It’s been a while… I’ve stopped in to my website due to an e-mail stating that some files had been changed and perhaps I should check things out to see if everything is as I had left it. Everything seems to be in order. I made some security changes as security has improved since I last logged in (Or has it? These days AI seems like it could make quick work of commandeering my hosting credentials if it set its mind to it). I think it’s time to get back to sharing ideas with others. There’s so much to ponder and discuss, yes? If I had written some forecast or predictions as to what the next ten years would hold back in 2016, I don’t think I could have come close to predicting much of what has occurred in the past decade (2016 – 2026): Taco Bell played a role in people having explosive diarrhea? Who could have guessed? But more seriously; Measles is back with a vengeance; they’re finding Polio in the waste water of large municipal waste water treatment facilities; war has moved to the front burner in the Middle East with one country vowing to wipe an entire civilization off the face of the Earth; there was a global pandemic that resulted in over 7 million deaths with the wealthiest, most advanced country in the world (debatable) suffering about 15% of those deaths due to gross mismanagement of the situation – put into perspective, the U.S. has 4.2% of the world population but our COVID losses were 15% of the total losses; a single human being has accumulated $1 Trillion of personal wealth (most of that is on paper); that same human being thinks we should colonize Mars rather than fix the broken systems on our own planet before we venture into outer space to spread our dysfunction; electric cars are all the rage – although our electric grid is NOT prepared for the switch from I.C.E vehicles to battery-electric vehicles; a major foreign power has attacked its neighbor in a modern land grab reminiscent of the World Wars of the 20th Century – and is kind of getting its ass handed to them by their much smaller, less wealthy, less equipped victim; Truth is no longer relevant – alternative facts have replaced verifiable experiential evidence; the most powerful nation in the world has somehow elected – twice! – a mean-spirited, narcissistic, buffoon, and notorious con-man with the unwavering support of Evangelical Christians; we’ve released Artificial Intelligence upon the world which was in no way ready for it nor did we install any guard rails or significant protections for when the folks that created it can...

In the early 1990’s while studying automotive at SIUC in Southern Illinois, I found work doing manual labor for a man who lived in the rural hills of the Shawnee Forest.  While we’d work, we would have deep conversations about a variety of topics.  One day he handed me the book Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller and said that the ideas I had shared during our conversations were similar to those espoused by “Bucky.”  It took me almost 6 months to finish reading Critical Path (some times I’d spend a whole day trying to comprehend a single paragraph).  John has become a lifelong friend and mentor and Bucky has been a focus of my study and interest for over 20 years.  I think Fuller’s work is still greatly misunderstood.  On the surface if one were to take a casual glance at his work, he might seem like a quack.  But when you dig in deep, you realize he was on to something; he recognized a fundamental principle in how natural systems operate that few before him had noticed.  Not all of his ideas seem rational, but the core of his thinking is sound and will lead to advances in thinking and technology that improve the world for all humans. http://www.bfi.org/about-bucky...

I’ve been intrigued with Stafford Beer’s work since I first experienced his Team Syntegrity protocol in 1994.  When I heard about, then read about, his Viable System Model (VSM), I was convinced that this is a much needed breakthrough in Systems Thinking.  I’d heard of “cybernetics” but quickly realized that I didn’t really know what it was about.  I had a lot to learn so I began reading every book that I could get my hands on that dealt with cybernetics and Stafford Beer’s work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Stafford_Beer...

Living in Carbondale, it is interesting to note things like the eight allotropes of the Carbon...

On two separate occasions this week someone made note of my connection to this character…