Virtual Extended Life

When our bodies fail us

Brain dump of ideas for agency

• Singularity agency for resolution (resolve issues in government through advanced technology)

• external life extension (when our bodies give up, living beyond our body in a virtual environment, trashing the flesh cage,)

• Computer spawned life (for example create a seed plant it and be able to grow)

• Digital Memory Agency (bank of your entire memory, this could further our knowledge as knowledge would not be lost)

• Human machine intergration (Humans merge with machines)

• Virtual Rehab - Virtual healing - Virtual shock agency (virtual junkie epidemic, virtual treatment for mental illness and ill patients, scare campaigns virtually)

• Mind cleanse (suicide, traumatic experience) 

• Promoting arts and innovation

• Visual Spatial Learning (Our language is holding us back)  

• Minds in Sync 

"I specialise in a very specific type of security. Subconcious security"

hE SHitS ME but an example of the shift in thinking that needs to be done.

left or right side of the brain test. 


Here is a left or right side of the brain test. Have a go and post your results.
TEST


My results 
Left Brain  Right Brain 
29%          71%

a vision of the lack of right side of the brain in government.

RANT (father)

Today we have the longest prolonged period in politics where on all sides cannot find any leadership candidates worthy of meeting the needs of the community. Parties are ruled by faceless factional interests who are only motivated by personal self interest.

The people have little if any influence on leadership. Parties are so divided that their policies are reactionary and have no clear plan for the future.

This lack of leadership has confused the voters in who they support. Support for parties is unstable and unreliable with the net effect of parties opposing each other on any issues in the hope of eroding opposition support.

The nations interests are being ignored to the extent that we as a whole are wandering aimlessly into the future with no confidence in present and potential leaders.

Any decision are delayed when released and are so poorly planned that often they fall over before implementation.

Politicians seize on so called reliable economic statists that imply everything is ok. In fact the everyday citizen consistently sees that they need a reality check.

The Reserve Bank and government or opposition members  translate the current “Resources Boom” into prosperity for all. Why then are businesses discounting and having Xmas sales that have lasted for the past 9 months.

The industries that prosper in good times like the tourism and hospitality are on their knees with many venues closing and job losses are high. The building industry in popular locations in Queensland, NSW and Victoria has almost come to a complete standstill.

Credit card spending is falling, bank savings are rising. This is a sign of lack of confidence in what the future holds for us.

Poor leadership is what is driving this uncertainty and lack of trust. Self interest, division and lack of good candidates at all levels of politics has left us in an unfamiliar period which we have not experienced in recent decades. No matter what side of politics or level you supported in the past there have been strong leaders like them or not.

Today no party can claim a stable and consistent support base. Elegancies are complex with people now not being taken for granted.

That’s me from my soap box.

Breaking the House Rules
The design and architecture of our built environment is stupid. Inertness of thought and practice has been prompted by inertness of product. Currently, designers traverse rocky ground between the fluidity of the concept sketch and the discernible parameters of construction. They are forced into choices from an incredibly limited pallet. If for a moment we consider the brick, we can see that many of its perceived advantages are intellectually unsustainable. Its merits, we are told, include its wide range of colours, its human scale, simple going methods and ease of procurement - but not its capacity to keep out water. Brick buildings must there fore incorporate many preventive measures, such as damp proof courses, or even a second wall to stop water penetration and allow space for insulation. A house with a house is a silly idea for the of the twentieth century. 


The hand is gloriously adaptable, holding pens playing instruments, picking the noses are among the many skills in its infinite repertoire. Which tool the hand becomes is determined by the mental software run on it. But it is a biological machine, a meat tool; it cannot change topological form. What hopes have we in a real space and real time of escaping material stupidity? Is it possible to design materials that can change their innate qualities and topologies? The answer, perhaps, lies in nanotechnology.


(Digital Dreams. Neil Spiller) 

Trashing the Flesh Cage




Technologies are becoming better life-support systems for our image than for our body. IMAGES ARE IMMORTAL. BODIES ARE EPHEMERAL. The body finds it increasingly difficult to match the expectectations of its images. In the realm of multiplying and morphing images, the physical body's impotence is apparent. THE BODY PERFORMS BEST AS ITS IMAGE.


(Digital Dreams. Neil Spiller) 

Spaces of Indeterminacy


In reaction to a capitalist economics and its effect on the social, cultural and political domain, some people have chosen to resist by living outside the mainstream. Others do not have a choice: they live "outside" because society has rejected them. In cities, this exclusionary phenomenon has a spatial inscription, the dropouts occupy excluded spaces where they can deviate from the accepted 'norm'. Escaping from the planning authorities' control.

Indeterminate spaces are difficult to quantify because of their inherent heterogeneity and although the speakers at the Architecture and Indeterminacy Theory Forum gave many examples of such places, their location, physical characteristics, use and users, there was no single definition of such a space. Several speakers, including Gil Doron, described the nature of these zones, which are the consequence of the subdivision of cities through modern planning practices. This has created 'edge spaces' also known as 'gaps' or 'interstitial urban places',1 whose tricky ownership rights and physical characteristics (not easily accessible, too small, have irregular shapes), have made them difficult to utilise through the common means of architecture and urban planning. Thus, they are excluded from the planning process. Doron called them "an outside within the inside"2because they still have a "symbiotic although unrealised"3 relationship to the rest of the city. They can be found between industrial and residential areas, between tower blocks, under bridges and on pavements. However, they are difficult to map as they undergo constant change, making them unreadable.

These spaces have no assigned function but many informal uses, usually unofficial and illegal. They are mostly occupied by marginalised groups: squatters, subcultures, the homeless, prostitutes, cultural minorities and drug addicts.

Temporality is another key aspect of these spaces, which can be described as 'dead'4 at certain times of day or night but not at others. What is more, the lifetime of these 'out-of-control zones' is limited - these are transient spaces. According to Dougal Sheridan5 some indeterminate spaces disappear with time whilst others are formalised.

Through scanning underground Cavaties a digital mapping offers description of indeterminacy.

(3d Glasses required)

Things of interest (But does the fucker actually float)

WeatherField located in Abu Dhabi, is a shape-shifting energy generation park. The idea is to respond both efficiently and creatively to the climate. This form of energy generation is a public spectacle that is dynamic, reactive and interactive. When the weather is calm it remains calm but when the weather turns it is stimulated and competes with natures performance.

If we can't convince the general public of the benefits of existing natural energy resources, what better way to encourage them by providing the fucks with entertainment. 

                                                                                     

Panels submitted for first crit for DAB810 

Virtual scare tactics

Could the virtual world be used for government scare tactics that we currently see in the media. These could be controlled systems which gives the viewer a real world experience to discourage from future practice.

Lucid Dreaming


Lucid dreaming is the ability to become aware that you are awake whilst you are still within your dream. It is an experience like no other. The ability to have a lucid dream can be taught.


So what about if your dream world where anything is possible, was to be captured and programmed into a virtual environment. Could elements of this dream turn into reality, by means of innovation and creativity from a world not constrained by our existing code.

Metaverse
The Metaverse is a fictional virtual world, described in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, where humans, as avatars, interact with each other and software agents, in a three-dimensional space that uses the metaphor of the real world.

A play on semiotics

Telling the mind one thing in text but showing the opposite in imagery. 

Understanding semiotics through visuals

An interesting thread at which I have noticed images through the internet have again changed it meaning or should I say dynamic conversation associated with it's environment. This has its effect from factors such as comments between bloggers, the caption associated with certain images and the freguency of imagery occuring in search engines.

Semiotics is code for sending messages via signs & symbols. Semiotics is also how the receiver interprets the message. The swastika is commonly referred to Adolf Hitler and his time in power with the Nazi's. Many people instantly portray this a 
sign of hatred. However a Hindu, Buddhist or Jainism where
the symbol originated from would believe it is a symbol of
love and piece.

Semiotics is used a lot in advertisement. This is a clever tactic as the viewer then has to engage with the product to understand the hidden language that the image is trying to get across. The example to the right is insinuating that the cat after drinking the 
Pepsi is now skinny enough to fit inside the hole.

Possible future agencies

• department of sustainable national spending
• department of sustainable population 
• promoting arts
• public service un-productivity
• department of government accountability 
• visual-spatial learning

Seeing before reading

We see documents before we read them: this initial encounter evokes an aesthetic response but one with immediate practical consequences. Since seeing precedes reading, the reader’s first glance influences the information processing that follows. The balanced arrangement of visual elements on the page, the contrast among these elements, the efficient use of space—together these create a unified visual display that predisposes the reader to respond favorably (or unfavorably) to the information in the document.

Gifted people have a preference for visual spatial thinking because it faster and most powerful than auditory sequential thinking. visual-spatial thinking is approximately eight times faster than auditory thinking. It is rich, textured, creative, problem finding and problem solving. 

The implementation of a virtual experience in government could then in fact return greater results amongst those that are able to visualize and create solutions in a more dynamically open ended environment.

Reality is not real,
only reflected reality becomes true loosing its physicality,
so it is objective.

verbal imagination 
"Many have no happier moments than those they pass in solitude, abandoned to their own imagination, which sometimes puts sceptres in their hands or mitres on their heads, shifts the scene of pleasure with endless variety, bids all the forms of beauty sparkle before them with every change of visionary luxury."
(Samuel Johnson)


"To every place of entertainment we go with expectation and desire of being pleased; we meet others who are brought by the same motives; no one will be the first to own the disappointment; one face reflects the smile of another, till each believes the rest delighted, and endeavours to catch and transmit the circulating rapture. In time, all are deceived by the cheat to which all contribute. The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue, and confirmed by every look, till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel, consent to yield to the general delusion, and, when the voluntary dream is at an end, lament that bliss is of so short a duration."
(Samuel Johnson)
http://www.samueljohnson.com/delusion.html

The powerpoint dilema



In the last 15 or so years, people started replacing articles and diagrams with powerpoint presentations riddled with bullet points, geared purely towards the speakers knowledge of the topic. The problem is one which we as students can all relate to. No detailed analysis or consise documentation. In result creates misunderstanding, misinterpretation, miscommunication.


How could this be done better?
Virtually may hold the answer, recorded live speeches and presentations which not only captures the tone but also the body language of the speaker which when reflected to that of an actor is just as important.


Could then this ideal be represented somehow in a government department for users to freely visit to obtain a better understanding of unclear topics.




POWERPOINT, your cruel reign is over. You're too boring - even for Switzerland

A Swiss political party, the Anti-PowerPoint movement, wants to ban the presentation software for the good of man kind.

According to the party's founder, Matthias Poehm, PowerPoint teaches people very little and actually alienates audiences from the presentation.

“The fact is that the average PowerPoint presentation creates boredom," he says on his website.

Mr Poehm believes too many workplaces rely on PowerPoint presentations instead of talking to their employees.

"Companies, conferences, schools, universities should no longer have to justify using PowerPoint," he says.

Mr Poehm estimates that Switzerland could save up to 350 billion euros ($479 billion) a year by banishing the software and going retro.

Flip charts – a whiteboard with a pad and paper fixed to it – are "not only much more emotional, but also much more pleasant and more interesting to watch", he says.

The Anti-PowerPoint Party needs 10,000 petition signatures in order to run candidates in the next election. So far only 300 people have signed up to the cause.

So it seems that, for the time being, Switzerland will remain PowerPoint-neutral.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/swiss-political-party-wants-to-ban-powerpoint-presentations-from-public-speaking/story-e6frfro0-1226124179378#ixzz1Wty6FtPX

Virtual reality definition 

Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound. 

The infographic about Iranian bloggers


An interesting look into a political movement that Iranians are using to unite against their government. This could be said to happen more into the future.

RANT (girlfriend)


As an ex public servant I see so much injustice in our government public service system. Having worked in four governments departments and seeing my friends and family work in numerous other departments, the disparity in pay packets between hard working private sector employees and unproductive public servants really shows how much of taxpayers dollars are being wasted by the government. 




The problem also has nothing to do with the party in power. It's the APS (Australian Public Service) culture that has a unproductive, unaccountable disease. The amount of money is wasted on public servants that have very little work to do is shocking. People from outside Canberra and the APS system would have no idea just how very little work is being done for pay packets 30 - 40% higher than salaries in the private sector. 


Some may say if you can't beat them then why don't you join them, but the fact of getting up everyday to do 7.5 hrs of no work or looking like doing work is just depressing and the main reason why I have given up a fat pay packet. To be a productive member of society. That is exactly what I have done, lowered my pay considerably, worked my butt off, but now get the satisfaction of being a productive member of society. 

Rant
Being such a new developing country, I believe we have been able to learn from others and therefore have established a society where anyone can create success for themselves. Equal opportunities arise if we are willing to commit. 

One of the problems in all this is that Australians seem to react to situations like that of an only child. We have been nurtured by our government and expect nothing less and in doing so created a heavily law enforced, angry and frustrated society limiting us of our once prided freedom. With each rule that has been enforced, another one is added, more laws equal more expense. What does this all mean? 

From talking amongst travelers who have visited Australia, they first of all say how beautiful our country is and how friendly we all are, immediately followed by how expensive it is and the lack of entertainment, that is freely accessible.  

This is concerning to me in terms of our relationship between countries for the future. Are we are somewhat limiting our potential due to a culture driven by mass consumers. We live in a country were the every day person wants one of everything.

We have been gifted with a special place in the world. I think those values of freedom that we have all been drummed into believing is slowly being taken away from us. Individuality seems to be fostered for non profit, creativity appreciated but not of monetary worth. For us to compete with the ever increasing Asian markets innovation and uniqueness is of the up most importance. What can we bring as a nation to the world. 

Visual-spatial learning

The visual-spatial thinking and learning style is very powerful. Visual-spatial learners are excellent visualisers and must visualise in order to learn. Visual-spatial learners think primarily in pictures not words - either “still” like  photographs or “moving” like videos. They need time to translate their pictures into words and should not be hurried to provide answers to questions.

Their thought process is random abstract pattern recognition rather than sequential and they have problems following sequential material presented orally.  They need to translate words into pictures in order to think and while they are translating they can miss incoming content material. This means that they may have gaps in their subject knowledge. Because of their need to translate their thoughts/pictures into words, they often do poorly in timed tests.

Gifted visual-spatial learners thrive on complexity yet often fail at simple tasks e.g. they can learn abstract, complex mathematics and yet have difficulty with the times-tables. They can create complex and detailed stories but cannot write them down. They tend to be global and divergent thinkers. Because they focus on the larger picture, they often don't know how they have arrived at a conclusion or solved a problem.

Writing can be particularly difficult for visual-spatial learners, because it requires considerable effort and well developed visualising skills to translate words into pictures in order to be able to think, translate the pictures back into words and then hold them still in their head while they writes them down. This process requires constant effort which is physically exhausting and mentally draining.

They tend to be disorganised and have difficulty meeting time limits. This is not a behavioral issue but a significant difficulty for which they need assistance to develop appropriate strategies and skills. They need structure and predictability, clear limits and time frames and assistance with project planning. It is important that they are praised for their effort rather than concentration on achievement as it takes considerable time for them to develop organisational strategies and skills.

Personally I suffer from the ability to decipher static text, the only form that seems to stick is that of poetry because it has the ability to take its own form. The implementation of a virtual agency within government would increase my overall understanding of the issues we face and would better my opinion and input on such problems.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner.

The idea of synchronicity is that the conceptual relationship of minds, defined as the relationship between ideas, is intricately structured in its own logical way and gives rise to relationships that are not causal in nature. These relationships can manifest themselves as simultaneous occurrences that are meaningfully related.

Examples of Synchronicity

· You are suffering with financial difficulties, yet money for basic expenses such as rent, food, and utilities, always manifests. You begin to trust this. At first you thank the universe or god, then you realize you create this abundance. You are learning to watch how you manifest and why, watching yourself from outside the box.

· You have just received your last check from unemployment when suddenly a job comes along.

· You walk into a book store not knowing what to buy, and the book you need falls from a shelf and practically hits you over the head.

· You have been feeling ill with no clear diagnosis. You meet someone who knows a doctor or healer with the answers. All physical problems stem from emotional issues. Your soul will point out the patterns and hopefully the solutions. When the person is ready to heal, the doctor will be there. That person will often show up by synchronicity. This all stems from various levels of depression and self-sabotage stemming from one's DNA or life experiences that have worn them down. When you are confused and in emotional pain, you either have trouble manifesting synchronicities or they are major learning lessons.

· You finally end a bad relationship and immediately another partner comes into your life as if by synchronicity

· You drive to a place where parking is "next to impossible" and someone pulls out of a parking spot or it is waiting for you.

· You meet someone who interests you and touches your soul. Through synchronicity that person seems to come into your life over and over again. You begin to feel a destiny with that person. You begin to think with your heart instead of your head. You connect with that person. In some cases the karma between the two people is positive but in many cases you have attracted that person into your life for a learning lesson whether you are aware of it or not.

· You feel depressed and can't find focus in your life. The next person you talk you says something that brings needed guidance. In a world of wounded souls, and evolving consciousness, answers to help and guide will come more quickly and from different sources than in your past. Learn from those who come along, but never become co-dependent.

Thoughts
Maybe something can come from all this? Maybe its fate? Maybe its coincidence? or maybe its control?