Otra Nations proposal can be vague and sweeping, but so is Trumps plan for a massive, constantly changing, possibly invisible, and supposedly Mexico-funded barrier. When real governmental goals are blatant fantasy, why not present your own wildest hopes as a viable alternative?

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my family did the benedict option before it was cool – and here’s why … – Patheos (blog)

Posted: at 5:04 pm

A few years ago, I started writing a novel that was loosely based on my recollections of having grown up in and out of a series of attempted religious communities. As I wrote, I collected material from others with similar experiences, and the anecdotes piled high. Eventually I realized that some of the stories were so over-the-top, mere realism would be insufficient to convey the bizarre intensity of life on the outside of the ordinary parameters of modern American experience, and a sort of magical realist/ gothic mashup would be better. Magical realism as a sub-genre has a special place in tale-telling of post-colonial or marginalized communities. And there is something post-colonial, something of the feel of the immigrant, when you come out of community life and dwell in the mainstream. As my collection of anecdotes piled high, I found myself thinking, repeatedly, damn, this is good. I HAVE to use this one. Of course, in the ethos of the storyteller, good usually means excruciatingly bad, painful, embarrassing, tragic.

So, yes, escapees from intentional community have stories to tell, and many are painful. My own experiences verge more on the grotesquely humorous, and some of my memories are happy ones, so even now, when the experiments are over, I still can understand why something like the Benedict Option would appeal to people. In a way, it is a beautiful dream.

Because, you see, the Benedict Option though not by that name was around for a good forty years before Dreher sat down to write. My father was one of several who came up with the idea. While running a raucous bar in Chapel Hill, NC, he was also reading Thomas Merton and Louis Bromfield and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and eventually came to the conclusion that the best bet for Christians in the modern world was to come out and be set apart. He even drew on his understanding of St. Benedicts communities, with a special stress on the notion of ora et labora.

Because my father opted actually to do the thing, instead of sitting in an office writing a book about it, you have never heard of him. Which means, I suppose, that his attempt was fairly successful. But these attempts are never all that successful.

My novel The Serpent Motif ended up being 180,00 words long, which means too long to interest agents for hard-copy publications, so Im trimming it down a bit while I work on another, shorter project. And from a theoretical standpoint I could also wax overly verbose, on the idea of intentional religious community, why it is attractive, and why it wont work. I have had first-hand experience of just how things can go wrong, and lots of second-hand stories about other ways they can go even more wrong.

And theres something touchingly tragic about it: because on a fundamental level, one can see the appeal of the idea, and many of those who attempted it did so with the noblest of intentions.

Sam Rochas recent review of The Benedict Option details some of the areas in which Drehers conceptualization fails. Rocha, like me, has first-hand experience of what an attempt at community feels like. Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, guest-writing for Steel Magnificat, details why the Option isnt especially Benedictine.

And there are other problems: when you try to come Out (or In?), whatever you feared in the World comes in with you, into your microcosm. Its ironic that my fathers first community was called New Eden. Into every Eden, a serpent will come. We tend to bring it in with us. Want to escape from overweening tyrannical power? Too bad, you probably brought it with you, and you will find the community dominated by whichever leader (usually male) has the loudest voice and the least empathy. Want to escape from sexual perversion? Ha. Have I got some stories! Its amazing just how perverse people can be, on the land, when no one is looking. Want to escape from a welfare system in which those who dont work wont eat? I can assure you, you will be shelling beans or building a cabin while nearby some hanger-on rambles on forever about how misunderstood he is. Tired of nitpicking bureaucracy? Your community will be filled with nitpickers, happy to call you out if your daughters skirts are too short, or if your sons have been listening to evil music like (gasp) Simon and Garfunkel.

Communities like this tend to attract those who are unable to get along in the ordinary world, and whatever it was that made them unable to get along, they will bring in with them.

But the main thing I want to touch on, here, is why the idea of radical separation into intentional community is delusional from the start. And that has to do with money.

Money creates systemic dependence. Thats why agrarianism is a needed component in any marginally successful effort. Independence from the System means creating an alternative inter-dependence on the land. Back in the late eighties, my family and others were involved in ongoing discussions about this, with others involved in Caelum et Terra, the brainchild of Daniel Nichols. Nichols, like my father, gets the hipster cred here: he came up with the Benedict Option before it was cool. Too bad they didnt patent it.

Now, today, David Russell Mosley writes about Michael Martins Sophia Option, as an alternative to Drehers approach. Martin is a biodynamic farmer (I have him to thank for my fine horseradish planting), and understands better than a journalist what is entailed in creating a network of interconnections that differ from those in the neo-liberal capitalist system. I would suggest that any attempt at intentional community that neglects agrarianism is already problematic, because it means that one remains absolutely dependent on money, and therefore on capitalism, and therefore on industry, and therefore on the whole global military industrial complex. Which means, if you think youre set apart, youre just fooling yourself. You are living immersed in structural evil, and limply virtue-signalling.

But even with agrarianism, its impossible to avoid money. We tried. We lived on someone elses land, so there were no taxes. My parents had no money-earning work outside the home, but we lived almost entirely on garden produce. We had electricity, but no running water, no telephone, certainly no television. We heated our home with a wood stove, and my father spent all day every day all winter just cutting wood, with a bowsaw and axe (no noisy chainsaws to disturb the tranquility of nature), in order to keep one room of the house livable.

But we still needed a little money, and relied heavily on donations from those who remained complicit in the system. Which means we were complicit in the system, even if we pretended not to be.

The Onion had a funny piece, recently, about how Noam Chomsky trying just to enjoy a normal day, but everything he sees reminds him of our dependence on neoliberal global imperialsm. I sympathize. I would like to create a culture in which I know that nothing I use is made by slave labor or via environmental despoilment. I would like to rely entirely on hand-tools that dont depend on fossil fuels, and derive my energy from renewable resources. Forget about the incredible challenges of going off-grid in our society. The challenge even buying work clothes that dont tie me in with slave labor is so great, I occasionally have what my husband jokingly refers to as Noam Chomsky moments.

Unless we run off into the wild and live by foraging, and clad ourselves in natural fibers, we are locked into the System.

And even if we were to do this, the System would go on.

Unless, of course, it collapses: this was what I was raised to believe would happen, and now I regard with amusement the feverish attempts of Preppers to prepare for it.

In the Prepper mind, once the System collapses, well all be living like survivalists, foraging and hunting, growing things from open-pollinated seed. But this is again sheer fantasy. We have so depleted our natural resources, the only way a nation of Preppers would survive off the land is if most of them were killed off in the apocalyptic event, first. As it stands, an America full of trigger-happy survivalists out there bagging game for their families will wipe out the deer population in no time at all. I suppose eventually the Preppers will get around to eating one another. Radial inter-dependence on community, indeed.

So what we have to admit is that no matter how diligently we attempt to distance ourselves from the System, we are still locked into it. Or else living on a mountain dressed in goat-hide, eating one another.

So as Christians who take a serious moral stance in relation to structural evil (though we may differ in our ideas of what structural evil is: what I fear is not at all the things Dreher fears) what do we do? There have to be a range of middle grounds between total acceptance of a system that generates destruction, and the sort of radical self-sufficiency that leads to degradation, failure of community, and ultimately cannibalism (metaphorical, if not literal). I hope that, at least, the publication of Drehers book will open up more space for these conversations. But in order to sort out what is and isnt possible, we need to start by being honest with ourselves about just how dependent we really are.

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_(II)_001.jpg (This painting of The Angelus by Millet was iconic in my upbringing, an image of the dream my father had of the life of work and prayer on the land)

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5 reasons why there’s more to coworking spaces than just work – Treehugger

Posted: at 5:04 pm

Work as we know it is changing. With an emerging gig economy, and the advent of technologies that allow us to work from almost anywhere, many self-employed professionals and entrepreneurs are discovering that sometimes, working from home can be a little lacking: not much social interaction nor professional networking.

So it probably makes sense that communal coworking spaces have boomed in the last few years, catering to these independent professionals who crave the community and perks that working from home can't offer. But there's more to it than just having a nicer space to work in. If you're already working from home or from a caf, and are curious, here are a few surprising reasons to try coworking out, and why the burgeoning coworking movement can benefit local communities as well.

Perhaps one of the main reasons why people join coworking spaces is to feel less isolated. Coworking spaces can provide not only inspiring, shared office spaces and amenities like real meeting rooms, they can also help people network, swap skills and build their businesses in an organic way -- something that's much more difficult if you're working from home.

Of course, there's also the trap of sterile, "soulless" coworking places as well. So how can one separate the wheat from the chaff? As Brooklyn-based Friends coworking space founder Tina Roth-Eisenberg puts it:

Unlike most co-working spaces, I believe in keeping things small. Small community, small space. I dont believe in looking at it like a business. A co-working space should have a value system in place that everyone understands, that creates a kind, safe, supportive environment where people feel at home.

Read more: Successful coworking spaces should be built like 'intentional communities'

Another big reason for going the coworking path is flexibility and a better work-life balance. Without the need to be tied to a specific place and time to work, many location-independent professionals now have more options to balance work with play. I noted:

But why work where you live if you can take your work with you and travel? The rapid growth of co-working hubs around the world are fueling an emerging trend where some entrepreneurs, self-employed digital nomads and remote professionals are opting for what's called a "startup retreat", "co-working retreat", "co-working vacation" or a "co-workation" -- a more structured, exotic version of a regular co-working space membership, one could say.

Even if you can't travel to far-off, exotic places to cowork, one can even join a mobile coworking space that makes daily rounds for biking, hiking and surfing (of the beach kind). And if you really can't get out and have kids, you can find a coworking space with childcare.

Read more: Can co-working vacations offer a better work-life balance? Mobile coworking bus lets professionals work, hike, bike & surf Why aren't more co-working spaces offering childcare -- and a list that do

The Wing

Much has been written about how this generation's young people value perks when it comes to choosing a place of employment. That's no different from selecting a shared office space. Many communal work places offer in-house gyms, yoga classes, climbing walls, playgrounds and one even has its own plant army. And hey, if you also want to only cowork and network with women entrepreneurs? There are spaces for you, too.

Read more: Why the rise of women-only co-working spaces makes sense

The Crew Collective

As I write this, I'm sitting in a magnificent bank building in Old Montreal built in the 1920's that was abandoned in 2010. It has since been revitalized and turned into a publicly accessible caf and coworking space managed by The Crew Collective.

Across town, Temps Libre in Montreal's innovation hub is another coworking space that is doing things a bit differently: in addition to being a non-commercial coworking space, they offer the local community a library, an arcade and a cooperatively managed, flexible space and caf that's open to everyone. There are plenty of these hybrid communal spaces popping up all over the world, waiting to be discovered. Coworking spaces, if done with a larger vision in mind, can revitalize and benefit the local communities they are a part of.

hubudbali/via

Working remotely and coworkations can be taken even further into the realm of full-time digital nomadism. But being a digital nomad isn't easy; there's a lot of planning that goes into selecting places to live and a period of disorientation and not knowing anybody when you first land in a new locale.

To counter that, some now offer "global co-living subscriptions" that allow members to live and work in a number of locations around the world, such as this one that has residences in Miami, Bali and Madrid:

A startup called Roam is piloting an interesting new model where participants can sign a lease to live in various co-living spaces around the world. The idea is to foster a global community of digital nomads, while giving them a network of places to call home.

There's also cheaper and more hostel-like versions for travelling professionals, like PodShare, a "coworking and co-living community" in Los Angeles:

PodShare makes life more affordable because there is no security deposit or cost of furnishings and we provide flexible living. Pod life is the future for singles which are not looking to settle down, but focus on their startups and experience something new. [..] Were creating a social network with a physical address. Our open-floor model offers the highest rate of collisions for social travelers. We do not identify with hostelswe are a co-living space or a live-work community.

Even self-employed professionals with kids can transform themselves into digital nomad families who worldschool their kids: with the abundance of online learning opportunities, as well as real-life, hands-on educational moments found during travel or even in a coworking space abroad, working in a different and more fulfilling way is becoming more possible than ever for a growing number of people.

And hey, if you really love working from home but still crave some social interaction, you can consider setting up a coworking space in your own home.

Read more: Have work, will travel: How digital nomads are redefining work Roam: "Global co-living subscription" lets you sign a lease to live in different locations PodShare: Pod-based co-working and co-living community flourishing in LA How 'worldschooling' parents are educating their kids -- by traveling the world (Video) Hoffice project lets people share their homes as free co-working spaces

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Wade Mueller speaks on the need for Pagan homelands | The Wild … – The Wild Hunt

Posted: at 5:04 pm

Were not really Pagans. We have a Pagan veneer over the top of a Christian and secular life. Until we have permanent lands that we live on, are born on, and die on, we wont be Pagans. Wade Mueller

Those words by presenter Wade Mueller caused a noticeable change in the room during his presentation onBuilding an Expanding the Pagan Homelandat Paganicon. Attendees shuffled in their seats, some leaning forward as if to agree, while others leaned back, distancing themselves from that statement.

Wade Mueller [Courtesy Photo]

His presentation focused on how Pagans can create new homelands and why it is vitally important that we do so.

The importance of a homeland

At the beginning of his presentation, Mueller noted the paradox in members of earth-based religions meeting in a hotel to discuss creating a Pagan homeland. He then noted that while Paganism is growing, the numbers of permanent Pagan places are, in his opinion, dwindling.

We are now a religion of nomads yet all of our traditions are based on place. If we want Paganism to to move past where we are now, a social gathering, we need to do something different, stated Mueller. That something different is to buy land to create Pagan communities, businesses, and worship centers.

Attendee Steven Posch appeared to agree, Paganism is tribal, its not what you do in your own room. We need the social skills to become a tribe. If we are still going to be here in 100 years we need to do this.

In Muellers view, modern Pagans arent truly Pagans because we havent yet connected to our Gods as deeply as our ancestors, Right now its chaos. The Gods dont respect us. We turned our backs on them. The onus isnt on them to reach out to us, we need to reach out to them.

He says the only way to regain that connection is to live as Pagans on the land where you were born, where you grow your food, raise your children, honor the Gods, and rest your bones when you die. He believes those activities change the land itself, making it more sacred over the generations and encouraging the Gods to be more present and repairing the broken relationship between humanity and the Gods.

Why Pagan infrastructure projects fail

Mueller outlined how modern Pagans in the USA have typically tried to create lasting infrastructure and why those efforts so often fail. He said a few people come up with an idea to buy land or make a community center. They then appeal to the larger Pagan community to become involved and try to build consensus. That, in Muellers opinion, is where the problem starts.

The problem is when you take into account the opinions of people who will not help do the work or contribute to it, he explains. Thats where we go wrong. The decisions need to be made by those who are contributing.

His advice is to get a small group of very dedicated people who share the same clearly defined vision. He suggests no more than 2 to 5 people. If you have a group of 5 people who are all on the same page, getting together $10,000 to buy a few acres of land is easy, says Mueller.

It may take some time to raise the funds, but he says people who know each other and are committed will put $50 in the pot rather than buy an amber necklace for themselves.

He advises keeping all decision making confined to your core group and not asking the community what they want. He warns this may cause hurt feelings in the wider community as they hear about your project and want to become involved, but to not give in out of fear of hurting feelings.

Feelings dont help. Feelings dont put nails in walls.

He added that leaders willing to undertake such an important task must stay true to their vision and not let it get diluted or hanged by those outside their core group, You have to be willing to say this is who we are, this is what were doing and not back down.

He adds thatyou dont ask the community what they want built, you build it and the community will come and enjoy it later.

A second reason why many Pagan infrastructure projects fail, according to Mueller, is because the founders and the community are looking to benefit now themselves, rather than making sacrifices for the benefit of the next generation.

Mueller says Pagans need to come to terms that what they build is not theirs to enjoy, but for their descendants, Separate yourself from the now.We are building for the next generation so they can be Pagans. Thats our sacrifice.

Mueller is no stranger to sacrifice. When he was 23 he says he realized he could either devote his energy to raising a family or creating a Pagan intentional community, but not both. So he opted for a vasectomy and his legacy is the land he is shaping.

He encouraged attendees to be practical, understand that they will lose money for at least ten years, and to focus on what they are building for the next generation and be willing to make that sacrifice.

Mueller is looking to compile a list of other Pagan groups who are active, own land, and are open to the public or forming an intentional community. He hopes the groups can share tips and encourage other groups to take the plunge.

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This Week’s Reasons Why – Memphis Democrat

Posted: at 5:04 pm

Kids and kids. Photo by Christina

Every once in a while, I wonder why we decided to move our little family halfway across the countrywhy we decided to leave behind our house, extended family, jobs, schools, and a giant patch of black raspberries in our back yard.

Christina, here, writing about this weeks reasons why.

My week started off with a game of Capture the Flag on Sunday afternoon. Of the many ways that we play here, this is perhaps my favorite. Kids and adults sprinting along the paths, hiding behind buildings, chasing each other and screaming and laughing. I dont remember which team got more points, but I do remember Hassans long legs taking him and the other teams flag across the border. Being able to go outside my house, run around and laugh for 45 minutes or so with eight other friends, and then walk right back to my house with no driving, little coordinating, and no additional stress to my schedule is a great reason to move here.

Last Monday was cold and rainyit was a good day for meetings. As we gear up for the season, getting ready for tours and visitors and new residents, were busy figuring out how to make their experience here the best it can be. So I had a meeting with the tour guides and a second meeting about how to be a liaison for new residents. It might seem strange to say that meetings are a reason to move here, but when youre living in an intentional way with the people around you, it means lots of talking about how things should be done. It also means lots of listening and learning from other people. Thats not necessarily something thats always valued in mainstream society, so I am glad to go to meetings. Its worth it to me to move halfway across the country so that I can talk to other people and figure things out.

Tuesday was probably the best game of Ultimate frisbee of the season. Im not a sports person, and I hate running, and yet I love playing Ultimate. I never feel anything less than completely welcome and accepted when I play. No matter how many times I miss a catch or throw the frisbee off into the field, the other players are thrilled when I show up to play. And I feel the same way about anyone new who wants to give it a try. Besides the extra community vibes, sweating for an hour is a great way to get some cheap therapy. Problems dont matter quite as much after a good workout. Its not that it was impossible to exercise in my previous life, but it wasnt ever quite as much fun, and it definitely wasnt so convenient.

Wednesday night was another special song circle. It was raining again, but we trekked over to Red Earth Farms to sing around the table at Gooseberry. Alyson had filled the house with candles and lamplight, and we sat around in a circle singing new songs and ones weve known for a while. Ive written before about how much I love to have singing in my life, so I wont go into it all again. But when I think about what kind of coordination, driving, and tiredness would have accompanied a similar type of night in my old life, I realize that I am very glad that we packed everything up and drove those thousands of miles last year.

Thursday night was Pizza Night. I worked behind the counter making pizzas at the Milkweed Mercantile for the second time. It was a super busy night, and I spent three hours getting pizzas in and out of the oven as fast as I could. I didnt get much time to look up from the containers full of pizza ingredients, but when I did, I saw friends from the tri-communities and locals from Memphis and other nearby towns, and they were all having a good time. Ive always loved cooking, and being able to contribute to peoples special night out of the week is something that I couldnt have done in my past life, when working my one full-time job consumed pretty much all of my time and energy.

Friday was a tiny but pleasant community dinner. In fact, it was just our family plus Alyssa, Bear, and Zane, and a slightly late Thomas. We ate our regular old food, talked for 45 minutes or so, and then went home to get ready for bed. Soon enough well have the big community dinners of summer, when circle up is outdoors and consists of 30 or 40 people, when the common house and courtyard picnic tables are full of conversation, and when dinner might spill into a bonfire or an after dinner swimming session. But for now, we had a quick dinner, a few laughs, and went home. Simple, low-key socializing is probably one of my favorite reasons for living here, and so worth everything that weve left behind.

Saturday, I got to see a goat parade. I was busy pulling weeds in the garden, when I looked down Crooked Route and saw Mae leading a group of brand new goat kids, walking with their moms and Donkey. As you might imagine, this adorable parade added more kids (of the human kind) who were more than happy to carry some of the baby goats. Nobody moved very fast, but they were all cute beyond words, and also pretty hilarious. When we lived in the suburbs, if we wanted farm animals or other children for my own kids to play with, we would have to get in the car, drive, park, and maybe even stand in line or buy something. Now, the fun comes to us. And I can even keep working on my weeding at the same time.

Its become easy recently to take this life for granted, to forget how special it is, and how wonderful it is that my kids will have the privilege of growing up here. When I get so busy teaching homeschool or rushing to Pizza Night or scheduling meetings (or trying to finish this update before the deadline), I dont always stop to feel thankful for everything that I have.

Life here isnt always easy, but it is always pretty great.

Our first tour of the season will be this Saturday, April 8th at 1 pm! Reservations not required. Tours are free, though donations to help us continue our educational and outreach efforts are gratefully accepted. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community and educational nonprofit outside Rutledge, MO, focused on demonstrating sustainable living possibilities. Public tours of the village happen on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month, April-October. For directions, call the office at 660-883-5511 or email us at dancingrabbit@ic.org. To find out more about us, you can also check out our website: http://www.dancingrabbit.org.

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Reusing rockets is best way to advance space travel, SpaceX officer tells symposium attendees – Colorado Springs Gazette

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Fla., Thursday. It was the first recycled rocket launched by SpaceX, the biggest leap yet in its bid to drive down costs and speed up flights. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Reusing rockets is key to transporting humans to other planets because passengers otherwise will be making one-way trips, the president of SpaceX said Wednesday at the 33rd annual Space Symposium at The Broadmoor hotel.

Gwynne Shotwell, who also is chief operating officer of the privately held rocket launch company, said the only alternative to reuse is finding materials and assembling a rocket to enable humans to make the return trip to Earth. SpaceX launched a reused rocket last week for the first time - a process that took nearly a year to complete after the spacecraft was used April 9 to ferry cargo to space, then later landed successfully on an Pacific Ocean platform.

"This ushers in a new era with more enterprise in space," Shotwell said during a brief speech and question-and-answer session. "It has taken us 15 years to get it right, and it was a lot of work. But the only way to explore the solar system and return is for the system to be reusable. Otherwise, it is a one-way trip unless they (the crew) learn to build a rocket there."

SpaceX still has a lot of work to do to reach its goal of being able to reuse a rocket within 24 hours of its first launch, which Shotwell agreed is the company's goal - though she didn't say how quickly it would achieve it.

Once the goal is met, the cost of reusing the spacecraft will drop from half the cost of building a new rocket to 10 percent, she said.

"We learned from the (space) shuttle program that reuse is really hard, especially refurbishment after the rocket has been in the ocean. Fortunately, we only needed minimal refurbishment on the engine," Shotwell said.

A reusable spacecraft is a key element of the company's planned mission to Mars because "when we do that, we will have the ability to bring (the crew) back. It is important to live on more than one planet. It is risk management for humans."

She told the crowd she "hope you all are thinking of buying tickets to Mars" and took a shot a competitors who have shunned reusing rockets as not economically feasible, saying she believes "you will see that position changing."

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Cheap space travel, electric cars and a whirlwind love life love life… the billionaire genius inventing our future – Mirror.co.uk

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When Hollywood star Robert Downey Jnr won the part of Tony Stark ingenious engineer turned comic book superhero Iron Man he says there was only one muse who came to mind.

Silicon Valley geek turned multi-billionaire Elon Musk may not have invented a super-powered armoured suit with which to save us all, but hes just about thought of everything else.

Musk, the 80th richest person in the world, worth 11billion has made safeguarding the world his business, with an eclectic catalogue of far-out ideas.

The first step is to establish that something is possible, he insists with indomitable superhero confidence.

Theres his 36.44billion electric and self-drive car business Tesla, speeding towards an eco-friendly horizon and saving us from our toxic selves.

Alongside sits SpaceX, Musk s foray into the universe, which aims to send us to Mars in reusable rockets, settling a million people there by the mid-2060s.

And then theres the most futuristic of all, Musks medical research company Neuralink, which aims to connect human brains with computers.

Recently, he joined Donald Trumps Manufacturing Jobs Initiative as an advisor and he is also part of the US Presidents economic advisory board.

Meanwhile, as Musk drags the world into the future at a speed to rival his rockets, his personal life is mirroring the breakneck trajectory.

At 45, hes already been married three times twice in the space of three years to British St Trinians actress Talulah Riley. And most recently, hes been linked to Johnny Depps ex, actress Amber Heard .

Musk says total lack of fear lies behind his fast-fuelled decision-making and achievements. Fear is finite, hope is infinite. We are afraid of failing, but it doesnt stop us from trying, he once said.

People should certainly ignore fear if its irrational. Even if its rational and the stake is worth it, its worth proceeding.

South African by birth, the entrepreneur was raised by his engineer dad Errol and dietician and model mum Maye.

He has a younger brother Kimbal, also an entrepreneur and millionaire, and younger sister Tosca, a film producer.

Born in 1971, by the age of 10 long before computers became mainstream childs play Musk showed an interest, and just two years later taught himself computer programming.

His first creation was a video game called Blaster, which, at age 12, he sold for 400. I have two brilliant children, but Elons a genius, said Maye.

I can explain Tosca and Kimbal pretty well. I cant explain Elon.

Maye and Errol split when the children were young and they remained with their dad. It has been reported Errol was very strict, but he describes a young son always naturally dedicated to study.

Errol said: Elon has always been an introvert thinker. So where a lot of people would go to a party and have a great time, and drink and talk about all sorts of things like rugby or sport, you would find Elon had found the persons library and was going through their books.

Because he was so bright, Musk was sent to school early, the youngest and the smallest. He was relentlessly bullied.

He has described being thrown down a concrete stairwell and ending up in hospital. Aged 18, he moved to Canada, where he had an uncle.

Musk studied at Queens University, in Ontario, and, after graduation, moved to Californias Silicon Valley, armed with capital from his father.

Aged just 27, he sold his first co-founded company, Zip2, to Compaq in 1999 for 246million, earning him 14million.

PayPal, originally X.com, was to follow. Musk co-founded the online payments company and sold it for 1.2billion in 2002, making 132million from the deal.

Meanwhile, he was moving fast in his personal life, too. He met his first wife, Justine Wilson, at university.

They married in 2000. Author Justine gave birth to their first son Nevada in 2002, but at 10 weeks old, he died of sudden infant death syndrome.

Justine has said Musk bottled up his grief. Elon made it clear he did not want to talk about Nevadas death.

I didnt understand this, just as he didnt understand why I grieved openly, which he regarded as emotionally manipulative, she said.

But, with IVF, in the next five years, they had twins Xavier and Griffin, and triplets Damian, Saxon and Kai. Despite their joy, their marriage foundered.

Elon does what he wants and he is relentless about it, Justine said. Its Elons world and the rest of us live in it. They divorced in 2008.

Musk sped into love again this time with Talulah. That same year, he met the 22-year-old star in a London club. Just a few weeks later, on a hotel bed in Beverly Hills, he asked her to marry him. He didnt have a ring, so they shook hands.

It is said at work he is ferocious, He works 80 to 100 hours a week and tells employees: I want your head to hurt every night when you go to bed.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, his relationship with the actress has been a roller-coaster ride. They married in 2010, but divorced in 2012 only to remarry again the following summer.

She then filed for divorce again in 2014, then withdrew it, and then filed another time.

It probably looks mad from the outside but it hasnt put either of us off marriage. We are both very romantic people, Talulah explained.

Musk argues virtual reality is already approaching being indistinguishable from reality.

Certainly, his own star is sky-rocketing so fast its hard to decipher whats science fiction and what is not.

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Students learn effects of space exploration – American Press

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Last Modified: Wednesday, April 05, 2017 8:13 AM

By Lisa Addison / American Press

Fourth-grader Korionna Kennedy, a student at Barbe Elementary School, is in awe that she has held in her hands an object that once traveled in space. Kennedy, along with teacher Terri Miller and other fourth-grade students at Barbe Elementary, have been taking part in a Tomatosphere project, an experiment designed to help future space travel.

Our project has been amazing, said Kennedy. Its the first time in my life that I actually got to see and touch something that went to space.

Miller said Tomatosphere uses the excitement of space exploration to teach the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Students investigate the effects of the space environment on the growth of food that will inevitably support long-term human space travel.

Students were sent two packages of tomato seeds; one contained seeds that had been sent into space for six weeks on the International Space Station and the other contained regular seeds. Their experiment was to compare the germination rates of the two groups of seeds.

The project relies on a blind test, Miller said, in which educators and students will not know which of the two packages contained the seeds from space and which contained other seeds until the germination process is completed and the results have been submitted.

I am very excited to know that my students are helping to shape the future of space exploration, Miller said. The seeds are definitely germinating at different rates, so I have my own hypothesis about which group of seeds went to space. We will find out soon after we finish collecting our data and send it in.

Student Larren Guiton said, By working on this project, I had a chance to do something really special, and it has been a lot of fun too.

Miller said the whole project has felt magical. How did our school get selected to participate? I heard about it and then I simply applied. And waited. When our school was selected, I was elated. Its been a wonderful learning experience for the students.

Jonathan Walker, a student, said, My favorite part of the project is that we have been helping scientists. We collected a lot of data, and that will really help them in the future.

Fourth-grader Aniya Richard said she could talk about the project all day if needed. But if I had to pick just one thing about the experiment I can say that I love checking on the plants every day to see how much they have grown and knowing that we actually did this whole project. It makes me super happy.

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Human-Level AI Are Probably A Lot Closer Than You Think – Futurism

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What Is The Singularity?

Although some thinkers use the term singularity to refer to any dramatic paradigm shift in the way we think and perceive our reality, in most conversations The Singularity refers to the point at which AI surpasses human intelligence. What that point looks like, though, is subject to debate, as is the date when it will happen.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Stanford University business and energy and earth sciences graduate student Damien Scott provided his definition of singularity: the moment when humans can no longer predict the motives of AI. Many people envision singularity as some apocalyptic moment of truth with a clear point of epiphany. Scott doesnt see it that way.

Well start to see narrow artificial intelligence domains that keep getting better than the best human, Scott told Inverse. Calculators already outperform us, and theres evidencethat within two to three years, AI will outperform the best radiologists in the world. In other words, the singularity is already happening across each specialty and industry touched by AI which, soon enough, will beall of them. If youre of the mind that the singularity means catastrophe for humans, this likens the process for humans to the experience of the frogs placed into the pot of water that slowly comes to a boil: that is to say, killing us so slowly thatwe dont notice its already begun.

Will it be self-aware or self-improving? Not necessarily, Scottsays. But that might be the kind of creep of the singularity across a whole bunch of different domains: All these things getting better and better, as an overall a set of services that collectively surpass our collective human capabilities.

Ray Kurzweil, Googles director of engineering and a computer scientist, takes the opposite view: that a hard singularity will occur at a particular point in time. In fact, he has predicted the singularity 147 times since the 1990s, most recently going with 2045 as the year [w]ere going to get more neocortex, were going to be funnier, were going to be better at music.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank Robotics, and Kurzweil are splitting hairs as Son argues that the year for the singularity will be 2047. Despite the two year difference in their predictions, Son and Kurzweilare basically optimistic: I think this super intelligence is going to be our partner. If we misuse it, its a risk. If we use it in good spirits it will be our partner for a better life.

Not everyone takes such a positive view of the singularity: Elon Musk sees it as an inevitability, but one that demands we prepare properly. In that vein, he is working on Neuralink; atechnology and process for merging human intelligence with AI.

Meanwhile, physicist Edward Witten has said that we will never be able to unravel all of the mysteries of consciousness, which would be a stumbling block to the singularity. Computers that mimic the human brain will achieve the singularity, but what if they cant mimic consciousness because we cant explain it ourselves? On the other hand, economist William Nordhaus has studied the economic implications of the singularity, only to conclude that while it may be coming, it isnt happening anytime soon.

So, is the singularity on the horizon? Will it be a single, watershed moment in human history? Or will we simply look back someday with wonder at how far weve come, and how much has changed since we blended our intellects with AI? The same hazy kinds of memories you might have of your life before cell phones and Internet (if youre old enough to remember those times) might one day pop into your mind, recalling the days when the human mind thought on its own, without the benefit of AI.

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Informing Entities: Introduction to Entropy – Singularity or Dispersal – Huffington Post

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[Informing Entities: An Introduction to Entropy - Singularity or Dispersal]

The purpose of this essay exists as an introduction to reformulated modalities in thinkings that go beyond historical definitions of particular textual evidence. Historically, Entropy has been historically situated and textually defined for the means of studying thermodynamics. Entropy has also been defined as a process of lacking order or predictability. The origin of the word Entity comes from the latin word ens or translated to being and esse' as translated to be but the origin of the word En by itself comes from 18th century English. The term En was used during the invention of the printing press. The letter N was represented as a word because it was approximately this width and it was used in printing as a unit of measurement. En as (En-) with a prefix in english is added to nouns to form verbs expressing entry into the specific state or location. (En-) also has origins from English, French and Latin, as (In-). and examples of this would be words such as to engulfing or entanglement. (Oxford 2017) Oxford Dictionary also defines Entity as a single biological entity or the subsidiary company is a distinct entity or the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) These dictionary definitions extend to define Entropy as A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. (Oxford 2017) Neither Donna Haraways Cyborg Manafesto" or Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus discuss Entropy or (En-) in the literal or contextual sense but both readings highlight the existences of Entities. The function of this essay is to ask; What are the comparisons and correlations that allow manifestation of Entities, Entropy, and (En-) in the Cyborg Manifesto and A Thousand Plateaus? This will be done by first by understanding Identity through Alexander Weheliyes "Pornotrope" from Racializing Assemblages and Jasbir Puars Excerpts from Terrorist Assemblages in order to move into discussions of Entities. Entity is defined by Oxford Dictionary as A thing with distinct and independent existence. (Oxford 2017) but this essay will focus on the Entity that exists through Harraway and Deleuze. By a process of reformulation and specification of Entities as pluralistic and not as Entity as a singular we will be able to move to Entropy as a transient temporal space or transient time period that supports and counters discussions of The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil. Entropy as a transient temporal space reformulates historical understandings of Entropy by connecting Entity as disorder or randomness in the system (Oxford 2017) with Haraway, Deleuze and Oxfords Entity the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) We will then conclude but introduce (En-) as modalities that produces and fosters Deleuzes Nomad Thought and Harraways Cyborg into existing as a unit of measurement. This is similar to the becoming as not an evolution but involution. This involution is not a contextually defined as a shrinkage but a mathematical transformation that may exist outside of human experience. Reformulation of historical contextual and material evidence allow for what Deleuze calls an Invention of Concepts. This reformulation also allows us to turn what Harraway calls Feminist Science as practice. This essay will act as not just an amplification of their arguments but a reformulation of Entities, Entropy, and (En-) into modalities in thinkings that can exist outside of human experience.

[Material Identity: Tropes and Assemblages]

Before going into possibly foreign ideas around ideas that become distinct and exist independently outside of human experience we must discuss Identity. This Identity could be defined as either The fact of being who or what a person or thing is. or The characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. or (of an object) serving to establish who the holder, owner, or wearer is by bearing their name and often other details such as a signature or photograph. (Oxford 2017) but our current discussion focuses more on the physical or material bodies that Identity occupies. By doing this we will be able to have a better understanding of the contrast between a corporeal conversation of Entity through Harraways Feminist Science and a discursive or (non-material) approach in Entity dissection through Deleuzes Becoming. This essay is particularly interested in Identity as understood by Puar and Weheliye because integrating an understanding of tropes and assemblages will create foundations for entities. Weheliye discusses Identity by igniting Habeas Corpus into discourse and provoking Habeas Viscus. As discussed in class Habeas Corpus prevails as You shall have a body, a legal concept, whereby a person is recognized as having a right to having recourse against illegal detention. (Basile 2017) which can be described as an abstracted body in a court of law in order to officiate the body into institution. Habeas Viscus is latin for; you shall have viscera..which is elaborated by Elena Basile in class as differently signified flesh (Basile 2017) this distinction allows us to understanding that historically certain radicalized bodies have been left out and this essay aims to argue that identities or entities without bodies may have also been left out of institutional practices. These bodies may include gender variant individuals that exist outside the gender binary. Furthermore, without elaborating the concept of Pornotrope as an inversion to Foucaults Biopower..Names the becoming-flesh of the (black) body and forms a primary component in the processes by which human beings are converted into bare life (Weheliye 2014) Alexander points out here the necessity for Identities though the function of Tropes. Tropes as a linguistic signifier for ..human beings converted into bare life.. (Weheliye 2014) is questioned when an argument against what constitutes a human being arise. Identity through Puar explores bodied Identities where we are asked to Rethink race, sexuality and gender as concatenations, unstable assemblages of revolving and devolving energies, rather than intersectional coordinates. (Puar 2007) This citation correlates with our necessity to explore existences outside of Identity if Oxford defines Identity as strictly a person or thing. Concluding this first section that unstable assemblages argue against Identitarian Politics and support a conversation outside of conventional understandings of intersectionality. This non-linear progression where things do not intersect allow Entities to exists not a category but an entirely differentiated framework.

[From Identity to Entities; A Non-Linear Progression]

As the first part to the body of this essay, we will discuss the material body under a model of the body, mind and third Entity. This material body exists as corporeal focus as opposed to the discursive practices of the mind. In this section we will dissect Harraways Manifesto focusing more on the corporeal and social feminism to feminist science. Furthermore, communication sciences and modern biologies are constructed by a common move - the translation of the world into a problem of coding (Harraway) By highlighting examples of this feminist science it allows a conversation of biological interest within political frameworks. This section will also look into Deleuzes Plateaus discussion but around capitalism. The end product would be "a fully legitimated subject of knowledge and society"17each mind an analogously organized mini- State morally unified in the supermind of the State. This section argues that both texts have corporeal and discursive qualities but Deleuze expands Harraways process of coding into an Invention of Concepts and therefore takes the corporeal socialites and politics into the discursive. By making that distinction and transition between the corporeal and discursive discussion we can then introduce a third Entity. We will discuss the contextual evidence of Entity and introduce correlations of the Entities within both texts. Entity as possessing both corporeal and discursive qualities but Entities exist outside of this design and therefore inhabit a collective space without an instant of an Individual able to possess such qualities. This could be compared to a process of Individuation and be expanded under excursions of a Becoming. This section will also dive into the becoming-entity through a Deleuze and other (non-human) subjects such as AIs (Artificial Intelligence), Cyborgs, and alternative human identities and how the becoming is a non-linear progression. By discussing material bodies under a socio political frameworks of human subjects and including (non-human) subjects that fall under categories of identities (identities as a collections of identity) and entity (entity as non-human subjects) we will be able to segway into the next section of transient temporal spaces as Entropy.

[What is the Singularity?]

In 2006 inventor and futurist Ray Kurzwell wrote a non-fiction book titled The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology the controversy behind the book revolved mainly around their theory around a law of accelerating returns which basically proposes the issues with economic exponential growth. This essay doesnt aim at arguing against Kurzwells proposal within the text but the linguistic terminology itself that has causes a possible mainstream confusion. Taking from the Kurzwell ..the nonbiological intelligence will be embedded in our society and will reflect our values.. (Kurzwell 2006) states non-biological intelligence which may correlate with Entities that exist without material bodies. Kurzwell discusses the Singularity against concepts of infinite progression which do not correlate with this essays discussion of non-linear progression. Kurzwells discursive focus purely on astrological and mathematical singularity leaves out not just the Habeas Viscus but the material lives of Queer Theorist and Transgender Studies. The question at hand is the use of the word singularity as defined as The state, fact, quality, or condition of being singular. (Oxford 2017) Kurzwell continues and states ..human life will be irreversibly transformed.. (Kurzwell 2006) humans transcending ..limitations of our biological bodies and brain.. (Kurzwell 2006) which is elaborated into ..the intelligence that will emerge will continue to represent the human civilization. (Kurzwell 2006) and ..future machines will be human, even if they are not biological.. (Kurzwell 2006) It is this essays articulation that linguistically Kurzwell is describing this exponential growth in ways of singular articulation. Their uses of words such as irreversibly, limitations contradict the uses of the emerge and forces us to question whether the Singularity was appropriate terminology for an infinite or non-linear progression. This commencement to conventional ideas of singularity will allow us to introduce singularities and Entropy as a means of dispersal.

[Reformulation: Singularities, and Entropy]

It is important to note that within the study of Thermodynamics Entropy is defined in three different ways. 1) Second Law of Thermodynamics: In any cyclic process the entropy will either increase or remain the same. 2) Entropy: a state variable whose change is defined for a reversible process at T where Q is the heat absorbed. 3) Entropy: a measure of the amount of energy which is unavailable to do work. (HyperPhysics/Georgia State University 2016) but the way in which we are exploring Entropy is within studies in Physics and not Thermodynamics Entropy, the measure of a system's thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work. Because work is obtained from ordered molecular motion, the amount of entropy is also a measure of the molecular disorder, or randomness, of a system. (Britannica 2017)

What is this transient temporal space? This section will explore the mind as this transient temporal space and entropy as a space that exists outside of the discursive practices of the mind. Entropy as a transient temporal space reformulates historical understandings of Entropy by connecting Entity as disorder or randomness in the system (Oxford 2017) with Haraway, Deleuze and Oxfords Entity the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) Continuing the discussion of a non-linear progression, this section explores the mind as its own temporal space as how Harraway and Deleze communicate it. High-tech culture challenges these dualisms in intriguing ways. (Harraway) This section is of the mind and how the different modalities in thinking such a monism and dualism play a major role in this non-linear progression. We will also go over the distinction between monism and dualism in this section as well as neutral-monism. Neutral-Monism coincides with introducing of a third Entity, discussed in the first section. The transient in temporal space coincides with Nomad thought" does not immure itself in the edifice of an ordered interiority; it moves freely in an element of exteriority. (Deleuze) This connects the transient to the temporal space of the mind in harmonious discourse that will also expand this section into distinctions between evolution and involution. Entities do not inhabit Entropy. Entropy as discussed exists outside of human experience. By understanding the section covering The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil and its contradictions with Entropy this acts as a reformulation of historical understandings. Kurzweils use of the word transcend as problematic and lacking in Transient properties. Reformulating historical understandings and looking at existences outside of entity and nonentity is this transient temporal space. This is because, this space is not a singular at all, but in fact a space of dispersal. By first dissecting entities and the space of entropy we will then be able to conclude with understandings of En as well as the application of (En-) Thinkings.

[En and Implicating (En-) Thinkings]

En has historically existed as a means of unit of measurement within printing production but also as a means of reformulating words into verbs in order to occupy spaces. Both Harraway and Deleuze at the surface are guilty of exploring identities and discourses through means of the feminism and capitalism but what Deleuze does differently is take things further into psychoanalysis. This concluding section which only introduces minor concepts that exist within Entropy will explain En and the processes of Implicating (En-) as a modality of thinking. The concept has no subject or object other than itself. It is an act. Nomad thought replaces the closed equation of representation, x = x = noty (I = I =notyou)withanopenequation:... +y+z+a+...(... +arm+brick+ window + ...) (Deleuze 1987) The (I=I=Not You) begins a conversation of removing the self as Deleuze discusses this particular concept has no subject or object other than itself. Other than itself exists as the third entity and therefore opens up different modality in thinking. This modality in thinking will be explained in this concluding section in order to expand on existing as units of measurement. This is En. Furthermore this section will explain (En-) or Practicing (En-) as an example of Invention of Concepts or Tool Box. Deleuze's own image for a concept is not a brick, but a "tool box."26 He calls his kind of philosophy "pragmatics" because its goal is the invention of concepts that do not add up to a system of belief or an architecture of propositions that you either enter or you don't, but instead pack a potential in the way a crowbar in a willing hand envelops an energy of prying. (Deleuze) Schizophrenia is the main target of psychoanalysis within this reading. Is it possible to introduce another such as Dissociative Identity Disorder as a correlation to this discussion of removing the self or the becoming?

It is uncertain whether this essay has been structured in a manner that is clear and concise to support multiple forms of evidence within; Feminist Science, Becoming, Habeas Corpus, and Assemblages. This essay aimed at outlining the historical understandings of Entity, Entropy, and En in the introduction. The first section [Material Identity: Tropes and Assemblages] explored defining Identity through Puar and Weheliye. The main body of the paper proceeds with contextual amplification and comparison of both A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia By Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway. The second section was titled [From Identity to Entities; A Non-Linear Progression] because it allowed us to show a shift from queer understandings of sexual and gender identities to entity. By entering (non-human) subjects we were able to explore more meta-physical explorations of Entropy as transient temporal space. The third section [What is the Singularity?] did a brief summary of The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil which proposed questions of linguistic terminology. The fourth section titled [Singularities, and Entropy] dives into an argument against the singularity by implementing contextual evidence of Deleuzes Nomad Thought and Haraways Process of Coding. This section will also explain Entropy as Existing outside of human experience. The last section is titled [En and Implicating (En-) Thinkings] as a means of focusing our attention of existing without a self and existing as unit of measurement. It will also expand on implementing (En-) as a mode of thinking and the possibilities of existing as mode of thinking. Concluding that these modes of thinking are transient and serve as an introduction to understandings of Entropy. It is important to see this essay not as sensationalized understandings of futurism, but simply a reformulation of concepts that frame transcendence as in fact nothing unique or distinct from existence. It is simply a realization of multiple individuations, assemblages, and integrations that allows us to exist without external implications. These external implications are practices in psycho analysis that may create existing, new, or false realities in change such as alternating the visual, material appearance, or the physical processes themselves which can alter states of being. Ultimately this essay is an introduction to functional thinking that move away from identities and discourses, a process of realization in consciousness that introduce self-reflexivity to self-design. When we remove the self, what are we left with? Do current realizations affect further psycho analysis?

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Informing Entities: Introduction to Entropy - Singularity or Dispersal - Huffington Post

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